Archive for the ‘Skin Care Product Reviews’ Category:
Every day that I see women in the media, I’m amazed at how well some of them have aged, and many of them without nary a touch from a surgeon’s knife or injection from a Botox needle. You can usually tell who’s gone under the knife or had a lot of Botox, because there are giveaway signs.
Botox, after years of use, tends to result in what’s called “Botox brow”. Botox brow is where the brows tend to look overly arched and higher on the head, resulting in a sort of angry or surprised look, all the time.
Women who I think have aged fantastically without anything (I’m guessing here, by appearances) are Valerie Bertinelli, Kyra Sedgewick, Julia Roberts (who recently proclaimed her disdain for Botox and other anti aging surgeries and extremes), Demi Moore and Jennifer Aniston.
Now, some of you may disagree with my assessment that these beauties are au naturelle, but I think they look very natural, and they don’t “look” like they’ve had anything done.
Which leads me to the question, is 40 really the new 30? And then, is 50 really the new 40 also? It seems like women are able to age so well now with all the nonsrugical products at their disposal. Also, knowing what to eat and how to live your life to maximize your skin’s beauty for a long time is key well.
There are so many anti aging and anti wrinkle products that really make a big difference in our skin’s appearance and help our skin to maintain moisture so much better than products of yesteryear and were minimal on technology. Ingredients like idebenone, hyaluronic acid, potent vitamin C and alpha lipoic acid, DMAE and various hydroxy acids really can make a difference in skin over time.
Daily exfoliation really helps too, because it keeps the skin cells new on top, and refreshes the older dead ones, resulting over time in less fine lines and wrinkles, and making the skin appear fresher, more toned and more taut and even.
We are lucky to live in an age where these types of products are at our easy disposal – it really does make you look younger than your years, and it’s no wonder that so many women get mistaken for much younger than their bio
I decided it was time for me to start using not only an allover the face facial cream at night when I tend to pile on my more serious, intensive skin care products since they are better absorbed at night and not interfered with by the sunlight (as retinol is for example). I landed on using an intensive eye cream that was meant strictly for the sensitive and very prone to wrinkles area under the eyes.
The particular brand I’m reviewing for your today is Aveeno, and it’s their Active Naturals line. This one is called Aveeno Active Naturals Lifting and Firming Eye cream.
It’s in a tiny little round pump container, which I was very skeptical about when I received it in the mail (I ordered it online), because I don’t like when things come that small – it makes me think they packaged it that way on purpose so I’ll fly through it in two weeks and have to run and buy more which is their ultimate goal.
This, however, will go a long way as long as you’re not doing two pumps every night and using it night and day. I just use one half of a pump under both of my eyes every night, and I believe this will last me a month if I continue to use it like this.
I’ve been using the eye cream for about 2 weeks now. I only use it at night, sometimes I’ll put a tiny bit of it under my eyes in the morning though before work if I’m looking tired. It really does brighten the under eye area, and I think that’s what take the attention off of lines.
I’m not sure if it’s actually helping to diminish the fine lines and crows feet I have, but it’s definitely a great brightening and tightening anti aging cream to use for this sensitive area.
It contains mushroom extract. I’m not exactly sure what the therapeutic benefits of mushroom extract are supposed to be, but I can tell you that this cream has definitely helped make my under eye area more defined, tighter, and brighter looking. If you only use it under your eyes, it should last you a month, and that’s about what I’m projecting mine to last as well, so at just under $18 per bottle, it’s not terrible, but it’s not the lowest priced thing either.
With skin care products, especially ones that address wrinkles and act as anti aging agents on your skin, it can be hard to tell when you should be throwing in the towel, so to speak, on their benefits. I’ve used many excellent skin care products and creams that it took me several weeks to see a noticeable benefit from, and in the end I was glad I stuck with it and let it go to work on really helping my skin.
In this world of an increased sense of “now” and instant gratification, we tend to forget that like all good things worth waiting for, a good wrinkle cream is worth it’s weight in gold if you can wait for it to start working and showing visible results.
I remember I used this one particular vitamin C serum that felt wonderful gliding onto my skin. It just made my skin “feel good” when I put it on. I also loved the fact that is sank right into my skin and seemed to really absorb well, leaving no residue. I thought it wasn’t really making a difference in the actual appearance of my skin until several weeks later, when I realized it had actually diminished several darker spots on the sides of my face that were no doubt due to sun damage.
