For many women wearing make-up is part of their routine but is there a long-term impact of wearing make-up?
While make-up can help hide many issues, it could also contribute to a few others if left overnight or worn extensively.
Day-to-day wear of make-up should not cause your skin any issues if you are using a quality product. If you are lax with your night-time skincare routine, it might start to impact your skin’s quality.
Short-term impacts of wearing make-up
Blemishes
While some make-up products have been formulated to support the nourishment and conditioning of the skin, applying a layer of make-up to your face will, in effect, block the pores. In doing so it can cause several issues.
Firstly, the pores are responsible for releasing natural oils that help keep your skin clean and looking good. When wearing a base make-up, such as foundation, the pores can become clogged. As a result, the oil has nowhere to go and becomes trapped. Pollution and dirt that has accumulated on the face will remain there – and in your pores – as the oil cannot find an outlet.
If pollutants, bacteria and dirt become trapped in the pores this can cause spots. As such, a major short-term impact of wearing make-up is that it can lead to outbreaks of spots.
Skin irritation
If you have sensitive skin, make-up can be a real problem – especially when trying out a new product. A reaction can lead to patches of dry skin, eczema, spots or hives. The lasting impact of an allergic reaction, or bout of irritation, is that the skin remains dry for a period of time.
Ultimately, dry skin is more prone to suffering wrinkles. It’s not only people with established skin sensitivities that need to be careful though. A sudden change in skincare, astringent ingredients or using cheap make-up can cause irritation in skin that usually remains calm.
Irritation and allergic reaction are particularly important in the eye area. As the skin in the eye area is thinner than the rest of the face it is more susceptible to allergies. It is also more prone to dryness and wrinkles. If eye make-up is left on over-night, it can increase the chance of irritating the actual eye, possibly even contributing to conditions such as conjunctivitis or dermatitis.
This is especially important if you wear false eyelashes as the dirt can become trapped underneath them. Fake eyelashes have also been associated with allergic reactions, causing damage to the eye, and harming the growth of natural eye lashes.
Dullness
When most people are chasing a certain glow, a dull complexion is the last thing they want instead. When the skin is unable to breathe and regenerate properly it can start to lose its shine.
This is what happens when dead skin cells start to block pores and remain on the face. While make-up is blocking pores it is also blocking the body’s natural ability to exfoliate the skin and remove dead skin cells through the production of oil.
Long-term impact of wearing make-up
Most problems associated with make-up can be avoided by sticking to a good skincare routine and choosing quality brands. Issues will usually remedy themselves if you take good care of your skin, but what about the long-term impact of wearing make-up?
While remaining disciplined about your skincare routine is the best way to minimise any effects from wearing make-up, it is important to not leave make-up on overnight, and it might be wise to give your skin a break every now and then.
The long-term impacts of wearing make-up are largely accumulative and a result of excessive make-up wearing and not sticking to your skincare routine.
Ageing
One of the long-term side effects of wearing make-up could be that your skin ages quicker. This happens because, as make-up works its way into the pores, it upsets the face’s natural defence and cleansing mechanism.
As the skin is unable to release oil to clear pollutants these can instead make their way into the pores where free radicals can damage the face’s natural collagen. This is a vital ingredient in helping the body to fight the signs of age as collagen helps to maintain the skin’s volume, elasticity and hydration levels. In depleting collagen the pollutants trapped as a result of wearing make-up can speed up the loss of volume and the appearance of wrinkles.
This combined with dryness from the blockage of oil and the potential for allergic reactions can have an impact on how the skin ages over time.
Good skincare
The good news is that with a good skincare routine you can help to stave off any negative effects of wearing make-up. The number one rule is to always cleanse properly at night to make sure all traces of make-up are removed.
Combining this with the use of evidence-based skincare to exfoliate and moisturise skin will help to maintain smoothness and hydration.
If you have become concerned by the appearance of lines and wrinkles on your face, aesthetic treatments, such as anti-wrinkle therapy and Profhilo, can restore smoothness to the skin and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Looking good and feeling good are so important and wearing make-up can have a huge psychological effect. Keep looking good but make sure you have an excellent skincare routine in place to protect your skin.
To discuss how evidence-based skincare could improve your skin’s condition, or to enquire about anti-wrinkle therapy, get in touch with Dr Camilla Hill for a friendly, discreet chat.
