Anti Aging Facial Skin Care Products – Safe Or Toxic ?

Does Your Facial Skin Care Cream Contain PESTICIDE ????

Would you eat an anti aging facial skin care product?

I know it’s a crazy sounding question but if you use skin care products of (any kind) then it’s highly relevant question which you’ll come to realize as you read through this article.

You’re probably already aware that you should not / cannot trust anti aging skin care product manufacturers and the claims made in their misleading marketing presentations. To take them at their word means flirting with potentially harmful side effects. This absolutely includes the elite, big name brands.

The greatest majority of anti aging facial skin care manufacturers share the same trade secrets (which they absolutely don’t want the general public to know. If their manufacturing shortcuts and secrets became widely known, their profits would take a hit. So, read on. Once you know the facts about the harmful ingredients they use, you will see exactly what health dangers and risks you’re up against. Not just for your facial skin but for your overall health and wellness.

The truth is not pretty. In fact it’s frightening in some cases!

ANTI AGING FACIAL SKIN CARE PRODUCTS AND TOXIC CHEMICALS

Why on earth would they use such dangerous ingredients?

Well, as you can guess, it all comes down to the mighty dollar. Bottom line profits! Your health and safety comes in a distant second to their multi million dollar profits. Although the big, well known companies are completely capable of producing highly effective anti aging facial skin care products which are completely safe, completely pure, and produce substantial anti aging results, they choose not to do so. This is primarily because of shareholder pressures ( ie. GREED! )

Skin care companies make their products to a price – and that’s the problem! The bio-scientists and chemists who formulate their products do not have a free hand in selecting ALL the very best and most effective ingredients which they know should be there. They are given an upper budget limit and they must formulate within that budget!

Here’s an example of what formulating skincare products to a price can result in. One of the skin care industry’s most well known, ‘elite’ brands – you know this brand for sure (it starts with the letter C), uses a nasty chemical in their anti aging facial skin care formulas which is technically classified as a PESTICIDE!

It’s called TRICLOSAN – an anti-bacterial chemical which kills harmful organisms on the skin BUT also destroys beneficial bacteria!

Why would any of us in our right minds allow a chemical used in weed killers to be absorbed into our bodies, no matter how small they tell us the dose may be. Sure, for most people there will be no apparent immediate symptoms but what about over the long term? What’s that going to do to your health some years down the track? There’s no research for the long term effects of many of the chemicals used in skin care formulas.

Your skin is your largest organ and one of your first-line defenses against disease, so naturally you should be thoroughly safety-minded and look after it accordingly!

There is clinical evidence to suggest triclosan may contribute to creating strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics because it is so widely used use in skin care products.

I asked at the top whether you could eat your anti aging facial skin care products. As far as I’m concerned that should be the benchmark for skin care product formulators and manufacturers and one of your main criteria when choosing an anti aging skin care treatment. Always keep this in mind: Active ingredients are adsorbed into your bloodstream so it’s the same as eating them! And keep this in mind as well: it’s completely possible to formulate a highly effective facial skin care product from all natural ingredients with no chemicals whatsoever. It’s only a question of cost and desire.

Naturally it’s more expensive to use naturally sourced options for certain ingredients and excipients. Healthy options always cost more. Sourcing high-quality, 100% natural moisturizing oils, vegetable-based waxes and silicones, reparative proteins, antioxidants, vitamins and plant extracts are significantly more expensive. Shareholder pressures in the large multi nationals simply don’t allow the completely natural option to have a look in. It’s a non-starter. They are purely focused on maintaining and increasing their amazingly excessive profit margins.

ANTI AGING FACIAL SKIN CARE AND THE TERM ‘NATURAL INGREDIENT’

Now, there’s something I’d like to clear up about the term ‘natural ingredient’. Have you ever taken a really good look at the ingredients list on an “All Natural” or “Completely Pure” type anti aging facial skin care product? Despite the claims, there’s some pretty scary and completely chemical sounding names in those lists. But the skin care company may not actually be lying to you so let me explain.

