Welcome to More Beautiful Skin

By the time you finish reading this page, I guarantee you will be a much more educated consumer on how to choose a quality skin care product that gives you the results that you want.  Even though I don’t know you, I’ll bet that if you’re like me, you’re sick and tired of skin care products that don’t do what they claim to.

The worst part is that it is ironically often the most expensive skin care products that are the most ineffective.  Good marketing and a fancy label and brand name often fool us into purchasing products that don’t seem to do very much.

Of course there are some good products on the market that can genuinely help make your skin look smoother, and more radiant and youthful.   We all want a product that reverses and prevents aging, wrinkles and discoloration.  We want eye creams that eliminate dark circles, bags, and puffiness.  And we want to diminish sun spots, age spots and discoloration and get rid of that sallow, tired complexion.

But, there are thousands of products and hundreds of brands to choose from.  How on earth do you weed through them all and feel secure buying something, confident that it will live up to the advertising claims?

Let’s face it, if you can afford it, most of us will spend a lot of money  to improve our appearance and look younger.  Cosmetic surgery is booming into a multi-billion dollar industry, and so is the topical skin care industry.   Of course, to keep up with demand and take advantage of the opportunity, more and more products are flooding the market.  This makes it even harder to know what to buy.

Sadly, a lot of products are brought to market based on cost (making money) with little consideration given to quality, safety of ingredients, and scientific development.  Instead, all of the money goes into the marketing of the product.  So, on the surface everything looks great.  The packaging is pretty, the fragrance is appealing.  The brand names are usually ones we have heard before and believe we can trust.  Glossy magazine ads promote youth, beauty, and an illusion of the amazing results that “xyz” product will buy.  You can’t really blame these companies. When you are spending a fortune paying for marketing, whether it be on the product containers, magazine, radio, and TV ads, royalties paid to celebrities and models, you have to charge a lot of money for your products or you’re going to lose money.

On the other hand, this doesn’t mean you and I have to fall for these types of marketing schemes. After all, these companies aren’t going to encounter any shortage of people who will open their wallets and purses to purchase their products anytime soon. The reality is most people simply won’t take any time to research products and understand what ingredients work and what ingredients are actually bad for your skin!

That’s why I created this website.  I have done some extensive research into what is good, and what is bad about skin care products, and I want to share it with you.

Ingredients to Avoid

It seems incredible, but many skin care products are loaded with ingredients that actually harm your skin over time.   You want to avoid adding chemicals and harmful substances to your skin, where they are absorbed into your body and can actually cause health problems over time.

First, mineral oil. I have seen this oil used in literally hundreds of products I’ve look at. Mineral oil may also go by the names liquid paraffin, paraffin wax, and petrolatum on the product label. Mineral oil is used so pervasively in skin care products for one reason: it’s cheap!

However, mineral oil, once applied, prevents the skin from “breathing.” As such, it clogs pores, interferes with your skin’s natural ability to eliminate toxins, and can lead to acne flare ups. Also, it is irritating to the skin and if used for any length of time, your skin can become dependent on it, causing chapping and dryness. Lastly, it can lead to premature aging of the skin. It’s amazing this substance is even allowed in so-called “skin care” products at all.

Dioxane: (a synthetic derivative of coconut). This substance is widely used in skincare products. It often contains high concentrations of 1,4-dioxane, which is readily absorbed through the skin. I know this sounds crazy, but 1,4-dioxane is considered a chemical “known to the State of California to cause cancer”. To think people pay money to put this stuff on their skin unknowingly is downright scary.

Fragrances: Who doesn’t like to smell nice? Well, I’m here to tell you that if you want to smell nice, use a little bit of perfume or cologne….or some bodyspray. You will absorb far less of it by spraying it from afar that you will from slathering skin care products directly into your skin.  The bottom line is that for ultimate safety, our skin care products should not contain fragrances. Many fragrances are produced from ingredients that are known to be toxic or carcinogenic.  And it seems like the big companies don’t really care!

You must remember that your skin is the largest organ of the body. Anything you put on it can be easily absorbed through the pores.   When you use skin care products, they are applied all over the face, neck, and body. This covers a lot of surface area and, therefore, a great deal of chemical absorption occurs.

Now, I’m sure that many colognes and perfumes contain less than desirable substances too, but I’m enough of a realist to know that people aren’t going to stop using these products to smell nice. However, with perfumes and colognes, you can achieve what you want by a small dab here and there.

Parabens: methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl paraben. Many skin care products (and moisturizing products) will use parabens as a preservative so their products have a long shelf life. The reason is purely economical. However, studies suggest that they may cause cancer and interfere with the body’s endocrine system, as well as causing 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, which are commonly found in skin care products, are very drying and irritating for the skin. Alcohols such as these strip away the skin’s natural acid mantle, making you more vulnerable to bacteria, moulds and viruses.

