Jhoenna has taken her 15 years of experience in the beauty industry and known expertise to develop the Dérmica line of results-driven esthetic treatments that are sure to surpass your expectations!
As always with the skin, genetics plays a big role in aging. Other factors that contribute to an aging neck include improper care, sun exposure, and time.
At what age does the neck generally start to show signs of aging?
The neck starts to show signs of aging roughly around the same time as your face. However, since we do not express emotions with our necks (the way we do with our face), the face leads the way when it comes to aging. Although the neck doesn’t age as quickly as the face, it’s not too far behind. In other words, once you see signs of aging on your face, consider caring for your neck in the same fashion.
Aging on the neck appears in different ways. Examples include sunspots and redness caused by sensitivity.
What is a “crepey” neck?
Magnified image of crepey skin.
A crepey neck is characterized by fine lines of a dry and scaly texture. When you squeeze the skin together, the skin looks dehydrated and finely wrinkled. Crepey skin is one of the first signs of aging because they are not depressed wrinkles just yet. They are often caused by major dehydration and are common in the chest area. This may happen because we generally don’t exfoliate as much as we do on our face. We also don’t cleanse and moisturize to the same degree, nor do we protect it as we do our face.
Can a crepey neck be reversed?
Crepey skin on the neck can be reversed to a certain extent with proper treatment, aftercare, and protection. However, early intervention with advanced skin treatments is key.
What treatments are available for an aging neck?
Chemical peels help exfoliate buildup and resurface fresh skin cells.
Photofacials do the same as the peels. In addition, they help boost our collagen content and therefore yield more dramatic and longer-lasting results. Keep in mind that photofacials can tighten the skin on the neck only to a certain extent. Sometimes sagging of the neck is due to muscular issues or an excess of adipose tissue. Those cases require medical or surgical intervention such as liposuction, belkyra, or a lipo face lift.
Other questions?
Call us or submit your questions to our “Ask Dérmica” feature.
“Can I use the same products for morning and night?” is a common question asked by our clients. If your skin is at its prime, meaning it’s balanced and functioning at it’s best, your cleanser should be fine for morning and night use.
Keep in mind that “prime” doesn’t mean perfect skin for every skin type. If you are happy with your cleanser there is no need to change it. However, you may want to consider adding an oil cleanser for nighttime use. These are excellent at removing makeup and are often used as a first cleanse.
The decision to change moisturizers depend on what you are using. Basic moisturizers are fine for day or night. However, if you are using a moisturizer that contains sunscreen then you can’t use that at night. On the contrary, if you are using a product that contains retinol you can’t use that during the day.
Serums are the product to most likely have specific uses appropriate for certain times of day. For example, hyaluronic acid serums are best to use during the day when trans-epidermal water loss is highest. Vitamin C and E are good serums to use in the day time as they are good for sun protection.
Different beauty regimes
In addition, there are different regimes to consider when deciding whether or not to use the same products for morning and night. There are two types of regimes: maintenance versus treatment. During maintenance regimes you can cleanse and moisturize with the same products.
On the other hand, treatment regimes vary depending on what is happening with your skin. You may be able to use many of the same products if they are effective, but at night you may want to add products with ingredients to correct your skin concerns.
PROFESSIONAL SKINCARE AT HOME
Professional products help maintain results of our treatments. Therefore, we offer 15% OFF all Glo Skin Beauty products in-store with any skincare treatment.
Located in Edmonton, Dérmica offers a hybrid skin and beard care treatment- the Beard Facial. This specialized facial for men with beards offers the best of both worlds. It includes all of the essentials of a classic facial along with mild extractions, and a beard shampoo and conditioning treatment.
Beard facials help get rid of buildup consisting of sweat, dead skin, and oil that can lead to an itchy beard. In addition, they clear congested skin by extracting blackheads, milia, and other skin blemishes.
Can beard hair affect the skin underneath?
Yes, beard care is necessary to maintain the skin below healthy. Improper beard care can lead to skin issues, for instance, infection of the follicles. Other examples include fungal infections, ingrown hairs, and folliculitis. Infections are often confused for ‘beard acne’. However, it should be noted that ‘beard acne’ is not a condition and is most likely being mistaken for ingrown hairs.
Folliculitis vs ingrown hairs
Folliculitis is a condition that is characterized by multiple, consistent ingrown hairs. On the other hand, a single ingrown hair is a rare event.
The perfect beard line
Other beard treatments at Dérmica include IPL Beardline Hair Removal. With IPL phototherapy, we are able to permanently shape the beard line with laser precision. IPL treatments zap live hair roots. As a result, regrowth stops in the treated areas.
The belief that skin products stop working is a common misconception. Unless you have been storing your products in an inappropriate place, they should be effective until their expiry date. However, there are a few things that may have happened that led your skin type to change thereby explaining why your products don’t seem to work anymore.
