The amount of anti-aging products on the market today is both overwhelming and unnerving. How are we supposed to choose? New names come up every day, to describe yet another highly advanced cream, lotion or procedure. People start buying stuff based only on what they hear in commercials. Myths about anti-aging are numerous, and sometimes it can become hard to keep up with the truth. Thus, we do our best to help you find out what kind of information dermatologists discourage us from believing.
All about the Money Myths
Just because it’s expensive, it doesn’t mean it’s your best option. Luxury brands with fancy packaging have a good chance to trick us; we should at least try to know better. Of course, some high-priced products can be great, while drugstore ones could be filled with chemicals. That’s why we advise you to choose based on the ingredient list.
On the other hand, there’s no reason to quit the idea of anti-aging products altogether simply based on a belief that they’re all unaffordable. Plastic surgery might still be expensive in some cases, but regular skin care isn’t.
Mixing ingredients at home, however cheap and natural they might be, is often unsafe. You could get irritation or allergy, and only make your skin condition worse. Dried out tissue, more acne, it’s simply not worth it.
Efficiency Covered in Myths
Whether you expected this or not, myths regarding the efficiency and results of anti-aging procedures are the most frequent. Starting with the belief that treatments such as those involving Botox or surgeries are the only ones that work. If you really want something powerful, lasers are pretty good too, for removing signs of aging such as wrinkles and depigmentation spots. Peelings can also eliminate dry skin layers and fine lines.
Also, don’t expect your skin to look 20 years younger overnight. You’ll want to turn your anti-aging treatments into a routine. Botox needs to be repeated around twice a year, chemical peelings once a month. Efficient creams, such as those developed by Neora, need to be applied every day for at least a few weeks in order to make results visible.
Regular skin care ingredients don’t work as fast as Botox, basically because they don’t even apply the same principles. Botox actually numbs the muscles in order to make them unable to form or deepen wrinkles.
Speaking of which, if you do undergo such a treatment, don’t do it a day before an important event. There’s going to be swelling, and you won’t like it, so schedule time to heal. For surgical lifts, recovery might take longer. On a happier note, they’re not as painful as myths claim. You could feel sore, but it’s not unbearable.
Furthermore, you don’t need to purchase all the anti-aging products a brand makes. Start by giving a try to just one or two, see how they work, if they cause any side effects, add others later on. For instance, you could feel like the Neora Age IQ Night Cream is enough for you right now, and you’ll pair it with the Day Cream once you need it.
Moisturizers are not an actual anti-aging product. They keep your face hydrated, sure. We all know that dry skin increases the odds for lines and wrinkles, and moisturizers can give the impression of smoothing them out. But they won’t stop or reverse aging for you.
Retinol, on the other hand, will peel of wrinkly layers of skin and help reveal smoother, fresh ones underneath. That doesn’t mean you should apply it daily. It’s an aggressive product, it can irritate skin and cause higher sensitivity to sun damage.
As we’ve reached the part related to sun rays, you need to stop believing that sunscreen isn’t a must in your daily life. UV rays speed up the aging process, and that’s exactly what you don’t want. When getting a tan, you actually hurt skin tissue, and the exposed area gets brown as part of the healing process. No, tanning beds aren’t good either, they increase cancer risks.
Myths about Age Itself
The last myth category we wanted to approach is the one related to age. There’s an incorrect belief that you should only use anti-aging products when you’re already older, when wrinkles and other aging signs are visible. But there’s actually no rule.
In fact, the sooner you start preventing, the better. Creams and peelings will get rid of fine lines earlier on, before things get too serious. Don’t worry, they won’t become ineffective as the skin gets used to them.
Also, there’s no such thing as choosing a product based on age. The criteria you should adapt your choice to is skin type. Some people do have oilier skin when young, and it gets drier as they age, but this doesn’t apply to everyone, it could stay constant throughout your life.
Don’t look at your mother or grandmother, thinking you’ll age in the same way. Genetics do play a part in this process but won’t influence it completely. A healthy lifestyle, low stress levels, and proper sun protection play an important role in slowing down aging. Your attitude does too. Remember to smile when you see those wrinkles, they’re only reminding you of past experiences.
Neora 