Vita Line

VITA PRODUCTS HAVE BEEN CREATED TO NOURISH PREMATURELY AGING SKIN WITH THE ESSENTIALS IT ONCE HAD.

Young skin is pliant and luminous  because of a complex interaction of proteins, lipids, elastic fibers,  essential fluids and connective tissue. At the end of tissue growth - as we age -- there is a progressive loss of capacity to produce these  vital components. And as these components become scarcer, we look "older". There's a lot of good things to be said about maturity, but sagging skin is not one of them. Pharmaskincare® concentrates  on proactive formulas - the ultimate goal being to protect the body cells and tissues from damage caused by natural activities or stress, and environmental enemies like UV radiation  and chemical pollutants. Pharmaskincare® understands that there  are certain skin essentials that we can duplicate. Essentials that  may provide the proper environment for the protection against damage  due to photo- aging - encouraging the skin to repair itself.

Active Principle Serums

ACTIVE PRINCIPLE SERUMS HAVE BEEN CREATED NOT ONLY TO HELP RESTORE SKIN HEALTH, BUT TO HELP PREVENT FUTURE DAMAGE.

These exceptional products are extraordinarily complex, containing the most recent scientific discoveries both in active ingredients and the fusion of state-of-the-art compounds. The skin is a lot more intricate than it appears. It is composed of layers and layers within these layers. The painstaking skin care research of recent years has brought a new understanding of the mechanism and metabolism of healthy skin to light. The skin constantly renews itself: new cells are produced and dead cells are pushed toward the surface, where they lose their moisture and flake off. But if the skin is renewing itself, why does it begin to sag? What happens to the tone? Why do we get lines, even wrinkles? ACTIVE PRINCIPLE SERUMS were designed to address these critical issues and work with the skin's natural repair mechanisms, while helping to avert further damage and aging.
 

All successful facial care products need to convey believability. At the root of believability is the one truism that we all can relate to: we are growing older. What we can't fully relate to is that we are looking older. We humans tend to visualize ourselves fixed in our teens or twenties, and since the signs of visual deterioration take a long while to appear, we are much more conscious of physical aging than visual aging. The inability to bend as easily or remember things that recently occurred or move as swiftly is apparent to all who are moving into middle age. But look in that mirror. Don’t we look younger than our years? Part of the problem in making the initial facial care sale is that we do look a lot younger than our forebears. When we were small, we thought of fifty as old age and pictured Whistler's Mother. It was an exaggeration even then, but the fact is the fifty year old of even a single generation ago didn’t look as good as he or she does today. Better life styles, nutrition and general health care have indeed made us look younger than our parents or grandparents at the same age. The shock generally comes when someone guesses your age at around what your age actually is. This is the moment of truth and the moment facial care manufacturers gleefully anticipate.

How did this happen? As facial care marketers, we can blame:

• The Sun

• Lack Of Proper Care

• Our Oil Glands Produce Less

• Levels Of Body Moisture Decline

• Collagen And Elastin Begin To Break Down

• Layers Of Skin Begin To Thin Out

• Hormonal Changes

• Free-radical Damage To Our Cells

• Excessive Alcohol

• Smoking

• Gravity

• Lack Of Sleep

• Inconsistent Diets

We can blame these things because we can claim to offset them through our products. What we can't blame, of course, is our genetic makeup. Maybe gene therapy might be able to reverse the fact that your parents looked old before their time and that you probably inherited this tendency, but this is not a marketable concept.

The communication of the promise of youth can come from a single product whose special or unique formula can do what nothing else can. Or it can come from a series of products (regimen) each specifically made to fulfill a certain purpose -- to clean dry skin or tone oily skin. From here there also may be a number of specific specialty products like eye creams or throat oils. The fact is that when a woman gets involved with her regimen, she generally stays with it. Those women who have bought into the regimen approach believe that the more complicated the routine, the more efficacious the products must be. The more pronounced the results will be. On the other hand, a regimen is tiresome and not easily sold in mass market outlets. Not all women have the time or desire to go through each phase of a regimen. Because of this, they generally rely on the efficacy of the two key products of facial care: the moisturizer and the night cream. The cleanser can be a simple moisturizing bar soap; products like masques and toners are used on special occasions. But her moisturizer is an everyday product. And her night cream may or may not be -- depending on her age. And this is the key to understanding the market.

Maturity

There’s a lot of good things to be said about maturity, but sagging skin is not one of them. What would be really ideal is to have the wisdom that comes with age combined with the appearance of youth. Dermatologists grow older, too, and we have just as much reason to look and feel young as any of the rest of the population. Modern science has begun to provide us with ways of slowing down the aging process of the skin by helping protect it against metabolic and environmental damage. Modern thinking concentrates on proactive formulas – the ultimate goal being to protect the body cells and tissues from damage caused by natural activities or stress and environmental enemies like UV radiation and chemical pollutants. Modern thinking examines the evidence that there are certain skin essentials that we can duplicate. Essentials that may provide the proper environment for the protection against damage due to photo-aging – encouraging the skin to repair itself.

