How To Choose Skincare Products

While dermatologists, scientists and other experts may know how to choose skincare products effectively, it’s not like the average person in Kansas City knows what to do with that complicated information shown on the label. Worse yet, unless they have a lot of experience with skincare products, they might not know what makes a product or brand better than another, and it’s not like you can rely on the marketing to give you a heads-up. 

But regardless of whether you feel like you’re reading another language on the back of various skincare products, it does become easier to decipher if you know what the ingredient lists are trying to say. In fact, there are standards — International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) — designed to help you understand what’s in the skincare products that you use, though some of the information can be a little bit cryptic.

Brands and product lines attempt to help demystify this information by including helpful descriptions next to the complicated ingredients, such as Tocopherol (Vitamin E), but otherwise you’ll have a tough time knowing what’s inside without adequate knowledge up front.

Start With Your Skin Type

The first order of business is to determine your skin type. Skin type can be the most important factor as to whether a given product will work for you, yet there’s not much attention paid to it. It’s not so much that certain skincare products are bad, it’s that skin type matters, and using the wrong type of product on skin that it wasn’t designed for can give you less than optimal results.

For example, those that suffer from acne or that have sensitive skin need to be more cautious than others. That’s because while you can certainly buy different types of skincare products in Kansas City, you’ll need to be careful with the ingredients that are found within. Indeed, while those with oily skin may be able to get away with a wider array of products without adverse reactions, those with dry skin may suffer from breakouts and other irritation with the same product.

For sensitive skin, most experts suggest looking for skincare products that actually work with your skin in mind. That includes products that contain aloe vera, shea butter and oatmeal, which can help moisturize but also avoid breakouts.

For those with dry skin, look for products with lactic acid and shea butter. These types of ingredients will better hydrate and exfoliate the skin, leaving it feeling and looking better. 

But for oily skin, you can be a bit more lax in the selection process, though it’s still suggested to go with skincare products that will help keep excess sebum from building up. That means looking for products that contain alpha hydroxy acids (glycolic acid or salicylic acid), which are better at producing hydration only where needed. 

If you’re unsure what skin type you have, it can help to schedule a trip to the dermatologist or a skin care expert to help you better understand the skincare products that work with your natural skin type.

It’s What’s Inside

While many individuals may shop for skincare products based on what it says on the packaging, including the ingredients used and the type of skin that the product may be designed for, it’s often best to consider the product itself, not its marketing or packaging. Unfortunately, some products may cause rashes and other adverse reactions, even if they’re consensus favorites online. So if you’ve been recommended a certain product, don’t mindlessly keep using it if it’s causing problems with your skin.

Generally, it all comes back to the ingredients. Here are the types of ingredients that you should be looking for in the skincare products that you buy in Kansas City or wherever you happen to be.

Glycerin might have a strange name but it’s one of the most used ingredients in moisturizing and skincare products. Ceramides and hyaluronic acid are also great moisturizers that are found naturally in the skin, which can make for a better product at the end of the day. Other important ingredients include l-ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), a powerful antioxidant; tocopherol (Vitamin E), which helps augment the power of Vitamin C; retinol, a common ingredient to help rejuvenate skin cells and stimulate the growth of collagen; and niacinamide (Vitamin B3), which can hydrate the skin and control the production of oil.

As for what to avoid in your skincare products, pay particular attention to the following ingredients. Things like added fragrances and perfumes may make the product smell nice, but it could be doing real damage to your skin, not to mention the skin allergies or irritation that is possible. Other ingredients such as sulfates, which are actually cleaning agents, are bad because they can strip the skin of natural oils, causing irritation and other skin issues.

Ingredients such as parabens, or chemical preservatives, are also less than ideal, and they can actually throw off your body’s hormonal balance by mimicking excess estrogen, particularly in young children and those at risk for certain types of cancer. Other bad ingredients include formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers, which are exceedingly rare today because they’re actually known carcinogens that cause cancer. But just because you don’t see formaldehyde listed, some products use alternate names such as quanterium-15, DMDM, hydantoin, diazolinge urea and imidazolidinge urea that release formaldehyde.

Natural Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Healthy or Better

While we’re on the topic of what to avoid in the skincare products that you buy, one important distinction to make is that natural doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s healthier or better for you. For example, there are plenty of natural ingredients that could be harmful to your skin, such as poison ivy, but it doesn’t mean that you’d necessarily want to cover your body with it. 

Furthermore, many people report having adverse skin reactions to trendy product groups such as essential oils, which could actually be more harmful to your skin than helpful. Generally, “natural” is more of a marketing gimmick than an actual useful product classification at this point, and there’s certainly no regulation that says natural is better, much less safer, than any other product.

If you’re looking for the best skincare products in Kansas City to keep your skin healthy and looking its best, we can help. We’re Quinn Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Center, and we offer skincare products and treatments that are scientifically proven to improve the appearance and feel of your skin. Contact us today to get started.