Skin Elasticity: How To Improve It & What Helps to Restore Elasticity After Losing It
What Is Skin Elasticity?
What does our skin have in common with a rubber band? The ability to bounce back! We can thank elastin—a fibrous protein in the dermis layer of the skin—for our skin’s youthful springiness and flexibility.
But, when the collagen and elastin within our skin start to break down (due to factors like age, sun exposure, stress, our lifestyle, and hormonal changes), our body’s natural production of these proteins also starts to slow down. This is when our skin can begin to sag and lose its shape, health, and vitality. Eventually, wrinkles and fine lines start to creep up on our complexion and take over our once youthful skin.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to improve skin elasticity and delay the effects of time. By making some diet and lifestyle changes, including some serious skin care in our daily regimen, and using a few other skin treatments, we can improve our skin elasticity and overall health.
Why Does Your Skin Lose Elasticity as You Age?
You’ve probably noticed that babies and young children have luminous, firm, rosy skin, but have you ever wondered why? The answer is collagen and elastin.
Collagen definition: Collagen is an essential structural protein found in the skin and throughout the body, and when we’re young, we have an abundance of it in our skin.
As the most plentiful protein in the body, collagen is responsible for holding individual skin cells together. This protein also provides support and strength within the skin via long fibrils of collagen molecules. The wealth of collagen found in younger skin allows it to remain plump and elastic.
The dermis is composed of over 70% collagen, and 80% of the collagen in the skin is Type I, the most abundant collagen in our body. Type III collagen, which makes up about 10% of the collagen in our skin, is found in higher concentrations in babies and children, making their skin incredibly soft and supple. As we age, the Type III collagen in our skin is replaced by Type I.
While we’re born with high quantities of collagen, age causes the body’s natural collagen production to slow, and cell structures begin to weaken. Around 30 years of age, collagen levels in the body begin to drop by about 1-2% each year.
In addition, factors like sun damage, poor nutrition, and smoking can contribute to weakened collagen in the skin. The effects of naturally declining collagen levels and harmful environmental factors, like UV rays or smog, ultimately result in sagging skin, loss of skin elasticity, fine lines and wrinkles, and thinner, rougher skin that is overall more susceptible to damage.
How To Improve Skin Elasticity: 10 of Our Best Tips
Use these diet, lifestyle, and skincare tips in your journey to increase skin elasticity for a firmer, more youthful complexion.
1. Eat Healthy Foods & Anti-Oxidants
To improve skin elasticity, you’ll want to take a good, hard look at your diet. The foods you eat nourish all of your organs, including your largest organ—your skin.
When figuring out the best skin-boosting diet for you, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting plenty of protein, healthy fats (omega 3 fatty acids), vitamins and antioxidants (like vitamin E, vitamin C, and carotenoids), and minerals. Foods rich in these nutrients can support skin health and help you regain skin elasticity.
Here are some of our top tips for eating a diet that supports skin health:
- Get plenty of protein and fatty acids from fish and meat
- Include more healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, and coconut oil
- Throw in some nuts and seeds
- Up your beta-carotene intake with sweet potatoes and carrot
- Eat your greens
- Treat yourself to dark chocolate
The Importance of Antioxidants
When it comes to improving skin elasticity and restoring inelastic skin, antioxidants are your best friends. Antioxidants have the ability to neutralize free radicals that harm our cells and cause the elasticity of skin to degrade. Adding more antioxidant-rich foods and beverages to our diet is important, but consistency is key when it comes to improving skin elasticity in the long term.
Our LAC Masqulier’s French Pine Bark OPC is clinically proven to deliver powerful antioxidant benefits and other healing properties to protect, preserve, and enhance your youth, vitality, and quality of life. This skin care and body care treatment is significantly more powerful than vitamin E and 20 times more powerful than vitamin C as an antioxidant. It neutralizes excess free radicals and toxins, protects your vascular system, and enhances maximum blood flow to stimulate collagen production for healthy skin.
2. Take Vitamins For Skin
If you’ve read some of our other blog articles, you’ll know that good skin comes from within. The production of the molecules that promote skin elasticity and make up healthy skin happens within the layers of the dermis—where skincare products don’t always reach. That’s why it’s important to complement your normal skincare routine with vitamins and supplements that support skin health such as vitamin E, vitamin A, and vitamin C. Certain skin treatments, like microneedling, can help improve the absorption of vitamins and skincare products.
3. Use Retinol Skincare
If we were to tell you that there’s a magical skincare ingredient that can slow down the aging process, erase your wrinkles, fade the appearance of stretch marks, and improve the skin’s elasticity, would you believe us? Well, it’s true! Retinol and retinoid skin care products, which are made from a form of vitamin A, have been scientifically proven to help with a wide range of skin imperfections and damage, including skin elasticity.