If modern science can't yet turn back the clock; it has provided us with visible ways to make it appear that time has been reversed.

The Goals

• To help repair the damage caused by dryness and exposure to the elements.

• To try to duplicate the qualities our skin had when it was young: elasticity, firmness, texture, an inherent capacity to retain natural moisture.

• To help avert future deterioration due to environmental insults like sunlight and pollution.

Maturing skin

With the progression of time, our skin is adversely influenced by our environment, Iifestyle and the natural aging process. We can break down the components of aging into two categories:

1. Intrinsic or genetic

2. Extrinsic or environmental

In order to understand the changes involved in aging skin, we must first review the skin's normal anatomy. The skin has three layers. The lowest layer is composed of subcutaneous fat. Next, the dermis, composed mainly of fibroblasts, collagen, elastin, nerves and vessels. And the epidermis, the most superficial layer, composed of a living portion made up of Basal Cells, Keratinocytes, Melanocytes, Langerhans Cells (cells vital to the skin's immune function) and finally the Corneocyte or dead layer on the top.

• Fibroblasts, which are responsible for the production of collagen and elastin, increase in size while functional activity decreases. This directly affects skin strength and elasticity.

• Elastin fibers decrease and fragment with age.

• The content of dermal collagen, the most important component, decreases by 1% per year after the age of 20. The collagen fibers also become thicker and more brittle with age, due to an increase in the cross linkage.

• The Keratinocytes show a decrease in the number of layers of these cells and each cell tends to be shorter and broader.

• The Melanocytes decrease in their density from 10%-20% per decade. During exposure to sunlight they produce melanin in a blotchy pattern.

(This answers the question why old skin tans unevenly).

• Decreased desquamation results in thickened surface skin. But overall the skin is thinner and more susceptible to various conditions such as dryness, infection, and skin cancer.

• There is a definite decrease in the blood vessels and blood supply. Blood flow to the skin is reduced and the growth of new skin cells drops dramatically. The skin loses its ability to spring back to shape.

• The number of pressure and touch sensors decrease, making older skin more susceptible to thermal and mechanical injury.

• The amount of subcutaneous fat decreases.

• In addition to the intrinsic or natural aging process, the effects of extrinsic factors such as sunlight are responsible for many of the cosmetic problems associated with aging such as hyperpigmentation and wrinkles.

Environmental factors also play a strong role. When skin is exposed to excessive sunlight, a natural response of the Stratum Corneum is to become thicker to protect the sub-layers of the skin. This may result in slower shedding, producing thickened, dry and rough skin.

Overexposure to ultra violet rays can seriously damage our skin. It has been fashionable over the last 50 years to acquire a tan. In addition there appear to have been vast changes in the ozone layer. This has added to the problems caused by sun, especially for the younger generation.

UV light affects the epidermal cells which are constantly dividing and replacing themselves. Eventually this process breaks down and rough areas develop (keratoses) which can develop into skin cancer. The  same UV light causes changes in the melanocytes which produce the pigment and irregular brown patches like large freckles appear. They are sometimes called liver spots but have nothing to do with liver disease. These brown marks may even develop in relatively dark skins. fibers and endings, blood capillaries, fibroblasts, mast cells and lymphocytes.

The Papillary Dermis: The thinner upper layer of the dermis, situated beneath the Stratum Basal of the epidermis. It is composed of interwoven collagen and elastic fibers. The UV light can penetrate into the dermis where the collagen and elastic tissue give the skin its strength and flexibility. Damage to these structures causes increased wrinkling and the thickened yellow appearance on the nape of the neck known as elastosis, often seen in people who work outdoors. Often, small blood vessels become conspicuous, especially on the cheeks, a problem known astelangiectasia.

The loss of elasticity also exaggerates the bruising effect that may occur after prolonged sun exposure. This condition used to be called senile purpura but may be seen in sun-damaged skin as early as age 40. In severely damaged skin with marked elastosis, senile comedones (blackheads) may develop. They have no connection whatsoever with acne but are extremely unattractive. It is easy to recognize the additional signs of sun damage added to the normal process of aging. Darker skinned races manage to look younger at the age of 50 than their paler skinned equivalents due to the increased amount of protective melanin produced. Since it is impossible to anticipate exactly when one will be exposed to the sun, sunscreen should be applied daily. Furthermore, because it is cloudy in the morning there is no guarantee that the sun will not be strong by mid-day. On holiday or when involved in outdoor sports, sunscreens are most effective when applied to cool, dry skin. It is therefore sensible to apply 20 to 30 minutes before going into the sun. The dermal degradation as we age is observed most visibly as lines and wrinkles.