3 very important skin care steps if you have dark skin!
Hello AKA Beauties!
Now we know that skin care is important no matter who you are or what foundation shade you wear. HOWEVER, everything about AKA Beauty is formed around all the wonderful shades of melanin, so we want to talk about the importance of skin care for our darker skin tone babes (sorry, not sorry).
As a person of colour, our skin can be extremely sensitive and we often have our own unique set of challenges when it comes to our skin – one glaringly obvious way that this can play an impact is with hyperpigmentation. Hyperpigmentation, which is the darkening of an area of our skin, occurs as a result of inflammation such as after an acne breakout or wound on the skin. It also occurs when our skin has an over exposure to UV rays. Regardless, in the end we are left with uneven and patchy skin that can last a while (boo!).
I’m sure most people of colour can relate that over time as dark marks develop and as we continue to live our lives, we can be left feeling self-conscious – for some of us that involves layering deep coverage foundation in an attempt to achieve perfect skin and sadly, for a few people these insecurities can even lead them to consider skin bleaching creams or even just products from sketchy people who promise our scars will magically be gone in one day (we wish!)
With this article, we aren’t going to start naming countless beauty products that can help (THIS TIME) – all you have to do is go on google and see countless articles doing just that, albeit usually all saying different things! This time, we just want to go back to basics and highlight 3 very important things that every person of colour should be including in their skincare routine as a minimum – not just for preventing hyperpigmentation but rather to ensure all round healthy, happy skin.
- Sunscreen
The saying “see it to believe it” doesn’t apply here we’re afraid. As a person of colour, you skin can ABSOLUTELY burn/and get damaged from the sun even if you can’t see the effects straight away. Overexposure to the sun is one of the KEY reasons we may have uneven skin tones and our dark spots worsen over time. We need to include SPF in our skin routine everyday – not just when it’s sunny outside. So please, SPF 30 and above beauties!
- Exfoliate
Exfoliators and scrubs are important to assisting the skin in renewing itself and getting rid of all those dead layers. We live in a world of instant gratification so sometimes seeing or feeling the skin instantly refresh from scrubbing can be addictive. However, this is not something to be done everyday – this actually will have the opposite effect and will damage the skin and may cause more dark spots. Exfoliating only needs to be done 2-3 times a week and it’s important to use scrubs/exfoliators that are kind and not too harsh to your skin. The more natural the product, the better! However, we know many dark skin babes wax lyrical about chemical exfoliants with ingredients such as glycolic or salicylic acid – however for those with extremely sensitive skin this can have adverse effects – in fact for those who have already caught on to the magic of exfoliating, we would love to know what you use – do you prefer a chemical or mechanical exfoliation routine? Slide in our DM’s on Instagram (@akabeautyofficial) or drop us an email via our Contact Us page.
- Cleanse and Moisturise
In 2020, we hope this is something we are reaffirming the importance of rather than something you are just discovering (:D). Nobody wants ashy skin and sadly darker skin tones are prone to suffer from dry skin so it’s important to gently cleanse followed by moisturising daily – natural and organic products are best as products full of chemicals could result in breakouts.
Anyway we could go on and on, but make sure you’re doing these 3 things and we guarantee you’ll see a difference in the healthiness of your skin <3
Bye for now!
x