Face cream can churn out to be a waste

Published on Thursday 18 September 2008 10:11

THERE'S an overwhelming amount of face creams which claim to take years off your age.

A simple twice daily rub of some fancy lotion or potion is all you need to rewind years of sun and environmental damage, not to mention neglect. Or so they say.

Walk into any high street beauty hall and some of the industry's most state-of-the-art "It" creams will be vying for attention. Botox-in-a-jar concoctions, bio-engineered human growth hormone infused moisturisers which claim to renew, pentapeptides, saturated potions . . . and all with a hefty price tag to match.

With the Capital's most expensive face treatment – Peau Magnifique by Re Vive at Space NK – a whopping 1100, and a 60 jar of face cream made with the venom of an Asian snake now being billed as the latest antidote to wrinkles with "Botox-like results", how justified is the It cream hype? And, just how good can over-the-counter creams ever be?

"A nice package and nice words can easily baffle us," says Edinburgh cosmetic doctor, Lyndsey Myskow of Medicalternative. "And just because something is expensive doesn't necessarily mean it's any good."

Fellow Capital cosmetic doctor, Simon Connolly, of Mulberry House, agrees. He explains: "Let's be brutally honest about what causes lines and wrinkles. There is no cream out there which can rewind the damage or beat Botox injections. And those creams can't be Botox in a

'Good skin really comes down to just cleansing, toning and moisturising'

jar for the simple fact that Botox is too big a molecule to be transported across the skin. A cream just can't do the same.

"Most creams have the bulk of their benefits through the hydration of the skin. There are very few creams which are available over the counter which have clinically proven to improve anything more than the hydration of the skin. Most of these claims come from evidence based on the ingredients themselves available in the cream, but the (medical] claims are not based on the creams themselves – and certainly not in the quantities present in the creams. It is clever marketing and advertising."

Lyndsey adds: "These beauty companies do talk a good talk and they do their research quite carefully to blind us with science. They may use terms that we know from reading the magazines are quite important, but they (beauty companies] don't actually tell you whether these products go into the skin, rather than just sit on the surface, and actually help."

While a snake venom anti- ageing cream – the synthesised viper venom is said to "stun" the skin in the same way a real snake bite would, therefore helping to keep it smooth – sounds as if it does the trick, the experts are dubious.

"The snake venom one is interesting as presumably it contains a muscle relaxant, but the trouble is a cream won't actually get into the muscle as it sits on the skin," says Lyndsey. "You would need to inject into the muscle to do this."

"Snake venom is used to dissolve clots in the treatment of heart attacks, and it's not used to relax muscles," adds Simon. "So I would find it extremely unlikely that it will make any difference. These creams will feel great when they're on, but I don't think you can justify the price. The changes you see with most topical creams is merely just the hydrating of the layers of the skin – and you don't have to pay much for that."

Which is exactly the philosophy of renowned facialist to the stars, Eve Lom, who was in the Capital earlier this week to meet shoppers with skin concerns.

"People tend to over-complicate things," admits Eve, who founded her skin care company in 1985 and boasts Kate Hudson and Eva Mendes among her clientele.

"We are bombarded with products and we think we need so many things to ensure good skin. It really comes down to just cleansing, toning and moisturising. Nothing more. Well, a good SPF helps when you're in the sun."

Her cult wax-based cleanser, which is massaged on to dry skin then steamed with a hot compress using a muslin cloth, is a top seller at 45, and forms part of her small but perfectly-formed skin care offering. And one tub lasts up to a year, as well as replacing a toner, exfoliator and make-up remover.

"Exfoliation is key to younger-looking skin," she stresses, "and it doesn't have to be expensive. I use a muslin cloth to do this, and it does the same job as any exfoliator out there – and it's natural and doesn't irritate the skin.

"If we let our own skin breathe more, we'd look better for it. It's all down to oxygen, water and food.

"I think the worst part is that we are over-lubricating, over- clogging. We are doing far too much for the skin, and the skin doesn't like it. So what happens is it stops functioning properly."

So are we just wasting our money with It creams?

"There are creams out there that can turn back the years," admits Lyndsey. "But I'm not aware of any you can get over the counter. If they are powerful enough to do this, they need to be prescribed. A vitamin A cream which is very high in strength is 58.16 prescribed and it is a thousand times the potency of an over-the-counter version. Vitamin A is one proven treatment that actually reverses ageing – it helps wrinkles, the loss of elasticity and it boosts collagen."

Cosmeceuticals are the way to go, then.

"The answer is basically to see a physician who has experience in cosmetic dermatology and who can prescribe medically on what creams you should and shouldn't use," says Simon. "Save your money and just pick out an inexpensive hydrating cream that will give the look of renewed skin at a fraction of the cost."

Which is why Waitrose's 2.49 Baby Bottom butter sold out – it was simply extremely hydrating rather than anti-ageing.

"We want to be beautiful and young and therefore we go for Botox, we go for surgery, and on the other hand we want natural food," adds Eve. "These are huge contradictions. We don't want to do simple things – drink water, cleanse."

And also scrub. Eve explains: "The Japanese, the Turks . . . all those women in harems, they soak for ever, scrubbing their skins off. The more you exfoliate on that gentle level, the more the skin cells come through – and that, to me, is rejuvenation."

So, skin care can be simple. And affordable.

Lyndsey explains: "What people need for their skin is simple – vitamins A, C and a UVA and UVB sunblock. Nothing more."