Skin Care Friends » Skin Care Products

Botox Cream vs Botox Injections

Skin Care — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:01:53 +0000

I’m certain you’ve heard about botox injections and botox cream by now through advertisements and rumors of those who have used botox. It is used to treat wrinkles and lines in the face and has undergone quite a bit of controversy since it’s use has become so popular in the past several years. This article will discuss what botox is, how it’s used, how it has become controversial and finally the alternative botox creams that are also quite popular.

Botox is the registered trade name for a treatment made from Botulinum toxin type A. It is used medically for several different problems including cosmetic purposes and reducing wrinkles. The Botulinum toxin type A is the toxin that causes botulism and in large doses can cause paralysis.

However, in small diluted doses botox is used to treat several medical conditions from severe sweating problems to muscle spasms to wrinkles. Botox acts by paralyzing a persons muscle and stopping it’s ability to contract. When used to remove wrinkles this causes the skin over the muscle to stop folding by smoothing it out. Thus the wrinkles disappear. It was approved by the FDA for use on wrinkles between the eyebrows, but has been used to remove all types of facial lines and wrinkles by physicians.

A botox treatment will last from three to six months depending on the person and some wrinkles will actually require several injections to make them disappear.

Recently botox injections have come under attack due to reports of serious side effects mostly involving facial paralysis. Many of these cases have come from the cheaper non FDA approved versions of botox. Botox injections are still safe and effective, but you must make sure that you use a medically trained professional and only top quality FDA approved botox.

When comparing botox injections to botox creams we find that the injections are both invasive and more expensive than botox creams. Botox injections are meant to treat moderate to severe facial lines. If you’re dealing with fine lines then a botox cream may be more effective for you.

Botox injections are not meant to treat skin damage from the sun or fine lines. A good quality anti aging skin cream, also called botox cream by some, can be more effective than injections in reducing fine lines and small wrinkles. It does this slowly, but quality skin creams are reliable in reducing fine lines on the face.

So as you can see, you have many options for reducing wrinkles and maintaining a youthful appearance. With good skin care, a good anti aging cream, botox treatments and cosmetic surgery you can keep your young look for a very long time.

Whether you’re interested in Botox or another Dermal Filler, the people at Botox Forum are here to help. With a large network of skin care doctors in San Diego and elsewhere, it’s easy to find what you’re looking for at BotoxForum.com.

Skin Firming Lotion

Skin Care — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:25:58 +0000

Sagging skin is a common problem especially as we get older and the skin begins to lose its elasticity. Skin firming lotion can help provide a solution to this problem by restoring the elasticity. However you need to be careful regarding which skin tightening creams you choose as some actually contain dangerous ingredients that can harm your skin and even lead to cancer. Here are the ingredients you want and the one’s to avoid when searching for the correct skin firming cream.

Good Skin Firming Ingredients
Of course all natural skin care ingredients are always going to be the best for you and this is no different when choosing the best skin firming lotion. Natural butters and oils provide deep moisturizing, while other ingredients help to shed dead skin cells, provide antioxidants to reverse aging, reduce redness and inflammation of the skin and help to restore the skins elasticity. Below are 5 of the essential ingredients for any good skin firming cream or lotion:

Elastin – This is what makes the skin pliable and flexible. As we age the level of elastin in our skin declines, causing sagging, wrinkles and dryness. Replacing the elastin lost to aging can help to reverse the aging process and make the skin firm and pliant once again.
Collagen – This is another substance that declines as we age and replacing it can make the skin more durable and strong, preventing damage and restoring suppleness and firmness to the aging skin.
Seaweed Extract – Maybe surprisingly to some, seaweed extract has amazing healing properties and helps restore the skin and reduce inflammation that can make the skin look red and puffy. It also helps add moisture back to the skin and combats the effects of aging.
Shea Butter – One of the most popular skin moisturizers, Shea butter promotes deep hydration of the skin as well as protecting from loss of moisture and damage from the elements. It is one of the best moisturizing compounds available.
Vitamin E – Vitamin E has been shown to be critical to the health of your skin. Adding it to skin firming lotion aids in the prevention of cell and tissue damage while making the skin look and feel smoother as well as helping to reduce inflammation and damage from free radicals.

