But those gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – have been used in cosmetics and skin care since long before the Magi followed that star to Bethlehem and they can still be found in products today.  Poking around, it did occur to us that the three men, wise as they were, would have had a much easier time of it if they’d had wi-fi and GPS, but that’s another story.

It’s no surprise that gold was and is used in myriad products today, sometimes for color, but also for its effects on the skin. Rumor has it that Cleopatra slept in a gold mask.  It is said to increase blood flow to the areas where applied, “speeding up the cellular processes and activating regeneration,” according to information on the Oro Gold Cosmetics website. It is also said to work at a “deep cellular level … slowing down collagen depletion and the breakdown of elastin.”

Oro Gold is a luxury line, obviously, given the price of gold on the stock market these days.  But it’s also pretty interesting. All of the products in this pretty extensive line are infused with 24-karat gold. It includes everyday facial care, collagen boost series, masks, a men’s line and a “bionic facial expressions” series, which claims to give results similar to treatments like Botox, without the paralysis.  So much for diamonds being a girl’s best friend.

Frankincense and myrrh are in some appealing products, too.  Both are plant resins, most notable for their fragrances and used heavily in incense and as essential oils. But they have other healing properties as well.

Frankincense is a stress-reducer and has been found to encourage the growth of skin cells. It has long been used to heal everything from vomiting and sores to leprosy and gonorrhea.  The South African company Dermaxime uses it in a rejuvenating face wash that’s filled with stuff that helps the skin, including AHAs, BHAs, horse chestnut extract and a dozen or more ingredients like that.

Ren Skin Care and LUSH also use frankincense in products that we’re putting on our wish list.

Myrrh is primarily an effective skin care agent when the essential oil is mixed with a so-called carrier oil. It’s not the main ingredient, but can improve the look and glow of skin, and has soothing and calming effects to ease dry or severely dry skin.

Today, three guys showing up at your door carrying gold, frankincense and myrrh is probably going to seem a little like Ziggy Stardust at Woodstock, but hey, check out their skin. You might want to let them in.

The good news is that the confusion will soon be over.  Because of Whole Food’s leadership, other health retail organizations will follow suit, so when a consumer buys a natural skin care product, they will know exactly what they are getting.  No more worry about deceptive advertising.

The bad news?  Right now, not many products will make the cut.  Consumers will be surprised at the products that have been fooling them all along on the “natural” shelves.  Unless they change their formulation, some of the most popular natural brands will be gone.  Zia Naturals?  Last of the alphabet becomes first out the door.  Nature’s Gate just got shut. Kiehl’s gets keihl-ed.  Derma E?  Derma gone.  100% USDA certification is hard to get, expensive, and here’s the real kicker – the skin and hair care products that have it, don’t sell well.

In 2009, there was no growth in the sale of organic beauty products.  None. Zip. Zilch. Research company Tabs Report pointed to three major issues: price, efficacy and “low overall importance of organics”  in that industry.  In other words, people have found that truly organic grooming and beauty brands cost too much, they don’t work, and consumers are losing interest in their social value. On top of that, they don’t smell good, either, since they can’t add perfume or blockers.  So what we will get from Whole Foods are brands you have probably never heard of and will find very different from the products currently residing in your medicine cabinet.  Look for Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Terressentials, Trillium Organics and Vermont Soap, as some of the top brands.

The good news is that a trusted retailer has stepped up to demand truth in labeling in personal care products, the first of hopefully, many.  The bad news is that if you want pure products, your choices are about to get a lot smaller.

The origins of the company are unusual.  DHC stands for Daigaku Honyaku Center, which Wikipedia says began in Japan as a translation center.  It expanded into publishing, direct marketing, cosmetics, health food supplements and lingerie.  Here in the states they have found success in direct mail, producing monthly catalogs with a lot of repetitive products.  January’s book included 36 moisturizers, for instance. Some products are a little silly – “Q10 Watermist” spray-on revitalizing, um, water, lots of products with milk or olive oil, and the monthly section on DHC Fine Foods, including soups, pilaf, and the above mentioned olive oil.

The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep doesn’t have much information on the line except for a nighttime moisturizer that gets a low hazard rating, and they get points for listing all their ingredients online.  My hero, Paula Begoun, the Cosmetics Cop, finds DHC mediocre, but not dangerous. “None of them [the products] are in any way groundbreaking or unique,” she says.

