Why Is Self-Care Important (Plus, Tips on How to Do It)

The Importance of Skin Care Professionals

Caring for your skin is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your overall well-being since it is the body’s primary defense against the environment. While aging is a natural occurrence that happens to all of us over time, there are many ways to prevent and repair damaged skin for a healthier, more youthful appearance. It is no secret that when you look good, you feel good, but did you know that developing and maintaining a consistent high-quality skincare routine with the help of a professional can have a positive impact on your health as well? While putting a little more time and effort into your everyday routine can go a long way, there are many unique benefits to visiting an Esthetician to help you achieve your long-term skin goals.

Access to More Effective Products

Just like salon quality hair products that you cannot purchase elsewhere, Estheticians have access to higher quality products than you will be able to find in stores. Professionals generally use products with higher strength ingredients that might be too powerful for individuals without advanced skin care knowledge to use on their own. An Esthetician will be able to give you a thorough skin analysis and create custom blended treatments of varying strengths based on your specific needs in order to achieve the best end result possible.

Advanced Services

Even for those of us who are skin care savvy, there are many advanced treatments that cannot safely be done at home. Common services that you should always seek a skilled professional for include chemical peels, exfoliation, extractions, facials, microdermabrasion, and waxing. Luckily, all of these services and more can be mastered in Tricoci’s award-winning Esthetics program.

Thorough Understanding of How Skin Operates

Your skin is a complex organ that is constantly protecting your body from harmful chemicals, pathogens, and radiation from the sun. This makes protecting and caring for your skin incredibly important to your overall health. Because everyone’s skin care needs are different, it can be nearly impossible to fully understand your personal needs without the help of an expert. Seeking out (or becoming) an Esthetician is the best way help you avoid developing infections, allergic reactions caused by low quality products, and accidentally exacerbating the problems that you are trying to treat. Likewise, when it comes to educating yourself, certified skin care professionals undoubtedly have the most accurate and reliable advice for managing your skin care needs.

Avoid Accidentally Causing More Damage

Have you ever heard the saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” Properly and consistently caring for your skin over time is much more effective than waiting for the problem to get worse before seeking out a professional. Because many ingredients in products sold over the counter or recommended by unreliable online sources can end up being ineffective and even harmful, seeing somebody trained in Esthetics before you try any drastic treatment is more important than ever. Properly caring for your skin and knowing when to go to a professional will save you money long-term and keep your skin looking radiant for years to come!

You & Your Products

Benefits of cosmetics

While some people believe that cosmetic and personal care products are a recent invention, discoveries of their use and widespread benefits go back thousands of years. Today, Europe’s 500 million consumers use them to protect their health, enhance wellbeing and boost their self-esteem.

Functional benefits

Cosmetics contribute to wellbeing and healthy lifestyles. Our hands carry pathogens from contaminated sources; so simple tasks such as washing hands with soap can help prevent serious illness. Indeed, multiple studies have shown that the leading causes of child mortality in developing countries, diarrhoea and respiratory infections, can be prevented by hand washing with soap. The use of toothpaste, particularly when containing fluoride, reduces the prevalence of dental caries. Toothpaste reduces plaque and tartar, which can lead to tooth damage and gum disease. Beyond health, there are economic advantages to dental care: there is strong evidence that the benefits of preventing tooth decay far exceed the costs of treatment. Indeed, if we assume that, without toothpaste, total expenditure on oral health would be 5% higher, the total benefits of using toothpaste (in terms of avoided costs) would be approximately €26.5 billion by 2020.

Exposure to ultraviolet radiation is the only established exogenous causal factor for melanoma, a type of skin cancer that can spread to other organs of the body. Consistent and optimal use of sunscreen may prevent the incidence of melanoma. A study carried out between 1992 and 2006 and reported in ‘Reduced melanoma after regular sunscreen use: randomised trial follow up’ in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (2011) examined the cancer rates of two groups of adults aged between 25 and 75 years old. One used sunscreen daily and the other did so at their discretional frequency. It was found that invasive melanoma was reduced by 75% for approximately 15 years after trial cessation in the group that applied sunscreen daily.

