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Archive for the ‘Skin Care’ Category

Don’t you just hate it when you suddenly wake up with an enormous zit days before a big event where there will be lots of picture taking? You don’t want this to happen especially if it is 1 or 2 days before your graduation photo shoot or your wedding. Here are some tips on how you can beat breakouts to keep your face picture perfect for that special date.

• A last-minute facial is not a good idea. If the affair or the photo shoot has been scheduled months ago, then you should also plan a visit to your facialist weeks before the event or photo shoot. Though it can be appealing to have an aesthetician sluice up to the last pore a day before the event, a smart person should know that it’s a stupid idea. Anything can happen and that short allowance won’t give your skin enough time to heal and get rid of the redness and puffiness, especially if you have undergone an exfoliation and deep cleansing session.

• Stick with your skin treatment program. If you are prone to breakouts and decides to use a skin treatment program in preparation for a big event, then it is crucial that you start with this program 2-3 months earlier and stick with it. Be patient and religious in following the step-by-step procedure. Though most of these skin treatment programs (like Proactiv Solution or Exposed Skincare) promise to work in just 30 days, sometimes, a month is not enough. Stay with the program for another 30 days and see if it makes a difference. If it still doesn’t work, then it’s time to get your money back and consult a dermatologist again.

• Neutralize a breakout. If you’ve done everything and a pimple still decided to pop up on your face a day before your big day, do not panic. Go to your trusted dermatologist and ask for the “magic shot”, also known as cortisone injection. It is a pimple injection that uses a mild cortisone formula that quickly reduces the size of a blemish. If you don’t want to go through this, another pimple first aid is benzoyl peroxide. Apply an acne cream or gel with 2% of benzoyl peroxide content (at most).

• Use a smudge-proof concealer. Every woman should invest in a really good concealer. This comes in handy for unsightly blemishes and eyebags. Find a formula that doesn’t need a lot of touch-ups like “Secret Concealer” from Laura Mercier. Before putting this on, apply a tiny amount of skin balm on the pimple. This should make the concealer more intact. A recommended product for this technique is Decleor Aromessence Balm Essential. This is a great trick that most make-up experts do.

These are just some of the things you can do to fight sudden breakouts. Practicing a good skin regimen and living a healthy lifestyle can help keep your skin healthy and looking perfect all the time.

Keloids are a type of scar that continue to grow after a wound has healed. Where normal scars shrink and fade, keloids extend past the original wound. They are fibrous and tough, with irregular edges and a shiny surface. Colors range from a normal skin tone to red, bluish, or purple. Although they are benign and not contagious, keloids can be painful, itchy and can restrict movement when located on a joint.

Typically, they appear after a surgery or injury, but keloid scars can grow from acne, burns, scratches, tattoos and piercings. They can be quite disfiguring and are generally seen on the shoulders, chest, back, ears and jaw. Abscesses can also form within the scar, leading to infection.

While it can develop on persons of any skin tone, keloid scarring is 15 times more likely to affect persons with dark skin. It occurs equally in men and women, yet is uncommon among the elderly and children. Doctors are uncertain why some are affected and others are not. Treatment is difficult, and methods are varied, as are the results.

Cortisone injection treatment consists of monthly injections until the maximum benefit is reached. 70 percent of patients respond to cortisone, but recurrence is high, up to 50 percent within five years. Although the scar shrinks, it will always differ from the surrounding skin and has a tendency to be redder, as the injections stimulate the growth of capillaries.

Lasers can be used to treat scars, shrinking the size and reducing redness, but several sessions are required, and the cost is rarely covered by most insurance plans. Best results are achieved when used in conjunction with cortisone injections.

Because of the nature of keloid scars, surgery is perilous. Recurrence is almost guaranteed, and even larger scars may form. When used in combination with other aggressive treatments, such as radiation, injection and pressure bandages, an up to 100 percent recurrence rate can drop to below 50 percent.

Interferons are manufactured by the body to combat bacteria, viruses and so forth. Recent studies have shown that injections of agents that stimulate interferon production have an effect on the size of scars, but scientists are unsure of the long term permanency.

A simple way to treat scars is with commercial scar fade cream. It smooths and reduces keloids, and it can prevent them from forming, as it regulates the excessive collagen production that causes scarring. For best results, it is important to begin use as soon as possible following surgery or injury. Scar creams are easy to apply, economical and readily available online.

Prevention is key to those prone to keloid scars. They are impossible to predict, and since treatment is troublesome, body modification and elective surgeries should be avoided, especially to the more susceptible areas of the body.

Developing a suntan is among the favorite beauty strategies known to the Western world. However, a big percentage of people have fair skin and red hair, and they have trouble being tanned from the sun. Instead of getting a tan, their skin is burned. This provides an interesting market for tanning cream.

