As we age, there are certain inevitables one of which is that your skin will lose elasticity and wrinkle. If you have the resources you can go the plastic surgery route or consider procedures such as Botox or Restylane. For most though, this is not a feasible option and we must find and use less expensive and less invasion products.

DermaLastyl-B is a great choice in terms of a product that you can use yourself at home and will help decease the wrinkles that you do have and at the same time prevent new wrinkles from appearing and elevates the elastin levels in the skin’s surface. You simply apply a very small amount of the cream to your face and neck twice a day and can be worn under makeup. You will see a decrease in existing wrinkles in as soon as one month and with continued use, will see a decrease in new wrinkles.

There are many products that have similar claims to reducing and preventing wrinkle but the DermaLastyl-B is a bit different and works better than others. DermaLastyl-B contains some of the same ingredients as the Botox alternatives, and also contains Tropoelastin. Tropoelastin is a very one of a kind ingredient that has over 600 amino acids – 100 times more than the other products on the market today. In addition to the Tropoelastin, DermaLastyl also contains Argireline® to help relax facial muscles, Matrixyl® to promote collagen production, Hyaluronic Acid to both moisturize and stimulate collagen synthesis and Prol-Sel® selenium antioxidant to help protect against photodamage.

Combination skin is a mix of dry skin in certain areas, and oily in other areas. Usually the oily area is your ” T Zone ” This area is the forehead and nasal area. The cheek and jaw areas tends to be dry. Combination skin is often a symptom of the skin condition called seborrhea and its cousins, seborrheic eczema and seborrheic dermatitis. The Seborrhea is an over production of oil in the scalp and face. If you notice dandruff in your scalp and even in your eyebrows, see a dematologist for help.


To care for combination skin, you need to treat your skin areas differently. Use mild cleansers twice a day to clean your skin. Cleansers with salicylic acid in them will reduce oil production. After cleaning, use an oil free moisturizer. Apply the moisturizer throughout the day to dry areas of your face. For dandruff, use a dandruff shampoo every other day until the dandruff clears up and then you can cut back the use to twice a week. if you like to use facial masks, buy two different ones for the different areas of your face. Apply one for oily skin on your T zone and one for dry on the rest of your face.

In terms of a sunscreen, make sure that it is oil free. Oil free should be the way to go with all products. Oil free products will not dry out your already dry areas of your face.

If you have oily skin then your skin will be shiny and your pores are enlarged and prone to blackheads and blemishes. While other skin types like sun damaged and dry are somewhat easy to camouflage with makeup and lotions, having oily skin is not. Often, even with many layers of makeup, the shininess of your skin will creep through.

Caring for oily skin is a bit time consuming but well worth the effort. Having oily skin mostly will affect your face, while dry skin tends to be all over. So the fact that you mainly need to only concerntrate on one area of your body makes it a bit easier.

The first thing to know is that you should wash your face 2 to 3 times a day with soap and water. If for some reason you are not going to be able to do so, carry a disposable facial cleaning pad, made for your skin type, with you. You will most likely need to experiment with different cleansers and soaps to find one that works for you the best.

When you take a shower or bath, you need to use warm water. Hot water will remove needed moisture from your skin. Now after reading the previous sentence you may be thinking that it does not make sense. The thing to realize is that moisture and oil are not the same. Moisture is needed to keep your skin in balance and removing such moisture has nothing to do with oil production.


When using suncreen and moisturizers read the bottles closely and make sure that they are noncomedogenic. This means that they are oil free and non pore clogging. You should also consult a dermatologist and ask about retinoids. Retinoids are a class of drugs that will reduce production of oil glands and help decrease them in size as well.

Oily skin is believed to be hereditary to some degree so there may not be much to do to get rid of it entirely, but following the above suggestions should help. Another thing to keep in mind, and this goes for most skin types, keep an eye out for triggers like stress and hormones, and sometimes even foods that can cause your skin to break out and get worse.

If you have dry skin then you might have flaky, tight, itchy skin. Dry skin can be wrinkled, sallow and has very small pores. This skin type is very prone to aging quickly and irritation. Treating your dry skin and making it normal, is not hard if you follow a few guidelines.

