Features

Eczema (from the Greek ekzein "to boil out") and dermatitis generally appear as dry or weeping, intensely itchy skin with raised areas that look like small blisters. In severe cases, atopic dermatitis and eczema symptoms may include crusted-over lesions.

With skin care professionals and dermatologists alike reporting adult acne in general is on the rise, the question is how to get rid (or at least minimise) it?

This skin disorder affects a great many people and is characterised by pimples or spots on the face back or neck. Teenagers are more prone to getting acne but many others will experience it at some time in the life. Pregnant women often find that due to hormonal changes in their body they experience breakouts.

Acne is a very common skin condition seen in around 80% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 years. Research shows that nearly 30% of teenagers in Britain suffer from this problem to the extent that they need treatment.

So these products arrived through my letter box – Boire Pore Perfect; three products in all – pore unclogging scrub which apparently “exfoliates and refines”; shine control moisturiser that “balances and controls” and facial deep cleansing pore strips which “unclogs and diminishes”. So far so good. Isn’t that what every girl wants?

An uneven skin tone, or hyperpigmentation, is the result of an over production of melanin. Melanin is what gives skin and hair its colour, helps protect skin against damaging UV light and absorbs heat from the sun.

Besides having facial hair, there are structural differences between a man’s skin and a woman’s. Androgen (testosterone) stimulation causes an increase in skin thickness, which accounts for why a man’s skin is about 25 per cent thicker than a woman’s. In addition to being thicker, a man’s skin texture is tougher.

Famous lines from a famous song. But what do you do if you don’t have those film star looks? Surely all of us stand a chance of impressing our Shania Twain or Angelina Jolie? Of course we all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but how can we catch the eye of our Mrs Smith? Start with your skin.

The colour of our skin is determined by the amount of melanin pigment our body creates. Without melanin everyone’s skin would be very pale white with varying shades of pink caused by the blood flowing through it. Melanin is produced by special cells (melanocytes) that are interspersed among the other cells in the top layer of the skin, the epidermis. After melanin is produced, it spreads into other nearby skin cells.

In the past, sun exposure was thought to be a healthy benefit of outdoor activity. Modern scientific information, however, has shown many unhealthy effects of sun exposure, such as early aging of the skin and skin cancer.

Look in any department store or turn on any TV channel and you will see a vast array of anti wrinkle creams being advertised. But what are they and are they effective? We thought that we would take a look at the history of them and see just what a humble cream has evolved in to.