The best beauty treatments you can try at home
Working from home could mean a respite from your daily makeup; so what better time to pamper your skin than now. Try the Professional Serum with these skincare tools and get clinic-grade radiance at home.
The best microneedling serum
Microneedling has been used in clinics and medical spas for many years for its immediate aesthetic benefits. It involves the use of fine needles to create hundreds of small puncture holes in the epidermis. It is particularly effective in the treatment of acne scarring, improving skin texture and reducing pore size. It does this by deliberately injuring skin, forcing it to ‘heal’, thereby creating new skin cells in the dermal and epidermal layers. With the use of a powerful repair Serum with this treatment, you can actually help boost your skin’s natural healing response so that you can get better results ‘post-injury’.
What does a microneedling treatment look like? The most common microneedling tool is a hand-held roller, which is coated with tiny needles; it is gently rolled over the four aesthetic zones. When used at home where the needles are usually shorter, there is generally little to no downtime with the immediate effect of visibly plumped skin.
Microneedling also comes in other forms, such as the derma stamping tool, which means the needles are ‘stamped’ instead of ‘rolled’ over the skin. A new type of micro-infusion device actually allows you to include a serum within it, so that active ingredients can be infused into the skin during the treatment, increasing their absorption.
Here are 5 tips we recommend when microneedling at home:
- Use needles 0.25mm in size or smaller, as anything thicker increases the risk of damaging your skin.
- Remember to sterilize the microneedling tool before using it. You could use an alcohol swab.
- Gently roll the microneedling device over your cheeks, neck, chin, nose, and forehead. Don’t press too hard and make sure that you cover all angles – vertical, horizontal, and diagonal.
- To start, we recommend once a fortnight usage until your skin can tolerate the procedure without adverse reactions.
- Replace the needles often. It is generally recommended for 10-12 uses, so if you microneedle 2-3 times a month, you should replace the device every 3-4 months.
After a microneedling session, we recommend the application of CALECIM® Professional Serum. With its high concentration of stem cell proteins and exosomes, it will help regenerate your skin at many levels with the added prep of microneedling before. Professional Serum can also help immediately soothe and calm your skin while it recharges it from deep within. You can be sure to wake up the next morning with a never-before glow.
Sonic cleansing tools help prep your skin for Serum
The arrival of the first Clarisonic device changed the way we cleaned our face. There are now several options in the market, from Olay to Braun. They are said to remove over six times more dirt, grime, make-up and pollution than normal cleansing. Some, such as the Foreo, come with sonic pulsations that massage and deep-cleanse at the same time. Cleansing has become much more high tech than the cotton-pads of the past, and the effect is a super clean surface to apply your favorite at-home treatment.
How to get the most our of your at-home Laser
Some patients are hooked on their monthly medical facial and laser treatments; and they are indeed an indispensable part of a modern skin routine for keeping your skin youthful, elastic, radiant, and pigment free. These days, however, with the latest technology, you could try an at-home laser treatment and enjoy close to professional results. These devices tend to be non-ablative, non-fractional, and safe to use for untrained hands, with some boasting relatively deep penetration of wavelengths. With daily usage, some devices are said to generate equal skin rejuvenation as clinic treatments because of the more frequent energy absorption.
At-home lasers claim to target wrinkles and fine lines around the eyes and mouth, by increasing collagen production through sending energy pulses into the skin. There should be no down time or discomfort involved; just a sensation of warmth as the device goes over the sections of the face. Most at-home lasers recommend daily usage for better results.
As in the clinic, you will get the most out of this daily routine with the application of Professional Serum. With in-vitro results showing that aged skin samples produce more collagen, hyaluronic acid and elastin when exposed to cord lining conditioned media, it is the ultimate skin lifting and tightening treatment you can have at home.
LED Light therapy tools that pair well with Serum
It was once the repair device for astronauts to speed tissue healing, and developed by NASA for this purpose. Of course, it was too good a secret to be kept, and now LED Light Therapy is used by many clinics for its multiple benefits for skin. They are also available in handy devices, like all-over masks, targeted pens, or even goggles for at-home usage. LED light therapy tools promise multi-purpose treatments, helping you achieve different skin goals such as boosting collagen, reducing acne bacteria, and preventing pigmentation, due to the different energy emitted by different colors.
