Lumen + Bevel Aesthetics, Morgan Renfro and Marissa Abdo Talk Skin Care Trends

Written By Jenna Medlin-Roark

Morgan Renfro and Marissa Abdo are no strangers to the importance of skincare in your daily routine. Certified Nurse Aesthetic Specialists, Renfro and Abdo left the bustling city of Los Angeles to open their dermatology office, Lumen + Bevel Aesthetics, in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona in early 2020.

Specializing in facial injectable treatments, Renfro and Abdo are both national trainers for Allegan and Galderma and sat down with me to discuss at home skincare trends to keep your skin looking flawless through 2021.

How important is having a skincare regimen in our daily routine?

Marissa Abdo: Each different skin type is going to require a different routine, but we definitely want to make sure that on some level, we are going to cleanse our face and exfoliate, whether that be physical exfoliation with a scrub or some type of chemical exfoliation like lactic acid.

As we age, our skin cells don’t turn over as fast and that’s when we start to get dull skin so we can add things like retinol to our skin, which is going to help those cells turn over faster and keep us nice and bright. And of course, we want to add some sort of moisture. 

What ingredients should we look for in makeup and skin products?

Marissa Abdo: We need a lot of high hyaluronic acid to keep our face from getting dried out. 

Morgan Renfro: We love HA5 from Skin Medica that is a hyaluronic acid serum. It’s really silky and smooth, and locks in moisture on your face. The main thing for these hyaluronic acid serums is getting good medical-grade skincare, to know that it’s actually doing something and penetrating your skin to the right level.

It’s paraben-free, it’s healthy for your face, but it has five different types of hyaluronic acid so it’s longer-lasting.

Should we be using SPF’s on our faces and in the products we put on our faces?

Marissa Abdo: You definitely want to be using it daily regardless of whether you’re going outside or not. I like a nice physical block. There are some sunscreens that actually have protection against blue light. Since we’re all in front of our computers so much, now, that’s really important too. 

Morgan Renfro: Inflammation causes damage to the skin, so we want to decrease that as much as possible. Using sunscreen daily is going to help that whether it’s from a blue ray or from the sun, anything you can do to protect us from that is going to prevent us from aging quite as quickly.

What are some tools we can use to reduce inflammation in the face? Would a jade roller be beneficial in these situations?

Marissa Abdo: We’re actually just fans of a little ice cube on your face. You do not have to buy one of those fancy Jade rollers. Honestly, if you ice your face at night, that will really help with inflammation. 

Morgan Renfro: The Jade roller is really nice for people who go to the gym to so they can use it immediately after they work out to cool their skin down. When somebody works out, their skin is really inflamed, it’s hot, it’s red, that allows pigmentation to show up and allows us to break out a little bit more. Using a jade roller or just an ice cube is a way you can help with lymphatic drainage.

We want to follow the sinus cavities so that we’re actually draining fluid from our face and decreasing inflammation.

What do LED lights do for our skin and can we use them at home?

Morgan Renfro: LED lights are awesome and are convenient to use at home. The red light and blue light are really popular. Blue light helps tremendously with acne, it specifically kills the bacteria P acne. Red light is really good for general inflammation. It can also help with pigmentation.

People that use red and blue light therapy have seen tremendous benefits, myself included, not only in just their skin complexion just by decreasing the general inflammation but also in their bodies. I actually saw change about two to three months after [starting the LED therapy], which is normal with anything that’s going to decrease inflammation or stimulate collagen.

How does skin affect the overall health of your body?

Morgan Renfro: Skin is the biggest organ that we have. It’s the first thing that sees the sun. So that’s going to take the first hit, it takes the brunt for everything, it contains all of us. So, if that’s taking a hit, there’s a good chance, you’re taking damage internally, as well. It’s a mix of internal and external factors that allow us to see the changes externally. That is usually what triggers us to start taking care of ourselves internally.

Have you heard of “Maskne” and what can we do to prevent our skin from breaking down through wearing masks?

Morgan Renfro: We’re breathing inside of our masks all day, every day. So, breathing in our own toxins is not great [for the health of our skin]. A silk mask that can help and it’s a little bit more breathable for your skin.

Marissa Abdo: They are a lot softer on your face and more breathable because you are trapping air and bacteria especially with makeup and stuff on your skin and pores are getting clogged. So definitely making sure you’re exfoliating at night and cleaning your face really well. The silk mask is just going to be a little bit softer and will cause less friction on your skin.

How often should we be visiting a dermatology office?

Marissa Abdo: It is recommended that you visit a dermatology office at least once a year to get a skin check. You can always ask questions while you’re there, or at least kind of start the conversation of maybe getting on a good product or maybe retinol.

I think getting a hands-on assessment is really what’s going to be the best thing for you. Then, you will have a professional telling you what you need for your skin and really helping make that plan for you to get the best products for you. 

Morgan Renfro: Yeah, you always seek a dermatology office if you have an issue so this is something, in an ideal world, we would start to get there before that happens to start that prevention side. It would be better for your skin in the long run. 

For more information, please visit lumenandbevel.com.