It also made my skin look brighter, and was an awesome addition to my night time skin care routine, because it was so light and weightless and it let other products go on top of it with no sticky, built up feeling. You should really try to give any skin care product about four weeks to start seeing a difference in your skin before you give up on it and move on to the next best thing.
Why? Well, dermatologists think this is about the right amount of time for your skin layers to start renewing themselves (a good anti aging product will renew your skin cells faster). And if your skin care product is working right, it will be increasing cell turnover and improving your skin’s appearance in about that time frame. Any sooner, and consider yourself lucky.
Now, it’s a different story if you find that a skin care product is interacting with your skin negatively. If it makes your skin burn too much or is making you break out in a rash, obviously this is a reason to give up no it quickly. Otherwise, stay the course and see if this might be the perfect product for your skin.
We tend to focus a lot on the exterior skin care products for anti aging and wrinkle repair that we use, and yes, those are vitally important to keeping our skin young and supple and wrinkle free. However, what we lack focus on in most of our lives and awareness is that the saying “you are what you eat” applies to the appearance of your skin and your overall aging gracefully strategy just as much as it does to your mental abilities, your happiness and your body’s health.
I’ve seen this truth in my own life over and over again. When I go on a week bender of eating really bad foods that are low in nutritional value, I see a marked difference in my skin. I actually notice a difference in how “old” my skin looks. Wrinkles tend to appear more readily, my skin seems to have a more greyish pallor instead of a healthy, peachy tone, and my hair even seems to suffer the consequences of my crappy diet choices.
However, when I’m on the ball and eating right, it’s a totally different story. I not only feel beautiful, but that feeling translates into my skin, my hair, my body’s appearance and just my overall “aura” I suppose you could say.
Some of the most important nutrients that I’ve found make my skin glow and my hair glossy are omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants, citrus fruits, and decaffeinated green tea. When I’m not getting the omega 3′s should be in my diet, I make sure I take a fish oil supplement a couple times a day. Fish oil, or any other omega 3 (high grade is the best) supplements, are one of the most powerful anti aging supplements you can take.
Omega 3 fatty acids are known mostly for heart protection, but they also make your skin glow. They allow your skin to maintain more moisture from the inside, so what you get is a more toned, taut look – naturally. They also help regulate your blood sugar levels, which through a complex chain reaction, helps your collagen stores be more effective and less prone to breaking down and literally showing “cracks” in your skin’s structure.
Antioxidants are of vital importance as well. They make your skin glow from the inside, and they are of HUGE importance when it comes to battling sun damage. One really interesting fact is that consuming tomatoes actually has helped people prevent sun burn and subsequent sun damage to their skin which can lead to skin cancer and wrinkles and sun spots.
When you get tons of antioxidants in your diet, it’s sort of like your own natural form of “internal sunscreen”, since it provides your body with all the natural weapons it needs to combat free radical damage.
The more I hear about Botox, the less I think I want to ever try it. And I was actually open to the idea of trying it out when I reached 40 years old, just as a sort of preventive measure against further wrinkles and sagging in my facial skin, and particularly on my forehead as well as the developing crow’s feet around my eyes. I thought well, they haven’t really come out with any studies that show it’s toxic, so why not?
Well, a lot of new developments have made me rethink this possible anti aging strategy. One, there are no real long term toxic studies on these injections, and let’s not forget that the botulinum used in the formula is indeed still a toxic protein that in extreme cases can cause full paralyses and even death when consumed. So, why would it not ever absorb into the body with each injection, and stay there forever, building to toxic levels?
That potential scares me, I won’t lie. So I’ve really resorted to more natural options first, being in my mid thirties. I use anti wrinkle creams that are high grade and natural, and I try to avoid any exposure to sunlight at all on my facial area, using a natural sunscreen by Dr. Mercola on it so that the sun’s rays don’t damage my skin there and also so that the potential toxins that are in most sunscreens don’t screw with my skin or my health either.
Then I read that Botox can actually cause wrinkles, because it makes other areas of your face show the emotions that the injected areas can’t, creating more wrinkles in another area. So in other words, damned where you don’ t get the injections, and it’s almost like you have to freeze your entire face and look like a freak to not get new wrinkles ANYWHERE on your face. And who wants to be an unemotive person?
The last thing I heard which pretty much cemented my decision to forgo ever trying Botox as an anti aging and wrinkle prevention strategy was that it may actually prevent you from FEELING emotions as deeply as you normally would. That’s right, the fact that your face can express emotions such as crying, getting upset, smiling, laughing and all that good stuff that makes you – well – human – actually triggers deeper emotional responses in your brain that help you to actually feel things on a deeper level.
