Anti Aging Skin Care Products - Can They Make You Look Younger?

If you are like a lot of women over 30, you are possibly starting to worry about the dreaded w-word – wrinkles. With the abundance of anti aging skin care products on the market, you have to ask yourself if there is any truth to what these products say they can do. Customer testimonials and a myriad of clinical studies have shown that yes, indeed, anti aging products can work, but ultimately you must decide for yourself. What are they purported to do, exactly?

Anti aging products come in several different formulas – creams and lotions being the most popular. In addition to revitalizing your skin and reducing the signs of aging, a lot of products purportedly stimulate the renewal of skin cells, reduce under eye circles, hydrate skin, and smooth rough texture all while diminishing fine lines and wrinkles! Revitol Complete is but one of many products that boats the ability to dramatically reduce the signs of aging, revealing a radiant, younger you! Royal Gold Anti-Wrinkle Serum in another product claiming to reduce wrinkles while leaving your skin fresh and hydrated. These are but a few of the many products available for older skin, so go ahead and look around to see what works best for you.

Once upon a time, these products were available only by prescription from a licensed dermatologist. Now, that’s obviously not the case and what was once prescription-only has now become mass-market; the reason being now they are made with all natural and safe ingredients. Typically, it can take up to 30 days for one to see results with these products. Some boast results in as little as two weeks, but in general you should wait about a month before you see any significant improvement.

Most skin care products designed for older skin have some basics in common. They all have one, or a combination of, the following ingredients. Alpha hydroxy acids, beta hydroxy acids, argireline, Shea butter, and Edelweiss extract. Vitamin A, primrose oil and others can also be included, designed to give your skin the youthful and radiant glow it once had. Generally, after four to six weeks of continued use, you can see a dramatic improvement in your skin, possibly looking up to ten years younger than you did before! Sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it? Of course, results are not typical and will vary depending on the individual. The bottom line is many people have seen promising results with these products, and the potential is there for you to, as well.

Avoiding the sun, quitting smoking, moisturizing daily, exercising and eating a healthy, balanced diet are all ways to minimize the appearance of wrinkles. In combination with these methods, using an anti-wrinkle cream will surely help to combat the signs of aging, and will be more effective when used with the methods listed above. Everyone wants younger looking skin, and there’s no reason why you can’t have it!

Anti Aging Skin Care And Idebenone

Idebenone (pronounced eedy-be-known), a super antioxidant, is now being used in select anti-aging skin care products. That's good news for you if you need to get rid of some extra wrinkles that none of us can avoid as we grow older.

While idebenone has been known for a long time as a pharmaceutical agent, it has arrived to the realm of skin care only recently. In fact, some skin care companies claim it as a new, cutting-edge discovery. But, can it really benefit your skin?

In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers had been studying the potential of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), including its ability to improve heart failure, reduce free radical damage and slow down certain neurological conditions. CoQ10, a vitamin-like natural compound found in all aerobic organisms, plays an important role in cellular energy production and is also an effective antioxidant. Trying to boost CoQ10's therapeutic effects, scientists synthesized and tested a variety of its chemical analogs and derivatives. Most of these derivatives were found ineffective or unsafe. However, one of the few exceptions was idebenone.

It is closely related to CoQ10 in its structure. However, idebnone is more effective than CoQ10 in protecting cells from the free radical damage resulting from reduced blood flow.

What does all this have to do with skin care? Recently CoQ10 has been shown to improve skin wrinkles. Not surprisingly, some skin care companies decided that CoQ10 analogs might do a similar or better job. So, they found out that idebenone was also a good anti-wrinkle remedy.

It's important to realize that free radicals that form in the skin in response to the sun's ultraviolet rays are largely responsible for wrinkling and other signs of aging. To fight these damaging molecules, cosmetic chemists developed this topical antioxidant that's even more powerful than natural antioxidants such as vitamins C and E.

Results of a clinical trial were presented in February 2004 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. They wanted to find out which ingredient offered the best protection against free radicals. Well, it was idebenone that finished first against vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10, kinetin, and alpha-lipoic acid.

The benefits of this ingredient include shielding skin from environmental damage, improving the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and reducing dryness and smoothing skin texture.

Antioxidants help protect against the damage caused by free radicals in the environment. Free radicals are unstable compounds that occur naturally in the body and try to stabilize by attaching to the nearest normal cell. This results in a chain-reaction because once the free radical attaches to a healthy cell, it too becomes a free radical in search of stabilization causing cellular damage. Antioxidants, such as idebenone and others, stop this process by donating a molecule to the free radical making it stable.

But, you should know that although idebenone is thought of as a wrinkle reducer, it is more of a skin protector. It is a true antiaging phenomena because it blocks the causes of aging and treats its effects. For best results, use it in addition to a broad spectrum sunblock.

However, this all comes at a price. This wonderful ingredient is priced at up to $120 an ounce. As you know, nothing known to science will erase all signs of aging, but this formula helps with its ability to decrease collagen breakdown (which means less apparent wrinkles and lines) and reduce inflammation.

It's available in the following lotions:

-Prevage from Allergan.
-True Cosmetics Youth Revealing Complex.
-Radiance Revealing Complex.
-Revitol Anti Wrinkle Complex.

You can get these products containing idebenone from Dermatologists' or Plastic Surgeons' offices, Spas, Fine Salons, or online.

Your skin never had it so good!