We've been thinking about skin all wrong. If you really want to change the way it looks and feels, it's time to think outside of those old skin-type boxes.
From the day you bought your first tub of Noxzema, you’ve been told that your skin is oily or dry or combination or sensitive or, most curious of all, normal.
"It
constantly frustrates me," says Mona Gohara, an associate clinical
professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine. "People get thrown
into these buckets, and it doesn’t make sense." Then she adds, wryly,
"It’s a soapbox I’m currently on."
And the message is this: We’ve
taken for granted that these classifications define us and our
epidermis, but almost nobody fits neatly into one.
"People like
categories, but in reality, everyone has combination skin — no one is
just dry or oily, and you have wrinkles on some parts of your face and
not others," says Amy Wechsler, a dermatologist and psychiatrist in New
York City.
On top of all that, the old categories don’t account
for all of the ways we’re learning how skin works. "Our skin’s biology
is more nuanced than we ever thought," says Gohara.
And as we
understand it better, a new approach to skin care is taking shape. More
brands (such as Clinique, Curology, Younique Youology, and Atolla) are
creating customized formulas for your dry cheeks and brown spots — and yours alone. And that’s just the beginning of a more personalized approach.
"We’re
learning that everyone’s skin has a unique fingerprint — the bacteria
living on your skin and even epigenetics affect how your skin looks,"
says Whitney Bowe, a dermatologist in New York City. And the technology
for figuring out your skin’s DNA is beginning to explode. It’s all going
to change the ways we approach skin care.
At this year’s CES tech expo, La Roche-Posay debuted a prototype of a wearable sensor that measures skin’s acidity, called My SkinTrack pH.
"It’s
a small patch that reads your skin’s pH level and uses that data to
make skin-care recommendations," says Sharon Profis, an executive editor
at CNET. (The patch’s launch date has yet to be determined.) "They’re
[suggesting that] alkalinity and acidity may be more important than
traditional skin-care categories." And it makes sense: The younger your
skin is, the more acidic it is.
"As skin matures, it becomes more basic, and that shift turns on enzymes that break down collagen," says Bowe.
Your
genetics and external triggers, like skin care, makeup, even sweat, all
throw your skin’s pH further out of whack. But if you know that your
skin is becoming basic, "you can adjust your routine to normalize pH,
turn off these collagen-destroying enzymes, and help prevent wrinkles
and sagging," Bowe continues. That might mean giving up moisturizers
with fragrance and scaling back on exfoliating to just once or twice a
week.
"We should appreciate how ethnicity contributes to the uniqueness of
skin’s biology, and that can help us look at — and treat — skin in new
ways," says Gohara. Researchers are now looking at how your skin’s
characteristics are connected to the color of your skin, even your
ethnic background. And brands devoted to treating specific skin tones are popping up.
"If
your skin color is olive or deeper, you’re more prone to
hyperpigmentation, which is helpful to know so you can incorporate
brightening and calming ingredients into your routine to address dark
spots and the inflammation that causes them," says Jeanine Downie, a
dermatologist in Montclair, New Jersey. T
hree new brands — Epara, Ni’Kita Wilson Beauty Chemist,
and Specific Beauty — were formulated for melanin-rich skin and contain
spot-fading ingredients, like niacinamide and licorice root. (You can
also follow the rules Downie lives by for avoiding dark spots: Don’t rub
your eyes, pick at pimples or scratch bug bites, and wear sunscreen
daily.)
"If you know your skin tends to be thinner — which East
Asian skin does — you can create a routine for preventing dryness and
sensitivity," says Gohara. The problem is we don’t yet know all the ins
and outs of how skin tone and ethnicity shape our skin. "Brown skin
especially has been neglected in research for so long, but it will be
the predominant skin color in the U.S. in the next 15 or 20 years, so we
need to figure this out," she adds. "We have a lot of catching up to do
to become a more inclusive world."
