Make Up Video Tips

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The cosmetic industry is a huge business around the world that makes billions off consumers every year. Probably each and every one of us use a number of cosmetic products such as soaps, body cleansers, moisturizers, and make-up on a daily basis. In fact, according to a 2004 study conducted by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, women use an average of 12 cosmetic products a day. When we are applying these products on and all around our bodies, we’re probably not thinking about the tearless shampoo we have in our hands as a possible danger to our health. Shockingly, recent studies have shown that a large percentage of common household cosmetic products that a lot of us probably have in our homes right now contain a substance that can be harmful to our health and cause cancer.

1,4-Dioxane is a petroleum-derived contaminant that is thought to be a probable human carcinogen according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And according to the National Toxicology Program, it is a known carcinogen in animals. It is listed on California’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals that are either suspected or known to cause cancer and birth defects. 1,4-Dioxane is a byproduct that appears during the manufacturing of cosmetics. Although it can easily be taken out during the manufacturing process for pennies, it is often not. The Food and Drug Administration does not require companies to list it as an ingredient on their labels because it is produced during the manufacturing process.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. Jeanne Rizzo, R.N., the executive director of the Breast Cancer Fund and a founding member of The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics stated, “Regrettably, 1,4-Dioxane contamination is just the tip of the iceberg…Because the FDA does not require cosmetic products to be approved as safe before they are sold, companies can put unlimited amounts of toxic chemicals in cosmetics.” Incredibly, the FDA has no legal authority to require safety standards on cosmetic manufacturers and has only been able to ask companies to remove the chemical on a volunteer basis.

The FDA has known about 1,4-Dioxane since 1979 and has given very mild guidelines and recommendations to manufacturers that their products should not contain greater concentrations of 1,4-Dioxane than 10 ppm, or parts per million. Even with this lenient guideline, some 15% of the products tested exceeded this limit. Some of the products that contained the highest level of 1,4-Dioxane that were tested included: Clairol Herbal Essences Rainforest Flowers Shampoo, Oil of Olay Complete Body Wash with Vitamins, Johnson and Johnson’s Watermelon Explosion Kid’s Shampoo, Hello Kitty Bubble Bath, Disney Clean as a Bee Hair and Body Wash, and Gerber Grins and Giggles Gentle & Mild Aloe Vera Baby Shampoo.

If this is alarming to you, beware, because the list doesn’t end there. Until the cosmetics industry is more regulated, consumers must exercise caution while shopping. A greater knowledge of ingredients and their effects will keep you and your families safe.

Often the biggest frustration for those with combination skin is caring for it properly. Having both dry and oily skin areas on your face can make skin care seem almost impossible. There are, however, things that you can do to care for and keep your combination skin healthy and feeling good.

For one thing, some areas of your face may feel tight after you wash. This will typically be on the parts of your face not included in the T-zone area. These areas will likely also look flaky and dull and may feel rough.

First of all, make sure you are cleansing every day. Use a mild cleanser on your entire face. Use the cleanser twice a day, preferably before bed at night and after get up in the morning. These are the times your face most needs to be cleansed anyway, but if you have combination skin it is imperative.

Get a good moisturizer. Once you have identified which parts of your face are the dry parts, most likely these areas are not in the T-zone and this is the area you will treat. Use the moisturizer on those dry areas only. Using it in your oily T-zone will only make that area worse.

The goal when you have combination skin is to normalize it. Normalizing is trying to gain a balance between the oily and dry areas so that all your skin looks and feels the same. In order to accomplish this feat, you want to look for products that are made for such normalization. For instance, ones that contain alpha hydroxyl acids (fruit acids or AHA’s) or retinols will work best. Retinols are a vitamin A derivative. Such products should help you to gain more normal and even looking skin.

