When it comes to picking out beauty products, most of us tend to gravitate towards stronger, more potent serums that are infused with powerful ingredients like retinol and lactic acid. While these serums are integral in any skincare collection, it is also key to incorporate products that are meant to soothe, calm and hydrate your skin.
Our skin condition can be easily altered by many different factors. There’s pollution, where we are constantly exposed to hidden – and harmful – airborne pollutants that may weaken our skin’s barrier, and our hectic and stress-induced lifestyles. With the availability of numerous beauty products and treatments, we tend to experiment with many different products and dermatological treatments to sieve out the ones that best suit our skin.
Thus, it is critical to ensure that one has the right soothing and calming products to treat the complexion when need be. Personally, I prefer looking for the right skincare ingredients. Besides cica (or centella asiatica) and aloe vera, there are many other calming and healing ingredients that give the same skin-healing benefits.
First up, panthenol. Yes, it does sound a little intimidating but essentially, panthenol is a derivative of vitamin B5 and behaves as a humectant (it retains moisture really well) for all-day hydration. It also helps to strengthen skin’s barrier function so that it becomes more resistant to harmful external aggressors that may damage your complexion further, and boasts soothing properties.
Another ingredient to note: madecassoside, which is a derivative of centella asiatica. Just like the latter, madecassoside features anti-inflammatory properties to calm irritated complexions. Additionally, it is known to be an antioxidant and helps to increase collagen synthesis for plumper, suppler skin. If these may sound a little foreign to you, calendula might be more familiar. It is derived from the calendula flower and is super gentle and saturated with a host of antioxidants to protect and calm the skin.
Above, some beauty buys powered by the above mentioned ingredients.
