August 12, 2009
Posted by marta
When a reader asked me to look at a brand called Youth Revive, I noticed that they were using a “natural sunscreen” ingredient called phytessence urucum, derived from a plant and supposedly a more powerful sun protector than vitamin E. Because I am not entirely convinced that conventional sunscreen ingredients (chemical or physical) are all that safe, I am always interested to come across potential alternatives or techniques, such as the clever one used by Chella, to make existing ones safer.
Cosmetic companies, such as Murad, have recently been finding plant extracts that help protect skin from the sun’s rays. In Murad’s case, it is pomegranate. However, the claims made for phytessence urucum – in a clinical test, cells treated with it had 63% less damage than cells exposed to UV without protection – piqued my curiosity. It turned out – whether you are a budding botanist or wrinkle warrior – to be really interesting. Read more...
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June 15, 2009
Posted by copley
At this point, you know better than to lay out in the summer sun frying like a chicken, though you may wish you could’ve told a younger version of yourself that years ago. Starting in childhood, the ultraviolet light in the sun’s rays begins to damage unprotected skin, leaving us vulnerable to cancer in adulthood and destructing collagen and elastin in our skin. You have the sun to thank for much of the thinning, wrinkling, and texture and pigment irregularities that you’ve been graced with later in life.
Even though sunlight is vital to human health (since it prompts the body to produce vitamin D and wards off seasonal affective disorder during the winter), it’s very easy to overdo it, as is true for all good things. Exposing your skin to UV rays ultimately damages the DNA in your skin cells, which sends an open invitation to cancer to come a-knocking. Here are some tips for being sun savvy before and during exposure to UV light.
Read more...
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May 23, 2009
Posted by marta
Soleo Organics is a new sunscreen that, amongst other things, proclaims that it is titanium dioxide free. Now why, thought I, should it do that? Is titanium dioxide, a physical sunscreen, something to be avoided? Having only recently put myself off most chemical sunscreens beginning with the letter O (see last Monday’s post), was I now going to have to reconsider titanium dioxide as well? Many hours on Google later……
The basic distinction that is made between chemical and physical sunscreens is that chemicals absorb the UV rays and radiation, while physical sunscreens reflect and/or scatter UV rays and radiation. Actually, it turns out that this isn’t entirely true, but I’ll come back to that. In the meantime, you’ll probably have noticed that titanium dioxide turns up almost every sunscreen with a physical blocker, because it reflects UVA and UVB rays and it doesn’t discolor under ultraviolet light. As a not entirely pointless aside, it is worth noting that titanium dioxide is a pigment and is sometimes used in toothpaste and to make skimmed milk look less like dishwater. Read more...
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May 18, 2009
Posted by marta
I don’t want to pick on Coola Face SPF30 unfairly. What caught my eye is that it contains octocrylene, octinoxate, oxybenzone, octisalate. These are chemical sunscreens that are fairly common, but always in the back of mind I am thinking: are they safe, didn’t I read somewhere… even post something? Keeping it all straight is made even harder by the fact they have such interchangeable names. So finding four oxy-whatsits in one go gives me a good excuse to summarize what they do and whether they are safe.
Octocrylene (Maximum recommended by FDA: 3%)
Octocylene absorbs UVB and short-wave UVA. Unlike octinoxate (see below), it is stable and doesn’t degrade in sunlight. It’s chemical name is 2-ethylhexyl 2-cyano-3, 3- diphenylacrylate.
Safety measures/side effects
Although there is evidence that octocrylene is responsible for reproductive toxicity, the trials used doses far higher than would be used in cosmetics. That doesn’t mean to say that they aren’t dangers, only that we don’t really know. Read more...
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April 2, 2009
Posted by copley
The “Machera al Ferro,” or the Iron Cream Mask, is a unique experience. As the signature face treatment of the Italian organic skincare line Dermophisiologique, the Iron Cream Mask makes regular facials seem rather dull and uneventful. Not only is there a slew of steps involved, but each one is more visually exciting than the one before it. With all of its remarkable, sometimes seemingly magical, actions, the Iron Mask makes for an ideal subject in Truth in Aging’s photo gallery series.
It is only within the past couple of years that Dermophisiologique’s signature facial has become available in the U.S., and only at exclusive medical spas in Florida, California, and Nantucket. Now that Marta’s esthetician, Ildi Pekar, has begun to carry Dermophisiologique products and treatments right here in New York, we enlisted the help of photographer extraordinaire Amy Fletcher to capture the procedure on camera. Click on any of the photos below to open a more detailed view and continue on through a slideshow. Read more...
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