Behind every beautiful smile and elegantly arched brow is a network of muscles supporting them. While beauty care focuses on the skin, much of our outward appearance depends on the shape and condition of the muscles beneath.

That’s the argument for exercising your facial muscles as regularly as you do your abs and glutes. As the face ages, skin loses elasticity and the fat pads between the muscle and skin get thinner. These fat pads give the face much of its shape and as skin sags the pads slide, causing jowls and droopiness.

However, a recent study at Northwestern University School of Medicine found that a 30-minute daily or alternate-day facial exercise program done over 20 weeks improved the facial appearance of middle-aged women.

Since it’s muscular activity that causes unwelcome lines such as crow’s feet and wrinkled brows, how can more activity alleviate those lines? Exercise can increase the size and firmness of facial muscles, says senior study author Emily Poon, explaining that “muscle growth is increasing the facial volume and counteracting the effects of age-related fat thinning and skin loosening.”

Facial exercises can be found on a number of sites, but you can’t fight aging skin with “Cheek Lifters” and “Jowl Erasers” alone. The appropriate skin care products and regimen work in conjunction with exercises for the best results.

As part of its Gesturecare program, Lipotec recommends a number of ingredients which can supplement a facial exercise program. Among them:

UPLEVITY™ peptide enhances the proper assembly of elastin and increases the gene expression of several types of collagen, other proteins and integrins. This improves resistance against gravity and aging, contributing to skin firmness.

ACTIFCOL™ advanced botanical ingredient with Shiitake mushroom extract has potential activity in increasing type I collagen and PLOD1 levels, as well as in reducing carbamylation of such protein.

ARGIRELINE^® peptide helps remove deep lines and wrinkles on the forehead or around the eyes. Studies show it decreased wrinkle volume by 20.6% and length by 15.9% after one week and also reduced wrinkle depth by 17% after 15 days.

EYESERYL^® peptide helps improve the appearance of the eye contour, mainly by reducing under-eye puffiness and dark circles. Studies have shown up to a 29.7% reduction in the volume of eyebags.

SEACODE™ marine ingredient helps reduce facial wrinkles associated with aging by increasing collagen I. It has shown a visible decrease of upper lip lines in just one week.

Gesturecare...Exercising Beauty