Does Your Anti Aging Skin Care Product Contain The Latest Breakthrough Ingredients?

Elite ‘Big Brand Name’ Skin Care Formulas Are Up To 2 Years Behind The Times!

Do you believe that an expensive anti aging skin care product from one of the famous ‘elite’ brand-name companies will give you the most effective results possible because they contain the latest up-to-date formulas based on the most recent break-through ingredients?

The ‘big brand name’ companies have educated us over the years that the more expensive a product is, the better it works!

But is this true? No it’s not!

It’s nothing more than clever illusion!

Here’s why!

The famous big-brand name skin care companies have HUGE organizational structures and highly complicated supply-chain/distribution set-ups. The logistics of releasing a new formula to tens of thousands of outlets worldwide is a MAJORLY COMPLEX PROJECT!

For this reason they require very long lead in times to release a new formula/product. Generally speaking, a two year lead in period is pretty close to the mark!! Unlike smaller ‘lean’ companies, when a new ingredient breakthrough or innovation comes along, the big brand name companies can’t simply reformulate and get a new product to market within a handful of months. It’s just not possible!

This is the simple reason why expensive ‘elite’ brand anti aging skin care products are not up to date and are not based on the most effective skin care science currently available.

But they rely on sophisticated marketing to create an illusion that they are!

THOSE CLEVER MARKETING PRESENTATIONS

All anti aging skin care product companies know what consumers expect these days from an effective anti aging skin product. It must (tangibly) reduce the visible signs of aging by addressing several key factors:

Reduce/diminish fine lines and wrinkles

Target sun damage- age spots, freckles and discolorations/blotches

Firm up the skin and improve elasticity

Overall, create a clearly visible more youthful appearance

The elite brand companies in particular go to great lengths and expense to educate us on the latest, most advanced skin rejuvenation technology which can achieve these product goals. (This expense helps to inflate the purchase price of their products !)

For example ask any female skin care consumer under the age of 50 about the latest anti aging skin care product science and they’ll tell you in so many words that it involves a 3 pronged approach:

Addressing the loss of collagen and elastin using ingredients that boost the levels of these

Addressing lower levels of hyaluronic acid using proven ingredients to boost hyaluronic acid levels

Reducing the destructive effects of oxidation from the action of free radical by using powerful antioxidant ingredients to neutralize the damaging effects of free radicals

So, even though they proudly teach us that these are the three cutting edge scientific ‘basics’ needed to properly address the causes of skin aging, do the expensive big brand name products actually contain highly effective ‘anti aging’ ingredients to address all three?

NO!

For the reasons I explained above they can’t afford to tackle all three. A simply evaluation of their active ingredients reveals they usually target only one and in the best case scenario, ‘two’, of the causes of skin aging!

The bottom line therefore when evaluating the ‘effectiveness’ angle of any anti aging skin care treatment, is to make sure a product contains clinical proven ingredients which address ALL THREE causes of skin aging.

NOW, that’s just for starters. There are effective ‘anti aging’ ingredients and then there are highly effective ‘anti aging’ ingredients! So, if you’re really serious about your anti aging efforts AND expect excellent value for the money you spend, you must carefully consider the ‘DEGREE OF EFFECTIVENESS’ of the ‘anti aging’ ingredients used in an anti aging skin care product!

This is where the elite brand companies have things to hide. They are impacted by expense heavy marketing and distribution and their huge cost ineffective organizational structures. They are also under immense pressure (ie. GREED) by shareholders and stakeholders to generate increased bottom line profits.

So, even though they manage to include some ‘proven’ anti aging ingredients (up to 2 years ‘old’ and no longer the ‘most effective’ choices) and despite the fact that their formulas do not address all three causes of skin aging, their cost/profit pressure and the fact that they manufacture products to a set price, means that they can only afford to include the key anti aging ingredients in VERY SMALL QUANTITIES.

Remember – skin care products do not list the quantities of their active ingredients!

VALUE FOR MONEY

The minute concentrations of active ingredients used in elite brand products make it impossible for those products to achieve the full extent of their marketing claims for the majority of users. By keeping any ‘product result test groups’ extremely small and marketing product benefits in a generalized, non measurable way, the big brand name companies are able to ‘create’ and control an illusion of the truth.

I want to make it clear that I’m not saying that you can’t achieve tangible ‘real’ anti aging results from an elite brand anti aging skin care product! What I want to impress on you however is that those results are not the most effective possible (from a clinical/scientific standpoint) and they offer very poor value with their grossly over-inflated purchase prices.

