Sue: Hello everyone and welcome to PH tv channel 4 in Palos Heights. I’m Sue Jankowski, and welcome to Around Palos. Now, last month, we had our new friend Jill Stetson here with us. Jill, welcome to the program again.
Jill: Thank you. Delighted to be here.
Sue: So nice to have her here and Jill is from Skin Trust, which is actually located right on College Drive here in Palos Heights. Jill is just a phone of great information about skincare, and we kind of started last month with some basic information about skin care. There are so many other things to learn about it, and I know young and old, we want to protect our children with skin care and skin products and we want to take care of ourselves as we get older, and there’s so many things to learn, and so many products and ways to use things, and do’s and don’ts, and Jill’s here to tell us all about that. So, welcome back to the program, Jill.
Jill: Thank you, Sue.
Sue: It’s so nice to find out this stuff, and it’s so nice to have like a conversation that is not like so medical, that makes sense to everybody.
Jill: Good.
Sue: Okay so, last time we talked about caring for skin at home and so forth, but, what we really want to talk about, and actually I did mention this to somebody just in the last hour is pollution and what’s in the air. You know, we have things in the air and we can’t see it, but we know something could be affecting us, so obviously that is true.
Jill: Well you’re absolutely right, and it seems like in skin care, because it’s gotten more sophisticated over time is there’s now actually products that will help you deal with the pollution, but more importantly these are the basics. This is what happens. When you are exposed to pollution, which we unfortunately are every day, and it will vary in degrees based on where we live, we have debris and toxins build up in your skin. Pollution can also affect your collagen. We don’t want anything affecting our collagen, or at any time in our life do we want to have that actually damaged. So, it really can have an impact, and so what I encourage people to do and what the research indicates is that really double cleansing at night helps.
Sue: You talked about that last time, and that was so interesting that you need to cleanse twice, and I’d like you to review that just in case people did not see the first show. What does it mean to double cleanse?
Jill: Well I’m happy to do that because so often, people don’t know, and I know before I became an esthetician, I didn’t know either. And then I was absolutely educated and trained. What it means is take your makeup and toxins off with your first cleanse, so you can use your same cleanser. And it means get those off, and if you don’t wear makeup, and many people don’t, then get the toxins off. And this is true for men and women. Men’s skin functions a little differently, but the basic principle of pollution is the same, as well as the other things we’ll talk about today, so cleanse twice. Use your same cleanser, and twice a week, and especially in this kind of weather, have that second cleanse be an exfoliating step. So, then you would use a different product. Something that would go a little bit deeper into your pores, really clear that debris and the toxins, and let you, and also any dead skin buildup and let you get the benefit of your products. So, double cleanse has many different, huge value.
Sue: Okay, so with pollution in the air, we really do want to do that double cleanse, because there are things flying around getting on our skin.
Jill: And we had talked about a relative to get the makeup off, then you bring in the pollution aspect of it and it’s important.
Sue: Now when we do that, I know that I’ve heard the word free radicals. What are we talking about when we use those terms?
Jill: Free radicals float around, and they actually damage our cells, and they cause oxidative stress. That’s what pollution can do, plus many other things to your skin, so another way to do that is to use antioxidants on your skin and also take them orally. Because you want to protect your inside organs, and you want to protect your skin from the inside out as well as from the outside in. And they are helpful. And good examples of antioxidants are Vitamin C, Green Tea Extract, Grapeseed Extract, and also Turmeric. Those are also very good.
Sue: Now would it be, if you live in or near a city, or if you live out in the country, does that make a difference as to the pollution that’s on your skin?
Jill: It could make a difference, you’re really gonna, especially say if you’re in a city in a very high-level manufacturing area, you’re going to really be exposed to more pollution than you would be in a rural area, but I think it’s just a good habit to get into.
Sue: Okay. Just cleanse your skin well. Okay. So, it really can damage your skin, so we want to be cleansing our skin, and using the appropriate products. So along with pollution, there is also sun exposure. You know so we all have heard a lot about sun exposure. Are we doing a lot about it? I don’t know if we are or not, but I think Jill’s going to be telling us a lot about what we should be doing.
