E92: 4 rules we live by to help our skin well-age

Hello hello welcome back to the podcast Emilie here as usual, better known as the meta fairy and today we are talking about four different rules that we live by in order to age and a really well and healthy way, so let’s just touch base on why we’re calling this well aging.

There’s no such thing as anti aging as soon as we hit 27-28 years old, which is pretty young in my opinion, but biology, our natural collagen and elastin production really drops down. So you’re actually starting to age we hit like a peak and then at 28 – 29 we start to slowly age. so there’s no such thing as anti aging things. so this is why I’m saying more rules that we live by so that we can Well ah, okay, let’s just like praise for the well aging things. it’s good to age, it’s a good thing but we might well as unhealthy. So these are four different rules for things that we live by that. Me, either never skip or that we really follow to the core.

So number one, we ever never, ever, ever wash our faces with a bar. So, so this may sound like a really silly thing, but let me explain to you how our bar soap can really throw off your skin and make it age really quickly. So a lot of people will kind of take the first step, which is the cleansing step. They’ll take a really cheap cleanser or they’ll just use a bar of soap to cleanse their face and then they’ll spend their money on, you know, high quality serums and creams and things. Okay, what the problem with that is that it’s the first step. The number one product that you’re going to use on your face all the time it’s going to be a cleanser. And if the cleanser is going to be really harsh, you’re going to throw off your entire moisture barriers health which will give you lots of dehydration and irritation. And if you’re using that every single day and you wonder why you have irritated and dehydrated skin and you can’t fix it, it’s because you’re using something that’s too hard for your skin.

So coming back to the bar of soap does a lot you know, in the world of skincare there’s a lot of things going on, but a bar soap and this is not something that I agree with. It’s because when you look at the formation or the formula bar of soap, there’s binders that hold the bar of soap together. Those are called binders and they naturally have a more alkaline pH. And the problem with using a bar so even if they say that it’s moisturizing bar soap binders will be naturally left onto the skin when you use a bar of soap. So you know that squeaky clean feeling? You’re always gonna get that regardless because the binders are left onto the skin. And because of that squeaky clean feeling because of that alkaline pH, your moisture barrier is going to be completely compromised. So your moisture barrier if you look here and for the people that are watching you, you’ve got this like tight barrier that protects your skin. When your moisture barrier is compromised. You’re going to have cracks in it and it’s going to let the moisture out and it won’t have the capacity to keep it in and the irritants are going to throw in there. they’re going to come in there and that’s going to make your skin completely irritated. flaky, not healthy. and you will have a hard time absorbing any other product: whether it’s a serum moisturizer, you’re gonna have a hard time because your skin’s gonna be irritated all the time.

So when I say that we never ever use a bar of soap to wash your faces, it’s because the binders are so aggressive on the skin that it can throw off your moisture barrier and you will have to repair it after even if you just use it a couple of times. Let’s say you’re you know you’re in a hotel and forgot your stuff which you will never find me in that situation. But you know, I will never use a bar of soap to wash my face, because it does throw off the health of the moisture barrier. With a healthy moisture barrier,
you just have all these other skin conditions that can be fixed when you’re not using something aggressive to wash your face with. So that’s one thing that we never, never never do. we do not use our soap bars to wash our faces number one.

Now number two, we never skip using a moisturizer whether it’s daytime or nighttime! These are so so so important steps guys in your regimen. I know sometimes we feel lazy as a Sunday morning, it’s raining outside you’re like “I’m gonna stay inside all day long.” The issue with that is that your skin always needs moisture. Always. Always always and I’m not just talking about putting water on your face (because your skin is not going to retain that!)
But it always needs a protective moisturizer on top whether it’s daytime or nighttime. So the skin naturally does not have the capacity to breathe. So when people say I’m just gonna let my skin breathe, I mean it’s not really possible because the skin does not have lungs. It can’t do that. So when you think of your skin, you have to think about your skin cells, they’re like little baby fish in the sea and they always need that water in order to thrive in order to be super healthy. So when you skip that step, whether it’s morning or night, you’re actually not doing your skin a favor because your skin cells are like “Where’s where’s my where’s my protective layer for the day? Where’s my repairing ingredients?” So, you’re not really doing yourself a favor. So for the 30 seconds it will take you to put on moisturizer, just do it and you’re just gonna be consistent in your home care and you’re not gonna have these random skin conditions that could pop up because you’re skipping putting on moisturizer. 

And you have to remember that the skin is really acting differently whether it’s the morning or the night. In the daytime your skin is going to be protective. So you want to feed it hydration, antioxidants and protection. So SPF. The reason why your skin is in that protective mode is because usually in the daytime we are in the environment, we’re outside, we get out of the house, even if you’re inside you’re still exposed to that, so you have all these environmental triggers that will trigger your skin. It will try to attack your skin, so your skin being an organ is going to be in protection mode and you can’t really change that! So that’s why I tell people keep your repairing serums for nighttime. Because that’s when your skin is really going to utilize those really impactful ingredients. So in the nighttime, reverse! Okay, I’ve done enough I don’t have external environmental triggers anymore. So let’s just take a chill pill and let’s repair the damage that I got during the daytime and that’s what your skin does. Your skin will naturally be in repair mode at night. So see it as it’s your opportunity to really treat and repair and comments get down for all the damage I got during the day. So coming back to me never skip putting on more stress or to let her skin breathe. We never do that because if you do that a couple of days in a row. It’s enough I don’t understand how to get but generally speaking it’s enough to throw off the hydration throw off the health of the moisture barrier just a little bit so that hey, I’m a little bit more red today. Or, Hey, I’m a little bit more dry. So oh my god, I got pimples because my skin is drier than usual. It’s blocking the signal from coming out like it’s like a little cycle that can just keep on going. So for someone that’s not in this industry, you might think it’s just one day there but to me, it throws off the consistency that you should have that will give you a well eating schedule. So you never skip moisturizer.

