How You Can Actually Keep Your Skin Looking Younger For Longer

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February 21, 2022 — 11:26 AM

Skin longevity isn't a revolutionary concept—it's simply taking care of your skin with the focus on the long term rather than relying too heavily on immediate gratification and quick fixes. Of course, many people already practice this concept, whether they refer to it as "longevity" or not. 

This is also not a skin care practice that requires a set regimen, to-do list, or framework of rigid rules. In fact, it's a train of thought that prioritizes individuality, simplicity, and a whole lot of self-knowledge—making finding any universal set of standards almost futile. What someone with sensitive skin will use to keep their skin healthy over time will look vastly different from those with regular, hormonally driven breakouts.    

With that in mind, what can we glean about our own skin when we look at it through the lens of longevity? Well, you want to strengthen the skin barrier, fuel your skin from the inside out and outside in, reduce oxidative stress, encourage the pace of skin cell turnover, and tend to it at the cellular level. 

Using irritating ingredients and techniques. Stripping your skin, overloading with potent actives, using abrasive scrubs or brushes—these all weaken your skin barrier function. Suboptimal skin barrier function contributes to low-grade, consistent inflammaging processes.  Forgetting nutrition's role. Eating a balanced diet doesn't carry much in terms of immediate gratification for the skin, but small nutrition-forward choices can ensure your skin cells have adequate nutrients to thrive now and into the future.   Not paying attention to your skin's cues. Your skin has a way of telling you it's unhappy—be it blemishes, discoloration, or irritation. If you ignore these, and their root causes, it can stress skin out over time.  Skipping on sleep and not monitoring stress. Lack of sleep and increased stress are epidemics nowadays. These can take a major toll on your skin health.  Following social media trends—not professionals. Social media stars often aren't trained in skin care, nor are they speaking to you individually. Sure, there is value in sharing routines with one another, but never assume outcomes based on other people's complexions.  Trying too many products and not sticking with any. Your epidermis turns over about every 40 to 56 days. That means it takes time to see results. If you're jumping from one product to the next without thought or consideration, you'll never be able to see what's helping or hurting your skin. "I'm always trying new things" is a trendy skin care phrase nowadays, but it's honestly bad advice. Feeding into immediate gratification. In the age of social media, quick fixes abound. And it's not wrong to want fast solutions for problems! Sometimes you really do need an instant pick-me-up for dark circles or mask to brighten dullness. But when all we focus on is the next hour or day—we tend to make hasty choices that don't support skin health for the next week, month, years, and decades. 

It's important that you check in with your skin daily. Think of it like how you might make slight tweaks to your diet and workouts depending on how your body feels on a given day. If your legs are sore, chances are you'll focus on another part of your body or even give yourself a recovery day. If you're bloated, you may adjust your eating habits accordingly. Take the same intuitive and thoughtful approach to your skin care routine. 

Some experts even recommend logging a skin care journal as you get to know your skin's needs—so you can chronicle how it reacts to products and even things that happened in your day (such as stress or lack of sleep). 

"Keep track, even lightly, of what's working for you and what's not. Over time, [journaling] gives you a lot of clues as to what really your skin gravitates toward," says Alicia Yoon, celebrity esthetician and founder of Peach & Lily, also noting it can help you identify flare-ups (and keep those flare-ups in perspective.) "When I get flare-ups, I remember it lasting longer than it actually did. I look back to my journal, and it was only three days, when it felt like two weeks." 

Knowing your skin is half the battle—so once you get in better touch with yourself, you'll make better long-term decisions. 

You can visit the top spas in the world and have consultations with every celebrity dermatologist in the Rolodex, but if you're doing the work daily it's all for naught. In health and wellness, people often talk about the 80-20 rule: That 80% of weight management is diet and 20% is exercise, explains holistic esthetician Zaida Gordan in this episode of Clean Beauty School. "Think of skin care professionals as your personal trainers—we can help with that 20%, but unless you're taking care of that 80% of daily maintenance skin care, there's only so much change that's going to happen," she says.  

Of course, zeroing in on a routine that works for your skin and lifestyle is, ahem, challenging. First, know the basics of a skin care routine and layering. We have a full guide to the topic, but for an abridged version, here are the major steps.

Cleanser Toner (optional)  Serum (optional but encouraged if you want to make long-term changes to the skin) Eye cream (optional)  Lotions, creams, or oils Lip balm (optional)  Sunscreen 

When crafting a routine, you should know what the overall intended outcome is and edit ingredients accordingly. But sometimes even getting to that step isn't easy. Well, behavioral psychologist Perpetua Neo, DClinPsy, spends a lot of time helping her patients identify their exact goals—sometimes skin care included. 

First, she says to write down the top changes you'd like to see in your skin, be it clear up a blemish or improve under-eye circles. "And rank each on a scale of 1 to 10," she says, noting that this framework can provide clarity for people so they're not tempted to tackle everything all at once. "You may say your dullness is an 8 out of 10, so you can strive to get it down to 6, 4, 2. Then you can look to find another goal."  

Additionally, this process helps you avoid another goal-oriented mistake: striving for something unrealistic. "This keeps you from having a big, unattainable goal like 'perfect skin.' Having achievable, moving goals is actually going to help your skin," she says. 

Once you've identified your top goal, then you can look for specific actives, products, and ingredients. This is not an exhaustive list, but it can at least get you started:  

Hydration: fatty acids, botanical lipids, and humectants (like hyaluronic acid and glycerin) Calm sensitivities: Oat extracts, ceramides, and biome-supporting ingredients Blemish and oil control: AHAs, BHAs, niacinamide, and lightweight hydrators (like aloe vera and jojoba oil)  Fine lines: retinol, peptides, and coenzyme Q10 Tone, dark spots & texture: Vitamin C, vitamin E, azelaic acid, and arbutin

No matter how hard you work on your skin, it means nothing if you're not shielding it from environmental aggressors. Things like pollution, oxidative stress, internal triggers, UV rays, and irritants can unravel all the goodwill you've put into your skin. And this all comes down to free radicals. "Free radicals are unstable molecules that can negatively affect your cells," says board-certified dermatologist Zenovia Gabriel, M.D., FAAD. Free radicals are called "unstable" because they are missing an electron. This is a problem because atoms don't like to have uneven electrons, and when they are unbalanced, they wreak havoc. One way they wreak havoc is they take electrons from healthy cells. Those healthy cells are then turned into, you guessed it, free radicals. The cycle continues. 

The best way to support your skin against these is twofold: sunscreen and antioxidants. Mineral sunscreens, like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, can help buffer UV rays in addition to smart sun care practices like hats, sunglasses, and avoiding midday direct exposure. As for antioxidants, you can find these in many varieties (some of which we've already mentioned!). Each variety has its own strengths, so you can find some that work well with your skin—and this is a good place to start. 

Massage daily. It may seem like an indulgence to work your skin daily, but your skin will thank you. Facial massages have been shown to reduce wrinkles and increase circulation over time and with regular use. Invest in high-tech, at-home tools. Not all at-home devices are created equal—and we certainly do not recommend some of them (looking at you, microneedling). But high-quality LED lights and microcurrent technology have their benefits long term. Always purchase from a reputable brand and retailer, and while you don't need to break the bank on your skin, we do recommend purchasing the highest quality one you can afford.    Find a pro, and stick with them. If you can afford it, have the time, and live in an area where estheticians and derms are available, we cannot recommend visiting a professional enough. Not only will they be able to guide you on your journey, but they can also keep things in perspective. "So if you are really in conflict with your skin, then you're going to look in the mirror and you're going to see something worse than what's there. You need someone absolutely objective to help you with that," says Neo.