Products and Ageing, Part 1

Ask yourself two questions:

1)  Q:     Are classic cosmetic house products that claim to be anti-ageing really anti-ageing?

A:  Most ingredients that go into cosmetic products today are not endemic to the skin.  This means that they do not naturally occur in the skin. 

The introduction of these foreign ingredients has the effect of either doing nothing for the skin, or throwing the skin into a state of burden.  The skin reacts to this state of burden according to the nature of the ingredient(s) introduced, and to varying degrees of urgency.  These situations may give the illusion of improving the skin in the short-term, however neither situation is beneficial to the skin in the long run.  Often the more aggressive the product, the more detrimental the long-term affects.

2)  Q:     What causes skin ageing?

A:  Skin ageing is divided into two broad categories:

INTRINSIC AGEING: This is inevitable ageing.  Genetics play the main role in this form of ageing.  For example the metabolic processes throughout out body eventually slow down (e.g. collagen production slows down).  

EXTRINSIC AGEING: This is environmental ageing.  Environmental not only in the direct sense of the word, for example UV exposure and pollution, but also in the indirect sense such as poor lifestyle habits, stress and so forth.  To-date, there is very little we can do to effect intrinsic ageing.  We can however effect a fair change on extrinsic ageing.  Fortunately for us, extrinsic ageing is also our biggest contributor to premature ageing.  So if we can protect the skin from this form of ageing then we are already doing a lot!

Bionome Greetings

Ciara :)