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Let me tell you why a mother is the perfect employee

Dominique McMullan

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I broke up with my boyfriend and now I have bangs

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WIN a family pass to Emerald Park this Easter
WIN a family pass to Emerald Park this Easter

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This peaceful Victorian-era Galway home is on the market for €1.65 million
This peaceful Victorian-era Galway home is on the market for €1.65 million

Sarah Finnan

How to recreate 90s skinny brows without plucking out your eyebrows
How to recreate 90s skinny brows without plucking out your eyebrows

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A definitive guide to the very best Irish-made Easter eggs
A definitive guide to the very best Irish-made Easter eggs

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Supper Club: Peanut soba noodle salad
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18 interiors finds under €50 to refresh your home this spring

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This Co Meath self-build blends with its rural surroundings, and has a clean and modern interior
This Co Meath self-build blends with its rural surroundings, and has a clean and modern...

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Image / Beauty

Extreme Dryness and Redness


By Ellie Balfe
07th Dec 2014
Extreme Dryness and Redness

Hormones often have the last word on how your skin behaves, regardless of your life stage. But that’s not to say their effects can’t be minimised. Liz Dwyer looks at what fluctuations dominate in your fifties and sixties, and how best to safeguard your skin from hormonal havoc.

Extreme dryness and redness – why now?

As Brigitte Bardot once said, ?It’s sad to grow old, but nice to ripen.? That said, no one likes shriveling up, and with menopause and peri-menopause, oestrogen levels plummet, drying skin out like you never expected. Oestrogens also have anti-inflammatory properties, so the loss of these hormones can also lead to increased inflammation, which can exacerbate certain conditions like rosacea. And during hot flushes, skin can flare up, and turn temporarily red and blotchy.

How to handle it

Get familiar with the terms humectant and hyaluronic, as these are skincare ingredients you’ll want in every stage of your regime. They act like water magnets when applied to the skin surface, attracting up to 100 times their weight and size in H2O, from the blood supply that runs through the dermis. For instant plumping and quenching power, liberally apply Image Skincare Ageless Total Pure Hyaluronic Filler, €29.50.

For tackling redness, the team at Dr Hauschka labs, experts on menopausal skin, have formulated a four-week Intensive Treatment 05, €65, that balances out the hormone-related skin changes with a cocktail of calming and vein-constricting botanicals to counter the blotchiness and spots, making for a calm, even complexion.

 

Image via Vanity Fair.