How To Choose The Right Anti-Aging Cream For Your Skin
We’ll say it: Antiaging products can be mystifying. The category of antiaging skincare is broad –– and there are also many categories within antiaging creams. With so many brands, active ingredients, and points of view, it’s easy to be confused about how to begin your search for the best products for your skin. Here, we’ll talk about what to take into consideration when it comes to your skin and the signs of aging, share some dermatologist insight from Rodan + Fields Founders, Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, and discuss even more tips about how to navigate the ever-changing world of antiaging skincare.
The science behind aging skin
Lots of change is happening as we age. Collagen begins to break down and cell turnover slows down, as well. “In your 20s, your epidermis renews itself every 28 days,” Dr. Katie Rodan says. “As you get older, it takes longer, up to 50 days in a fifty-year-old,” she says. The result is a build-up of dead cells on the surface of the skin, making the skin look dry and dull. With age, we also deal with the loss of skin elasticity. And of course, sun damage has an effect on how your skin ages, too. More on that later.
What are the first signs of skin aging in your 20s, 30s and 40s?
Aging in your 20s
The first signs of aging appear around your eyes in your 20s. The skin in the eye area is thinner and more prone to damage than the skin on the rest of your face. The orbital eye area reveals everything from puffiness, dark circles, bags, wrinkles, fine lines and crow’s feet.
Eye cream applied daily—consistently, helps. Eye cream makes a huge difference over time. Spending just a minute or two patting on a bit can address visible signs of aging while nourishing the eye and undereye areas. The ingredients are the most important part of an anti-aging eye cream. While important, overnight usage and once-a-day usage are secondary.
Antiaging routines generally start in your 20s and dermatologists believe that it takes about 2-4 weeks to ramp up, when starting a new product. In other words, give your routine at least a month of consistent use before you expect to see visible results.
Aging in your 30s
For many of us, our 30s are when we first begin to see changes in our skin with regard to aging. The first changes we see in our skin happen when we reach our 30s occur when we begin to lose collagen and endure Hyaluronic Acid depletion. These changes can lead to drier-looking skin, the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and a loss of overall brightness and radiance.
Aging in your 40s
In our 40s, we start to see major changes with regard to our skin’s firmness. You might be dealing with loss of volume and elasticity, in addition to wrinkles, fine lines and sun damage. The latter can show up in the form of discoloration or dark marks. Learning more about skincare and creating the best skincare routine for you, in addition to lifestyle adjustments, can help you look your best as you progress through this decade.
In your 40s and beyond, there are changes in our skin that impact visible signs of aging. Specifically, lower collagen production, depletion of hyaluronic acid and elastic fibers loss. As we progress through our 40s, our skin becomes drier and fine lines and wrinkles can become more apparent. Fun, right? The good news is that skincare can help us diminish the signs of aging with a consistent morning and evening anti-aging routine.
Key anti-aging cream ingredients that work—according to the dermatologists
In our Rodan + Fields study, we found that, overall, Retinol and SPF are the most important ingredients in an anti-aging product. Vitamin C, Hyaluronic Acid, Glycolic Acid, Ceramides, Peptides and Hydroquinone also ranked highly for their anti-aging effects.
When you’re shopping for your next anti-aging cream, you’ll want to choose one with at least one of those ingredients to target different skin concerns.
Can anti-aging creams address multiple skin concerns?
If you have many skin concerns related to aging— you want to choose the one that you would like to target first and focus on that, instead of a little bit of everything. “Skin conditions are common, complicated, and therefore, difficult to create a product that does it all,” Dr. Kathy Fields says. She advises that you break out skin concerns, because of their complexities. “You have to focus on the ingredients that work together as a collaboration to get efficacious, reproducible results,” Dr. Kathy Fields notes.
Ensure you always use SPFs as the last step of your anti-aging skincare routine.
Photo-aging is responsible for most aging as it relates to skin. Sun care is vital from a preventative standpoint. You want to make sure you’re applying it daily as the final step in your Regimen. Depending on your age and sun-worshipping history, skin damage created by this point in your life may or may not be able to be addressed. However, you can always have an impact on how your skin ages in the future if you take care of it.
SPF is the single skincare step you should never skip. “You can use the greatest anti-aging products that have ever been created, but if you aren’t sun protected, you undo all of that hard work,” Dr. Kathy Fields says. “Today we are assaulted from the environment in ways we didn’t imagine before, she says. Not just with the sun, but also with nanoparticles and lights of different intensities,” Dr. Kathy Fields adds.
The sun’s rays are directly associated with aging. “Sun exposure is the skin’s worst enemy,” Dr. Katie Rodan says.
The 411 on UVA vs. UVB rays
UVA is the aging wavelength of light, and it’s present all year round, all day long. “It deeply penetrates the skin, breaking down collagen,” Dr. Katie Rodan explains. UVB is the burning ray that destroys the epidermis. UVB burns the surface of the skin, causing redness and potentially, skin cancers. eventually skin cancers. “Whether it is cloudy, rainy, or bright, you need your sun protection every day because every day is ‘sunday’ as far as your skin is concerned,” Dr. Katie Rodan says.
The importance of an anti-aging skincare routine vs. individual products
Creating a routine that works for your skin concerns involves a synergy of ingredients, and a system that was inspired by dermatologists and designed by scientists for best visible results. Implementing a skincare routine that takes a preventative approach to addressing signs of aging is essential to maintaining youthful-looking skin.
Easy-to-use, 3-step, customizable REDEFINE Regimen targets all visible signs of aging around the clock. With consistent use, it works to smooth the look of fine lines and deep wrinkles, improve uneven-looking skin texture, tighten the look of pores, and visibly plump, firm, lift and sculpt skin.
At the end of the day, it’s about beautiful skin at any age.
“We know from an evolutionary standpoint that the most important factor of attraction between people is the quality of your skin,” Dr. Katie Rodan says. “How you take care of your skin every day makes a bigger difference in your appearance today and how your skin looks in the future than any procedure we do in our practices.”
