My incredible skin transformation, thanks to Atopis

Saturday, June 13th, 2020

Victoria Gamage shares the story of how she regained her skin confidence, by banishing her acne.

“I didn’t get acne until much later in life than many others I know. When I was a teenager I didn’t have any acne. My skin was clear, except for one or two spots on rare occasions. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my son at age 23 that acne started to show up, and even then only as little spots around my nose, mouth and chin. As I went through pregnancy and birth with the hormonal rollercoaster of changes that are part and parcel of motherhood, the acne got worse, but I felt like I could mostly manage it.

“After I had my second, a baby girl, things got much worse. From 2014, when she was one, my skin was just out of control. Acne started popping up everywhere: all around my chin, mouth and neck like an ever-growing rash of acne.

“It’s hard to describe how this made me feel. It really was simply awful and had a huge impact on how I saw myself and acted in public. It also meant I was trying to hide how I looked to avoid my acne being spotted. As a wife and young mum to two kids, I lost all my confidence. If I went out I’d always ensure I was wearing a large amount of makeup, even if I was just going down to the local dairy. When I wasn’t wearing any makeup I’d walk around with sunglasses and caps on during summer, and would walk with my head dipped downwards to ensure as little as possible of my face could be seen. In winter I’d wear hoodies and scarves folded up around my neck and chin.

“It became quite a big issue for me, and of course, stressing about it made it much worse. Around family and friends, I plastered on my big smile and would just pretend nothing was wrong. But of course they all knew how low I felt about myself. Unfortunately I turned into a squeezer and picker of spots. Since they hurt it felt better to scratch, and I didn’t realise how much damage I was doing and the lasting scaring I was causing on my face. During these years, I wouldn’t let people take my photo because I didn’t want to have pictures with my skin looking so bad. This impacted all kinds of things including photos of special events and family times. I have no photos of my skin when it was at the absolute worst point as I was too ashamed to be in photos.

“I’m not really someone who tries lots of different products. I’d always used an everyday Nivea face cream which seemed okay. From memory, I tried two other acne products, but they didn’t work. One fed the acne, making it even worse! The other brought no relief.

“In terms of diet, it didn’t really seem to matter what I did. If I ate lots of junk food the acne got much worse, but I could be eating well for months and it would perhaps just slightly improve, but the acne was still very much there. I was a bit of a stresser: I worried what I looked like to others and so this became a vicious cycle. Honestly, I just gave up on my skin during these years and resigned myself to the idea of having incurably bad skin.

“I actually heard about Atopis through my father! About three years ago he rang me and said one of his colleagues was working with a client who wanted some people to volunteer to test a new product that was supposed to help with skin issues. Dad wondered if I would like to try it for myself, as he knew how terrible I had been feeling about my skin and myself for years. I said yes, as I didn’t have anything to lose. I didn’t expect anything to happen, being the sceptic that I was.

“When the Atopis team sent me a small sample pot of their base skin cream, what has today become known as Atopis Radiant Balance Cream, I had absolutely zero hope and expectations. I thought the cream smelt nice, and realised it felt really good on my face when I applied it, but that was it. About three days later I actually looked in the mirror properly. I took notice of the fact that my skin wasn’t as red or sore, and my acne wasn’t itchy. By the end of that first week, my face felt the best it had done in years! The cracked dry acne was healing so well, and I couldn’t believe I’d had no new blemishes at all since starting to use the cream. The difference really was incredible.

“After that game-changing base cream trial, I tried the acne cream. Both made even more of a difference to my face, smoothing out my skin tone and keeping acne under control. One or two small spots came out, but since using Atopis I’ve never had anything like what I had for those terrible years, with acne all over my mouth, chin and neck. A couple of years down the track, I tried the radiant balance cream. My skin was incredibly at a point where I was happy with it!

“Although I have some scaring around my chin and mouth, I felt like a massive weight had been lifted. I could walk around with my head up, I’d look people in the eye again, and I’d smile genuinely without worrying what people would think. My confidence was back, and for me that was huge.

“This gift even gave me the confidence to apply for a new job. Working in customer service, your face is of course the first thing that people see. It was such a big shift for me to even contemplate working in a customer-facing role. Now, I’m a sales assistant at a fashion store, it’s such a rewarding job to help women to choose outfits for their daily life or a special occasion, and see the smiles on their faces when we find what they need. I’d never have thought about a job like this a few years ago, and I certainly wouldn’t have had the confidence to say “Yes” when it was offered to me!

“When my acne started getting better, so did my sleep and overall health, because my skin was less of a worry to me. My acne was and still is stress and hormone activated, and worse during my time of the month. But I can still say to this day I have not had a major acne flare up since using Atopis.

“For those suffering from acne, I’d like to emphasise that these products really have changed my life. It’s taken a HUGE anxiety and stress issue away. No matter how small or big your acne issue is, I really urge you to try Atopis: order a sample pot and just try it! For the relief it gave my skin, I’m sure one of their multiple products will be able to help you too. You’ve got everything to gain, and only bad skin to lose!

“I want to thank Dr Iona Weir and her team for creating such a wonderful effective product and continuing to improve and create skincare solutions, keeping people like me with problem skin in mind. You’ve changed my life, and I’m forever grateful.”

When colour matters

Thursday, March 19th, 2020

When colour makes a huge difference

At Atopis we are often asked about the colour of our skin creams. Why are they not white, or a standardised colour like other creams?

Many ‘natural’ skin creams are bleached white or have colour added for a uniform appearance so that they look ‘nice and clean’, but the reality is, bleaching kills any bioactives or natural benefits the cream may have once contained.

Our creams are typically yellow to beige, because our scientific process does not harm our natural ingredients. (In fact, we enhance the natural bioactive super powers of our ingredients!)

Additionally, if you’re wondering why your newest tube of Atopis skin cream is a different colour from the last one, it’s because of seasonal variation in our natural ingredients.

Depending on the time of year, the finished skin care product will appear more yellow or beige simply because our ingredients are sourced from nature.We don’t add any colouring, the colour you see is exactly what nature gave us.When choosing your skin cream, the benefits of using a powerful cream that becomes bioactive on contact with your skin far outweigh the ‘benefits’ of the cream looking white or looking exactly the same colour inside every tube you buy.

Explore our scientifically developed natural skincare

Why are some people more prone to Acne?

Tuesday, March 10th, 2020

Part Two: Why are some people more prone to acne?

Acne vulgaris is a skin condition that involves lots of pimples and redness. It’s usually seen on the face, but can also occur on the back, chest, and neck – and it can really impact your self-esteem and self-confidence!

We typically associate acne with teenagers, but it can also occur in adults, either persisting from adolescence or beginning later. This is called adult-onset acne, and it can be very frustrating because there is a perception that acne is a problem exclusively for teenagers.

What causes acne?

The causes of acne are not well understood, but we do know a few things. From twin studies and family studies, we know that there is at least some genetic component to acne.

Unsurprisingly, however, genetics cannot take all the blame. Environmental factors like lifestyle and diet also have an effect. You may have noticed this in your own life – certain foods or even stress may trigger break-outs.

Think of it like this: there are certain genetic factors that can make you more or less resilient to acne-causing environmental factors. Someone who is very resilient might be able to eat whatever they like without getting any acne, while someone who is very prone to acne will have acne no matter what foods they cut out.

This graph illustrates how one person might have a lot of genetic factors that predispose them to acne and only have a small amount of control over environmental factors (Person A), while Person C has lots of room to change their environment before they will trigger an acne breakout.

A short version of how acne pimples work is that your pilosebaceous unit (what you might think of as the hair follicle) becomes clogged by over-produced keratinocytes (skin cells), forming a plug in the shaft of the pilosebaceous unit. This leads to a build-up of sebum and dead skin cells in the pore, which in turn feeds some “bad” bacteria. This is a whitehead or black head. When the build-up leaks out of the hair follicle into the lower layers of skin, this triggers an immune response to the bacteria, which causes inflammation and redness. For more information, see Part One: Understanding Acne.

The speed at which keratinocytes (skin cells) in the pilosebaceous unit grow is determined by hormones. Androgens, including testosterone, stimulate faster production of these cells, and affects the way they develop and die, which is what leads to the aforementioned “plugs.”

Hormones are funny things, though – because they interact with cells through a signalling system, many different factors within the body and the cells’ environments can influence the “strength” of their signalling, and even the content of the message.

Think of the cell (the keratinocyte) as a pond which a pebble (hormone) is dropped into to make ripples (the message). If the pebble is big, it will make bigger waves. If the pebble is a large, flat square, it will make a different pattern to a small, round pebble. The conditions in the pond will also affect the ripples – if there are lots of other ripples, the message will interact with them. So even the effects of the same hormone can vary from person to person and day to day.

Many things in our life can affect our hormones and the effects of our hormones on our body.

Stress is a big one. Of course, puberty affects hormone production, which is why acne is associated with teenagers. But for adults, starting or stopping hormonal contraception, pregnancy, peri-menopause and menopause can all change hormone production – so it’s no surprise that some adults get hormonal acne.

Our diet can also influence hormone production – the things that our body converts to hormones usually come from our diet, and sometimes molecules that we ingest are analogous to hormones and can simulate them in our body. One dermatologist suggests that dairy can sometimes simulate an androgen, which is why cutting out dairy can improve acne symptoms for some people.

Maybe acne seems like an insurmountable problem – but it doesn’t have to be. By using skincare products and making small lifestyle changes, we can control acne and reduce the symptoms.

As acne is triggered by hormonal changes, trying to reduce these hormone fluctuations in your life can help reduce the symptoms. Reducing stress will influence hormone production, and by eliminating common inflammatory foods to test whether they influence your acne, you may be able to pinpoint some specific triggers.

As mentioned above, dairy is a common culprit. Some other hypotheses relating to diet suggest that increasing consumption of omega-3 fats to balance the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio can improve acne, because it may trigger a change in sebum composition, which can help control acne. It has also been suggested that eating a low glycaemic index diet may help, as it reduces insulin resistance and insulin, as a hormone, affects the way that other hormones function in the body.

But of course, for whatever reason, many people can’t change their diet drastically, so addressing acne directly on the skin is a great option.

That’s where Atopis comes in.

Instead of killing all the bacteria, Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream introduces beneficial bacteria (probiotics) to the skin to help regain the necessary balance in the microbiome. It also contains prebiotics, which are food for these bacteria, to help them establish themselves in the microbiome.

Additionally, Dr. Iona Weir’s patented Myrecil® extract is a potent mixture of plant botanicals that helps to regulate the immune response and reduce redness and inflammation. All this goodness is suspended in a rich, moisturizing cream that will leave your skin feeling clear and fresh.

When used in combination with Atopis Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser, which gently clears comedones and allows them to restore to their natural processes, and our Revitalizing Toner, which stimulates the skin to repair itself and helps to rebalance the skin microbiome, our acne treatment cream can help to control nasty acne outbreaks and help your skin return to a naturally healthy state.

Understanding Acne

Friday, February 21st, 2020

Part One: How does an acne pimple work?

Understanding how acne pimples form will be key to understanding the best treatments for acne.

Pimples form in something called the pilosebaceous unit, which includes the hair follicle and the sebaceous gland.

The sebaceous glands are filled with sebocytes, cells that make sebum. Sebum is an oily lubricant that helps cells move around and contributes to the protective acid mantle of the skin. These sebocytes are made in the sebaceous gland, and then travel up to the hair follicle, where they release the sebum to lubricate the movement of keratinocytes (skin cells) and growth of the hair follicle.

Keratinocytes make up the internal shaft, forming a roughly cylindrical shape through which the hair grows. Normally, these keratinocytes simply flatten and become hard as they move through their “life cycle.”

When they become flat and hard at the end of their life cycle, they break off and move up the shaft to release onto the skin surface, lubricated by the sebum. However, when the keratinocytes grow too fast, they can “stick together” and not be removed to the skin surface properly. This can create a “plug” in the shaft, which means that sebum and dead keratinocytes will build up in the shaft. This is what causes a whitehead or blackhead pimple.

When all this gunk builds up under the surface, it creates anaerobic conditions – conditions where there is no oxygen. This is really good for some opportunistic bacteria that are found on the skin, called Cutibacterium acnes. They multiply rapidly in the pimple, which causes an immune response – i.e. inflammation.

Acne can affect anyone

All people have a community of bacteria and other microbes inhabiting their skin and gut. These communities are called the “microbiome”, and they are composed of organisms that are commensal – they don’t have any negative effects on us. In fact, many of them have beneficial effects, such as producing antimicrobials that act to kill pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria. When the microbiome is balanced, many different species of bacteria successfully live on the skin’s surface and contribute to healthy skin.

Of particular interest in acne cases are the three bacterial species Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes), and Staphylococcus epidermis (S. epidermis). Each of these bacteria is a commensal organism that usually has no negative impact on us, but when they grow in excess they can become pathogenic (bad for us).

For example, S. aureus is the species responsible for most impetigo (school sores) infections, while C. acnes is the bacteria found in acne lesions. S. epidermis is a bacteria that is also found on all skin, and it seems to live alongside C. acnes and keep its population in check through producing a particular acid (succinic acid).

In turn, C. acnes and S. epidermis together control S. aureus. There is also some evidence suggesting that particular strains of C. acnes are especially inflammatory, as they are often found in acne patients but not in the skin of unaffected people.

However, there is no evidence that C. acnes infection is the cause of acne; significantly larger populations of the bacteria are not found in acne sufferers – it’s just that an excess population of C. acnes, attributed to the build-up of sebum in an oxygenless environment, stimulates an immune response (inflammation).

C.acnes has specific effects on the immune system. Molecules produced by C. acnes, and the bacteria itself stimulates production of inflammatory molecules by the keratinocytes, which causes a disproportionate immune response and inflammation (redness).

This is bad enough when the effects are confined to the pilosebaceous unit, but when the pressure builds up and the bacteria-filled sebum leaks into the epidermis, it triggers an even harsher immune response, causing pain and redness. This is what causes papules or pustules.

This picture shows the different types of pimple mentioned.

To find out why some people are affected by acne while others aren’t, watch our for our next post: Why are some people more prone to acne?

For more information, please visit:

Cravings before your period? Here’s why

Thursday, January 16th, 2020

In the week before your menstrual cycle begins, the hormonal activity begins to fluctuate causing intense food cravings, breakouts, and mood swings.

When you experience food cravings, it is actually a sign that your body is telling you it needs nutrients! Food cravings spike due to a hormonal imbalance occurring; what’s happening is that progesterone and estrogen levels are decreasing, and this is inducing your hunger.

So why is it that most women get a craving for chocolate?

We crave chocolate just before our periods because at this time our bodies want zinc, and the easiest source of zinc is chocolate. Of course, you can get zinc from fresh veges and especially lettuce, but it’s actually easier for our bodies to get it from chocolate. If you add some salads to your diet a couple of days before period is due, this will help provide the extra zinc your body needs. Or just eat the chocolate!

Chocolate itself is a prebiotic and promotes the growth of probiotic bacteria in your gut. Moderation is the key though, and darker, lower sugar chocolates contain the most health benefits.

Our hormone levels change throughout the month, and just before our period is when our serotonin ‘feel-good’ hormone levels dip, and our stress hormone ‘cortisol’ levels spikes. The higher-than-usual cortisol levels start affecting the sebum gland, which is responsible for maintaining oil levels on the skin. The rise in cortisol leads to an increase in oil production which is why just before, or during your period the skin can breakout.

There are some foods which can have an almost immediate effect on skin. These include probiotics and greasy foods. If you eat either of these right now, within 2 hours your skin will feel the effects. Probiotics give your skin a healthy glow – and greasy foods can lead to breakouts.

For other foods, it’s all about balance.

Soy can actually help your hormones if you eat a little most days. Soy boosts our estrogen levels, meaning that a little at a time can make us feel great and keep our hormones and skin balanced and healthy. On the contrary eating no soy for weeks and then indulging in a feast of soy protein in one meal can throw our hormones wildly out of balance.

Drinking green tea regularly is really good for your skin. But if you’re not a regular drinker, and then sit down to a full teapot, the green tea will draw out toxins from your body into your skin, resulting in breakouts.

Dairy products can affect hormones as they boost estrogen. This can throw the whole estrogen/progesterone ratio out, resulting in mood swings, pimples, and inflamed skin. Anything containing sugar is considered an inflammatory food and can alter your hormonal balance and your skin health (as well as your gut health).

Your skin is a living organism with its own unique microflora, so there are some other things you can do to support the health of it:

Drink plenty of water
Eat fermented foods like kefir
Include prebiotics such as yoghurts, kombucha or chocolate in your diet (they’re great for gut and skin health)
Exercise the lymph system
Cleanse, tone and moisturize your skin properly, morning and night. Your skincare routine is really important for managing skin conditions!

If you have a genetic predisposition to acne or eczema, maintaining a healthy diet will help but may not solve the problem. Don’t beat yourself up if you eat something that causes your skin condition to flare up – we’re all human.

Learn more about our skincare products here.

Fighting Cellular Ageing with Pine Bark

Tuesday, November 12th, 2019

Pinus Radiata or pine bark is a powerful antioxidant that heals and repairs sun-damaged skin and fades age spots.

Antioxidants are critical in neutralising free radicals to prevent cellular damage. They’re also potent anti-inflammatories, helping to reduce redness associated with eczema, rosacea and sunburn.

Free radicals (including UV, pollution, smoking, excess sugar in diet and stress) are a major contributor to premature skin ageing as they nick DNA, they impair mitochondrial cellular respiration and they induce inflammation due to the release of nitric oxide. When free radicals are in excess they cause skin cell damage, wrinkles and age spots – additionally they’re associated with rosacea, acne, lupus and psoriasis.

New Zealand pine bark is a more potent plant extract than other plant flavonoid extracts because it has had to adapt to our ultra-intense UV exposure. Incredibly, the plant has developed enhanced UV bioactive components to protect its own DNA and mitochondria.

Atopis pine bark is even more powerful than the average pine bark extract. The pine bark that we gather is treated through our patented process to enhance all of its natural defence mechanisms, thus making it far more potent and effective on the skin.

Almost 30 years of scientific research has shown our proprietary plant compounds can actually protect your skin cells against UV, pollutant and DNA damage, oxidative stress, inflammation and even promote wound healing. We have demonstrated using in-vitro lab testing that the Atopis pine bark promotes optimal mitochondria respiration and free radical scavenging within skin cells.

Mitochondria are the energy source of our cells. Basically, they protect our cells from incurring damage and re-energize them. If the mitochondria become tired, your skin gets tired. Skin appears lifeless, cell renewal slows down, and your skin doesn’t refresh itself as it naturally should. When your cell mitochondria are working optimally, your skin promotes a healthy glow.

We recommend you always use sun protection, and add antioxidants to your diet and skincare for optimal skin health.

Learn more about Atopis Intensive Restore Day Cream – and reap the skin benefits of Atopis pine bark!

The Amazing Kiwifruit

Monday, August 19th, 2019

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By Dr Iona Weir PhD
Chief Scientist and CEO
Atopis Skincare

In my early days working as a Scientist I developed techniques that would allow for high-throughput screening of the DNA and biochemistry of individual cells and applied this to kiwifruit breeding.

This meant that when hybrid seedlings were produced the characteristics of the potential fruit could be identified and quickly ascertained to determine the value of the seedlings. My techniques were used extensively within the kiwifruit breeding program including the gold kiwifruit and kiwi-berries.

This technology was also used to identify the bioactive components within kiwifruit and their efficacy.

Of all the fruit, kiwifruit has benefits for the gut and skin that make it a superhero.

Kiwifruit is known as a meat tenderizer and this is due to the protease enzymes which digest protein.

These proteases (which break down the protein in cells) have been shown to increase gut motility (movement), protein digestion and modulate the gut microbiome (Weir et al, 2008).

The kiwifruit extract Phloe I was a part of developing in 2006, is a prebiotic that not only promotes the growth of good gut bacteria, it also inhibits the growth of bad bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli. (Weir Patent No. 2015/0037315).

Kiwifruit has been clinically shown to enhance protein digestion and improve metabolism resulting in decreased fat absorption, lowered cholesterol and reduction in hunger cravings. (Weir et al., 2018).

Kiwifruit is also a potent anti-inflammatory food if you are not allergic to kiwifruit.