The famous ‘elite’ brand anti aging skin care creams and serums are not priced according to the cost of manufacturing them but rather at the very highest level the market will bear. Paying around $70, $80, $100 and beyond is essentially wasting money – it’s simply not necessary to part with this kind of money in order to get the results you’re after. The other crucial issue to consider with elite brand name skin care products is their safety. This is a critical topic to understand and it’s something the majority of companies (including the elite brands) go to great lengths to keep from you. Use this link to learn about dangerous anti aging facial skin care products

THE MOST EFFECTIVE ANTI AGING SKIN CARE PRODUCTS

The safest and clinically most effective anti aging skin care products are manufactured and released by smaller medium sized companies, who, for the most part you’re unlikely to know about (unless you’re in the know!). That’s simply because they don’t have or rely on massive marketing budgets like the famous elite brands do to generate a huge marketing reach.

Instead, their marketing philosophies are based on word of mouth from satisfied customers and they are selling direct to the customer through the internet only. This represents the most cost effective business model currently available. By avoiding costly marketing and distribution methodologies they are able to channel huge savings back into their products. This means:

The latest, most effective breakthrough active ingredients

In clinically effective quantities

The use of (far more costly) all natural ingredients and complete avoidance of chemical based ingredients

On top of this comes one last crucial factor -and this is what moves the best skin care companies to the top of the pack. They keep their profit margins low and price their products according to the cost of manufacturing them. (They settle for a fair profit!)

CUTTING EDGE CELL REJUVENATION TECHNOLOGY

THE ANTI AGING SKIN CARE PRODUCT I USE

In this post I’ve referred a lot to the ‘most effective’ anti aging skin care product ingredients. These are of course what we all want to know about and investigate. So, with this in mind, in my next post I’m going to discuss the:

“BIG THREE”

The ‘Big Three’ are the latest breakthrough anti aging ingredients! The clinical studies supporting them, particularly in respect of stimulating collagen and elastin regrowth and for boosting hyaluronic acid levels, are excellent. That’s why they’re being called the ‘Big Three’!

My friends and associates (aka. ‘spies’) in the skin care industry tell me that the elite brand companies are currently gearing up to release new anti aging skin care cream products based around the ‘Big Three’. (But if you’re devoted to the expensive elite brand products, you’ll be waiting a loooooong time to benefit from them. Remember those long lead in times!)

The company which manufactures the anti aging skin care product I use already contains the ‘Big Three’. The bottom line of why I choose to use this company’s products is simply because they use the ‘Big Three’ in the exact same concentrations as those used in the successful clinical studies.

‘Xtend-Life Natural Products’ is the name of the company – based in New Zealand. Their set-up falls in line with the cost effective organizational/production criteria I outlined above. Lean, flexible, medium sized (family owned) company, selling direct to the customer via the internet only. There are no shareholders or venture capitalists associated with the company and so on. That’s how they manage to sell these highly effective cell rejuvenation anti aging skin care products at a half to a third of the price of the big brand name products.

The chairman of the company told me that they have a top German cosmetic chemist heading their R & D. Unlike most companies who give their research people a maximum amount that they can use for each 100 grams of product, Xtend-Life did not place any such limitations. The consequence of this policy is that the costs of Xtend-Life’s raw ingredients are as much as 3 times those of some of the well known elite brands. But their marketing and distribution strategy gives them the room to absorb this and still churn out the most effective anti aging skin care product currently available.

In respect of their overall skin care philosophy the chairman, Warren Mathews, said this:

“Before we started developing the Xtend-Life range, we searched out the best anti aging skin care products in the world. We looked at top brands such as Clarins, L’Oreal, Arden, Helena Rubenstein, The Body Shop, Christian Dior, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Clinique, Vichy, Shiseido … and many more. Our aim was to produce significantly superior products, offering better value for money, than anything else on the market.”

The Xtend-Life business strategy is simple and spot on (if only all skin care companies would share the same vision:

Formulate and manufacture the most effective anti aging skin care cream formulas according to the most recent skin care science, and then give great value for money by keeping profit margins low and fair! (As a result there is no incentive for other companies to try and copy their product formulas.)

Now that you know how to ‘look though’ the sophisticated marketing presentations of the famous brand name companies, you can see they can’t compete on either effectiveness or value for money!

