source:flickr by:Valerie Everett

Top Three Antioxidant Skin Care Misconceptions

When it comes to antioxidant skin care, it’s easy to get confused about the best ingredients, how antioxidant skin care works, and even why antioxidants are so important. Skin care antioxidant misconceptions are a dime a dozen, which is why I’m here to set the record straight! Read on to discover the truth about the top three antioxidant skin care misconceptions.

Antioxidants Neutralize Each Other
Antioxidants do not cancel each other out! Some believe that since antioxidants provide neutralization abilities against free radicals that those same abilities can work against beneficial skin care ingredients, including the antioxidants themselves. Rest assured that your antioxidant products will not be rendered useless due to self-neutralization.

Antioxidants are for Mature Skin Only
Anyone at any age can use and benefit from antioxidants, whether they’re taken internally or used topically. Antioxidants prevent damage as well as they repair damage, making them a must-have ingredient in every beauty care product from a young girl’s acne cleanser to a potent anti-aging skin care moisturizer for mature skin. In addition to skin care with antioxidants, consuming antioxidant-rich foods will help keep the body running well and feeling great, due to the combination of antioxidants and natural nutrients, such as vitamins.

Antioxidant Skin Care Doesn’t Work
The most common, and arguably the most incorrect, antioxidant skin care misconception is that it simply doesn’t work! Countless clinical studies have shown that skin antioxidants effectively prevent and/or repair damage, including fine lines, wrinkles, undesired skin textures, hyperpigmentation, and more. If you only remember one misconception correction, make it this; skin care antioxidants are proven to be healthful, beneficial, and effective. Plus, they’re often taken from natural sources, making them one of the gentlest and most nourishing skin care ingredients available on the market!

Do you have an antioxidant skin care question? Leave us a comment and we’ll do our best to provide you with an answer!

source:flickr by:Werner Kunz (werkunz1)

Antioxidant Skin Care for the Smoker

Smoking is terrible for one’s health. Everyone knows it, though many choose to ignore this fact and continue smoking due to stress, habit, addiction, social pressure or simply the enjoyment of the cigarette itself. In addition to increased risk of heart attacks, stroke and cancer caused by smoking cigarettes, the skin is greatly compromised by each and every puff of smoke. In fact, cigarette smoke is one of the main causes of premature skin aging, second only to sun damage. How can a smoker help reduce these smoke-induced visible signs of aging? In addition to kicking the habit, smokers (and ex-smokers) should use an antioxidant-rich skin care regimen to help repair the damage left behind by cigarettes.

With each inhalation of cigarette smoke, more than a trillion free radicals are created in the lungs. These free radicals cause an inflammatory response that then travels through the body, leaving damage in its wake. Plus, the smoke contains over 4,000 toxins that enter into the bloodstream and circulate through the body, including the skin’s structure. When a cigarette is smoked, it causes constricting of the blood vessels in the upper layers of the skin, thereby reducing the quality of circulation and diminishing the amount of oxygen and nutrients delivered to the skin.

Each cigarette smoked destroys up to 35mg of vitamin C, an unstable antioxidant vitamin that cannot be produced by the body. Vitamin C is responsible for preserving the collagen within the skin. In addition to killing the vitamin C, cigarette smoke also destroys collagen itself. Collagen keeps the skin looking plump and smooth, both youthful, beautiful qualities. With the body’s vitamin C stores destroyed, the skin begins to thin, sag and wrinkle, leading to the condition known as “smoker’s face“. Cigarette smoke also destroys another antioxidants vitamin — vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential to the prevention of damage to the skin. With reduced vitamin A levels, the skin is more prone to external damage, again leading to premature signs of aging.

The term “smoker’s face” was added to the medical dictionary in 1985. Characteristics of this condition include deep lines and wrinkles, thin skin texture, gauntness of the features, and gray or yellow skin tone. Unsurprisingly, none of these terms have ever been synonymous with beauty. Thankfully, there are many antioxidant skin care products created to help reduce these signs of damage in order to re-create a healthy, youthful appearance.

Whether you quit smoking years ago, are trying to quit right now (congratulations!), or somehow still choose to smoke despite the numerous health risks, antioxidant products can help you reduce fine lines and wrinkles, improve collagen production and protect against future damage. One of the leading skin care products for smokers is UnDamage, a line specially developed for treating the signs of “smoker’s face”. Aside from UnDamage, any antioxidant foods or skin antioxidants will be beneficial in your quest for healthier, more beautiful and younger-looking skin.

Chirally Correct Skin Care

In the world of beauty products, there are many hot phrases and odd terms used to educate, entice and even confuse the customer. You may have heard about important delivery systems, must-have ingredients and, of course, antioxidants; but, have you ever heard about chirality and its importance in skin care?

