The Beauty Brains

Michael says: I liked very much your review of Ren products and thought to myself, “What would they say about my products?” Then answered myself, “Why not ask?” So, I am putting myself and my products up on the block. Would you be willing to tell me and your readers what you think of our ingredients, copy, etc?

The Right Brain responds:
Michael thanks so much for contacting us about your line of Emily Skin Soother products. Since you were brave enough to offer your products up for our review, the least we can do is give you our honest feedback. Below you’ll find a few statements taken from your website followed by our comments. So take a deep breath, here we go!

The Pros and Cons of Emily Skin Soothers

Emily: Our original creation, Baby and Adult Skin Soother was created because of our daughter’s baby eczema. It was born of a father’s love and concern.

Beauty Brains: Wow! You have to find that statement touching unless you’re a cold hearted bee-yatch like a certain lobe of the Beauty Brains. (Just kidding, LB!) Seriously though, we like they way Michael summarized his philosophy in an email to us:

“I am not trying to scare consumers, I am trying to reach out to people who have a similar mind set and concern. I do not think such statements will make someone who does not care suddenly worry about these ingredients. This type of statement is more a pledge to those people who are concerned that we will not use such ’suspected’ ingredients because we can easily make a quality product without them.”

This is a much better rationale than companies who say “don’t use this because it causes cancer.”

Emily: It was created to soothe and beautify any type of dry and itchy skin condition.

Beauty Brains: While olive oil and beeswax will soothe dry skin, “soothing itching” is technically a drug claim and shouldn’t be made by a cosmetic product.

Emily: It is made of the bare, essential ingredients of the highest quality. We use olive oil, beeswax, and three herbs.”

Beauty Brains: While we don’t question the quality of your ingredients, let’s not to confuse naturalness with efficacy. There’s a reason that skin moisturizers contain silicones and mineral derived oil – these ingredients are better moisture barriers. You may not like these “unnatural ingredients” but they DO perform!

Emily: Skin Soothers products are natural and effective…powered by Chinese Herbs.

Beauty Brains: While we accept that olive oil and beeswax are good for skin because they provide emolliency and moisture retention, we’d like to know how the herbal blend “powers” the product. Do the herbs have proven benefits or are they just known for their folkloric uses?

Emily: We do not add anything unnecessary, so our products do not have colorants, added fragrance, preservative or any unpronounceable nasties.

Beauty Brains: Ok, Michael, be careful with this one. First of all, you’re implying your herbs are “necessary” without any proof of efficacy (see above). Second, you’re promoting fear of chemicals with your remark about “unpronounceable nasties.” Not everything with a scientific name is bad for you. For example, the official names for the herbs in your product are “Potentillae Chinensis” and “Mentha Haplocalyx.” Those names don’t exactly roll off your tongue, but that doesn’t mean they’re harmful!

Emily: Our herbs …are from an American company that batch tests all of its herbs for contaminants, heavy-metals, and pesticides and does not use sulfur preservatives.

Beauty Brains: We’re not sure how much of a danger this represents, but we give them credit for at least trying to support their claims about having pure products. Not all companies are this thorough.

Emily: A 2 oz jar costs $14.00.

Beauty Brains: We’re used to expensive products, but $14 bucks for 2 ounces of olive oil and beeswax seems a bit high!

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Compared to other companies we’ve seen, Emily Skin Soothers has a refreshingly realistic approach to marketing an “all natural” product. While we nit-picked a few technical points above, overall we respect the honest way they offer as pure a product as possible without making exaggerated claims. And most importantly, they DON’T try to scare you into buying something you don’t need.

Here at the Beauty Brains, we get asked about preservatives in cosmetics all the time. People wonder why compounds with potential safety issues like formaldehyde or parabens are used. Should they use self-preserving cosmetics? They also ask why cosmetic companies don’t get rid of preservatives.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could? Cosmetic chemists, cosmetic manufacturers and certainly cosmetic marketers would love to get rid of preservatives. Unfortunately, the disease-causing microbes would love it too. There are some companies that offer preservative free products but not many. Here are the top reasons why more companies aren’t making preservative-free cosmetics.

7 Reasons Preservative Free Cosmetics are Rare

1. Preservative free cosmetics don’t last as long.
A standard cosmetic can have a shelf life of 1 or even 2 years or more. This is great for those products you have stuffed in your medicine cabinet or bathroom drawers. You can feel confident that if you open them up tomorrow you won’t get Tetanus or Gangrene. A preservative-free cosmetic won’t last more than a couple of weeks. It’ll spoil just about as fast as milk and become dangerous.

