Woman World Web

July 24th, 2008 by Ian Richards

Women, and even men of a certain age are constantly looking for a magic bullet when it comes to anti ageing skin care. In fact, women in the UK are spending around 100 million per year, trying to look younger using anti aging cream as a non surgical facelift. The real problem is, that by the time they become of a certain age, they are always playing catch up. You have to start when you are young. Are you listening teenagers and twentysomethings?

The sun, although beneficial to health, is one of the biggest causes of skin ageing. People tend to be quite good at putting on high factor sun screen when they are on the beach but this is not the full story. When the sky is blue, you are mainly protecting yourself from the UV-A rays but it is when the sky is cloudy that the damage is done because the clouds filter out the UV-A rays but cannot filter the UV-B rays which are the real villains and are a major cause for skin ageing. You will realise that these are affecting you every time you go out doors every day of the year.

UV-B is hitting you as you walk from your house to the station, from the station to work and back again. It is there when you go for your lunch. This means that your first weapon to anti aging is sun blocker, all the time. Use it on your face hands and neck at all times possibly as a substitute for moisturiser cream.

When it comes to anti ageing skin care, there have been many creams and potions that have been advertised by people in white coats in a laboratory to suggest that science can’t be wrong and that this particular cream or that lotion can act as a non surgical facelift and will magically take years off your face, but can you really trust the hype?

Remember, these are only advertisements and they are designed to make you buy the product. The reality is that a lot of special ingredients are really chemicals that have been around for years and have only just been started to be put into face creams. One good thing is that because they are not new, the chances of any problems happening are kept to a minimum.

For example, one ingredient, Retinol, is another name for vitamin A. It is used as a skin preparation but in order to be effective it has to be used at quite a high strength and can only be obtained with a doctors prescription. The level of Retinol found in over the counter skin cream will have little or no effect although, as with all these preparations, individuals may derive some benefit through using them. You may well be better off spending your money on foods rich in vitamin A, such as leafy vegetables, certain fruit or liver.

Time is the enemy of any anti ageing skin preparation and it is difficult to know the age of the jar you are buying as, unlike food, there is no date printed on the packaging. As soon as these preparations are manufactures, they start to degrade. Air and moisture will attack them, making them less effective and this process becomes accelerated, once you have opened it, so always follow the instructions on how to store them.

Given that most of these preparations tend to be quite expensive and there is often not a lot in the jar, you may wish to consider making your own. The base can be an inexpensive moisturising cream which helps to take the other ingredients into the skin. There are many different recipes for anti ageing skin cream available and it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the other constituents. When preparing your skin cream, you have to be very hygienic in all you do. Only prepare small amounts of the cream to ensure it remains fresh. As different preparations work on different types of skin you will probably have to do some experimentation until you find the one that is just right for you. When you do find the right combination, you will not only have great looking skin but you will have saved yourself a considerable amount of money.