Natural Emulsifiers: Healthy Binding Agents in Your Products

by Ingela

Most of us use our skin care and cosmetic products day in and day out without giving thought to how they were made. Or what they were made of.  The process is a delicate one, and one worth knowing about as the end user.

A well-crafted beauty product is a balanced blend of function and style, a work of art.  Many ingredients, useless independently, come together to create a masterpiece.  Within this masterpiece, something has to function as the base, the foundation, the glue that binds all the rest of the ingredients together.  In beauty products, the “glue” is an emulsifier, or binding agent.

Most skin care and cosmetic products are made up of five key parts: emollients, humectants, emulsifiers, surfactants, and preservatives.  This article will discuss the function of emulsifiers in common beauty products and what natural alternatives are available.

Synthetic Emulsifiers

All products need an agent that keeps everything together.  The product base is a delivery method, but it’s equal as important as the other parts of the formula.  Without it, other ingredients wouldn’t interact correctly.  And without a proper emulsifier, your skin might react badly to a product.

Unlike some of the other ingredient categories (preservatives or emollients, for example), many synthetic emulsifiers are harmless to the skin.  The waxes used as emulsifiers haven’t been shown to cause damage. These include:

  • Sorbitan Stearate, Laurate, Palmitate, and Oleate
  • Ozokerite, Ceresin, Silicone and Montan
  • Isopropyl Stearate, Laurate, Palmitate, and Oleate

You won’t find toxins or long-term damage in these synthetics, per se, but you may find you have sensitivities to them.  Many are used in harsh cleaning agents and have been known to irritate the eyes and scalp. For those with delicate skin or allergies, these emulsifiers might be causing a reaction.  Switching to natural emulsifiers is a good idea all around.

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Natural Surfactants in Beauty Products

by Ingela

When we think about what skin care products to buy, what’s inside them matters just as much as what they’re used for.

You wouldn’t buy a moisturizer made up of the ingredients for a facial scrub, so why would you buy a product that uses anything you don’t understand?  How can you be sure what everything on that long, unpronounceable list of ingredients is going to do to your skin?

Within that list, most skin care and cosmetic products are made up of five key parts: emollients, humectants, emulsifiers, surfactants, and preservatives.  This article will discuss the function of surfactants in common beauty products and what natural alternatives are available.

What Surfactants Do

A surfactant is a category of ingredients found in many cosmetic products, especially cleansers and shampoos.  Also called “surface-acting ingredients,” their purpose is to reduce the surface tension of a product, thus making it easier to spread.

These substances can dissolve oils and suspend dirt until it is rinsed away with water—a handy ability for cleansers, indeed.

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9 Useful Essential Oils in Anti Aging Skin Care

by Ingela

In natural skin care, one of the best ways to get effective results without adding harmful chemicals is by using essential oils.

They are liquids distilled from the leaves, stems, flowers, bark, roots, or other parts of the plant—basically, the “essence” of the plant.  Despite the name essential oil, they’re not really oily at all.

Instead, essential oils are clear or light amber in color.

Many Sources, Many Uses

Since essential oils are taken from plants, there are nearly as many types of oils as there are plants.

And of course, each type has its own unique benefits, just like spices you use when you’re cooking dinner.  Essential oils are so simple and so natural that they are easily blended into almost anything.

In fact, essential oils are used in perfumes, aromatherapy, and even some foods.  Some essential oils promote relaxation, calm migraine pain or anxiety, elevate the mood, and boost the immune system. In skin care, essential oils help achieve the results promised by cleansers, scrubs, moisturizers, and other products.

Common Essential Oils & Their Benefits

While you’re browsing the list of ingredients on your natural skin care products, you’ll most likely come across a few things followed by “essential oil.”

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Acupuncture for Acne: Does It Work?

by Ingela

With as many varieties of acne treatments as there are types of skin, how can you decide which treatment will work best for your own breakouts?