When retinol skincare treatments are applied to the skin, they can help rebuild your skin’s natural collagen and elastin to stop the skin aging process, prevent the loss of skin elasticity, and improve sagging skin for a youthful complexion in the long term. 1
4. Reduce Stress & Avoid Loss Of Skin Elasticity
If you ever notice your skin losing elasticity rapidly, you may be going through a stressful period in your life. In fact, one of the best anti-aging tips has nothing to do with skincare products at all, and that is reducing your overall stress levels.
We can trace skin damage from stress back to the hormone cortisol. When our cortisol levels are high, it has the ability to break down the collagen and elastin in our skin and cause other damage to our otherwise healthy dermis. Stress can not only cause more wrinkles, but it can also contribute to acne breakouts, dry skin, crow’s feet, and so many other skin imperfections.
Whether this means meditating, writing in a journal, treating yourself to an at home spa day, or just doing something you love, there is no single treatment for reducing stress that is right for everybody—so find what you love and stick with it! 2
5. Get Beauty Sleep To Boost Collagen And Elastin Production
One of the best lifestyle tips that we have for maintaining youthful skin and restoring skin elasticity is getting plenty of beauty sleep. Yes, beauty sleep is a real thing! Ok, beauty sleep is just normal sleep, but getting plenty of sleep can improve elasticity, prevent signs of aging, and slow the aging process altogether. How? When you sleep, blood flow throughout your body increases. The increase in blood flow helps your skin repair damage from things like sun exposure, toxins, and other damaging substances. This is also when your skin’s ability to produce collagen and elastin increases. You can think of beauty sleep as the only skincare treatment that’s completely free! 3
6. Minimize Sun Exposure (Use Sunscreen!)
We all love a summer glow. When the sun is shining it can be hard to refuse a chance to soak up some rays. However, you may think twice when you find out that free radicals from the sun can impact elasticity in skin and cause other skin imperfections like wrinkles, sun spots, and hyperpigmentation, not to mention skin cancer. Yikes!
Instead of relying on an expensive skincare treatment to reverse damage caused by the sun, stop sun damage in its tracks before it leaves its mark on your skin. By keeping sun exposure to a minimum, your skin’s collagen production process will be safe from harmful free radicals to keep skin looking youthful and healthy in the long term.
How can you minimize the effects of the sun on your skin? Use sun protection like sunscreen, sun-protective clothing, and wide-brimmed hats. Remember to reapply about a teaspoon amount of sunscreen every few hours for maximum skin protection. 4
7. Stay Hydrated To Improve Skin Elasticity (Hyaluronic Acid Is Your BFF)
What helps skin elasticity and slows down the typical signs of aging from creeping up on your complexion? Hydration. There are several ways to keep your skin supple and moisturized. Remember that keeping your body hydrated on the inside is just as important as keeping it hydrated on the outside. This brings us to our first (and most obvious tip): Drink more water. Drinking plenty of water is a great way to keep your skin—and all of the rest of your organs—healthy and functioning properly.
Along with drinking water, moisturizing your skin with the right skin care products is imperative. Not all creams and moisturizers are created equal. It’s important to keep an eye out for both non-irritating and ultra-hydrating ingredients.
One of our favorite ingredients is hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring molecule in the skin that helps keep skin hydrated. In fact, hyaluronic acid is able to hydrate your skin cells so well because it can hold up to 1000 times its own weight in water. So, the more hyaluronic acid you have in your skin, the more youthful, perky, and plump your complexion will look. 5
Unfortunately, the aging process and exposure to UV rays deplete our skin’s natural hyaluronic acid stores. While you can apply hyaluronic acid creams and serums to your face, taking daily hyaluronic acid supplements, like Taut Hydrate, can give your skin a hydration boost from within. Each tablet contains 120 mg of hyaluronic acid along with grape seed extract to keep skin firm and supple, minimize the appearance of wrinkles, and improve skin elasticity.
8. Stop Smoking
Everyone knows that smoking negatively affects the body, so it should come as no surprise that cigarettes can also severely harm the skin. The skin loses elasticity and ages prematurely because of the free radicals that are triggered within the body from smoking. Smoking can also impair blood flow and circulation within the skin, which can directly affect the skin’s ability to repair itself. 6
9. Get More Exercise
There’s no denying the countless benefits of exercise. It makes you stronger, gives your more of the happiness hormone, strengthens your bones, makes you healthier, increases your energy levels, and improves the elasticity of your skin. When you work out, the increase in heart rate stimulates blood flow throughout the body. As a result, your skin cells are flooded with more oxygen and nutrients which help them repair damage and increase collagen production. 7
10. How to Regain Skin Elasticity: Take Collagen
How Collagen Improves Skin Elasticity & Skin Health
Fundamentally, collagen is what holds our bodies together. It helps us heal and bounce back from damage, and generally allows various parts of our body to remain both flexible and strong. And while collagen is responsible for many functions in your body, it’s especially important when it comes to skin health and resiliency.
