Glow like Angelina and Jen
Glowing skin signals youth, radiates good health and is the signature accessory of celebrities who walk the red carpet, as exemplified so far this awards season at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild by the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Zoe Saldana, Joan Allen, Emily Blunt and others. Like beauty as a whole, the process of achieving luminous skin starts from the inside out.
Here are the steps that experts say will help your skin shine like a star’s.
Step 1: Pay attention to what you eat and drink and do to your body
Dr. Susan Taylor is a Harvard-educated assistant dermatology professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and an attending physician at both Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Hospital and St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. She’s spoken at the American Academy of Dermatology’s Skin Academy on how to achieve glowing skin. Her prescription: Lead a healthful lifestyle.
“Smoking and sun exposure generate harmful free radicals that damage skin,” Taylor says. “Additionally, smoking deprives skin of oxygen, which further damages skin and leads to a dusky skin tone.” She warns against dehydration, which can make skin dull, as well as fatty fast foods, red meat and dairy, which she says generate free radicals as they are digested and divert oxygen and energy from the skin.
Instead, for glowing skin, Taylor recommends foods rich in vitamin C (sweet red peppers, red berries, citrus fruits, Brussels sprouts and kale), coenzyme Q10 (walnuts, sardines, tuna, yellowtail, soybeans and sesame oil) and glutathione -- a potent antioxidant (glutathione boosters include asparagus, broccoli, avocado, spinach, turmeric and garlic). Other recommendations include lots of water, omega-3 essential fatty acids and vitamins A, C and E. Salmon, green tea, flaxseed oil, cold-pressed olive oil, blueberries and pomegranates all make the list of foods for beautiful skin.
Step 2: Choose treatments and topical products for maximum luminosity
Olga Lorencin-Northrup is co-owner of Kinara Spa in Los Angeles, a celebrity destination for camera-ready skin and home to the glow-enhancing Red Carpet Facial.
Lorencin-Northrup says that hydrating and exfoliating ingredients such as lactic acid, amino acids and arginine “give skin an amazing glow with no irritation.” These ingredients, along with green tea and lysate, are in Kinara’s Red Carpet Facial and take-home kit. Lorencin-Northrup says they “cause a reaction similar to steam-cleaning the pores, which creates an immediate glow.” She also recommends Kinara’s Lactic Acid Hydrating Serum, Kinara’s Peptide Serum and SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic. To jump-start glowing skin, she advises clients to try a professional mild lactic acid peel.
Many ingredients and products can help with glow. They include, as mentioned, exfoliants such as lactic acid; vitamins C and E; powerhouse antioxidant coffeeberry (found in RevaléSkin Night Cream); hyaluronic acid (Clarins HydraQuench Cream-Mask); skin-brightening products to fade blotchiness (Neocutis Blanche Skin Lightening Cream and Aveeno Positively Radiant Cleanser and Moisturizer) and essential lipids (Kate Somerville Quench Hydrating Face Serum).
Dr. Harold Lancer, a Beverly Hills dermatologist known for the Lancer Glow products he developed (now called LancerRx) recommends products with higher concentrations of active ingredients. He adds that sustained effort is key. Achieving glow isn’t about “a one-time thing or one-week treatment,” Lancer says.
For serious glow, he recommends AFT (auto fluorescent technology) multi-wavelength laser treatments, but only at a board-certified dermatology office, and only by a physician. Done correctly, this is a “guaranteed slam dunk” for glowing skin, he says.
Step 3: Learn the secrets of a superstar makeup artist
Celebrity makeup artist Pati Dubroff beautifies such A-listers as Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Anne Hathaway and Megan Fox, and her work has appeared on a bevy of magazine covers.
A Dubroff must for glow: Buff and hydrate the skin. And then, “My secret weapon, and that of many of the celebs you see on the red carpet, is Intraceuticals oxygen facials prior to makeup,” Dubroff says. Afterward, she applies Intraceuticals’ Rejuvenate serum. “And I love Liz Earle Superskin Concentrate, an oil, and Liz Earle Superskin Moisturizer,” she says. She recommends not overmoisturizing or using too much glow-enhancing makeup in the T-zone if you’re being photographed or have oily skin.
Dubroff emphasizes that glow is not the same as sparkle or glitter. You want a realistic, healthy glow, “not a cheap and tacky effect,” she says. When she wants a client with good skin to look glowing, natural and healthy, she opts for tinted foundation and spot concealer.
She resists primers with silicones (“suffocating”); mineral makeup (“it tends to look heavy, chalky and grayish”); and foundations with built-in illuminators. “I will use [illuminators] after foundation on the areas I want to have a glow: tops of cheekbones, inside corner of eyes, sometimes down the center of the nose and bow of the mouth,” she says. “I want to target the bones I want to stand out and not the ones I don’t.”
If you’re using glowing powder to highlight, the shimmer should be micro-fine. And covering and brightening under-eye dark circles is crucial for a glowing countenance. “The whole face lights up,” Dubroff says. She uses Kanebo Sensai Concealer (Brush Type). Another option is YSL Touche Eclat.
Good general illuminators include Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer, Smashbox Artificial Light and Benefit Moon Beam, and “Clé de Peau makes a gorgeous luminizer in a pen,” Dubroff says.