Finally! Foundations For 40+ Skin That Really Work!

By Colette Bouchez

If you’re anything like me, finding a foundation that doesn’t go into fine lines (or deep lines) has been  like looking for the holy grail or the Maltese Falcon: It’s just not going to happen. 

In fact, I’ve found that regardless of  who’s doing the promoting or what’s in the ads, most foundations touted as “anti-aging”  - including mineral make-ups -  have been a huge disappointment, failing to deliver on one of their key promises: To make our skin look younger. Or, at the very  least,  not make us look  any older than we are!   

But that’s about to change, with two  exceptional  foundations – one brand new – that I am  excited to tell you not only deliver on their anti-aging promise,  my personal experience shows they will far exceed your foundation expectations no matter your age!

So what are they?   Read on!

Amazing Anti Aging Foundation # 1:  Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus Smooth Liquid Make-up with SPF 15.

What It Does:  Takes foundation to a whole new level by creating a flawless, dewy (not greasy) formulation that brightens the skin, covers imperfections and – most important from an anti-aging standpoint -  softens the appearance of lines and wrinkles both immediately and over time.

Perhaps most important of all: You  not only look instantly younger the moment you put it on, the look lasts all day.  Unlike other anti-aging foundations which tend to dry the skin, so that  anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour later, you  look like you're  105 –  Cliniques Repairwear Laser Focus Smooth Liqu Make-up  smooths skin immediately  and keeps it looking that way for hours!   I found it  kept my  skin looking moist, plump and line-free for an entire day.   I also  found it helps keep blush/bronzer in place as well, with fewer touchups needed during a 12 hour work day! 

What makes it work:  A cocktail of anti-aging ingredients that starts with  whey protein  to help skin look and feel firmer while working to diminish the appearance of  lines and wrinkles. To this is added the herbal extract Siegesbeckia Orientalis Extract as well as Palimitoyl Oligopeptide (two of the same ingredients you find in pricey anti aging creams) which work together like a support system to plump skin and fill in lines and wrinkles. To this is added Murumuru seed butter to help strengthen the skin’s moisture barrier (so your complexion doesn’t dry out so make-up doesn't settle into lines and wrinkles) as well as vitamin E and SPF 15 to protect against further sun damage.

The end result is a foundation that covers and  makes skin look better both immediately and in the long run, while you get  younger looking every day! What’s not to love?

Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus All Smooth Make-up SPF 15 will be offered in 12 shades from fair to deep. For those of you who are aleady Clinique Skin Care fans, it works for skin types I and II. 

Available beginning September 2011 at Clinique counters nationwide and at Clinique.com. Suggested Retail Price: $32.50

Amazing Anti Aging Foundation # 2:  Temptu Retouch

What it does:  Utilizes the flawless but ultra light anti-aging coverage of pricey air-brushed make-up in a portable, easy-to-apply liquid foundation.

In fact, if you've ever been anywhere near a television studio or movie set make –up room then you know that what gives celebs that flawless, ageless look  is air-brushed make-up – an expensive, but effective type of air-powered spray that deposits tiny micro drops of foundation on the skin for a look that is absolutely flawless.

While at-home air brush make-up systems are available, the cost is high – and it’s not exactly like you can tuck it into your make-up bag on the go.

Enter Temptu Retouch – a portable, sem-liquid foundation with built-in brush that simulates the look of air brushed make-up without the fuss and muss. It fact, it’s  made by the same people who make the pricey air-brushed versions!

How it works:  The four main ingredients are  abscorbyl palmitate ,a  form of Vitamin C that helps prevent or counteract premature skin aging caused by oxidation, sun exposure or collagen breakdown;  Vitamin E  to improve skin’s natural barrier function and hold in moisture;  aloe extract  to heal, soothe and protect skin and help the foundation “glide” on skin;  dimethicone – a cosmetic grade silicone that acts like a primer helping the foundation to adhere to your skin for a more natural looking glow.

