The Truth About 'Anti-Ageing' Products: How to Actually Look Younger

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The features described are for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later require, based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026. Visit apple.com/applewatchseries12. Hello there, and welcome back to the after-art skin clinic. This is the podcast where we try to break down all things skin and science and mix them together with some lovely, interesting stuff in between. And especially today, because I'm joined by my dear colleague, Dr Ellie Rashid. Hello. Now in this episode, we're going to be talking all about aging. Now inevitably, we all age, but the purpose of this podcast is to think about how we can age our skin in a better, more healthy way. So this is really about skin longevity. People would often use the terms before things like anti-aging, which is just a ridiculous term. So we'll start that in like 2023 and just think for the future about better aging or longevity of the skin. Because this is all about helping our skin to look as good as it can, but also function as well as it can and be as preserved as possible so that we can look as good as possible and have great skin for the rest of our lives. Ellie, what do you think of the term anti-aging? I don't like it. I don't. I've never liked it. Yeah. And also, there's so much about sort of women feeling bad about themselves. It seems to be more targeted at women. I've never seen sort of anti-aging men's skin care products, have you? Yeah, they do do them. I mean, I have seen them. And in fact, I saw an advert on the tube just the other day talking about an anti-aging cream for men. And I'm like, this is so old-fashioned. Yeah. Just needs to go. I think we talk a lot more about skin health optimization, future-proofing skin, enhancing the longevity of skin, keeping it looking healthier for longer. I think anti-aging is just redundant term. And we've talked about this before, but if you're not ageing, you're dead. Yeah. That is my kind of favorite thing to say to your patient clinic when they come and they're like, "Oh, doctor, Emma, you don't want to get old, all these things that go with it." And I was like, "Well, it's better than the alternative." So whenever it comes to better aging or skin longevity, let's break that down a little bit. What we mean by that? Is your kind of like message regarding skin longevity? So the ultimate message is that we want to ensure that your skin functions really well and that it remains as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Also, we just need to tell people that even if things have happened before and their skin might not feel as healthy as it once did, there are things that we can do and encourage and recommend that will reverse some of those signs of aging and sun damage and loss of a lasting collagen. And also, there are things that we can do to try and counteract the influence of hormones during sun transitions in our life. So the first thing to say is if you have got damage to your skin, some of it can be reversed and we can prevent further damage and enhance the appearance of our skin, make it look healthier for longer. So having a conversation just recently with Professor Mark Birchmachin, who is a professor of mitochondrial research in University of Newcastle and he said the interesting thing about mitochondria, which is what his specialist interest is, is that from the moment you're born, essentially, your mitochondrial DNA is just on a rate of decline and so it's never going to get any better. It just continues to get worse. But actually, there are certain things that make it get worse more quickly so you can change that rate of decline. And actually, a lot of the interventions that we do, yes, go some way to reversing things a little bit, but more importantly, they reduce the rate at which your skin is declining. And I just think that's quite a powerful message. There's little things that we can do, actually big things that we can do, that can really slow down that rate of decline of the skin because when we think about aging of the skin, it really is about the aging of our entire organism, isn't it? So if you're somebody who is not looking after your entire organism and by that, I mean that your entire body, your skin is going to age more quickly anyway. So things like diet, sleep, nutrition, stress, exercise, water intake, and then you've got those additional things that come in. So your positions and your UV and they're things that age the skin that's kind of thought off as an extrinsic aging. So you've got this intrinsic aging, which is your genetics and how you've been metabolically living. And then you've got this extrinsic aging where the, I mean, the number one extrinsic aging is ultraviolet radiation by a country mile. Yeah. Number one. Yeah, I love those photographs of like the Laurie driver, where half of his face that's been exposed to the sun on the side that where the window is, looks so significantly more aged than the side of the face that was sort of within the car, within the Laurie, and then the woman that have seen the one where she's put sunscreen on, but never extended it down to her neck and her face looks like pristine, perfect, and her neck looks about 50 years older. Yeah. I love