If you’ve read about skin care you’ll come across the role of collagen. What is collagen, what does it do and do collagen supplements work?

Collagen. It’s one of the most important proteins in our bodies, and in our skin. Collagen basically holds us together.

You’ll find collagen in most areas of our bodies. Collagen exists in our bones, our cartilege, our teeth, tendons, blood vessels and more, including, of course, our skin.

Collagen is a very strong protein, and forms strands or fibers which are extremely strong, and add to our bodies ability to hold itself together.

And in our skin collagen, along with other essential skin components like elastin, helps maintain our skin strength and elasticity.

When we age we lose collagen in our skin, and elastin, and so our stores of skin collagen and elastin deplete. So, for example, our skin loses it’s ability to hold itself together quite as well, and is less elastic. It begins to sag under the influence of gravity, and this is what causes our wrinkles and lines and crows feet that we see beginning to form on our faces as we age.

So obviously if we lose collagen and elastin as we age, and this loss of collagen and elastin causes skin problems like wrinkles, we need to supplement our collagen and elastin stores to reduce the aging effect.

Yes absolutely. But here’s the rub. It’s not that easy. And although it’s possible to buy various products with collagen in them, like collagen pills or collagen supplements and many brands of anti aging skin care products, they don’t really add to our skin collagen, so don’t work.

Here’s an interesting article about collagen in our skin, as well as other parts of our body, and about how it works, (or doesn’t).

So what about collagen in skincare products? Doesn’t that replace our lost skin collagen? Sadly no. You’ll see from that article that collagen molecules (and elastin molecules) are too big to penetrate the skin, so remain on the skin surface. They do nothing.

Actually that’s not true. They do something. They help sell the product because people buy products like moisturizers, night creams and other skin care creams and anti aging creams if they see collagen and elastin listed on the label. And that’s why they’re there.

But they do nothing for your skin.

That’s why Cynergy TK is such a stunning new innovation in skin care. For the first time it’s possible to improve our skin’s  store of collagen, not by just rubbing collagen on or taking collagen pills or collagen supplements, but by actually stimulating the skin to produce more of it’s own collagen.

It’s a complete breakthrough in skin care. One of the most important discoveries in skin care science ever.

Read more from our site about Cynergy TK or find out more about Cynergy TK at Xtend Life, the natural skin care company that makes products that use Cynergy TK, and which are the worlds best skin care products.

And why don’t the big brand skincare companies use Cynergy TK? More on Collagen And It’s Role In Great Skin Care.

Get the finest (and safest) organic and natural skin care products on the planet. HERE

Written by - Natural Health

(And make sure you read our page about Natural Skin Care, it's quite an eye opener about modern skin care products.)

This is how you tell if a cosmetics or skin care company has a commitment to product safety.

We’ve talked elsewhere about the Campaign For Safe Cosmetics. It’s an organization set up to monitor the ingredients used in the cosmetics and skin care products and anti aging products and all those other beauty and personal care products that you, and just about everyone else, uses every day.

It’s a sad indictment that there is any need for an organization like the Campaign For Safe Cosmetics. Surely we should expect that any product that we put on or into our bodies must automatically be safe for us to use. But sadly that’s not the case, and there are many instances of products containing ingredients that are known to be hazardous to human use.

Like the lead found in many of the big brand name lipsticks recently tested. Or the new Environmental Working Group report, just a month old, finding hormone disrupting chemicals in many cosmetics and body care products, and then finding that many of our teenage girls had up to 16 of these toxic chemicals in their bodies.

So the Campaign For Safe Cosmetics has a “Compact For Safe Cosmetics” (there’s a bit of a pun there) for cosmetics, skincare and personal and beauty care product manufacturers to evidence their commitment to product safety.

How does it work? Well any company that produces a line of cosmetics or other products and is prepared to sign the Compact can do so, and by doing so it commits itself to the following:

That all of the cosmetics and personal care products made by our company anywhere in the world meet the formulation standards and deadlines set by the European Union Directive 76/768/EEC to be free of chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects. To implement substitution plans that replace hazardous materials with safer alternatives within three years. We will accomplish this by: * Conducting an inventory of potential chemicals of concern in our products (or byproducts) to determine their toxicity to living things, their persistence in the environment, their ability to increase in concentration in the food chain, their contamination of our bodies, or qualities they possess that pose hazards including carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, sensitizers, mutagens, reproductive toxins, developmental toxins and neurotoxins * Developing an aggressive substitution plan and timeline: to move to safer materials, prioritizing for substitution those compounds internationally recognized as most toxic; to provide for an ongoing review of safer materials and chemicals as effective, cost-competitive alternatives are available, and; to work with upstream suppliers to provide toxicity data on chemicals in products. * Publicly reporting on progress to meet these goals.

Oh, and the European directive is basically this. Whilst the US has done very little to attempt to control the use of dangerous chemicals in cosmetics and skincare products and body care products the European Union has, and has a directive banning “the use of chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects.”

