The struggle is real.

Achieving that healthy, glowing skin can be quite challenging as one needs to contend with the high levels of pollution, heat, stress, and impurities amid a changing environment.

Fortunately, skin experts have gone at great lengths to develop skin care products and treatments that can help individuals achieve that enviable, flawless skin. And with a number of products now readily available in the market, it is always wise to go for a brand that has long established its mark in the market. These are the skin care brands that can effectively deliver the promise of a clear skin and youthful glow.

Understanding such a need and desire, the experts behind leading brand Ponds point out the biggest factors to watch out for as one goes about in achieving healthy white skin.

Pollution

Oxidative damage refers to the depletion of the skin’s antioxidant levels. This means that too much exposure to pollution could lead to the break down of collagen and elastin, the key components of youthful skin. This occurence then causes your skin degenerate and, consequently, you to age faster.

While the new environment brought modern day conveniences, it has admittedly also exposed one to a greater number of risks including higher pollution levels, which are now taking a heavy toll on the body’s first line of defense—the skin. And this so-called ‘new environment’ pollution has been recently considered as a main cause of oxidative damage.

Pollution and the new environment thus play a crucial role in the overall condition of one’s skin as various pollutants settle on the skin and from which free radicals are produced.

Preventing collagen and elastin loss

One should also keep in mind that collagen keeps skin plump and makes up around 75 percent of the skin structure. Elastin, a protein made of amino acids and peptides, is also present in small amounts, and is what keeps skin firm and allows it to stretch and recoil back to place.

The major cause for collagen and elastin loss is definitely environmental damage and when pollutants settle on the skin, free radicals are produced.

There is much worry against free radicals in the world of skincare because they are unstable molecules that bounce back and forth in the skin. This process causes damage as the free radicals poke holes on and dent your collagen and elastin structures, which are seen on your skin as lines, wrinkles, and dark spots.

Elastin, according to experts, is more difficult to replace. It is easier to prevent its breakdown than to produce more of them. Thus, it is more important for you to limit your exposure to environmental damage, especially if you live in the city.

Precautions

Threatening as free radicals may sound, there are effective solutions to Oxidative Damage, one of which is to use products with retinol. Such products should also be able to penetrate the skin’s protective layer, which is the epidermis, and go deeper to work at a cellular level.

As board certified dermatologist Dr. Noemie Ramos puts it: “the mechanisms in skin aging like the oxidative DNA damage occur at the cellular level,” and products rich in antioxidants or infused with anti-aging ingredients like retinol and retinoids, “work by stimulating one’s fibroblasts to produce collagen and by decreasing collagenase, the enzymes which break down collagen.”

AHAs are important too in breaking up dead skin cells and revealing an even glow. A combination of retinol, AHAs, and antioxidants in your skincare regimen can preserving your skin for years.

One product proven to work wonders on one’s skin is the powerful retinol-based Pond’s Age Miracle line, which can reveal improvement in as quick as two weeks.

Apart from retinol, its antioxidant content effectively neutralizes free radicals and “donates” electrons to molecules that reduce and prevent Oxidative Damage. Best of all, it comes in a complete anti-aging skincare range—all being a great ally in the fight against the worst aggressors.

Consulting experts
Learn more about skincare, address your every beauty concern, and future-proof your skin with the help of #TheSkinExpert. Watch out for the opening of the Pond’s Institute pop-up store this February! For more information, check out our Facebook page www.facebook.com/PondsPhilippines. ADVT