Fall is our favorite time of year because it’s pumpkin season! Pumpkin spice, pumpkin pie, and of course, our favorite, the HD Revive Pumpkin Mask! It turns out that pumpkin isn’t just a great addition to your pies and lattes, there are many pumpkin skin benefits that can help your skin look younger and healthier.
Pumpkins are actually chock full of vitamins and minerals that have unexpected beauty benefits. If you haven’t tried adding a pumpkin-based product to your daily beauty routine, trust us, you’re missing out. Whether you’re trying to clear up some troublesome acne, reduce the signs of aging, or generally improve your skin’s overall health, pumpkin has you covered. Plus it smells delicious!
Wondering how pumpkin can spice up your skincare routine? Here’s how and why it works.
How Does Pumpkin Help Your Skin?
While we all know that pumpkin is delicious and seasonally delightful, most people don’t know the benefits. Pumpkins can actually give your skin (and overall system) some tremendous boosts. Adding some pumpkin-based products to your skincare routine can help you maintain your skin’s health all year round.
Pumpkin is largely composed of alpha-hydroxy acids, which are similar to lactic and glycolic acids, and has several useful benefits for the skin. Fruity acids, like alpha hydroxy acids, help you remove dead skin cells, improve turnover in healthy cells, and keep your skin glowing!
For added pumpkin skin benefits, our favorite seasonal fruit (no, really!) is packed with beta-carotene, a derivative of vitamin A that has been shown to help smooth out wrinkles, get rid of brown spots, and reverse the damage that the sun can cause the skin. Beta-carotene is known for improving vision and lowering your risk of developing cataracts in your eyes, on top of improving your skin and potentially smoothing out acne scars!
Pumpkins also contain lots of zinc and vitamin C. Zinc is super good for you and in addition to the many ways it helps keep you healthy, it also helps prevent acne and helps your skin heal more quickly. Vitamin C, as we know, boosts your body’s immune system and helps keep you healthy from seasonal colds, cases of flu, and infections. When it comes to your skin, vitamin C can help reverse sun damage and prevent signs of aging by reducing wrinkles and brown spots.
Pumpkin skin benefits are often overlooked in favor of its use in other products, but it’s an excellent addition to your skincare routine because of both its natural exfoliating properties and a chemical make-up designed to reduce redness and damage caused by aging and exposure to the sun.
3 Amazing Pumpkin Skin Benefits
There are lots of ways to take advantage of the pumpkin skin benefits from this powerhouse ingredient. If you really want to improve your skin this fall season, pumpkin is the skincare secret you’ve been looking for. Here are some of the specific benefits you need to know about!
Anti-Aging Power
Because pumpkin has so much vitamin C and beta-carotene (which is derived from vitamin A), it’s full of powerful antioxidants. These work together to help lessen or even reverse UV damage and the damage caused by free radicals, both of which play a huge role in the development of wrinkles and can lead to skin cancer if unchecked.
Another way pumpkin demonstrates anti-aging power is that it works to soften your skin and increase its production of collagen, which directly reduces several signs of aging, like fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots.
Related: 7 Expert Anti-Aging Skincare Tips You Need for Winter
Pumpkin Can Treat Acne
Many of us will or have struggled with acne at some point in our lives. It can be incredibly stressful but, once again, our favorite fall treat is here to help! Pumpkin has some great tricks up its sleeve when it comes to treating acne.
Among the many helpful vitamins and minerals in pumpkins are the B vitamins riboflavin, niacin, folate, and B6. Each one of these handy vitamins plays a specific role in improving your skin and fighting acne. Folate and niacin both improve your overall circulation and better circulation increases the rate of cell turnover and subsequent renewal, helping to keep your skin fresher and acne-free.
Pumpkin seeds contain lots of zinc, which helps regulate your hormone levels and oil production, both of which play a role in the development of acne. Zinc also helps your skin heal better! There’s also vitamin A, which helps to reduce scarring from acne you’ve dealt with in the past.
But wait, there are more pumpkin skin benefits for reducing and preventing acne. Pumpkin seeds also contain a high amount of essential fatty acids and vitamin E. What does that do for you? In addition to generally helping protect your skin, this killer combo helps your body regulate the oil it produces. If you struggle with oily skin and acne as a result, pumpkin can actually help you reduce the oil levels your body produces leading to clearer healthier skin.
Pumpkin Removes Free Radicals from Your System
We’ve mentioned above that pumpkin can combat free radicals in your system. Free radicals are dangerous because they speed up the aging process and may even be associated with a higher risk of cancer. And you can pick them up from things in your environment — like poor air quality or fried foods.
The vitamin C and beta-carotene contained in pumpkins both act as antioxidants and stop free radicals from wreaking havoc on your skin. Together they can reverse sun damage and work against signs of aging.
Pumpkin Brightens Your Skin
Who doesn’t want bright and glowing skin? Not only can pumpkin keep your skin looking younger and clear of acne, but it can also help brighten it! Pumpkin is full of fruit enzymes and alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), both of which encourage cell turnover. This means that your skin is quicker to get rid of dead or damaged cells, which naturally leads to brighter and younger-looking skin.
Because pumpkin’s molecular structure is actually pretty small, if you’re using it topically, like with our HD Revive Pumpkin Mask, it can penetrate deeper into your skin than many other ingredients are able to. If you’re trying to brighten up a dull complexion, reduce the effects of aging, and improve your pigmentation, then pumpkin has everything you need!
Pumpkin skin benefits are far-reaching. It’s our favorite fall addition to our skincare routines and you can see why. No matter what aspect of skincare you’re currently focusing on, whether you’re trying to clear up an untimely acne outbreak or trying to reverse the signs of sun exposure and aging, pumpkin can help!
What’s your favorite fall-themed facial product this year?