Bad Skin Firming Ingredients
You may find that some of the firming creams and lotions you use feel quite oily and take a long time to absorb into your skin. If this is the case, look at the ingredients carefully and I will bet you will find that some type of petroleum oil id listed. It might even be labeled as mineral oil, but in any case it is quite bad and you want to avoid any skin firming lotion that has petroleum oil as one of its ingredients.

Liquid petroleum is a byproduct of the oil refining process and while it may feel similar to the oil that your skin produces, it is really dramatically different. What makes it so dangerous though is the fact that during the refining process it can easily become contaminated with other chemicals. These other chemicals are often linked to cancer and cosmetic companies are not required to test for their presence meaning that you could be getting a large dose of dangerous chemicals with your skin tightening product if it also contains petroleum based ingredients. Imagine the damage that could be caused by rubbing this into your skin every day.

While fragrances may make the skin firming lotion smell wonderful, they do nothing to help improve the effectiveness. They should also be avoided for several reasons. Some fragrances are irritating to some users and can cause rashes, redness, sneezing and irritate your eyes. While they may smell nice, they are also harmful to your health and since they add nothing to the firming properties of the lotion there is no good reason to have them in your skin firming cream.
Finally, avoid any skin firming cream that has parabens listed in its ingredients. This is a preservative that has been scientifically linked to breast cancer in women because of the way that it mimics the hormone estrogen. Definitely something you don’t want getting into your body and it should be avoided at all costs.

Best Skin Firming Lotions
Since you made it this far along in the article I know that finding the right skin firming lotion is important to you. You may have already done some looking and if so you know that there are quite a few creams and lotions available, but you need to know which ones are the best. Your best skin firming lotion choice will be determined by your own skin type, but below are 4 skin firming lotions that I have found work very well and don’t contain any dangerous ingredients.

Palmer’s Cocoa Skin Firming Lotion – This is a nice non-greasy product that has cocoa butter as its base ingredient giving it a heavenly chocolate smell without the chocolate guilt.
Vaseline Intensive Active Firming Deep Lotion – This is an all purpose skin firming lotion that contains ingredients that not only restore firmness to your skin, but also combat other signs of aging such as wrinkles, dryness and age spots. It also contains an SPF5 formula to protect you from dangerous UV radiation.
Jergen’s Skin Firming Toning Moisturizer – Best for people with sensitive skin, this product is hign in emollient rich moisturizers and seaweed extract. It not only firms, but hydrates and helps to improve your skins texture and appearance.
Nivea Body Skin Firming Lotion Q10 Plus – In addition to other skin firming compounds this one adds the enzyme CoQ10 which is a strong antioxidant that declines with age. This decline can result in the body producing less collagen and elastin, which are both critical to skin elasticity and firmness.

You don’t have to take my opinion as gospel though. Looking around the internet for reviews of these products will lead you to the same conclusion I came to, that skin firming lotion can and will improve the look and feel of your skin.

Dermalogica Skin Smoothing Cream

Skin Care — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 23:53:50 +0000

If you’ve come across the Dermalogica product line before you probably already know that they do a very good job making products that work well and their customers are pretty loyal because of that. The Dermalogica skin smoothing cream is another winner in their range of products and is made primarily for those with skin that is a bit dry or is aging prematurely due to environmental factors.

This medium weight cream provides the dual benefits of not just improving the moisture balance in your skin, but also improving the skin’s texture. It does this with a combination of skin nourishing ingredients from vitamins A, C and E to provide anti-oxidants and environmental protection to hydrating ingredients such as arnica, mallow and cucumber and finally deeply moisturizing the skin with aloe gel and lecithin.

Many women like the fact that the Dermalogica skin smoothing cream is free of any artificial colors and fragrances, however you may want to be aware that for some people this has given the cream a slightly odd odor when it is first applied. Those that mention this odor compare it to eucalyptus, so while it may bother some people, others may hardly notice it or even like the smell.

While this is a heavier cream there are others out there that are heavier. Many people generally report good results, however be aware that for the target audience, those with very dry skin or prematurely aged skin, the reports are not nearly as positive.

