Your skin is full of the proteins collagen and elastin when you are young. These proteins are essential for supporting the structure of the skin. Collagen gives your skin strength and firmness. Elastin enables your skin to stretch and then spring back – as the name suggests makes it elastic and keeps it tight. Both fibers are elements of the connective tissue that supports and binds other tissues in the body.
From your twenties on, our body produces less and less collagen each year, it stops altogether when you reach middle age. Our skin then becomes thinner and more fragile each year. The body also produces increasingly less elastin. If you are not exposed do other aging factors like the sun or smoking, then the skin will stay quite smooth even with the so-called intrinsic aging.
If you smoke, are exposed to environmental damage, consume an excessive amount of alcohol or even sugar, you might see the skin to get freckles, wrinkled, grey, or sallow in color and in time become loose and saggy.
Other factors that can cause loose skin are sudden weight loss and pregnancy. You can improve loose skin through cosmetic surgery or less invasive in-office treatment that involves lasers, radiofrequency, or ultrasound. But there are also less harsh and natural remedies that also weigh less on your purse.
How To Maintain A Firm Skin
As we saw, aging is a fact of life. But there are still ways to help the skin and firm it up. Skin tightening treatments help involve
- stimulating elastin and collagen production
- reduce the pore size
- exfoliate so that the skin appears fresher
- reduce the appearance of existing wrinkles
- plump up the skin
Tightening Skin Care
Vitamin A and C both stimulate collagen and elastin production. Include serums and creams enriched with these vitamins in your skincare routine.
The following masks recipes are very effective in firming loose skin and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Egg White And Honey Mask
The main nutrient of the egg white is protein that can help to keep the skin elastic. It also contains vitamin A. Honey is often used and a very popular ingredient in skincare.
Separate the egg white and mix it with two tbsp of honey. Apply it on your face and chest area (if you like). Kick back and relax for 15 minutes, then rinse off.
Aloe Vera And Oil Mask
Aloe Vera is rich in antioxidants such as A, C, E, and B12. When combined with oils that also help saggy skin, its effects are enhanced. Skin tightening oils are for example
- coconut oil
- mustard oil
- rosemary oil
- almond oil
- avocado oil
- olive oil
- primrose oil
- argan oil
The best ratio for this mask is 3 part of aloe vera and 1 part oil. Mix the oil and aloe vera together then apply on your face and chest. After 20 to 30 minutes rinse off.
Coffee Exfoliation
As exfoliation removes dead skin cells, it helps skincare ingredients to better penetrate into the skin. Coffee as a physical scrub lends itself to this step. It contains antioxidants and caffeine that will make your skin soft and firm by eliminating fat and moisturizing the skin. In addition, the scrubbing action can encourage the elastin and collagen production.
Mix 1/4 cup of ground coffee, two tablespoons of coconut oil, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. Apply this mixture on your face and very gently, using your fingers massage for a few minutes, then rinse off. Exfoliate with this mixture once a week.
Eat A Healthy, Well-Balanced Diet
Remember when your parents told you to eat your broccoli? Vegetables, especially dark green colored vegetables can help stimulate elastin production. Eat a “rainbow” of vegetables, fruits, and berries as they contain a range of antioxidants, especially vitamin C. Simply put, without vitamin C there is no collagen production.
The building blocks of proteins are amino acids. So, in order to boost collagen and elastin production, increase your protein intake. Eat skin and connective tissue: You can make a bone broth or when eating chicken, eat it with the skin. The vegetarian source of protein is cottage cheese, nuts, seeds, beans, eggs, and tofu.
A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids will keep the skin younger-looking too. It helps with the absorption of nutrients and boosts elastin and collagen production. This means including oily fish like salmon, trout, sardines, and herring in your diet. If you prefer a vegetarian source of omega 3 fatty acids, add flax seeds into your diet.
Regular Exercise
You can adopt regular exercise. Exercise helps in many ways. It stimulates the production of collagen while also reducing stress.
Note that exercise will help you lose weight loss. If you lose too much weight suddenly, you may get more excess skin than you would if you lost weight slowly. You can build muscle mass with weight training to fill out the skin and lessen the appearance of loose skin.
Of course, the most important thing is to take care of your skin before all these changes start to take place.
Of course, the most important thing is to take care of your skin before all these changes start to take place. As such, the very best way for skin tightening is prevention. Always use a suncream and stick to a good lifestyle, where you don’t smoke and have a low alcohol and sugar intake. Also, do regular exercise as this helps with stress and keeps inflammation low. If you follow this, you will only have to deal with intrinsic aging. As such, you will have less visible aging signs to begin with and any results with skincare will be better and last longer.
What are your skin tightening tips? Let us know in the comments!
