The number one ingredient in most skincare products (even the high-priced ones!) is — you guessed it, water!
Water, of course, is excellent for your skin — especially if it is supplied from the food and water that you consume. Water that is applied to the surface has much less value.
Water is a principal ingredient in most moisturizers, and does in fact help to plump the skin (thereby helping to smooth and hydrate the skin). But, of course, it won’t affect a real change in your skin.
And, there are several other problems with water.
Most creams and lotions take up to 30 minutes to be fully absorbed by your skin, and during that time, much of the cream evaporates. So, before your skin can derive any benefit from the active ingredients in the products, the cream has evaporated. (Sorry to tell you this, but it’s the truth!)
Water, of course, dilutes. So the more water you put in a cream or lotion, the less effective the product will be.
The addition of water to a skincare formula requires adding a micro/bio preservative system. That’s why parabens are frequently used, in very low concentrations. Are parabens OK? Yes, I believe they are. But we can live without them.
Those three reasons are why I’m partial to developing anhydrous (water-free) formulas — like in Oclipse sunscreen and my new Radical Night Repair Plus. Water-free formulas deliver a much greater punch.
Should all skincare products be made without water so they’re extra-potent?? No. Over-stimulating your skin will cause irritation. Give your skin cells time to rest and recover.
**Remember to be careful applying Radical Night Repair Plus — it is much more potent that other products that you have tried. Please follow label instructions, and begin gradually.
When you get serious about skincare, ingredients become priority number one. As a formulator, that is the way I develop my products. I don’t have time to waste on the ineffective stuff and neither do you. But I often hear women express that they just don’t know which ingredients are the real deal.
Is it pure caviar, shavings of 14 karat gold or particles from an exotic fruit everyone seems to pronounce differently?
None of the above. It’s much more simple than that — and nowhere near as sexy. Take a look:
Let’s start with the anti-oxidants. They protect your skin cells from UV damage, pollution and free radicals. The most common ones (and the most important !) are Vitamins A, C and E.
Retinol (aka Active Vitamin A): This ingredient’s main function is skin cell turnover, which produces collagen — the stuff your skin had a lot of in its prime. If you’re familiar with my skincare philosophy then you know the key to younger looking skin lies in keeping skin cells active. When they go to sleep — a result of aging —fine lines, dull skin and wrinkles form. Retinol is like a bucket of cold water to sleepy skin cells. Continued use of it in high concentrations wakes cells right up and puts them straight to work.
Active Vitamin C: This is another antioxidant, but it works differently — it helps synthesize collagen. This property lends a very valuable feature to your skin in that it stabilizes free radicals and in doing so protects healthy cells from getting damaged. In English? It’s an excellent preventative measure against wrinkles as well as the photoaging sun exposure can cause.
Vitamin E: It helps protect the skin from UV rays and, as an added bonus, softens and smoothes, too.
Be advised: Retinol is a pure and active derivative of Vitamin A. If you use a synthetic form of Vitamin A, or take oral supplements of these vitamins, you simply will not achieve the same results. It just doesn’t work that way.
Be advised: Vitamins A and C have to be properly stabilized, packaged and stored. They can’t be exposed to light or UV rays or the formula could turn colors, or just go inactive. If isn’t stabilized then it oxidizes and turns yellowish or dark when exposed to air or water, essentially spoiling it.
Dr. Zein Obagi
ZO Skin Health
