The Lego blocks of your skin – Collagen and Elastin

If your skin was Lego the two most important blocks would be collagen and elastin. They’re the hombres that keep your skin firm and plump.

As you get older, the collagen and elastin levels in your skin get lower, and the wrinkles and sags get larger. We hate to burst the bubble of everlasting youth, but it’s inevitable. As you age the collagen and elastin hombres have an extended siesta.

Don’t hit the panic button just yet. There are a few things you can do to keep your collagen and elastin levels from dropping too quickly.

But first you need to know what you’re dealing with here…

What is Elastin?

Elastin is a protein created by cells called fibroblasts and it gives your skin strength and elasticity. It’s what makes your skin spring back to normal like a rubber band snapping back after being stretched. And just like a rubber band, as it gets older its ability to spring back gets less.

Since most of us stopped making elastin around the age of 12 we need to take care of it of it to prevent losing it too fast. The elastin you have now needs to last the rest of your life – especially as elastin is essential for wounds to heal.

What is Collagen?

Collagen is also a protein created by fibroblast cells, but instead of giving strength and flexibility, collagen provides structure for your skin. A good house has solid foundations and strong framework. This is what collagen does for your skin. Healthy, firm skin has good amounts of collagen.

We have more collagen than elastin and the better news is that our stores don’t start to deplete until after the age of 25. Once you hit 25 though, you lose more collagen than you make.

The Unfortunate Truth

You can never restore your skin’s collagen and elastin levels back to what they were like when you were 20. Boo

One of the skincare trends at the moment is to have collagen and elastin in your moisturiser. The theory the clever marketers came up with is that it will boost your own levels.

Hmm… How do we put this in a politically correct manner… ? it’s a complete load of baloney.

Unfortunately applying a cream that contains collagen has never been shown to do anything to restore our own collagen levels. The molecules are too large to be absorbed and it’s usually a type of collagen that’s incompatible with our skin. Your skin needs a certain type and quality of collagen, and usually marine collagen or cow (!!) collagen is not it.

These creams aren’t completely redundant as they do increase hydration. Most of us will be affected by dehydrated skin as we get older, and because these creams improve hydration, you can see a reduction in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in dehydrated skin. But you don’t need the collagen and elastin to get those results.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel

Losing collagen and elastin is inevitable but your lifestyle plays a major role in how fast. Smoking, sun exposure, alcohol, stress, sugar and hormones all deplete your collagen and elastin stores.

So naturally drinking less, not smoking, eating healthy and protecting yourself from the sun all help you preserve your precious collagen and elastin.

Even though actual collagen and elastin don’t help in skincare by adding them as ingredients, there are other ingredients that do help. It’s no surprise that the best ones are also powerful anti-oxidants.

Vitamin C and Vitamin E are at it again adding to their awesome skin cred. There are other ingredients to look for too. Here are our star picks:

After writing that list we felt pretty chuffed. We’ve got elastin and collagen helping ingredients left right and centre. So by using Woohoo Skincare you really can’t help but look after these devious hombres.

If you’re new to Woohoo Skincare and don’t know where to start (yes that was a pretty long list!), start here with our super sized sample pack.

Image source: http://creationsafaris.com/crevbd.htm, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/beauty/article-1213240/Old-time-How-young-women-use-anti-ageing-creams-speeding-process.html