As a kid of the 70's and a young adult in the 80's and 90's I searched for that perfect tanned glowing skin. Being fair skinned and freckly didn't stop the horrendous tanning my mum would scream at me about. With middle age fast creeping up and one too many spots cut from my body my continual 10 year search for the perfect skincare program has turned up some incredible findings.
Confused or Confident?
Most of us are confused with the massive choice we have when we walk into any department store or pharmacy. Every beautifully coiffed sales girl at each counter will tell you theirs is by far superior to any other product we're likely to find and to stop the search right here and now, because 'utopia' was right in front of me. I don't think so!
After my fair share of burning allergies, breakouts, and basically problematic skin, I decided to look a little deeper into understanding the very 'heart' of the skin and maybe look at the whole process from another point of view. Namely, the inside!
The Skin as an Organ - NOT Gladwrap
We think of our skin as the outside barrier between our insides and the real world. And that's partly right. Next to our heart, brain and lungs - our skin is right up there. It is another kidney. Just the same as our heart, lungs or brain - without it, we die.
I love the TV shows 'You Are What You Eat' and 'What's Good For You'? We cringe at the diet of these poor unknowing souls. The message of 'keep doing this and your heart will simply give up', like it's poison they're putting into their mouths is drummed into them. They shudder in horror and make a gallant effort to change. The end result after all is a happier, healthier heart and body.
We need to look at our skin the same way!
Just as what we put into our body is important for our skin, so too is what we put on the outside. Most of the skincare being sold to us over counters is a deadly cocktail of harmful chemicals. They're laden with such things as mineral oils, parabens, volatile oils, alchohol and soap. The list is long and reason for concern.
We would never dream of consuming this kind of ingredient, so why would we feed it to our skin? The answer isn't as simple as going 'all natural' or 'organic'. By definition, that would mean that we would only need to place organic eggs, lemons, tomatoes etc on our skin and voila we have great skin. Not so! Plant derived ingredients are important for the health of our skin but many are also dangerous.
So what's the answer?
Just as we need to feed our insides with high level nutrients and antioxidants, so must we feed our skin. Since most store, and some salon cosmetics, created by Cosmetic Houses, are laden with ingredients that will rather send our skin further down a path of degeneration, we need to refocus our skincare into more of a nutrition based program.
Very few cosmetic formulations are embracing nutrition and antioxidisation. So it makes sense to go to a nutrition company that DOES concentrate on this for your skins needs.
Which is exactly what I did.
My skin is healthier than it was 10 years ago. Pigmentation is dramatically improved. My facial lines are reduced, almost gone, and people tell me all the time that I look far too young to have adult kids. And don't I just love hearing thatJ Since I fed the inside as well as the outside of my skin with product specifically designed for the skins unique cellular structure I've not looked back.
Do your homework and check out the ingredient list on the bottles you have on your bathroom shelf. Be aware if you see Ethyl, Methyl or Butyl Paraben or Mineral Oil. It has no place on our skin. Just as we are now taking our health into our hands, take the health of your skin into the same kind of consideration.
Remember, it's an organ. Rather than taking a 'vain, want to look younger' point of view, if we take a 'get the skin as healthy as possible because of the importance of such a huge organ' point of view, we'll wind up with the young looking skin we dream of.
