Category: Healthy Skin

Are night creams necessary?

day & night creams

Of course, the night creams are necessary to keep your skin healthy. Actually, taking care of your skin is an ongoing process. As like taking care of your skin during the day, you must also strive to keep your skin smooth and healthy at nights also while you sleep. So, it is very important to include a restorative night cream to your list of beauty products for taking care of your skin. Also, it is very crucial to add the important nutrients to your skin that will keep your skin very healthy during the nights. Usually, your day cream protects your skin daily from the heat, sun, pollution and also other elements.

 

Likewise, it is recommended to add a night cream that consists of natural active ingredients by using the new skin rejuvenation technology that is widely available in a cosmetic industry. Moreover, your night cream must consist of specific important ingredients, which really works well on your skin and also supports to restore the loss collagen as well as elastic that is caused by the free radical activities. These free radicals can also harm the skin cells and cause your body to drop the important nutrients. Some of the essential ingredients to look for in the high quality night creams are including:

Active Manuka honey

Active Manuka honey

The powerful antioxidant can greatly support to speed up the immune system. It really works well to rejuvenate your skin while you sleep and also give you vibrant skin as well as other skin blemishes.

 

Shea butter

Shea butter

The Shea butter is well known to soothe your irritated skin. Of course, it is a wonderful moisturizer as well as emollient that efficiently minimize the look of scars, age spots and other skin blemishes. It has also smooth out your wrinkles and also very simply absorbed into the skin without even making it oily.

 

Avocado oil

Avocado oil

This oil is highly compatible with the natural oil of your skin and also makes it simply absorbed by the skin without even clogging the pores. It has been accepted that to motivate the collagen production as well as elastic that is essential for maintaining a healthy look.

 

If you wish to stay younger look always, it is essential to take care of your skin consistently. Also, keeping your skin healthy is crucial, if you need to get rid of fine lines, firm, wrinkles and tone of the skin. Before buying a night cream, you need to look for the ingredients present in your night cream at first and keep yourself radiant and beautiful while you sleep.

Using a night cream is important to keep your skin healthy a whole day

Generally, your skin always requires a proper care in order to make your appearance elegant and also it is essential to treat your skin during the night time, especially when you sleep. By the use of proper night cream, it caresses, pampers and revitalizes your skin to provide it a natural as well as a flawless appearance. Even though, you can purchase the night cream without even any prescription. With the availability of plenty of brands available in these creams, it is normally quite confusing to choose the right one.

Look for the best night creams to purchase

When it comes to buying, you should use the perfect night cream in order to continue to safeguard your skin, while you sleep. Before purchasing a cream, you must read the positive reviews and ensure that it is safe to use. In order to purchase the best night cream, you have to do some research and know about the product as well as its ingredients.

Eat Your Way to Healthy Skin this Holiday Season!

christmas-cherries-woman

Thinking about a diet around the holidays is probably a laughing matter for some. But there are ways to incorporate healthy foods while still enjoying the holiday treats. As many of you may know, you are what you eat and for great skin this holds the most truth! Try these useful tips within your eating routine and your skin will thank you for it!

Dr. Fiona Wright’s Tip

There’s nothing better than enjoying the holidays with loved ones, which usually involves lots of food. While it may be about two months of not watching your diet, you may want to strategically include foods that will not only be healthy, but promote great skin.

Eat more Protein. Eating proteins such as nuts, seeds, fish, grass-fed chicken or beef, will help balance your blood sugar levels and help cut out those sugar cravings.

Incorporate Good Fats. Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados and omegas found in fish, work the same way as proteins as it makes your stomach feeling full and balances your blood sugar as well as promoting healthy and radiant skin!

Avoid Liquid Sugars. Since high sugar intake is also one of the culprits for breakouts and dull skin, you can start off by avoiding liquid sugar, in other words, sodas and fizzy and fancy drinks. Recent studies have also shown that by drinking a 12 ounce can of sugar-laced soda a day could actually be adding 15 pounds more on the scale a year! You can see why sugars not only trigger problematic acne-prone skin, it also adds on unnecessary weight.

Try Dark Chocolate. To satisfy your sugar cravings while benefiting your skin, try dark chocolate with at least 70% cacao. It’s high in flavonoids and anti-oxidants which help your body and skin draw our toxins and promotes repair.

