HOW DO PLANT-BASED SKINCARE INGREDIENTS BENEFIT YOUR SKIN
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING PLANT-BASED SKINCARE PRODUCTS?
I’m a naturopathic doctor who got into this field because of a deep love of botanical medicine and an obsession with at-home skincare recipes. So it makes sense that I am a huge advocate of plant-based skincare. Plant-based skincare is a term that is pretty vague, and not regulated so that means that anyone can use the term, even if there are a lot of non-plant-based skincare ingredients in the product. However, there are a lot of great companies that do use the term appropriately, meaning that a healthy amount of ingredients are plant-based ingredients!
SO WHY ARE PLANT-BASED SKINCARE INGREDIENTS SO GOOD FOR OUR SKIN?
Each plant is like a natural pharmacy in its own right: plants are made up of thousands of different types of molecules that evolved right alongside us in nature, and for thousands of years they literally were our medicine. The difference between a plant and a pharmaceutical used as medicine is this: plants have those thousands of chemicals available to our bodies, so the active components are generally available in relatively lower doses and are provided along with many other synergistic chemicals that balance out the effects of the active components and provide additional benefits. In contrast, a pharmaceutical drug contains a higher dose of one active constituent without the benefit of other synergistic chemicals, which is why pharmaceutical drugs tend to have lots of side effects. Plants provide natural balance, pharmaceuticals provide a one-way push. I’m not saying they don’t have their place, I’m simply illustrating the difference between botanical and pharmaceutical ingredients.
This becomes important when we talk about plant based skincare ingredients because an ingredient that is derived directly from a plant, like an oil or essential oil, will have a variety of beneficial compounds in a natural balance. So in one ingredient, you can get the benefit from a whole pharmacy, or in the case of skincare, you get the benefit from an array of nourishing compounds that work together to promote health and youthfulness!
HERE ARE SOME OF THE CLASSES OF CHEMICALS THAT PLANT-BASED SKINCARE INGREDIENTS PROVIDE:
Antioxidants: antioxidants are a class of molecules that protect our cells from free radical damage. Free radicals are any active compounds that directly damage the delicate outer or inner layers of our cells. Long-term cellular exposure to free radicals manifests in our skin with early aging; a gray, sallow or dull complexion; and increases in wrinkles and loss of elasticity. Antioxidants (including vitamins A, C, and E, as well as thousands of plant-based compounds) provide natural protection and skin regeneration at a cellular level.
Essential fatty acids: our cell membranes are made up of fatty acids, and essential fatty acids are a class of fatty acids that we have to get from food (or topically, although their results are limited to the surfaces onto which they’re applied). They’re essential because our bodies can’t make them. Our cell membranes contain a lot of fatty acid molecules, and having these molecules in our skincare products provides our cells with necessary building blocks for repair and regeneration should the cell get damaged. In addition, essential fatty acids can be converted into chemical messengers called eicosanoids. Eicosanoids will initiate a chain of events that stimulates one of two pathways: a pro-inflammatory pathway or an anti-inflammatory pathway. Inflammation is like setting little wildfires to the terrain of your skin: over time it builds and builds, and does real damage. Calming inflammation is as important for our skin health as it is for the health of our bodies. Using a clean plant based skin care product provides anti-inflammatory essential fatty acids in a bath of potent botanical antioxidants to maximize anti-inflammatory effects and protect your skin from the damaging and early-aging effects of inflammation.
Essential oils: essential oils are a potent class of chemicals that have strong physiological effects. This is why essential oils that are purchased as extracts, essential oils in bottles, are potentially unsafe and should not be used internally without seeking the advice of a naturopathic physician. Essential oils are excellent ingredients for plant based skin care products because their array of effects is important and wide-reaching. Essential oils lend potent anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-aging, and skin-regenerative properties. They can also act as natural preservatives in clean, plant-based skincare products.
Vitamins and Minerals: plants are natural sources of vitamins and minerals that your skin craves to regenerate and heal from the daily effects of life. Sunlight is great, but in excess it can cause discoloration and even collagen damage. Zinc is a mineral found in some plant based skincare ingredients that can protect skin from sun damage and may promote healing while also decreasing the inflammation that gets kicked up in the face of sun damage. Vitamins C and E also work overtime in the face of sun damage, healing skin cells inside and out. In fact, vitamin C and vitamin E have an interesting relationship: vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin and so it spends most of its time in our bloodstream and a water-based area called the extracellular matrix, where proteins like collagen are found. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin that is most at home nestled in the cell membranes of cells, where it acts directly reverse cell damage caused by free radicals. Once it heals an area of repair, the vitamin E is rendered inactive until vitamin C passes by in the blood or extracellular matrix and regenerates that vitamin E molecule to heal again! Vitamin C and vitamin E are so important for maintaining healthy, glowing and youthful skin.
And if that weren’t enough, vitamin C is also a required nutrient for collagen synthesis. That’s right, our bodies can still make collagen to keep skin young and healthy, although we tend to make less as we age. Maintaining a high level of vitamin C inside our bodies and at the level of our skin promotes collagen regeneration. Phytonutrient rich botanical derivatives like sea buckthorn oil naturally contain vitamins C and E to promote skin regeneration and collagen growth.
Phospholipids are another important chemical class naturally found in plant based skincare ingredients. They are considered complex lipids (fatty acid molecules attached to another compound, making them more chemically similar to the molecules naturally found in human cell membranes). They naturally provide skin with increased elasticity, hasten skin renewal, and calm inflammation. One important phospholipid naturally found in sea buckthorn oil is lecithin, also known as phosphatidylcholine, an important chemical messenger and precursor in human biochemistry. When we use it topically as part of sea buckthorn oil, it has the important ability to moisturize skin and smooth fine lines and dry patches.
There are a lot of reasons to use plant-based skin care ingredients. At Sanos Skincare, we believe that nature knows what’s best for us, and has all the secrets we need for inner and outer beauty.