Skincare Archives | Vine Vera

Posted on October 15, 2024 October 3, 2024

How to Get the Most Out of Your Nighttime Skincare Routine

It’s no secret that a good nighttime skincare routine can do so much for your complexion. After all, evenings are when your skin switches from defense mode to recovery mode, repairing the damage that it has encountered over the course of the day. If your PM skincare routine is tailored to support these processes, your skin will look and feel much healthier, not to mention more youthful, overall.

However, simply picking a few skincare products at random and slapping them onto your face each evening isn’t going to do much. Instead, if you want to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your nighttime skincare routine, follow these pro tips from Vine Vera:

Always Start With Clean Skin

By the end of the day, your skin will be covered with a whole host of impurities. Sure, you may not be able to see them, but they’re there! From your own sebum, sweat, and dead skin cells to the dirt, pollutants, bacteria, and more that you’ve picked up from the environment around you, all of these impurities will form a layer of grime over your skin’s surface. Attempt to apply any skincare products over the top of this and they won’t be able to penetrate your skin. This will make your entire skincare routine pretty much ineffective!

This is why clean skin is a must if you want to fully reap the rewards of the products you apply. Of course, use a cleanser that’s suitable for your skin type. If you have dry skin, pick a moisturizing formula, like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser. Meanwhile, if you have oily skin, you may need something a little more powerful, like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Cleanser.

If your skin is particularly dirty, you may want to try double cleansing. Start with an oil-based cleanser and then follow up with a water-based cleanser. This will remove even more of the impurities from your skin, giving you a true blank canvas to apply your skincare products too.

Include a Toner

Do you really need to include a toner in your nighttime skincare routine? No, but if you do, you’ll be able to get so much more out of your entire routine.

How? Because a good toner will be designed to rebalance the pH level on your skin’s surface. This is something that’s commonly disrupted after cleansing. Even if your pH falls just slightly off-kilter, your skin won’t be quite as receptive to the products that you apply. However, get things back into balance and your skin cells will feel much more capable of putting your skincare products to good use.

Of course, some toners offer additional benefits too. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Toner, for example, is wonderfully hydrating. It’s great at soothing the feeling of inflammation too. Even better, it contains an array of antioxidants, including resveratrol – Vine Vera’s signature ingredient!

Power Up With Vitamins and Antioxidants

There are several skincare ingredients that are extremely beneficial when applied at night. However, vitamins and antioxidants sit at the top of the list.

Remember how we mentioned that your skin cells work hard each night to repair the appearance of daily damage? Vitamins and antioxidants help with this in a big way. If you want to keep your skin looking smooth, firm, bright, and youthful, incorporate as many vitamins and antioxidants into your evening routine as possible!

How can you do this? Ideally, make sure that every step of your skincare routine contains a few vitamins and antioxidants. The cleansers and toner that we’ve featured above meet the mark perfectly.

However, antioxidant serums are also a great way to squeeze even more of these compounds into your routine. Serums are capable of carrying dense concentrations of ingredients, making them ideal for powering up your entire routine.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Serum does this beautifully. Not only is vitamin C a vitamin, but it boasts powerful antioxidant properties too. The same can be said of vitamins A and E, both of which can also be found in this serum. They’re joined by a blend of plant oils, each one also loaded with a ton of antioxidants!

Give Your Skin the Extra Hydration It Needs

Let’s now talk about something else that your skin needs plenty of at night; moisture. Water is an essential part of every single process that occurs in your skin. With your skin cells being so busy each night, they go through a large amount of water.

This, coupled with the fact that skin barrier function slows down in the evenings, making transepidermal water loss speed up, means that it’s very common for the skin to slowly dehydrate as the night wears on. Not only will this have you waking up to a dull and rough complexion but it will also interfere with how your skincare products function. Sure, you may be giving your skin all the best ingredients. However, unless your skin cells also have enough moisture, they won’t be able to put those ingredients to good use.

To counter this, ramp up hydration each night. Just like when it comes to vitamins and antioxidants, make sure that every stage of your skincare routine contains hydrating ingredients. You can also give your skin an extra boost of hydration by applying a hydrating serum, just like the Vine Vera Chianti Revival Serum. It’s packed with humectants – ingredients that bind moisture to the skin for an immediately plumper and fuller finish.

Invest in a Dedicated Nighttime Moisturizer

One of the most important steps in any skincare routine is to moisturize. Why is this so crucial? Because not only does a moisturizer provide an extra layer of hydration but it also forms a moisture barrier over your skin’s surface. This prevents moisture from evaporating away, which, as you now know, occurs at a greater rate at night.

While just about any moisturizer will provide these benefits to a certain extent, a dedicated nighttime moisturizer is well worth investing in. Why? Because of how your skin’s functions change in the evening. While daytime moisturizers should be focused on preventing the appearance of environmental damage, a nighttime moisturizer will keep your skin cells feeling supported as they go about repairing this damage. If you want to see the best results from your evening skincare routine, a dedicated nighttime moisturizer will be undeniably helpful.

If you don’t already have one, check out the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Night Cream. It’s a rich moisturizer that will lavish your skin with all that it needs to feel its very best at night, ensuring that you wake up with a radiant glow!

Spend Time on Your Eye Area

Often, morning skincare routines are pretty rushed. However, in the evenings, people tend to have more time to spend on their skin, meaning that they can easily add in a few extra steps.

One of these should be to focus on your eye area. If you often wake up with puffy eyes or dark circles, then this becomes even more important! Giving your eye area the attention that it needs before you go to bed will leave this area looking smoother, softer, and even come morning.

What does this extra attention involve? This depends on what your eye area needs. If you’re dealing with the appearance of crow’s feet and other eye wrinkles, try the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet High-Potency Eye Cream. Meanwhile, if you’re trying to banish the look of dark circles and puffiness, the Resveratrol Eye Collection Age Defying Eye Serum will help with this!

Extend Your Nighttime Skincare Routine Down to Your Neck and Chest

Of course, it’s not just your eye area that should be receiving extra care at night. Your neck and your chest need this too. Although these areas may technically be part of the body rather than the face, the thin skin that covers your neck and chest has more in common with the skin on your face than the skin on your body.

As a result, your neck and chest should be included in your nighttime skincare routine. This means that all of the products that you apply to your face, from your cleanser and toner to your serums and moisturizer, should be extended down to your neck and chest too.

With that said, if your neck and chest are already showing signs of aging, you may want to invest in a dedicated neck and chest product. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Tightening Neck & Chest Mask, for example, will leave your skin looking so much smoother and firmer. You don’t need to use it every night but giving this area an extra boost every once in a while will make a huge difference.

Pamper With an Overnight Face Mask

Want to supercharge your nighttime skincare routine even more? Try adding in an overnight face mask. Unlike other face masks, which are removed after 10-15 minutes, overnight masks feature a no-rinse formula. They’re left on the skin all night. This gives the ingredients within plenty of time to sink into your skin. This means that they’re often far more effective than a regular face mask.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto Silk Mask is a fantastic one to try. It’s full of hydrating ingredients, which, as you know, your skin desperately needs at night. It’s also loaded with a long list of superfruit extracts. Between bilberry, mangosteen, goji berry, pomegranate, and more, you’ll be treating your skin to some of the most potent plant-derived antioxidants around!

Creating the Perfect Nighttime Skincare Routine With Vine Vera

It’s worth spending some time putting together the perfect nighttime routine for your skin. Get this right and you’ll be able to meet all of your skin’s overnight needs, enabling your skin cells to function to their full potential. Be consistent with your routine, as well as the tips that we’ve shared above, and it won’t be long before you start to see some big improvements in your complexion!

Click here to enhance your nighttime skincare routine with more bestselling products from Vine Vera.

Posted on September 30, 2024 September 24, 2024

Why You Should Add a Vitamin C Serum to Your Skincare Routine

Whether you read about it in a magazine or see it splashed across your favorite beauty blogs, vitamin C is an ingredient that you’ll come across time and time again. It’s a skincare classic – no skincare routine would be complete without containing at least one form of this beloved antioxidant.

Ask any beauty expert about the best way to add vitamin C to your skincare routine and they’ll all say the same thing; with a serum. Why? Read on as Vine Vera explains!

Why Use Vitamin C in the First Place?

If you’re new to skincare, you’re probably wondering why there’s so much hype surrounding vitamin C serums. Here are just a few of the benefits that this superstar ingredient has to offer:

Reduces the Appearance of Fine Lines and Wrinkles

One of the main reasons why vitamin C is so loved is due to how it effectively reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Clinical studies confirm this while also showing how vitamin C has a tightening effect on skin that looks saggy. Whether this wrinkling and sagging is due to aging, oxidative damage, or weight loss, regular use of vitamin C will give the skin a much firmer finish.

Lightens the Look of Dark Spots

Hyperpigmentation is another skin concern that often arises with age. It’s usually down to sun damage, with excess UV exposure causing the skin to over-produce melanin, its pigment. Vitamin C, when applied topically, will lighten the look of discolored skin cells to give the skin a more even appearance.

Soothes the Feeling of Inflammation

Inflammation can cause a number of skin problems. From redness and puffiness to acne and psoriasis, it doesn’t spell good news for your skin. Inflammation will also speed up the skin aging process, accelerating the rate at which you develop fine lines and wrinkles. With vitamin C, however, you won’t need to worry about this quite so much. Research shows that vitamin C is excellent at reducing the feeling of inflammation, leaving the skin feeling calmer and better balanced.

Gives the Skin a Bright Glow

Wish that your skin would glow a little brighter? Vitamin C could help. Not only does this ingredient target the appearance of discoloration, but it will also give your entire complexion a more radiant glow.

Leaves the Skin Feeling Better Protected From UV Rays

You’re probably already aware of the dangers that UV rays can pose to your skin. However, did you know that excessive UV exposure also depletes the levels of vitamin C in your skin? Using a vitamin C serum will not only help to keep those levels topped up but, at the same time, when combined with a sunscreen, it can also keep your skin feeling better protected from UV damage.

Helps With Hydration

When it comes to hydrating skincare ingredients, vitamin C is often ignored. However, several studies have shown that vitamin C can have a very hydrating effect on the complexion. The use of vitamin C slows down transepidermal water loss, which is the rate at which the skin loses moisture to evaporation. This, in turn, keeps the skin looking fuller, plumper, and dewier.

