BEAUTY
Here's How Your Skin-Tightening Cream Works
By NOOR ANAND CHAWLA
While skin-tightening creams may seem to work in the short term, long-term skin tightening is only possible when the skin's collagen and elastin production increase from within.
Per Paula's Choice, collagen and elastin are the building blocks, or the vital support system, upon which one's skin is built. Over time, they become depleted.
Skin-tightening creams "help support dermal fibroblasts [skin cells in the connective tissue] to produce collagen," dermatologist Audrey Kunin told The Report.
Although skin-tightening creams can help increase collagen and elastin, it doesn't mean that they can in any way provide a result as fast and effective as surgery.
If you invest in a skin-tightening cream, make sure the one you choose has certain ingredients that are known to work, like retinol, which boosts collagen production.
Speaking with Well+Good, medical director and president of Laguna Beach Aesthetics Adrienne O'Connell added that retinol "can also improve the skin's texture and tone."
Other popular ingredients are peptides, a combination of amino acids that are thought to help with collagen production. They are a particularly good defense against saggy skin.
Antioxidants can decrease face inflammation and caffeine dehydrates fat, which can reduce the appearance of cellulite. A high SPF factor also fights signs of skin aging.