Clinical trials have shown that kiwifruit reduces inflammation of the gut by modulating the gut microbiome and regulating signalling receptors on the gut wall (Weir et al., 2018).

Kiwifruit and Your Skin

Kiwifruit is not just amazing for the gut, but also for the skin. Due to the improved digestion and metabolism this reduces excess sebum production and hence acne.

In my later research I discovered that amazingly, kiwifruit also reduces cytokine IL6 in human cells.

Cytokine IL6 is the cellular transduction molecule responsible for the inflammation that causes eczema. (Weir et al., 2008).

A reduction in this cytokine in the body effectively means that we can heal the cause of eczema and at the same time our skin creams soothe and treat the physical symptoms as well – healing the skin from inside the cell and out!

Using the latest biochemistry technique called lipid fractionation technology, I isolated and purified the component of kiwifruit pollen that reduces IL6 and included it in our US patented extract Myriphytase and added it to all of my Atopis skin creams. (Weir US Patent No. 9,877,991).

After I invented Myriphytase, it was clinically trialed in both New Zealand and the USA and shown to help human skin including an improvement in quality of life, an increase in skin quality, a significant reduction in the severity of eczema symptoms, and a decrease in redness, itching, and scaling.

Myriphytase goes into all of our skin creams and like our other 100% natural ingredients, is not made up of mere plant extracts – our scientifically enhanced food grade compounds are clinically shown to benefit human skin.

References:

Weir I, Shu Q, Wei N, Wei C, Zhu Y (2018) Efficacy of actinidin containing kiwifruit extract Zyactinase on constipation: a randomised double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial. Asia Pacific of Journal Clinical Nutrition: 27 (3) 564-571.

Weir IE (2008) Zyactinase stimulates the probiotic gut microflora whilst inhibiting pathogenic microflora. International Journal of Probiotics and Prebiotics: 3 (4) 231 – 238.

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All Atopis skin creams contain Myriphytase – choose your product here:

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Karen’s Journey to Healthy Skin

Thursday, August 1st, 2019

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.22.3″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”] “Hi, my name is Karen, and this is my journey to healthy skin.

“I’d had acne as a teenager and in my 20’s, but things didn’t get really bad until I was about 34.

“My hormonal acne was worse than anything I’d experienced before, and I set myself a mission to heal my skin and any hormonal imbalances that were contributing to my acne.

“Many days I was so embarrassed by my skin with huge swollen red pimples all over my face that I didn’t even want to leave the house.

“I tried everything. I was swayed towards natural products at first but when I found that the products I tried didn’t work, I gave up on that and was prepared to try literally anything.

“When I say I’ve tried everything, I really mean it. I’ve tried the “no wash” method where you don’t touch you skin at all, not even with water, for at least 2 months. I’ve tried the “oil cleansing” method for another couple of months. I’ve tried lots of different natural products. I’ve tried over the counter medicines and skin creams. I’ve been on prescription-only drugs, ranging from the Pill, antibiotics (big mistake!), and Accutane – the most hardcore acne drug around, according to my doctor.

“I found all of the drugs worked in varying degrees, but with in some cases huge side effects. I had no acne, but my lips and mouth were so dry I could barely talk, my eyes were always dry and red, and basically I hadn’t found a real solution – I’d only covered up one problem and created another.

“I desperately wanted clear skin and to be honest when I first heard of Atopis from a friend I wrote it off as just another natural product that probably doesn’t really work.

“It was only when I started to read more about their scientific discoveries and inventions that I became interested.

“My husband, who has a science background finally had a look at the scientific stuff for me and told me that the Atopis products actually used really different science to any other product I’d used – the fact that he was really impressed with the science was enough for me to take the plunge and buy some products to try. (It takes a real scientific breakthrough or something special to impress him when it comes to that kind of thing!)

“When my first product arrived, the Acne Prone Skin Cream, I put it on my skin straight away. I could actually see a difference in my skin within the first few hours. Even my husband commented after a couple of days that my skin was looking a lot better.

“A few days after starting the Acne Prone cream, I did experience the breakouts that they talk about. My skin did apparently need to get rid of a lot of junk that was already in there, and I got a bit disheartened after a few weeks!

“I’m so thankful I decided to hang in there though. A few more weeks later and my skin was looking better than it had for years. I was still getting the occasional pimple but it was way better than it had been in recent memory.

“At this point I got an email saying Atopis had come out with a cleanser and toner, so I decided to go all in and got the cleanser, toner, acne prone cream, and radiant balance (I even got one of their packs with an anti-aging cream and I still use this as my eye cream – it’s lasted ages!).

“It wasn’t until I started to use all the products together that my skin showed a really huge improvement.

“It must be true that their products work in synergy with each other because that definitely seemed to be the case for my skin.

“I don’t wear any make up any more except sometimes mascara or eyeshadow – nothing to cover up my skin.

“I never believed this would have been possible before trying Atopis.

“Thank you so much to the Atopis team and especially Dr Iona who came up with it all – I don’t know where I’d be without you guys, probably still hiding out in my house!”
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Take a look at the Atopis skin care products that Karen used to get healthy skin:

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A Digital Attack on the Face

Wednesday, July 17th, 2019

We all know that too much time spent in the sun (aka UVB and UVA light) can wreak havoc on skin, but did you know that blue light (High Energy Visible or HEV light) emitted from our screens and devices can also be incredibly damaging to skin cells?

Similar to UV rays, blue light inhibits free radical generation, causing oxidative stress to skin cells. In fact, studies have shown that blue light can penetrate even deeper into the skin than UV light, affecting our collagen and elastin. Eek!

You’re probably spending more time than ever before in front of screens and devices (thanks to lockdown!) so here are a few things you can do to protect your skin from excessive blue light exposure:

– Add an anti-blue light protector to your phone or device. They’re relatively affordable and will protect your eyes as well as your skin.

– Turn on ‘night-mode’ on your smartphone to switch from blue to yellow light.

– Call hands-free where possible to avoid having the screen in direct contact with your face.

– Wear an SPF50+ sunscreen daily, whether inside or out.

– Protect skin with a daytime moisturiser like Atopis Intensive Restore cream or Radiant Balance cream, which are rich in flavonoids and natural antioxidants. Flavonoids are plants’ natural UV defence compounds and they are powerful at protecting skin from blue light damage. Antioxidants are free radical ‘scavengers’ meaning that they help to protect your skin cells from free radical damage.

Three-phase Therapy for your Skin

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019

When we say we are natural, we are. We ensure that the plants we source are not changed but keep the original state as they were in the New Zealand forest.

Instead of using solvents, or traditional extraction methods, we use nature’s own processes to fuse bioactives together in synergy.

We dive into the unique process that brings prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics together on the skin.

Prebiotic

Just like our gut health requires good bacteria, our skin does too!

In 2006, Dr. Iona Weir patented a technology for a gut health prebiotic from kiwifruit that promoted the growth of good bacteria, whilst inhibiting the growth of bad bacteria.

What sets this science apart is that traditional prebiotics can only promote the growth of all bacteria.

This means that not only does the good bacteria grow, but also the bad bacteria is being kept alive too. When this process (in the gut) goes wrong it results in bloating. Dr Weir’s patented kiwifruit prebiotic successfully reduced IBS symptoms in clinical trials.

For Atopis, Dr. Weir took this concept further, and created another patented prebiotic that promotes the growth of the good bacteria on the skin, whilst killing the bad bacteria such as acne propionic and staphylococcus bacteria. Thus, only good bacteria can thrive.

Probiotic

It gets better; Dr. Weir encapsulated probiotic bacteria within the prebiotic so that the interior would remain dormant and stable within the cream until being applied to the skin.

The Atopis probiotic bacteria only becomes active when rubbed onto the skin, which releases them and allows them to grow and populate on the skin leaving no room for the unhealthy bacteria to stay.

This is especially vital when it comes to the health of the skin.

Postbiotic

Postbiotics were developed by testing numerous plant extracts, fermenting them and identifying their skin benefits.

They were then synergistically fused together with the prebiotic encapsulated probiotics.

Only the best postbiotics for skin repair were selected after intensive testing. Atopis postbiotics have potent anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing properties.

Atopis brings prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics together giving your skin our ultra three-phase therapy. Learn more about our ingredients.

Explore our range of skin care products containing patented prebiotic, probiotic and postbiotic treatments for your skin:

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Recovering A Clear & Clean Complexion: Jo’s Skincare Journey

Wednesday, March 20th, 2019

Could you please give us some background on your skin and the journey you’ve been through with it? As a teenager I had great skin, I’m probably the opposite of most people! It only started to cause me problems as I got older actually, in my late 20’s really. I would constantly have a few spots that (I felt like) I needed to cover up, and my skin would occasionally flare up and get worse without a pattern. It’s always been an issue for me as I never felt like I could confidently go make-up free, and I always took concealer with me in my handbag. I ate well, drank loads of water, didn’t smoke, and did all the things you’re supposed to do to have good skin, but nothing worked.

How did you discover Atopis, and why did you decide to give it a go? I actually found it on Facebook and checked out the website, and thought it would be worth a shot as some of the success stories from their customers sounded just like me.

What product do you use? I use the Acne Prone Skin Cream.

Please describe how your skin was before Atopis and how it looks now. I always had spots around my chin as well as the occasional ones on my forehead and around my nose if I was having a really bad streak. They were always red and painful and not easy to hide, they would take days to calm down but by then I’d have more! Not fun when you’re in your mid 30’s and everyone else has finished with their acne stage. Now, I only get a spot or two occasionally but for the right reasons like if I eat badly or if I’m hormonal or even if it’s a super humid day – like ‘normal’ skin!

What changes have you noticed since you started using Atopis? My skin is clearer, and just seems generally happier if that makes sense? I have less fine lines too, which is a nice bonus, and my skin is firmer but soft at the same time.

When did you start noticing your skin changing, and how has it changed since? It took until I was halfway through my second tube to see real improvements. When using the first tube I had a solid few weeks of bad skin and I thought to myself ‘man this is just another product that doesn’t work for me’. Then I went back to read the reviews, and people were saying the same thing and said just to keep using it and it eventually improves. So I did, and it worked; they were right!

How does your skin feel? Happy!

How do you feel about your skin now compared to before? Also happy!

What is your current skincare routine? Exfoliate twice a week, wash face in the shower with goats milk/sensitive skin soap. I Moisturise my skin with the Acne Prone Skin Cream in the morning and on most nights.

What advice would you give to someone who is at the beginning of their skincare journey? Just keep going! The results will happen and they will be worth it!

Struggling with Breakouts?

Our Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream is a 100% natural and safe way to clear pimples, enhance skin health, and help you to break out of the pimple cycle.

Getting treatment deep down into the pores is what our Acne Prone Skin Cream formula does, as it needs to break down the built-up dirt and slowly bring it to the surface so it can cleanse the pore with help from our immune system.

Once you have started with your Acne Prone Skin Cream, it may take up to two or over three weeks for the skin to restore its normal functions. The Acne Prone Skin Cream ensures that bit by bit bacteria comes to the surface, which is removed by your restored skin microflora and stops future bacteria build-up.

It’s better to have small amounts of the bacteria release over time, so your skin microflora has time to respond and heal the skin.

Everyone’s skin is unique, so depending on your skin type and amount of blocked pores, it will take a different amount of time.

Learn More About Acne Prone Skin Cream

What is Milia? And Do You Have It?

Tuesday, March 19th, 2019

Milia – Those Bumps aren’t Acne!

If you haven’t heard of Milia it looks like small bumps that commonly form around sensitive skin places such as the eyes. It is not rare to develop a singular milium or a crop of Milia at some stage in our life, but the appearance of them can affect our self-esteem at times.

They do disappear eventually but generally, we want to speed this process up. So, it is key to recognize when you have Milia and what to do.

Our solution to protecting your skin against the build-up of Milia is our Radiant Balance Cream. Our cream unclogs the skin’s pores and reduces the build-up of sebum and dead skin.

Find out more information about Milia, its causes, and it’s cures below!

What are they then?

Milia, plural or Milium singular, form as a tiny bump just below the surface of the skin and present where the skin is thinnest, which is typically around the eyes. The milium bump can look whitish in colour and is a keratin-filled cyst. These cysts are benign thankfully!

After the sebum and dead skin cells become trapped in the skin they turn into keratin, which over time solidifies. Keratin is a fibrous protein that forms to make the main structure of hair, nails and the outer layer of the skin.

Typically keratin does its job at protecting the skin, (just like it does for our nails and hair!) but in the case of Milia it hardens up under the skin forming the tiny bumps.

Milia are also referred to as closed comedones, where the follicle is blocked. Comedones are the skin-coloured bumps that are mostly found around the forehead and chin of people who suffer from acne.

Blackheads, however, are called open comedones, which are exposed to the air turning the dead skin and oil black.

Who gets it?

Statistically, half of all newborn babies will likely get Milia around the cheeks, nose, and eyes. Adults can get Milia on the face, arms, and hands.

It is more often than not to develop on the hands in mature people after years of sun-exposure turned sun-damage. See our Sun Exposure and Your Skin blog to learn more about the effects of exposure on your complexion.

Generally, some people are just more prone than others to Milia. It can be genetic causes, a skin condition or a number of other reasons as to why Milia can suddenly develop.

An interesting cause of Milia

Over applying thick moisturizers and creams, notably eye creams, have been linked with triggering Milia, especially in those that are already susceptible to it.

The skin also has a natural exfoliation process, when this malfunctions dead skin cells begin to build up under the skin’s surface and if they stay too long like this the build-up hardens into keratin.

This keratin-filled bump won’t get red or sore – instead, it’ll just sit under a thin layer of skin.

Treatment

Unlike acne, Milia do not form in the pores, instead, it forms as a cyst. So knowing this means the treatment of Milia is a different approach. It can last on the skin from a few weeks to a few months.

Milia goes away on its own eventually, but the appearance of it can affect self-esteem and confidence. More than often we want to get rid of it as soon as we can. Below are a few tips to treat Milia – the key is patience however, as it can still take up to a few months of treating Milia from home for it to clear up:

1. Exfoliating

Due to the skin’s exfoliation process malfunctioning, choosing a targeted exfoliator is important.

One that contains salicylic acid to dissolve the bump can be used daily if it is gentle on the skin and does not cause irritation or drying out the skin.

Products containing glycolic acid are effective in exfoliators for Milia as well.

2. Creams

To avoid triggering Milia ensure you use a thin layer of skin cream. If the cream is too thick it can block the skin causing it to essentially suffocate and Milia can erupt.

Make sure to choose a moisturizing cream that won’t block your skin’s pores and that will allow the skin to still feel hydrated.

Is Your Skin Showing Signs of Milia?

Atopis Radiant Balance Cream has been formulated using essential oils that do not plug up the pores.

Our patented process of making Atopis converts some of the essential oils to fatty acids which are critical to maintaining the health of the epithelium (skin).

Using a combination of probiotics and prebiotics, Atopis has been scientifically proven to restore the skin back to a normal function using all-natural and safe ingredients.

Learn More About Radiant Balance Cream

The Critters That May Cause Rosacea

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021

Our face is home to a whole ecosystem of microscopic creatures! These critters are mostly harmless. In fact, they are actually quite helpful – generally speaking their job is to eat dead skin cells, helping to rid the face of waste.

However, a growing body of medical research is pointing to abnormally high levels of Demodex mites as playing a role in causing or triggering rosacea.

If you’re looking for an all-natural solution to rosacea-prone skin, our answer is Atopis Radiant Balance Cream. Scientifically formulated for rosacea-prone skin, this therapy cream reduces redness and inflammation by balancing the skin’s microflora, evening out your complexion.

Keep scrolling for more on Demodex Mites and their link to rosacea.

What is rosacea?

Rosacea is a chronic, common inflammatory skin condition that presents as redness of the face.

Diagnosing Rosacea cannot be done through a medical test, however they can be used to rule out other skin conditions and narrow down on rosacea.

The skin condition is most often developed in fair-skinned, blonde and blue-eyed women between the ages of 30-50 years. Those with Celtic or Scandinavian backgrounds also heightens risk of rosacea. A genetic history of acne and rosacea also contributes to the possibility of developing it.

Males can also develop rosacea, but often have more severe exterior symptoms.

There are four main rosacea subtypes which present different symptoms. Learn more about the types of rosacea.

What causes rosacea?

While the exact cause of rosacea is unknown, researchers have identified some numerous causes such as genetics, a dysfunctional immune system, bacterial imbalance, a defective peptide, and the new research on naturally occurring mites on the skin.

The critter culprits

We all have an ecosystem made up of bacteria on our skin, this is what contributes to our unique microflora.

Two new fields of research have opened up into the links of Helicobacter Pylori (H. Pylori) bacteria and Demodex mites playing a major role in the development and vicious cycle of rosacea skin. Mounting research suggesting that H. Pylori and Demodex can cause and trigger rosacea has encouraged more research to be conducted in understanding how these interplay with finding a cure.

The bacterial imbalance

H.pylori is a common group of bacteria found in our gut that may play a role in triggering and treating rosacea.

When H.pylori are prevalent, levels of the hormone gastrin can increase, which causes an imbalance in acid regulation. This can lead to the flushing on the skin we see so often with rosacea.
When treated for H.pylori overabundance, rosacea sufferers experienced a reduction in symptoms, with papulopustular rosacea sufferers noticing the greater positive effects in remission.

As rosacea is a multi-triggered disease it’s possible H. pylori imbalance plays a significant role in aggravating rosacea.

Gastrointestinal symptoms are commonly present when there are high levels of H.pylori. These symptoms include stomach inflammation and ulcers as well as irritable bowel syndrome.

There are many links between bowel imbalances and skin issues, so assessing and improving gut health often helps with skin condition management. Learn more about the link between your gut and skin health here.

Demodex mites

Demodex mites are naturally occurring on the skin. There are two types; Demodex folliculorum that live in hair follicles, commonly on the face, and in the meibomian glands of the eyelids; and Demodex brevis that live in the sebaceous (oil) glands on the skin.

Mites can be found inside pustules (small fluid-filled bumps on the skin) and papules (skin lesions) on the skin further disrupting the skin, or for some causing the skin to develop rosacea.

The peptide link

Rosacea sufferers experience a faulty peptide called the cathelicidin peptide; this is responsible for controlling blood flow and inhibiting bad bacteria.

The peptide for rosacea sufferers is present at much higher concentrations and has a different molecular structure, making it no longer function normally. It causes rosacea’s trademark bright red cheeks as well as sensitive skin.

The sensitive skin is in a hyper-reactive state so it is more affected by sun, food, drink, and temperature. These cause flare-ups of redness, swelling and even pain.

The faulty peptide also means that the Demodex mites have a better chance of attacking the skin, as it isn’t properly protected.

The mites and their bacteria then further aggravate the sensitive skin and trigger the immune system to overreact – and a vicious cycle of rosacea skin is perpetuated.

Gain control over rosacea skin

It’s important to understand that the different types of rosacea are not caused by a single issue but actually a combination of gut microbial imbalance, skin microflora, Demodex mites and potentially a genetic defect in the peptide cathelicidin.

While there is no known cure for rosacea, and researchers can’t put their finger on the exact cause – we have a few tips on how you can manage it.

Food: Starting with diet. Many believe that starting with the gut has promising affects on rosacea. Cutting out dairy, alcohol, spicy foods, and junk foods works for most people with rosacea. These foods are all known to affect H. pylori population numbers. Keeping a journal on food can help link you to what can trigger rosacea for yourself.
Weather: Protect the skin from harsh weather such as direct sun and cool winds. Sunscreen is very important especially in summer when UV is stronger, and in winter a scarf can lighten the impact the cold has.
Moisturise: Keep the skin hydrated by moisturising daily.
Prescription: Topical steroids work in the short-term but long-term use triggers steroid rosacea. Meaning, steroids pull you into a harsh life-long cycle. If you are to use them, then it is best to do so only for a short-term to calm the flare-up.
Skincare: A good skincare product for rosacea should work with your sensitive skin and enhance the skin health. Bringing in skincare that can deal with the faulty peptide, offer skin repair and protection can significantly improve day-to-day quality of life.

Our skincare solution to rosacea-prone skin, Atopis Radiant Balance, works by inhibiting the bad bacteria on your skin. The therapy cream is prebiotic – supporting your good bacteria, calming redness and inflammation and works with the immune system to control its hypersensitive overreaction to the environment.

