How to Maximize the Benefits of Vitamin E for Your Skin
Breaking news: Vitamin E is great for your skin. As one of the most powerful antioxidants of its class, it helps neutralize free radicals, agents that damage collagen in your skin (among other things) and cause dryness, fine lines, and wrinkles. Vitamin E can also boost your immune system, minimize stroke-induced brain damage and safeguard against certain types of cancer.
Okay, so you probably already knew all these facts already. It's likely you're also aware that you should be upping your intake of the nutrient by working more nuts, avocados and vegetable oils into your diet in order to reap its physiological benefits, since your body can't produce vitamin E on its own.
To maximize the antioxidant's skin-care perks, we prefer a more hands-on approach. Vitamin E oil not only moisturizes skin and, as the weather heats up, acts as a natural form of sun protection, it also helps repair and improve damaged skin cells, and, in turn, evens out your complexion.
In order to maximize the benefits of vitamin E for skin, though, there are three simple rules you should follow when applying the oil:
1. Apply before bedtime: Vitamin E oils tend to be thick and greasy, so you don't want to be layering makeup or other skin-care products on top of it. That's just inviting a breakout. Instead, use it at night before you hit the sack, in lieu of a cream or moisturizer.
2. Skip the skin-brightening cream: The oil is a natural alternative to skin-brightening cream. It helps minimize scars, acne and wrinkles by speeding up cell regeneration. Since the oil does tend to be heavy, you don't want to use redundant products.
3. Use an oil that contains Vitamins C and E: "It has been shown that when combining vitamin E with vitamin C, it can act as a natural form of sun protection," Dr. Stafford R. Broumand, a New York City-based cosmetic and plastic surgeon, told The Huffington Post. "Vitamin E oil works to block free radicals from the body, which play a large part in the aging process. If we can fight off free radicals, then we can reduce wrinkles and keep the skin youthful-looking."
By Cordelia Tai
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