that little video. I love those images. I think they're really powerful messages of how much damage UV rate. I mean, it is radiation. Well, it is radiation. That's right. And I think the Laurie driver one that you're referring to, so this is an image that was in the England Journal of Medicine, and I think the kind of like 2000 and 90, 2006 something like that a long time ago, and one side of his face is considerably older looking than the other side. And that is despite having the window up. So you know, that shows us that ultraviolet radiation comes through the window. It comes through the glass. Now, it's only the UVA that's coming through the glass. The UVB gets knocked out, but that UVA is coming through the glass, and it is that radiation that really is responsible for a lot of the aging that we see if the skin. So ultraviolet A will come in, and it will do a lot of damage in the sense that it will start to break down the collagen that's there. It also kind of tells some of our cells that are responsible for making collagen to essentially not make it in quite the same way. And it also sets off a bit of an inflammatory response within the skin, which further breaks down the collagen. And it also helps to release a lot of other chemicals, let's call them, that are responsible for sending messages to break down more collagen. So it's a really, really effective agent for aging the skin. And so that's why I almost think of UVA is the UVAger, that's what A is, like it just ages the skin. It does pigment the skin as well, but it is all about aging. UVA for aging, UVB for burning. That's right. And so actually that's to that point is sometimes these SPFs that might have quite a high SPF number, so say an SPF 30 or 50, you're not going to burn because you've got this really high SPF on, but unless you've got a good number against the UVA waves, then you will still continue to age the skin. So it's really important that the SPF number is high for the burning, but also the UVA reading is high for stop the UVA. Yeah, yeah. And some moisturizers and things might just have SPF, which is the UVB protection, but might not have the UVA protection within it, although they are getting better, I feel like moisturizers are now incorporating UVA protection within them. UVA is there all year round. If it's light outside, there's UVA around, and if you've got certain pigmentary problems on the skin, then it can make all of that worse, and as you're saying, can definitely age the skin. It is the number one extrinsicager, isn't it, like, more than anything. And a second extrinsicager is cigarette smoke. Smoking, yeah. I mean, I can just tell if somebody smokes, obviously they come into my clinic, I'm really up close to their skin, and you can see those changes, but you can just, you can see these things on the skin. I have the question to be polite, but I normally know the answer. Yeah. What's the kind of giveaway for you other than the smell and the perioral lines? Yeah, almost they have like the sullen appearance, like the color of their skin. It doesn't have that radiance or luminosity about it. Obviously, they often have more fine lines around the mouth, they have more fine lines generally. They often have just less reflective surface of the skin. And then the other real age of the skin is pollution, not in quite the same way that it's something like the ultraviolet radiation is, but pollution does play a role in terms of making the skin typically look more pigmented. This is all because of an oxidative stress response, it makes the skin look darker, it makes the skin look older, often it's a regular pigmentation. And I love the studies that were done in these inner cities where they actually even took animals, so like doors. dogs and cats that were exposed to pollution and their skin is darker than their counterparts that lived outside of the city. Yeah. So talking about oxidative stress, I guess we have to talk about free radicals. And so my explanation that I normally give about free radicals is that these are when sort of atoms or molecules lose their electron and then they become unstable. And so what they do is they go around to try and stabilize themselves by taking electrons from other cells or other proteins and that then makes those other cells unstable and all of that adds to stress of the cell, which is considered oxidative stress. And so what some of the antioxidants do that we then apply on ask in, so things like a vitamin C serum, for example, is it just helps mop up those free radicals, so they're not putting so much stress on surrounding cells. Is that your understanding of it? That's exact, I think of it as a little sacrificial lamb, but I'd describe it as like it's quite happy to just like give itself up, take all my electrons to stop this onward cascaded. So I think of it as this little sacrificial lamb. So if we think then our overall organism needs support through aging and that is our healthy diet, our healthy lifestyle, our stress, responses, our sleeping responses, also our hormonal changes over time are really important whenever it comes to aging. And there are these key points of aging of our entire organism, particularly for women around the perimenopausal time. And so often hormonal support can be really important not to delay aging. That's not what I'm suggesting, but