Steamcream - My New Find

I've always been a fan of those products who do a bit "more" than what they are just supposed to do. A bit like Rodial Glam Balm, I've used it for years, it's perfect hydrating mask, dry skin moisturiser, treatment for sunburn etc, so I was very excited that there's another product that can be used in many ways. Except this one is a bit different and comes in super cool retro packaging - a tin. 

So why is it good? 

I like that it contains proven moisturisers such as cocoa butter, glycerine (palm free), almond and jojoba oil. In addition to that there are some lovely essential oils that as well as making the product smell nice, they are soothing and antiseptic, then orange blossom water that balance oily skins and also there is oatmeal which is so good for soothing sensitive skins. Not too many ingredients and it's made in traditional way, by fusing all the ingredients by steam. How cool is that???

Why do I love it? 

It's lightweight, it just sinks into the skin and leaves it nourished. You can use it on the face and body. Makes a good hand cream. You can take off make up with it. You can use it as a mask, mix it with oat flakes and use it as a scrub. You can massage your skin with it before a facial steam and cleanse. And you can mix it with foundation to make your own tinted moisturiser or BB or CC cream or whatever they choose to call it these days. I'm sure you can think of more ways to use it... And best of all, it's pretty much a bargain £12.95.

The ingredient of the week – Alpha Tocopherol (Vitamin E)

I’m not going to go into great depth about what alpha tocopherol is (I’ll be calling it vitamin E), I just want to mention the skincare benefits, especially now when we are having a mini heat-wave and are prone to overdoing it in the sun.

Alpha tocopherol is the most biologically active form of vitamin E, a natural fat soluble antioxidant that stimulates the immune system. It’s present in many foods, mostly vegetables and oils. So it’s really good for you and you should eat more of it, ok? Now we can move on to the all important skin stuff.

So what can the alpha tocopherol do for our skin? Quite a lot actually. It’s one of the anti-ageing free radical fighters (antioxidant), but it’s very commonly used for treating sunburn, general skin dryness, skin irritation and scars. Instead of buying shedloads of creams that contain questionable amounts of vitamin E in it, go and buy the supplement from the health food store or pharmacy and use it neat. And it’s cheap.

Vitamin E supplements normally come in little oil capsules, you pierce the capsule and apply it on the affected area. It’s very greasy, so it’s not for showing off, but it will soothe the skin quickly. You can also add it to a cream if you wish. It’s also great on cuticles so no need to splash out on a specialist cuticle potion.

The added advantage of buying a supplement is that it won’t go to waste. The capsules are easily portable, won’t spill and you can eat them. Can’t eat the cream, can you?

A quick note though: some people can develop an allergic reaction to a synthetic form of vitamin E, so please check the source.

The Ingredient Of The Week - MSM (Sulphur)

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I was told to try and make my articles shorter for those of short attention span and busy people who hate sitting and reading with a dictionary… so this is my short attempt to write about a really major mineral that is incredibly important!

MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) is a naturally occurring nutrient found in normal human diets. MSM is an organic form of sulphur and it forms compounds in body with potassium, selenium, sodium and magnesium. Sulphur compounds are found everywhere in the body where they play an important role in many organs and systems. Many amino acids that build proteins have sulphur in their compounds.

So how can sulphur in topical skincare help?

Well, we already established that sulphur compounds are everywhere, and our body uses MSM to build new cells.

Without proper levels of MSM present, our body is unable to create new healthy cells and this leads to loss of elasticity, wrinkles, dry skin, allergic reactions and scar tissues.  

With ageing the levels decrease… as with everything else by the looks of things.

So it’s only natural to use MSM in our skincare. It’s been proven to help in acne and rosacea, it makes the hair shiny and nails strong. We could also do with a supplement, especially some of us that don’t consume enough eggs, meat and poultry.

Now we come to Oskia skincare that makes MSM one of the key ingredients in their range. It’s quite rare that the entire cosmetics line focuses so much on MSM so of course I got interested.  Usually it will be added in some products, especially ones aimed at acne sufferers or oily hair.

I got across Oskia range when I was googling about sulphur and their website popped up, I got curious and asked to try some products.

As I don’t do reviews I won’t go on how my skin liked it, but as a range I like the no nonsense approach with clearly listed ingredients and no useless fillers or made up actives.

The packaging tells you exactly what the key players are in the product that you’re paying for, which to me goes hand in hand with my philosophy of educating people about the ingredients. Plus I can’t see any parabens in it, so perfect for paraben-phobic and I especially like it as no silicones!

I think the range is definitely worth trying. I could not find anything I would actually omit from my moisturiser if I were to make it (I tried Oskia moisturiser), plus the benefit of MSM, vitamin E and milk peptides make it really good in my eyes.

What do you think?

Is Hyaluronic Acid The Secret to Moisturised Skin?

Hyaluronic Acid (Sodium Hyaluronate or I’ll be calling it HA from now on) is one of the proteins that is naturally present in human body and all living organisms for that matter.

In the deeper layer of skin (dermis) lies a network of elastic fibres, collagen and a clear fluid. That clear fluid is HA and its job is to hold a great amount of moisture and repair tissue. HA is also present in joint cartilage and eyes, but in skin it’s most abundant and that’s what I’ll focus on. This is a make up and skincare blog, after all :)

Unfortunately as we age, our body produces less and less HA and that leads to skin losing its plumpness, so we develop lines and wrinkles.

