Cleansing…toning…moisturizing…feeding…. These are the pillars of good skin care. The skin is a living thing and your biggest organ. Keeps good things in and bad things out….and you only have one…although it’s one of the organs that can regenerate , it’s not a pretty result.

So it’s important to look after your skin and prevention is key. Important to use cosmeceuticals instead of cosmetic creams . Cosmeceuticals are medically tested skin treatments ( double blind , placebo controlled , peer reviewed studies ) only available through medical practitioners .

So what is a good cleanser ? ..basic requirement….must not leave your skin dry. To do that it must not contain a foaming detergent. ( ie soap bars ) A good toner ? Basically two types of toner available ..alcohol and non alcohol based .Depending on your skin type, you’ll use an alcohol based toner on oily skin and the other on dry skin . Some people have to use both !!! Moisturizers… Here is where the big confusion and expense can lie. The amount of creams and their promises are only outnumbered by their disappointments and their costs. Easy to say use a night cream and a day cream with sunblock , but that doesn’t help much . There are “special “creams for every area ,condition , age and skin type . Here are a few principles and basic requirements : Sunblock is non compromisable. Anything above SPF 20 , is ok . Apply more than once a day on face , neck , chest and hands…and still stay out of the sun.

Vitamin A ( retinol , retinoids , isotretinoin ) …the most important skin rejuvenating ingredient and the only medically proven age reversing agent…SKINMEDICA RETINOL COMPLEX.

Vitamin C ( ascorbic acid , ascorbate ) and E ( tocopherols , tocotrienols )…. Strong and vital Anti aging and antioxidant properties. Again medically proven to prevent aging …SKINMEDICA TNS VIT C ,E COMPLEX.

Once you have these 3 ingredients in your face cream , the rest is optional. Important to know that your skin is actually impermeable to the creams you apply. You are moisturizing the outside dead layer of your skin ( stratum corneum ) . So although your skin feels smooth , it has not been penetrated with any of your creams.

What to do ?? Remove ( regenerate ) your stratum corneum with acid ….FILORGA GLYCOPEEL Chemical peels…a important skin care regime component. It is proven that 1 chemical peel a month will increase your skin absorption of anything applied to it. All that is left now is to “feed “your skin … That is a separate topic covered in our next article .