What’s the best anti-aging skincare?

Whether you’re looking to reverse signs of aging or trying to prevent aging before it happens, you’re here because you want healthier skin. Maybe you’re even hoping to discover a miracle in a jar: one amazing product that banishes all current and future wrinkles.

Wouldn’t it be nice if it was that easy? But just like anything else worth getting, good healthy skin is work. The best anti-aging skincare really just comes from being disciplined at completing the 5 basics of skincare (keep reading) twice a day, not bouncing around from product to product searching for a miracle.

Ever since I was in college, my preference has been to use natural, God-made ingredients (not man made). I started making my own skincare products and even makeup to ensure only pure, natural ingredients were getting absorbed by my skin.

That fell apart once the busyness of work and life reduced my skincare routine to two ingredients (and the makeup was an absolute fail). Then in my early 30s, the wrinkles started showing up accompanied by dull skin. I realized that for my lifestyle, I needed to purchase my skincare from a company that held the same commitment to pure ingredients I had, but could do the hard work for me so my skin could get the full nourishment it needed. If you’re able to make your own skincare, I applaud you – for the rest of us, we have a decision to make: which company do I buy my skincare from?

Choose your weapon

We all want to be using the best skincare possible, right? After all, if it’s getting absorbed by our skin, it should be good for us. But there simply isn’t one “best” skincare company for everyone because we each need to identify which company’s products match our criteria on three important things: price, effectiveness, and safety. One company might be incredibly effective and safe – but very pricey. Another company is a great price and it works, but not very safely. What is essential to you for good skincare? The routine that meets your requirements for all three is the best one for you.

It’s also important to note is that all of your skincare products should come from the same product line, and you should use all the recommended product steps (this means that if there are 3 steps, don’t just use steps 1 and 3 or step 1 from this company and steps 2 + 3 from another). Why does this matter? All skincare companies formulate their products to work together, and each step has a purpose. If you skip one of those steps, you might be missing out on an important ingredient for the entire system to work as it should!

The secret weapon

But here’s something to consider if you’re really serious about preventing further aging: nature has a secret weapon called aloe vera. If you use aloe vera as one of the main ingredients of your skincare regime, you are going to see some incredible results. You can even keep an aloe vera plant in your bathroom to get the freshest, most natural source possible (and please don’t think that anything green or blue counts – aloe vera is clear and should not be colored!).

What does aloe vera do?

• First, aloe vera is hydrophilic; this means it attracts and absorbs water like a sponge. And water is really all that our skin (like every living organism) is wanting. So aloe vera works all day to pull water out of the air to keep skin hydrated, and when applying aloe to our skin we should add a little bit of water with it.

• Next, aloe vera restores from the inside out. It helps strengthen cellular integrity, so new skin cells are stronger and healthier.

• Also, aloe vera helps skin produce collagen! This is the closest we can get to a miracle in a jar. Please note an important distinction: this is not collagen being applied to skin (which doesn’t work because collagen is too big to be absorbed at the molecular level) and we’re not ingesting collagen (the effectiveness of which is still being debated). Instead, aloe vera actually helps your body start producing it’s own collagen like it should be.

• Finally, aloe vera fights for you. It gives your skin antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antiseptic protection.

The basics of skincare

Once you have identified the company and ingredients your skincare routine must have, it’s simply a matter of establishing your routine so you can start seeing results. The great thing is, most skincare companies agree on what that should look like. There are 5 important steps for a good skincare routine:

1. Exfoliate

2. Cleanse

3. Freshen

4. Serum

5. Moisturize

The very most essential is to 1. cleanse 2. freshen and 3. moisturize. Even three steps can feel like too many, but once we understand the “why” behind each step, I hope you’ll see their importance and commit to all five. This regular routine, especially when aloe vera is the main active ingredient, will give your skin a healthy glow for years to come. Do keep in mind that results compound. Just like exercise, you won’t see results right away, but they will come if you are consistent.

Exfoliate (2x a week)

It is important to remove dead skin cells from the surface of your skin so the new, healthy cells underneath can receive nourishment (moisture). Putting moisturizer onto layers of dead skin is a waste of product since those dead cells can’t absorb that moisture! This should be done twice a week, not daily.

Cleanse (2x a day)

I’m going to confess something: I used to think cleansing twice a day was unnecessary. I understood the need to remove makeup at the end of the day, but I thought washing in the morning was a ruse the skincare companies came up with to sell more product. After all, my face was clean the night before and all I did was sleep – there was no new dirt or makeup to wash off! However, once I learned that our skin is at work the hardest while we sleep, busily restoring cells and eliminating toxins which had to be washed off before putting makeup on the next day, it suddenly felt really gross to not start the day with a clean face.

Freshen (2x a day)

Here’s another confession: I didn’t use freshener for about a decade. Again, I thought it unnecessary. But what it’s actually doing is getting our skin ready to receive the moisturizer. You see, when we cleanse our skin we are changing the pH levels, and we need to change it back before it can absorb any moisture. So to ensure your skin gets all the hydration it’s craving, make sure you follow your cleanser with freshener.

Serum (optional)

This step is for any specialty areas you want to give some extra help to (such as under the eyes to reduce puffiness, or a serum focused on reducing wrinkles or lightening dark spots. Depending on what you’re wanting to focus on, you can apply a serum to get specialty help. You may want to do several things, but can’t apply the two serums together (most serums can’t be combined). Here’s what I do: apply one serum every morning, and the other serum every night. Then you don’t have to choose between them.

Moisturizer (2x a day)

Finally! Every step has been leading up to this most important one. Our skin is craving moisture – but as I said earlier, all it really wants is water. So our moisturizer should be the conduit to get that water into our skin (which is why aloe vera is so beneficial). Do keep in mind that your skincare ingredients might be doing more harm than good – a lot of moisturizers contain oil, which repels water, therefore keeping true hydration from happening at the cellular level.

“The Aloe Difference”

My skincare journey started with an online search for how to build collagen naturally. It ended with my discovery of the skincare products that met my requirements: L’BRI, sporting the tagline “The Aloe Difference” I was so fascinated with what I was learning that I became one of their certified skincare consultants. Almost all of the information I shared above was what I learned from them, which I verified through outside sources (I thoroughly researched what they were teaching so I knew it wasn’t just them saying it). I want to include the disclaimer that I do sell their products too – but I would never push their products (I just want the consultant discount! Reversing wrinkles is fun to watch, just not cheap). Everyone needs to make the right choice for them to be the best steward of their skin they can be. L’BRI happened to be the right choice for me, and I’m hoping their training (as I passed along to you) will help you establish your own criteria to know which skincare is right for you.

Regardless of where you want to get your products, L’BRI has an incredible tool to help you verify what your skin type is and analyze which areas can be improved. If you want to take their free quiz, click the link below (make sure you’re on your phone or laptop with a camera, as it will need to access your camera to analyze your skin). If you have any questions about your results or getting that wholesale discount for yourself, email me at jennae@statementsevents.com. Here’s to having the best glowing skin we can!