Are you sick and tired of skin care products
that don't do what they claim?
But what's even worse is that often the most
expensive skin care products
are the least effective.
Now, of course, there are some good products on the market that
can genuinely help make your skin look smoother, more radiant,
and youthful. Not only should a quality skin product help
reduce bags under, and fine lines around, the eyes, but it
should even out coloration inconsistencies caused by age spots
and other unwanted pigment concentrations.
But the problem is that there are literally thousands of
products to choose from and unless you become a well-informed
consumer, it's hard to find one of the few that actually
produces real results and eliminates years of aging from your
face and body.
Let's face it, people will understandably spend any amount of
money to make themselves look better or younger. Cosmetic
surgery is a multi-billion dollar industry and so is the
topical skin care industry.
It's simply a law of economics that the more the demand for
such products skyrockets, the more product that manufacturers
will flood onto the marketplace to capitalize on this
demand.
Many of these products are rushed on to
the market to meet this demand without any real consideration
to research and development. All of the money goes into the
marketing of the product. On the surface everything looks
great. The bottles and jars that the creams come in look
appealing. The magazine advertisements are glossy, complete
with a youthful looking model or a well known celebrity who
doesn't even really use the products.
You can't really blame these companies. When you are spending a
fortune paying for marketing, whether it be on the product
containers, magazine, radio, and TV ads, royalties paid to
celebrities and models, you have to charge a high
price for your products or you're going to lose money.
On the other hand, this doesn't mean you and I have to fall for
these types of marketing schemes. After all, these companies
aren't going to encounter any shortage of people who will open
their wallets and purses to purchase their products anytime
soon. The reality is most people simply won't take any time to
research products and understand what ingredients work and what
ingredients are actually bad for your skin!
That's why I created this website. So, let's
get some facts.
Ingredients to Avoid
It seems incredible, but many skin care products are loaded
with ingredients that actually harm your skin over time. In
this section, we will talk about some of these.
First, mineral oil. I have
seen this oil used in literally hundreds of products I've look
at. Mineral oil may also go by the names liquid paraffin,
paraffin wax, and petrolatum on the product label. Mineral oil
is used so pervasively in skin care products for one reason:
it's cheap!
However, mineral oil, once applied, prevents the skin from
"breathing." As such, it clogs pores, interferes with your
skin's natural ability to eliminate toxins, and can lead to
acne flare ups. Also, it is irritating to the skin and if used
for any length of time, your skin can become dependent on it,
causing chapping and dryness. Lastly, it can lead to premature
aging of the skin. It's amazing this substance is even allowed
in so-called "skin care" products at all.
Dioxane: (a synthetic derivative of
coconut). This substance is widely used in skincare
products. It often contains high concentrations of 1,4-dioxane,
which is readily absorbed through the skin. I know this sounds
crazy, but 1,4-dioxane is considered a chemical "known to the
State of California to cause cancer". To think people pay money
to put this stuff on their skin unknowingly is downright
scary.
Fragrances: Who doesn't like to smell nice?
Well, I'm here to tell you that if you want to smell nice, use
a little bit of perfume or cologne....or some bodyspray. Your
skin care products should not contain fragrances. Many
fragrances are produced from ingredients that are known to be
toxic or carcinogenic.
You must remember that your skin is the largest organ of the
body. Anything you put on it can be easily absorbed through the
pores. Now, why would I recommend you use perfume or cologne as
a fragrance but to choose a skin care product without them?
The reason is simple. When you use skin care products, they are
applied all over the face, neck, and body. This covers a lot of
surface area and, therefore, a great deal of chemical
absorption occurs.
Now, I'm sure that many colognes and perfumes contain less than
desirable substances too, but I'm enough of a realist to know
that people aren't going to stop using these products to smell
nice. However, with perfumes and colognes, you can achieve what
you want by a small dab here and there.
So, in my opinion, this is a much better route to go than to
use skin care products that also contain potentially dangerous
fragrance chemicals that are directly applied and massaged into
the skin all over your body.
Parabens: methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl
paraben. Many skin care products (and moisturizing products)
will use parabens as a preservative so their products have a
long shelf life. The reason is purely economical. However,
studies suggest that they may cause cancer and interfere with
the body’s endocrine system, as well as causing allergic
reactions and skin rashes.
Alcohols: ethanol, ethyl alcohol,
methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol and SD
alcohol. Not all alcohols have the same properties, but these,
which are commonly found in skin care products, are very drying
and irritating for the skin. Alcohols such as these strip away
the skin's natural acid mantle, making you more vulnerable to
bacteria, moulds and viruses.
Now that we've looked at some of the bad, let's examine
some of the good ingredients and some ingredients that sound
good but in fact aren't.
Ingredients to Look For
Before we have a discussion of specific ingredients, it's
important to educate ourselves a little bit more on skin itself
and what makes a product good or poor.
The biggest reason our skin, whether on the face or the rest of
the body, develops lines and/or starts to sag, is that the
collagen and elastin in our skin begins to break down. This is
the most technical this page is going to get, so bear with me
for just a sentence or two.
Collagen is a protein that is fibrous in
nature. What makes collagen different from other kinds of
protein is that it possesses great tensile strength, which
means, among other things, it provides firmness to the
skin.
