Rating of nourishing face creams. Season. Summer and winter cream. How to choose a good face cream

Nobody wants to grow old, especially women. Alas, aging is inevitable, and first of all it manifests itself on the face. The skin of the face and neck is the object of tireless attention of women. For them appearance- almost the main basis of normal well-being and mood. Therefore, women are the main consumers of a huge variety of creams, lotions, tonics, masks and other products intended for facial skin care.

It would seem that women should understand the properties of these products in much the same way as men understand, for example, the design and operation of cars. However, this impression is deceptive. If men “can’t be fooled with chaff” in matters of automobiles, then with women in matters of cosmetology and cosmetic products everything is different.

Creams must act, “work”. How and which one to choose a face cream so that it really gives something positive to the skin? The whole truth about cosmetics and creams - that’s what we’ll talk about in this article.

Women, as a rule, give preference to one product or another, focusing their choice only on external signs, which are completely insignificant: “I like its smell...”; “he is very gentle...”; “...it is so absorbed!” - these are approximately the criteria for choosing creams that prevail among women. The choice of women is also influenced by the fascination with the packaging - a box, a jar, a bottle... Well, if the seller also adds a small gift to the purchase, then this only reinforces the confidence in the “correct choice”.

In addition, advertising does not sleep, creating fascination with a product that has not yet been purchased already at the stage of contemplating a television picture. At the same time, the advertising desperately intrigues on the verge of a bluff, using phrases that are tricky for most consumers, promising too much and forming clearly inflated expectations: “coenzyme Q10 – the youth of your skin”...

How many people understand that aging is irreversible and can only be slowed down, while rejuvenation itself is impossible in principle? How many people know that coenzyme Q10 is already found in every cell of the human body, both young and aging? Finally, how many people look at the list of ingredients of creams and notice that the “new product” thrown onto the market is, most often, the same cream that was before?

Women have an extremely inaccurate idea of ​​the classification of creams. Only a few know what “skin nourishment” means and why the cream is called “nourishing”. The vast majority of them are confused about the differences between nourishing and moisturizing creams. “Aren’t hydration and nutrition the same thing?” some of them ask, having probably read in other advertising opuses that “water nourishes cells.”

What kind of moisturizing creams are there, what is the difference between them and how do they moisturize the skin? What is more important, moisturizing or nourishing the skin? What is skin toning if the skin does not have such a characteristic as “tone” itself? Why, finally, are there “morning” and “evening”, “day” and “night” creams? To all these and similar questions you can also hear extremely inaccurate, sometimes very funny, answers.

Positively, accurate knowledge and general ideas about cosmetic products, the problems of cosmetics, their achievements, difficulties and seduction techniques that work for the commercial success of the manufacturer and seller will not hurt anyone.

"REGULAR" CREAM

What is a “regular” cream, which usually contains quite a large number of ingredients? What do you need to know about them in order to adequately assess the potential capabilities of the purchased product?

A “regular” cream is, first of all, an emulsion, i.e. vegetable oil in water, - thoroughly mixed until uniform in appearance. Uniform distribution of oil particles in aquatic environment provides good absorption into the skin, including the oil component, which normal application penetrates the skin extremely reluctantly. Emulsification in today's production is at a high technological level, so modern creams are absorbed almost equally successfully. How the cream is absorbed is not the main advantage modern cream. Another technological method, water in oil, produces a “reverse emulsion” when water particles are enclosed in an oil medium, and the absorption of such a cream is significantly reduced, which is used in the production of massage creams.

Be that as it may, it is in the emulsion base of the cream, as in the solvent or carrier, that all its other ingredients are contained. Despite their impressive number, they are not difficult to navigate if you divide this whole set into three large groups.

The main one is a group of active ingredients, the very active principle that should improve the internal condition of the skin and, as a result, its appearance. In the arsenal modern cosmetology There are quite a lot of active ingredients of natural origin that can provide serious assistance to the condition of the skin. Let us note right away that this “assistance” should come exclusively from within through the system of blood vessels in conditions of sufficient and adequate nutrition of a person, his physical activity and the possibility of full recovery during night sleep.

