Finally, An Anti-Aging Skincare Routine That Actually Works – According To Science

Every year, collectively, we spend almost $50 billion on anti-aging products – and to what end? Our faces still sag and wrinkle; our bones still ache and crack; Death still edges ever closer over the horizon.

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Well, we can’t do much about the latter two (yet) – but a new face cream formulation containing the antioxidant pterostilbene does claim to clean up the former.

“Our results indicated that the pterostilbene emulsion remarkably improved skin elasticity, firmness, and reduced wrinkles, such as forehead, undereye, and crow's feet wrinkles,” reported Zhiyuan Chen, founder of Guangzhou Luanying Cosmetics Co, which funded the project. 

“It also increased the thickness of the epidermis layer, enhanced collagen and elastic fibers, and minimized skin pores,” he added in a statement this month.

Now, we know what you’re thinking – isn’t that what all face creams say they do? And yes, but this one comes with a double-blind study to support its claims. Over a 28-day experiment, 31 study participants used one cream on the left side of their faces and another on the right, risking a potential future in which they were permanently cosplaying Harvey Dent. At the mid and endpoint of the trial, they rated each side on qualities like “smoothness”, “translucence”, “radiance”, and various other adjectives that are considered advantageous for faces to possess.

Of course, double-blind notwithstanding, that’s all very subjective – so the researchers broke out the high-tech stuff. “Efficacy was measured using advanced tools, including the Skin Elasticity Tester Cutometer® dual MPA580, the facial imaging and analysis system VISIA®-CR, the skin microstructure 3D imaging system PRIMOS^CR, and the in vivo two-photon microscopy imaging system SUPERVISION-780,” reports a paper describing the experiment, allowing some hard data to be collected and analyzed.

And that data? It’s striking. Skin elasticity was improved by more than 32 percent over the four weeks of the experiment, while skin firmness improved “significantly” over the same period. Forehead and crow’s feet wrinkles were reduced by almost 14 percent, while undereye wrinkles were reduced by 7 percent; those wrinkles that did survive were significantly reduced in size in all three cases.

“In conclusion, the pterostilbene emulsion significantly improved skin elasticity and firmness, reduced wrinkles […] enhanced collagen and elastin fiber levels, thickened the epidermal layer, and refined skin pores,” the researchers write. It all sounds positive – which just leaves one question: what the heck is this “pterostilbene”, anyway?

Well, it’s not surprising you haven’t heard of it. It is, as the paper notes, “a relatively new ingredient in cosmetics” – though it has a longer history in pharmaceutical and dietary applications. It’s a compound found naturally in plants like blueberries, peanuts, and grapes, and it seems to have a wealth of positive effects in them and us: it’s been shown to various degrees to inhibit cancer growth, counter metabolic diseases, aid memory and cognition, and just generally stave off the aging process, among other things.

It makes sense, then, that it might also work well in a face cream – and this early experiment “offers a new perspective on natural compounds' applications in the skincare industry,” corresponding author Xueping Chen said. And while the team caution that far more study is needed to fully understand the impact of the compound – so don’t expect to see pterostilbene products on the shelves any time soon – “the significant improvements in various skin parameters and the subjects' positive feedback highlight the effectiveness of pterostilbene,” he said.

“[This] may change the way we approach anti-ageing skincare formulations."

The study is published in the Journal of Dermatologic Science and Cosmetic Technology.