Radiant Balance contains an equivalent peptide to normal functioning cathelicidin, meaning that the faulty peptide in rosacea skin can function normally again. When repairing this peptide, the redness associated with rosacea is reduced.

From Sun-Damage To Smooth Skin: Toni’s Skincare Journey

Thursday, February 21st, 2019

Could you please give us some background on your skin and the journey you’ve been through with it? I grew up in the 60s. We lived at the beach during the summer and we didn’t know about sun screen back then. So like many others, my skin is sun damaged and I have solar keratosis, large brown patches on my cheeks and across my eyebrows. The patches over my eyebrow became scaley and flakey like dandruff of the skin! Eww!

How did you discover Atopis, and why did you decide to give it a go? I saw an ad for Atopis on my Facebook page and I liked the fact it was new and unconnected to the big pharmaceutical companies. I also like that it was made from natural products, I could read the list of ingredients and they weren’t from a periodic table!

What product do you use? Anti-Aging cream

What was the length of time since you started using Atopis? I’ve been using the Anti-Aging-cream for a year.

What was your skincare routine like before? I don’t use a big range of make up products but my skin is very dry and my cupboard is full of skin creams that never quite made the grade. Some of them were very expensive and I never felt I got value for money. I’ve been using the Anti-Aging cream for over a year and just bought my fourth tub of cream.

Please describe how your skin was before Atopis and how it looks now. I don’t have before photos but I’m very happy with how the brown patches look, especially the ones above my eyebrows. They are still there; (you can’t reverse nearly 40 years of sun damage) however, the yucky, scaley, flakey skin has disappeared and the area feels softer, not like crocodile skin. As a side effect, I found any scratches and blemishes I got disappeared too. What really got my attention was a nasty looking yellow cyst on my lower eyelid. The doctor wouldn’t touch it because it was too close to the my eye. After a few weeks of using the Anti-Aging cream it completely disappeared. That was what finally sold me on Atopis products. The deal breaker!

What changes have you noticed since you started using Atopis? My skin keeps the moisturised feeling. I don’t reapply any cream in the evening the way I used to.

When did you start noticing your skin changing, and how has it changed since? After the first few weeks I noticed that my skin felt good all day. My skin just didn’t dry out.

How does your skin feel? I feel the difference as soon as I put it on after showering in the morning. It feels like I’ve given my skin a drink.

How do you feel about your skin now compared to before? It doesn’t feel dry at any time during the day and I live in Perth WA, a hot dry area where your lips crack because of the wind.

What is your current skincare routine? Shower in the morning and then I apply the Anti-Aging cream.

What advice would you give to someone who is at the beginning of their skincare journey? Cover up. Wear sun screen all four seasons is what the dermatologist told me.

What other comments do you have? I have never blogged my opinions on skin care products and I’m known to be a person who tells it like it is.

Do you have sun damaged skin?

Like Toni, many of our customers have noticed significant improvements in the appearance of early sun damage and age spots using our Intensive Restore Cream.

Atopis Intensive Restore Cream has been scientifically formulated to repair and rejuvenate damaged skin, leaving you with an even skin tone and soft, hydrated skin.

The all-natural cream contains our patented Myriphytase extract, formulated by Chief Scientist Dr. Iona Weir. The active ingredients in Myriphytase work at the cellular level to eliminate unhealthy damaged cells and regenerate new cells for stronger, healthier skin.

Learn More About Atopis Intensive Restore Cream

Bacteria and Mites That Could Be Causing Rosacea?

Sunday, January 27th, 2019

There are 4 definite types of rosacea, and sometimes the symptoms overlap with each other. Acute redness in the cheeks, nose and forehead can spread to other areas of the body. The redness can become pus-filled bumps and broken blood vessels appear. Eye irritation, thickening and inflamed skin can develop as well. Diagnosing Rosacea cannot be done through a medical test, however they can be used to rule out other skin conditions and narrow down on rosacea.

WHAT ARE THE 4 TYPES?

Erythematotelangiectatic rosacea (ETR), symptoms include facial redness, flushing, and visible blood vessels (especially on the cheeks).
Papulopustular (or acne) rosacea, looks like acne breakouts, and often affects middle-aged women.
Rhinophyma, is a more rare form of rosacea with symptoms such as thickening of the skin on your nose. Men get this more than women and is often accompanied by another subtype of rosacea.
Ocular rosacea, is mainly on the eye area with symptoms focused here.

WHO DEVELOPS ROSACEA?

Some people are more likely to develop rosacea if there is a family history with serious acne or rosacea, you are fair-skinned, have blond hair, and blue eyes. DNA links with Celtic or Scandinavian backgrounds also puts you at a more likely risk. It is more commonly developed between the ages of 30-50. Rosacea is found more in women than men, however men often have more severe exterior symptoms.

MICROSCOPIC CAUSES

A common causal link that has been found with rosacea is associated with bacteria in the gut and a mite living on the skin. Helicobacter Pylori bacteria and Demodex mites are increasingly linked to rosacea with more research being conducted to understand how these interplay with finding a cure.

H.PYLORI

pylori is a common bacteria found in our gut that may play a role in triggering and treating of Rosacea. There are many strains of these bacteria so when we talk about H. pylori we refer to the strains as one species. Links to rosacea have been studied with numerous results neither confirming nor denying the role this bacteria has in treating rosacea. When H. pylori are prevalent it can raise levels of the hormone gastrin, which causes an imbalance in acid regulation. This can lead to the flushing on the skin we see so often with rosacea. Gastrointestinal symptoms are commonly present when there are high levels of H. pylori. Symptoms include stomach inflammation and ulcers as well as irritable bowel syndrome. In studies, rosacea sufferers have experienced a reduction in rosacea when treated for H. pylori with papulopustular rosacea being the most effective form in multiple studies that went into remission. As rosacea is a multi-triggered disease it’s possible H. pylori imbalance plays a significant role in causing rosacea. There is continuing controversy however with studies giving varying results. There are many links between bowel imbalances and skin issues so assessing your gut can help manage rosacea.

DEMODEX MITES

Demodex mites are naturally occurring on the skin. There are only two types; Demodex folliculorum that live in hair follicles, commonly on the face, and in the meibomian glands of the eyelids; and Demodex brevis that live in the sebaceous (oil) glands on the skin.

An overabundance of demodex critters on the skin can aggravate the skin to show rosacea-like symptoms. Mounting research suggests that those with rosacea carry more demodex than a person without rosacea, and they are found in the regions that rosacea flares up. Mites can be found inside pustules and papules on the skin further disrupting the skin, or for some causing the skin to develop rosacea. In rosacea sufferers, they experience a faulty peptide called the cathelicidin peptide; this is responsible for inhibiting bad bacteria and controlling blood flow. When this peptide faults the blood flow over-dilates, causing rosacea’s trademark blood vessel cheeks. With rosacea the peptide does not function normally and cannot protect the skin so well against bacteria. Demodex mites have a better chance of attacking the skin due to this faulty peptide. These mites and their bacteria then further aggravate the sensitive skin and trigger the immune system to overreact and thus a vicious cycle is perpetuated.

CATHELICIDIN PEPTIDE

It’s important to know how this peptide affects rosacea. The normal function of the cathelicidin peptide is to control vasodilation (blood flow) of the skin and to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria.

For those with rosacea, the peptide is present at much higher concentrations and has a different molecular structure, meaning the peptide no longer functions normally. It causes the bright red cheeks and sensitive skin. When the skin is sensitive this is because it is in a hyper-reactive state of being. Sun, food, drink, and temperature all affect the skin causing flare-ups of redness, swelling and even pain.

MANAGE IT

Knowing all of this, it is essential to understand that the different types of Rosacea are not caused by a single issue but actually a combination of gut microbial imbalance, skin microflora, demodex mites and potentially a genetic defect in the peptide cathelicidin. These varying issues help to determine what type of Rosacea is occurring .

Although there is no known cure, and researchers can’t put their finger on what exactly it is that causes it. Let’s talk about how we can manage rosacea instead.

Food: Starting with diet. Many believe that starting with the gut has promising affects on rosacea. Cutting out dairy, alcohol, spicy foods, and junk foods works for most people with rosacea. These foods are all known to affect H. pylori population numbers. Keeping a journal on food can help link you to what can trigger rosacea for yourself.

Weather: Protect the skin from harsh weather such as direct sun and cool winds. Sunscreen is very important especially in summer when UV is stronger, and in winter a scarf can lighten the impact the cold has.

Moisturise: Keep the skin hydrated by moisturising daily.

Prescription: Topical steroids work in the short-term but long-term use triggers steroid rosacea. Meaning, steroids pull you into a harsh life-long cycle. If you are to use them, then it is best to do so only for a short-term to calm the flare-up.

Skincare: A good skincare product for rosacea should work with your sensitive skin and enhance the skin health. Bringing in skincare that can deal with the faulty peptide, offer skin repair and protection can significantly improve day-to-day quality of life.

Atopis Radiant Balance Cream inhibits the bad bacteria on your skin, is prebiotic – as in supports your good bacteria, calms redness and inflammation and works with the immune system to control its hypersensitive overreaction to the environment. Radiant Balance contains an equivalent peptide to normal functioning cathelicidin, meaning that the faulty peptide in rosacea skin can function normally again. When repairing this peptide, the redness associated with rosacea is reduced.

The 5 Types of Rosacea

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019

Identifying and understanding the type of rosacea you or your loved one has is crucial to learning how to effectively manage it.

Our answer to healing rosacea-affected skin is the Atopis Radiant Balance Cream – a steroid-free and 100% organic cream that combats rosacea symptoms; reducing redness, evens out skin tone, and calms inflammatory response.

What is Rosacea?

Rosacea is a common, chronic skin condition that presents as redness of the face.

The condition often develops in adults between the ages of 30 and 60, with those who have Celtic or Scandinavian heritage more susceptible to the condition.

The cause of rosacea is currently unknown, but research has become focused on a defective protein that is responsible for controlling blood flow. Essentially, the malformed protein can no longer control blood flow, meaning blood vessels expand, causing the skin to redden.

Here’s a short video that explores What Causes Rosacea:

If you’re interested in learning more, we’ve written a whole blog post on what causes rosacea.

There are five main types of rosacea, each with distinct symptoms and treatments.

Types of rosacea

1. Erythematotelangiectatic Rosacea (ETR)

ETR is the most common type of rosacea, and is generally characterised by flushing of the face and dilated blood vessels.
Middle-aged women are more susceptible to developing ETR, however, there have been cases of onset during young adulthood.

Symptoms:

Facial redness
Flushing
Visible blood vessels
Sensitive skin, with a possible stinging or burning sensation
Dry, rough and scaly appearance

While there is no cure, ETR can be managed with topical creams, antibiotics, and even laser surgery.

2. Papulopustular (acne) Rosacea

Often confused with acne, this type of rosacea presents as redness and swelling with breakouts that resemble teenage acne. While this type of rosacea can affect anyone at any stage of life, middle-aged women are most at risk.

Symptoms:

Facial redness
Red bumps around the nose/cheek area that appear similar to breakouts
Oily, sensitive skin
Visible broken blood vessels
Raised patches of skin

Like ETR, Papulopustular (acne) Rosacea treatment depends on the severity of symptoms, and can usually be treated through topical creams or oral antibiotics.

3. Rhinophyma

This rarer form of rosacea mostly affects middle-aged males who have a family history of rosacea. It is often presented alongside another rosacea subtype.

Symptoms:

Thick skin on nose, chin, forehead, cheeks and ears
Large pores
Visible broken blood vessels

Rhinophyma is a unique subtype of rosacea, therefore may not respond the same to treatment as other subtypes. Oral antibiotics are the most common form of treatment for people with rhinophyma. For more severe cases, surgery can be a form of long-term treatment.

4. Ocular Rosacea

Ocular rosacea is the subtype of rosacea that affects the eyes. Ocular rosacea can cause red, itchy, sore eyelids and irritation in the eye. This subtype is most commonly affects adults aged 30-50 years who tend to blush or flush easily.

Symptoms:

Dry eyes
Itchy, burning or stinging eyes
Blurred vision
Broken blood vessels on the eyelids

Applying creams and warm moist compresses relieve the uncomfortable symptoms of Ocular Rosacea. Antibiotics or eyedrops can also be prescribed to aid symptom relief. In more severe cases, probing can be used – a doctor puts rods into the plugged up glands to open them up.

5. Steroidal Rosacea

Steroidal rosacea is a rosacea-like condition caused by the use of potent topical steroids – or withdrawal from them. Anyone who has applied strong steroid treatments to their face, or who have taken strong oral steroid-based antibiotics. A flareup can occur whilst on steroids, or when coming off the treatment.

Symptoms:

Small bumps and pustules
Reddened areas that may be itchy
Enlarged blood vessels
Severely sensitive skin

To avoid long-term symptoms, the use of topical steroids should be discontinued. To reduce the likelihood of flareups, withdrawal should be a slow and steady process. Oral antibiotics are sometimes prescribed for several months to help with the withdrawal.

Managing rosacea-prone skin

Unfortunately, there is currently no known cure for any of the rosacea subtypes – the symptoms are simply managed.

To manage symptoms:

Avoid touching problem areas on the skin – Rosacea-prone skin is hyperactive, and touching can cause blood vessels to dilate
Protect the skin from harsh weather conditions – Wear a scarf during winter, and remember to slip, slop, slap and wrap during summer
Avoid topical steroids – Although this may help in the short-term with facial redness, use of potent topical steroids may cause steroid rosacea
Moisturise – especially in the affected areas
Limit alcohol consumption – alcohol can aggravate rosacea

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Dealing With Rosacea?

The Atopis Radiant Balance Cream is the world’s first facial moisturizer developed to break out of the rosacea cycle.

Having dealt with rosacea herself, award-winning Kiwi scientist Dr. Iona Weir decided to develop a natural solution to help others break out of the rosacea cycle. Here’s how it works:

1. Treats the symptoms
The peptides and flavonoids in Radiant Balance work to inhibit over-vasodilation of the blood vessels, and to reduce redness.

2. Inhibits bad bacteria
By mimicking the anti-microbial cathelicidin of your skin, the peptide inhibits bad bacteria, stopping those nasty infections that keep you stuck in the rosacea cycle.

3. Reduces overreactions to environmental triggers
Other peptilipids within the cream work to calm the immune system and heal the skin.

Radiant Balance contains an equivalent peptide to normal functioning cathelicidin, meaning that the faulty peptide in rosacea skin can function normally. As this is the peptide that controls blood flow to the skin and inhibits bad bacteria, the redness associated with rosacea is reduced.

Learn More About Radiant Balance Cream

How to Pop a Pimple the Right Way

Thursday, January 17th, 2019

When a pimple forms it can be painful, it can ruin our day, and we just want them to get off our face!

Even though it’s tempting – popping pimples makes the skin worse than it already was, therefore not touching our pimples is the best way to avoid worsening the situation!

Looking for a solution to your pimple popping? The Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream goes beyond managing the signs and symptoms, and helps address the causes of Acne – for breakout-free skin.

What makes up a pimple?

Pimples contain bacteria called Acne Propionic Bacterium.

These bacteria are anaerobic, which means they can grow rapidly when there is a lack of air and can live on the surface of healthy skin without causing infection.

Pimples form when excess sebum oil is produced by the glands in the pores – too much sebum oil makes the acne-causing bacteria multiply out of control.

These fast-multiplying acne-causing bacteria produce enzymes that break down our skins proteins which causes the immune system to react and become inflammatory (and causes the pimple).

Because this new pimple contains acne-causing bacteria that inflames and breaks down our skins proteins, it should always be kept contained!

Have a read of our What Causes Breakouts blog to learn more about how and why acne occurs.

What happens when you squeeze a pimple?

Squeezing pimples can release these acne-causing bacteria onto the skin.

Once released, the bacteria thrives on our skin and doubles in numbers quickly.

Our immune system is immediately disadvantaged when overrun by these acne-causing bacteria even popping just one pimple.

Doing it yourself can also cause an infection or darkening of the skin, so it’s best to just not go there!

Squeezing, poking and picking our pimples can cause the bacteria to dig deeper within the pore. This worsens the pimple and can make it stay on the skin longer than it would have – which can lead to permanent scarring.

Permanent Scarring happens when the blocked pore becomes swollen and infected, which starts stretching the pores follicular wall and causing it to break. When the skin eventually heals over, it makes too much skin tissue and which how skin scarring occurs.

Our fingers also carry a variety of bacteria, and when introducing this to the skin’s surface it can infect the pimple with new evil bacteria, causing the pimple it to become even more inflamed and bigger than before.

But what’s worse than that, is other bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus infecting the inflamed pore, aggravating the touched pimple and making new pimples form on the skin – thus the acne cycle continues!

To avoid this happening, try not to touch your face, and if you have to, wash your hands first!

How to Safely Pop A Pimple:

If you have to pop the pimple, here’s how to do it without the bacteria-party starting:

Yes – there is a proper way to do it!

You’ll need:

• Alcohol wipes or alcohol to sterilize
• A pin or needle
• A Lighter
• Tissues

Steps:

1. Wait until the white head forms on the top of the pimple. The white shows that the pus has collected under the surface.

2. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and scrub your nails to avoid spreading bacteria.

3. Get the pin or needle and use a lighter to sterilize it, then dip it in alcohol once it has cooled down.

4. Swab the area you are popping with alcohol, and apply some to your fingers.

5. Dry the fingers and apply tissue to the fingers that you will place on either side of the pimple when squeezing the pus out.

6. Gently push the pin to pierce the top and of the Whitehead.

7. Using the tissue covered fingers, gently squeeze either side of the pimple, pressing around the whitehead but avoiding contact with the whitehead.

8. If pus comes out, good! If it doesn’t, then leave it alone as it is not ready to be popped.

9. Finish by applying alcohol to the open pimple to disinfect it – be careful as it might sting!

All the best with your pimple popping endeavours! But just remember, leaving them alone and using suitable a skincare product that enhances the self-cleaning process is the best way to go.

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Struggling with Breakouts?

Our Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream is a 100% natural and safe way to clear pimples, enhance skin health, and help you to break out of the pimple cycle.

Once you have started with your Acne Prone Skin Cream, it may take up to two or over three weeks for the skin to restore its normal functions. The Acne Prone Skin Cream ensures that bit by bit bacteria comes to the surface, which is removed by your restored skin microflora and stops future bacteria build-up.

It’s better to have small amounts of the bacteria release over time, so your skin microflora has time to respond and heal the skin.

Everyone’s skin is unique, so depending on your skin type and amount of blocked pores, it will take a different amount of time.

Learn More About Acne Prone Skin Cream

What Causes Rosacea?

Tuesday, January 1st, 2019

Experiencing a skin condition like Rosacea can often have a significant impact on social and emotional wellbeing.

It’s important to remember that you are not alone, and there are many things you can do to regain control of your skin.

Explore the key known causes and triggers behind Rosacea-prone skin below, so you can begin your journey to healthy and restored skin.

Our answer to healing Rosacea-affected skin is the Atopis Radiant Balance Cream – a steroid-free and 100% organic cream that combats rosacea symptoms; reducing redness, evens out skin tone, and calms inflammatory response.

What Is Rosacea?

Rosacea is a chronic, common inflammatory skin condition that presents as redness of the face.

Here’s a short video that explores What Causes Rosacea:

Symptoms:

Most of those dealing with Rosacea tend to present with the following symptoms:

• Flushing – rapid reddening and warmth to the face, neck, and chest

• Hyper-reactive skin – Skin that is incredibly reactive to changes in the skin’s environment

• Persistent redness – usually around the cheeks and forehead

• Pimples, papules, and pustules – can resemble acne (without the presence of blackheads)

• Inflamed blood vessels – can visibly see the capillaries in the affected areas of the skin

• Excess skin around the nose – this is one of the more uncommon symptoms and tends to affect males more than females.