While that may be good for emotions like anger, frustration and sadness, it’s not good because you also may not be able to feel joy as deeply, and who wants to live like that!?
I read the most interesting article the other day. It got my attention because it said you should skip the popular anti aging injection Botox, and instead make sure you floss your teeth, so naturally I was interested in what they had to say. I’ve never had Botox injections, but I certainly try to use the best topical anti aging and anti wrinkle creams and products on my face to help keep it looking smooth and youthful.
I also happen to floss every night, because I do believe that flossing is key to gum and tooth health, and because I also happen to have a problem with gum recession, which is prominent in my mom’s side of the family. Apparently though, flossing may be key to keeping that youthful look as long as possible according to new findings. If you floss, you keep gum disease at bay, and also help keep your teeth in place where they should be for a much longer time, which makes you look younger.
Aging of you mouth actually has a lot to do with how young you look. They say that yellowing, stained teeth and receding gums can really add to your years in appearance, and also it has another impact that we may not have thought about.
Flossing actually helps keep the bones that hold your teeth in place in top shape. Because when you get gum disease, it often impacts the bones that are underlying in your jaw and elsewhere in your mouth, flossing helps prevent shifting and loss of bone mass. New research has also shown that your jaw and other facial structural bones, wear away with time, and this is something that cannot be fixed with surgery, which may explain why facelifts often look strange.
They don’t address the whole problem, which is a combination of sagging skin and the loss of bone mass underneath, which creates an overall less angled look. So you basically lose a lot of your underlying facial structure as you age, and flossing can help keep that structure in the right place, helping to keep you looking younger for years longer, which is something that no wrinkle filling dermal filler, face freezing injections or facial surgery can currently do.
Dr. Mercola is a naturalopathic doctor who has a huge website online. I subscribe to his newsletters, and I think, although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says 100% of the time, he has some very valid points and also happens to have some excellent products that I’ve tried that are all natural.
I decided to try his natural sunscreen, an SPF 30, because I started reading the labels on store bought sunscreens with traditional labels like Coppertone, Banana Boat and other popular brands, and saw a bevy of preservatives that are known toxins to the skin and body, and other chemical names that I didn’t even recognize.
I started to think, in my quest to be healthier by shield my skin to damage UV rays, I might actually be doing more harm than good by slathering on chemicals that inevitably leach into your blood stream. So, I bought two of his natural sun products actually. One, I bought the Mercola natural sunscreen, and two I bought the Natural Tanning oil. Both come with green tea, which I like, because green tea is a great antioxidant, and is good for the skin both internally and externally, helping to reverse and stave off free radical damage.
Both products are eco friendly and biodegradable, which is a good sign that they are also non toxic to apply to human skin. I bought the tanning oil too, because I do occasionally like to enjoy short bouts in the sun without mega sunscreen, so I can ensure I get my daily dose of vitamin D, which is proving to be ever more important in the grand scheme of things. I love the tanning oil. It has a ton of good for your skin ingredients.
You MUST shake it well before every use, to make sure the extract and oils all mix together so you get maximum benefit. It’s made of sunflower oil, green tea extract, coconut oil, which is a great skin protector, almost oil, lanolin, vitamin E, eucalyptus oil, and vitamin C. No unrecognizable chemical names – nice huh!? I have never gotten burned using this oil, and it feels great going on. I feel like it’s also protecting my skin, and I’m not putting any toxic chemicals on, so I feel safe leaving it on all day after the sun too.
The Mercola sunscreen is great too. This one you must shake well before each use also. It also contains green tea extract. In addition to almost the same ingredients as the tanning oil, it contains only the natural sunscreens in it of zinc oxide, a natural compound, and titanium dioxide, another naturally occurring compound. No parabens or other potentially cancer linked chemicals – and it works great.
You do have to reapply after going in the water, but it’s totally non toxic and you don’t feel like it’s plugging every pore when you put it on.Even the smell isn’t all “chemically” like you’re used to smelling when you open a bottle of traditional sunscreen. I’m sold!
Collagen is a crucial “building block” to beautiful, youthful and taut skin in your youth. It also greatly matters to the continued appearance of your skin as you age. The reason that our skin starts to sag, break down and look less youthful as we age is due to the huge loss of collagen production and the loss of existing collagen in the skin. What can you do to help maintain the collagen in your skin?
