Prompt Cast
The Truth About Skincare Products: Expensive Doesn't Mean Effective
TLDR Aging skin and wrinkles are caused by changes in skin proteins and sun damage, and while skincare ingredients can repair damage, they often struggle to penetrate the skin. Over-the-counter vitamin A creams have little evidence to support their effectiveness, and expensive moisturizers are no better than cheap ones in reducing wrinkles or making skin look younger.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Is there anything you can slap on your face to prevent wrinkles and make them go away?
04:00
As we age, the proteins in our skin, like elastin and collagen, change and become less structured, leading to wrinkles and roughness, and this process is accelerated by sun damage.
07:54
For skin care ingredients to effectively penetrate the skin and repair damage, they need to be fat soluble, small in size, and able to bypass the stratum corneum, which is the top layer of the skin that acts as a barrier.
12:16
It is difficult for skincare ingredients to penetrate deep into the skin and repair damage, as they can easily break down and lose their effectiveness when exposed to light and air.
17:49
Tretinoin, a common chemical found in vitamin A creams, has been shown to increase collagen and elastin in the dermis, but its effects on preventing wrinkles are minimal and it only seems to help with fine lines.
22:11
Over-the-counter vitamin A creams, such as retinol, have little to no evidence to support their effectiveness in improving the appearance of aged skin, according to a peer-reviewed journal article by Natalia, and are considered a total waste of time and money.
26:19
Skincare companies often use misleading and untrustworthy methods to validate their marketing claims, as demonstrated by a DIY experiment where a cheap moisturizer received high ratings in a clinical trial conducted by a paid research company.
30:29
Moisturizers work by acting as a barrier on the skin to prevent water loss, and a study found that there were no differences in reducing wrinkles or making skin look younger between expensive and cheap moisturizers, so the only essential skincare product is sunscreen.
34:37
Expensive skincare products are a scam, and the podcast episode has 100 citations to back up this claim.
