Archive for the ‘Skin Care Product Reviews’ Category:
Well, I have the unique position of being able to see what has sold at a high rate over the holidays because of the line of work I’m in.
So I thought I would share with you some of the trends I have seen in skin care products, systems and treatments that men and women have either treated themselves to this holiday season, or asked for from friends and family as a gift.
One thing that was very popular this holiday season were the at home microdermabrasion kits that many women and men have been turned on to as a less expensive alternative to salon or spa treatments, which can cost a hundred bucks or over a pop.
Sure, the in-spa treatments are a great treat because you don’t have to do anything, you just lay there and listen to soothing music and look at the pleasant surroundings, but when you see the dent in your wallet, reality sets in.
That’s why so many people are buying home microderm sets – especially the one from Neutrogena, which features a rotating pad that helps blast away old skin cells and reveal new, prettier ones quickly, much like real microdermabrasion.
Another very popular one is the Oil of Olay at home chemical peel and microderm kit. This one features a light chemical peel and an exfoliation system along with it, which helps to keep the skin looking fresh and new. It’s very reasonable and gets reviewed well for effectiveness as related to the cost of the product.
The best selling anti aging and skin care line Revitol has been selling a lot of products as well. Mostly their skin brightener and exfoliation products, so a lot of people must be looking to refresh their skin right about now. Perhaps that winter dullness has already grown tiresome and people are ready to exfoliate away that dullness.
That seems to be the theme – exfoliation and renewal, from what’s been selling.
Hair care products are also selling well, with a lot of women buying things like Sedu flat irons, ionic hair dryers and other such “luxury” hair items that really help to make the hair look healthy and in tip top shape, naturally.
Natural hair dyes are selling very well also. Women and men alike are tired of having to resort to drying, dangerous chemicals to keep their hair color deep and interesting, and they are resorting to natural hair dyes more and more, and they are treating themselves to a new dye job this holiday as evidenced by sales.
Speaking of natural hair dye, I’m going to have a review for you soon on a natural hair colorant that I will be using in the next week or two. It has no harsh chemicals at all, and uses vegetable based dyes instead.
It’s called ActNaturals. It is supposed to be permanent. It’s not cheap at $30 for one application, but hey, if it works and doesn’t make me pile chemicals on my head for an hour, then I’ll be a customer for life!
I found this brand of skin care at TJ Maxx in their skincare and perfume section, one of the favorite places to go scouting for inexpensive new anti aging skin care and beauty products that I’ve never tried. It’s called Dermatouch skin care, and the product that I chose is called Oxygen Eye Serum.
It says on the label that it is environmentally conscious (bonus) and paraben free (even better). I was sold! Plus it was just under ten bucks, not bad for an ounce of higher grade anti aging serum at all.
One thing that confused me though about these oxygen labeled products is why they are called what they are. Do they contain some form of oxygen? Are they supposed to increase oxygen? What is the deal?
I could find no clear cut answer, but the advertisement for the oxygen line of products says that it promotes protein absorption and instantly firms and tightens the skin where it is applied. Both things sounded good, so I figured I’d give it a whirl.
The thing that’s great about trying marked down products at discount stores is that if you’re really not a fan of the product, you’re not out much money, and if you found a great product, then it’s like finding a great treasure at a cheap price.
The product is in a one ounce opaque bottle, and is a clear, thick gel that you apply. I used it only for under my eyes. Let me tell you, you feel and see an immediate difference in the under eye area. I don’t really have a sagging problem under my eyes, but I could tell that my under and over-eye area was much tighter and lifted instantly after applying this stuff.
I think that someone who suffers puffy or saggy eyes would love this stuff. I also noticed that it instantly “brightened” the eye area as well, making it look more youthful and vibrant – another great bonus!
Even cooler was the fact that I did not have to apply much to see a huge difference in the skin around my eyes. The gel is so thick that a little bit goes a long way. In fact, some times I was mad at myself for pumping out too much product, as it seemed that I had too much for just the small area I wanted to cover.
