Age Spots; what are they, how to prevent them and how to remove them

The sun emits 3 UV rays; A, B & C.   UVC doesn't penetrate the ozone so we don't need to worry about that.  UVB is a shorter wave and is responsible for sunburn, redness and causing ageing in the epidermis.  UVA penetrates the skin further into the dermis and damages the DNA of the melanocyte cells, causing them to over produce mutated (darker cells) which cluster together.

 

During the 90's I lived in South Africa and used a sunblock called SP20 which "allowed tanning without the sunburn" i.e. it blocked UVB but not UVA which is more effective at tanning so I am a bit concerned about how my skin is going to look in the next decade.
It is advisable NOT to use sunbeds as they emit high levels of UVA and it IS advisable to use a "broad spectrum" sunblock i.e. it protects against UVA & UVB.

 

It is believed that sun exposure before the age of 20 will determine how your skin will look when you reach your 50's, which is why there is such a big emphasis on putting sun protection on children.

There are a variety of methods of treating age spots.

• Avoid making them worse by covering up and avoiding midday sun
• Using known skin lightening actives ranging from Hydroquinone, Kojic acid, Arbutin, Vitamin C & Liquorice extract
• Skin peels, facials, ingredients to remove top layer of skin to enhance penetration of actives 
• Using actives to speed up cell renewal to stop mutated cells reaching full maturity 
• Using actives that inhibit the production of the mutated melanocyte cells

Hydroquinone is a skin bleaching agent and side effects are burning and scarring and sometimes worst skin discolouration.  It is found in a lot of skin lightening creams for African skin and are banned in most countries - it should be avoided and certainly never purchased off the shelf.
Kojic Acid, Arbutin, Vitamin C & Liquorice extract are all permitted in cosmetics and as they all act in slightly different ways, they would have better synergy together.
Scrubs, peels, micro-dermabrasion will remove dead cells, revealing brighter ones, and make it easier for a skin lightening actives to reach the dermis.
Personally I'm not a big fan of facial scrubs (even though I get a guilty pleasure when using them) as I know my cell turnaround is working and speeding it up can have the opposite effect i.e. dry patches and redness.  Same goes for salicylic acid and lactic acid peels, they can be too aggressive for some skins, although fine for others.

In English Rose Cosmetics’ Nighty Night Cream I've opted to use 2 actives:-

Revinage (bidens pilosa) a plant with Retinoid properties and Pelevetia Algae.

Both these ingredients are clinically proven to inhibit the mutation of the discoloured cells, which I shall try to explain as simply as I can.

Bidens pilosa (yellow flower) is such an amazing plant, I source it from a Brazilian company who organically grow and harvest it and have conducted the studies to demonstrate its effectiveness i.e. boost collagen and elastin in the dermis to plump out wrinkles, regulate oiliness and was proven (in-vitro) to be more effective than Kojic acid and Arbutin at reducing skin lightening.

This is how it works…

It inhibits Tyrosinase (TYRP-1) which is required for melanocytes to produce melanin from the amino acid tyrosine, this slows down the amount of melanin produced, (remember the DNA damage causes excessive cell mutation)

It inhibits the Melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) which is responsible in darker melanin. Incidentally MSH increases during pregnancy causing increased pigmentation  

Revinage compared favourably with Arbutin and Kojic acid (known skin lightening actives) - also it has never been animal tested.  

Incidentally, English Rose Cosmetics is approved by PETA and licensed to carry their logo.

Pelevetia is an algae sourced from Brittany and has been clinically proven (in-vitro) to repair DNA, prevent the degradation of elastin (interesting as a bust firming active in the future) protects against UVB irradiation and reduces redness. 
Pelevetia also inhibits tyrosinase and melanin synthesis which are required to produce melanin cells.  So it compliments and boosts the action of Revinage.
In conclusion, with Nighty Night Cream I've used actives that will help prevent the appearance of age spots by working at the level in the skin where they are made, it will also help stop existing age spots getting larger and help reduce them gradually.
The clinical studies can be emailed on request, and can also be found online. Nighty Night Cream can be purchased here

“Fair of Face” Gentle Cleanser

 “Fair of Face” is the 7^th English Rose Cosmetics’ product and I would like to share with you why I’ve chosen to develop this type of product.  The inspiration for the name "Fair of Face" comes from the Mondays Child Poem.

