HEALTH Feeding the skin from within

Feeding the skin from within


Ciara Galvin heads to a local salon for a skin analysis and gets kitted out with a whole new skin routine

APPARENTLY, once you reach the tender age of 19, one should be applying anti-wrinkle cream to the skin. In your mid-20s, you should get a facial every four to six weeks.
The fact that I am 25 years old and never had a facial made for an apprehensive trip to the Health and Beauty Suite at Westport Leisure Park last week for a skin consultation and facial.
Despite pre-conceived notions of a pampering, Pauline McKeever from the International Institute of Anti-Ageing told me that the Environ facial is more beneficial to the skin than ‘pamper-like’ facials on the market.
Using a DF Ionzyme machine, using electrical currents and sound waves, Geraldine Greenan and staff at the Health and Beauty Suite can penetrate ingredients deeper into the skin, providing greater results.
The staff are trained in the Environ range of products. Devised by South African doctor, and now cosmetic surgeon Dr Des Fernandez in the 1980s, the range’s ethos is ‘feeding the skin from within’, using a tailored salon and home-care plan.
Like an episode from ‘Ten Years Younger’, a facial scan assesses problems in the skin including dehydration, sun damage, bacteria, and lines and wrinkles. Pauline, who visits the Health and Beauty Suite once a month for consultations, addresses problems identified by the facial scan by devising a programme using in-salon facials and a range of products to use at home.
To address my problems – dehydration in my cheeks, sun damage and areas of bacteria – a carefully explained routine using Environ products containing the A and C vitamins was suggested. I was also encouraged to use eye cream, a daily SPF in the range and vitamin C supplements.
Pauline explains that the concept of the range is feeding, fortifying and finishing the skin. The products, which contain high levels of vitamin A to nourish problem areas and vitamin C to promote collagen production (promoting plumper looking skin) work to improve the specific skin problems of each client.
Admittedly lazy when it comes to a skin routine, I’m determined to follow the routine, now that the essential science behind attaining youthful healthy skin has been explained to me.
From the salon facial, to taking daily vitamin supplements as part of the programme, the Environ approach is thorough.
And with a re-scan of my skin in three months time, here’s hoping that keeping to the daily step-by-step plan will result in significantly healthier skin.

The next skin consultations at the Health and Beauty Suite at Westport Leisure Park with Pauline McKeever will be on November 12
and 13.