Aging Archives - 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic

Stepping Up My Routine: More Anti-Aging Retinol Power

Christine M — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 22:46:46 +0000

Retinol is considered the “gold standard” ingredient in anti-aging skincare for a reason. It has the most evidence backing up its use when looking to improve fine lines, loss of firmness, uneven skin tone, as well as issues with pores and texture. Retinol isn’t without issues. They should be avoided in pregnancy and nursing, and it can cause skin irritation, making it difficult to tolerate. I have sensitive skin due to rosacea. I’ve had a hard time finding a retinol that my skin can tolerate, here are my tips for using a retinoid with sensitive skin. I am able to use Kiehl’s Retinol Skin-Renewing Daily Micro-Dose Serum daily, I think this is due to the daily-strength micro-dose retinol. It’s just enough to get me the results I want, but without irritation. Now that I’ve been tolerating nightly retinol for a bit, I’ve been thinking about stepping up my routine a bit. Kiehl’s has just released their new Fast Release Retinol Night Serum, and I have seen even more improvement in my skin than before! Which Serum is Best for You? Yes, there are now 2 Kiehl’s Retinol Serums. But they really are different and are meant for different groups of…

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The Best Vitamin C Skincare Products

Christine — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 00:54:14 +0000

One of my favorite multi-purpose skincare ingredients is Vitamin C (learn more about how Vitamin C works in skincare here). In a nut shell, while you likely think of Vitamin C whenever you drink a glass of orange juice, you should also be including it in your skincare routine. Vitamin C does it all, from encouraging your skin to create more collagen and elastin (and therefore helping to reverse signs of aging), evening out skin tone by improving hyperpigmentation and even preventing skin damage by inactivating free radicals (aka, it’s a pretty great antioxidant). As an added bonus, Vitamin C is pregnancy safe, so if you are pregnant, thinking of becoming pregnant, or nursing you can safely include Vitamin C products in your skincare routine. Vitamin C products used to have a lot of problems such as causing irritation to being easily inactivated, they were also expensive. Over the last few years skincare brands have fixed many of those issues. Vitamin C serums no longer irritate the skin, you’re likely to find Vitamin C as an active ingredient in gentle moisturizers. Stabilizers have also come a long way, and your expensive skin care product is much less likely to inactivate…

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Gentle Anti-Aging Skincare Ingredients for Every Skin Type

Christine — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 20:00:00 +0000

I get asked about anti-aging skin care a lot. What products should you use? What ingredients to look for in a product? Is this product working, my skin isn’t irritated? While I’m not a dermatologist, I have done a lot of reading and I have my own ideas about what you should be using to fight the signs of aging. One of my biggest complaints about anti-aging skin care is that many people seem to treat it like Jane Fonda and her workout. No pain, no gain. Right? No, not really. I think that your goal with skin care should be healthy skin that looks great. Skin care shouldn’t burn or make your skin irritated. Your goal shouldn’t be redness. Using such harsh products on your skin to fight aging is counterproductive, that inflammation will actually accelerate aging. The problem is that the “gold standard” of anti-aging skin care ingredients are retinoids, which tend to be irritating and make your skin more sensitive to the sun. The problem is even worse if your skin is sensitive or you have rosacea. One of my biggest recommendations for anti-aging skin care is limiting irritating skin care products to 2-3 times a week…

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Simplified Age-Defying Skincare with No7

Christine — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:07:56 +0000

One of my goals in life is a quick and easy to use age-defying skin care routine. It should be as few steps as possible, include as many active ingredients as possible, be gentle on my sensitive skin, and actually work. Really, that last bit is the most important. If I am spending time and money on skincare products, I expect to see some results. About 2 weeks ago I added a few of No7’s Restore & Renew products into my skincare routine, and I’ve already started seeing changes in my skin! My skin is smoother, firmer, and I’ve seen some evening out of my skin tone. I’ve been using less makeup and the results are already obvious. I love that I actually follow this routine morning and night because I only need a few products to complete my skincare routine. Why Restore & Renew? When I was asked by No7 to collaborate on this post, I didn’t answer until I had checked out the ingredient lists of the new Restore & Renew products. I agreed to try the line out and write about it because there were so many of my favorite ingredients that I knew I had to…

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The Best Night Creams

Christine — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 16:00:38 +0000

It probably comes as no surprise that my most requested post lately is a list of the best night creams. I’ve written a lot about anti-aging skincare, and while I’m not a dermatologist, as a pediatrician I understand quite a bit of the medical literature about active ingredients and best practices. I’m all about having some actual evidence that an active ingredient will help your skin. So, what are the best night creams out there? I usually look for a thicker cream that can really hydrate my skin overnight. I want gentle anti-aging ingredients that are fine to use every night with my sensitive skin, primarily peptides and antioxidants. 1. The Skin Saint Defy Antioxidant Resiliency Creme: I just started using this cream and I’m already loving it! This cream has antioxidants and peptides, and is full of moisturizers. 2. Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream (also available in Whip, review here): This is my go-to introduction to antiaging skincare night cream recommendation. It has peptides, antioxidants and even niacinamide, is gentle and hydrating. It’s got a great price point too. Read my full Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream review here. 3. RoC Retinol Correxion Max Daily Hydration Anti-Aging Crème: I usually recommend…

