Skin Care and Lemon

Skin Care and Lemon

Treatment  

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. Since our skin covers our body, it is the most exposed organ that we have. And since skin is exposed, people can see it. This is why a lot of people take all the necessary precautions in order to keep their skin as flawless as possible.

There are a lot of ways to maintain smooth and clear skin. An expensive approach is to get the services of a reputable dermatologist. However, there are also inexpensive ways to keep your skin smooth and healthy. One such way is to use lemons for your skin care needs. Here are some examples on how lemons can be used for skin care.
Diminish age spots. Extracting the juice from lemons and using it directly on your skin is a good way to reduce the visibility of age spots on your skin. To do this, simply rub lemon juice directly over age spots and leave it there while you are sleeping. Wash your face in the morning with cold water. If done regularly, you will have lighter and cleaner skin after a few weeks. If there are age spots all over your body, you can juice one lemon and add the juice to your bath. Soak in the bath for a minimum of 20 minutes to get the desired effect.

Lighten skin complexion. More often than not, our elbows and knees are our most problematic areas when it comes to skin care. Applying fresh lemon juice to your knees and elbows will soften and brighten the skin on these areas.

Remove blackheads. Rubbing lemon juice over blackheads will also get rid of them. It is a good astringent that kills any bacteria that may cause the occurrence of blackheads or acne.

Neutralize oily skin. The citric acid acts as a good neutralizer for oily skin. To make a neutralizing solution, mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to 1 table spoon distilled water then apply using cotton balls.

Exfoliate skin. Lemon juice has astringent as well as exfoliating ingredients. You can soften your facial skin by concocting your own facial mask by mixing equal portions of lemon, honey and olive oil. Apply the mask on your face and leave it to dry for 10 to 20 minutes. Rinse away the mask with warm water.

Rejuvenate skin. When you exfoliate your skin regularly with lemon juice or any concoction with lemon juice in it, you are basically peeling off the dead skin cells that are left on your skin. These dead skin cells are what is causing your skin to become rough and hard. Regular use of lemon will make your skin look younger and glowing.

A word of caution however, the citric acid found in lemon is an acid and therefore may sting when applied to open wounds. If possible, do not apply lemon juice directly on skin which is already extremely dry. If there is a need to apply lemon juice on dry skin, make sure to dilute it in water to minimize the stinging.

Facts You Never Knew About Top Rated Skin Care Products

Facts You Never Knew About Top Rated Skin Care Products

Treatment  

Every single day we see many of the world's most famous and most popular top rated skin care products being advertized on TV; on billboards; on the sides of buses and trains and in glossy magazines. We see sports stars and famous movie celebrities featuring in many of these adverts, and many of us are easily convinced to follow their lead.

One of my favorite advertizing gimmicks is the frequent use of "Before" and "After" photos. You know the ones where a real photo (Before) of celebrity or a star is taken before they spend three or four hours with a professional makeup artist to prepare them for the "After" photo. Actually I'm not sure why they bother with makeup artists because the photos get Photoshopped afterwards anyway.

A very good friend of mine does web design, and believe me; he can make me look 30 years younger than I am within just a few minutes. I love Photoshop, but sadly I am useless when it comes to using it myself. Anyway, I did promise to give you a few facts, so let's get started.
FACT No.1 - Image Manipulation
Just recently the BBC published an article regarding two adverts being banned by the Advertizing Standards Authority in the United Kingdom. Both of these adverts were for anti-aging skin care products, and both featured extremely famous celebrities. Editing and retouching images is mostly accepted, but in these two cases it was beyond a joke.

Oh, and by the way, both of these products belong to two of the biggest brand names on the planet. If you are skeptical, just do a Google search and see for yourself. Now you need to ask yourself why these companies would have to rely on misleading image manipulation if their products were/are as good as what they say they are.

FACT No.2 - Chemical Free Sunscreen
If you have been using an expensive "chemical free" sunscreen, then I'm really sorry I have to tell you this, but virtually every sunscreen on the planet contains Zinc Oxide and/or Titanium Dioxide, both of which are chemicals. If you see either of these mentioned on the list of ingredients, then I'm afraid you've been duped.

FACT No.3 - pH Balanced
Have you noticed how so many skin care manufacturers use the term "pH Balanced" on the products? They do this to imply that their products are superior to other products; that their products are gentler and less likely to cause skin irritation. In truth, nearly every commercially available skin care product has a pH level that is 100% compatible with your hair and your skin.

FACT No.4 - Boosts Collagen
You will see collagen being mentioned on countless cosmetics these days, and manufacturers have gone to great lengths to convince consumers how important collagen is for your skin. Unfortunately, your body has to produce its own collagen because it is a scientific fact that this substance cannot penetrate your skin.

Additionally, if there was a skin care product capable of increasing the amount of collagen in your skin, the authorities would pull it off the shelves because they would consider it to be a mislabeled drug.

In this article I've only mentioned and discussed four misleading practices which are disturbingly common throughout the cosmetics industry. Sadly, there are many more common marketing gimmicks being used in order to boost sales.

Remember, you can mislead people without telling a single lie because it's not what you say, but rather how you say it that counts. I can tell you my product is "pH balanced" because the pH is within acceptable parameters; I can tell you my product is "collagen enriched" because it is, but I'm not obligated to tell you that none of this makes any difference. I haven't lied; I've simply allowed you to mislead yourself by my choice of words, and what those words imply.

The ABC Guide To Finding The Best Skin Care Brands

The ABC Guide To Finding The Best Skin Care Brands

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Many people firmly believe that the most famous skin care brand names are obviously the best skin care brands. Nobody can blame them because most of us have been conditioned to think this way all our lives.

