What Really Works For Anti-Aging? Science-Backed Skincare Ingredients

Dr. Andrea Suarez, dermatologist, goes beyond her pet hate skincare myths (e.g. sunscreen causes cancer, tanning is healthy), and talks about how actually one of her biggest frustrations is people wasting money on ineffective skincare products.

She also details what works, according to the evidence:

Science vs hype

Dr. Suarez explains that the root causes of skin aging are sun exposure, lifestyle habits, and menopause-related hormone decline (as applicable). However, skin aging is not the same for everyone, as for example paler skin tends to show more wrinkling and yellowing while richly melanated skin resists wrinkling but develops more pigmentation and texture issues.

With this in mind, here are the products that she ranks as…

Best:

• Sunscreen is the most effective anti-aging product with strong evidence for reversing and preventing damage in all skin tones.
• Topical retinoids like tretinoin and adapalene improve collagen, reduce wrinkles, and even skin tone.
• Alpha hydroxy acids such as glycolic acid and ammonium lactate exfoliate and hydrate, improving texture and skin thickness.
• Niacinamide is a marvelously multitasking antioxidant that improves moisture, dark spots, redness, and sallowness.
• Vitamin C works best in the form of stable ascorbic acid combined with vitamin E and ferulic acid.

Questionable:

• Topical peptides may hydrate and reduce water loss but lack strong evidence for significant anti-aging effects.
• Topical estrogen may boost collagen in menopausal skin but may also cause pigmentation and vascular changes.

Worthless:

• Growth factors are unlikely to be effective at all and probably act only as moisturisers
• Exosomes and PDRN lack clinical evidence and are mostly marketing hype

In short: an effective anti-aging skincare routine includes cleansing, moisturising, daily sunscreen, and possibly a retinoid. Also important are lifestyle factors like healthy diet, stress reduction, and avoiding smoking and alcohol. Thus, she bids us skip trendy products and stick with simple, proven ingredients used consistently.

For more on all of these, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also enjoy:

The Evidence-Based Skincare That Beats Product-Specific Hype ← in case you’d like a second opinion from another dermatologist

Take care!