So, while it seems to work well in hydrating and smoothing the skin, it doesn’t really seem as if it does anything great for those whose skin is especially dry or aged prematurely. I still wouldn’t say don’t get this skin cream as it has worked well for many, but certainly don’t expect any miracles. And keep in mind that the price of Dermalogica skin smoothing cream seems to be a bit high in my opinion. If you can wait to find it on sale I think it is worth waiting.

Anti Wrinkle Cream

Skin Care — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:05:05 +0000

Those of us who are beginning to grow older appreciate the wisdom that age brings, but might not be so crazy about the changes in appearance that aging brings. Have you looked into the mirror recently and noticed way more facial lines and facial wrinkles there than you used to have? If so, it might be time to consider something that will help you keep your youthful appearance. Perhaps you’ve been considering plastic surgery, but do you really want to undergo surgery and the recovery that follows? Another option is botox injections. We’ve all heard about botox and the wonders that it performs in removing wrinkles and facial lines. Well, think about this, botox accomplishes this by paralyzing the muscles in your face. Do you really want to go so far as to paralyze your facial muscles to get rid of some wrinkles? Or would you prefer a better and safer way.

There is an alternative and it’s in those anti-aging creams, sometimes called botox cream, that will help you get rid of facial lines and wrinkles without resorting to surgery or paralyzing any muscles. Botox cream is a cosmetic skin care cream that you apply to your face once or twice a day to help get rid of wrinkles. It will help you look years younger and can be an enhancement or even a replacement for botox injections.

You might be curious about how a skin cream can get rid of wrinkles just like botox or surgery. The secret is in an ingredient called Acetyl Hexapeptide-3 that actually causes wrinkles and fine lines to disappear over time. The longer you use it the more effect it will have as wrinkles gradually get smaller and fade away. So, with these botox creams you can avoid the actual botox injections which are both toxic and expensive and you can do it all from your own home gradually so no one will notice any sudden changes.

Of course, most of the botox creams also have other ingredients that help your skin appear smoother and younger. Botox cream contains ingredients that will reduce puffy eyes, get rid of dark circles and diminish crow’s feet and other age related wrinkles.

You are very likely already spending a bit of time putting creams on your face in the morning and night so why not choose a botox cream that will attack all of the things you’re trying to rid yourself of. With these age reducing creams there’s no need to have separate products for different purposes. These skin creams combine all the age curing treatments in one so you’ll spend less time in front of the mirror and also less cash from your wallet.

I know you may have considered botox and been frightened by it. It’s nice to know that now you can have a botox cream that will give you the same effect without the cost and danger of botox. It’s easy, inexpensive and painless and best of all it wipes the wrinkles and lines right off your face!

Safe Botox Alternatives

Skin Care — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:56:13 +0000

If you’ve been thinking about botox you may also be wondering if there are any safer less expensive alternatives to botox. Many of us put a lot of value in our good looks and as you get older you’ll find that nothing mars your appearance as much as the wrinkles and lines that appear on your face. Many people start to see wrinkles and immediately think of botox as the answer. While botox can erase wrinkles from our faces there are alternatives and you owe it to yourself to explore any possibilities to safe and effective maintenance of your young skin.

If you are considering botox you should realize that botox is toxic. The name botox is actually short for ‘botulism poisoning’ which is something that is capable of killing people. Those that get botulism poisoning, usually from food, need quick emergency treatment and there will be an immediate investigation by health officials to determine where they got the botulism so it can be prevented from spreading.

Botox works by paralyzing the muscles so they are unable to contract. A very small amount of diluted toxin is injected into the muscles and it causes the muscles to stop contracting. Once the muscles stop contracting it causes a smoothing of the skin over top of that muscle. And that’s why the wrinkles then disappear.

This is kind of an extreme solution to a basic problem and there are other ways. It’s true that the procedure does work, however it needs to be repeated every 3-6 months and this can become quite expensive. There are also some people who will start to lose sensation in the area they receive botox and there have been cases where cardiovascular problems start to develop as well. Botox is safe in most cases, but it isn’t without danger completely.

One alternative to botox injections are the anti aging creams or so called botox cream. It’s true that these creams can be expensive, however they come without the risks and side effects associated with botox which can make them a very good deal for some people. There are quite a few very good anti wrinkle creams available including LifeCell and Revitol.