Now on to the more serious things. 

Stress. Stress is a huge, huge thing that can impact our health or mental health or physical health or well being. In order to well age, we utilize techniques to ensure that we manage our stress. So I know that sounds kind of like okay, but it’s true. When we are constantly you know in life we have situations that we’re always exposed to so you have traffic jams, you have arguments with your spouse, you have you know little things. Oh, I’m gonna be ready to be late to anything. All these things are so normal, those are called acute stress. So it’s like little, period of time where you have stress. I think you have to be aware of when your stress, cortisol levels go up. And when your cortisol levels go up, it kind of triggers your immune system to like, hey, there’s an attack or there’s something going on. I need to be alert. Okay. And that’s healthy. That’s actually good. Because it keeps your immune system on point. However, when you’re always constantly exposed to stress and you’re always stressed that chronic stress and chronic stress is horrible. The reason behind that is because when again are the levels they go up under stress, right? You’re in a fight or flight situation. And when you’re always constantly on that high of fight or flight, cortisol levels are super high, and your immune system gets used to that, right.

So it kind of because of that prolonged effect of having high cortisol levels, your inflammatory of your immune system will not so super calm example but I can tell you about. I see that a lot is when I have clients and they have these really stressful jobs. They have high paying jobs, they work hard and they retire. And then as soon as they retire, they feel That’s because they’ve been on that high for so long. And then okay, retired. so my triggers my stress triggers are now gone because obviously the job or the bosses or their colleagues was like the main chronic stress issue.

They retire the stress is gone, but their immune system is completely fucked. And it because it got used to that high level of stress and as soon as they were tired, no more stress. They get exposed to I don’t know, the flu or you know, there’s a trigger in their body, a strong disease that just shows up in their bodies, and the immune system can’t fight against it because they got used to this high level of alert. So that’s a common, huge example. So you know, stress will impact the way that you look. It will impact the way that you feel. And when you feel like crap all the time. It will show on your skin and your body’s just going to age and not prepare itself in the ultimate way.

And I’ll just give you a funny story. COVID hits back in 2020, I remember it was such a stressful time because no one really knew what was going on. So we have never been through a situation like that before. So it was really like okay, like what’s gonna happen? So, I remember my mom,  over maybe a couple of weeks of that COVID unknown period of time, she actually developed a bunch of small lines around her lips and she never ever had these lines around her lips. We know we like analyze it before we were like, like, remember like when COVID happened. Because you went through such a high period of stress, it kind up on your skin. You can’t eliminate completely that stress obviously, but managing it will help.

Unfortunately, we don’t live on an island on the ocean, we just have stressful lives. And we just need to find ways to make sure that we really not let it take over the health of our mind, body and soul, you know, all that jazz! So it’s important to have ways that you can actually manage your stress and for us, we are big people that love exercise, gym, pump up that dopamine with that good old exercise! We love that in our family. Some people like to read a book because they can get their minds out of the day to day. Others would like to journal and write things down. It just depends on you. It depends what you like. So find a way that is going to help you manage your stress. Another thing I’m going to say: socialize, guys, it’s so important to socialize today, especially with a bunch of people now work from home and are not exposed to seeing their colleagues and seeing other people and socializing and I’m sorry, but you cannot have a healthy life from your office desk at home all the time! It’s just not healthy. You need to socialize with people. And what’s fun about socializing is that you go have a drink or a cup of coffee with someone, a close friend, and then you guys get to bitch about life together! And it’s healthy to understand that other people are going through these things in life that you are also going through. So, you know, socialize, go out, go see your friends. It’s so important.

So anyways, just to say that you need to find a way to manage your stress and that’s something that we live by daily.

Now, the final one is a little silly, but don’t take life too seriously. Honestly, guys, so I have this model that I now use and I guess what comes with experience with life with you know, going through things in life that are like okay, like, chill. When I have something happening that is serious or not serious, I’m like, is it going to matter? In a year from now? 4 to 5 years from now? Is it going to impact my life? If this thing is still happening a year from now? And most of the time the answer is no. Most of the time it’s no. So now, I’m a lot smarter. I guess that comes with time, but I don’t freak out. I do not freak out with the little things that happen in life, at work, whatever. And I guess that comes with training. With, you know, having more experience with having a business or things like that. We’re talking about business here. But I always ask myself this question. And most of the time the answer is no. And then I just have to respond to whatever’s going on. I don’t react anymore to the things that happen. I tried to make sure to respond instead of reacting, because reacting is just you know, emotional feelings. That’s just temporary. It’s not gonna help me solve the solution that I need to do. So I always respond and not react. And I always make sure that I answer that question: is it going to impact my life in a year? And if it does, we’ll take it more seriously. If not, we just have to do the steps in order to you know, do whatever we need to do. But yeah, we don’t take life so seriously, life is so freakin short guys. You need to enjoy your time on this planet and you know, go ahead and get that serum!

It’s just such a better life with a serum. But yeah, anyways, that’s all I have for you today. I hope you guys are enjoying this new experience that you can watch, that you can listen to this nice crisp sound! Love recording in the podcast studio, it’s awesome. It’s not too far from my house, just 10minutes. Shout out to Ergon. Awesome, awesome studio to record podcasts. If you guys want to connect with us make sure that you reach us on social @metaesthetique or if you want to have a longer conversation go ahead and shoot us an email hello@themetaesthetique.com. We love your emails. And until next time, we will chat very soon and let me know what are your ways that you if you have any silly rules that you live by? Let me know on Instagram on the podcast reel, let me know what you guys do to you know have a well-aging life. All right, we’ll chat soon!