Skinside Out

By Robyn McAlpine

Robyn McAlpine is a big skin nerd, skin lover and BS hater. She loves dispelling skin myths and breaking down the beauty industry hype with skin science and common sense, to prevail over fad beauty treatments and miracle skincare products. 

Her career began in beauty therapy well over a decade ago and her unbridled curiosity lead her

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karen Mc Dermott
• Release date: Apr 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9780648521129

Book preview

Introduction

My big ass why!

I want you to fall in love with the humble skin cell.

I want you to have such an understanding of what this cell does for you that it gives you an unshakeable appreciation which almost makes you cry at the thought of hurting her. Crazy, I know! Nevertheless, if only you knew how amazing your body was and the skin that is created for you, every minute of every day, you would be so much less likely to take them for granted. You would be less inclined for the quick fix to scrape it off and start again. You would see that the path to true lifelong skin saving results is not in an aggressive salon treatment but in supporting everything that cell needs to do its job well. I want you to love your skin, not just the way it looks and feels, but how it works because if you know how it works, you will really understand why it looks and feels the way it does. Once you know the why the how comes easily. I want to show you how to transform your skin and give you a level of understanding you’ve never had before. It is only then that you will understand why I can achieve outstanding results where others may have struggled and why I want you to give up punishing your skin with treatments and products that serve no purpose in skin health.

Every time I sit to type words into this book I consider you and what it is that I want you to know about your skin. What can I teach you that will make your skin journey easier? What will empower you to make great skin choices? What do I wish you knew to avoid falling into the trap of the marketing beast that is the beauty industry? It is my dream that this book will help dispel myths and explain simply and commonsensically (is that even a word?) some of the basic functions of your skin. I hope this book answers all of the whys you have and leads you to the right place to look after your skin.

So, what is healthy skin?

It’s so hard to really know because every picture you see in a magazine or on television has been retouched so much so that if you were to meet the real person in the street, you probably wouldn’t recognise them. Unlike what we are shown, real skin is not flawless one hundred percent of the time. Your skin has so many important jobs to do that it cannot possibly look like a flawless canvas free of pores, freckles and life all of the time.

Skinside Out Philosophy

Your skin is a living, breathing organ.

It’s your filtration system, your waste disposal system that eliminates toxins.

Your skin is your thermostat regulator keeping your body at the perfect operating temperature.

Skin is how you feel the warmth of the sun and the cool of the breeze.

Your skin is your sense of touch; it’s how you feel kisses and hugs from your loved ones. It is your warning system; giving you goosebumps when something is wrong or emotive; it lets you know if things just aren’t quite right.

Your skin lets you know when you are unwell because your skin reads a high temperature or colour change and it can also reflect certain illnesses within the body.

It is your first line of defence for your immune system.

It protects your inside from the outside world.

Your skin is how you connect to the environment around you.

Touch, without skin is nothing.

Your skin is what others see of you when they look at you . . .

even if they don’t know your mind and beautiful personality.

If you think about all of the things that skin is for us, our skin is bound to show signs of life and function. The way it looks and feels on the outside is so very often linked to something that is happening on the inside. This is why I am not promising you an overnight fix or a miracle potion. It’s simply foolish to think that skin health can be miraculously fixed in a matter of days or weeks. If you want true skin rejuvenation—the kind that lasts a lifetime—that serves you well and makes you look younger and more radiant for longer, time and dedication are key. Not a course of peels on sale at the local chain salon. Together, we need to work both internally and externally to ensure we are going to get lifelong, real results!

I hope this book will help you to reprogram your skin, how you feel about it and how to begin to work with the natural function of your skin instead of trying to fight it or accidentally and unknowingly work against it. Because most of what is offered to us in skin treatments and skincare products is going against everything your skin is born to do. That’s right. Not all skincare is skin care. Most of the things we learn about our skin are from advertisements on television, current affair programs and advertorials in magazines. But what this is teaching us is about the fancy ingredients and formulations and their benefits of why you need the product that is being promoted. We learn about why we should buy their product or treatment and not about the science of skin or the anatomy and physiology of cell function and what it actually needs or doesn’t. That’s the boring stuff, that stuff doesn’t make nearly as much money as a sparkly advertorial or a flawless, fake face in a magazine. But that’s what we are learning here.

We are interfering with our largest vital organ. Vital organ? Yes! Just like our heart, our liver, our lungs, our kidneys, our brain, without skin we would die fairly quickly from exposure. Our skin works every minute of every day to keep us protected from the outside world and to provide a safe and comfortable environment for us to live in.

Why all the sale hype?

We are being sold to.

We’re told that we need this new shiny, sparkly product in our bathroom and on our skin but all with a motive to convince us that their product is better, that this product will change your skin and boost your confidence. Sales people in department stores are being educated by the marketing companies not the skin scientist. They are chasing a sale of the product and not first understanding your skin and what it needs. Their training is in SALES not in SKIN. They know all the impressive words to convince you that they know what they are talking about, but again, they are using the benefits of fancy ingredients that you’ve read about and they’re trying to make your skin fit the product. Not the other way around.