If you take the time to research your options you may find that you can find something besides botox to smooth the lines that time put on your face. Botox creams are a safe way to maintain your youthful look. Your best solution may not be the first one you thought of.

What is Body Butter (And How to Make It)

Skin Care — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:11:29 +0000

I guess the term body butter could sound pretty kinky huh? I’m not here to talk about a new way to have fun with your partner though, I want to talk about good skin care and how to deeply moisturize your skin.

A body butter is a cream that is applied to the entire body with the intention of deep moisturization of the skin. It includes ingredients that will aid in the hydration of your skin, leaving it soft and supple. Typically these butters are used during the driest times of the year, like the northern winters, when the dry air pulls moisture from your skin. A good body butter will not only hydrate your skin, but will also protect it from the drying effects of the winter air.

While some body butters contain additives and preservatives, the best of them are made from all natural ingredients. One ingredient to be especially wary of is paraben, which has been connected to certain types of cancer. Just take a moment to look at the ingredient list of any potential cream and make sure that it is all natural and you will be safe.

Some of the ingredients you will find in a natural body butter include derivitives of mango seeds, cocoa seeds and the Hawaiian kukui nut. Many popular body butters are made from shea butter as well as olive, almond and avocado oils. All of these natural ingredients are very good at protecting the skin from losing moisture as well as having high level s of anti-oxidants and a variety of vitamins. Depending on what characteristics and benefits you require you should be able to find a body butter that meets your personal needs.

Some of you may be thinking that your normal moisturizing lotion is fine and why would you need a body butter. The reason you get more benefit from a butter lies in the way it is made. In addition to cold pressing the oil from the seeds, a second process is performed where the crushed seeds are heated which allows additional fats and oils to be extracted. This creates a thick rich emulsion that has superior skin hydrating properties.

You will find body butters to be most popular during the winter months when cold dry air is most harsh to your skin. Dry skin can become easily irritated and itchy so having a treatment that helps rehydrate the skin is very welcome. Care should be taken by those with food allergies when choosing a body butter. Even though you won’t be eating the butter, you just put it on your skin, the high concentration of the ingredient does pose the risk for an allergic reaction.

You can find a wide range of body butters for sale online from a large variety of beauty companies including Hempz, Nuetrogena and even Vaseline makes several body butter formulas. Prices vary widely from a low of a few dollars all the up to butters costing in excess of $100! Of course the cheapest way to have body butter is to make it yourself. This also lets you control exactly what is in the butter.

You can find many recipes online, but I have included here a very simple recipe for making body butter at home. You can even experiment by adding additional ingredients or replacing ingredients with your favorites to customize the butter to your liking and needs. This recipe is made with Shea butter and olive oil simply because they are easy for everyone to get at stores near their home. If you want to experiment you will probably have to go online to order cocoa butter or some of the more exotic butters and oils.

Basic Body Butter Recipe
1 1/3 cups shea butter
½ cup olive oil
1 tsp Vitamin E oil
½ oz fragrance oil (see note)

Begin by heating the shea butter over low heat in a non stick sauce pan until it is melted and liquid. Once the shea butter has become liquefied add the olive oil and mix well. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool for 40-45 minutes, but keep an eye on it because you don’t want it to solidify completely. Add the vitamin E oil and fragrance.

Blend everything well with a wire wisk until you get a mousse like consistency to the butter. Once you reach this point you can transfer the butter to an airtight container. Anything that has a sealable lid is fine, including Tupperware. Just make sure the container is air tight otherwise the butter could spoil if exposed to air for long periods of time.

NOTE: When choosing a fragrance make sure to choose one that is safe for bath and body applications. If you’re not sure then you can skip this and the butter will still smell wonderful when you’re finished.

That’s really all there is to it. Enjoy the wonderful feeling this butter gives your skin. You can even do more research to find out which ingredients have the benefits you are looking for such as those for really dry skin, for oily skin, extra anti oxidants, more vitamin A, etc. This way you can create the perfect body butter for your skin.

