Efficacy of anti-aging skin care products

The core function of anti-aging skin care products is to delay the natural aging process of the skin and improve the appearance of mild to moderate aging. It cannot reverse the physiological age of the skin, nor can it achieve the anti-aging effect of medical aesthetic projects such as Thermage and fillers. This is the current general consensus reached in the dermatological science community and the skin care industry.

A while ago, I helped my 32-year-old best friend tidy up her dressing table. She piled up 20,000 yuan worth of anti-aging essences and creams alone. She was still debating whether to buy that high-concentration bosenic cream that cost nearly 4,000 yuan. She always felt that if she gathered all the "anti-aging ingredients", she would be able to return to her 25-year-old state in one fell swoop. I poured cold water on her on the spot: first figure out what the things you buy can and cannot be used for, so that the money is not wasted.

To be honest, the clinically proven anti-aging ingredients currently on the market do have real effects. For example, retinol, also known as alcohol A, is currently the most recognized anti-aging ingredient in the academic community. It can penetrate the epidermis and act on the dermis to promote collagen production and improve fine lines and roughness caused by photoaging. I started using low-concentration alcohol A when I was 28 years old. It has been almost 3 years now. The dry lines at the end of my eyes that used to be obvious when I smiled are now almost invisible unless I get close. The delicateness of my skin is much better than before. However, there have been two factions in the industry arguing about the use of A-alcohol: one group is the "hard drug addicts" who believe that low-concentration A-alcohol is equivalent to a placebo and must use at least 0.5% to see the effect; the other is the "moderate group" who believe that ordinary people's skin tolerance is limited. Long-term use of low-concentration A-alcohol of 0.1%-0.3% is much more cost-effective than occasionally using high concentrations to cause skin breakouts and damage the skin barrier. A friend of mine actually followed the trend and used 0.5% alcohol A, and her skin became red for half a month. There was no sensitivity problem at first, but redness suddenly appeared, which made her look even more tired.

Many people who are afraid of alcohol stimulation will turn to peptide or bosenine products. The advantage of peptides is that they are gentle enough and can be used on sensitive skin. It focuses on lightening and tightening wrinkles, especially on dynamic expression lines. If you insist on using it for 3-4 months, you can usually see improvement. However, the results are slow. Many people throw it away after half a month without seeing the effect. Instead, they think it is an IQ tax. Oh, by the way, Bose is an ingredient that has become very popular in the past two years. There have been different opinions in the industry: L'Oreal Group's experimental data shows that it can promote the synthesis of glycosaminoglycans in the dermis, strengthen the dermal-epidermal junction, and make the skin plumper. However, many independent laboratories have also pointed out that most of the currently public effective clinical data are led by brands, and third-party large-sample verification is not sufficient, so there is no need to deify it, and there is no need to pay several times the premium for high-concentration Bose.

There are also antioxidant and anti-aging ingredients that many people tend to ignore, such as VC, ideben, and ergothioneine, which are mainly targeted at photoaging. When applied in the morning, they can help offset part of the free radical damage caused by ultraviolet rays, which is a "preventive anti-aging". Last summer, I went to Sanya with my friends. There was a girl who always felt that applying VC serum was enough. She was too lazy to apply sunscreen. After a week of playing, she was two shades darker, and the dry lines at the corners of her mouth were exposed. She blamed VC for not using it. Don't laugh. There are really a lot of people who "use anti-aging skin care products as a panacea." The effect of skin care products is always based on the premise that you do a good job in basic skin care. If you don't do good sun protection, no matter how much anti-aging essence you apply, it will be in vain.

Of course, you also have to understand the capabilities of anti-aging skin care products. The static forehead wrinkles, deep nasolabial folds, and severe skin laxity that have already formed cannot be improved by applying skin care products. They can only be solved by medical aesthetics projects such as radiofrequency and filling. However, there are also many bloggers who have insisted on using functional ingredients for a long time and shared their experiences. They said that they have been using high-concentration anti-aging products for five or six years, and the deep static lines have also faded. This is an individual difference. There is not enough large-scale clinical data to support it. Everyone can refer to it, and there is no need to take it as a guideline.

My current anti-aging routine is actually very simple. In the morning, I add prototype VC and refreshing sunscreen, and in the evening, I add low-concentration A-alcohol and medium-concentration Bosein cream. I didn’t buy any expensive luxury products. I have been doing it for almost two years. Friends around me say that my condition is much better than the previous two years. To be honest, anti-aging is a matter of time and effort. Don’t expect that applying two bottles of essence will reverse aging. Don’t think that skin care products are all about IQ tax. Choose the right one that suits you and stick to it for a long time. It is better than anything else.