SCHOOL EDITION 3 MAY 2023 - Flipbook - Page 22
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Wednesday, March 7, 2018
www.irishnews.com
Time to blitz those zits
Leading Irish skincare aficionado Jennifer Rock, aka The Skin Nerd, believes that taking a
holistic approach to looking after your skin inside and out is the key to healthy skin. In search
of spot-free skin, Jenny Lee finds out more
J
ENNIFER Rock is known as
The Skin Nerd – a title she
traces back to her mum
taking her for her first
facial as a treat for her 13th
birthday.
“I remember that while all of
the different steps of the facial
were taking place, I was asking the
poor skin therapist ‘Why are you
doing that?’ and ‘Why is this part
important?’ I was probably a pain
to that poor human. It sparked my
love of skin and I trained as a beauty
therapist, moving on to specialise
in facials and later I became a skin
lecturer for global brands and
accredited bodies.
“As I got nerdier and nerdier about
skin, my friends told me I talked
about skin so much that I had to put
it on social media and thus The Skin
Nerd was born.”
Rock’s online skin consultation
business and ‘cosmeceutical’ store,
Theskinnerd.com, is helping people
all over the world get their skin on
the road to skin health. Now through
her debut book, The Skin Nerd: Your
Straight-Talking Guide To Feeding,
Respecting & Protecting Your
Skin, aims to clear up myths about
skincare and empower everyone to
take care of their skin.
“My aim is not only to help you
achieve glorious skin, but also to
save your hard-earned money and
help you avoid stress in the long
run,” the north Co Dublin native
says.
“Ultimately, this book is about
shouting from the rooftops that the
skin is an organ and it should be
respected accordingly. We poke and
pick at our skin, we squeeze it like
it’s the end of a tube of toothpaste,
we cover it in things that strip it dry
and compromise its health. This
is not right. We can see our skin,
therefore we should shield it, feed it
and respect it.”
Taking a holistic approach to
skincare, Rock’s book encourages
readers to take a 360 degree
approach, examining their nutrition,
lifestyle, topical skincare and makeup regime.
She writes from experience,
knowing all to well what’s it’s like
to suffer a breakout at the most
inconvenient of times.
“I suffered from acne as a teenager
and it’s an ongoing skin concern of
mine that crops up more when I’m
stressed, such as when I have a big
meeting coming up,” she admits.
“I don’t think that adult acne and
having spots in any form is talked
about enough and recognised as
Jennifer
Rock’s spot
quick fixes
n Avoid wearing cosmetic makeup, especially heavy make-up.
A full coverage foundation may
seem like the solution to your
problem but it is absolutely
not. Not only does cosmetic
foundation trap sebum and skin
cells in the pore as it cannot move
past the make-up sitting inside the
pore, it can also make lumpier,
larger spots more noticeable
rather than less. Give your skin a
break from the cake and lower the
chances of them getting bigger.
Mineral (not mineralised) make-up
is the way to go.
n Cleanse with salicylic acidbased products. Salicylic acid
is a BHA (beta-hydroxy acid)
that gently chemically exfoliates
the skin, getting rid of the
very same dead skin cells that
become trapped in the pore
causing a spot. It also soothes
the skin, brings down redness
and inflammation and dries out
the spot.
n Avoid using things that can
introduce additional bacteria to
the skin or disinfect them. This
includes phones and make-up
brushes.
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something that may have internal
and external triggers like diet and
lifestyle. Acne can be an extremely
debilitating skin condition for some
– it can have a major effect on selfconfidence and I think it’s important
that we build an awareness around
that.”
And she warns women not to be
tempted to load their faces with
make-up to cover-up their blemishes.
“This is actually making their
skin worse, as make-up that isn’t
pure mineral make–up is often
comedogenic, meaning that it clogs
pores.”
Teenage spots are particularly
difficult to deal with emotionally,
but Rock advises young people that
“they will subside” and stresses
that preventing long-term scarring
is more important than emergency
picking or squeezing.
“Prevention of scarring is key
Eye scans reveal early
signs of Alzheimer’s
EYE scans may help detect Alzheimer’s disease before
symptoms occur. The scan, optical coherence
tomography angiography, is used to identify
eye conditions such as glaucoma. But it can
also detect problems such as a thinning retina
or protein plaques – which have both been
linked to Alzheimer’s. Researchers from
Washington University scanned the eyes
of 30 adults and found that 14 had changes
suggesting early-stage Alzheimer’s.
for anyone suffering from acne or
congestion and this is why we at
The Skin Nerd will continue to teach
and educate that there are solutions
such as cleansers with salicylic acid,
an exfoliating acid that clears out the
pore to prevent spots from forming,
and how wearing SPF can reduce the
risk of post-acne marks.”
So what is her best skincare
advice?
“There is no nice, tidy, compact
answer for this as everyone’s skin
is different. However, if you’re
using face wipes, bin them. Right
away. Wipes are detrimental to the
skin and many don’t realise this.
They do not remove make-up, they
simply leave a film of drying alcohol,
sensitising fragrance, oils and traces
of make-up on the skin to sit there
all night.
“I may be biased but I created
the Cleanse Off Mitt®, a microfibre
make-up removal mitt, as an
alternative to wipes. It is the ideal
pre-cleanse step as you only have to
add water, et voilá – your make-up
is removed. It is suitable for all skin
types, even the most sensitive, all
ages and all genders.”
The Skin Nerd: Your straighttalking guide to feeding,
protecting and respecting your
skin by Jennifer Rock is published
in hardback by Hachette Ireland
and is available now.
n Zap the suckers with a spot
treatment that
includes salicylic
acid, lactic
acid or even
peptides
like in Acne
Out Active
Lotion.
Treating
the spot
this way
may cause
it to become
a little bit cornflakey around the
edges but if you are
able to trade that off against size
and redness, go for it.
n If you have a big, pus-filled,
white pustule (ie the head is very
clearly visible under a translucent
layer of skin) and you really cannot
bear being seen with it, you can
go ahead and pop it – and this is
the only time you should ever pop
a spot. The objective is to release
the infection. Be careful not to
draw blood and to sanitise your
hands and your skin carefully with
antibacterial soap.
n Popping spots, especially
if they are not ‘ready’, causes
scabbing, inflammation and
infection, and spreads bacteria,
causing more breakouts and
keeping you in a constant cycle.
Brushing your teeth will help
you sleep better
How ginger can spice
up your love life
HAVING good dental hygiene could prevent insomnia,
suggest researchers at Tohoku University in Japan.
They found pensioners with fewer than ten teeth
often do not manage seven hours’ sleep a night, with
some having less than four. The researchers, writing in
the journal Sleep Medicine, said that the missing teeth
affect how the tongue lies in the mouth. This may lead
to obstructive sleep apnoea — when the walls of the
throat collapse during sleep, interrupting breathing and
causing the patient to wake.
AN OVER-the-counter supplement developed by urologists
has been shown to be effective against impotence. The pill,
branded as Revactin, contains amino acids, the building
blocks of proteins, and ginger root, and works by increasing
the delivery of nitric oxide to the muscle cells that create an
erection. Prescription-only Viagra also works by boosting
the effects of this chemical. In a study in the journal
Translational Andrology and Urology, the supplement was
found to improve symptoms in more than 50 per cent of
men who took the pill twice a day for three months.
