Vitamin C and Mommy Skin
Vitamin C and Mommy skin belong together like milk and cookies. Mommy skin can’t be as healthy as it could be without Vitamin C.
by Kimberly Pangaro
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Vitamin C and Mommy skin go together the way milk and cookies go together! Without vitamin c, mommy skin will lack that youthful luster that we all remember having in our early twenties.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what mommy skin even looks like or feels like. Here’s a perfect description of what mommy skin can be described as. If you have experienced dryness, flakiness, adult on-set acne, wrinkly, oily, blackhead prone, orange peel-like skin, then you have experienced mommy skin.
Not sure if you fall into that category, then get a magnifying mirror and put your skin under a bright light. What does your skin look like up-close?
Unfortunately, I had to do the same thing because from far away, my skin always looked youthful. But up close, it was a disaster. Nowadays, I wake up in the mornings and my face feels dry, super-tight, with a hint of orange peel texture and a snowfall of flakiness.
In other words, if someone touched my face it would crack. Take a look at the photo below. You can clearly see that I suffer with dry skin, enlarged pores, and as though I’m wearing a tangerine for a face.
Do you see what I’m talking about? Seriously, color my forehead orange and I swear one my kids would think they were staring at a tangerine. This exactly why it is so important to have Vitamin C in your daily skincare routine. It helps to prevent many of the symptoms behind aging skin and there are quite a few other skin products that help, too.
Vitamin C Anti-Aging Benefits For Mommy Skin
- Neutralizes free radicals that cause stress to the skin.
- Essential to the production of collagen in skin cells.
- Brightens skin complexion
- Diminishes fine lines and wrinkle
- Reduces the appearance of dark spots
- Prevents premature aging
What did Vitamin C do for My Mommy Skin?
Which products with Vitamin C should you use? What is it going to change about your skin?
Those are great questions. Every one’s skin is so different, it’s hard to figure out which product will work for you.
My skin was so dry at one point, that it would flake off all over my clothes. I couldn’t wear make-up over it because it would just peel off. The pores on my nose and forehead were so big that they used to get clogged. Where once it looked like a mountain of black heads, there were only the pore holes left that were at least cleaned.
Because of my hormones and the early days of my PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome) diagnosis, I suffered with severe cystic acne that left behind scarred skin.
I can tell you right now that my skin has seen genuine results. I am always being complimented on my skin and how young I look. I’ve even been complimented by my daughter’s dermatologist! So, if that’s not great results I don’t know what is.
The products I’m about to mention have really helped me with all of the above skin symptoms. It took patience and time, about a year, but my skin has finally turned itself around.
Because of those compliments and the love I have for my skin now, I realize that it’s worth putting in the time and effort for the results you want.
My Favorite Vitamin C Serum for Mommy Skin
According to Stanford trained dermatologist, Laurel Naversen Gareghty from a July 2020 article in Allure magazine, not much vitamin c every really makes it to the skin.
This is why it’s super important to buy products that have been tried and proven by real users, to be effective.
I’m a real user of the product below and only tout what works for my skin. So while I recommend using this particular vitamin c serum, make sure you check with your dermatologist to be sure it’s right for you.
La Roche-Posay Vitamin C Serum
So, I love the La Roche-Posay Vitamin C Serum for a few reasons. First off, I started using this item thinking that it wouldn’t show me any real changes for at least a year. Especially, since my skin was such a pain in the butt.
I was surprised that in the first 7 days, I found it had reduced the visibility of my under eye circles. Believe it or not, under eye circles can age a woman tremendously. So, when mine started minimizing, I felt more confident and I even looked five years younger. An extra piece of advice, don’t freak out when some skin starts peeling off your face. That’s dry skin and in my case, a ton of it!
Vitamin C also boosts collagen production. Ya know, that sagging skin that most of us want surgically repaired. Well, as we get older, the vitamin c production lowers and so does collagen production. This results in sagging skin.
As a mother of four, I can definitely say I have much of the above issues minus the turkey neck. But when I started using La Roche-Posay’s Vitamin C Serum, the sagging skin didn’t go away. What was I expecting, right?
After a few months of using this, I now notice a difference. My skin feels tighter and firmer, my wrinkles have been reduced, and my skin tone is much smoother. I’m not saying this is a cure-all or that anyone should use it how I do, but I do love this serum!
How I use it: After I wash my face, I put a few drops on key spots. I put a drop or two on my forehead, one drop on each cheek, one drop on my under eye area, one drop on my nose, and one drop on my chin. I then rub it gently, in circular motions, using a cotton ball. In the morning, I put it on after face wash and before moisturizer. Once the dry skin falls off (usually within 15 to 20 minutes), I do a quick rinse of my face and then put on moisturizer. I do this routine twice a day, once after my morning face wash and once before bed, after I’ve washed my face and removed all of my makeup. Yes, it’s a lengthy process and I specifically tailored it to my needs as you can tailor how you use this product to your needs.
My Favorite Moisturizer
Cetaphil
Cetaphil is a great moisturizing lotion. They offer several different versions of it. Be sure to get the one that lists hyaluronic acid as an ingredient; this key factor is pertinent to my success with dry skin.
