Apr 30 2009

Skin Care for Men – Recommendations

Category: Acne Skin Care — healthbuff @ 5:24 pm

It is not just women who are concerned about the appearance and health of their skin. Men also want to have good looking skin, free of rashes and dry areas. Good looking, healthy skin can help give a man’s face an attractive appearance. There are tips and products that can help men keep their skin looking good or in some cases to significantly improve the health and look of their skin.

The skin of males contains about fifteen percent more oil than does the skin of women and men also typically have larger pores than women, thus men have a tendency to get dirtier skin. For skin care for men, some experts recommend that men perform a deep cleansing on their skin on a daily basis in order to keep the pores clean and give the skin a pleasant appearance. Avoid using cleansing products filled with chemicals and deodorants. These products might cause skin irritation and they will end up clogging your pores.

Scrubbing and Moisturizers

Recommendations for skin care for men include providing your facial skin with a beneficial scrubbing which will eliminate dead skin cells and give your face a smooth appearance. Avoid scrubbing products that contain rough substances such as seed extracts or small grounded pieces of nuts. These products will actually cause harm to your skin. Skin care for men includes using a quality moisturizer and choosing products that do not contain chemicals or only very small amounts.

Skin care for men also includes applying a moisturizer to the face after shaving as well as after cleansing the skin. Moisturizers applied after shaving should not contain alcohol or a heavy amount of fragrances since they can aggravate the skin. As men get older they might want to use astringents as well as toners that contain glycolic or alpha hydroxy acids in order to maintain their skins’ elasticity. You should purchase products that are not sensitive to light.

Sunscreen Protection

Using sunscreen as part of a skin care for men program is essential. It is recommended that you use a sunscreen product with a SPF of fifteen or higher. The sun can cause brown spots to form and can make your thin wrinkles and lines look worse. Also, exercising can help you maintain good looking healthy skin since exercise stimulates the capillaries. Make sure you get the recommended amounts of vitamins E and C and avoid smoking cigarettes. These are some of the skin care tips for men that can keep your skin healthy and looking good.

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Apr 29 2009

Has Your Skin Care Body Lotion Been Tested On Animals?

Category: Acne Skin Care — healthbuff @ 3:10 pm

Thankfully, it’s getting easier and easier to find quality products like skin care body lotions that are cruelty free. “Cruelty free” means that the product was not tested on animals. This is another form of medical testing on animals, who often go through extremely painful procedures without any anesthetics or euthanization. These tests are considered unnecessary by a good portion of the scientific community. In just twenty years, the buying public has demanded less and less animal testing in their skin care body lotions and still gets great skin.

The Leaping Bunny Logo

Around 1996, there really was no national certification standard to make sure that those products listed as “cruelty free” really WERE cruelty free. In response to the confusion, in the city of brotherly love (Philadelphia), the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics was born. When a skin care body lotion or other kind of cosmetic meets their standards, they are allowed to use a logo of a leaping bunny.

Major Companies

Since 1996, some major players in the beauty care and cosmetics business have gone cruelty free and get the Leaping Bunny logo. And their quality hasn’t suffered at all. These companies include Avalon Natural Products, The Body Shop, Kiss My Face, Mary Kay, Paul Mitchell and Tom’s Of Maine. Some of these products are available in department stores, grocery stores and in specialty shops or websites.

Remember, the leaping bunny logo does not necessarily mean a product is organic. Although “organic” is more and more meaning “cruelty free”, there are some products and skin care body lotions that are organic, but are not cruelty free. You need to look for another label from the FDA (for you Americans) to see if the product is certified organic.

Affordable Luxury

Skin care body lotions are one of the most versatile and affordable beauty products. It feels good going on, it smells good for a long while and leaves you feeling pampered. They come in all kinds of scents and moisturizing content. They make thoughtful and inexpensive gifts, because they are the kind of thing every body needs but usually forget to buy.

Make sure the container says it is a body lotion, or “hand and body lotion”. Lotions just for the face are made of different stuff – and are usually quite expensive! Some intensive hand lotions are really only for super dry skin. A good bet is buying a skin care body lotion that is for normal or sensitive skins…that have the leaping bunny logo, of course.

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Apr 28 2009

What Is Organic About Organic Skin Care?

Category: Acne Skin Care — healthbuff @ 12:05 pm

Organic skin care doesn’t mean you can use only twigs and dirt to take care of your skin. It’s a little more complicated than that. Organic skin care refers to far more than just the products that go on your skin. When you are buying organic, you are buying more than the organic skin care product itself. You also buying a better way to harvest, produce and test cosmetic products.

The Products

The organic skin care products you buy should include ingredients from herbs, botanicals, foods and other natural sources. Their carrier agents are from other naturally occurring ingredients, such as water, honey and natural soap. The materials used in the product should be all made free from pesticides, artificial fertilizers and any man-made synthesized materials. There is not to be any genetically modified material in it, either.

More and more, anything certified organic means it has not been tested on animals. These tests are useless medically and considered a wasteful and outdated form of testing by many in the scientific community. Some products proudly carry a “leaping bunny” label as being a neon sign that they do not test on animals. (Just having the words “cruelty free” does not mean they have stopped testing on animals). In case you are not sure if a company still tests on animals, just ask People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Who Says?

Just because a cream, lotion or soap has the word “organic” in one form or another on it, doesn’t mean that it’s certified organic. Who certifies this? So far, there is not an international organization that sets the standards, although France’s International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) is close. Usually, each country has its own organic standards. For example, in America, rules for organic standards are set by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), which follows the National Organic Program.

The FDA makes it clear that just because organic skin care products are organic, doesn’t mean they work any better than conventional skin care products. However, isn’t it good knowing that what you by and smooth all over yourself can lessen mankind’s harm on this planet? Well, it feels good for some of us, anyway!

If you are not entirely sure about how organic your organic skin care products are, you need to contact the company. They usually have websites and post their ingredients list online. They usually say whether their organic skin care products have a certain percentage of organic materials.

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