by Karla Sutton
The Toronto Star, the leading Toronto area newspaper, has done an in-depth report on various leading wrinkle creams. The study was done to show if wrinkle creams work. Six middle aged women were used as test subjects and they gathered for an in-depth analysis of several different anti wrinkle cream products. Today I’ll take a closer look at the report and give you my analysis of the study wherever possible.
In the supervised study, the highest-priced product was the $150 Chanel night cream and the cheapest was Jamieson’s $21 eye cream. Of course, in this growing industry, there are literally thousands of anti-aging products available. The estimated $1.3 BILLION dollar industry in Canada alone tells you how many people, both men and women, are using these types of products frequently.
The test subjects reported a “transformation” in this study. Below is a recap of the results.
Three of the women used in the study believed that their wrinkles were reduced. One woman was unsure and two of them observed no change. All of the women, however, “revelled in the daily regime of pampering, they all felt they looked better and some received lovely compliments.”
Below are actual quotes from the article:
“Financial adviser Tammy Laframboise was told over Christmas that she ‘glowed.’”
“At a New Year’s Eve party, three people exclaimed to fire dispatcher Charlene Rathgeb, ‘Your skin looks beautiful.’”
“And fellow vacationers on a Cuban holiday assured fair-haired, sensitive-skinned Rose Marie Hall that she didn’t look her age.”
All six women described their skin as softer, firmer and better looking in general.
The above statement shores up my view on using anti aging creams in general. While most people will buy into the hype of a particular product, some people will hold the makers of the product to the usually ridiculous claims they so often put out there in the public’s eye. I do believe that just about any skin cream made in an FDA-inspected facility will do just what the women all agreed on – their skin was “softer, firmer, and better looking in general.” I say “FDA-inspected” because there really are some garbage products out there that are imported by marketers in the USA out there to buy a cheap cream and flip it for some more money. These creams have little or no therapeutic value at times, as a cheap cream does not contain any ingredients that will affect the skin after finishing the treatment.
I highly believe in the advancement of skin creams through science. What I mean by this is the different ingredients that make up skin creams generally come from cosmeceutical ingredients – ingredients subject to clinical testing in laboratories as far away as Switzerland and France. When you have an ingredient that is tried and tested to reduce wrinkle depth – such as Matrixyl 3000 - as long as the head product formulator has the right blend of ingredients at suitable concentration levels, you normally get a quality product that will firm, soften, and enhance the skin.
The Toronto Star article concludes – “Hydrated skin also looks fuller and healthier and can seem to “glow” as a result of the light-reflecting properties of many creams and lotions.” I could not agree with this statement more. The best wrinkle creams usually have that effect, which is another reason people looking to reduce their perceived age should start using them once they hit their mid twenties.
Karla A. Sutton has studied the anti aging skin care industry for almost a decade. She makes her home in South Florida and writes for several publications, such as The Examiner, Working Mother, and Busy-Moms-Online.com.