Ingredients are listed using their INCI names which is an international scientific classification for all ingredients. This allows for consistency from product to product and allows consumers to easily compare ingredients across brands . In virtually all countries the cosmetic regulatory agency dictates that all cosmetics include a listing of ingredients using the standardized INCI name for each ingredient. INCI stands for “International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients”. So, naturally sourced ingredients listed using their INCI name can and do sound like harsh chemicals even though they are far from it.

BUT………………………….

…………………… the INCI name can be misleading! So I need to explain a little deeper if you’re going to develop the necessary knowledge to know how to find the best and purest anti aging facial skin care products from all the impostors in that saturated market out there..

An INCI name does not differentiate between an ingredient that is derived from petroleum and another which is derived from a natural plant source if the end substance broadly has a similar structure! It’s exactly like vitamin supplement ingredients. Like vitamin E for example – there’s a natural version and there’s a synthetic version (but how are you meant to know which one has been used when they simply print ‘Vitamin E’ on the label). Each are manufactured completely differently and the efficacy of each is extremely different!

Here’s an example for you – ‘Glycerine’. You’ll find this ingredient in anti aging skin care treatment as a humectant. What you want is natural plant based glycerine. But most companies use petroleum-based glycerine because it’s significantly cheaper. Plant based glycerine is completely safe to consume . Who wants petroleum-based glycerine absorbed into their body?

ANTI AGING FACIAL SKIN CARE – THE BOTTOM LINE

The type of skin care company you should buy from is the type who issues a brief to their scientists and chemists that goes something like this : ‘Put together the very best formulas possible that actually work and all formulas must be safe enough to eat’.

This is the kind of high standard which should reflect a company’s anti aging skin care philosophy! The long term health of your skin should be their prime objective. Yes, there are skin care companies like that out there but nowhere near as many as you would expect! Perhaps your lucky enough to have already come across one.

I’ll share the name of a company with you who manufactures the standard of skin care products which ALL manufacturers should work to. The purity and efficacy of this company’s products are why I chose to use them in my own skin care program. NOTE: It’s vital that you consider both purity AND efficacy when shopping for anti aging facial skin care products (in fact any skin care products).

I’ve reviewed hundreds of skin care products and nothing so far can match the products from this company, which is called Xtend-Life, a New Zealand based company. They use 2-3 times more actives than most other companies. That’s the first thing that made my ears prick up. Despite the number of costly ingredients they include, they keep their prices very affordable (unlike the elite brands!) In other words they have obviously priced their skin care products according to the cost of manufacture and not according to the highest level that the market will bear. Their risk-free 90-day money back guarantee shows how confident they are.

Think for a moment – why don’t we see the super expensive, elite brands offering a 3 month money back guarantee? It’s obvious right!

I think the key in the anti aging skin care product industry is simply to produce the best product in its category while giving the best value for money and keep profit margins low so there’s no incentive for competitors to copy. That’s clearly the strategy which the Xtend-Life company has focused on.

Skin care companies who do use only naturally sourced ingredients usually make a pretty big deal of it on their websites and in their marketing literature. Rest assured it will be highlighted in big bold letters. If you don’t see anything mentioned and you want to know, then rather than researching the ingredients yourself which is time consuming, just fire off a quick email to the company asking straight out if all ingredients are natural. Ask for a listing of all ingredients using their common names rather than their INCI classifications. Ask if any of the ingredients are ‘petroleum derived’ ! See if you get a response and how they word it.

Don’t forget to take a look at my dangerous ingredients in skin care products chart!

Would you like some more examples?

Click the link at the end of this paragraph to open a chart showing the ingredients in the anti aging facial skin care products I use. This chart shows their common names and INCI names. All of them are completely natural and safe enough to eat. Take a look at how their INCI names are misleading and sound like chemicals. You can use the additional info column there to understand more about each one and use this as a handy resource to check on skin care products you’re currently using or have been thinking about getting.

Anti aging facial skin care ingredients

If you’re interested, this next link will take you straight to the product info page for the skin care range from Xtend-life. If you’re a guy click the ‘Mens’ Skincare link and take a look at the ‘Age-Defense Active Facial Fluid’ and the ‘Age-Defense Active Body Lotion’ – these are the two I use.

