The British magazine, The Economist, reports that beauty products and services are a “$160 billion-a-year global industry, encompassing make-up, skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills.” The desire to look and feel one’s best – to reduce wrinkles, lose weight, smell good and so on – “is not mere vanity,” the article concludes. “Being pretty … confers enormous genetic and social advantages.”

Of course, looking and feeling one’s best also confers a tremendous amount of confidence and self-esteem to people in achievement-oriented Western cultures. Products and services designed to reduce wrinkles and restore youthful looks are no longer limited to the female of the species. In fact, the fastest-growing segments of the “personal care services” and beauty industries are men’s products. Therefore, the products and services that can be marketed to both men and women have a built-in advantage. Read the rest of this entry »

Although it sounds like nothing so much as a tabloid headline screaming from the supermarket checkout line, there really are some “beauty secrets of the stars.” The professional make-up artists of the entertainment industry are, without a doubt, the world’s leading experts on make-up, beauty products, treatments – and, of course, those tantalizing “secrets.”

Not many people know that Max Factor, now a household name in cosmetics, was a leading Hollywood make-up artist. What he learned “on the job” he later built into one of the world’s first beauty product empires, and the “technology of beauty” in continuous development by TV and movie make-up artists has driven the development of consumer beauty products for almost a century now. There really are beauty secrets of the stars, although in a world of mass communications (and consumerism) it just isn’t so easy to keep secrets anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

As you age, your health concerns, both major and minor, begin to change. Somewhere in the third or fourth decade of life your appearance undergoes yet another transformation, the appearance of wrinkles. Of course, if this is the most serious health concern you have in middle age, you’re doing very well, as there are a variety of effective anti-wrinkle face creams that can help.

Regardless of other health issues, you are now getting to an age where you are concerned about wrinkles, lines on your face and crows feet near your eyes, among other skin-related conditions. Your skin is not as elastic as it was. The inner layers begin to thin a bit, and fat cells that keep your skin smooth and resilient start deteriorating and disappearing. Anti-wrinkle face creams are formulated to counter these effects.

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They are variously referred to as “smile lines,” “laugh lines” and “character lines” and are a normal part of aging. In their mid-20’s most people will begin to notice “crow’s feet,” those small, initially faint lines or wrinkles at the outside corners of their eyes. They are often the first indication that you really won’t look 18 forever, and getting rid of crow’s feet will most likely increase in importance as the years go by.

Crow’s feet are usually among the first wrinkles to become visible. Years of facial muscle movements – everything from laughing and crying to squinting – and the natural effects of the environment create these dreaded facial wrinkle lines. For various reasons, from sun and wind to the gradual effects of aging, our skin begins to lose its elasticity. Collagen, which imbues skin with its resilience and “stretchability,” breaks down and gradually loses its effectiveness.

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