The Beautiful Skin Care Guide

Welcome to my Skin Care site.

By the time you finish reading this page, you can rest assured that you'll be twice as knowledgable on how to choose the best skin care products that deliver the results you've always wanted.

Even though we don't know each other, I'm willing to bet that you've tried just about every skin care product in the store only to find out that many don't live up to any of their promises.

Isn't it a shame that it's the most expensive skin care products that don't do much of anything.

Now don't get me wrong, because there are a few really great products out there that will have your skin looking smoother, more radiant, and youthful. A high quality skin product should also reduce bags under, and fine lines around the eyes, as well as evening out the coloration inconsistencies associated with age spots and other abnormal pigment concentrations.

Now the tricky part is that you have to sort through the thousands of products available and unless you decide to become a well educated consumer you're going to have a difficult time finding one of the few that actually produces real results and eliminates years of aging from your face and body.

It's no mystery that people will spend any amount of money neccessary to make themselves look younger and more beautiful. Let's face it, cosmetic surgery is a multi-billion dollar industry followed by the topical skin care industry.

When manufacturers see the demand for such products skyrocket, they will do whatever it takes to flood the market in order to capitalize on this demand.

Even though the market is being flooded with thousands of new products constantly, the real money is being spent on marketing the product. On the outside everything looks great. The bottle and jars full of cream look appealing. The magazine ads appear convincing complete with the hottest and youngest models, or a famous celebrity that never even used the product.

To these companies it's just business. When you're spending a fortune on marketing, like packaging or tv, radio and magazine ads, combined with the royalties they're paying celebrities, it's no wonder they have to charge big bucks for your products or they're going to lose money.

This doesn't mean you have to fall for all these over hyped promises and marketing schemes. After all these companies won't have to worry about a shortage of people ready and willing to open their wallets and hand over their money any time soon. The sad truth is that most of these people will simply not take the time to learn which ingredients work and which don't, or even stay away from ingredients that can damage your skin!

That's why I created this website, so let's get you educated.

Ingredients you should avoid...

It may seem hard to believe, but many skin care products are filled with ingredients that will actually damage you skin over time. We'll discuss these in detail so you'll know what to avoid.

Let's talk about Mineral Oil first. I've seen this oil added to literally hundreds of products all over. Mineral oil goes by many different names such as: liquid paraffin, paraffin wax, or petrolatum, so be sure to check the label. Companies love mineral oil for one reason: it's cheap!

The problem with mineral oil is that once applied it clogs the pores which prevents the skin from "breathing". Now your skin can't eliminate toxins leading to acne flare ups. It will also irritate your skin and if you keep using it your skin will start to become dependent on it, causing chapping and dryness. One last damaging effect of this oil is premature aging of the skin. It's almost unbelieveable this ingredient is allowed in many skin care products at all.

Next on the hitlist is Dioxane, a synthetic derivative of coconut. A commonly used substance, it often contains concentrated amounts of 1,4 dioxane, which is easily absorbed through the skin. This may sound absurd but 1,4 dioxane is considered to be a chemical "know to the State of California to cause cancer". It's downright scary to think that people put this on their skin without knowing anything about it.

Let's talk for a second about fragrances. I mean who doesn't want to smell nice? Listen if you want to smell nice, then use some perfume or cologne, maybe some bodyspray. The problem with the fragrances used in your skin care products is that many are produced from ingredients that are know to be toxic and cancer causing.

Don't forget that your skin is the largest organ of the body. Remember, anything you put on it gets absorbed through the pores. So, why would I encourage you to use perfume or cologne for fragrence but to choose a skin care product without them?

It's simple, when using these products you're applying them all over your face, neck, and body. So you're covering alot of surface area during these applications and therefore a great deal of chemical absorption occurs.

Now, even though many perfumes and colognes contain unwanted ingredients, I still realize that people are still going to use these products to smell good. However, you can still smell just as nice with perfumes and colognes with just a small dab here and there.

As far as I can tell this is a much better alternative than using skin care products that may also include potentially dangerous chemicals that are directly applied and absorbed into the skin all over your body.

Parabens such as methyl, propyl, butyl, and ehtyl are another nasty ingredient you need to watch out for. Many products including moisturizers use parabens as a preservative to extend the shelf life of their products. Again, this is purely economical, however, studies suggest they may cause cancer, along with interfereing with the endocrine system and causing allergic and skin reactions.

Last but not least are alcohols like ehtanol, ethyl, methanol, benzyl, isopropyl, and SD. Not all alcohols have the same properties, except for those commonly found in skin care products which are very drying and irratating to the skin. Alcohols like these strip away the skin's natural acid mantle, making you vunerable to bacteria, molds, and viruses.

Now that I've shown you what to stay away from, let's take a look at some decieveing ingredients, as well as some that are actually good for you.

Ingredients to look for...

Before we talk about specific products, lets learn a little bit more about the skin itself, and what actually makes a product good or bad.

The biggest reason your skin develops lines and/or starts to sag, be it on the face or rest of the body, is due to the break down of the collagen and elastin in our skin. This will be as technical as I'm going to get, so just bear with me for a couple sentences.