An attempt to introduce something useful from the outside into the skin is an order of magnitude lower in effectiveness: the skin is not adapted to a massive and, in general, unnatural intake nutrients in an outside-in direction, no matter how wonderful and valuable they may be. This is one of the most difficult problems in cosmetology: overcoming the barrier of skin permeability, which prevents the complete penetration of nutritional ingredients into the thickness of the cellular layers.

However, at the very least, this problem is solved through finely dispersed emulsification and, as some manufacturers claim, by reducing the molecular weight of the ingredients, as a result of which a fairly significant amount of them is not just absorbed into the superficial stratum corneum of the skin, but also penetrates quite deeply, reaching the level of the capillary vascular network, which lies much lower than the bulk of the cellular layers of the skin.

Among the world's best manufacturers, this amount is expressed as 10 to 30%; therefore, you need to keep in mind that the remaining 70–90% of the cream's ingredients are evenly distributed over the overlying cellular layers and do not have a decisive effect on the condition of the skin. That is why any cream, even the most remarkable in its composition, does not act immediately, but requires systematic use over a period of time, sometimes quite a long time.

What does modern cosmetology use as active ingredients?

These are mainly plant extracts, essential oils, and vegetable oils. The most effective formulations contain all this variety in the form of two to five items for each item. It is in this case that the most multifaceted effect on metabolism in the skin is ensured, which can be called “complex”.

Its essence is that it is in this combination of components that the cream introduces into the skin not only plastic materials (unsaturated fatty acids, amino acids, etc.), from which the structures of cellular and intracellular membranes are built and restored, but also those function regulators (vitamins, flavonoids, glycosides, terpenes, coumarins, trace elements, etc.), which activate metabolism in cells and blood flow in the capillary bed to the required extent for all this plastic wealth to be truly absorbed. This is the actual nutrition of the skin. This term cannot have any other meaning, and therefore, the more diverse the composition of the active ingredients of the cream, the more this cream is nutritious for skin cells.

Otherwise, a nourishing cream that is not rich in active ingredients will, of course, have its effect. positive influence, but in most cases it will be clearly insufficient relative to the real needs of the skin. Thus, fears that a “strong” cream can damage the skin, in turn, are greatly exaggerated. Concentration of active principles cosmetic cream clearly below the level from which the cream acquires a medicinal character, medicinal product, the use of which requires caution and precise instructions from a doctor.

In addition, when using a large number of active ingredients, product developers always take into account the effect of synergy - the mutual reinforcement of their properties in the event of simultaneous exposure - which makes it possible to further reduce the concentration of each active ingredient.

It is much more dangerous to use a cream that is depleted in its composition (one or two herbal ingredients), which, nevertheless, somehow has a practical effect. instant effect, smoothing out wrinkles on the face.

To normalize the functions of the skin and normalize the processes of restoration of its structures, time is required - from a couple of weeks to several months, depending on the initial state of the consumer’s body. It is clear that a depleted set of active ingredients is not able to ensure the unfolding of positive events literally before our eyes. This “trick” is provided by a completely different action - the action of ingredients of artificial origin, and below we will talk about this in more detail.

Undoubtedly, when choosing cosmetic products, you should give preference to a cream “rich” in natural ingredients. But not only this criterion is important. It is important not to be deluded by elements of advertising mythology or, say, the overseas origin of the herbs contained in it. The exotic sound of the words “witch hazel”, “gingko biloba”, etc. in itself does not mean that these plants have any special properties that are not inherent in any other plant substrate.

For example, Gingko biloba, of Chinese origin, is deservedly valued for its pronounced positive effect on the state of capillary blood circulation. But the same effect can be achieved by the presence of other ingredients in the cream - essential oils, for example, and even more so by combining them with synergistic ingredients. That is, a cream containing our native chamomile, milk thistle, mint, clover and alfalfa may be no less serious in its beneficial effect on the skin than an imported tourer on our domestic market.