The three foundation actives they contain are known as the ‘Big Three’ anti aging ingredients (which the elite skin care companies are currently gearing up to start using – they have about a 1-2 year lead in time for new formulas so it will be a while for them and as usual they’re bound to be ridiculously overpriced).

Xtend-Life anti aging skin care range

Great Health Great Skin

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What Skincare Companies Definitely Don’t Want You To Know About Toxic Chemicals In Their Skin Care Products!

The skin care products market is so highly profitable that the large companies spend obscene amounts of money on their marketing presentations. Underlying these cleverly put together presentations is a lifestyle which is really what the skin care companies are trying to sell you.

It’s not about the product, it’s the associated lifestyle that draws most people to part with their hard earned cash. The reality is of course that most of us will never have even a tiny taste of that luscious lifestyle and yet we continue to cough up large amounts of money for ridiculously overpriced beauty skin care products. That’s the power of marketing and consumerism!

Behind all those inspiring images lies a terrible secret that you absolutely need to know about. Most skin care products, including the ‘natural’ ones, contain a number of the same harsh, toxic chemicals used in industrial processes. The very same chemicals you are putting on your skin and absorbing into your body!

These sinister substances are known to cause a wide range of adverse health effects, ranging from skin irritation to cancer. This is what the skincare companies have gone to great lengths to hide from you! If Mr and Mrs average consumer knew the truth, there’d definitely be second thoughts about buying many of the most popular skin care products including expensive market leading brands.

So, let’s cut to the chase!

If You Use Skin Care Products Be On The Lookout For These Dangerous Ingredients:

The list below contains some of the most commonly used ingredients in skin care products, which have proven adverse health effects. Because you care about your health you should absolutely avoid any skincare products showing any of these ingredients on the label:

Acrylamide:
You’ll find this one in a multitude of hand and facial skin care products. Here’s what the studies suggest about acrylamide; “May Cause Breast Tumors” It’s not worth the risk from now on, don’t you agree?

Alcohols:
(Ethanol, ethyl alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol and SD alcohol)
These are very drying and irritating for your skin. Alcohols strip away your skin’s natural acid mantle, making you more vulnerable to bacteria, moulds and viruses. These alcohols may promote brown spots and premature aging of skin.

General Note: You’ll no doubt come across the ingredients ‘Stearyl and Cetearyl Alcohol’ in numerous skin care products. They’re OK! That’s because they are waxes and have nothing at all in common with those dangerous alcohols listed above.

DEA (diethanolamine), MEA (monoethanolamine), and TEA (triethanolamine):
Often used in skincare products to adjust the pH. TEA causes allergic reactions including eye problems, dryness of hair and skin, and could be toxic if absorbed into the body over a long period of time. These chemicals are now restricted in Europe because of known carcinogenic effects!

Dioxane: (a synthetic derivative of coconut)
Dioxane is, regrettably, widely used in skin care products. It usually contains high concentrations of 1,4-dioxane, which, regrettably, is absorbed through your skin extremely easily.

Simply put, 1,4-dioxane is considered a chemical! It’s known to the State of California to cause cancer!

It’s a by-product of the cancer-causing petrochemical ethylene oxide, which is used as part of a process called ethoxylation, which makes harsh ingredients milder. Start checking your skincare labels. If you’ve been absorbing this into your body – STOP immediately!

Incredibly, we’re not done with dioxane yet! 1,4-Dioxane is ALSO suspected of being a kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant (brain) and respiratory toxicant, among others, according to the California EPA. It is also a leading groundwater contaminant! OMG!

Fragrance:
Whenever you’re shopping and you pick up a skincare cream/lotion, do you immediately smell it? Probably the first thing that most consumers do is check-out the smell of any skin care products they look at. On this note my advice to you is to consider the word ‘fragrance’ as you would a real live minefield. Extreme Caution!

The term ‘Fragrance’ can refer to up to 4000 separate ingredients, yes – four thousand – many of which are toxic or carcinogenic! Many common fragrances can affect your central nervous system, causing depression, hyperactivity, and irritability. Since you value your safety, ‘Fragrance Free’ is what you want to see in big bold letters on the front of any skin care products you use or are considering buying.