2. Because they need to be refrigerated
Unless it is put in some special packaging, preservative free cosmetics need to be refrigerated to keep them safe. You wouldn’t eat fish you left out on the counter overnight so you shouldn’t use unpreserved cosmetics that haven’t been refrigerated either. This refrigeration step is a huge inconvenience for people so manufacturers just don’t think people will want to do it. Consumer research has proven them right.

3. Because they can easily get contaminated
You know how there is the common, good advice that you shouldn’t share your cosmetics with anyone? Do you know why? Because each time you use cosmetics, you expose yourself to microbial contamination. Even when there are preservatives the microbes can live in small numbers. Your body is used to your bacteria but other people may not be. Preservative free cosmetics are even more prone to contamination and can pick up any sinister microbe that happens to be floating in the air. When people get sick using cosmetics, it’s bad for product’s manufacturer.

4. Because they are more expensive to make
It is possible to make preservative free cosmetics. You can use special packaging or make them anhydrous (water-free). Unfortunately, both of these options can double, triple, or quadruple the cost for manufacturing. And while most people don’t mind spending $5 on a lip balm, spending $20 for the same thing that is merely preservative free is harder to get them to accept. The other problem is that these cosmetics typically don’t work as well. They are more greasy, sticky and just less appealing.

5. Because natural preservatives don’t work as well
One strategy for creating preservative free cosmetics is to use natural preservatives. Technically the products aren’t preservative free but from an advertising and legal standpoint, they are. In the EU there is a list of ingredients you can use for product preservation. If you don’t use any of those ingredients, you can call yourself “preservative free”. Unfortunately, as this article points out, natural preservatives do not work as well as the standard ones.

6. Because natural preservatives aren’t approved
The article also points out the second major problem with natural preservatives. They are too expensive to get approved. A natural preservative manufacturer would have to spend millions of dollars on their new ingredient and there is no guarantee it would get on the approved list of preservatives. No company wants to take that chance. Therefore, don’t look for natural preservatives anytime soon.

7. Because preserved cosmetics are safe
Probably the most important reason you don’t see more preservative free cosmetics is because the preserved products work great and are perfectly safe. True, some of the compounds used to preserve products can be nasty stuff but when used at low enough levels they are harmless. Cosmetic marketers just don’t find people willing enough to spend extra money for a benefit that is imperceptible. And if people aren’t going to buy the product, cosmetic companies aren’t going to make it.

Are you concerned about preservatives in your cosmetics? Leave a comment and let the Beauty Brains community know.

Kimberly’s inquiry: A somewhat new to US product has caught my discerning eye - it is REN out of England it professes to be pure (REN is “pure” in Norwegian or something) and free of toxins like parabens, mineral oil, petrochemicals, dyes, and silicones. Please give me the lowdown, as you see it. Thank you so very much, luv your website yu ROK.

The Right Brain’s REN response:
Thanks for the kind words, Kimberly. I’ve always secretly considered myself the hardest rocking Beauty Brain. Here’s our take on REN.

Scare tactics

First of all, as regular readers of our site know, we’re not big fans of any company that tries to sell products based scare tactics. REN’s website says their products are free of skin-unfriendly ingredients and potential irritants like the ones you sited above, yet in reality, many of the ingredients they avoid have NOT been proven to cause problems. (Mineral oil is a good example.)

But setting aside the ethics issue for the moment, let’s see how REN lives up to their promise of avoiding “nasty” ingredients. We’ll look at their Day Serum as an example.

Revivo-Lift Day Serum ($75 for 1 ounce)
Rosa Damascena Flower Water, Glycerin (Source Coconut Oil), Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Extract, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate (Source Coconut), Rosa Canina (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Palmitoyl Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Cetearyl Olivate (Source Olive Oil), Sorbitan Oilivate (Source Olive Oil), Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea (Lingonberry) Seed Oil, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate (Vitamin C), Zostera marina Pectin (Source Sea Grass), Hydrolyzed Glycosaminoglycans (Source Corn), Gynostemma Pentaphyllum (Jiaogulan) Leaf Extract, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Magnesium Aspartate, Zinc Gluconate, Copper Gluconate, Phenoxyethanol (Source Aromatic Ether), Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate (Source Amino Acids), Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Seed Extract, Xanthan Gum (Source Corn), Carbomer (Source Polymer), Parfum (100% natural fragrance), Linalool, Limonene, Farnesol, Faex (Yeast) Extract, Tocopherol (Vitamin E).