But Why a Serum?

With vitamin C being such a popular ingredient, you’ll notice that it’s used in a variety of different skincare products. Cleansers, toners, essences, moisturizers – vitamin C-infused formulas of all of these are usually easy to find.

So, if that’s the case, why does everybody recommend a serum?

The answer is simple. When using an ingredient like vitamin C, you want to encourage it to dive down as far as possible when penetrating the different layers of your complexion. The deeper it goes, the more of a visible impact it will have, and the consistency of a serum allows it to do just that.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t incorporate vitamin C into other stages of your skincare routine. Layering the ingredient can be very effective too! However, if you’re only planning on using one vitamin C product, a serum would be the best way to go.

High-Performance Vitamin C Serums to Try

Ready to add a vitamin C serum to your skincare routine? Here are a few from Vine Vera that are well worth trying:

The Resveratrol Vitamin C Serum

Although you’ll find vitamin C in several Vine Vera serums, the Resveratrol Vitamin C Serum is one of the best ways to pamper your skin with this antioxidant. Why? Because it brings together two different forms of vitamin C; tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate and ascorbyl palmitate. Both are revered for their gentle, non-irritating nature, making them suitable for all skin types.

One thing to know about vitamin C is that it works even more effectively when it’s combined with other antioxidants. That’s exactly what this serum does. In addition to vitamin C, it also contains resveratrol, vitamin E, and vitamin A, plus a few antioxidant-rich plant oils.

The Chianti Revival Serum

Hoping that vitamin C will help to lighten the look of your dark spots? With the Vine Vera Chianti Revival Serum, those hopes will soon become reality!

This serum makes use of ascorbic acid – the purest form of vitamin C. It also features kojic acid and licorice root extract, both of which are known for how they target the appearance of hyperpigmentation. You’ll find several other noteworthy ingredients in this formula too, including sodium hyaluronate, peptides, seaweed extract, ceramides, and resveratrol.

The Resveratrol Pinot Noir Longevity Serum

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Pinot Noir Longevity Serum showcases the hydrating properties of vitamin C. It’s a great serum to use if you’re hoping to bump up your skin’s moisture levels while also enjoying the other benefits offered by vitamin C.

In this formula, vitamin C is joined by several hydrating heroes, including sodium hyaluronate and glycerin. You’ll find lactic acid in this blend too. Not only does it have moisture-binding properties, but it will also work to clear away any dullness and dryness from your complexion.

The Resveratrol Eye Collection Age Defying Eye Serum

While the serums above can all be safely used on the delicate skin around your eyes, the Resveratrol Eye Collection Age Defying Eye Serum has been specifically designed for this area.

This serum harnesses vitamin C’s ability to lighten the look of discoloration by combining it with other ingredients that do the same. Between licorice root extract, peptides, green tea extract, and sodium hyaluronate, your eye area will quickly look brighter and more radiant.

Adding a Vitamin C Serum to Your Skincare Routine

Now that you’ve chosen a vitamin C serum, let’s take a look at how to incorporate it into your skincare routine in a way that enables you to soak up maximum benefits:

Start With Clean Skin

If you want your vitamin C serum to truly work its magic, it should always be applied to freshly cleansed skin. If you don’t cleanse your skin first, your serum won’t be able to pass through the layer of impurities that sits on your skin’s surface. This means that it won’t be able to actually reach your skin cells.

With that said, you don’t want to apply your serum to irritated skin either. So, make sure that the cleanser you use is a gentle one. A formula like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser would be a good choice as this cleanser moisturizes and soothes the complexion while it cleanses.

Alternatively, try the Resveratrol Vitamin C Cleanser to add yet another layer of the antioxidant to your skincare routine.

Rebalance With a Toner

Vitamin C works best if the pH level on the surface of your skin is in balance. Unfortunately, cleansing can sometimes throw this off. This is why following your cleanser with a toner is usually a good idea.

The Resveratrol Cabernet Toner from Vine Vera is ideal for applying before turning to vitamin C. In addition to balancing your complexion, it will also soothe it with a blend of chamomile, aloe vera, and resveratrol.

Apply Your Vitamin C Serum

Now that your skin is prepped, you can go ahead and apply your chosen vitamin C serum. If you plan on using multiple serums in your skincare routine, take some time to assess their consistency. Ideally, you want to start off with the thinnest and lightest serum before working your way up to the thickest. With that said, avoid using more than three serums in your routine as you don’t want to end up unintentionally diluting the vitamin C, along with its effects.

Lock it in With a Moisturizer

When you apply a serum to your skin, you expect it to stay there. However, in reality, it won’t be long before that serum begins to evaporate away. This is why it’s important to lock that serum in with a moisturizer.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Moisturizer will beautifully complement any vitamin C serum. As you can tell from its name, this cream boasts some vitamin C of its own too. It’s also loaded with other antioxidants to enhance the visible effects of the vitamin C.

Sun Protection

Last but not least, don’t forget about sun protection during the day. With vitamin C capable of leaving the skin feeling even more protected from sun damage, pairing it with a sunscreen will really help to maintain your complexion’s youthful radiance.

Ideally, you want to be using a sunscreen that offers up a few additional antioxidants, just like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Replenishing Moisture Cream SPF 30. This cream not only functions as a sunscreen but also happens to be a great moisturizer. It will simplify your morning skincare routine while also leaving your skin feeling touchably soft and smooth.

Summary

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to add a vitamin C serum to your skincare routine. It can help with just about every aspect of your complexion! So long as you choose the right serum and properly integrate it into your skincare routine, it won’t be long before you’re reaping all of the rewards that this incredible antioxidant has to offer.

Click here to shop for more bestselling skincare products from Vine Vera.

Posted on September 15, 2024 September 5, 2024

6 Unexpected Benefits of Using Rose Water on Your Face

Rose water is an ingredient that has been trending lately, with everyone from beauty bloggers to dermatologists raving about its skin-loving properties. If you’ve been wondering whether or not your skincare routine could do with a splash of rose water, read on as Vine Vera shares six unexpected benefits provided by this much-loved ingredient.

1) A Boost of Hydration

One of the reasons why there’s so much hype surrounding rose water is because of its hydrating properties. After all, hydration is something that each and every person out there needs. Drinking eight glasses of water a day is usually not enough to keep the skin fully hydrated too. This makes topical hydration, in the form of rose water and other such ingredients, important.

With that said, simply spritzing your skin with rose water isn’t going to be enough to make a significant difference to your skin’s hydration levels. Sure, it may give your skin a dewy finish for a few minutes. However, it won’t be long before the rose water that you’ve applied evaporates away.

If you want to ensure hydration for hours, rose water should always be followed up with a moisturizer. Ideally, look for one that contains ingredients that are complementary to rose water. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk is a lightweight moisturizer that’s packed with hydrating ingredients, including sodium hyaluronate, algae extract, and collagen. Apply this cream to your face immediately after spritzing on some rose water and it will trap that rose water in to ensure longer-lasting moisture, while also providing some extra moisture of its own.

2) Packed With Antioxidants

Numerous studies confirm that rose water boasts powerful antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are beneficial for a few reasons. They help to keep the skin feeling safe from environmental stress. They also neutralize the appearance of free radical damage, which is usually caused by environmental factors. Either way, with antioxidants in your skincare routine, you’ll be able to stave off the visible signs of aging. At the same time, you’ll be keeping your skin looking revitalized and healthy.

One thing to know about antioxidants is that they work best when combined with other antioxidants. So, don’t rely on rose water alone if you’re hoping to experience the benefits that we’ve just mentioned.

Instead, combine rose water with other antioxidants. You’ll find plenty in the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Serum, with everything from two forms of vitamin C to resveratrol to vitamin A featured in this formula. Give your skin a swipe with some rose water, follow up with this serum, and then top it all off with a moisturizer and you’ll be beautifully glowing!

3) Soothes the Feeling of Inflammation

The way in which rose water can reduce the feeling of inflammation probably isn’t an unexpected benefit since this is one of the main reasons why people have started adding the ingredient to their skincare routines. However, it’s a benefit that shouldn’t be ignored because it can be a true game-changer for those with sensitivities.

Whether you’re dealing with eczema, rosacea, acne, or any other inflammatory skin condition, rose water has been proven to help calm the complexion, leaving the skin feeling soothed and happy.

To benefit from these properties even more, try mixing a small amount of rose water with a moisturizer that also lowers the feeling of inflammation. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Moisture Day Cream, for example, contains shea butter, aloe vera, vitamin E, and resveratrol. All of these ingredients are known for how they make the skin feel less irritated and inflamed. Add in some rose water and you’ll enhance this feeling while also giving your skin a fresher-looking finish.

4) Could Help to Reduce the Appearance of Acne

Those with acne-prone skin are always looking for the next best thing when it comes to battling breakouts. So, when rose water was rumored to do just that, it’s hardly surprising that so many people started clamoring for the ingredient.

When it comes down to it – yes, rose water could potentially help to reduce the appearance of acne. Although there aren’t yet any clinical studies available to confirm this, it makes sense theoretically. With rose water known for how it clears the complexion of certain types of bacteria, along with the fact that bacteria trigger breakouts, the connection between the two is easy to see.

However, again, don’t rely on rose water alone to clear up your acne-prone complexion. By all means, incorporate it into a wider plan for targeting the appearance of breakouts. However, don’t pin all of your hopes on this one ingredient. Acne needs a multi-pronged approach. You need to keep your skin clean, exfoliated, hydrated, and soothed. Rose water will only play a small part in that.

5) Brightens the Complexion

If your skin has been looking drab and dull lately, rose water could help to perk your complexion up, restoring the look of vitality. How? Again, it all comes down to its antioxidant content, as well as its hydrating capabilities. The hydration leaves the skin looking plumper and more radiant while the antioxidants even out the skin tone and lighten the appearance of discoloration.