But there are a couple of things we can do.

I’ll come out with one obvious way of HA use in modern skin care.

The fillers.

Or what people used to call “collagen” fillers. I am calling use of fillers “skin care” as they are widely accepted these days and are being done on our lunch breaks…

Doctors, dermatologists are using animal HA and injecting it into the skin in the form of Restylane or Juvederm. Once injected, the HA adds volume to the skin and lines and wrinkles disappear. The effect is temporary. The problem of some celebrities, that they are not temporary enough (not naming names)! They still last for good six months or thereabouts.

Needle-phobes might choose the next option. Topical application. I mean slathering of cream on your face.

Just a bit more scientific blurb to explain what else happens in the skin…

So another by-product of HA is increase of retinoic acid, which leads to more hydration in the skin.

That can be achieved by either injections or use of Hyaluonic acid in face creams.

That effect of HA applied in creams is even more temporary, but I do believe that increased hydration is a good thing and my personal opinion that topical HA will be broken down in the skin (a process called hyaluronidase) and produce sugars that will stimulate our natural HA production.

So there you have it! HA is a very useful ingredient in creams.  Look out for it.

Rodial skincare has even got a whole Dragon’s Blood line of products  enriched with the ingredient and lots more of upmarket cosmetics companies use it in their formulas.

If you really want to experiment, you can buy a vial of HA online and add it to your favourite cream. It comes as a fine white powder, but it will thicken any cream and go lumpy if you don’t mix it in well, but the effects are there. 

Happy testing! 

 

One that I like to use is this one - CeraVe Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Serum with Ceramides and you can get it here

Natural Vs Chemicals

I have this friend who bangs on about liking this skincare range just because it’s “natural”. Does my head in.

And it’s not just her, the whole beauty industry is on the bandwagon with "natural this" and "natural that" and just because of that it's good for us. 

I have a problem with that.

The general public are being deceived. They need to be educated and informed.

Now, I admit I’m not a scientist. If I were, I’d probably be trying to cure cancer and would definitely not be bothered by such trivial things as skincare, but I do have an interest and willingness to find out more about it.

So if I give you a chemical formula of C10H16O, would that ring a bell? No? Ok, I’ll spare you and just come out with it. It’s one of the most widely used essential oils. Lavender.

What I’m trying to say here is that everything is made out of chemicals. Some are man-made, while the others are freely occurring in the nature. But classing a skincare range as “natural” and better for you just because it contains a few plant extracts is wrong.

People tend to get a lot of allergic reactions to essential oils, and because they contain a mix of chemical components it's difficult to pinpoint what the allergen is. 

I used to do aromatherapy years ago and it was a no-no to use essential oils on pregnant women. Or at least, use with great caution. If it was so safe and wonderful, then why should it be a problem?

I don’t have anything against plant extracts either, after all, the whole pharmacology was based on deriving drugs from plants in order to cure common ills.

My opinion is that people should be informed enough to make their own decisions. Not all chemicals are bad for you and not everything natural is good for you (deadly nightshade is a plant from nature, just saying). I just wish the cosmetic companies would stop giving us the spin of how wonderful their range is just because it contains a couple of plant extracts.

And don’t even start me on the whole lanolin backlash...

The ingredient of the week - L-Ascorbic Acid

 

I often get asked about efficacy of certain skincare products, whether such and such cream is worth paying xyz amount money for and what really works for wrinkles etc….

There are so many good creams around that make a huge difference to skin, but there are even more of those that are useless water in oil/oil in water concoction that do no more than a regular £5 moisturiser would do. Add to that lots of fillers and you have an exotic sounding cream that does nothing for you. Read your ingredients people and learn what those ingredients mean for your skin!

Anyway, one “product” that I know that works to get rid of fine lines is vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid. On one hand, it works like a mild exfoliating agent and on the other, it helps the skin synthetize collagen, so in other words, it will repair any damage that you’ve inflicted on your skin by living your life and enjoying it.

But it’s not so easy in the world of vitamin C. Well, actually it’s not so easy if you’re a big cosmetic company wishing to make money out of it!

Vitamin C is water soluble, highly unstable ingredient to be suitably effective in creams. What that actually means is… don’t buy creams with vitamin C in it, the chances are by the time that cream reaches you, any L-ascorbic acid present will be totally useless. Skincare companies would also make sure the cream is coloured orange, so it looks “healthy”, but in real terms, if vitamin C goes orange it’s deemed oxidised, or in other words, dead. Parrot dead.

To make the most of the L-ascorbic acid’s goodness you should make your own toner and use it fresh. There are other methods of use that involve mixing with distilled water and lotion and keeping in the fridge, but I find mine the easiest.

Buy some vitamin C powder in your health food shop. Don’t be tempted to use some orange sugar flavoured tablets that are sold as a supplement, it’s not what you want on this occasion.  You take a quarter of teaspoon of vitamin C, mix it in a little bit of water and apply it on your face with a cotton wool. Leave it for a while, unless it really stings. If it stings, wash it off and build your tolerance bit by bit.

If you decide to leave it on your skin, wait ten or so minutes before applying your regular cream. And there you go, your own homemade anti-ageing ingredient that actually works. Enjoy!