13 Skin Care Terms You Need To Know

Skin care articles can lead to more questions than answers if you don’t know what the terms mean. We have compiled some of the most popular terms that you will often find in skin care articles to help expand your beauty and skin care vocabulary! 

• Allergens

Any substance that causes allergic reaction. It can be a type of food, medicine, animals, or other foreign matter.

• Antioxidant

Substance that protects your cells from free radicals. Can be found in fruits and vegetables.

• Calming

A term that is usually used to describe a product that heals skin inflammation.

• Dermatitis

A group of skin conditions that lead to skin inflammation. Symptoms include redness, itchiness, and rash.

• Emollient

Products or ingredients that moisturise the skin.

• Essential Oils

Plant extracts that obtain the plant’s natural fragrance. Known to be therapeutic and soothing for the skin.

• Free Radicals

Molecules that are unstable due to having an unpaired electron. Free radicals would attack other molecules in order to pair with their electron and gain stability. However, molecules that are attacked will have an unpaired electron and become a free radical as well. This creates a chain reaction, which can damage your cells. 

Fried food, tobacco smoke, UV exposure, and pollutants generate free radicals. To protect your body against free radicals, consume food that contains antioxidant as they will neutralise free radicals by donating one of their electrons.

• Inflammation

When part of the body becomes red, swollen, and hot due to infection.

• Melanin

Produced by skin cells called melanocytes. Melanin gives skin, hair, and eyes colour. People with darker skin tone has more melanin than those with lighter skin tone.

• Nourishing

Giving skin cells nutrients that are good for their health and growth. 

• pH

A substance’s level of acidity. Substances with pH less than 7 are considered acidic and the ones with pH greater than 7 are basic. The skin could be damaged if a product’s pH is too different from our skin’s pH (the average skin pH is 4.7). 

• Psoriasis

A skin disease where the skin becomes itchy, scaly, and dry.

• Sebum

The skin’s natural oil. Secreted by the sebaceous glands.