The reason AHA creams are so beneficial to your skin is that they area catalyst for skin cell regeneration. By burning off or removing the top layer of skin cells (or the too oily and too dry ones) they expose the healthier skin cells beneath them. These cells are more likely to absorb moisturizers. They also help improve skin elasticity through their water-binding properties. This can help with that “tight” feeling you may get in the dry areas with your combination skin. The only thing about which you need to be aware is that once you are using AHA’s, you need to continue using them. Once you stop, your cells will not regenerate at the rate they were with the AHA and will return to their original state very soon.

How did we as a people get to the point where we spend billions of dollars annually on cosmetics and it became the social norm for women to wear cosmetics everyday Assuredly a female way back in history did not  simply wake up one day and decide to apply eyelashes, lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, and rouge all at once. No, it was, like many things, a culmination of happenings from past times.

The Egyptians were the first to use cosmetics. That was  four thousand years ago. Good hygeine and looks were terribly serious to the people of Egypt. Egyptians had the belief that the appearance had a direct juncture with the constitution of the soul. They attempted to constantly appear neat and smell pleasant. And with a society who values their appearance, you are invariably going to have humans who are going to attempt to stand out. The Egyptians, being the inventive culture they were, used cosmetics for reasons that were even smarter than just trying to look great.

Mesdemet was the most original kind of eye shadow- a combination of copper and lead ore. The dark hues they believed would ward off evil eyes from their own. It was also a great cleaner and bug deterrent. Kohl was a dark substance that was  put on around the eyes in an oval shape. Kohl was a combination of lead, ash, ochre, copper, and burnt almonds. To further enhance their appearance, Egyptians would apply a mixture of water and red clay to the cheek area. They would also paint their nails shades of orange and yellow with a chemical called henna.

As different groups of people began to interact with each other more often, the art of cosmetics was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptians. They would color themselves a pale hue with a base that had lead inside. This proved lethal more than once. As the Romans began to pick up the cosmetics habits, the pursuit of beauty became less about practicality and turned into much more exotic routes. The Romans would adorn their nails with a combination of sheeps blood and cooked body fat. An ancient Roman citizen once said, A woman without paint is like food without salt.

A pale face was the style around the world after the Egyptian empire disappeared. Only women who were low-class and had to labor out in the field all day with their husbands had dark, sun dired skin. The upper echelon ladies obviously did not have to endure manual labor like that therefore they stayed under the roof and had light complexions.

Success was often measured by a person’s white skin tone. A person was not obligated to labor if they had enough riches. So it was extremely important for some members of society to have a white complexion. To get this appearance, ladies (and men too) would use a combination of hydroxide, lead oxide, and carbonate in a powder form to paint their faces and bodies. Unfortunately, this lead to a sometimes fatal side effect, lead poisoning.To cure this problem, chemists in the nineteenth century at last found a combination of zinc oxide that made the skin able to breathe and kept people out of that annoying lead poisoning sickness. It was so effective that it is still practiced today by cosmetics makers.

Exttravagant and glamorous parties were held by urban women with disposable wealth in the Edwardian era of London. As hostesses of the party, it was necessary for them to be the most attractive woman at the event, so it was very important for them to look the youngest they possibly could. City and exotic lifestyles with factors like smoggy air produced by the cities at that time, bad diets, and little or no exercise aged the women quickly. Women would need products like anti-aging creams and face creams to help hide their imperfections.  Routine ventures to the salon were also a normal part of the day. It was a bit different in the past than it is today. Ladies would sneak into the back of the salons and cover their faces as they went in. One of the most famous of these secret beauty parlors was the House of Cyclax, that would sell creams and blushes to ladies. Mrs. Henning,  the owner, sold and came out with many products for her frantic customers who did not want everybody to know that they were getting old.

The modern day woman is the benefactor of  years of mistakes with a virtually infinite choice of beauty products for any look they want to get. There are  thousands of cosmetics producers who produce products in this now billion dollar per year industry. Beauty products sell all year and even in times of recession. Therefore ladies, thank your ancestors and their concern for their personal looks for your own that you have nowadays. There were probably mornings when they woke up and didn’t really feel like going through the trouble of putting on their face either.