Jill: Absolutely, and actually what I think is that there are the three S’s that are very harmful to skin. And sun is one, stress is one, and smoke is one. Let me start with smoke and talk about that. Smoking is really very harsh on our skin. We know that it’s really bad from an internal perspective, but what it does that’s relative to your skin is it constricts the blood vessels, which means you are not getting nutrients, and you are not getting oxygen into your skin. Therefore, your skin can become congested, you’re not going to have that glow, it can become a much paler almost yellow color. I find too that when people come in to my practice, that those who smoke have more blackheads, and it doesn’t matter what age they are. We’re talking about you could be in your 50’s, and if you’re smoking, you’re just not getting the ability for your skin to clear, so smoking is not a good thing for us. Stress has an impact too, because if we’re in elevated stress levels for a long period of time, cortisol, the hormone is produced in our bodies, and that will cause congestion in our skin, and it can cause inflammation, and we don’t want to cause and do inflammation in our skin, because it can cause premature aging. Do you have a question?
Sue: Well I was just thinking about stress, because I was thinking you know stress is so bad for you on every level, but I never thought about it affecting skin. You just think internally stress is not good for you.
Jill: It’s not, yeah.
Sue: But it’s affecting your outside too, so you have to really think about how can I reduce that stress level.
Jill: A lot of times, you can see that. It produces more oil, and you can see that in people, and it’s something to talk about with people if they’re not pleased with what’s happening with their skin, and it’s something they can sticker.
Sue: Right. Okay, so you’ve got to manage that too.
Jill: And then the last S is sun. We talked about it a little bit last time, and we really encourage people to wear sunscreen, and I wanted to bring some important information to people today, because sun damage happens to your skin over time. 90% of adults have sun damage at some level, and there’s various degrees of it. And there’s a cosmetic aspect of sun damage, and there’s a health aspect of it that is so important, and that’s skin cancer, and preventing it. But, it happens over time, so what we did as kids can have an impact on us now. And I know, as a kid, I was a swimmer. There was no good sunscreen. Sea and ski, copper tone. My mom did the best she could, but I had sun damage. And what happens to you if you have prolonged sun damage, you have what we call photo damage on your skin. The texture of your skin is much coarser, it almost has like a leathery appearance to it, you have fine lines and wrinkles, it’s dehydrated, so it really kind of robs you of that moisture that we so need in our skin. And it’s interesting because people will say, well I’m never in the sun. Well you’re never not in the sun unless you never leave your house.
Sue: Oh, so any sun can come at you at any time?
Jill: Any sun can come at you at any time, so think about it. You go from your house to the car, you go from your car to the store. You do that over the years.
Sue: Still sun damage is happening with you.
Jill: Even sun can get through cloudy days, so I just encourage people to use your sunscreen every day. Use it on your face, neck, and your declatea, and make it just a part of your skin care routine. I also have people say well I’m going on vacation, well I’m going to go to a tanning booth and get tan so that I don’t burn. That’s not a good idea. One, tanning booths are terrible for your skin. They are a cause of cancer. Twenty minutes in a tanning booth is equivalent to two or three hours in the sun. Many tanning booths are leaving. The industry is diminishing, because they have found proof that is very, very hard on your skin. I talk about the skin cancer aspect of that. So, I just really try to educate people to say that really isn’t a good idea to do that.
Sue: Okay, don’t do that?
Jill: No, but some of the tips that we talked about last time, wear your sunscreen every day if you’re in extended sun, wear a wide brim hat, make sure that you apply your sunscreen every 90 minutes. Anyone with short hair, in particular men, always put it on your ears.
Sue: Oh, Yes, they burn so easily.
Jill: I worked for a plastic surgeon, and I saw so much skin cancer on the ears on gentlemen, and so you want to be very careful with that. And here’s another thing to think about. If you’re losing your hair on your head, and you’re in convertible or a sunroof, make sure you put sunscreen on your head.
Sue: That’s really important too. Well, Okay so you’re using a sunscreen. There’s a million of them, and you mostly predominantly see this in the summer. There’s aisle after aisle full of products. What do we pick? You look at them and think well I don’t know. Here’s one that says seven, here’s one that says ten. Beyond that, it’s companies. What kind of company? I don’t know that we’ll mention a company exactly, but I don’t know. How do you pick which one?