While the coverage is not quite as good as the Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus foundation,  if you're looking to hide minor skin  flaws with  great moisturization that keeps skin dewy and youthful - and not have it all settle  into fine lines and wrinkles  - then  this is your foundation. 

Temptu Retouch is available in 12 shades from Porcelain to Espresso, and comes with a built-in applicator brush.  Availaable online at Temptu.com or in Sephora stores nationwide. Suggested Retail Price: $47.00

So there you have it – two products that really do what they say! So no more whining – you’ll look fabulous!

Colette Bouchez is the style director of  fashion jewelry house CountryDutchess.com  and author of 11 books. She frequently writes about beauty and health and her latest book is Country Dutchess Cheap Chic Diary: Online Fashion Organizer and Web Address Book.

Originally published in part in Colette Bouchez’s Beauty Buzz column on Examiner.com .

New study on recurring UTI infections yields surprising results

By Colette Bouchez

If you’ve been using nutritional cranberry supplements to keep your UTI (urinary tract infections) under control there is both good news and bad. A new study funded by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development and just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that antibiotics are more effective than cranberries at controlling recurring UTIs. But, the study also showed that antibiotics increase your risk of developing a drug-resistant bacteria - and that could be dangerous or even deadly.
Indeed, while the number of recurring infections was cut in half for those women taking the antibiotic, the benefits of those odds seemed to change when the women were also tested for antibiotic resistance.
After just one month of using the antibiotic TMP-SMX (trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole), resistance to this drug increased three-fold, to as high as 90.5 percent in some women. Resistance to other antibiotics increased as well. There was only a slight increase in antibiotic resistance in women who used the cranberry supplement.

As such, the study author Dr Mariëlle Beerepoot concluded that the use of antibiotics in the treatment of recurring UTIs “should be weighed against the greater development of antibiotic resistance.”

Cranberries vs antibiotics: Study details
The 12 month study involved 221 pre-menopausal women who reported having 3 or more UTI infections in the previous year. In a double blind study each of the women were assigned to take either one 480 mg capsule of TMP-SMX daily or 500mg of Cran Max, a cranberry extract capsule, twice daily. Neither the participants or the researchers knew which women were taking the drugs and which ones were taking the cranberry extract.

The end goal of the study: To determine the number of symptomatic urinary tract infections in each of the two groups over a period of 12 months; how soon the first infection would occur after starting preventive treatment; and development of antibiotic resistance to the E-coli bacteria responsible for most UTIs.

The study result: When the study code was broken and the results analyzed researchers learned that the women taking the antibiotic treatment developed 1.8 infections over the course of 12 months, compared to 4 infections in the women taking the cranberry extract. The number of women who developed any infection was slightly higher in the cranberry group than in the group taking the antibiotic.

Moreover the women taking the antibiotic took at least 8 months to develop an infection while the women taking the cranberry capsules saw infections occur after just 4 months of treatment.

So while it may appear as if antibiotics are a better choice for preventing recurring UTIs, that assumption changed when researchers also looked at the number of bacteria that became antibiotic resistance.

• In the cranberry group, between 23% and 28% had bacteria that were resistant to antibiotic.
• In the group taking the antibiotic, nearly 91% were found to have antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Moreover, after taking the TMP-SMX antibiotic for just one month, these same women also had increased resistance to other antibiotics including trimethoprim, amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin. After stopping the TMP-SMX antibiotic, resistance levels dropped to baseline. In the group taking the cranberry capsules, there was no increase in antibiotic resistance.

What this means to you -and what every woman should do: 
   To Continue reading: New study on recurring UTI infections yields surprising results - National Health News | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/health-news-in-national/new-study-on-recurring-uti-infections-compares-cranberries-to-major-antibiotic#ixzz1Tqu8BH6w


For the latest health, beauty and style advice for women over 40 subscribe to RedDressDiary - It's Free! And be sure to check out CheapChicDiary.com for money saving beauty and style tips!Copyright by ElleMedia Network 2011 - All Rights Reserved.In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.