Cosmeceutical Experts Agree on Best Antiaging Products

Dr. Draelos also spoke at the 2011 Skin Disease Education Foundation's Women's and Pediatric Dermatology Seminar. She said she recommends that her patients start with a moisturizer containing dimethicone, glycerin, or petrolatum. "The most robust moisturizer known to man has these three ingredients," she said.

For antiaging, she suggested recommending sunscreens containing avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, reflecting spheres, or antioxidant botanicals.

How does that translate into over-the-counter product recommendations for patients? For hands, Dr. Draelos favors Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream. For the face, she recommends Johnson & Johnson’s Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Moisturizer SPF 30, and for the body, she suggests Galderma’s Cetaphil Cream.

In separate interviews, the three dermatologists agreed that more research is needed on the efficacy of cosmeceuticals, and delved into the nuances of ingredients in antiaging skin-care regimens. They also agreed that dermatologists need to be patients’ advocates and educators first and foremost.

Moisturizers and sunscreen undoubtedly are the main ingredients in most cosmeceutical regimens, but there are good data to support other ingredients, said Dr. Paul F. Lizzul of Tufts Medical Center, Boston. Randomized clinical trials have shown that retinoids, for example, can be beneficial, but patients probably are better served by prescription-strength retinoids to get "a better bang for their buck," compared with over-the-counter products, he said.

For other cosmeceutical ingredients, however, there may be in vitro or in vivo data but no rigorous clinical studies to back them up. "Even as a well-trained academic dermatologist with an extensive scientific and clinical research background, I, at times, am at a loss to understand the claims made by some cosmeceutical manufacturers," he said.

Dr. Lizzul does not believe that most of the questionable "active ingredients" penetrate the stratum corneum to be able to have the claimed effects on the dermis or epidermis. In some cases, if the ingredient magically penetrated to the dermis, it could be harmful, not helpful, he added.