Formula base

By listing “rose water” as the first ingredient, REN is implying that there’s no added water in the product. At best, this is a stretch of the labeling laws which state that the first ingredient should be the one present at the highest concentration, which in this case is “water” not “Rose water.”

Thickener/Stabilizer

Carbopol is an acrylic polymer used to thicken and stabilize emulsions. It’s a perfectly fine ingredient but it’s about as far from natural as it gets in the cosmetic world. It’s a surprising choice for REN.

Fragrance

Here’s a fact that you might not know about fragrance: companies are now required to list any known allergens contained in the fragrances they use. And if you take a look at the bottom of the Day Serum ingredient list, you’ll see two chemicals listed after “Parfum (100% natural fragrance).” These chemicals are linalool and limonene and they’re listed because they are both known fragrance allergens. If REN was really avoiding skin unfriendly ingredients you think they would avoide fragrances with known allergens.

Preservative

According to REN’s website, Good Housekeeping states their products are preservative free. But that’s not true in the case of this Day Serum because it contains phenoxyethanol a common preservative in the cosmetic industry. While it’s not as effective a parabens or DMDM hydantoin, Cosmetic chemists like to use it because it provides a rose like odor that helps cover the odor the other ingredients.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

REN has some lovely formulations and it appears that, for the most part, they’ve gone out of their way to avoid ingredients that people THINK are bad for their skin. But their approach of charging exorbitant prices for their scare tactics doesn’t sit well with us. If you’re concerned enough to pay more money to avoid ingredients that haven’t been proven harmful, then REN products may be perfect for you. But we think you can get more value for your money elsewhere.

What do YOU think? Are you queasy about chemicals? Do you pay more for brands that are “safer?” Leave a comment and share your scare with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Here’s good news for all you Beauty Brains readers who are interested in natural ingredients that really work: a combination of Japanese honeysuckle, peppermint, peony tree root bark, atractylodes herb, and cork-tree bark may be an effective eczema treatment.

5 herbs to eczema-free

According to The Dermatology Times researchers have found that a traditional Chinese herbal medicine made from these five herbs can ease the symptoms this itchy, scaley skin condition.

In a controlled study, 85 patients were given either the herbal blend or a placebo. Those who took the herbs reported improved quality of life and a reduced need for steroids, as compared to the placebo group. Additional testing revealed that patients who took the medicinal herbal blend had lower blood levels of certain proteins that are linked to the inflammatory effects of eczema.

Tasty tea?

Does this mean you can just sip some tea made with these herbs and cure your eczema? Not necessarily, because while many drugs come from herbs they need to be purified and quantified to provide a consistent dose. Natural sources of herbs don’t necessarily offer that same consistency and purity.

– Mid Brain

Ally asks: I have heard that honey will make your hair shiny and add moisture. And that it is a good alternative to ‘cones in conditioners. Does it really moisturize?

The Right Brain responds:
Ally, we’ve blogged before about the beneficial antibacterial properties of honey for your skin. But what about honey for hair? Good question!

Honey honey

Honey is a humectant, which means that it holds on to water molecules. This is a desirable property in a moisturizer, especially for skin. But unlike skin, hair is not alive and it doesn’t need as much moisture. What it does need is something to smooth the cuticle so the hair feels soft and looks shiny.

Sugar sugar

Unfortunately honey is not a good lubricant, so it doesn’t make hair slippery and smooth. In fact, it’s the opposite of slippery– it’s sticky because it’s basically a sugary solution. (Rub some between your fingers and you’ll see!) So it will not smooth your cuticles or help a comb pass through your hair without damaging it. So any moisture-grabbing benefits that honey might give your hair are off set by it’s stickiness.

The Beauty Brains bottom line:

There are plenty of honey based hair care products on the market but we’ve never seen any that use honey at effective levels for moisturization. Silicones are better for that purpose, even though people think ‘cones are bad for hair.

What do YOU think? Is honey an effective natural shine agent or just more marketing hype?

