Why Your Skin Is the Most Essential Part of Skincare: The Layers of the Skin Explained
Excuse me for stating the obvious, but why is skin the most essential part of skincare?
It seems like a silly statement: obviously, skin is an essential part of skincare. AYA Natural Skincare is all about natural skincare, and most importantly, it is about skin in its absolute form, with our primary focus on what it needs. We believe skincare is a personal journey, and exploring natural skincare is both nourishing and impactful.
We aim to connect with a deeper understanding of what skincare actually means so that you, in turn, can decide for yourself what it means to you. A basic understanding of the role our skin plays and how it functions is the best way to understand what your skin needs, so that you, dear reader, are empowered in your skincare choices.
Why Is Skin the Most Essential Part of Skincare?
When you look around at the continual barrage of advertising on all the different platforms, from in-store campaigns, billboards and media to inescapable social media, it is always about what skincare products can do and how they can do it. They talk about how skincare products can create perfection and beauty, with a clear implication of what it is that you, on the receiving end of this advertising, can and should improve. The images presented are of impossible beauty ideals, completely unobtainable, largely because of technology. Photoshop was first released in 1990 and quickly became the norm for enhancing and transforming digital images. While tech advancement is a wondrous feat, using it this way doesn't fit with the principles and essence of natural skincare.
There is justifiable, constant criticism of skincare advertising because of the unrealistic images used in marketing campaigns. Think about what is involved in a professional photo shoot and, in the aftermath, the editing for flawless, airbrushed skin with no identifiable real-life challenge on it. Skin tells a story; it tells the story of your life, and no life is perfect. Our goal at AYA Natural Skin is to bring the benefits of natural skincare to the forefront, so we can all embrace our skin where it is at.
Another element of skincare advertising that is deplorable is the fear-mongering. These marketing ploys mostly fall under the anti-ageing banner, where our fears and insecurities about ageing, which is quite simply a fact of life, are manipulated and exploited to sell skincare promising the secret fountain of youth. I watched with happiness and admiration as Pamela Anderson went to Paris Fashion Week in 2023 without makeup. She looked so beautiful embracing her age, completely defying the need or marketing discourse for anti-ageing. Choosing natural skincare is about embracing and rejoicing in where you and your skin are right now. That's not to say natural skincare doesn't support your skin at every stage; it simply allows you to embrace every stage your skin is at.
Your Skin Is Your Largest Organ
Now, to get back to the skin in skincare. There are seventy-eight organs in the body, give or take a few, depending on which medical source you look at. Why this is debatable is beyond me, but I am not part of any medical fraternity. According to some sources, the number changes if you count each bone and tooth separately, and increases even more if you count each ligament and tendon. The only thing that grabs me is that, of all the organs in the body, the skin is the largest. While it is not up there with the five vital organs (the brain, heart, liver, kidneys and lungs), living with unhappy skin can be incredibly challenging.
The skin is an organ of the body. The word organ comes from the Latin word "organum", an instrument or tool (excuse my nerdy phonetics fascination). An organ is a collection of tissues forming a functional unit with specialised bodily functions.
The skin of an average-sized adult weighs up to four kilos (approximately nine pounds) and covers up to 2 square metres (about 21 square feet), accounting for about fifteen per cent of body weight. The skin holds us together, giving us the essential boundary between our beings and the universe. The skin is part of the integumentary system, meaning a tough outer protective layer, made up of the skin, hair, nails and exocrine glands. The skin keeps the contents of the body together, covering most of our bodies, and is the main barrier and form of protection between a person and the surrounding elements. This incredible and complex organ was created to be in harmony with nature, and when you choose skincare made with nature's ingredients and a mindful approach, you allow your skin to glow naturally.
What Are the 3 Major Layers of Skin?
The skin has three main layers: the epidermis (top layer), the dermis (middle layer), and the hypodermis (bottom or fatty layer, also called subcutaneous tissue). Each layer has a specific structure and function.
What Is the Epidermis?
The epidermis is the top layer. Its primary function is as a protective layer, preventing harmful bacteria and germs from entering your body and bloodstream. This layer is also responsible for making new skin cells. We shed tens of thousands of skin cells every minute; just the sound of it is a vast amount. The process is that we shed our old skin cells and our skin renews with new ones. It's just the time frame of the skin renewal cycle that changes: in our 20s, it's between 20 and 28 days; in our 30s, between 28 and 35 days; in our 40s, between 30 and 45 days; and from 50 onwards, between 45 and 60 days. When you see the role and function of the epidermis, the choice to nurture it with natural skincare is a simple one.
What Are the 5 Sub-Layers of the Epidermis?
You may have read that skin has three, five or even seven layers, and it's no wonder people get confused. Here's the simple version: the skin has three main layers, and the epidermis itself is made up of five sub-layers (four in thinner skin). The outermost of these is the stratum corneum, the "brick and mortar" layer of flattened cells and lipids that forms your skin's first line of defence.
What Is the Dermis?
The dermis, the middle layer, makes up most of the skin's thickness. The blood vessels in this layer provide nutrients to the epidermis, keeping the layers of the skin healthy. Here is where we find collagen and elastin: collagen gives the skin strength and resilience, and elastin keeps it flexible. This layer is also where the nerve receptors are situated, which tell us when something is too hot, too cold, pleasant or not. It also produces oil, allowing the skin to stay soft and smooth.
What Is the Hypodermis?
The hypodermis, the skin's bottom, fatty layer, protects muscles and bones. It connects the skin's layers to the muscles and bones and contains the nerves and blood vessels needed to keep the skin's layers healthy. This layer also regulates body temperature.
What Does Your Skin Do?
The skin has multiple functions: it is a protective barrier, prevents moisture loss, is a sensory organ, regulates temperature, and is an immune organ able to detect infections. Water, protein, fats and minerals make up the skin.
Ultimately, the skin is not separate from us, nor are we separated from the skin; we are beautifully and inextricably connected. So whatever we experience in our lives, our skin does too. If we are stressed, so is our skin, and it shows. There are different factors which play into the state of our skin, such as how we choose to live our lives and, on the flip side, the ways we have no choice in how we live, what we decide to eat and what is available for us to eat. We go through many life stages, as does our skin; our skin is very different today than when we were fresh-eyed and dewy in our early twenties.
Do Skin Types Really Exist?
Whenever you engage with skincare today, there is much discussion around skin types, and the number and definitions are not static. I have read there are five skin types, seven skin types and sixteen skin types. When you look at the skin and begin to get a minuscule sense of the magnitude of what it does and is capable of, don't you get a sense that categorising it into clear-cut types is a massive disservice to us and our skin? For me, three main points refute the need for skin types. Firstly, there are so many different people in the world, and by simply understanding this, it's clear there are so many kinds of skin. Secondly, there are the many varied stages in life that we go through and have absolutely no control over; a teenager and a menopausal woman are simply realities we will experience. And finally, there is the challenging reality that so many different skin conditions just don't fit into a clear-cut category.
How to Tell What Your Skin Needs Today
The skin is about each individual's relationship with themselves, their body, their being and their essence. It's the boundary containing our being and the boundary separating and protecting us. The only option is to fall deeply and irrevocably in love with your skin while falling in love with yourself.
The next time you need to buy skincare, or you are out and about and a product catches your eye with its beautifully manipulated words and images, take a moment to get in touch with your skin. Feel it, sense it and experience it. Be clear about what your skin needs, and then make the choice that suits your skin best in that moment. Choosing a holistic skincare approach with AYA Natural Skin and finding mindful skincare practices that suit you are essential for your skincare regime.