Skin care is one of the three pillars of facial anti ageing care :
Skin care adresses the skin ageing. Skin ageing, face volume loss and muscle ageing are three different processes involved in face ageing. Each one is more or less important at given periods of life.
We do have very good tools to help the volume and fat loss by using fillers, sculptra, or even fat transfer. We can also preserve facial muscle quality by a judicious use of botox . Skin care has the oldest history in the anti aging quest. It is famously known that the Egyptian queen Cleopatra was bathing in milk to regenerate the beauty of her skin. Milk contains lactic acid, an exfoliating agent that is widely used today. Skin care certainly has a great future.
What can be done for the skin ?
There is an impressive and very effective skin care arsenal at our disposal.
Skin ageing is due to things such as heredity, lifestyle, sun damage, physical and chemical aggression. The result is a thinner dermis (skin mid layer) with loss of collagen, loss of elastin, poorer vascular network. On the opposite the epidermis corneous layer (very superficial skin layer) will be thicker with pigmentation abnormalities, deshydratation, very slow cells turnover.
Altogether the skin will lose its elasticity, complexion, in sum, its beauty.
A basic skin care should include at least 3 very simple things:
- Hydratation and moisturizer
- Exfoliation
- Sun protection
A sophisticated skin care will include things like antioxydants, vitamines, physical treatments such as microdermabrasion and non ablative IPL/lasers to stimulate the skin rejuvenation and preservation.
Your professional skin consultant will help you to design the best skin care program.
Are skin care products actually working ?
yes they do. Vitamins A and E, Retinol, Tretinoin, Glycolic acid have been medically and scientifically tested many times. Same is true for antioxidant agents such as vitamin C . These products are usually prescribed by medical professionals.
But even over the counter, simple skin care products can be effective. As stated below from a study made by the University of Manchester for the British Journal of Dermatology in 2009:
“Very few over-the-counter cosmetic ‘anti-ageing’ products have been subjected to a rigorous double-blind, vehicle-controlled trial of efficacy. Previously we have shown that application of a cosmetic ‘anti-ageing’ product to photo-aged skin under occlusion for 12 days can stimulate the deposition of
fibrillin-1. This observation infers potential to repair and perhaps clinically
improve photo-aged skin.”
The abstract of this study is available here. This study is also known as the “boots study” because Boots was a sponsor.