Skin care: beauty is skin deep but ugly is to the bone...

So, like most women, I dread the thought of one day...I'll be wrinkled and old.

I do try little things that go a long way to delay the aging process.

1. Applying sun screen everyday, mineral based.
2. Sleeping on my back with my face up (never wake up that way but it's worth a try!)
3. Rubbing facial expression lines before bed to smooth out the wrinkles so to speak.
4. Always reminding myself to drink more water to keep hydrated.
5. Sleeping well and trying not to wait till I'm completley exhausted to go to bed.

In the west, creams, serums and surgery are the main defense against aging. Unlike the east, women understand that their internal harmony of health keeps aging at bay and beauty blossoming.

However, recently, there has been a rise in 'cosmeceuticals' in the west. A term used for cosmetics with drug-like effects. Cosmeceuticals work at a deeper level. For example, increasing collagen at the skin's cellular level. Check out a good article by the FDA on the current trend of using medicine to improve beauty.

For thousands of years, medicine has been used to enhance beauty in the Orient. Proving that medicine can bring beauty from the inside out.

I believe women should understand that buying a $570, 2 ounce tube of cream will probably not do as much in terms of anti-aging as getting in the habit of a good night's sleep.

A popular line of skin care that offers this ridiculously expensive product is, author of the New York Times best seller book, The Wrinkle Cure...the amazing Dr. Perricone.

I do applaud his efforts in introducing cosmeceuticals into mainstream awareness.
He advises a healthy diet and lifestyle to achieve best results, and, of course, along with his supplements and creams.

The only bone I have to pick with Dr. Perricone is that he uses mostly vitamins instead of herbs to promote health and beauty. Being an herbalist and obviously bias, the fact still remains that synthetic vitamins are pale and ugly in comparison to mother nature's home brew. The spectrum of natural vitamin C and its isolated processed form differ greatly. The herbs he does offer are isolated and not in a synergistic formula with other herbs which is key.

Alas, if women cannot see the true connection of health and beauty in the their day to day lives and insist on buying it in a bottle...Hopefully, they will spend it on something that really works. But, I would rather see women not smoking instead of wasting their money on snail spit beauty creams for their wrinkles.

This is a great example of what it's about.. Its an incredible study of aging on twins, see how these sets of twins look drastically different due to the impact of their lifestyle choices.