Do you sometimes find yourself staring at a child, or maybe even your own child to say, and wonder how their skin looks so flawless, bright and vibrant? Even though their complexion may be dark, it still exuberates in radiance - right! This I feel may be our glimmer of brightened skin.
Taking a deeper dive into this and we can see that children are able to have bright glowing skin because their skin regenerates and renews itself much faster than much older adult skin does. In fact as an adult your skin takes about 27 days to regenerate itself, and within this time period, it is prone to a piling up of dead skin cells, and this makes it look dull, dark and even tired. A more comprehensive table is shown below to give you a better picture of the time periods of your skin cell renewal.
The Average Rate of Skin Cell Turnover
Babies, 14 days
Teenagers, 21-28 days
Twenties, 24-30 days
Thirties, 28-35 days
Forties, 30- 42 days
Fifties++, 45-84 days
So, as you get older, you can clearly see that the average days for your skin cell turnover increases.
And herein lies the secret recipe to skin brightening. In this case, skin brightening means increasing your skin cell turnover, which in turn, will increase your skins vibrancy and radiance. To put it in a different way, when you have fresh renewed skin on the surface, the sun is able to bounce off it and this gives it, its natural brightness and glow. Easy isn't it!!
2 ways to brighten your skin
Exfoliate and exfoliate more regularly
This is by far the easiest and sometimes most underused way to sloth off your dead skin cells - simply getting a sponge and soap to scrub may not be enough. Try to in-cooperate a facial and body scrub into your bath routine. Remember you only need to scrub your skin maximum twice a week. Scrubbing your skin more than this may make it vulnerable to environmental damages like from the sun and pollutants. Although dead skin cells may be bad, they do actually act as a natural skin protection (so they can be a good thing at the same time) but you don't want them building up too much because of the dullness that they give out. So, twice a week of manual exfoliating is more than enough.
Opt for products with gentle chemical exfoliating ingredients
Adding products with key skin regenerating ingredients can be a great way to regularly and consistently increase your skin cell turnover. These types of products will be very gentle and maybe even slow to work but with consistent use of them you will begin to see a natural vibrancy given to your skin.
Some ingredients to look out for include;
Alpha Hydroxy Acids like lactic acid and this is found in a lot of milk range of products. You can easily get a body lotion like Goat Milk for regular use.
Fruit Enzymes and these can come in the form of papaya, pomegranate and even mixed fruit extracts. These ingredients can be seen in lotions and bar soaps.
Products infused with vitamins are another fantastic way to brighten your skin because they work to increase your skin cell renewal process by increasing the time that your skin renews itself. Its like helping your skin make more new skin faster, and this leads to increased collagen production and elastin. Your skin will not only look brighter but younger too. Some vitamins to keep an eye out for are vitamin A, B3 & C.
In all, to look your best and get the most out of your skin, you'll want to get rid of built up dead skin cells. To do this, will require a dedicated and well thought up skin care routine that you can follow, adjust, improve and make to suit you. Skin care is a journey and bright skin is a dedicated effort that we can all do.
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