Over the age of 50? Or perhaps you're suffering from spider veins. Either way, this could be applicable to you. Research has shown that 50%-55% of all women will develop these embarrassing webby networks close to the surface of the skin. For men it's 40%-45%.

However that gap narrows when either sex approaches the age of 50 - one out of every two senior Americans develop spider veins (also known as spider angioma). In some cases these little capillaries are located on the legs, which can be covered up with the appropriate clothing.

However they may also show on the face - one of our most important external features – appearing on the nose, cheeks, nostrils and under the eyes. So how do you treat spider veins on the face? Perhaps, just perhaps, with a spider vein cream?

Spider vein cream has been used for the successful treatment of these lines on the face and has been proven a successful alternative to otherwise costly and sometimes risky treatments such as saline and sclerotherapy injections as well as laser therapy. This means that if your chin, nose, forehead or cheeks are affected, a topically applied cream or lotion might just be the magic you need.

So how does a Spider Vein Cream work?

Well, spider vein cream not only works for spider veins on the face, it acts as a remedy against these unsightly little lines all over your body – including rosacea.

To understand how this works, we have to take a look at how blood travels through the body... it gets pumped by the heart to throughout the whole body, oxygen rich and full of nutrients. As soon as the oxygen and nutrients have been absorbed, the blood travels back to the heart.

Now to stop the blood from flowing back to where it came from (an effect of gravity), we have small, little valves in our capillaries that allow one-way passage only: to the heart. The problem comes in that these valves are sometimes weak.

This could be a hereditary condition or something brought on by hormonal changes, especially in those who are going through puberty, menopause or pregnancy. Once the blood seeps back, it starts building up, causing the vein to expand - to become visible.

Spider vein cream helps coagulate the blood that seeped back, thereby promoting venous health and subsequently promoting pressure within the veins to ensure that the amount of oxygen- and nutrient-depleted blood that gets sent to the heart increases (which means that the amount of oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood also increases).

And that is exactly what happens when its applied to superficial and visible outbreaks on the face. As you can imagine, this is perhaps a more "natural" alternative than burning those poor veins away with a laser beam.

Is that all there is to it? Apply the cream and voila?

Yes, pretty much. But unlike injections or lasers, creams take time – generally 2-4 weeks to see visible results, but the results are long-lasting and provide benefits weel beyond treating a localized area.

But we've got one more thing to add... some additional causes of spider veins on the face.  While all the aforementioned causal agents are in fact accurate, there are certain unhealthy habits that help aggravate visibility and protrusion.

They include sun exposure (especially fair-skinned people), alcohol abuse and, of course, smoking. In addition, there is some speculation that environmental factors such as pollution also play a key role.

If you don't have spider veins but have family members that do or are nearing one of the mentioned hormonal changes, then it would be best to play it safe and eliminate all encouraging factors from your life.

And last but not least, it might be beneficial to ensure that you have some spider vein cream at the ready. Spider veins on the face tend to be an embarrassing issue for a number of people, so be sure to treat it early on.