When should I start using anti-ageing products?

Image via About: Dermatology

Question: I’ve heard you should start using anti-ageing products in your twenties, so you’ll get less wrinkles, is that true? If so, is using a Retinol cream at night enough?

Here’s the truth about anti-ageing skincare: when you’re young, it doesn’t do anything. Firstly, you don’t need to use a retinoic acid treatment in your twenties to prevent the wrinkles that will develop in your forties and unless you have really dry skin, you don’t even need to moisturise daily.

Neither do you need to rub vitamin C on your skin and there’s no way you need to apply glucoasmine; that molecule is way too big to penetrate your skin and it doesn’t do anything other than just sit on the surface.

The single most important anti-ageing precaution for your skin is to guard it from the sun. What you DO need to do is protect against UV radiation which has a long term affect on the appearance and physical condition of your skin. So a daily moisturiser with SPF 30 is a good precaution. Save the wrinkle creams for when you have wrinkles already.

The bottom line

Diligent use of a a good sunscreen (perhaps combined with an appropriate antioxidant) is the best way to protect your skin from ageing effects, including wrinkles.

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