Bullshit Alert Skincare Ingredients – Tourmaline And Amethyst

Tourmaline is a mineral. It’s used in hairdryers to create ionic charge. The reason behind it is that the tourmaline itself generates electrical charge when under pressure and during temperature changes. How that works is a mystery to me, but I own an ionic hairdryer and it possibly dries my hair quicker than a normal dryer. Possibly. It could well be a placebo effect.

Amethyst is also a mineral. Folklore says it’s a good luck stone that dispels bad energy. Allegedly is beneficial for infrared radiation and negative ions.

But in skin creams? Please. None of the above applies to skin creams, but a super expensive face cream Nectar Opulent from By Terry claims it’s a magic ingredient. Magic is the price too. You will want to believe in good luck after spending £240. Sorry By Terry, you have some good make up products, but this cream is a "walk on the wild side". Someone prove me wrong please.  Ingredients below.

water, C12-15 alkyl benzoate, dimethicone, glycerin, methyl methacrylate crosspolymer, boron nitride, glycol palmitate, PEG-20 methyl glucose sesquistearate, butylene glycol, methyl glucose sesquistearate, cetyl palmitate, sodium acrylate/sodium acryloyldimethyl taurate copolymer, hydrogenated coconut oil, dimethicone crosspolymer, cetearyl alcohol, parfum/fragrance, tocopherol, isohexadecane, phenoxyethanol, pearl powder, methylparaben, polymethyl methacrylate, polysorbate 80, mica, laureth-3, CI 77891/titanium dioxide, chlorphenesin, tetrasodium EDTA, hydroxyethylcellulose, butylparaben, ethylparaben, amethyst powder, tourmaline, acetyl dipeptide-1, cetyl ester, isobutylparaben, propylparaben, cyathea medullaris leaf extract, prolinamidoethyl imidazole, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, tocopheryl acetate, phalaenopsis amabilis extract, sodium methylparaben, alpha-isomethyl ionone, benzyl salicylate, butylphenyl methylpropional, citronellol, coumarin, eugenol, geraniol, hexyl cinnamal, hydroxycitronellal, hydroxyexyl 3-cyclohexene, carboxaldehyde, limonene, linalool.

The Ingredients In Colour Cosmetics - Make Up

I made it my mission to go through the ingredients of cosmetics, so I somewhat neglected to list a colour cosmetics ingredients. Why? You can say I was focusing more on the wild claims made by skincare brands on how different your life would be if you bought into some of those claims.

Colour cosmetics don’t make such claims, not the ones that will stop you from ageing and the like, they do some different ones which I’ll cover at a later date.  Mascara and foundation, I’ll be looking at you soon!

The colour pigments that are used in making the colour cosmetics are the most regulated in the world. Different countries have different rules, but generally you’ll find Japan to have the most stringent safety regulations for cosmetics. The EU and USA are behind and you’ll find that most breakthrough make up innovations come from Asia these days.

The colours come into two groups: organic and inorganic.

Inorganic are the mineral pigments (I bet this inorganic and organic matter confuses people) that are found around the Earth as compounds of transition metals. The inorganic colours are:

Iron oxides (reds, browns, black and yellows that can be mixed and blended together), chromium oxide, (green), ultramarine (blue, purple), titanium dioxide/zinc oxide (white and uv protection).

Organic pigments are organic molecules that start with N or S or similar (not the names but their chemical or dye name). They are anthraquinone (green), AZO colourants (red and yellow), Triarylmethane (blue and green), Xanthenes (red, orange), and some natural colourants such as caramel, caretonoids etc. The problem with these natural ones is that they very often stink and they are unstable.

Then we have fillers and finishers. Those are the ones that make the product “glide” and spread evenly. The most usual of those are talc (a widespread mineral) and mica (potassium aluminum silicate – another mineral).

Fillers and finishers also include emulsifiers, preservatives, fragrance, and so on.

In a nutshell, that’s it. I’ll come back later to discuss mascaras. If any of you want to experiment with making your own lipstick or eye shadow , please make sure that the pigments you use are safe to be used either around eyes or lips!

Sulphates – What’s the Fuss and What Are They?

Sulphates (sulfates), or sodium laureth sulphate, ammonium laurel sulphate and sodium lauryl sulphates are well known foaming agents or detergents used in loads of cosmetics products and industrial cleaners. 

When I say in loads of products, I’m not joking. Sulphates are in toothpaste, shampoos, washing up liquid, shower gels, cleansers, laundry detergents, bath salts, hair colours etc. Pretty much in everything that cleans, foams and washes.

The sulphates originate from coconuts so they can be both created from nature or in a lab. They are cheap to produce and do the job well.