Mineral oil:
(liquid paraffin, paraffin wax, petrolatum)
This is a petroleum by-product that coats your skin to lock moisture in. But it does more than that – it clogs your pores, interferes with your skin’s ability to get rid of toxins and encourages acne (amongst other disorders). It can cause photosensitivity and strips the natural oils from your skin causing chapping and dryness, not to mention PREMATURE AGING - the exact opposite effect of what you want from anti aging skin care products!

Any mineral oil derivative can be contaminated with cancer causing PAH’s (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons). Guess why skin care product manufacturers use this terrible ingredient? If you said “because it’s cheap” you win! Disgusting isn’t it!

Nitrosamines:
Can be formed in skin care products when amines (such as DEA, MEA or TEA) are combined with formaldehyde-releasing preservatives (such as bronopol or quaternium-15). Nitrosamines are known to be carcinogenic! Enough said!

Padimate-O:
(May be listed as octyl dimethyl)
You’ll come across Padimate mostly in sunscreens – it’s a nitrosamine-forming agent, just like DEA.
There is concern amongst the experts that the energy absorbed by this sunscreen is subsequently turned into free radicals, which may in turn actually increase the risk of skin cancer!

Parabens:
(methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl paraben)
Parabens in skin care products are used as a strong preservative! Studies suggest they may cause cancer and interfere with your body’s endocrine system, in addition to causing allergic reactions and skin rashes. So, next to the ‘Fragrance Free’ listing on your skin care bottles and tubes you’ll be wanting to see ‘Paraben Free’

Phenol carbolic acid:
You’ll come across this nasty one in lotions and skin creams. It can cause circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma and even death from respiratory failure. Once you’re in the know, it’s incredibly hard to believe that they actually put this stuff in skin care products where active ingredients can get into your bloodstream!

Polyethylene glycol (PEG):
This is a widely used ’suspect’ ingredient! They use it in skincare formulas as an emulsifier and humectant. You probably already guessed what it’s suspected of being – yep, the big ‘C’ again – Carcinogenic!

Rancid Natural Emollients:
Natural oils used in skin care products should be ‘cold pressed’. When oils are refined, they are stripped of vital nutrients and they contain poisonous trans fatty acids. Natural oils can also go rancid if kept past their use-by date (hence the wide use of preservatives)

Toluene:
You absolutely need to know about this one (especially if you’re pregnant!)! It’s made from petroleum or coal tar, and you’ll find it in most synthetic fragrances. Chronic exposure to toluene is linked to anemia, lowered blood cell count, liver or kidney damage, and this is frightening – it may affect a developing fetus! Take note of the ingredient name ‘Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)’ because it contains toluene. (Other names may include benzoic and benzyl.)

Triclosan:
This is an anti-bacterial agent also widely used in the skin care industry. Would you believe it’s also used in weed killers – it’s true!). There is evidence to suggest triclosan may contribute to creating strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, due to its wide-scale use in skin care products.

Well, there you go! You now know that many skin care products are far from what they claim to be. Don’t be sucked-in and not carefully check-up on the ingredients in so-called skin care natural products, just because they have highlighted words like”Safe”, ”All Natural” and so on. This is definitely no reason to trust manufacturers in this industry! They’re just marketing spin! And , I’d like to remind you one more time – this does include expensive big name brands.

Please make the time to do the homework. The internet makes it a lot easier. If you’re checking products online and you come across a company hiding any of their ingredients behind the “Proprietary” wall of silence, I recommend you to steer clear. What you don’t know about your skin care products today could quite literally come back to devastate your health years in the future. Some of these dangerous and toxic ingredients are just like time bombs - and they’re inside you!

The Skin Care Products I Use And Recommend To You

OK, time to name the skincare brand that my family and I use. Although these are elite, cell rejuvenation skin care products, they’re priced fairly based on the cost of producing them and not on what the market will bear!

What that translates to for you and I is retail pricing less than half the cost of moderately priced international brands but with around three times the quantity of active ingredients!

Super products so pure, you could eat them! I’m not kidding when I say this – it’s guaranteed! That was the brief given to the formulator – make them safe enough to eat! Absolutely no chemicals hidden in these creams! So, for all these reasons I choose this particular brand over ALL the famous brand names in the market (with their ridiculously excessive profit margins and paltry quantities of actives!)