When we consider smaller, medium sized skin care companies like Xtend-Life I can assure you there are other very good manufacturers out there who currently use one or (in not so many cases) two of the ‘Big Three’ and at the recommended clinical quantities but I know of none that combine multiple actives in a synergistic way like the Xtend-Life skin care formulas have … in other words none that have the same level of active ingredients in their finished product.

Xtend-Life use more than 40 active ingredients in their anti aging skin care products. They are all safe enough to ingest (all natural – absolutely no chemicals), and proven in clinical trials to be truly effective!

These links will take you to the skin care range product pages on the Xtend-Life website. I recommend you read through all the content there in order to understand why these products are unmatched in the market. You’ll already be completely ‘in the know’ before I reveal the names and supporting evidence of the ‘Big Three’ in the next few days.

View the Xtend-Life anti aging skin care range for the ladies

View the Xtend-Life anti aging skin care range for the men

View Xtend-Life Age-defense Active Facial Fluid (the main product in my own skincare regime)

Good Health Great Skin

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Anti Aging Skin Care Treatments – Reality Or Illusion ?

Can Anti Aging Skin Care Products Really Turn Back The Clock?

A quick look at the marketing presentations for the elite, big name skin care companies would have you believe that their anti aging skin care treatments turn back the hands of time and make you look “years younger”.

In fact not long ago I saw a commercial from a leading, global skin care company, claiming that their Retinol products are “ a breakthrough treatment clinically proven to give 10 years back to the look of your skin”. Wow!

SMOKE AND MIRRORS?

No matter where you look in the anti aging industry you can see similar claims being proudly highlighted for all kinds of miraculous ‘fountain of youth’ type products. Of course what we consumers really want to know is:

DO THEY ACTUALLY WORK?

Any of them?

Or is it all just make believe – smoke and mirrors – snake oil ?

Well, the truth be told it’s part reality and part illusion! Let me break it down for you.

For the majority of anti aging skin care skin treatments these claims are just pure fantasy (as any of us aging baby boomer’s know all to well). A careful examination of the majority of skincare formulas reveal that the pitifully small concentrations of the key active ingredient(s) means there’s no way they could duplicate proven results from clinical research and studies.

Most of them do make your skin feel great and look decisively better just after you’ve applied them BUT what about when you wash them off or don’t apply them? The reality is that the saggy skin, blemishes, fine lines and hardcore wrinkles are still there – unchanged!

These ridiculously small concentrations barely qualify the active ingredient(s) as active ingredients!

Notice I said “majority” of products? There are some chemical free, anti aging skin care products out there with the formulas and necessary levels of leading key actives to truly help with firming up your skin and structurally reducing fine lines and blemishes.

It’s also true however that you must be a realist in accepting that there are limitations to what even the most effective products can do by themselves. The reality is you need more than just a ‘one track’ topical skincare approach in your anti aging efforts. A comprehensive, three part, ‘inside-out’ anti aging skin care system is what you need to produce the most effective results.

Naturally, you want to know which anti aging skin care treatments will work the best. That will require you to understand what causes your skin to age. So, let’s get straight to it. There are 3 fundamental causes of skin aging and any anti aging skin care treatments whose formula does not contain ingredients which address ALL THREE (for starters) is not worth your attention and definitely not worth your money.

1. The actions of free radicals

2. Reducing levels of hyaluronic acid

3. Loss of collagen and elastin

These are the culprits that cause your wrinkles, blemishes, saggy dull skin, and all the other superficial signs of aging! The key to understand here is that these three causes are interrelated and unless you address all of them at the same time you will not be successful with your anti aging program. That’s why an effective anti aging skin care cream MUST have an ingredient base which can tackle all three!

In this article I will address the first cause in the list above – Free Radicals. No doubt you’ve heard the term “free radicals”! Understanding and combating the action of free radicals is a vital step in avoiding premature aging, premature death from major degenerative disease and for maintaining healthy, clear and firm skin as you age.

Despite the fact that they age us, free radicals are natural and play an essential role in a healthy human body ! If you’ve every cut open an apple and left it exposed to the air then you’ve seen free radicals at work. They attack the apple and the skinless parts quickly turn brown as they decompose. This is a process called oxidation – the very same process that’s going on inside you with every breath you take.

Free radicals are a class of molecules in your body. Unfortunately, as far as aging is concerned, they are unstable. So, your body makes an effort to balance the problem. To do this, the unstable molecule swipes a part (an electron) from a neighboring stable molecule and so becomes stable. But in a catch 22 situation the healthy molecule which lost an electron now in turn becomes a free radical. Free Radicals can attack DNA, leading to dysfunction, mutation, cancer and create the conditions for the onset of debilitating degenerative diseases including heart disease.

