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.

Xtend Life are so confident of the effectiveness of their skin care products that they even offer a money back guarantee. If the products didn’t work then they would go broke fast doing this. Try getting a money back guarantee from the big brand-name companies. Read the rest of this entry

Or why you need a natural moisturizer.

Sodium lauryl sulphate. You may have heard of it. Sodium lauryl sulphate is commonly found in many soaps and shampoos and it is now becoming much more well-known that it’s not good to find sodium lauryl sulphate, or what is sometimes called SLS, in these products. But it’s not so well known that SLS is also found in moisturizers.

Sodium lauryl sulphate is used by mechanics to degrease engines. It has a powerful effect against grease and oils and for this reason, as well as cleaning engines, it is also commonly found in soaps and shampoos. And now moisturizers. And what you’re about to read may start to convince you that if you don’t already use a natural moisturizer then now might be a good time to consider using a natural face moisturizer.

A study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology studied the effect of using moisturizer on mice. The intention of the researchers was actually to see if caffeine caused skin cancer in mice, however they made an interesting discovery.

A number of moisturizers, all of which contained sodium lauryl sulphate as well as mineral oil, were applied to the skin of the mice 5 times a day for 17 weeks. The mice were given a dose of UV radiation to stimulate the effects of sunlight.

It was discovered, to the surprise of the scientists, that these moisturizers used in the experiment increase the rate of skin cancer in mice, and specifically that they “increased the total number of histologically characterized tumors by 69%”.

As this was not what was being investigated in the study the scientists were very interested to find that a range of commonly available moisturizers (Dermabase, Dermovan, Eucerin, and Vanicream) caused skin cancer in mice.

The scientists decided to run another test. This time they used a moisturizer with no mineral oil and no sodium lauryl sulphate. This time they found that the moisturizer had no effect of causing skin cancer in the mice.

Perhaps now you’re beginning to see why we are suggesting to you that using a natural facial moisturizer may not be such a bad idea after all.

There is a big movement worldwide to avoiding personal products using sodium lauryl sulphate as an ingredient. If you search the Cosmetic Safety Database you will see that sodium lauryl sulphate is linked to cancer as well as to a whole range of other health concerns including irritation to the skin.

And whilst most consumers are now becoming aware that sodium lauryl sulphate is an active ingredient in a wide range of soaps and shampoos it is not so well known that it is also an ingredient in many moisturizers. In fact the Cosmetic Safety Database listed it as an ingredient in 48 different moisturizers.

The Cosmetic Safety Database give a hazard score to different products according to their perceived level of health risk. This score ranges from 1 (low health risk) to 10 (high health risk). There are moisturizers listed in the Cosmetic Safety Database with a health risk score of 10. (The Skin Success Normal).

Now you may be even more interested in junking the moisturiser that you use now and looking for a good anti aging natural moisturizer that uses ingredients that do not offer any health risks to the user. However there is more.

In volume 2, number 7, in 1983, a report in the Journal of the American College Of Toxicology tells us more about the health risks of sodium lauryl sulphate. It was observed that SLS penetrated the skin very effectively.

Results show that a 10 percent concentration of SLS caused damage to the eyes of rabbits. Skin irritation was found in doses of .5 percent to 10 percent and severe skin irritation was observed at 10 percent to 30 percent. At 15 percent, when animal tested, labored breathing was observed, diarrhea and 20 percent of animals died.

Hopefully you see our point. There are powerful reasons when searching for anti aging products such as anti aging moisturizers to select products such as natural moisturizers that do not contain sodium lauryl sulphate or any of the other chemical ingredients that we talk about here on our website.

Lets examine some of the ingredients you might like to find in a high quality natural face moisturizer.

There’s a wide range of natural oils found in fruits and nuts which are known to have excellent moisturizing properties. Common oils like avocado oil, macadamia oil and olive oil have excellent moisturizing properties and of course all these oils are completely safe. In fact they have been eaten quite safely by generations of people.

Avocado oil deeply penetrates your skin and has been used for centuries for its moisturizing properties. It is rich in a range of essential as well as many important fats. It has been shown to help reduce age spots and to soften the skin. It is particularly effective on dry skin and helps rejuvenate damage skin. It also helps increase the amount of collagen in the skin.

Macadamia oil is also easily absorbed into the skin and has been shown to help protect the skin cells from ageing. It is a wonderful natural moisturizer.

And there are of course many many more natural ingredients which can be used in anti aging skin care products which are safe and highly effective and produce wonderful anti aging products.

The obvious question to ask is why are ingredients such as mineral oil and sodium lauryl sulphate found in products such as moisturizers when there are so much more effective, and safe, natural alternatives? The answer is very simple. Mineral oil and sodium lauryl sulphate are incredibly cheap whereas natural oils such as avocado oil and macadamia oil are expensive.

So if we’ve convinced you about the benefits of a natural moisturizer, what do you do? Well of course you could just source ingredients such as macadamia oil and avocado oil and mix these together to produce your own natural moisturizer. This is certainly likely to produce a moisturizer which is much more effective than those you find on the shelves of your store and which has no health implications.

However there are companies which have spent many years formulating natural skin care products which use these types of ingredients, and which result in excellent, and safe, natural anti aging products, and these excellent products will produce a much better result at promoting better overall skin health.

In fact the company that produces what we consider to be the best natural anti aging products in the world does not even make a moisturizer. This is because the natural ingredients which moisturize so successfully are found in all their products and therefore there is no need to make a dedicated natural moisturizer, because all their products improve skin health and moisture levels very successfully.

We consider these products to be the best natural anti aging products available. They are made from all safe and natural ingredients, are extremely effective and are backed up by a money back guarantee.

Hopefully today you’ve learn’t more about the risks of sodium lauryl sulphate and moisturizers which contain it. Read the rest of this entry