There was a great article that I recently read about how the age for “youth enhancing” types of procedures, surgery and things like Botox and peels is being pushed lower and lower. The incredible pressure that we feel as women to maintain a youthful, fresh appearance often weighs so heavily. 

I’ve found myself looking at my ever increasing wrinkles in the mirror, which I’ve largely been able to help reverse or at least keep at a standstill for a couple years by using the best anti aging and wrinkle products.  I often think about what they would look like if I had some radical procedure (NEVER would I get a facelift – EVER).

But of course my mind has gone the way of Botox. I’m still really leery of Botox though. I know that thousands of women and men get Botox every year without incident, and no side effects, it’s just that the long term safety of it is what scares me. I do think it’s a great way to freeze wrinkles where they are, but I have serious questions about the safety of injecting a toxin underneath the skin.

A toxin is a toxin.  Period.  And what kinds of other things are in the shot? No doubt preservatives and other delivery type of chemicals.  I just don’t know what all is being injected. Plus there have been studies that Botulism may migrate to the brain and stay there. What are the long term effects of getting this done a couple times a year, built up over the years?

We really don’t know yet. And Botox isn’t something that you just get done once and then you’re done. You don’t maintain your results if you don’t keep getting the injections 2-4 times per year.

The age for women who are getting Botox often now is starting in the twenties!  This is when your skin still looks its best naturally!  Yet some doctors are recommending it this young so that you can have a sort of “preventive” measure against wrinkles. 

In Hollywood, take the pressure that us normal women feel to look young and beautiful and multiply it by a hundred. Women in the entertainment industry are incredibly pressured to look young forever.  It’s unfair, but the media really crucifies women when they start to look old.

Fox News does a segment that’s particularly cruel where they compare two stars of the same age.  Obviously, one looks older and one looks younger. It’s this type of constant comparing that women need to get away from, and yet we’re faced with it, both self imposed and outside-imposed every day!

Hydroquinone enjoyed quite a long reign as the skin lightening agent of choice in many different skincare products.  However, serious doubts about its safety began to come up after several years on the market. Especially for people who had used products with hydroquinone as the active ingredient repeatedly over the course of months or years.

It was actually linked to skin cancer.  The chemical itself contains carcinogenic compounds, but there is another carcinogenic aspect to using this ingredient on your skin. Apparently, the repeated use of hydroquinone actually increases the UV penetration when your skin is exposed to UV light.

This makes it more carcinogenic to get sun exposure on your skin where the hydroquinone is usually applied.  Adding that to the fact that it is already carcinogenic on its own, it makes it an absolute no-no ingredient that you should probably stay away from all together.

There are some alterntives to hydroquinone, however, they are not as capable at lightening the skin as hydroquinone is.  One of them is kojic acid. This is derived from a mushroom.  Becvause this is a totally natural alternative, there are no known health dangers associated with it at this time.

It is not as effective as hydroquinone, however, with repeate use, some do report that they have good results.  Another option is to use manual exfoliants on the face or other areas where you are trying to reduce the appearance of age spots, freckles and sun damage or melasma. 

Fruit acids may help to reduce hyperpigmentation as well.  Alpha hydroxy acid and other fruit derived acids, as well as acid peels using lactic acid or glycolic acid.  Glycolic acid is fantastic as an overall wrinkle reducing and age spot reducing agent when used regularly. It just needs to be used with much care and also you must avoid UV exposure for a few days after getting a peel.

I love to do the occasional chemical peel on my face. I prefer more natural acids, like fruit enzymes and alpha hydroxies, but those can sometimes aggravate my skin since it is oily, so I will often opt for a lactic acid peel or glycolic acid peel. Lactic acid is a gentle acid peel that is excellent for those with acne or oily skin.  Speaking of acne and oily skin, here is an all natural acne soap you may want to check out.

It’s not as harsh as glycolic, and it doesn’t go as deep below the surface skin cells like glycolic does, so you can definitely not feel the same burning sensation, although you will feel a bit of that tingle that’s signature of the acid peel.

Glycolic acid is a pretty serious peel, and if you are administering it to yourself, you should definitely take precautions and make sure you are not too sensitive that you will have a reaction to it. I would recommend some sort of small patch test before you go ahead and slather this one allover your precious face.

