Sept_13

FACE OFF .
RBIT
HANDS UP
The most expensive facial treatments aside, when it
comes to age, the hands are a dead giveaway. (Did
anyone say Madonna?) Following a British poll where one
in eight women said they were more concerned about the
condition of their hands than their face, newspaper Daily
Mail did a survey of the array of products that claim to
knock the years off your hands. Here’s what’s on offer:
• Nivea's Q10 Plus Age Defying Hand Cream: Promises
to reduce excess pigmentation; £ 2.83 (about ` 250)
• Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Anti-Ageing Hand
Cream: With an SPF of 25, it protects from sun damage
too; £ 4.09 (about ` 370)
• Sanctuary Anti-Ageing Intensive Hand Mask: A mask
with gloves that works on your hands overnight; £ 5.10
(about ` 460)
• Lanolips Rose Balm Intense for Very Dry Hands and
Nails: Contains medical-grade lanolin to heal fissures and
cracks; £ 8.99 (about ` 815); victoriahealth.com
• Farmers' Hand Cream: A thick, protective cream that
smothers the hand with emollients and conditioners;
£ 12.95 (about ` 1,170); welshlavender.co.uk
• Clinique's Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Correcting
Hand Cream: Clinically proven to reduce dark marks
effectively; £ 22.50 (about ` 2,040)
• Overnight Hand & Nail Treatment: Used with gloves to
allow the rich lotion to penetrate; £ 35 (about ` 3,170);
spacenk.com
• Bliss Glamour Gloves: Gloves with a moisturising gel
lining impregnated with Vitamin E, olive and grape seed
oils; £ 36.50 (about ` 3,305); blissworld.co.uk
• Renouve Anti-Ageing Hand Sanitiser: Alcohol-free
lotion with peptides found in facial creams; £ 42
(about ` 3,805); victoriahealth.com
Ash you like it
After causing havoc for global travellers, it appears
to have redeemed itself. Volcanic ash
from Iceland is now responsible for the latest
anti-ageing wunderkind, BioEffect’s EGF serum. With
the help of biotechnology, barley grown from volcanic
ash is engineered to produce epidermal growth factor—
EGF—which stimulates cell growth and collagen production
in the skin when topically applied. “EGF intervenes
with the biology of the skin and can actually bluff its
chronological age,” Dr Björn Örvar of BioEffect, an Icelandic
company, tells London newspaper Daily Mail.
“When we used the product on a 52 year-old we were
able to reduce skin age by over 10 years, giving it the density
of a 40 year-old after just four weeks.” If your pockets
are deep enough, you can buy BioEffect EGF serum for
£ 125 (about ` 11,320) at bioeffect.co.uk
Breakthrough
How does the epidermis really function?
Scientists from the University
of Sheffield in the UK working with
consumer giant Procter and Gamble
now have the skinny—their research
sheds light on the process involved
in the regeneration of skin tissue
and the causes of epidermal ageing, as
London newspaper The Times reports.
Using a virtual skin model to test their
theories, they found that a population
of dormant stem cells resides in the
lowest layer of the skin and divides
to make new cells only when the skin
is damaged. However, this stock of
‘sleeping’ cells gradually depletes
with age, making it harder over time
for the skin to regenerate. What’s
more, the researchers contend that
the mutations of these stem cells
are responsible for causing skin
cancers such as basal cell carcinoma.
“If we can find a way to stop the
depletion of these cells, we would be
able to halt skin ageing,” says Dr Xinshan
Li of the University of Sheffield.
“And if we find a way to prevent the
activation of mutated cells, we may
be able to reduce the risk of developing
skin cancers.”
harmony celebrate age september 2013 15