But, let's return to the “regular” cream. What else does it consist of, what else does it contain? Alas, all the most positive and valuable things have already been considered and now it remains to highlight what neither the developers of cosmetic products nor their sellers like to talk about. We will talk about the next group of ingredients that have nothing to do with natural, beneficial ones, and which are added to the composition of the cream, so to speak, out of technological necessity. These are mainly numerous emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, preservatives, dyes and aromatic fragrances.

Thus, emulsifiers are designed to ensure the ease and quality of the emulsification process, because oil and water are not friendly substances and do not mix on their own at all. Simple mechanical stirring is of little use for the formation of a high-quality emulsion. The emulsion, as the basis of the cream, should also be homogeneous (homogeneous) and with a very small size of emulsion particles - the smaller the better. Otherwise, the cream will be poorly absorbed, and in this case, there is no need to talk about its deep penetration into the skin.

There is another difficulty. The cream must be stable in its physicochemical properties, and the emulsion particles tend to collapse over time, which leads to the emulsion stratifying (water remains at the bottom, oil at the top), ceasing to be the emulsion itself. This process is counteracted by emulsifiers, stabilizers, and preservatives. By the way, the longer the shelf life of the product, for example, from 1 to 2 or more years, the greater the quantity it contains ingredients of this kind.

Numerous ingredients of a “regular” technological cream are, unfortunately, substances of artificial “petrochemical” origin and are completely alien to the biochemistry of skin cells. In fact, these are xenobiotics - the so-called substances that cannot be usefully utilized by living organisms. Xenobiotics do not always belong to the category of poisons, but their systematic intake into the body still negatively affects the detoxifying (disinfecting) function of drainage systems, which remove everything unnecessary to the body into the external environment.

The situation is similar to the case with food products manufactured using “high technologies” and containing technological additives marked on the packaging with the index “E” (the same emulsifiers, preservatives, dyes, flavors, leavening agents). It is extremely difficult to prove their direct harm to the body, however, from the point of view of nutrition, there is no doubt that their systematic use, and especially their predominance in the diet, will not bring any good, and therefore is extremely undesirable. There are plenty of examples of the negative impact of such nutrition on the health of both children and adults. Unfortunately, “high technology” only means high level production work for profit and nothing more.

How to distinguish the “technological” ingredients of creams from the natural active principles? By name, of course: even if a person is very far from chemistry, then the “chemical” sound of the term (the name of the formula chemical substance) is always distinguishable from the botanical names of plant extracts and oils.

It is also necessary to take into account the order in which the ingredients are listed in the declaration on the packaging: they are listed in descending order of quantity. For example, if water is listed in the first place, followed by a long list of chemical terms (propylene glycol, methylparaben, butylcarbamate, sodium benzoate, etc.), and only then, finally, one or two botanical names are indicated, after which again comes “ some kind of chemistry”... Or, even worse, one botanical name is the last in the general row, which means its microscopic content in the total volume of the cream...

What can such a cream, often persistently advertised as a “natural product” for tired, aging skin, provide? The illusion of care, the ghost of care and “virtual” nutrition is a deception, in a word. By the way, if there is no declaration of ingredients on the packaging at all, then what can be said about such a product? One can only note that the manufacturer did not do this out of forgetfulness.

The advantage of the cream is to a large extent determined by the nature of the emulsion base itself, that is, on what oil is used as a carrier-solvent for all other ingredients. This is the third most important component of any cream. It is very good if it is vegetable oil - olive, jojoba, almond, sesame - which at the same time also serves as a nourishing component of the cream.

However, many manufacturers often use mineral oil(mineral oil), simply put, technical machine oil, but of the highest degree cleaning. This product of the oil refining industry is completely alien to the biochemistry of living tissues and the only argument in favor of its use in the production of creams is its low cost, reduction in the cost of the product, and increase in profits.

Cosmetics firms and companies, by the way, do not independently process oil. There are several large oil refiners in the world that produce “cosmetic petrochemicals”, from which all this “good” is purchased, relatively inexpensively. On this basis, evil tongues call the products of almost all of the world’s cosmetics “cosmetics from the same pot,” meaning that the vast majority of them contain the same technological ingredients, standard set which migrate from cream to cream, practically without undergoing any significant changes.

