As the body’s largest organ — covering a surface area of about two square meters — the skin has many functions. However, its main one is to act as a barrier between the inside and outside worlds. Daily, the skin is subjected to external elements like wind, sun rays, oxygen, humidity, and dryness, as well as internal factors like stress, diet, drugs, and the skin care products used.
To maintain our skin’s wellness for life, it’s important to observe it and care for it regardless of our age. “Everything you experience during your lifetime affects your body, including your skin, so it’s really important to pay attention and adapt your skin care routine, whether you’re a teenager, middle-aged or elderly,” says Laëtitia Métayer, Brand Experience Director at NAOS.
Building a routine to ensure a lifetime of healthy skin
Our skin is an ever-evolving complex ecosystem of diverse biological processes — changing, adapting, and responding to the internal and external environments. Preserving these natural resources and mechanisms is key to maintaining the skin’s long-term health and beauty.
It’s this scientific understanding of the ecosystem in which the skin evolves that NAOS — a French cosmetics company — brings to its three skin care brands: Bioderma, Institut Esthederm, and Etat Pur. With its approach — ecobiology — NAOS combines ecology and biology to help preserve the skin’s ecosystem. Rather than overtreating the skin, it must learn how to function properly. “It’s a new way of caring for the skin, one that strengthens its natural mechanisms,” says Métayer.
Everything you experience during your lifetime affects your body, including your skin, so it’s really important to pay attention and adapt your skin care routine.
Laëtitia Métayer from NAOS
Because about 50% of the success of a good makeup depends on skin quality and skin care, it’s important not only to cleanse the skin morning and night but also to choose good products with the right ingredients, at the right dose, and that have been dermatologically tested.
A good product treats the skin without overtreating it, as that could undermine the skin’s physiology or cause an allergic reaction. The NAOS ecobiological approach avoids multiplying active ingredients, focusing instead on helping the skin strengthen itself and adapt to its environment, thereby adding a therapeutic dimension. “We take all of that into consideration with our products to find the right ingredients to rebalance the problem, rather than hide it,” says Métayer.
Research and innovation with your skin in mind
For the past 40 years, NAOS has distinguished itself in the dermo-cos metic and aesthetic field by constantly innovating and challenging the industry status quo. Founded by Jean-Noël Thorel, a pharmacist and biologist, NAOS holds 60 ecobiological patents and, through its robust research and development arm, is constantly looking for the right ingredients in the right formulation.
At the heart of the NAOS culture is the desire to serve all the different communities that participate in the creation of its products, use its products, and share its way of thinking. The company’s signature “care first” embodies the brand’s ambition to bring care beyond the skin level to the broader world by embracing all aspects of human care: health, well-being, attention, consideration, affection, and love.
Q&A with Expert Dermatologist Dr. Sandy Skotnicki
One of the most common misconceptions about skin care is that we need to scrub, rub, and double cleanse as part of our beauty routine. But scientific and medical experts agree that to protect our skin microbiome, we need to lay off the body scrubbing with soaps and detergents. Expert Dr. Sandy Skotnicki shares her insight on why streamlining your beauty routine can help save your skin and wallet.
Mediaplanet: Why is it important to not overtreat the skin?
Dr. Sandy Skotnicki: It’s a useful analogy to think of our outermost skin layer as a suit of armor or better yet, a brick wall. Overwashing with soaps and detergents can strip away skin lipids (the mortar holding the brick wall together), damage the skin’s normal pH, and compromise its healthy bacteria.
What are the biggest stressors on an individual’s skin health?
Oxidative stress from UV light and pollution, smoking, and other chemical exposures, as well as overwashing our skin with daily showers and detergents are the biggest stressors. The use of multiple products with multiple ingredients can have a cumulative or additive irritating effect.
Why is it important to understand about the ingredients you put on your skin?
There’s a big difference between what can irritate your skin and what is toxic. For example, lead won’t give you a rash, but lavender essential oil can. Consumers often equate skin reactions with toxicity, immediately turning to a natural alternative, which is the wrong approach. Instead, consumers should pare back their products. Your skin and hair care routine should have a maximum of 10 ingredients — the rest is marketing!