Here’s a direct link to the product page for the guys skin care products. Start your research from there fellas – there’s plenty of transparent product information:

Xtend Life MEN’S Skin Care range

Skin care products for the ladies are on this page:

Xtend Life WOMEN’S Skin Care range

Great Health     Great Skin Always

Brett

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Skin Care Products

The Hidden Truth About Toxic Ingredients

“Safe Enough To Eat?”

Skin care products form one of the most profitable markets in the multi billion dollar ‘health and beauty’ industries. Our inherent desire seeking to constantly improve our appearance means we are prepared to spend HUGE amounts of money over our lifetimes chasing those eternal goals of looking young, looking great, looking sexy and of course the biggest goal of them all – maintaining our youth. This of course is what skin care product manufacturers prey on with their cleverly put together marketing presentations.

In tight monetary times, skin care products and skin treatments are one of the last things to go, particularly for the ladies. No matter how tough things get we always seem to come up with, or be prepared to spend, money on our appearance. Vanity is a powerful influence!

Since beauty skin care products based as cremes, serums, and lotions are applied to your skin, the active ingredients are absorbed into your system. The critical point to understand here is that some actives actually find their way into your bloodstream!

This is a major health concern if you don’t know the names of ingredients with established or suspected harmful side effects especially those with links to serious disease such as cancer. The problem is that in many cases side effects produce no obvious symptoms – they are quietly ticking away inside you, slowly building up and significantly increasing your risk of major degenerative disease and premature death.

From time to time safety issues within the health and beauty industries are exposed and quickly become major headlines. Researchers present their negative findings and industry experts then refute them. Who to believe? More often than not when negative studies are properly examined we find they are far from conclusive and that their researchers/sponsors have hidden vested interests influencing the result. In cases of proven safety concerns these industries have powerful means of suppressing the studies. We simply do not hear all the facts! It’s profits first, consumer safety a distant second.

So, today I’d like to give you some insider tips. I worked in the nutritional supplement industry where skin care products were an important part of the product mix. I’ve got a great deal of skin care knowledge to share with you and parts of it will probably shock you. I know the industry’s secrets – things they have gone to great lengths over the years to hide as a means of increasing profit and brand image.

The plain and simple truth is that there are many facts that skin care product manufacturers don’t want you to know. Many highlight weaknesses in products which, if they became widely known, would expose MANY of the elite skin care brands, (the one’s which cost an ‘arm and a leg’), as being nowhere near as good as their marketing claims!

Unfortunately some of these secrets involve safety issues for people of all skin types! Some of which are straightforward while others are gray areas involving ingredients with a question mark over them – such as the use of super strong preservatives. Fragrances are a dubious ingredient because most of them are chemicals not to mention their potential as allergens for sensitive skin consumers.

Many skincare manufacturers include fragrances to make an inferior product smell better!

I’d like to use this article to focus on harmful ingredients in skin care formulas that you absolutely need to know about. Once you’re armed with this knowledge you can make safe, informed decisions when buying or comparing future face or body skin care products, black skin care products, acne skin care products or any other skincare products with a specific focus.

But firstly there’s a key point I’d like to establish right up front, although you’re probably already aware of it, and it’s particularly relevant for those of you who purchase those super expensive market leading brands. Here it is:

In terms of the cost of producing a facial skin care product, the retail price that you will pay represents extremely low value for money!

Skin Care Products Are NOT Priced According To The Cost Of Manufacture – They Are Instead Priced At The HIGHEST End Of What The Market Will Bear.

The big multi-nationals have shockingly excessive profit margins on their products. They use less actives than they should and rely on their brand image rather than the efficacy of their formulas! Did you know that for most of them the volume of active ingredients in the product is less than 50% !

On this point you’ll be happy to learn that the most effective anti aging cell rejuvenation skin care products in the market (the ones I’ll lead you to throughout this site) are so safe and pure that you could actually eat them! Honestly! And they are fairly priced – based on the cost of producing them. That means they cost LESS THAN FIFTY PERCENT of some of moderately priced international brands and yet have around TRIPLE THE QUANTITY OF ACTIVE INGREDIENTS – the most recent ingredients clinically proven for their safety and effectiveness (which the big companies are currently gearing up to put into their formulas within the next two years!)

