Many mainstream moisturizers use ingredients that may harm your skin and your health. Not products using natural ingredients, like olive oil moisturizers.

Today we want to look at olive oil moisturizers, and examine the use of natural oils as skin moisturizers compared to the use of artificial chemical moisturizers commonly found in the big brand skin care products.

The benefits of olive oil as a moisturizer have been known for centuries. Olive oil moisturizers work very effectively to moisturize and rejuvenate skin that can be low in essential oils.

Many big name skin care products use chemical and petrochemical ingredients as moisturisers. A good example of this is petrolatum.  Petrolatum is a petrochemical product derived from crude oil. It is used in many skin care products primarily because it is very cheap, but also because it is supposed to have some moisturising properties.

Petrolatum can also be known as petroleum jelly or Vaseline. It does not penetrate the skin and so does not have any direct moisturising properties. What it does do is coat the skin with a thin film of oil thereby preventing some moisture loss. This isn’t health and can lead to acne.

We won’t go into all the details of petrolatum as we have done so in a dedicated article about petrolatum in skin care products.

There are many excellent natural essential oils which work very effectively as natural moisturisers and which do not have any of the risks to your health, or your skin, of petrochemical ingredients such as petrolatum. We always recommend that you buy natural skin care products using safe natural ingredients, both because these are safe for your health and they work better.

Olive oil moisturizers are a fine example. Olive oil is obviously safe to eat, and in fact is nutritious and healthy, particularly because of the nature of the fats found in it. However it also works effectively to moisturize the skin.

It has anti-inflammatory properties and also works effectively against some skin conditions such as eczema, skin rashes, psoriasis and more. It’s natural oils show the closest compatibility with human skin of all the natural essential oils.

It is rich in nutrients and antioxidants and is particularly high in vitamin E. It is beneficial for sensitive skin, oily skin and dry skin. As a facial treatment it helps fight wrinkles and improve overall skin health that declines with age.

It is quite possible to use olive oil on its own for it’s skin health benefits. For instance you could add a couple of teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil to your bath at night. Don’t forget to splash some of the bathwater on your face.

However it is also possible to get excellent natural skin care products that incorporate olive oil. The best available, (though not actually a moisturizer, if you’re interested to find out why then read our article about the best moisturizer) uses an emulsifier developed from olive oil that is highly effective for improving skin health and reducing the effects of aging on your skin.

Using olive oil on its own can be quite effective for your skin, however the best natural skin care products combine an olive oil formulation with a range of other ingredients to increase the moisturising properties of the products compared to using olive oil alone.

The big name skin care brands make use of a wide range of cheap chemical and petrochemical ingredients, and here at Restore My Skin we seek to alert you to the risks of these types of products. Feel free to read more about this using the categories at the right. Read the rest of this entry

Wrinkles around the eyes form as you age, the reasons are known and there is a solution.

Do you find that as you age you’re starting to suffer from wrinkles around the eyes? One of the biggest questions asked by women as they age is how to get rid of wrinkles around the eyes, how to minimize wrinkles and the fine lines and puffy eyes that seem to develop slowly over time.

Reducing wrinkles around the eyes is quite possible, but first let’s start with an examination of what causes them.

As your skin ages it’s store of essential skin proteins starts to reduce. Collagen and elastin are two extremely important skin proteins which have a very important role in maintaining skin elasticity. Loss of skin elasticity as your skin’s stores of collagen and elastin reduce with age is one of the prime causes of wrinkles generally, including eye wrinkles.

Of course there are many remedies for wrinkles generally, some effective and some not. There are some very good wrinkle creams available. However there are also some more factors which specifically cause wrinkles around the eyes, eye puffiness, dark circles under the eyes and those crows feet that are so annoying.

For example poor fluid drainage is one of the causes of those dark circles and bags under the lower eyelids. The build up of fluid is one of the major factors in aging skin around the eyes, and any effective wrinkle treatment needs to tackle this problem.

There are face exercises which can help, however top quality skin care products targeting eye wrinkles are also highly effective.

But when you are selecting an anti aging product to reduce wrinkles around the eyes it’s important that you choose a product specifically targeted to reducing eye wrinkles. A general anti-aging skin care product, even if effective against wrinkles generally, is not appropriate if you have specific problems with lines and wrinkles around the eyes.

There is one ingredient, found in the best eye anti wrinkle creams, that is considered to be essential in the fight to reduce the signs of ageing around the eyes. This ingredient is called Eyeliss. Eyeliss as manufactured in Europe and has been studied extensively as an eye wrinkle treatment. It is one of the “secrets of the stars”, and is expensive.

Eyeliss works by reducing the build up of fluid under the eyes. On top of this it improves in elasticity and firmness. This combination reduces the puffiness under the eyes caused by poor fluid drainage.