Enjoy Fresh Fruit. A healthy amount of fruits will also cut those cravings as well as build great skin! All you need is about a cup and a half to two cups daily. The color of the fruit indicates what your skin might need. Red Fruits like pomegranates, cherries, tomatoes, and strawberries are said to have certain types of minerals which help to make your skin glow and reduce blemishes and skin sensitivities. Blue and Purple Fruits like blueberries, concord grapes, plums etc. have the highest concentrations of antioxidants in the plant kingdom. Orange Fruits like tangerines, mangoes, apricots etc. have lots of beta-carotene, vitamin C which promotes and protects collagen.

So this enjoy this holiday season with some great and healthy foods!

If You have Dry Aging Skin – We have your Cure!

Does winter-dry skin make you want to hibernate this time of year? If so – you are not alone! The culprits may be winter wind, dry indoor air, or harsh soaps – but it can also be internal skin dehydration. At this time of year, the oral supplement Hyaluronic Acid (HA, Sodium Hyaluronate) which is naturally found in the body, has many benefits in securing moisture and creating more youthful and supple skin.

Our bodies roughly contain 15 grams of HA and it is found in virtually every part of the body. With such a widespread occurrence, it is logical that HA also has multiple functions. Scientific studies have shown that HA improves skin hydration, stimulates production of collagen in skin, works as an antioxidant and free radical scavenger, maintains skin elasticity, cushions joints and nerve tissues, has an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activity and maintains the fluid in the eye tissues, which may help to protect against numerous possible eye concerns.

At Skin MD and Beyond, we carry a nutritional line of supplements from Pure Encapsulation, which offer only the best products and ingredient with no gluten or preservatives.  Read on to learn more on how Hyaluronic Acid Supplements can work for you!

Dr. Fiona Wright’s Tip

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Drinking water helps your skin stay young looking. In fact, it’s a myth. Water is good for your overall health and “the skin of someone who is severely dehydrated will benefit from fluids.”  But for many people, “drinking A LOT of water” is hard to do during a busy work day!  This is where Hyaluronic Acid (HA) supplements come in to play!

As we age, HA drops significantly and skin moisture is harder to retain, which makes the skin lose elasticity and exposes the signs of aging on the skin. HA plays a critical role in skin health with its unique ability to hold in moisture. Hyaluronic acid is also a “smart nutrient” as it can adjust its moisture absorption rate based on the humidity—relative to the season and the climate.

Although you can gain HA from certain foods like root vegetables, soy, and animal joints and cartilage; HA supplements can also be of benefit. For skin cells, HA is essential for proper cell-to-cell communication, hydration, nutrient delivery, and waste and toxin elimination. It also appears to support the skin by promoting healthy turnover and renewal of keratinocytes (the main cell found in the skin), moderating the appearance of fine lines and age spots.

Interestingly, at any one time, one-third of our HA is being “turned over” (degraded and synthesized) every day. But as we age, the production will slow down. To help with this dilemma, Skin MD and Beyond carries medical-grade Pure Encapsulations low molecular weight HyaMax® sodium hyaluronate, which provides hyaluronic acid to support skin hydration for a healthy and more youthful appearance.

Join Skin MD and Beyond with these Simple New Year’s Resolutions!!!

It has been a great year at Skin MD and Beyond! As my staff and I ponder on how to make 2014 an even better year, our goal is to continue to provide you with the greatest care and most current technology.  We are humbled by the confidence you place in us and welcome you and your family to join us for a great 2014! Happy New Year !!!

My staff and I created a “to-do” list for our 2014 New Year’s Resolutions and we welcome you to join in on the fun!

EAT HEALTHY– Yes, this one is always on every year’s resolutions. After a long day of work, it’s tempting to throw a frozen dinner in the microwave and collapse on the couch. But prepackaged, overly processed foods contain high levels of chemicals, fat, calories and sodium. Remember … Healthy meals, happier life!

SMILE MORE– A smile can really brighten up anyone’s day… and it’s contagious! But… don’t forget to floss too! It’s tedious, time-consuming, awkward and uncomfortable. Excuses, excuses! This year, make flossing part of your daily routine. Studies have shown that flossing regularly, which helps fight periodontal disease and gingivitis, may reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory disease.

DRINK MORE WATER– Let’s face it, we don’t drink enough. If your skin is not getting the sufficient amount of water, the lack of hydration will present itself by turning your skin dry, tight and flaky. Dry skin has less resilience and is more prone to wrinkling. So drink up and enjoy a more youthful you!