There are many companies that have signed the Compact For Safe Cosmetics, including Xtend Life who, we believe, make the best, and safest skin care products in the world. And Ferro Cosmetics who make a wonderful line of safe, effective cosmetics.

Both wonderful manufacturers of safe, effective products that you and your daughters can use with confidence. More on How Does The Compact For Safe Cosmetics Work?

Get the finest (and safest) organic and natural skin care products on the planet. HERE

Written by - Natural Health

(And make sure you read our page about Natural Skin Care, it's quite an eye opener about modern skin care products.)

Actually the first consideration isn’t which anti aging product is the best.

We have had a reader send us a question. Which is the best anti aging skin care product? And so we’ve reproduced our answer here for everyone to read.

Dear Susan, We think, before you consider which is the best anti aging skin care product you need to ask a preliminary question. For us there is a question that we think is much more important than how well a particular skin care product works. The question is this. How safe are those skin care products? Because unfortunately many skin care products contain nasty ingredients and can be unsafe. So before you even begin to consider how well any particular skin care product works you need to consider if it offers any dangers to you if you use it. Because no matter how well any anti aging skin care product works it’s of no use to you if it is potentially dangerous. And there are many skin care products that are potentially dangerous, and listed as a cancer risk. No amount of great skin care would justify to us taking a risk of getting cancer. We’d put up with wrinkles from our head to our feet before we took a risk with cancer. That’s not to say that if you use skin care products you’ll get cancer, but the RISK is there. Just have a look at some of the big brand name skin care products at the Cosmetic Safety Database and see what risks they detect. Only once you’ve established that a product or a product range is safe would we even begin to think about how well it works. That’s why we are so anxious to get the word out about Xtend Life. Because they offer a top shelf range of natural skin care products that are, firstly, safe. They are a signatory to the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and have a stated commitment to making natural skin care products that are SAFE ENOUGH TO EAT. You can’t do much better than that for safety. And to reiterate, safety comes before how well a product works. Fortunately the Xtend Life products work equally as well as their commitment to safety. So by all means consider how well skin care products work, but if it was us we would always ask first, how SAFE are these skin care products, and research them well, using the methods we’ve outlined here before. Best Wishes Editors Natural Health - Natural Skin Care.

We hope that explains it well. More on What Is The Best Anti Aging Skin Care Product?

Get the finest (and safest) organic and natural skin care products on the planet. HERE

Written by - Natural Health

(And make sure you read our page about Natural Skin Care, it's quite an eye opener about modern skin care products.)

You need to find out whether the products you may be buying now could be hazardous.

We’ve talked before about dangerous skin care products, and how there may well be hazardous ingredients in the skin care products that you may well buy now.

How there is little FDA regulation or control of what ingredients skincare companies can use in their skincare products, and for that matter in cosmetics either, and that this can result in skincare products and anti aging products with ingredients  in them that are considered to be hazardous.

And when it comes to buying great skin care products, the very FIRST consideration for you, the consumer, is that the product doesn’t have the potential to do you harm.

Many skin care products don’t perform well, or do nothing at all for promoting great looking healthy skin. But when they can actually harm your skin, or your health, that’s another matter entirely.

So if you buy skin care products and anti aging products now, and are wondering if any of those products could be hazardous, what do you do about it?

There’s a way to research this. There is an organization called the Environmental Working Group which runs the Cosmetic Safety Database, which reports on the companies, and the products, that may be worth avoiding. They list products according to the degree of risk ingredients in those products may pose to users.

It’s listed on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is lower risk, or hazard, and 10 is maximum hazard.

So you don’t want to find that the products YOU use are a 7 or 8 on the hazard scale.

Find out.

Just go to the Cosmetic Safety Database and search either the product that you use or the company that makes it. You’ll see the search tool right there on their home page.

I just searched “Olay” for an example. The database tells me that Olay has 279 products listed from 1 to 9. I clicked the “OLAY AGE DEFYING AGE DEFYING ANTI-WRINKLE DAILY LOTION, SPF 15″.

It tells me that this product rates a hazard rating of 7 out of 10, and is not recommended. And it tells you what the problems with it are. It tells you that the products ingredients are linked to:

1. Cancer.
2. Developmental/reproductive toxicity.
3. Allergies.
4 And a list of other concerns.

(and that the company tests on animals too. And that they haven’t signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.)

So if you’ve read our site, and you’re concerned about the safety of the products you may be using, including sunscreens, skincare products, anti aging products, cosmetics and more, you can research exactly what the problems you face may be.

What Do You Do About It?

Use high quality natural skin care products that don’t contain harmful ingredients. Xtend Life make the best skin care products in the world, not only are they safe to use, they are also the most effective skin care products and anti aging products on the market.

If you research Xtend Life products on the Cosmetics Safety Database you’ll find that the number of products that they have with hazardous ingredients is:

ZERO

(and they’re a signatory to the Compact for Safe Cosmetics) More on Find Out If YOUR Skin Care Products Are Dangerous

Get the finest (and safest) organic and natural skin care products on the planet. HERE

Written by - Natural Health

(And make sure you read our page about Natural Skin Care, it's quite an eye opener about modern skin care products.)