In addition to maintaining good diet and managing stress, the Mayo Clinic advises using “a moisturizer that fits your skin type and makes your skin look and feel soft” for an effective skin care regimen.
Learn more about going from sallow to dewy, glowing skin.
A good skin-care regimen includes daily moisturizing and sun protection to fight free radicals and fend off ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. This can be perfectly done by some cosmetics, such as sunscreen or face cream with SPF. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends moisturizing after bathing so that your still-damp skin will seal in moisture.
Based on a variety of reasons, including genes and (more manageable) factors like diet, your skin type falls into one of five categories. The most common type in women is combination.
It’s important to know your skin type to make sure you’re putting the right stuff, such as cosmetics, sunscreens or face creams with SPF on your face. Very dry skin probably won’t benefit from a water-based cosmetic product; drier skin will appreciate heavier moisturizers to soak up as much moisture as possible.
If you’re not sure of your skin type, you can take a simple test. All that’s required is a few sections of tissue paper and a couple minutes of your time. After pressing the paper to different areas of your face, you can determine your skin type, based on how much oil the paper has picked up.
What separates a pricey, prettily packaged product from the $10 version found on your local drugstore shelf? Sometimes, not much. Don’t believe that price tags determine quality. It’s the ingredients that matter. A good moisturizer protects you and contains no harmful ingredients.
Fragrance-free typically means just that: no fragrances have been added to the product. However, even fragrance-free products are not always fragrance free. A natural ingredient or essential oil, acting as a fragrance, might not be listed as such. Many fragrances are synthetic, and mask toxins that could contribute to skin reactions and allergies.
Unscented products might include a fragrance as well. To mask unpleasant chemical odors, products may include additional synthetic fragrances that could trigger allergic reactions. Many “natural” ingredients may also be lurking on ingredient labels disguised as fragrances.
Active ingredients, put simply, make the product do what’s it’s intended to do. A great example of this is a sunscreen or a face cream with SPF. A face cream with SPF or a sunscreen that blocks UV rays may include titanium oxide, acting as the principal sunscreen agent. The inactive ingredients help out, but they don’t fight the sun’s rays, in this case. Inactive ingredients assist in creating the final product (whether that’s cosmetics, moisturiser, face cream with SPF, sunscreen, pills, liquids or creams).
A product listing this term on the label claims to be non-clogging, or oil-free. Essentially, it means that while the product will break down excess oil, it won’t strip your skin of moisture.
So, what can you do? If you’ve had a reaction from certain ingredients in the past, check the label for these allergic substances—manufacturers are required to list all ingredients on the packaging of cosmetics.
Natural products use ingredients that come from botanical sources (and may or may not use chemicals). Organic products claim to have ingredients that are grown without chemicals, pesticides, or artificial fertilizers. Unfortunately, the loose guidelines make most cosmetics vulnerable to misleading labels, and natural and organic products are not necessarily any better.
Organic cosmetics and face creams are divided into few categories:
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Parabens are preservatives that give cosmetics a longer shelf life. On the label, you may see these commonly used parabens in cosmetics: methylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben, all deemed safe for use in cosmetic products at levels up to 25 percent.
Used in a variety of beauty and skin care products and cosmetics, parabens have been studied for their potential health risks, based on concerns that they mimic estrogen, which in turn could lead to cancer. However, they can still be included in products marked as organic.
Currently, the Food and Drugs Association maintains that parabens do not pose a serious health risk to require their removal from cosmetic products. Based on studies, the FDA claims, “Although parabens can act similarly to estrogen, they have been shown to have much less estrogenic activity than the body’s naturally occurring estrogen.” Parabens are considered safe at low levels, ranging from 0.01 to 0.3 percent in cosmetics.
#cosmetics #moisturiser #sunscreen #face cream with SPF
https://www.healthline.com/health/cosmetic-safety/healthy-facial-moisturizers
