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What does “Sun Protection Factor” mean anyway?
If you’re like most individuals, your assumption is that the higher the SPF, the broader the protection. And you’d be correct. However, the protection derived from products with an SPF greater than 15 is generally greatly exaggerated.
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More Skincare Myths
There are many myths out there concerning skincare and acne, but they are nothing more than just that, myths. We’ve talked about myths such as the effectiveness of cucumber on puffy eyes and the need to wear sunscreen, but have you heard of these myths?
Myth: Facial exercises will help make your skin look younger
Truth: Facial exercises can actually do quite the opposite by stretching your skin and creating lines and/or wrinkles. Daily facial maneuvers and manipulations can cause lines, furrows and sagging. Facial exercise is not helpful for worn-out skin because skin is not about...
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Debunking Cucumber & Sunscreen Myths
Skincare has many misconceptions. How many times have we heard people telling us that chocolate causes acne, or that tanning can help our skin? Here are a few myths debunked:
Myth: Cucumbers reduce puffiness in your eyes
Truth : While some think that cucumber flesh can reduce swelling and revitalize skin, such is not the truth. Remember—your body cannot absorb water, but cucumber is over 90 percent water. If you do notice swelling going down, it’s likely that the cucumbers you are using are cold. Cold stops swelling, and that’s what you are noticing that affects your skin.
Myth: You only need sunscreen...
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Anti-Aging Skin Care Myths
Everybody is looking for a cheap and easy trick to minimize puffy eyes, wrinkles and acne. Here are a few unconventional tips that consumers are trying, despite the fact they’re nothing but myths:
The first one involved the use of Preparation H which is a hemorrhoid treatment cream to reduce under eye puffiness
The other was placing duct or scotch tape over the wrinkles smoothing them out and then leaving the tape in place over night.
Toothpaste to get rid of acne
Baby foreskin serum to reduce wrinkles
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Cucumbers For Puffy Eyes: Do They Really Work?
It is a popular practice to place freshly cut cucumber slices over one’s eyes in order to reduce puffiness and “that tired look" and often a sign of too much salty food or alcohol-laced fun the night before. The botanical ingredient in cucumber, known as cucumis sativus, can help, but not your best bet. Cucumbers are more than 90% water and the rest is mostly inert fiber with no skin benefits.
Cucumber slices do sometimes reduce puffiness a bit, but only because they are cold. It is the cold (not the cucumber) that shrinks the swelling by...
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Buzz Words in the Skin Care Industry.....
Anti-aging, re-surfacing, micro-tightening, detox. These are just a few buzz words that skin care companies use to get your attention. Why? Because they want us to believe their products are worth buying. So, if one brand’s bottle is saying “anti-wrinkle,” the brand next to it rushes to put that same phrase on their bottle. It’s a word race for your dollar. To sell products, a lot of companies will even use ingredient buzz words like these:
Amino acids
Copper Peptides
DMAE
Resveratrol
CoQ10
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Do Botox Creams Really Work?
Can you really beleive that skin care companies think we beleive that you can apply a cream on our face, and it can penetrate through our skin and into the muscles to block nerve activity in the muscle and paralyze that muscle like and actual botox injection in a cream form?
As I thumb through beauty magazines and attend professional esthetic trade shows, I am overwhelmed with the companies who still tout that their product is “Better than Botox.” I was going to research all the products I could find that make this claim. As I was searching, I found...
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Common Acne Questions - What Doesn't Cause Acne
There are so many myths and questions in the skincare industry about acne. In the next few weeks, I will go through a variety of topics about acne and treatment of acne scarring. This article will focus on what doesn’t cause acne. Stay tuned for the next article, “What DOES cause acne,” in our Acne Series Blog.
So the question is, “What does NOT cause acne?”
Cleanliness: Acne is not a condition caused by poor hygiene and cannot be cleared by scrubbing or washing excessively. There is no correlation between acne severity and skin bacteria numbers. Aggressive rubbing should be avoided.
Diet:...
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The Truth About A “Base Tan”
First of all what is a tan?
To put it in simple terms, it is our body’s natural protective response against internal skin damage. So when people say they have a “healthy tan” this is far from being true. Within the basal layer and upper dermis are our pigment producing cells called melanocytes. These cells are stimulated by exposure to ultraviolet rays and manufactures melanin, the skin pigment that is the body’s natural sunscreen. Although people think a tan is healthy, a tan is actually a chemical reaction of the body defending itself from the damaging rays of the sun! A...
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Dissolving Myths Surrounding Water as a Base Skincare Ingredient
Skincare products are not magic. The process begins with a base, to which various ingredients are added to make the final product. The vast majority of skincare products are water-based, with the first ingredient listed as water, aqua, purified water, or H2O, combined with other ingredients to make individual products such as moisturizers, exfoliants, cleansers and so on (check your bottles ladies - if the ingredients are not listed on the bottle then they will appear on the packaging).
Unfortunately for you, water is not a great base for a skincare product. Water doesn’t get absorbed through the skin. Moisturizers don’t...