There are several anti aging and wrinkle creams that help your skin to maintain this appearance and help boost collagen production. Home microderm kits and peels help regenerate skin and also boost collagen production as well.
Well, I know whenever there is any health related or beauty related news about chocolate, I’m all ears. Let’s face it, us women are genetically programmed to love chocolate. I don’t know many women who flat out don’t like chocolate, and there’s a reason why. It’s been proven that chocolate actually stimulates your “happy” natural chemicals that start buzzing around in your body. The mere act of putting a piece of delicious chocolate in your mouth can start your taste buds afire and ignite your happy mood.
Now, there’s evidence that chocolate, of course, of the dark variety since it has more of those super powerful antioxidants in it compared to lighter milk chocolate, may also help your skin to glow. It makes sense, since antioxidants in general tend to add to your skin’s youthful glow. The reason that dark chocolate may help lend to your skin’s supple, smooth glow is that it helps to fight aging.
Antioxidants, which certain chocolate bars are rich in, attack molecules called free radicals. Free radicals are the destroyers of healthy skin cells. Because they destroy healthy skin cells and can even cause skin cell death and mutation, they contribute to aging. When antioxidants are in the blood stream, they attack these free radicals, allowing more healthy skin cells to stay healthy, which means your skin looks better, for a longer time.
Now, a Swiss chocolate maker is going to make chocolate even more special. They are working on creating a chocolate bar that has tons of flavanols, which are powerful antioxidants, in it. This means even more anti aging ingredients which benefit the skin by preserving youthful attributes like elasticity, healthy tone and color, smoothness (no wrinkles), and lift.
This chocolate may be a great seller if it actually helps to do what it says. The only thing you have to watch out for with any chocolate is not to over do it. Even if it’s dark, minimally sweetened chocolate, it still contains sugar and calories. Sugar actually aids in the aging process because a high sugar diet helps to make the collagen cells rigid and fragile, which makes them break down quicker.
Collagen is an extremely important component in your skin’s elasticity, resilience and health as you age, and the depletion of collagen aids in the acceleration of the aging process of the skin. You can help boost collagen production by using anti aging products that have exfoliants in them, which increase cell turnover and help to increase collagen production.
The more your skin feels soft and gentle the better you feel about yourself. As we know, that’s a pretty big statement. In your teens, including puberty it’s very likely to struggle with acne. In the 20s, the stress that you experience from overworking and too many obligations, exhort bad habits (like smoking, drinking) to play an important role on your face.
When you feel your 30s, it seems to be a period called “breeding”, when you are laden by family problems. By the time 40s attack you, your skin feels more and more ignored. If it’s so unrealistic to expect to have beautiful, flawless skin at any age, why do we pursue it so relentlessly? Being an optimistic person and believing that you can still have beautiful, pure skin, why wouldn’t you do something helpful for your look?
If you are unhappy with your appearance because it looks like more and more aged, you would definitely like to win a more youthful skin. However, there is not magic potion to stop the skin from aging, actually you can do a big step to help removing those wrinkles on your face, and even it will make you look younger. The feeling of getting older is not a positive one. It can ruin your abilities to be yourself, can make you unstable person, and you don’t need this unpleasant notion.
Do you wonder which anti aging treatment is best for your skin?
Maybe it sounds impossible, but almost every anti aging skin care product available in the markets contains compounds which as a matter of fact will damage your skin’s health gradually. In most cases, the best anti aging cream that suits to your skin appears to be very cheap.
If the recommended product costs a lot, it does not mean that it must be very effective one. If you want to achieve some positive results, you should immediately forget about big names on the packaging. The important thing that plays the main role is to get the right one for you and you will face with the bright side. So take your time and check the ingredients, it’s the only way to make sure that you selected the effective and healthy one.
Many sufferers claimed that green tea may have many beneficial conditions for aging skin. Natural fruit and vegetable masks are very famed treatments. The lemon makes a lot for your skin, leaves a refreshed imprint on the exhausted face. However, mineral oil appears to prevent the skin from “breathing.” It closes the pores, prohibits the ability of the skin to eliminate toxins, all this can lead to acne flare ups, making it one of the anti aging ingredients to avoid.
The substances like ethanol, ethyl alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol and SD don’t act in the same way, but are commonly found in skin care products and are very drying and irritating for the skin. Be very careful, it’s not about something you can repair it or buy it. It’s about your skin, the most important external part of your body. Only if you are very cautious you won’t have problems later in your life. Do the effort on your side and be proud of your young, wrinkle free skin at older age.
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