Skin Care Creams and What’s In Them

What’s in a Cream?

Nowadays when you buy a skin cream the number of ingredients it contains can be baffling: AHAs, liposomes, ceramides, collagen, NMF – the list is endless. Having a basic understanding of what they can do to your skin will help you to choose the product you want.

Common ingredients

Ceramides

The body makes a variety of ceramides, several of which are found in the skin. Ceramides help to keep the skin cells functioning well. Dry skin is often deficient in ceramides so some skin cream manufacturers synthesize them to help back up the skin’s natural defences. It’s unclear whether topically applied ceramides can do the job of the natural variety, but they probably temporarily help to improve barrier function.

Liposomes

These were developed for pharmaceutical purposes to carry drugs into our systems via the skin rather than the gut. They are hollow spheres made up of lipids similar to the skin’s own so are readily accepted by the skin. Quickly commandeered for cosmetic use, they are now pumped full of active skin ingredients in the hope they will carry them into to the deeper layers of the epidermis. Early liposomes were relatively big and deposited large amounts of active ingredient soon after application. The newer generation are smaller in the hope that they can penetrate further and release smaller amounts of active ingredient over greater periods of time. Each company has its own name for them, such as ‘nanospheres’ and ‘micelles’.

AHAs – Alpha hydroxy acids

These are also known as fruit acids because some are found in citrus fruits (citric), apples (malice) and papaya (pyruvic) and because, from a marketing point of view, ‘fruit’ sounds like a comfortingly natural thing to be putting on your face. Other acids in the family include lactic acid (from milk), tartaric acid (from red wine), and the most exciting and therefore most widely researched, glycolic acid (from sugar cane).

Lactic acid has been used to soften skin for centuries and resurfaced in modern cosmetic creams in the 70s after studies showed that combined with sodium lactate, it improved the skin’s moisture-holding capacity. Tartaric acid, too, has been in used for years: French women used to apply red wine to their faces. Collectively, AHAs have recently been in the vanguard of the new cosmeceutical movement as they are used to formulate creams which perform beyond the normally superficial cosmetic role.

In the late 80s, Dr Eugene van Scott and his partner Dr Ruey Yu reported that the dead skin cells build-up which gave icthyosis sufferers their crocodile-skin appearance could be alleviated with an glycolic acid preparation.

They showed that the acid molecule dissolved the protein bond which kept a dead skin cell attached. Not only did glycolic acid prove capable of normalizing the desquamation process but could also improve the skin’s own moisture-retaining capability.

Dermatologists use AHAs in concentrations up to 70 per cent to perform acid peels and prescribe 5-20 per cent AHA creams. The percentage contained in cosmetic creams varies from 1-7 per cent. Some over-the-counter pharmacy brands contain between 5-15 per cent.

Cosmetic AHA preparations can help keep the skin free of dulling and skin-poreclogging dead cells. They can make the skin slightly brighter and 7 improve its moisture retention.

Unlike the physician-prescribed higher concentrations, they cannot produce radical improvement in the ageing complexion. Recent studies suggest that AHAs may also act as free radical scavengers, sending messages to the dermis to increase collagen production and increase the skin’s tolerance to retinoids.

Collagen

It is used as an ingredient in cosmetics for its ability to hydrate and hold water on the skin, which in the skin’s uppermost layers does very well. As a cosmetic ingredient, it has little effect on the skin’s natural collagen which lies, beyond the remit of cosmetics, deep in the dermis.

NMF

NMF is the skin’s own moisturizer, made up of, among other, as yet undocumented ingredients, hyaluronic acid, a humectant with great water holding properties, urea, lactose, and amino acids. Frequent or harsh detergent washing, sun exposure and other environmental factors can deplete the skin’s stores of NMF. It is the holy grail of many cosmetic scientists to be able to replicate the exact composition of NMF and put it into skin creams. To date, the best NMF is what your skin makes naturally. Hang on to it.

Antioxidants

Usually included in skin creams in the form of vitamins A, C and E, they are capable of neutralizing the destructive effects of the free radical molecule. They do this by sacrificing electrons to free radicals before they get a chance to wrest one from a healthy cell.

The results of the 18-month SU.VI.MAX trial published in April 1998, suggest that not only do topically applied vitamins have a significantly protective effect, but that they can actually give your skin enough of a rest from fighting UV rays for it to achieve a degree of natural repair. Subjects who used the antioxidant cream showed a 2 per cent reduction in the depth of lines and wrinkles while the control group showed a 4 per cent increase in wrinkle depth.

Humectants

These are substances which attract and hold moisture. They are useful in moisturizing cosmetic formulations for their ability to draw moisture from the air and hold it within the stratum corneum thereby helping to reduce water loss. Two humectants regularly used in cosmetic formulations are glycerine (a cheaper ingredient) and hyaluronic acid (a more expensive one).

Beauty spot

Even at very low concentrations, AHAs can be irritating to some skins. If the normal initial tingling doesn’t subside within a couple of minutes, or if your skin becomes visibly inflamed, refrain from using the product. It’s possible a different product won’t elicit the same response but if it does, console yourself with the knowledge that sunscreens are still a skin’s best friend.

Lipids

This a generic term for a variety of fatty substances which constitute about 10 per cent of the stratum corneum, lipids fill the intercellular spaces sealing the skin’s surface. Synthetic lipids are included in cosmetics in the hope that they will take the place of those removed by washing or destroyed by sun exposure and help to improve the barrier function.

Retinoids

This is the generic term given to members of the vitamin A family which includes tretinoin, retinol, retinyl palmitate, retinyl acetate and retinyl propionate. Tretinoin (aka Retin-A) is the acid form of the molecule which clinical studies have shown to have the greatest level of activity in the rejuvenation of photo-damaged skin. It speeds up cell turnover bringing plump, new healthy skin cells to the surface more quickly, thereby smoothing out wrinkles and helping to clear acne. It is very irritating, however, and used only via prescription and under the supervision of a physician. Retinyl palmitate is much less irritating and so is often incorporated into cosmetic creams seeking a similar effect. However, it doesn’t penetrate well or is never sufficiently well broken down by the skin to be of much benefit. Retinol is both slightly irritating and slightly effective. With careful adjustments to minimize irritation, it is now incorporated into a number of over-the-counter creams (eg ROC Retinol range and Estee Lauder Diminish).