5 Ways To Be Your Collagen BFF

5 WAYS TO BE YOUR COLLAGEN BFF.
Collagen is your skincare support structure. Literally everything you think of when it comes to ‘skin’ relies on our collagen stocks. From the age of 25, we’re naturally designed to lose the collagen in our skin at the rate of 1% per year.

For healthy, strong and plump-looking skin it’s essential to support the dwindling stocks, replenish the levels and boost the skin’s natural collagen production.

What is collagen and what does it do for your skin?
Collagen is a protein that serves as one of the main building blocks for your bones, hair, muscles, tendons, ligaments and most importantly in this instance, our skin. It’s what keeps our skin from sagging, giving us that plump, youthful look. Collagen is what makes our skin glow, shine, and forms the elasticity and resilience to hold our expressions when we smile.

How to support your skin’s collagen production.
Just because your natural collagen production slows down, it doesn’t mean that you just need to watch it happen to your skin. There are some steps that you can take to be proactive and support your skin’s collagen production to keep it looking bouncy and healthy.

Your skincare routine, lifestyle and what you eat can all make a huge difference to your health, wellbeing and collagen production.

Get collagen rich on vitamin C.
Make sure you include a good Vitamin C product, such as the CIRCADIAN ^VITC Encapsulated Optimised Vitamin C Paste in your weekly skincare routine. The antioxidant properties found in vitamin C play a vital role in collagen synthesis, which directly influences skin health. Vitamin C also limits the damage induced by ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun.

Vitamin C declines in the skin as we age, so by eating foods rich in vitamin C you can help to replenish this balance. Vitamin C and amino acids can increase the levels of collagen and hyaluronic acid (which supports collagen production) in the body.

Foods such as oranges, kiwi fruits, grapefruit, red peppers, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and strawberries are all rich in vitamin C. Introduce a variety of these foods into your daily diet, throw some lemon into your water, or strawberries and kiwi into your salad, stir fry the vegetables to keep as many of the nutrients alive and tuck into your Collagen promoting programme.

Exfoliate to stimulate.
Exfoliating helps stimulate collagen production and encourages the skin to regenerate, grow and glow. Exfoliation tells the brain to repair your skin after exfoliation by generating new skin cells to ‘heal’ it. This means collagen production in your skin is accelerated. Exfoliating correctly shouldn’t damage your skin, but your brain sees this stimulation as something it needs to heal for your skin.

Adding a gentle exfoliator like Skinfoliate into your routine will encourage essential cell regeneration and collagen production for plump, healthy skin.

Massage isn’t just skin deep.
In the same way that exfoliation can stimulate the skin into new growth, facial massage can help stimulate collagen production and strengthen muscle memory. Put these two together and you have collagen rich skin, underpinned by toned muscles. A facial oil or balm paired with the Face Lift Blade can help to make your massage easier and support you with a little time out for self-care.

Gentle massage is all that’s needed as this again sends messages to the brain that something’s different or under attack, which stimulates collagen in case your skin needs extra strength to fix the ’wound’. This is a natural response and the term ‘wound’ is a very strong interpretation of the simple change needed for the body to send reinforcements.

OMG for Omega-3.
Omega-3 fatty acids have been proven to reduce wrinkle formation through the process of collagen synthesis and formation. They also help to reduce UV-induced damage and blue light damage.

Choosing skincare products with a balanced blend of Omega 3 and Omega 6 (linolenic & linoleic lipids) ingredients in the form of natural oils will help contribute to this. The Affirmative Nourish Firm Tone Facial Oil contains acai oil, a rich source of omega-3 for your skin. Try adding red raspberry seed oil, blackberry seed oil, rose hip, sea buckthorn or camelina to see the difference it can make to your skin.

Foods or ingredients rich in omega-3 can work from the inside out to replenish collagen stocks. Oils including flax (also known as flaxseed oil and linseed oil), walnut, soya and pumpkin will all replace low levels of Omega-3’s. Green leafy vegetables, nuts - especially walnuts - are also great. High-quality fish such as tuna, salmon are high in omega-3 fatty acids too.

Be a vitamin A student.
Vitamin A is the ultimate ingredient in your collagen boosting tool kit. Applied as Vitamin A, retinoids, retinols or bakuchiol, these vitamin A derivatives stimulate the genes involved in collagen production. The results can be spectacular, but the journey can be more disruptive than many expect.

Vitamin A products will literally ‘wound’ the surface layers of your skin, encouraging the body to shed this layer to reveal fresh, new, collagen rich skin. This means that depending on the strength of your retinoid ingredient you might expect to have reddening, sensitivity and flaking skin on the way to the fresh faced look. This is a normal reaction to retinol products but can still be unnerving when it happens. For a more nourishing vitamin A experience, try the Intense Oil Repair Restore Facial Oil.

You can also try bakuchiol if retinoids are too much for your skin or if you don’t have any ‘down time’ to go through the cycle. Bakuchiol is a natural alternative to a retinoid and you end up with the same results, just a more gentle route to destination and with less chance of irritation. It all depends on the results you are wanting and how fast you want them.

Don’t Lose the Collagen Plot.
And finally, one way you can boost your natural collagen production is by preventing or ‘future proofing’ the loss in the first place. There are many, daily ways to damage your skin’s support structure and accelerate natural collagen loss.

Smoking, exposure to UV light, sun damage, blue light, caffeine, sugar, alcohol and bad sleep are all ‘skinflammagers’, they all contribute to the inflammation, damage and ageing of our skin because they all reduce collagen strength and in turn elasticity.

If any of these are applicable to your lifestyle then try to reduce, cut down or cut out and you will literally see your skin thank you for it. It’ll show under your eyes first as this is the thinnest skin and your skin will bloom in gratitude for giving back the strength it needs to grow the glow.

Ready to support your skin’s natural collagen Here is our choice for youthful, bouncy skin and better collagen supplies.