Get the Facts: Do Skin Tightening Creams Work?

Tuesday, March 7th, 2017

You may not like your pants or your budget to be too tight, but there is one thing that you always want to be tight: your skin. If you are starting to notice that your skin is losing thickness and elasticity, you are going to want to do everything you can to lift and tighten it. With so many over-the-counter products available that claim to give you real results, it can be hard to know what results you will really get. This article will discuss whether or not skin tightening creams work. Read on to learn more.

The Low Down

As long as you know that nothing will give you the skin tightening results quite like excess skin removal such as with a facelift, then you won’t have unreal expectations. For instance, if you buy an expensive jar of skin tightening face cream and expect it to lift your skin and completely get rid of your fine lines and wrinkles— you will be disappointed when none of those results take place. However, if you are looking to slowly decrease the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and boost your skin’s collagen production, then a cream can help.

The Skin’s Purpose

The first thing you need to know is what the skin’s job is. That job is to keep everything possible out of the body. That includes keeping ingredients in skin creams from penetrating the surface and getting to the underlying cells that need correcting or modification. The skin is exceptionally good at doing this and, subsequently, very little of what is in most creams will ever reach their target and, therefore, will not achieve the desired results.

The Ingredients 

Two ingredients that always work because they do not have to penetrate the skin are alpha and beta hydroxyl acids and zinc oxide sunblock. The former removes the outer dead cell layer that makes it easier for other products to penetrate further. The zinc oxide is the most practical UVA sunblock since it blocks both the UVB sunburn rays and the UVA aging rays and continues to work as long as it is not rubbed or washed off. Another product that could be added to this list is an antioxidant and pH balancer such as Vitamin-C Serum to help maintain skin health.

Of all the ingredients in all the products there is only one that has been proven to tighten the skin. This is a form of Vitamin A. The most potent is tretinoin (Retin-A), a prescriptive product, though other Retinols have also been proven to accelerate your skin’s production of collagen which will help to tighten it and reduce fine wrinkles. The other product that has been proven to tighten the skin by converting the newly produced collagen to elastic tissue is one by Obagi, ELASTIderm.

The Amount of Time

Another consideration to make when deciphering whether or not skin tightening creams work is the amount of time they take  and how long you have to use them to obtain the results you desire. For instance, you won’t start to see results for at least a few months, and you are encouraged to continue using these products continuously.

Depending on the type of results you want, skin tightening creams may or may not be for you. If you would like to learn more about how you can lift and tighten your skin, contact The Center For Plastic Surgery today!