Retinol is a form of vitamin A naturally found in foods like eggs, butter and margarine, liver, cod liver oil, and dairy products. This vitamin is vital in body functions like bone growth and vision, and it has the added benefit of being really great for your skin. So great, in fact, that there are a lot of different kinds of topically applied retinol products out on the market today; from retinol serum to retinol cream.

Even reputable skincare product providers like SkinCeuticals have jumped onto the retinol bandwagon; offering products like SkinCeuticals Retinol.

What Retinol Can Do for Your Skin

There’s a reason why some home beauty treatment recipes involve mixing in a couple of vitamin A gels or capsules; this stuff does a great job of making skin feel firmer and more supple, and it’s great for treating acne, sun damage and reducing –or even erasing some signs of aging, like wrinkles and fine lines.

How Retinol Works

Retinol is an antioxidant, which means that it neutralizes free radicals; helping to heal and prevent signs of aging, and keep cancer at bay. When it’s applied to the skin, it passes through the upper layers and stimulates the growth of new cells, allowing old cells to get sloughed off more quickly.

On top of that, retinol stimulates collagen production and evens out skin tone by healing sun damage as well. All of these factors go a long way to rejuvenating skin and making it look younger and healthier.

Does retinol sound too good to be true? Well, retinol creams and retinol serums aren’t going to turn back the clock; really deep wrinkles can’t be removed with a little topical cream, and results usually won’t show instantly.

On top of that, not everybody can use retinol for their skin. This particular vitamin can be pretty potent when it’s applied to the skin; a number of people can be really sensitive to retinol, and can end up with dry and flaky skin from using high concentration retinol products.

This is part of the reason why some products with high concentrations of topical vitamin A products can only be bought from a dermatologist or a doctor. These kinds of products usually have high amounts of retinoic acid, which is retinol’s active form, and are used to treat serious skin problems like severe acne and keratosis pilaris.

Precautions to Take When Using Retinol Products

Retinol might be really good for your skin, but there’s a small tradeoff. Retinol creams and retinol serums are safe to apply daily, over any exposed part of the body.

If you have sensitive skin that gets easily irritated though, it’s best not to apply your retinol cream every day at first and then gradually make your applications more frequent until your skin gets used to it and can stand the retinol product being applied every day. On top of that, you can prevent redness and flaking skin by smoothing on some anti-inflammatory lotion or moisturizer over the area after you skin has absorbed the retinol.

If you continue to feel a burning sensation on your skin and it keeps on stinging and peeling, even with all these precautions, then retinol products really might not be the anti-aging skin treatment for you. Stop using the products and try to go for gentler formulas.

Additionally, because retinol repairs damaged or misshapen skin cells as well as encourages cell growth, you essentially get new skin faster. This is why using retinol products can help even out skin tones and get rid of small blemishes.

Ironically, even though this stuff does a great job of repairing sun damage precisely because of this, it is also for this reason that skin becomes much more vulnerable to sun damage, so it’s especially important that you don’t forget your sunscreen before stepping out when you’re using a retinol serum.

Even if it isn’t too sunny outside, try to use a sun protection product with at least SPF 25. Go for a higher SPF if the weather’s brighter or you live in a place with a warm climate.

Many experts recommend that retinol products be used at night instead of during the daytime, so that the skin photosensitivity that these products cause won’t be as much of a problem anymore. Dermatologists still stress that a good, broad-spectrum sunscreen must be used during the daytime when using retinol products, even when retinol is used as a night cream.

What’s a Good Retinol Product to Try?

Dermatologists love retinol, and if you’re looking for a good retinol product that really delivers, look no farther than SkinCeuticals Retinol 0.5.

Many believe that the SkinCeuticals Retinol brand is the best over the counter retinol product in the market today. This particular retinol cream contains a 0.5% retinol formulation, which is actually a fairly high concentration for an over the counter product and makes it usable only as a night cream.

However, if you want results, a retinol serum with this concentration delivers quite well. Consult with a dermatologist if you want to try for SkinCeuticals Retinol 1.0 or any other kind of retinol product with a higher concentration though; it might cause dryness and stinging skin.

Tags: Anti-Aging, Skin by admin
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It’s pretty hard to find a celebrity over twenty-five who hasn’t had a Botox injection these days. Considering how easy and effective Botox is, it’s pretty easy to see why.

A Botox injection is a procedure that gets rid of wrinkles instantly, without having to go through the bother and recovery time of getting sliced open or having to sit through a long and uncomfortable recovery period.

If you’re looking for a slightly cheaper way to free yourself from your frown lines, Botox might just be the way to go for you. The cost of Botox injections might be cheaper than a face lift or other forms of plastic surgery, but it can still set you back anywhere between three hundred and fifty U.S. dollars, and five hundred and twenty dollars.

If you have the cash to spare and are raring to go though, be aware that even though they’re generally a lot less trouble than invasive surgery, but the side effects of Botox do exist.

What is Botox, Anyway?

