Over summer, we shared more detailed information on one of our key ingredients Chitosan. With the mugginess of summer giving way to the bone dry air of fall and winter, we thought we would tackle Sericin today. It is truly one of the ingredients we were most excited about while formulating our Silver Soap. Why? Let’s get into it.
#2 Sericin – the natural skin toner
Growing up in New Zealand in an age when it was common to spend all day in the sun at the beach slathered in baby oil, I had horrible sun damage. I’m very fair-skinned and so my idea of a good tan is a melding of the freckles! Several decades later here I was with sun spots and premature wrinkling. Take those conditions and combine with the adult acne I had started developing, and it seemed not just not terribly unattractive, but also unfair. Acne AND aging? Ugh. Enter Sericin.
Sericin is one of the two ingredients in our soap that has been known to help in the reversal of sun damage (our proprietary, patented silver-silica compound is the other). How does it do that? Sericin is a natural ingredient sourced from silk. It is a protein that binds to your skin.
So why is it good for skin?
As it is the protein in silk that binds the fibers of the silk cocoon together, it is especially good at adhering to your skin to provide a protective layer after you have washed. To be a little technical about it, Sericin contains a random coil structure which is soluble in hot water and then when it cools, after washing your face, it forms an invisible gel.
Having this protective layer on your skin then does two things:
1. Locks in the vitamins and other goodness that comes with your Silver Soap. It very importantly locks in the moisture that you need for a healthy complexion, especially as we move into the really dry winter months;
2. Provides a reflective surface that bounces back rays as they hit the skin.
In addition, it has skin-lightening properties. So, not only does it help reverse the skin damage and sun spots that have already formed, it provides a protective barrier to help reduce the risk of further damage.
Does it really work?
We have had customers write in to us to tell us that the Silver Soap has helped even out their skin tone. One customer, Megan, who lived in Colorado said that she used to have to slather on heavy night creams during the day to stop her skin from drying out and becoming red during the winters there. After using Cor for a few weeks, she found that her skin was dewy all day long with using just a simple, lightweight moisturizer after washing with Cor.
Another customer in Washington DC who had terrible scarring from a dog attack (she had undergone multiple plastic surgeries to reconstruct her face) told us that a combination of Cor Silver Soap and Cor’s Wrinkle Serum have worked together to stop her scars from hurting and becoming inflamed in the harsh cold of the D.C. winters.
I personally have found that my T-Zone oiliness has disappeared and the skin tone is even throughout the day ... and those dreaded sun spots are a distant memory (as is the acne!)
Where do we source our Sericin?
As with anything, the quality of the source ingredients counts. We scour the world for the highest quality ingredients in our products. As such, we source our sericin from Japan where we create a proprietary compound along with chitosan and marine collagen.
For more inside tips and tricks, don’t forget to follow @corsilver on Twitter and Facebook www.facebook.com/corsilver as well! Also sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of this page, so you can stay on top of Cor news, special offers and more!
The products you choose matter, of course, but so do your diet, your sleep habits, and so on. We've passed along some great, simple skincare tips and we keep adding to our list.
BUT … scouring the web, we've stumbled across a few recommendations that struck us as … let's say 'strange'. At best.
So we collected a few and ran them by Dr. Louise Hidinger.
Dr. Hidinger (check out her twitter and blog) has a PhD in biological chemistry and a certification in cosmetic science. She previously told us about why old makeup becomes risky makeup – and now, in this article we pass along her reactions to weird bits of skincare advice you might find on the web.
#1 My face isn't a BLT sandwich, thanks
The ridiculous idea: If you get sunburned, put a fresh tomato slice on your face.
What's going on here? Tomatoes have antioxidants, okay, but a fresh slice curing sunburn?
Who doesn't love a long, luxurious, relaxing hot shower?
Surprise - your face doesn't!
Long, hot showers strip your skin of its protective oils. That makes your skin start to dry out!
It's true – standing in hot water too long is drying, not hydrating.
And when your skin is dry, it's more easily damaged.
As usual, WebMD (we love WebMD) references a medical doctor on this issue – Dr. Andrea Lynn Cambo – advising short warm showers or baths, not longer than 5 to 10 minutes.
You can think of microdermabrasion as exfoliation on steroids.
Well, not literally. It doesn't involve steroids. It's just a more aggressive way than exfoliation for remove dead skin.
Microdermabrasion involves using rough grains or crystals to (aggressively) remove not only the normal layer of dead skin cells, but sometimes also scars and wrinkles. The crystals are sprayed onto your skin as a thin film, and then removed via pressurized air – in other words, essentially vacuumed up, along with the dead skin.
This type of treatment has been referred to as an "instant facelift" that is intended to be less invasive than chemical peels or plastic surgery.
Since we aren't big fans of mechanical exfoliation, you might correctly guess that we believe microdermabrasion is a mostly unnecessary harsh way to treat your skin.
If you do choose to go this route, there is no question that you want a trained and experienced esthetician doing the work – you want your eyes protected, the correct pressure level used, the spray completely removed, and so on.
Also, every reputable source on the Web notes that microdermabrasion temporarily removes an important layer of protection from your skin, so you will want to use sunscreen, avoid direct sunlight, and be mindful of applying any harsh or allergenic products to your skin for a couple of days after the procedure.
Exfoliation means removing dead skin cells from the surface. This reveals the younger, healthier cells underneath.
Here's how your skin works. Your body makes new skin cells at its lower level, which is called the dermis. The new gradually push upwards toward the upper level, the epidermis. The older cells on the surface gradually die. Eventually they fall (or 'slough', pronounced like 'sluff') off, making way for the newer, fresher skin cells underneath....
