Do I need an eye cream with oily skin?

One of the first things I was taught in Beauty School (where I went in my early 30s in 1997) was that at that time, just in the United States alone, the skincare industry boasted $3.2 Billion in sales annually.  The reason stated?  "It’s incredibly easy to sell moisturizer."  I’m not kidding, that’s really what they said.  Frankly, I think it’s extremely impressive.  Everyone needs moisturizer.  There’s a reason there are so many out there to choose from.  Like I always say, “Everything works for somebody, nothing works for everybody.” 

My job in specializing in Adult Acne is to make sure my clients are getting adequate healing and hydration in their lotions while avoiding pore clogging and irritation.  In addition, my job especially is to make sure they’re getting anti-aging concerns taken care of without clogging pores and causing breakouts unnecessarily.  Prevention is a big part of anti-aging consciousness these days, and it comes up a lot in my practice.

So what about eye cream for prevention?  

Gimmick, or necessity?

 

We’re told at every cosmetics counter that everyone needs an eye cream in order to help prevent aging issues.  But is this true?  And the even bigger question is, since oily skin is notorious for showing signs of aging much differently than everyone else’s because we have an additional layer of protective lipids keeping our skin nice and plump, does this apply to us as well?

What causes fine lines, anyway?  The truth is, fine lines and wrinkles look worse when the skin is dry, but dryness doesn’t cause it.  What does? 

The skin is shaped and held up by certain kinds of proteins.  These proteins get built up and torn down a little bit throughout our lives as part of our life cycle.  Eventually, the building up doesn’t keep up with the tearing down.  The breakdown of these proteins results in folds and ditches occurring where the skin used to be held up nicely by these proteins now deteriorating with age.  These folds and ditches are what fine lines and wrinkles are.

Now, what causes this destruction is a complex system of hormones and antioxidants your skin makes, but what provokes the most damage in this system are oxygen molecules called Free Radicals.  A Free Radical is an oxygen molecule that has lost an electron and roams around looking to steal one to make itself complete.  A stolen electron compromises the integrity of the molecule it’s taken from, causing a breakdown of what that molecule is a part of, like, say, a protein.  You get free radicals roaming around your body all the time, from breathing, exercising and just plain living.  They’re a natural part of life.  But we get unacceptable, incredibly destructive amounts from sun exposure, stress, pollution and smoking. 

For some reason, free radicals in the body love to take electrons from your skin’s collagen and elastin, the very proteins that hold your skin up. 

With sun exposure this destructive process can be so much more pervasive, the skin won’t just look wrinkled, it’ll look like tanned animal hide more than human skin.  I’m sure you’ve seen the photos of this kind of thing circulating round the interwebs.

What this means, of course, is that the best prevention against damage from sun exposure will be sunscreen!  Sunscreen that, of course, also has to be hydrating and non-clogging, a not-so-common combination.  When it comes to the eyes, UV Protection sunglasses are a must as well (remember, the fact that a pair of sunglasses are dark isn’t enough - they have to say UV Protection on the label).  Any time the brightness level outdoors causes you to have to squint in any way, put on those sunglasses.

Here’s the truth about aging.

Of ALL the anti-aging ingredients, there are only two that are preventative as well as corrective - sunscreen and topical antioxidants.  Antioxidants help stave off the damage that free radicals wreak on skin proteins by generously giving free radicals the electrons they’re looking for.  All other anti-aging ingredients are only corrective, in other words, they help to rebuild that which has already been broken down.  We want to prevent that breakdown, and the best way to do that is to put up a defense against those destructive forces.

Obviously, though, since I do indeed have plenty of clients with existing fine lines and wrinkles, there is a need.  Even I use an eye product (a gel to be exact), but I’m already 50 years old.  Enter skin rebuilding Peptides!  Peptides are short protein chains, and the ones that we use to repair aging issues help to rebuild, restructure, revamp and revitalize.  Each one does something different.  Drugstore and department store brands do not contain active ingredients in the same dosages as they were tested at in the lab when they were discovered.  Labeling laws allow a product to be advertised as having the benefits of the active ingredient, even when the full product doesn't have the amount necessary to really make a difference.  This is why it’s very important to be very choosy from whom you get your anti-aging products.

For our purposes, though, they also have to be truly non-comedogenic, which means not made with any ingredients that will clog pores.  With so many of these clogging ingredients out there, and so many that can be in low concentrations in a formula without causing breakouts, the easiest way for the consumer with acne to be sure an eye cream or gel will truly work and won't break them out is to get them from an Esthetician who is expert in Adult Acne issues, like moi.

Let’s determine together what kind of eye product you need at this stage in your life.  If you live in the US and are late 20s or older, we can figure out the best anti-acne and anti-aging regimen for you - you don’t have to choose one over the other!

Your acne problem has a source, and clearing your skin requires finding that source and either eliminating it or healing it.  You can start that right now by filling out my Eval by Email® Online Skincare Consultation Form created specially for ages Gen-X to Baby Boom!

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