If you’re hoping to see these results, try using rose water as a toner after cleansing. Of course, make sure that you’re using a gentle cleanser that won’t aggravate your skin. This would only counter the effects of the rose water. Instead, a formula like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser would be perfect. This sulfate-free formula will cleanse your skin without leaving your skin barrier feeling damaged. This means that instead of having to spend time picking up the pieces, the rose water that you apply afterward will be able to immediately work its magic when it comes to adding radiance to your complexion!

6) A Mood Enhancer

Rose water is a popular ingredient in aromatherapy. Since it’s made by distilling or steeping rose petals, it usually boasts the same floral aroma that roses are famous for.

This gorgeous scent is known for its calming, mood-enhancing effect. This isn’t just an old wives tale either – studies confirm that rose aromatherapy can be a useful tool when dealing with depression and anxiety.

When using rose water on your skin, you’ll be able to soak up that sweet floral scent. It will uplift your mood, leaving you feeling happier and less stressed. This, in turn, will also give your skin a brighter glow!

Other Rose-Derived Ingredients Offer Similar Benefits

While rose water may currently be in the spotlight, there’s a bounty of other skincare ingredients that can be derived from roses too. Not only do these offer the same benefits as rose water but, in some cases, those properties are often enhanced.

Take rose stem cells, for example. Although they’re not as hydrating as rose water, they outshine the ingredient when it comes to antioxidant content. If you’re hoping to use rose water as a way to reduce the appearance of aging and environmental damage, rose stem cells would be a more effective alternative. You’ll find them in the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Plump & Correct Treatment. This solution impresses immediately thanks to its ability to smooth away the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in a matter of seconds.

Rose fruit extract is another ingredient that you’ll sometimes see in skincare products. This is an extract that comes from rose hips. These are the fruits that are left behind after a rose has finished flowering. Its visible effects are very similar to that of rose water. However, many would say that the extract intensifies the benefits that are experienced. This is why we’ve used rose fruit extract instead of rose water in the Vine Vera Intensive Shea Body Butter. With this moisturizer, your entire body will be able to benefit from all that roses provide!

Drinking Rose Water

While the topical benefits of rose water are what most people are interested in, the ingredient can be consumed too. Do this and you could see everything from an improved digestive system to increased hydration levels.

Rose water tea is a popular way to consume the ingredient, or you could also try rose petal tea. Either way, make sure that the rose water or rose petals that you use are safe for human consumption. So long as they are, there aren’t any known risks that come from ingesting rose water, unless you happen to be allergic to roses! In this case, you would be best off avoiding topical application of rose-derived ingredients too.

Rose Water Can Be Used on Your Hair Too

Often, when an ingredient becomes popular in the skincare sphere, it doesn’t take long for that same ingredient to move over to the hair care world too. That’s exactly what has happened with rose water, with its hair-boosting benefits becoming increasingly recognized.

What can rose water do for your hair? It’s great for refreshing your locks. Try rinsing some rose water (mixed with regular water) through your strands after washing and conditioning them. It will feel like you’ve just conditioned your hair again, with that gorgeous floral scent being an added bonus!

You could also try adding a small amount of rose water to your shampoo or conditioner before using it. This can feel particularly beneficial if you suffer from dandruff or an itchy scalp. Alternatively, decant some into a spray bottle and use it as a hair mist.

Summary

There’s no denying the many benefits offered by rose water, making it understandable why this ingredient has been in the spotlight lately! However, while this may be the case, it’s important not to view it as a miracle ingredient. Yes, it can help with many visible skin (and hair!) concerns. However, it will only do so when integrated into a larger skincare routine – one that has been created specifically for your skin type and skin concerns.

Click here to enhance your skincare routine with more bestselling products from Vine Vera.

Posted on August 30, 2024 August 19, 2024

How to Incorporate Antioxidants into Your Skincare Routine

Antioxidants are, without a doubt, some of the best skincare ingredients around. They can help with such a wide variety of visible skin concerns, with numerous studies proving the capabilities that antioxidants have when it comes to improving the complexion.

While there’s no denying that topical antioxidants can be a game-changer, knowing how to incorporate them into a skincare routine in the best way possible can be tricky. Fortunately, this is where Vine Vera can help! Read on for some of our top tips on ensuring that your skin is receiving the full spectrum of potential benefits that antioxidants provide.

But First…What Exactly Are Antioxidants?

Antioxidants are compounds that protect the skin from the appearance of free radical damage. What are free radicals? Unstable and highly reactive molecules that your skin is constantly coming into contact with. Not only are they produced in the body itself, but exposure to the sun, pollution, smoke, chemicals, medication, and more can also trigger free radical damage.

Antioxidants come from many natural sources. The human body produces some itself but they can also be obtained from plants, or synthetically produced. The latter two are where the antioxidants in skincare products come from.

What Do Antioxidants Do for the Skin?

It’s all very well saying that antioxidants neutralize the appearance of free radical damage, but what does this actually mean for your skin?

To start with, the oxidative stress that free radicals cause in the skin is largely responsible for skin aging. Using antioxidants will help to hinder the onset of the visible signs of skin aging. This means that the appearance of everything from fine lines and wrinkles to sagging skin and age spots can be prevented to quite an extent with antioxidants. They’ll also help your skin to feel more elastic and bouncy, giving it a more youthful finish.

Antioxidants are loved for how they improve the tone and texture of the complexion too. If your skin has been looking dull and discolored, antioxidants can turn this around, promoting the look of brightness. They’ll help with skin that feels rough too, giving it a much smoother and silkier feel.

Many antioxidants are also capable of lowering the feeling of inflammation. Not only does this help with the look of redness but it’s also very useful when dealing with inflammatory skin conditions, such as acne and psoriasis.

The Best Antioxidants to Use on Your Skin

One of the reasons why exploring the world of antioxidants can seem a little daunting is the fact that there are so many different antioxidants out there. New antioxidant compounds are constantly being discovered too, making your options seem endless.

When it comes down to it, all antioxidants will be beneficial for your skin. However, it’s certainly true that some are more powerful than others. If you want to ensure that your skincare routine contains the most potent antioxidants available, here are some to keep an eye out for:

Vitamin C – one of the most-loved antioxidants around due to its multi-tasking abilities
Resveratrol – Vine Vera’s signature ingredient! You’ll find this antioxidant in all of our products, with numerous studies confirming its tremendous capabilities
Vitamin A – particularly beneficial when it comes to reducing the appearance of aging
Vitamin E – leaves skin cells feeling safe and supported when faced with environmental aggressors
EGCG – a very powerful antioxidant that comes from green tea
Beta-carotene – particularly good at keeping the skin feeling protected from sun damage

Incorporating Antioxidants Into Your Skincare Routine

Now that you know why you should be using antioxidants, as well as which antioxidants to use, let’s take a closer look at how to incorporate these potent ingredients into your skincare routine:

Start With an Antioxidant-Infused Cleanser

Ideally, the majority of the skincare products that you use should contain antioxidants, and this begins with your cleanser. Sure, a cleanser only remains on your skin for 30 seconds or so, meaning that the antioxidants within aren’t going to have enough time to tackle the appearance of aging. However, you’ll still benefit from how they soothe the feeling of inflammation and calm the complexion. The act of cleansing can often act against this, making antioxidants very useful.

That’s why you’ll find antioxidants included in all Vine Vera cleansers. In addition to resveratrol, they also contain a blend of other potent compounds. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Cleanser, for instance, is packed with vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E, and a blend of antioxidant-rich plant extracts. Meanwhile, the Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser contains extracts from lavender, chamomile, aloe vera, calendula, and more. They’re all brimming with antioxidants that your skin will love!

Follow Up With an Antioxidant Toner

A toner is a great product to use after a cleanser, no matter your skin type. While toners were originally a product favored by those with oily skin, there are now so many different formulas available, and some of them are full of antioxidants!

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Toner is one. This toner is primarily designed to hydrate the skin – something that’s particularly needed after cleansing. However, many of its hydrating ingredients, such as aloe vera leaf juice and cucumber fruit extract, also happen to be fantastic sources of antioxidants. Many don’t realize that aloe vera actually holds everything from beta-carotene to vitamin C to vitamin E, all of which, as mentioned earlier, are some of the best antioxidants around!

Layer on a Couple of Antioxidant Serums

Serums are your opportunity to really bestow your skin with antioxidants. These silky solutions are capable of being infused with high concentrations of antioxidant compounds. The fact that serums don’t contain any heavy ingredients enables them to carry those antioxidants down into the deeper layers of your complexion. This is where they’ll really be able to work their magic when it comes to improving the appearance of your skin!

At Vine Vera, we have several antioxidant serums to choose from. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Serum is a classic. Dermatologists recommend vitamin C serums to just about everyone, and this formula really stands out from the crowd. Why? Because not only does it boast two different forms of vitamin C, plus resveratrol, but it also contains vitamin A, vitamin E, and a blend of antioxidant-rich plant oils.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Chianti Revival Serum is another antioxidant powerhouse. Again, you’ll find vitamins A, C, and E in this formula, as well as resveratrol. However, it’s also infused with a number of plant extracts that contain antioxidants that are renowned for how they even out the skin tone and brighten the complexion. From licorice root extract to kojic acid, this is a serum that will quickly have your skin glowing!

Finish With an Antioxidant-Rich Moisturizer

The final step in your daily skincare routine should be to moisturize, and this is another stage that antioxidants should be introduced to. Although these antioxidants won’t penetrate in the same way that those in a serum would, the surface of your skin needs plenty of antioxidants too!

If you’d like to add even more vitamin C to your skincare routine, the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Moisturizer would be the way to go. It contains vitamin C along with plant extracts that provide their own form of vitamin C. Plus, you’ll also find everything from white tea extract to gotu kola extract in this cream. All of these are full of skin-loving antioxidant compounds.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Night Cream would be another great choice. This cream is loved for how it keeps the skin feeling so smooth and supple. This is thanks to a blend of shea butter, vitamin E, aloe vera, polypeptides, and potent plant extracts. These ingredients all boast incredible antioxidant properties.

Face Masks Can Be a Great Source of Antioxidants Too!

Let’s not forget about face masks! Although they’re not a product that you use on a daily basis, they’re still a great way to bump up your skin’s antioxidant content each week. In fact, face masks can often contain a greater concentration of antioxidants than the products that you use daily.

