Bare Facts: Why Circulation Matters in Skincare

Welcome to my “Bare Facts” blog series! This month, I decided to switch it up and trade in my wordier, more in-depth blog posts for articles that are shorter, digestible, and get straight to the “need to know” information. 💡

Circulation isn’t something we think of right away when we think of skincare. But this bodily function plays a major role in improving our skin health, clearing complexion, and helping us age gracefully.

What is circulation?

Our circulatory system is responsible for pumping blood throughout our entire body. Since our skin is our largest organ, it is also something that receives this blood flow. Blood carries essential oxygen and nutrients to every organ in our body. So in lamest terms, circulation is blood flow.

scrub me secret: the lymphatic system and the circulatory system work hand in hand to deliver nutrients and remove waste from our bodies. While the circulatory system works on pumping blood and oxygen, the lymphatic system works on collecting lymphatic fluid, clearing waste, and then returning that filtered lymphatic fluid back to the blood.

Why is circulation important in skincare? What are the benefits?

When our skin receives proper circulation, or a boost of healthy circulation, it helps rejuvenate it in a few ways!

✅ Fewer Breakouts: Acne cannot thrive in a place with oxygen flow and nutrient-rich blood flow. This is why it’s important to increase circulation in congested or acneic skin. Certain types of facial massage, like techniques using your hands or facial cups and infrared light therapy, are great for acneic skin.

✅ More Radiant Skin - Less Dullness or Uneven Texture: A boost of circulation is exactly what tired skin needs to look more radiant! Lifestyle, health issues, and environment can slow this blood flow, lymphatic flow, and oxygen flow in our bodies and skin. Boosting circulation with skincare, massage, or other wellness therapies floods your skin with oxygen and nutrients, helping it to look, feel, and function in a healthier way!

✅ A More Even Complexion: Since the lymphatic system and the circulatory system work hand-in-hand, our complexion always ends up receiving some benefits from circulation-boosting skincare or massage. When our circulatory system is functioning healthily and getting the correct flow, stagnant lymphatic fluid that carries toxins and makes our skin look more red, ruddy, or uneven can clear itself.

✅ Preventing Signs of Aging / Aging Well: A boost of oxygen flow and healthy nutrient flow preserves our collagen and elastin proteins! We aren’t making more of those proteins naturally after our late 20s, so preserving collagen and elastin now will keep your skin firmer and reduce signs of wrinkles or deep lines. And help us look and feel more lifted!

What skincare/skincare practices improve circulation?

💆Massage -

Massage is the number one way to boost your skin’s circulation! Using your hands, a gua sha stone, facial cups, or other facial massage tools, you can work your skin tissues in ways that boost blood and oxygen flow to your skin, making it healthier. With each of these types of massage, there is some technique that goes along with them to ensure that you aren’t pulling, tugging, or damaging your skin.

scrub me secret: I have many different facial massage tutorials on my YouTube channel that show you how to massage your face in a beneficial way

✨Exfoliation -

Physical exfoliation, like using a facial scrub or a buffing facial paste, boosts circulation in your skin as you scrub. The same goes for the skin on your body when you scrub it. Our body can handle a deeper, more aggressive type of exfoliation vs. the skin on our face. When choosing a physical facial scrub, we always want to make sure it’s super fine-grained or soft-feeling, no jagged, sharp, or super chunky. Chemical exfoliants like AHAs and PHAs also help bring what’s called microcirculation to our skin, which is circulation from the small blood vessels; helpful for skin health and aging well.

A crucial point to remember about exfoliation is that it's easy to overdo it. While our body can handle daily or every-other-day exfoliation, our facial skin is much more delicate. Most people benefit from exfoliation 1-3x a week; any more will result in dryness, uneven barrier, redness, texture, or breakouts.

scrub me secret: My company is named scrub me because I love a body scrub, and when I first started out, I was making primarily sea salt body scrubs! While I do love a sea salt body scrub, I noticed that my customers and clients liked the dry brush glove exfoliation method for their bodies better, and also favored my exfoliating body soaps over the scrubs. Now I only carry the dry brush gloves and make exfoliating soaps! Among other amazing nourishing skincare.

♦️Red LED and Infrared Light Therapy -

Red LED light helps stimulate circulation by energizing skin cells and increasing blood flow, oxygen flow, and nutrient flow to the surface. This is why we love it for antiaging and preventing signs of aging (lines and wrinkles), because this circulation and energy keep collagen and elastin alive. Infrared light goes even deeper, penetrating beyond the skin’s surface to warm tissues and promote circulation in the muscles and deeper layers. Infrared is great for skin and total body health. Lightstim LED is my favorite! But you can read about other devices in this LED blog post.

Is there such a thing as too much circulation in the skin?

Yes! Just like everything, too much is never a good thing. Too much stimulation of circulation and blood flow to the skin can result in hot spots, hot flashes, overly red skin, and inflammation. So even though our skin benefits from a circulation boost, we don’t want to overuse our products or overdo our treatments. If your skin starts to feel hot, red, inflamed, or sensitive in areas, this could be a sign that you’re overdoing it with the facial massage or products.

scrub me secret: This blog post about over-exfoliation can help you determine if you might be using too many exfoliating products or using them too often. It gives you tips on how to remedy your skin.

I hope you enjoyed this short and sweet post! Comment and let me know something you learned.