More Than Skin Care Deep

Skin care products seem to be particularly featured on the TV ads at present, and they mainly seem to be for just one type – repairing damage to the skin.

The ads refer to them as anti-aging, but a beauty consultant friend who gave up a well-paid job with a famous cosmetics firm because she felt she was misleading clients, tells me aging is not the only, or even necessarily the main, cause of sagging and unsightly skin. According to her, much of the damage has been caused by inappropriate skin care – in other words, by simply using skin care products that have been promoted for years as enhancing beauty.

Now, there's no way I'm against cosmetics – I refuse to step outside the door without my lipstick and mascara – but skin's a living organism that needs be treated with some care and understanding. It needs a chance to breathe.

Covering the face from first thing every morning till last thing every night with a foundation that's too heavy for it courts disaster. It doesn't take as long as you might think to wear the facial muscles down so that they start to sag. The muscles of your face are very delicate, and they're simply not designed to carry weight – at all.

The result can all too easily be sagging cheeks and deep, unsightly lines around your neck... within a short time.

What's more, a heavy, rich foundation clogs your skin's pores. It can't get any air. It can't get rid of natural impurities, either – so they stay right where they are till they start causing spots and blemishes.

What happens when your skin starts getting damaged? Some beauty editor or skin care expert tells you that you need... to cover it with even heavier cosmetics.

Oh, please. Cosmetics are intended to enhance your beauty, not destroy it!

If you don't deep-cleanse your skin of heavy make-up every night, you'll ruin it. You get deep pock-marks that my beauty consultant friend calls a cosmetic skin.

If you do deep-cleanse your skin each night, you're wrecking it. Your facial skin is fragile – it's not supposed to have its surface chemically stripped off every night.

Either way, how do most beauty editors and skin care experts suggest you deal with problems? Usually by lavishing a heavy moisturizer on it overnight, and piling on more make-up in the morning!

It doesn't have to be that way. There are lightweight cosmetics that will look a lot more natural and do a lot less damage. There are light moisturizers, cleansers, toners and astringents out there – though they aren't always famous names (and they're usually much cheaper, too!). You can find cleansers, toners and astringents, and all sorts of other gentle forms of skin care that don't actually attack your skin like paint stripper.

There are lots of exercises that can tone the muscles of your face and neck, and keep them strong and taut so that they won't sag – and a healthy lifestyle, including plenty of fruit and vegetables, exercise and fresh air, and some sound, refreshing sleep, will give your skin a glow and put a sparkle in your eyes that over-weighty, over-hyped, expensive skin care products can't achieve.

Radiant beauty is your birthright as a human being. Please, don't let the skin care "experts" rob you of it.