Harmful Ingredients – The Ones You Don’t Want In Your Skin Care Products

Now, if you’ve ever looked closely at labels of skin care cosmetics you will have seen long lists of ingredients, all with chemical sounding names (despite the manufacturers “Natural Skin Care” claim).

Even completely natural substances (which are ALL you want in your skin care products) are assigned with a specific name under the INCI code and some of these sound like they are chemicals rather than natural in nature. INCI is short for “International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients”. International law requires that skin care cosmetic ingredients are stated on the packaging using the names approved by INCI. As an easy example: water is not listed as water, it’s listed as ‘Aqua’.

Two skin care cosmetics ingredients which you will come across need some explanation.

1. ‘Water’ – is included as a natural spreading component. The water in skincare products is special and is not tap water. It’s highly purified through reverse osmosis and heat sterilization is applied to ensure that its quality conforms (and surpasses) the most stringent international microbiological standards. This means no impurities and that the water is de-ionized so as not to interfere with other ingredients.

2. ‘Alcohol’ – there are two kinds. Petroleum based and natural plant based. The type of alcohols present as part of an ingredient are natural, they don’t dry-out your skin and unlike the risks from using non plant based alcohols, they have no negative effects on your skin. Glycerine is a good example. A skin care product company not cutting corners or compromising the health benefits of their formulas will work only with plant based glycerine. But guess what? Most companies use petroleum-based glycerine just because it’s cheaper. Plant based glycerine is completely safe to consume – would you eat petroleum-based glycerine?

You Most Definitely SHOULD NOT Use Petroleum Derived Skin Care Products! The Health Of Your Skin Is The Prime Concern When Selecting Skin Care Products!

Now, we come to PARABENS!!!

Parabens are category of strong chemicals used extensively as preservatives in the skin care cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Virtually all the big-name skincare brands contain parabens because they are cheap and easily available. But parabens pose a potential risk to your health:

Some Studies Suggest They Cause CANCER, Particularly Breast Cancer, and Affect Estrogen Levels! Are You Willing To Take The Risk?

As I said above, your health comes in a distant second to manufacturers bottom line profits. That’s why the manufacturers of most market leading skin care products continue to use parabens! But it gets worst than that………..

Remember I promised to reveal skin care product industry secrets?

Well here’s a big one for you:- A well known market leader in facial skin care products (Clar _ _ s) uses ‘Triclosan’ in their formulas. Triclosan is an anti-bacterial chemical which kills harmful organisms on the skin BUT also destroys beneficial bacteria. TRICLOSAN IS TECHNICALLY CLASSIFIED AS A PESTICIDE.

Why on earth would you allow that to be absorbed into your body?

So, to summarize thus far – these are the things you absolutely should ‘AVOID’ in your skin care products:

Harmful Chemicals
Fragrances
Allergens
Parabens

Now, time to get to the actual names of harmful ingredients which you need to avoid at all costs! Read the ingredient labels of skin care cosmetics CAREFULLY! Just click this link to learn the names of dangerous ingredients in skin care products

Skin Care Products Which Get My Vote

OK, time to name the skincare brand that my family and I use. Although these are elite, cell rejuvenation skin care products, they’re priced fairly based on the cost of producing them and not on what the market will bear!

What that translates to for you and I is retail pricing less than half the cost of moderately priced international brands but with around three times the quantity of active ingredients!

Super products so pure, you could eat them! I’m not kidding when I say this – it’s guaranteed! That was the brief given to the formulator – make them safe enough to eat! Absolutely no chemicals hidden in these creams! So, for all these reasons I choose this particular brand over ALL the famous brand names in the market (with their ridiculously excessive profit margins and paltry quantities of actives!)

Here’s a direct link to the product page for the guys skin care products. Start your research from there fellas – there’s plenty of transparent product information:

Xtend Life MEN’S Skin Care range

Skin care products for the ladies are on this page:

Xtend Life WOMEN’S Skin Care range

Great Health     Great Skin Always

Brett

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