The 4 'C' Skin Care Ingredients To Prioritise Over All Others

The market is saturated with options, but dermatologists suggest sticking to these simple labels.

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With new “miracle” skin care ingredients flooding store shelves (and your FYP), it can be hard to know if that gold-tinted endangered snail mucus is really going to do much for your epidermis. If you’re wondering about ingredients that might be worth a try, you might want to focus on one letter: C.

That’s because the four hottest ingredients in skin care right now are collagen, creatine, vitamin C and ceramides. Each one has a unique role in stimulating and supporting healthy skin, which is why you so often see them as a key ingredient in your favorite products.

This powerful foursome should be a top priority when you’re shopping for skin care, said dermatologist Dr. Regine J. Mathieu. “These ingredients are often talked about together because each one supports a core pillar of skin health,” she said. Each one of the C’s brings something beneficial to your skin, said nurse practitioner Mariana Vergara, owner of Beverly Hills medspa Beauty Villa Vergara. “They maintain skin structure, repair mechanisms and protect barrier integrity.”

We talked to experts to find more about how these ingredients work, and followed up with advice on how and when to use them.

Collagen (the topical kind)

Some background: Dermatologist Dr. Geeta Yadav noted that people often get confused about topical collagen vs. collagen supplements. “Topical collagen does not meaningfully increase your skin’s own collagen levels, because the molecules are too large to penetrate the skin barrier,” she said. “Applying collagen to the skin doesn’t replace or rebuild dermal collagen. But it’s still popular for a reason, since skin can look plumper and softer, even though deeper collagen levels are unchanged.”

What it is: “I tell my patients that collagen is the skin’s structural backbone,” said oculoplastic surgeon Dr. Kami Parsa. “It gives skin strength, thickness and resilience.” But starting at around age 30, he said, we lose about 1% of our total collagen every year, making skin thinner, looser and more prone to wrinkles.

Why it works: “Topical collagen provides an immediate cosmetic benefit,” Parsa said.........

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