There are shelves of products claiming to zap your pimples, dozens of salons in every city offering miracle chemical peels and other services, plus books and websites touting home remedies with overnight success.  Who can you believe? Where should you begin?

Acupuncture is another voice in the crowd of acne treatments today, but not necessarily one that comes to mind every day.  Yes, acupuncture is that ancient Chinese treatment that uses needles to stimulate the body.

And yes, it promises to cure many things from headaches to hemorrhoids.  But acne?  I did a little digging to see if the acupuncture for acne claims really held up.

Alternative to Acne Medicine

Sometimes a dermatologist or general physician will recommend acupuncture to patients who are reluctant to treat their acne with medication.  To be fair, some medications can have risky side effects and other dangers, so it makes sense that not everyone is prepared to go that route.

By the same token, laser surgery and other treatments, like chemical peels or facials, might not be a first choice for some people.  As an alternative, acupuncture treatments are not medicinal or chemical in nature and have no health risks.

The major benefit to trying acupuncture is its lack of negative side effects.  You’ll take no medication, undergo no risky procedures.  Yet many people question the effectiveness of acupuncture treatments for acne.

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Natural Preservatives in Beauty Products & Your Skin: A Healthy Combo

by Ingela

Not too long ago, the skin care industry was buzzing with news about preservatives.  Women stormed cosmetic counters, angered to hear that chemicals like formaldehyde were inside their products.

And who wouldn’t be upset about disturbing news like that?  Suddenly, users of beauty products everywhere wanted to know exactly what’s inside their products and why.

I completely agree with them—consumer skepticism keeps companies honest.  And it keeps natural products on the shelves, available to all of us.  Inside these products, natural preservatives do exactly the same things these chemical options promise, just without the harmful side effects.

Most skin care and cosmetic products are made up of five key parts: emollients, humectants, emulsifiers, surfactants, and preservatives.  This article will discuss the function of preservatives in common beauty products and what natural alternatives are available.

What Are Preservatives?

Simply put, skin care companies put preservatives inside their products to keep them from spoiling.  After all, who wants to store their skin cream in the refrigerator?

Preservatives, whether chemical or natural, are meant to protect the other ingredients of the product from decaying, growing discolored, or going bad.

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Natural vs. Chemical Emollients in Beauty Products

by Ingela

Read the ingredients list on any product in your skin care and cosmetic collection and you’ll probably go cross-eyed.  Today’s beauty products are often filled with chemical and synthetic ingredients that are hard to pronounce and hard on your skin.

Chemicals such as dimethicone and TEA are very common, so you may see these and others over and over again on different product labels.  Some companies will follow these chemicals with a list of herbs, natural extracts, and essential oils to make the product seem natural.  But in reality, it’s not natural at all.

Most skin care products are composed of five parts: emollients, humectants, emulsifiers, surfactants, and preservatives.  This article will discuss the function of emollients in common beauty products and what natural alternatives to look for when shopping.

The Purpose of Emollients

Emollient ingredients are usually listed first in a product’s ingredients, so these will jump out at your right away. When we say a lotion is water-based or oil-based, these are the emollient agents that are at work inside a product.  Mainly, emollients are responsible for preventing dryness of the skin and protecting it like a barrier.

Water is the best natural emollient, but it evaporates quickly and becomes ineffective.  To resolve this problem, many companies have combined chemical emollients with water or “natural” oils to extend a product’s effectiveness.  This is not necessary, since several natural alternatives might work much better.

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How To Find the Best Natural Makeup for Dry Skin

by Ingela

With so many cosmetic options available in today’s market, finding the best makeup for dry skin might seem an impossible feat.

Aside from a trial-and-error journey down the makeup aisle, how can you really know how well each and every product will work?

At least you can definitely do some background work before you start buying and trying. Narrow down the playing field; find the best option for your skin.

But how do you even get started? I have a few tips to point you in the right direction on your hunt for the best makeup for dry skin.

