vitamin a

Favorite Skincare Ingredient – 2. Antioxidants

The second blog post of this new ingredient based series is dedicated to antioxidants. They have been very popular as active ingredients for some time now, mainly vitamin C being THE one antioxidant that seemed to have started this trend of incorporating certain vitamins and other antioxidants into modern skincare products, although vitamin E (tocopherol) has been around for what seems forever, especially for treating dry, mature skin and scarring. It was vitamin C though that hit the skincare markets mostly in the form of serums and treatments that help brighten and repair as well as prevent the effects of photo aging of the skin (photo aging basically means “damage to skin cells caused by the sun’s UV rays that results in premature aging of the skin”, i.e. brown spots or hyperpigmentation, fine lines and wrinkles, and can ultimately lead to serious photo damage, like Basal Cell Carcinomas which are the most common kind of skin cancers and are typically found on sun-exposed areas, etc.)*1

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Favorite Skincare Ingredient – 1. Retinol

This series is going to feature my favorite skincare ingredients. I will summarize the pros and cons, why I like this particular ingredient, what it’s used for and whose skin it’s suited for. Each blog post will also give you a selection of products at different price points.

There are only very few ingredients used in the cosmetics industry that can truly live up to their claims. One of them is retinol, simply speaking a form of vitamin A. Often times the other forms of vitamin A (like retinoids) are used interchangeably. What you as a consumer, mainly need to know is that retinol is available in over-the-counter products (OTC), whereas retinoids or Renova and Retin-A (or their main ingredient Tretinoin) etc., are a lot more potent and therefore prescribed by physicians only.

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