Triggers:

All of the different Rosacea subtypes share similar triggers, these include:

• Excessive consumption of alcohol

• Some foods – particularly spicy food or dairy products

• Caffeine – coffee, tea, and other hot drinks

• Stress – emotional stress can lead to Rosacea flare-ups

• Heat & humidity – high temperatures and humidity levels can trigger Rosacea

• Extremely cold temperatures – cold air is harsh on the skin and can cause flare-ups

• Hot showers/baths or saunas – hot showers and facial steaming can also cause Rosacea to flare-up

Types:

The four main types of rosacea include:

• Erythematotelangiectatic Rosacea
People with this type experience redness and flushing with the blood vessels becoming visible – sometimes looking like tiny spider webs.

• Papulopustular Rosacea
Often confused with acne, this type of rosacea presents as redness and swelling with breakouts that resemble teenage acne. Unlike acne, no blackheads appear with this skin condition.

• Phymatous Rosacea
Skin with a thick and bumpy texture is indicative of this type of rosacea.

• Ocular Rosacea
If you are experiencing redness and irritation in your eyes, and/or swollen eyelids, you may have this type. You may have a burning sensation in one or both eyes, which may also appear bloodshot.

While there are more types of Rosacea, these four are the most common. Another condition to note is Steroid Rosacea, which can be a result of long-term use of corticosteroids. Be sure to limit the use of steroidal skin treatments wherever possible.

How Is Rosacea Different From Other Skin Conditions?

The condition is often mistaken for acne or eczema, but in fact is a distinct skin condition. It’s important to know what skin condition you are experiencing, as the conditions are not treated the same way.

This is the case with eczema and rosacea – steroidal treatments, which are often prescribed for those dealing with eczema, can actually make rosacea symptoms worse. In fact, using potent topical steroids can even cause steroid rosacea.

Below are the key differences between rosacea and other common skin conditions:

• Acne – Acne tends to appear on the face and sometimes the back. Acne tends to be most prevalent in our teens, and for females that get hormonal breakouts around menstruation.

Rosacea, on the other hand, generally affects those aged 30 to 60. Another key difference is blackheads, which are indicative of acne.

• Eczema – Eczema tends to affect young children and improves with age, while rosacea kicks in around 30 years.

Additionally, eczema rashes mainly appear in the skin folds – e.g. behind the knees and inside of the elbows. Rosacea generally only appears on the face, and sometimes the neck, back, and ears.

• Psoriasis – Psoriasis flare-ups tend to be triggered by skin injuries or infections (particularly streptococcal infections), while temperature extremes or even spicy food can trigger a rosacea flare-up.

Like rosacea, psoriasis is characterized by changes in skin texture – however, rosacea appears as red patches whilst scaling and white flakes indicate psoriasis.

Managing Rosacea Skin

Unfortunately, there is currently no known cure for those dealing with rosacea – the symptoms are simply managed.

Here are some things you can do to help manage your symptoms:

• Avoid touching problem areas on the skin – Rosacea-prone skin is hyperactive, and touching can cause blood vessels to dilate

• Protect the skin from harsh weather conditions – Wear a scarf during winter, and remember to slip, slop, slap and wrap during Summer

• Avoid topical steroids – Although this may help in the short-term with facial redness, use of potent topical steroids can actually trigger steroid rosacea

• Moisturise – especially in the affected areas

• Limit alcohol consumption – alcohol can aggravate rosacea

The faulty peptide

The normal function of the cathelicidin peptide is to control vasodilation (blood flow) of the skin and to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria.

For those with rosacea, the cathelicidin peptide is present at much higher concentrations and has a different molecular structure, meaning the peptide no longer functions normally.

An overabundance of the defective peptide induces over-dilation of the blood vessels – which is what causes the intense redness of rosacea skin.

This defective peptide also fails to inhibit the bad bacteria on the skin. This results in skin infections and activates the immune system into an inflammatory mode. The skin enters a hyperreactive state which means it overreacts to normal environmental stimuli such as sunlight, food, drink, and temperature.

Other contributing factors:

Further research into the symptoms of rosacea has determined that those with rosacea have a hyper-reactive sympathetic nervous system that overreacts to environmental triggers. This results in the blood vessels rapidly dilating causing intense reddening of the skin.

The immune system of those with rosacea is also hyperreactive and overreacts to environmental triggers, which develops inflammation of the skin and causes redness, swelling and potentially pain.

To make matters worse there is often an overpopulation of microscopic mites which carry bacteria that irritate the skin, and potentially cause skin infections due to the impaired cathelicidin peptide.

These mites and their bacteria then further aggravate the sensitive skin and trigger the immune system to overreact and thus a vicious cycle is perpetuated.

How Atopis Can Reduce Your Rosacea Symptoms

The Atopis Radiant Balance Cream is the world’s first facial moisturizer developed to break out of the rosacea cycle.

Having dealt with rosacea herself, award-winning Kiwi scientist Dr. Iona Weir decided to develop a natural solution to help others break out of the rosacea cycle. Here’s how it works:

1. Treats the symptoms
The peptides and flavonoids in Radiant Balance work to inhibit over-vasodilation of the blood vessels, and to reduce redness.

2. Inhibits bad bacteria
By mimicking the anti-microbial cathelicidin of your skin, the peptide inhibits bad bacteria, stopping those nasty infections that keep you stuck in the rosacea cycle.

3. Reduces overreactions to environmental triggers
Other peptilipids within the cream work to calm the immune system and heal the skin.

Learn More About Radiant Balance Cream

Hormonal Acne & Mature Skin Breakouts? Here’s Why.

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021

Both men and women are consistently asking: “Where am I going wrong?” so I decided to shed some light on the acne-creating cycle we can all get caught up in.

Once you understand what’s causing your breakouts, you can start changing your habits, and clear up your skin.

If you’re looking for a Hormonal Acne solution – we’ve created the Atopis Radiant Skin Bundle – our 4 products work in perfect synergy to give you a clear and hormonally balanced complexion.

First, What Causes Acne?

Short on time? Here’s a 30-second intro video on What Causes Acne.

We’ve done a whole blog post on What Causes Acne – but for now, it’s important to remember there are 3 main causes of Acne:

1. Hormones

One of the biggest culprits of acne is fluctuations in your hormones (which is what we’ll be talking about today).

Across a variety of ages, hormones and hormonal imbalances can lead to detrimental effects on our skin. Read more about how your acne can vary as you age here.

For women, acne usually appears in the later stages of the menstrual cycle, so a week before or even during your period.

It can also appear after starting a new form of birth control, hormone replacement therapy through menopause, or as a result of fluctuating hormones and conditions such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

Androgens (male sex hormones) can fluctuate in level when compounded with stress, fatigue and lack of skin care.

Androgens are the worst perpetrators for causing bad skin because they stimulate the growth of the sebaceous glands and increase sebum levels, making skin oily and causing severe congestion (known as hyperkeratinization).

This condition means dead skin cells don’t slough off naturally and instead clog the skin’s pores.

Cue the entry of bacteria and acne appears as the star of the show.

2. Lifestyle

Though less of a factor than genetics and hormones, your lifestyle can certainly be reflected in your skin.

Poor cleansing (or over cleansing), dehydration, stress, smoking, poor diet and abrasive product use can all be detrimental to your skin.

3. Genetic Makeup

Studies suggest that you’re more likely to struggle with breakouts if your direct relatives have suffered from acne.

Skin types are passed down through your genes and play a key part in how your skin responds to your hormones and how well it deals with sebum (oil), bacteria, anti-inflammatory properties and the regeneration of skin cells.

4 Stages of Hormonal Acne Development:

1. Hormonal Changes

When increases in testosterone or estrogen occur, this increases the production of sebum (oily or waxy matter that lubricates and waterproofs the skin and hair) at the base of the hair follicle.

Over-cleaning the skin, over-exfoliation, or use of astringent cleansers can also lead to the sebum gland overproducing sebum as these actions send the wrong message to the skin that its over dry.

Unlike teenage skin, where cells are being actively renewed causing the greasy appearance due to the increased sebum, with dry, mature skin, the sebum gland produces too much sebum to compensate for the skin’s dryness.

2. Blockage

Too much sebum results in the hair follicle becoming blocked (clogged pores).

Excessive cleaning of the blocked pores then causes the sebum gland to produce more sebum and the pores block again.

This means gentle cleaning is critical.

3. Over-cleaning

Over-cleaned skin and pores blocked with sebum unbalance your skin’s microflora (your unique mix of good and bad bacteria) as the bad bacteria is fed by the sebum.

This results in what is effectively skin infection.

4. Immune system reaction

The immune system then reacts to the bacteria imbalance and tries to counter the bad bacteria by turning on defense pathways, which can result in an allergenic response on the skin’s surface and pimples appear.

If infection worsens, then a full-blown immune system response occurs and the skin becomes inflamed, hair follicles are blocked, the site contains pus and the sebum gland produces even more sebum creating a severe outbreak.

Why Antibiotics Don’t Work for Hormonal Acne Long Term:

Some of you might have been prescribed antibiotics to kill the acne-creating bacteria, but this also kills the good bacteria, leaving the acne sufferer with no defense against the next bacterial attack.

On top of this, the use of alcohol-based astringents open the pores, clear the blockage but leave the skin dry and inflame pores.

This can take you frustratingly back to step one of the acne cycle.

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Break Out of the Hormonal Acne Cycle with Atopis Radiant Balance Cream:

Atopis Radiant Skin Bundle gives you 4 products, including the Acne Prone Skin Cream and The Radiant Balance Cream, that all work in synergy to balance the skin’s response to hormonal fluctuations.

These 4 products create a skincare routine that cleanses, clears, moisturizes, and tones the skin, so you can say goodbye to hormonal acne, and hello to healthy and glowing skin!

When choosing your skin care products, we highly recommend sticking to natural and non-abrasive products – rather than harsh antibiotics.

Based on award-winning international research and successful clinical trials, Dr. Iona Weir has formulated safe, natural products to help unlock the skin’s own immunity and assist self-repair.

Meanwhile, the probiotic peptides in Atopis, work to restore your skin’s friendly bacteria microbiome, just like probiotics in the gut.

Learn more about the Atopis Radiant Skin Bundle

Learn More About The Radiant Skin Bundle

What is your skin telling you about your gut health?

Monday, November 26th, 2018

We carry around a vast array of microbes in our gut that are completely unique to us, and these dictate how we digest food, maintain weight, and fight off disease among the many other jobs the microbes have. Our skin is triggered when the gut is at an imbalance and this can show on the skin depending on the skin condition you have.

What is the gut microbiome?

Think of the gut’s microbiome as an inner universe in our gut – it has billions of microbes that all have their own functions to play.

When we are in the womb we receive our gut microbiome from our mother. As we age bacteria in the gut can come and go but the profile will always remain the same.

In the first years after birth, our gut is introduced to new kinds of bacteria that join the diversity in the gut, and studies show this plays an enormous part in how our immune system matures.

When this goes wrong and the immune system does not mature correctly, immune conditions such as food allergies and eczema develop in childhood.

In adult life, if the balance between the immune system and microbiome is destabilized such as through infection, stress or change in diet then this can act as a trigger for immune-associated conditions such as IBS, acne, eczema and food allergies.

This is known as gut dysbiosis and if the imbalance continues then a vicious cycle of gut and skin issues becomes established.

It is very important to understand that there must be an underlying genetic tendency to the skin condition and that the gut dysbiosis is a trigger instead of a cause.

Why is gut health important for acne prone skin?

If your gut microbiome is unbalanced this impacts the skin microbiome, which is why we see the effects of the gut on our skin. The health of our gut affects more than our skin, it also has a direct link to our brain.

Our gut microbiome has also been linked to behavior including anxiety, stress, depression and mood swings. This is because it has an impact on our hormones.

When we feel anxious or stressed, our gut feels it and reacts to the elevated hormone – cortisol – causing excess sebum oil production, excessive gut motility (cramps and diarrhea), and gas.

Anxiety produces the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn plays havoc with all your other hormones. Cortisol encourages your skin to release sebum oil, which can result in inflammation and then finally, dreaded breakouts.

Inflammation occurs when the pore is blocked with excess oils, dead skin and bacteria and this combination form a pimple. Keeping anxiety and stress under control can benefit the skin greatly.

How does gut health influence other skin conditions?

The immune system is regulated by pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. When gut health is poor the gut produces pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines are made by the immune system to ward off infection.

However, if too many are present it inflames the gut. This throws you into a vicious cycle of gut imbalance, hormonal fluctuations, skin issues, weight gain or loss and underlying inflammation.

The inflamed response in the gut shows on the skin dependent on what skin condition you are living with.

Hormonal fluctuations show on the skin as acne and rosacea. Immune conditions show as lupus, eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea.

Environmental Factors

Various environmental factors, such as stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, diet, and pollutants, will affect the composition within the gut but also the skin microbiome.

Scientific research has found that the gut microbiome in early life is associated with age of onset, severity, remission, flares, and even types of conditions such as eczema, acne, food allergies and rosacea.

Building scientific evidence is indicating that the development of these immune skin and gut conditions appears to be a combination of the microbiome diversity, the immune system and the harmony between the gut and the body.

The Role of Genetics

It is important to appreciate that this microbiome imbalance is not the cause of the development of skin conditions, but instead maybe the trigger or aggravator of the condition. Every skin condition has either an underlying genetic or microbial infection cause.

How can gut health be restored?

Our microbiome is as unique as our fingerprints so what diet or treatment may work for someone does not necessarily mean it will work for you and your unique gut. Keeping a diary on your bowel habits, skin condition, daily wellbeing and what you have eaten will help to determine what is triggering your skin.

Using Probiotics

Probiotics are essentially us adding foreign bacteria into the gut system, which is a great way to enrich gut health.

It is important to note however that a probiotic that works for one person may not always work for another due to the uniqueness of the bacteria in the gut. An overactive immune system can decide the bacteria are the enemy and attack. It pays to try different probiotics but also to use diet and prebiotics (food for good bacteria) to restore your own natural gut microflora and stabilise your gut immune balance.

It is also important to listen to your body to find out what your body needs and what it does not like. Do not be pressured into thinking you have to give up chocolate, wine or dairy. We are all unique and so is your gut microbiome and immune system. Work out what your gut does and does not like while it is inflamed and remember this will also change with a maturing gut.

How to Enrich Your Gut Health

There’s no denying the gut is interlinked with our skin, brain, and mood. Treating skin conditions requires time and effort to determine the cause and triggers and then find the most suitable plan for yourself.

Here’s some easy tips to start you on the journey to sustainably clear skin and a healthy gut:

• Food
Eat an array of plants – a great excuse to try something new, head to the supermarket grab some wholefoods and mix things up! The more plant diversity you’re exposed to, the larger your internal variation of beneficial bacteria will be.

• Fibre is Key
Fibre is prebiotic ‘fuel’ for your friendly bacteria, helping it to flourish and multiply. Whole-grains are rich in fibre.

• Fermented Foods and Drinks
They are an easy way to add probiotics to your diet. Unlike prebiotics, which help pre-existing bacteria and microorganisms within you, probiotic foods actually contain live microorganisms that are able to be added to the gut.

• Sleep
Poor sleep can affect your gut, and bad gut health can affect your sleep. Studies show that a normal gut flora aids in a natural sleeping pattern (being tired at night and feeling awake during the day). For a good night’s sleep it is essential to take care of your gut, and if you want to boost your gut health then a solid night’s sleep will help. How great is that?!

• Exercise
Exercise has the power to alter the gut bacteria composition for the better. Exercise appears to generate butyrate which is known for reducing inflammation. Recent studies have found that those who have higher levels of fitness tend to be more likely to have a more diverse microbiome than the more ‘stationary variety’ of humans.

Atopis – Skin Care That Balances Your Skin From Inside-Out

Enhancing your gut doesn’t just work from the inside out. Since your skin is your biggest organ, it’s important to restore your skin’s natural function with natural skincare products and a routine designed to work in synergy with one another, offering layers of protection and benefits.

The Atopis range is scientifically designed to enhance and strengthen the body’s immune responses, reverse skin damage and promote skin cell repair on a surface and cellular level. Atopis manages and calms the skins’ reaction to environmental triggers, stress, and hormones rebalance and restore your skin’s microflora.

Learn About The Atopis Products Here

How To Naturally And Effectively Restore Menopausal Skin

Sunday, November 18th, 2018

One moment you’re enjoying a healthy and youthful complexion, the next minute, you’re breaking out in all manner of rashes, hormonal acne, dry patches, and skin coloring unevenness – distressing, to say the least.

Are you starting to notice the signs of aging? Our Atopis Intensive Restore Cream has been scientifically developed to hydrate, reduce wrinkles and restore skin using 100% natural ingredients.

How To Balance Menopausal Skin

“You don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone” rings particularly true when it comes to mature or menopausal skin.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. If there’s a time when a little TLC is needed, it’s now.

You can’t turn back the clock on your skin’s health – however, you can take care of the present, and start treating your skin with the utmost care from now on.

Learn How To Combat Aging Skin in this video below:

Nourish your skin with natural products

Menopause causes many changes to your skin, meaning your current skincare routine may no longer meet its changing needs.

Most standard moisturizers are plain water-based and packed with tonnes of fillers, parabens, and alcoholic substances, which dry your sensitive maturing skin even further. This damages it and strips it of its unique microflora. Our article on Always Reading The Label investigates what a majority of beauty and skincare products contain, and what they do to your skin.

By making the switch to high-quality, all-natural products, these products will carry out the much-needed intricate repairs to your skin.

This includes; regenerating and reprogramming the epidermis at the cell, as well as at surface level, to give you the best skin possible for your stage of life.

However, keep in mind that all skincare products are not created equal. As with any scientific breakthrough, there are an increasing number of companies that claim that their products contain ‘all natural’ ingredients.

It’s important to remember that evidence of effectiveness and non-toxicity is very important before you part with your money and put them on your precious skin.

Think of how you’d treat a baby’s skin and what ingredients you would and wouldn’t use on it – that’s how you should treat your own skin.

The Science Of Maturing Skin: The Plant Phenomenon

From birth, our cells are programmed to die and be replaced – it’s how we grow.

But, once we hit menopause, the replacement of cells slows down, and the texture and quality of skin is no longer that of a younger person.

In the plant world, the phenomenon of programmed cell death is called Apoptosis. In my research, I discovered that, not only was the process in plants reversible, but it could also be manipulated and used in skincare for humans, particularly for the needs of menopausal skin conditions.

In my extensive study of New Zealand and Australia’s indigenous plants, I’ve identified and isolated four main natural substances that can be extracted to work together in synergy to reprogramme and repair human skin.

These substances can help repair skin that’s suffering from the effects of menopause, as well as other conditions such as acne, psoriasis, dermatitis, and eczema.

Working from within

First and foremost, we use unpasteurised coconut water – a plant’s equivalent of colostrum (milk produced by mammals during birth), with its rich combination of vitamins and minerals.

Then, we add peptides from biotic reactions of bacteria and insect components in New Zealand native plants, bound with lipids from coconut oil to form the patented Peptilipids™. These have the unique ability to penetrate skin-cell plasma membranes and work from within.

Then, there’s honeydew – a bioactive anti-microbial from beech trees in the Southern Alps of New Zealand – with similar properties to Manuka honey – created by the tree’s natural efforts to defend itself against microbial attack.

Next, bee pollen, which is gently handled using enzymes to destroy all allergens.

Finally, a special combination of selected essential oils: coconut oil, with its Myristic acid to modulate the immune system, protect and heal, and Myracetin for its anti-inflammatory properties, plus kiwifruit seed oil, canola, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, sweet almond oil, safflower oil, camellia seed oil and jojoba seed oil.

Once extracted, these elements are all fused together to form the patented Myriphytase™ extract, incorporated in the Atopis™ skincare range, safe for everyday use, offering a unique solution to the trials and tribulations of menopausal skin conditions.

Key Ingredients

How We Can Help Restore Your Aging Skin 100% Naturally

Our Atopis Intensive Restore Cream utilizes these indigenous plant and essential oil extracts as ingredients to formulate a cream that naturally revitalizes your aging skin, restoring your healthy and youthful glow.

The natural ingredients in our product work together to:

1. Intensely hydrate – peptides, lipids, and antioxidants work at the cellular level to hydrate skin.

2. Repair skin – reduces redness from sun damage on face and decolletage and fades age spots, evening skin tone.

3. Plump skin & reduce wrinkles – stimulates collagen production to smooth out wrinkles and lines.

Learn More About Intensive Restore Cream

What Causes Eczema?

