When you’re a large, successful cosmetic company, your research department is constantly trying to develop new products. Well, here are just a few interesting examples of new products in the beauty world:

1. Elure Advanced Skin Lightening System (lotion and night cream)

Formerly, skin lightening formulas attempted to reduce dark spots by blocking production of melanin down in the skin. Since sun and other irritants can cause more melanin to develop, this approach could be a real struggle. This product represents a breakthrough because it treats the dark spot from the surface of the skin. Melanozyme, first used as a lightener for paper (!), is an enzyme derived from mushrooms. Unlike the former whiteners, it is faster and it does not irritate sensitive skin. It can be used on light, medium or dark skin tones.

2. CryBaby Semi-Permanent Mascara

This mascara curls, lengthens and thickens without the usual smudge around the eyelashes. The mascara is custom-blended by a technician, using synthetic fibers and a liquid adhesive base, and applied in a salon. Your lashes are curled, if you choose, before they are primed with a clear gel. Next, the sticky mixture is brushed on. Finally, there’s a misting of purified water to set. The mascara dries in minutes. The whole process takes only about 30 minutes. When the mixture begins to break down by itself, two to three weeks later, it is recommended you have it removed at the salon, which takes 10 to 20 minutes. This mascara can be an alternative to lash extensions.

3. La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo Acne Treatment

This formula is a marriage of two mainstays of acne treatment — benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. It had been thought the mixture of these two formulas would be too strong. By reformulating, this product is said to clear skin in two ways: It penetrates the pores deeply to destroy acne-causing bacteria, and it regulates oil production. A company-sponsored study revealed that the patient’s acne, whiteheads and blackheads were reduced by 60 percent after 10 days.

4. LaViv

Whoa! Another injectable filler. Many of the injectable fillers currently used last only six months or so (there are exceptions). The La Viv requires your dermatologist to remove a tiny piece of skin from behind your ear and send to the La Viv labs. There, technicians extract your own fibroblasts (the building blocks of collagen, elastin and growth factors), reproduce and multiply them in a lab and place the resulting serum in vials, which are frozen in your name. Whenever you want an injection of the filler, vials are shipped overnight to your dermatologist’s office for a series of three treatments, three to six weeks apart. The results aren’t immediately apparent, but after the third injection, you’ll usually see results, and they’ll continue to become more noticeable around the six-month time frame. The idea is that once your cells are “banked,” when the supply gets low, the lab can grow more!

5. Neutrogena Wet Skin Tech Sunscreen line of products

Slather this sunscreen on right after you jump out of the pool and it’ll stay! No more toweling off and no more messy blobs. This sunscreen is supposed to be just as effective on wet skin as it is on dry, adhering to the skin without streaking or turning white. Now there is no excuse for failing to reapply your sunscreen throughout the day.

6. Luster Now Instant

Whitening Toothpaste

Instant gratification! No more time-consuming strips or gels or trays. No more waiting to eat or drink. This toothpaste contains microscopic, blue-tinted spheres (called Bluverite) that brighten teeth immediately and last for several hours. The Bluverite cancels out any yellowness on the teeth.

7. Derma Doctor Photodynamic Therapy Sunlight-Activated Laser Lotion

This topical cream is able to transform harmful UV rays into a beneficial red light that helps smooth lines without the use of a machine. The ingredients contained in this lotion take the UV rays that make it through the sunscreen and transform them to the same wavelength of red light known to boost collagen in the skin. Although this treatment is not as strong as office light therapy, it does simulate it.

8. Origins Plantscription Anti-Aging Serum

For many years, retinoids have been used to make our skin more beautiful, protecting collagen and elastin to give our skin a more youthful appearance. Recently, a biologist discovered a tree bark in Ghana that seemed to produce results like those achieved in retinoids. Called Plantscription, this serum has as its main ingredient African Anogissus, which works like retinoids to protect the collagen and elastin. It also generates a springlike filament known as fibrillin, which gives the skin more “bounce.” It produces comparable results in anti-aging (88 percent of visible wrinkle-reducing power) of treatment creams containing retinoids, without the side effects of retinoids such as photosensitivity, dryness, redness and itching.

9. Palo Via Skin Renewing Laser

Now for use on the eye area only, this laser was invented by a Russian rocket scientist! His goal was to develop a laser to use at home and at an affordable price. He scaled down the large laser used in the doctor’s office to eradicate wrinkles — to one that can fit on a vanity, at a total price of $499. You have to use this home laser daily for a month and then about twice a week for maintenance. However, the results are impressive — 92 percent of testers’ wrinkles were reduced after a one-month trial. The laser is so gentle it can even be used for women of dark skin. For now, it’s only used around the eye area. In the future, it might be that a laser similar to this one can be used on scars, stretch marks and little lines in the upper lip.

