What is skin elasticity and why would you need to increase it?

As you age your skin starts to lose elasticity, and sadly, skin elasticity is one of the most important factors in good skin care. For this reason so many people search for answers like pills to put elasticity back in skin, like collagen pills.

Or even vitamins for skin elasticity.

So lets examine what elasticity is and why increasing skin elasticity is good for your skin care as you age.

You may have heard of collagen and elastin. Both of these are essential skin proteins that make up a large part of your skin. And both elastin and collagen are important factors in keeping your skin healthy and supple. Healthy supple skin makes for good looking wrinkle free skin.

But as you age your skin starts to lose it’s stores of elastin and collagen. And as these contribute hugely to keeping wrinkles and lines at bay the loss of collagen and elastin is a major cause of your skin starting to develop the wrinkles and lines that bedevil us as we age.

(And there’s other factors too, like sun damage and smoking, both of which are terrible for your skin.)

As your skin loses elasticity it starts to say, it doesn’t pull into place like it did when you were younger.

So for some time science has been trying to come up with ways to increase skin collagen and increase elastin stores in the skin.

You’ve probably seen many anti aging skin care products containing collagen and elastin on the shelves. It’s quite common now to see this. Unfortunately though, this doesn’t replenish the stores of collagen and elastin in your skin. Why? Because the molecules of collagen and elastin are too large to enter the skin. This has been known for some time.

So why would these skin care companies put them in the bottles? Because they know that the people who buy skin care products want to see them in the bottles, because then they buy them believing that they are increasing skin elasticity through increasing these proteins.

And there is also no evidence that taking vitamins for skin elasticity or other pills to put elasticity back in skin do anything at all.

But fortunately we have some extremely smart scientists and some of them have found a way to do so. Rather than taking collagen pills or products containing elastin and collagen they have actually found a way for increasing skin elasticity by regrowing more of it’s own collagen and elastin.

It’s done by use of a breakthrough new product called Xtend TK, and the trial results have been impressive indeed. Results are visible in a relatively short time, including reduction in visible wrinkles.

Sadly, Xtend TK is very expensive, and so isn’t found in most skin care products. Most of the big brands spend the majority of their budget on advertising, and not so much on product quality.

But there is one company that has reversed this and spends way more on product quality and none on advertising, so you probably won’t have heard of them. But their products are superb, and as they don’t advertise they keep their costs down so the product price is very competitive.

The worlds best natural skin care products do contain Xtend TK and work extremely well.

So increasing skin elasticity is quite possible, and is being done by many women right now, though not through collagen supplements or creams containing collagen and elastin, but by using a breakthough product that actually stimulates the skin to grow more of it’s own. Read the rest of this entry

What is keratin? What is bio active keratin?

If you are interested in researching a little about skin care and skin health it won’t be long before you start to read about the role of keratin in maintaining your skin’s health. But what is keratin?

Keratin is found right throughout our bodies. It is a protein that is extremely strong and it can be found in the hard areas of our bodies like our nails and also in the softer areas of our bodies, like skin. A lot of keratin is found in our nails, teeth, hair and skin.

In our skin keratin is produced by keratinocytes, a type of skin cell in the epidermis, and this keratin has a role in keeping our skin in good health. As keratin cells come to the surface they die, and form a protective layer on the surface. And these dead cells are shed all the time as dead skin cells.

Keratin has some vital roles in maintaining the function of our skin. It produces some waterproofing qualities, for example. But the main function of keratin in our skin is to promote skin strength and elasticity.

Both these are important for optimal skin health, and as our skin ages it starts to lose some of it’s ability to maintain it’s strength and elasticity and this is due in part to a reduction in keratin.

So you would be accurate in assuming that if you use skin care products with keratin in them you are restoring your stores of skin keratin and thereby improving your skin strength and elasticity right? Wrong.

You see the keratin that is used in mainstream skin care products is extracted from the horns and hooves of animals and is extracted using acid and heat. This results in the keratin being “denaturalized” by a process called hydrolization. Denaturalized simply means that it’s no longer of use to your skin because it’s form has been changed.

Enter bio active keratin. This is keratin that is extracted from the wool of sheep without using heat or acid, and so it is not “denaturalized”. It is “functional” in the sense that it is still in a form that is available for the skin to use.

Making bio active keratin has been perfected only recently by one small company that has now patented the process, and this company has created a product called Xtend TK that contains this bio active keratin. Xtend TK is now an primary ingredient in the worlds best skin care products.

Studies on the results that use of Xtend TK can produce have been impressive with visible results within a short time, a reduction in wrinkles and fine lines and an improvement in the complexion.

Xtend TK is very expensive, though the products using Xtend TK are not highly priced for one particular reason. Read the rest of this entry