You can feel the effects of stress almost instantly. You may become more irritable even at the most mundane aggressors, experience a heaviness that makes motivation difficult to muster, or have a sort of cloudy feeling in your mind. The thing about stress is that it isn’t just limited to our mental health. Science tells us it can impact our bodies from the inside out, affect our long-term wellness, and can even rear its head when it comes to skin health and luminosity.
At KNESKO, we believe in the ritual of daily self-care to soothe and nourish your mind, body, and skin. By taking this time for yourself, you’ll feel better on the inside and love what you see in the mirror, too.
How to Calm Down Stressed Skin
There are a few different types of stressors that can impact the health and quality of your skin. Let’s explore each so we can better understand how to de-stress skin from the inside out.
1. Address Life Stressors
Everyday stressors, like tending to your home, dealing with work, or navigating relationships, can take a toll on your body and skin. Stress can spike cortisol levels, trigger an increase in sebum production, interfere with sleep, and make it more difficult for our bodies to heal.
To combat life stressors, reassess your current task load and take intention moments for yourself. According to a 2021 study published in Dermatology Practical & Conceptual Journal, practices like meditation and mind-body connection can benefit your skin by addressing stress.
Every KNESKO product is charged with healing Reiki energy from our founder Lejla Cas, a celebrity esthetician and Reiki master. The products also encourage you to engage that mind-body connection by repeating a mantra every time you use them, such as, “I am Connected” with our Diamond Radiance collection, or “I honor my intuition” with the Gold Repair line.
Pro Tip: Using a gemstone roller in your skincare routine can help you slow down your ritual. You can also use our 3R skincare philosophy as you pamper yourself: "Relax the mind, rebalance the spirit, rejuvenate the skin.” Learn how to use a roller with your collagen mask.
2. Protect From Environmental Stress
There are three primary culprits when it comes to environmental stressors: sun, oxidation, and pollution.
The sun’s strong UV rays trigger inflammation and collagen degradation, leading to burned skin, premature aging, and potentially skin cancer. Meanwhile, free radicals floating around in the environment damage the proteins and lipids on our skin, accelerating aging, too. Pollution can do more of the same, with the addition of creating a congested and dull complexion.
Here’s how to combat environmental stress:
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Apply Sunscreen Daily: Sunscreen is your skin’s best defense against the sun. Opt for SPF 30 or higher and wear it every day, rain or shine.
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Use Antioxidants: Antioxidants shield against free radicals. Our Rose Quartz Antioxidant collection is “packed with antioxidants to proactively defend against free-radicals and bolster skin,” notes Sydney Eger, lead esthetician and director of education for KNESKO.
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Slather Soothing Skincare: To instantly calm stressed skin, use soothing ingredients. Eger recommends KNESKO’s Green Jade Calm collection, “which helps de-stress the skin by improving barrier support.” Its Advanced Calming Complex also soothes while defending against environmental aggressors.
Related: What Does an Antioxidant Face Mask Do?
3. Reduce Inflammaging (Chronic Inflammation)
Inflammaging is a persistent, low-grade, silent stressor that affects our bodies from the inside out. It quickly becomes something we live with everyday simply because we're unaware of just how much it’s impacting our mind, body, and skin. Things like infections, an unhealthy diet high in processed foods, sugar, and trans fats, and not moving our bodies in healthy ways can all cause inflammaging.
This low-level activation of the body's immune system can lead to feeling lackluster or even ill, a dull and unhealthy complexion, and long-term health issues such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and arthritis, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Tending to our minds and bodies is one of the best ways to combat these effects. That means nourishing yourself with healthy, whole foods and taking up exercise that you enjoy, like yoga, pilates, walks, weight lifting, or HIIT.
Whatever type of stress you’re experiencing, it’s always helpful to slow down and become intentional about the way you care for your body from the inside out. Reassess and eliminate life-related stressors as best as you can, protect your skin from the environment, and invest in a self-care ritual you look forward to every day.
Read Next: The Ultimate Food Guide to Fighting Chronic Inflammation