There have been many claims made about the effectiveness of Eyeliss, however a  study by the Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program has found these claims are justified.

However a new product now combines Eyeliss with a range of other ingredients to widen the effectiveness of the product and tackle some causes of eye wrinkles that are not tackled by Eyeliss alone.

This new product, the Eye Contour Serum from Xtend Life, is the next step the battle against the causes of wrinkles under the eyes. This product works extremely well and is fully guaranteed, something that you are unlikely to find in most other eye creams.

Often it is not possible to get rid of eye wrinkles totally, however it is completely realistic to reduce those crow’s feet, fine lines and wrinkles under the eyes using the right product. You choose the best anti-aging eye cream you really can minimize wrinkles around and under your eyes. Read the rest of this entry

The best moisturizer for sensitive skin just has to moisturize well, even if it’s not a moisturizer.

If you believe health and beauty literature there are some wonderful sensitive skin moisturizers around. So how could it be that the best moisturizer for sensitive skin isn’t even a moisturizer?

If you read the magazines you’ll see advertisements for many different sensitive skin moisturizers. Just a quick look and we found ads for the Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion SPF 15 and the Aveeno Ultra-Calming Daily Moisturiser Spf 15, for example.

So what we wanted to do today is first have a look at some common moisturizers, see what problems they have and then consider why you need to have different moisturizing options than just buying the big brand name daily moisturizers.

We’ve spoken previously about the Cosmetic Safety Database. This database offers information about a wide range of skin care products and cosmetics that you don’t find on the label. For instance the skin moisturizer you’re thinking of buying might look good in the ads, but on closer examination you may find that it’s use has some unexpected risks.

These risks usually stem from the fact that the companies that manufacture such skin care products as skin anti-wrinkle creams and facial moisturizers use chemical ingredients in those products that may pose risks to your health. The Cosmetic Safety Database is somewhere you can look to see if that may be the case for an individual skin care product.

As we saw an ad for the Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion SPF 15 lets see what the Cosmetic Safety Database says about that.

The database rates products on a score of 1 to 10. The score indicates the possible health risks, or hazards, that users may be subjected to from some of the chemical ingredients in the product. (10 being higher health risk, 1 lower.)

The Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion SPF 15 scores a 6/10, being a “moderate hazard”. In particular it is noted that this product contains ingredients linked to reproductive toxicity, allergies and immunotoxicity, and other health problems including possible neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, persistence and bioaccumulation, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), contamination concerns, occupational hazards and biochemical or cellular level changes.

That’s a little scary. Now lets look at the Aveeno Ultra-Calming Daily Moisturizer SPF 15. It scores a 7/10, being a product that is not recommended due to possible health concerns. And according to the results it is also a potential health risk for the same conditions as outlined above.

And of course if you have sensitive skin these problems may be exacerbated. If you’re looking for effective moisturizing you need to consider something dramatically different to the big brand-name moisturizing creams.

If it comes as a shock to you that many mainstream skin care products, and cosmetics, and much more, contain chemical ingredients that may be dangerous to your health then spend some time reading about this. We suggest you begin with the Cosmetics Safety Database and the Campaign For Safe Cosmetics.

There are many natural skin care oils that are extremely effective at moisturising your skin and which do not offer any of the risks of chemical ingredients. They are also very good at promoting healthy skin generally.

Some examples are avocado oil, jojoba oil, shea butter and much more. Excellent natural moisturizing oils exist in abundance, however because they are more expensive than the chemical alternatives they are rarely used in the big brand name products.

Now lets consider why the best moisturizer for sensitive skin, or for that matter dry skin or oily skin, isn’t a moisturizer at all.

The reason is that there is an excellent natural skin care company that makes a range of different skin care products, including an excellent eye cream, skin anti-wrinkle cream, night cream and much more, all of which contain natural skin care oils which moisturize your skin effectively. They do not manufacture a dedicated moisturizer because if you use their natural skin care products you will get all the benefits of a moisturizer in those products.

Remember what we said at the beginning. Once you begin to understand the potential health risks of the chemicals used in so many mainstream skin care products you start to understand why you need a dramatically different moisturizing solution.

Healthy skin is, by definition, well moisturized skin. Dry skin is not healthy skin. That is why the natural skin care products of Xtend Life seek to produce healthy skin, the result being that it is also well moisturized. And that is why they do not make a dedicated facial skin moisturizer.

And that is why the best sensitive skin moisturiser isn’t even a moisturiser at all.

If you have sensitive skin the best facial moisturiser for you should not contain any artificial chemical ingredients at all, particularly if they may produce skin irritation. You need to source natural skin care products which use such natural moisturisers as avocado oil, jojoba oil and shea butter, and which moisturise effectively without putting your skin at risk. Read the rest of this entry