First and foremost, drink a lot. Drinking water that is. Aim for 8 to 12 glasses of water a day. This will moisturize your skin from the inside out.  If this is too much water for you at first, slowly build up to it. Another important thing is to not wash your face more than twice a day, and do so with a mild facial cleaner designed for dry skin. These cleaners have the right moisturizers built into them to not dry your skin out.

As much as a long leisurely shower or bath sounds good, you need to try to keep your bathing to the shortest amount of time possible, and with warm not hot water. Also, unless absolutely necessary, do not bathe more than once a day. While not recommended often, if you do decide to take a bath, add a few drops of olive or lavender oil to the water to help prevent your skin from getting too dry. Limit your soap usage to the groin and underarm area. For the rest of the body, use a body wash designed for dry skin. You should not use a towel and rub your skin dry, instead pat it. This will dry you off  but at the same time leave some moisture on your skin to help not dry it out.


While you are still damp, you should moisturize your body with a lotion or cream. When you buy a moisturizer look for a few key ingredients. Look for ingredients such as glycerin, alpha hydroxy acids, urea and lactic acids (binders), combined with petrolatum, lanolin or silicone derivatives (barriers). The barriers will keep moisture in the skin and the binders pull water from deep in the skin and bring it up to the top layer.  You can seek professional help to find the right moisturizer for you , though trial and error is your best bet.

The last piece of advice is to try to keep a balanc eof humidity in the air around you. Air that is too dry or too hot will dry your skin out quickly. It may be easy to keep the air balanced at home but if you work in an office, then it may be harder. At work, drink a lot of water and keep some moisturizer close by and apply as needed.

Following the above suggestions closely should bring your skin closer to a normal balance.

There are many different skin types. Each skin type has its own characteristics and different ways to take care of  so learn your skin type before you buy products to treat it.

If you have normal skin then your skin is smooth and evenly toned. You have small pores as well. This is the least problemsome skin type and the easiest to care for. The levels of water and oil are even so that the skin is neither oily or dry. Just because your skin is well balanced, you still need to make sure to take care of your skin to ensure that it stays that way.

• Drink lots of water. Drinking water will keep your skin hydrated. Ideally you want to aim for 10-12 glasses of water but reality is, any amount of water is better than no water so just drink as much as you can.

• Exercise 30 minutes a day. If you are unable to get to a gym, walk around your block.

• Wash your skin with gentle cleaners, There is no need for anything harsh, in fact if you use a harsh cleanser you will do much damage to your skin and easily turn it to either oily or dry. A simple water and baby soap is all you need to use twice a day. Follow the wash with a mild astringent and toner.

• At night, apply a thin layer of a moisturizer before bed, this will keep your skin from getting too dry at night.

• Before applying makeup, use a thin layer of moisturizer.This will keep your skin form drying out or gettiing oily. When buying makeup, try to make sure that at least your foundation includes a sunscreen. If your other makeup products include sunscreen, all the better.

• Use a non drying mask every two weeks to help smooth the skin’s surface and promote circulation.

Once your skin is normal, try your best to keep it this way. By following the above suggestions, it should not be too hard to do so.

Keeping your skin healthy and youthful is not as hard as you may think. Yes, you can buy tons of expensive serums and creams or pay for medical procedures to keep a youthful appearance, but if you follow a few simple and basic rules you can save time and money.

The first thing to do is to protect yourself from the sun. If you do have to be outside, do your best to avoid sunlight from 10 am to 4 pm.  If you do have to be outside, especially in the critical hours, wear protective clothing like long sleeve shirts and pants that are tightly woven as to not let sunlight through the weaving.  Wear a wide brimmed hat as well.

You may be thinking that there is no way you are going to wear pants and long sleeves when it is hot. Make sure to cover all skin, especially anything exposed to the sun, with sunblock.  Apply a generous amount of a high UV blocking sunblock at least 30 minutes before going outside and reapply every 2 hours, after sweating, or swimming.

Do not smoke. Smoking not only will make your skin look older than it really is, but contributes to wrinkles as well. The outermost layer of skin is full of tiny little blood vessels. Smoking causes these already small vessels to narrow which in turn prevents blood from flowing properly. The lack of blood flow decreases oxygen and nutrients, especially Vitamin A. Smoking also reduces collagen and skin elasticity. If your skin is not elastic then it will be droopy and look much older than it is.


Shaving and daily washing of skin can make it more fragile. You need to treat your skin with the highest standards. Following  a few basic rules will help keep your skin young and youthful .

