Longevity Issue
What Dermatologists Really Think About Those Anti-Aging Products
Cosmetics companies are trying to wow consumers with clinical-sounding ingredients. Actual scientists aren’t impressed.
When Heather Rogers’ 13-year-old daughter recently said that all she wanted for Christmas was a skin-care product with hyaluronic acid, Rogers said she’d had enough.
“I said, ‘No, you just need sunscreen, and you need to close your mouth,’ ” says Rogers, who’s a board-certified dermatologist in Seattle. She says her daughter’s request is emblematic of Americans’ growing obsession with buying products that have a main ingredient that sounds straight out of a laboratory. Better still if it pledges to hydrate, strengthen the “skin barrier” or, above all, slow the signs of aging.