Should You Simplify Your Skincare Routine?

In May of this year, the Met Gala 2019 was held in The Metropolitan Museum in New York City, with the theme of “Camp.” The theme itself substantially celebrates the idea of exaggeration, or in another word – maximalism. It highlighted the value of excess.

Maybe you’ve already noticed, but maximalism can currently be found everywhere in our society. As someone who works in the skincare industry, I recently realized the concept of maximalism is everywhere in skincare as well. People are spending a tremendous amount of time and money on an incredibly long skincare routine in hopes of achieving their best skin condition. But, when it comes to our skin, is more always better?

A maximized skin care routine generally takes about 40-60 minutes a day to massage, rinse, and apply all layers upon the face. Here are the steps:

• Drink collagen in the morning
• Red LED therapy treatment
• Cleanser
• Exfoliant
• Microneedling
• Essence
• Toner or skin softener or concentrate or emulsion
• Spot cream
• Serum
• Eye cream with microcurrent applicator
• Neck cream
• Moisturizer
• Oil
• Sunscreen
• Drink collagen in the evening

Do people really notice a big transformation of their skin after the completion of the whole regimen? For most cases, they don’t.

Why not? The answer is relatively simple. Everyone has a different need for skin care. While some need (or crave) a lot of products, others really don’t need a complicated, time-consuming 15-step routine to make their skin better. Some brands captured this value of maximalism and promote that everyone should get the whole arsenal in order for nice skin. And that has become a trend in the industry. Every year, we have new types of products launch in the market and claim to be something we absolutely should add to the routine. While there is not much of a variation in the ingredients, these products are likely to be granted a new name such as “emulsions,” “concentrate,” “essence,” “skin softener,” “corrector,” which all contributed to the idea of multi-step skincare. With all the branding and advertisement, these new products really seem like something that could change the game.

Figuring Out What Your Skin Needs is Complicated, and Can Require Trial-and-Error. Here’s Why

For most of us, the skin is in peak condition from the time we are born until about age 21. During this time, healthy skin is not only what the skin produces, but what the skin retains.

Let’s take an example: Dry skin. Most of us don’t have dry skin in youth, but tend to experience it more with age, hormonal changes, menopause, etc. By the age of 90, most of us will have dry or very dry skin (if we are lucky to live that long)!

Skin care companies that sell oils will tell you that this is because your skin doesn’t produce as many oils. Skin care companies that sell vitamins and minerals will tell you this is because your skin doesn’t produce as many key nutrients. Skin care companies that sell snake oil will tell you this is because your skin doesn’t produce snake oil.

I’ll give it to you straight: They’re all right, in part. (Except for the dudes selling you snake oil, of course). Your skin naturally contains oily lipids like triglycerides, fatty acids, squalane, wax esters, and cholesterol. These lipids are an important part of your skin’s ability to retain moisture and to keep bacteria out that can lead to inflammation, breakouts, and infection (Cosmetic Dermatology). Your skin also naturally contains a certain proportion of nutrients like vitamin E, squalane, and coenzyme Q10 that keep it looking young and supple.

But as you age, your skin naturally produces fewer and fewer lipids and retains fewer nutrients. The biggest example of the importance of lipids in the skin is seen in a skin does order called X-linked Ichthyosis, which leads to abnormally dry, hard, resistant skin. This disorder is caused by defects in lipid metabolism. Deficiencies in lipids even in individuals without X-linked Ichthyosis have been known to predispose people to exceptionally dry skin — for instance, it’s well-established that a decrease in lipid production contributes to the rough, tight, full and dry skin associated with aging.

And the lipids and nutrients your skin does contain tend to lack integrity with age, meaning they may not have the same structure, be able to function as well, or be able to perform at the same level they did when you were young.

My point in all of this is not to do a complete history of dry skin. Rather, it’s to tell you that it’s not just the “what” — your skin’s composition of lipids, oils, and nutrients — but also the “how” — how your skin produces and/or retains these key components. This is why skin care tends to be complex, and a big part of why a skin care product that works extremely well for one person with a skin ailment or concern completely bombs on a second person with the same ailment or concern. It’s not just about what you put on your skin — it’s about how your skin processes and retains it, too.

What is the Underlying Cause of Your Skin Concerns?

Instead of focusing on what we should add to our routine constantly, I think we should take a step back and figure out what our skin really needs. People tend to overlook the genuine and unique needs of their own skin, but turn to the most popularly acclaimed products in the market. Yet almost all skincare brands claim the ability to solve skin care concerns with their uniquely formulated products.

But let’s get to the bottom of things, do we even know what exactly goes wrong with our skin in the first place? As smart consumers, we are supposed to figure out what caused the problems, then we correspondingly seek solutions – whether the solution will be skin care products, medicine, or something else. For example, the occurrence of oiliness on our skin could be caused by hormonal fluctuations, nutritional deficiencies, over-consumption of sugar, or reflexive oil production from using too many drying products.