Since many chemical reactions in your body inevitably produce free radicals, their production is continuous and inescapable. They’re not only inside you but outside as well. Twenty first century living means your health is impacted by environmental and dietary toxins and stressors every single day. Free radicals are one such example!

Now, let’s look at the impact of free radicals on your skin. If you’re well read you will no doubt be aware of the critical importance of maintaining high levels of HEALTHY collagen in your skin. But free-radical attacks on your collagen cause cross-linking of protein molecules which leads to stiffness in your tissue. As a result your skin begins to lose it’s suppleness and tautness. Since collagen stays in your skin for many years these free radical attacks continue and the damage is cumulative- it builds up, up, up and your skin deteriorates and ages more, more, more!

Since we can’t stop free radicals completely, that leaves us with the option of managing their numbers so as to reduce the destructive impact from oxidative stress on your health. That’s where anti-oxidants come in. We all know that anti-oxidants are the good guys because they ‘give up’ a spare electron to the free radical thereby eliminating it! So, it seems obvious then that we need to take lots of antioxidants into our bodies!

But anti-oxidants are not all equal. Some are really powerful while others are far weaker. And it’s important to understand that there are different types of free radicals in different parts of your body which can only be neutralized by different antioxidants. So, it makes sense to take in a wide range of antioxidants so you have the dynamic synergistic effects of a large network of antioxidants working throughout your body.

To be significantly more successful with your anti aging efforts you should make sure to prioritize the most powerful antioxidants into your daily nutritional intake. So, which are which? The well known vitamin antioxidants, like Vitamin C and A, are fairly weak (and cheap). Vitamin E is a well established exception – it’s a potent antioxidant and crucial to skin health. There are numerous antioxidants but the following 8 have been established as the MOST POWERFUL:

L-Glutathione

CoQ10

Grape Seed

Green Tea

Gingko Biloba

Alpha Lipoic Acid

Lutein

Bilberry

The problem here however is that most of these are either not present or exist only in insufficient quantities in our diets. That’s why 21st century nutritional intakes must be supported with a multi nutrient nutritional health supplement.

The market’s most effective health supplement formulas contain ALL of these powerful antioxidants. But commonly you’ll be lucky to find just two or three of them in most multi vitamin or nutritional vitamin supplement formulas. The type of nutritional supplements you use ultimately makes a huge difference in the results you’ll get. If your budget allows you should use science-based, premium grade health nutritional supplements

Now, let’s relate this to your skin. As you have probably figured out, what we are looking for is the inclusion of these strong antioxidants in skin care formulas. This is a key point of difference between the most effective anti aging skin care treatments and the less effective ones. The antioxidants from our list above which are used in anti aging skin care products are:

CoQ10

Grape Seed

Green Tea

Alpha Lipoic Acid

Lutein

THREE KEY CRITERIA TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU PART WITH YOUR CASH

When comparing brands before buying you need to consider three crucial factors:

Safety

Effectiveness

Price

There’s many nasty industry secrets that you absolutely need to know when it comes to skin care product safety! Use this link to read my earlier post about skin care products and dangerous ingredients

When looking at the ‘effectiveness’ angle of anti aging skin care treatments, your most important task is to make sure a product contains ingredients to address all three fundamental causes of skin aging.

For starters you now know the most effective ingredients for treating one of these causes – free radicals. In my next two posts I’ll discuss what to look for in respect of the other two causes.

Finally, you have to consider the PRICE and VALUE FOR MONEY.

Are you a savvy shopper who none-the-less has spent a small fortune over the years yet failed to see any tangible and SIGNIFICANT anti aging benefits in your skin.

All elite anti aging skin care creams are ridiculously over-priced. That’s because they are not priced according to the cost of producing them but rather at the highest level the market will bear! It’s all too common for them to build in a ‘hype premium’ for supposed new breakthrough ingredients (for example Idebenone – a synthetic analog of CoQ10 – for which no comparative studies exist!)

There’s simply no need to pay $70, $80, $100 or more for an anti aging skin care treatment. Sadly, what is usually the case is that the more expensive a product is, the really effective ingredients are included in way smaller (ineffective) doses. You see, the elite brands are manufactured to a set price. When you add in the tremendous costs associated with the marketing and distribution methods used, as well as the greed of shareholders, these companies simply cannot afford to formulate highly effective formulas. (Just imagine if they had to print the dose amounts for all ingredients on the bottle!)

