Proud to be pale: Goodbye to the creosote look! Alabaster skin is back in vogue

Looking at the photographs of actress Kirsten Dunst by the pool in Las Vegas last week, it wasn’t her itsy-bitsy black bikini or enviable figure that turned the most heads, but her head-to-toe milky-white skin — the best possible indication that our extraordinary obsession with tanning may be drawing to a close.

Let’s face it, mahogany looks better on furniture than it does on skin — and we are all well aware of the dangers of sunbathing and sunbeds, from wrinkles to melanoma.

Yet, despite all that we know, so many of us seem more than happy to continue to pay the high price of a so-called ‘healthy glow’. Think Cheryl Cole and Jennifer Aniston. Time and again, they — and we — choose to ignore the consequences of spending too long in the sun.

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SOURCE : Tamasin Day Lewis, Daily Mail

Study Compares Injectables Aimed at Reducing Wrinkles

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, more than 2.4 million people got injectables of Botox or Dysport last year to reduce fine lines on the face.

For the past decade, Botox, which is a version of botulinum toxin type A that temporarily weakens or paralyzes muscles that cause wrinkles, has been the most popular cosmetic nonsurgical procedure.

However, a new version of the drug, called Dysport, was recently found to deliver better results in some cases.
A study conducted by scientists at the University of California San Francisco and published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery compared the effectiveness of the two injectables in reducing the appearance of crow's feet, or the small wrinkles that are common around the eye area.

For the so-called "split face" study, 90 volunteers had Botox injections on one side of their face and Dysport injections on the other. After one month, 67 percent of those who received the injections said that the Dysport side of their face looked better.

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SOURCE: ASAPS 

Beauty Buzz: Lavender and Botox a Good Combination

Thinking about trying some anti-wrinkle Botox Cosmetic injections, but feeling just a bit squeamish about needles in your face?

Try inhaling some lavender essential oil just before you hit the dermatologist's office and the whole treatment may seem a lot easier to endure.

That’s the suggestion of a new study just published in the June issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology by doctors from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Baumann Cosmetic and Research Institute , both in Miami Beach, Florida.

Here, the researchers found that patients who were treated to the scent of lavender essential oils just before receiving their injection for wrinkles had a significant reduction in heart rate both pre and post treatment, when compared to those treated with a placebo scent.

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Have scientists finally found the facelift in a jar? Cream claims to get to the root of wrinkles

It's hailed as the magic beauty ingredient that can take years off your face.

And collagen, the skin-plumping protein said to smooth out laugh lines and crow’s feet, seems to be in most anti-wrinkle creams on the market these days.

But what if it were possible to target your skin’s own ‘collagen factory’ and coax it to pump out more of its own?

That’s the claim, at least, of a cream which is being touted as the first to get to the root of wrinkles.

Its makers say it will be the first anti-ageing cream to pinpoint the collagen-making cells which are vital to youthful skin.

Rubbed into the skin once a day for eight weeks, it tricks ageing skin cells into pumping out levels of collagen normally seen in a much younger body. This plumps up the skin, reducing the depth of wrinkles, according to its makers L’Oreal.

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Bye bye Botox? These celebrities claim to have given up their frozen faces - but have they really?

After years of claiming her perfect, wrinkle-free features were totally natural, Nicole Kidman finally admitted last week that she has tried Botox in the past. However, the 43-year-old actress swears she no longer uses it because she didn’t like the results.

And she wasn’t the only one who thought this. In 2008, one cosmetic surgery expert told a medical conference that the Oscar-winner was so ‘over-Botoxed’ she was giving the industry a bad name.
Nicole is the latest in a long line of stars who swear blind that they’ve said bye bye to Botox, but can we really believe them?

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Collagen skin creams a waste of money, 'say scientists'. Well, they have been saying it for years

You know my least favourite journalistic cliche? It’s not “romp”, although I’m pretty sure nobody outside of the pages of the red-tops has ever “romped” with a member of their preferred sex. I don’t even know how one romps; I imagine one it involves playfully hitting one another with pillows. And it’s not “a friend of the [alleged romper] told The Daily Intrusion [after we gave them £10,000]“. It’s “scientists say”.

