Greetings gorgeous readers! Holy heat wave, Batman! It’s hot outside. We hope you’re finding ways to keep cool and enjoy these last months of summer. In honor of the recent painfully hot weeks we’ve had, we decided this would be a good time to talk to you about an important element of your summer skincare routine (and all year round, really), antioxidants. It’s a word we hear all of the time these days. We hear it in regards to foods and cancer prevention, skincare and anti-aging. It’s one of the most frequently used marketing words in today’s world. But what ARE antioxidants, really? And what do they REALLY do?
Well, the simplest way to think of antioxidants in regards to skincare is this: They act like an army of little anti-aging soldiers that fight off the evil free-radical monsters that are trying to take over your beautiful, youthful face.
But if you’re as geeky about the science of skincare as we here at Facial Bungalow are, that description simply doesn’t cut it. So push up your nerd glasses and get ready, cause we’re about to drop some knowledge on you!
Our cells are tricky little buggars. We know that as we get older, the process of cell turnover slows down. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that there is a lot more to keeping your skin young than just helping that process along. When a cell reproduces, it creates an EXACT copy of itself, in it’s current state. Meaning that if a cell is damaged, the new cell that it produces will also be damaged. No bueno.
This is where those pesky little free radicals come in to play. When a molecule oxidizes, it can produce a free radical. Free radicals are exactly what they sound like… little molecules running around on your face operating by their own set of rules. Everybody is getting along and having a great time, and this one jerk has to come in and try to ruin the party. And just like the saying “one bad apple can spoil the bunch” (which is actually because of this very same scientific principle), Mr. Free Radical is not content to operate alone. He recruits a bunch of other molecules to behave just like he does, until the whole party (or in this case, cell) is ruined. It either dies, or is severely damaged. And as we discussed above, cells produce exact replicas of themselves. So these damaged cells produce more damaged cells, which produce more damaged cells and so on and so forth until you have a face full of damaged cells, which is called aging.
Antioxidants keep this from happening. Think of them as an awesome doorman, who won’t let that punk into the party. Antioxidants help keep this process from beginning by prohibiting that initial step of oxidation.
So now that you know what they do… are you using them? If not, give us a call and we’ll give you some great suggestions on some of our favorites. Keep in mind that antioxidants tend to be a bit unstable in products, so while a drugstore product may claim to have them, how much there is, and whether or not they are stabilized and still functioning is questionable.
We hope this has satisfied your craving for skincare knowledge! As always, feel free to call us at 323.570.2664 or email us at facialbungalow@gmail.com with any questions.
Party on!
-T & T