This is especially true of the Vine Vera Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk Mask. Its impressive ingredient list features so many superfood extracts. As you probably, superfoods are referred to as such because of their antioxidant content. While your body will benefit from you eating more of these foods, applying them to your skin in extract form is a good way for your skin to directly soak up all of those powerful compounds. Even better, this is a leave-on mask. Unlike other face masks that need to be rinsed off after 10 minutes or so, the antioxidants in this one will have so much more time to absorb into your skin.

Exfoliating Will Encourage Better Absorption

Want to really enhance how your skin absorbs antioxidants? Try exfoliating before using all of your antioxidant-rich products. This will clear away any debris from within your pores. As a result, your skincare products will find it much easier to reach your skin cells. This will make those products so much more effective.

While you’re at it, you might as well also use an exfoliator that contains antioxidants too! The Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Peeling, for example, is bursting with vitamin C and resveratrol. It offers an array of other antioxidant-laden plant extracts too, including green tea, bamboo, and coconut. Plus, vitamin C’s best friends, vitamins A and E, can be found in this peel as well!

Transforming Your Complexion With Antioxidants

If antioxidants don’t already heavily feature in your skincare routine, it’s time to change that. These potent compounds can make such a big difference to your complexion. Even if you aren’t yet experiencing any visible skin concerns, antioxidants will help to maintain that healthy feeling that your skin is currently sporting. They’re amazing multi-taskers that everyone would benefit from!

Click here to browse more antioxidant-rich skincare products from Vine Vera.

Posted on August 15, 2024 August 6, 2024

The Ultimate Guide to a Minimalist Skincare Routine

Skinimalism is currently trending in a big way, with this concept being all about embracing a minimalist skincare routine. It’s a step away from the long and complex K-beauty-inspired routines that people were previously obsessed with, and it’s a trend that dermatologists wholeheartedly back.

Skeptical about whether or not a minimalist routine would do your skin any good? Read on as Vine Vera explains the benefits that a simplified skincare routine could offer, along with tips on how to create your very own.

Why Go Minimalist With Your Skincare Routine?

You may be aware of the study that was carried out back in 2017 that found that a more advanced multi-step routine can sometimes be more beneficial than a simplified routine, particularly when dealing with wrinkles and dehydration. If this is the case, then why would you want to go minimalist with your routine?

Well, firstly, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to skincare. Sure, a longer routine may better suit some people but, for others, a minimalist routine provides all that the skin needs, especially if you’re strategic when putting your routine together. Plus, with a minimalist routine, you’ll also experience all of the following benefits:

A Focus on What Your Skin Actually Needs

Ever bought a product because of clever marketing or captivating packaging? When keeping your skincare routine minimalist, this doesn’t happen. Instead, you’ll need to focus on understanding exactly what your skin actually needs so that you’re able to cater to this with as few products as possible. This can really help to increase your knowledge of your skin, enabling you to take even better care of it in the future.

Less Product Buildup

While there’s no denying the benefit of a long skincare routine for some, others often end up with too much product buildup when they layer multiple products over their skin. This is most common among those with oily skin but it can happen to all skin types. The result of all of this buildup is congestion and clogged pores. This can quickly lead to inflammation, breakouts, and more. With a minimalist skincare routine, you’ll be applying far fewer products, saving you from product buildup.

Fewer Irritants for Your Skin to Deal With

With each skincare product you apply, you run the risk of exposing your skin to irritants. This means that the fewer products you use, the fewer irritants there’ll be to affect your skin. This is one of the reasons why minimalist routines have been embraced by those with sensitive skin. It can often be difficult to pinpoint the specific ingredients/products that have caused irritation, but this helps to do away with that problem.

Faster to Carry Out

Sometimes, at the end of a long day, the last thing you want to do is carry out your skincare routine, especially if this involves applying 10-15 products to your face. A minimalist skincare routine, on the other hand, takes far less time. With just three or so products to apply, you’ll be able to quickly whizz through your routine. Not only will this make your routine more convenient but it will also mean that you’re far more likely to stick to it consistently!

Cost-Effective

Another downside to a long skincare routine is how much money it can cost. Good skincare products often don’t come cheap! When your routine consists of 10-15 products, costs can really add up. Go with a minimalist skincare routine and you won’t need so many products, meaning that you won’t need to spend so much. Your bank account will thank you!

How to Create a Minimalist Skincare Routine

If longer skincare routines are all you know, then you’re probably wondering how to get started with a minimalist routine. Which products should you be using and which ones do you no longer need? Here’s everything you need to know:

Gather Together the Three Basics

Although you don’t need many products for a minimalist skincare routine, there are three essentials that you should be using each day:

A Cleanser

First and foremost, a cleanser. Keeping your skin clean is imperative if you want to maintain a healthy complexion. Allow any dirt, dead skin, excess sebum, or other impurities to linger on your skin and you’ll only end up with a variety of skin problems. Plus, your other skincare products won’t be able to work properly as all of those other substances will block them from penetrating your skin.

When choosing a cleanser, keep your skin type in mind. If you have dry or sensitive skin, you’ll need a gentle and moisturizing cleanser, just like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser. This sulfate-free formula makes use of coconut-derived cleansing agents that have a conditioning effect on the complexion. The botanical extracts in this cleanser, such as aloe vera, lavender, chamomile, and calendula, will calm the feeling of irritation and inflammation while plant oils provide some extra hydration.

Meanwhile, if you have oily or combination skin, you’ll need a cleanser that’s slightly more powerful. This is where the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Cleanser comes in. It will provide a thorough cleanse, particularly since it also contains a small amount of lactic acid. You’ll notice licorice root extract in this formula too. It’s a great ingredient to use if you’re struggling with the appearance of acne marks or other forms of hyperpigmentation.

A Moisturizer

The next must-have product in a minimalist skincare routine is a moisturizer. This is vital no matter your skin type. A moisturizer will not only provide your skin with some extra hydration but it will also create a seal over your skin’s surface to lock that moisture in and prevent it from evaporating away.

Again, the moisturizer that you use should be suitable for your skin type. If you have dry or sensitive skin, you’ll need a relatively thick moisturizer. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Moisture Day Cream would be a good choice for the mornings. With shea butter, vitamins, resveratrol, and several antioxidants, it will keep your skin feeling soft and supple throughout the day. In the evenings, turn to the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Night Cream. Again, it contains shea butter but also boasts a long list of botanical extracts. It’ll have you waking up to a radiant glow!

What about those of you who have oily or combination skin? You need to be careful with the moisturizer you choose as anything too heavy will only clog up your pores and lead to acne breakouts. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Moisturizer is a lightweight cream that will hydrate your skin without weighing it down.

Sunscreen

The third essential in a minimalist skincare routine is sunscreen. In fact, many would argue that this is the most important product in any skincare routine. After all, the sun causes up to 80% of the visible signs of aging on the face, meaning wrinkles, dark spots, and sagging skin. Skin cancer is another major issue that accompanies sun exposure. If you want to keep your skin looking its best, sun protection is a must.

There are plenty of sunscreens out there to choose from but, if you’re hoping to keep your routine as minimalist as possible, you may want to consider an SPF moisturizer. This way, in the mornings, you won’t need to use your regular moisturizer as your SPF moisturizer will do the job of this as well as a sunscreen.

Vine Vera’s Resveratrol Cabernet Replenishing Moisture Cream SPF 30 is one such product. It contains a relatively simple ingredient list, combining its UV-blocking agents with aloe vera, green tea extract, resveratrol, and vitamins. Thanks to the addition of glycerin, it will also quickly hydrate and plump up the look of your skin, immediately giving it a smoother finish.

The SunDefense Daily Moisturizer SPF 30 from the Bird Nest Collection is another option. It contains a unique ingredient called swiftlet nest extract. It’s renowned for its micro and macro nutrients that give it the ability to reduce the appearance of aging. It also has moisturizing properties and will leave your skin feeling more elastic.

Consider Your Skin’s Additional Needs

Now that you have your three essential products gathered together, you could potentially stop there and leave that as your minimalist routine. However, if you’re struggling with any specific visible skin concerns, you may want to add in an extra product that will help you to target these.

For example, if you’ve been noticing the appearance of crow’s feet, puffiness, or dark circles around your eyes, the Resveratrol Eye Collection Age Defying Eye Serum from Vine Vera might be a good addition to your routine. It’s full of potent ingredients that will leave your eye area looking smoother and brighter.

Many also choose to include a vitamin C serum, like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Serum, in their routines. Why? Because vitamin C is such a multipurpose ingredient. It helps to smooth away the look of wrinkles, tighten the appearance of sagging skin, fade the visibility of dark spots, boost skin hydration levels, and more!

Adjust When Needed

Once you’ve put your minimalist skincare routine together, it’s important to not get complacent. Don’t forget that your skin’s needs are almost constantly changing. In order to give your skin all that it needs, your routine needs to reflect this.

Whether it may be due to the changing seasons, fluctuating hormonal levels, the onset of aging, or anything else, keep a close eye on your skin so that you can keep adjusting your routine when needed.

Would a Minimalist Skincare Routine Be Right For You?

If your skincare routine currently features several different steps and products yet you’re still not seeing the results you were hoping for, it could be time to swap to a more minimalist routine. The same applies to anyone with skin that’s easily irritated – a minimalist routine could quickly help you to cut back on those sensitivities.

Even if you don’t fall under one of those categories, a minimalist routine could still be worth trying. It’s a great way to give your skin a break every once in a while, after which you can always return to a more complex routine if needed.

Click here to browse Vine Vera’s bestselling products for more skincare routine inspiration!

Posted on July 30, 2024 July 23, 2024

How Antibiotics Really Affect Your Skin Health

If you’ve ever needed to take antibiotics, chances are that your focus at the time was recovering from whatever illness you may have been suffering from. Very few people pay attention to the potential side effects that antibiotics can cause, leaving them surprised when they notice that their medication has had an impact on their skin.

Read on as Vine Vera explains how antibiotics can affect the health of your skin, along with what you can do to keep your complexion as happy as possible while you recover.

What Exactly Are Antibiotics?

