New year, New skin

Words Lil­ly Del­mage

All the skin-relat­ed New Year’s res­o­lu­tions you need for 2024, accord­ing to the experts…

Skin­care is that one step in beau­ty rou­tines you either have mas­tered, reli­gious­ly dip­ping into a well-researched line of tried and test­ed lotions, or you entire­ly neglect. For the lat­ter group, I’ve round­ed up an impres­sive ros­ter of skin­care experts who share some sim­ple, yet effec­tive, res­o­lu­tions to get into the skin­care swing.

Aes­thet­ic med­ical prac­ti­tion­er — Dr Bhavjit Kaur
Dr Bhavjit Kaur stress­es the impor­tance of lis­ten­ing to your skin, which “will be the best gift to your­self in 2024.”

1. Keep it sim­ple and con­sis­tent; our skin enjoys con­sis­ten­cy.
- Cleanse twice dai­ly; if you wear make-up, dou­ble cleanse before going to bed. 
- Intro­duce vit­a­min C and a good SPF in the morn­ing and a retinol and mois­turis­er at night.

2. Stop pop­ping pim­ples!
- Pim­ple pop­ping is very sat­is­fy­ing, but it can leave life­long scars.

3. Reduce exces­sive sug­ar intake.
- Exces­sive sug­ar intake can cause skin gly­ca­tion, which is when sug­ar mol­e­cules attach to col­la­gen and elastin pro­teins in the skin. Due to gly­ca­tion these pro­teins are unable to appro­pri­ate­ly sup­port the struc­ture of the skin, lead­ing to wrin­kles and oth­er signs of enhanced aging.

4. Hold off on trend­ing prod­ucts.
- Avoid the temp­ta­tion to switch prod­ucts too often to fol­low trend­ing prod­ucts, instead try to focus on one thing at a time.

Co-founder of Kanzen Skin­care — David Con­nor
David Con­nors skin­care res­o­lu­tions are, “designed to be sim­ple yet effec­tive, focus­ing on holis­tic skin­care that pro­motes long-term health and radi­ance.”

1. Reg­u­lar Exfo­li­a­tion
- Incor­po­rate gen­tle exfo­li­a­tion into your skin­care rou­tine 1–2 times a week. This helps remove dead skin cells, pro­mot­ing a brighter and smoother com­plex­ion.

2. Stay Hydrat­ed!
- Drink­ing plen­ty of water is essen­tial for main­tain­ing skin hydra­tion. Aim for at least 8 glass­es a day.
- Addi­tion­al­ly, using a hydrat­ing serum or mois­turis­er can help lock in mois­ture.

3. Get Enough Sleep
- Aim for 7–9 hours of sleep per night; sleep is cru­cial for skin repair and regen­er­a­tion. Lack of sleep can lead to dull skin and accen­tu­ate aging signs.

4. Reduce Stress
- High stress lev­els can impact your skin. Engage in stress-reduc­ing activ­i­ties like yoga, med­i­ta­tion, or reg­u­lar exer­cise to help keep your skin look­ing its best.

Der­ma­tol­ogy & aes­thet­ic RGN — Emma Cole­man
Emma Cole­man stress­es the impor­tance of skin ben­e­fits from the inside out…

1. Drink these bev­er­ages every day for clear­er skin.
Start each day with hot water and lemon (before eat­ing or hav­ing caf­feine) and end the day with a herbal tea. This detox­i­fies the liv­er and keeps skin hydrat­ed pre- and post-sleep.

2. Sup­ple­ments to pre­vent break­outs.
- Take a syn­bi­ot­ic con­tain­ing pre- and pro­bi­otics dai­ly, as gut bac­te­ria is a mir­ror for the microflo­ra on skins sur­face.

3. Gua sha three times week­ly at bed­time
- This facial tool helps to tight­en skin and reduce puffi­ness.
- Com­bine with­skin­care prod­ucts which are antiox­i­dant-rich such as Vit­a­min C and E and Niaci­namide.

4. Don’t neglect your scalp!
- When you wash your hair, after wet­ting apply a dol­lop of olive oil and mas­sage well all over the scalp to mois­turise, then sham­poo and con­di­tion as normal.

Med­ical aes­thet­ics prac­ti­tion­er — Dr Olha Vorodyukhi­na
Dr Olha Vorodyukhi­na empha­sis­es if you do any­thing this year for your skin, you should fol­low these three steps:

1. Nev­er go to bed with your make up on.

2. Cleanse your skin, in the morn­ing as well as evening.
- For nor­mal skin types use a cleanser that will deep cleanse sur­face skin and clear pores with­out dry­ing the skin, while gen­tly resur­fac­ing and remov­ing dead skin cells.
- For sen­si­tive skin type we would advise a cleanser with sooth­ing effects and even creamy con­sis­ten­cy, hon­ey, camomile, and aloe vera can all have quite good antibac­te­r­i­al and sooth­ing effects. 
- For oily or acne skin we would advise a slight­ly more abra­sive cleanse with antibac­te­r­i­al prop­er­ties, ide­al­ly it would include ingre­di­ents like sal­i­cylic, gly­col­ic or lac­tic acid.

3. Apply SPF dai­ly, even in win­ter! 
- Unpro­tect­ed skin more prone to pho­to age­ing and some­times it can lead even to skin can­cer, so make sure you stay pro­tect­ed and safe.