How our skin quiz helps you understand the factors affecting your skin

Have you heard of the term, urban stress? Urban stress is the state of body or mental tension developed through city living; physical, chemical or emotional factors also give rise to that tension. These personal and environmental stresses affect your skin on a daily basis – and we are here to help you understand why. 

Here at Laudrés, we aim to provide an exquisite customer experience, conceptualised on the idea of personalised skincare. We believe in helping you discover the most suitable product for your skin. As such, we designed a skincare assessment to analyze your skin needs, before recommending a product that’s most suitable for you. Taking into consideration your age, skin type, living environment, current stress level and other factors, our skincare assessment analyses your skin profile using built-in algorithms to holistically identify the best skin care regimen for you. As there is no one product suited for all skin types, our formulations are curated for each of your different skin types whilst addressing your specific skin concerns. 

Skin Profile 

Not all serums are suitable for each individual as not everyone is born with the same skin type and skin concerns. Understanding your individual skin concerns would help us identify the key actives and/or skin care products that would work best to specifically target your respective skin needs. From skin rejuvenation, moisturization, antioxidant, brightening to calming, we have got you covered with our Dual Serum collection that boasts 5 distinct serums, each formulated to address your specific skin needs. 

Living Environment 

Not only is it important to select skincare products that are well-suited for your skin profile, it is just as important to prioritize on protecting your skin from environmental and urban stressors. Residing in urban cities increases the likelihood of exposing your skin to urban stressors, such as UV radiation, blue light, smoking and air pollution, that would damage your healthy skin on a daily basis.

These urban stressors, especially UV radiation have the potential to weaken and penetrate through the skin barrier by the production of reactive oxidative species (ROS) to generate oxidative stress onto the skin.[3] The generation of oxidative stress would cause the depletion of antioxidants in the skin, which is important to protect our skin cells from oxidative damage.[3] Most importantly, overtime exposure to UV rays, without any sun protection, can cause premature skin aging (also termed as ‘photoaging’), which may lead to accelerated formation of wrinkles, sagging of the skin and in worse cases, can result in serious dermatological disorders like psoriasis and even initiating skin cancer.[3] 

Research[1] has also shown that inhaling the smoke produced by cigarettes and the presence of air pollution in our surroundings i.e. from traffic, will result in detrimental effects on skin health and skin aging. With the added daily presence of UVA and UVB radiation, the production of ROS through smoking and air pollution can “induce Vitamin E depletion” and hence results in “significant increase in pigment spots and facial wrinkles”. [1] In the long run, this continual cycle where stress is stemmed from lifestyle habits and living environment, would further exacerbate the levels of damage to the skin and of skin aging. 

Stress 

Have you heard of the different forms of stress that can exist on our facial skin? One of them is stress-induced acne. Now, there is no direct correlation between stress and acne but stress can trigger and exacerbate acne, especially when you have acne-prone skin. 

According to a research article titled Post‐adolescent acne: a review of clinical features by British journal of dermatology, the evaluation of the clinical features of 200 patients of over 25 years, consisting of 76% women and 24% men with mild to moderate severity of acne, suggested that “acne in adult women is related to chronic stress”[4] and “the subsequent induction of comedones”[4] which “correlated the levels of emotional stress”[4]. Emotional stress causes a disruption in our hormonal levels by creating an imbalance sebum production, resulting in clogged pores (also known as comedones), hence the development of acne.

The second is the lack of quality sleep, termed as sleep deprivation. Research has also shown that stress caused by sleep deprivation increases signs of aging such as reduced skin elasticity and fine lines.[2][5] The loss of skin elasticity may also cause eye bags under your eyes.

Lastly, stress negatively affects our skin’s transepidermal water loss levels and reduces the skin’s ability to retain moisture, causing skin to be dehydrated overtime. Transepidermal Water Loss (TEWL) is a measure of the amount of water from within the skin to the external atmosphere.[2] In a clinical study done on mice, it was found that stress from overcrowding “caused higher transepidermal water loss, lower water retention property and impaired barrier function, leading to moderate exfoliation and slight wrinkle formation.”[2] Similar effects have been observed on human subjects as well.[2] The increase in TEWL levels are due to a decrease in ceramides which are important in restoring the protective barrier function of the outer layer of the skin, also known as the stratum corneum.  

Now that you have understood the various factors that could affect your skin, take the skin revelation quiz on our website to discover what your skin needs to look its best.  

The Future of Skin – Laudrés cutting-edge technology nourishes skin, of all ages and time. 

References

[1] Chen, Y., & Lyga, J. (2014). Brain-skin connection: stress, inflammation and skin aging. Inflammation & Allergy-Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets-Inflammation & Allergy), 13(3), 177-190. 

[2] Hadgraft, J., & Lane, M. E. (2009). Transepidermal water loss and skin site: a hypothesis. International journal of pharmaceutics, 373(1-2), 1-3. 

[3] Rembiesa, J., Ruzgas, T., Engblom, J., & Holefors, A. (2018). The impact of pollution on skin and proper efficacy testing for anti-pollution claims. Cosmetics, 5(1), 4.

[4] Goulden, V., Clark, S. M., & Cunliffe, W. J. (1997). Post‐adolescent acne: a review of clinical features. British journal of dermatology, 136(1), 66-70.

[5] Oyetakin-White, P., Koo, B., Matsui, M., Yarosh, D., Fthenakis, C., Cooper, K., & Baron, E. (2013). Effects of sleep quality on skin aging and function. J. Invest. Dermatol, S126-S126.

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