Antioxidants In Skin Care Products

Antioxidants have been used in skin care products for a number of years, even before they were advertised as antioxidants! Vitamin A, C and E are all antioxidants that have long been staple ingredients. In fact, vitamin A, in the form of Retin-A, is the only thing proven to actually help wrinkles.

But these days when we hear about an antioxidant skin care products, we're more likely to be hearing about ingredients such as green tea (polyphenols), grape seed extract (proanthocyanidin), panthenol (a derivative of vitamin B), coenzyme Q10, glutathione, DMAE, copper peptides, and alpha lipoic acid.

Some of these antioxidants, like green tea, grape seed extract, coenzyme Q10, and glutathione, can also be taken as supplements. In fact, many people take a 'beauty supplement' to complement their skin care routine.

Most external skin creams have a limited effectiveness, and only work to improve the appearance of skin, rather than actually reversing the aging process. However, the high tech creams these days tend to do that very well.

And this is not a criticism specifically of antioxidant ingredients in skin care. Most nutrients in skin care penetrate no further than the first layer of skin. It is this layer that they smooth, plump, and hydrate. Once the product wears off, the skin is back to how it originally was.

With regular use, these skin creams do improve our appearance however, so they are better than nothing. And as it turns out, the antioxidants in skin care may have a more profound effect that the usual suspects.

A study done by a University of Illinois researcher, Kerry Hanson, found that applying a cream rich in antioxidants helped mop up the many free radicals formed in the outer layer of our skin when it is exposed to UV light - like sunlight. Kerry discovered that even when we wear regular sun block, which blocks about 94% of the sun's UV light, the remaining light penetrates the skin - and in doing so, can create a lot of potentially damaging free radicals.

Kerry said: "These free radicals caused considerable damage to both the cytoplasm and the lipid matrix. The cytoplasm of the lower epidermis was also dramatically damaged."

And she found that by applying an antioxidant rich cream, our skin builds up a store of antioxidants. When we go out in the sun, these antioxidants then soak up the free radicals created by the UV light, thus preventing any damage to our skin.

Kerry tested three antioxidants - stable vitamin C, vitamin E acetate, and vitamin E alcohol. She found the stable vitamin C worked the best of the three.

"There are natural enzymes in your skin that cleave the phosphate group and form a reservoir of vitamin C. The best results were achieved after multiple applications of the antioxidants when a significant amount of vitamin C accumulated within the skin. Any free radicals that are generated will be quenched by the vitamin C stored in your skin."

References: Science Daily