Caring for Your Skin
Keeping skin youthful and healthy when exposed to pollution, sun, air conditioning and day-to-day environments can be challenging. The most effective way to care for your skin in our modern world is to use products that work in harmony with the natural function of your skin to support the growth and renewal of healthy skin cells. To better understand why, please keep reading so that you can learn basic facts about skin structure.
The skin is the largest organ of the human body.
The skin of the face and neck is some of the most delicate skin on the body, and therefore is best treated with delicate touch and light patting.
The factors that affect the condition of your skin include:
- Natural process of ageing
- Nutrition and water consumption
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Stress
- Over exposure to the sun
- Temperature extremes and wind
- Pollution and toxins
Some of these factors we can control. Effective skincare that supports the natural function of the skin is one key area that can help improve the condition of your skin.
To understand the benefits of using AEOS, it is useful to look at which aspects of the skin and its functions we are targeting to encourage healthier skin.
AEOS products aim to help restore and maintain the correct pH balance of the skin. A healthy skin requires a level of approximately 4.5 - 6.5, with the ideal being 5.5 (slightly acidic) on the pH scale. This allows the protective action of the skin to be more effective, which affects its appearance.
The Importance of Delicate Skin Renewal
New skin cells form at the base of the epidermis and slowly move upwards, flattening out as they mature.
Extreme exfoliation methods expose under layers of immature cells which have not completed their growth and journey to the outer layer. Due to these layers not being fully mature they are therefore far more vulnerable to damage from external pollutants and the sun, one of the major factors in aging and dry skin.
This is why the AEOS exfoliant is very mild, offering the possibility to gently ‘polish’ the outer layer of the skin, encouraging the skin’s natural renewal process, whilst delivering hydration.
Supporting Natural Rebalance
The AEOS range emulates the natural function of the skin, encouraging the skin to find its own equilibrium, balancing skin that is too oily or too dry. This is one reason we do not categorise the product range in to skin ‘types’.
Changes are occuring in our body all the time, including the skin. It is very helpful to become aware and notice the changes of your skin during different times of the month and life stages when hormonal changes can affect the skin and its needs, and to adjust the usage of AEOS accordingly, so that the skin does not become dehydrated or over moisturised and thus congested. In contrast to many commercial companies, this may mean using fewer products and less of each one, depending on ‘your skin’s needs’.
Why We Need to Replenish
The top layer of the skin contains keratin, a protein that helps to keep the skin hydrated by preventing water loss. When water loss occurs, the skin appears dry and flaky. This can be because of the lack of hydration causing the keratinocytes not to develop correctly (the dry flaky skin being the result of the cells ‘curling up’ rather than lying flat against each other).
The epidermis as a whole also contains enzymes that require water to promote the removal of dead cells. The spaces between the cells are packed with lipids (fats) and the cells themselves consist of amino acids and salts which are water soluble and assist the cells in retaining a balanced moisture level, slowing down any water loss. This ‘natural moisturising factor’ helps the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of the epidermis) to regulate natural water loss by preventing water evaporating from the deeper layers of the skin. This is where AEOS products are so important in delivering moisture, along with the active ingredients, in a cumulative way to the different layers of the skin. The active ingredients of AEOS (such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids) are offered in a natural way via plant ingredients which are more readily received by the layers of the skin when it is slightly moist, rather than dry.
The lipids within the epidermis play a large part in maintaining what is considered beautiful skin - i.e. healthy, plump and radiant. This is because when this layer of the skin is in optimal condition through adequate hydration it has the capacity to transmit light and hence produce that radiant look. When we add our final layer of AEOS moisturiser and/or serum at the end of the AEOS sequence, it offers a medium which fills any ‘gaps’ in moisture levels within the stratum corneum. This then allows the skin to appear more translucent because more light can reach to the lower layers of the skin.
As the Aura-Soma Colour-Care System is concerned with light and colour, this idea of optimising absorption of light and its transmission is significant. In a small way it is a reminder and recognition of ourselves as light beings / bodies.
Aura = Light. Soma = Body