Antibiotics are medications that contain an antimicrobial substance. This allows them to fight against bacteria, which is why antibiotics are a go-to when it comes to both preventing and treating bacterial infections. They’re capable of both inhibiting the growth of bacteria as well as killing bacteria, and they usually start working as soon as they have bee ingested/applied.

Antibiotics come in different forms. They tend to be most commonly taken as pills but oral antibiotics also consist of capsules and liquids. There are topical antibiotics too, which are designed to be applied to the skin.

How Do Antibiotics Affect Skin Health?

It goes without saying that topical antibiotics that have been prescribed for a skin problem will, hopefully, help your complexion. However, if you’re taking oral antibiotics for any other reason, here are a few skin-related side effects to be aware of:

Sun Sensitivity

One of the most common side effects that people notice in their skin when taking antibiotics is sun sensitivity. Also known as photosensitivity, this essentially means that your skin will be temporarily more vulnerable to sun damage.

This is why many doctors advise that their patients avoid prolonged sun exposure when taking antibiotics. A broad-spectrum sunscreen is also a must, even on cloudy days. The symptoms of photosensitivity don’t only occur after you’ve been out in direct sunlight – UV rays trigger them too and these are pretty much always around!

If you don’t yet have a go-to sunscreen, check out the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Replenishing Moisture Cream SPF 30. It’s an SPF moisturizer, meaning that it’s much lighter and silkier-feeling than a regular sunscreen. Plus, in addition to protecting your complexion from the effects of photosensitivity, it will also provide a number of other benefits thanks to its wide range of antioxidants.

As much as possible, try to take additional sun protection measures too. Wear long and loose clothing to shield your body, along with sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat to provide extra protection to your face.

Inflammation and Swelling

Due to how antibiotics cause the skin to be more sensitive to the sun, inflammation and swelling is common. It can sometimes feel as though your skin has been sunburnt, even though it may not look any different.

What can you do if this happens? Seek out skincare products designed to soothe the feeling of inflammation, just like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Toner. One of the main ingredients in this toner is aloe vera leaf juice. You’re likely already familiar with how this ingredient is usually recommended when someone is suffering from a sunburn. This is down to how it has been proven to effectively calm the feeling of inflammation and reduce the look of swelling.

This toner also contains a few other ingredients that your skin will love if its feeling inflamed. Between cucumber fruit extract, chamomile extract, and resveratrol, it will soon have your complexion restored.

Discoloration

Another side effect that can come from the photosensitivity caused by antibiotics is discoloration. This is due to how the skin produces extra melanin when exposed to the sun. Melanin not only gives your skin its color but also serves as a form of natural protection against UV rays.

However, if your skin is photosensitive, then this means that it’s likely to go overboard when it comes to melanin production. It will end up producing too much, and there’ll be no space for all of that extra pigment to be evenly dispersed through your skin. Instead, it will clump up under certain areas, causing those parts of your skin to look darker in color.

Taking plenty of sun protection measures will go a long way in helping to prevent this. However, if you’ve noticed that your complexion seems to be discoloring, it would be worth focusing your skincare routine on rectifying this. Ignore the problem and it will only get worse!

What can you do about the appearance of discoloration? Add the Vine Vera Resveratrol Chianti Revival Serum to your skincare routine. This serum is packed with ingredients that are capable of lightening the look of dark spots and discoloration. From licorice root extract to kojic acid to vitamin C, it will quickly have your skin looking more even. Even better, seaweed extract and sodium hyaluronate will plump up the look of your skin while resveratrol, vitamin A, green tea extract, and peptides will help to counter the appearance of aging.

Itching

Sometimes, the skin can react to antibiotics by feeling very itchy. When this happens, it can be tempting to scratch at your skin in an attempt to provide some relief. However, all this will do is damage your skin, causing micro-tears and inflammation.

Instead, if your skin is feeling itchy, you need to be very gentle with it. Pat it or tap it instead of scratching it, or try holding a cold compress against the itchy areas. Cold temperatures are great for lowering inflammation, which is what’s causing the itching.

A cool bath can help too, especially if you add some colloidal oatmeal in. Once you’re out of the bath, quickly slather your body in a rich cream, such as the Vine Vera Intensive Shea Body Butter. This will form a seal over your skin’s surface, preventing moisture from evaporating away, which would have only left you feeling itchier! Plus, the shea butter in this cream is full of fatty acids that will work to leave your skin feeling calmer.

Dry Patches

Antibiotics can sometimes affect the skin’s sebum production. Sebum is the natural oil produced by your skin. It keeps the surface of your skin lubricated and conditioned. Without enough sebum, dryness occurs, and dehydration usually follows.

If your antibiotics have caused sebum production to decline, then you’ll need to compensate for this. How? By using a rich cream to create an additional layer over your skin’s surface – similar to what your sebum should be doing.

Again, shea butter and aloe vera are two ingredients that can really help. You’ll find them both in the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Moisture Day Cream, as well as the Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Night Cream. Applying these ingredients to your skin morning and night will quickly counter the feeling of dryness.

If dehydration is an issue too, apply a hydrating serum before following up with a moisturizer. The Vine Vera Chianti Skin Restoring Capsules will leave your skin feeling deeply hydrated and touchably soft!

Rashes

In rare cases, allergic reactions to antibiotics can occur. One of the symptoms of this will be rashes on your skin.

If the rashes are mild and you aren’t experiencing any other symptoms, then following the advice above for dryness will help. Keep your skin moisturized and this will help to soothe the look of your rashes.

On the other hand, if you’re also experiencing other severe reactions, such as blistering, breathing problems, and major swelling, you’ll need to seek medical attention immediately.

Changes in Gut Microbiota

Did you know that skin health is directly linked to gut health? The more diverse your gut microbiome is, the healthier your skin, as well as the rest of you, will be.

Unfortunately, research shows that antibiotics can severely reduce the diversity and balance of gut flora. Multiple studies confirm this, although how long these effects last is still up in the air. Some research points to six months while other studies show that it can take a year or more for the gut to regain a healthy balance after antibiotics have been taken. Whichever the case may be, this means that your skin could be in turmoil for all of this time.

How can you keep your gut feeling healthy while taking antibiotics? That’s where prebiotics and probiotics come in. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help to restore balance in the gut. Meanwhile, prebiotics essentially feed that good bacteria, encouraging it to thrive.

While supplements for both are available, there are also plenty of foods that contain them. Probiotics can be found in fermented foods, such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, and kimchi. Prebiotics, on the other hand, can be found in foods like whole grains, garlic, bananas, apples, and artichokes. These foods will boost the health of your gut at any time but become even more important when antibiotics are interfering with how your gut functions.

Limiting Your Use of Antibiotics

Not only can the use of antibiotics be detrimental to your skin but they can also easily lead to antibiotic resistance, a problem that many are now facing. As a result, it would be worth avoiding the use of antibiotics whenever possible, taking steps to ensure that you won’t need them.

How? Well, just like with anything, prevention is better than cure. If you’re able to prevent a bacterial infection from developing, then you won’t need to take antibiotics. This is where good hygiene can be a game-changer. Simple things like washing your hands properly throughout the day and using a hand sanitizer can make a huge difference.

It’s also worth being aware of when antibiotics aren’t going to be helpful. They’re good for treating bacterial infections but won’t do anything for viral infections, such as Covid-19 or the flu. Even with minor bacterial infections, such as a sinus infection, antibiotics aren’t always needed. These problems will often clear up on their own with the right care, so don’t be quick to jump to antibiotics straight away.

Summary

As much as you may try to avoid taking them, antibiotics are sometimes necessary. If you end up needing a course of antibiotics for whatever reason, recognizing the effects that they could have on your skin and taking steps to prevent this will help to keep your complexion healthy and happy while you’re recovering.

Click here to browse more bestselling skincare products from Vine Vera.

Posted on July 15, 2024 July 4, 2024

The Ultimate Guide to Vine Vera: Our Top Skincare Picks

New to Vine Vera?

Keep reading for the ultimate guide to our skincare brand – you’ll soon find out what we’re all about, along with which of our products you should try first!

What’s Vine Vera All About?

Vine Vera has been around for a while – since 2012, to be precise. Right from the start, our products have centered around a very special ingredient; resveratrol.

Resveratrol is an extremely potent antioxidant. This means that it’s able to fight the appearance of free radical damage and keep the skin looking youthful and untarnished. Whether you’re struggling with wrinkles, dark spots, roughness, dullness, or anything else, resveratrol can help to get your complexion where you want it to be.

With resveratrol being our signature ingredient, it has been used in every Vine Vera product. It’s always combined with other powerful ingredients that not only enhance the visible effects provided by resveratrol but also offer up incredible benefits of their own. These unique concoctions are what give Vine Vera products their immense ability to transform the complexion in a way that other skincare products struggle to do.

Tempted to give Vine Vera a try? Here are some products to start with:

Elevate Your Basics: The Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser

Although cleansing is one of the most important steps of any skincare routine, finding a good cleanser is something that poses a challenge to many. Why? Because not only do you need to find a cleanser that’s suitable for your skin type but you also have to make sure that the formula you pick doesn’t contain any harsh surfactants, like sulfates. There’s no denying that sulfates are efficient cleansing agents but they do the job a little too well. In addition to removing dirt and other impurities, they also strip away the skin’s natural protective barrier. This can lead to more problems in the long run.

With the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser, you can avoid all of those issues. To start with, it’s a cleanser that can be used on all skin types. Its coconut-derived surfactants are powerful enough to work well on oily skin yet are moisturizing enough to not irritate dry or sensitive skin, even when used twice a day. It also contains amino acids to strengthen the feel of the skin barrier, rather than weaken it in the way that other cleansers do, along with niacinamide to even out the skin tone. Of course, as with all Vine Vera products, resveratrol is in this one too!

Delve Deeper: The Resveratrol Vitamin C Peeling

Another skincare essential that everybody should be doing is exfoliating. An exfoliator works on a deeper level of the complexion than a cleanser. It clears out blockages from within the pores, which not only leaves the skin looking brighter and more radiant but also prevents the appearance of acne breakouts.

When choosing an exfoliator, you have two main options; physical or chemical. Physical exfoliants are abrasive and physically dislodge dead skin cells from the skin while chemical exfoliants dissolve the gluey link that keeps dead cells attached to the skin. This allows them to fall away.