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE – In a perfect world, we’d all have time to take an hour-long spinning class before heading into the office but, back here on planet earth, that’s not as easy as it sounds. So take a mere 10 minutes out of your daily routine, and take a brisk walk around the block before heading to work.

ALWAYS WEAR SUNSCREEN-The sun can cause some serious damage, and we see it every day! Basking in the warm glow of the Texas sun can make us feel good, and in the short term, make us look good.  But when your skin absorbs the sun’s rays, those rays actually damage the DNA in your skin’s cells placing your complexion at high risk for early wrinkling, age spots, and skin cancer!

Rosacea Flaring up this Season? Try These Handy Skin Tips to avoid that redness!

Sure, Santa Claus looks so warm and friendly with those red cheeks, but those of us who suffer from rosacea can look and feel anything but cute. No one is sure of the cause of rosacea, although doctors have noticed that fair-skinned women of Irish or Celtic ancestry are genetically predisposed. Rosacea affects about 5% of the population, most often women between the ages of 30 and 40. The bad news is that during the winter season the dry air can add more stress to your skin making facial redness and rosacea worse.  But… the good news is that keeping rosacea under control can be  simple with a little tender loving care of your skin, and getting to know what can trigger those flare-ups.

Here are a few tips and tricks from Dr. Fiona Wright to lead you into the right direction for a flush free face.

Dr. Fiona Wright’s Tip

Find a skincare regimen that works specifically for you. Use a liquid facial cleanser that will clean your skin gently and without any stimulation that might cause flushing. Any type of abrasion can cause a flush. So leave abrasive products such as scrubs, buff puffs, or cleansing powders alone. Try my Fiona Wright MD, MILD GEL CLEANSER. This unique and refreshing cleanser gently washes away the impurities encountered daily without stripping the essential nutrients needed to heal your skin.

Soothe your skin with Aloe Vera and Cortisone. Containing high concentrations of Aloe Vera, my ALOE CORTISONE hydrating light weight cream will quench thirsty, dehydrated skin while relieving  redness, inflammation and dryness to sensitive skin.  This advanced formula of aloe and 1.0% hydrocortisone is a highly effective treatment designed to calm irritation and provide immediate improvement in the skin’s appearance.

Keep wrinkle creams to a minimum. If you have rosacea and want to use an anti-aging exfoliating cream that contains alpha hydroxy acids (glycolics) to prevent wrinkles, then it is important to keep the percentage of acid under 2.5%. If the package directions say to use cream twice a day, use it once a day, tops. If there is any redness at all, discontinue using the product.

Don’t skip the sunscreen. Avoid all the chemical sunscreens,( ie Neutragena, Aveeno)  and stick to a sunscreen that lists titanium dioxide and zinc as their major ingredient. It’s less irritating to rosacea-prone skin. My OIL AND CHEMICAL FREE MATTE FINISH SPF 30 is not only moisturizing, but this formula offers  17% Miconized Zinc which provides the highest level of skin healing properties in a sunscreen and has a of broad-spectrum UVA/ UVB protection.

Avoid sun exposure, stay cool and eat cool. Avoiding the heat outside and in foods can prevent you from forming a flush. So avoid spicy foods like pepper, chili and horseradish and try more cool greens that are high in vitamins A and C, beta-carotene and bioflavonoids. These ingredients have proven to improve rosacea conditions by boosting the immune system.

Stay merry this holiday season and avoid alcohol. Although alcohol is readily available at most holiday parties and get-togethers, avoid alcohol as is causes blood vessels to dilate and worsens rosacea.  Couldn’t help yourself and you had spicy food or a glass of wine? Apply a cold compress. This will constrict blood vessels and lessen the appearance of rosacea.

Facing Your 20’s- Spa Services to Prevent Aging!

20 Spa

Being in your 20’s your skin probably looks great right now, requires minimal products and has a healthy, natural glow. However, there are a lot of misconceptions about caring for skin in your 20s as many might think they don’t need to address problems until they are able to see them. It is never too soon to be proactive about taking care of your skin at this age. Your 40 year old self will thank you.

Read on to find out what kind of aesthetic services we recommend you start in your 20s.

Facing Your 20’s- What you should know about your Skincare

20s Cream

Being in your 20’s is the most important decade for your skin because it’s probably at its healthiest, with great collagen support as your skin is supple. Believe it or not, most visible signs of aging are actually signs of sun damage and what you do in your 20’s will reflect how you look in your 40’s.