Botox is actually a brand name for a substance known as Botulinum Toxin Type A, or simply, botulism. This stuff is actually the most toxic known protein today. Before you start running off in the opposite direction though, take note that even though this stuff is really toxic, it has a lot of medical uses outside of keeping Hollywood’s Hottest from looking their age.

What Does Botox Do?

In tiny doses, Botulinum Toxin Type A actually paralyzes the muscles it’s applied to. It was originally used to treat the muscle spasms caused by diseases and conditions like Parkinson’s disease and cerebral palsy.

Later on though, this protein, diluted and packaged as Botox and applied through injections, became the treatment du jour for people who wanted to make their faces smooth and wrinkle-free again. Botox injections basically cause the facial muscles in the area where the substance was applied, to tense up and stop moving for three to four months.

Is it Safe?

Botulism is toxic. There’s no way around that. It’s part of its charm though. After all, it’s precisely that toxic effect that paralyzes the muscles in a person’s face and gives them that line-free look that lets them look like they’ve beaten the clock.

Before you start jamming that needle into your face though, take note that the side effects of Botox can be pretty irritating. Administered correctly though, that’s about as harmful as Botox gets.

You should make sure that you take all of the necessary precautions so that your Botox injections will be the genuine article though –a lot of botulism-related deaths have actually been linked to people using fake Botox.

If you’re using the genuine article, the possibility of side effects of Botox should still be looked out for.

If things go wrong, for example, you can end up with the wrong muscle group paralyzed (like the muscles controlling your eyelids getting paralyzed instead of the ones that cause those frown lines), bruising –although that doesn’t come from the toxin, but from how it was injected- and the possibility of your face becoming stuck in an odd rictus of a facial expression for six or more weeks because the Botox was incorrectly administered.

You could temporarily end up with a droopy smile or eyelid, or even the loss of the ability to close an eye. Additionally, if the Botox is injected into the jaw muscles –which may or may not reduce turkey neck and other really annoying signs of aging- you might have trouble chewing solid food.

Aside from the potential muck-ups that can happen while injections are being put in place, the other possible side effects of Botox include headaches, partial facial paralysis, difficulty swallowing, muscular weakness, allergic reactions, and flu-like symptoms.

Also, Botox will usually leave the parts of your face where it was applied difficult –if not impossible -to move, and feeling numb. This means that you might end up not being able to display normal-looking facial expressions.

Check with your doctor to see if you’re a good candidate for Botox injections; if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant, or susceptible to allergies for example, it’s better to stay away from the needle.

What is the Cost of Botox Injections?

If you’re willing to brave the possibility of looking like the product of the crypt keeper having a wild night with the bride of Frankenstein after a botched-up Botox job, then it should be a real relief to know that you’re very likely to spend a lot less on Botox injections than on any other form of age-arresting plastic surgery.

Botox injections will eventually wear out and can be reapplied every four months, although since the muscles that’ll get injected will start thinning over the course of repeated treatments, which means that you could eventually get longer lasting results.

With each treatment normally costing between three hundred and five hundred dollars though, it might feel like the cost of Botox injections are easier to stomach than other kinds of cosmetic procedures meant to dramatically get rid of wrinkles. The side effects of Botox can be pretty annoying, but at least they aren’t permanent, like most botched cosmetic surgery effects can be.

It’s no wonder a lot of people jump straight for the needle at the first hint of a wrinkle.

Tags: Anti-Aging, Cosmetic Procedures by admin
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If you want to firm up your face and get rid of wrinkles without having to break the bank with expensive skin products or invasive procedures, you can try doing facial exercises. Of course, the question you might ask is, “Do facial exercises work?” Well, it’s very likely that they do.

The muscles on our arms and legs are directly attached, not to our skin, but to the bones of our body, which allows us to move our arms and legs. The muscles on our face, on the other hand, are attached directly to our skin, and as we get older, these muscles, as well as the skin covering them, lose elasticity and tone. These factors all contribute to the sagging and wrinkles that many believe to be inevitable.

Of course, we can’t really stop the march of days or turn back the clock, but we can hold off the effects of aging that may show up on our faces simply by taking care of ourselves and exercising the muscles of our faces so that they’ll stay firm and keep our skin from sagging. Like any anti-aging method that claims not to require any pills, shots, or surgery though, facial exercising has both fans and detractors.

While a lot of people will swear by the benefits of facial exercise for the reasons stated above, when people ask, “do facial exercises work?” those who criticize it will point out that the deepest and most prominent kinds of wrinkles are the ones that come from the facial expressions that a person makes.

Laugh-lines follow the way the skin folds when a person laughs; frown-lines are created when a person frowns. Given that argument, wouldn’t exercising the muscles that create these kinds of facial expressions simply aggravate the problem?

Also, the drooping and sagging that happens as we age isn’t just caused by our facial muscles losing their tone; as we grow older, the stuff that keeps our skin youthful-looking; collagen and elastin, as well as the fatty layer of our skin, get depleted. These factors are certainly not to be ignored in the battle against time and gravity that we all have to wage, the older we get.