Gohara imagines a future where
beauty counters will offer color wheels organized by both skin tone and
ethnicity: "I could see that my children’s North African and Southeast
Asian roots converge on this point on the wheel, learn where their skin
is biologically, and take that into account," she says. "Brands offer
foundations for more skin tones now, and I want to see that approach
expand to skin care. This is just the tip of the iceberg."
Instead
of classifying skin as a mix of oily and dry, it would be more accurate
(though harder to spell) to describe skin by noting the presence of
bacteria like propionibacterium and staphylococcus.
"There’s a
whole ecosystem of bacteria and enzymes on your skin, and we can measure
them more easily than we could just a few years ago," says Bowe, who
studies the skin’s microbial ecosystem and wrote a book on it, Dirty
Looks: The Secret to Beautiful Skin (Little, Brown Spark). "It’s
possible to manipulate your skin’s ecosystem to turn certain genes on or
off, which can block the release of enzymes that break down collagen to
prevent wrinkles and sagging."
If that’s not fascinating enough,
consider that identical twins with different skin-care routines and
lifestyles end up aging at totally different paces. "Making simple
changes to your skin-care habits and managing your stress could change
your skin’s genetic destiny," Bowe says.
There are already ways to
promote healthy bacteria counts and enzyme levels on your skin. For
starters, sleep more. Swap harsh scrubs for gentle chemical exfoliators.
Use creamy cleansers with moisturizing ingredients, like hyaluronic
acid or glycerin. Eat more Greek yogurt and kefir, and pile your plate
with dark, leafy greens (the bacteria in your gut influence the ones on
your skin). And chill out or meditate for 10 minutes daily.
"There’s
science out of Harvard that suggests focusing on deep breathing and
mindfulness every day can stop stress from translating into physical
inflammation," Bowe says. "Even if that just means taking a break from
multitasking."
Soon enough, labs might be mixing next-generation
probiotic and prebiotic skin care to foster healthy bacteria growth for
your skin’s unique ecosystem. And pharmaceutical companies could
feasibly develop medical-grade skin-care ingredients to regulate gene
expression. (In this case, that would be the frequency with which your
genes turn collagen-depleting enzymes on or off.)
"I imagine a
future where you’d spit into a tube, swab your skin, and send that off
to a lab for an analysis of your skin’s bacteria counts and gene
expressions. The results would be combined with lifestyle factors and
fed into an algorithm that would make skin-care recommendations for
you," says Bowe. "You could take control of your skin’s future."
Until
you can 23andMe your skin-care routine, you can sleuth it out: "One
reason the old skin-care categories don’t cut it is that people
misdiagnose themselves all the time," says Downie.
One of the
most common mistakes is thinking you’re oily when you’re actually dry
with breakouts. (If you wash your face at 8 a.m. and it’s not shiny by 3
p.m., it’s a good indication you’re not oily.)
"Some patients
think they’re sensitive because they’re red and dry, but really they’re
vaping, or smoking cigarettes or weed — so their skin isn’t as resilient
as it used to be — or they’re not wearing sunscreen so the redness is
actually photodamage," Downie says. These patients may fall into the
bucket of "sensitive skin," but using products marketed for sensitivity
won’t do anything to bring down redness. "The usual skin-calming
ingredients won’t work," says Downie. "Sunscreen and professional lasers
are the only ways to really counteract photodamage if that’s the cause.
And come on, stop vaping."
Pay attention to how your skin changes
throughout the month. "If it gets oily when you’re stressed or during
your period, use a salicylic or glycolic acid cleanser — and why not
exercise more?" says Downie, explaining that that evens out stress
levels. "And get more sleep."
Of course, it’s a lot easier to
figure out why your skin is acting the way it is with the help of a
dermatologist. "Your skin may react differently than my skin, which is
where customizable formulas can help," says Gohara. "But everything
you’re experiencing is just one part of your skin’s bigger picture.
What’s really going on is much more complex than checking an oily- or
dry-skin box."
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