Get the Benefits of a
Quality Skin Care Product

Our guest writer, Carol, generously contributed the following skin care info to my site. She's a good friend of mine and a skincare products addict. She's taught me a lot about keeping skin healthy.

---Zach

When you finish reading this page, you’ll be able to choose a quality skin care product. I don't know you, but if you're like me, you've had it with skin care products that don't do what they claim to do.

Often, the most expensive skin care products are the least effective.

Okay, sure, there are some good products that can genuinely make your skin look smoother, more radiant, and youthful.

A quality skin product should not only help reduce bags under the eyes and fine lines around the eyes.

But it should also even out discolorations caused by age spots and pigment concentrations.

However, there are thousands of products on the market. Unless you become a well-informed consumer, it's hard to find one that produces real results and rolls back years of aging from your face and body.

Let's face it; people spend lots of money to look younger. Cosmetic surgery and topical skin care are both multi-billion dollar industries.

It is simple economics, the higher the demand for skin care products, the more products manufacturers flood onto the market for profit.

Manufacturers rush many of these products to market to without any real research and development. All of the capital investment goes into marketing the product. On the surface everything looks great.

The bottles and jars containing the creams look professional. The magazine ads are glossy. And frequently the company hires a supermodel or actress to pitch the product (even though she’s never used it).

You can't blame these companies though. When you spend millions paying for marketing, whether it be on custom product containers, magazine, radio, and TV ads, or royalties paid to celebrities and models, you’re forced to make your products expensive to recoup costs.

On the other hand, this doesn’t mean you and I have to be suckered by these marketing schemes. After all, these companies never experience a shortage of people who will hand over money to purchase their products.

The sad reality is most people won't research which ingredients work and which ingredients actually harm your skin!

But you'll learn them here. Keep reading...

It seems incredible, but many skin care products contain ingredients that harm your skin over time. In this section, we will go over these.

• Mineral Oil: I have seen this oil used in hundreds of products. Mineral oil also goes by the names liquid paraffin, paraffin wax, and petrolatum on the product label.

  Manufacturers use mineral oil in skin care
  products for one reason only: it's cheap!

  However, mineral oil, applied over and over, does not moisturize skin as advertised. It actually prevents the skin from "breathing." It clogs pores, interferes with toxin elimination, and can lead to acne.

  Also, it is irritating to the skin and if used for any length of time, your skin becomes dependent on it, causing chapping and dryness. Lastly, it can lead to premature aging of the skin. It's amazing this substance is allowed in so-called "skin care" products.

• Dioxane: (a synthetic derivative of coconut). This substance is also frequently used in skincare products. It often contains high concentrations of 1,4-dioxane, which is easily absorbed through the skin. This may sound unbelievable, but 1,4-dioxane is considered a chemical "known to the State of California to cause cancer". Just think, people pay money to put this gunk on their skin…scary.

• Fragrances: Who doesn't like to smell good? Well, if you want to smell better, use perfume or cologne....or a few shots of bodyspray. Skin care products should not contain fragrances. Many fragrances are produced from ingredients known to be toxic or carcinogenic.

  Remember that your skin is the largest organ in the body. Anything you put on it is easily absorbed through pores. Okay, so why would I recommend perfume or cologne but tell you to choose a skin care product without fragrances? They both go on the skin, right?

  It’s simple. When you use a skin care product, you apply it all over your face, neck, and body. This covers a lot of skin and, therefore, a great deal of chemical absorption occurs.

  Yes, I'm sure that many colognes and perfumes contain undesirable chemicals too. However, with perfumes and colognes, you only use a small dab here and there. Significantly less absorption takes place.

  So, in my opinion, you can’t compare the two. Skin care products contain potentially dangerous fragrance chemicals that are directly applied all over the body and massaged into the skin.

• Parabens: methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl paraben. Many skin care companies use parabens as a preservative so their products last longer. The reason is purely economical. However, studies suggest that they may cause cancer and interfere with the body’s endocrine system. They may also cause 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, commonly found in skin care products, are drying and irritating. Alcohols like these strip away the skin's natural acid shield, making you more vulnerable to bacteria, moulds and viruses.