Thankfully, there are some reputable skin care manufacturers out there, (they’re always smaller companies) who greatly reduce fixed expenses by selling direct to the consumer and price their products according to the cost of manufacturing them while also settling for a fair profit. This is a smart strategy – produce the most effective anti aging skin care formulas possible, give great value for money and keep profit margins low! This way there is no incentive for other companies to copy.

The Anti Aging Skin Care Treatments Which Get My Vote And Make Up The Core Of My Own Anti Aging Skin Care System

To finish up I’d like to tell you about the highly effective anti aging skin care treatments I personally use. These formulas are currently unmatched in the market. It’s important to keep in mind that I worked for a skin care product manufacturer. I learned a great deal of the science behind anti aging skin care products – from the chemists and scientists who formulate them. I’ve reviewed hundreds of anti aging skin care treatments.

Oh, and I got to know all the industry secrets and shortcuts as well – the things skin care manufacturers definitely don’t want you to know! They’re sprinkled throughout my posts on this website.

The manufacturer is ‘Xtend-Life.’ A medium sized family owned company based in New Zealand. All their flagship products contain the ‘BIG THREE’. These are the in demand, cutting edge anti aging ingredients right now for skin care formulas.

My friends (and spies) in the skin care industry tell me that most of the elite skin care companies are currently gearing up to incorporate these three ingredients into their products. (But they have long lead in times when creating and launching a new product so it will be about 1- 2 years before the ‘BIG THREE’ start appearing in the elite brands.)

THE BIG THREE:

** CYNERGY TK™

** Nanobelle CoenzymeQ10

** Phytessence Wakame

Read about the skin care benefits of these super ingredients

Here’s the exact reasons why I chose the anti aging skin care treatments from Xtend-Life as the core of my own personal anti aging system.

1. MOST EFFECTIVE INGREDIENTS. The ‘Big Three’ and other highly effective support ingredients.
2. 2-3 TIMES MORE OF THE ACTIVE INGREDIENTS than most other brands.
3. NO CHEMICALS WHATSOEVER! All ingredients are natural and the products are PURE ENOUGH TO EAT!
4. COST ABOUT A HALF TO A THIRD of the (moderately priced) elite brands.

I’ve yet to find any other anti aging skin care products which come even close to matching these four factors.

So, if you have the time and don’t mind doing research please use the information from this article to do your own analysis of anti aging skin care treatments. If you would like to research the Xtend-Life range of anti aging skincare products I’ve included a link below which will take you straight to the product range page on the Xtend-Life website.

Xtend-life cell rejuvenation technology

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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

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Putting Together An Anti Aging Skin Care System !

How Many Parts In Your Anti Aging Skin Care System ?

Are you currently using (or considering how to piece together) some form of effective anti aging skin care system to slow down the effects of aging and keep you looking your best?

Regardless of whether you’re young, middle aged or in your senior years people naturally want to look their best. And more importantly, we absolutely DON’T WANT TO LOOK OLD BEFORE OUR TIME! Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening in western society and it’s a direct consequence of living in the ultra modern, twenty first century.

Civilized western lifestyles, compounded by the continually increasing effects of inescapable daily exposure to harsh and dangerous environmental and dietary toxins and stressors have resulted in a ‘speeding up’ of the rate at which we naturally age!

The clinically established outcome of this precipitous health disaster, (which is still in the making), is the EARLIER AND EARLIER ONSET OF DEGENERATIVE DISEASE! This is clearly visible in the ever rising statistics for the incidence of all major degenerative diseases at younger and younger ages. Health conscious consumers have evidently woken up to this as exemplified by the skyrocketing profitability of the anti aging products and nutritional supplements industries in recent years.

But, living in a civilized society isn’t all gloom and doom for our health and beauty! The exciting truth of the matter is that with the technology and knowledge now available it’s not difficult to defy nature and look way younger than your chronological age. No doubt you’ve seen many examples of people in their 40′s looking like they’re in their late 20′s (and others in their 40′s looking closer to 60 years old!)

For along time these age differences have been put down to the “it’s in the genes” theory but this is now largely discredited by mainstream science. Most scientists now generally agree that genetics probably doesn’t play more than around a 10% role in the general manner and appearance of our health as we age (and a persons inner health naturally reflects on their physical appearance!).