There is no way a one-fit-all skincare product can target all these problems. We need to find out which one is the cause of the problem, and then find solutions according to that. In this case, if you find out it’s the overconsumption of sugar that leads to oily skin, your first step should be eliminating sugar intake, instead of adding astringent or a more powerful exfoliator to your skincare routine. In a scenario like this one, adding more to your routine is not only unable to fix the core issue, but also worsen the situation by making your skin reflexively use more oil over time.

Depending on what your skin concern is, ask yourself if any could be the underlying cause:

• Diet — nutritional deficiencies, too much sugar
• Hormones — hormonal changes, hormonal imbalances
• Too many skincare products
• Natural aging — the skin produces fewer nutrients, fatty acids, and proteins; those that are produced tend to be of less integrity

I Personally Believe Most People Only Need 6 Ingredients in their skincare routine

At this point, here is my routine:

• AM Cleanser
• AM Vitamin CE Serum
• AM Sunscreen
• PM Cleanser
• PM AHA or Retinol Serum
• PM Moisturizer with Peptides, Niacinamide, and Amino Acids

I am sent a lot of products and will try certain ones out, but I only believe you need:

1. Vitamin C and E;
2. Retinoids;
3. AHAs (alternated with retinoids);
4. Peptides;
5. Niacinamide;
6. Sunscreen.

My Best Anti-Aging Tips (And They Don’t Require a Complex Skincare Routine)

1. Get plenty of sleep.
2. Eat a healthy, antioxidant-rich diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-glycemic foods.
3. Exercise, but not to the point of exhaustion (this can be a trigger of systemic inflammation, which is aging).
4. Drink a lot of water — though you probably don’t need 8 glasses a day.
5. Take supplements — and then get a facial.
6. Start with proven ingredients in low concentrations, and gradually work up to higher concentrations, over the course of 3-4 months.
7. Use vitamin C&E serum, other antioxidants, and sunscreen by day.
8. Use retinoids (alternated with AHAs), peptides, and niacinamide by night.
9. Don’t mix skin care ingredients that aren’t compatible, like vitamin C and niacinamide, or retinoids and AHAs, or retinoids and benzoyl peroxide.
10. Limit alcohol as much as possible.
11. Don’t smoke.

In short, you don’t need a lot of products to have great skin, unless you’re noticing your skin’s condition falling off a cliff lately. It’s true — doctors call this the “tipping point” of aging, and most women notice it in their 30s or 40s at some point. Fortunately, you can do something about it.

Are You Aging Too Fast for One of These Reasons? Then, Maybe Add in More Ingredients

You can try to make it fancy in your skincare routine. Clever marketers will try to blame pollution, chemicals, or a new toxin for your newfound signs of aging. But, in reality, all signs of aging essentially come down to be within one of four types 2:

1. Genetic factors;

2. Telomere shortening and chromosomal alterations;

3. Free radical generation (in excess of free radicals necessary for normal metabolism);

4. UV light.

Let’s go through each of these in more detail.

#1 Genetic factors that contribute to skin aging

Skin aging is the result of genetic, as well as environmental, factors. In animal species like rats and mice, genes that contribute to aging have been identified. It is believed that corresponding genes may play a role in the aging of humans. For instance, studies in mice have shown that caloric restriction increases the lifespan of the mice and the expression of certain genes called sirt1 genes. The sirt1 genes code for sirtuins that may prolong the life of your skin cells! Essentially, sirt1 genes prevent your cells from working too hard by turning off unnecessary gene expression.

Sirt1 genes may apply to human cells, but it’s not definite. But the same idea has been shown to work for skin cells during studies involving caloric restriction, which also conserves your cellular energy. Caloric restriction has been proposed to decrease contact dermatitis, decrease free radical formation, and potentially preserve the softened, youthful state of collagen by decreasing the formation of the advanced glycation end product glucosepane. There are also anti-glycation skincare products that may help improve the appearance of skin that is aging too fast due to genetic factors, such as the processing of sugar.

#2 Telomere shortening and chromosomal alterations

Telomeres are repeated patterns of DNA sequences (TTAGGG) found at the end of chromosomes. With each round of DNA replication, telomeres shorten. As you can imagine, babies’ telomeres are much, much longer than the telomeres of persons 90 years old.

