Top tips and tricks for perfect skin

Lots of people have an aim to have the most glorious skin for summer and think this can be achieved by beauty lotions, but could bad skin be down to your nutrition? Here are some top tips and tricks for perfect skin.

Oxygen and nutrients are needed for your skins cells to ensure great posture. Many creams and moisturisers claim to support the fight against anti-ageing, but essentially nutrition helps improve your skin from the inside out. Pharma Nord explains more:

Top tips and tricks for perfect skin

When you’re out in the sunlight, free radicals can cause damage to your skin. There are 25 types of collagen in the body and, along with elastin, they give skin texture and structure. Free radical damage causes collagen and elastin to break down, which leads to wrinkles and skin losing its firmness. Antioxidants such as vitamin C and Coenzyme Q10 can protect cells from the damaging affects of these toxic chemicals.

We need to improve our vitamin C levels, and this can be achieved through eating raw fruit and vegetables — as the vitamin can be reduced when cooked or processed. Levels of vitamin C are also reduced by factors such as smoking, drinking alcohol and certain drugs like antidepressants and oral contraceptives. As a result, many people turn to supplements to ensure they get enough of this vital nutrient. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin C is 60mg/day or 120mg/day if you are a smoker.

Vitamin-like substances can be manufactured from our own bodies, but when it comes to what we gain from our diets — Coenzyme Q10 is generated. Our ability to do this decreases from our mid-twenties, making supplements important. Coenzyme Q10 plays an important role in producing energy in our bodies and is also a powerful antioxidant. This means it protects the skin from free radical damage and promotes effective skin repair. Coenzyme Q10 has been proven to reduce the depth of fine lines and wrinkles over time.

Do we need fatty acids for our skin repair?

Omega 3 is one type of fatty acid that we need to keep ourselves healthy — from our skin, hair and nails. The richest source of Omega 3 is fish oil from oily fish such as herring, salmon, tuna and sardines. Omega 3 is an anti-inflammatory, making it good for irritable, sore skin. Many people choose to take an Omega 3 fish oil supplement. Due to concern about environmental pollution in fish, it is safest to choose a supplement which contains oil from the flesh of the fish, rather than the liver.

In particular, Omega 7 is another fatty acid that can work wonders for our skin. Omega 7 sea buckthorn oil capsules from Pharma Nord contain oil from a tiny berry and help with lubrication through the body, protecting the internal organs, as well as the linings of the eyes, mouth and skin. Sea buckthorn oil is one of the best natural oils for mature and wrinkled skin due to its essential fatty acid and vitamin E, C and A properties. It has nourishing, moisturising and restorative action, promoting tissue regeneration and reducing age-induced skin wrinkling and signs of premature ageing. Sea buckthorn oil also has natural sun protecting power.

Why is blood flow important?

Our oxygen and nutrients travel through our blood, so we must have an overall healthy blood supply. Pycnogenol is a plant-based extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree and can be taken as a supplement to improve blood circulation. This can help with skin hydration and vitality. Pycnogenol can also help to reduce wrinkles by binding with skin proteins collagen and elastin to protect from various harmful enzymes. It also rebuilds elasticity, which is essential for smooth, youthful skin. It has also been shown to reduce over-pigmentation for a more even complexion.

When the weather is hot, you should be protecting your skin at all costs. Sunburn is inflammation caused by free radical induced tissue damage. By neutralising these free radicals, pycnogenol helps protect the skin from the stress and damage of sunburn.

What are your top tips and tricks for perfect skin?

You may like to discover the secrets to ageing gracefully.