ACNE
- Formed when pores are clogged by sticky skin cells, excessive oil production, impurities or even wrong skincare or cosmetic usage.
- This gives rise to a type of bacteria called P.acnes, which cause redness and inflammation
- Which level of skin is acne formed?
Acne problems are found from epidermis deep into dermis! Any topical solutions will not be sufficient to deal with it!
Normal solutions: Need multi-step approach, from cleansing to skincare, from lifestyle to diet.
Acne Scars
- Scars or big pores size are the result of damage to the skin’s tissue, very often by severe acne or harsh skin regimen.
- Shown below the possible depth of the scars formed in the skin layers.
Normal solutions: Some exfoliator, needling system or laser procedure can help to improve them. If the scars are old or too severe, you’ll have to just live with them or have them surgically improved.
Large Pores
- Pores are hair follicle openings and serve as the escape route for sweats and other body toxins.
- Large or enlarged pores are due to overactive sebaceous gland that causes excess oil to settle around the pores, making the skin around them thickens, blocking them from shrinking back to their original pores size.
- And as the skin ages, cell renewal activity and collagen and elastin production decreases, further worsening the appearance of large pores.
Normal solutions: Good makeup removal and cleansing practice, use exfoliator, skin tightening solutions, peeling treatment etc.
Dry/ Dehydrated Skin
- Both dry and dehydrated skin involve damage in Skin Lipid Barrier Layer.
- Dry skin is a lack of oil whereas dehydrated skin is a lack of water in the Skin Lipid Barrier Layer, often genetic, caused by an internal imbalance that causes the oily protective layer to malfunction.
- It can also caused by external factor such as sun exposure, harsh soaps or strong cosmetics, spicy or deep fried diet etc, all these may cause damage to skin lipid barrier layer and cause skin to have high TEWL and overproduce oil, resulted in clogged pores, breakouts, irritation, dry patches, and wrinkles.
Normal solutions: Use an antioxidant-rich, oil-based lotion to help nourish dry skin and act as a barrier that keeps moisture from escaping. For dehydrated skin, drink lots of water, use sun block and hydrating product like HA and top it up with a cream based moisturizer.
Sagginess
Facial sagginess is not only caused by loss of fat, collagen and elastin of the skin, it is mostly caused by the loss of elasticity and tautness of the SMAS layer of the skin muscle as shown below:
Normal solutions: Usually invasive treatment is needed such as laser skin resurfacing, face lift surgery, botox injection, threading etc.
Sensitive Skin
When the Skin Lipid Barrier Layer is damaged, cracks happened, the nerve endings in the skin will be irritated and the Langerhans Cells will be triggered to fight off any potential pathogen or external stimulants, this is where you skin gets all the itch, redness, swellings etc.
Normal solutions: Use mild skin care or sometimes oral or topical antibiotics for some cases.
Wrinkles and Fine Lines
- Due to aging.
- Intrinsic ageing like growing old, menopause, genetic disorder which affects everyone that cause breakdown of collagen and elastin.
- Extrinsic ageing affects people who are exposed to sunlight, smoking, environmental pollution, nutritional imbalance.
- Shown below the full elastin and collagen volume of the younger skin compared to the depleted collagen and elastin volume of aged skin found in the deep dermis.
Normal solutions: For fine lines, use moisturizer or wrinkle cream that contains Hydroxy Acids to nourish and fill up skin barrier layer. For wrinkles, go for skin resurfacing treatment such as peeling or laser treatment, filler injection, surgical face lift etc.