Lifestyle Choices

When you refinish a piece of fine furniture, you often sweep off the old surface to reveal the quality of the fresh wood below. Similarly, one of the simplest and most effective methods of eliminating tiny wrinkles is to “sand” the surface of the skin mildly with a gently abrasive sponge or product. Particularly likely to respond to such treatment are the tiny wrinkles around the mouth and eyes. This mild abrasion mechanically removes some of the dead outer layers of skin cells so the skin does appear smoother.

Polishing Pads

A very effective exfoliation of your skin can be achieved by using a specially designed, mildly abrasive pad to gently remove the skin’s dead outer layer. I recommend that you use a Polishing Pad or an Extra-Soft BufPuf. If your skin is very sensitive, a terrycloth face cloth is fine. Apply your cleanser to the pad, then rub the pad onto the surface of your face gently, with firm, upward, outward strokes, perpendicular to the direction of your wrinkles.

This is a delicate job: buff your face; do not scour it. It is fine to rub under your eyes where tiny wrinkles can form, and don’t forget your neck! Rinse your face with warm water then cool water, again using upward, outward strokes with either your hands or your exfoliating pad. Do not exfoliate irritated or broken skin.

To save yourself time, exfoliate when you are in the shower or the bath. Alternatively, you might prefer from time to time to massage your face with the dry pad before or after washing in order to attain the benefits of a somewhat stronger mechanical exfoliation.

Exfoliant products

In conjunction with your regular polishing pad, you can also use one of many exfoliating cleansers or creams. I recommend a gentle product for sensitive skin, a waxy cream that gently removes the dead surface skin cells. Simply apply a small amount to areas with wrinkles, and rub with upward, outward strokes against the direction of the wrinkles. The dead surface skin cells wash away as you rinse, leaving your face smoother with far fewer wrinkles.

There are also many grainy exfoliants on the market. But be careful when using any exfoliant with sandlike grains. Keep the product away from your eyes so that abrasive particles do not get into your eyes. If a grain enters your eye, consult an ophthalmologist immediately since it could scrapeyour cornea.

I also advise you to be careful of exfoliants made of so-called “natural” products.

Also available are a number of exfoliating cleansers composed of so-called “keratolytic agents” that unglue dead surface skin cells (keratinocytes) to expose the underlying, smoother skin. The most effective of such cleansers contain either alpha-hydroxy acids (about which you will read later) or, even better, beta-hydroxy acids (salicylic acid or citric acid).

Exfoliation does help

Exfoliation effectively resurfaces skin and yields the fastest improvement. Since your skin forms a new layer each day, you must exfoliate daily to enjoy and maintain the appearance of fewer facial wrinkles. But important as this technique is to a good skincare program, exfoliation only helps the skin’s surface appearance. For sun-damaged skin, other resurfacing methods are necessary.

Topical creams: Resurfacing your skin “from the outside in”

Throughout recorded history, medicine men, witch doctors, assorted gurus, and more recently, cosmetologists, have been searching for the “fountain of youth”. Today, we are assailed by advertising for mud packs, masks, gels, creams, lotions, moisturizers, treatments and many, many cosmetics that claim to make skin appear younger. How are we supposed to make head or tail of all these conflicting claims?

At best, some of the mud packs and masks exfoliate to smooth the surface of the skin, and some of the expensive moisturizers do disguise wrinkles for a few minutes to several hours. The so-called “moisturizers” hide small wrinkles by transiently covering the skin’s surface and by temporarily increasing the water content of the dead, surface skin-cells.

This effect is, unfortunately, short-lived. Because the human body is warmer than the surrounding environment (which is usually quite dry, especially indoors), any moisture that is applied to the surface of the skin soon evaporates, leaving the skin drier and more wrinkled than it was before. So the consumer, in response, applies even more moisturizer to gain another few hours of reprieve, much to the joy of the cosmetics industry, but not to any real benefit to the skin.

There is , however, also some good news. Medical science has now discovered several compounds that truly repair skin prematurely aged by the sun: retinoic acid, alpha- and betahydroxy acids, L-selenomethionine, and natural vitamin E.

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