Now that we’ve looked at some of the bad, let’s examine some of the good ingredients and some ingredients that sound good but in fact aren’t.

Ingredients to Look For

Before we have a discussion of specific ingredients, it’s important to educate ourselves a little bit more on skin itself and what makes a product good or poor.

The biggest reason our skin, whether on the face or the rest of the body, develops lines and/or starts to sag, is that the collagen and elastin in our skin begins to break down. This is the most technical this page is going to get, so bear with me for just a sentence or two.

Collagen is a protein that is fibrous in nature. What makes collagen different from other kinds of protein is that it possesses great tensile strength, which means, among other things, it provides firmness to the skin.

You don’t need to be a scientist, therefore, to understand that as collagen breaks down due to aging, the firmness of our skin becomes…well, less firm. Wrinkles appear and skin starts to sag.  You know what I am talking about–the sagging jawline, the appearance of jowls and puffy lines around your mouth that never used to be there.

Elastin, too, is a protein that helps skin stay “flexible” and firm. If your skin is stretched, elastin is the protein that helps it return to its original position.

What all of this means for you is that you do not want to purchase a skin care product that is nothing more than a cream that fills in fine lines and wrinkles, giving the appearance of temporarily nicer skin when it’s on…but the illusion shattered when you wash it off. You want a product that contains ingredients that actually stimulates new collagen and elastin production in your skin. If you achieve this, you will, in reality, begin to turn back the clock.

Now, pay attention here because I’m going to share with you something extremely important. Some of the manufacturers of more pricy products will try to dupe the public by including some really good active ingredients. What’s wrong with that you say?

Well, here’s the tactic they use. Because these active ingredients are beneficial for the skin, they include some just so that they can legally list them on the product label. This way, the typical consumer thinks they are getting a great product. But, because these ingredients are expensive, and because, as discussed before, a lot of well known companies are already spending much of their budget on marketing, they don’t put in enough of these ‘active ingredients’ to have any real benefit for your skin.

So, when choosing a skin care product, it’s not just about selecting one with good ingredients; it’s also about choosing one with a high concentration of these good ingredients.

Collagen

After my brief discussion about the importance of collagen, you would think that buying a product with collagen in it would be a great thing. And the marketers who sell products that contain collagen know this. But it’s a bogus ingredient because collagen molecules are much too large to penetrate into the skin when applied topically.

To be of any benefit, you must purchase a product with ingredients that have been shown to stimulate your body’s own collagen production.

Phytessence Wakame

Phytessence Wakame is an exotic kelp, native to the Japanese Sea. It works by blocking a harmful enzyme in your body called hyaluronidase. Hyaluronidase breaks down hyaluronic acid in your skin. You may think “well who cares.”

Well, you should because without hyaluronic acid, the elastin and collagen fibers lose their “glue,” which leads to a loss of youthful appearance and dark eye circles.

But don’t just take my word for it. If you research this 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 a new exciting, cutting edge substance. Cynergy TK actually stimulates your own collagen to grow again. In fact, it is proven in clinical trials to stimulate not only the regrowth of collagen but also elastin, thereby promoting firmness and elasticity. In short, fewer wrinkles, and more youthful, healthier looking skin. It may help improve your skin’s ability to retain its needed natural moisture.

Indeed, 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

If you look at the ingredient list for some of the better skin care products, you’ll often see CoQ10 listed. CoQ10 is short for Coenzyme Q10, so you may also see it listed this way. CoQ10 is a vitamin like substance that is found in all of our body’s cells and is very important for healthy skin.

CoQ10 is a powerful antioxidant. A lot of skin damage and aging comes from free radicals wreaking havoc in our body’s cells. CoQ10’s antioxidant ability can counter these free radicals before damage occurs.

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

Although CoQ10 is a great ingredient, not all forms are equal. One in particular stands head and shoulders above the rest. This version of it is called Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10.

Don’t let the name scare you off, though. Here’s why it’s different. Most of the CoQ10 you buy in a typical skin care product is not readily usable when applied topically to the skin.

Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10, on the other hand, is a special ‘nano-emulsion’ form of CoQ10, which penetrates far down into the skin, thereby providing much greater benefits for skin health. In fact, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10 can penetrate down 7 layers deep into the skin.

Because this version of CoQ10 can penetrate so deeply, it is extremely effective at ‘gobbling up’ free radicals in your skin. The result is a powerful anti-wrinkle effect.

Nano-Lipobelle can also promote collagen and elastin production as well.

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

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

The Xtend-Life Natural Products company, that’s where. This company is located in New Zealand but ships products world-wide. I use their products 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, and on TV.

They’re one of the few companies that focuses on spending the bulk of their money on the production of the absolute best products available, not the best marketing hype.

You can think of them as your “secret weapon” the big companies don’t want you to know about.

So, if you truly want to achieve younger looking more vibrant skin, I suggest you visit their site and read about their skin care philosophy. I think you’ll be as impressed as I am. 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 precious skin.