A consumer, full of faith and hope, sometimes pays a considerable price for the purchased product, but at the same time, alas, generously overpays, because, when recalculated by the volume of packaging, he receives only a few grams of plant raw materials, which pure form cost much less. Basically, fascinated by advertising mythology, he buys “petrochemicals” that are relatively cheap and unnecessary for his skin - “with good smell...”, “so tender...”, “perfectly absorbed...”, paying for the “high technology” of the production process, packaging design, company name, brand prestige, etc.

Therefore, when purchasing nourishing cream, it is important to proceed exclusively and only from rational selection criteria, realizing due to what and how a “regular” cream can give its usual nutritional effect. Everything else is from the evil one. Here are microloans on the card urgently - online application

SPECIALIZED CREAM

Nourishing cream is not without reason considered as “ordinary”, since the main task of cosmetology is still to provide adequate nutrition skin. The production of creams has been around since ancient times and began as the production, first of all, of nutritional compositions. However, it is not just skin nutrition that occupies cosmetology today. There are two more the most important stages skin care - cleansing and moisturizing.

Cleansing, moisturizing and nutrition - three main stages, “three pillars” complete care for the skin. But not only. Cleansing, moisturizing and nutrition are three items of mandatory financial costs for consumers of cosmetic products. Can a cream combine the properties of, for example, a moisturizer and a nourishing agent at the same time? Maybe a good “regular” cream, as a rule, is just that. But, despite the manufacturer’s enthusiasm for the “two-in-one” seduction technique, it is still more profitable for him to increase the number of mandatory items for purchase (hydration and nutrition - separately!), so their list tends to expand.

According to advertising mythology, “serious” skin care today is about cleansing, moisturizing, nourishing, toning and protecting. Large “whales”, as you can see, are becoming more numerous, especially since in the structure of the classification tree of cosmetic products there are also smaller ones - products for peeling, lifting, depigmentation, geroprotection and many others.

Of course, the introduction of each of these stages has its own specific meaning and scientific justification. But there are also very rough “rough edges” here. For example, the two additional stages invented and put into use – “toning” and “protecting” the skin – are an invention of a purely commercial nature, forcing women to now purchase not three items of cosmetic products, but at least five. The shameless manufacturer-funded advertising, as always, relies on simple ignorance.

Naturally, not everyone knows that such a characteristic as “tone” is inherent only in excitable and contractile tissues, i.e. nervous and muscular system. The concept of “tone” reflects, in this case, the fact that even in a state of complete relaxation and rest, nerve and muscle tissue in some minimal way continue to perform their main function, i.e. the muscles are somewhat contracted, the nerve cells are somewhat excited. This term is not applicable to any other tissues in the strict sense of the word, therefore “skin tone” is physiological nonsense!

If we put aside fantasies, histology (the science of tissue) identifies the following properties of the skin: turgor (elastic filling, tissue tension; depends on the amount of water in the deep cellular layers); hydration (depends on the amount of moisture on the surface of the skin); elasticity (the ability to take the same shape after deforming influences; determined by the state of the elastic fibers of the skin); mechanical strength or tensile strength (determined by the state of inextensible collagen fibers of the skin); texture (the state of the microrelief of the skin, which determines roughness or smoothness and velvety to the touch); color, color (determined by the state of the capillary bed and pigment exchange).

We can continue and point out some more not so important properties of the skin, but it is important to emphasize that the science of skin does not highlight such a property as “tone”. He is not inherent in her. As for the “tonics” themselves, it’s easy to conclude from the ingredient declarations on the packaging that they cannot create any “tone” for the skin: these are, as a rule, nutritional formulations.

The same applies to such a stage of skin care as “protection”. Normal skin- not sick, not aging prematurely - the following protective functions are inherent: protection from mechanical damage; protection against infectious factors; protection against immunological agents; protection from solar radiation; protection from drying out; protection from temperature factors.