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Mistakes You’re Making In Your Anti-Aging Skin Care Routine

Christine — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 14:00:23 +0000

You’ve finally figured out what skincare products to use, you feel great. Your skin is glowy. Well, almost glowy. Kind of glowy? On a good day after a great night’s sleep? Ok, maybe it’s doing pretty great but you don’t want to add in any new products right now, so you’re willing to accept it. It turns out that there are some very common anti-aging skincare mistakes that most of us make, and they can be easily corrected! 1. Changing Products Too Quickly It takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks, sometimes even up to 3-6 months for a product to really show it’s full benefits. This means you’ll sometimes have to repurchase a product before it has shown how well it can work, and that often means you’ll be picking something else. Give your products time to work before moving on to something else. 2. Your Products are Causing Irritation No pain no gain, right? Maybe that was true for Jane Fonda, but it definitely is not true for anti-aging skincare! Redness and irritation is your skin’s way of telling you that it is time to back off. If your skin treatment is causing pain or tingling when you apply…

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Vitamin C in Skin Care: How Does it Work?

Christine — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 18:13:00 +0000

Vitamin C…. doesn’t it kind of sound like someone just decided to take their grandmother’s advice for the common cold and extrapolate that to anti-aging skin care? Or maybe it was just an ingredient laying around that was easy to incorporate into more items? Actually, it really does work. So, what does it do? First, go back to my how anti-oxidants work in skin care post to review oxygen free radicals and how anti-oxidants scavenge up those extra electrons. Remember that while those free radicals may have been taken care of, the damage that they’ve already done is still there. So, Vitamin C, aka ascorbic acid, is one of those anti-oxidants that go around mopping up free radicals. But it also does so much more! Read on to learn about all the different things that Vitamin C does, a little more about how it does them (I promised I’ve translated as much as possible into “regular” language, though this post is definitely of a higher level than most), and what to look for in a Vitamin C preparation. Vitamin C as Anti-Oxidant aka…. Problem: Vitamin C is Easily Inactivated Yup, unfortunately this is true. It has to do with the…

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How Peptides Work in Skincare

Christine — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 13:02:00 +0000

Go back and read through the Dermis Post. Just go glance at it quickly, I won’t get too terribly technical with you, I promise! If you want more info, check out the reference paper below. It’s a great overview of Peptides and what they have been found to do. Ok, well, remember those cells I said were present in the dermis? The fibroblasts? Their job is to create collagen, a major component of the matrix of extracellular things in the skin. (My husband, an expert in the Extracellular Matrix is going to kill me for simplifying everything so much. His grad students would laugh at me. But, this isn’t a PhD Disseration, it’s a beauty blog!) One of the major problems with aging (both from age and from sun exposure) is that the skin’s collagen is made is smaller amounts, what is there is broken down more quickly and the fibroblasts themselves replicate more slowly as they die off. This happens more quickly in photoaged skin than just aged skin, so the results of decreased collagen are even more pronounced. Where do peptides come in? There is a lot of evidence that peptides can do a lot of things to…

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My Latest Winter Skincare Obsession: Olay Regenerist Whip Review

Christine — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 16:06:45 +0000

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed that I have been obsessing over a new moisturizer this fall. It was sent to me unbranded, so I wouldn’t be swayed by the brand. All I knew is the product was called Whip. The first time I tried this moisturizer, I could see a difference in my skin. I swear, my skin was a bit dry and irritated from playing outside with my daughters, and when I first applied this moisturizer that night, I could feel my skin soaking up the hydration. The next morning, my skin was still super hydrated and glowy, but it wasn’t heavy on my skin. I was seriously in love. How it Feels Fast forward a few weeks, and I was finally sent a branded jar of the moisturizer, and discovered that it was Olay’s new Whip! This new moisturizer has a very interesting texture. It reminds me a bit of a mousse, it has a light and springy feel and almost melts into my skin. You can see in the picture above the traditional Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream, which is a cream. The Whip is on the right, it’s a bit airier and…

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The Best Anti-Aging Moisturizer: Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream

Christine — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 20:04:00 +0000

I first reviewed Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream in 2007 (yes, 10 years ago), right when it was being released. I was blown away by this super moisturizing face cream! It was full of peptides to improve collagen production. There was also a lot of hyaluronic acid to really help plump up the outer layers of your skin while it hydrated, something that it did without feeling heavy on your skin. Since my initial review, I have been recommending this cream left and right. You’re 20 and want to start anti-aging early? You want to prevent premature aging without irritating your skin? You want a cream to use with your retinoid? You want a drugstore cream? You want a department store cream? Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream is the correct answer for each and every one of those situations. What is in Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream? Since I first reviewed it, Olay has made some minor adjustments here and there in the formulation. The list of active ingredients is even longer, and the cream is just… better. It’s true! I don’t have the full ingredient list from the original Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream. However, I do have the new list and I don’t remember…

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