Several LookinGood volunteers tried out a product of one of their sub-brands – Q10 Ultimate Firming Body Lotion, billed as a “Daily Hydration and Skin Firming Body Care.”  The line is fragrance free and EU Cosmetics Directive Compliant, so there didn’t seem much risk in following the directions of daily use.  But alas, only minimal firming for any of us, and we all disliked the smell.   In the company’s defense, if you are going to truly abide by organic standards, ingredients that alter the smell cannot be added.  But we know there is a plant extract of some kind that would appeal to our olfactory senses.

Coincidentally, two of LookinGood’s volunteers have also tried DHC Velvet Skin Coat, which is basically a fine wax-type base coat for your face.  It’s very light and makes liquid foundation go on lusciously.  It also serves as a filler for those imperfections – aka, wrinkles – around our faces.

There are a million personal care products in the annual DHC Product Guide and no doubt we will try more.  Who knows, maybe we’ll order some noodles and salad dressing.  When we’re done, we can just smear stuff on our bodies.

But silly us.  We’ve been drinking it when we should have been rubbing it on our faces to take years off our vintage, er, visage.  At least that’s what a California company, Red Wine Therapy, Inc., wants us to believe.

Red Wine Therapy, Inc. just got FDA approval to start marketing UVAMIA™ products, made with red wine extract. The line includes supplements and face and body creams. The stuff is made with “100-percent natural red wine extract containing all the antioxidants in red wine (more than 220 different polyphenols) … Vitamin E and shea butter,” according to its press release.

We know from experience that vitamin E and shea butter do good things for our skin.  We also know that some studies suggest red wine can maintain or improve heart health.

According to the Mayo Clinic, all those antioxidants, including polyphenols and resveratrol, “might also help protect them from obesity and diabetes, both of which are strong risk factors for heart disease.” Resveratrol, it says, “might be a key ingredient in red wine that helps prevent damage to blood vessels, reduces ‘bad cholesterol’ and prevents blood clots.”

It also notes that to get the same dose used on mice in the study, we’d have to drink 100-1,000 bottles of vino.  Daily.

That said, we couldn’t find any studies linking red wine and skin. In fact, we only found one that said anything about red wine and aging, suggesting daily consumption of resveratrol “broadly improved the long-term quality of life of middle-aged mice, although most mice did not end up living longer.”  It didn’t mention whether or not said mice had younger looking skin.

Red Wine Therapy, Inc., wants us to jump on this trend anyway, saying its products will help neutralize free radicals.  There are already a bunch of red-wine-extract supplements on the market, and even a wine-based product line.  What sets this one apart?

“More and more you will see energy drinks, enriched cereal bars, and cookies, as well as pet and small animals’ feedings where the Vitamin E is being replaced with red wine extract,” explained pharmacist and company president Dr. Andrea Basagoitia in the release.  ”After all, red wine is a natural drink with many more antioxidant molecules acting together, compared with just Vitamin E or Resveratrol supplements.  The fundamental beauty is having the natural proportion of antioxidants in red wine reflected in the extract, and we believe this product succeeds in doing so.”

Huh?  This has something to do with pets?  We just want to know if, why and how this stuff will help our skin.  That would be something to raise a glass to.

1. Conair Shiny Styles, $25  (it’s a flat-iron-type-thing)
2. Sally Hansen No-Heat Gel Hair Remover For Face and Body, $10.99
3. Philosophy Dark Shadows Illuminating Eye and Upper Lip Cream, $33  (December) and Philosophy The Supernatural Blotting Papers, $10.00 (November)
4. Rene Furterer Triphasic Anti-Hair Loss Regenerating Serum, $53
5. Peter Thomas Roth Lashes To Die For Night Time Eyelash Conditioning Treatment, $125
6. Smooth Away Hair Removal (as seen on TV!) $9.99 (Michelle reviewed this, too, but didn’t hate it.)
7. Avon Healthy Remedies Detox Patches, $15 (put them on your feet at night and forget about the bad gin by morning)
8. Stila Lip Rouge, $24 (Gina tried it. She hated it.)
9. Wet ‘n Wild Ultimate Cover Smooth Foundation, $7.50

Rating the best products is a bit more problematic, of course.  Best for what?  50-year-old hair?  25 year-old adult acne?  TotalBeauty has the “Members Top 100”, but too many of the products only have 9 or 10 reviews.  Our rule is, we’ll try most any product, but want more than 10 other strangers to try it first.

One product of the Top 100 is worth noting with almost 350 reviewers giving it 9.9 out of 10:  NuSkin ageLOC Future Serum.  Reviewers on the site are wildly enthusiastic about it, with quotes like “my skin has become more luminous, vibrant, firmer and lifted” and “I can’t believe the dramatic difference!”  To that we only add, it better work -  it’s $224 an ounce, and only part of a whole skin kit that is another $410.

