This spring, we celebrated every type of wellness at our second annual Live Well Festival at Old Sessions House, in London. Over two days in May, we explored that happy place where wellbeing meets success.
A particular highlight was our panel on the science of skin and how to build and replenish your confidence, featuring a stunning speaker lineup with Lavinia Stone, Education Manager at British skincare brand Medik8, celebrity master facialist and skincare expert Michaella Boulder, integrative nutrition coach and founder of 79Skin Karen Cummings, skin health ambassador and health coach Donna Bartoli and moderator, AllBright CEO Viv Paxinos.
In between treating lucky guests to the fully booked facials at the festival, Lavinia set the tone for the conversation by sharing her passion for purpose led brand Medik8 over 7 years: “I’m fortunate enough to work for an exceptional skincare brand. I work to empower medical and beauty practitioners globally with education, teaching them Medik8’s CSA philosophy, which is vitamin C in the morning, followed by sunscreen and to really rehabilitate the skin cells at night by using vitamin A.”
If you missed out on the live panel, you’re in luck – read on for all the golden nuggets on how to help your skin sing and radiate from the inside out.
The biggest skin myths busted
More than ever, there is a huge amount of competition for our attention among health and beauty brands. The skincare market now is so crowded that all the constant – and sometimes conflicting – messages telling us how to treat our skin can start to sound like noise. So with a panel chock full of skincare experts, what we really want to know is what are the biggest misconceptions when it comes to our skin.
“It goes a lot deeper than the surface,“ said Michaella. “When you have an issue on the outside of your skin, we tend to know it’s coming from the inside, whether that’s genetics or the cause of medication or trauma from the inside or outside – for example, scar tissue, high pigmentation, sun damage.”
“It’s a common misconception to say that it’s the environment and that we can work inside out, and that’s what we do with things like supplements and how we’re nourishing and feeding ourselves, whether it’s hormones or genetic issues. I think to be able to work from the bottom up is how you get your results – and then we can work on the skin and the inside,” Michaella said.
The science backed ingredients for your skincare routine
When it comes to understanding the key elements you should incorporate in your skincare routine, it’s much simpler than you might expect.
“The industry is extremely overwhelming and every skincare product and ingredient is claiming to be the next best thing and to stimulate collagen elastin,” Lavinia said. “But actually, what our skin needs to thrive, to be nourished and to get optimum skin health is essentially what the skin is made from. So we want to reinforce and replace lost lipids, fatty acids, humectants and proteins like hyaluronic acid, working with peptides and exosomes to really stimulate natural collagen within the skin.
“It’s really about understanding what the skin is made from and what the skin is deficient in, which is often vitamin C and vitamin A, and reinforcing and replacing that topically in the skin to get optimal results,” she said. “People have 10 step regimes, and that's just not realistic or not always necessary. Three or four core essential ingredient products can give you exceptional skin care results: a great cleanser that respects the skin’s barrier, followed by vitamin C serum in the morning, then the holy grail: sunscreen – if I was going to wear one ingredient for the rest of my life, it would be sunscreen. And then at night, rehabilitating your skin cells with vitamin A,” Lavinia explained.
The role of consistency in your skin health
Given how easy Medik8 makes it to build a simple skincare routine, Viv then asked Lavinia how important it is to have a consistent routine for your skincare, and why.
“We’re exposed to so many elements every single day: stresses and environments, that we’re losing essential moisture, water and everything our skin needs to be healthy, and we need to replace it,” Lavinia said.
“Consistency is really important, particularly if you want to target something more stubborn in the skin like hyperpigmentation which can be quite challenging to treat, ageing and that prevention process. It should be nonnegotiable – keep your routine really really simple so you never skip it, and it’s easy to follow like brushing your teeth,” she advised.
Must have skincare products
Viv also asked the panel for their desert island skincare product or tool – their one must-have item for their skin that they can’t live without.
Karen chose the ZIIP and Donna went for her full body red light panels. Lavinia said: “SPF is the most powerful for anti-aging, and I can’t live without hyaluronic acid, because it gives you this amazing density to your skin, this volume and it makes your skin feel comfortable. We’re all chronically dehydrated because of our lifestyles and what we’re exposed to. So for me, hyaluronic acid is the absolute.”
If you’re ready to take the guesswork out of skincare and discover what works for you, take our quiz now and begin your journey to age-defying results without compromise today.