Glycolic Acid Lotion

A Skin Care Friend — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:10:05 +0000

Glycolic acid lotion is one of the safest and most gentle ways to apply glycolic acid to the skin. When used as part of a long term treatment program, it can result in a vastly improved skin condition. While these are the same products used in a glycolic acid chemical peel these lotions will be well within the government recommended tolerance level of a 10% concentration. Although this is not a legally binding recommendation, in the sense that it is not illegal to produce products with a greater concentration of the active ingredient, it is deemed by the government that any solution with a higher level than this, like the ones used in chemical peels is hazardous.

Despite this, many skin specialists actually believe that you need a greater concentration than this for a product to be effective. If you are going to be treating an extremely aggravated condition, you should seek advice from a professional dermatologist, as a mild lotion may not be strong enough to make a difference in this case. The far more concentrated chemical solutions which are used in professional dermatology do have side effects, and it is recommended that you consult such a professional if you are intending to use them. These chemical peels can leave skin looking raw and sunburned, and if you have no experience of handling such a situation, you are much better advised to do so in conjunction with a trained professional.

If your condition is less severe than this, you may want to experiment with a much milder treatment over a longer period of time. Nature herself doesn’t hurry, and this type of approach to a skin problem is likely to yield a much more positive result without the pain of side effects. Remember, you are still applying an acidic chemical to your skin, in however mild a dose, and so care still needs to be taken. By applying the glycolic acid as a lotion, you are giving it the best possible chance of being absorbed into the skin, something which glycolic acid excels at anyway.

Once the chemical has been absorbed, it will them bind with the dead skin, which is exactly what you want to happen. All you have to do is relax, and allow the active ingredients to do what they naturally do. Once the time specified on the lotion bottle has elapsed, you can then wash it off. Being in lotion form, the glycolic acid should wash off easily. You could, if you wanted to be exceptionally thorough, apply some of the other alpha hydroxy products to neutralize acidity. This is not likely to be necessary with a mild lotion, but there is no harm to be done if you do. You can also apply moisturizer if you choose.

The skin should respond well to this treatment over time. It takes a more prolonged treatment with a mild lotion to see the best results, but this type of treatment avoids the need to recover from the side effects of more severe treatments. There will be no symptoms of sunburn, which are the inevitable result of more concentrated treatments. Provided that your skin condition is not serious enough for you to need a more intensive program, the slow but certain approach with the least risk is a good reason for choosing to work with a glycolic acid lotion.

Why You Should Use Bio Claire and Fair and White Skin Care Products

A Skin Care Friend — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:34:04 +0000

Are you sure about the skin care products you’re using? Are you aware that this could be harmful to your skin? Skin care products are very different. Some skin care products are effective but defective as well. Before you go and buy a product, you should make sure that they’re safe to use, worth the time and worth the money. Why should you use something that can make your skin damaged anyway, right? It would be a total waste. Brands like Fair and White, and Bio Claire, are only a few of the one’s that have mastered the art of skin care and skin whitening.
Before anything else, let tackle the definition of skin care. Well, basically, it’s taking care of your skin and replenishing it. If you want to turn your skin smooth and soft skin that you had as a child, then do it! It’s not an act of vanity. It’s just a little maintenance that is apparently provided for by science. As stated above, Fair and White and Bio Claire have some of the people who made this a possibility for us all.
Looking beautiful and feeling beautiful are two different things but they’re not a bad thing. It’s called making yourself presentable. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? There’s nothing wrong with looking beautiful, if not, presentable, right? In our world right now, looking presentable is already hard enough but it has to be done because every day, we encounter different people. We should look presentable when we are in front of such people. That’s just common sense.
Basically, we want to avoid pimples, rashes, freckles, big pores, whiteheads, blackheads, blemishes, uneven skin tone, eye bags, and warts to name a few. Skin care is all about removing this from your skin’s thesaurus. The only thing that you want your skin to know is nice, silky smooth skin. Of course this is too idealistic, so, we focus on giving the skin a taste of the bad, which happens naturally, and clean it up with the good, just so that I can get used to the good after knowing what bad is.
Basically, all we have to really understand and accept is that our skin should be taken really good care of because it is our original clothing. We all have the same skin that we had on the day we were born. Our skin originally is smooth and soft, so why can’t we enjoy that for good, right? It’s as simple as that. Give your skin the treatment it deserves.

