Antioxidants In Skin Care

Antioxidants have become quite the buzzword in the skin care and health industries, but what are they and why do we need them? Antioxidants are not specific ingredients; they describe a certain feature that some ingredients can perform. Their main function is to stop free radical damage.

So…what is free radical damage? Here’s a quick chemistry lesson: a healthy cell contains protons, neutrons and electrons. When our skin cells get damaged by the sun, pollution, smoking, etc., that healthy cell loses an electron (making it “unstable”). That damaged cell must now find an electron to become stable again, so it steals that electron from a healthy cell. So you see, we now have a cascading effect that is damaging perfectly healthy skin cells!

That’s where antioxidants come in. Their job is to stabilize that damaged cell so that it will not harm any more healthy cells. If we didn’t have antioxidants (which should be part of your diet as well as skin care products), free radical damage would take over. The result? Cells would break down and not be able to function normally. This may be seen in the form of wrinkles, collagen breakdown, sun damage, etc.