So what do the different colors do:
Red LED Light is believed to speed up collagen synthesis and enhance cell repair, and was the orginal LED therapy used by NASA in medical care. How it does this is through stimulating the mitochondria in cells so that they function optimally, increasing collagen and elastin production, in turn slowing the signs of premature aging and environmental damage. Red light is also considered anti-inflammatory, and is widely used in clinics post invasive skin treatments to calm skin down. Many doctors apply Professional Serum on skin before the red light treatment to enhance the effects; you can do this at home too with your own LED device.
Amber light is believed to have a soothing effect on rosacea and redness.
Green is the least used LED light but has a positive effect on skin tone, by targeting melanocytes, slowing down the production of melanin, and eventually reducing pigmentation on the skin surface.
Blue is a popular LED light treatment for acne as it is scientifically proven to kill the Pacnes bacteria on the skin, the most common cause of breakouts.
You could combine the colors to optimize skinhealth across the board, and of course adding the Professional Serum before turning on your light therapy, just like they do at medical aesthetic clinics. It’s not quite a doctor’s treatment, but you can come close to it at home.
Plasma shower helps with the penetration of the Serum
The plasma shower is the latest device in aesthetic clinics with a wide utility, from treating drooping eyelids, to preventing acne. In a doctor’s hands, it is a flexible tool that can deliver dramatic effects akin to a surgical blepharoplasty, or simply as an iontophoresis device to complement a clinical facial.
As an at-home treatment, the device is of course tampered so that it is safe to use by untrained hands. One at-home usage would be as a transdermal delivery system, allowing active ingredients to penetrate the dermis by temporarily detaching skin cellular proteins from their connecting links to allow molecules past the cell wall. It would be an excellent adjunct to a Professional Serum application, by targeting the dermal layer with active stem cell proteins to trigger the collagen producing function of the dermis.
It is also useful as an anti-bacterial skin treatment as the plasma shower is known to obliterate bacteria living on the skin. Other purported uses are for suppressing melanin production and stimulating skin cells.
Facial Steaming to prepare your skin for Serum absorption
We remember our mums using this. And this old but gold at-home skin therapy is given a 21st century boost when combined with the Professional Serum. Besides being the ultimate clarifying treatment because it opens up your pores, de-clogs pores, and releases deep-rooted sebum, the steam also increases your skin’s permeability, enabling it to absorb the topical products that you apply on your skin.
There are a few ways you can steam your face at home:
1.
- Over a bowl or sink of hot water
- Get comfortable over a sink or a big bowl with a well-chosen stool or chair that is the right height
- Deep cleanse or exfoliate your skin
- Bring about 6 cups of water to the boil, reduce the heat slightly, then transfer it to the sink / bowl
- Have a seat, drape a towel over your head, and hold your face 6 inches above the water
- Steam your face for 5-10 min
2.
- Steam with warm towels
- Deep cleanse or exfoliate your skin
- Get a hand towel and soak it with hot water from the tap
- Wring the towel so it is damp
- Adjust the towel by folding it around each side of your face, leaving space for your nose
3.
- Steam with a home facial steamer
- Each steamer comes with its own directions
- Start with 2-3 min each time to see how your skin is reacting with the steam as facial steamers offer a more powerful steam than the other methods
Your skin will be at its most tender and permeable after a session of steaming. It will be an ideal time to massage Professional Serum into your skin, feeling the active proteins simply melt right in.
Massaging beauty rollers help you relax before application of Serum
Top make-up artists keep this in their bag to promote lymphatic drainage and debloat your face. You may be a sceptic, and think the benefits may simply be more relaxing than aesthetically visible, but some doctors think that if done correctly, it does actually decrease edema (swelling) in the face by improving lymph flow. This may be especially apparent for under eye puffiness if the problem is caused by sinuses, or from sleeping position (sleeping on your back is preferred).
In any case, it is an attractive addition to your alter of skincare products, and is a novel and pretty way of applying your favorite daily serum.
