As the mom of a teen, I want to share some tips that have worked really well for my daughters skin to continue looking clean while she passes through the hormonal attack of the teen years.

As moms, we have to lead by example, we need to teach our kids that washing your face before bed is as important as brushing your teeth before bed. There are some personal hygiene routines that cannot be ignored. Our skin attracts millions of pollutants every single day, with or without the use of make-up. Also, adding to this is the fact that we touch our face thousands of times per day, passing all kind of bacteria and germs to it.

Our skin has its own protection from these daily assaults, and the PH a Normal skin surface pH is between 4 and 6.5 in healthy people, though it varies among the different areas of the skin.

For this reazon it’s very importnat to use facial soaps and body soaps that have the right PH for our skin; Higher or lower levels can alter our own natural PH, altering the barrier against external assaults.

At my Spa, we use Dermalogica Skin Care, but there are many other skin care prodcuts that are wonderful for the skin.

The acid mantle protects the skin from bacterial and fungal infections. The acid mantle contains lactic acid and various amino acids from sweat, free fatty acids from sebum, and amino acids and pyrrolidine carboxylic acid from the cornification process of skin.

The acid mantle:

• Supports the formation and maturation of epidermal lipids and therefore the maintenance of the barrier function
• Provides indirect protection against invasion by microorganism
• Provides direct protection against alkaline substances (alkali neutralizing capacity)

If the acid mantle becomes disrupted or damaged, or loses its acidity, the skin becomes more prone to damage and infection. Washing skin with soaps or detergents can cause the loss of acid mantle. Repetitive washing alters the stratum corneum and barrier functions, including skin pH. Once damaged, it can take up to 14 hours to restore, by which time, it’s most likely under assault again from another washing. Most people wash their hands about three times a day, on average. Single washings shift pH to the alkaline region, which can shift back to normal within a few hours.

Easy tips to perfect skin:

• Choose a skin care line with a good PH (4 to 4.5)
• Use a Clarisonic facial brush
• wash your face daily AM and PM
• Drink at least 1L of water a day
• Stay away from dairy products
• Stay away from processed foods
• Stay away from refined carbohydrates and sugars
• Stay away from alcohol

If you follow these tips, your skin will dramatically change. Please teach your teen to be aware of the side effects that bad habits can bring to their bodies. We would rather have healthy kids, and stay away from acne medications or antibiotics that only will bring harm to their bodies and not a cure from the root of the problem.

Lets work on prevention rather than “curing”.