The "Diva Dish" is the area of our interactive website where I want to educate you about ingredients, alert you to new findings in the industry, offer tips and techniques, and keep you updated as to what is going on at DivaK.

As I stated in the Products section of our website, Diva K Minerals and Skincare was birthed from my observation of the rise in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.   I began to question everything my skin came in contact with.

It is my desire to offer you more than a fabulous product.   I want to educate you on ingredients, both good and bad, that we put into our bodies every day so that you can achieve optimal health for your skin and body. This will be a continuous endeavor on our website, so check back often for new updates! We would love to hear from you also, so feel free to post your comments, findings, opinions, etc.

Active Ingredients

The active ingredients in skin care products are the most important part of a product. Emollients, humectants, emulsifiers, and penetration enhancers, are in just about every product. The ingredients on products are listed in order of concentration.

For example, if the active ingredient vitamin E listed near the end of the ingredient list, it will do the skin no benefit because the concentration value of the ingredient is not high enough to have any efficacy. The further down a product is on the list of ingredients, the less potent it is. The company can say it is in the product, and if the consumer does not read and understand how listing active ingredients work, then that consumer is wasting their money.

Allow me educate you on several active key ingredients that should be in your skin care regime.

1.  Peptides are a new buzz word today that are active and actually make a difference in the skin’s appearance. Peptides are amino acids that repair, strengthen cell structure and increase collagen by a very large margin. Peptides prevent damage and counter acts damage already done. Peptides are commonly referred to as an "alternative to Botox". 

2. Vitamin A (Retinal Retin) improves skin elasticity, texture and firmness. It is known as a potent antioxidant and is necessary in skin care products in concentrations high enough to make a difference.

3. Vitamin C  Referred to as ascorbic acid, or Vitamin C esters, protect collagen from the oxidation process or “rusting”, if you will. It helps reduce and sometimes eradicates dark or age spots, inflammation and produces soft and glowing skin.

4. Vitamin D is another powerful antioxidant that is crucial to your skin. It helps improve the skin feel and texture, as well as being vital in cellular renewal.

These first few active ingredients are just the beginnings of my endeavor to educate you, about active ingredients, and why and where they should be in YOUR products. These are just a few of the ingredients that are referred to as cosmeceuticals. They are skin care treatments that provide added benefit beyond a moisturizer. Cosmeceuticals are not considered a medication and therefore are not regulated by the FDA.  I will have many more ground breaking ingredients to share with you in the near future.

Dangerous Ingredients:

I want to bring light to the ingredients that my motto expresses: “It is what’s NOT in our product that makes the difference!"

This is a very long list, but I felt it wasimportant to keep those out of my skin care and minerals.   I’ll cover a few of these ingredients and why you shouldn’t be using products containing them.

The first one that I will elaborate on is Parabens.

Parabens are a group of chemicals widely used as preservatives in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. These are found in all cosmetics, not for your protection, but to extend the shelf life of the product.

Large cosmetic companies make their products in vats where DivaK Skincare & Minerals is made in much smaller batches.   All our products at DivaK are paraben free.

What is the information that is out on parabens? Parabens have been proven toxic and mutagenic in animal studies. They are better known as preservatives.  Remember, not for your protection. The paraben family, Ethylparaben, Methylparaben, Butylparaben, and Propylparaben are the class of preservatives found at the end of a huge class of cosmetics on the market today. This quartet of parabens has been known to cause allergic reactions to sensitive individuals and even worse has led to the conclusion that parabens can act as endocrine disrupters.

Any of the parabens may interrupt the working endocrine system, being a system of glands that occur throughout the body, which release important hormones to regulate and control certain vital functions such as the production of sperm in males and ovulation in females. These glands include: hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal gland, thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas, adrenal, ovary and testis. 

It has been shown to trigger contact dermatitis that unpleasant, uncomfortable and visually distressing condition of the skin that can be so difficult to "settle", which can flare up so easily when provoked by such nasty chemicals, not to mention the fact that parabens have been found in tumor biopsies and implicated in possibly "increasing the risk of breast cancer".

The FDA does not regulate the industry; therefore parabens are still being used in salon products, department stores, etc.   These ingredients should not be in your products either. 

Stay tuned! More is on the way!