Glycolic acid is superior for aging skin, because rather that physically exfoliating the excess dead skin cells on the outer layer of your facial skin, it actually dissolved them, and then moves on ot the next several layers of the skin and works on those as well. This is why the burning sensation occurs.

You should never leave a higher concentration glycolic peel on your face for more than three minutes. To do so, you are risking over doing it, and actually irritating the skin so bad that you could end up with some swelling and even scabbing. However, glycolic peels are excellent for really rejuvenating the skin and getting the collagen production ramped back up, so I’d recommend them every once in a while if you have aging skin.

Lactic acid and other more gentle fruit based acids may be better for those that are younger and are more or less trying to make their skin look fresher or help keep acne at bay. They are also good for softening acne scarring and helping to smooth out the complexion and make it appear more even toned and colored.

Glycolic is great when mixed with lactic acid. One of my favorite acid peels is the Glycolac (the lac standing for lactic). It is a mix between these two very powerful acid peels, and although my skin may look like hell right after I use it, it looks fabulous in about one to two days.

I’m not normally a fan of Garnier Nutrisse hair care products or hair dyes. Nor am I usually a fan of their line of skin care. In fact, I once bought a skin moisturizing gel by them that I threw away after one use, which is practically unheard of for me since I take pride in giving things a bit of a chance before wasting money and throwing them away.

However, when I saw a duo skin care kit that contained what I was really looking for, which was a home microdermabrasion component (just a gritty exfoliator you run over your face with your hands, which I was out of my favorite brand and hard up), at a deeply discounted store we go to in the south, I figured what the hey and bought it.

I pretty much knew I would throw away the post treatment regenerating moisturizer with SPF 15 in it, since I knew I didn’t like the other moisturizer I bought from them AT ALL. However, I was a little bit wrong on that too, I actually thought it was ok, and am keeping it as a backup facial SPF lotion to my favorite one right now, which has no preservatives or chemicals in it.

The Skin Renew polishing exfoliator was quite a find for me, because it contains the actual aluminum oxide crystals I was looking for. Those are the ticket for me. They are the best exfoliator for my skin, which tends to be kind of hard to exfoliate well due to its thickness and oiliness.

This is a more forceable, deep exfoliator, which is exactly what I was looking for. I like to deeply exfoliate my skin once a week to sweep away the old skin cells and reveal newer, fresher ones and to help soften crows feet and other wrinkles, ages spots and old acne scarring.

I actually like the ones that are a bit more severe and deep, because that is what gives me better results personally for my skin type, which can withstand quite a bit.

This was exactly what I needed. It was crystals in a light cream base, and it really got down to the deeper layers with my hand motions.  I do tend to scrub pretty hard, which I don’t really recommend to others with sensitive or thin skin.

When I was done exfoliating, my skin was a bright pink and it looked almost like it had been sun burned, but I knew that multiple applications of my special deep moisturizer would fix that right up over night. I really liked how deep this scrub let me go, but don’t get me wrong, I used quite a bit of elbow grease of my own as well.

The Skin Renew post treatment moisturizer wasn’t bad either. The scent wasn’t overpowering, and I love that it was a lighter moisturizer and had SPF in it. I’ll keep it around as a backup for sure. Love when I get bargains like this. The little kit cost me seven bucks – not bad!

I was starting to see a few all natural and organic types of skin care products pop up with an ingredient that I had never heard of before. So naturally, I got curious and wanted to know more about this new ingredient in skin care, and started to research it.

Turns out, sea buckthorn essential oil, which is the concentrated essence of the sea buckthorn berry, is an antioxidant powerhouse, and has many skin care benefits, as well as therapeutic benefits for skin trauma.  It has actually been used more for skin trauma than anything before its additional anti aging and skin beautifying effects were really discovered.

Sea buckthorn berries are a yellowish orange color.  The essential oil from sea buckthorn berries is a very beautiful, deep orange color, that saturates a cream when it is added to it with a vibrant orange color.  You know that this must be loaded with lots of goodies if it is that deeply pigmented in nature, and it certainly is.

The shrub that the berries grow on is actually native to Siberia and areas of the Himalayan mountains.  Sea buckthorn oil has been used for helping the skin to quickly heal burns from radiation, heat, and the sun, and has also been used to help heal bed sores, wounds, and also to tame eczema.

