Dr MCCaffrey : Importance Of Vitamin A, C & Skin Peels

‘I am going to tell you about the best ways to combat ageing skin and the effects that key ingredients Vitamin A (retinol, retin A, tretinoin) and Vitamin C have on your skin. With summer over, elements like change in climate can often cause your skin to dry out. A drop in humidity can also strip the skin of its natural moisture barrier leaving it feeling dull and lifeless. Now is the perfect time to refresh and restore your skin.’

What ingredients should we use for younger looking skin?

As we age and our skin cell function slows down, collagen production declines and the even colour of our skin change due to sun exposure and all the other environmental and hormonal issues.

The ingredients I recommend for rejuvenating the skin this autumn are Vitamin A (retinol, retin A, tretinoin) and Vitamin C.

Vitamin A is clinically proven to stimulate your skin cell cycle. Vitamin A can penetrate deep into your dermis helping stimulate collagen and elastin production.

Vitamin C is used to even the skin colour and improve skin texture. It is a powerful antioxidant, which stops and repairs free radical damage in the skin. This is the damage caused by the sun, drinking, eating bad foods and pollution. Vitamin C is quite unstable and oxidises very easily. You need to combine it with a skin-penetrating agent to allow the Vitamin C to penetrate into the dermis. I recommend a peel where we use a combination of pure vitamin C, glycolic acid, lactic and salicylic acid, resulting in brighter younger looking skin.

Clear skincare’s product ‘C’ensil’ uses a high concentrate of 25% L-Ascorbic Acid that is extremely stable, with a patented skin penetrating agent that can gets it deep into the skin. This can be applied at home.

How often can you use a Retin A product?

I recommend using 1/2 gram once per day and start on a low dose and increase the dose slowly. Initially Retin A can cause your skin to be red, itchy and sensitive, so you need to allow your skin time to be conditioned to handle it.

As Retin A increases sun sensitivity, always wear a hat and sunblock outdoors and it must be stopped during pregnancy.

Why should I exfoliate my skin?

Exfoliating your skin is critical to keeping your skin younger as it stimulates skin cell turnover. As we age our skin cell function slows down, peeling and exfoliating the skin stimulates and accelerates the skin. You can do this through treatments such as Microdermabrasion and Skin Peels. For faster, more enhanced results I recommend using laser light and heat-based treatments are fantastic for stimulating collagen production, improving skin texture and evening skin tone.