Radiant skin isn’t just relegated to magazine covers. It’s possible to ditch the dull and reveal a healthier glow. If your skin needs a brightness boost, here are the most impactful things you can do right now.
Whether you’re scrolling through Instagram or flipping through the pages of Vogue, enviable skin is everywhere. Winners of the gene pool Olympics flaunt flawless complexions featuring healthy, radiant faces. Most of us are left on the receiving end to observe, admire, and desire.
Regardless of how reality-based these images are, they nevertheless plant ideas of perfection into our brains. We see our own epidermal assets reflected back at us in the mirror, and the distance between what we want and what we see is palpable. It can sometimes feel hopeless because we’re already hip to the trick: these ads are selling us an ideal. And whatever is in that bottle, it’s probably not gonna deliver what the image portrays.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t.
THE TRUTH ABOUT GOOD SKIN
The thing to know about praiseworthy skin is that it’s never the doing of a single product. It’s the collective effort of everything put together, including your diet, your lifestyle, your skincare routine, and your environment. If a single product could make sure you get enough sleep, provide all of your vitamins and minerals, protect you from air pollutants, reduce stress, cleanse, moisturize, (and maybe do the laundry), we would have invented it already.
WHAT CAUSES DULL SKIN?
Understanding what causes lackluster skin is the first piece of the puzzle. If your skin looks dull, lacks bounce, and feels a little lifeless to the touch, then we’ve got your list of suspects right here.
These are the biggest culprits:
- Dehydration
- Poor nutrition
- Under exfoliating
- Over-exfoliating (yep, it’s a delicate balance)
- Pollution
- Stress
- Lack of sleep
HOW TO REVIVE DULL SKIN IN 7 SIMPLE STEPS
You know what’s to blame for weary skin, and you can probably identify which issues you have to deal with the most. Now let’s talk about solutions. Addressing these concerns requires a multi-faced approach, starting from the inside out.
You’ve undoubtedly heard the old adage, “You are what you eat”. Well, your skin is the proof that you wear. What goes in is what gets reflected on the outside. So if you want your skin to work for you, then you have to feed it what it needs.
Your skin is a working organ, and your body’s largest one to boot. It needs a good mix of prebiotics like grapefruit and bananas, fermented foods like kimchi and tempeh, and foods like Greek yogurt and kefir that contain live cultures. Need some inspiration? Check out our list of the Top 10 Foods That Will Improve Your Microbiome Health.
Staying hydrated is important for all of your organs, including your skin. Your skin is 64% water, so hydration really counts when it comes to how your complexion looks and feels. But it’s about more than drinking enough water. It’s also about locking that hydration in. Ceramides are an effective way to help your skin retain moisture from the inside and lipids, like Meadowfoam oil, help from the outside to topically lock in all of that juicy goodness.
We’re big proponents of overall microbiome health when it comes to skincare. No topical product is going to help skin that’s being aggravated by a cranky gut. Topicals work in tandem with a healthy gut microbiome to produce that coveted, healthy glow. Probiotic skincare supplements are the way of the future. A once-daily oral supplement, like our Daily Glow Supplements, bolsters your gut flora with skin-savvy probiotics including Lactobacillus Plantarum, Bifidobacterium Lactis, Lactobacillus Rhamnosus, Lactobacillus Paracasei, and Bifidobacterium Longum. Plus, you get your full daily dose of ceramides all in one sexy little gel cap.
When harmful nanoparticles, like sulfur dioxide, attach themselves to your skin, these external forces introduce unstable atoms known as free radicals. Free radicals are introduced through the foods you eat (namely fried foods), by alcohol consumption, and through air pollutants like smoke, pesticides, and smog. In order to stabilize themselves in the body, free radicals pull electrons from other atoms. This throws off your healthy internal balance, contributing to aging and a range of illnesses.
To combat free radicals, the first step is removing them from the skin’s surface. But this needs to be done delicately. If you overdo it with exfoliators, you’ll only irritate your skin and put it in defense mode, making things worse.
Milky cleansers are the answer. Foaming cleansers rely on chemicals to provide that bubbly effect, and they can dry out your skin. Milky cleansers take a gentler approach. Our Balancing Milky Cleanser packs powerful probiotics in the form of yogurt powder to help replenish friendly bacteria. Its built-in moisturizing power is thanks to inulin, a prebiotic that retains water and acts as a humectant to attract water from your environment.
Serums have been all the rage for a while now, and for good reason. These petite-packed oils help bolster your skin's natural ability to protect itself by introducing more antioxidants to the party. Their low molecular weight ensures that all that good stuff is getting absorbed into your skin, giving you visible improvements in elasticity and suppleness. Those are the qualities that seem to magically iron out deeper-set wrinkles thanks to increased skin hydration. A probiotic facial serum, like our clinically proven Renewing Probiotic Serum, infuses your skin with deeper moisture and adds a plethora of happy, healthy probiotics.
A great moisturizer is one of the most sought-after products in the world of skincare. It can instantly soothe dry skin and plump up a dull complexion in five seconds flat. It also creates a protective barrier against the outside world to protect you from the elements.
Using a probiotic skincare moisturizer serves an added purpose. It deposits additional microflora to the skin’s surface to give your complexion more of what it wants. Our Immunity Moisturizer, a cult favorite thanks to its light texture, fuses Lactobacillus Ferment, free-radical fighting Milk Thistle, and vitamin-packed Pomegranate extract. It’s the ultimate moisturizer plus a robust dose of skin food.
You’ve probably already gotten this memo, but stress is not your friend. And it’s definitely not your skin’s friend. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, stress hormones are a direct contributor to skin-related issues such as inflammation, irritation, and infection, as well as skin disorders like psoriasis and eczema.
If emotional stress is a significant part of your life, thenwhat you’re feeling on the inside is likely showing up on the outside. Thankfully the world is becoming more understanding when it comes to the tolls of stress, and there’s increasing encouragement and support around addressing it. Simple, everyday actions like movement, laughter, and practicing mindfulness are important tools you can use to ward off stress. Your skin will reap the benefits, too!
And last but certainly not least, sleep is crucial. It’s important for so many non-skin reasons, but those things play an indirect role in your skin health. The Sleep Foundation points out that getting less than 7 hours of sleep per day can result in more defined wrinkles, pale skin, and dark undereye circles.
Sticking to a regular bedtime (ok, at least on weeknights) is one way to ensure you’re getting enough rest. This establishes your circadian rhythm and benefits overall organ function. A well-rested human produces fewer stress hormones, reducing the chances of waking up with puffy circles and sallow skin. So find a way to get those zzz’s!
Healthy skin is all about incorporating as many skin-friendly habits as possible into your routine. But keep in mind that it shouldn’t feel like too much work- healthy habits should never feel too hard to stick to. With a little discipline and the right products designed to support the overall health of your microbiome, radiant skin is within your reach. So, what are you waiting for? Make today the first day of your journey to healthy, happy, radiant skin!