You may ask (so let me do it for you): ‘Robyn, if you’re in this industry and you’re also trying to make a sale (hello to this book and the treatments and products I sell in my skin clinic), why should I listen to you? Aren’t you also trying to convince me that what you do is better than what everyone else is doing?’

Great question.

I love a fellow sceptic! My heart and soul and purpose for being on this planet is to help you live your life to its fullest potential. I have learned over the last decade and a bit in this industry how our skin looks and feels is directly linked to the way we see ourselves. When we look in the mirror the reflection we see sets off our internal dialogue. This dialogue can either work for or against us and if you are seeing your skin and it immediately triggers the I’m not good enough voice, your day immediately starts off with this mindset and it filters into every part of your day. How dare something as small as the skin on our face dictate this deeper sense of unworthiness! How dare skin that’s not healthy, that’s bumpy, dry, spotty, rough, blotchy, sallow or tired have such power over the way you live your life every day! Ain’t nobody got time for that!

When I began working in this industry I felt so inadequate. Women would come to me and I could see the amazing potential they had. I could see in her the loving mother, the best friend, the lover who was too shy to be kissed on the cheek because of her skin and I didn’t have the knowledge to help her. I realised I was like those I’ve mentioned above. I was selling a product and trying to make her skin fit to the range I was selling at the job I had at the time. I could see that the results were okay but that they weren’t amazing when we reached a plateau. Like many skincare professionals the only answer I could fathom was that the skincare I was selling wasn’t the right fit for them and maybe they should try something else. I didn’t really know why a product wasn’t working and if by chance it did I didn’t know why it worked, just that I must have fluked it or maybe I was as good at skin as my college teacher suggested. But really, when something didn’t work for someone, I was just led to assume the product range I was selling wasn’t the right fit for everyone and I’ve seen it ever since when people have come to my skin clinic. They think that they’re a rare breed of people whose skin is destined to be bad forever and they are in the Bermuda Triangle of skin mysteries. This answer just wasn’t good enough for me. I felt like a fraud and at the same time I was frustrated because I had studied hard to get where I was, yet I still felt that maybe what I had learned wasn’t the right thing, or detailed enough . . . I felt like something was missing.

I remember going to my first real skin cell anatomy class. I spent an exhaustive four days in intensive training, learning nothing about ingredients or the latest fad product or fancy skin treatment. Those four jam-packed days were all about skin and skin cells and what they needed and how they worked. It was intense! I felt like a complete idiot and enlightened at the same time! More so, I felt that I had found my calling and that I had only just found the tip of the iceberg to what was home. That’s when it started to click. I realised that this entire time I had been listening to the sales pitches of brands and lapping up what the sales rep told me instead of using my pretty little head. Sure, I’d gloss over the ingredients list and hear how the active ingredients worked miracles on every skin. I blindly trusted that they knew better and not once did I think to question otherwise. It wasn’t until I really understood how skin cells functioned that I learned to look at the evidence—the ingredients list—to understand how each letter and word and number on the back of the label interacted with the skin cells. That’s when the bombshell dropped. Not all skincare is skin care. That’s when I set out on a journey with a goal to become one of the most knowledgeable skin therapists in my field in order to serve my clients, in order to create amazing skin, in order to tame the internal voice of not good enough, not pretty enough . . . whatever it is you tell yourself that holds you back from being the confident, amazing woman taking charge of your life!

It is simple.

Skin is just skin.

Something made so complicated as though it’s a big secret that no one wants you to know. But when you understand how it works it unlocks those mysteries and it all just boils down to science and biology—fascinating! It also means that there is a reason why your skin is the way it is. It’s not some mystery that can never be solved.

I hope that this book will be filled with ‘aha’ moments that empower you to make better skin choices and to really understand your skin and why skincare has or hasn’t worked for you.

So, in answer to your question: Yes, in essence, I guess I am trying to sell something. I’m trying to sell you on the idea that maybe, just maybe, it’s worth one last shot at trying to find answers for your skin. That maybe results failed simply because the right questions weren’t being answered or that the right questions weren’t being asked in the first place. Results require an investment in skincare and in skin treatments and in how you look after yourself from the inside to the outside in #skinsideout. But this time, instead of making your skin fit the skincare they’re selling, I want to find what is making your skin behave the way that it is and create a skincare reprogram that fits what your skin needs and not the current backward trend that has been.

I’m about getting back to basics, finding your skins baseline.

Back to common skin sense.

Making lifestyle choices and using skincare that’s all about your skin function and how it’s directly related to your life and how you live it.

It’s your Skin Side Out!

CHAPTER ONE

The Skin-Ny On Skin

I want you to think about your skin like a house.

There’s a roof, walls, floors, carpets and ducted air conditioning. This house has a good strong weatherproof tiled roof. The roof is also insulated to keep the inside of the house at a pleasant living temperature. Next come the sturdy brick walls. The bricks are all stacked neatly and the mortar between the bricks is firm and sound. These bricks hold up the roof and keep the shape of the house solid and structurally complete. Inside you have plush thick carpet. Below the carpet is the floor and beneath the floor is the plumbing and wiring that supplies electricity and water and a waste disposal system and is connected to the earth. The interior is nice and cosy. The central heating maintains a comfortable temperature. The walls are strong and safe. It’s nice