Natural Anti Aging and Rosacea Blog

Natural Anti Aging and Rosacea Blog keeps readers informed about new products, ingredients and treatments to help in the war against ageing and skin problems. Articles include all aspects of skin health and home care.

HYDRATING FACE MASK FOR COLD WEATHER

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Hydrate and Mask to keep Your Skin in Top Condition


In cold, dry weather moisture escapes from your skin much faster than in summer. Cold and dry means low humidity, often made much worse by heating.

When your skin feels tight or hot it is usually dehydrated. Remember dehydration is lack of moisture (water).

An easy way to rehydrate your precious face, neck and decolletege is to apply a Hydrating Face Mask weekly for an anti ageing pick-up.

Think about what you'd like to achieve.

A GLOWING COMPLEXION

For this you need to:

  • Restore moisture levels
  • Increase oil levels
  • Remove toxins
  • Make skin very soft and velvety
  • Condition your skin to accept serums and moisturisers more readily 
  • Skin Rejuvenation
There is a very easy way to reach all the goals above. Apply MiSMo PHP Treatment Mask weekly or whenever you feel like a boost. Dry skin is a regular problem in winter so let's deal with it.

Important ingredients to achieve all requirements are:

Hyaluronic Acid which holds up to 1,000 times its own weight in water
Pure natural oils to lubricate the skin
Oatmeal and Kaolin Clay to remove toxins
Manuka honey for moisturising
MSM and Aloe Vera for penetration and skin health

How to: Cleanse, exfoliate (best, but not essential if time is short), apply PHP Treatment Mask to face, neck and chest. Leave for about 7 minutes or as much time as you have. Remove with a moist cloth.

ADD SOME LUXURY LIKE A BEAUTY SALON:  Apply a pump of A-C-E Vitamin Serum first.

Don't forget your hands. They show your age long before your face simply because we look after the face. Hands are on display all the time and exposed to sun, wind, washing up solutions and soap many times a day.

These are good reasons to treat your hands regularly. How to go about it:

  1. Exfoliate
  2. Apply a serum - A-C-E Vitamin C serum is perfect
  3. Apply about a teaspoon of PHP Treatment Mask
Leave on for about 5 minutes and then massage in circular movements. You will find the Mask "rolls off" taking extra dead skin cells with it. Lightly rinse and apply your favourite hand cream. Beautiful plumped, soft hands will be the order of the day.

**Tip**   Using A-C-E Vitamin C serum daily will rejuvenate your hands and reduce unsightly age spots. Vitamin C is magic for reducing pigmentation.

Add a weekly Mask to your routine for Anti Aging Treatments.


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Anti Aging Winter Skin Care - Layer

Friday, June 25, 2010

We are used to layering our clothes to suit the seasons. If you want the best results for your skin in winter the solution is exactly the same.

Conditions in  winter are usually dry and cold. Your skin dries out, is irritated, red, burning and doesn't look fantastic. Does this sound like you?

What happens that you can look and feel so bad. The skin behaves differently in dry, cold conditions and  is often subjected to many temperature changes in a day. You start in the house which may be very warm if heated, walk outside to get the paper go to the car, walk to the bus, school or work.

Once in your transport the temperature will change again. Destination cold, indoors warm. You get the drift.

  • The easy way to keep your skin in prime condition in winter is to layer. After cleansing:
  • Apply a serum for hydrating the lower layers of your skin. This ideally be a gel form containing Hyaluronic Acid to replace lost moisture - water not oil.
  • Layer with a vitamin serum in a light oil. Best choices are vitamins C with A and E. This is your protect and repair layer.
  • Finish with a nourishing moisturiser as your sealing layer.

Immediately apply makeup while skin moisturiser is warm and moist. You will see the best finish this way.
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Anti Aging Serums What's the difference from a Moisturiser

Monday, March 08, 2010

ANTI AGEING/AGING SERUMS

You might wonder why there is a need to use a Serum as well as a Moisturiser and what is the difference?

Serums should do their work below the skin where Moisturisers work in the top layers of the skin and seal in the serum.

Serums come in various forms, water based gels, oils, creams. They are concentrated formulations aimed at targeting specific problems, usually lines and wrinkles, but it could be acne, dry or oily skins.

All Serums should contain at least one "active" ingredient. An active ingredient will be a concentrated specialty ingredient that actually does something to improve your skin. Better quality serums often contain 2 or even 3 of these special additives.

The price of Serums is usually high due to the cost of specialised active ingredients.

I'm fascinated by the ads on TV and radio recently selling an anti aging serum that removes lines and wrinkles within about 3 minutes - for about 8 hours. Boy this is Cinderella in real life. I bought one of these products a year or so ago but find it unpleasant to use - it makes my skin itch really badly.

Now it is a great dinner party amusement. Apply on the men because they have no makeup on and it has to be applied to clean skin. Years disappear before your eyes. If you are going to an event that lasts only a few hours you will get away with the youth but how embarrassing when the lines reappear as the day goes by!

