• Video
  • Fountain of Youth: Paula Begoun and Dr. Daniel Levy on the Best Anti-Aging Ingredients
{{ showTranscript ? 'HIDE' : 'SHOW' }} TRANSCRIPT
Interviewer: The fountain of youth. Everybody loves to talk about what the next fountain of youth ingredient is. We've got hyaluronic acid, we've got retinol. What is the new fountain of youth, or is there no fountain of youth?

Paula Begoun: There is no fountain of youth. However, there are incredible things you can do. Retinol and hyaluronic acid are actually old-school. Retinol is considered gold standard; retinol or the active form in prescription drugs like Retin A and Renova. It's great; self-communicating ingredients, tall [SP] cells to make younger cells, and the cells actually to some degree, listen. Hyaluronic acid is a barrier repair ingredient, puts back into skin what would naturally be there that you lose because of sun damage and age.

What's happening in the world of skin care is something called designer antioxidants which interrupt the damage from the environment and the sun. While grape is great -- grape extract is great -- because skin doesn't have a digestive process, transferring that benefit of the green tea [SP] isn't as smooth. What they've done is take the active antioxidant out of grape extract, which is resveratrol, and they're using that as a skin care ingredient. It's the same with many versions of antioxidants, so it's more stable. It's better delivered to the skin and more potent.

Dr. Daniel Levy: If I had to pick one ingredient, it still is retinol because it has antioxidant effects. It also has collagen-stimulating effects. It has anti-pigment effects. There are even studies that show that if you forgot to wear sunscreen all day but you used your retinol, you would repair all of the sun damage that occurred. It really can do all the things that all the other ingredients do, and that's why, to me, it's the only non-negotiable skin care.

The hyaluronic acid, in the injectable category and fractional light and laser treatments, I think, have really revolutionized the laser treatment category of treatments. Fraxel and fractionated CO2 really built collagen without downtime that those treatments used to have.

Fountain of Youth: Paula Begoun and Dr. Daniel Levy on the Best Anti-Aging Ingredients

Does the Fountain of Youth really exist? “Cosmetics Cop” Paula Begoun and dermatologist Dr. Daniel Levy share their picks for the best anti-aging ingredients on the market.