Researching Natural Brands

The internet is a great place to start when you’re gathering information for just about anything, makeup included.  Start by looking for companies that use all natural ingredients and substitute harmful chemicals with safe alternatives derived from nature.

The best makeup for dry skin doesn’t have to be filled with chemicals, so just do your homework to find companies that can promise moisturizing makeup and natural ingredients. Believe me, they’re out there!

One of the great resources I found was the website for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, where cosmetic companies commit themselves to “improve the safety of cosmetics and personal care products and to provide better information about product ingredients so consumers can make informed decisions.”

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How to Find a Top Anti Wrinkle Cream: A Simple Formula

by Ingela

Do you want a top anti wrinkle cream, but don’t know where to look and how to find it? I’m not gonna say it’s easy to find a facial cream that reduces wrinkles, but it can be simple if you know what to look for.

What is a top anti wrinkle cream anyway? I’d say it is a product that effectively smooths out your wrinkles, not just by covering them up, but by supplying your skin with vital nutrients. It is a cream that makes your skin healthier, not just better looking.

All Natural

Many synthetics chemicals found in skin care products can make your skin age faster and cause adverse side effects. Some are harmless while others are risky, so a simple solution is to avoid them all together and go with all natural products instead.

Nowadays they say that the best anti wrinkle creams are the ones with ingredients that you can eat, and I couldn’t agree more. Your skin is your largest organ, and plenty of the things it comes in contact with will be absorbed by your skin and body.

Proven Anti Wrinkle Ingredients

Most wrinkle creams claim to be super effective and the new wonder of the world, but nearly all of them are pretty useless. What you need to look for is clinically proven effective ingredients – formulas that have been tried by humans and given noticeable effects when it comes to eliminating and preventing wrinkles.

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How to Minimize Stretch Marks: 9 Effective Techniques

by Ingela

Would you love to know how to minimize stretch marks and prevent them from showing up? Here you’ll find a list of tips and tricks for combating stretch marks.

Before you dive in the techniques for how to minimize stretch marks you’ll want to think about why you have them in the first place. If you know the underlying cause, it is much easier to know what to do about them.

There’s a variety of causes of stretch marks such as:

  • Hormonal changes/growth spurts like in pregnancy or puberty
  • Rapid weight gain or weight loss
  • Nutritional deficiencies causing weaker skin cell walls
  • Loss of collagen and elastin from aging
  • Rapid muscle gain causing the skin to stretch

Anything sound familiar? It’s not always so easy to know what the cause is for you, for example you can have a nutritional deficiency a long time without ever knowing about it.

Here’s the list of techniques for how to minimize stretch marks. I think the first two are the most important to start with, the rest are in no particular order.

1. Nourish. Feed your skin properly with antioxidants from berries, dark leafy greens, veggies and fruit. With enough healthy fats you make your cell walls stronger, from say fatty fish, cold pressed olive oil, coconut, and avocado. This will boost skin regeneration and the growth of collagen and elastin.

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How to Prevent Sagging Skin: 5 Important Steps Revealed

by Ingela

There are lots of ways for how to prevent sagging skin when you start looking. Let me show you the most important steps you can take to prevent sagging skin.

Sagging skin can be caused by aging as well as rapid weight loss. If you are in the process of losing a lot of weight then try to do it in a slow and steady pace, and know that with time your skin will catch up.

When you get older, the amount of collagen and elastin produced in your skin is reduced, and this causes sagging skin. But if you know how to prevent sagging skin, you can avoid all that.

1. Nutrients

The first thing you want to look at is if you are feeding your body all the nutrients it needs to create healthy firm skin. Your skin needs a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and fats to stay youthful.

I always supplement with a purified fish oil supplement, because I know it can be hard to get all the omega-3 I need from my diet alone. Eating lots of healthy fats from fish, coconut, nuts, and olives does help keeping your skin firm and plump.

2. Hydration

Another important thing for preventing sagging skin is proper hydration. The firmness of your skin largely depends on if you have enough water in your body, so make sure you drink lots of water every day.

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