Cosmeceuticals, your experience

[lionprincess00]

I've been contemplating the world of Cosmeceuticals (see here for further information http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/p/cosmeceuticals-new.html?m=1)

I know lotioncrafter is the big supplier for these type ingredients.

I'm not getting any younger, and this year I've noticed my skin is starting the early process of loosing elasticity and slight wrinkling (not in my twenties any more and my thirties are getting close to being a distant memory).

Instead of spending tons of money on otc anti aging products, I was contempstarting lotions with cosmeceuticals.

This is only for me. So my main questions are

Have you used these products? Do you still currently use them?
Do you have a few favorites? (every skin is different but I'm looking for a starting place).
Did you try some that did nothing for your skin?
What products do you use them for (lotion, butters etc).

I'm weighing the usually high cost vs practicality vs effectiveness. I'd love to make my own and see an improvement (I realize I can't reverse the clock, but I'd like to try a rehydration thing to improve the appearance of fine lines and my recent lotion experiment ain't cutting it).

 

[cmzaha]

Like the word Natural, FDA also does not recognize the word Cosmeceuticals unless something has changed in the last few years. A few of the products my daughter uses in a face cream

 

[Trix]

Yes i have used them, not the aging ones, but because I want to experiment.

The niancinamide one was all over diy tutorials a couple years back, and the sea kelp bioferment one is still around. I really liked them when i used them.

I also still make my aha and bha toners, depending on the season, and what my skin is behaving like. You can achieve store bought quality with your diy and results, if you kniw what you are doing.
If u go that route, just remeber to get some proper ph strips, so you end up,with a good for yourself product without anything wasted.

By the way makng cosmetics is another good website formsuch stuff, forgot the url, but had it listed on these pages i made to make looking for ingredients easy a while back...

 

[mintle]

I have a small laboratory aside from soapmaking accesories and perfume making suplies. I am 32 and have skin in quite good condition (but I have been a heavy smoker for over 15 years), dry on my body and slightly acne-prone on the face, where I also have some redness on the cheeks.

I absolutely adore:
1. niacinamide (for red skin on the hands or rosacea or moisturizing of my body; for the body I use 5% and for the face 3-4% in my facial tonic or serum). I never was lucky or knowledgeable enough to come up with a facial moisturizer/cream which would suit me in terms of texture - always too sticky, or not moisturizing enough, or not suitable under make up. If I could, I would use niacinamide everywhere and put it in every product !

2. salicylic acid and its cousin, LHA - for facial toner when I fight with some acne on my face or in a serum - it quite easily dissolves in oils, especially jojoba, I use up to 2% of BHA salicylic or around 1% of LHA, but you should definitely use sunblocks to prevent discoloration on the skin in this case. Since it is beta hydroxy acid, it has some smoothing properties on the fine lines. I dont get breakouts with this one, it really helps me.

3. Retinol, which I can buy in hydrogenated form, this one really has anti aging and anti acne properties, I make simple oil serum with it. I use it on the face and neck only and only during the winter, since it is photosensitizing as well. This one really works wonderfully and the results are visible after 2 months of applying at night - firmer, better skin. It is costly, though.

The ones I have used with no success:

any vit C serums (I get breakouts on my face, and for the body it leaves a strange smell no one else seems to notice but I cannot get over it, I gave up on it even though it idefińitely works anti age and many people claim they love the illuminating effect)

AHA - any of them, they cause breakouts and make my skin very sensitive even at low concentration

PHA acids - did not see the results I was after, which is reduction of appearance of some small vessels and redness on the legs - I used this toner on my buttocks instead and they were very smooth

Q10 dissolved in oil - did not see any results.

If I were rich as hell I would probably use retinol all over my body for 2 months once a year!!
Most of the ones mentioned above cannot be used during pregnancy or probably even if you are plannng pregnancy - especially BHA and retinol.

 

[rparrny]

Just my two cents about the list on your link:
Some of those chemicals are just that...chemicals and can be very rough on the skin.
The ascorbic acid version of vitamin C is not your best choice, there are lots of botanicals that will give you a better form of it. Rosehips don't have as much vitamin C as you would think but the other components in them seem to enhance what it does have.
Salicylic acid is basically aspirin...there are a few herbs that will be gentler...willow bark is one of them.
CoQ10 on the skin makes no sense to me, I spent quite some time convincing our hospital pharmacy to get it on formulary so I had to submit a bunch of research on it. ATP is the energy created when a lone phosphate and a diphosphate bind together. CoQ10 is required for the binding to occur. So it makes sense that it is stored in the heart, kidneys and liver (I worked in a cardio-thoracic ICU so after cutting up hearts you can imagine how bad we trashed the CoQ10 supply of the patient). CoQ10 isn't used in any skin processes that I'm aware of...in the heart it helps the action potentials occur...hence the "electric" energy used for a heart beat. It's pretty expensive too...that being said, all my research shows you can't overdose on it and I don't think it would hurt anything...but I think it's an expensive ingredient that probably doesn't do anything for the skin.
Just sayin...

 

[navigator9]

I remember seeing a dermatologist on TV some years ago, saying that moisturizing is important, but all the fancy ingredients are really a waste of money. He said that putting Crisco on your face would be as effective as any of the expensive wrinkle creams. I don't know if that's true or not, but at 65, I have tried some of the popular anti aging creams, and I have to say that personally, I have never noticed a bit of difference at all, from any of them. I have noticed improvement in my skin since I started using my own handmade soap, and I attribute that to the fact that I'm no longer stripping it of it's natural oils. I like to use straight olive squalane on my face after I wash it. I let it absorb for a few minutes before I put on my makeup. It's just oily enough for my mature skin, but not too "greasy". I have to say, that I don't have a lot of wrinkles. Not sure what to credit for that, but I do remember that the same dermatologist I mentioned earlier said that the two most important factors contributing to whether or not you have a lot of wrinkles are, #1 Genetics and #2 How much time you've spent in the sun.

I know that there are a lot of new ingredients that promise all kinds of miraculous results, and I've even tried some of them on half of my face and not the other, and honestly......no difference at all that I could see. I also made some of the popular DIY serums I've seen online......I hoped for something great, but again, no difference. So I'm sticking with my own soap, the olive squalane, and I do use a super gentle Buf Puff for washing my face, it gently helps to exfoliate, without being rough on my skin.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000052YJD/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
I do the common sense things, like drink a lot of water, use a sunscreen, avoid a lot of exposure to the sun, and eat a healthy diet. But I've stopped spending money on every new anti wrinkle cream that comes along. I realize that my routine would not work for everyone, it's like shampoo, what works for one person, does nothing for the next. But I like the simpler the better approach. And I am 65, so while I like to look my best, realistically, I know that my best is not going to look like it did 20 or 30 years ago, no matter what I do!

 

[mintle]

I support the sunscreen. We have the whole commuńity of skincare maniacs in Poland and the rule of thumb is to use sunscreen as a must, and if you want to reverse the time or erase some of the past mistakes , add some serum with antioxidants in the morńing under the sunscreen and retinol for the night treatment.
I have always used sunscreen in summer all the time on my face but not on my decolette because the spf cream is a bit too sticky or stains clothes if used in the right amount around my neck etc. The result is (even though I always use spf 30-50 on my whole body when outdoors for sports or sunbathing or swimming) - my face looks better (more firm, even) than decolette, definitely.

 

[rparrny]

I have mixed feelings about sunscreen...yes the skin cancer issue is real especially among certain skin types. From a medical standpoint...the vitamin D deficiency that I have seen in the past few years is like nothing I've ever experienced and I believe that SPF has everything to do with it....