This product comes highly recommended by other women, mostly friends, who also suffer from excessively dry skin.
Whether it’s due to diabetes or hormone imbalances or it’s just genetic, I have found that Cetaphil is worth every penny. Here’s why.
I was diagnosed in 2010 with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and again in 2015 with PCOS. Both conditions messed my skin up pretty bad, but the one symptom I found the hardest to remedy was the dry, flaky skin.
It doesn’t matter how much water I drink, my body never seems to absorb it properly. This leaves my heels, my toes, my face, my scalp, and my arms excessively dry. It’s really annoying.
I’ve tried all the other brands out there for my specific needs. I tired Gold Bond, Eucerin, and even Jergen’s and Aveeno. The only lotion that has made the biggest difference, given my glow back, and has taken away the flakiness, is Cetaphil.
How I use it: I take a warm shower, not too hot or you’ll exacerbate your dryness. As soon as I get out of the shower, I pat myself dry. Never rub yourself dry. I lay on my bed and start lotioning every ounce of my body and before you say anything, yes I lotion my butt, my feet, and back with the same one. I go through bottles of it. After a year’s long journey with it, I can honestly that while my dryness and flakiness are not 100% gone, it has definitely been reduced immensely. You can purchase Cetaphil by clicking the link.
My Favorite Cleanser
TATCHA Rice Wash Soft Cream Cleanser
This gentle cleanser is a pH amino based face wash. It touts gentle ingredients that leaves your face smooth and clean after. Because it has a pH Neutral Amino Acid base, it doesn’t strip away your natural oils. When you have dry skin, like I do, this is very important.
There are 3 key main ingredients that help this cleanser do its magic: Japanese Rice Powder, Okinawa Algae Blend, & Hyaluronic Acid. The rice powder has been known in Japan to brighten facial luminosity as well keep facial skin smooth and soft. The special Okinawa algae blend combined with the hyaluronic acid allow for a replenishment of water to the skin’s barrier. This whole process provides a better skin function, a reduction of future moisture loss, and visibly smoother and firmer skin.
I’ve only been using this cleanser for about a week. Here’s what I can see as a major difference. Before this cleanser, I would remove my makeup and then wash my face with my previous cleanser. As an added measure, I’d take a cotton ball, then take makeup remover and rub it all over my face again. 10 out of 10 times, the cotton balls would always come away with dirt still on it. This would leave me really upset because I had just washed my face not to mention my face was left rough and dry because I had literally stripped all of my natural oils away. That told me that the cleanser I was using didn’t do a good enough job as well as the makeup remover I was using.
When I started using Tatcha’s Rice Wash Cleanser, I noticed that when I did a second swipe of cotton balls as a check on my face, they were clean. I hadn’t changed my makeup remover so I knew it was because of the Tatcha Rice Wash. This was super impressive to me. Secondly, my face felt softer, smoother, and didn’t feel dry.
After a week of using Tatcha’s Rice Wash, I am left with a face that doesn’t feel so tight from dryness. My face feels smoother to the touch and I can tell the difference in the mornings, hours after having washed my face, that my skin doesn’t look so dull.
How I use this: I wash my face twice a day, morning and night. For the mornings, I wash it first thing when I wake up. It leaves me feeling refreshed and bright. A plus to using this cleanser is that on those busy mornings where I’m rushing to get my kids to school and don’t have time to throw on moisturizer or makeup, Tatcha leaves my facial skin looking and feeling youthful with a naturally soft glow. I have Tatcha to thank for all the compliments on my morning skin and questions on why I have a “pregnancy glow”. At night, I remove my makeup and then use Tatcha to cleanse my face.
My Favorite Toner
Pixi Glow Tonic
Pixi Glow Tonic is amazing because it’s a 3-in-1 toner! It exfoliates, brightens, and smooths the skin.
It has 5% Glycolic Acid, Aloe Vera, Ginseng, and botanical extracts. These items work together to create truly refined facial skin.
Why do I love this? I used to have terrible orange-peel skin. Now, while this doesn’t necessarily get rid of it for me, it does smooth my skin out as I prep it in my daily skin care routine.
After I added this to my routine, I noticed that my MAC makeup stayed on longer, the makeup didn’t cake up around my eyes anymore, and my forehead didn’t look so porous. It gave me a youthful glow that had me feeling like I was still in my 20’s.
How I use this: I apply it with a cotton pad or ball. I soak the pad or ball with the tonic and I gently sweep it across my face. Now, because washing my face doesn’t remove all the dirt, I notice that the cotton pads or balls are often, still dirty. So, I use more than one cotton pad or ball to do this until I’ve swept it across my entire face. I save under my eyes for last. I take a Q-Tip and soak that with the tonic, then gently sweep that under my eyes with my pinky and thumb. Why those two fingers? Because, they do not apply as much pressure on the under-eye skin as when I use my other fingers. Under-eye skin is super sensitive.
Lessons I’ve Learned about Vitamin C and Mommy Skin
Like I said at the beginning, these two go hand in hand. Vitamin C helps with so many skin issues that it would be skin suicide to not have it included in your daily skincare routine. That’s just one mom’s opinion to another.
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