Jill: Well I think that here’s one guideline you can use. SPF is sun protection factor. Look for a thirty. You can find anything from a fifteen to a fifty, and you can find a few that are even over fifty. Don’t use those. You’ll put more chemicals on your skin than you need. You won’t get incremental protection, so thirty SPF is where you want to start with it. And if you’re picking one out, go ahead and look at it. Is it a physical sunscreen? Does it have titanium dioxide in it? It may have a combination of titanium oxide and zinc oxide, so it’s a combination of a physical and a chemical, and those would be the ingredients that I would look for.
Sue: Okay, well that’s good to know, because you don’t always know. Now what about those heavy ones that you see people put on their nose or ears?
Jill: I think it’s titanium oxide, and it can cover. It’s a physical, so it’s going to reflect the sun, so nothing can penetrate the skin.
Sue: Oh, is that what it’s all about?
Jill: That’s what it’s all about. It’s good. It’s protecting your skin.
Sue: And if you don’t mind the look.
Jill: Yeah if you don’t mind the look. I wouldn’t recommend that for every day.
Sue: There she goes again. Really takes this seriously. Okay, so we want to get something with good protection in it, and over 30. So, when people say I’ve got 100 you know SPF, really that’s not a great choice?
Jill: No. Not a great idea. Nothing over 50. I say 30 is great. You can definitely go up to 50, but nothing over 50.
Sue: Okay, so say we’re outside, it’s summer, we’re on vacation, how often are we applying sunscreens?
Jill: Every 90 minutes.
Sue: Every 90 minutes? Okay, so you think you put it on, you’re good to go for the day.
Jill: That’s what people think, and I have my hat on. I’ve just seen too many cases where people do that, and they get burnt. They’re only good for 90 minutes. And if you read the fine print, you’ll see that.
Sue: Okay, and you know I think what’s available now a days, or the education that young moms and dads have now with the importance of protecting their children with sunscreen, I can’t say that that kind of information was that valued or important or even out when I was a child. I don’t think we wore any kind of sunscreen at all ever, but now we have a chance to keep our kids protected from the sun.
Jill: Absolutely. Your children, teenagers, young adults. There’s so many ways to protect yourself now.
Sue: Okay. That’s very good. Okay, so really, just think before you go sit in the sun for too long. Now, you mentioned titanium oxide?
Jill: Dioxide.
Sue: Dioxide. Okay, so that’s in sunscreen, so what kind of ingredients are we looking for in regular skin care products that would be beneficial?
Jill: I think if you do have some sun damage on your skin, you know we talk about preventing it, but like you just said, we didn’t have access to this when we were growing up, so if you do have some sun damage, and you want to improve your skin, there are four key ingredients that you can use. There’s peptides. There’s Retinol, which is a Vitamin A. There’s Stem Cells, and there’s Hyaluronic Acid. So, the conditions that I said if you maybe have a different texture to your skin, if you have fine lines and wrinkles, if you perhaps have some sagging and are dehydrated, those are all ingredients that can help. A peptide will regenerate cells for you. They’re wonderful products. Matrixyl is one that is commonly used, and now there’s three generations of Matrixyl, but they will go in and repair your cells. Vitamin A, which is retinol, that’s a powerhouse of really anti-aging, youthful aging ingredients, but also very, very good for what we call photo damaged or sun damaged skin, and that really will generate more collagen in your skin, there’s an exfoliating action to it, and it will decrease the degradation of collagen. There’s a certain enzyme that can come in and damage your collagen, and it will protect it. And then you have stem cells, which are new on the horizon, and like peptides, they regenerate cells, and stem cells can be found in skin care, either a fruit product. Apple stem cells are very popular in many products, but also student stem cells, but as long as they’re ethically cultivated, and FDA approved, and it’s a very interesting process in skin care, and it’s very important to the consumer. Ethically cultivated, they’re not taken from embryos, and they’re FDA approved. There’s labs in our country that will do that, then those skin care companies will buy those stem cells from them and incorporate them into products. And last one on the list would be Hyaluronic Acid, and Hyaluronic Acid will help you with dehydration, if you have a little bit or orange-peel texture to your skin, the sun can do it to us as we’re talking about, but unfortunately aging does it as well. Hyaluronic acid gives that moisture back, and the products have gotten to be so sophisticated, that you can put a product on that has hyaluronic acid in it, but it also has an ingredient in it that stimulates Hyaluronic Acid. And what I forgot to say about Vitamin A or retinol, that’s been around for a while. It used to be that you could only get it from a physician. You certainly still can get it from a physician, and either a .5, or a 1% concentrate, but now within medical grade products, you can get so maybe it’s a .5, not as irritating, but the carrier system with the product goes deeper into your skin, and you certainly can get it in over the counter products. There’s a less concentration, but it’s there.