For example, daily aging, climate change, and internal/external factors such as medications or changes in your environment, are things that will render your products less effective for the simple fact that they are no longer for you.
Does skin get used to products over time rendering them less effective?
Skin products do not stop working, but there is a plateau once we get accustomed to the skin that we have been able to achieve with products. This is because products can only reach a certain layer of the skin. Once they’ve done all their work on all the layers that they can reach, thats all they can do. Keep in mind that even though they have done their maximum, they will continue to carry those results for you.
“Skin doesn’t become immune to products.”
Skin becomes tolerant and learns how to work with products. For example, retinols. It is not uncommon to see peeling after the first application . However, applications after that may not yield the same extreme results because the product has done its job.
Careful not to overuse.
We recommend certain products such as retinol for short-term use only. Retinol helps your skin look fresh all the time, but it becomes very thinned out over long-term use.
Using strong products all the time leaves no room for improvement. Plus, when you overuse certain products, your skin becomes lazy! When the skin is not allowed to perform its natural functions by itself, it becomes dependent on products to carry out its daily functions. As a result, the moment you remove one of those products from your routine, your skin experiences problems.
Tips for optimal product use
Store your beauty products in a cool, dry place, and avoid direct sunlight.
Try storing eye creams and moisturizers in the butter compartment of your fridge. This will keep products cool, stable, and refreshing when applied!
When possible, choose products that come in pumps or tubes, they hold longer as they are not in contact with open air or skin.
If you’re using a potted product use a small spatula or cotton swab to remove products from the jar. The natural oils and bacteria found on our skin can alter or spoil products.
What treatments does dérmica offer to remove dark spots?
Located in Edmonton, Alberta, Dérmica offers a variety of treatments to remove dark spots on the face. Base level intervention would start with products. Professional products target pigment removal at a superficial level. Our favourite product to remove hyperpigmentation is the Retinol Resurfacing Serum. It helps even out the skin tone. If generalized uneven skin tone is your concern, look out for products containing lactic acid.
Facial coupled with AHA boost
All of our facials have reserved time for pore extraction. The extraction process clears away oil and debris for better absorption of Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHA). Our AHA boost contains those good brightening acids, for example glycolic and lactic acid. Boosts are mild peels.
Peels
Other treatments to remove dark spots on the face include chemical peels. Glycolic acid is used to remove sun spots, acne scars, and other dark spots on the face. It penetrates the deepest into the skin because it has the smallest molecules.
Picture your skin as a bunch of scales held together by glue. Glycolic acid can reach deep levels to dissolve the glue thereby separating the layers. Over the next few days following your treatment, loose layers will start to crunch up and dry up. You may start to see flaking in some areas. As a result, your body makes new cells thereby pushing pigment up to the surface. Follow up peels are required to push the pigmentation all the way out. All things considered they are a great choice for all skin types.
Photofacials
Lastly, photofacials are our maximum treatment to remove dark spots from the face. They are considered “maximum level” treatments because they target hyperpigmentation with laser precision.
IPL Phototherapy is able to isolate specific ranges of light. Each range of light within the spectrum penetrates to a different level in the skin.
More control
Our ACLARA photofacial targets melanin cells with no effect on the superficial tissues. This results in maximum effect with very little downtime.
The meaning of the SPF number in sunscreen has caused much confusion. SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor. The number afterwards comes from a formula. The formula is used to calculate the number of minutes your skin be safely exposed to the sun before it starts to have negative effects.
Think of it as a stop watch that starts when you step out into the sun. The higher the number, the more minutes it buys you.
Protection increases slightly as the SPF number goes higher by allowing less percentage of rays to hit your skin.
Do SPF 15 and 50 have the same ingredients?
SPF 50s will have more zinc. The higher the zinc the more protection, but also the whiter the cast that it leaves. In fact, you can buy a zinc stick, which is like a chapstick for areas where you’re highly exposed.
Keep in mind that sunscreens do not always protect you from burning. It will definitely extend the amount of time you can safely be in the sun before it starts causing damage. However, for some skin types will burn anyway with or without sunscreen.
Physical vs Chemical?
Physical sunscreens are made of minerals and act like sunglasses for your skin. Zinc is a mineral. It is a finely ground rock that has been finely crushed that sits on the skin. When you apply it, it binds to your skin at the surface and provides a “shade” over your skin.
Physical sunscreen is the best type of sunscreen to use over your face or for sensitive skin types. On the other hand, they tend to be a little greasier because they do not absorb into the skin. Also, they can leave a white cast depending on how high your SPF is.
Chemical sunscreens absorb into the skin right away, they are not greasy and do not leave a white cast. however, they are actually going into your skin and interacting on a cellular level, coating each cell. While they have benefits, the fact that they are going into your cells leaves room for adverse reactions.
New day sunscreens
Some product lines have become more sophisticated with their formulations and are able to dilute the white cast without losing efficacy or adding ingredients.
Now that you know the meaning of the SPF number in sunscreen, which SPF is right for you?
