You might expect your skin to be looking better than usual during the Pandemic and lockdown period – theoretically it should be; no more polluted daily commute and/or school run to contend with – this also saves time in the morning so an extra hour or 2 of sleep is up for grabs. When taking your daily exercise, the roads are less busy and therefore less polluted, and women are seemingly wearing less (if any) makeup during lockdown. All of these things should equate to fresh and glowy complexions, so why does this not seem to be the case??
There are a few factors; stress obviously features high on the inhibitor list – home-schooling, money worries, loneliness, tension at home and general fear of the entire situation are incredibly stressful things to deal with, most of which are new stressors to us and our coping mechanisms are inexperienced to deal with them.
Stress always has a negative effect on our sleep patterns but the lack of stimulation during the day is also causing many of us to have crazy vivid dreams! (One night, I dreamt that my 8-year-old gave birth to a little baby girl that she had decided to call Natalie – I nearly cried with relief when I woke up and realised it wasn’t real! (About the baby btw, not the name!)) The dream phase of sleep is when we are in a light sleep, but it is the slow wave (deepest) sleep, when the brain waves slow down, that is needed for cell regeneration i.e Beauty Sleep.
It is also highly likely that your beauty product selection could do with some tweaking during lockdown too. Strong cleansers can be switched to much gentler ones, and exfoliants can be amped up a bit to give our sluggish systems a helping hand.
However, the biggest enemies to our skin, could be the very things that are keeping us sane – our screens. Working from home (or even just being at home all day) has seen our screen time jump up considerably. Blue-light from our screens has been proven to promote stressors in the skin which cause photo-aging damage and inflammation. But fear not! This is not a doom and gloom story! Of all the afore mentioned pandemic-problems for skin, this is one is the easiest to treat!
The beauty industry has long-known about the negative effects blue light has on the skin (and the brain) and have developed many products accordingly, but I’m going to keep things simple and recommend just 3 products from 1 range to tackle these issues: The range, is clinical favourite, Priori. The products are a cream, an eye cream and an exfoliant!
The cream or ‘crème’ as they like to call it, is the Priori DNA Intense Recovery Crème; this is a powerful day and/or night product, which feels incredibly soothing and moisturising as you apply it. The ‘magic’ ingredient is Soliberine (also known as Butterfly Bush) a super powerful antioxidant that neutralises HEV blue light. It also contains 3 different, natural enzymes to help prevent and protect against further damage, creating an invisible film of protection between your skin and the blue light (and pollution). This crème is such a joy to use, it is rich and luxurious, yet feels so light and melts into the skin effortlessly.
The eye cream in question is the Priori DNA Eye Recovery Crème (I told you I was keeping this one simple -even the product names are straight-forward!). The eye creme is just as powerful as the face crème – packed with the same DNA repair complex and superstar Soliberine, the eye crème also contains day-friendly, skin-smoothing retinol. This is the first retinol infused eye-cream to ever agree with me! It is so light and gentle, again forming the protective film between your skin and the blue light and pollution but doesn’t cause any of the dryness or peeling usually associated with retinol (it certainly didn’t for me!). Screen time takes its toll on the delicate skin around the eyes much more so than anywhere else on the face – especially if you tend to squint at the screen, and the eyes tend to be an area of concern for so many of us, so this eye crème really couldn’t have come along at a better time!
Last on the list are the Priori LCA Smart Peel Pads, now, these little pads do not stick to the calming, soothing theme of the last 2 products! If you have any little blemishes (or if, like me, you have picked at your face) you will feel these! The surface of each pad is textured, benefitting you with the physical exfoliating effects as well as the chemical. The chemical being perfectly distributed AHAs to minimise the appearance of pores, lighten brown spots, clear breakouts and of course smooth fine lines and wrinkles, as well as added Glycerine to prevent dryness. They are amazing! I use on my face (including my hairline – is anyone else getting breakouts in the hairline during quarantine?!) and décolleté every night, if there is anything left on the pad, I also rub it over my knees and/or heels too!
Last, last! I know I said 3 products, but SPF should go without say – please use it every day, even when indoors, the UV rays still penetrate through your windows! Protect your beautiful face and catch your vitamin D via your arms or legs instead!!
And that’s it! 3 (slash 4) easy steps to help you walk out of quarantine glowing! X
PRIORI® DNA Intense Recovery Crème– £94
PRIORI® DNA Eye Recovery Crème– £76.00
PRIORI® LCA Smart Peel Pads – £52.00