Glowing, Healthy Skin with Lemons

Lemons have been used around the world for years for overall health and skin care. Full of vitamin C, lemons also have a high antioxidant level. Used as part of juice cleansing programs and diets for cleansing the skin, benefits of lemon have also been shown to brighten and even out skin tone. Those sailing ships of olde had it right when they served limes and lemons for scurvy! Adding lemon to your diet helps keep the doctor away, but what can lemons do for skin, topically? Read on as we discuss their use as a skin care ingredient.

A More Natural Way to Even Skin Pigment

Only recently has there been an interest in fruit juices and fruit extracts as ingredients in skin care products. The companies that are interested in their use are “green” companies primarily. These more natural formulas may include lemon peel extract as an antioxidant. One of the benefits of lemon for skin is that this potent citrus contains strong anti-tyrosinase properties. By inhibiting tyrosinase production, lemon may help with unsightly dark circles under the eyes, or dark age spots on the skin. The lemon peel is a much-preferred method of gentle skin tone evening, without using something like hydroquinone. Hydroquinone and other traditional skin lightening ingredients may be very harsh on the skin of the face.

How We Use Lemon Peel Extract for Skin Care

Lemon peel ferment extract is one of the ingredients that we love at Ayr Skin Care. We use it in our Reveal Exfoliating Facial Wash. During the process of making this extract, macerated lemon fruit is incubated with lactobacillus in a fermentation process that enhances the actives of the peel. In a method similar to making yogurt, the probiotics are a healthy addition to any skin care ingredient. In fact, probiotics as a whole are definitely “on trend” in healthy skin care routines at the moment. The lemon peel macerate is extracted and used at a condensed and highly active concentration. We feel that it helps give our facial wash AHA as well as probiotic properties, and that it naturally clarifies the skin leaving it fresh and toned.

Other Uses & Benefits of Lemon for Skin Care

The fruit of the lemon can be used as an extract without the probiotics properties as well. In our Awaken eye serum, pure moisture cream and Restore Night Cream we use the fruit of the lemon as an extract to add to the bounty of antioxidants in the formula. Antioxidants are the best way to counter the free radical damage from environmental stress, pollution and help keep skin healthy. The lemon fruit extract is used in our products with a blend of other citruses like tangerine and goji berry, and in the case of our Pure Moisture, is also used with mulberry root extract as a natural skin tone enhancer.

Because of its high citric acid makeup and vitamin C, lemon in its many forms is one of the most interesting and natural ways to get the healthy, glowing skin that you want!

Ayr Skin Care History with Lemons

I remember watching my Gran cook back in her kitchen in Ayr, Scotland. After she squeezed lemon on the fish that she was frying, she took each half of the lemon and rubbed her elbows with it. Curious, I asked her what she was doing. She told me that her mother, and her mother before her, had always done this, and that it helped your elbows from getting dark coloration. So, this idea of lemons lightening skin goes back at least several hundred years. Maybe deep down, this what prompted me to add the lemon for our skin care products.

Did any of you ever try putting lemon juice on your hair to lighten it? I think back in the 1970’s we all did this… and it worked! Now that I remember those experiences, I realize it was probably also very drying to the hair, but lemon did lighten it. Sometimes these old fashioned ideas come full circle. The popularity of using lemon and its beneficial uses for diets, health, skin lightening and clarity may never go out of fashion!

As an aside, my doctor always used to tell us to start the day with either raw apple cider vinegar or lemon juice in a tall glass of water. In addition to enhancing your skin’s clarity, the benefits of lemon extend to improving digestion and also helps enliven your body at the beginning of each day. Next time you have a cup of tea or water, add some lemon and enjoy the pleasant flavor knowing you are doing much for your health!