One way or another, there are a lot of things that influence our skin’s well-being. And this is exactly why people are constantly on the lookout for the “holy grail” solution for the many problems that our body can face – one of which is loose skin.
Having loose skin is not by any means the most horrific thing that can happen to your skin – after all, it comes with age and it’s only a natural phenomenon that’s a lot more common than we might initially think.
Keeping that in mind, this doesn’t mean that taking extensive care of your skin and searching for ways to keep it tight and elastic should be frowned upon. There are plenty of things you can do to get your skin in the shape you want it, and tightening creams are one of the most efficient ways to go about it. Let’s find out more about them, shall we?
Table of Contents:
- Understanding the Causes of Loose Skin and How to Treat It
- The Benefits of Skin Tightening Creams for Your Face and Body
- How to Choose the Perfect Skin Tightening Cream for Your Face and Body
- Top Tips to Keep Your Skin Healthy and Youthful
Understanding the Causes of Loose Skin and How to Treat It
Our skin, elastic as it may be, also has its limits. Saggy-looking skin may be caused by a multitude of factors, and these can include any of the following:
Aging
As we’ve said before, loose skin is a perfectly natural occurrence. And this is because, as we grow older, we gradually lose elastin and collagen, the two proteins which give our skin the ability to be flexible and firm.
More than that, several external factors can speed up aging (and the saggy aspect of the skin along with it), including the usual damage caused by the UV rays, general pollution, and an unhealthy lifestyle.
Pregnancy
Post-pregnancy saggy skin is a lot more common than you might think, and in most cases, it’s to be expected.
Through the growth of the fetus, the skin gets stretched out throughout the gestation period, damaging the elastin and collagen, and making it harder for your skin to bounce back to its normal form once the birth has occurred.
This happens particularly because the ‘weight’ of the pregnancy is suddenly gone, and there is no time for the skin to heal properly and steadily.
Weight loss
On a similar principle to pregnancy, losing a great amount of weight causes saggy skin, especially if that weight was lost in a short span of time. And once again, we go back to an imbalance in the body’s elastin and collagen – since the skin has been trained to a certain form and can't go back to normal immediately, it requires an adjustment period.
The Benefits of Skin Tightening Creams for Your Face and Body
Tightening creams work by giving the skin the extra hydration it needs, increasing collagen and elastin levels in the process.
The rate at which our bodies produce collagen and elastin lowers around the age of 25, and at a certain point later in our lives, there is nearly no collagen production, making the skin weak and loose. Essentially, tightening creams are akin to a moisturizer – but more efficient.
The ingredients that you should look for in tightening creams are:
- Vitamin C and E: These vitamins are antioxidants, which fight against oxidative stress, the chemical reaction that causes saggy skin and wrinkles; they also help with wound healing, scarring, and sun damage.
- Peptides: These amino acids speed up the rate of collagen production, giving the skin structure and strength.
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Caffeine: Helps with puffiness and reduces inflammation, as well as boosts blood circulation to the skin.
- Hyaluronic acid: This molecule is the one that regulates hydration at the outer layer of the skin, and its slow production can also cause the skin to lose elasticity.
How to Choose the Perfect Skin Tightening Cream for Your Face and Body
By now, knowing just how essential they are to the elasticity and liveliness of your skin, it’s clear that your #1 priority should be to look for creams that promise to boost collagen and elastin production. If you’re looking for tightening creams for your neck and face, which are the thinnest and sensitive areas of the body, products that contain retinol and peptides are a good investment, given their promotion of skin integrity.
Regardless of the specific product you pick out, ensure that your cream has built-in SPF. The Sun’s UV rays are very harmful, and as we have mentioned, they speed up the process of aging. If you apply creams with SPF when you are tanning at the beach or the pool, what is stopping you from using SPF on your face and body as part of your day-to-day routine as well?
On the topic of your body, since the skin on your body is thicker than the one of the face and neck, it is a good idea to invest in creams that have a heavier, more powerful consistency, specialized in taking care of the after-effects of saggy skin, like stretch marks and scars.
Top Tips to Keep Your Skin Healthy and Youthful
While picking out the right products is an incredibly important step, our lifestyle choices can also have a major impact on the health of our skin, whether they can be seen immediately, or in the long run. Here’s a checklist of healthy lifestyle practices that will help keep your skin as lively as possible:
- Get at least 8 hours of sleep at night;
- Never skip your meals and maintain a healthy, balanced diet;
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Avoid smoking and drinking as much as possible;
- Avoid intense exposure to the sun and always wear SPF, even if it’s cloudy;
- Exercise as much as possible – even a ten-minute walk counts;
- Drink at least two liters of liquids daily.
And most importantly – never skip your moisturizer! As we have learned, moisturizer provides hydration to the body, hydration that makes the difference when it comes to skin structure and elasticity. Skin already naturally loses elastin and collagen, so there is no reason to speed that up by ignoring the step in our routine that provides the most moisture.
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