Moisturiser - in search for the best one

Posted by Olia | Under Face Monday May 18, 2009
I was about to run out of my moisturiser so I went to the shops to have a look around.
I went to David Jones as it holds many brands on the same floor.
I was looking at quite a few moisturisers:
Lancome, Dr. Perricone, L’Occitane, Clarins, Kiehls and couple other brands in Mecca Cosmetics.
What I wanted from my moisturiser: I needed a night moisturiser, so without SPF (as I just ordered my daily moisturiser from Nu Skin). I wanted it to be a nice texture, not to heavy and not have very strong smell. Also it should have anti wrinkle ingredients and no mineral oil. I will have to write an article about mineral oil and why you should avoid products with mineral oil in it and that is not that easy to do as so many products do have mineral oil within their ingredients.
So I had to give a miss to Lancome moisturiser as I was disappointed to see mineral oil in the ingredients list. I love Lancome make up but with skin care… I still can’t find something that would suit my skin from Lancome.
I had a brief look at L’Occitane. I didn’t want to get a cream from Immortelle series that would be exactly what I wanted except the smell. I wasn’t a fan of that smell. They had an almond moisturiser which has an unbelievably plesant smell but I had a sample of it - and I can’t say that I thought that time that I would buy it. I tried their body cream (I mean I bought the whole jar with the cream. Oh it was amazing and really really nice on skin. Smells fantastic and it seemed that my skin go so smooth after I used the cream)
Then I went to Clarins stand. I used quite a few of their products. And I remember that I liked the night cream. But I just felt like trying something else.
I glanced at Shiseido and Shu Uemura (a bit irrelvant but I love Shu Uemura curler. I got it from Japan when we didn’t have a store here in Australia), walked by Guerlain tring to remember what I liked from their moisturisers when I got some samples. I wandered to Dior stand. I am fascinated with 60/80 range. I tried once a cream.. and yes - the line that I have in the mornings on my forehead - disappeared! well… but I think that was a temporary result. I am not sure if it actually works towards long term result… But I am so tempted to buy an eye cream from them.
I had to pass by La Prairie, Sisley and La Mer (and oh yes, I would love to have a moisturiser from them). These are fantastic products (I never tried La Mer but heard so many good things about it) but yes.. it was outside of my budget.
Dr Perricone was next. I used to have his Face Finishing moisturiser and I think I liked it. To be completely honest I can’t remember how I felt about his moisturiser. I can’t remember what was a result. A girl was so nice at Mecca Cosmetics and gave me a small sample of the cream. And it feels nice on skin but I just was too curious about Kiehls.
My first visit to Kiehls was in Paddington (yes I love this area of Sydney). And I was so amazed by all these tubes and small jars with creams and tonics and all the rest of it.
I liked that it has the feeling of well established brand, proven… All these black and white photos throughout the store only strengthened my impression.
So I walked to the shelves with all the creams and a lovely lady asked if she can helped me. After I explained what I wanted she pointed me at Abyssine Cream.
I checked ingredients - no mineral oil! that was a good start. But that night I didnt buy anything as I had a sample of my Dr Perricone and I wanted to try it again and also I wanted to do a bit of research on Internet about Kiehl.
Well… I was happy with what I found out about Kiehl - I got my Abyssine Cream next day!
I am a great believer that you need a bit of time to actually decide what you think about your moisturiser. So I will wait for a week or two and then post on my blog I think about my new moisturiser.

Antioxidants - why are they so good? (Part 2/2)

Posted by Olia | Under Anti Aging Wednesday May 6, 2009

I will continue writing about antioxidants. In Part 1/2 of the ‘Antioxidants - why are they so good’ I explained what antioxidants really are. Today I would like to tell you what the most powerful antioxidants.

Types of Antioxidants

Antioxidant Nutrients
There are several antioxidants that we can get having a good diet.

They are vitamin E, vitamin C, beta-carotene, selenium and zinc and magnesium that are actually trace elements of various antioxidant enzymes.

Vitamin E is actually a combination of 8 entities called tocopherols and four corresponding tocotrienols. They are lipid soluble (soluble in fat only) vitamins with antioxidant properties that prevent the oxidation reaction from continuing. Our cell membranes are mostly composed of fatty acids. That is why vitamin E is so helpful in dealing with free radicals here.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin. Vitamin C scavenges free radicals in watery environment such as inside our cells.

As you can see vitamins E and C are one of the most important when it comes to beating free radicals.

Beta-carotene, which is also a water-soluble vitamin, is best known for its qualities to scavenge free radicals in low oxygen concentration.

Selenium is a trace element. It is a very important mineral. We need only a very small quantity of it but we can survive without it. People are more and more aware about this mineral nowdays.

Manganese and zinc (that are also minerals) are trace elements (the same as selenium) and form an essential part of various antioxidant enzymes.

Other Antioxidants

There are also other compounds and nutrients that have antioxidant qualities. Among them are coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10, or ubiquinone) and uric acid.

In my next post on my blog I will tell about sources of the antioxidants.