Both types of exfoliators work well, making it difficult to choose between them. However, with the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Peeling, you won’t need to. This unique exfoliator makes use of both physical and chemical exfoliants in the form of bamboo powder and mandelic acid. Both are very gentle, which is why they’re not used on their own in other products. When combined, however, they’re able to thoroughly exfoliate the skin without causing any damage!

Rediscover the Feeling of Magic: The Resveratrol Cabernet 60-Second Eye Solution

Remember when you were a child and were wowed by the concept of magic? Give the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet 60-Second Eye Solution a try and you’ll feel that way once again!

This one-of-a-kind serum has been designed to tackle visible skin concerns around the eyes. Whether you’re struggling with the appearance of fine lines, puffiness, dark circles, or sagging, this solution can help. Between sodium hyaluronate, which immediately plumps up the look of the skin to give it a fuller finish, and acetyl hexapeptide-8, which smooths away the visibility of creases and puffiness, it’s an unstoppable force that will leave your eye area looking fresh and revived.

This product’s advanced applicator makes it even easier to use. Rather than first applying the product to your fingertips, which always leads to a small amount of waste since the skin on the fingers soaks up some of the product, this one can be applied directly to your eye area. You then sweep the applicator across your skin to distribute the product before allowing it to soak in and work its magic. In just 60 seconds, your eye area will look beautifully healthy once again!

Power Up Your Routine: The Resveratrol Chianti Revival Serum

Serums are a great way to add some potency to a skincare routine. Most serums are filled with high concentrations of active ingredients. This enables them to really make a big difference to the complexion.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Chianti Revival Serum is no exception. In fact, this one surpasses many of the other serums out there, simply because it’s able to do so much!

It starts by hydrating the skin with a blend of sodium hyaluronate, seaweed extract, soluble collagen, and peptides. These ingredients will immediately leave the skin looking fuller and brighter.

Speaking of brightness…the kojic acid in this formula has been proven to lighten and brighten the visibility of discoloration. If your skin is peppered with dark spots, this serum will soon make that hyperpigmentation look much less noticeable. Ascorbic acid, which is the purest form of vitamin C, helps with this too, as do the antioxidants from green tea extract and resveratrol.

Pamper and Protect: The Resveratrol Cabernet Replenishing Moisture Cream SPF 30

When it comes to the various factors that damage the skin, the sun is the most dangerous. UV rays are responsible for up to 80% of the aging-related changes that take place in the skin. This means that a large portion of the wrinkles, dark spots, and sagging that you experience as you grow older could have been avoided with the use of sun protection. Of course, let’s not forget that UV ray also trigger the development of skin cancer. This can have long-lasting impacts on both your appearance as well as your overall health.

So, if this is the case, why don’t more people wear sunscreen? Two of the biggest reasons are a dislike of the sunscreen formulas available, plus the inconvenience involved in keeping the skin protected throughout the day.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Replenishing Moisture Cream SPF 30 does away with both of these problems. How? Firstly, by being more like a cream than a sunscreen. It has a lightweight texture that allows it to quickly disappear into the skin. It doesn’t leave a thick white cast behind that leaves the skin looking ghostly. Instead, its moisturizing compounds give the skin a more radiant and silky finish. This also makes reapplication easier. With this formula, you’ll actually look forward to reapplying your sunscreen because of how soft and smooth the skin feels after using this cream!

Mask Like You Mean It: The Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk Dissolving Pre Mask & The Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk Mask

Face masks are another great way to take your skincare routine to the next level. Although they shouldn’t be used daily, even a weekly masking session has the potential to transform the look of your skin. With Vine Vera’s face masks, results are seen even sooner.

How? Because in addition to creating a fantastic range of face masks, Vine Vera also has the very special Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk Dissolving Pre Mask. It’s a gentle exfoliator that has been designed to be used before the Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk Mask. By starting off with the pre-mask, you’ll be able to clear out your pores to ensure that the face mask you apply next is able to penetrate through without having to fight past any obstacles.

The mask itself is also unique in that it’s a leave-on mask. It’s full of hydrating ingredients and antioxidants, making it a product that most people choose to use in the evenings. With this two-step masking routine, you’ll wake up to skin that glows brighter than ever!

Travel Smart: The Resveratrol Cabernet Travel Kit

Have you ever struggled with your skincare routine when you’re traveling? Between a lack of space in luggage and airline restrictions dictating what you’re allowed to take on board with you, it can be difficult to keep the complexion in tip-top shape when you’re on the go.

This is something that the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Travel Kit aims to change. This duo consists of two Vine Vera moisturizers; the Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Moisture Day Cream and the Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Night Cream.

This pair will give your skin all of the love and care that it needs while you’re away. The day cream is silky and lightweight. It will hydrate your skin while also leaving it feeling shielded from environmental damage. Meanwhile, the night cream boasts a slightly richer formula. This helps to counter the increased moisture loss that takes place while you sleep.

Even better, the size of the packaging means that you’ll be able to keep this set with you even if you’re flying. With these moisturizers by your side, you’ll be able to ensure that your skin looks flawless no matter where you may be traveling to.

High-Quality Skincare From Vine Vera

If high-quality skincare is what you’re after, you won’t go wrong by shopping from Vine Vera. Our products are filled with some of the most powerful ingredients around, which is how they’re able to produce such dramatic visible results. Whether you want to upgrade your basic skincare routine or are looking for a way to add some potency to your regimen, you’ll no doubt find everything that you need in our resveratrol-infused formulas.

Click here to browse more bestselling skincare products from Vine Vera.

Posted on June 30, 2024 July 3, 2024

Exploring the Benefits of Hyaluronic Acid For Deep Hydration

Some skincare ingredients have a lot of buzz surrounding them, with hyaluronic acid being one. From dermatologists to beauty bloggers, it’s an ingredient that everybody recommends.

If you’ve never used hyaluronic acid before, you’re probably wondering what all of the fuss is about. Read on as Vine Vera explains more about how this much-loved ingredient could benefit your skin.

What Exactly is Hyaluronic Acid?

Hyaluronic acid is a compound that naturally occurs in the human body. It’s a slippery, gooey substance that provides lubrication. From your joints to your skin, it keeps everything flexible and working like a well-oiled machine. With that said, while hyaluronic acid can be found throughout the human body, around 50% of the body’s hyaluronic acid lives in the skin.

Sadly, the amount of hyaluronic acid that’s naturally produced in the body declines with age. Not only does this play a role in creaking joints, but it also impacts the skin in a few different ways…

Hyaluronic Acid vs Sodium Hyaluronate in Skincare

Before we get into the skin benefits of hyaluronic acid, it’s important to recognize that there are a few forms of the ingredient out there. Sodium hyaluronate is one of the most popular, so much so that many now favor it over hyaluronic acid.

What’s the difference? Hyaluronic acid consists of larger molecules than sodium hyaluronate. This inhibits its ability to penetrate the skin. It’s great for tackling surface-related issues but if you want the deeper layers of your complexion to benefit from the ingredient’s superstar properties, sodium hyaluronate is the way to go.

How Does Hyaluronic Acid Benefit the Skin?

It goes without saying that the lubrication provided by hyaluronic acid is vital for the skin. However, the ingredient offers several other benefits too:

Provides Deep Hydration

As you’re about to find out, hyaluronic acid can boost the complexion in a few different ways. However, its claim to fame lies in its hydrating properties.

Hyaluronic acid is a humectant. This means that it has the ability to bind moisture to the skin. It does this quickly too, resulting in almost instant hydration. While just about every product containing hyaluronic acid will do this, serums are reputed to be the best at quenching the skin.

You’ll find sodium hyaluronate in several Vine Vera serum formulations, with the Resveratrol Pinot Noir Longevity Serum being one of the most popular. This serum combines sodium hyaluronate with lactic acid and glycerin. Both are also hydrating humectants. You’ll also find vitamins A and C in this formula too. While they’re most commonly utilized as a way to brighten up the complexion and counter the appearance of aging, they help to regulate skin moisture levels too.

Reduces the Appearance of Wrinkles

When you give your skin cells the hydration that they need with hyaluronic acid, they’re able to function to their full potential. This makes them more capable of staving off the appearance of aging.

The way in which hyaluronic acid immediately plumps up the complexion helps with this too. It leaves the surface of the skin looking fuller, which smooths away the visibility of creases. Combine this with other ingredients that also work to diminish the appearance of wrinkles and you’ll have a smoother-looking face in no time!

This is exactly what the Resveratrol Cabernet Plump & Correct Treatment has been designed to do. It brings sodium hyaluronate together with other complexion-smoothing ingredients, including DMAE and acetyl hexapeptide-8. Just like hyaluronic acid, these ingredients work quickly, which is how this formula is able to instantly mitigate the look of wrinkles. Even better, thanks to the antioxidants in this solution, which come from the likes of resveratrol, vitamin A, cucumber extract, and rose stem cells, it will work to keep your skin looking youthful in the long run too!

Improves the Feeling of Skin Elasticity

Not only does hyaluronic acid help to make wrinkles look less noticeable, but it gives the skin a firmer and more elastic feel too. When the skin is dehydrated, it can look almost deflated. It starts to sag and lose its sense of firmness. However, give it the hydration that it needs with hyaluronic acid and it will once again feel tighter.

This is something that every area of skin can benefit from, yet the skin around the eyes can sometimes need it the most. The skin here is thinner and more delicate than the skin anywhere else on the face. This means that it’s more susceptible to losing its firmness and elasticity. Using eye care products that contain hyaluronic acid will soon have your eye area looking taut and youthful.

If you don’t yet have any eye care products featuring this superstar ingredient, check out the Resveratrol Eye Collection Age Defying Eye Serum from Vine Vera. Once again, sodium hyaluronate is joined by several other humectants, including aloe vera, peptides, and glycerin. These ingredients will give your eye area all of the hydration that it needs. Meanwhile, between the vitamins and the antioxidant-rich botanicals in this formula, you’ll also end up with skin that looks brighter and younger!