Before anything else, let tackle the definition of skin care. Well, basically, it’s taking care of your skin and replenishing it. If you want to turn your skin smooth and soft skin that you had as a child, then do it! It’s not an act of vanity. It’s just a little maintenance that is apparently provided for by science. As stated above, Fair and White and Bio Claire have some of the people who made this a possibility for us all.

Looking beautiful and feeling beautiful are two different things but they’re not a bad thing. It’s called making yourself presentable. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? There’s nothing wrong with looking beautiful, if not, presentable, right? In our world right now, looking presentable is already hard enough but it has to be done because every day, we encounter different people. We should look presentable when we are in front of such people. That’s just common sense.

Basically, we want to avoid pimples, rashes, freckles, big pores, whiteheads, blackheads, blemishes, uneven skin tone, eye bags, and warts to name a few. Skin care is all about removing this from your skin’s thesaurus. The only thing that you want your skin to know is nice, silky smooth skin. Of course this is too idealistic, so, we focus on giving the skin a taste of the bad, which happens naturally, and clean it up with the good, just so that I can get used to the good after knowing what bad is.

Basically, all we have to really understand and accept is that our skin should be taken really good care of because it is our original clothing. We all have the same skin that we had on the day we were born. Our skin originally is smooth and soft, so why can’t we enjoy that for good, right? It’s as simple as that. Give your skin the treatment it deserves.

Different Acne Skin Care Products and Body Scrubs

A Skin Care Friend — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:02:04 +0000

Everyone who has every suffered from acne will know all too well how aggravating it can be and although acne is not a dangerous health issue for the sufferer, it can have a very large negative impact on that persons quality of life. Most people associate acne with pubescent teenagers, and for the most part it is true. During puberty it is quite common for both boys and girls to suffer from acne, mostly facial acne. There is more than just one factor in most cases but the reason acne is so common during puberty is because during puberty, as the body turns from a child to an adult, certain hormones particularly a collective of hormones known as sebum produced by the sebaceous glands are produced for the first time. This production of sebum in some cases leads to oily skin and then leads to spots, this does not happen to everybody so sebum on its own is not the cause of acne, sadly nobody knows why it effects some but not others.

For people who are suffering from acne there a whole range of acne skin care products available. These products vary in their methods and application and work well for some people and not for others, so typically anyone suffering from acne will need to trial several products before they find one that works well for them and it a lot of cases it may be a combination of products that is needed. The most common and easily available products are soaps and facial washes that are especially good at reducing greasy skin. Exfoliating products that help remove the dead skin and help unblock pores are also helpful and for those people with body acne (typically on the neck, shoulders and back) there are exfoliating body scrubs available. For more severe and persistent cases there are creams and lotions, some of which are only available from your pharmacist. Again they work on some but not others without anyone knowing why, so there is little choice but to experiment with different products. Personally speaking Quiniderm is only product that worked for me

Cutting Off Years with Face Lift Tapes

A Skin Care Friend — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:20:03 +0000

Having problems with what you see in the mirror every time you wake up in the morning and take a glance at yourself? Are those sagging lines starting to get on your nerves? Well, just be patient a little more and start in front of the mirror a few more minutes and try this: place your index fingers in front of your ears then your thumbs at the ends of your jaw, then gently push your skin up and back. Now isn’t that amazing? Upon seeing this, wouldn’t you wish looking like this all throughout the day without straining your fingers pulling back your skin? You need hold this position long for an easy and convenient way is now available for you, Face Lift Tapes.

These tapes not only save you money but they help you avoid the risks and dangers of cosmetic surgery as well. This material is very easy to use and you can get yourself ready for a party with your new younger looking skin within a few minutes. With these, you’ll be the envy of your friends and they’ll pretty much look shocked at the sight of you.

Through this, you can lift sagging skin; get rid of wrinkles on your face, neck, jaw, and the areas around your eyes. These tape products will give you a face lift instantly and painlessly. These products utilize adhesive pads that are placed along the hairline, which are then hooked with elastic. This serves as anchor, which is hidden at the back of the head. An important thing to take note here is that you must style you’re hair in a certain manner that hides the tapes from sight so the effects will more natural and may even seem like magic.

Get tips on laser hair removal costs and a bunch of other stuff at MyFaceLiftAdvisor.com.