Skin Care Ingredients to Avoid

Most moms use skin screens, moisturizers and other skin care products on themselves and on their kids. However is any of the ingredients actually harmful to your kid? Here is a look at some of the things we find in skin care products that you might want to avoid.

Artificial fragrances: Quite often, these chemically produced artificial fragrances will be listed on the label as nothing more than ‘a fragrance'. Unfortunately, chemicals like these are often irritating, especially if you have sensitive skin. If your skin is sensitive and you suffer headaches, dizziness or rashes after using a particular skin product, the chances are pretty good that the culprit is an artificial fragrance. You should therefore stop using it immediately.

Artificial colors: Avoid any products that suggest they contain artificial colors for exactly the same reason that you would avoid artificial fragrances. These cause cancer!

In the UK and Australia, artificial colors are usually described as ‘E numbers' whereas in the USA, they will have an FD & C code number together with a description of the color. Some food colorings are known to be potentially harmful, in some cases possibly carcinogenic, so any skin care product containing them should definitely avoided.

Diazolindinyl Urea: This is a preservative chemicals that is sometimes used in make up and skincare products. This chemical is known to be toxic and can cause contact dermatitis and other skin problems, so it is one that should be avoided.

Methyl Paraben and Propyl Paraben are two chemicals that are used as preservatives to extend the shelf life of skincare products and make up. Once again, there is some evidence that these two chemicals are toxic and that they might be a cause of allergic reactions as well as breast and other forms of cancer.

Somewhat ironically, there is also evidence that a combination of parabens and sunlight accelerates skin ageing as well.

Propylene Glycol: Propylene glycol is a synthetic organic glycerin that is used in many different ways including in skincare products (as a moisturizer) and make-up.

This petroleum-based plastic is such a powerful solvent that it can eat through a steel tank in 48 hours, which is why it has to be stored in plastic drums. In the USA, the EPA considers propylene glycol to be so toxic that it insists on workers wearing protective clothing, goggles and gloves, yet it is used in some products in strengths of up to 20%.

Given these facts, it is perhaps not surprising that this is a chemical that is known to cause severe allergic reactions in some people.

In my next blog entry I will give you some more advice as to what chemicals to avoid in skin care lotions and sunscreens! After all we have to keep our families safe!

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Keeping Your Skin Super Healthy!

Keeping Your Skin Beautiful
If you are a busy mom you want your skin to look beautiful but natural. Here is the four step regimen you should follow to have beautiful skin.

The basic four step skin care program goes like this:

1 – Cleansing. The secret when you are cleansing your skin is to be gentle and to use mild cleaning ingredients. If possible, you should avoid using soap (even herbal versions) as soap dries your skin which is why many beauty experts recommend that you should never use soap on your face.

Instead, use a cleanser that is suited to your skin type. For example, you might use a creamy cleanser if you have dry skin or a drier cleanser if your problem is overly oily skin.

One thing that you should avoid is the temptation to clean your skin too regularly. Doing so may in fact make your skin problems worse rather than better, so it is not something that you should be doing.

You should avoid any cleanser that contains strong astringents or alcohol as these will strip away most of the protective oils that your skin needs as well.
For most people, all that is needed is to wash your face at night before retiring and of course, women should remove all traces of cosmetics too.

Wash with warm water – not too hot or too cold as both can damage the capillaries just beneath the skin – and then splash warm water on your face in the morning.

Just splashing your face before dabbing your skin dry is a great way of removing excess oils (either natural or caused by your nightly moisturizer) and this should be all you need to do in the morning.

2 – Exfoliate. This is a crucial step in any properly effective skincare regime and yet it is the step that most women tend to ignore.

There are many ways of exfoliating your skin ranging from specialist dermatological treatment to completely natural exfoliants, with many very expensive branded products in between. We will of course focus on natural exfoliants when we look at specific natural skin care solutions.

3 – Moisturize. No matter what your skin type, skincare experts and dermatologists recommend that you should moisturize your skin regularly, doing so before going to bed being the most popularly recommended option.

When moisturizing at night, you should focus on making sure that the skin around your eyes is properly moisturized. The lack of fatty tissue in this particular area of your face makes this area of skin prone to wrinkles, hence applying moisturizer helps to ‘plump up' the skin and thereby reduce the tendency to wrinkling.

Lastly don't forget the sunscreen. Most of the damage that your skin suffers over the years will be caused by exposure to the sun. Furthermore, this is something that starts happening at a very young age (even though you don't notice it) and even on cloudy and overcast days.

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