1. Cleansers - soap vs cosmetic

To be honest, it surprises me that this is still a topic of such confusion. It is very simple: soap removes the acid mantle of your skin, which keeps its ph at the correct level, and stops it from drying out. This acid mantle is very delicate, and because soap is an extremely alkaline substance, it completely removes the acid mantle. Now your skin needs to make itself a new one. just imagine what that drains from your skin, having to re-make that mantle every time you use soap on your face. A lot is what. And you need to use a heavier moisturiser afterwards because your skin feels so dry.

Now I know you Grandmother probably said 'Well, I never used anything but soap and water and it always worked for me.' Well, guess why she thought it worked? Because she was used to it. She never used anything else, so how would she know the difference? I'm not insinuating that your grandmother was stupid, just making a point. Try this experiment next time you're washing: wash one arm with soap, and wash the other arm with shower gel or shampoo if you don't have shower gel. It really makes a difference. This is because the shampoo is so much less alkaline than soap. Now that you've experienced it for yourself, try it on your face: a cleanser made especially for your face will be even more gentle than the shower gel. AND it will still get all the grime off - they're designed that way!

A note - this all applies even if you have oily skin. All of us, even us oilies, need that acid mantle. Don't take away what your body produces for your own good!

2. Toners - alcohol vs none

The toner debate is very similar to the soap debate and my answer is simple once again: don't let alcohol touch your face! Alcohol will dry your skin out like nothing else. You know when you use a toner (or skin freshener) that has alcohol in it, and it leaves you with a little stinging sensation? Do you suppose that sensation occurs because your skin is saying 'oooh, that was wonderful, I liked that!'? Not even a little bit - when you sting elsewhere on your body, you think, 'Oh, why am I stinging? Has an insect bitten me, or have I sat on a nettle or something?' And the reason you think this, is that the skin has sent the message to the brain saying 'something is not right here, produce warning signal, produce warning signal.' So here's the hint: listen to that warning signal. Don't use alcohol on your skin. Even if you're an oily!

3. Moisturisers - AHAs, vitamins, oxygen, retinol etc.

Moisturisers have got to be one of the stickiest topics around (pardon that pun!). There is so much confusion and so many new innovations coming out all the time.

AHAs (Alpha-Hydroxy Acids) are basically a way of exfoliating your skin without your having to doanything more active than smear on a cream, whereas before you would have needed some kind of facial scrub. And when these acids are put in a cream they act every day, rather than the once a week or so that a scrub would be used. This means that every day the top layer of dead skin is removed and your skin works hard to produce new skin at a faster rate. Thus the skin on top is fresher once it reaches the top layer because it hasn't waited so long to get there.

There is nothing inherently wrong with AHAs, in fact they can be very good, but my caution would be: use them in moderation. I'm not sure about the wisdom of using them every day. Some skin experts are now saying that doing this can wear out the skin and actually leave you looking worse later on instead of better! Whether that is true or not I cannot say, but my advice would be to use an AHA product at most every other day and give your skin a rest in between. I personally use a 'supplement' type cream with AHAs in it only when I feel I need a 'lift' once a month or so, but then, it is just my personal preference.

Moisturisers with vitamins in them. Here is a kettle of worms. But it's not all that confusing: God made vitamins in our food so we could eat them, and send them through our bloodstream to the places in the body that need them. Your skin is not built to take in vitamins externally, and vitamins are not built to go in through your skin. But I hear you say, 'But they've done tests! They've proven it works!' I have one question: Who has 'done the tests?' - the companies who sell the stuff. What are they out for? Your money.

As far as Retinol goes, you could write a whole book on that. Gerald McKnight, in fact, almost did, he has dedicated a whole chapter to it in his book 'The Skin Game'. What he discovered is that retinol works by actually damaging the skin ever so slightly, therefore spurring the growth of new skin which is untouched and fresher than the old layers. Use retinol enough and just imagine what you will end up looking like. Great at first, I would say, but in 20 years time I hate to think - I have no proof but imagine a face covered in scar tissue perhaps? Or maybe I'm just being a scaremonger. But I think you may agree that voluntarily damaging your skin every day does not really make sense. On the other hand it is now a long time since retinol was originally invented. Some of the off-the-shelf creams are starting to advertise the use of retinol in their products. It may be safe these days in newer, more sophisticated formulas. It's up to you if you want to try it.

4. Anti-age supplements - collagen, elastin, etc, only temporary (cosmetic) changes

If you want to hear something gross, ask where the collagen in your face-cream came from. Here's the deal: plants do not produce collagen. So where do you think it came from? It is an animal substance. One known source is the the placenta of newly-born calves, and I sure as hell do not want that on my face, no matter how good it makes me look.

But the main point about collagen and elastin is that when you buy these creams you are throwing away money almost - it is a daily fix, not a lasting one. You put the cream on, it makes the wrinkles puff out and seem smaller, but by the end of the day the effect is gone. Now if you have enough money to use it that way, and plenty of women do, then that's your choice. But when it comes to anit-ageing, prevention is better than a cure all the way. These creams do nothing more for the skin, in the long run, than a regular moisturiser. Their effect is cosmetic. You may as well spend the money on a face-lift, and that is a whole new kettle of fish if you want to debate about that.

BUT there is some goods news, if you choose to belive what I read in Harper's and Queen magazine the other day (July 1998 issue, p124-126, 'So farewell then, wrinkles' by Newby Hands). Skeptical as always when the article started, I was encouraged to read about 'the recent findings based on the independent evaluations of a major eighteen month study... conducted in France by Estee Lauder in conjunction with SU.VI.MAX, an independent group of French research scientists'. The tests were done over eighteen months, with 15,000 participants, half using anit-oxidant cream and half using a placebo cream.

Basically they managed to prove that one of the lines we have been fed by skin-care companies may actually be true: that anti-oxidants in skin-care products prevent premature ageing and improve existing signs of ageing, ie wrinkles. However, the anti-oxidants have to be used in the right combinations - not just any 'anti-oxidant' cream will be formulated to act in this way. According to the article, you should use one of the creams made by the leading cosmetic and skin care companies, of course - Estee Lauder, Dior, Lancome, Clarins, Clinique, Guerlain (which, for those of you who always wondered, is pronounced 'Gerlan' with a hard 'g' as in 'get'), Kanebo, Helena Rubenstein, Remede, and Laboratoire Garnier. This last is the surprise in the bunch, because their products are about a quarter of the price of the others! Guess which one I'd go for?

The way these creams work is not by delivering the anti-oxidants (which are basically vitamins) into the skin for its nourishment. What happens is that the vitamins counter-act the attack of free-radicals which speed up the ageing process. The study found that after 18 months the anti-oxidant creams had caused a decrease in wrinkling by 8 percent. 'This was the result of the skin's own repair mechanism being able to do the job it should do - producing collagen - without being diverted into fighting off the free radical aggressors.' In the placebo group, wrinkles and lines had increased by 15 percent. This is a HUGE difference compared to the other group. Skin thinning, which in the placebo group was 9 percent, was reduced to 3 percent in the other group. And skin elasticity, which 'those using the placebo cream showed a depressing 45 percent decrease... in the second group this was reduced to 20 percent'. One should note that anti-oxidants had absolutely no more capacity for increasing moisture in the skin than a regular moisturiser.

So, ladies, here is the deal, the BEST prescription for skin care and anti-ageing:

1. Don't use soap or alcohol on your skin.

2. DO use an eye-cream.

3. ESPECIALLY use a sun-protection factor of 15 on your face daily.

4. Use anti-oxidants - if you can afford it!

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