A sunless tanning cream is a lotion that triggers skin pigmentation even without exposure to sunlight. This discovery a few years ago over an experiment on mice has proven the effect of a substance called Forskolin, taken from the Forskohli mint plant from India, which stimulates production of skin pigment. This was the beginning of the tanning process catering to fair-skinned people. In addition to providing a tan without exposure to harmful UV rays, these creams have been designed to add an extra layer protection to UV light, making them protect users against skin cancer. After all, the more times that the skin gets burned from the sun translates into greater risk for skin cancer. This means fair-skinned individuals do not need to spend much time in the sun anymore in hopes of getting a suntan, reducing the incidence of skin cancer.

In order to get an idea of what a tanning product should achieve, this piece undertakes the task of describing three products found in most stores, as well as going over the results they produce. Among the most popular brands for these sunless alternatives are Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer, Neutrogena Build a Tan, and Clarins Self-tanning Instant Gel. These three are at opposite ends of the price spectrum, with Jergens being the cheapest at about $5, Neutrogena a little higher at $8, and Clarins costing a whopping $30. A study sent three women, who had been previously disappointed with their attempts at self-tanning, home with each of these products to try them and bring back a report. Here are the basic findings:

1. Jergens – This product was designed to work up a tan while being applied as a daily moisturizer, and the lady who used it said it did tan her skin in a gradual way. However, she explained that using it daily was not really enjoyable since the cream was not created in the way moisturizers are supposed to feel. The product did not soak in easily and was actually quite greasy, making it an ugly moisturizer to put on one’s skin on a day-to-day basis.

2. Neutrogena – The woman who used this self-tanner saw very fast results, an almost instant tanning, and a very good overall effect at that. However, she noted that the product had a very strong smell. She said that if only the odor could have been reduced, she would have been happy to continue using the product and would also recommend it to all her friends.

3. Clarins – Among these three, this appears to have given the most satisfaction to its user. Firstly, its coming in a gel made it interesting and easier to apply. In addition, its effect produced an even tan that the user was very happy with. Of course, it would translate to a greater cash outlay, though, since the lady who used it noted that one can very quickly finish up an entire tube, and one tube costs five times as much as the more affordable Jergens.

This should give you an idea of the basic differences in tanning cream products that promise the same results. They can bring about a tan in different periods, and that would partly spell the difference in their prices, since the more expensive brand can obviously bring about results faster and in a smoother way. Of course, this would mean that one’s wallet would have to be part of the consideration in making the final decision. If only not all users gave a qualm about spending so much, the best choice would obviously be Clarins. However, for those who have limited budgets, at least they can still get good results with trusted brands like Jergens and Neutrogena, while staying away from unknown brands that may come even cheaper than $5. After all, at least with these big manufacturers you can be sure they have your skin’s overall well-being in mind, whereas lesser-known brands may not have undergone the necessary tests to make sure they do not harm your skin in the end.

Gone are the days when everyone just let their skin age without any mitigation efforts. And gone are the days when everyone got Botox or cosmetic surgery.

More and more people are turning to more natural methods to reduce the signs of aging, and cosmetic surgery is slowly becoming less an issue. But it’s unlikely that women will just let their skin age without any effort on their part to keep it looking nice.

That means that anti aging wrinkle creams are in fashion. You can avoid cosmetic surgery yet get many of the same benefits. And it’s a real improvement over doing nothing.

But how do you buy a wrinkle cream? What should you look for? What can a cream realistically do for your skin? Will it really work?

There are some basic features you can look for in an anti aging cream, and if you narrow your criteria down a bit you can see that finding the right cream for you isn’t impossible.

Ingredients

Look for an anti-aging cream with solid ingredients. These should be ingredients that are designed to not only reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles, but should also help prevent the development of wrinkles in the future.

These ingredients include things like antioxidants like Vitamin C, idebenone, ubiquinone and Vitamin A, and ingredients that can stimulate the production of collagen. Because collagen production naturally decreases as you age, and it’s collagen that makes our skin look firm and tight, having some ingredients that can stimulate production is important. There are many new anti wrinkle cream ingredients these days that can stimulate production of collagen.

Results

A good anti aging cream should work. It might seem silly to even say this, but it is worth saying. It should work. Often, we get caught up in the hype of new products and don’t pay enough attention to whether or not they actually work, and if they will work for us.

There are a couple of ways you can see if a product will work for you. First, read reviews. When you do your research on wrinkle creams, look for reviews that indicate the user got the results you are looking for. For example, if your main concern is sagging skin, look for reviews that note the skin was lifted or felt firmer.

When you read reviews, look for reviews that seem honest and objective. Try to avoid the reviews that read as if they were written by someone paid to write a review (avoid those, for example, with many exclamation points). The best anti aging creams will have many glowing reviews. Read these carefully.

The second method you can use for finding the right anti aging cream is to try out a product. Many products are offered these days in free trials. You can order a trial of a product and give it a go to see how it works for you. This is the best method for finding the right wrinkle cream for your skin. If the product works, you make an order for a full size product; if it doesn’t work, you move on to something else.

Do your research about ingredients and the product and give one a try. You’re sure to find the right one for you.