Skin that receives sufficient and adequate nutrition not only protects the internal environment of the body, but is also always self-protected, and fully. How else could it be in a living system adapted to life in its environment? An attempt to protect the skin with some kind of external “shield” from the outside is a consequence not so much of gross ignorance or misunderstanding of physiology and histology, but of a desperate desire to make money on people’s ignorance, a desire to shift the emphasis and divert attention from the causes, focusing people’s efforts on non-radical actions at the level of consequences. It's profitable! For this, in fact, modern myths are created, starting from the level of household consumption and ending with the level of politics.

But let's return to the main pillars. Why, after all, “hydration and nutrition are necessarily separate”?

IN beauty salons You can often hear something like: “Your skin is very dry! You definitely need moisturizers!” The remark in itself is unremarkable, if not for the fact that, from this moment onwards, both the woman and the cosmetologist-diagnostician will proceed from the very attitude that “I (she) have dry skin” , - for life!

Therefore, moisturizing creams must be used constantly. True, a cosmetologist knows that moisturizing (hydrant) creams only normalize the surface moisture of the skin, and, moreover, best case scenario, only 1.5-2 hours after application, and is not able to normalize the skin’s own water exchange. Sometimes the cosmetologist even tells his client about this. But in any case, both are convinced: nutrition is nutrition, and hydration is separate!

What about trying to correct the condition of the skin, change its status? After all, once upon a time a woman’s skin was not dry, it only became so at some point in her life. Usually women feel: this is the beginning of aging, even if the word itself is not very appropriate in terms of age. In addition, women know: wrinkles quickly begin to form on such skin... There is something to worry about!

What does this superficial dryness, with such an unpleasant feeling of skin tightness and flaking, depend on? Why does there become little water on the surface of the skin, and how does the cream increase its content? Is it possible to moisturize the skin not with cream, but simply with water?

Water is not allowed! Even if you wet the skin for hours, the water will simply saturate the surface keratinized (non-living) layer of the epidermis, which will then dry out and dry skin will remain dry. The skin is moisturized only due to the presence of moisture-retaining factors, which ensure the constant presence of a certain amount of moisture on its surface. The number of substances related to surface moisture-retaining factors is quite large, but cosmetology attaches the main importance to unsaturated fatty acids, which form the thinnest lipid film on the surface of the skin - a fatty film of a special nature that has nothing to do with sebum from the secretion of the sebaceous glands.

Epidermal lipids, as they are also called, are an important component of the skin's protective mantle. They are the ones who most significantly organize and “structure” water as part of a complex compound, preventing it from evaporating. Normally, skin moisture reaches 20%. When there is a deficiency in the skin's production of unsaturated fatty acids, moisture content decreases, sometimes up to 10%, which corresponds to severe dry skin.

This deficiency can be compensated by using a natural substrate such as vegetable oils. They also contain unsaturated fatty acids, which in some vegetable oils are almost identical to human ones (jojoba oil, avocado oil, nutmeg oil, etc.). Once on the surface of the skin, vegetable oils restore the surface lipid layer and provide sufficient moisture retention. Unfortunately, for a very short time.

External hydration is a symptomatic effect that does not affect the causal basis of events, which is rooted much deeper, at the level of the basal cells of the epidermis. It is the daughter derivatives of the basal cells, moving from the depths (from the level of the basement membrane) to the surface of the skin, that go through the stages of their maturation, during which they produce required amount unsaturated fatty acids. Reaching the upper layers of the epidermis, these cells are destroyed and release to the surface of the skin, among other things (in particular, full-fledged keratin, which protects the skin and gives it protective functions), and also unsaturated fatty acids.

Well, what if there is something “wrong” with the basal cells and their daughter cells do not mature fully?

Here, in fact, there is something for the consumer of cosmetic products to think about. Dry skin is a symptom of inadequate nutrition of basal cells, which results in a defect in the lipid film of the epidermis and a deficiency in surface moisture retention. In this case, the use of natural hydrants (moisturizers) - vegetable oils - is completely justified and necessary, including for the prevention of dryness.