We save other people’s best for last and turn to Allure Magazine to give us a Top 9 “Best of Beauty Breakthroughs” from 2009.  Most are more within our financial limits:

1. Dove Body Wash with Nutrium Moisture, $6 (Michelle uses it, but hardly thinks it’s a breakthrough.)
2. Pantene Pro-V Nature Fusion, $4 and up
3. Neocutis Blanche Skin Lightening cream, $105
4. Orlando Pita + T3 Renew Dry Conditioner, $25
5. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Nail Color, $5
6. Latisse, $120 for a one-month supply (I am a walking Latisse ad.  It works.)
7. Shiseido Future Solution LX Loading face cream, $230 for 1.8 ounces
8. St. Tropez self-tanners, $25 to $45
9. OPI Axxium Soak-Off Gel Lacquer, $30 and up

There are more than 250,000 active cosmetics products listed in the US Patent and Trade Office database.  Eighteen down, 249,982 to go. Any ones you want to know about specifically?  Ask LookinGood, we’ll find out for you.

How can that be true, you ask?  Researchers from Tabs Group who were commissioned to do the study, point to three major problems:

1. Price. It costs more money to make a product out of natural ingredients rather than synthetic, and consumers pay for it.  “The price for non-organic products is often 50 per cent lower than an organic equivalent…”
2. Efficacy. Consumers are not getting the results they want from so-called organic products.  They are paying a large premium for products they find equivalent or less than traditional products.
3. Give a damn. People don’t.  We think recycling our plastic bags is important, but don’t much care about our shampoo.

Horst M. Rechelbacher

I have a fourth variable the researchers didn’t get to: Smell.  Real, natural, certified, no-bull-organic products smell terrible.   They have no fragrance and no fragrance-blockers. Frankly, decomposed plant matter just plain smells bad.  Case in point – salon brand Intelligent Nutrients by Horst M. Rechelbacher.  Released with great fanfare as the truest, most natural, cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die, certified, organic hair and skin products ever produced, Intelligent Nutrients are gathering dust on salon shelves because folks can’t whiff without wheezing (I did!).  Rechelbacher is the founder of the fabulous-smelling Aveda products, which are quite natural themselves.  He sold Aveda to Estee Lauder back in 2003 and used at least some of his proceeds to buy a farm in Wisconsin where he grows his own plants to use as ingredients.  But nonetheless, his good intentions have not paid off.  His loss stinks.

Mintel, a research company that provides intelligence on a variety of consumer products, including beauty trends, says we can expect eco-friendly products with descriptions like “free from” and “sustainable” in 2010.   “Nu Natural” is the description they give the vision of companies and consumers who are “less focused on certification and more focused on results”.

And they will smell better, too.

In a good portion of the country, the storm windows are in, the snow tires are on (or at least the chains are in the trunk), and the mittens, scarves and hats have been out since November.  That’s all well and good, but what about winterizing your skin?

Few, if any of us, get to settle in for a long winter’s nap, hide from Mother Nature or dodge Father Time, so it’s just as important that we prep ourselves for winter the same way we do our houses and cars. We need to keep the cold and drafts out. We need to keep the moisture in, up the oil usage and keep the heat at slightly below cozy.

Shortcut those showers

WebMD.com has several videos and slideshows about taking care of your skin during the cold months, and at the top of every list is limiting the hot showers. Isn’t that like sticking your head in a bucket of ice water?  The last thing we want to do on a cold morning is cut short a hot shower, but the higher the heat and the longer the shower, the more the healing oils are stripped from your skin.

Lather it on

Another thing to consider is adding fat and oils to your skin’s winter diet. Just like you pull out the heavier clothes for the season, pull out the thicker moisturizers too. And soaps with more oils. You want humectants (urea, glycerin, hyaluronic acid, propylene glycol), that pull water from the air; and emollients (baby, mineral, jojoba oils; petroleum jelly, lanolin), that add oil to the skin. Products that contain retinoids might make already sensitive skin even drier.

Protect the extremities

Finally, go for overdraft protection. Northern exposures take a toll on hands and lips, especially ]”throughout the cold months.  Both tend to chapping and cracking without the proper TLC. Keep them moisturized during the day (we like Burt’s Bees products and Aveda’s Hand Relief). Before bed, slather on a layer of petroleum jelly to lips, hands and feet as well to do some uninterrupted healing through the night. Slip a big warm pair of socks over your hands and feet to allow the heat and moisture to penetrate those areas better.  Although we might tell you to put a sock in it, we don’t recommend pulling a stocking over your lips unless you are trying to hydrate while robbing a bank.

Here’s a really good slideshow from WebMD that covers all the winter skin hazards.