The word chiral (sounds like “spiral”) is derived from the Greek word for hand and is a mathematical approach to the concept of handedness. The term chiral is used to describe something that is non-superposable on its mirror image, which means that the object or objects can never be identical to their mirror image. Sound confusing? You’re not the only one who thinks so. An easier way to understand chirality is to take a look at your hands, which are possibly the best accessible example of chirality. No matter how you position or orient your hands, the major features of the hands will never coincide.

Chirality in chemistry almost always refers to molecules. In a chiral molecule, the two mirror images are usually known as optical isomers and labeled as right- and left-handed. These isomers have different effects on your body and skin. One isomer will provide benefits, while the other will either be disposed of by the body or even cause harm. In some cases, the isomers will cancel each other out completely. This is why some expensive, seemingly well-formulated skin care products don’t supply the results you expect of them! If the formulation isn’t chirally correct, your skin care beauty product could be neutralized even before you apply it, or, even worse, actually damage the skin.

When an antioxidant skin care product, or any other skin care product for that matter, is chirally correct, it means that the company manufacturing the product has actually isolated the separate optical isomers and included only the beneficial isomer in the formulation. By doing this, your skin receives all the benefits of the ingredient without any of the side effects. Chirally correct skin care products can even be used by sensitive skin types as the irritation-causing isomers aren’t in the formulations!

Chirally correct ingredients can be easily distinguished as they always feature either an L- or D- at the beginning of their name. For instance, L-ascorbic acid is the chirally correct form of vitamin C. It provides all of the benefits of an antioxidant vitamin without the side effects seen with achiral (not chiral) vitamin C. While many skin care brands use chirally correct ingredients, there are only three lines that promise each of their formulations to be completely chirally correct: CosMedix, PCA Skin and Sircuit Skin.

Chirality in antioxidant skin care products is key. Even if a product is absolutely filled with antioxidant ingredients, achiral molecules could cause so many free radicals that the benefits of the product are never seen.

source:flickr by:jlz

Best Skin Care Secrets: The Core Three

As a new mom, I’ve found that I have a little less “me time.” Okay, a LOT less “me time”. As you can imagine, I’ve had to scale way back on my daily skin care routine. Though I try to find time once a week for an anti-aging skin care mask or the occasional natural acne treatment, I attempt to keep things simple on most mornings so I have more time with my bouncing baby boy.

While whittling down my beauty skin care routine, I learned that there are really only three skin care products that most people need to use on a daily basis. So, whenever you’re running short on time, remember that your skin will remain healthy and beautiful as long as you exfoliate, use sunscreen and apply an antioxidant. Here’s why…

Exfoliate
Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the surface of the skin. By sloughing away dead skin cells, you’re able to unplug clogged pores, smooth and soften the skin, reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and discolorations, and promote overall radiance. Exfoliation is great for all skin types, as long as the correct products are used. For more sensitive skin types, use a non-abrasive formulation featuring lactic or glycolic acid. For tougher skin types, you have your choice of exfoliating products, including everything from natural acid cleansers to scrubbing creams that feature walnut shell pieces or silicone beads.

Sunscreen
We all know that protection from the sun’s UV rays is key to healthy, youthful-looking skin. Although UV rays have some good qualities, such as antiseptic properties and the ability to encourage vitamin D production, they can cause unwanted skin changes, such as fine lines, wrinkles, sun spots and even skin cancer. Using a daily broad-spectrum moisturizer with sunscreen or mineral makeup base will shield your skin from UVA and UVB rays, which helps prevent these visible signs of damage.

Antioxidants
Skin antioxidants are a great way to boost your sunscreen’s abilities while helping to reduce the appearance of visible signs of aging. Antioxidants work by neutralizing free radicals and protecting against the environmental damage that leads to visible signs of damage. Incorporating antioxidants into your diet is an important step toward maintaining the overall health and youth of your body. Likewise, topical antioxidants are a must for encouraging the skin’s healthy functions and youthful appearance.

As long as you remember The Core Three, you’ll be able to keep your skin healthy and beautiful, no matter how little time you have in the morning.

source:flickr by:SonOfJordan

Say Goodnight With Antioxidants

Most antioxidant skin care sources will no doubt suggest that you apply your antioxidant products in the morning to help protect your skin against UV rays and other forms of environmental damage. Using antioxidants in the morning makes the most sense, mainly due to the fact that daytime is when you’re exposing your skin to the harshest elements. Shockingly, new mindsets are suggesting that your antioxidant application should mainly happen at night. Surprised? You’re not alone. Take a glimpse below to learn about the compelling argument for nightly antioxidant application.

As we know, antioxidants act like sponges that absorb free radicals and other forms of damaging energies. When skin antioxidants are applied in the morning, they will protect your skin in many ways, including by absorbing UV rays, one of the leading causes of free radicals. However, the sun’s rays will also destroy the antioxidants before they can make their way into your skin cells to neutralize free radicals, thereby shortening the beneficial life of the antioxidants and leaving damaging energies within the cell. So, although applying antioxidant skin care products in the morning will definitely help maintain the health and beauty of your skin, the greatest anti-aging skin care benefits will be seen if the antioxidant is allowed to enter the cells.

