People judge other’s traits based on facial appearance, and these inferences guide social interactions and avoidance. Facial skin blemishes and smoothness influence trait impression.

Healthy skin is beautiful skin, and that matters in a number of ways. I’ve frequently discussed how healthy skin, without chronic inflammation, is a means to better control systemic inflammation. That is, inflammation in the skin translates to inflammation in the body. Reducing inflammation in the skin, even in just the outer layer, the skin’s epidermis, results in reduced systemic inflammation.

Healthy skin is also important for other reasons, including our social interactions. People rapidly judge others based on the appearance of skin, especially facial skin. Studying ancient cultures, one can find beliefs that the face is a window to a person’s true nature. In Western culture, Kaspar Lavater (1800), a Swiss pastor, is given much credit for spreading the ideas of physiognomy, the “art” of reading personality in faces. Lavater said, “Whether they are or are not sensible of it, all men are daily influenced by physiognomy.” Unfortunately, when making social attributions from faces, people are making too much out of too little information. 

In a study from 2018 of skin smoothness and skin blemishes, scientists found these skin states to be critical for how people judge other’s traits. Across ratings of trustworthiness, competence, maturity, attractiveness, and health, the negative influence of skin blemishes was stronger and more consistent than the positive influence of skin smoothness. Further, the presence of skin blemishes diminished the positive effect of skin smoothness on attractiveness ratings. In sum, both facial skin blemishes and facial skin smoothness influence trait impression, but the negative effect of blemished skin is larger and more salient than the positive effect of smooth skin. To be clear, results of their study found that faces with skin blemishes were seen as less trustworthy, competent, mature, attractive, and healthy compared to the unmanipulated version of the faces. Results for the smoothed faces were less clear-cut.

Caring for your skin, therefore, is not only important for maintaining the health of the body’s largest organ and a huge component of your immune system, but also for one’s social interactions and psychological health. Be very careful of what products you use on your skin, eat a plant-forward diet to provide the nutrients your skin requires to be healthy, exercise, and expose your skin to only moderate amounts of sunlight – small amounts are beneficial. Healthier skin will result. Considering products used on the face, the positive effects of exercise on the skin can be mimicked by injecting IL-15 into the skin. The positive effects of a low dose of IL-15 can likely be derived from NeoGenesis Recovery, which contains the IL-15 cytokine in its S²RM technology, a natural and balanced mix of many skin-identical proteins, sourced from skin resident adipose mesenchymal stem cells. This is one of many benefits using S²RM technology in NeoGenesis products.