Obviously, this powerful oil has a lot of anti inflammatory capabilities as well as high antioxidant value if it helps to calm and heal burns and abrasions, and can also help eczema, which means it has some excellent abilities when it comes to every day skin care as well.

The naturally high antioxidant value of sea buckthorn oil as well as the high essential fatty acid content is valuable when it comes to anti aging skin care. This is because it helps to seek out and destroy free radicals, as well as to minimize the effects of sun damage on the skin by helping to neutralize those free radicals which cause such cell damage.

The oil has a high concentration of beta carotene as well, which helps with age spots, and helps to even out skin tone.  It is very well received by most types of skin, and of course it’s all natural, so it is preferable to layering chemicals on the skin.

The high concentration of beta carotene though, does warrant a warning. Do not wear this on your face when you are going to be exposed to sunlight, as it could increase your UV sensitivity.  Sea buckthorn is probably best utilized at night, as an intensive, restorative anti aging skin treatment.

Dysport is the long lost cousin of Botox, the more well known facial muscle relaxer that is used to the tune of millions and millions of dollars in revenue every year by men and women alike who are looking to cheat father time by freezing or relaxing facial muscles.

This relaxation of the muscles actually helps to reduce facial wrinkles because first off, it doens’t allow someone to make certain expressions (at least fully) that would make wrinkles appear worse in the moment.

Second, it helps reduce the formation of further wrinkles since it doesn’t allow these facial expressions to be very pronounced, which results in wrinkles over time from constant facial postures.

The anti wrinkle and anti aging skin care industry is a huge one, as both women and men become more savvy as to what can help them stall the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, age spots, and all the other stuff that comes along with getting older and being exposed to all the elements (and stress) for so long.

Dysport is the competitor of Botox, and they both basically do the same thing. Both Dysport and Botox can help to relax facial muscles and other muscles in the body for a certain temporary period of time, which can be useful for anti aging, but can also have other medical implications in other areas as well.  Dysport vs. Botox may need a round two when it comes to one area though.

Recently, a study, that admittedly was not wide reaching or large in scope, showed that Dysport may have an advantage over Botox in smoothing a specific type of wrinkle that is a real concern for many of us – the dreaded “crows feet”.

That’s the area around the side of your eyes that crinkles up when you laugh, squint or smile really wide.  It’s one of my biggest problem areas, but I’ve so far refused to get Botox or any other sort of dermatological intervention. I want to still try my luck with anti aging and wrinkle creams and topical products.

The concerns and side effects of Dysport pretty much mirror those of Botox. The medication may migrate away from the site of injection and can cause paralysis of the throat, drooping eyes, and other fairly serious side effects, up to and including death if breathing is affected.

Dysport treatments last about the same amount of time as Botox treatments do, so know that you do have to go back for repeat treatments to keep the results up. The only other thing I don’t like about Dysport or Botox for that matter, is the fact that there are really no LONG term studies on these medications effects on the human body.

As I talked about in my last update, I got hooked on the Revlon liquid liner, when I had been using L’Oreal’s liquid liner for a long time. I recently decided to try yet another one of L’Oreal’s facial care products, this time a day time cream called Future-e (it contains vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant for the skin) with SPF 15.

It looked like the perfect light day time lotion for me, and I was also looking for something with an SPF in it as well to protect my skin from the daytime sunlight and ward off premature aging sun rays.

It came in a very generous 4 oz. bottle size. Most creams for the face come in 1-2 ounces, so I felt I was getting a good deal on this Future-e cream for around $12. I use a TON of day time moisturizer on my skin so that my skin doesn’t dry out during the day and show wrinkles and imperfections more.

I am a firm believer that intense and constant hydration of the skin is one of the biggest ways to fight off the signs of aging like wrinkles and sun damage.  So, I knew that although this was a 4 oz. bottle, I would do some pretty good damage to it in a fairly short amount of time.

I really like the lotion. It has a pleasant, unoffenisve scent to it, and a velvety sort of texture that isn’t greasy and absorbs pretty well. When I put it on, I layer it, so I let the first layer sink in, then I apply a second and a third. My skin looks fresh and dewy when I’m done, and it creates a great surface for my foundation to adhere to.

I like the way the lotion makes my skin feel, but I have a few complaints.  I wish this product did not contain artificial scents and the preservatives that it has in it. I prefer to use natural lotions with SPF that have no parabens, pthalates, sulfates, petrolatum and other potentially toxic chemicals.