So, let’s go straight to what you need to know! To put together an anti aging skin care system in the most effective manner, capable of significant tangible results, and without extreme measures like plastic surgery, you must establish a system based on three crucial and interrelated parts:-

** Lifestyle

** Nutrition

** Cell Rejuvenation Topical Skin Care

If you expect real success with an anti aging skin care system you absolutely need to do more than just buy expensive ‘elite’ skin care products. Let’s look at the three parts involved in a sensible, science based anti aging system. (in no set order!)

Your Anti Aging Skin Care System:- Lifestyle

The various components of your regular lifestyle and any new lifestyle choices you make will have a fundamental and significant impact on how you look as you age. This of course is obvious to most people but the fact remains that lifestyle is an integral part of any anti aging skin care system and can’t be ignored.

Obviously there are way too many ‘age increasing’ lifestyle examples to discuss here so let’s just look at three of the worst, well known examples. It’s (extensively) scientifically established that you’re going to age before your time if you are a heavy smoker. Even low level smoking increases your aging processes, bringing you closer to degenerative disease. If you drink alcohol heavily in addition to smoking then you’re simply going to get there waaaaaay faster.

Stress is definitively linked to accelerated aging. One obvious cause of stress, for a large majority of people, is an incessant desire for increased financial gain – a factor which is inextricably woven into modern day lifestyle decisions. So, reducing stress becomes a critical factor in your anti aging efforts. That’s where exercise can be helpful because it has the capacity to reduce stress for most people!

Exercise is an inherent component of the lifestyle section of a successful anti aging skincare treatment system but the key is MODERATE EXERCISE! Heavy exercise results in substantially increased oxygen intake which in turn significantly increases FREE RADICAL PRODUCTION – ONE OF THE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL CAUSES OF HUMAN AGING! If you do love engaging in heavy exercise then you must seriously increase your daily intake of antioxidants to counter increased free radical production.

Your Anti Aging Skin Care System :- Nutritional Intake

“You are what you eat”! We’ve all heard this saying and pretty much most people these days understand that it couldn’t be more true (despite the way they continue to eat!).

If your regular diet is significantly full of processed foods then don’t expect your skin to look good as you age (and don’t expect to enjoy good health either!). It’s a diasterous fact that processed food accounts for around 90 % of the US food supply! Processed food is low in, and in many cases near devoid of, key nutrients in comparison with fresh raw food. This includes essential vitamins and minerals in addition to other extremely important nutrients that keep your body and health functioning as nature intended.

Your body is designed to function optimally based on a regular intake of a wide range of essential nutrients in certain ‘optimal’ amounts. Without these, the conditions for the onset of degenerative disease are established. If your diet is primarily based on processed foods then its a given that you’re not taking in all the nutrients your body requires. All those life shortening diseases and debilitating health conditions you fear and don’t want to happen are probably going to, simply because you’re setting the conditions which allow them to take root and overwhelm your body’s defenses.

Now, let’s relate this specifically to your skin! If you’re not receiving the ‘correct’ amounts of essential nutrients on a DAILY BASIS your skin will LOSE ELASTIN AND COLLAGEN on a progressively FASTER basis. An insufficient supply of anti-oxidants from all that processed food will also have a profoundly destructive effect on your skin. The sagging, blemishes, wrinkles and so on which you so desperately want to avoid or offset, will arrive before time and to a far greater extent than is necessary (and controllable). There’s no ‘fountain of youth product or pill’ out there which can significantly overcome this increased deterioration of your skin while requiring no change to a nutrient deficient diet.

The bottom line is that you MUST take action to protect your skin from the INSIDE OUT! (and of course you’re improving your health at the same time!) That’s where certain professional grade nutritional health supplements can play a critical supporting role. If you’re serious in generating the most effectiveness from your anti aging skin care system then you must eat a lot of fresh and preferably raw foods (replacing processed foods). Cooking, of any kind, destroys a number of key enzymes so, the more raw foods you can handle the better. (My own diet is around 75% raw!)

While this ‘diet’ section of your anti aging skin care system may be obvious to many, the reality is that the ‘average’ health conscious person is simply not going to do a complete 360 and take up a near perfect diet. So, the market leading nutritional health supplements can supply you with missing or insufficient nutrients. The more comprehensive the formula the better.

