Lifestyle Habits
Lifestyle habits can have an impact on the severity of acne and sometimes all it takes is a little tweak in some of these to have a vast improvement. 

• A lack of daily skincare routine or even the wrong skincare routine can have a dramatic effect on your skin.  Some makeup, hair products and skincare products contain pore clogging ingredients such as lanolin and mineral oils.
• Smoking damages cells, constricts blood vessels and impairs cell turnover which can affect the skins ability to heal itself, creating those conditions that bacteria love so much. 
• Squeezing or picking at breakouts at home can exacerbate acne by spreading the bacteria to other areas. 
• Wearing tight fitting or itchy clothing can make acne on the body worse by causing sweat to cling to the area or create friction that irritates and aggravates inflammation. 
• Certain medications can also affect the severity of a breakout.

 
Sugar Consumption
Sugary, refined and processed foods can contribute to breakouts by triggering more oil production.

How do you treat acne?
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1. Reduce stress levels.  This can seem hard to do but there are plenty of tools out there to help with stress management.  There are a variety of apps, books, podcasts and even programmes on some streaming platforms that teach techniques in breathing exercises and refocusing the mind.  Ensure that you regularly take time for yourself to escape from your stress triggers this will also ensure that you are sleeping better.  Our skin heals best when we are sleeping.
2. Establish a regular and effective skincare routine.  The best way to do this is to speak to your skincare provider (aka us!) who will be able to recommend and explain how to use the products most suited to your individual needs.  
3. Limit your skins exposure to bacteria by washing makeup brushes regularly, changing pillowcases weekly and disinfecting mobile phones daily.
4. Have a cleaner diet.  Reduce sugar consumption, drink more water, limit your caffeine intake and eat fresh as often as possible.  Fresh food contains more nutrients and has less sugar and preservatives than processed foods.  Think of colour variation when it comes to fruits and vegetables.  The more colour you have on your plate, the more nutrients you are consuming.
5. Wear SPF daily.  Wearing SPF protects the skin from harmful UV rays.  It should be worn every day and topped up through the day, even if it is cloudy as the rays can penetrate through clouds.  Blue light is a form of harmful UV ray that we are exposed to through our devices, so it is now increasingly more important to even wear SPF indoors.
6. Book some skin treatments.  Speak to us about our acne clearing treatments and we can prescribe the most effective course of treatment for your individua needs.  We have many treatments aimed at effectively treating acne from our Dermalogica and Repechage facials to our Microdermabrasion and High Frequency machine based facial treatments and we are always happy to help guide you through your journey to better skin.

  
 
Dermalogica articles ‘Why are you breaking out?’, ‘Adult Acne’ and ‘How to treat adult acne’ used for refence during writing.

Collagen Lift from Skinbase is our most advanced and effective anti-ageing treatment yet.  We introduced it to the salon back in March, just two weeks before lockdown.  As excited as we were, we unfortunately had little time to tell you much about it.  So, let’s get started.

As skin ages the fibres within the dermal layers start to lose their structure. The collagen in our skin that we are born with decreases by approximately 1% every year from the age of 25 and our elastin fibres become stretched and loose over time. They become sparser and more irregular causing fine lines and wrinkles to form and the skin to lose its plump, youthful appearance.

Collagen Lift firms, tightens and plumps the skin without recovery or downtime.  It is a non-surgical, non-invasive treatment that uses radio frequency energy waves to realign fibres within the skin back into a more even and structured pattern. This improves the skin tone and appearance and helps to reverse the signs of skin ageing.  Elastin fibres tighten and we begin to produce new collagen, similar to the kind we see in scar tissue when the skin has to regenerate and repair itself.

Some results can potentially be seen immediately after the first treatment, with a tightening and smoothing effect.  Continuous improvements from a course of treatments can be seen for up to 3 months, with long term results lasting up to 2 years, as new collagen is produced over the coming weeks.  

The very best part of this treatment? It is painless, enjoyable and relaxing.  Clients describe it as feeling similar to a hot stone massage.  That old saying that ‘there’s no beauty without pain’ couldn’t be further from the truth. Just lie back and let us gently, warmly and effectively treat your skin. Also, this treatment is not just for the face, it can be used on thighs, bum and tum to tighten and lift!
 
What are the benefits?

• Tones and tightens skin
• Reduces cellulite
• Softens fine lines
• Stimulates collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid
• Painless and relaxing

 
What areas can be treated?

• Face
• Neck
• Jowls
• Around the eyes
• Frown lines
• Décolleté/upper chest area
• Tummy
• Arms
• Knees
• Bottom
• Thighs

 
Sounds great, what do I do now?
The first step is a consultation and a patch test at least 48 hours before treatment.  This takes roughly 15 minutes and determines whether the treatment is suitable for you.  There are certain underlying conditions that prevent us from offering the treatment to everyone. We patch test you check that you can tolerate the conductive gel and energy waves working together.  We will also discuss pricing and treatment plans so you can make a fully informed decision about whether it is right for you in every sense. 
On the day of your treatment, you will have to remove jewellery and any other metal you may have in contact with your skin, before getting comfortable on the bed.  Your face is cleansed and a hydrating, conductive gel is applied. Then, as you will see in the video, 2 different ceramic wands are used in a circular, lifting motion to deliver the energy waves into the skin to stimulates the production of collagen and tighten elastin fibres. 
The radio frequency energy waves prompt the cells within the skin to metabolise more effectively, stimulating your microcirculation. This increases oxygen flow to the tissue which helps promote skin healing and rejuvenation.  The treatment also speeds up the elimination of toxins from the body by stimulating the lymphatic system. This aids the immune system in removing waste and debris from the body, resulting in a detoxifying effect.
To complete the session we then apply a hydrating serum, a nourishing moisturiser and a good broad spectrum SPF.
 
For best results Skinbase recommend a course of treatments is recommended.  Speak to one of our skin experts in the salon to discuss your needs and come up with a treatment plan.
Check out our accompanying video to see Caroline have a treatment done.