But they can also cause irritation. The sulphates that come from coconuts are no less likely to cause irritation than the lab created ones, but the “green” or “natural” manufacturers will never say that their products contain sulphates, it will be called “natural detergents from coconuts” or something like that. I just thought I’d let you know in case you’re convinced you are using something sulphate free when in fact you might not be at all.

Now the major issue about sulphates are that some studies show that they are possibly linked to some cell mutations that lead to cancers. Other studies are inconclusive and claim that the concentration of detergents present is never high enough to cause any damage. Plus there’s also skin’s permeability. Most sulphates will not be absorbed through the skin or stratum corneum, but there is some danger that they can be absorbed via eyes and other mucous membranes. Now some say that there are the cumulative effects to take into consideration too. So the jury’s still out.

Where do I stand on sulphates? To be honest I’m a bit in the middle about it all.

To me if I can’t see the irritation, it’s probably ok.

Saying that I don’t leave cleansers on for longer than necessary. I don’t take long foamy baths, but I’m happy to take my make up off with foamy cleanser.

At the end of the day I like stuff to do the business it’s made to do. I don’t generally like brands or products that centre their marketing about things their products “don’t contain” or are “free from”. Seriously, I don’t care. Tell me please what is actually in your products that will do the job that it’s designed to do.

And write the ingredients in their latin name and state the source where it comes from. Then I’ll be very happy.

Celebrities No Make Up Trend

You probably noticed since a few months ago that more and more celebrities are going out make up free on purpose. Or are “accidentally” papped with “nothing" on their faces. US television show The Talk had the whole show presented by unmade up presenters. And now W magazine, the holy grail of fashion cool has done a non-scripted, non-made up fashion story with some very famous people. What up, you may wonder? Have they all of a sudden become all devoid of vanity? Yeah, right.

I call it photoshop damage control PR spin. Not thought of a catchy name yet, feel free to drop me a line if you come up with something better.

We have all seen some images of celebs retouched to infinity so they no longer resemble themselves. Call it the ultimate makeover or whatnot. And rightly so, the general public started to complain, especially if that said celebrity is flogging some “looking younger” cream where the “younger” effects are achieved by some skilled individual on their Apple Mac. And their Adobe CS.

Photoshop in modern digital photography is pretty much a necessity. Film used to lose some detail but the digital technology picks up every little bit that the naked eye could not even see. So, it needs to be done, so it would not be detracting the attention from whatever is being shown. Imagine a lovely beauty shot advertising mascara and there’s a zit on model’s face and some fine hairs above the top lip (not calling it a moustache).  Once you “spot” those bits it’s like you can’t stop seeing them. Game over. Mascara what? So you get my point.

But vanity retouching is not just cleaning up the bits like the skin, hair, etc. It’s body reshaping, eye bags removing, double chin-ectomy, bingo-wings de-flapper and the usual “how to lose twenty years in half an hour”.

So some big shot clever PRs, who are paid big bucks to “look after their clients” and assure they keep getting those lucrative endorsements, thought of a great way of doing that. Stars going out with no make up. Genius. The stars still look “good enough” but real. But definitely not perfect to alienate the public.

Except they are really not walking around with zero make up. Just less of it. The Daily Mail machine is working hard to bombard us with those images and make it a “story”. So when you see a celebrity with no make up walking down the street shot, remember they most likely have concealer, a bit of foundation, a bit of blush and some mascara. And lipstick. 

So when the celebs get that beauty campaign and get so retouched/botoxed/filler-ed up they can always credit a good make up artist for looking like that. For sure. 

Post Holiday Blues

I kept meaning to write something for a while but it just wasn’t happening.

I wanted to do a make up feature for Christmas, but I didn’t feel like there was much going on to inspire me… dark lips, matte skin, nothing new, etc. New eyelash lines popping all the time, call it the Essex effect or whatever you want, but nothing interesting.

And then my laptop decided to have a hissy fit again which resulted in me crying at Apple store at the rude and unsympathetic “genius” (they should really stop calling them that, genius means the IQ higher than 140 and I’m positive he wasn’t that smart). Anyway it all ended well due to my sheer determination and persistence, my laptop got fixed without too much expense.  But I was without it for a month.  So I couldn’t write. I mean, I could, but wasn’t feeling it.

So, what now? It’s January, PRs are busy again sending press releases about spring looks and that fake holiday planted in February to make February marginally interesting. And some people lonely. The Valentine’s.

Refuse to add to that, so count me out.

There is one thing I can recommend during this time of year. Pampering. The perfect time. Long baths, oils, skin nutrition, call it whatever you like, it makes sense. Think about it. You’ve probably had somewhat excessive Christmas holidays, even if you don’t celebrate it, short cold days and long nights mean a lot of food and alcohol being consumed. It’s the law. In January we regret it all and want to be “good” so we promise ourselves diet and exercise. And we fail miserably.