The most effective supplement formulas have ingredients from ALL THESE CATEGORIES:

Vitamins
Minerals
Trace Elements
Enzymes
Antioxidants
Amino Acids
Anti-Glycation Agents
Neuronutrients
Flavanoids
Carotenoids
Methylation Agents
Adaptogens
Calorie Restriction Mimetics
Standardized Herbal Extracts
Common and Specialized Co-factors

I’m not referring to simple multi vitamin /minerals formulas here – but rather multi ‘nutrient’ science-based formulas. The leading brands currently cost around $40 to $50 a bottle. If you can afford it then this is without doubt the most sensible and beneficial anti aging preventative health-care action you can take (in addition to substantially improving your regular dietary intake from food).

BUT…………you must know what questions to ask and exactly what you’re looking for in the most effective nutritional health supplement formulas.

Many of the (so-called) ‘elite’, popular and well known health/vitamin supplements are actually quite weak – filled up with ridiculously over the top amounts of the cheapest ingredients like vitamin C, calcium and magnesium. In reality they offer extremely poor value for money in comparison to the best formulas available.

I review hundreds of supplements each year (and I used to work in the supplement industry for a specialty supplement manufacturer) so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to the science underlying effective supplements. (The health supplement my family and I use has 97 ingredients covering every single one of the ingredients forms from above, including a number of specialized anti aging ingredients rarely used in the supplements industry. The retail price is $47. Use this link if you’d like to research this cutting edge nutritional health supplement

Your Anti Aging Skin Care System :- Topical Skin Care Formulas

This is where most people go wrong with their anti aging skin care systems because they base them only on using topical anti aging skin care products. These products are of course the easiest for taking action to avoid the visible or superficial effects of aging, but without applying the diet and lifestyle parts diligently, topical skin care can only work like a band aid (although an important band aid!).

People also get it wrong here because they spend a small fortune on ‘famous’ anti aging skin care products which absolutely cannot meet their anti aging marketing claims. Elite skin care product companies are extremely skilled at putting together highly effective marketing presentations which manipulate people’s thinking and seduce them into buying excessively over priced products, through persuasive adverts highlighting the ultra desirable lifestyle that ‘supposedly’ comes from having great looking skin via their skin care products.

The crux of the problem here is that these clever marketing efforts have (over time) ‘educated’ society into believing that the more we pay, the more effective the product must be!

Is this correct? NO, it’s generally NOT TRUE!

If you ‘break apart’ and carefully examine the formulas of skin care products, what you will usually discover is that the more popular and expensive a brand is, the less of the highly effective ingredients which are present. With all their marketing sots, shareholder pressures and expense heavy distribution structures, the elite companies simply can’t afford to include the best, clinically effective ingredients (and in effective dose amounts).

Preconceptions are set in peoples mind through the power of advertising and marketing spin, all of which tends to stop people from questioning and evaluating the true anti aging capabilities of the upmarket and famous brands.

So, what should a skin care formula, based on the best of the nutritional sciences, be able to do?

There are two things which are critical!

1:- NATURALLY IT MUST BE EFFECTIVE ! Able to produce REAL and TANGIBLE anti aging results which can ONLY be achieved by addressing the THREE FUNDAMENTAL CAUSES OF SKIN AGING:

** Loss of collagen and elastin

** Lower levels of hyaluronic acid

** Oxidation through the action of free radicals

The simplest way these days to determine how effective an ingredient is, is to research it online. Just google it and read away! Look for clinically established evidence to support the effectiveness of each of the anti aging ingredients in any skin care product you are examining. For the most reliable results do a ‘scholar’ search and stick to trusted sites (particularly those with ‘.gov’ url’s) This step is extremely important and the success of your anti aging skin care system depends heavily on it!

2:- USES ONLY SAFE INGREDIENTS !

Just because a company charges an arm and a leg for their latest skin care formula doesn’t mean it’s not going to hurt you (now or especially years down the track). Here’s a perfect example for you. Did you know that one of the world’s most well known, popular and elite international brands (their name begins with ( C ) actually contains a PESTICIDE!

Fragrances are ingredients you must be on the ‘lookout’ for. Please consider the word ‘fragrance’ as you would a real live minefield. Extreme Caution Required!

The term ‘Fragrance’ can refer to up to 4000 separate ingredients – many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic!

The long term impact of them ‘seeping’ into your blood stream is still unknown. Do you really want to take this risk just because a product smells lovely? Many common fragrances can affect your central nervous system, causing depression, hyperactivity, and irritability. ‘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.

