Customized Skin Care Solutions for Healthy Skin This Summer

Skin care becomes especially important during the summer months, and now your routine can become easier with these customized skin care solutions to ensure gorgeous, summer skin.

Ah, summer. What a glorious time to be alive. The outdoors is rich with sunshine, beautiful flowers, people celebrating life, and just a whole lot of fun.

Unless, of course, you happen to be one of the many patients who seem to struggle with skin care issues the moment warmer weather arrives.

For a small number of patients, excess sun exposure and warmer temperatures cause skin problems like dryness, oiliness, texture or tone problems, or flaking. Skin may start to look dry, puffy, and dull, leaving the individual struggling to cope.

If you can relate, we want to help. First, we’ll tell you why commercial skin care products aren’t the right answer. Then, we’ll explain why customized skin care solutions are so much better for your skin.

You CAN love summer and your skin, too!

The Problem With Commercial Products

Let’s get started.

Your skin, and how it functions, is highly complex. Its health and appearance is modulated by everything from:

• Genetics
• Diet
• Sun exposure
• Smoking
• Exercise
• Even the products you use at home

When summer skin issues crop up, most patients turn to everyday OTC products in an attempt to regain control – masks, moisturizers, astringents, and sunscreens, for example.

While these items may work, at least temporarily, their “one size fits all” design makes them very limited in scope, results, and efficacy (how effective they are on an individual level). The problem is that commercial products are mass-produced, meaning that manufacturers generally target the most common causes of a symptom to ensure they meet the needs of the “average person.”

This doesn’t really consider the individual patient’s very unique skin profile, sensitivities, or needs. 

At best, they’re okay for mild issues and totally ineffective for more serious concerns. At worst, they may even cause patients to rebound in the opposite direction, causing irritation, redness, or new skin problems along the way.

So what’s the real answer?

The Case for Customized Skin Care

When it comes to fixing skin care concerns, customized skin care solutions for healthy skin take your skin care regimen far beyond anything possible with OTC commercial products. Because they treat the individual, and not the “standard average,” the risk of accidentally triggering new problems, or simply not seeing results, is much, much lower.

Usually, you’ll start the process with an individualized skin care assessment.

This allows your provider to identify:

• Your skin type
• The exact cause of your concerns
• Any factors (such as sun exposure, allergies, or skin conditions like rosacea) that may be contributing to your symptoms

Customized skin care formulation allows providers to create highly-targeted solutions for every skin type, every skin concern, and every lifestyle.

It removes the guesswork and gives you the confidence to know you’re getting the right fix without taking risks. That’s peace of mind you won’t find in an OTC product, especially if you have particularly finicky or sensitive skin!

Cosmeceutical Ingredients in Custom Skin Care

Now, let’s get specific about what can be added to customized skin care products. In the next few sections, we’ll tell you about some of the best custom product ingredients and how they provide support for unique summer skin concerns.

Your personalized solution is just a few steps away.

1. Ellagic Acid

Ellagic acid is a naturally-occurring substance extracted from nuts and berries.

It is most commonly associated with strawberry, raspberry, and walnut – and yes, that means eating these foods might be beneficial for your skin.

Benefits:

• Taken orally, it may help to improve immune function.
• Oral ellagic acid might bind to cancer cells or even prevent cancer from occurring, which may make it a good choice for preventing melanoma as a result of sun damage.
• You can use ellagic acid topically to resolve specific skin concerns.
• Combo products with ellagic acid and salicylic acid are nearly as effective at eliminating hyperpigmentation and melasma as prescription hydroquinone.
• Used alone, ellagic acid can also reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines.

For summer, consider ellagic acid when the sun leaves freckles, dark spots, and darker pigmentation anywhere you want to avoid it.

Ask your compounding pharmacist about combination products if you also need to firm or smooth.

2. Vitamin C

The same vitamin you likely take every morning with your breakfast – either in the form of orange juice or in a multivitamin – also happens to be a powerful topical antioxidant, too.

Topical vitamin C is so common that you’ll find it in nearly all skin-brightening serums, most professional facials, and even chemical peels!

Benefits:

• Used topically (most often in tandem with moisturizers to offset its mild drying effect), this essential nutrient brightens, tightens, and sometimes, lightens for a more youthful appearance.
• Its antioxidant effect encourages healthier skin regeneration.
• The antioxidants also improve the body’s ability to clear environmental toxins.

Cosmetics expert Joshua Zeichner, who works for Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, also says the substance is chemoprotective. “[Vitamin C] may even help protect the skin from pre-cancerous changes from UV light exposure,” he explains, “by neutralizing free radicals.”

3. Retinol

If proper hydration is the “man behind the curtain” in great skin, then retinoids are the “fountain of youth” involved in fighting signs of aging. And since sun exposure and sun damage speed the same signs of aging, it’s a great option to talk about when we talk about healthy summer skin.

Retinol, or “retinoic acid,” is essentially comprised of Vitamin A1, although it does come in a few different forms.

Benefits:

It can be used orally to treat certain auto-immune skin conditions like Psoriasis, although this use is rare because oral use generally increases LDL cholesterol levels in the blood over time.

Topically, retinol stimulates the production of new skin cells.

Older, duller skin cells are cleared away to make room for brighter, smoother, more elastic cells, leading to a fresher and more “awake” appearance.

But that’s far from retinoid’s only benefit; it can also:

• Eliminate acne
• Reduce the appearance of fine lines
• Eliminate symptoms of photo-aging (like melasma and hyperpigmentation)
• Even out skin tone

4. Hydroquinone

Hydroquinone, or just quinone, is one of the most widely-used substances in the cosmeceutical industry.

It is best known for its ability to lighten and brighten the skin (part of the reason it’s so commonly found in skin bleaching agents).

Benefits:

Unlike other bleaches that strip color out of the skin, hydroquinone works proactively to prevent melanin production in the first place.

• That means if you use a product containing it now, you may be able to prevent dark spots from ever occurring.
• And if you already have dark spots? That’s okay – quinone can make it easier for your body to clear them in tandem with other products.

However, there is one small catch: hydroquinone can, in some cases, make you more sensitive to the sun.

Customized sunscreens with hydroquinone may allow you to reap the benefits without the associated risks, but you should always use this prescription ingredient under the watchful eye of a professional.

Conclusion

A customized skin care routine has many benefits for every individual, especially if you find you have sensitive skin.

Rather than taking an over-the-counter skin care regimen that is mass produced for everyone, create a customized skin care regimen that is made for you.

A compounding pharmacy can help you create the perfect skin care solution to ensure glowing summer skin, while avoiding your typical summer skin issues.

This is especially true if you suffer from allergies or need additional help with your routine.

Custom skin care products can:

• Include ellagic acid
• Increase Vitamin C levels (or any other vitamin you need)
• Add retinol
• Utilize hydroquinone
• Exclude gluten
• Avoid allergies
• And, much more

Call us today if you need help with creating custom compounded cosmeceutical products.