Angie Swerdlick used to be a mortgage-loan processor. Then she got a facial that changed her life. Literally: it inspired her to quit her job, enroll in esthiology school, and become an aesthetician. Six years later, she’s the one giving those life-changing treatments as a medical aesthetician at LifeTime Fitness’s LifeSpa in Minnetonka. Year-round, she treats everything from sun spots to acne and has seen just about every type of skin ailment out there. But the time of year is approaching when our skin will truly be on display. To prepare for summer and long days spent sweating in the sun, we asked Swerdlick to share some of her top tips to help us keep our skin as near perfect as possible.
One must-do treatment is the hydrafacial, a noninvasive four-step procedure that is more results-oriented than Zen-focused. The key is a dual-action wand that exfoliates and extracts while infusing the skin with antioxidants and moisture. It’s a chemical peel, microdermabrasion, and hydrating facial all in one.
People associate dry skin with winter, but summer actually dehydrates skin more. Sweating, sun, and wind exposure strip away moisture, leaving skin parched and crepey.
Dry and dehydrated are two different things. Dry skin occurs from a lack of oil. Dehydrated skin occurs from a lack of water, which results in fine lines.
Don’t be freaked out by technical-sounding ingredients like lactic acid, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, or glucosamine. They are all plant-derived and have the benefits of being anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, skin-lightening, and acne-reducing.
Look for serums that contain hyaluronic acid. It attracts moisture to itself, holds up to 1,000 times its weight in water, and forms a barrier on the skin that literally pulls in moisture. Use the serum at night before bed to get the full benefit.
Your sunscreen needs to have at least five-percent zinc oxide in it. Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are the only ingredients that truly block the sun—plus, they’re all-natural and won’t cause breakouts like chemical fillers, which don’t block the full spectrum of UVA and UVB rays.
Stick to sunscreen lotions. Sprays don’t provide great coverage and are a waste of money.
The best way to avoid wrinkles and sun spots is to avoid the sun. I love Jane Iredale’s self-tanning lotion. It’s all-natural, vegan, and cruelty-free.
To really see what your skin looks like, book a complimentary Visia scan. It shows you a detailed analysis of everything going on with your skin and compares it to other people of your age and ethnicity. From there, we can figure out what the best treatment regimen is for you.
I swear by the Clarisonic cleansing brush. It cleans the skin six times better than hand washing, smooths bumps, shrinks pores, and can be used all over the body to exfoliate.
3 Ways to Love Your Skin
1. Regular hydrafacials, $150 for one, $999 for 10.
LifeSpa, 3310 S. County Rd. 101, Minnetonka, mylt.com
2. Invest in a Clarisonic cleansing brush, which cleans six times better than hand washing. clarisonic.com
3. Add pharmaceutical-grade Vitamin C serum to your skincare regimen, which actively protects
against damage.
