Wanted: Second job to pay for Menopause skin care products!

I've always taken good care of my skin. It started when I was in my twenties and started earning my own money through my nurse's salary. I'd rather buy face and skin lotions than new clothes. And did!
In my 30's and 40's I was always the first person in my crowd to try new and improved products, like lotions labeled age-defying and youth in a bottle. In my later 40's and then 50's serums and self-professed wrinkle creams became the norm. You state the brand, I've tried it. These products don't come cheap, and just FYI, the older you get, the more expensive the products become. I really believe this is a marketing ploy by the manufacturers. Don't believe me? Go out and price Johnson's Baby lotion, and then get a price for Neutrogena products, which is also owned by J&J. Which products do you think are less expensive?


Our skin is our largest organ. It acts to protect the underlying structures of our bodies as a first line of defense against bacteria, disease organisms, and the damaging byproducts of the sun.  As our bodies age, so too does our skin, and the earlier you start to protect your skin and develop a preventative care regime, the healthier your skin will be and look for the long term.

When menopause occurs, all bets for keeping your skin healthy are off unless you are actively taking care of it before perimenopause ever hits. Collagen, a protein that makes your skin firm and elastic, dwindles during menopause. This is why we start to see wrinkling, sagging, and lackluster skin during our 50's. The outer layer of our skin also gets thinner, drier, and more prone to bruising and tearing. If you get a cut, it takes longer to heal than it used to. Some poor chicks even get acne. Yeah, you thought that was a once in a lifetime occurrence, didn't you? No such luck.


In my 20's, Retinol was used exclusively for the treatment of acne. With time and research, beauty product manufacturers found it helped not only those afflicted with acne, but aided in anti-aging of the skin as well. Retinol, and the retinoids it is extracted from, are a derivative of Vitamin A which has been shown to stimulate collagen and help keep the skin from thinning. A vast majority of anti-aging products sold commercially now contain some amount of retinol.


When I was a kid my mother used to slather baby oil and iodine on me during the summer and then send me out to play to "get some color on my face." I can't be mad at her because she was skin-ignorant, but sending me out into the stark light of the summer sun without any protection, but in fact with products that enhance the absorption of the sun's harmful rays, was so not the right thing to do. It probably was a direct link to the melanomas I've had develop the past few years. Sun protection is a must in anyone from the age of 6 months up. The earlier you start slathering your babies, the better and more protected their skin w ill be. And if you have teens, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE don't let them use tanning beds. You may look healthier with a tan, but you are literally killing your skin and setting yourself up for potential skin cancer in the future.

So did you go check the prices on products labeled anti-aging and wrinkle protection, et al? I wasn't kidding when I said they were expensive.

I need to go find myself a part time job just to pay for the products I use! No lie!
Hee Hee
When I'm not protecting my skin, you can usually find me in these places where I try my hand at fiction writing: Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me

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