The best way to understand how to combat the visible signs of aging is to first understand what contributes to the aging process. Our skin goes through change after the age of 18 years old. It can be likened to an apple that has fallen from the tree. The apple no longer has protection from the damaging effects of the sun. At most it will probably last about 4 days before it begins to decay. If the same apple was kept in a cool, dark place it would last several months.

The skin is composed of Elastin and Collagen which give the skin its strength and elasticity. Between the ages of twenty and eighty the production of these substances slow down sixty five percent and the thickness of the skin decrease every ten years by six percent. As the thickness of the skin decreases, its ability to retain moisture decreases which causes the skin to age more rapidly.

The skin can be preserved in a healthy manner, just like an apple. Unfortunately, most of the products on the market today are unhealthy and contribute to premature aging and skin disease caused by the sun. Common ingredients include benzene, petroleum jelly, beeswax, paraffin wax, solvent alcohol, acetone, lanolin, animal by-products and artificial colors and fragrances.

The sun and the types of products used to prevent premature aging are not the only causes for concern. Hormone imbalance plays a large role. High testosterone levels cause acne and oily skin and estrogen deficiency causes dry skin. Contributers to thinning skin are low estrogen, low testosterone and very high or very low cortisol.

Have you ever read the ingredients on the back of your skin care container? Common ingredients include Petroleum jelly (petrolatum), another petroleum derivative, forms an even heavier film on the surface of your skin. Like mineral oil, petrolatum blocks the skin's natural breathing and excretion functions. Paraffin wax is a hard, white material refined from petroleum by using various solvents. Ceresin is another petroleum product; it's considered a higher-grade of paraffin. Toluene is commercially derived from petrochemicals. It can be found as a solvent in cosmetics, nail polish remover, and dyes. You will also find it as a binding agent in gasoline. Beeswax is a sticky sealant. It attracts pollutants, dirt, and bacteria and glues them onto the skin as it seals the pores.

Acetone is used to make plastic, fibers, drugs, and other chemicals. It is also used to dissolve other substances. Many skin care products contain solvent alcohol in the form of propyl, isopropyl (petroleum derivatives) or SD alcohol (specially denatured ethyl alcohol). These alcohols are very drying to the skin. An oily excretion of sheep known as lanolin is a common lubricating ingredient in skin formulas. Extracted from the wool, lanolin has been indicated as a cause of allergic skin reactions in sensitive people. Sheep are bathed twice a year, their wool boiled down and the lanolin skimmed off the top. Imagine not washing your hair for 2 months, scooping of the oily stuff and sticking it in your jar of moisturizer. Collagen can not be absorbed into the skin. It is an animal product that is sometimes added to cosmetics as a moisturizing agent. Collagen molecules are too large to penetrate the skin and can therefore clog pores, and, in some cases, cause allergic reactions. If you want collagen, you have to inject it.

Formulated chemically from a wide variety of sources, artificial colors are known to cause allergic reactions in some people. Chemical fragrances have been known to create allergic skin reactions and photosensitivity in some people. We hear this phrase all the time "animal by-products" but who really knows what they are and where they come from? It is a nasty little secret that the cosmetics companies don't want you to know. The remains of slaughtered cows which are not eaten by humans are put into giant grinders at rendering plants. Diseased animals and roadkill are also thrown in. The mix is steam heated until all the fat materials rise to the top which is scoop away, refined and used in cosmetics, soaps, lubricants, candles, waxes and mineral oil.