We’ve all heard of the Fountain of Youth – that mythical spring that grants eternally supple limbs, dewy skin, and vibrant hair to all who drink from it. Unfortunately, such a fountain is only the stuff of legends, or it certainly would have been drained by now!

We would all like to recapture our youth, if not eternally at least for a time. While The Fountain may be the stuff of legend, we’ve created a variety of products designed to accomplish much the same. Anti-aging products ranging from vitamins to wrinkle creams and a host of other concoctions sell at a brisk pace as not just women but men as well try to keep their youthful looks for many years to come.

It doesn’t help to look at a picture taken of us in our youth. We see the soft, smooth skin and the cracks, lines, and wrinkles we see in the mirror today are not to be seen in the picture. So we look to the shelves of our grocery store, drug store, or health foods store where we find the anti-aging creams designed to do battle against our laugh lines and crow’s feet.

Now most consumers are probably a bit suspicious, perhaps very suspicious of the claims made for the products on the shelves. Some of the “magic” ingredients are well known, others are not. In any event a good question to ask is how is the product going to react on my skin? There does not seem to be a simple solution to what is really the best product for the individual.

An active ingredient such as retinol, a form of vitamin A, is the basic active ingredient for many wrinkle creams and retinol- based creams are indeed often more effective in the battle against wrinkles than is the case for other products. Retinol promotes the development of new surface cells and also increases the amount of collagen in the skin, the combination reducing though not completely eliminating, wrinkles.

Whereas retinol functions to reduce the severity of wrinkles, another popular ingredient is alpha hydroxy acid, AHA. AHAs chemically peel away the outer layer of skin. The concentration is very low to prevent serious damage, so the peeling effect while slight, adds a glow the skin as new cells beneath the peeled away dead cells become visible.

The mere presence of one or both of these active ingredients does not answer the question of which product is better. The degree of concentration of the active ingredients is much more likely to determine the effectiveness. A product with a higher concentration of retinol may be much more effective in producing a more youthful look than a product containing only a small amount of retinol.

Asking the question leads to gaining the facts you are after. Asking “Which wrinkle cream is best?” leads you to doing some investigating. The result may not be as good as the Fountain of Youth would provide but may still be the best choice available.