10. Keratin Earth

Instead of expensive, tedious and smelly hair-straightening formulas that leave hair prone to breakage and looking dull or home treatments that aren’t very effective, Keratin Earth is positioning itself as the $99 at-home kit that leaves hair sleek and shiny for one to three months. It also protects hair from damage, and there’s no waiting 48 hours to shampoo. And the formula is said to be suitable for all hair types, even color-treated hair.

11. Shiseido Benefiance WrinkleResist24 Line

(Balancing softener, day and night emulsions, day and night creams)

Another way the sun’s UV rays age the skin is to stimulate an enzyme called heparanase, which encourages the formation of wrinkles. Shiseido scientists have found three ingredients (out of the 20,000) that help block this enzyme. The formula also contains an amino acid that helps slow tissue breakdown.

12. Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

These strips deliver perfectly glossy nails with zero drying time and should last up to 10 days. They contain a high-grade medical adhesive, so you can just position on your nail, press down and buff along the edge of the nail with the tool included. Go on, dig in your purse right away. Or rush home to work in the garden. When it’s time, remove with regular nail polish remover.

13. Avon Anew Solar Advance line

When your healthy skin cells are assaulted by UV rays, your body’s own immune response generates free radicals that cause even more damage. Avon’s Solar Advance system has ingredients to activate your body’s own natural antioxidant enzymes, offering an additional layer of protection. In clinical testing, this complex also boosted the repair of enzymes inside the cell and damage to DNA and enhanced the cell’s natural repair mechanism.

14. RoC Retinol Correxion Sensitive (night cream and eye cream)

People with sensitive skin often have irritating side effects from using Retinol for fine lines and wrinkles. RoC scientists found a way to formulate Retinol so it doesn’t have these side effects. Using soothing emollients and slowing the release of the Retinol increases skin tolerance. In tests, 95 percent of subjects showed significant improvement in fine lines and wrinkles after only two months and greater smoothness after two weeks.

Dry Skin in winter—

Foods for healthy, supple skin:

Antioxidants: They can help prevent damage to your cells that causes aging, wrinkles and dry skin. Find them in colorful fruits and veggies like berries, tangerines, apricots, tomatoes, beets, squash, spinach, peppers, beans and sweet potatoes.

Vitamin A for skin repair: It’s found in oranges, carrots, cantaloupes, leafy greens, eggs and low-fat cheese and milk.

Vitamin C for repair of damage caused by the sun and free radicals: Go for citrus fruits, papaya, kiwi, red bell peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts and other greens.

Vitamin E: It’s an antioxidant that is an anti-inflammatory and an immune enhancer. You’ll find it in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, olives, spinach and asparagus.

Essential Fatty Acids (omega-3s and omega-6s) help protect your skin’s natural oil barrier, resulting in smoother and younger-looking skin. Find them in olive and canola oils, flax, walnuts and cold-water fish such as salmon, sardines and mackerel.

Skin-friendly oils like a good-quality extra virgin olive oil (EVOO as Rachael Ray says) and cold-pressed oils have a simple processing procedure. This means they can retain more of the skin-boosting nutrients than many other mass-produced brands. This can result in better-looking and healthier-looking skin.

Green Tea: It’s almost magical. It helps stop inflammation. It slows damage to DNA. It can help prevent sunburn. Although it is found in many products, drinking it right out of the cup is the best way to reap the benefits.

Selenium is a trace mineral that may help protect skin cells from free radical damage and may also play a role in skin cancer prevention. Sources for selenium include Brazil nuts, button mushrooms, shrimp, lamb, fish such as snapper, cod, halibut, tuna and salmon. Other sources include cooked beef, light turkey meat, oysters, sardines, crab and whole-wheat pasta.

CoQ10 contains a powerful antioxidant protecting your skin from those awful free radicals, but it also helps in energy production and in the function of your immune system. Find CoQ10 in oily fish – salmon and tuna, in organ meats like liver and in whole grains.

WATER! Aim for six to eight (8-ounce) glasses a day. Probably the No. 1 agent in keeping the skin balanced and hydrated. It helps the cells grab nutrients and then helps them to purge the toxins. In addition, it improves your circulation and blood flow, resulting in great-looking skin.