Venus Effect & Science

VENeffect is the name of our skin care line, inspired by our metaphor the "Venus Effect". A woman's physical attractiveness is derived from the effects of the hormone estrogen. Estrogen is responsible for every aspect of femininity, as we know it, from the curve of the waist, to the lift in the voice, and certainly the glow in a woman's skin as a result of peak hormonal vitality. Essentially, the Venus Effect represents the inspired feminine aesthetic.

When women understand that feminine beauty is designed to reflect hormonal wellness they want to maintain this ideal balance throughout their lives. Understanding how to maintain the Venus Effect requires the awareness that appearance, mood, and energy level are all strongly influenced by hormones. If the hormonal positives are described, there are many avenues to achieve the balance sought...many of which are ways to maximize overall health. As for skin, the secret is to borrow from the reproductive vitality of the plant world using phytoestrogens to help maintain the desired glow of peak hormonal vitality using the VENeffect Skin Care line.

Women now live well beyond their reproductive years and they want to maintain their vitality and appearance despite the challenges of hormonal changes. The Venus Effect can be achieved through a life style plan such as that outlined in the section VENeffect Advice. Women have much to gain from these strategies throughout their entire lives.

What is Hormonal Aging?

As the influence of estrogen declines from its peak in our twenties, our skin loses elasticity resulting in fine lines, wrinkles and loss of skin tone. This is called hormonal aging and affects all women beginning in their late twenties and accelerating as they age.

For women, hormonal vitality is maximized with peak fertility around ages 25-27. Women are unique in that their hormones are cyclic with ups and downs throughout their lifetime. Also differing from men is the female design to retire from fertility around age 50 through a very specific lifespan of the hormonal cycle. The dominant female hormone estrogen is programmed to decline with declining fertility, and the feminine aesthetic is meant to reflect this change. Every part of a woman's body is influenced by this change, but most notably her connective tissue, specifically collagen content and elasticity. This is reflected in a woman's skin, corresponding with a loss of collagen, affecting her appearance as well as her flexibility and overall health.

The lifestyle recommendations outlined in the VENeffect Advice section of this site are absolutely vital to offset the effects of hormonal aging. VENeffect Anti-Aging Skin Care, combined with the commitment to a healthy lifestyle, can prevent and reverse hormonal aging.

This chart depicts a typical 28-day cycle of the big three hormones beginning with cycle day one (the start of your menstrual period). The dominance of either estrogen or progesterone, as well as the interplay of testosterone, determines what phase of the cycle you are in. Just before ovulation, as both testosterone and estrogen peak, you are at peak Venus. This is what we refer to as "The Venus Week". After ovulation progesterone takes the lead with the goal of protecting the presumed pregnancy. If pregnancy does not occur, all three hormones decline - or 'reset' - and the cycle begins again.

Estrogen

The Venus herself, estrogen is the main "feminizing" hormone, the oldest of hormones, and its importance in reproduction is as ancient as life itself. Its rise early in your cycle signals the onset of the Venus Week. As your estrogen begins to climb, it lightens your mood, improves your skin, increases your energy and mental focus, and improves your metabolism by increasing sensitivity to insulin. Estrogen helps you be more interested in making connections--with the man in your life, your friends and colleagues, even your children.

Science has long proven that estrogen plays a vital role in support of total body collagen. Collagen is the main connective tissue that holds us together. It is a vital component of most structures in the body and plays a role in the support of skin, muscle and bone. Estrogen supports collagen through its receptors, tiny "locks" that exist all over the body which are activated by "keys": the estrogen molecules. These receptors are known to exist in skin; in fact, there are more estrogen receptors in the skin of the face than the skin of many other parts of the body. This is evidenced by the glow in a woman's face during times of peak hormonal vitality.

As a woman experiences hormonal aging (the result of declining estrogen effect from its peak in her mid-twenties), collagen support plateaus, and then begins to decline at age 30, accelerating with peri-menopause and menopause. This is known to result in bone loss, as the density in bone decline when the collagen framework lessens. What is lesser known is that the same effect is demonstrated in skin, resulting in loss of collagen volume and elasticity beginning in the late twenties. This describes what is now referred to as hormonal aging, something that women experience uniquely as we have programmed hormonal decline.

The solution for skin is to offer another "key" with the phytoestrogens in the VENeffect Anti-Aging Skin Care line. The "VENeffect Advice" section of this site provides tools to help offset the effects of hormonal aging, not just on skin, but also on mood, metabolism, bone, and overall health.

Progesterone

Progesterone is the protective member of the three hormones. As estrogen wanes near the end of your Venus Week, progesterone begins to rise. This marks the Minerva phase of your cycle. Progesterone prepares the uterus and other places in the body for an expected pregnancy and therefore is the dominant hormone of pregnancy. Progesterone could be said to stabilize, rather than feminize your reproductive behavior. Although many women say their mood shifts in the progesterone-dominant part of the cycle, making them feel lower in energy and distracted, progesterone can also have a calming effect. While estrogen tends to lower hunger pangs, progesterone, in keeping with her protector role, increases appetite and blood sugar. Metabolically, this does not favor the svelte waistline, but the short duration (twelve to fourteen days per cycle) of progesterone dominance, is only temporary, returning us to estrogen dominance after the reset period. Progesterone acts in concert with estrogen in the Minerva phase, but its effect is clearly more obvious in this part of the cycle than that of estrogen.

Testosterone

Traditionally known as the male hormone, it is better described as the hormone of desire. Testosterone peaks during your Venus Week causing a surge in your sexual desire. The significance and importance of testosterone in women is vastly underestimated. This hormone builds on the femininity of estrogen to inspire and drive libido. Balanced with estrogen during the Venus Week, testosterone improves your assertiveness and confidence. It also increases energy and creativity. The synergistic combination of testosterone with estrogen allows a woman to feel her most attractive, and she is more likely to initiate or respond to intimacy. This synergism also suppresses the acne and weight gain associated with testosterone in the absence of estrogen.