Now the "Real" serums will work on your skin all day and night and you will notice the improvement in your complexion.

Active ingredients to look for are:

Hyaluronic Acid
Vitamin C in oil form VCIP (Ascorbyl Tetra Isopalmitate)
Matrixyl 3000 (not Matrixyl - it's not as potent these are peptides)
MSM
Vitamins A and E

Each of the above active ingredients work in different ways to improve your  youthful looks.

How your skin will benefit from Anti Ageing serums:

  • A more plumpled, smooth, firmer appearance
  • More elasticity
  • Less pigmentation
  • Clearer skin tone
  • Diminishing of lines and wrinkles
  • Healthier skin
A good Moisturiser imparts nutrition which works more on the upper layers of the skin and enhances the effectiveness of Serum. Moisturiser also seals in the Serums which penetrate deeper than Moisturizers.

Layering skin care products is an accepted practice by beauty therapists and it takes very little time. The effort is certainly worth it.

You will know your skin care is working when friends and relatives comment and they do take notice!





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Serums and their Anti Aging Benefits

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

SERUMS AND THEIR ANTI AGING BENEFITS

Looking after your skin can be a complex affair. To give your skin the best possible outcome, treatment goes beyond the usual cleanse, tone and moisturise regime of the past.

There is a huge range of skin care products on the market today and we will try to help explain the best way to choose your star items.

Serums are the latest additions to the beauty world and offer all sorts of tempting improvements from smoothing wrinkles to reducing pigmentation marks. Can this really happen you ask? Yes they can go a long way towards these goals.

An important point to remember is that serums are not moisturisers. Serums usually contain concentrated, active ingredients designed to perform specific tasks. Small molecules are selected to ensure deeper penetration and  absorption.

A good serum is an excellent bonus to add to your skin care routine especially if you have a particular area of concern. Serums are generally used after cleansing and need to be sealed by a moisturiser. They are another layer of skin care well worth the effort and a little extra expense.

The many benefits of serums are they can deposit nutrients, vitamins and minerals deeper in the skin so problems such as dull, lined, uneven skin tone and dryness in the complexion can be addressed. More intense treatments can be given very easily.

Ingredients or features to look for in serums include Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamins A, C and E and Peptides.

Hyaluronic Acid is top of the list and is known as the King of Hydrators. Skin is very commonly dehydrated especially as we start to age. As collagen and elastin deposits reduce, lines form. This is where Hyaluronic Acid comes to the fore, plumping skin, adding moisture lost  from environmental damage and aging. HA is the missing link of elastin and collagen. Now you can provide that ingredient topically.

Vitamin C and Vitamin E are antioxidants critical to use for protection from free radicals during the day. Vitamin C can help reduce pigmentation and prevent further development. Vitamin C also helps strengthen capillaries and even skin tone.

Vitamin C is best used in an oil form because it is very stable and non irritating. Many soluble  forms of Vitamin C oxidise quickly and lose their efficacy. They can also be irritating on some skins.

Retinol and Vitamin A stimulate natural cell renewal and thickening of the epidermis.

When purchasing a Vitamin C serum the best formulations contain Vitamins A, C and E in an oil form.  Your skin then receives maximum protection and sun damage can be improved. Uneven colour tone and light pigmentation will also improve.

Peptides are a new generation in anti aging actives. They are synthesised from Amino Acids and are readily accepted by the skin. Several peptides have been developed to carry out different jobs but Matrixyl 3000, a signal peptide seems to have the best results at this time. These tiny peptides signal the skin to stimulate the growth of collagen and elastin, hence smoother skin.

Hyaluronic Acid and Matrixyl 3000 work well together and give excellent results quickly. It is not just the combination of ingredients but percentages and molecule size that is vital in formulating serums.

For best results look for all the ingredients listed above and a more youthful appearance can be expected.

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Microdermabrasion (professional)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
On the weekend I had my first professional microdermabrasion. It was not planned. An enquiry from a new salon client prompted an expansion of my knowledge of micro so what better way than to experience a treatment using MiSMo products with the Microdermabrasion machine.

Colleague Marion Farmer is very experienced in Microdermabrasion and helped me out with education and performing the treatment. Rosacea skin types usually should not go down this path as the skin is very fragile and delicate.

Thanks to ACE Vitamin C serum my skin has strengthened considerably over the past year. Marion used the most gentle head to exfoliate my skin and there were no untoward side effects. My skin is softer and smoother. A nasty zit was threatening but today has flattened out and by tomorrow should be gone.

Cell Soother  performed admirably reducing redness and heat. We were comparing another well recognised gel used routinely in Microdermabrasion treatments. The most exciting part was that the side where Cell Soother was used the serums absorbed almost instantly where  "Brand B" took an hour longer.

MiSMo won the day so if your local therapist performs microdermabrasion you can confidently tell her you know a better range to use!

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