Karen E. Burke
Department of Dermatology, Mount Sinai Medical Center and
Department of Medicine, Cabrini Medical Center, New York, New York, U. S.A.
In recent years, more and more cosmetic products have been formulated with antioxidants. These new products claim to “moisturize,” “protect,” and “rejuvenate” the skin.
The skin naturally uses nutritional antioxidants to protect itself from free-radical damage. Indeed, many antioxidants—most prominently vitamins C and E, the trace mineral selenium (Se), the soy extract genistein and ubiquinone—have been proven effective in protecting against ultraviolet (UV) damage to the skin and in actually reversing the appearance of aging by decreasing solar hyperpigmentation and small wrinkles when applied to the skin. Also, a-lipoic acid and ubiquinone may retard and reverse intrinsic as well as photoaging. Topical application of these antioxidants can give far higher concentrations in the skin than even maximal oral intake. However, the correct formulation is of utmost importance to attain eficacy. The challenge is to use the correct form of the antioxidant molecule, to keep the antioxidant active to attain a reasonable shelf-life for the product, and to achieve effective transcutaneous absorption that delivers effectively high concentrations of the active antioxidant to the dermis as well as the epidermis.