One way to go about feeling better about yourself is a little bit of rough loofa love. Exfoliate. Your skin is suffering from temperature changes, central heating, cold and wind. Be kind to it. Exfoliate the body after a good long soak. Massage rich creams and lotions that smell nice. My favourite scented body cream is Narciso Rodriguez, it automatically makes me feel better. Start preparing your body for spring and summer by regular body brushing, get that circulation going.

Apply nourishing face masks. Shed the last year’s skin and let the new year’s skin come shining through. Massage your face. Learn how to do a simple Shiatsu face massage technique, it really makes a lot of difference in skin tone. Generally adopt a "pamper" day as one day of the week. Not talking about a whole day here, but zone out for an hour or so.

That’s plenty to do in January for now. The future will be orange.

The Daddy Of All Anti-ageing Ingredients - Vitamin A

 

Retinol or another name for vitamin A is a tough one to explain and I’ve been putting off writing about it for ages, but I knew I had to do it as it plays such a major part in our bodies.

The oxidised form of retinol is called retinoic acid (reinoids)– it’s made from vitamin A either in our bodies or in a laboratory. It’s especially present in formation of an embryo as it helps cells grow and develop.

When created in a lab it’s used to treat some forms of cancer and less importantly in the general scheme of things, is used to treat acne.

What’s acne treatment got to do with ageing, you may ask? Well, it was discovered that while treating acne, the wrinkles and sun spots on the skin also improved. It was thought that the way it worked was by making the skin peel and renew, but the way it works is a bit more complicated.

So how does it actually work?

It's a bit of a mystery but in a nutshell retinoic acid increases the thickness of epidermis and stimulates new collagen production. It also shrinks sebaceous glands and unclogs pores. It's like a skin cell builder. Imagine if retinoids can help build an embryo what they can do for our skin? It actually works for majority of people as countless scientific studies have proven.

You see, retinoic acid is actually classified as a prescription medicine and you can only get it from your doctor in form of gel (for treating acne – isotretinoin  Retin A) or emollient cream (for sun damage – Renova).

It can irritate the skin big time, the skin can peel, dry out and it can become very sensitive to UVA rays. If you’re prone to spots, using Renova cream can enlarge your pores and make you break out. It's not because of the retinoids, but the emollient base might be too rich for oilier skins.

You may actually ask why I’m writing about something that you can’t go out and buy freely in a shop? I’ll tell you why.

Almost every single cosmetic company has a cream with some sort of vitamin A that promises this or that. A lot of those creams did nothing for us.

Retinoic acid has to be present in certain concentration for it to work – prescription creams are sold either in 0.05% or 0.025% for more sensitive skins, so the bog standard vitamin A cream you buy in shops also has to contain a percentage of an active ingredient for it to make any difference. And most of the time it doesn’t. 

As a rule, retinols are about half as effective as retinoids (retinoic acid), so if you get a cream with low concentration of retinol you are wasting your money. 

Also, it's a tough job for skin to convert your normal vitamin A into its effective form - retinoic acid, it doesn't just happen like that. The effective cream with retinol has to also contain some other helpful ingredients - for example, peptides have been shown to be quite effective.

Things to bear in mind before you buy any vitamin A cream:

The most common ingredients to look out in the creams are retinaldehyde, retinlyl acetate and retinyl palmitate. Make sure that on the list of ingredients the retinol is not listed as one of the last ingredients – or just before the preservatives. Somewhere in the middle of a list would be the best place for it.

Both retinols and retinoids can irritate the skin and make it sensitive to sunlight so make sure you wear an adequate SPF of at least 30.

Your skin might not like it all. If you start getting redness and peeling too much use the cream every alternate day. If the symptoms don't go away with time you need to stop using it.

Retinol is sensitive to sunlight so use the cream at night only. Retinoic acid (prescription stuff) is never sold in jars, but in tubes as it's also sensitive to exposure to air.

Remember that even prescription stuff takes six months of continuous use to show any significant results, so if a cosmetic company claims that you'll see visible results in just three weeks, they are full of it. Yes your skin might "appear" smoother and firmer, but that won't be due to its effective retinols, but more due to moisturisers that temporarily plump out the skin.

Retinols are NOT expensive. If you buy a cream containing retinols and pay loads of money for it, you are either paying for the name or the packaging. The prescription retinoids are not expensive either! 

I like vitamin A. If used wisely with an adequate sun protection it can make a lot of difference to our skin. By all means go and see a dermatologist and get some advice, especially if your suffer from sun damage (pigmentation with premature wrinkles). 
If you're just trying to stop the clock, retinols are probably enough. 

Fashion Shows Archives - Backstage Part 2

Here are some more backstage photos from long time ago! Hope you enjoy!