Your life’s story can often be seen written on your face;
- Laugh lines
- Wrinkles
- Creases
But what do you do when these reminders begin reflecting in your face earlier than you’d like?
In this article, we’ll delve deeper into the facts surrounding glycerin, the effects it can have on your skin, and what it can do — if anything — to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles.
Glycerin’s Role in Skincare
Glycerin, also known as glycerol, holds a prominent position in various wellness industries, ranging from food and pharmaceuticals, to skincare.
As a sugar alcohol, it’s colorless, odorless, and notably viscous. A naturally occurring compound in both animal and plant tissues, it is clearly something our skin can benefit from. In the cosmetics industry especially, glycerin is infused into many products to act as a soothing, moisturizing agent that combats dry, irritated skin. It particularly helps the skin to maintain its moisture balance, supporting improved texture, softness, and suppleness.
The Bad News: What Glycerin Can’t Do for Fine Lines and Wrinkles
Glycerin isn’t a silver bullet when it comes to the fight against signs of aging.
To be more specific, glycerin can’t directly tackle the fundamental causes of skin aging, namely:
- The degradation of collagen and elastin
- Exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation
- Oxidative stress
That said, glycerin can have some indirect benefits when it comes to combating signs of aging.
The Great News: What Glycerin Can Do for Younger-Looking Skin
Though glycerin may not directly target wrinkles or fine lines, it still offers numerous benefits that contribute to a healthier and more youthful-looking complexion.
One key benefit is glycerin’s ability to act as a powerful humectant. This means it effectively attracts and retains water, significantly helping to increase the skin’s moisture content. This hydration boost can help your skin to appear more supple and smooth, since dry skin makes wrinkles and fine lines look more noticeable.
Some added — and crucial — benefits of glycerin include its role in supporting the skin barrier. Glycerin helps your skin’s protective barrier recover after being damaged by things like toxins, pollutants, and other irritants. Keeping these culprits at bay can help prevent damage to the skin that accelerates the aging process.
How to Make Glycerin Even Better Against Fine Lines and Wrinkles
One way to enhance the benefits of glycerin and more effectively combat signs of aging in your skin is to pair it with potent antioxidant ingredients such as those found in vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E, and unique botanicals like turkey tail mushroom extract.
Antioxidants play a pivotal role in the skincare arena as they assist the skin in warding off oxidative stress – one of the key instigators of aging. They work at the cellular level to help neutralize free radicals and stop them from degrading two very important skin proteins: collagen and elastin.
Both of these proteins are essential for youthful-looking skin and help keep your skin plump and elastic, which fends off wrinkles.
Essentially, by pairing skin-boosting antioxidants with glycerin you can help your skin look more hydrated and plump while also combating the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles— much more powerfully than glycerin could do on its own.
Glycerin for Radiant, Younger-Looking Skin
Glycerin may not be able to tackle fine lines and wrinkles on its own, but it can work powerfully with other natural ingredients— particularly antioxidants— in products like the Pur-Radiance Cleanser from Purity Woods.
This hydrating USDA Certified Organic cleanser is packed with the most effective natural ingredients for healthy, youthful-looking skin. Enriched with organic turkey tail mushroom extract and glycerin, this cleanser works to support an even complexion by combating dryness, inflammation, and elastin breakdown caused by free radical exposure, making it an ideal choice for firmer skin.