The Single Most Important Piece of Skincare Advice I can Give You

My #1 most important piece of skincare advice for everyone is to apply sunscreen BEFORE sun exposure.  Just like you wouldn't lay down for an x-ray without a lead apron, exposing your unprotected skin to the sun means you are letting in radiating electromagnetic waves of a wavelength suitable to cause irreparable damage to the DNA in the cells that are struck.  Now, those UV rays might not penetrate clear through your body like x-rays, but they can certainly be tracked to a distance that exceeds the depth of your skin.  Want proof?  Shine a broad-spectrum penlight against your earlobe and watch as light rays make their way through two complete layers of skin, plus fat and cartilage. 

With each exposure, more and more normal healthy cells are damaged.  Having exited the protective cell nucleus in order to complete transcription into RNA, and subsequent translation resulting in the synthesis of proteins to construct the daughter cell, the skin cells' DNA is at its most vulnerable, meaning that cells irradiated with UV light at this phase are the most likely to undergo mutations with the direct result of generating faulty proteins for the next round of cells.  When this happens, the cellular abnormalities continue to be passed from cell generation to cell generation.  While there are some repair processes, these too are weakened each time we subject our skin cells to more DNA damage. 

Already out in the sun and you notice you're burning?  It's time to go inside!  Sunscreen on top of sunburned skin should be #9 on this list of sunscreen mistakes, because chemical screens will continue to turn additional light energy into heat energy, further burning your skin, and mineral screens often contain natural oils which could prove irritating for skin that is already burned. 

Finally, once you've had that contraband sun exposure, you'll need to rely on a host of antioxidant ingredients to scavenge the free radicals (not only free oxygen species but also free carbonyl and free nitrogen species, all of which damage DNA) you've set in motion.  Vitamin C (in the form of L-Ascorbic Acid) is the gold standard for antioxidant functioning, and can be found in our Vital C+ serum.  Magnesium Ascorbyl phosphate, a somewhat less irritating form, is in our Good Behavior Mask, which can be blended with yogurt for an all day poultice to address sunburned skin.  Finally, cutting-edge antioxidants include meristem cell extracts, found in HydroPeptide HydroStem,

Did you know that CoEnzyme Q-10 also goes by the name Ubiquinone?
That's because it is, you guessed it, UBIQUITOUS in nature, and especially in eukaryotic cells (like yours).

CoQ-10, found in SkinScript's Ageless line, and low strength retinol, such as that contained in our Easy A 0.5% Retinol.  Anti-inflammatory ingredients like Allantoin, and moisture-binding ingredients like hyaluronic acid, will also hasten the recovery.  The final winner is HydroPeptide Serum, which contains both neuro- and cellular peptides, plus a hefty dose of EGF - epidermal growth factor - which helps correct the reproduction of skin cells at the basal layer.