Anti-Aging Skin Care Guide

Your skin has the incredible ability to repair itself. No matter your age, it’s important to do all you can to support your skin and prevent future damage. In addition to adopting an anti-inflammatory diet (which naturally helps turn back the clock by reducing skin redness, puffiness, dryness, and other signs of aging), one of the secrets to improving the look and condition of your skin is using beauty products that contain advanced antiaging ingredients.

To help, we’ve put together the following list of five nutrients to look for in antiaging products, and we’ve also included a few product recommendations to try.

1. Hyaluronic Acid
Clinical studies have shown that hyaluronic acid can help your skin retain or reclaim the plump, wrinkle-free look of youth. It has an amazing ability to bind moisture, which helps soften, smooth, tone, and rehydrate skin. It also improves collagen health for increased strength and elasticity, and firmer-looking skin. If you choose natural skin-care products that include this key ingredient, you can be sure that what you put on your skin is effective.

Products to Try:

• Derma eHydrating Night Crème with Hyaluronic Acid helps reduce fine lines and wrinkles as you sleep. Vitamins A, C, and E, combined with hyaluronic acid and macadamia seed oil, nourish, and quench thirsty skin.
• Hyalogic Episilk PHA Serum is made with hyaluronic acid and works by boosting the skin’s ability to retain moisture. This light, non-oily serum feels great going on the skin. Daily use helps promote skin suppleness and elasticity.

Try It!
Enter to win:
Be one of the first 10 people to email info@dermae.com. Ten lucky Better Nutrition readers will receive a full-size jar of derma e’s Hydrating Night Crème with Hyaluronic Acid.

2. Desert Botanicals
Desert plants and trees-such as jojoba, aloe vera, shea, and prickly pear-have anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antibacterial properties, plus an amazing capacity to hold in moisture and hydrate the skin.

Products to Try:
Sia BotanicsPrickly Pear Daily Moisturizer Broad Spectrum SPF 30 is designed to repair and protect skin. Prickly pear juice and seed oil contain high levels of betalains, a class of super-antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and speed cellular turnover. Natural minerals provide sun protection, even skin tone, and deflect light away from imperfections.

Go Away, Gray!

Looking better makes you feel better, so disguise your gray with Generation Klean Gray Disappear hair mascara, which makes it easy to touch-up or add temporary highlights. Made with antioxidants, vitamin E, and natural waxes, it rinses out with shampoo or makeup remover. Covers gray in men’s facial hair, too.

3. Skin-Saving Oils
For deep moisturizing, look for products that contain the following skin-soothing oils (either alone or in a combination):

• Apricot kernel
• Argan
• Avocado
• Borage seed
• Evening primrose
• Jojoba
• Macadamia nut
• Olive
• Sesame
• Sweet almond oils

Products to Try:
Annemarie BorlindNatural Beauty Regeneration Concentrate helps refine skin’s texture. Avocado and jojoba oils restore suppleness and smooth wrinkles. Farnesol and bisabolol (from chamomile) firm skin and reduce fine lines. Apply several drops of this intensive treatment on clean skin and follow with day or night cream.

4. Antioxidants
Antioxidants help protect your skin from free radical damage. Effective antioxidants for aging skin include grape seed, red vine leaf and green tea extracts, CoQ10, resveratrol, vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene.

Products to Try:
Reviva Labs Eye Complex Firming Cream helps firm, tone, and detoxify the delicate skin around the eyes. A botanical blend that includes red vine, St. John’s wort, and arnica, along with wheat protein, wheat germ oil, sweet almond oil, and calendula oil targets crows feet, under-eye puffiness, and dark shadows.

5. Pomegranate
The antioxidants, vitamins, and essential fatty acids found in pomegranate seed oil help accelerate your skin’s natural regeneration. Pomegranate extract contains ellagic acid and polyphenols to protect skin from free radical damage and improve skin tone and texture.

Products to Try:
WeledaPomegranate Regenerating Body Lotion helps revive dry, mature skin. Organic pomegranate seed oil, apricot kernel oil, and shea butter help to stimulate your skin’s natural cell renewal while protecting it from environmental damage. Your skin will regain its firmness and feel soft and smooth.

Trend: Beauty Beverage

It’s often the first piece of advice you’ll hear for improving your skin: Drink more water. Now you can go a step farther by combining water with skin-boosting vitamins. Skin-enhancing vitamin waters and even powders added to bottled water are now available at health food stores. We like Activate Zero-Calorie Beauty water in Exotic Berry, made with tea polyphenols, EGCG, açai, and vitamins and minerals. Also great is Borba Clarifying Skin Balance Crystalline drink mix in Pomegranate flavor (not shown). It features goji berry, cranberry, antioxidant vitamins C and E, B vitamins, and pomegranate.