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

Eczema is irritating, painful and can cause self-confidence issues. Understanding the causes and triggers of your eczema symptoms is the starting point of the journey to restored and healthy skin, for now, and the long term.

Looking for instant eczema relief? Our Dry Itchy Skin Relief Cream has been made specially to combat the symptoms of skin conditions, including eczema. Our steroid-free cream works from below, balancing immune responses to relieve and repair your skin in the long-run.

What actually causes eczema?

Running low on time? Watch our Common Triggers of Eczema video to learn the causes, symptoms and treatments to eczema:

1. Filaggrin:
Eczema is not an allergic reaction as generally believed, nor is it due to diet, but in fact, it is caused by a lack of filaggrin, the filament aggregating protein in the skin.

This protein determines the shape of the skin cells, which means that when it is lacking they struggle to fit neatly together like a jigsaw. Instead, there are gaps in the skin barrier which makes the skin leaky.

For some people, their body will catch up and will produce more filaggrin as they get older, while for others they have a significant lack of filaggrin for life.

2. Skin’s Microflora:
Other factors to consider is your skin’s microflora. Just like your digestive system, your skin has a natural skin microflora, which is made up of good bacteria (like probiotics) which prevent the build-up of bad bacteria.

When the balance of good bacteria on your skin is lost, your immune system reacts with red, itchy inflamed skin. Without good bacteria, your skin is vulnerable to infection, which sets you up for a vicious cycle of sleep loss, itchy discomfort, scratching, infections and further inflammation.

3. Genetics:
Aside from lack of filaggrin, there are factors that enhance your chances of developing eczema – such as your genetic makeup. Unfortunately, you’re much more likely to develop eczema if your relatives have suffered from the disease.

Eczema Triggers

Now we have a better idea of what may be causing your eczema, let’s look into key internal and external triggers.

We’ve outlined some the key triggers for eczema and itchy dry skin below, along with a handy list of preventative measures to take, so you can finally be on your way to enjoying healthy itch-free skin.

1. Irritants

There are many things that can irritate your skin, triggering eczema.

Common offenders include:

• Fragrances

• Smoke from cigarettes

• Fungal Spores

• Household products and cosmetics

Avoid triggers by:

• Establishing potential offenders – removing theses from the household.

• Stick to gentle, fragrant-free products – ensure to check those labels before buying. Eco products tend to be less abrasive on the skin and are better for the environment. Win-win!

2. Dry Skin

Dry or scaly skin is a trigger of eczema as can cause or worsen symptoms of eczema.

When the skin is dry it’s more susceptible to a flare up because the skin’s natural defense barrier is weakened.

Avoid triggers by:

• Moisturizing – use specially formulated eczema cream.

• Avoiding hot baths or showers – especially for prolonged sessions.

3. Stress

Unfortunately, stress has been known to trigger, worsen and pro-long eczema.

Avoid triggers by:

• Relaxation – take time in your day to clear your head & de-stress

• Consider meditation – even just gentle exercise such as taking a walk can help relax

• Be patient – your skin takes time to adjust to new routines.

• Get plenty of sleep (7-8 hours each night) – this will help you to feel rejuvenated meaning you’ll be able to take on challenges with a better frame of mind.

4. Exercise and Sweating

Sweating and/or prickly heat from exercise can be irritating to your skin and cause aggravation to sores or flare-ups.

Avoid triggers by:

• Moisturizing – before and after exercise to create a protective shield.

• Staying hydrated – this ensures your skin barrier is not weakened.

• Taking breaks – make sure to take a break when needed and use cooling towels if irritation occurs, this can be incorporated into water breaks.

5. Hormones

Particularly common amongst women (especially those who are pregnant or pre-menstrual), changes in hormones can trigger irritating bouts of eczema.

Avoid triggers by:

• Speaking to your doctor – they can guide you about how to balance out your hormones.

• Treating hormonal skin – using a reliable natural eczema product that’s steroid-free

6. Climate & Environment

The atmosphere you live in can play a large part in how your skin reacts.

Just as the sun can dry out your skin in the summer from dry air, burning or over-exposure; the raw cold can have equally drying effects in the winter (especially if combined with the contrast of heated indoor living). The humidity or dryness of your environment can also be a trigger.

Avoid triggers by:

• (Warm weather) Taking in Vitamin D – get this from the sun and enjoying sea water swims, however, don’t overdo it and be sure to wear a gentle, fragrant free sun cream

• Only sleeping in 100 percent cotton nightwear and sheets – this avoids sweating causing irritation. Heated blankets should also be avoided.

• Consider investing in a humidifier – for overly dry rooms or de-humidifier (for overly humid rooms) to create the ideal environment for your skin.

• Ensuring your house is well ventilated – make sure there is plenty of air-flow to keep the environment cool

• Ensure your home is free from the mold – this can cause asthma and trigger symptoms of eczema

• Taking a tepid bath – a lukewarm bath followed by cream liberally patted onto the skin provides good eczema relief. For more information about bathing, techniques click here

7. Allergens

A good reason to keep you house cleaning in check is to avoid any triggers from domestic allergy factors such as dust, pet hair and mold.

It’s also wise to be aware that pollen is a common trigger for eczema flare ups.

Avoid triggers by:

• Keeping on top of the dusting – little to no dust reduces chances of allergens flaring-up

• Immediately treating any mold – try to avoid areas with mold to not breathe in its particles

• Regularly vacuuming – this cleans up your pets shed hair and reduces chances of allergens in the environment

Do not overclean – removal of the good bacteria by overcleaning and using anti-bacterial sprays in your home will result in a build-up of allergens and potentially bad bacteria. Use a natural cleaning spray.

8. Infections

Skin Infections can really worsen eczema, some of the most common culprits include ringworm, athletes foot, herpes and cold sores.

Avoid triggers by:

• Getting enough rest – this helps to fight off potential infections along with a healthy diet.

• Ensuring good general personal hygiene – sweat and dirt build-up can cause infections in eczema sores

• Seeking treatment – visit your Doctor or GP quickly if any skin conditions and diseases arise.

Signs and symptoms

There are many different signs and symptoms of eczema to look out for, this can be generally be differentiated by age groups.

Symptoms in Adults:

• Rashes tend to spread across much of the body but especially the elbows, neck and knees.

• Rashes causing dry irritated skin.

• Scale-like rashes.

Children – Puberty:

• Common areas are found in creases such as the elbows or knees, as well as neck, wrists, ankles and the crease between buttock and legs.

• Bumpy rashes dark/light in color

• In some areas, a constant itch can occur.

Babies and toddlers:

• Extreme itchiness from rashes usually found on the scalp and cheeks. Some rashes can even leak fluid.

It’s important to note that though most people suffer from Atopic Dermatitis (the most common form of eczema) there are actually many different types of eczema.

The best way to identify what type you’re suffering with is to meet with your doctor. You may even be suffering from a combination. Once you know this, you can tailor your plan of action against triggers and what treatment to seek out.

Relieve Your Eczema With Atopis

We have carefully formulated the Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Relief Cream that helps relieve symptoms, balance your immune response, and repairs your eczema-affected areas.

Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream works in synergy with your immune system, so you can stop reacting to allergens and those frustrating environmental triggers mentioned earlier.

Within two weeks of use, this potent, all-natural therapy reverses the cell damage, and hydrates and restores the skin so the itching stops and the healing begins. Everybody’s skin microflora is unique, therefore the time it takes for skin to restore itself and heal will differ from person to person.

Learn More About Dry Itchy Skin Cream

Finding the right product for your skin

Thursday, September 20th, 2018

Exploring the needs of different skin conditions

We’re on a mission to help everyone achieve beautiful, healthy skin.

Education is key to gaining control of your skin condition – if you are equipped with the correct knowledge on what’s behind your skin condition, you’re more likely to be able to manage it. That’s why we’re sharing our skinsider and CEO Dr Iona Weir’s knowledge on how to manage common skin conditions. Read more about our story, or explore our other articles.

The first step in the journey to sustainably healthy skin is figuring out your skin’s needs, and selecting the right products that fit these unique needs. In this article we unpack common skin conditions, and recommend products that fit the needs of your skin.

If you’re already clued up on your skin needs, learn more about different skin conditions by clicking the below links:

Different Skin Types, Conditions & How To Manage Your Skin

Dry Itchy Skin

There are many different types of dry itchy skin conditions, but the most common is atopic dermatitis – the most common form of eczema. The first step towards effectively managing your skin condition is identifying what specific condition you are dealing with. Learn more about the seven types of eczema.

It’s also important to have a solid understanding of the root cause of your skin condition and what may be triggering flare ups. Learn more about the causes, triggers, and treatment options of eczema skin.

Essentially, treating eczema is about protecting the damaged skin barrier to stop the skin reacting to allergens.

Repair dry, itchy skin with an all-natural product that calms inflammation, restores the skin’s microflora, and protects the skin barrier.

Skin needs:

Itch relief
Hydration

Atopis product – Dry Itchy Skin Cream

For calm, clear and fortified skin, use Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream. The all-natural, steroid-free skin balm has been clinically proven to relieve itching and irritation and reduce redness and scaling of eczema prone skin.

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Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream

Normal Skin

Care for normal skin with products that protect from everyday stressors and lock in your skin’s natural moisture.

Sudden temperature changes, sun and wind exposure, air conditioning, pollution and extreme temperatures can leave your skin dry, and even damaged.

Keep your skin protected and hydrated with a product that locks in your skin’s natural moisture.

Skin needs:

Protection from everyday environmental stressors
Maintain clear, healthy skin

Atopis product – Radiant Balance, Cleanser & Toner

Use our cleanser & toner to gently clean the skin and lock in moisture, and Radiant Balance to heal and protect for beautifully healthy skin.

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Atopis Radiant Balance, Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser & Revitalising Toner

Acne Prone Skin

When choosing products to help combat acne, it’s important to avoid abrasive products that strip the skin of its natural microflora – the naturally occuring bacteria on your skin.

By stripping your skin of both the good and bad bacteria, the products actually keep you stuck in the acne-creating cycle. Balancing the naturally occurring bacteria on your skin is a huge step to achieving sustainably clear, healthy skin.

Also important is avoiding over-cleansing the skin. Over-cleaning, over-exfoliation, or using cleansers with harsh chemicals can also lead to the sebum gland overproducing sebum. This is because the message sent to the sebum gland is that the skin is too dry, so it ramps up sebum oil production – keeping you stuck in the acne-creation cycle.

Use a gentle, natural cleanser that removes dirt and dead cells without stripping the skin’s natural bacteria. Look for products saying non-comedogenic, non-acnegenic, oil-free, won’t clog pores, and suitable for oily skin.

Atopis Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser is designed to gently remove dirt and toxins from the skin, unblocking pores without stripping the skin of its natural oils or microflora. Natural ingredients with antimicrobial properties reduce the bad bacteria, while promoting the good.

Young Adult Acne

For those dealing with acne in their teens and early 20’s, it’s essential to choose a product that regulates the skin’s sebum oil production. The fluctuating hormone levels – particularly androgen – mean that sebum levels increase, making the skin oily. This causes severe congestion as dead skin cells don’t slough off naturally and instead clog the skin’s pores.

Skin needs:

Hydration without making the skin oilier
Regulation of sebum oil production
Balance the skin’s microflora

Atopis product – Acne Prone Skin Cream, Cleanser & Toner

Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream helps dissolve and regulate skin oils and sebum to support clearer, softer, and smoother skin. For best results, use in conjunction with Atopis Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser and Revitalising Toner. The products have been scientifically formulated to work in synergy to treat the skin.

Suggested routine – cleanse and tone skin, then apply a thin layer on affected areas twice daily.

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Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream, Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser & Revitalising Toner

Adult Acne

With teenage skin, the combination of skin cells being constantly renewed and an increase of sebum oil means that it’s important to use an acne treatment product that regulates sebum production. With dry, mature skin, the sebum gland produces too much sebum to compensate for the skin dryness, resulting in acne. This means that moisturising the skin is part of beating acne for good.

Skin needs:

Hydration
Regulation of sebum oil production
Balance the skin’s microflora

Atopis product – Acne Prone Skin Cream & Radiant Balance

Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream moisturises without making the skin oily. The potent natural therapy cream has been scientifically formulated to regulate sebum production, meaning you can finally address the cause of acne, and break out of the acne-creating cycle for good!

Suggested routine – cleanse and tone skin, then apply a thin layer of acne cream on affected areas, then Radiant Balance on top morning and night.

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Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream & Radiant Balance

Hormonal Breakouts

If you tend to break out around your time of the month, it’s highly likely your acne is caused by hormonal fluctuations. When hormonal changes occur, sebum oil production increases and can cause breakouts.

Skin needs:

Balance the skin’s reaction to hormonal fluctuations
Regulate sebum oil production
Balance microflora

Atopis product – Radiant Balance, Cleanser & Toner

Atopis Radiant Balance soothes and nourishes skin for a soft clear complexion. The all-natural therapy cream balances the skin’s response to hormonal fluctuations to reduce hormonal breakouts.

Suggested routine – gently clean skin with Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser, protect and lock in natural moisture with Revitalising Toner, then moisturise with Radiant Balance.

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Atopis Radiant Balance, Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser & Revitalising Toner

Acne Scarring

Acne scars are the result of a pimple forming and causing the pore to become inflamed and blocked. The pore is blocked with excess oils, dead skin and bacteria, and if it stays inflamed in this condition this causes it to swell and eventually tear the follicular wall -breaking the skin.

It is when the skin repairs this damage that it can overcompensate and actually produce too much collagen causing scar tissue.

It’s important to prevent scarring by using products that reduce acne-causing bacteria and inflammation to lessen the pimple becoming more severe. Scarring can still occur, despite attempts to prevent them,, so using a product aimed at minimizing their appearance can speed up the time it takes for them to fade.

Skin needs:

Reduce the appearance of acne scars
Improve skin texture
Nourish and heal

Atopis product – Radiant Balance, Cleanser & Toner

Atopis Radiant Balance has properties that repair the skin which softens scarring, especially acne scarring. Atopis has been clinically shown to improve skin texture. Using our cleanser and toner in conjunction with Radiant Balance will make the therapy cream more effective, as they are designed to work in synergy to heal and protect the skin.

Suggested routine: cleanse and tone the skin, apply Radiant Balance twice daily.

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Atopis Radiant Balance, Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser & Revitalising Toner

Rosacea Prone Skin

Rosacea is caused by a malformed protein (cathelicidin) which is responsible for regulating blood flow and inhibiting the growth of bad bacteria on the skin. This means blood vessels expand, causing the intense redness of rosacea skin. Learn more about rosacea causes, symptoms, triggers, and treatment options.

The intense redness can be reduced by using a product that reduces inflammation and restores bacterial balance.

Skin needs:

Reduce redness
Improve skin texture
Reduce the skin’s overreactions to environmental triggers
Balance the skin’s microflora

Atopis products – Acne Prone Skin Cream, Radiant Balance

Our acne cream treats the underlying symptoms of the inflammation, redness and bacterial imbalance. Having dealt with rosacea herself, Dr Iona Weir developed Radiant Balance to help other women break out of the rosacea cycle. The therapy cream mimics the normal functioning cathelicidin protein to treat the symptoms of rosacea. Read more

Suggested routine – apply Acne Prone Skin Cream as a serum to problem areas, and Radiant Balance as a moisturiser over top. Note Radiant Balance is not suitable for males, due to the female hormone balancing properties of the cream.

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Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream & Radiant Balance

Mature skin

Caring for mature skin is a case of finding a product that nourishes your skin, restores collagen production, and provides intense hydration.

Many moisturisers are water-based and packed with tons of fillers, parabens and alcohol, which dry your skin even further. As we age, it’s important to use good quality, all-natural products that nourish your maturing skin and enhance your natural beauty. Read more about caring for mature and menopausal skin.

Dry, Dull Mature Skin

As we age, our hormone levels change. This results in a decrease of collagen production – the protein that keeps skin firm and plump. Often you’ll hear people say that they’ve lost their youthful glow – they’re just not using a product that boosts collagen production!

Skin needs:

Intense hydration
Restores collagen production
Promotes cell renewal
Protects from environmental damage

Atopis product – Anti-Aging Cream

Stimulates cell renewal, promotes skin repair and restores collagen, helping to bring back your radiant, youthful glow!

Suggested routine – cleanse, tone, and apply Anti-Aging Cream twice daily.

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Atopis Anti-Aging Cream
Atopis Anti-Aging Cream & Thoroughly Gentle Cleanser

Mature Skin With The Occasional Breakout

Sometimes you still get the odd pimple – often around your time of the month. You may be going through menopause and the hormone fluctuations are wreaking havoc on your skin. It could even be as simple as the products you’re using – you tend to break out if you use an intense moisturiser.

Skin needs:

Intense hydration without clogging pores
Restored collagen production
Cell renewal
Protection from environmental damage

Atopis product – Cleanser & Toner, Radiant Balance, Anti-Aging Cream

Radiant Balance and Anti-Aging are the perfect pair for your skin. Radiant Balance is a great day cream, protecting from environmental damage while reducing the skin’s response to hormonal fluctuations – beating those pesky breakouts. Anti-Aging provides intense moisture and works to repair and restore your healthy, youthful glow.

Suggested routine – gently cleanse and tone the skin before applying your Atopis moisturiser. Use Radiant Balance in the morning, and Anti-Aging at night.

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The 7 Types of Eczema

Friday, January 15th, 2021

There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding what causes eczema, and in particular atopic dermatitis, which is actually a subcategory of eczema. There are seven different types of eczema, which each have unique triggers and causes. Understanding this is critical to treating your eczema skin condition.

Looking for instant eczema relief? Our Dry Itchy Skin Cream has been made specially to combat the symptoms of skin conditions, including eczema. Our steroid-free cream works from below, balancing immune responses to relieve and repair your skin in the long-run.

Eczema – the genetic link

Eczema is not an allergic reaction as generally believed, nor is it due to diet, but in fact, it is caused by a lack of filaggrin, the filament aggregating protein in the skin.

This protein determines the shape of the skin cells, which means that when it is lacking they do not fit neatly together like a jigsaw, instead there are gaps in the skin barrier, which makes the skin leaky.

For some people, their body will catch up and will produce more filaggrin as they get older, while for others they have a significant lack of filaggrin for life.

Watch this ‘Eczema – Common Triggers & Causes’ video to get a full summary on eczema, its causes, types, and treatments:

The Inflammatory Response

This leaky skin barrier due to misshaped cells results in loss of water causing dry scaly skin, but also allows entry of potential allergens into the epidermis.

This is where the allergy side of eczema originates. These allergens in the epidermis then trigger an inflammatory response by the immune system as it “perceives an attack”, which in turn may lead to an allergic response of the skin.

This then results in the immune system overreacting to other triggers such as potential food allergens in the gut, and then a vicious cycle has begun. There is also a potential link to asthma as well owing to this over-sensitized immune system.

Flare-ups – Understanding and managing them

Due to this lack of filaggrin protein, the skin is easily sensitized and simple everyday activities such as sport (sweating), swimming, winter dryness can all irritate the skin leading to flare-ups.

Add to this the problem that your immune system can easily over-react to bacterial infections, colds, flu, food allergies, and even stress, and this can result in a flare-up. So eczema becomes a cycle of the damaged skin barrier, immune overreaction, and flare-ups.

To manage eczema it is a case of learning your triggers for your immune system, knowing that these will change over time and by managing your skin barrier to reduce the loss of moisture and entry of allergens to the epidermis.

The Seven Types of Eczema:

All types of eczema cause itching, dryness, and redness, but some may also cause your skin to blister, “weep”, or peel. It is important to understand which type of eczema you or your loved one may have. Learning about and understanding symptoms and possible triggers can also help how to treat and manage your own or your child’s eczema.

1. Atopic dermatitis

The most common form of eczema and usually occurs in childhood. The symptoms include dryness, scaling, itching, and redness. Atopic dermatitis is first and foremost a result of lack of filaggrin protein resulting in the ongoing cycle described above.

2. Contact dermatitis

Also caused by a lack of filaggrin where the skin has become sensitized to allergens and has an allergic reaction upon contact. Managing contact dermatitis is about avoiding irritants, protecting the skin barrier and reducing the immune sensitization.