Santa honey, there’s one thing we really do need,
The deed
To Ulta or Sephora,
Santa honey, so hurry down the chimney tonight.

OK, it’s that time of year for the last-minute gift ideas and if you’re reading this, a) you’re clueless and b) you’re in big trouble. How are we going to know what the ladies on your list want? All we can do is tell you what has caught our eye throughout the year.

Of course, we told Santa we’ve been really, really nice this year, but one look at this list and he’s not going to believe us. I suppose naughty is simply in the eye of the beholder … and depends on whether or not your favorite things come in brown paper packages.

Most of what we want is simply about pampering, the rest is about primping. It all makes us feel good.

We found this Lavender Jelly Bath ($28). Developed in Japan, this stuff turns your bathwater into a tubful of fluffy, translucent jelly. It retains the heat of the water up to four times longer and the product description calls it a “bath blanket.”  It sounds either decadent and luxurious or just plain fun. Jello wrestling anyone?

Michelle has been longing for the trendy new French manicure that uses a matte polish as the base and the tips are finished with a similar color, only glossy. It’s subtle and cool, if she could only stop biting her nails.  OPI, for one, offers a bunch of matte colors, and the website has a color chart to help you choose.

Body Butter. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? (Think jelly bath followed by body butter …) Some people don’t like it because of HOW thick it is. For us, that’s what makes it so gloriously delicious. Especially in the winter, we can’t moisturize enough. Just about anything by Arbonne ($28) is on Michelle’s list, but there are a lot of other choices out there, including a really nice one by Vaseline ($10) and a “soufflé” by Origins ($27.50). See if you can test it first – it should be rich and creamy, not greasy as you rub it in.

And we made fun of it earlier this year, but hey, if it’s a gift … the Playboy Dust Up Kissable Body Shimmer.  Who could resist the promise:  “Dust this deliciously shimmering body powder all over your gorgeous curves, and you’ll be mouth-wateringly irresistible, all night long.”  Ooo-la-la.

Of course, if we’re going to be doing all this pampering, we should have a clean, fresh canvas to work with, so there’s a long list of spa services that would be delightful. We’d like to wax some of the places that don’t always get all the attention they need, have a regular facial to not only erases lines, wrinkles and years, but ease the stress too.  A back treatment, or massage or  … all of it, really. There is not one spa service we we’d say Bah, Humbug to.  SpaFinder.com can help you find a spa near her.

Finally, we’ll take pretty much anything from Rodial. Michelle wants another Boob Job. There are moisturizers, detoxifiers, and body modifiers. People who have used their products, including us, say they work.  They’re pricey, but cheaper than surgery and other processes. But be careful what you get her.  If she unwraps Tummy Tuck, Boob Job or Bum Lift – what is the message?  Think hard, my friend. You might be better off going with that toaster.

1.  Pedicure, manicure or both.  We have known countless men who just would never do such a thing unless someone bought them a gift certificate. Now they would not go two weeks without hitting the salon.  It feels good. It looks good. And they don’t have to admit they do it.

2.  Nature Calls Toilet Drops, by Ritual ($9.00 per bottle.) This is probably the greatest invention since the bathroom fan, but more effective.  It’s a little black bottle of magic potion, and just two drops of the liquid into the toilet water will destroy any smell, no matter how much chili was consumed.  Grooming Lounge even has whole kits dedicated to grooming disasters.

3.  Menscience Daily Body and Hair Wash, by Menscience Androceuticals ($59)  You can’t get a man a basket of bathroom goodies like you can a woman, but this kit has just three simple products:  Body Wash, Hair Shampoo and a pair of Buffing Gloves that are worth the price of the kit.  Refreshing, clean smells for a manly man.

4.  Liposuction. If you have the disposable income, why not?  More than 30,000 men had lipo of some kind in 2008 and the results for 2009 aren’t in yet.  How about little off the love handles to greet the spring of 2010?  Maybe slim down that belly over the belt for summer?  Or a shave off the double-chin so that he can shave that beard?  He can learn all about it here.

5.  “Age Erasers for Men” by Joel Weber, and the editors of Men’s Health. Thirteen chapters of advice for stripping away years, such as The Age Eraser Workout, The New Science of Hair Growth, with some good suggestions about hair dyes (use women’s); skin care, back and prostate information and of course, a chapter on sexuality that has this clever chart describing Penis Ages, using little colored balloons. That alone is worth the price of admission, though they ain’t admittin’ it ages.

So, LookinGood advices that you pamper men just like you might pamper yourself.  Remember one of Mae West’s great lines – “It’s not the men in your life that matters, it’s the life in your men.”