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Experts in skin health recently identified a breakthrough discovery. Just as the body has nutritional needs to be healthy, so too does the skin to be healthy-looking. Scientists at the Amway corporation, partnered with dermatologists unlocked the five key nutritional requirements to keep skin healthy and looking vibrant. To maintain a smooth and blemish-free appearance, skin requires the perfect balance of plant-based nutrients and traditional skincare technologies. Follow along to discover the 5 skin barriers plus plant-based nutrients for skin, and how important they are for understanding the skin's nutritional requirements. For healthy beauty recommendations, I've listed my favorite products to address all 5 skin nutritional requirements at the end.
Visibly healthy skin is best able to perform its vital protective role for the body. Skin reflects overall health and well-being, and its health can be improved by topically applied, effective skincare, which helps maintain skin’s healthy, beautiful appearance.
Healthy beauty products work like supplements to infuse the skin with key nutrients which optimize and enhance its healthy and beautiful appearance.
From a functional standpoint, healthy-looking skin can perform its vital protective role and withstand various environmental stressors. It is resilient and can repair itself quickly when damaged or injured. From a visible perspective, healthy-looking skin has an even skin tone and is free of red blotchiness or irritations. It is well hydrated and moisturized, has a smooth texture, and is free of flakes and scales. Skin appears firm and lifted and is free of visible bumps, wrinkles, and sagging. From a sensory standpoint, healthy feeling skin is “unremarkable” meaning there’s no stinging, itching, or tightness. Making for skin that is resilient and comfortable.
But you don’t just turn from young to old in one night. It’s a long process and how soon you see the signs of visible aging depends on multiple factors including genetics, lifestyle, environment, and how well you take care of your skin with great skincare products. Getting to the root cause of why skin changes, scientists discovered that even unhealthy, older-acting skin can be encouraged to act and look younger and healthier when treated with certain topical ingredients. It is possible to reverse the condition of unhealthy cells so that the skin becomes healthier-looking overall. Traits like radiance, glow, suppleness, clarity, fewer visible lines, and more refined, and firmer-looking skin, are some of the traits of healthy-looking skin. Aging is inevitable… but you can have some control over how much your skin looks older. And you can improve your skin to look healthier.
Proprietary research in partnership with the preeminent expert on “skin aging” from the University of Michigan Medical School lead to the joint discovery of functional botanical compounds that help improve skin’s healthy beauty. Researchers discovered several factors which cause the skin to start looking unhealthy and cause visible signs of aging- beyond just chronological aging. Those factors are the environment, sun exposure leads to photo-damage, free radicals cause oxidative damage, and blue light, infrared light, smoke, and pollution also cause oxidative damage; dehydration - lack of enough water to sustain the hydration skin cells need to function properly; poor diet or lack of nutrition and lifestyle, like sleep, handling stress, smoking, exercise, etc.
The research also uncovered 5 barriers within the skin’s surface which naturally work together to safeguard the skin’s healthy appearance. What each barrier needs in order to be most effective was also exposed- with each barrier having different functions. All are vitally important because they are all inter-connected. Any disruption to one barrier, along with chronological aging, can contribute to pushing skin into an unhealthier state and the appearance of premature signs of aging.
1.) The first barrier is the DEFENSE Barrier; its function is to PURIFY. It purifies by removing impurities from the skin’s surface to help prevent skin irritation.
2.) The second skin barrier is the MICROBIOME Barrier; its function is to BALANCE. The skin is in a healthy balance when the good organisms are behaving or acting good, and the bad-acting organisms are prevented from forming biofilms. The Microbiome Barrier plays a significant role in helping to maintain and stabilize skin’s healthy look. So, it is important to keep organisms in a “good” state.
3.) The third barrier is the SUPPORT Barrier; its function is to REBUILD. This layer helps to keep skin smooth, resilient, elastic and provides cushion. This is where the extracellular matrix (ECM) is, keeping the skin’s physical structure flexible and bouncy. Flexible skin contributes to skin’s surface smoothness, radiance, plumpness, and bounce. This helps keep skin looking healthy longer and delays visible signs of aging.
4.) The fourth barrier is the MOISTURE Barrier; its function is to keep the skin optimally moisturized and strengthen the barrier. This keeps essential moisture inside the skin, rather than evaporating away. For fresh and healthy-looking skin, it needs to be well-hydrated.
5.) The 5th and last barrier is the ENVIRONMENTAL Barrier; its function is to PROTECT skin from the damaging effects of environmental aggressors, such as UVA and UVB rays, infrared, blue light, pollution, and free radicals.
Skin looks its best when 5 key Skin Nutritional Requirements are addressed. The skin nutritional requirements are universal and apply equally to all skin types and skin tones, regardless of age.
PURIFY to keep the skin’s Defense Barrier clean, calm, and free of skin-stressing irritants and removes pollution before it can stress the skin.
BALANCE to bring skin’s natural microflora into a healthy balance. A properly balanced microbiome enables the prevention of biofilm clusters that turn microbes into skin stressors.
REBUILD to strengthen and repair skin’s Support Barrier. Preventing Extra Cellular Matrix damage and repairing and strengthening the ECM maintains skin elasticity and firmness. Powerful technology safeguards both what’s there and restores what needs fixing.
MOISTURIZE to saturate skin and fortify the skin’s moisture barrier. By supercharging and sustaining higher moisture levels and improving the barrier, you can prevent water and nutrient loss. Identifying a good moisturizer will depend on the product’s ability to infuse moisture into the skin’s deeper surface layers and lock it in for 24 hours of hydration.
PROTECT to reinforce the Environmental Barrier by helping to shield the skin from UV, infrared, blue light, pollution, and free radicals.
Just like you may have nutritional gaps in your diet, the same goes for your skin. Anyone can enjoy visibly healthy skin by addressing the 5 Key Skin Nutritional Requirements every day with a highly effective, deeply penetrating skincare system.