3. Seborrheic dermatitis

Commonly known as dandruff is caused by an overgrowth of yeast and the cells on the scalp results in excessive shedding of the cells appearing as white flakes. However seborrheic dermatitis can also occur on the skin such as the face, arms, legs and body and can be mistaken for nappy rash. This type of eczema appears as red, itchy skin and can be so bad it burns. Infections are also common. Treatment involves the use of specific creams such as antibiotics and salicylic acid to manage the yeast overgrowth and heal the skin.

4. Neuro-dermatitis

Where a person develops a skin irritation due to scratching out of habit.

5. Dyshidrotic dermatitis

Generally caused by seasonal allergies and stress, and results in severe itching, cracking and blisters of the hands and feet. The use of oral antihistamines and cream to heal the skin is the best way to manage this form of eczema.

6. Nummular (discoid) dermatitis

This is a type of eczema that is circular and can be red and itchy but this varies. The cause remains unknown but can be triggered by an immune response to an insect bite, wound or general inflammation.

7. Stasis dermatitis

Where there has been a decline in blood flow to the legs resulting in dry itchy scaly skin. This is very common in elderly or those with vascular issues. It is critical to keep the skin moisturized to avoid cracking, blistering and the risk of infection.

Important – Identify your type of eczema

While the information given in this post is important, it is also important to note that the best way to be sure whether you or your loved one has eczema is to make an appointment with your doctor. Your doctor may refer you on to a dermatologist.

All these different types of eczema can all look similar so you must see a doctor to determine what type of eczema you actually have.

It is critical to understand what type of eczema you have in order to be able to manage it. Treating eczema is about protecting the damaged skin barrier to stop the skin allergic responses and removing as many triggers as possible.

Manage Eczema For You & Your Family With Atopis

We have carefully formulated the Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream that helps relieve symptoms, balance your immune response, and repairs your eczema-affected areas.

Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream works in synergy with your immune system, so you can stop reacting to allergens and those frustrating environmental triggers mentioned earlier.

Above all, remember eczema is a genetic condition and it is not due to your diet. What works for one person may not work for someone else. Our immune systems are unique to us and it is a case of finding what works for you, your children, or your babies.

Learn More About Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream

Are The Foods You Eat Causing Your Eczema?

Tuesday, June 12th, 2018

10% of the world’s population is affected by Eczema at some stage of their life – but just how much of this suffering is caused by diet?

The simple answer is… it’s not that simple!

Atopis’ CEO and Chief Scientist, Dr. Iona Weir is a world expert in the relationship between skin and gut health, and today we’re going to help clear up some common misconceptions on this issue. If you want to learn more about gut health and how it affects your skin, check out our Gut Health Blog.

What causes Eczema?

To understand whether or not your diet affects your Eczema, we first have to understand what REALLY causes your condition.

Every case of Eczema has an underlying genetic cause – if you haven’t inherited the genes giving you a propensity to Eczema, then you won’t get it!

This genetic basis of Eczema is solely responsible for negatively affecting your immune system and causing the symptoms which we all know as Eczema.

These symptoms manifest as a skin barrier dysfunction, caused by a defect in the protein called filaggrin. The lack of filaggrin misshapes the skin cells, causing the skin to become leaky and lose moisture.

Leaky skin also means allergens and irritants get beneath your skin’s surface, which causes your immune system to become sensitized and overreact to many environmental factors and foods – this is where the confusion arises!

The mysterious role of food in your Eczema condition

It is often mistaken that food and environmental factors are the cause of Eczema – but in reality, they are just a symptom of it.

Environmental factors such as pollen, wool, or dust can and do make Eczema worse, whilst food allergens can exacerbate your symptoms.

Many people avoid eating dairy due to preconceptions that it is a cause for their Eczema because every time they eat it their symptoms get worse – But eating dairy is not the reason you have Eczema!

Find out how it all works below.

The vicious Eczema feedback loop

Once your skin’s immune system becomes hypersensitive due to damage from Eczema – a vicious feedback loop with your gut begins.

Your gut begins to overreact to foods such as dairy because your skin’s’ immune system has become highly activated. This feedback loops back to the skin; which then further overreacts when you eat these foods.

This internal gut reaction creates the illusion that food is causing your Eczema when in reality your reaction to specific foods are just a symptom of your Eczema.

How to end the nasty Eczema/food feedback loop

A healthy gut microflora modulates or calms down your immune system, making you resistant to the negative effects of eating a particular food. This means you can maintain a regular diet without the concern of exacerbating your Eczema condition.

This is also true for your skin: a healthy skin microflora can calm your skin’s immune system and diminish your reaction towards environmental and food allergens.

If you can manage your immune system, you can manage your Eczema.

Basically, you need to calm your gut and skins’ immune system so that your body stops reacting to the things which cause your Eczema to flare up.

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How Atopis Helps You Win The Battle Against Eczema

We have carefully formulated the Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream that helps relieve symptoms, balance your immune response, and repairs your eczema-affected areas.

Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream works in synergy with your immune system, so you can stop reacting to allergens and those frustrating environmental triggers mentioned earlier.

Learn More About Dry Itchy Skin Cream

What Causes Breakouts?

Thursday, March 8th, 2018

What Causes Breakouts?

Breakouts can be annoying, painful and damaging to our self-esteem. Most of us have had the pleasure of experiencing them at some point in our lives, but for those of us who struggle with prolonged bouts of acne, the problem can be even more frustrating.

It’s important to understand what type of break outs you’re experiencing and what’s causing them, so you can find the most suitable and effective treatments. We’ve explored the key causes and triggers below so you can begin your journey to healthy, clear skin.

Causes and Triggers

Genetic Makeup

Studies suggest that you’re more likely to struggle with breakouts if your direct relatives have suffered from acne. Skin types are passed down through your genes and play a key part in how your skin responds to your hormones and how well it deals with sebum (oil), bacteria, anti-inflammatory properties and the re-generation of skin cells.

Hormones

One of the biggest culprits of acne is fluctuations in your hormones. Across a variety of ages, hormones and hormonal imbalances can lead to detrimental effects on our skin. Read more about how your acne can vary as you age here.

For women, acne usually appears in the later stages of the menstrual cycle, so a week before or even during your period. It can also appear after starting a new form of birth control, hormone replacement therapy through menopause, or as a result of fluctuating hormones and conditions such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

Androgens (male sex hormones) can fluctuate in level when compounded with stress, fatigue and lack of skin care. Androgens are the worst perpetrators for causing bad skin because they stimulate growth of the sebaceous glands and increase sebum levels, making skin oily and causing severe congestion known as hyperkeratinisation. This condition means dead skin cells don’t slough off naturally and instead clog the skin’s pores. Cue the entry of bacteria and acne appears as the star of the show.

Lifestyle

Though less of a factor than genetics and hormones, your lifestyle can certainly be reflected in your skin. Poor cleansing (or over cleansing), dehydration, stress, smoking, poor diet and abrasive product use can all be detrimental to your skin.

Types of acne

Some spots can be more troublesome or obvious than others, most appearing on our face while some appearing all over our body. It’s important to identify your acne type so that you can ensure you’re not mistaking it for other potential skin conditions.

We’ve put together a list of common offenders below:

Blackheads – Small dark spots
Cystic Acne – Usually painful, larger pus-filled spots.
Nodules – Hard and under the surface of your skin.
Whitehead – Small white raised bumps.
Pustules – On the surface red pimples with pus.
Papules – Pink, smaller bumps on top of the skins surface.
Body Breakouts – Any of the above descriptions but outside of the facial area, with
typical places including back, neck, chest and shoulders.

Preventative Measures

Just like our gut microflora, the good bacteria and matter that make up our skin microflora, known collectively as your microbiome, needs to be preserved.

There are many lifestyle changes that can be made to improve your skin’s health and enhance its ability to self-heal.

These include:

Keeping your gut balance and microflora healthy through fermented foods and Kefir which helps replenish beneficial bacteria. These naturally combat the inflammatory effects of antibiotics, sugar, alcohol and processed foods which reduce your immunity.
Stimulating your lymph system through exercise, drinking more water and avoiding excessive caffeine and alcohol consumption.
Experimenting with cutting dairy out of your diet and try to incorporate Evening Primrose Oil, zinc and vitamin B6.

Limiting stress and getting more sleep.
Quitting smoking – this will enhance your skins ability to heal.
Avoiding touching your face.
Keeping your hair out of your face to avoid it from touching your face.
Using water based, nonalcoholic cosmetics.
Taking off your make-up every night and using a gentle, natural cleanser and moisturizer. Stay clear from abrasive, artificial products that could aggravate your skin.

How Atopis Can help

Some of you may be all too familiar with the hopeless feeling of having tried everything and failing to see any improvements to your skin. Try to remain patient through this process, your skin requires around 8 weeks to fully respond to new treatments or products.

When choosing your skin care products, we highly recommend sticking to natural and non-abrasive products such as our all Natural Acne Cream. Based on award-winning international research and successful clinical trials, Dr Iona Weir has formulated safe, natural products to help unlock skin’s own immunity and assist self-repair.

Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream helps treat acne by limiting overstimulation and moderates the hormone receptors of the skin’s sebaceous glands. It rebuilds your skin through moisturising, controlling sebum levels and preventing that old villain, hyperkeratinisation.

Meanwhile, the probiotic peptides in Atopis, work to restore your skin’s friendly bacteria microbiome, just like probiotics in the gut.

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To find out more about our products and how they work click the links below.

Understanding The Seven Types Of Eczema

Wednesday, February 7th, 2018

1. Atopic dermatitis

The most common form of eczema and usually occurs in childhood. The symptoms include dryness, scaling, itching and redness. Atopic dermatitis is first and foremost a result of lack of filaggrin protein resulting in the ongoing cycle described above.

2. Contact dermatitis

3. Seborrheic dermatitis

4. Neuro-dermatitis

Where a person develops a skin irritation due to scratching out of habit.

5. Dyshidrotic dermatitis

6. Nummular (discoid) dermatitis

7. Stasis dermatitis

Dr Iona Weir formulated Atopis’s Dry Itchy Skin cream with eczema in mind. This works for all seven types of eczema including dyshidrotic eczema. The therapy cream clears and then fortifies the skin in order to reduce flare ups. The active ingredients in the cream restore the skin’s natural microflora, and works with the immune system to reduce overreaction of the immune system to environmental triggers.

How Does Sun Exposure Affect Your Skin?

Monday, January 29th, 2018

When summer rolls around, there is nothing better than hitting the beach and soaking up the sun to get that Instagram-worthy golden tan. When you’re young, it’s easy to forget about skin-protection, and sunburn just seems like temporary damage.

However, the consequences of not considering the effects of too much sun exposure to the skin can cause permanent skin damage and premature aging, also known as photoaging.

Are you noticing the effects of sun exposure causing wrinkles, lines, and discoloration on your skin?

Our Atopis Anti-Aging Cream has been designed for skin that has lived, including over-exposure to the elements over time. Using 100% natural ingredients, our cream stimulates collagen production to plump your skin, reduce wrinkles, and restore your youthful glow.

How Does The Sun Affect My Skin?

Sun exposure is responsible for up 90% of the visible changes attributed to aging (WHO report) that we generally consider as a normal part of aging. This process is known as ‘photoaging’.

Signs of Photoaging include:

• Fine lines and wrinkles – around the eyes and mouth.

• Skin dryness – flaking of the skin in patches.

• Skin laxity – loss of collagen and elasticity in the skin.

• Pigmentation – discoloration of parts of the skin in the sun-exposed areas.

• Vascular abnormalities – such as spider veins on the nose, cheeks, and neck.

But there are far more sinister aspects to photoaging than just the appearance aspects.

Melanin and Skin Pigmentation

UV exposure causes skin cells to produce melanin, which results in the “beautiful” golden tan, but this is essentially the skin trying to protect itself from damage.

Melanin is actually the end byproduct of oxidative stress within the cell. It is the same chemical process as when an apple or banana goes brown, so getting a tan is not healthy, but rather a sign of your skin suffering high levels of oxidative stress.

Unfortunately, UV does not just cause melanin production, it also causes DNA damage which if not repaired will in later life result in actinic keratosis or worse, melanoma.

Oxidative stress caused by UV Rays

As far as prematurely aging your skin, UV rays cause intense oxidative stress within your skin cells.

As well as the DNA in your nucleus being damaged, UV ray exposure can also result in mitochondrial impairment.

Mitochondria are the powerhouse of your cells, and their job is to fight free radicals to control the level of oxidation in a cell and to produce cellular energy.

Any damage your mitochondria results in your cells destroying your antioxidation system and energy supply.

This causes an increase in free radicals within the cell and a decline in cellular energy production. If left unchecked, this build-up of free radicals can also damage the DNA within the mitochondria – potentially resulting in skin cancer.

Unfortunately, by damaging your cells mitochondria powerhouse, you impair energy production.

This creates a long-term potential for large-scale cellular damage across the body which can cascade into changes in your metabolic state, leading to potential weight gain, diabetes, and fatigue.

So it is absolutely critical to protect your mitochondria from UV and oxidative stress to avoid potential longer-term negative effects.

Can our skin rust?

Nuclear ferritin (iron) in your cells protects your DNA from free radicals.

UV exposure results in the release of ferritin, and its oxidation means that your defense systems are damaged, your iron levels are reduced, and your DNA is now at risk of being damaged.

Although this is the same chemical process as what occurs with metals and rusting, your skin cells do not technically rust, but your cellular iron does oxidize in the same way.

Controlling Wrinkles

Unfortunately, UV damage does not stop there, it changes the three-dimensional structure of vital proteins including collagen so that they lose their “bounce” and become flattened.

This results in wrinkles and thinning of the skin. Nothing will prematurely age you more than UV exposure.

It takes the skin two years to “recover” from sunburn on the surface, the cellular damage, however, can remain with you for life.

Make sure you use a high SPF sunscreen that meets US standards, as these are the highest in the world. Apply regularly and make sure you cover up your skin.

Prevent Photo-Aging With Atopis

If you are looking for a product to reduce sun damage, Our Atopis Anti-Aging Cream has been scientifically formulated to work below the skin to balance hormones, which will give you visible results on the appearance of your skin.

Our Anti Aging Cream uses 100% natural ingredients that stimulate collagen production which plumps the skin, reduces wrinkles, and restores your youthful and healthy glow!

Using sunscreen initially is the best way to make sure your skin is protected. However, if the damage is done, using a cream packed with antioxidants for your skin body will give your mitochondria the help they need to function properly. Remember oxidative stress anywhere in your body will show on your skin.

Learn More About Atopis Intensive Restore Cream

What is really in those “all natural plant extracts”?

Sunday, September 10th, 2017

Learning what is in your natural plant extracts

As the consumer demand for more natural products has grown, there has been an ever-increasing trend to use whole plant extracts in skin creams and dietary supplements, instead of highly purified single molecule ingredients. This approach is very good as the synergistic benefits of the whole plant extract are concentrated and are in a form that your body knows and recognizes.

But in choosing which ones you use, you need to be aware there are many ways in which to make plant extracts, some which increase the potency, some which have no benefit and other techniques which can be harmful.

How do they make extracts?

Dietary supplements are plant based extracts that have been made using a variety of manufacturing processes. Some of these techniques will produce a highly concentrated plant bioactive, while others use solvents to pull the bioactive compounds out of the plant material.

Freeze drying is an expensive process in which the plant material is gently frozen to a highly concentrated form using water. There is also spray drying which passes the liquefied plant material through a high-pressure nozzle and removes the water.

The use of solvents

Alternatively, the far cheaper and more common form of making plant extracts is the use of solvents such as methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol and acetone. This process works by absorbing the bioactive compounds out of the chopped up plant material and then evaporating the solvents off and drying the extract.

The problem with evaporating off solvents such as methanol is that not all of the solvent is removed and traces remain. Some of the solvents used and the other chemicals that are often mixed in during this process can be toxic and affect your long-term health.

Regulatory environments allow these solvents to be used based on the premise of limited exposure.

What to look for

When choosing which skincare to use or dietary supplement to take, check which process they use to make their plant extracts.

Using a solvent to make an extract is very cheap and allows companies to make bulk extracts for minimal cost, but traces of the solvent can remain.

Also remember information about the extracts used in skin creams does not have to disclose if they contain solvents, parabens or preservatives, only the finished cream.

Plant extracts can also contain traces of herbicides, pesticides and excess levels of heavy metals. Some countries have regulations requiring routine testing of these as well as solvents and microbial contamination, but others do not.

So the “all natural” product may not be as pure as suggested. It pays to really do your homework and check where companies are sourcing their “natural ingredients”.

What are fillers – how do they affect you?

Thursday, August 24th, 2017

What are Fillers?

A filler is used as a bulking agent or carrier to fill out a capsule or bulk up a skin cream or food item. Fillers are like the dietary supplement equivalent of candy – they fill you up but have no health benefits.

A cheaply priced dietary supplement generally means the supplement contains the minimum amount to make a claim that it has a health benefit, but otherwise contains fillers. Regulators put a minimum amount for well-known ingredients, e.g. omega 3 oils, in order to make a claim. But the filler ratio can vary from 10% to 90%.

Fillers are basically known in the industry as excipients – all products need them so that the essential ingredients remain in suspension until they reach your gut (where they need to separate to be absorbed). However, by increasing the amount of excipient from say 3% to 30% a company can save a lot of money on the expensive item – the plant bioactive. The consumer needs to carefully read the label to find out how much per capsule and do the maths, you want to buy as pure as possible.

What happens to excipients when you ingest them?

Too much excipient holds the bioactive component in suspension not only in the capsule but also all the way through your gut and into the toilet bowl, resulting in no benefit at all for you. For skincare, by adding lots of filler such as glycerin, the cream will feel soft on the skin and spread easily but will have minimal benefit to the cells below. Thus your skin will not change, and you will over time need to use more and more as your skin dehydrates.

Remember when you were young and did not have dry feeling skin, but then you needed to use moisturizers and the more you used the more you needed? This is because the natural barrier function of your skin becomes smothered by the fillers and damaged by over cleansing.

How to optimize your dietary supplements

For more cost effective benefit from dietary supplements, you are better to buy the quality products but use less of them. For instance, a quality probiotic you only need to take 1 every second day to get the benefit, whilst for a probiotic packed with fillers you could take 10 a day and have minimal effect (the fillers though are a great laxative). The same applies to skin creams, less is more.

Think of muesli bars, if you buy the cheap version packed with fillers you will need to eat several to obtain the same amount of nutrients as a quality bar, but you will also have consumed a large amount of sugar and other unnecessary ingredients which have blocked the absorption in your gut of any beneficial nutrients and interfere with your metabolism.

Dietary Supplements – Are they worth it?

Friday, August 4th, 2017

Dietary Supplements – Are they worth it?

Did you know that all pharmaceutical drugs originate from plants or microbes.

For example, aspirin comes from Willow bark.

Not all Supplements are created equal – here’s why?

Quality dietary supplements can be very effective in helping with issues such as arthritis, digestive health, hormonal balancing, immune support, aging and cognitive function.

But make sure you do your homework first before you buy. Check out how and where they are made and are there clinical trials behind the product.

A product that says scientifically tested means it was tested in the lab and the results extrapolated – So there is a big difference between scientifically tested and clinically trialed.

To do a clinical trial a company must first prove to an independent ethics committee the safety and good quality manufacturing of the product, so this alone already means the product has been properly reviewed by independent professionals.

Timing and compatibility – How to make supplements work for you

Following is a classic example of how supplements can be damaging to each other.

When you take and how you take a dietary supplement is critical to their efficacy. For instance, if you take Phloe (kiwifruit digestive enzymes) and Kyolic (garlic) together they inhibit (obstruct) each other.

This is because garlic contains Allicin a protease (digests proteins) inhibitor, which blocks viral replication but also inhibits digestive enzymes (proteases).

So for them both to work, you need to take Phloe or any digestive enzyme before a meal and take Kyolic or garlic during or after a meal.

Getting the most from your supplements – What to check for

Always check for the synergistic benefits (as well as for any potential interference) to get the most from your supplements.

Supplements can truly complement each other – here’s how.

Take an antioxidant such as grape seed extract with an omega 3 and it increases the bioavailability and potency of the grape seed extract.

Why MORE is not necessarily better

Vitamins and minerals can be beneficial at times of stress such as pregnancy and illness, but generally, they should not be required on a long-term basis if you are consuming a healthy diet.

