As we all strive for health and longevity, there is a growing interest towards the use of botanical-based skin care products. Plants historically hold the wisdom of the earth and can unite a generation who suffers from nature deficit disorder, to be a little closer to that which is unaffected by commercialism.In the 1950s, the introduction of personal care products came on the scene bringing better living through chemistry. Read More

While chirality is actually nothing new to science and the pharmaceutical drug industry, it is a relatively new concept to skin care. But what do chirally correct ingredients offer the skin and can they provide real benefits otherwise unmatched? In 1847, renowned French chemist Louis Pasteur first discovered the concept of chirality as a graduate student while studying two acids in wine. He observed that while the chemical composition of tartrate and paratartrate were identical, their crystals polarized differently. Read More

There is no denying that Mother Nature has provided us a bounty of exquisite ingredients that have many supportive benefits for our skin’s health. But what happens to those ingredients when science enters the picture? Science and nature may be at opposite ends of the spectrum, but when the two merge, how does that impact the effectiveness of a skin care formulation? It all comes down to how those ingredients are created and what they are partnered with that makes the difference in product performance. In some cases, natural ingredients alone are limited in how they effectively rejuvenate the skin, but when these natural essentials are combined with cosmeceutical ingredients using scientific technology, product efficacy can increase drastically.   Demand for natural and organic products will never go away – and it should not; nature has a lot to offer the overall health of our skin. Read More

Researchers at the University of Leeds, funded by Cancer Research UK, suggest that people with very pale skin may be unable to spend enough time in the sun to make the amount of vitamin D the body needs - while also avoiding sunburn. The study, published in Cancer Causes and Control*, suggested that melanoma patients may need vitamin D supplements as well. But researchers also noted that sunlight and supplements are not the only factors that can determine the level of vitamin D in a person's body. Some inherited differences in the way people's bodies process vitamin D into the active form also have a strong effect on people's vitamin D levels. Read More

IFT Member Claudia Fajardo-Lira, PhD, Professor of Food Science and Nutrition at California State University-Northridge, explains the facts about antioxidants: Q: What are antioxidants? A: Antioxidants play an important role in overall health. They are natural compounds found in some foods that help neutralize free radicals in our bodies. Free radicals are substances that occur naturally in our bodies but attack the fats, protein and the DNA in our cells, which can cause different types of diseases and accelerate the aging process. Read More

Understanding hormones and their effect on the skin, from the teenage years to perimenopause and menopause, is challenging for many skin care specialists. Journeying through the roller coaster with many clients can be rough sailing. Understanding the prominent hormones in the body is essential in order to correctly diagnose, treat and prevent hormone related skin conditions. Estrogen and progesterone are the main partners in this delicate balancing act. Designed to work together as a team, when that balance leans more to one direction than the other, a whole host of problems occur. Read More

Aging younger is performing daily housekeeping of your body, which includes drinking the perfect water! We are undergoing a paradigm shift in America from the sickness industry to the wellness industry. Current medical pharmacological sickness industry thinking is based on treating disease and the wellness industry is about prevention and promoting good health. But chronic disease doesn’t just appear out of nowhere; it can actually begin in youth and progress at a sub-clinical level, until it reaches a threshold. When the symptoms appear from a disease, it is oftentimes long after the disease has progressed. Read More

About one hundred years ago humans doubled their life expectancy. This was a monumental feat, given that the number of years the average person was expected to live was a relatively constant number throughout most of human history. Nutrition, modern medicine and technology were mostly responsible for this dramatic change. In 2007, average life expectancy was 80.4 years for women, and 75.3 years for men.1 This gap may be narrowing, but one thing is clear – there is virtually a new population in the human experience, and women are the chief contributors. Read More

When contracting the muscles on their faces after a cosmetic procedure around their eyes, the majority of patients and doctors commented that Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) fared better than Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA). However, while facial muscles were at rest there appeared to be no significant difference between the two, scientists from the University of California, San Francisco wrote in Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery. Even though older Botox is more popular and better known than newer Dysport - Dysport appears to be better at reducing crow's feet. Read More

Like other organs in the human body, water is the primary component of the skin. Over time and with physiological changes and exposure to the environment, we often find the moisture content of the skin declines resulting in dry skin. Dry skin can be so mild we hardly notice it or so severe it leads to a breakdown in the skin structure and integrity. It may manifest itself in many forms, from a dull, gray-white skin discoloration to dry, rough, scaly patches with cracks or fissures that can cause burning and stinging. When left untreated, the condition invariably worsens. Read More