On the other hand, fans of facial exercise say that it stimulates blood flow to the face and the skin on the face, as well as relieve tension. Have you ever had a “stress spot” on your face –between your eyebrows, for example- where all of the anger or stress you feel seems to just pool in?

Usually, these areas have the deepest wrinkles. With facial exercises, you can help take some of the tension away from those spots, as well as refresh your whole face in general.
Just like any other exercise program though, facial exercises require dedication, patience, and repetition.

One example of a facial exercise which firms up the muscles around the eyes will have you winking one eye partway, holding it for a second, and repeating it at least fifty times before switching over to the other eye.

Exercises like these can take a lot of time. In fact, it can take months before the effects start to show, but when they do, you can pretty sure that the answer to the question, “do facial exercises work?” is “Yes.”

Tags: Anti-Aging, Miscellaneous, Natural Beauty, Skin by admin
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Wrinkles are creases, folds, or ridges in the skin that often appear because the skin loses elasticity as we age. While they can sometimes add dignity or weight to a person’s overall look, more than anything, wrinkles are a sign that we are not exempt from time’s unstoppable forward march.

Or, to put it straightforwardly, wrinkles tell the world that we’re old. In a globalized culture that pretty much worships youth, showing signs of age is practically verboten. The worst and the best anti wrinkle creams claim that they can turn back the clock and erase even deep wrinkles.

However, even though it can be really tempting to take these products’ promises at face value, it’s still a good idea to take them with a grain of salt. There are a lot of different kinds of anti-aging creams out there, but not all of these products are created equal. It can take a bit of snooping around before you can discover the best wrinkle cream for you.

Wrinkle creams, which are also often referred to as anti-aging creams, are products that usually have moisturizers as bases, and contain ingredients that also reduce or even eradicate (or so they claim) blemishes, discolorations, expression lines, and of course, wrinkles. As we age, our skin not only gets less elastic, but it also loses the ability to create certain biologically compositions that help keep the skin soft, smooth, and healthy-looking. The best anti wrinkle creams will usually contain compounds or ingredients that try to mimic the effects of these compositions, since they tend to work –albeit not permanently- and the skin usually absorbs them fairly easily.

If you want to permanently get rid of those deep wrinkles though, consider the fact that even the best wrinkle cream will only have a partial effect. Any anti aging product can only go so far, and even more drastic measures, like plastic surgery, won’t keep your body from aging or stop tomorrow from making you another day older. Normally, the best anti wrinkle creams, if applied regularly, can decrease the depth of deep wrinkles by only ten percent. Unless you get a particularly bad formula, you’re allergic, or you have especially sensitive skin though, using an anti aging cream will usually leave your skin a little healthier and more moisturized.

The best anti wrinkle creams will contain ingredients like retinol, which has been known to have a sort of “rejuvenating” effect on the skin by reducing dark spots and stimulating skin cell renewal. Some will have exfoliating ingredients like alpha hydroxy acids and beta hydroxy acids, which are often also used in other dermatological treatments like chemical peels.

If you don’t want to resort to botox injections or surgical procedures like face-lifts, but still want your skin to look smoother and rejuvenated, it’s best to follow a formal treatment program for anti-aging which, while possibly more expensive than simply using a single wrinkle cream, will usually leave your skin looking and feeling better. They usually use moisturizers, sun screens, and exfoliation, and over time, it strips away older, damaged layers of skin, encourages the growth of new skin cells, nourishes and moisturizes the new skin, and protects it from the damage that could potentially be caused by the sun’s rays. This means that after a while, you will have a lighter complexion with fewer blemishes and less deep wrinkles.

If you don’t want to bother with the elaborate intricacies of a treatment program, finding the best wrinkle cream for you and your skin type is usually considered the next logical alternative. After all, what’s not to like about anti-aging creams? They will usually aim to deliver the same kinds of effects as an anti-aging program, but since all of the ingredients are compressed into a single product, the overall outcome isn’t always the same. It’s a lot less of a hassle to only have to regularly apply one anti-aging product though.

Whatever steps you may choose to take to slow down the hands of time though, it’s a good idea to remember the adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” If you’ve only just entered your twenties, you might not yet be plagued by crow’s feet and laugh lines, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing you can do to keep them at bay. Starting early on your anti-aging regimen by keeping your skin healthy is a great way to do this. You can even take it a step further by already applying anti-wrinkle creams, because while they can’t get rid of wrinkles completely, they can still be really great for your skin.

The best anti wrinkle creams will exfoliate, renew, and moisturize, all at the same time. Eliminating deep wrinkles, like laugh-lines or frown-lines are usually the department of more dramatic procedures, like face-lifts which can stretch the skin so that it appears more firm and taut. Even the best wrinkle cream will usually only be good for finer wrinkles, like the lines that can appear on the corners of a person’s eyes or the incidental wrinkles that can happen as gravity takes a steadily firmer hold on our bodies. Despite that, applying these kinds of products can go a long way to keeping skin healthy and slowing down the hands of the clock.

Tags: Anti-Aging, Skin by admin
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