THE GREAT PUMPKIN: INNOVATIVE USES FOR A TRADITIONAL FRUIT

Skin Care Ingredient Innovations Offered by Sonage Trick or treat? It makes a great pie and tasty bread. Children---or more likely their parents—carve it into fantastic faces lit with candles inside. Charlie Brown and Snoopy celebrate it every year. It seeds are delicious toasted and salted. And its color is rich and wonderful. But could pumpkin be a great the skin care ingredient?

Absolutely, says Sylvie Archenault, founder and president of Los Angeles-based Sonage, Inc., a total, salon-developed skin care program that offers a long-term method of coping with the effects on skin of stress, pollution and poor eating habits caused by the pace of life in the 21st century. The second generation French esthetician and educator has included pumpkin in one of her Sonage products for very good reason.

Pumpkin Peel is a powerful anti-oxidant and mild retinoic acid substitute and can be used as a natural topical treatment for oxidative free-radical damage, “she says.”Vitamin A derivatives that resemble the retinoic acid receptors found in the skin are necessary for the development of the cells in the early stage. It helps decrease the free-radical stress associated with chemical peel

According to Sylvie, pumpkin provides a good synergistic base. Its extract has built-in fruit acids and enzymes. What’s more, due to an unusual freeze-drying process, it can be concentrated. Indeed, Pumpkin Seed OIL base is the most effective vehicle for introducing hemoglobin to the epidermis. It has an unusual high, natural concentration of Salicylic Acid and Zinc, which are excellent carriers of hemoglobin through keratinized tissue.

Pumpkin Seed Tar is intended to be safer and more effective replacement for the reportedly carcinogenic coal Tar and Pine Tar currently used in the treatment of eczema and psoriasis. Pumpkin Seed Tar is free of the carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons found in coal tar and is more effective because of the nutritional Vitamin A derivatives it contains.

Pumpkin has had many legendary healing benefits throughout history. Among the Indians, Pumpkin seed was made into a tea and ingested for the treatment of edema, kidney stones and urinary burning. Pumpkin leaves have been utilized for the treatment of bruises and sprains. The pulp of fresh pumpkin applied to the forehead and temples is said to relieve migraines and headaches, and the sap is said to relieve ear aches. A syrup made of pumpkin and ingested on a regular basis is supposed to maintain a healthy prostate in men. Today, pumpkin is used topically for immediate relief from burns. It provides a cooling, healing effect on the inflammation, says Sylvie. She has included it in Sonage Ligne Prestige BioSyl Night Crème for its built-in fruit acids and enzymes and its radiance-producing properties.

Extremely beneficial for dehydrated skin, BioSyl Night Crème is an intensive, firming, healing crème formulated with unique combination of highly effective ingredients. BioSyl contains EGF, or Epidermal Growth Factor, a peptide that accelerates the growth of epidermal cells, reduces wrinkles and assists in wound healing. It is a yeast and barley derivative, which energizes the skin as it helps build up its immunity; and the super-penetrating protein, Collagen, to help support and strengthen between cells in tissue

Pumpkin Oil is added for its radiance and softening; Allantoin for its healing properties; Sunflower, because it is rich in Vitamin E, Aloe Vera for its healing, emollient and anti-inflammatory properties.