Pollution is inescapable when you live in a city. Exhausts from the thousands of cars on the road, the smog, the dust from construction sites, metro constructions and even the smoke from the people who smoke cigarettes, everything is affecting your skin without your knowledge.
These particles are so small that they penetrate the pores on the skin and cause cellular level damage. This causes your skin to lose elasticity and more importantly its firmness.
- How pollution affects your skin…
- How to neutralise the effects of pollution
- Step # 2 Neutralise the free-radicals with antioxidants
- Step # 3 Create a shield on your skin
How pollution affects your skin…
The sun isn’t the only cause for skin problems. Pollution and being exposed to it, causes many adverse effects on your skin. It causes uneven skin tone,
accelerates the ageing process and causes the skin to lose firmness by breaking down collagen and the lipid layer found in skin.
How to neutralise the effects of pollution
Step # 1 Cleanse your skin
Washing your face with a cleanser every morning and night is an absolute must! In the morning, use a milder cleanser to prep your skin for your makeup. In the night, you need a deeper cleanser that works to remove the pollutants, oil, dirt and makeup. The idea is to get all residual debris without vigorous scrubbing and irritating the skin.
Step # 2 Neutralise the free-radicals with antioxidants
Brace yourself for some scienc-y stuff. When micro-particles from air pollution enter and settle in your skin, they create free-radicals. These free radicals are highly unstable and they have an unpaired electron. They try to steal an electron from healthy skin cells, there by injuring the healthy cell. This is like causing holes to appear in the collagen layer of your skin cells, causing it lose firmness.
So neutralise the free-radicals by layering your skin with antioxidants. They are full of free electrons and can donate them to free-radicals, thereby neutralising them. Antioxidants are the best way to prevent skin damage from free-radicals. Layer your skin with a serum or cream which has antioxidants in morning and night, before bed.
Step # 3 Create a shield on your skin
Sunscreen has become synonymous to skin care. You have to use a sunscreen not only in the sunnier months, but also in winter. You can thank pollution for this. How, you ask? Pollution causes the Ozone layer to deplete, which allows more and more UV rays to reach the Earth. So even on cold, rainy days, even though there is no sun, the UV rays are still around. Hence, the sunscreen.
So proper cleansing, sunscreen and antioxidants will help you preserve your skin, and prevent it from looking older than it is!
Written by Harshitha Prabhakar on Sep 28, 2018