What's in your Anti-Wrinkle Face Cream?

Nobody likes to see the appearance of wrinkles, which explains the rise in the number of anti-wrinkle face cream products in recent years. These jars and tubes claim to do everything from erasing the aging process from your face to giving you the same youthful appearance that you had in your twenties. Do these products deliver what they promise? While no anti-wrinkle face cream can completely turn back the hands of time, there are certain ingredients in some of these products that can improve the overall appearance of your skin and diminish the fine lines and wrinkles that appear. The key is in knowing how to read the product label to ensure that you are indeed getting the best anti-wrinkle face cream for you.

What's in a Face Cream?

Retinol is one of the first antioxidants put into anti-wrinkle face creams, when it was discovered that these substances could fight the effects of free radicals in the environment that lead to the aging process. Retinol is a vitamin A compound, and can be found in prescription form under the name tretinoin. This ingredient was the first that was approved by the FDA as a wrinkle treatment. If you use an anti-wrinkle face cream with retinol, you may indeed see a slight improvement to your skin as well as a reduction in wrinkles. However, retinol is not safe to use if you are pregnant or planning to become so.

Another popular ingredient in anti-wrinkle face creams is hydroxyl acids, which are derivatives of sugar-containing fruits. The reason that hydroxyl acids are effective ingredients in anti-wrinkle face creams is that they can exfoliate the dead skin on the surface and encourage healthy growth of the skin cells underneath. The end result is smoother, more evenly pigmented skin and a younger appearance. Hydroxyl acids will increase the sensitivity of the skin to sun exposure, so make sure that you are wearing your sunscreen every day if you are using an anti-wrinkle face cream with hydroxyl acid in it.

There are many other potentially effective ingredients that might be found in anti-wrinkle face creams, including copper peptides, kinetin and coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 is a nutrient that can diminish the appearance of fine lines around the eyes with no harmful side effects. It has also been found that conenzyme Q10 can protect against sun exposure if it is applied before heading outside. These are the ingredients that you should be searching for on the product labels of anti-wrinkle face creams to ensure that the product will have at least some of the anti-aging effect that you desire.