But: Using only hydration creams keeps the cause of the phenomenon unaffected, and dryness will persist, constantly returning to the previous figures of moisture deficiency!

There is an intimate hierarchical connection between nourishing the skin and its hydration, imperceptible at first glance: skin that is adequately nourished is always sufficiently hydrated, therefore, when the skin is dry, emphasis should be placed on the use of effective nourishing creams.

An experiment was conducted at the Moscow Institute of Beauty: a group of women with severe dry skin (10% moisture deficiency) applied rich nourishing creams twice a day for 30 days. As a result, skin moisture has steadily returned to 20%. Now, of course, a moisturizer for such skin will not hurt, but something else is important - it becomes optional, in particular also because any sufficiently serious nourishing cream already contains such a trophic and at the same time moisturizing ingredient as vegetable oils. “Two in one” are initially present in a normal “regular” cream!

Noteworthy is the time frame for normalizing nutrition and skin hydration - 30 days! Science knows for sure minimum term: it is equal to one lunar month, 28 days. This is exactly the time needed for the healthier daughter cells of the basal layer to reach the surface of the skin, transforming its appearance. Depending on the “degree of abnormality” of the initial state of the body, this process can last for 40, 60 or even more days.

A declarative reduction of these periods, when the mass consumer is already accustomed to the “ease” and “speed” of rejuvenation (weight loss, health improvement, etc.) - to several days, to one day, to an instant effect with smoothing out wrinkles - the most important moment in advertising charm and seduction of women. This unnatural effect is achieved, accordingly, by unnatural means. All the same “petrochemicals”.

For example, mineral oil, petroleum jelly, glycerin, propylene glycol, etc., when applied to the skin, are able to capture moisture from the surrounding atmosphere and, in addition, draw it from the underlying cellular layers, which instantly creates an oil-water film on the surface of the skin. Dead cells on the surface of the epidermis swell, and the microrelief of the skin is smoothed out. Wrinkles, especially small ones, “disappear” literally before our eyes!

It is hardly possible to say unequivocally that this is very harmful (disruption of gas and water exchange in the skin); the skin can withstand such “tricks”. However, it is safe to say that this is not useful. In particular, because many years of systematic use of such means masks the true state of affairs: aging and withering continue, for residents of megacities - at an accelerated pace. However, now the woman does not see this, hence the “cosmetics withdrawal syndrome” that frightens women so much, when, after stopping its use, a “sheer nightmare” is discovered on the face. It was not cosmetics that “ruined her face”, it was just that the woman grew old in her own way, going through stage after stage, thinking at the same time that she was successfully counteracting the passage of time and preserving the beauty of youth...

MORE ABOUT ADVERTISING MYTHS

Advertising is the engine of trade and the inventiveness of modern myth-makers is truly inexhaustible. Consider, for example, the mysterious statements about creams that “act at the cellular level.” Or at the “molecular level”. Or, finally, “on a cellular-molecular basis.” A vague image of something very unusual, significant and serious is created in the consumer’s mind. In fact, this truthful statement is absolutely true for any cream that has any effect on the skin at all.

For reference: nutritional compositions have a positive effect not only on the skin tissue as a whole, but, above all, on each cell of the treated skin area individually. Therefore, they “act at the cellular level.” They supply plastic materials and substances that regulate cell functions. All this nutritional wealth is absorbed in each cell at the level of biochemistry of the recognizing receptors of cell membranes and normalizes the very nature of the course of biochemical processes in the cell. This is “the same” cellular-molecular level. What else?

But, of course, there is nothing mysterious or unusual here. The food that a person consumes at lunch affects the whole organism only through assimilation at the cellular and molecular level. And it is a pity that, unlike food, the positive effects of creams are limited to this very lowest level, without extending their influence to the level of the whole organism.