Your body only needs a certain amount of vitamins every day, so if you take more than you need all that happens is that the vitamins end up being excreted from your body never used.

Damage control – Vitamins can also be toxic if the recommended dose is exceeded, for example, Vitamin A at high doses can cause liver damage. So the continuous use of vitamins means that your body adapts, and no longer uses the vitamins optimally.

So always stick to the recommended dose of vitamins, and preferably use food as your main source of vitamins and minerals.

How do I know that my dietary supplement or my skincare is working?

To be approved as a drug a pharmaceutical drug generally needs to have a clinical benefit within 24 hours, preferably sooner.

But dietary supplements, when you have clinically tested them, take 3 weeks for the full benefits to be seen. This is because dietary supplements work on issues that are not based on a single chemical reaction, but rather complex issues such as the gut microflora, cellular damage due to oxidative stress, premature aging of cells, cognitive function.

It’s the same with skin – Similarly, with the skin, it takes 3 weeks for the new skin cells to come through.

So if you want to know whether your dietary supplement or plant-based skincare is truly benefitting you, check after three weeks. It will also take three weeks for the benefits to wear off.

A balance of supplements and diet – Now you know the tricks for best value

So supplements do work and can be beneficial to your health when taken correctly, but for general well-being, nothing beats a healthy well-balanced diet packed with fruits and vegetables.

One more trick – the reason why the Mediterranean diet is so healthy is that the olive oil, with a dash of garlic, works in synergy with the flavonoids and lycopenes in the tomatoes to increase bioavailability (absorption) and potency.

Enjoy.

Seasonal skin conditions

Monday, June 26th, 2017

Since developing and then launching Atopis onto the market earlier this year, Dr Iona Weir has been contacted by a number of customers about seasonal skin conditions and allergies, seeking relief for when their home climate causes their eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis and other skin conditions to be at its worst.

Seasonal Changes Affecting Your Skin

Along with the temperature, environment and required clothing changes, the transition of the seasons themselves can play havoc with people’s skin – particularly those born with sensitivities.

So first let’s talk about the obvious signs. Dryness and humidity fluctuations will affect everyone’s skin regardless of time of year and predominant skin type.

As a basis you have to protect your skin’s unique microflora – the balance of good and bad bacteria that protects your skin and assists the immune system in warding off skin irritation and infection. The best way to do this is to make sure you don’t over-cleanse and this also means only gently exfoliating. This goes for both your face and your body.

Then, whatever skin type you have, a good quality moisturiser is the key to skin health. For everyone, I can’t stress enough how much quality doesn’t necessarily mean high price. Rather than cost, the most important thing to look for is a high level of active ingredient as a percentage of the overall product it is mixed in. You want to pay for the ingredients that work, not a lot of ‘filler’ like glycerine.

For some, this is not enough to keep your skin irritation or blemish free. In winter, over-heated rooms, harsh fabrics and bracing cold conditions can lead to the misery of over-dry skin, eczema and dermatitis. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, summer is bringing allergies from plants and animals, heat and humidity causing boils and itching, and sport-related sweat rashes. All the while, discomfort is causing sleepless nights and scratchy days.

For both seasons, wearing breathable fabrics such as cotton is a must. Clothes – no matter how many or how few you are wearing as dictated by the season – need to be washed using mild and gentle laundry soap. These are now widely available in stores and the internet is full of recipes to even make your own.

The Little-Known Key To Skin Health: Probiotics And Prebiotics

Probiotics and prebiotics are not just for stomach health, but are increasingly found to be essential for overall wellbeing, and this means for your skin (the body’s largest organ) too. We’ve actually done a whole post on Probiotics and Prebiotics – feel free to have a read of this too. As well as taking supplements, Atopis’ Dry Itchy Skin Relief Cream and Acne Prone Skin Cream provide a boost of good bacteria straight to your skin for sustainable relief.

Both preparations not only relieve the itching, inflammation and target the infection, but active probiotics and prebiotics help the immune system heal the damage and make the skin healthier by assisting in the restoration of its microflora.

Atopis is also so safe it can be used in conjunction with steroids and antihistamines for severe sufferers, and you and your medical professional can be assured that the creams use all natural ingredients and contain no parabens, solvents, or artificial fragrance.

One of the pleasures of life is enjoying the changing seasons and the different activities and experiences they bring.

Whatever the weather, having healthy, beautiful and irritant-free skin is possible.

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Probiotics: The answer to good skin health

Thursday, June 8th, 2017

Using probiotics and prebiotics to keep your gut healthy has long been known to assist good bowel function and control metabolism. What is lesser known is that keeping bacteria in balance is just an important for skin health, writes Dr Iona Weir.

Over the years many products have claimed to give us clear and beautiful skin and have focused on getting rid of bacteria. In this process all bacteria are destroyed, including the good stuff, from our skin.

This means that clear skin doesn’t last long as bad bacteria quickly grow back again and replace the good.

Our skin, like the gut, has its own unique microflora (balance of good and bad bacteria). In order to reduce skin allergies, restore immune function and prevent infection that balance must be restored.

Lack of balance can be caused by a number of reasons including using too many cleansers and soaps. Instead of protecting against infection, this over-scrubbing results in damaging your own natural and unique protection.

That’s when the bad bacteria run wild, causing outbreaks of acne, inflammation, redness or dry irritated skin.

This means not only should you exfoliate less and resist over cleansing, but also use a cream such as Atopis that contains a prebiotic and the peptides from probiotic bacteria, which work to promote good bacterial growth while inhibiting bad bacteria.

Too clean a house, hands and you open yourself and family to infections and allergies. You need bacteria in balance.

Prebiotics have different functions to probiotics

Each person has their own unique microflora, gut and skin; this is directly inherited from your mother.

Earlier in my career, I was Chief Scientific Officer for the team that developed Phloe – a natural kiwifruit product that restores balance of bacteria in the gut to maintain bowel health. It is now an international best-selling brand and a leader in its field.

Phloe, like Atopis, centred on the idea of prebiotics as the plant-based enzyme that helps nurture and provide a boost of probiotics, the live bacteria, and provides sustained balance.

Of course the use of probiotic supplements can help, but over time your body will no longer benefit as the microflora remains out of balance. As prebiotics support the growth of probiotics, use these with a probiotic. Then, once your gut microflora is restored, continue to take a prebiotic to keep the balance in place.

It is also important to remember probiotics can die in the capsule, or die on the way through the digestive tract. Always look for high-quality, high colony-forming unit probiotics. Probiotics that work are expensive as they have to be micro encapsulated to be protected from the digestive enzymes and acid in the stomach. This is why it’s so important to take probiotics after a meal too.

Gut microflora has been discovered to be central to preventing allergies including the skin, immune function and, when out of balance, result in eczema, rashes, hives and conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, and auto-immune disorders.

What has really surprised scientists is that there is now a confirmed link between gut microflora and schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and possibly ADHD and autism.

What’s clear is that our gut and skin health work in synergy. Balance is the answer to beautifully clear and glowing skin.

What are probiotics and prebiotics?

Probiotics are live good bacteria, while prebiotics are specialised plant fibres that beneficially nourish the good bacteria. Prebiotics help your good bacteria grow, which improves the good-to-bad bacteria ratio.

Beauty cream fillers make up majority of product but have no active role

Monday, May 29th, 2017

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The global manufacturers won’t tell you, but the fillers that are going into your treatments and beauty creams make up the majority of what you’re paying for, writes international cellular scientist and creator of Atopis, Dr Iona Weir.

Like most women, I’ve always been a label reader. Whether it’s buying my family’s breakfast cereal or a skin cleanser, I won’t buy it unless I’m satisfied with what’s on the label.

In the consumer product industry, food and ingredient labelling is a comparatively new phenomenon, sparked by widespread demand to know exactly what is in the products we’re consuming. The good news is that the government listened and introduced regulations to make manufacturers accountable for their products.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established The Food Labelling Guide in 1994 to guide the industry, while Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) set out its legislative requirements labelling in the Food Standards Code (2003).

Although the legislation was predominantly aimed at food manufacturers, the same labelling principles are now being applied to most health and beauty products to help consumers make informed choices about the products they purchase. For food particularly, it can also help prevent adverse or life threatening reactions.

Regulations are very clear, particularly in New Zealand, Australia and the US, that a label needs to be legible and, most importantly tell the truth. Occasionally some beauty and health products can slip into the market not telling the whole story. Just do a quick Google search and you will find countless examples of where a particular ingredient might have been excluded because it’s such a small quantity, or the ingredient is being disguised under another name, such as palm oil-derived ingredients that can have more than 20 different name variations.

Consumers need to check the amount of each ingredient including what is known as ‘filler’ like benign cream of something like petroleum-derived waxes such as paraffin. If the filler is the highest-listed component and the active ingredient is less than or similar to the preservative amount, forget it.

Thankfully, this issue is rare in most reputable brands. However it highlights why it’s so important for consumers to understand not only what ingredients are being used, but what quantities are being used in each product. When you know this basic information, the next step is to ask yourself: ‘Am I getting value for money?’ This is like buying what you think is mango juice, which is only 5 percent mango, and the rest apple juice, – check the amount of each ingredient. Again, if a filler is the highest-listed ingredient and the active is less than or similar to the preservative amount – don’t buy it.

So, what is in your skincare products?

The ‘breakthrough ingredient’ sits within, in most skin products, ‘the rest.’ In other words, the filler. This means the bulk of what you’re buying does nothing at all.

Too many ‘beauty creams’ at all levels of the market fall into this category, and while it’s not harmful, the filler still has no active role to play. It does exactly what it’s supposed to do – fill up the bottle.

Every product needs some emulsifier to bind the cream ingredients together, but many companies use them in excess to bulk, or “fill” the product. This is why I was determined to make Atopis – a clinically trialled skincare range that effectively treats common skin conditions as well as signs of aging – a complete, concentrated product. Every Atopis product only has a very small amount of emulsifier to help bind it, but you can be assured that the majority of the cream is made up of active ingredient.

The key ingredient in all Atopis treatments is Myriphytase, which includes our own probiotic peptilipids, using a unique fermentation process. Instead of mixing Myriphytase into a filler product, Atopis is concentrated further with coconut water – a substance containing vital minerals and vitamins as well as cytokinins, which slow down the aging process by encouraging cell renewal, and antioxidants to neutralise environmental toxins. Coconut water regulates the skin pH, tones and reduces pores and is anti-inflammatory, and reduces redness.

Beware of claims from so-called ‘coconut-based’ creams, which purport to contain coconut water or oil. Instead of real coconut, they might contain a synthetic chemical that is actually coconut-smelling glycerine filler.

Why should you care?

As an entrepreneurial scientist, over the years I’ve turned down some very lucrative opportunities with international manufacturers based on ethics. I will not lie to consumers nor will I ever rip off the original innovator.

This is particularly important when choosing a treatment product for a particular skin complaint such as eczema, acne, psoriasis or very dry and itchy skin. As a consumer you should know what level of ‘active ingredients’ is required to control and treat your skin condition – and check to see if it’s really in the product.

Anti-aging products drive one of the largest segments of the global beauty and cosmetics industry, and many manufacturers aren’t shy in making claims that their revolutionary, age-defying product, in regard to the appearance of your skin, can literally turn back time. It is not unusual to enter a department store or beauty salon and see names like ‘liquid gold’, or ‘skin caviar’ listed on packaging. These luxe creams are marketed at high-end consumers and are often based on such claims.

However, just because a product touts the latest global ‘active ingredient’ trend with a flashy price tag doesn’t mean you should just jump on the bandwagon – always check the percentage of the claimed active ingredient in the product.

Think value and percentage of active ingredient

Again, when buying any product, keep value in mind and ask what amount of active ingredient you are really paying for. Whether it’s a small or large purchase, always read the label and look for a product that is as concentrated as possible.

The entire product has to work for you, so do your research and pay for a product that offers you the honesty and transparency that you and your family deserve.

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Explore the Atopis product range and rest assured you’re feeding your skin natural, organic ingredients.

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For more information, see:

https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm2006828.htm

http://www.foodstandards.govt.nz/industry/labelling/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.ran.org/palm_oil_s_dirty_secret_the_many_ingredient_names_for_palm_oil

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Traditional eczema treatments – more harm than good?

Monday, May 22nd, 2017

As parents, we often use traditional eczema treatments learned from our own families when treating our children.

With that in mind, Atopis creator Dr Iona Weir asks: could use of these remedies actually worsen your child’s skin in the long term?

As parents we seem to be hardwired to reach for what we believe to be a longtime staple of the first aid kit or the bathroom cupboard, especially in the middle of the night when stress levels are high and our child is miserable and crying.

We might even go into the kitchen and whip up a treatment that has been used in the family for generations, or fossick around the drawers for at least what’s left in an elderly tube of steroid cream.

This might provide temporary relief, but there are real dangers for a young child’s skin from the use of steroid and even traditional skin treatments and remedies – even those used for generations.

I recently asked my customers what they’ve used on skin complaints like eczema and psoriasis in the past. I got back what a scientist like me would consider a veritable ‘witches brew’ of potentially harmful substances – particularly in the long term. These included: urea creams, baking soda, antibiotics, tar products such as pinetarsol and other ‘general use’ petroleum-based preparations.

In an earlier blog, I also talked about a GP colleague who suffers from what his children call ‘monkey hands’. Wrinkled and unsightly, his hands were smothered with steroids as a child by his well-meaning mother. Unfortunately, this has led to irreparable damage. Not only do steroids cause skin thinning, but in children under three years there is increased risk of cancers such as leukemia and stunted growth.

The short-term relief from these treatments will not restore your skin’s microflora, which plays a vital role in supporting your immunity system, nor lead to healing of the skin. Instead, it will dry it out and remove any good bacteria – damaging the skin’s pH level and epidermal barrier. This will worsen the eczema and make you even more sensitive to allergens. When you are in a wretched itch-scratch-apply cycle from using some remedies, this can also lead to scarring and infection, which is likely to require skin-thinning steroids.

Due to these risks and having worked on pharmaceutical eczema products and seen the outcomes, I decided to develop a suitable product (Atopis) that could be used to reduce eczema flare ups and therefore limit the use of steroids, except in the most extreme cases. After many years of research and clinical trials, I was thrilled to release to market an all-natural eczema cream.

The vicious itch-scratch-apply cycle needs to be broken for the good of your child’s skin and wellbeing. With Atopis, you’re using a clinically proven treatment and nature’s own healing and immunity properties to provide not just relief but restoration to your skin’s unique microflora.

For those unfortunate parents on night duty, the Atopis cream’s natural effectiveness lasts two years in the tube so it’s perfect for the bathroom cabinet or even if it’s lost at the back of the kitchen drawer!
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To find out more about the Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Relief Cream, click here.

How to soothe eczema in babies and young children

Thursday, May 11th, 2017

What is Eczema?

Eczema – or Atopic Dermatitis – usually develops in children and babies, and more specifically in people who have a family history of eczema.

The main symptom is itchy rashes and sores in the folds of the elbows and knees but can spread to the rest of the body. Over-scratching the sores and rashes can cause them to break the skin and weep. This leads to infection, scarring and have a major effect on children’s health and wellbeing.

Searching for your child’s instant eczema relief? Atopis has developed a 100% natural and cruelty-free Dry Itchy Skin Cream that can be applied directly onto rashes and sores, to soothe, heal and reduce the irritation that comes along with eczema.

The Impact of Eczema

It’s a vicious cycle of itching and scratching, with heat, clothing and the related sleeping difficulties making the irritation even worse.

We’ve spoken to many adults who despair when they see their babies going through what they also suffered from as children.

One colleague remembers being put to bed as a child with mittens on to stop the scratching. Another has photos of herself as a baby wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy in crepe bandages after being covered from head to toe in purple skin-staining antiseptic mercurochrome.

Now a GP himself, another shows his prematurely elderly and scarred hands – ‘monkey hands’ he calls them. They are the result of excessive use of harsh steroid creams on his eczema.

Unfortunately, such discomfort and pain are all too common for babies and young children whose new skin is much thinner than adults.

Although one of the most beautiful natural countries, New Zealand also has one of the highest incidences of childhood eczema in the world – likely because of high allergy rates, low humidity, and a traditional lack of central heating.

These conditions are red flags for babies and children with Eczema as they can cause the irritation to become unbearable.

Identifying Triggers

Dr. Weir recommends parents look at eczema ‘triggers’ in your children’s lifestyle.

Some common environmental triggers include:

• Dairy – dairy foods are a common allergy in eczema sufferers

• Wool – coarse man-made fibers can cause irritation on the skin

• Soy – soy-based products can cause eczema symptoms to flare-up

• Dust – one of the most common triggers of allergies in eczema sufferers

It’s best to keep your baby’s skin regularly moisturized, ensure they drink plenty of water and fluids and try and keep hot baths or showers and overall water contact to the eczema-affected areas to a minimum.

Parents can often over-clean their children in hope to keep the sores safe from infection and help the rashes heal. Every person has their own unique skin microflora (balance of good and bad bacteria), which works in the same way as gut microflora, therefore it’s important to protect the balance of bacteria by not over-cleansing.

Many soaps and cleansers can completely wipe out all bacteria – this can lead to skin conditions, including eczema, that arises from this imbalance.

Coping With Eczema Seasonally

Winter

Winter can be a tough time for babies and children with eczema, as the dry winter air combined with indoor heating can cause symptoms to aggressively flare-up.

Some ways to provide relief in Winter include:

• Tepid baths – lukewarm baths provide some relief to the flaring symptoms,

• Relieving Creams – use eczema creams generously morning and night to keep skin moisturized

• 100 % cotton – natural fibers reduce the chance of fabrics irritating the sores and rashes even more

• Ventilation – keep the room well-ventilated and cooler as to not initiate symptom flare-ups

Summer

Summer can be just as hard for young eczema sufferers, as conditions can not only cause flare-ups, but there are more allergens present to trigger allergies.

Some ways to provide relief in Summer include:

• Vitamin D – from the sun and sea-water swims in small doses can also help, but don’t overdo it

• Don’t rub the skin – after swimming, only pat the skin dry and always use a clean towel.

• Keep weeping sores covered – with a light dressing if required, but air dry when you can to keep infections at bay.

• Cold showers & baths – when washing or showering after swimming/exercise, cold showers provide relief without the aggravation

How Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream Can Help Your Family

Atopis Dry Itchy Relief Cream is our answer to your child’s eczema symptoms, through working in synergy with their immune system so they stop reacting to allergens and environmental triggers.

Within weeks of use, this potent, all-natural skin-cream therapy reverses the cell damage, and hydrates and restores the skin so the itching stops and the healing begins.

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Atopis Dry Itchy Relief Cream is suitable for use by anyone, from new and hyper-sensitive skin of babies to young children – and even animals!

Learn More About Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream

Fresh coconut water has many benefits for our skin

Wednesday, May 10th, 2017

Dr Iona Weir was horrified to see a photograph, taken this week, of a bacterial/fungal growth in someone’s pasteurised coconut beverage container. Dr Weir explains that when we pasteurise coconut water we often lose most of the goodness that is beneficial for our skin. Here’s also why fresh coconut water will always be best!

It’s not the latest hopeful auditioning for Alien 3, but instead this slimy guy is a huge slug which likely grew through contaminated coconut flesh. I’ve seen this happen when I undertook a global search for the best possible coconut water essential to formulate the breakthrough Atopis treatments for skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and hormonal acne, and for treating the signs of aging.

As recently reported, in the NZ Herald a woman discovered an unwelcome addition while drinking what was, until then, her favourite coconut water. It was a popular ‘long life’ brand which is flash pasteurised. This procedure is done in a matter of seconds at temperatures of around 71C (159F).

Problem is if there is a solid-like coconut flesh and some bacterial/fungal spores present – the flash pasteurisation will not be enough to kill them. Flash pasteurisation works really well for clear juices but not good for solids in which such spores can survive up to 115C (239F).

However, the high temperature of flash pasteurisation destroys many of the vitamins, nutrients and plant hormones that are essential for health benefits and skin health.

This meant for Atopis, I will not compromise and instead we source fresh coconuts and use our unique filter sterilisation process of the fresh coconut water, which removes bacterial spores but protects the nutrients, vitamins and plant hormones.