Your skin is the primary barrier between you and the world. It’s meant to protect you from external dangers. Collagen is also a large component of your dermis, helping your skin retain its structural integrity. Even if you’re vigilant about sun protection, avoid toxins, eat well, and never smoke, it’s impossible to avoid the natural depletion of collagen with age. As a result, when your collagen levels begin to decline, the structural integrity of your skin declines, too.
Since your skin’s strength and firmness depend on collagen, the lower your collagen levels, the more vulnerable you become to wrinkles, potential damage, and sagging skin.
Is it Possible to Replenish Your Collagen, Elastin Levels, & Restore Skin Elasticity?
Because collagen is responsible for your skin’s structure and firmness, the loss of collagen visibly exacerbates signs of skin aging. With the natural loss of collagen in your body each year, how can you replenish your collagen levels and what helps with skin elasticity?
Many skin care companies tout products that contain collagen, but the unaltered collagen molecule is too large and too dense to penetrate the surface of the skin. Even when it comes to eating collagen-rich foods, like bone broth, fatty fish, and chicken, the molecule cannot be absorbed into the bloodstream in its natural state. Unless the collagen has been properly altered so it can enter your bloodstream or penetrate the dermis, it can’t provide many benefits for your body and skin.
However, Japanese scientists discovered how to hydrolyze collagen, using high-pressure steam to break the molecule up into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces can be digested, forming collagen peptides that are then absorbed into the bloodstream and are also able to penetrate the dermis. This process makes the collagen highly bioavailable, so you can replenish the collagen levels in your body and achieve maximum results.
Getting more hydrolyzed peptides into your daily routine doesn’t have to be complicated. With Taut Premium Collagen Powder, you can improve your skin elasticity at home or on the go. It’s simple, delicious, and effective. Each sachet contains 1,500 mg of hydrolyzed peptides that are specifically designed to dissolve in your mouth in seconds and provide a more efficient delivery system that works best for your skin. The peptides are combined with hyaluronic acid and grape seed extract to give your skin the nutrients it needs to provide the suppleness and moisture necessary to slow down signs of aging and support beautiful skin.
How Does Collagen Improve Skin’s Elasticity, Firmness, and Smoothness?
Once the collagen is hydrolyzed and made bioavailable, how can it help your skin? Since collagen keeps your skin firm and elastic, replenishing your collagen levels helps support and protect the body’s naturally existing collagen, and promotes the structural integrity of your skin. With proper replenishment via hydrolyzed collagen supplements, you’ll see improved hydration and radiance, as well as improvement in the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and sagging in your skin.
Replenishing the collagen in your skin with high-quality supplements can visibly improve elasticity, and offers other benefits, too. Clinical studies show that taking hydrolyzed collagen can reduce the appearance of signs of skin aging overall. Studies indicate that regular hydrolyzed collagen supplements can significantly increase the density of your dermis, resulting in a decrease in wrinkle formation. Additionally, studies of Taut® Premium Collagen show that after regularly taking the supplement for eight weeks, women reported improved skin radiance, brightness, and skin elasticity. Ultrasound images show Taut® Premium Collagen improved collagen intensity in the skin after eight weeks, demonstrating the power of replenishing the collagen in your body.
An exceptionally effective collagen supplement, Taut® Premium Collagen is created with high-quality hydrolyzed marine collagen and contains 90% Type I collagen with high bioavailability. Taut® Premium Collagen Replenishment Formula offers the highest concentration of hydrolyzed collagen available, nearly 2-6 times the concentration of other brands, with 13,000mg of hydrolyzed Type I marine collagen per 1.7oz serving. Shown to improve skin collagen density and improve the look of skin’s elasticity, Taut® Premium Collagen is made with other anti-aging ingredients to support firmness and hydration and reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles.
For those of us who are looking to improve skin elasticity for a healthier, younger-looking complexion, we’ve put together our Taut Intense Transformation Program. This bundle contains 3 boxes of our liquid peptide formula to jumpstart and boost collagen production within your body. This program is specifically designed to dramatically improve your skin in just 21 days.
Don’t let collagen decline cause your skin to decline, too. Replenish with Taut® Premium Collagen to protect and support your collagen levels for radiant, youthful-looking skin. Try Taut® Collagen for four to eight weeks, and you’ll see a visible improvement in the look of your skin’s elasticity and hydration, with fewer visible lines and wrinkles. Fight signs of skin aging and transform your skin with this powerful and luxurious formula today.
Put the power of collagen to the test. Sign up for our skin care subscription to save 15% on all of your Taut products!
References
- Maternal Stress and Preterm Birth - PMC
- Stress and Its Effects on Skin - Harvard Health
- Stress and Skin Health - ScienceDaily
- Stress and Pregnancy Outcomes - PMC
- Effects of Stress on Skin - PMC
- Stress and Reproductive Health - PubMed
- 10 Benefits of Exercise - Healthline