So I winced this morning reading the phrase “expensive collagen creams are a waste of money, scientists said today.” The story is, apparently, that the wrinkle-smoothing claims of various ludicrously overpriced skincare products are nonsense, because the collagen molecules they contain are too large to be absorbed through our skin, and therefore sit uselessly on the surface of our skin until we next wash.

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Do-it-yourself Botox injections risky business

Do-it-yourself Botox injections are the latest wrinkle in the pursuit of beauty on a budget.

Catherine Maiorino, 54, started thinking about buying Botox over the Internet when the creases between her eyebrows began to needle her. "So I went and found a website where I could order it," recalls the vocational school teacher from Pennsauken, N.J.

She paid $200 to a spa in California for a vial of what was labeled as Dysport, which contains the same active ingredient as Botox. The price was about one-third of what she expected to pay at a physician's office. Maiorino figured her daughter, a phlebotomist, could do the injections. "She is the most excellent sticker in the whole world."

When the substance arrived in the mail, Maiorino was disappointed to find only a few freeze-dried crystals in the vial, to be reconstituted with saline solution.
"There were no actual instructions in the package, no way to determine what the proper consistency should be," she says.

Her daughter balked - "she said I was crazy" - and insisted Maiorino take the vial to a doctor.

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Cream of the crop: Want to be sure your anti-ageing cream isn't just snake oil? Look for the ingredients that really work

We are obsessed with looking younger. We spend £600 million a year on anti-ageing face creams and this figure is set to rise as yet more products enter the market.

But with a vast array of lotions and potions competing for our cash, how can you be sure the cream you are buying is not just a gimmick? The answer is to look out for the proven ingredients that can really halt skin ageing.

Here are the ‘super-ingredients’ that you should be scanning for ...

RETINOL

A form of vitamin A, retinol is a tried and tested wrinkle reducer. This powerful ingredient exfoliates the top layer of the complexion and stimulates the production of skin-firming collagen.
With consistent use, sun-damaged or slack skin can gradually become smoother and tauter —– six months is the norm.

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From the facelift in a jar to the gel that boosts your bust, do these miracle creams EVER work?

Every month a new product is hailed as a miracle that will banish wrinkles, zap cellulite or give you a bigger bust.

But how many wonder lotions work?

JENNY STOCKS of the Daily Mail asked two top dermatologists, Dr Nick Lowe, of the Cranley Clinic, and Dr Stefanie Williams, of Harley Street clinic Eudelo.com, to find out...

THE CELLULITE BUSTER

Biotherm Celluli Laser D Code, £37, Boots

What is it? Only a lucky few will escape the curse of cellulite and so there are dozens of creams on the market that claim to lessen the dreaded orange peel effect. But one product caused a real splash, back in April, when 94 per cent of women during clinical trials reported less dimpled legs after use. 

Biotherm’s pink gel contains a chemical, phytosveltyl, which helps skin cells burn more fat and store less of it.

Dr Lowe’s verdict: ‘Whenever I see the word laser in a non-prescription cream, I’m worried. It’s doubtful any product can do the same as a laser.

‘This contains moisturising glycerin and caffeine, which may cause a slight tightening, but it would be a very temporary result.’


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Is having cosmetic work done the new normal?

As more ordinary women opt to undergo cosmetic work, Justine Picardie argues they are losing more than just a few wrinkles in their quest for ageless perfection.

Earlier this month I found myself sitting next to Courtney Love during Paris Fashion Week. At 47, she looked astonishingly smooth of complexion - her skin unwrinkled, her cheeks and lips as plump as a Renaissance cherub. But beneath her dewy foundation, there were faint signs of yellow bruises, as if this fresh face had blossomed out of a fight.

It's never easy to untangle hard facts from candy-floss gossip in the reporting of celebrity cosmetic procedures; but several newspapers have commented approvingly on Love's new look, and attributed it to Dr Sam Rizk, a New York surgeon who performs a 'stem-cell facelift', whereby the patient's own fat and adult stem cells are extracted, separated and then injected back into the face. This is, apparently, the latest breakthrough in the quest for youthfulness - with more desirable results than the obvious facelifts of the past, which gave everyone the same scarily tautened skin and identikit noses.


