Glowing skin is radiant skin. Radiance is a clinical measure of how light interacts with skin. Your underlying biology determines how light is reflected at the surface, absorbed, or refracted back from the deeper layers.

Hydration is a measure of your overall skin water content, skin barrier function, and your skin's ability to properly regulate moisture levels. Water fundamentally gives your skin its healthy glow and is critical to your long term skin health. Skin hydration is determined by the quality of your skin barrier (ability to hold water in and keep intruders out), your skin's ability to prevent too much trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL), the rate of cell renewal, and the moisture sealing effect of sebum production.

Your skin barrier function is essential to maintaining optimal hydration levels in skin and the entire body and it reflects your skin health. It forms the protective layer between the inside and outside. Skin barrier holds in nutrients and water, retains proper pH levels and forms a protective barrier against pathogens. A disrupted skin barrier can lead to manifestations from dryness to skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis. It can be improved by increasing the water holding capacity in the skin surface layers and preventing its disruption.

Skin tone is the evenness of pigmentation across skin. Most of the color on the face is from the presence of pigment (melanin). Skin tone measures how and where melanin is distributed in the skin, which can be affected by tissue damage, UV exposure, hormonal changes and genetics. Unevenness may show up as dark or light spots or scarring following a local inflammation like a breakout (also known as post inflammatory hyperpigmentation). Skin tone can be improved by reducing and evening pigmentation and preventing or reducing the root causes of inflammation.  

Energy supply includes oxygen saturation and microcirculation. Microcirculation is essential to deliver nutrients and remove waste across the layers of skin. It also includes the mitochondrial health or redox state of the skin, essentially your skin’s ability to rejuvenate and convert oxygen into biological energy without oxidative damage. Low Energy supply from lack of oxygen saturation and compromised mitochondrial health can lead to visible dullness and fatigue, resulting over time in premature skin aging.  

Energy supply can be improved by stimulating microcirculation, optimizing the skin’s mitochondrial energy capacity and through the use of antioxidants, thereby boosting healthy radiance and ultimately slowing down the aging process of skin.

Surface Texture evaluates how uniform and tightly arranged the top layers of skin are to create a surface that is soft and smooth to the touch. When skin surface texture is not uniform, it feels rough, reflects less light and is less radiant.

Surface texture can be affected by optimizing hydration and skin lipid composition, facilitating regular desquamation (exfoliation), minimizing pore size and plumping the micro relief (fine lines). Improving surface texture smoothness not only makes your skin feel soft, it also increases your radiance and glow.

Skin Milieu is your skin’s micro environment. It encompasses everything from the micro-vasculature system that provides skin with nutrients, your skin’s immune defense system, and your skin’s microbiome. Your micro environment can be affected by skincare products, environment, hormonal fluctuations, and changes in skin barrier and sebum production. Signs of an unbalanced environment include breakouts, sensitivity and reactions, acne, dark under-eye circles, and puffiness or inflammation.