Lightens the Visibility of Hyperpigmentation

Some of the benefits of hyaluronic acid, such as the way in which it hydrates the skin, are well known. However, this ingredient offers some other advantages too, which many aren’t aware of…

One of these is its ability to lighten the visibility of hyperpigmentation. Research confirms these effects, with studies showing that hyaluronic acid can significantly decrease the look of excess skin pigmentation. However, low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid needs to be used. This means ingredients like sodium hyaluronate, rather than regular hyaluronic acid itself.

Again, if you want your skin to reap the rewards of this ingredient’s ability to lighten and brighten the look of discoloration, a serum is your best bet. Ideally, look for a formula that combines sodium hyaluronate with ingredients that also target the appearance of hyperpigmentation. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Chianti Revival Serum would be a great one to try. In addition to sodium hyaluronate, it also contains licorice root extract, vitamin C, vitamin A, kojic acid, green tea extract, and peptides. All of these ingredients are revered for how they brighten up the complexion, enabling this serum to even out the look of your skin in no time.

Gives the Skin a Brighter and More Radiant Finish

You already know how the extra hydration provided by hyaluronic acid helps to plump up the complexion. Well, one of the perks that follow on from this is that the skin usually then looks much brighter.

If your skin is sunken, it will naturally look duller. On the other hand, if your skin looks plump and full, it will be able to reflect light more efficiently. This is how hyaluronic acid is able to give the skin an instant glow!

One product that’s great for highlighting the radiance-enhancing properties of hyaluronic acid is the Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto Silk Mask. It’s a no-rinse mask, meaning that it’s left on the skin for much longer than a regular face mask. This gives the ingredients within more time to sink into the skin. In addition to sodium hyaluronate, this mask is also packed with superfruit extracts. From goji to mangosteen to pomegranate, each one is full of antioxidants that will do wonders for your complexion.

Soothes the Look of Redness and Inflammation

The skin can turn red and inflamed for a variety of reasons. For some people, it’s temporary, whereas those who have naturally sensitive skin have to deal with this for years.

Either way, if your skin is looking red and inflamed, you’ll need to be very careful with the skincare ingredients you use. Many can be too harsh for skin that’s feeling sensitive and will only make things worse. Instead, you should be prioritizing ingredients that have been proven to soothe the feeling of inflammation. This, in turn, will tackle the look of redness too.

The good news is that there are a few ingredients that are capable of doing this, one of which is hyaluronic acid. Again, for best results, look for products that combine it with other similar ingredients, meaning those that calm the feeling of inflammation while also hydrating the skin. You’ll find plenty of them in the Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk from Vine Vera. In this silky moisturizer, you’ll find sodium hyaluronate, algae extract, peptides, and soluble collagen. All of these ingredients feel deeply hydrating and soothing when applied to the skin. Use this cream regularly and your skin won’t feel irritated and inflamed quite so easily anymore!

Leaves the Skin Barrier Feeling Fortified

We’ve already talked about how hyaluronic acid can leave the skin looking plumper. This is down to the moisture that it binds to the skin’s surface.

Well, in addition to hydrating the skin, this moisture also serves to keep the skin’s natural protective barrier feeling supported. It gives this all-important barrier a thicker feel. As you can imagine, this can go a long way in promoting a healthier-looking complexion overall.

If you’re looking for products that will emphasize this quality and leave your skin barrier feeling more resilient, you won’t go wrong with the Vine Vera Resveratrol Chianti Skin Restoring Capsules. This is an encapsulated serum, which allows the product to retain the potency of its ingredients for longer. It has a beautiful silky texture and packs a punch in terms of the content of each capsule. This is why, unlike a regular serum, it should be used weekly rather than daily.

Should You Be Adding Hyaluronic Acid to Your Skincare Routine?

There aren’t many skincare ingredients that pretty much every single person out there would benefit from, but hyaluronic acid is one of them. After all, not only does everyone’s skin need hydration, but chances are that you’re also dealing with some of the other visible skin concerns that hyaluronic acid can help with.

Fortunately, now that this ingredient is so popular, you’ll find it in a variety of different skincare products. Try to incorporate it into several stages of your skincare routine and your skin will be able to benefit from it even more!

Click here to check out more exquisite skincare bestsellers from Vine Vera.

Posted on June 15, 2024 June 6, 2024

Skin Cycling: The Beauty Routine You Need to Know About

Although dermatologists usually dissuade people from trying viral skincare trends, the emergence of skin cycling is one that industry professionals are very much on board with. Unlike many of the potentially harmful trends that are often promoted on social media, this one offers nothing but benefits for the skin.

Wondering what skin cycling actually involves? Read on for everything you need to know about this skincare trend, plus some top tips from Vine Vera on how to give skin cycling a try!

What Exactly is Skin Cycling?

Skin cycling is all about cycling your skincare routine. Rather than trying to do everything for your skin in one single routine that you follow each day, skin cycling involves focusing on different aspects of skincare over the course of four nights.

The first night focuses on exfoliation. This prepares the skin for the second night, which is when retinoids are applied. Since both exfoliating and using retinoids can take a toll on the skin barrier, the third and fourth nights are all about giving your skin a break and some time to feel rebalanced.

It may sound complicated, but there’s a reason why everyone’s raving about skin cycling…

The Benefits of Skin Cycling

Alternating the use of exfoliants and retinoids, and then following them up with some rest time for your skin, not only produces optimum results from the products that you’re using but also minimizes the risk of sensitivities and inflammation.

It helps the skin to build up tolerance to the more potent ingredients in your routine. This means that those ingredients will be better received. Rather than layering multiple active ingredients over the top of each other, you’ll be spacing them out over four nights, giving your skin some much-needed time to adjust.

Does skin cycling really work?

So far, everyone who has given it a go has seen success with the technique. Dermatologists also strongly agree with the concept, with a weekly approach often being much better for the skin than a daily approach.

Want to Give Skin Cycling a Try?

The only way to know whether or not skin cycling will work for you is by giving it a try. Here’s how to get started:

Night One: Exfoliation

The first night of a skin cycling routine focuses on exfoliation. This will remove any impurities from your pores. This means that the products you apply over the next few nights will be able to penetrate your skin more effectively. Plus, with over-exfoliation being an increasingly common problem, spacing your exfoliation efforts out to every four nights will help do away with the risk of exfoliating too much.

With that said, you could still experience symptoms of over-exfoliation if your exfoliator is so potent that it can only be used weekly. With skin cycling, you’ll be exfoliating every four days. You’ll need an exfoliator that can do this without harming your skin.

This is why many recommend going for a chemical exfoliator when following the skin cycling technique. However, don’t immediately start with a highly concentrated blend of glycolic acid. Go with a gentler acid instead, like mandelic acid. Derived from almonds, you’ll find it in the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Peeling. This exfoliator can be used up to twice a week, making it ideal for skin cycling!

Of course, before you jump into exfoliating your skin, make sure that you’ve cleansed it first. An exfoliator will only be effective if it can directly reach your skin cells without having to fight past a layer of dirt, sebum, and other impurities.

Since you don’t want to end up irritating your skin before you exfoliate it, go with a cleanser that doesn’t contain any sulfates or other harsh surfactants. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser would be a great choice! Its lavish lather cleanses beautifully while its infusion of plant oils keeps the skin feeling ultra-soft.

Night Two: Retinoids

Retinoids are vitamin A derivatives. There are quite a few different retinoids out there, with each one varying in potency. However, while some may work faster than others, they all offer similar results. All retinoids have been proven to be effective at reducing the appearance of wrinkles, brightening the look of the skin, and giving the skin a firmer and smoother finish. Retinoids can help to lighten the visibility of dark spots too, and can also prevent the appearance of acne.

As you can see, retinoids are ingredients that just about everyone would benefit from in some shape or form!

If retinoids are so great, shouldn’t you be using them every night? No, and this is where the beauty of skin cycling lies. With retinoids being so powerful, they’re notorious for irritating the skin. This is especially the case when they’re combined with other potentially irritating ingredients. The result is inflammation that can take a while to dissipate.

By spacing your retinoid usage out to once every four nights, the appearance of inflammation will be much less likely.

So, if you’ve never used retinoids before, which one should you start with? Many choose to begin with retinol. However, even with skin cycling, you may still find that your skin reacts to it. If this is the case, retinyl palmitate would be a better alternative. It’s much gentler but will still provide all of the same benefits to your complexion. You’ll find the ingredient in several Vine Vera products, including the Resveratrol Chianti Revival Serum.

Another way to counter the feeling of irritation when using a retinoid is to apply a moisturizer first. This will prevent quite as much of your retinoid from soaking into your skin, toning down your skin’s reaction to the ingredient.

Nights Three and Four: Rest and Recovery

On nights three and four of your skin cycling routine, don’t be tempted to reach for an exfoliator or a retinoid. Instead, these nights are all about encouraging your skin to repair itself. The focus of your skincare routine should be on leaving your skin barrier feeling bolstered and stronger while giving your skin microbiome all that it needs to thrive.

After using a gentle cleanser to wash the dirt of the day away, turn to a hydrating serum to give your skin the moisture that it needs to feel rebalanced. The Vine Vera Chianti Skin Restoring Capsules were designed for exactly this purpose. They feel incredibly soothing when applied, with the hydrating power of this formula enhanced by the serum’s encapsulated packaging.

While moisturizing (and cleansing) should be carried out every day of your skin cycling routine, a good moisturizer becomes all the more essential on days three and four. Moisturizers are great products for leaving the skin barrier feeling thicker and lovingly nurtured, which is what the aim of these nights is.

The Vine Vera Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto Silk would be a great product to add to your roster for nights three and four. It’s a silky cream that melts into the skin quickly, without leaving it feeling greasy. However, it still manages to feel incredibly hydrating and moisturizing. This is thanks to the sodium hyaluronate, vitamin E, and algae extract in the formula. It’s also loaded with antioxidants from the likes of licorice root, resveratrol, green tea, and chamomile. Antioxidants are vital if you want to repair your complexion. This makes nights three and four of your skin cycling routine the best time to pile them on.

Adjusting the Cycle to Suit Your Skin

It’s important to remember that the skin cycling technique detailed above is just a guideline. Everyone’s skin is different and will have its own unique set of needs. The skin cycling routine provides a flexible framework and it’s then up to you to tailor this to your skin.

