Home Remedy for Wrinkle Reduction
By Rob Hardwicke, President and Product Master
What follows is a list of ways to reduce wrinkles by either treating or removing the things that cause them. This is a little different than the "wrinkle filler cream" approach. Although Awakening makes a very effective antioxidant wrinkle cream, we make no claims to "filling up" wrinkles. I mean, how do you "fill" wrinkles? What's in these products - skin paste? The fact is, good anti-wrinkle creams achieve their results in two ways:
First, through hydration. Wrinkles are often amplified by dehydration, so proper hydration can help enormously. Second, through a good antioxidant formula. The formula we use in our anti-aging cream is a proprietary, 100% plant-based formula called PhytoBX™, which works to undo the oxidation of skin (much in the way that you would remove rust from an old car - after all, rusting is just oxidation). Over time, as the "baggage" of oxidation is undone, the skin takes on a more youthful, tighter, less-wrinkled aspect. What these creams do NOT do, however, is "erase wrinkles" or "fill them in." For that you'll need to take your wrinkle care to more extreme level and enter the insane world of Botox and Restylane. For more info on the questionable sanity of these approaches, see this article about skin aging and related issues on the Awakening blog.
Below you'll find some very simple, very effective, 100% natural ways to help you age gracefully. And although the following steps WILL help reduce your existing wrinkles, all this advice can and should be used preventively, especially since your best chance at a wrinkle-free future is taking these steps NOW, before the wrinkles begin.
So, before we get to the goods, here's a quick primer on skin aging:
Skin aging is the result of a completely natural process whereby the collagen in your skin hardens and binds or meshes with adjacent collagen fibers. As the collagen hardens, it loses its ability to hold water. This means the skin loses some of its elasticity or what is sometimes referred to as "plumpness." Also, in the meshing process, something akin to a fishnet develops beneath the skin, causing it to collapse slightly. The result of this collapse is what we see as "wrinkles". Now, there's not much we can do about the natural aging of collagen, but as you might have guessed, since it's harder for collagen to hold water, taking extra steps to ensure proper skin hydration becomes extra important as we age.
Now, as you've probably noticed, some people seem to "age" more quickly than others. This is because each person experiences different levels of oxidation, or free radical formation. Free radicals are getting a lot of attention these days, because they've been linked with certain cancers. The short version on free radicals is this: as skin tissue decays, electrons are lost. The atoms with the missing electrons then "grab" electrons from nearby atoms, which sets off a chain reaction of cell-structure changes that result in, at very least, skin aging, and in some cases, cancers. Still, as I said, some people experience more of this activity than others, and you'd be surprised to find out (as you will below) just how easy it is to eliminate certain oxidizing factors.
The short story is, if you want to reduce wrinkles and prevent more from appearing, follow the steps below. This is a shortened version of the full article on the Awakening blog, where you can find more detailed information.
1. Stop smoking
Scientific fact: prolonged nicotine use adds years - even decades - to your appearance, by slowing blood and oxygen flow to your skin cells and preventing them from regenerating naturally. Stop now and avoid being classified with the diagnosis "smoker's face" (which, believe it or not, is an accepted medical term).
2. Limit your sun exposure
In the 70s, "tropical tans" were all the rage. Some of us seemed to have concluded (falsely as it turned out) that our sun-kissed glows would last but a mere summer. In truth the damaging effects were to remain for years (if not forever). Yet even today, large numbers of people still spend way too much time in the sun. Remember what I said about oxidation above? Well, to put it in simple terms, the sun speeds up oxidation EXPONENTIALLY.
3. Hydrate your body
Try this: if you're under 60, pinch the skin on the back of your hand for a second then let it go. What did it do? Bounce back, or sort of slowly return to its natural shape? If it was the latter, I've got news for you: you're dehydrated. And if you're chronically dehydrated (like over 50% of people in countries with PLENTY of access to clean water), your skin cells will lose their ability to regenerate. Solution? Drink lots of water!
4. Hydrate your skin
There are a lot of "skin moisturizers" out there. The vast majority don't actually moisturize at all. In fact, Awakening's products are so different that we don't even call it "moisturizing." We use the term "hydration" instead, because this describes the process by which your skin is given the things it needs - the things it's "made of," so to speak, to achieve true, natural hydration. That's why our customers are always telling us that they've never experienced anything like our products. We've even had people with difficult skin conditions like eczema write and tell us they threw away their medication after using our products. And while we sure can't guarantee that for everyone, we can guarantee that our products will hydrate your skin like no others on the market. And as we know, hydration means fewer wrinkles.
5. Use an antioxidant wrinkle cream
Antioxidants are substances that kill free radicals, and therefore slow or stop the process of oxidation (see above). If you've been exposed to higher than average levels of oxidation from the sources listed above, then using a high-quality mineral antioxidant cream can really make a difference. You may have seen a lotion or two with CoQ10, a popular antioxidant. But because CoQ10 is sometime made from animal sources, we decided to create our own. The good news is that initial tests have shown our antioxidant formula to be more effective than CoQ10. Read more here.
