Do Anti-Oxidants Also Really Work in a Cream?

Yesterday I wrote that putting anti-oxidants in cosmetic products is the ‘in thing’. But do they also work? I can say, without a doubt, that there is enough scientific evidence that anti-oxidants which are used in cosmetic products are able to eliminate free radicals. Or at least that’s what they do in test tubes. How these substances behave ‘in vivo’ (meaning when applied to the skin) is unfortunately less clear. A lot more research still needs to be carried out in this area. Despite the fact that we still don’t know exactly how anti-oxidants behave in creams, I can definitely recommend the use of anti-oxidants based on what we already do know.

Conditions

There are a number of conditions which must be fulfilled in order for them to work.

1. There must be sufficiently high concentrations, a concentration of 0.001% is negligible. You can check this by looking to see if the anti-oxidants are shown in the top or middle section of the list of ingredients. If they are shown in the last third of the ingredients list then the concentration is generally too low to have any real effect.
2. Anti-oxidants work best if there is more than one type combined together in a product; so strengthening each other’s effect. Look for a product containing more than one type. A well known and successful combination is that of Vitamin E (Tocopherol) and Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid).
3. Anti-oxidants are very sensitive to light and oxygen and are therefore not the most effective if you have a pot with a removable lid. Look for a product in an airtight container.

Which of them work?

It has been independently demonstrated that the following substances possess anti-oxidating properties:

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) Vitamin E (Tocopherol) , Ergothioneine, CoQ10, Alphalipoic Acid, Idebenone, Lipoic Acid and Glutathione (Yarosh, The new science of perfect skin, Smartskincare.com, article about cosmetic ingredients)

What most people don’t realise is that anti-oxidants react to oxygen (e.g. by being in a pot). Your product can not only become less effective but can even have the opposite effect. In theory anti-oxidants, such as Vitamin C, can thus speed up the skins ageing process instead of slowing it down. Lucky for us then that there are generally low concentrations of these active substances found in the pots…

Regards Jetske.

(Dr.Jetske Ultee – Research Physician Cosmetic Dermatology)

You’ll find more about anti-oxidants in ‘anti-oxidants in cosmetic products’.
In the blog ‘Research Has Shown That…‘
and in ‘Angel Dusting’ you can read about how easy it is to mislead you on how a product works. Also read ‘Is an Expensive Moisturizer Better?’ and
the blog about gold in cosmetics.