The feeling of love affects us all. Love causes feelings of motivation, romance, joy and affection, and can also be the source of a "lovesick" feeling, heartbreak, and anxiety. Love is capable of producing many emotions that affect our mental wellbeing and physical health, but have you ever wondered how love affects our skin?

Dermoi's Chief Scientific Officer, Eve Casha, has teamed up with Existential Psychologist Angelika Grechnaya, MSc and PhD Researcher, and Dennis Relojo-Howell, MSc and PhD researcher to discuss.

How Does Love Affect the Body?

"According to a 2006-study on the fMRI of couples in love, romantic love is primarily a motivation system, rather than an emotion, that can be similar to what we experience during addiction. There are several hormones and neurotransmitters that are involved or are being released when we are in love. These are oxytocin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Oxytocin, which is also called the ‘love hormone’, is responsible for feelings of attachment and intimacy."

-Dennis Relojo-Howell, Founder of Psychreg PhD Researcher in Clinical Psychology at the University of Edinburgh

“When falling in love our body experiences stress-related symptoms such as increased heart beat, bowel functions, sweating, dizziness etc. Moreover, our brain gets flooded with hormones leading to a strong emotional responses. This reaction is known as fight or flight” - our response to stress. This increases the level of cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenalin in our bodies.”

-Angelica Grechnaya, MSc Psychology; MSc Organisational Psychology; Doctorate training in Counselling Psychology; Existential Psychologist

How Does Love Affect the Skin?

"Hormonal responses involving oxytocin, dopamine, and norepinephrine tend to have positive affects on the skin and are associated with increased microcirculation, anti-inflammatory responses, and repair of the skin barrier. These responses boost skin health and have anti-aging effects. However, hormonal responses involving cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenalin, tend to have more negative impacts on the skin as they increase inflammation, disrupt the skin barrier, and can impair wound healing. They can also increase skin sebum production and contribute to breakouts."

-Eve Casha, MSc Pharmaceutical Formulation, Chief Scientific Officer of Dermoi

How Can We Protect Skin While in Love?

There are many ways to lower your stress levels while in love. Regulating your diet, sleeping patterns, and exercise will help to balance hormone levels in your body.  In addition, prioritising meditation, spiritual practices, self-care and social activities are all great techniques.

Investing in skincare that promotes wound healing will allow it to cope with any hormonal changes and defend against inflammation and breakouts. Codex Beauty Labs supports the skin structure, microbiome, and immune system with quantitative clinically proven results.  All products are certified organic, but have proven to boost activity of our skin’s own antioxidant enzymes as well as induce anti-inflammatory gene expression to repair the skin.

This Valentines Day season, Codex Beauty Labs is Dermoi's top pick for stressed out skin.  Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like a trial.