Despite their hype, most wrinkle creams do not have a significant effect on actually reducing wrinkles. The creams are typically just good skin moisturizers with an added “special” ingredient that makes for a good story but doesn’t actually do anything. (The exceptions are ones with effective levels of retinoids).

What really removes wrinkles

Of course plastic surgery really removes wrinkles. But it’s expensive and involves one or more surgical procedures. Personally, this Beauty Brain doesn’t like the idea of surgery for fixing the things time is doing to my skin. I’ve seen too many celebrity face lifts that have looked too weird (If you’re interested in seeing celebrities who’ve had cosmetic surgery, check out our favorite blog on the subject.) But if wrinkle creams are bogus and surgery’s not an option, at least there’s Botox. Right? Maybe not!

Is Botox Benign?

Now, scientists have found evidence that Botox may not be as safe as believed. According to this Italian study, the toxin used in Botox treatments was shown to migrate into the brains of treated rats. They say there were no observable negative effects, but it does seem a little scary. Could you exposing your brain to a known toxin while smoothing out your skin? Of course, scientists and the media who report on these types of things tend to exaggerate to make things sound more sensational. Botox treatments have been around since the early 1980’s and they were approved by the FDA in 2002. There has been no indication that treatments are turning people into brain damaged zombies.

However, science is always changing and when there is evidence of a problem, it is wise to be cautious. More research will be needed so I remain skeptical of the problem. But if you’re thinking about getting Botox this is just one more thing to add to your consideration. Do you really want to risk nerve and brain damage to get rid of wrinkles?

Some people might.

What do YOU think? Have you, or anyone else you know, had Botox injections?

–Mid Brain

Carrie’s curious: First, I must say your site is amazing. I’ve been looking for years for an evidence- and research-based beauty site. Brilliant. I’d like to know more about henna. You mention it very briefly in the
article about “organic” hair dyes but you don’t go much further than that. Can one of “The Brains” do a feature on henna, and any other plant-derived dyes (if there are any) out there?

The Right Brain’s response:
Ask, Carrie, and you shall receive. We found a great resource for henna information, and it’s heavily annotated with references. We’ll paraphrase some of the key information here to answer your question, but we recommend checking out the site for more details.

What is henna

Henna is a shrub (Lawsonia Inermis ) whose leaves contain a tannin dye molecule known as Lawsone. Lawsone is released when the leaves are pulverized, acidified and made into a paste. This paste can be applied to hair or skin to give it a deep, reddish brown stain.

What colors does henna come in?

Despite what you might have heard there is no such thing as black or blonde henna. True henna ONLY comes in reddish brown. Any black or blonde hair dyes that claim to be henna are mixing henna with other materials that could be either other plant dyes or synthetic chemicals.

Can I use henna instead of permanent hair colors?

Using real henna creates a dark stain will provide long lasting color. However, as noted above, you’re limited to a single color pallet. Also, it won’t bleach color out of your hair.

Is henna bad for my hair?

No, real henna is not damaging, since it only stains the keratin protein in your hair. But some of the compounded hair dyes use oxidative and metallic compounds which can be damaging to your hair.

Are there other natural hair dyes that give different colors?

There are other natural dyes that can stain hair but remember these won’t lift color. (Again, they won’t bleach your hair lighter.) Here are the colors of ten natural plant hair dyes listed by hair color. Click the reference links at the bottom for a full description of each.

1. Red/Brown

• Henna: Lawsonia Inermis
• Walnut: Juglans regia
• Catechu: Acacia catechu

2. Blondes/Yellows

• Cassia obovata: also called “neutral henna”
• Catechu: Ourouparia gambir
• Saffron: Crocus sativus L.
• Chamomile: Anthemis nobilis
• Rhubarb Root: Rheum rhapoticum

3. Blacks

• Vashma: partially fermented indigo
• Karchak: castor bean

4. Blues

• Indigo: Indigofera tinctoria
• Woad: Isatis tinctoria

The Beauty Brains bottom line

It’s cool how many natural hair dyes there are, even though they don’t work as well as the oxidative colors.

References:
http://www.uga.edu/fruit/walnut.htm
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/
http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/
http://www.botanical.com/
http://www.allfiberarts.com/
http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/

Back by popular demand: here’s our newest member, Forebrain, with another reference-laden post. Enjoy!

Julie’s cleansing question: I’ve read a lot about using baking soda to clean and exfoliate your face. Do you have any evidence this works either instead of a cleanser or for an acne treatment? Is there any down side? This is obviously much cheaper than all the fancy treatments out there if it works.

