2009 has been a year with virtually a new wonder ingredient for skin products every week. There must be lots of companies checking out botanic gardens, Chinese medicine cabinets, South American Indian tribes and who knows what else.
Many of the new ingredients are extracts that contain antioxidants of various types. Read the labels on many products and you can find a list of extracts of plants that you had never heard of before.
Here are a few of the less mainstream skin product ingredients.
A new antioxidant rich extract that is some products in the UK is the bog myrtle. Despite its name, is a pretty plant, and is traditionally used in royal wedding bouquets. It is also occasionally used in beer and as an insect repellant. I like the idea of double duty skin cream. Slow skin aging and repel insects at the same time.
How about a skin product with grape stem cells? Grape extracts have been used for years. Red grapes contain a range of antioxidants and, of course, contain resveratrol the compound that is thought to have anti-inflammatory properties. Grape stem cells are an entirely new thing. The extract of grape stem cells is said to protect the skin form UV damage.
Weirder is using cow colostrum in products. Colostrum is the first milk that a mother produces for her baby. It is supposed to reduce scarring by relaxing the collagen round a wound so the scar is less prominent and visible. It is being marketed for use after aggressive procedures such as microdermabrasion and laser resurfacing.
I have saved what I thought was the most bizarre to the last. Snail serum!
The serum is excreted by a small snail, Helix aspersa, the common garden snail. I was surprised to find when researching snail and skin care that there are a whole range of snail extract products, though I think the snail serum is a new twist. The snail extracts are used mainly by the Latino community and the most common name is crema de caracol. They are used for aging skin and acne. You can even buy them on Amazon! So this does not turn out to be so new after all. I wonder who first tried putting snail on their skin?
photo credit: Mahesh Khanna
