Can a cream make you look younger?

Written by Dr Patrick Bowler, cosmetic skin specialist and laser surgeon



The cosmetic industry is constantly striving to produce the most innovative and effective skin-care products on the market, enticing us to purchase a miracle in a jar.

Since all are designed to make us look younger for longer, the consumer is faced with a bewildering array of beautifully packaged products that prompt many questions. Below is a guide to help you choose.

Why is there so much choice?

Cosmetic companies need to sell products. So they are interested in the latest, most saleable ingredient. Not only do ingredients go in and out of fashion (think cocoa butter, tea tree oil etc), but enormous resources are used to develop new ones to make skin products more effective.

Research can give a company an initial advantage by creating a new product, but if it's popular, the innovation is copied, adapted, repackaged and reproduced in a wide range of qualities and prices for the general cosmetic market (eg tan-building moisturisers).

As well as discovering new ingredients, cosmetic companies look for more effective ways of getting ingredients into the skin. For example, liposomes are now commonly used in face products.

Liposomes are tiny hollow spheres filled with active ingredients that are absorbed into the skin. They release their contents precisely where they are most needed - under the surface into the deeper layers of the skin.

Value for money

With most things in life, you get what you pay for. Cheap skin-care products will use cheap ingredients.

In the more expensive brands, you usually pay for the new ingredient or formula that is supposed to deliver the anti-ageing, anti-wrinkle, skin firming benefit.

But don't let price be your only guide. In a test this year for Consumer Reports (a US consumer association similar to Which? magazine), the most expensive anti-ageing brands (eg La Prairie Cellular £200+ for 30ml) worked less well than their cheaper counterparts (eg Olay Regenerist £16 for 30ml).

And it found even the best creams only had an effect on wrinkles that was 'barely visible to the naked eye'.

What about the claims of these products?

Dermatologists (medical doctors who specialise in skin) argue that cosmetics can achieve little except temporary moisturisation. By definition, a cosmetic is not allowed to alter the structure or function of the skin.

Many companies imply that their products do alter the skin. Such products are entering the grey area between cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Pharmaceutical products are subject to tighter controls and tests than cosmetics because they are more potent. Their benefits must be proved and side-effects reported.

The regulatory bodies are not always as active as they should be in monitoring these situations, which leaves the public ill-informed and confused.

Are they safe?

By law store-bought cosmetics and their ingredients must be safe for use. This means if you try them and they don't work, the only thing they will have damaged is your wallet.

In some cases a lotion may cause skin irritation, but this will resolve when you stop using the product.

Standard ingredients in face creams

Preservatives prevent the growth of bacteria in cosmetics to extend the shelf-life of your cream. Examples are essential oils or synthetic parabens, including ethyls, propyls and butyls. Parabens are non-toxic and approved by the regulatory authorities.

Emulsifiers ensure a smooth mixture and consistency. An example is linoelic acid.

Humectants are commonly used derivatives of mineral oil. They act as a moisturiser by drawing water from the air to the skin's surface. They also prevent the product from losing water and drying out. Examples are glycerin and glycol.

Silicone gives the cream a pleasing texture and makes application easier.

Sunscreens to protect the skin are also added. Examples are octyl methoxycinnamate, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.

What is an active ingredient?

In addition to these general ingredients for skin-care products, specific substances are added in small quantities to give a desired effect – for example AHA for anti-ageing.

Listed below are some common 'active' ingredients, but the evidence for the effectiveness of many of these substances is not proven.

Scientifically speaking, a survey asking women whether they feel a product reduces facial lines does not prove the treatment works in the same way that a clinical study would.

This is because a clinical study would examine the skin of women after using the product for a number of weeks, and compare their skin to a group of women who didn't know they were using a dummy treatment.

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