Have you heard of parabens? (methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl paraben)

Parabens are chemicals used as powerful preservatives in both the skincare and pharmaceutical industries! studies suggest they may cause cancer and interfere with your body’s endocrine system, in addition to causing allergic reactions and skin rashes. The elite brands have to use them because there is a lengthy lead time from product manufacture to when you purchase the product. Oh and parabens are very cheap for manufacturers to use! Sadly, your health comes in a distant second to manufacturers bottom line profits. That’s why they continue to use toxic parabens!

From now on this is what you should be looking for you are looking for on your skin care bottles and tubes:

** Paraben Free

** Fragrance Free

Another key criteria is to check whether a skincare manufacturer is a signatory of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

Now you know the key criteria to look for when it comes to the ‘topical skin care’ section of your anti aging skin care system. While MANY skin care products fail miserably in meeting all (or any) of these criteria they are some products in the market which DO meet them all and come with affordable price tags. They always come from smaller or medium sized companies (particularly family owned and/or don’t have shareholders or venture capitalists). These effective and high value for money products are not coming out of the huge multi national skin care companies (for the reasons I referred to earlier).

The skincare products I use come from the Xtend-Life company all the way down in New Zealand where the regulatory structure of the supplement industry is tough – tougher than the States!

All their flagship products contain the BIG THREE CLINICALLY PROVEN ANTI AGING INGREDIENTS (which the industry’s elite skincare companies are currently gearing up to start using):

** CYNERGY TK™

** Nanobelle CoenzymeQ10

** Phytessence Wakame

Since these have become known as the most powerful anti aging ingredients known to science I’ve been getting a flood of emails asking about them. In a nutshell:-

Cynergy TK™ is a very new breakthrough in skin care, not yet available in the big brand-name products. It is proven in clinical trials to stimulate the regrowth of collagen, elastin and new skin cells.

Phytessence Wakame has certainly been in the news. It’s an extract from a specific type of Japanese sea kelp which inhibits a harmful enzyme (hyaluronidase) responsible for breaking down hyaluronic acid in your skin. Phytessence Wakame gradually increases your levels of hyaluronic acid to the amounts normally found in a much younger person! (This is also clinically proven!)

Nano-Lipobelle H EQ10 is one of the most potent anti-oxidants discovered. This is CoEnzyme Q10 in a special ‘nano-emulsion’ form, which can penetrate down through seven layers of skin. It is extremely effective at ‘gobbling up’ free radicals in your skin, which results in quite a dramatic anti-wrinkle effect.

If you’d like to read about or research these cutting edge formulas use this link to jump over to their respective pages on the Xtend-Life website. Xtend-Life cell rejuvenation skin care products

Finally, I’d like to explain why I didn’t talk about sunlight and sun exposure in this article. It’s because the damaging effects of sunlight are grossly exaggerated, usually by those professionals and companies with a vested financial interest! Although sunlight is a major source of Vitamin D the reality nowadays is that many people are not getting enough sun because of the resultant fear and hype. This has led to common Vitamin D deficiency in most western country’s. These Vitamin D deficiencies are in turn creating numerous negative health implications.

Skin care products should not contain an SPF ! Why? Because they are chemicals with potential long term negative results! (the jury is still out as these SPF formulas have only in recent years started appearing in skin care products.) The most sensible approach is to use a high SPF factor sunscreen when directly exposed to excessive sunlight rather than as an every day habit (which has become the norm for many) .

Your Anti Aging Skin Care System :- Look Great! Feel Great!

They go together, feeding off one another – LOOK GREAT and you’re going to FEEL GREAT. Isn’t that what just about everybody would give an arm or leg to achieve?

With the technology available in these modern times we live in, along with the ease of accessibility to information on the internet, it’s never been easier to research and evaluate before you buy. Of course being able to sift through all the marketing spin and deliberate mis-leading mis-information while doing your research and product comparisons is not at all easy. So much of it is so convincing and ‘appears’ backed by clinical evidence. This is where industry insiders can be of so much help. We can assist you to move quickly through the jungle of lies and get you a transparent and fair starting point from which your research can effectively begin.

Real anti aging must be based on a system as you’ve now learned. It cannot exist on the action of just one measure. If you diligently follow what I’ve set out in this article your anti aging skin care system will definitely work and you can feel great in knowing that you’re getting the most effective anti aging results possible according to the technology and anti aging knowledge currently available. Not only will your skin continue to maintain it’s youthful properties for far longer but your internal health will be boosted so that degenerative disease cannot get a foothold.

You can read more anti aging articles over at my website nutritional supplements truths

Here’s to your anti aging skin care system.

Great Health Great Skin Always

Brett

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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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