Some people finish a run looking barely warm. Others look like they have been standing next to a furnace, with bright red cheeks, forehead and neck that take an hour to fade. If you are in the second group, you may have wondered whether it means something is wrong. Facial flushing after exercise is usually…
You wake up after a night out and your face looks different: puffier around the eyes, blotchy across the cheeks, dull and a little grey, with lines that seem deeper than usual. Most people have seen this in the mirror at some point, and it can take the best part of a day to fade….
You put on a moisturiser that everyone else loves and your cheeks sting within seconds. A gust of cold wind or a hot room turns your face blotchy red. Nothing looks wrong on the skin itself, yet it burns, tingles or itches. For many people, this is what having a sensitive face feels like. Much…
Why does skin turn oily almost overnight at puberty, get shinier in the week before a period, or suddenly break out after stopping the pill? The answer lies in the small oil glands attached to every hair follicle and the hormones that switch them up and down. Sebum production is controlled mainly by androgens, the…
Friends ask if you are feeling alright. Photos look washed out. The inside of your lower eyelids looks pale rather than pink, and you are tired no matter how much you sleep. Pale skin has many innocent explanations, but iron deficiency is one of the most common medical ones. Yes, iron deficiency can make skin…
If you have been dealing with stubborn breakouts, you may have seen claims that low vitamin D is the hidden cause. It is an appealing idea: a simple blood test, a cheap supplement and clearer skin. The research is genuinely interesting, but it is not quite that simple. Vitamin D deficiency does not directly cause…
‘Blue light protection’ now appears on everything from serums to setting sprays, usually with a warning that hours in front of a laptop are ageing your face. It is an understandable worry for anyone who works at a screen all day. The science, though, tells a more nuanced story. Blue light, also called high-energy visible…
Most people have noticed it at some point: a breakout before a big presentation, an eczema flare during a hard month, skin that looks grey and tired after weeks of pressure. Stress shows on the face, and cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, gets much of the blame. Cortisol and other stress signals affect skin…
Caffeine turns up in two very different places in beauty conversations. It is a star ingredient in de-puffing eye creams, and it is also on many lists of foods to avoid for rosacea and redness. Both ideas trace back to the same question: what does caffeine actually do to blood vessels in the face? Caffeine…
‘Beauty sleep’ sounds like an old wives’ tale, but there is real biology behind it. Almost every cell in your body, including skin cells, runs on an internal 24-hour clock that switches different jobs on and off at different times of day. Skin follows a circadian rhythm: during the day it prioritises defence against UV…
Every winter the same thing happens. The heating goes on, and within a week or two your face feels tight after washing, makeup looks patchy, your lips crack and the sides of your nose start to flake. For some people, cheeks turn red and sting when they apply their usual products. Indoor heating dries out…
Collagen is the scaffolding of your skin. It gives the face its firmness and structure, and from our mid-twenties onward the body makes roughly one percent less of it each year. Sun exposure, smoking and time speed the decline, which is why so many products promise to ‘boost collagen’. The most effective natural ways to…
Magnesium has a reputation as a wellness cure-all. Online, low magnesium is blamed for everything from acne and dull skin to wrinkles and eczema, and magnesium sprays, oils and supplements are sold as skin fixes. Magnesium is essential for hundreds of processes in the body, including some involved in skin repair and inflammation, but there…
‘Sugar ages your skin’ has become one of the most repeated lines in wellness writing, often alongside dramatic claims that a single dessert can wrinkle your face. There is real science underneath, but the size of the effect is usually overstated. Sugar can contribute to skin ageing through a process called glycation, in which glucose…
A healthy flush after a brisk walk, the pink glow after a warm bath, the grey look that creeps in after a long week indoors: the amount of blood flowing through your facial skin has a lot to do with how alive your face looks. The most reliable natural ways to boost facial circulation are…
Fish oil capsules and ‘glow’ supplements promise skin that looks lit from within. Omega-3 fats do have genuine roles in the skin, so the idea is not baseless. The question is how much difference extra omega-3 makes to someone who already eats a reasonably varied diet. Omega-3 fatty acids help build the fats that hold…
Your mouth and your face share more than a border. The same blood vessels, lymph nodes and nerves serve both, and the skin around the lips is in constant contact with saliva, toothpaste and whatever you eat. So it should not be surprising that problems in one can show up in the other. Oral health…
Sun damage has long been accepted as the main outside cause of skin ageing. Over the past fifteen years, researchers have added another suspect to the list: the air we breathe, particularly in busy cities. Air pollution, especially fine particles from traffic and soot and gases such as nitrogen dioxide, is linked to more pigment…
Most people know smoking harms the lungs and heart. Fewer think about the network of tiny blood vessels running just beneath the skin of the face, even though that network is responsible for much of how healthy, or tired, your skin looks. Smoking narrows the small blood vessels in the skin within minutes, reducing blood…
Tight after cleansing, dull by mid-afternoon, and suddenly showing fine lines you never noticed before: dehydrated skin tends to announce itself in small, irritating ways. The usual advice is to drink more water. That helps some people, but it is only part of the story. Dehydration affects the skin mainly in its outermost layer, the…
Most facial puffiness has an ordinary explanation: a salty dinner, a short night, allergies or a good cry. It comes on in the morning and fades by lunchtime. But when a puffy face becomes the norm, lasting all day and building over months, it is worth thinking about your thyroid. An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) can…