• Limit your bath and shower times. Hot water and lengthy shower / bath times deplete your skin of necessary oils. Just by shortening your time in the bath or shower and using warm, not hot water, will help a lot.
• Another easy fix is to use a mild soap or clenser, do not use harsh soaps which also will deplete oils from the skin.
• When you finish showering or bathing, do not rub your skin dry with a towel. Instead, pat your skin to remove excess water. This will allow some moisture to stay on your skin and not dry it out.

• Moisturize your skin. Not all skin types are the same so you will have to find the right lotion / cream for your skin type. No matter your skin type, there is a moisturizer out there for you, you just need to research and find what  you need.

It is important to eat a healthy and balanced diet. This will benefit you inside and out.  Eat a diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, and lean proteins.  There is still much research being done on the correlation with diet and health, but a diet that is low in carbohydrates and fat but high in vitamins will make your skin appear young and fresh looking.

Stress is a large contributer to your skin’s appearance. Stress often leads to acne and other skin problems. Try to manage your stress levels. Take a break from your stressful tasks for a few minutes and walk away from it. Take a short walk , call a friend, watch some TV or read a book. Doing this for even a few minutes will reduce stress levels.

When I first heard that Apple Cider Vinegar is used to as a natural way to clear acne my stomach churned.  I am not a big vinegar fan and this is definitely for the strong of stomach.  What I hear though it is a great and cheap way to clear acne.

You can dilute Apple Cider Vinegar with water and do a shot of it in the morning.   Let me make this statement clear, do not drink Apple Cider Vinegar straight up , dilute it with water and honey , dilute it well. It can be really harsh on your stomach and throat if you drink it straight up.  The taste and smell is really strong and a lot of people will turned of  because of this reason.  It does not go down well either, so I suggest having plenty of water or a nice mild tea to go along with your daily shot of apple cider vinegar.

Now that we have gone through the obvious negative about the product lets review some of the great things about it . First the price , generally you can buy a bottle of this vinegar for around 3 dollars and some change.  So it is really inexpensive when you are talking about acne treatment that can be very expensive.  The other good thing about it is that it actually seems to work well.  Though experiences may vary from person to person, there has been a lot of feedback about apple cider vinegar and the great benefits against face and body acne.  It is also known to have a lot of other health benefits such weight loss , more glowing skin, and its just plain good for you .

Other people also use apple cider vinegar as a toner.  This is suppose to help your face clear up also .  It is suppose to be much finer for your face than other toners and does not generally dry up your skin as bad.

The overall conclusion is that if you want a cheap and great way to clear up your skin then use apple cider vinegar. It taste and smells pretty bad but its well worth it .  Everyone’s skin and results will vary but its worth the effort.

I hope it works out well for you and let me know your thoughts .

Murad clears acne that proactiv does not.  If you have tried proactiv and it simply does not work for you or you are  looking for an acne treatment that really works then maybe Murad is the answer.

I was at first skeptical about trying Murad, since my face is  sensitive and I was nervous to switch over to Murad from proactiv.  I have used proactiv in the past since I have had constant acne sinc in my early teens.  I was pleasntly surprised to find out that Murad worked wonders on me.   My face did not breakout ever since and I have had only spotted zit or two here and there, but nothing like before.

I bought the kit to save money for a month.  You can buy it at your local Sephora or online store  and at many great online stores that are usually cheaper with no sales tax etc etc.

The scent I really loved and the product made my skin feel really soothed.  Now at first my skin got worse other than better , but I knew this would happen as my skin got use tthe chemicals . The active ingredients in Murad is salycilic acid and glycolic acid which can be pretty intense and it’s natural for your skin to take time to get used to them.  My skin never got dry on the product though , and has improved over time with use.

I would recommend you read the instructions very carefully and follow the guideliness. Using to much of anyproduct or to little can be just as bad as not using any product.  It is sometimes natural for us to put more on than recommended hoping it will work faster or better.  You should not do this for the chemicals can be harmful to your skin in large doses than recommened and dry you up or make you brea k out more.

As with any acne treatment everyones skin is different and results might be different among people.  If after a month your acne is not improving trying a new product might be the proper course to take.  I do also recommend proactive too for those who have never tried an acne treatment.

Let me know how Murad has worked for you or give us a recommendation to review an other product.