Get glowing results with evening cleanse
IT makes grim reading to see how gravity affects us as we age. We lose 30% of facial collagen in the first five years after menopause. Our hormone induced facial bone loss can be up to 20%, giving us a dull and shrunken look. The natural protective barrier deteriorates further leaving skin drier, more sensitive and susceptible to bruising and we notice the appearance of jowls and excess folds.
Kate O’Brien does not shy away from that reality which she spells out in her new book called Glow, when she discusses the affects of the ageing process. However, despite that, she delivers a hopeful message about how we can enhance and maintain radiant skin, at any stage of life, which is the secret to ageing well, after all.
The Dublin-based 53-year-old mother of three who has qualifications in nutrition and cosmetic science, brings research to her book from 15 years dedicated to interviewing the world’s experts in this field.
However, it was only quite recently that she discovered for instance, that we should cleanse our skin in keeping with the circadian rhythm of night and daylight.
“I’ve been writing about skin for many years but a lot of the research is quite new around this and I’m fascinated by it myself. Night-time, when we are asleep, is when the skin and the whole body repairs but what I learned is that the earlier you prep your skin before sleep, the more effectively the skin will repair.”
According to the research essential skin healing begins at dusk, when the sun goes down and the skin slowly starts to move into repair mode. “So it makes sense to remove the day’s grime and thoroughly cleanse the skin as early as possible in the evening as the skin’s fibroblast cells start producing collagen once the skin is completely clean, with it peaking around midnight,” she says.
The cell renewal and collagen production pinnacles then at about 2am, triggered by a peak in growth hormone activity and enhanced blood flow to the skin. And as the new day dawns, your rejuvenated skin switches from repair to protection mode and the cycle begins all over.
She has incorporated this it into her own routine: “I do it now unless I’m going out at night. But if I’m not, my face is clean by 6.30pm and it feels great.”
In the book she reveals the nightly regime we should take, as well as the importance of products for ageing skin, which contain hyaluronic acid (“like a big sponge for our skin”) and antioxidant vitamins which don’t eliminate lines, but do even them out, she says.
And even if we don’t wear make-up, it’s really important that we still cleanse our skin of the environmental pollution all around us which is a habit Irish women are seemingly bad at doing, she warns.
That’s just one of the many tips that she gives for keeping our skin in top shape externally.Glow also contains tried and tested home-made recipes for skin-nourishing masks, scrubs and oils. The book also features a step-by-step four-week plan incorporating those tips but also featuring delicious mostly plant-based meals, juices and teas to cleanse, heal and nourish (the themes of the first three weeks) from within, with the goal of achieving a fresh-faced radiant glow by week four.
Ultimately it is our diet that influences how we look as we age, with the fats in our diets the big influencer, O’Brien tells Feelgood. “When I studied nutrition many years ago fats were the enemy but now I know that they are key — for skin, for the gut for everything. Essential fats are essential and a lot of us don’t eat enough of them.
As we get older the fats help just give a little bit of plumpness to the face, stop it sagging so much and just give a healthier glow. I really believe you can see it in people as they get older.
Although she admits she doesn’t “have scientific evidence”, it’s her firm belief that that diet and lifestyle probably influences our ageing by up to 60%.
“And yes, it can be grim and you can’t stop it all, but you can make the best of this time in your life and help make the best of you at this stage of life: look a lot better, feel a lot better than if you wouldn’t do anything,” she says.
And her own attitude to getting older? “To be honest I struggled with it a few years ago, but now I’m more accepting of it. I realise you just have got to make the most of it and look on the positive and take care of yourself.”