Ingredients to Look For

Before we discuss specific ingredients, it's important to learn a bit more about skin itself and what makes a product excellent or poor.

The biggest reason our skin, whether on the face or body, develops lines or starts to sag, is the breakdown of collagen and elastin. Stay with me for a sentence or two; this is the going to get a little science-y.

Collagen is a fibrous protein. What makes it different from other proteins is that it has great tensile strength, which means it gives skin firmness.

You don't need to be a scientist to understand that as collagen breaks down with age, 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 helps it return to its original state.

What all this means is…you should avoid skin care products that only fill in fine lines and wrinkles. They merely give the appearance of nicer skin; the illusion is shattered when you wash it off.

You want a product that contains ingredients that stimulate new collagen and elastin production. If you can achieve this, your skin will be healthier and you will look younger.

Pay attention now because I'm going to share something extremely important. Some manufacturers of pricey products include a few good active ingredients. What's wrong with that?

Well, here's the tactic they use. Because these active ingredients benefit the skin, they include them just so they can legally list them on the product label. That way, the average consumer thinks they are getting a great product. But they don't add enough of these “active ingredients” to have any significant impact on your skin.

Why?

Because these ingredients cost a lot, and because, a lot of well-known companies allocate much of their budget to marketing.

So, when choosing a skin care product, you need to select one that has good ingredients AND a high concentration of those good ingredients.

• Collagen

  After discussing the importance of collagen, you would think that buying a product with collagen in it would be a great idea. And the marketers who sell products that contain collagen know this. But it's a bogus ingredient because collagen molecules are too large to penetrate the skin when applied topically.

  So what can you do? Purchase a product containing ingredients that stimulate your body's own collagen production.

• Phytessence Wakame

  Phytessence Wakame is exotic kelp in the Japanese Sea. It works by blocking a harmful enzyme in your body called hyaluronidase. Hyaluronidase breaks down hyaluronic acid in your skin.

  Without hyaluronic acid, elastin and collagen fibers lose their "glue," which leads to an older appearance and dark eye circles.

  But don't take my word for it. Do your own research 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 an exciting, cutting-edge substance. Cynergy TK stimulates your skin to grow more collagen. In fact, it is proven in clinical trials to stimulate not only collagen regrowth but also elastin.

  It promotes both firmness and elasticity, giving you fewer wrinkles, and more youthful looking skin. It may also improve your skin's ability to retain natural moisture.

  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

  When looking at the ingredient list of quality skin care products, you'll often see CoQ10. It is the abbreviation for Coenzyme Q10, so you may also see it listed this way. CoQ10 is a vitamin-like substance that is found in every cell and is critical for healthy skin.

  CoQ10 is a powerful antioxidant. Free radicals cause a lot of skin damage and aging by attacking our body's cells. CoQ10's antioxidant ability protects cells from free radical damage.

  Unfortunately, like many vital substances, the amount of CoQ10 produced in the body drops off as we age.

  Although CoQ10 is a great ingredient, not all forms are equal. One form in particular stands out from the rest.

  It is called Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10.

  Don't let the long name scare you. Here's why it's different. Most of the CoQ10 found in a typical skin care product is ineffective when applied topically to the skin.

  Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10, however, is a special “nano-emulsion” form of CoQ10, which penetrates down into the skin, providing much greater benefits for skin health. In fact, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 penetrates 7 layers deep into the skin.

  Because this version of CoQ10 goes so deep, it is extremely effective at “clearing” free radicals from your skin. The result is a powerful anti-wrinkle effect.

  Nano-Lipobelle also promotes collagen and elastin production.

Together, Phytessence Wakame, Cynergy TK, and Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 are three of the most powerful anti-aging skin care compounds. They will significantly improve the look and feel of your skin.

Where can you find all these ingredients in one product line?

Xtend-Life Natural Products, that's where. Though located in New Zealand, this company ships their products worldwide.

I use them 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.

No, they spend the bulk of their money on developing the absolute best products available, not the best marketing hype. Think of them as your "secret weapon" against the big companies.

To achieve young, vibrant skin, I recommend visiting their site. Read about their skin care philosophy and I think you'll be impressed. 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 sensitive skin.