And you can be sure that our treatments are so natural and toxin-free they could be eaten, also making our creams safe for babies and animals.

You’ll find nothing alien in Atopis – just relief and beautiful skin. Free shipping, for a limited time, at www.atopis.com/au

Products with coconut water treat dry skin better than face oils

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017

A client in her early 50s recently contacted us to share her delighted experience of the Atopis anti-aging cream and asked a familiar question – why does it work better than pure oil on dry skin?

Growing up in a low-humidity environment and with pale, sensitive skin, Linda explained how she always invested in her skin – taking care to always wear sunblock along with a meticulous daily cleansing and moisturising regimen.

This vigilance paid off. Through her teenage years and into adulthood a pimple was very rare and, apart from a few laughter lines, she has managed to stave off deep wrinkles. Now though, dry patches are appearing as menopausal changes approach and she’s been using rose hip, sweet almond and other oils to supplement the moisturisers. Before discovering Atopis, Linda says, she’d moved entirely to applying just expensive but good face oil at night hoping this would relieve the dryness.

The face oil seemed to just suck up the oil with little long-term effects, or worse, stay on the top dry layer of skin, she says.

The Atopis Anti-aging Cream absorbed oil too, as others have also reported, but in the morning skin felt soft and moist, without any greasy residue. Why was that, Linda asked?

As well as containing essential oils, coconut water is a key ingredient in every Atopis product. It helps oils to absorb, locking in their moisturising properties. It contains vital minerals and vitamins for your skin – vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and calcium. It also contains cytokinins, which slow down the aging process by encouraging cell growth and activation, and antioxidants to neutralise environmental toxins.

Coconut water is also antimicrobial/anti-fungal, reducing risks of acne, and regulates the skin’s pH, tones and reduces pores. It is also an anti-inflammatory and reduces redness. Coconut water also contains lauric acid, which is the main fatty acid in breast milk.

The benefits of the extracted coconut water in Atopis

Coconut water helps your skin absorb moisturising oils.
It contains vital minerals and vitamins – vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and calcium.
It contains cytokinins, which slow the aging process by boosting cell growth.
It contains antioxidants to neutralise environmental toxins.
Coconut water is anti-fungal, reducing inflammation and redness.
It contains lauric acid, which has anti-microbial and hormone-balancing properties.
Coconut water regulates your skin tones, pH and reduces pores.

There has been a lot of excitement around coconut water and related products over the last few years but it’s important to remember that careful extraction and treatment is required to receive the full benefits, as found in all Atopis products.

Atopis creator Dr Iona Weir’s colleagues can’t believe that she insists the company physically extracts the water from each coconut, rather than buying it in bulk like other companies do. As a scientist and a mother, she thinks everyone who tries Atopis deserves the very best – and that’s the good oil!

How to Manage Hormonal Breakouts

Thursday, April 27th, 2017

As we go through pivotal changes in our lives, breakouts are common but it doesn’t make the pain and embarrassment any easier. Sufferers are not just teenagers, but include women enduring the hormonal rollercoaster of pregnancy or menopause, and some men who can find their back, chest and shoulders have literally become acne fairgrounds. But there are choices you can make to assist in blemish-free skin, especially when it comes to hormonal acne.

Have you been trying everything to manage your breakouts?

Most people learn the basics about acne at school, and it’s normally attributed to four main causes:

Oil production through the skin’s sebaceous glands
Dead skin cells
Clogged pores
Bacteria

But hormones, most prominently considered to be a ‘teenage thing’, continue to be a root cause of other breakouts as we age.

Stars of the show

In adults, Acne is usually caused by hormones, and it often appears in the lower half of face, cheekbones and jawline. It may look cystic, big and red, and can be very sensitive.

For women acne usually appears in the later stages of the menstrual cycle, so a week before or even during your period. It can also appear after starting a new form of birth control, hormone replacement therapy through menopause, or as a result of fluctuating hormones and conditions such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

The skin’s sebaceous glands interact directly with the hormones in our body. In fact it’s a particular trinity of hormones including estrogen, progesterone and androgens that make up the hormonal circus. Androgens are commonly called the male hormones and include testosterone for example. These three groups of hormones are naturally present in our body at all times but can fluctuate in level, particularly androgens, when compounded with stress, fatigue and lack of skin care.

Androgens are the worst perpetrators for causing bad skin because they stimulate growth of the sebaceous glands and increase sebum levels, making skin oily and causing severe congestion known as hyperkeratinisation. This condition means dead skin cells don’t slough off naturally and instead clog the skin’s pores. Cue the entry of bacteria and acne appears as the star of the show.

Men are particularly susceptible to breakouts because acne belongs to a grim troupe of hyperandrogenic diseases that are characterised by the excessive production of androgens. Other members of this merry band include male pattern baldness which can join acne as a misery double act.

Treating the miserable circus

It’s important for people to understand that acne is a skin disease, and it needs to be treated as one. Our skin is an effective barrier against dirt, infection and pathogens, which is designed to beat skin disease at its own game. We’re born with our own unique skin microflora of bacteria and viruses that builds our immunity and keeps skin healthy. Just like our gut microflora, the good bacteria and matter that make up our skin microflora, known collectively as your microbiome, needs to be preserved.

Here’s some potential treatments for hormonal acne:

Keeping your gut balance and microflora healthy through fermented foods and Kefir which helps replenish beneficial bacteria. These naturally combat the inflammatory effects of antibiotics, sugar, alcohol and processed foods which reduce your immunity.

Stimulating your lymph system through exercise, drinking more water and avoiding excessive caffeine and alcohol consumption.
Experimenting with cutting dairy out of your diet and try to incorporate Evening Primrose Oil, zinc and vitamin B6.
Limiting stress and getting more sleep.

Seeking medical advice to rule out any hormone imbalance or disorder that may require further investigation.
Keeping the skin’s moisture barrier strong and healthy as this makes it more resilient and reduces the severity of acne. Don’t use soaps or cleansers that strip the skin, and gently exfoliate once a week. It’s also important to use a good moisturiser that doesn’t block the pores (non-comedogenic), and targets acne and hormonal skin complaints.

How Atopis can help

Based on her award-winning international research and successful clinical trials, Dr Iona Weir has formulated safe, natural products to help unlock skin’s own immunity and assist self-repair.

Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream helps treat hormonal acne by limiting overstimulation and moderates the hormone receptors of the skin’s sebaceous glands. It rebuilds your skin through moisturising, controlling sebum levels and preventing that old villain, hyperkeratinisation.

Meanwhile, the probiotic peptides in Atopis, work to restore your skin’s friendly bacteria microbiome, just like probiotics in the gut.

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Drop the final curtain down on hormonal acne by trying Atopis Acne Prone Skin Cream.

MATURE SKIN? Why your regime may no longer work.

Sunday, April 23rd, 2017

We may get wiser, but Dr. Iona Weir reveals why our tried and true skincare régime may no longer work as the years go by.

We expect a lot from our skin. We often mistreat it, yet expect it to bounce back and still look good as we age. Over the years, a combination of stress, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, dehydration, and environmental pollution, such as car fumes and UV rays from sun, phones and computers all take their toll.

So, if you’ve noticed a change in the quality and resilience of your skin, maybe it’s time to rethink your skincare régime. Caring for your skin is more than just applying moisture. As we age, the needs of our skin changes, and what used to work may not anymore.

Exfoliation Essentials

Regular but gentle exfoliation is essential as a starting point to get rid of the dead skin cells and toxins that build up on the skin’s delicate surface.

Not only do they make it difficult for moisturisers to do their job, but also cell renewal slows down as the years advance, so applying more and more cream won’t have the required effect.

In fact, smearing on the moisturiser could make things worse, leaving you looking tired instead of radiant.

Damage Limitation

Pollution and stress can trigger the skin’s outer layer, or epidermis, to go into defense mode to protect itself.

Extra layers of cells are created, thickening the skin in places. Once again, usual moisturisers can no longer penetrate into the skin, and a lot more is used than is normally required but for less effect.

Hormonal Hell

Stress wreaks havoc with hormones, causing them to overreact and change, and skin bears the brunt of this.

To help combat this, take the time to relax. Take a good antioxidant dietary supplement, and use a cream that contains potent and safe antioxidants.

As women grow older, our bodies produce less oestrogen and progesterone, resulting in slower cell renewal. Collagen is also lost, which results in the skin cells drying out, rather than having a healthy, youthful and plump appearance.

This means that it’s critical to use a cream that promotes cell renewal, and offers protection from damaging environmental effects. Simply just moisturising is no longer enough.

With this in mind, I created a dedicated anti-aging cream for the Atopis range, which contains no parabens, no solvents, no artificial fragrances, and has been only clinically trialed on humans rather than animals.

I needed to create a treatment that offers the intense hydration that mature skin needs – retexturising and plumping the skin at the actual cellular level. This helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

I say ‘actual’ because it saddens me to see multinational brands claiming their products work at the ‘cellular level’ without adequate evidence. We have the clinical trial data to prove Atopis does exactly that.

After gentle exfoliation, the concentrated anti-aging cream can be applied to the face, neck and décolletage.

Better Absorption

When applying skincare, warm it in your hands first, then pat it gently onto the skin. This prevents dragging which can easily damage the epidermis and create wrinkles.

It also has the bonus effect of allowing the cream to be absorbed into the skin more effectively, so less is wasted.

What causes eczema?

Sunday, April 9th, 2017

If you or a family member has red, inflamed skin that’s, itchy, sore and weeping, it’s likely you are part of our sad national statistic, which reports that 20% of New Zealand children and a large number off Kiwi adults suffer from eczema.

Eczema and other irritating dry-skin conditions, such as psoriasis, are a real and miserable concern for people of all ages – the itching and irritation, the broken skin, the sores and the self-consciousness are all things that affect people who suffer from these conditions.

In many instances such conditions can be inherited, but let’s look at some of the causes and aggravators of an eczema outbreak:

1. Damaged skin barrier

Infection, lack of essential nutrients and fatty acids, environmental factors, stress and even those pesky hormones can cause dry, itchy skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis. These conditions appear as a result of the immune system’s over-reaction to the irritant.

2. Loss of your natural skin microflora

Just like your digestive system, your skin has a natural skin microflora, made up of good bacteria (like probiotics), which prevent the build up of bad bacteria.

When the balance of good bacteria on your skin is lost, your immune system reacts with red, itchy inflamed skin.

Without the good bacteria, your skin is vulnerable to infection, which sets you up for a vicious cycle of sleep loss and itchy discomfort, scratching, infections and further inflammation.

3. Your genetics

Unfortunately, genetics can make our immune system oversensitive, causing our skin to react to even the slightest irritant. You’re more susceptible to outbreaks if you share a family history of suffering.

Treating your eczema

What you can do to reduce eczema symptoms:

Steer clear of triggers, whether that’s something like dairy, wool, soy, or dust
Keep weeping sores covered with a light dressing if required, but air dry when you can to keep infections at bay
Drink plenty of water
Keep hot baths/showers and actual washing of the affected area to a minimum
Keep your skin moisturised with an all-natural product such as Atopis Dry Itchy Skin Cream

In summer, Vitamin D from the sun and sea water swims in small doses can also help, but don’t overdo it.

In winter, some people find relief from a tepid bath followed by cream liberally patted onto the skin. Remember to only sleep in 100 per cent cotton nightwear and sheets. Also make sure you are keeping the bedroom as cool and ventilated as possible.

We know eczema and dry skin conditions can ruin people’s quality of life, their confidence and, at times, can be very painful. This is what drove us to find a solution. We were also particularly worried about small children and babies and the stressful affect of their suffering on both parents and children. Our research found that Atopis soothes and calms the skin, leaving skin feeling hydrated, soft and smooth, no matter what age the user.
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Dr Iona Weir has created an all-natural cream, free from steroids and other chemicals, so that it is suitable for use by anyone, even on the new and hyper-sensitive skin of babies.

Atopis works in synergy with your immune system so you stop reacting to allergens and environmental triggers. It’s also so non-toxic and made from natural food-grade ingredients that it’s safe to use on small children and animals.

Within two weeks of use, this potent, all-natural therapy reverses the cell damage, and hydrates and restores the skin so the itching stops and the healing begins. Learn more about our clinically proven Dry Itchy Skin Cream by clicking on the product below.

From the newsroom

Wednesday, March 1st, 2017

Atopis has launched and will stick to an online strategy
Dr. Weir will address the International Conference on Clinical and Experimental Dermatology in Chicago as key-note speaker

Atopis – Released at last

Monday, February 27th, 2017

Atopis has successfully launched in New Zealand in the first week of February 2017. From the first week of the Atopis website going live orders from across the country have been steadily coming in.

Treating Hormonal Skin: A Complex Journey

Thursday, January 1st, 1970

Hormonal skin affects most of us with nearly 85% of people getting acne at some point in their lives.

It is an up and down, tumultuous journey. Often spending money on what feels like a million products, finding that nothing has quite done the trick yet. We have all been there, while most of us are still there.

But achieving completely clear, healthy skin doesn’t happen overnight as much as we wish it did. It requires perseverance and a good skincare routine.

Our skin is actually the largest organ on the human body and is able to reflect internal matters such as gut problems, anxiety, periods and so on. Not so surprisingly, this means that skin complaints can be managed by addressing the internal issue.

For hormonal skin, breakouts are first caused by fluctuating hormones. One hormone in particular that causes bad skin is Androgen. This hormone is triggered when we experience stress and fatigue. It signals the sebaceous glands (they produce oil) to go into overdrive which results in too much oil in the pores that turn them into clogged pores (congestion).

In hormonal skin that is past the teenage years, the sebum gland wants to keep hydrating the skin because it thinks it is dry. To counteract this, choose skin care products we highly recommend natural and non-abrasive products – rather than harsh antibiotics or chemical cleaners. It is essential that after washing you apply a moisturiser to let the skin know it does not need to produce more oil.

If you use an exfoliator limit this to once a week if absolutely necessary. If practiced wrong, the skin is prone to drying out, and micro-tears from the exfoliator.

This leads us onto why exactly the way we clean the skin is so important for balancing the oil production.

There is a bacterial issue that keeps hormonal skin stuck on repeat.

What causes this is how the sebum gland works in harmony with our skin’s microflora (a mix of bacteria living on the skin’s surface).

As mentioned before, the sebum gland which is responsible for producing a reasonable level of oil is over-producing. When we cleanse the face it strips away dirt, oil and bacteria lifting it from the pores. But what we need is for the cleanser to gently and only remove the bad versions of oil and bacteria because there are good versions that live on the skin that are necessary to the microflora’s stability.

When the skin is over-producing oil, it is because it dried out too much, and this allows the bad bacteria to feed off the extra oil, increasing the chances of this nasty bacteria’s survival.

This key to avoiding this is to use a gentle natural cleanser and to moisturise morning and night. These are hormonal skin’s absolute survival essentials.

If you liked what you read and are ready to start your journey to clear skin then please learn more about our products designed specifically for balancing hormonal skin.

These 4 products create a skincare routine that cleanses, clears, moisturises, and tones the skin, so you can easily achieve healthy and glowing skin!

The Scientific Invention inside Atopis natural skin care

Thursday, January 1st, 1970

By Dr Iona Weir PhD
Chief Scientist and CEO
Atopis Skin Care

In my scientific research in YEAR I discovered that kiwifruit reduces cytokine IL6 in human cells.

Cytokine IL6 is the cellular transduction molecule responsible for the inflammation that causes eczema. (Weir et al., 2008).

Using the latest biochemistry technique called lipid fractionation technology, I then spent YEAR studying, testing and observing thousands of cells, and isolated and purified the component of kiwifruit pollen that reduces cytokine IL6.

I included this compound in Myriphytase, my US patented invention which goes inside all of my skin creams. (Weir US Patent No. ).

Myriphytase is scientifically proven to reduce this cytokine in the body and heal the cause of eczema from inside the cell.

After I invented Myriphytase, it was clinically trialed in both New Zealand and the USA and shown to help human skin including an increase in skin quality, a significant reduction in the severity of eczema symptoms, and a decrease in redness, itching, and scaling.

Like our other 100% natural ingredients, Myriphytase is not made up of mere plant extracts – our scientifically enhanced food grade compounds are clinically shown to benefit human skin.

Myriphytase is also scientifically proven to slow down the aging process by encouraging cell renewal, and contains antioxidants to neutralize environmental toxins.

Myriphytase regulates skin pH, tones and reduces pore size, and has an anti-inflammatory and redness reducing effect on skin.

It is an anti-inflammatory with potent antimicrobial and moisturizing properties.

Also inside Myriphytase are bioactive flavanoids, minerals, nutrients, vitamins and bee enzymes. It has antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties, and acts as a prebiotic for good bacteria on your skin as well as being an emollient. It has astringent and exfoliating properties as well as unclogging pores and reducing acne breakouts.

Myriphytase includes our patented potentiated bee pollen which is non-allergenic and contains phytosterols (a group of naturally occurring compounds found in plant cell membranes) that reduce itching and inflammation.

Phytohormones (naturally occurring small organic molecules that influence physiological processes in plants) are chemical messengers that coordinate cellular activities of plants and are inside Myriphytase to promote skin cell renewal and flavanoid antioxidants protect against environmental damage and skin dehydration.

Our patented pollen is anti-microbial and antiviral and a great source of vitamins, minerals and amino acids for your skin.

Myriphytase also contains Probiotic Peptilipids™

We create our unique patented ingredient Probiotic Peptilipids™ by growing bacteria which we have isolated from the New Zealand forest.

From these bacteria we harvest proteins and enzymes. The proteins are converted to peptides and bound to lipids which to create peptilipids.

There are no bacteria present in Atopis skin care, only the bacteria’s enzymes and peptides which are scientifically shown to promote the growth of your skin’s own beneficial microflora.

Articles

Victoria Gamage shares the story of how she regained her skin confidence, by banishing her acne.

When colour makes a huge difference

Part Two: Why are some people more prone to acne?

Many things in our life can affect our hormones and the effects of our hormones on our body.

That’s where Atopis comes in.

Part One: How does an acne pimple work?

So why is it that most women get a craving for chocolate?

For other foods, it’s all about balance.

Kiwifruit and Your Skin

All Atopis skin creams contain Myriphytase – choose your product here:

Take a look at the Atopis skin care products that Karen used to get healthy skin:

Prebiotic

Probiotic

Postbiotic

Explore our range of skin care products containing patented prebiotic, probiotic and postbiotic treatments for your skin:

Struggling with Breakouts?

Milia – Those Bumps aren’t Acne!

What are they then?

Who gets it?

An interesting cause of Milia

Treatment

1. Exfoliating

2. Creams

Is Your Skin Showing Signs of Milia?

What is rosacea?

What causes rosacea?

Gain control over rosacea skin

Do you have sun damaged skin?

What is Rosacea?

Types of rosacea

Managing rosacea-prone skin

Dealing With Rosacea?

What makes up a pimple?

What happens when you squeeze a pimple?

How to Safely Pop A Pimple:

You’ll need:

Steps:

Struggling with Breakouts?

What Is Rosacea?

Symptoms:

Triggers:

Types:

How Is Rosacea Different From Other Skin Conditions?

Managing Rosacea Skin

The faulty peptide

How Atopis Can Reduce Your Rosacea Symptoms

First, What Causes Acne?

1. Hormones

2. Lifestyle

3. Genetic Makeup

4 Stages of Hormonal Acne Development:

1. Hormonal Changes

2. Blockage

3. Over-cleaning

4. Immune system reaction

Why Antibiotics Don’t Work for Hormonal Acne Long Term:

Break Out of the Hormonal Acne Cycle with Atopis Radiant Balance Cream:

What is the gut microbiome?

Why is gut health important for acne prone skin?

How does gut health influence other skin conditions?

Environmental Factors

The Role of Genetics

How can gut health be restored?

Using Probiotics

How to Enrich Your Gut Health

Atopis – Skin Care That Balances Your Skin From Inside-Out

How To Balance Menopausal Skin

Nourish your skin with natural products

The Science Of Maturing Skin: The Plant Phenomenon

Working from within

Key Ingredients

How We Can Help Restore Your Aging Skin 100% Naturally

What actually causes eczema?

Eczema Triggers

1. Irritants

2. Dry Skin

3. Stress

4. Exercise and Sweating

5. Hormones