Sue: Okay. Now, so the products with the higher concentration, and that sort of thing, where do you purchase things like that? Because it wouldn’t be at the drug store, would it?
Jill: No. You can get certain products at the drug store that will have some level of retinol in them, and they’re usually on the front of the label, and it’s easy to see on the ingredient list, and then Physician’s office, or an Esthetician’s office. Some spas may have them. Those would be the concept organizations that have them.
Sue: Okay, so you need to find those to get that sort of thing. Okay, so besides those skin care products, and just limiting exposure to the sun, what other things can we do to have really great looking skin?
Jill: Well, like anything else, it comes back to basic health. It really comes back to that. In basic health, we have diet, we have exercise, we have sleep, and we have water intake. And, you know it’s like everything. It comes back to how do we care for ourselves. And some, you know we talked about the topical ingredients. The antioxidants, the Vitamin A. You can also internally take that, you know you protect your organs, but you protect your skin. Your skin is your largest organ. So, it really helps us with that, but it comes back to having good habits. I mean for skin, some of the power fruits and vegetable are all your green leafy vegetables, blueberries, cantaloupe, avocados. They have good oil, and we tend to get a little drier, but the avocados are good.
Sue: I mean look at what you’re saying. This is what doctors are telling us and every healthcare person is saying hey, you need that plate full of vegetables and fruit, and water and exercise, so it’s the same for skin.
Jill: It’s the same. Absolutely. So, if you do it for your skin, or you do it for yourself, you’ll get the benefits.
Sue: It’s just all around gonna make you better.
Jill: It is gonna make you better. So, your fruits and veggies, they really, really help. Stay away from sugar. And we’ve heard that, haven’t we?
Sue: We have. Yes.
Jill: Sugar and skin are not friends.
Sue: Okay, so that we want to, and you know I think the thing is too is maybe just it’s me becoming more aware, but you know there’s been such a resurgence of drinking water, and getting away from those carbonated beverages, and you know too much coffee, or too much wine, too much of anything, just you really need water in your system, because your body is basically water, and that’s really gonna help your skin too, so these are all things that are relatively newly pushed onto people like in the last decade or so.
Jill: But it really seems like the water has taken over. Some of all of these have taken over, and the water is interesting because a lot of people, especially this time of year, they’ll say well my skin is dehydrated, and it is, and they just haven’t been drinking enough, and what I encourage people is you want to drink water, you have to have it to remove the toxins from your body, or the toxins will come up from your skin and you don’t want that, but as you and I said, the skin is your largest organ, and is the last organ to get your water, so drink it, you know your 8 glasses a day. There are certain calculations out there that based on your weight maybe even a little bit more, a little bit less, whatever you’re comfortable with doing, but drink your water, but then sometimes you still have to as we talked about, you have to add moisture to your skin. The Hyaluronic acids, the glycerins. Those are really important ingredients to add to your skin.
Sue: So, you’ve got to help with both directions. So now we’re sleeping, and we’ve cleansed our skin, and we’ve put on something, now what happens with sleep? Because that’s one of the things that you mentioned. Water intake, exercise and sleep. Now what’s happening during sleep that is good for our skin?
Jill: Well, it’s a restorative time, so it’s when you’re using a product that’s gonna help you maybe regenerate some cells, improve the cell’s performance, it’s all gonna happen when you’re sleeping, and that’s why sleep is important. It’s your body restoring itself, but what’s interesting about that is the body will lose more moisture in the night, so between the hours of nine and eleven at night, your body will lose moisture, so if you can, and you can always do this, and I certainly don’t always do it. Put your nighttime routine on before nine o’clock, your nighttime regimen rather. Your skincare. Put it on before nine o’clock so you get the full benefits from it, but sleep is imperative and it’s imperative for our body. We’re really talking about our skin is our organ, and like all the functionality of our organs, we need to take care of them.
