March 12, 2010
Posted by marta
I have been having a huge amount of fun recently – thanks to all of you and Your Best Face. About six weeks ago, we got together with Your Best Face to create do it yourself kits that will be available in our store and allow members of our community to unleash their inner mad scientist and make their own cosmetics. When we asked you to tell us what you’d like, many people said they would like something in the heavy guns department. Think serum. Think intense.
Darrell, the founder of Your Best Face and chief formulator, sent me some vials of something that he called Concentrate. It features Your Best Face’s favorite antiaging actives: spin trap, Lipochroman-6 and vitamin E. I got to unleash my own inner mad scientist by trying it out with other potions and lotions and as a base for treatments. I even raided the refrigerator for fresh accoutrements to make a mask. Here are some of the things I did with Concentrate: Read more...
February 1, 2010
Posted by marta
When I posted on a homemade face mask using parsley based on a recipe from Ildi my esthetician, there was a great response (rightly so, this is one face tightener). One of the readers who tried it was none other than the founder of Your Best Face, who wrote to me to tell me he enjoyed improvising by adding in the odd antiaging ingredient, such as spin trap. We got to chatting about how cool it would be to able to provide kits of pure ingredients, to which people could raid the refrigerator and add in their own papaya, or parsley, or whatever.
Our day jobs got in the way of us doing much about this, but now I am thrilled that Your Best Face is going to work with Truth In Aging to create do it yourself kits that will be available in our store and allow our community to unleash their inner mad scientist and make their own cosmetics. Read more...
December 29, 2009
Posted by Sarah
Snow, for winter weather enthusiasts, is a happy sign of the season, but for those of us who don’t have our sleigh handy, it can make everyday tasks, including a trip to the drugstore, nearly impossible. If you’re unable to make it out of the house over the holidays, here are a few fast fixes that you can concoct from the comfort of your own home.
Drugstore buy: Chapstick
At-home solution: Honey-olive lip balm
This ingredient list for this tasty formula may sound more like a Mediterranean treat than a fix for scaly skin, but this potion packs serious emollient power.
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon canola oil, 2 teaspoons honey, 1 teaspoon orange oil or extract (optional), 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon oil or extract (optional)
Stir ingredients together in a bowl until well mixed. Apply to lips as needed.
Drugstore buy: Acne mask Read more...
November 25, 2009
Posted by copley
Better known as a starchy side dish than a skincare ingredient, potatoes are a turkey’s most loyal posse on the Thanksgiving table. But do they also warrant a place in your cosmetics? Potatoes are stuffed with benefits to help you achieve clearer and younger-looking skin. Its abundant vitamins and minerals (potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, vitamin B, and vitamin C among them) can be just as nourishing for your skin as your body. Should you be telling your skin to eat its veggies too?
Believe it or not, your skin may already be consuming potatoes behind your back. A couple of popular ingredients in skincare products are derived from the humble potato. Maltodextrin, a polysaccharide extracted from potatoes (as well as rice and corn), binds to other compounds and helps stabilize cosmetic formulas. But its uses don’t stop there. In 2002, Unilever filed a patent submitting that maltodextrin enhances the anti-aging activity of hydroxy acids and reduces skin irritation associated with weak carboxylic acids. Read more...
November 19, 2009
Posted by copley
Regardless of age or climate, all skin types can be afflicted with particularly visible pores. Some causes of pore enlargement include hereditary factors, pollution, exposure to sun, bad eating habits (consumption of sugar and fat), smoking (which increases sebum secretion), and poor skin hygiene. The accumulation of sebum and impurities around the edges of pores makes them more conspicuous. And improper exfoliation of skin cells lets pores get plugged up. As sebum is produced by the skin’s oil glands, it cannot reach the surface and starts accumulating inside the pore, expanding its diameter. Dead skin cells, oils, and bacteria pool in this follicular opening, often leading to the formation of blackheads (medically termed “open comedones”) owing to oxygenation. Read more...
