Health & Fitness Blog

If you could achieve the amazing, timeless look of your favorite film star celebrity just by using the right anti aging skin care product, would you hesitate? If Catherine Zeta-Jones were to tell you that she has a secret formula for keeping her phenomenal looks intact despite the passage of time, and that you could find it in your local department store, wouldn?t you be grabbing the car keys right about now? Of course you would! Until you realized that you were probably dreaming.

Now, imagine that you are a woman at the peak of her film career, commanding a six or seven digit salary, and that you have access to any beauty treatment or technique available to help you gain younger looking skin. What would your answer be in that scenario ? a trip to the local department store, or maybe something a little more involved?

A hot trend in the anti aging skin care product market is the advent of ?designer dermatologists? who cater to the wealthiest of clients. Offerings such as ?Re Vive,? the brainchild of Dr. Gregory Bays Brown in Kentucky, promise amazing results and carry equally amazing prices that can top hundreds of dollars an ounce. The selling point is that these secret formulas are designed to exacting specifications by highly successful and respected dermatologists at the top of their field. The people that they are selling to have the need to stay at the top of their beauty game, as well as the financial means to ante up.

But celebrity women are not the only people who are concerned about retaining younger looking skin. Famous men are also starting to jump in, particularly in industries like film and television where a recognizable and appealing look is a mainstay to success. Hollywood icon Brad Pitt is purported to be a fan of Hungarian dermatologist Ernie Lazlo?s brand of cosmetic treatment, as well as the occasional celebrity spa resculpting facial.

So is it all hype? What could be in these magic potions that would make them able to demand a higher cost than your average dinner for two? Were you to be able to inspect these items you would find many familiar facial friends: amino acids, vitamins, kelp extracts, etc. ? nothing too far out of the ordinary ingredient list. Then there might start to be a few surprises, like a synthetic equivalent to the epidermal growth hormone found in the saliva of your favorite household pets.

But don?t think that unusual additives are solely the purview of a designer anti aging skin care product, or that the average Josephine must be satisfied with coconut oil and lavender petals. Even the local cosmetic counter might carry a wrinkle cream made with a hint of purified snail slime if you take time to read the labels.

Concocting eccentric secret formulas for creams or masks in the name of beauty also is not a new idea. The Habsburg Empress Sisi used ground slugs as part of her daily regimen to ensure younger looking skin in 19th century Austria. It is a tradition that extends to Cleopatra and the days of the Pharaohs, and undoubtedly much further back than that.

Whether or not you choose to partake, there will always be women (and men) around you using an anti aging skin care product as part of their quest for youth and physical beauty. Whether it comes with an exorbitant price tag, or a homemade recipe, will be a matter of marketing power and personal conscience.