The Lipstick Party

There must be good reasons for using a natural skin care cream, everyone seems to be doing so now, but what are they? And what exactly is “natural” anyway?

Lets consider that last question. What is natural skin care? Sadly although there are many many products on the skin care market that are labeled as natural there is no formal definition of what it is.

What is the difference between a natural skin care product, a botanical skin care product, an organic skin care product and a herbal skin care product? Is there any difference?

But whilst there is no single one definition of what natural means in this context that doesn’t mean that it is meaningless. It just means that there isn’t a single definition.

So I tend to use my own definition when asked this question. But to formulate your own definition I need to first consider why people would want to use a natural skin care product. Why would they buy these over “ordinary” mainstream skin care products?

There’s a simple answer. Most of the big name skin care products that you see on the shelves have one or more, often many, synthetic chemicals that some scientist somewhere has found performs a function. Some of them are found no where in nature.  Read more...

Does that confuse you? Surly if you want great looking well moisturized skin you need to find the best moisturizer? No, and here’s why, and also here’s 4 steps to great looking skin that is also well moisturized skin.

There’s one way to have well moisturized great looking skin that doesn’t sag or feel dry, looks great, has few wrinkles and makes you feel great. It’s to have healthy skin. If your skin isn’t healthy skin no amount of using the best face moisturizer there is will make it like that.

I’ll say it again. The key to well moisturized skin is to have healthy skin. Because healthy skin is, almost by definition, well moisturized skin. If it isn’t it isn’t healthy. Makes sense.

So should you be looking for the best moisturizer you can find or should you be looking for skin care products that target overall skin healthy and make your skin better like that? And is there some other things you can do to ensure healthy skin?

So there’s other things you can do to make your skin healthy other than using great skin care products?  Read more...

There are foods to eat that can help improve your skin elasticity as you age and help improve your skin health.

Sadly though maintaining skin elasticity into older age isn’t quite as simple as eating 2 or 3 foods.

But it’s also quite clear that your diet does affect your skin health and your skin elasticity as you age. You need to eat a healthy diet high in vitamins and minerals and anti oxidants and this will definitely make a difference to your skin.

A healthy diet is good for general health and skin health. So the advice you see everywhere about diet is as important for your skin as for your body. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, reduce fat, especially saturated fat, reduce salt and sugar intake and make sure you do this permanently.

But there are some who spend their time looking for the magic bullet food that, if you eat it, will result in big improvements in skin elasticity and skin health. There are some foods that foods that help improve skin elasticity in aging skin, but it’s not quite as easy as that.  Read more...

If you’ve heard of Susan Jeske you would know that she was crowned Ms America in’97. Since then she has spent over 20 years as a beauty consultant working for a major cosmetics company. But now she spends her time on speaking engagements warning us of the dangers of personal products such as cosmetics and skin care products in promoting the benefits of natural skin products and natural cosmetics. What happened to Susan?

Susan had some serious skin and health problems a few years ago. In desperation she turned to a holistic doctor who told her about the dangerous chemical ingredients used in cosmetics and skin care products and suggested she discontinued their use. She did discontinue their use and within 2 weeks the health and skin problems were gone. As a result she began to research more about the ingredients which go into modern cosmetics and skin care products.

I’m sure this was a terrible shock to someone who had spent a large part of her life working for a cosmetics company as a beauty consultant, however she was awakened to the rude fact that so many mainstream cosmetics and personal and beauty products are laced with chemical ingredients. Many of these chemical ingredients are totally banned in Europe but few are banned in America. Some of these ingredients are known to cause cancer and some of these ingredients were also causing Susan’s own health problems.  Read more...

Whilst you can’t prevent getting older there are some big factors in skin aging that you can prevent. Skin aging is caused by a combination of factors, and one of the biggest is sun damage. So if you want the best skin care, sunscreen is a huge part of that, but only a part.

It’s the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight that causes the damage. There is both UVA and UVB in sunlight, and it is the UVB radiation that burns your skin. But it is insufficient merely to stop the UVB radiation.

The reason is that UVA radiation, although it doesn’t burn, is much more important to skin aging and also causes many skin cancers including some of the worst.

The FDA doesn’t require the labels of sunscreens to tell us how much UVA protection is included in the sunscreen and the result was that in the summer of 2008 there were only 29 percent of sunscreens that had some UVA protection. A year later that percentage increased to 70 percent but that still means that 30 percent of sunscreens on the market have no UVA protection. The results can be skin cancer and excessive skin aging.  Read more...