By applying your antioxidant cream at night, you’re enabling the antioxidants to enter the skin cells where they can do the most good. Once the antioxidants have entered the cells, they neutralize the free radicals that cause damage and eventually lead to visible signs of aging, pigmentation irregularities and more severe issues. In the morning, the antioxidants are still present within the cells and ready to protect against UV-induced damage.

You’re probably now wondering why you shouldn’t just apply your antioxidant skin products both morning and night to cover all your bases. Amazingly enough, you can have too much of a good thing when it comes to antioxidants! Recent studies suggest that over-ingesting oral antioxidants may cause the body to quit producing its own antioxidants, thereby reducing your body’s natural defenses against free radical damage. This cases some skin care experts to believe that over-using topical antioxidants may have the same effect. As with most things, the best results are seen with moderate use. Therefore, you should try to limit your antioxidant application to exclusive morning or night use, preferably the latter.

source:flickr by:lanier67

Antioxidants and UV Protection

We all know how important it is to wear sunscreen while spending time outdoors. But, did you know that antioxidants are as important as sunscreen when you’re aiming to keep your skin looking healthy and youthful? Antioxidant products are an effective way to reduce wrinkles and keep visible signs of aging at bay. Luckily, more and more beauty companies are including skin antioxidants in their sunscreen formulations.

One of the leading causes of free radicals is UV damage. Free radicals, in turn, wreck havoc within the skin, sometimes leading to cell death. In addition, UV rays can induce collagen breakdown, DNA repair interference and an inhibited immune system. All of these actions can induce premature signs of aging, skin disorders, less defense against infection, pigmentation issues, changes in skin texture and even cancer. One of the best defenses against UV-induced skin problems is using antioxidant skin care products, as well as fortifying your body internally by eating antioxidant foods.

When building your skin care regimen, take special care to incorporate as many antioxidant-rich products as possible. Many skin care products use antioxidant vitamins, such as vitamin C and vitamin E, which also help the skin by brightening, conditioning and nourishing. Natural skin care products use botanical, marine, fruit and even vegetable extracts, many of which contain high levels of antioxidants. If you begin your day by applying antioxidant products, your skin’s defense against free radicals will be generously increased.

If you are not currently using a daily sunscreen formulation, step back and take a good look at your skin. If you’re not seeing any damage yet, that doesn’t mean it’s not there! Any exposure to the sun can be damaging to your skin, and excessive sun exposure is certainly causing issues, even if they’re not yet visible. However, the sun can be tricky, too. While too much sun exposure can be dangerous, too little exposure can also cause problems. It is recommended that one gets 10-20 minutes of unprotected sun exposure a day to get a good dose of vitamin D while strengthening the skin’s defenses against UV radiation.

source:flickr by:edgeplot

Free Radicals: An Explanation

Lately, we’ve been hearing so much about free radicals from antioxidant skin care experts, but no one takes the time to explain what a free radical actually is. In order to understand why antioxidants are so important for your skin, as well as the rest of your body, it’s essential that you gain a basic understanding of free radicals, how they’re caused, and why you need to neutralize them.

Let’s go back to Chemistry 101 to begin our free radical overview. Everything is made up of atoms. Atoms, in turn, are made up of neutrons, protons and electrons. (Sound familiar? I’m sure it’s all coming back to you now…) Protons and neutrons are found in the nucleus of the atom, and electrons are found around the nucleus. The number of protons (positively charged) determines the number of electrons (negatively charged). Electrons “orbit” an atom in layers, called shells. The first shell is full when it contains two electrons, then the subsequent shell is full when it reaches eight electrons, and so on. An atom has not reached maximum stability until its outermost shell contains the maximum number of electrons. In order to reach maximum stability, atoms will bind with each other to “share” electrons, creating a molecule.

A free radical (otherwise known as a lone or free electron) occurs when damage caused by UV radiation, pollution or carbon monoxide reacts with our bodies’ molecules, causing the molecule to lose an electron. The molecule becomes unstable and automatically tries to regain maximum stability by “stealing” an electron from a nearby molecule. While the first molecule reaches its goal of achieving maximum stability, the “attacked” molecule is now unstable and, like the first molecule, attempts to find a new electron to complete its outer shell. This results in a chain reaction that can lead to the disruption of a living cell.

Free radicals are believed to cause many issues within the body, including heart disease, stroke and, of course, visible signs of aging. The theory is that antioxidants can help prevent these things by neutralizing free radicals. Antioxidants stop the domino effect of free radicals by “donating” an electron to the broken molecule. Therefore, antioxidant foods and antioxidant productsfor the skin are essential for keeping the your body’s cells at optimal function.

More recently, possibility of using antioxidant to protect the skin from the harmful effects of the sun have been studied. Learn more about UV-protection from antioxidants.

This Antioxidant resource web site is brought to you by Glow.com as an information resource because we believe that information is key to your skin’s health and beauty.