Forebrain’s favorable response:
I’m so glad you asked this question Julie, I’ve been hearing many great things about all the uses for baking soda as well, especially with respect to its exfoliant and cleaning properties! The quick answer is that baking does in fact work as a great exfoliant and may be useful in treating acne. Read on for more details and how you should use it.

Chemical and Physical Exfoliants

Although many of you already know quite a bit about exfoliating, let’s quickly go over the process and some differences between the chemical and physical methods.

The point of exfoliation is to slough off the cells from the top layer of skin and reveal the younger, healthier cells underneath. Some exfoliants contain mild acids such as Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA for short), which help renew the skin layer by burning off some of the skin. The effectiveness of these chemical exfoliants depends on the acid concentration, with too low being not effective enough, and too high being damaging to the skin. Physical exfoliants (like brushes or scrubs) on the other hand remove the skin cells from the top layer by physically scraping them off. With physical exfoliants, the level of irritation and potential damage to skin becomes an issue when coarser methods like hard bristled brushes are used.

Baking soda (aka sodium bicarbonate) falls under the category of physical exfoliants, and what makes it especially effective is that it is a fine, yet hard powder, making it highly effective at removing the dead skin cells without causing excessive irritation. Chemically speaking, baking soda is acid neutral, and acts a mild buffer which means that it has the ability to neutralize other substances it comes in contact with that are acidic (like vinegar) or basic (like soap). Many people also believe that baking soda has cleaning properties; however, scientific evidence has shown that this is due to baking soda’s physically abrasive nature, and it is not an effective anti-microbial agent.

Exfoliating with baking soda

To reap the benefits of exfoliating with baking soda, add a teaspoon of the powder to your facial cleanser, mix well, and massage into skin like you would with a commercial exfoliant. Do this 2-3 times a week or as per your regular exfoliation routine. If you notice that your skin is red or irritated afterwards, try putting in less baking soda and use the treatment at night so that your skin has a chance to get back to normal while you sleep. Remember to always moisturize afterwards!

Baking soda as an acne treatment

While there are numerous testimonials in which people claim that baking soda cleared up their acne when nothing else helped, please remember to take these statements with a grain of salt. We don’t know what else that person had changed in their skin regimen; it’s possible that besides using baking soda they also started drinking more water, switched their cleanser or moisturizer, or maybe even changed the number of times they cleanse their skin per day. Seasonal changes and stress levels also have a very strong impact on how much and how noticeable your acne may be. However, there is some evidence that baking soda may be beneficial in treating acne since just the exfoliating properties of baking soda alone lead to an increased skin cell turnover rate making your acne look less noticeable. Plus, baking soda’s neutralizing properties maybe reduce redness of the skin also reducing the appearance of acne. If you want to try using baking soda as an acne treatment, my recommendation is to use one teaspoon of it in your cleanser at night to exfoliate your skin, as well as make a thicker paste of just baking soda and water and apply it to the acne as a mask for 5-10 minutes or overnight (beware, when it dries the mixture will crumble so you might up wake up to a messy pillow).

The Beauty Brains bottom line

In summary, all signs point to baking soda being an excellent and cheap physical exfoliant. It is ph neutral and a fine powder, which means that it will be gentle on your skin. Baking soda may also be useful in treating acne when made into a paste and applied to the affected areas although there is not as much scientific evidence to back that up. Please comment if you try out any baking soda treatments to let us know what they were and if they worked for you. And always remember to moisturize!

Fun fact: Did you know that baking soda was the primary cleaning agent in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty? Leave a comment and share your favorite statue and facial exfoliating tips wih the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

References:

Parnes, C.A. 1997. Efficacy of sodium hypochlorite bleach and “alternative” products in preventing transfer of bacteria to and from inanimate surfaces. Journal of Environmental Health, 59, 14-20.

http://www.alive.com/3744a1a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=76

http://www.acne.org/baking-soda-reviews/209/page1.html

http://www.meredy.com/nursetips/skinhealthtips.html

Jessica’s colorful question: What makes hair color “organic” and how does it compare to regular box dye and professional haircolor? If organic color is still able to lighten natural hair color, would it need to have ammonia and/or peroxide in it?

