Wrinkles Treatment & Advice

Wrinkles are due to a loss of collagen in the skin. The collagen is lost mostly from sun damage but aging also causes some collagen loss. As skin wrinkles, it becomes thin and fragile too. To really reverse wrinkles on your skin, you need to re-thickening the skin and build more collagen.

Unfortunately, collagen can't be added to the skin from the outside, it has to be made by your body's own cells inside the skin. There are only 3 types of skin care product ingredients that, in my opinion, have the power to build skin collagen. These 3 ingredients are:

1. Tretinoin (in prescription creams called Retin-A and Renova),

2. Glycolic acid (an alpha hydroxy acid added to skin care products. The glycolic acid must have a free acid concentration in the product of over 10% to work for collagen building)

3. Vitamin C (there must be at least 10% concentration in the product, in the L ascorbate form and the product needs to be in a container that does not allow oxygen to enter).

Because all of these wonderful collagen building skin care ingredients can be irritating and tricky to use they require specific advice on how to use them. They each have their pros and cons that you need to understand in order to choose the one that's right for you.

• My first choice is always the prescription creams containing tretinoin because they work the best. These include Retin-A and Renova, and are really only used on skin of the face, neck and chest. They are the hardest of the 3 anti wrinkle skin care treatments to use and require a prescription. Because tretinoin creams make the skin more sun sensitive and more sensitive to irritating things like harsh soaps or climates, I have developed tricks to help most people use them successfully:
  • I recommend washing the treated skin with non-foaming cleansers (like Toleraine Cleanser or Noble Zinc Soap).
  • I also recommend using Replenix CF Cream to soothe irritation.
  • Sun protection is critical every day and our sunscreens work beautifully with tretinoin therapy.
  • A day time facial moisturizer is also important to soothe and moisturize, and to protect the skin from harsh weather. Apply the facial moisturizer under your sunscreen. Pick a product that is not irritating such as Glycolix Elite Facial Cream if you have normal to oily skin. If you have dryer skin, use a richer oil containing moisturizers such as Glycolix Fortified Facial Cream.

People with tolerant skin may be able to maximize their anti wrinkle skin care therapy by combining tretinoin with other anti wrinkle treatments. Because all 3 of these very effective anti wrinkle treatments are a little irritating, people with sensitive skin may not be able to use more than one choice. If your skin is tolerant enough, my Anti Oxidant Kit works beautifully with Retin A and Renova! It adds physical exfoliation to immediately brighten the skin and Vitamin C to build collagen by a completely different, and potentially additive method.

• My second choice for reversing wrinkles and photo damage is glycolic acid used in combination with the Antioxidant Anti Aging Facial Skin Care Kit. This combines glycolic acid with vitamin C to build collagen by 2 different mechanisms.

I think glycolic acid is the best alpha hydroxy acid to build collagen and treat wrinkles. However, not all glycolic acid products have the power to build collagen in your skin. For a glycolic acid product to work, it must have a 'free acid' concentration of glycolic acid at 10% or higher. If a product doesn't clearly tell you on the label, then it may not have a free acid content of 10% or more. All of my products are strong, high strength, professional level glycolic acid products with over 10% free glycolic acid. I know how they are made and I trust the companies and chemists who made them.

Glycolic Acid can be used alone for anti wrinkle treatment, but combining strong glycolic acid skin care products with the other products in my Antioxidant Anti Aging Skin Care Kit gives you the 'state of the art', most effective anti wrinkle treatment available today!

• Vitamin C is the third skin care option to treat wrinkles and reverse sun damage on your skin. Most vitamin C skin care products don't work though. That's because the chemistry of how the product is made and stored effects whether it works, and it takes a dermatologist or skin chemist to figure this out. To get into the skin and stimulate collagen production, a vitamin C product must be in the stable L-ascorbate form, in a concentration over 10% and have a pH of under 3.5% (as in C/R/S Rejuvenation Serum). Plus, vitamin C in a skin care product breaks down when air touches it so the product you buy needs to be in an air tight container, like C/R/S Rejuvenation Serum.

In addition to treating wrinkles, vitamin C also helps to protect the skin from damaging free radicals produced by sun exposure and other harsh environmental stressors.

Finally, sun protection is critically important to any successful anti wrinkle treatment and so you must use a broad spectrum sunscreen with zinc oxide. All of our products are excellent parts of your anti wrinkle skin care treatment.