You don't need to be a scientist, therefore, to understand that
as collagen breaks down due to aging, the firmness of our skin
becomes...well, less firm. Wrinkles appear and skin starts to
sag.
Elastin, too, is a protein that helps skin
stay "flexible" and firm. If your skin is stretched, elastin is
the protein that helps it return to its original position.
What all of this means for you is that you do not want to
purchase a skin care product that is nothing more than a cream
that fills in fine lines and wrinkles, giving the appearance of
temporarily nicer skin when i'ts on...but the illusion
shattered when you wash it off. You want a product that
contains ingredients that actually stimulates new collagen and
elastin production in your skin. If you achieve this, you will,
in reality, begin to turn back the clock.
Now, pay attention here because I'm going to
share with you something extremely important. Some of the
manufacturers of more pricy products will try to dupe the
public by including some really good active ingredients. What's
wrong with that you say?
Well, here's the tactic they use. Because these active
ingredients are beneficial for the skin, they include some just
so that they can legally list them on the product label. This
way, the typical consumer thinks they are getting a great
product. But, because these ingredients are expensive, and
because, as discussed before, a lot of well known companies are
already spending much of their budget on marketing, they don't
put in enough of these 'active ingredients' to have any real
benefit for your skin.
So, when choosing a skin care product,
it's not just about selecting one with good ingredients; it's
also about choosing one with a high concentration of these good
ingredients.
Collagen
After my brief discussion about the importance of collagen, you
would think that buying a product with collagen in it would be
a great thing. And the marketers who sell products that contain
collagen know this. But it's a bogus ingredient because
collagen molecules are much too large to penetrate into the
skin when applied topically.
To be of any benefit, you must purchase a product with
ingredients that have been shown to stimulate your body's own
collagen production.
Phytessence Wakame
Phytessence Wakame is an exotic kelp, native to the Japanese
Sea. It works by blocking a harmful enzyme in your body called
hyaluronidase. Hyaluronidase breaks down hyaluronic acid in
your skin. You may think "well who cares."
Well, you should because without hyaluronic acid, the elastin
and collagen fibers lose their "glue," which leads to a loss of
youthful appearance and dark eye circles.
But don't just take my word for it. If you research this on
wikipedia, you will read, for example, "Hyaluronan is also a
major component of skin, where it is involved in tissue
repair."
Cynergy TK
This is a new exciting, cutting edge substance. Cynergy TK
actually stimulates your own collagen to grow again. In fact,
it is proven in clinical trials to stimulate not only the
regrowth of collagen but also elastin, thereby promoting
firmness and elasticity. In short, fewer wrinkles, and more
youthful, healthier looking skin. It may help improve your
skin's ability to retain its needed natural moisture.
Indeed, studies show a sustained 14% improvement in skin
moisture retention over 18 days. Studies on Cynergy TK also
show a sustained improvement in skin elasticity of 42% over 18
days.
CoQ10
If you look at the ingredient list for some
of the better skin care products, you'll often see CoQ10
listed. CoQ10 is short for Coenzyme Q10, so you may also see it
listed this way. CoQ10 is a vitamin like substance that is
found in all of our body's cells and is very important for
healthy skin.
CoQ10 is a powerful antioxidant. A lot of skin damage and aging
comes from free radicals wreaking havoc in our body's cells.
CoQ10's antioxidant ability can counter these free radicals
before damage occurs.
Unfortunately, like many other vital substances, as we age, the
amount of CoQ10 in our bodies becomes depleted.
Although CoQ10 is a great ingredient, not all forms are equal.
One in particular stands head and shoulders above the rest.
This version of it is called Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10.
Don't let the name scare you off, though. Here's why it's
different. Most of the CoQ10 you buy in a typical skin care
product is not readily usable when applied topically to the
skin.
Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10, on the other hand, is a
special ‘nano-emulsion’ form of CoQ10, which penetrates far
down into the skin, thereby providing much greater benefits for
skin health. In fact, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 can penetrate down
7 layers deep into the skin.
Because this version of CoQ10 can penetrate so deeply, it is
extremely effective at ‘gobbling up’ free radicals in your
skin. The result is a powerful anti-wrinkle effect.
Nano-Lipobelle can also promote collagen and
elastin production as well.
Together, these three main active
ingredients are some of the most powerful anti-aging skin care
compounds available, and can significantly improve the look and
feel of your skin.
Where can you find all three of
these ingredients in one product line?
The
Xtend-Life Natural Products company, that's where. This
company is located in New Zealand but ships products
world-wide. I use their products daily.
The company is not a household name. It doesn't have big
hollywood celebrities endorsing their products for even bigger
royalties. They don't advertise all over the radio, in
magazines, and on TV.
They're one of the few companies that focuses on spending the
bulk of their money on the production of the absolute best
products available, not the best marketing hype.
You can think of them as your "secret
weapon" the big companies don't want you to know about.
So, if you truly want to achieve younger looking more vibrant
skin, I suggest you
visit their site and read about their skin care philosophy.
I think you'll be as impressed as I am. At the very least,
you'll learn more about what to look for and what to avoid when
it comes to taking care of your precious skin.
Click HERE while you think about it.
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