However, I was sort of a slave to the grocery store at the time since I couldn’t run to a natural food store and buy something without all the chemicals in it.  This is, however, a good product from L’Oreal, and I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t concerned about chemicals.  I will use it here and there after my chemical free stuff comes in the mail.  I do like the way it makes my skin feel and look.

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After trying another almost all-natural day time lotion with SPF 15 in it by Jason naturals, which I was a huge fan of (it was part of their Red line), I figured it was time to try out another, almost all natural day lotion with SPF in it. And what better product line to move on to than Burt’s Bees?

I have great affection for a lot of the other products in the Burt’s Bees line of natural and organic cosmetic and personal care products. I will always be a fan of their lip balms, for example.  So I figured I’d give this day lotion a try.

What I look for in a day lotion is a light, very absorbable formula that will keep my skin moisturized, protected from the sun’s rays, and radiant looking all day. I don’t like lotions that leave my skin parched by the end of the day, and more readily showing wrinkles and signs of aging.

Burt’s Bees Radiance Day Lotion with SPF 15 seemed to fit the bill, It is a white lotion, that seems fairly light when you dispense it.  However, it has a sticky, almost glue-y type of consistency when you start rubbing it on your face that I don’t like.

There is also some sort of shimmery substance in it that makes you look chalky and sparkly in certain light, rather than sheer and brighter, which is what I prefer.

I’m not sure if it’s the substance they put in it to make it “shimmery” or what, but the consistency of it is way too sticky for me.  It absorbs into the skin ok, but it’s this sticky after effect that is a turn off. 

I have been trying to “water it down” with a body lotion that I have by Eco Tools that is all natural with a shea butter base which is very light and easily absorbed, just so that the gummy feeling of it mellows out. 

My face tends to look a bit paler after I apply it as well, which is another problem, especially considering paleness always makes one look older and brings out the flaws in our skin, whether those flaws are acne or wrinkles and signs of aging. 

As for the SPF factor, it does seem to protect my skin well from the UV rays. However, I think I’m going to revert back to my beloved JASON Red line of day cream after this…

I had never even heard of this procedure before, then it seemed like I suddenly started seeing television ads all over for it one day, during my fitness regimen which I record from Fit TV. It was on almost every break, so I had a chance to get lured in every time it came on.

Not because I’m anywhere near doing anything so dramatic, I’m still in my thirties for goodness sake!  But part of what I do is remain abreast of the latest cosmetic procedures, and it’s always fun to see the way the world of beauty and self improvement is evolving. Plus hey, you never know, one day I may try one of these noninvasive procedures.

Oh wait, this is an invasive procedure – actually it’s pretty invasive, so it’s curious that it’s advertised as not as invasive as a full on facelift. I must admit, one different between the Lifestyle Lift and a full tilt facelift is that the results do look much more natural.  The women in the before and after photos for a Lifestyle lift do look much more natural, and not all pulled back and plastic like women who have had traditional facelifts do.

Then there is the price. Lifestyle Lifts are less expensive than the traditional facelift, which tends to run anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000, depending on where you live and who your surgeon of choice is. For something like this, which can dramatically alter your face, I’d certainly say you should treat it like money isn’t the  most important aspect, but results.

The Lifestyle Lift, from what I can tell, runs about $6,000 and up, depending on your area.  I read some scary stories on the internet about how painful it was for some women who’d had the procedure, but these are always so subjective. Apparently, with the Lifestyle Lift, you are not fully put under like in a traditional facelift, but instead you are given injections of anesthetic as well as valium or some other sort of tranquilizer.

The shots in and of themselves can be fairly painful, especially if you do no like needles, so that is something to consider. There is cutting involved, since they typically target the jowl area and pull the “turkey neck” up to make the chin side view much more sleek and pronounced, like it is in your youth.

As we age, our necks tend to droop, and we get what’s often affectionately referred to as a “waddle” of skin under our chins.  The Lifestyle lift definitely targets that piece and also the jowls, and can even be combined with laser rejuvenation for toning and wrinkles reduction.

If it were me, I’d just be doing facial exercises for the jowls, and continuing to use the best anti aging and wrinkle skin care on the market – that way you don’t have to worry about the results of some procedure – you just keep improving on what you already have!