Are your skincare products anti-aging enough?

canstockphoto8795735We have plenty to worry about.  Are our mammograms frequent enough, are we flossing enough, have we reduced our sugar in-take enough, did we get enough exercise… the last thing we need to add to the list is the worry if our skincare products are anti-aging enough.

Relax.  Here are some logical guidelines to help you resolve your concerns.

To make informed purchases you need to understand several points; how your skin changes, what you can realistically expect and what products can accomplish your expectations.

DI skin chartUNDERSTAND HOW SKIN CHANGES.  Think of our skin as an ever-changing ebbing and flowing micro-organism.  It is, in fact, that.  It takes in information from the world around it and from within the body acting as a filter, showing as a barometer for you to read.  Every injury, every sunburn, every illness, every food or drug transgression gets recorded there deep in the layers eventually showing in the surface as a mark, a sag or a bag.  Those negative events change the way the skin renews itself resulting in mutant cell formation.  It happens to everyone more or less.  Its called life.

UNDERSTAND HOW TO AFFECT THOSE SKIN CHANGES.  Short of finding the fountain of youth, modern science has given us some tools that allows us to target the mutant skin cell formation at its root.  High tech anti-aging ingredients, micro-exfoliants, stimulants, suppressants all work to retrain the skin as long as a delivery system is in place to get them to find and regenerate cells deep where they are formed.  It all about getting the tools to where they can help.  Scientifically speaking, it is matching chirally correct ingredient keys to cells that have the correct key-holes to receive them.  If an ingredient is in the wrong form it won’t do didily squat. (Did you know, for example, there are a dozen or so forms of vitamin C; some harm, some help?)

UNDERSTAND YOUR EXPECTATIONS.  How much change do you want in your skin?  Do you simply want to maintain what you have to keep it from aging too quickly or do you want to dramatically change or soften the effects of the past?


1.  Maintain skin as it is with a few simple anti-aging products.

2.  Push the skin into change with an anti-aging product routine and at-home processes.

3.  Add to the anti-aging home routine with facial treatments that create visible change.


  • Self-service store products (drugs stores, grocery stores) are formulated with inexpensive ingredients, use very low-level doses of active ingredients and are aimed at creating a feel-good result.  They sound nice, they smell nice, they look pretty and you feel good using them because they appeal to all your senses.  If you have not been using anything, then your skin will feel better because it is moisturized.  But by virtue of the many synthetic ingredients they contain, the skin cannot accept what they are offering therefore cannot thwart off aging as described above.  Allergic reaction is a high possibility with these types of products.
  • Natural food store products focus on important things like being organic or non-toxic but like all self-service stores do not contain enough active ingredients to make change.  In addition, many “natural” ingredients can be congesting to the skin.
  • Department store products are a step above, use more actives but not in a vehicle that allows them to react with your skin.  Synthetic fragrance, for example, sets up an immune response in the skin so it that it rejects the product.  Because the counter clerks are sales people with quotas to meet who are not certified in skincare, the manufacturers raise the price of each product by 20% to factor in the many returns that aren’t matched well to the client’s skin.
  • On-line store products run the gambit.  If you are not a trained master esthetician, how will you know how to choose?  Additionally, some of the known active product lines that are sold through this market place have altered their formulas rendering them less-active so their will be less liability in this forum.  Think outlet stores; those name brand clothes are cheap knock-offs of the originals.
  • Mega beauty store products are usually the products that did not sell well in a professional setting or are made specifically for the store.  Not a lot of activity here but instead a lot of perfume.
  • Destination spa products.  You are more likely to find active product lines in a destination spa because only licensed skincare professionals can provide the services there. However, if the spa is in a vacation setting it is likely that the products will be less active so the establishment will not have the liability if someone who visits only once uses the product incorrectly.
  • Medical spas are where you will find the most active products.  The licensed skincare professionals there – estheticians – can often have paramedical training and the doctors practicing there can prescribe products not available anywhere else.  You will not find many holistic products in this setting, however, as there is a high emphasis on changing the skin through artificial means.
  • Solo estheticians, like myself, are more apt to have the most highly active products that are on the market.  Because of their licensing, they have access to these products that are not available anywhere else.  Active products need to be administered and followed up on to assure of their proper use and will create visible change within a couple of weeks.  Look for a practice that specializes in what you want to accomplish in your skin.

I am a master-level paramedical esthetician with over 30 years of experience.  I choose to work outside of a medical setting in solo practice so I can employ holistic processes to my work.  The products that I sell are hand formulated by me to act as a continuation of my skin rejuvenation services, to be used in your home and monitored by me.  Please contact me if you would like more information on how you can maximize your anti-aging skincare routine.  Jane  603-491-7305

This post was for you Margie.  You ask the best questions.  🙂