Read on to find out how to take care of your skin in your 20’s to prevent aging and sun damage.

Do you have “Goose Bumps” on your Arms? Then you could have Keratosis Pilaris

Wishing for soft, smooth arms but can’t seem to get rid of those tiny bumps? There is a good chance you may have Keratosis pilaris or KP. It is a genetic condition that affects the skin anywhere there are hair follicles. It is harmless and often mistaken for acne but it is actually excessive keratin (a natural protein in the skin) that surrounds the skin and clogs the hair  follicles in the pore. It is most often found on the back and outer sides of the upper arms but can occur on thighs, legs, hands and anywhere you have hair, regardless of how fine the hair is!

Dr. Wright’s Tip

The best way to treat Keratosis Pilaris is with a chemical exfoliant skincare product which will help slough off the excessive proteins that are clogging the hair follicle. Look for body washes and lotions with any blend of alpha hydroxyl acids or AHA’s which help to melt away the proteins in the skin. One of our favorites is our ALL-IN-ONE ACNE WASH with 10% glycolic acid.  You can also look for over the counter brands like Curel that have exfoliating properties like their Plus Smoothing Essentials Lotion. One thing to keep in mind is while using these lotions; you may be more susceptible to sun exposure due to the sloughing off of dead skin, so always remember your sunscreen!

To Peel or not to Peel?

In today’s market there are many advertisements for peels and a lot of options! There are superficial peels, medium peels and deep peels. Your choice of peel will depend on your skin type and main concern as well as your availability for downtime.

Dr. Wright’s Tip

Peels have been around for many years and exfoliating chemicals have been the main ingredient used to melt and slough off skin cells. In our clinic we add an additional layer of treatment, as we first mechanically abrade away the top surface layer of dead skin so we can get a better peel. There are superficial glycolic and lactic peels that will brighten up the skin with little to no downtime, possible slight flaking only. We also offer deeper peels that target pigment or acne but will require some downtime. Usually a day or two after your treatment, your skin will begin to get tight and then peel in sheets for 5-6 days. When this process is finished you are left with a fresh new layer of baby soft skin! Here at SKIN MD and Beyond, we offer several different types of peels, depending on the amount of peeling you want to have. Call our office today and make a consultation with one of our aestheticians to find out more!

Are you Wondering Why you still have Acne even though You are not a Teen?

If you are of a more “mature” age and still getting acne and wondering what you are doing wrong -then keep reading. Unfortunately, we still can get acne as adults and can even have more acne as an adult than we did as a teen. Our hormones can play havoc with our skin.

Dr. Wright’s Tip

Nearly 17 million people in the United States have acne, making it a very common problem! Although the exact cause of acne is unknown, we do know what factors can make it worse. Environment irritants (pollution and cosmetics), friction (leaning on the skin and hard scrubbing) and squeezing and picking the blemishes will all aggravate the problem. Cosmetics, because of their chemical compounds, are directly related to acne. Acne cosmetica can usually be recognized by small bumps and whiteheads on the chin, cheeks and forehead. It is important to avoid products with stearic acid, D and C dyes, myristate, lanolin and strong fragrances. However, mineral makeup does not create oil problems and is actually good for your skin! Mineral makeup contains zinc and titanium dioxide. Zinc alone will boost the immune system and balance your skin, while the combination of elements provides a water resistant UVA and UVB SPF protection. Here at SKIN MD and Beyond we have our PREVIA COSMETIC LINE which has mineral makeup that does not contain talc, parabens or D and C dyes.

It is easy to take care of normal skin, but acne prone skin needs special handling. So before you try covering up your acne, make sure that you wash twice a day and after heavy exercise, with clean hands and a mild cleanser. Oil-free cleansers with Benzoyl Peroxide (antiseptic agent) can reduce surface skin bacteria and oil production and my DUAL BP SCRUB can be very helpful in clearing mild to moderate acne.  Astringents are not recommended unless the skin is very oily. An oily T-zone can be wiped with a moist alcohol or glycolic/ salicylic based astringent at least every other night. Finish your regime with cold water (it will help shrink the pores) and gently pat the skin dry. Remember that it can take up to 6 weeks to see improvement. However, if your acne is not improving or if you experience skin irritation from your products it may be time to call us for an appointment.