When you were growing up you probably would have heard your Mom and her friends discussing various skin care products. I might be mistaken, but I bet those discussions were mostly about big brand name products; products they had seen in their favorite weekly magazines, or maybe on TV. Back in those days we mostly had to rely on magazines, radios and TV for information, but now we have the internet.

The internet can help you to look beyond the multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. It can help you to find excellent skin care products which you never see being advertised on TV or in all those glossy magazines.

Comparing Foods to Cosmetics
Most of the eggs you see at your local supermarket come from massive farms. Everything is meticulously calculated in order to get as many eggs as possible from each individual hen. The hens are also given antibiotics and etc. in order to ensure they don't get sick. Now, would you rather eat these eggs, or would you rather eat eggs that come from your neighbors free range hens that run around in the garden?

Farmers markets have become immensely popular as well. More and more people are beginning to shift away from mass produced produce. Instead, they are buying foods that come from other people's back yards or from smallholdings. Those who grow these foods do so with passion, and if you have ever compared these foods to those in your local supermarket you will already know how superior they are.

Cosmetics are to some extent very similar. The big players spend billions of dollars on advertising and trendy packaging. These costs need to be recovered, and the only way to do that is by charging customers more. What I am saying here is that a high price tag doesn't automatically equate to high quality.

If you are willing to spend $50 on a famous brand name product, then why wouldn't you spend the same amount of money on a similar product made by a company you may never have heard of before? After all, that smaller company isn't spending millions of dollars on advertising and marketing. They are probably just pumping more money into creating products that are genuinely good quality.

Misleading Labels

Contrary to popular belief, the cosmetics industry is largely unregulated. Manufacturers can generally do whatever they want, providing they don't use ingredients which are forbidden by agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

For example, if a manufacturer puts a single drop of vitamin E into a batch of skin cream, they are legally entitled to advertise that product as being vitamin E enriched. They also aren't required by law to tell you what type of vitamin E was used. Okay vitamin E is a poor example because it is a dirt cheap ingredient, but there are other ingredients which are really expensive.

When you have massive advertising bills to pay, surely it must be very tempting to cut back on other expenses, including how much you spend on the ingredients being used in your products. Only add minuscule quantities of those expensive ingredients so you can legally brag about it, and then just use cheap fillers to add bulk. I'm not saying all the big brand names are guilty of this, but let's face it, the money required for multi-million dollar advertising campaigns must come from somewhere.

5 Reasons Why You Should Only Use Natural Skin Cream

5 Reasons Why You Should Only Use Natural Skin Cream

Skin Care Products  

I doubt you would even be able to find a woman on the planet that doesn't have at least one type of skin cream in their home. In fact, most women have several different creams and lotions and of course, many of us have our favorite brands.

In the past I used to change from one brand to the next all the time, which invariably resulted in me having far more than I could ever hope to use. Quite often I would end up throwing half full bottle in the trash, but then something changed. I discovered a really good natural skin cream, and today I only use all-natural skin care products, including makeup and etc.
I still cannot resist the temptation when I stumble across a new brand that looks promising. However, I certainly don't throw away as much money as I used to, not least because good quality all-natural products are not cheap, and particularly if you insist on using ones which are certified organic. So, what made me adopt an all-natural approach? Here are the five things which convinced me:

1.  Less Damaging to the Environment
When I started doing some serious research about natural skin care products, I discovered some really disturbing information regarding many of the chemicals routinely being used in the cosmetics industry. In fact, I was so startled by some of the things I read that I decided to start researching many of the ingredients that were in the creams and lotions I had at home. Some of these were chemicals that are known to be very harmful to fish and other wildlife. All of a sudden I started feeling guilty because for years I had been throwing my empty containers in the trash, along with many that were still half full. I'm very much an environmentally aware sort of person, so this really bugged me.

2.  No More Clogged Pores
It became blatantly obvious while doing my research that creams and lotions which are made from 100% natural ingredients are far less likely to clog my pores when compared to most mainstream products.

3.  Less Damaging to Skin
Having discovered just how toxic many of the frequently used chemicals are, my sense of logic told me that these couldn't possibly be doing my skin any good. I honestly could not believe that I had been rubbing creams on my skin that contained industrial strength chemicals, some of which are used in things like pesticides and etc. A chemical called triclosan is just one such example, and I am using it here because it is the most prevalent antibacterial chemical found in cosmetics; cleaning products; toys; stationary; garbage bags, toilet seats and etc. The Canadian government has already ruled that triclosan is toxic to the environment. Some personal care manufacturers have also pledged to start phasing out the use of this chemical, while the State of Minnesota has declared a State-wide ban which comes in force on the 1st of January 2017. Do you honestly want to be rubbing something like this into your skin every day?

4.  Skin Nourishment
After spending several weeks researching the chemicals which are routinely used in mainstream skin care products, I thought it would be a good idea to start researching ingredients found in natural skin care products. What a stark difference I saw. In fact, I recall coming across one company guaranteeing that all their products are so natural and so pure that you could even eat them if you wanted to.

5.  Equivalent or Better Results
I am going to stop short of saying that all-natural skin care products deliver superior results because I wouldn't be able to backup such a claim with scientific facts. However, I personally believe I have seen better results since I changed over. When I was still using regular creams and so on, I never once believed any of them could make me look 10 years younger, and no, I don't believe any natural ones can make me look 10 years younger either. I do however believe that my skin looks healthier now than it did a few years ago.