Decisions decisions….

The type of face cleanser will depend a lot of time and lifestyle and skin requirement of the individual.  A lot of beauty editors extoll the virtues of double cleansing using a facial oil/balm and then water based foaming cleanser to remove the first cleanser and any remaining traces of grime.  This is time consuming but probably necessary if you live in a polluted city.  For those that don’t live in polluted cities or work from home (lucky us), than we have less grime to remove and too much cleansing will disrupt the skin barrier.  Be it laziness or lack of time some of us don’t want to spend too much time on a cleansing routine. 

I never use bar soaps (too alkaline) or foaming gels (contain irritants) and am too lazy to use lotions & balms, but I wanted something using plants that was convenient to use in the shower or over the sink.

Foaming Component

This is a clever packaging invention that turns liquids into foams, so you can use a watery natural formulation that turns into a foam making it super convenient to use.

Ingredients

Water, glycerine (humectant) barley protein (conditioning) sucrose laureate (emollient/emulsifier) decyl glucoside (surfactant from corn) Quillaja Saponaria (soaptree bark) phenoxyethanol (preservative) ginger oil (fragrance)

Quillaja Saponaria Molinas

Chilean Soaptree bark (Quillaja Saponaria Molinas) is sustainably harvested and Ecocert approved by the manufacturer (Desert King) to reduce oil, shine and spots without leaving the skin feeling tight and dry.  Included at 6% as the primary cleansing agent.

Desert King did a 4 week in vivo on 30 volunteer’s average age of 25, with varying degrees of acne. They had to wash their face twice a day with a gel containing 2% Quillaja and results were measured at 2 weeks and 4 weeks, the before and after photos are quite impressive.

After 4 weeks the volunteers rated their satisfaction as follows:-
93% reduction in greasy skin
62% reduction in acne lesion’s
75.8% less evident pores
79.3% less shiny skin
82.8% good for delicate skin & washing away impurities
17.2% tightness & dryness
93.1% no adverse reactions

Decyl Glucoside is a biodegradable plant derived gentle surfactant with foaming capabilities and is popular in natural formulations – it’s included at 3% and is the secondary cleansing agent.

Barley Protein moisturises and conditions dry skin, and is recommended to use post shave due to its healing properties.  It is used at 10% and is the primary moisturising active.  Glycerine locks in moisture and is used at 1.5%

Sucrose laureate is a plant based fatty acid ester emollient/emulsifier. 
Ginger Essential Oil gives a natural invigorating fragrance and has the allergens removed.

Tip – leave the foam on spots for about 10 minutes before rinsing off.  Most foaming products will irritate the skin after 10 minutes so this is a good indication of its mildness.  Also recommend using a 2^nd cleanser on a cotton pad to check the effectiveness of “Fair of Face”.

 

Rating

Value for money – costs £13.00 for 160ml due to the inclusion of 20% natural plant actives which are considerably more expensive than SLS/SLES cleansing agents, most face washes would also contain less than 1% plant actives. 

Available – here  

Effectiveness – gently cleans the face without leaving a tight feeling, skin feels refreshed, calm and clean

Pampering factor – mild creamy foam with ginger aroma that’s a pleasure to use in the shower or over the sink

Recommended – this does not contain allergens or irritants so is suitable for sensitive skin, and is highly effective on spot prone skin

Happily Ever After …. Loving Your Skin Before and After the Wedding

So the wedding date has been set, you are getting married and there so much to do and plan.  Not only do you want the perfect dress but you want to look your most beautiful on the day too.  That means no shiny face, dull tired skin, dark circles and horror of horrors an outbreak of spots!

So let’s take a look at what is needed to ensure your best possible chance for perfect skin not just on your wedding day, but into the honeymoon and beyond, in fact happily ever after!

