The products on Nicole Chambers’ bathroom shelf range from pink Alpyn beauty melt moisturizers and serums to blue Josie Maran calming cleansers. Some products she’s tried and loved; some that don’t work at all. Bad acne is what led Chambers, a junior advertising major, to a strict skincare regime. Yet, hidden amongst the array of serums and moisturizers lies an unlikely perpetrator: a mint-flavored vape.
“I did notice the most recent time that I tried quitting [vaping] over this last Christmas break, that my skin was worse than it’s ever been,” Chambers said. “But that has something to do with my skin detoxing, maybe, and getting the nicotine out of my system.”
Vape users aren’t putting their vapes down anytime soon. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, only about six percent of nicotine users can quit within any given year. Among other health detriments, some users are now hyper-aware of vaping’s potential side effects, such as premature aging.
“I try not to think about it,” Chambers said. “I do have intentions of stopping. I’m just not sure when that will happen.”
Gen Z is entering adulthood, which means their skin is going to start changing quickly. Although body positivity has softened some of the fears of aging, it’s undeniable that some women still feel insecure about under-eye bags, wrinkles, and facial sagging. Gen Z cares about how they look, especially their skin. While the CDC estimates approximately 11 percent of people aged 18 to 24 vape, this same Gen Z demographic is responsible for the one-third increase in facial product sales from January to June of 2023, according to Nielsen IQ.
E-cigarettes or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems are devices that heat a liquid containing nicotine to create an aerosol that can be inhaled by the user. Introduced as an alternative to traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are increasingly popular in North America, where monthly unit sales of product increased by nearly 47 percent from 2020 to 2022, according to the CDC.
Some members of Gen Z picked up their vaping habit in their teenage years. Parsa Pahlavan, a senior CCPA Arts Entrepreneurship student at SMU, said she started vaping at 15 because she saw her friends doing it and thought it looked cool.
“I have two flavors to alternate with,” Pahlavan explained. “One is peach, I love peach. And the other is mint. I wake up and I’m tossing my pillows trying to find them. If I don’t have it on me, I’m freaking out and I’m buying one immediately.”
While the allure of enticing flavors, bright-colored batteries and trendy names like “Peach Mango Ice” and “Miami Mint” attract young people like Pahlavan to vape, it’s crucial to recognize that these seemingly harmless choices can have adverse effects on one’s entire body.
“Inhaling e-cigarettes and vapes pose serious health issues, such as damage to your heart and lungs— it also causes undesirable physical changes to your appearance,” Jessica Yaklin-Strubhart, an esthetician with SkinSpirit Medical in Dallas said.
Vaping, Yaklin-Strubhart explained, spells nothing but trouble for this recent class of anti-aging-obsessed skincare aficionados.
“The nicotine in vaping liquids dehydrates your skin which can lead to premature wrinkles,” Yaklin-Strubhart said. “Nicotine is linked to chronic skin conditions like acne, psoriasis and skin cancers. Known as squamous cell carcinoma and melanomas—one of the major effects of vaping is also oral cancer.”
In addition to causing acne and clogged pores, every aspect of vaping e-cigarettes can contribute to skin issues and damage, especially around one’s mouth, Dr. Stephanie Saxton Daniels, a dermatologist at Westlake Dermatology said.
“[Patients] usually come in and they’re getting cysts around the mouth or acne,” Daniels illustrated. “Sometimes you can get little pre-cancers or cancers on the lips and inside the mouth.”
Despite the powerful grip of nicotine addiction, maintaining a skin-care routine is important to vape users like Pahlavan who still strive to maintain a well-defined, clean and youthful-looking face.
While some common skincare-related concerns of Gen Z are delaying the manifestation of wrinkles, eyebags, visible pores, acne, dark spots, dark circles and sagging skin, most of the clients that come in to see Yaklin-Strubhart are concerned with one symptom in particular: dryness.
Pahlavan is dedicated to her skincare routine. She washes and moisturizes her face twice a day, morning and night. To combat a recent increase in her skin’s dryness, Pahlavan uses eczema patches.
Pahlavan has noticed significant changes in her skin since she picked up her vaping habit: her skin and lips are achy and drier than before.
“Something that’s really noticeable is the fine lines and wrinkles around the mouth,” Strubhart said. “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot that we can do [about this] as estheticians.”
Injectors can resurface and lighten wrinkles, thus correcting the effects of vaping on facial skin. To completely dissolve the appearance of wrinkles, Yaklin-Strubhart recommended filler. One syringe of filler costs between $700 to $800.
“We don’t really know the chemicals that are also put into these e-cigarettes and vapes,” Yaklin-Strubhart said. “And whenever we are using these vapes, we’re using them with our hands and putting them directly to our face, which is going to cause your skin to be exposed to the nicotine and the chemicals.”
Gen Z wants to look cool and will do whatever it takes to achieve that. Their insecurities about dry skin or acne drive this demographic of consumers toward a shockingly thorough skincare regimen and flippant fads intensified by peer pressure toward vaping.
The consequences of vaping are much greater than Gen Z knows–their skincare routine might be for nothing.
“It is important that we realize that the research into the effects of vaping and damage done to the skin is still relatively new,” Yaklin-Strubhart said. “Further studies are still needed to fully understand the potential side effects.”
Yet, Yaklin-Strubhart said putting down the vape could help these skincare aficionados perfect their pores for years to come.
“If you’re definitely looking to age gracefully and take care of your skin,” Yaklin-Strubhart said, “Vaping is the last thing that I would recommend.”