Sue: And sleep you know, we say we need four hours, five hours a night, like well that’s not much sleep. I think most people do need that seven hours, eight hours, whatever. Everybody has a set point that they feel best at, but if you can get that sleep, that really helps too. Sometimes, what if you’re just too tired, you just said you should do your night routine before nine o’clock because that’s a good time to do it. Sometimes it’s ten o’clock, or eleven, and you’re like I cannot take off this makeup. What happens?
Jill: Well, it’s common and isn’t it, we’re all so tired. And it’s so interesting because lately I’ve heard people say I really come home and try to do my skin care routine before I get to that hour where I just don’t want to do it, and I said that’s wonderful if you can do that. It’s wonderful, but for one night, it’s not going to ruin your skin. Do not do it repeatedly though because you will prematurely damage your skin. And a tip I have for you is if you have one of those nights that’s like I can’t I just can’t, then in the morning, get up and do your double cleanse. Cleanse, and exfoliate your skin. You’ll really work those pores to try to get any buildup that may have settled in them overnight. So that’s my tip. And we all have a night like that.
Sue: We do, I mean there’s just sometimes all of a sudden, it’s later than you think and you’re more tired than you thought too.
Jill: Absolutely.
Sue: So, then you’re like I’m just not gonna do it, but I think the key to success would be doing it, well into if you’re not going out for the evening, you’re in the house for the evening, go ahead and do that earlier at seven o’clock, eight o’clock at night.
Jill: Yeah, and be done with it, and enjoy the rest of your evening, and you’re done with it, and everything is well locked in for the night.
Sue: It actually doesn’t take very long either.
Jill: It doesn’t, no.
Sue: If you get your routine down, it’s really just a matter of a few ten minutes or whatever to do that.
Jill: That’s a great point. People don’t want to have five, six, seven steps in your skin care routine, and with the products available, you don’t need to do that, but you should have some routine, and you’re cleansing your skin, you’re applying some moisturizer, or moisture to your skin, it’s gonna take you a long while.
Sue: Does this vary, I mean most men are not wearing makeup, so do they have to be doing something different? Should they be doing that double cleansing? You said they should do that. And should they be putting on the moisturizer?
Jill: They should. Their skin is very different. It functions different. I mean if they’re shaving every day, they’re getting some level of exfoliation, and their skin is thicker. Their skin produces a little more oil than a female’s does, but when you think about some of the aging issues, dark spots, that’s one of the more significant sun damage slash aging issue. They still get those too, which is why it’s so important for them to put a sunscreen on, so important for them to cleanse their skin, and to moisturize it. A man may shave, in this weather we’re having currently, and that’s fine, but if that skin is bare, it’s still going to irritate that outer layer of the skin. There will be some level of irritation, and then maybe it will make shaving much more difficult for them, so yes, they want to do the basics. Cleanse, moisturize, and sunscreen.
Sue: Okay, now with the moisturizing, would that be, since their skin is a little bit different, would be a different moisturizer than a woman would use, or no? It would be the same?
Jill: I would say that it would be different. It would be lighter. They don’t need to have maybe the richness and the amount of oil in the various moisturizers. They would still benefit from a Hyaluronic Acid to add a moisture and then a lightweight moisturizer over that, if that were the case. Like women, every man is different. But, all that we talked about today holds true for men. They’re exposed to sun, they have some of the same issues that we solved from that. The lifestyle issues. They also get the benefits from those too.
Sue: Right, all those.
Jill: Absolutely.
Sue: Okay, so we’ve had really, I’ll use the word abominable weather, I mean I expect the abominable snowman to come out, so we have really challenging weather, so you know, I’ve been out, and the wind is blowing, and the snow is flying in my face, and I would think that this would be just as harsh as sun would be almost on your face.
Jill: I think winter is worse. I think it terrorizes skin, that’s what I say about it.
Sue: Right, it’s not just me.