Shiny face…. Is a due to excessive sebum production and people with oily skin often have larger pores.  Unfortunately, pores size is genetically determined, so not possible to permanently shrink pores.  The hormone, Dihydrotestosterone is responsible for sebum production and men have more of this hormone than women and are typically 30% oilier.  The most effective way to reduce oil shine is to regulate this hormone and there are ingredients that can do this i.e. zinc.  Both Daily Defence Moisturiser and Nighty Night Cream contain ingredients that help reduce sebum production i.e. rooibos, rich in zinc and bidens pilosa.

Spots……. Are another consequence of oily skin, as the excess sebum oxidises and creates a breeding ground for bacteria causing spots.  Regulating oiliness and killing bacteria is recommended plus a healthy diet.  Salicylic acid is often recommended for spot treatments as these get rid of dry skin cells, but they can dry out the skin around the spot too.  Salicylic acid has no effect on the bacteria or regulating sebum, so not convinced it’s the best treatment.  Personally I’ve found Witch stick the most effective at drying out spots quickly.

Redness.... is the skin reacting to an aggression ie an irritant reaction, pollution, infection, sunburn and is known as erythema or redness caused by inflammation.   We live in a polluted world and common irritants are nickel, exhaust fumes, bacteria from things we touch our mobile phones, make up brushes etc.  Using bacterial gels on our hands, cleaning our brushes and phones regularly can reduce this and infections in general.  Sunscreens and anti-oxidants are also important in protecting our skin against UV rays and damage.  Daily Defence Moisturiser offers a “shield” against pollution and bacteria as well as Vitamin anti-oxidants to combat redness.

Epidermis (skin) ……..resembles a wall with our cells being bricks and the cement being lipids (oils).   We need to keep this wall strong and healthier by boosting it with ingredients that are similar to those already in the skin.  Vegetable oils like olive oil and jojoba are very similar to skins own lipids so are able to feed out skin essential fatty acids like Omegas, linoleic acids and vitamins etc.  I avoid cosmetics that contain paraffin liquidium and petrolatum as they sit on the skin and form a barrier to prevent water loss, rather than feed the skin nutrients.  They also clog pores, unfortunately this cheap and nasty petrol derivative can be found in very premium brands which is a rip off.  Beeswax, lanolin, cetearly wax, bio saccharide gums are effective in forming a natural barrier to prevent water loss.    Nighty Night cream, Cocoa Ration Body Butter and Lay Back & Think of England are rich in plant oils to feed the skin.  If a cream is quickly absorbed its good as the skin is drinking it in, if it takes ages to rub in, chances are its silicones and petrol based, and although safe, do not offer an benefits.

Dry, flaky skin ….  our cells naturally fall off every 28 days and are replaced with new ones (desquamation).  If skin is dry, grey and flaky, this indicates that this process needs a boost in the form of scrubs and peels.  Avoid overdoing this as it will cause redness if your skin doesn’t actually need it.

Dermis …. here we have the extra cellular matrix (ECM) which is made of fibroblast cells that make collagen and elastin which resemble spaghetti.  Hyaluronic acid is here to deliver moisture as it holds 1000 x its own weight in water.  Anti-aging is really about getting the ECM to function as it did when we were in our 20’s.  There are many ways of doing this and the most effective way is get the fibroblasts working harder as increasing collagen and elastin effectively plumps out deep wrinkles.  We start ageing in our 20’s and showing in our early 30’s so the earlier you start the more likely you can delay the outset of deep wrinkles.

 

If a product states it contains collagen than it will be from a cow or marine source usually, there are supplements out there too and they will be animal derived.

Daily Defence, Nighty Night Cream and Bright Eyed & Bushy Tailed eye cream all contain hyaluronic acid, which has an important moisturising function in our skin.  Nighty Night Cream contains a plant active that increases the ECM density.

Learn what your skin needs and look for products that contain those ingredients at meaningful levels i.e. English Rose Cosmetics and look forward to be a radiant bride and love your skin happily ever after.

Thank you for reading.