Secret Beauty Ingredient: Water

Okay.  It's actually not a secret at all.  And we've all heard the instructions for us to drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water per day for optimum health...

Well, whilst it's true that we all could do well to drink a little more water every day (you should be drinking water instead of soft drinks, for instance) there *IS* a risk of drinking too much water.  Yes, beleive it or not, you CAN drink too much water and make yourself pretty sick in the process.

However, having said all of that, have you noticed that nearly EVERY time you look at the ingredients list of your beauty products (if you're NOT reading the ingredients lists, then you seriously SHOULD be) the very first ingredient listed is water [aqua]?

It's not an accident.

In case you didn't know, the list of ingredients on any skincare or cosmetic label, are always in descending order.  So that means, the closer to the front of the list an ingredient is, the more of it a product has.  And, the ingredient that is at the very FRONT of the list, is the ingredient that the product contains the most of.

Yup.  Most of us are shelling out big bucks for products which contain mostly water!!  What the...?

As an aside, you might find the Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary interesting reading.  If you've ever wondered what some of those weird sounding words on the back (or underside) of your skincare/cosmetic products are, then this is certainly the place to find out.  It contains not only the name of the product, but some detailed information as well, including links to studies and other sites.  Highly recommended!

There are literally thousands of web articles discussing the importance of water in the human body, and it's not my aim here to replicate any of them.

Just to remind you that:

• water is important
• we should all be getting a little more of it into our bodies than we currently do
• it's the main ingredient in nearly every skincare or cosmetic product
• dry skin NEEDS water, not only in the form of drinking water, but water applied and sealed directly onto the skin