If you've ever tried to find a skin care product to deal with the skin care concerns of aging skin, you're probably as confused as the average person. There are so many products and ingredients that tout 'increase in this', 'decrease in that', 'revitalized this and revitalized that' and on and on and on. Many empty promises or over-hyped formulations.

In order to understand what anti-aging skin care products are intended to do, you have to first understand about what the aging process is for skin. Aging skin has the condition where the structural proteins that bind and support the skin, collagen and elastin, lose their resiliency and cohesion, causing the skin to wrinkle and/or sag. The body's ability to produce new collagen and elastin also diminishes with age while the cells in the various layers of our skin decline and thin, loosing the ability to adequately maintain moisture. Without proper hydration, the healing mechanisms of the skin cease to function, adversely affecting the skin's ability to receive nutrients and repair itself. The result is rough, lose, wrinkled skin.

Of course, we all want to have the best skin possible at any age and are searching for solutions to maintain our skin's youthfulness. In our quest and with the constant marketing and advancements in skin care, it can sometimes be difficult to find an affordable and effective solution for great skin care.

However, what you need to know is that it doesn't have to be that complex (as many of the product name suggest!). What you should consider is that what any skin care program should be is simple. That's it, just simple. The results that we all want are simple: soft, smooth, clear, radiant, younger-looking skin.

Too much of the time now days, skin care marketers are trying to convenience consumers that they need formulations that no average consumer can understand, or day and night products, or formulations that highly successful, well-known personalities would use. If you think about it, how many products do you currently have in your storage that were purchased because of these marketing strategies?

With these types of advertising, there are so many re-touches and questionable representation of the product effectiveness because the personality also receives so many other types of services and procedures that impact the condition of skin that you really cannot know the true results that the highly marketed products will bring.

The positive side of the situation is that there are constant and ever evolving advances in skin care and we all have the option for our skin condition improving with age.

If you are looking for a skin care program, there are some guidelines you may want to consider when making your skin care choices:

Protect your skin while you are in the sun and extreme weather. Use proper protection.

Drink lots of water. It's so important for proper skin hydration and keeping your body clean from toxins and other chemicals that could cause adverse reactions in your skin.

You should know what you are using on your skin. If you can't pronounce the majority of the ingredients or there are more than 5 or 6 ingredients, then it may be too complex for what your skin actually needs. Skin care that uses these types of formulations are full of fillers, coloring, preservatives, and chemicals that are not beneficial for your skin and come with a high price where the consumer is paying for the filler more so than the active ingredients. These types of ingredients are only needed to fill up the bottle and make it appealing to smell or touch. Sometimes products will contain multiple active ingredients but in order to formulate these ingredients, it requires that other ingredients be added. You end up paying for something your skin cannot use. The cheaper ingredients are filling up the bottle. Try a similar approach to how you would choose your food (skin is 'live cells' and needs nourishment). Watch the labels and choose products with skin healthy formulations where the active ingredients are 80% of the ingredients.

You should use a good and effective cleanser. This is the most important step in your skin care process. Many cleansing products do not leave your skin feeling smooth and deeply cleansed. Find a product that goes deep into the pores, provides light exfoliation and conditioning, and does not leave any residue. Applying moisturizers and treatments on top of skin that is not completely clean will just make the problem worse by clogging pores and showing a rough, uneven skin texture.

You should be able to adjust your program to meet your skin's daily needs. If you can't adjust the use of the products to match what your skin needs on a particular day, are you really getting what you need? Your program should be able to hydrate, heal, and renew your skin. You should see this gradual improvement everyday and not have to wait 30 to 60 days for results. It's like watering a plant. A plant that needs water as a critical nutrient will respond immediately to the water being absorbed through its roots and perk up within a few hours. Watch your skin for a week or so and you'll know how effective the program can ultimately be for your skin care needs.

You should be able to quickly go through your regime. It should not take more than 5 minutes. A skin care program should include the steps to cleanse, exfoliate, treat and/or moisturize. You should be able to pick and choose what you need based on you skin's current condition for that day.

You should not be able to feel the product on your skin. In order for skin care to really be effective, it must penetrate the skin cells. Product sitting on top of your skin is product that is not penetrating the skin layers. Products with fillers and other unnecessary, complex formulations will may not get deep or directly enough to provide the treatment and results you are looking for. You should not know that you are wearing your skin care.

You should feel comfortable with makeup optional skin. If your skin care is really working, your skin will improve and you will not want to put makeup on it if you don't have to. Most skin problems are correctable to a large degree. You should be able to go out feeling confident that your skin is at its best (with minimal makeup) no matter what your age is. Also, by using makeup less, you are giving your skin more time to repair and restore itself without the interruption of other product chemicals on your skin.