In nature collagen is a fibrous protein. What seperates collagen from the other proteins is the great tensile strength it possesses, in other words it provides firmness to the skin.

You don't need to be a doctor to recognize that when collagen breaks down due to aging our skin simply becomes less firm, causing wrinkles to appear along with sagging.

Elastin, another protein, helps our skin stay "flexible" and firm. When skin is stretched, elastin is the is the protein that helps it return to its original position.

What this means to you is that you don't want to buy a skin care product that's just a cream designed to fill in lines and wrinkles, giving your appearance a temporary fix when applied; and then bringing you back to reality when it's washed off. What you want to buy is a product that includes ingredients that actually stimulates your skins production of collagen and elastin. The reality is that if you will begin to turn back the clock if you can achieve this.

Pay close attention here while I share with you an extremely important message. Some manufacturers of the more expensive products will try and trick the public by including some very good active ingredients. So what's wrong with that, you ask?

Well, here's the argument they use. Since these active ingredients are good for the skin they include them for the purpose of legally listing them on the product label. In this way, the average consumer believes they're getting a great product. But, because these ingredients are expensive, and as I mentioned before, many well known companies are already spending most of their money on marketing, they just don't put in enough of these 'active ingredients' to have any real benefit for your skin.

So, when you're deciding on a skin care product, it's not enough to pick one with the best ingredients, instead focus on choosing the one with the highest concentration of those great ingredients.

Now lets talk about which ingredients you want to focus on.

Collagen

After my short discussion about the importance of collagen, you would think that buying a product that included collagen would be a good thing. And the marketers that sell products which contain collagen want you to believe that. However, it's a bogus ingredient because collagen molecules are way to large to be absorbed by the skin when applied topically.

To get the real benefit, you must buy a product with ingredients that have been proven to stimulate your bodys own collagen production.

Phytessence Wakame

Phytessence Wakame is an exotic kelp, native to the Japanese Sea. It works by blocking a damaging enzyme in your body called hyaluronidase. Hyaluronidase breaks down the hyaluronic acid in your skin. Ok, so who cares, right?

Well, you should care because without hyaluronic acid your elastin and collagen fibers lose their "glue", causing you to look older with dark eye circles.

But don't just take my word for it. You can easily find this on Wikipedia and read for example, "Hyaluronan is also a major component of skin, where it is involved in tissue repair."

Cynergy TK

This is an exciting and new, cutting edge substance. Cynergy TK will actually stimulate your own collagen to start growing again. In fact it's been proven in clinical trials to stimulate not only the regrowth of collagen but also elastin, increasing firmness and elasticity. In other words, you're getting less wrinkles and younger, heathier looking skin. It may also help improve your skin's ability to retain its natural moisture.

Studies have shown a sustained 14% improvement in moisture retention as well as an improvement in skin elasticity of 42% over 18 days.

CoQ10

When you look at the ingredient list on any of the better skin care products, you can often find CoQ10 listed. CoQ10 can also be listed as Coenzyme Q10. CoQ10 is a vitamin like substance that is found in all of our body's cells and is needed for healthy skin.

CoQ10 is also a powerful antioxidant. A lot of skin damage and aging is caused by free radicals wreaking havoc in our body's cells. CoQ10's antioxidant quality can block these free radicals before damage occurs.

Unfortunately as we age, the amount of CoQ10 as well as many other vital substances in our body becomes depleted.

Even though CoQ10 is a great ingredient, not all its forms are equal. One version in particular called Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10, stands heads and shoulders above the rest.

I know it's a mouthful, but here's why it's different. Most of the CoQ10 you buy in any skin care product won't be readily usable when applied to the skin.

On the other hand, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 is a special 'nano-emulsion' form of CoQ10 that is absorbed deep down into the skin, providing much greater benefits for our skins health. In fact, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 can penetrate 7 layers deep into the skin.

Because this particular version of CoQ10 penetrates so deeply, it is extremely effective at 'gobbling up' the free radicals in your skin. The result is a powerful anti-wrinkle effect plus it can also promote collagen and elastin production as well.

Combined, these three main active ingredients are some of the most powerful anti-aging skin care compounds available while significantly improving the look and feel of your skin.

I guess by now you're saying "where can I find all three of these ingredients in one product line?"

The Xtend-Life Natural Products company , that's were. They are located in New Zealand but ship their products world-wide. I use at least one product every single day.

Xtend-Life isn't a household name. They don't have famous hollywood celebrities endorsing their products for outrageous royalties. They don't even bother advertising all over the radio, in magazines, or even TV.

They're one of the few companies that focus on spending the bulk of their money towards producing the absolute best products available, and not the latest marketing hype.

Think of them as your "secret weapon" the big companies don't want you to know about.

If you truly want to achieve the youngest looking most vibrant skin, I reccomend you visit their site and read about their skin care philosophy. I know you'll be as impressed as I am, and at the very least you'll be more educated about what to look for and what to avoid when it comes to taking care of your precious skin.