Best Moisturizers for Aging Skin: What’s the Ingredients?
For decades, anti aging moisturizers haven’t been much different from those designed for fresh young skin people. The primary cream ingredients were mineral oil, petrolatum, paraffin and other petroleum-based oils.
As might seem obvious, crude oil is not compatible with the natural skin oils. That’s why they caused a greasy feeling and clogged the pores. Luckily, scientists have found that some plant-based oils are nearly identical to those produced by the sebaceous glands, located within the skin’s deepest layers.
The sebaceous glands produce sebum, which is composed of various kinds of fatty acids. They produce more during our youth, particularly during the teenage years. In some cases, the glands become inflamed and produce too much sebum, which is the cause of acne.
As we get older, less sebum is produced by the glands in most parts of the face, although the area around the nose, under the mouth and between the eyes, underneath eyes is usually oiler than the sides of the face and the cheeks. Because of that, most people say that they have a “combination” complexion type.
Aging skin moisturizers should be beneficial for people with oily, dry or combination complexion types. If they contain the best ingredients, they can be used by anyone. Any moisturizer that contains the petroleum-based oils mentioned in the first paragraph will still cause blemishes, regardless of a person’s age.
So, what are the best ingredients? Here’s a short list.
* Maracuja, a passion fruit extract, balances sebum production, preventing it from becoming too oily or too dry.
* Babassu palm oil, moisturizes without causing oiliness
* Grapes seed oil, has a unique filming ability that helps to lock moisture in, without clogging the pores
Those are the basics for best anti aging moisturizers. Other ingredients have been shown, in clinical studies to improve the skin’s moisture content and its ability to retain skin moisture. The two below have proven to be the most effective.
* Coenzyme Q10, an antioxidant, improves the skin’s hydration level by 28% after six weeks of use
* Functional Keratin, a protein complex, improves moisture content by over 20% after the first use, improves the skin’s ability to retain moisture by 16% after 18 days.
Anti aging skin moisturizers containing those two ingredients have other proven benefits, as well. Creams containing COQ10 have been shown to reduce wrinkling and as effective anti wrinkle roughness by an average of 30% and repair sun damage. But, the molecules must be reduced slightly, or they will not penetrate through all of the skin’s layers.
Creams containing Functional Keratin have been shown to stimulate the production of new cells by as much as 160% after only three days, which means that the skin should become firmer. After 18 days of use, researchers measured a 40% improvement in the skin’s firmness. So, obviously, it worked.
Some of the best anti aging skin moisturizers contain all five of the good ingredients mentioned in this article. If you want to see results, in a relatively short period of time, those are the ingredients to look for. You’ll be glad that you did.