Antioxidants in skincare: the connection

Whether you eat antioxidants, put them on your skin or both - they're vital to your health. Antioxidants do the job of reducing environmental damage whether it's from the sun, pollution or the very air we breathe. These superhero ingredients inhibit free-radical damage and, the research is abundantly clear that doing so has remarkable benefits for all skin types.

What are antioxidants?

Free-radical damage can play a role in our ongoing health and is linked to signs of ageing, illness and even cancer. Antioxidants are one of the major ways to slow down the impact of free-radical damage. In fact, they're so important for the body that they're being studied by thousands of scientists all over the world with many scientists saying that if there was a fountain of youth, antioxidants would be in it!

When it comes to wrinkles, free-radical damage causes collagen and other vital skin functions to break down. A great antioxidant skincare product, such as Paula's Choice serums , contain a potent assortment of stable antioxidants that interrupt free-radical damage and keep it from harming your skin.

What are the best antioxidants for your skin?

There isn't one single miracle antioxidant that works the best for your skin. Instead, there are dozens of effective antioxidants for skin ranging from everyday ingredients like green tea, grape extract or vitamin C, to names you may not be familiar with such as idebenone, epigallocatechin-3-gallate or superoxide dismutase. Research has shown that what counts is that the skincare product you use contains a variety of antioxidants, and the more the better.

Do antioxidants reduce wrinkles?

When we are young our skin is loaded with antioxidants that naturally protect our skin from the environment, especially sun damage. In time, our skin loses the ability to produce these antioxidants primarily because of sun damage and, to a lesser extent, other factors such as menopause, disease and use of irritating skincare products. This occurence results in signs of ageing such as wrinkles and crow's feet. So, if we don't get enough antioxidant protection - whether it's from our own body's production, dietary sources or from antioxidant rich skincare (like our SKIN BALANCING Super Antioxidant Concentrate Serum) - free-radical damage wreaks havoc causing collagen to break down, the DNA in our cells to mutate, impairing the skin's ability to heal and on and on.

Research and results

Although we know that topical application of antioxidants helps to reduce free-radical damage in the skin, the results aren't going to make you look 20 years younger. There is research showing antioxidants can improve cell function, increase collagen production, improve elasticity, create healthier, younger skin cells and reduce sun damage but the improvement takes time, it isn't going to be overnight. And just like a healthy diet, the more potent antioxidants you use, the healthier looking your skin will look and feel.

Information on antioxidants and free-radical damage comes from a number of scientific journals, including these devoted to the subject of antioxidant research and activity: Free Radical Research, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, Oxidative Stress and Aging, Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine, Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences, Photodermatology, Photoimmunology, Photomedicine, and Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences.

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