The Right Brain’s black and white response:
As we’ve blogged before, right now there is no specific industry-wide definition of what makes a cosmetic “organic.” Different companies approach organic in different ways: some add organic extracts, others try to limit “harsh” chemicals. So when we saw Jessica’s question about organic hair color we were intrigued. It sounded too good to be true, so we asked her to let us know some specific brands that she had seen. Two of the names she came up were EcoColors and Organic Color Systems. Let’s take a closer look at each.

EcoColors

Jessica, even though you cited this brand as being organic, we can’t find anything on their website that actually states that.  But they do claim their products are designed for people who are worried about the chemicals used in “regular” hair dyes. They also claim that EcoColors are based on soy-derived ingredients. The impression their website gives is that their colors don’t use the same harsh chemicals that “regular” dyes do. Is this true? Not exactly.

It is true that one of the key ingredients, dihydroxyethyl soyamine dioleate, is soy-based. But the rest of the formula is a pretty standard combination of ammonium hydroxide and oxidative dyes with a hydrogen peroxide developer. So basically it looks like they’ve formulated their soy ingredient into a standard hair dye base.

Organic Color Systems

From what we’ve seen on their website, this brand never says that their product is organic. But the name of the product is says “Organic.” Sounds like a mixed message to us!

Ok, so they don’t claim to be organic, but they do claim to be ammonia free. In most coloring products ammonia comes from ammonium hydroxide (even Ecocolors as noted above.) Organic Color Systems is also an oxidative hair color system but they don’t use ammonia to raise the pH, they use a lower pH base in combination with heat. While this can still be damaging to your hair, if you’re sensitive to ammonia, this could be a good option for you.

The Beauty Brains bottom line:

These two hair coloring lines are trying to appeal to your fear of chemicals by being “Eco” and “Organic.” They may be perfectly fine hair colors, but don’t be fooled into thinking they’re better because they’re organic. To our knowledge it’s impossible to formulate a hair dye that is truly organic. (Henna dyes are about the closest you’ll ever get and those don’t lighten color.)

Do you color your hair? At home or in the salon? And what’s your favorite brand? Leave a colorful comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Elizabeth smells bull-shiitake: Are there benefits to shiitake mushrooms as an anti-aging substance? Is it effective?

The Left Brain has fun with fungus:
Mushroom extracts have been shown to have legitimate medicinal properties (for example, see this reference from the Journal Toxicology in Vitro.) But the only shiitake-based cosmetic product I could was Aveeno’s Active Naturals line, by Johnson and Johnson. They use a mushroom extract that contains a combination of shiitake and mannentake (reishi) mushrooms. Here are some examples of what they claim for the Natural Shiitake Complex:

Uses an exclusive process that captures the natural benefits of shitake mushrooms.

Has been shown to help accelerate your skin’s natural renewal process to replenish surface cells.

Reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles: Natural Shiitake Complex helps accelerate skin’s natural renewal process to replenish surface cells so that your skin looks and feels younger.

You’ll notice healthy and younger-looking skin in just 4 weeks.

Claims substantiation

As proof of these claims J&J offer a series of pre-clinical, in vitro studies. That means these are lab tests, not studies on actual human skin. These test appear to show that the mushroom complex can have a legitimate effect on factors that can make skin look older and wrinkled. The results showed the Complex could…

…inhibit the production of MMPs, metalloproteinases, from photoexposure that can degrade collagen and lead to the wrinkled, skin associated with photoaging.

…decrease the activity of elastase, an enzyme that can degrade elastin fibers and decrease in skin elasticity.

…reduce the release of pro-inflammatory mediators, when tested in vitro this may reduce extrinsic factors that can led to premature skin aging.

… reduce free oxygen radicals into a less reactive form giving it the potential to protect skin and reduce the damage to oxidatively challenged skin.

… stimulate epidermal proliferation after 4 weeks of application.

What does all this mean?

There’s more scientific testing behind Aveeno Active Naturals than most anti-aging products I’ve seen, and I applaud J&J for their thoroughness. However, these lab tests do not necessarily mean that you’ll experience these benefits when you use the product. In fact, the only testing done in vivo, or on people, was a consumer study in which 73% of the women noticed a reduction in lines and wrinkles in 4 weeks. This is a pretty standard claim made by many cosmetic treatments.

The Beauty Brains bottom line:

If you’re looking for a new anti-aging product to try, this one is reasonably priced at $19.00 (compared to most treatments.) But don’t expect a mushroom miracle.