Let me ask you this first… How are you feeling now-a-days in an era where we can so easily mask our flaws?
Let me tell you this… Washing removing my make-up in the evenings or doing a filter free photo makes me look twice at my reflection. I still recognize the person staring back at me, but am I confident in my skin? Not always… those who know me know that I have been battling with hyperpigmentation for many years and the road to finding the best solutions have not always been a pleasant or easy one…
In a world where there are thousands of skincare brands and treatments available, how do you know which ones are best suited to you? I consider myself lucky to be working in the aesthetic industry; I have a good understanding of the skin, and by asking the right questions I can put together results driven skincare protocol for my clients. But here is something interesting – I am continuously reminded that the skin is the voice telling the story of what is really going on inside the body.
Does that make sense? So, everything you see on your outside skin, is rooted to your inside body. The core origin of most skincare conditions and concerns.
More people are starting to struggle with severe hormonal imbalances, gut related problems, stress and anxiety, etc, from a younger age. What most people don’t know is that so many other conditions stem from the aforementioned struggles. Externally we are bombarded with pollutants, due to our damaged ozone the amount of UV exposure we get is way more than our bodies are designed to tolerate, and our skin (the biggest organ in the human body) constantly needs to come to the rescue and protect. My question to you is, are we giving our skin and body the right tools to really fight the daily stressors? (Yes, I know what you are thinking, “how is this influencing my facial treatments?” But I promise you, the punch line is going to blow your mind!
Being an experience skincare specialist, I understand that the only answer to a successful outcome is to have a holistic approach. We cannot just look at the superficial surface of the skin and do treatments which only target the symptoms and not the causes. If you really want to know your predisposition to premature aging, you need to take a deeper look inside the body, and this is where your unique genes start playing a role.
I’m sure you have by now guessed where I am going with this!? SkinDNA. The SkinDNA genetic test is the hottest new topic on everyone’s lips. And guess what else? I DID ONE!
DNA testing have been around for a long time. It’s been used in many different industries from forensics, paternity, ancestry, diet and hormones, and finally it’s available to unlock your unique blueprint to see how you are destined to age!
No more shooting in the dark. The test is done with a quick mouth swab and ta-daa! Off the specimen goes for testing and analysis… Results are returned in an 18-page report which is super consumer friendly and easy to understand. SkinDNA focuses on the testing of the 5 pathways that is most related to premature aging:
- Firmness and Elasticity (Interesting fact: 1 out of 3 people’s collagen break down faster than it is produced!)
- Wrinkling (Glycation)
- Sun Damage and Pigmentation
- Free Radical Damage
- Sensitivity and Inflammation
In each pathway you get a risk category, where you are either HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW RISK, followed by an explanation to what is happening internally in the body, as well as a list of visible signs. What sets this report aside, is that you receive personalised recommendations based on your genetic outcome! SkinDNA’s patented algorithm lists topical ingredients, internal ingredients, and treatment modalities one should focus on to support your unique “make-up”.
For me, the interesting part is that it can help us understand how our bodies are influenced by certain lifestyle factors and environmental factors we are exposed to daily, and it help make us aware of any aggressors or triggers we are sensitive to. With the SkinDNA test, we can also now distinguish whether you are genetically predisposed to certain aging traits, or whether it is self-inflicted by a poor lifestyle.
When we know more about our genetic variations and own unique risk factors, it equips us with the knowledge on how to make healthier choices for our skin and bodies.
Looking at my own experience; I spent most of my childhood outdoors. My parents applied sunscreen for us in the mornings, but that was about it, and we never thought anything “strange” about it. After school I pursued a career in somatology and still did not apply sunscreen daily. The mindset most of us had back then was ‘I’m not going to be outside today, so I don’t need sunscreen’, little did I (we) know… It was only during the completion of my studies which I really started struggling with pigmentation. In an attempt to treat it, I unintentionally made it worse by doing the WRONG treatments…
I have been on the “road to recovery” ever since. Even though my ongoing education around pigmentation as well as the incredible team at Dr Nerina Wilkinson + Associates have made a huge difference in the appearance of my pigmentation, I am now ready to turn it up a notch and start a truly tailored SkinDNA approach to becoming my most beautiful self.
In my next blog I’ll share what went wrong with my skin journey, talk about my SkinDNA results, and how I will be adapting my skin journey moving forward so that I too can enjoy that make-up free, filter-free, skin confidence we all are striving towards.
