A bestselling face cream available on the high street has shown that it can clinically reduce wrinkles and damage of skin caused by everyday exposure to the sun, according to dermatologists at The University of Manchester. Seven out of ten women and men had "significantly" improved their face lines after using the No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum for a period of 12 months. And not only did their faces have fewer lines, but their wrinkles were also shallower, the scientists found.

A face cream which costs just $21.99 has become a success in clinical trials - which predicts boom sales among the over-the-counter products. This new moisturizer is a richer version of its Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum that Professor of Dermatology, Chris Griffiths tested in 2007, and found that it stimulated the production of fibrillin-1, a protein that promotes elasticity in the skin which is lost with sun damage.

For this latest, year-long study, the scientists first wanted to find out whether the new No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum also promoted fibrillin-1 production, as well as wished to examine whether the cream could achieve effects that are visible to the naked eye. The study involves 60 volunteers, 11 male and 49 female, with the ages between 45 and 80 years. All of them, who had typical signs of sun-damaged skin, were equally split and randomly assigned into 2 groups: 30 participants used No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum, while other 30 in a placebo group used a regular moisturizer with none of the "anti-ageing" ingredients such as peptides, retinyl palmitate and white lupin extract. The products were placed at random, so neither the researchers, nor the participants had any idea which product has been applied to the skin.

After 6 months of using the new product on a daily basis, 43 per cent of volunteers were found to have some extra clinical improvement in their wrinkles in comparison with 22 per cent of those who have been using a normal, basic moisturizing cream. This means that one out of every 5 people using the cream had some extra benefit compared to the placebo moisturizers.

At this point of the experiment all of the participants became aware which product they had been applying to skin and were offered the opportunity to continue the usage of anti-wrinkle product. Volunteers without any exception continued with the treatment and one year later, 70 per cent of those who had used the Protect and Perfect cream had "significant" improvements to their wrinkles, the experts reported. The cream worked equally well across all the age groups tested.

Dermatologists also measured wrinkles on volunteers' skin by taking skin biopsies from their wrists, on a scale ranging from 0 to 8. Tests on the skin showed that the cream was able to stimulate the production of fibrillin, a tissue that provides skin with elasticity. Those using the No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum had noticeably higher levels of fibrillin, while those who used other moisturizer had no change. Before the 12-month trial the average "deepness" of volunteers' wrinkles was 5.2, but after the experiment it dropped to 4.

'Our findings show that a commercially-available cosmetic can produce significant improvement in the appearance of facial wrinkles following long-term use,' said Professor Griffiths. 'It is rare for such benefits to be reported for an over-the-counter anti-aging product and this study paves the way for larger studies with more statistical power,' he concluded.

The study is published online in the British Journal of Dermatology on April 28, 2009.

Tags: Skin Care, Aging

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