For many people who are worried about aging, wrinkles or laugh lines, Botox and plastic surgery have been quick and easy fixes for most on the path to looking their best. But now, for those who are petrified of needles (such as myself–it’s a phobia,) don’t like doctors or don’t like the idea of plastic surgery, yoga enthusiasts are now swearing by a new way to not only look younger, but to fee younger and better about your appearance.

Facial yoga has been deemed the “natural Botox” and is being used by many yoga enthusiasts as a daily exercise. By making theatrical expressions and stretching and training your face in your daily exercise routine, in your spare time or while doing household tasks, within as little as a few session you can start to see not only the lines on your forehead and under your eyes fading, but you can also see the stress that most people carry in their faces cease.

Annelise Hagen, author of The Yoga Face: Eliminate Wrinkles with the Ultimate Natural Facelift, conducts weekly facial yoga classes and developed her own facial yoga techniques that she teaches to her clients.

Hagen’s facial exercises include the Smiling Fish (purse your lips and smile slightly), the Marilyn (blow kisses while keeping your forehead smooth) and the Satchmo (puff out your face and transfer air from cheek to cheek).

Not only can yoga make you look and feel better about yourself and your appearance, it has also been used to train injured faces to move again after an injury or stroke and is also said to help sharpen your mind. Above all, it can help bring out that inner child in you that doesn’t get to come out and play very often. Making theatrical and hilarious faces in the mirror can do wonders for your spirit.

Very few people read the list of ingredients on the back of a cosmetics box. If you’re animal-friendly, you may check to see if there is a line that reads “not tested on animals,” which is most of the time at the bottom of the box, but not too many people read through the list of ingredients printed on their beauty products. In the same respect, what do all those grossly large and confusing words mean anyway?

If the word squalene seems familiar to you, it probably is. Squalene is a very common emollient used in beauty products such as lotions, creams and glosses and is used by big name companies such as L’Oréal Paris. However, squalene is being phased out of cosmetic products as of late due to the vast decline in numbers of deep-sea sharks.

Squalene, which has been an in demand ingredient for beauty products is found in large quantities in the livers of deep-sea sharks and due to the sharks being caught and killed purely for this ingredient, cosmetic companies are seeking the aid of olive extracts to replace the deep-sea shark liver oil. However, if all companies switch to olive extracts, simple supply and demand may be in trouble, as there are only so many olives to go around to big companies.

In 2006, L’Oréal eliminated squalene from their skin care products replacing it with a plant-based substitute and plan to eliminate the ingredient from 12 other lipsticks that they produce. Asian-based cosmetic companies may not be going the same route, though, as shark squalene still remains in very high demand.

So the next time you’re picking up your favorite skin care item, lipstick or gloss and you see squalene listed in the ingredients you can now say you not only know what it means, but know that the company has decided to continue to use deep-sea shark oil in their product and have not opted for either olive extracts or plant-based substitutes. Help eliminate the cause for concern over the dwindling numbers of deep-sea sharks.

Photo by CrowChick