Spend a fortune on anti-wrinkle creams? Don’t bother, says a US study released this week. You can pay more than $100 an ounce for a wrinkle cream that promises to erase the years from your face, but spending a few bucks on a good sunscreen is probably a better investment, new research shows. Luxury-price products don’t work any better than drugstore brands, according to the study by Consumer Reports magazine, which ranked Olay Regenerist, priced at about US$19 ($28), as the most effective in reducing wrinkles.
Those “breakthrough” anti-wrinkle creams now dominating department store cosmetics counters don’t really work all that well, shows a Consumer Reports investigation that compares wrinkle creams. And neither do their less pricey drugstore counterparts.

It’s something most of us beauty junkies already know. Overall, no product made a significant difference to the skin’s appearance. Researchers found that, after 12 weeks, the top-rated products smoothed out some fine lines and wrinkles – but even the best performers reduced the average depth of wrinkles by less than 10%, a change barely visible to the naked eye.
As well as the Olay creams, the study claimed that Lancome Regenerie and RoC Retin-Ox+ were more effective than average. A spokeswoman for Consumer Reports said: “The tests revealed that, on average, [anti-wrinkle] products made little difference in the skin’s appearance, and there’s no correlation between price and effectiveness.”

Consumer Reports, published by nonprofit consumer research group Consumer Union, chose a sample of top-selling mass-market lines for its study. The products were purchased in retail stores for between US$19 and US$355. Each cream was tested by 17 to 23 women, aged between 30 and 70. The women were recruited and evaluated by a European laboratory specialising in cosmetic testing. Results varied among the women, the study said.
“People would love to believe that cheap products are the same as the more expensive ones, and I may pooh-pooh someone paying US$500 for a cream, but I do see the value of some of the luxury brands which are science-based,” Dr Tina Alster, a dermatologic laser surgeon from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC said.

At $57 for the cream, lotion, or serum, one of the cheapest — Olay Regenerist — performed slightly better than the rest, followed by Lancome Paris Renergie, at $176, and RoC Retin-Ox+, at $135. One of the worst performing products, La Prairie Cellular, was also one of the most expensive, at $335 for an ounce of day cream and 1.7 ounces of night cream.
Weinkle, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the University of South Florida and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology agrees that price has little to do with effectiveness when it comes to antiaging skin products. “Just because you pay more doesn’t mean you are getting more,” she says. “You really have to look at the ingredients.”
She adds that wearing a sunscreen every day will do more to prevent new wrinkles than any face cream on the market.
“Wrinkling comes from ultraviolet light, so you can use expensive wrinkle creams until the cows come home,” Weinkle says. “But they aren’t going to do much good if you don’t protect your face from sun damage.”

Tags: sunscreen, moisturizer, wrinkles, wrinkle cream