Beauty creams have been around from ancient times, so anti aging skin care today isn't a new concept. Egyptian queens were buried with their pots of beauty creams, Kohl and other cosmetics and makeup of their time. Every culture has its form of beauty treatments in a bid to slow the signs of aging. With modern technology, unbelievable claims in the past are plausible today.
Today's wrinkle creams to combat the signs of aging in four ways:
1. Moisturize the skin
A wrinkle cream is basically a moisturizer - an emulsion of water and oil stabilized by emulsifiers. Yes, many other ingredients are involved to get the desired effect but the core purpose of a moisturizer is to protect the skin from dryness.
The oil component locks in the moisture to prevent water from the skin from evaporating away. The water component hydrates the skin. No doubt, there are oil-free moisturizers today that offer protection without the oil, but the water component is always there.
Skin lacking in moisture shrivels up, and can be likened to a prune. Or it flakes off and feels so uncomfortable. Skin plumped up with moisture looks dewy, and younger. One of the most popular water retaining ingredient in skincare today is hyaluronic acid which is found naturally in the skin. That ingredient is also found in many of today's wrinkle creams. Other moisture enhancing ingredients include glycerin and purified water.
2. Use antioxidants to neutralize free radicals
Now, free radicals are often blamed for the aging signs on our skin. The antidote? Antioxidants. The typical anti aging cream today would contains antioxidants in some form or other.
Let me explain this.
Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that are missing an electron. They cause oxidization (loss of electrons) of the molecules they come in contact with. When free radicals come into contact with the cells in your body, they damage your cells at a molecular level. This damage is thought to be the cause of aging. Free radicals are produced in your body's normal functions. They are also introduced to the body through pollution, the UV rays of the sun and other environmental stresses.
Antioxidants neutralize free radicals by donated extra electrons to them, thereby stabilizing these otherwise dangerous molecules. Most anti aging products would have antioxidants in some form or other to neutralize these free radicals.
Typically, vitamin C, Vitamin E, green tea, pycnogenol, CoQ10 and Lipoic Acid are the antioxidants commonly used as oxidants in anti aging creams. Idebenone, found in Elizabeth Arden's Prevage is probably the most potent antioxidant known at the moment.
3. Include sunscreens to filter off damaging UV rays
The best defence is a good offense. Since sunlight wreaks havoc on the skin, prematurely aging the skin and possibly causing skin cancer, the best thing you can do is to wear a sunscreen all day long. The smart day creams should contains some form of sunscreen built into them. Use one that has at least SPF 15. Although it wouldn't erase your existing lines, it would slow down the formation of new wrinkles.
Compare the women who sustained a sunkissed tan throughout their youth and the women who preferred the look of fair skin and dilligently carried parasols or stayed out of the sun. When they reach their forties onwards, the difference is stark. Those who tanned look much older than those who shied from the sun. Photoaging is one of the key causes of premature aging of the skin.
Exposure to sunlight causes collagen deep in your skin to break down at a higher than normal rate. 70% of your skin is made up of collagen. As the levels of collagen decreases, skin sags, lines appear and skin loses its firmness. All these are the visible signs associated with aging. Wearing a day cream with SPF15 or higher all day long protects your skin from such damage and prevents photoaging.
4. Rebuild the skin from within.
Since the loss of collagen leads to saggy skin and wrinkles, if a cream can rebuild the skin's collagen, wouldn't that erase wrinkles?
That's the line of thought that fuels many anti wrinkle creams today.
This is where it gets very interesting. Many patents exist on new ingredients create to rebuild the skin from within. Lancome Absolue Premium boasts of a new lab created molecule, Pro-Xylane, that claims to act on every layer of the skin to redensify and restructure its matrix and rejuvenate the skin.
Clinique repairwear [http://www.getyouthful.com/clinique-repairwear.htm] contains type 1 collagen to firm your skin. Estee lauder advanced night repair [http://www.getyouthful.com/estee-lauder-night-repair.htm] range builds your skins hyaluronic acid stores and boosts collagen production. Many of this new generation of wrinkle creams tackle the problem by coaxing the skin to repair itself. These work from inside out, purportly levelling out the wrinkles.
