Archive for March, 2010

Refissa

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Refissa is a prescription wrinkle cream that has been used as an alternative to injections, surgeries, and otherwise procedures that we generally think of when we think of prescription wrinkle care. These require recovery time, these come with serious side effects and complications, these offer you serious results, but also serious issues.

But you would assume that when you get a prescription option, despite all the risks and otherwise, there are clinical studies backing it up. Ultimately speaking, it means that you will see clinically proven results in the end, whether you like it or not. So the main question becomes, is this going to give you side effects, benefits, both, or neither?

How does Refissa work?
Refissa is a prescription wrinkle cream using an ingredient called tretinoin. Tretinoin is a prescription wrinkle ingredient that has been commonly used as a derivative of vitamin A to eliminate acne because it helps the skin to better shed away dead skin cells and other problems in general. This being said, recent clinical studies have shown that by shedding away these dead skin cells, it can reduce fine lines.

How effective is Refissa?
Unfortunately, the clinical studies have shown that vitamin A or tretinoin reduces fine lines. It does not really have a noticeable impact on wrinkles, and it does not eliminate fine lines by any means. This being said, the results are minimal at best, and they are nothing compared to other prescriptions by any means or even over the counter options.

What are the risks of Refissa?
Refissa is a double edged sword. As many acne fighters have found out, any form of vitamin A will irritate skin, cause redness, peeling, etc, and obviously your skin does not look good. Should you get it around more sensitive areas such as the eyes, it can cause more serious burning obviously. But the interesting thing is that vitamin A has also been known to cause greater sensitivity to the sun, which ultimately breaks down skin cells causing faster aging. So ironically, it could be said that this formula could ironically accelerate the aging process.

Should you use Refissa?
In other circumstances, I may well say yes, you should use it, it’s a better alternative even if the results are smaller, to things like botox. But with all the innovations in the over the counter market that work far more effectively without serious side effects or anything else, the simple fact is that Refissa is easily outdone, and there is no reason to pay this much for it or even close.

Actifade

Monday, March 15th, 2010

A line of products, Actifade actually has 3 different formulas. They have 3 different formulas that are all ultimately made to eliminate age spots, liver spots, discolorations, darkened scars, and otherwise things that stand out from the skin in coloration. They show pictures of hands without liver or age spots after using Actifade, and frankly there are many ways to achieve this effect.

So how does Actifade work?
Actifade uses one active ingredient and only one: hydroquinone.

What is Hydroquinone?
Hydroquinone is an active bleaching ingredient. It bleaches out the skin, and when applied to areas that are darker than the rest, it will put the color closer to what it should be in comparison to the rest of the skin. Hydroquinone has been used in many general lightening creams including those that are used for the whole face in certain Asian countries. So therefore, if you have dark liver spots, it could lighten them out.

What are the dangers of hydroquinone?
Unfortunately, nothing is ever perfect, and there are certain problems with this formulation. When you think about bleaching, you think about burning, about altering the cells of whatever is being bleached, sometimes eating through clothes, etc. Bleach definitely does damage skin cells, therefore breaking them down and accelerating the aging process in terms of wrinkles, sag, sometimes age spots, etc. And unfortunately, at best it causes redness, irritation, and otherwise side effects in general. And it obviously will not do anything good for lines, wrinkles, crow’s feet, and it may also further bleach the skin, bleaching it too far and otherwise causing more problems than good, creating little light spots rather than dark spots.

Does Actifade have anything better?
Unfortunately, hydroquinone is the only active ingredient found in Actifade products. This means that you will only see bleaching effects that often go too far, especially with the average user. It is open to mistakes. This being said, Actifade products don’t really treat age spots, produce more collagen and elastin, or otherwise really alleviate the problem. The only thing that Actifade products do is ultimately further damage the skin. And so in order to achieve greater age fighting effects, Actifade is not something you really want to consider ultimately speaking.

Eyeseryl

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Eyseryl has been a little recognized ingredient to some degree, not because it doesn’t work, but because eyeseryl is ultimately speaking one of the more expensive ingredients on the market. It works best when used in amounts of 1-10%, which seems relatively small. But most manufacturers simply are not willing to use the amounts required.

So what is so special about eyeseryl anyway?
When it comes right down to it, things like botox are expensive too, and though they work, botox is quite dangerous, especially when you have companies actually making imitations that are more dangerous than ever before and doctors are passing it off as the real thing. So what about eyeseryl? Does eyeseryl have all of these problems along with the price tag? Obviously they wouldn’t be able to sell it on the over the counter market in that case. But the major question is, is it just cost that is holding them back?

What do the studies say?
The most recent studies on eyseryl show one thing and one thing only. They show that eyeseryl works. The last study was a 45 day study in total. Within 15 days, 70% of the test group saw noticeable reduction in wrinkles and otherwise. By the time the 45 days were up, 95% of the test group saw significant results.

But what results did they see?
The test group saw a significant reduction in 3 things. They saw a reduction in bags under the eyes due to its anti-oedema effect in the skin, even in that delicate skin around the eyes. But in addition to that, there is ultimately speaking more when it comes to eyeseryl. Studies also showed a significant reduction in dark circles by reducing the pooling of blood, and it was shown to increase feelings of elasticity as well as collagen, ultimately leading it to get rid of some rather significant crow’s feet and other wrinkles around the eyes.

What are the side effects of eyeseryl?
With eyeseryl there are no known side effects. Most ingredients don’t work around the eyes, and you cannot put them around the eyes because they can cause severe irritation. This is not a risk with eyeseryl. With Eyeseryl, you really get a safe ingredient that can work and keep your eyes relatively safe in and of itself. So as you can see, all in all, it’s a good idea to actually choose an eye cream that happens to use eyeseryl.