Emotional benefits

Beyond physical health, cosmetics can help to improve our mood, enhance our appearance and boost our self-esteem. They can also help to exhibit personal style and, as such, are an important means of social expression. In a study by FEBEA, over 60% of respondents claimed that cosmetics have a positive impact on well-being, image, self-confidence and mood, with a large proportion (+40%) also identifying benefits in terms of social life, love life, family life, professional life and health. A study published by IKW, the German Cosmetic, Toiletry, Perfumery and Detergent Association, assessing the self-perception of adolescents and young adults, found that 73% believe body and beauty care is very important in their lives. Moreover, 85% feel safer when they use cosmetics products, and 63% feel more attractive when they do so.

A study by the Renfrew Centre Foundation found that women wear make-up because they like the way it makes them look (48% of respondents), and because cosmetic use makes them feel good (32%). Indeed, multiple studies have found that wearing cosmetics can improve people’s self-confidence and self-image. The Look Good Feel Better (LGFB) charity isdedicated to improving the self-esteem, confidence and well-being of women and teenagers undergoing cancer treatment. The charity is supported by over 50 leading companies and brands from the cosmetics industry. LGFB helps to improve self-image and appearance through free group and self-help skincare and make-up workshops. The service is available in 26 countries worldwide and over 1.87 million people have been supported to date. A major research project by LGFB highlighted that 97% of respondents felt more confident after attending a LGFB workshop and that the effects of this are enduring, with 96% of respondents still feeling more confident three months later (out of 2,000 beneficiaries contacted).

Maintaining and extending benefits of cosmetics

All cosmetic products and their ingredients are governed by the comprehensive and stringent European Cosmetics Regulation to ensure they are safe for use. The Regulation dictates the colours, UV filters and preservatives that are allowed for use in cosmetics, which ingredients are restricted for certain types of use or by percentage, and which may not be used at all. Every cosmetic product must also be assessed for safety by a qualified professional safety assessor and this takes into account how the product is made, how it will be used and by whom.

Furthermore, all cosmetics made available in the EU must display a complete list of ingredients and have the same name in all countries: this helps consumers identify products with ingredients to which they know they are sensitive. The ingredients must comply with European requirements and use the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients, known as INCI. Read about understanding the label for further detail. Innovation in our industry is never static. Constantly evolving consumer expectations with regards to product attributes and safety means new products or iterations are always in development, increasingly geared towards personalised solutions for individual skin and hair types, for instance.

Innovation to shelf: The story of cosmetic product development

Why Is Self-Care Important (Plus, Tips on How to Do It)

Self-care is often misconstrued as self-indulgence—or treating yourself to things you don’t need—but caring for yourself now feels more vital than ever. “Self-care isn’t selfish,” says Dawn Smith, Los Angeles-based life coach. Instead, it’s “attending to your own needs in order to be better at attending to others’ needs,” she says.

Vanessa Handsel Roddenberry, Ph.D., a psychologist in Raleigh, NC, shares, “When we feel burned out and depleted, it’s usually because we’ve been denied the time or ability to do things that have deep meaning to us, leaving us feeling off-balance.”

The Benefits of Self-Care

In addition to helping you feel more balanced and allowing you to better care for others, our experts share the following benefits of self-care:

Reduced stress

Increased energy throughout the day

Higher levels of productivity

Enhanced intuition and emotional awareness

How to Practice Self-Care

Laurie-Anne King, a life coach in San Francisco, breaks down self-care activities into two categories: non-negotiables and luxuries. “Your ‘non-negotiables’ are activities that if you skip them, you’re going to be off your game,” she says. “You may feel scattered, tired or cranky. ‘Luxuries’ are those self-care actions that make you feel like a million bucks. It’s not stuff that you need to do every day, but when you do them they give you an extra boost.” To King, non-negotiables might include exercising; luxuries might include taking a bubble bath with rose petals.

Virtually anything can be made into a form of self-care or self-love with the right mindset. It’s all about bringing attention back to yourself and making an activity into “me time.”