Feeling a little stressed?

STRESSED? If not, you are in the minority. In all my years of working as an esthetician, I have never encountered the amount of stressed skin I am seeing everyday on the bed.

For those of you who have been in, good for you for taking time for some self care. As they say on a plane, put your own oxygen mask on first!

One of the reasons I became an esthetician was to deal with my own very sensitive skin. Sensitive and stressed skin are similar in behavior and response, but they're not quite the same beast. And this season, the skin walking in the door has been crazy town. In fact, we've seen so much highly-stressed skin, we've had to find some additional products to add to our arsenal.

The way stress affects the skin are numerous:

• Stress is the 2nd leading cause of premature aging
• Stress is the #1 rosacea trigger
• Stress suppresses the immune response
• Stress lengthens wound healing time up to 30%
• Stress affects every element of your skin, from pores to dermal proteins to the DNA locked inside every cell
• Stress alters your genetic code & shortens the productive life span of skin cells
• Stress makes every skin condition worse, especially acne

Cortisol and epinephrine (aka adrenaline) trigger inflammation at a cellular level, which reduces our ability to repair damaged skin. This leads to cell death through out the skin and causes over production of enzymes that destroy collagen, elastin and other dermal proteins.

Stop in to see all of our wonderful products that can help with stressed skin. We always have a glass of refreshing water, tea or wine waiting for you.