Natural Skin Care Blog

Dream on… An effective anti-aging program needs to start ‘way before your 30s, according to cell researchers.

When they peer through their microscopes, they clearly see that most of the damage to your skin is done before you reach the age of 20

You just don’t see it yet. Or perhaps you don’t recognize it.

During this period, while you’re still in your teens, developing skin cells are being injured by environmental attacks – pollution in the air, minerals and toxins in the water, burns from the sun, chemical stuff you apply to the surface… You get the idea.

Trouble starts when the injury reaches the layer of developing cells. This is where healthy, beautiful skin starts. When cells are attacked here, they are already damaged when they come to the surface. That surface is your face.

In addition to environmental damage, you may experience hormonal disruptions which attract free radicals and bacteria… Suddenly, your face breaks out in unsightly splotches, spots … or worse.

This is about more than teenage acne. That is simply the most visible kind of skin problem during these years.

The problems that will plague you after the age of 30 won’t usually show up that early. Unless you know what to look for.

That doesn’t mean you should put off caring for your skin until you start to see the fine lines, sagging skin, brown spots, and other unpleasant signs.

“Out of sight. Out of mind” is hardly an effective anti-aging program.

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Good grief — GERMS! — and in the bend of your elbow, too…

Did you ever imagine that you had a family — well, actually, several families — of germs living and thriving where your arm bends?

As you learned in school, microbes are very, very small but their colonies are huge — as in huge.

Think you can get rid of them?

You can scrub, scrub, scrub.

They’ll still be there. Lots of them will still be there.

The scientists who have been peering into their elbows assure us that, even after washing, they expect to find about 1 million critters per square centimeter.

What’s more, these elbow bacteria are not the same as the bacteria on your forearm… or your hand…

No. The elbow is their little fortress.

And how cool is it that?

Your best friend and your pet peeve both have the same tribes living in their elbows?

(Ask the scientists why. I haven’t a clue.)

Come back often – helpful information — and some odd bits, too — about your skin. Where else can you read thrilling stuff about germs in your elbow?

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Exfoliation sounds like something to do with leaves. And it does, but that’s not what we’re interested in right now. Our question is: What does it have to do with your face?

“Exfoliation” – one of those big words intended to impress us ordinary human beings. A sort of insider’s jargon to make us think they know something we don’t know.

Well, let’s blow their cover.

There are some ordinary little words that say the very same thing – and wouldn’t scare anybody.

Exfoliation simply means to clean away the outer layer of cells from the surface of your skin. These no longer have a purpose because they are dead cells.

If you don’t remove them, they just sit there plugging up pores and encouraging wrinkles. Also, as semi-permanent debris, these useless ex-cells (I made that up because I need a word for them) attract bacteria.

As you know, bacteria just loves stuff that’s been sitting around too long – like that week-old pizza slice in the back of your refrigerator.

So you see, it’s important to remove accumulated “junk” from your face.

Wait! Wait! Put down that scrub brush… Not a good way to remove dead cells.

Gently. Works far better – and is far safer. The rough stuff causes microscopic tears in your skin. And here come those bacteria, inviting themselves in.

The people who know cells suggest using a botanical mask on a daily basis. A specially formulated light gel mask can do this in about 7 minutes. Rinses right off.

There. You have done your exfoliation for today and your face is clean and soft, ready for any final touches. Now, go face your world with confidence.

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Yes, I’ve seen them, too … the ads that claim you can get rid of blackheads in 72 hours or even minutes.

There are products that offer to scrub them off, burn them away with chemical mixtures — even dig them out of your pores.

There is a basic flaw here. These remedies, in addition to being extremely harsh, are all external applications.

The reason this approach is flawed is that the blackhead you see on the surface of your face didn’t just land there and start clogging your pores.

Cell biologists know cells like nobody else. They study how cells grow and how problems develop. What have they found out?

Here is a scenario for the development of a blackhead.

A bacterium gets into an oil gland. It soon becomes a horde of bacteria, then an infection.

The infected waste is pushed up through the cell to the skin surface.

Upon reaching your face, this material is exposed to air.

Free radicals in the air get to work (the same way they do on a cut apple).

This is oxidation. The exposed material turns darker and becomes visible.

You see a new blackhead.

When you remove the dark top by scrubbing or chemically destroying it, you don’t see the blackhead anymore. You could say you got rid of it, in a way.

You got rid of the part of the blackhead you could see –

What you can’t see is that the problem is still there, working its way up from below.

Your blackheads have not gone away.

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