Six Ways To Look Younger
Want to keep the years off? Here are six tips to staying young.
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Blow Dry Your Face
Use your blow-dryer on a cold setting to dry your lotion and sunscreen, said dermatologist Fredric Brandt, M.D. Allowing skin care products to set makes your makeup go on more smoothly and last longer.
Apply Mushrooms
"Antioxidant-rich mushrooms decrease inflammation that leads to wrinkling and a loss of firmness, and they don't cause irritation," said Marta Rendon, M.D., of the University of Miami. Some 'shrooms also contain enzymes that speed cell turnover, slow collagen breakdown, and improve tone and texture.
Use Coffee Bean Berry Extract
Dermatologists are rolling out the red carpet for CoffeeBerry, a new skin care star that promises a younger complexion. The extract, which comes from the berries that house coffee beans, packs polyphenols, antioxidants with the most free-radical fighters. "You're protecting against cellular damage, a main cause of aging," said David McDaniel, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Multi-Tasking Moisturizers
By the time you hit 40, you'd learned to juggle more than three things at once. Now some moisturizers are catching up to your speed. Besides containing a hint of self-tanner that allows skin to slowly darken, the newest daily glow lotions are packed with potent hydrators, like ginkgo biloba, and tightening ingredients, including caffeine and ginseng, that make jiggly skin look and feel firmer, reports Mary Lupo, MD, a Prevention advisor and a clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University.
Sleep-Time Moisturizers
If the number of night creams coming onto the market is any indication, the right time to pamper your skin is when you hit the sack: Last year consumers spent about $56 million on nighttime moisturizers alone. Although no scientific studies have been published comparing nighttime with daytime products, there may be some advantages to treating your skin while you slumber. Cosmetic chemists know, for example, that many anti-aging ingredients stay active longer when they're not exposed to sunlight. Retinoids, which speed cell turnover," can break down chemically with light exposure and become ineffective," said Julian Omidi, MD, a dermatologist in private practice in Los Angeles. Other "anti-agers"--- such as topical vitamins, including C and E -- don't hold up well in sunlight or air. They're in both day and night products, but you probably get more antioxidant bang for your buck when you apply them before you go to sleep.
Sleep On Your Back
Smashing your face into a pillow creates fold lines that eventually become permanent if they're repeated every night. Spending time on your back also helps counter the effects of gravity that accumulate during the day. In a recent study of 38 women and men, Japanese researchers found there was greater wrinkling in the afternoon than in the morning; they concluded that the face literally falls with gravity as the day progresses. At night, you get a chance to reverse that.
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