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Posts Tagged ‘antioxidants’

Moisturizers vs. Anti-wrinkle Treatment Products: Notes from a San Francisco Bay Area Dermatologist

Monday, August 31st, 2009

A recent article in the UK’s Daily Mail (8/20, Poulter) reported that in the UK, the consumer group Which? tested a number of anti-wrinkle creams and declared that an inexpensive moisturizer was “just as effective as products costing 60 times as much.”  Which? tested 12 creams over a six-week period on a panel aged between 35 and 65.  High-definition photographs were taken “before and after,” and then were analyzed by a “panel of five experts.”  Neither the testers nor the panel of judges knew which creams had been used in order to produce a reliable result.

Articles like this miss the boat!  I always say that people shouldn’t spend a lot a lot of money on a moisturizer.  Most nationally recognized drugstore brand are really good and work well as “moisturizers”, but what exactly does that mean?  Moisturizers do just that, they seal in moisture providing skin hydration.  Skin that is hydrated appears plumper and wrinkles appear more shallow.  Moisturizers only improve the appearance of  skin in the short term and don’t actually “treat” wrinkles.  Treating wrinkles and preventing further wrinkles requires active skin care products like Retin-A, alpha and beta hydroxy acids, Vivite glycolic acid products, Kinerase, Neocutis with PSP and antioxidants like Skinceuticals Vitamin C, Prevage, RevaleSkin Coffee Berry and sunscreens.  These skin care products are not moisturizers (though they may have moisturizing properties), they are treatment products that have the science to back up their claims of wrinkle prevention and treatment.  They also work over many months and years, not 6 weeks which was the length of this study.  Effective skin care requires consistent and long term use of active products.

 

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