When telomeres reach a certain shortened length, the cell is no longer able to divide, and cell death occurs. In fact, the size of telomeres found in adrenal (kidney) chromosomes shortens by about 0.24% per year of human life3. The telomere theory of aging is also demonstrated when you look at case studies of patients with Werner’s Syndrome, a rare disease in which aging is accelerated. There is a dramatic, rapid appearance of features associated with aging, including graying and loss of hair, a hoarse voice, and thin, hardened skin, typically beginning in one’s twenties. It may also lead to diabetes, osteoporosis, and cancer, amongst other ailments. In Werner’s Syndrome, mutations in the WRN gene lead to the production of abnormally short, nonfunctional Werner proteins. Although the pathology behind Werner’s Syndrome is quite complex, it has been found that replication-associated telomere loss is responsible for at least some part of the issues (i.e., chromosome fusions found in WS fibroblasts).4

Regardless of whether someone has Werner’s Syndrome or not, all people have a naturally-occurring enzyme present in their cells, telomerase, that tries to maintain telomere length (and hence prevent premature cell death). Telomerase is actually able to make telomeric sequences to replace shortened sequences. As you might imagine, researchers have tried to “reinvigorate” cells by injecting telomerase: The introduction of telomerase into retinal epithelial cells and fibroblasts has been shown in a 1994 study by Bodnar et. al. to regenerate telomeres 5. The unfortunate part? Telomerase also reactivated cancer cells, and so the introduction of telomerase into normal human cells to fight aging is not in fact a sound therapy at all. (At least not yet).

Besides rapidly-shortening telomeres, other alterations to DNA can accelerate aging as well. The enzyme DNA helicase, used to uncoil DNA prior to each round of replication, may play a role in the development of Werner’s Syndrome/accelerated aging as well.6 In another disease resulting in accelerated aging, progeria, a dysregulation of mitosis has been identified as the major cause.

So, the quality of DNA and integrity in its replication is super important for healthy aging. It is likely that much less severe alterations in DNA play a role in how fast you age, and in what ways.

#3 Free radical generation

The free radical theory of aging has existed since the 1950’s, after it was first proposed by Denham Harman. The theory essentially states that free radical processes add up over time, and cumulatively cause aging. Free radical generating processes include UV exposure, environmental pollutants, and smoking. But what many of us don’t realize is that mandatory processes, like respiration and metabolism, also contribute to the accumulation of free radicals over time.

There is a line of thought that some free radical production is beneficial. Some even go so far as to say that free radical production is a natural byproduct of life that should not necessarily be neutralized with antioxidants.

Despite this, most experts emphatically recommend the use of topical antioxidants, with support from numerous nutritional studies that demonstrate ingestion of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables helps to prevent aging and certain diseases. In fact, free radical-induced aging seems to be one of the only causes we can treat: Eat a diet rich in antioxidants and apply a multitude of topical antioxidants to neutralize the potential impact of free radical activity.

This is, however, oversimplified and underwhelming advice. I describe vegetable preparation methods, as well as the differences between digestive tract absorption and topical (skin) absorption of antioxidants and other ingredients in Chapter 4. The best advice I can give that is relevant to this chapter is that antioxidant pathways are not well understood. To maximize the benefit of topically applied antioxidants, use products with network antioxidants that have been found to enhance or strengthen the power of one another, including vitamin C, vitamin E, lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10 and glutathione. In addition, use antioxidants with a strong Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) score, such as coffeeberry, idebenone, vitamin E and kinetin.7

#4 UV Radiation

It’s popular right now to love the sun. But insofar as healthy skin aging goes, the sun does not love you back!

UV radiation generates free radicals in skin cells, which turn on matrix metalloproteinases (enzymes that degrade collagen). It has been found that UV exposure increases MMPs (and hence degrades collagen) in three steps 8:

• First, UV exposure increases the production of the transcription factor c-jun.
• Next, the “extra” c-jun combines with another transcription factor already present in high concentration, c-fos, to produce activator protein, AP-1.
• Then, AP-1 activates the MMP genes, which produce collagenase, gelatinase, and stromelysin-1.

It may further be noted that there are twenty-three human MMPs, and MMP-1 has been found in studies to be the MMP responsible for collagen degradation. And, similar to how natural antioxidants keep free radicals in check, the body naturally produces Tissue Inhibitors (TIMPs) to keep levels of MMPs down. Unfortunately, however, as people age, MMP activity increases, while levels of Tissue Inhibitors (TIMPs) decrease — the exact opposite enzyme activity of what you would want!

Matrix metalloproteinase activity can be stopped in two ways. The first is to prevent their production. This is best done with a sunscreen with high UVB protection (UVB has been directly linked to MMP production)8 . Fortunately, the best UVB protection is easy to find: look for the sunscreen with the highest sun protection factor (SPF), a direct measure of UVB protection. Use it daily… every… single… day.

The second method is to stop the degrading activities of the MMPs. There are several substances that act as MMP inhibitors (MMPis): epigallocatechin-3-gallate (a derivative of green tea), retinoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid), beta-carotene, DHEA (though this is controversial), polysaccharides, vitamin E, and vitamin C, and flavonoids. Research has shown all of these inhibit MMPs and increase TIMPs.

Bottom Line – simplifying skincare routine

I do think that most people would benefit from a simplified skincare routine that includes vitamins C and E, sunscreen, retinoids or AHAs, peptides, and niacinamide only. That said, if you notice your skin’s aging has accelerated lately, it doesn’t hurt to add in targeted ingredients to improve its appearance, like anti-glycation skincare (for genetic factors), DNA growth factors (for telomere shortening), coffeeberry (for free radical generation), or MMPs (for UV damage).