Buying the right anti aging skin care

Shopping for anti aging skin care can be a nightmare experience. Once you find the right anti aging product for you it pays to stick with it.

But how are you supposed to find what works and make sure you spend your hard earned cash wisely?

There are hundreds of thousands of products out there – many with extremely high price tags – over hyped claims from manufacturers and a list of ingredients as long as your arm.

Here’s some practical tips to help you find anti aging skin care that works.

Check the ingredients. There are relatively few ingredients that have been put through rigorous clinical testing and shown to be effective against skin aging. Examples include: Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHA), Tretinoin (trans-retinoic acid) which is commonly known as retinol, Vitamin C, Copper Peptides, and Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-3.

Go for a high concentration of ingredients. Some ingredients don’t have any effect below a certain concentration. For example – vitamin C has been shown to be ineffective below the 10% level and most creams and serums with Vitamin C as an active ingredient contain much less than this. Similarly AHA has to be present at levels above 8% to be effective as an anti aging ingredient.

Now the problem you have here is that most anti aging products don’t declare the level of each ingredient in the formulation. What manufacturers do though is order the list of ingredients from highest to lowest concentration so you can draw some conclusions from that.

Don’t be swayed by long ingredient lists. Most of the ingredients in a formulation are part of the base cream or serum and have nothing to do with its effectiveness against wrinkles, sags or bags. 

Too many active anti aging ingredients can dilute the effectiveness of any single one. A good base cream or serum plus one or two excellent high strength active anti aging ingredients at high levels of concentration is better than a lot of active anti aging ingredients at low concentrations.

Choose a good brand – dermatologist based skin care is best in my experience. Look out for brands like Obagi, Dr Brandt, Cellex-C, Skinceuticals, Skin Medica and others set up and run by certified dermatologists.

Give it time to work. The anti aging ingredients that really work take effect slowly over time. You cannot possible judge the effect of an anti aging cream or face serum in a matter of days or even in a week or two. The full effects will probably take closer to 4-8 weeks or more to emerge. Ignore any customer review if the user hasn’t used the product long enough to properly comment.

Don’t believe all you read. Ads are there to sell products and testamonials or before/after photos are not always all they seem. Look for hard clinical studies and see what customers who have actually used the products say about products in review forums. That’s what I try and do here on this site before I make a recommendation if I haven’t used an anti aging product myself.

Natural isn’t always best. Many natural chemicals can be harmful or even deadly – many man made chemicals are life saving drugs. What really matters is whether the product is clinically proven to be safe and effective.

Remember you’re unique. Even if you buy an anti aging product carefully – what works for others may be totally wrong for you. There is always going to be a certain element of trial and error.

Only buy an anti aging product you’ve never used before if you can return it easily. Online suppliers are much better at this than retail in my experience.  If you get a bad reaction or you feel the anti aging product just doesn’t do what it says the last thing you want is a hassle about returning it. Check the return policy and make sure you stick to the terms.

Buy from a knowledgeable dermatologist based skin care supplier – sites like Dermstore and SkinCareRX are set up and overseen by board certified dermatologists. Better sites give you lots of clear product information and customer reviews.

So – do your research and think about what you want from an anti aging product.  Set a budget and buy carefully.

Nothing is guaranteed – but by following these simple rules you are much more likely to get the results you want!

Related Articles:

• Anti aging skin care we love – Tracie Martyn
• Affordable anti aging skin care
• Anti aging skin care from the inside out