Welcome to my site.
By the time you finish reading this page, I guarantee
you will be a much more educated consumer on how to choose an
anti-aging cream that gives you the results you earnestly
desire in a quality skin care product.
Even though I don't know you, I'll bet that if you're like me,
you're sick and tired of facial skin care products that don't
do what they claim to.
The worst part is, it's often the most expensive skin care
products and anti-aging creams that are the most
ineffective.
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.
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 anti-aging creams 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 as anti-aging anti-wrinkle cream skyrockets, the
more product that manufacturers will flood onto the marketplace
to capitalize on this growing demand.
A lot of these products are rushed to market to fill this
demand without any real consideration to research and
development. Most 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.
I guess 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 lot of money 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 right into
it.
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 looked at.
Mineral oil may also go by the names liquid paraffin, paraffin
wax, and petrolatum on the product label. Mineral oil is used
so extensively in skin care products for one reason: it's
cheap!
However, mineral oil, once applied, prevents the skin from
"breathing." This petroleum coating does keep needed moisture
from escaping, but, it also clogs pores, interferes with your
skin's natural ability to eliminate toxins, and can lead to
acne flare-ups.
And it's irritating to the skin.
If mineral oil or other petroleum products are used for any
length of time, your skin can become dependent on them, causing
chapping and dryness. Have you ever noticed how you have to
keep on applying hand lotion throughout the day for your hands
to stay soft?
Finally, 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 synthetic 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 option 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, molds 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 it's 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 an anti-aging cream with collagen in it
would be a great thing. And the marketers who sell products
that contain collagen know you would think this.
But it's a bogus ingredient, because collagen molecules are
much too large to penetrate into the skin when applied
topically.
For true wrinkle-free skin care, 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
"Yeah. So who cares?".
Well, you should care, 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 also 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 technical sounding 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, providing much greater benefits for skin health. In
fact, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 can penetrate down through seven
dermal 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. Pretty good
concept for an anti-aging skin care system, right?
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
compoundsavailable, 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, or 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 anti-aging skin care products available, instead
of 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.
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