The advancement of topical skincare products within the anti-ageing industry in recent years has been significant. It has also become more baffling as the cosmetic companies introduce mind boggling chemical jargon and pseudo science to back up claims. However probably, the most prominent has been the development of powerful cosmeceuticals in combating the key players in the ageing process: free radicals and inflammation. The big difference here is that ordinary cosmetics will give at best good moisturisation, but for only as long as the product is being applied. Cosmeceuticals produce a much longer lasting and significant change to the skin.

Glycolic Acid
It is a fruit acid; it comes from sugar cane. There are several fruit acids used in creams, and they are collectively known as AHAs or alpha hydroxy acids.

What does it do? Cells replace themselves every 28 days when we are young, but this process slows up as we age to as many as 50 days. Glycolic acid gets it going again, back up to 28 days. Another thing it can do is to thin abnormally thickened skin, which is good for acne and sun damage, as well as stimulate collagen (this takes roughly six months of use), and there is scientific data to back this up! Glycolic also makes the skin absorb other products or treatments better than it would without it, so it is like a good 'mixer' in a face-cream cocktail.

What difference will it make? Plumping in six months, but most people notice their skin is softer and smoother after 1 - 2 weeks.

Good for: acne, milia, sun damage, pigmentation, skin plumping.

Lactic Acid: the newest generation of AHA's (Alpha Hydroxy Acid) derived from sour milk. Lactic Acid is natural to the body. It acts as an exfoliator, whilst retaining moisture in the skin by stimulating Hyaluronic acid. Provides anti-ageing benefits.

What difference will it make? Plumping in six months, but most people notice their skin is softer and smoother after 1 - 2 weeks.

Good for: fine lines & wrinkles, acne, sun damage, pigmentation, skin plumping.

Vitamin A
This is a derivative of vitamin A known as Retin-A_and was introduced in the 1960s to treat acne, until one doctor noticed that several patients using it remarked on a reduction in their wrinkles. Now it is the only drug that can be prescribed for acne and/or wrinkles. The only problem with Retin-A® is it often irritates the skin, but there are other less irritating versions of vitamin A called retinoids and retinyl palmitate is the least irritating one. When mixed with glycolic acid it makes a great skin cream cocktail because they help each other work more efficiently.

It delivers vitamin A to the cells that need it for doing skin repairs, so they work more efficiently and get more repairs done. It is good for acne, wrinkles and sun damage.

What difference will it make? After a month you should see an improvement in the texture and condition of your skin. After a good three to six months the repair mechanism should kick in. It depends on the level of damage your skin has had, but you should notice age spots fade, scars heal quicker and that your skin has more glow.

Good for: undoing skin damage. It fades sun spots, reduces wrinkles and skin that has lost its glow because of smoking.


Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, which means it intercepts skin-cell damage. It is impregnated into plasters because it speeds up wound healing. It is also used to soothe burns. Vitamin C is easily destroyed by sunlight and oxygen, so to lengthen its shelf-life it has to be mixed with things that stabilize it (on the packaging vitamin C will be listed as a derivative of ascorbic acid - for example: methyl ascorbyl phosphate). Vitamin C is a bit of a multi-tasker! It stimulates collagen production, brightens skin (it has a slight bleaching effect), and it is anti-inflammatory. After a month of use you should notice brightening and radiance, but we are talking three to six months before you see the firming and plumping effects of increased collagen production.

Good for: acne-scar healing, increased pigmentation and skin rejuvenation.

Vitamin E
Vitamin E is a protective antioxidant. It settles on the outside of our skin like bubble wrap and protects you from the onslaught of free radicals. These are molecules which are formed in our cells when we smoke or the sun hits the skin. They tear around the cells like bulls in a china shop causing all sorts of damage. Vitamin E helps to mop up the free radicals so the skin can repair itself in peace. It also helps to reflect UV.

Good for: combining with other ingredients, like vitamin C, because the two ingredients are more than twice as effective when they are working together.


Coenzyme Q10
This is an antioxidant that can also speed up cell repair but using a different tactic from Retin-A®. It provides mechanisms for the body to heal itself. After a month your skin will be functioning better so it will look healthier.

Good for: skin rejuvenation it re energizes dull, tired cells, resulting in a healthier and younger acting skin.

Idebenone
Idebenone is the latest and greatest antioxidant. It is used in organ transplants: if a liver was left on a theatre table it would oxidate and turn black, but idebenone is used to keeps it alive. It is given to Alzheimer patients and to children with premature-ageing syndromes to slow down the degeneration.

On the skin idebenone stimulates collagen production. The US chemist who discovered it for beauty products is Joseph Lewis, and there are independent studies that show an average of 27 per cent wrinkle-depth reduction in eight to twelve weeks. Wrinkle reduction after eight weeks and within three months the skin looks in better condition generally.

Good for: fine lines and some deeper lines.

Sunscreens
Using a sunscreen everyday also improves the skin. It allows the skin to divert its resources to repair and renewal rather than defending itself against sun rays. There are two types of sunscreen: one that works by deflecting the sunlight and another that works by diffusing it with chemicals. The deflecting ones use either titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. The chemical diffusion ones use oxybenzone and octyl methoxycinnamate. The best ones do both - deflect and defuse - to banish as many rays as possible. However, no sunscreen provides 100 per cent protection, so it is good to mix in some of that vitamin E to mop up the rays that manage to make it through. Future sunscreens will get better at this aspect, increasing the amount of mopping up by using antioxidants like idebenone.

Penta Peptides: a group of amino acids that have anti-ageing benefits, helping to
prevent wrinkles and improving the skin's condition.

Free Radicals
Free Radicals are parts of molecules (derived from the body's use of oxygen) that occur naturally in the body. As a result of external and lifestyle factors, such as exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, pesticides, cigarette smoke, pollution or a poor diet, free radicals tend to react by searching for other chemical substances with which to bond.

As a result, they attack the collagen fibres, cellular membrane, lipid layer of the skin and most importantly the DNA, so that the quality of newly formed skin cells deteriorates. When free radicals damage a cell in the body, they cause inflammation and can rob the skin of its radiant and youthful appearance. It can also produce serious cell alterations when they divide kick starting the development of cancerous changes.

Cosmeceuticals
Cosmeceuticals are skin care products that fall between cosmetics and prescription pharmaceutical drugs. They contain biologically active ingredients, such as antioxidants, alpha hydroxy or fruit acids and vitamin A derivatives.

Antioxidants
Antioxidants are commonly an effect of vitamins, such as C, and E, however, there are other antioxidants, which occur naturally within the body. These include enzymes (substances that help two or more chemicals interact) such as coenzyme q10 and some synthetic ones such as idebenone which the most powerful to date.

Regular application of cosmeceutical skincare products containing antioxidants can help slow the ageing process by reducing or preventing the damage created by free radicals, as well as reducing inflammation.