How to Best Treat Your Skin in Times of Stress

Stress is a fact of daily life for most of us. Whether you’re struggling to keep up at work or juggling a full-time job with family obligations, there never seem to be enough hours in the day to do at all.

By the time you’re done for the day, you barely have time to eat and sleep, let alone take the time for a little bit of self-care. A daily skincare routine feels like a luxury you simply don’t have time for, but all of that stress will eventually start to show. Frequent breakouts, worry lines, and accelerated aging are signs of chronic stress that show up in your skin. If you don’t start taking better care of your skin, your skin problems are going to become an additional source of stress.

Stress impacts your health in more ways than you might imagine. In this article, you’ll learn exactly how stress affects your skin and what you can do to keep your skin healthy. You’ll also learn how to create a stress-busting skincare regimen with Yon-Ka Paris products.

How Does Stress Affect Your Skin?

Have you ever noticed that your skin acts out when you’re feeling stressed? You experience more breakouts or flare-ups in skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. When you feel like your life is spiraling out of control, it often seems like your skin is too. What’s the connection?

Stress is the body’s natural defense mechanism. When faced with a threat, the body becomes flooded with chemicals and hormones in preparation to fight or flee. Unfortunately, those chemicals can eventually cause problems of their own – problems like inflammation. Chemical and hormonal changes in the body can also alter your skin’s sensitivity, making your skin more prone to certain issues and making existing skin problems worse.

Karen Mallin, PysD, instructor in psychiatry and dermatology at the University of Miami comments, “the mind and skin are connected on many different levels.” Your mental state impacts your physical state. Stress and emotions can be expressed neurologically and through the skin, just as anxiety can be expressed through physical symptoms like gastrointestinal upset.

How to Create a Stress-Busting Skin Regimen

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, even the simplest of tasks seem monumental. In times of stress, however, it becomes even more important to take care of yourself and your skin. Sticking to a daily skincare routine will help you stay on top of underlying skin issues and it will bring a sense of stability into your life as well. A little self-care is the perfect way to start your day.

The goal of any skincare routine is to keep your skin healthy and hydrated while addressing individual skincare concerns like dryness and breakouts. The specific products you choose will be determined by your skin type, but the essential elements of any daily skincare routine are the same.

Here are some essential steps to include in your daily skincare regimen:

1. Cleansing – Wash your face twice a day (morning and evening) to remove makeup, dirt, debris, and excess oil. Use a gentle cleanser appropriate for your skin type with warm water.
2. Toning – Apply toner to hydrate and rebalance your skin’s complexion, and to increase absorption of your other skincare products.
3. Moisturizing – Hydrate and soften your skin twice daily with a moisturizer appropriate for your skin type, using a lighter moisturizer during the day and a reparative cream at night.

These are the three most important steps in any skincare routine, but there are additional steps you can add to combat the effects of stress on your skin as needed.

Regular exfoliation helps unclog the pores by removing dead skin and surface debris, revealing clearer, younger-looking skin underneath. Stress triggers the release of hormones which can increase oil production in the skin, making you more prone to breakouts. Choosing an exfoliator appropriate for your skin type helps combat issues with clogged pores for smoother, clearer skin.

If stress leaves you with severely dry, sensitive, or irritated skin, a restorative skin mask should become a weekly or twice-weekly addition to your skincare regimen. The right ingredients can boost blood flow, restore hydration, and deeply cleanse to help your skin heal and recover. Serums and spot treatments can also deliver additional benefits to your stressed-out skin as needed.

The Best Yon-Ka Paris Products for Stress

Daily skincare is essential and the products you choose matter. Using the wrong products for your skin type can exacerbate existing problems and create new ones, increasing your stress instead of resolving it. If you’re looking for quality skincare products you can trust, look no further than Yon-Ka Paris.

Yon-Ka Paris has 65 years of experience in the skincare industry, delivering a unique olfactive and therapeutic experience with every product. Many of our products feature Quintessence, a proprietary essential oil complex, along with other luxurious, plant cell active ingredients. Formulated to deliver specific skin benefits through the use of powerful, natural ingredients, Yon-Ka Paris products are perfect for inclusion in any stress-reducing skincare routine.

Here are the top Yon-Ka Paris products to include in your stress-relieving skincare routine:

• Gommage Yon-Ka – Restore your skin’s healthy glow with this 4-in-1 gel facial peel that offers exfoliating, hydrating, clarifying, and balancing benefits. Featuring carob and brown seaweed extracts with lime essential oil, this botanical peel tightens pores and has soothing properties.
• Masque 103 – Tighten pores and purify the skin to restore balance and glow with this clarifying clay mask. Used weekly, this treatment decongests and oxygenates the complexion for normal to oily skin, helping prevent blackheads and the buildup of impurities by absorbing excess oil. When used overnight as a spot treatment, this mask can also be used to shrink and heal breakouts. Masque 105 is also available to purify dry or sensitive skin.
• Elixir Vital – Formerly known as Serum Vital, this corrective elixir revitalizes and remineralizes fatigued, tired, and damaged skin to diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Featuring a restructuring blend of beech bud and soy peptides, this vitamin-packed anti-wrinkle elixir offers intense moisturizing action to heal skin damaged by everything from fatigue and stress to hormonal changes and excessive sun exposure.
• Crème Mains – In this current time of stress and uncertainty, handwashing has become more important than ever. Though essential for health and safety, frequent handwashing is drying out your hands – this reparative hand cream comforts and hydrates dry, rough skin.

Self-care is important for your mental health and wellbeing, but it’s good for your skin as well. Taking the time to develop and implement a regular skincare routine will help your skin look and feel its best every day. Kick your stress to the curb while giving your skin a boost using a Yon-Ka Paris at-home spa kit for stress relief, hydration, or relaxation in addition to your daily skincare routine.