Jill: Here’s a general rule. In winter time, you have to change moisturizer from what you were wearing in the summer. Your skin needs more protection. You need some protection all year round, and many times in the summer, your SPF can be your daily moisturizer, because the humidity level is up. There’s much more moisture in the environment, so you need to either wear a sunscreen that can suffice as a moisturizer, because many of them can, or a lightweight moisturizer. You have to have something much more protective in the winter time, and the general rule is, we have two seasons in Chicago, change your moisturizer twice a year.
Sue: Okay, that makes a lot of sense.
Jill: It does.
Sue: Now in the winter time too, we always try to have some kind of humidifier going on to keep it as moist as possible. I think that would be helpful for your skin.
Jill: It is helpful. Absolutely.
Sue: How about these little ones that people have right next to their beds, with lots of moisture going in? I don’t know. Is that any more helpful than just moisturizing your whole home? Do you know what I’m talking about?
Jill: I know what you’re talking about. I think they both have purpose, I think that they can both be very helpful to your skin. The more moisture that you get into the air, the better. Because what’s so damaging about skin in the winter time is you’re in the harsh heat, so if you can temper that somewhat with moisture, that’s great. Then you go outside and you’re in the cold wind, and it’s just boom, boom, it’s hitting your skin, and you can just imagine, and we talked about last time, I see a lot of people come in and say I’m sensitive, and they are, but it’s sensitive because the outer layer of the skin is irritated, and we just have to heal that, and then they can wear anything, but up until that’s healed, their skin is saying no, don’t do that. So, and that’s what happens a lot of times and people don’t realize that you really do need to change your moisturizer. Sometimes cleansers, but absolutely moisturizers.
Sue: Okay. So, we should all be using something different right now than we would’ve used in the spring and summer. Okay. Alright.
Jill: Absolutely.
Sue: Jill, is there anything else that we want to let people know before we conclude this?
Jill: There’s just one other tip, and that goes to the lifestyle, and we already know this, but I’m just gonna say how this relates to skin care, and that’s exercise. We talked a little bit about that, but just as we’ve talked about smoking constricts the capillaries and blood vessels and almost suffocates your skin, the exercise is the opposite. It stimulates your capillaries and blood vessels. It brings nutrients and oxygen to your skin, and you get a lovely glow from that. And it’s not something, you can just walk, you can use a bicycle, you can do yoga. All of that will have an impact, and if you want to be more intense, go for it. It’s all gonna help your skin, but exercise is wonderful to have a beautiful glow, and give yourself a beautiful glow.
Sue: That’s great advice, Jill. And it’s all, it’s not just your skin. It’s just for your whole well-being.
Jill: Absolutely.
Sue: And your skin’s gonna look great, and you start using the right products, and you avoid some of the things, and now we’re educated about the sun, and I think that’s so important too.
Jill: One other thing I’d like to mention I forgot, and that is we go back to sun and talk about it. I highly recommend that people have an annual body check with their physicians, because sun damage accumulates over time, and we can’t physically see our whole bodies, so I strongly encourage you to see your dermatologist. Whoever’s doing your body screening for you to see if there’s anything that pops up, because the sooner you catch it, the better of you’ll be. If you’re working with an esthetician, we’re trained to identify suspicious spots on your skin. We don’t diagnose it. We just gently recommend that someone go see their doctor. So, you can do either, but I think ultimately seeing your doctor every year is really important to do, because the sooner you catch it, the better off you are.
Sue: That’s really great advice, it really is. And it’s once a year, and it’s painless, it takes a minute. And if you find something out that’s gonna help you, that’s what you wanna do.
Jill: It is well worth it.
Sue: Okay. Again, thanks Jill. This is just number two of our three-part series. And we’ll be back next month with another interesting group of information that you will find from Jill, and she’s just a fountain of great information. So, Jill, thank you so much. If anybody wants to contact you, and find out more questions, they can do that by going to Skin Trust, and I want to give your phone number. It is 541-9191 if there was any further questions or you just want to review some of the things we’ve talked about. I’m sure Jill would be happy to talk to you.
Jill: I’d be happy to.
Sue: And so, I hope you’ve enjoyed this program. I sure have. I’m learning a lot. Thank you, Jill.
Jill: Thank you, Sue.