Cindy’s Other Blog

Wrinkles in the facial skin have various causes. They are part of the natural aging process, as skin cells lose fat content, elastin and collagen, over exposure to the sun over a period of time, and repetitive facial gestures, such as squinting or pursing the lips in the case of smoking. In addition, the skin cells lose their ability to retain moisture, as the fat contents become depleted, causing once plump cells, to take on the look of shriveled, dead skin cells and the underlying facial muscles to lay in a position they have been trained over time. This is where the smile lines, frown lines, eyebrow and forehead lines and crow’s feet lines start forming.

In anti aging creams, the objective is to keep the lines and wrinkles from forming in the first place, and in the case of anti wrinkle creams, the purpose is to try to retrain the skin cells, to retain moisture and skin muscles to relax the positions they have formed over the years to cause certain skin wrinkles, as in the smiles lines and crow’s feet. There are methods of “rebuilding the skin structure” or “remodeling skin cells”, as it has been referred to. It usually involves the use of peptides, which is a wound healing process, much like in the case of burn victims, where the skin is remodeled to encourage new skin growth.

Facial and skin muscle regrowth or retrain uses peptides like a muscle relaxer. Peptides will work on a deeper level than topical cream treatments. Argireline is the trade name for the ingredient ‘Acetyl Hexapeptides-3′ which is a synthetic anti aging chemical that is made from natural proteins that make a chain of amino acids. This chain of amino acids can then be used to stimulate things like muscle relaxation as well as reflex reaction, both of which can be a cause of wrinkles.

Argireline has been found to be very successful in reducing the muscle reactions over a period of time, with a small improvement over a 4 week period, and twice as good again over week usage. As with any anti-aging cream or anti-wrinkle creams treatment, when you stop using it the wrinkles will come back again.

Argireline, by the nature of it’s treatment of the underlying muscles versus treatment of the surface skin cells, make it much like a topical form of what Botox, by injection to the muscles does. The relaxation of the facial muscle contractions is a temporary solution, even with Botox. Manufacturers of Argireline use less than a 10% ingredient composure, as a higher concentration could have adverse effects, by relaxing the facial muscles too much and resulting in sagging. While Argireline has not been on the market long enough to measure long-term effects, it appears safe and effective as an ingredient in topical anti aging creams and anti wrinkle creams, and is available in many formulations on the market.