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How fashion for Botox has seen number of mice used in medical experiments more than double

The fashion for the anti-wrinkle jab Botox is condemning tens of thousands of animals to a painful death, it has been claimed.

New figures show that the number of laboratory mice used in a controversial drugs toxicity test more than doubled in Europe between 2005 and 2008 from 33,000 a year to a staggering 87,000.

According to one of the world's leading authorities on animal experiments, most of the rise can be explained by the boom in instant facelifts.

Although animal experiments for cosmetics are banned in Europe, Botox and similar jabs are classified as medicines.  Each  batch is tested by injecting a group of mice with ever increasing doses until half the animals are dead.

While Botox  is used by some doctors to treat painful muscle spasms and unpleasant sweating, it is far more commonly used to ease out wrinkles.

In recent years, its use has been popularised by celebrities such as Katie Price.

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Healthy Choices: Go Wrinkle free

Until now, anti-ageing laser light therapy was only available in beauty salons and private cosmetic clinics. However, the personal Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser has made that a thing of the past, allowing you to use patented multi-wavelength laser technology in your own home.

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Personal Anti-Ageing Skin Laser Smoothes Out Wrinkles While You Watch TV

Until now, anti-ageing low level laser light therapy has only been available in beauty salons and private cosmetic clinics at great expense, but now the personal Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser, using patented, advanced, multi-wavelength laser technology, gives you the same great skin rejuvenation treatment at home while you are watching football on TV or reading a magazine.

You will benefit from treatment with a Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser if you have fine lines, wrinkles and crows feet, frown lines or smoker's lines or even if your skin is losing its resilience and getting a bit saggy.

What is low level laser light therapy?

Low level laser light therapy was first discovered as a healing tool back in the 1960s and is widely used around the world to treat and cure a number of conditions including promoting healing in wounds or injuries and problematic skin conditions. It is beneficial in repairing damaged cells and speeds up and enhances the response of the body’s immune system as well as aiding pain relief.

Low level laser light therapy is completely pain free. In fact, you probably won't feel a thing. It helps you get healthier, rejuvenated skin by promoting blood circulation and it works slowly and naturally.

What is the Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser?

The Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser is the World's first multi-wavelength personal laser for low level laser light treatment wherever you want to use it. It offers a safe and effective solution for smoothing fine lines and wrinkles and firming the skin. It is particularly adept in dealing with the early signs of ageing, including crow's feet, frown lines and smokers' lines.

How does it work?

When the Skin Laser is placed on the skin, each wavelength penetrates and heals at different levels in the skin tissue, promoting collagen synthesis. Collagen is largely responsible for skin strength and elasticity, strengthens blood vessels and plays a role in tissue development. It is the degradation of collagen in the skin as you age which leads to the formation of lines and wrinkles. Collagen also helps prevent the formation of scar tissue.

Each Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser uses 12 lasers at 4 different wavelengths, (670nm, 780nm, 830nm, 910nm), to promote collagen production and healthy, radiant skin with maximum effect. (Other cosmetic lasers are single wavelength and only treat one level of the skin tissue.)

Regular treatment with a Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser naturally stimulates collagen synthesis which strengthens blood vessels and promotes skin resilience and elasticity. Just 10 minutes use, twice a day, will reduce fine lines and wrinkles within 4 - 6 weeks and with regular, daily treatment the skin will continue to improve and regain it’s youthful health and vitality, becoming tight, firm and elastic.

Best of all, you won’t need any other anti-ageing treatments: no cosmetic surgery, no Botox, no hugely expensive moisturisers and anti-ageing creams so you will save money in the long term.

Is it easy to use?

The Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser is hardly bigger than your mobile phone and as easy to pop into your handbag or pocket to use whenever and wherever you have a few minutes to spare. You just charge it up like your mobile, switch on the lasers and move it slowly over your clean, dry skin for 10 minutes (longer, if you wish), whenever you have time.

Is the Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser safe?

The Wellay Cosmetic Skin Laser has FDA (Korea) approval, CE approval, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 13485. It has been designed to the highest international safety and quality standards.