Because this is an eye serum, it should last you a while. I’ve used it several times and don’t notice much of a dent out of the bottle. The only downside is I can see having difficulty getting the product to dispense after it gets down to the bottom, since it’s so cohesive and thick, it may actually stick too much to the bottle and have to be coaxed out.
By the way, this stuff retails over twenty bucks, so I got quite a steal at TJ Maxx!
I don’t watch the the many “Housewives” shows that are on TV now. It seems that every year they are adding more and more of these shows to the TV schedule.
There’s New Jersey Housewives, Beverly Hills, Orange County, and Football wives, you name it.
It seems they are cashing in on all of us being obsessed with the rich and bored women who are the other halves of rich men.
These shows are also a showcase for what not to do to your face as you age. Plastic surgery is a rampantly over done thing on these shows. These women all look pulled back, surprised, disproportionate, unnatural, and anything but “naturally pretty”.
Unfortunately, if they had just used the right ant aging and wrinkle skin care products, stayed out of too much sunlight and followed a healthy and active lifestyle, their skin would still look great, and they wouldn’t have that awful “alien” look that women tend to get (and men too), when they’ve had too much work done on their faces.
They’ve been pumped full of dermal fillers and collagen, and they have had more incisions than they can count. They’ve been pulled back, peeled, scraped, prodded and more in the name of staying young looking, only to look like a warped version of themselves afterwards.
It’s really quite sad that they keep going, perhaps in a bid to perfect the look and make it look right. But unfortunately most of those attempts are in vain, as facelifts really have not been perfected yet and it is rare that you see one that is truly undetectable.
Face lifts are not only very expensive and potentially dangerous and rife with potential complications, but they are also painful and difficult to recover from. You often cannot go out in public for weeks after a surgery like that.
You certainly don’t feel comfortable for a while, at the very least. Often times facelifts result in unsatisfactory results, which makes patients keep going back to attain the way they looked in their youth.
A lot of people actually get addicted to plastic surgery and end up looking nothing like their original selves. There is a disorder name for this – it’s called body dysmorphic disorder, where you never think you look perfect, and you get addicted to things that may change your appearance for the better.
It’s no secret that I’ve been on the lookout for good, natural skin care products lately. The more I learn about the hazards of using chemical and preservative-filled skin care products, the more I want to use anything natural that I can get my hands on that actually works. If you think about it, everything that you put on your skin eventually ends up in your blood stream. Not only that, it also affects your SKIN as well.
So, your deodorant that you put on every day near a very sensitive part of your body where there are a lot of lymph nodes, the lotion you slather all over your body as a moisturizer every day, the soaps you use on your body and your face, those all add to your “toxic load” that your body takes on every day. So, you can see why it’s best to use the most natural, chemical free products you can on your skin every day.
Think about using natural products like this on your skin like eating organic, wholesome foods, because essentially these products do get into your body via absorption. Now that I’m done “preaching” about the glories of natural skin care products, let me tell you about my experience with an organic, natural skin care line’s day cream with SPF. It’s JASON Red Elements day moisturizing cream with SPF 15 in it.
I replaced my former anti aging and wrinkle day cream because when I read the label, it had all kinds of long chemical names I did not recognize, in addition to parabens and other bad chemicals that I really didn’t want to be putting on my face any longer. Since I’ve converted to all other natural body products, I thought, why should my facial creams be any different?
Red Elements by JASON is an anti aging day cream with a high SPF in it so you’re protected from the sun all day. It does smell a bit “sunscreeny”, but that’s be cause it really doesn’t have any artificial fragrances to cover up the smell of the natural SPF, like other products do. I had a hard time getting past that, but once I did, I noticed that it really did make my skin look better during the day, and helped it to retain moisture all day long.
The added ingredients that help retain moisture all day long are red tea (hence the product name) as well as polypeptides – one of my favorite anti aging ingredients, which help increase collagen production. I’m glad I bought two bottles to save on shipping, because I won’t mind using this for a while!
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.
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