Say, for example, you’ve been skin cycling for a while now. You saw some improvements in your complexion at the beginning but haven’t seen any changes in a while. This could be a sign that it’s time to ramp up your efforts. How? By progressing to a more advanced skin cycling routine.

There are a couple of ways in which you could do this. The first would be to cut out one of the recovery days. This will shorten your cycle down to three days instead of four. It would now be exfoliation, retinoid, recovery, and repeat.

Another option would be to swap the recovery goal of night three with another retinoid night. This means that your skin cycling routine would be exfoliation, retinoid, retinoid, recovery, and repeat. However, this route should only be taken if your skin is happily tolerating your current retinoid usage. If you ever upgrade to a more potent retinoid, move back to your original skin cycling routine for a while. This will help to prevent causing irritation to your skin.

Is Skin Cycling Worth Trying?

It’s not often that you’ll see dermatologists raving about a TikTok beauty trend. This is how you immediately know that skin cycling holds promise. It can be a beneficial technique for all skin types to implement, although it does require putting some extra thought into your skincare routine!

If your skin type is sensitive, then you’ll likely benefit even more from skin cycling. It will give you the opportunity to use more potent active ingredients without irritating your skin. If there are any ingredients that your skin has reacted to in the past, incorporating them into a skin cycling routine could be a game-changer.

The only exception to the rule would be if you’re on prescription skincare of any sort. Whether it’s for acne, eczema, or anything else, you’ll need to speak to your dermatologist to ensure that your skin cycling efforts don’t interfere with your topical medication in any way. Your dermatologist will likely be able to advise on a skin cycling routine that works with the prescription skincare you’re using.

Skin Cycling With Vine Vera

If you’d like to give skin cycling a try, chances are that you already have most of the products that you need. The only difference is that you won’t be using them all in one night. However, if you’d like to incorporate a few new products into your new skin cycling routine, check out Vine Vera’s online store and you’ll find everything that you could possibly need!

Posted on May 30, 2024 May 22, 2024

Finding Balance: Choosing the Right Moisturizer For Your Skin

There are certain skincare products that everybody should be using, and a moisturizer is one. No matter your skin type, regular moisturizing will keep your skin feeling soft, supple, and smooth. Even better, some formulas will also help you to tackle the visible skin concerns that you’re dealing with, be it the appearance of wrinkles, dark spots, loose skin, or anything else.

However, when it comes to choosing a skin moisturizer that will actually give your complexion all that it needs, where do you begin?

Read on as Vine Vera shares some top tips for picking the perfect moisturizer for your skin:

Why is a Moisturizer So Important?

Wondering if you could skip all of this hassle and simply ignore the moisturizing stage of your skincare routine? While you could, it wouldn’t be advisable. Even if you don’t have any specific visible skin concerns that you’re hoping to eradicate, a moisturizer is still essential for two main reasons…

Firstly, a moisturizer works to hydrate the surface layer of the skin. However, unlike lighter hydrating products, such as serums, a moisturizer will also form its own film over the skin’s surface once applied. This locks in the moisture that you’ve just given to your skin. Without a skin moisturizer creating that added barrier, all of your newfound moisture would evaporate into the air pretty quickly.

That extra layer provided by a moisturizer also helps to block environmental irritants, such as pollutants, from entering into the skin. Without a moisturizer, those irritants are far more likely to cause free radical damage to the skin. This would lead to accelerated skin aging and long-term skin damage.

How to Choose the Perfect Skin Moisturizer

As you can see, a moisturizer is non-negotiable. So, let’s move on to talking about how to pick the perfect moisturizer for your skin’s needs:

Ignore the Hype

Chances are that there are a few moisturizers out there that have already caught your attention. Perhaps you’ve seen people raving about them on social media or have been drawn in by extravagant marketing campaigns. All of this can make it so tempting to purchase a new skin moisturizer, even if you don’t know anything else about that product.

However, if you want to find the right moisturizer for your skin, you’ll need to ignore all of this. Sure, some of those popular products could be beneficial for your skin but don’t be swayed solely by the hype. Instead, if a product intrigues you, make sure that it matches up to the following criteria before making your purchase.

Take Your Skin Type Into Account

When choosing any new skincare product, the most important thing to keep in mind is your skin type. This will largely dictate which products will, and won’t, work well on your skin.

Let’s start with dry skin – a skin type that’s desperately in need of frequent moisturizing. Due to the fact that dry skin lacks sebum, you’ll need to compensate for this with a rich moisturizer. This will form a thicker layer over your skin’s surface, helping to mimic the role of the sebum that you’re missing. A product like the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Moisturizer, which hydrates with beta glucan and moisturizes with shea butter, would be ideal!

Sensitive skin also benefits from regular moisturizing. If your skin is sensitive, this means that your skin barrier has been compromised in some way. Again, a thick moisturizer is what you need as this will leave your skin barrier feeling stronger and more supported.

On the other hand, if you have oily skin, you need the opposite; a skin moisturizer that’s lightweight and completely non-greasy. After all, your skin is already producing excess sebum. Applying a thick moisturizer over this extra oil will only leave you with clogged pores and breakouts. Look for an oil-free, non-comedogenic formula so that you can hydrate your skin without weighing it down.

Consider the Time of Day

While there’s nothing wrong with using the same moisturizer day and night, having separate formulas for morning and evening can actually be very beneficial. Your skin’s needs change depending on the time of day, meaning dedicated AM and PM formulas will be better equipped to meet these needs.

In the mornings, your skin will be preparing itself for a day of fighting away environmental aggressors. Ideally, your moisturizer should help it to feel supported as it does so, which is why experts recommend including plenty of antioxidants in a morning skincare routine. A skin moisturizer like the Vine Vera Cabernet High-Potency Moisture Day Cream does this well. It also feels light and silky when applied to the skin, making it a great base for makeup.

Meanwhile, in the evenings, your skin will need some assistance in recovering from the visible damage that it was dealt throughout the day. Research also shows that moisture loss increases at night, so your evening moisturizer should be a slightly thicker formula than your daytime cream. The Resveratrol Cabernet High Potency Night Cream would be a fantastic choice!

Do You Need SPF?

If you have a dedicated sunscreen that you absolutely love and use religiously, then you probably won’t need a moisturizer that has SPF. However, if you’re guilty of being neglectful when it comes to sun protection, an SPF moisturizer can be a huge game-changer.

As you probably know, the sun is responsible for causing some serious damage to the skin. From discoloration to wrinkles to skin cancer, protecting your skin from UV rays will go a long way in enabling you to maintain a healthy complexion. An SPF moisturizer, like the Resveratrol Cabernet Replenishing Moisture Cream SPF 30, makes this easy. You’ll be able to skip your morning skin moisturizer, using this formula instead. Not only does it function in the same way as a regular moisturizer but it will also keep your skin protected from the sun for a couple of hours.

Consider Separate Moisturizers For Different Areas of Skin

People often focus their moisturizing efforts on the face. After all, this is the part of you that’s pretty much always on display. It only makes sense to want the skin here to look its best!

However, this doesn’t mean that you should neglect moisturizing other areas of your body too. Your skin needs moisture from head to toe and it’s important to give it this. However, with the skin on your body being so much thicker than the skin on your face, your facial skin moisturizer isn’t going to be quite as effective everywhere else.

This is why it can be useful to have separate moisturizers for different areas of skin. Vine Vera’s Intensive Shea Body Butter, for example, is a rich creamy blend that will keep the skin on your body feeling smooth and soft. Of course, the above rules still apply, especially when it comes to keeping your skin type in mind. While our body butter is great for dry skin, those with oily skin may find it to be too heavy. Our Body Cream, on the other hand, is a much lighter formula that won’t leave you dealing with body acne breakouts.

In addition to giving the skin on your body separate care, you should also take into account the needs of the skin on your hands and feet. The skin here is even thicker than that of the rest of your body due to all of the friction that it experiences. Again, dedicated products, such as the Vine Vera Foot Cream and Hand Cream, can be useful.

What Else Do You Need Your Moisturizer to Do?

So far, we’ve talked about how moisturizers are vital for providing the skin with moisture while also preventing environmental irritants from interfering with the skin. However, a good moisturizer will also offer up other benefits too.

Say, for example, you’re trying to reduce the appearance of wrinkles or dark spots. Serums are great for helping with this but moisturizers can also contain ingredients that will back up the function of your serums, giving you even better results. The Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk from Vine Vera is one that does just that. Licorice root extract, green tea, and caffeine will even out your skin tone while peptides, seaweed, sodium hyaluronate, and collagen plump up the complexion, leaving it looking fuller and smoother. The numerous antioxidants in this skin moisturizer will help to keep the appearance of environmental damage and aging to a minimum.

Think About Seasonality

Something else worth considering when shopping for a new skin moisturizer is the time of year. Just like the time of day, this can also affect what your skin needs.

During the warmer months of the year, sebum production rises. With the skin taking on an oilier finish, thick moisturizers can often be too much. Lighter formulas should be favored in the spring and summer so as to not trigger clogged pores and acne breakouts.

However, once the colder weather arrives, you may need to change things up. Sebum production slows down at this time of year, meaning that your lightweight summertime moisturizer is unlikely to be able to provide enough hydration or a thick enough layer on your skin’s surface. The moisturizer that you use in the winter will need to be richer and greasier to help your skin get through the colder season.

Will You Be Double Moisturizing?

Finally, let’s talk about double moisturizing. It’s a technique that can be extremely useful for people with very dry skin. It simply involves using two moisturizers instead of just one.

If you plan on double moisturizing, keep this in mind when choosing a moisturizer. Ideally, double moisturizing should be done with two lighter formulas so as to save congesting your skin. For best results, you should also look for two products that complement each other. If one of your moisturizers is packed with hydrating ingredients but only has a few antioxidants, the second formula that you use should be brimming with antioxidant compounds.

Final Words

As you can see, there’s a lot to keep in mind when choosing a new skin moisturizer. It’s hardly surprising that people who are new to skincare can sometimes feel overwhelmed by this! However, follow the guidelines that we’ve shared above and you’ll be able to pick the perfect creams for your skin, ensuring that you’re meeting all of your skin’s moisturizing needs!

Click here to browse more skincare bestsellers from Vine Vera.