Equally vague and uncertain are the ideas of consumers of cosmetic products about the nature of “morning” and “evening”, “day” and “night” creams. Everyday ideas formed by the myth launched into the mass consciousness boil down mainly to the opinion about the “special beneficialness” of such compounds at a specified time of day and the “inadmissibility” of their use at other times that do not correspond to its name. By default, it is assumed that cosmetology has learned the secret of the radical difference in “biochemistry morning skin" from the "biochemistry of evening skin", just as "day" from "night".

Of course, there is no secret. Medicine, for example, successfully uses the same drugs both day and night. The classification of cosmetics by time of day has a completely different origin. Once upon a time in cosmetology it was believed that dry skin was determined by a deficiency of sebum production, and creams with a high content of animal fats were used to correct this unpleasant condition. Such fatty creams - they were also called “heavy” - were poorly absorbed, determined the greasy shine of the skin and, naturally, were recommended for use in the evening and at night (a “nourishing” mask). Creams that did not contain saturated animal fats - “light” creams - automatically fell into the category of those used in the morning and afternoon. Hence the names!

What today, when animal fats are not used in cosmetics at all and creams are perfectly absorbed, determines the existence of these outdated names? Partly - tradition. And, at the same time, there is a purely commercial need to expand the number of “mandatory” items for “competent” skin care! It’s surprising that “spring” and “summer”, “autumn” and “winter” creams have not yet been thrown into use, especially since conversations about the different uses of cosmetics in different seasons have been going on for a long time, and at the level of well-founded practical recommendations.

But perhaps most tragically, women are deceived by advertising with its empty promises of getting rid of wrinkles! The arsenal of “wrinkle creams” and “anti-wrinkle creams” is truly huge. Here are creams with collagen and elastin, here are liposomal creams, and finally, here is unnatural hydration, which gives an instant wrinkle smoothing effect. Alas, once a wrinkle has appeared, it will not disappear; the only thing that is possible is to slow down the rate of its deepening and increase in length by normalizing the nutrition of the skin, both from the outside and, of course, from the inside.

Collagen and elastin of animal origin, foreign to the human body, have absolutely nothing to do with it, their nutritional value for the skin is zero. Great hopes were placed on liposomes - microscopic spheres carrying nutritional ingredients in their internal volume: it was believed that the cell would easily pass the liposome through its shell and receive everything valuable that is contained in the cream directly inside, thus the effectiveness of the nutritional effect would be increased to unprecedented heights. And again a fiasco: the cell “does not want” to absorb liposomes, their lipid shell is incompatible with the lipoprotein cell membrane and the process of pinocytosis (capture of a nutrient vesicle by the cell) simply does not proceed.

It also turned out that liposomes are unstable during storage of the cream and are stored in a jar for only a month from the date of manufacture. This drawback was later corrected by the concept and technology of microencapsulation, when they learned how to make phospholipid capsules that are compatible with the cell membrane and are not subject to self-destruction after packaging.

Microencapsulated gels are the pride and beauty of modern cosmetology, its most promising direction. As for the liposome concept, it continues to “fool people’s heads” and provide its market niche. But, as usual, not without deception: current creams with nanosomes, microsomes, nanospheres, polysomes... are other names for the same failed creams with liposomes, which cost much more than a regular cream.

The reader can without special labor continue the list of myths. They should be regarded precisely as myths of a commercial nature - nothing more. The use of a good “regular” cream, in combination with adequate skin cleansing and auxiliary symptomatic moisturizing, remains the “alpha” and “omega” of facial skin care.

But is it even possible to maintain youth and beauty “in a single area of ​​skin”?

Experts from the German Consumer Institute once wrote in the pages of their magazine “Test” about creams from well-known world manufacturers. It is enough to quote the headlines of the articles: “Frustrated hopes”, “Dreams from a beautiful jar”... Cosmetologists are right a thousand times when they never tire of repeating the banal truth about the importance of work and rest, physical activity and fresh air for maintaining beauty! That is, we are still talking about the overriding importance of general health, only against the background of which cosmetic products are truly effective. How to achieve this? This is a broad and complex topic that deserves separate discussion.

© I.M. Dokuchaev, 2001