Anyone who’s had an allergic reaction to anti aging skin care products would be forgiven for looking for hypoallergenic skin care products. Similarly anyone who’s had their acne exacerbated by modern skin care products would also be forgiven for looking for non comedogenic anti aging products.

Most modern anti aging skin products contain petrochemical and chemical ingredients that can produce health problems including allergies and skin reactions. And many also contain mineral oil which clogs the pores of the skin and can create acne.

However the reality is that there is no formal definition of hypoallergenic skin care or non comedogenic skin care and that any products labelled as such may or may not be what they state on the label. There are many anti aging products available labeled as hypoallergenic anti aging products and non comedogenic which are not.

The reason is that the FDA does not have to examine claims made on the label of any anti aging skin care products. The cosmetics and anti aging industries are self regulated and no manufacturer is required to justify the claims made on the label of it’s products.  Read more...

Moisturizers for oily skin are big business however the sad truth is that most oily skin moisturizers do very little to moisturize your skin at best and at worst can be risky to your health. This is a result of the types of ingredients used in so many mainstream skin care products today.

Most of the big name brands of skin care products that you will see on the shelves of your local store have a range of chemical and petrochemical ingredients. There are many many examples however I’ll give you one which should suffice.

Mineral oil is found very commonly in an exceedingly wide range of beauty and personal products and skin care products such as moisturizers for dry skin and moisturizers for oily skin.

Mineral oil is a petrochemical product that is a byproduct of the distillation of crude oil. Mineral oil goes by a wide range of different names and so even if you look on the label of the skin care products you use now you may not see mineral oil listed there even though it is an ingredient in the product because it is being listed under a different name.  Read more...

If you’ve been looking to find the best anti aging moisturizer that you can then there’s some information should be aware of before you buy. Being armed with some basic information about skincare products and anti aging products can be very useful.

Many products such as anti aging moisturizers and other skin care products contain ingredients which are potentially harmful to both your skin and your health. And on top of this they don’t work well at moisturizing your skin. I’ll give you some examples.

A very common ingredient in skin care products including moisturizers, but also found in many other products such as cosmetics, personal, body, baby and beauty products, is mineral oil. Mineral oil is actually a byproduct of the distillation of crude oil. It is a petrochemical product. Surprisingly mineral oil is cheaper to buy than it is to dispose of.

Mineral oil is not effective and increasing moisture levels in the skin when used in anti aging moisturizers. The reason mineral oil is used in moisturizers is that it forms a layer of oil over the skin and merely prevents moisture loss.

Mineral oil has no demonstrated moisturizing properties of it’s own.  Read more...

If you been buying skin care and anti aging products like moisturizing creams and lotions for a long time you’ve probably heard of petrolatum. You’ll see on the labels of most of the bottles. However you’ve probably never heard of Synergy TK.

Many big brand-name skin care products such as moisturizing creams and lotions contain petrochemical ingredients such as mineral oil and petrolatum. These products are derived from the distillation of crude oil. The reason they are used in most well-known products is that they are very cheap to buy.

You may know petrolatum as petroleum jelly or vaseline. It repels moisture and the idea behind its use in moisturizers is that, like mineral oil, or former film of oil over the skin preventing moisture loss. Neither petrolatum or mineral oil are moisturizers themselves.

Unfortunately both mineral oil and petrolatum have been linked to a range of health problems including breast cancer. In the European Union petrolatum is now banned is an ingredient but it is still legal as an ingredient in skin care and anti aging products in the US.  Read more...

Skin lightening creams are hugely popular, but unfortunately they aren’t safe to date. Can you find a skin whitening cream that work and is safe to use?

Why would skin lightening creams be dangerous? Because they use, in particular, 2 very suspect ingredients. These are Hydroquinone and mercury. Both of these are the subject of FDA warnings and the FDA says these skin lightening creams that “over-the-counter (OTC) skin bleaching drug products are not generally recognized as safe and effective”.

The use of skin lightening creams is linked to skin cancer and skin diseases and also premature aging. You really have to want to lighten your skin to use one. They are banned in the UK and in Europe, though there is still a thriving black market.

So is there a safe and effective way to lighten your skin or should you just give up on the whole idea of skin lightening?

Currently the ingredients used in the products are highly toxic, but new products are coming onto the market that don’t use toxic ingredients. One in particular uses known safe natural ingredients and is shown to work with no skin dangers or health dangers.  Read more...