to support better aging. It's a real window of opportunity, I think, in terms of overall health, this perimenopausal period as well for assessment. So when you're going through the perimenopause, such a huge transition in women's life, we can need all the support that we can get. If it's one less thing to worry about, some of the changes that will happen to our skin and to future pre-fast skin in a positive way, then can only be a healthy and good step. I think some of the things are really hard. Like I know sleeping is good and I know that I should get more of it. But my god, I find it so hard to get more sleep. How many hours sleep do you get a night? Genuinely about four to five. Like of solid sleep or like you're in bed for that amount of time. Honestly, like in bed for about five hours. Really? And it's interrupted, yeah. What time do you go to bed? I've got young children, though. Normally between 11 and 12, and then you'll be up, yeah, around five. Oh my goodness. And have you always been like that? No, no. No. I always have contributed negatively to my sleep hygiene. But if you were away from your young kids and you were away in your own in a ski lodge somewhere just like in the middle of nowhere, could you sleep? Yeah. I should be brilliant sleepy. Yeah. I should be like the envy of other people while I slept. But yeah, if I took one night away, I think it'd take me a while to adjust and to a good sleep again. It's just so interrupted. Okay. So this is definitely another episode here when we talk about sleep. Because it is very easy for us to go, oh yeah, you have to look after your own time or maybe then sleep well. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It is really hard. And also, have you had about this concept of habit stacking? So it's where you try to put a good positive habit on top of an already established habit. So for example, you want to put your clearer retinoid on at night time, but that's something that you might not have as part of your habit and improve your skin health. So something that you do every night is brush your teeth. So then if you stack the application of your clearer retinoid onto after you brush your teeth at night, then you will do it because you're stacking onto something that's already established. Then it becomes part of your routine, part of your habit and it's much easier to be consistent with that. Oh, I love that. Yeah. And actually, if you are able to just do one little tiny thing and habit stack that on, it will actually then make meaningful differences. Yeah. And it's about those small contributions that you can just keep stacking on top of each other rather than eat healthily from now on. Like, that's really hard to, like, that's such a big thing as well. Like, what does that even mean? What does that mean? Yeah. How do I even go? Like, what's the first step? Tell me, step one. We've just got a short ad break now, but keep listening. We've got so many more thoughts on aging and how to care for your skin. Ultra running shoes are all about space, the space to go further, to feel better, to do something you never thought possible. And this space starts with ultra fit. Unlike traditional running shoes, ultra fit gives toes more room to move naturally, so every step is strong, balanced and comfortable. Whatever you're leasing up for, stay out there with ultra. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Here's the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12. iPhone 11 or later require, based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026, visit Apple dot com slash Apple Watch Series 12. Okay, let's break it down, then, because we've decided that the organism solving is just too big. Let's see what we as dermatologists can actually meaningfully do for skin longevity. I mean, my number one, and I guess you're going to agree with this because it's the right answer. Is actually no, I was going to say retinoids, you're definitely going to agree with me. This is a hundred percent, we all know sunscreen sunscreen fast, no? Well, sunscreen to protect, as opposed to does, is reparative. Yeah, we're both right, 50, 50, both at the same time, have it stack an equal measure. Actually, sunscreen with your morning teeth brushing. Oh, yeah. And then your retinoid time. Perfect. Perfect. So, it's finished. No, it is true, but so let's think, so number one, really, you're right. It would be to protect your skin going forward for the long term. And actually, it does do some repairing as well by having a decent SPF. Yeah, some people say online that, you know, it doesn't, and, you know, it does. But it definitely does. Evidence. Yes. Very fun that it does. So, there is that really important stat to know as well that three years after wearing your SPF, your skin will be 23% younger, and I'm doing my little, like, kind of inverted commas over my head there. And that's really summarizing an entire paper in one very flippant comment, but your skin will be 23% younger than if you weren't using your SPF. So, it is a no brainer to involve that in your morning routine. So, after you've moisturized your face in the morning, on goes a decent SPF. But then what I'm trying to think about whenever I gallantly came in with the retinoid is that a lot of things that happen within our, our skin is that certain genes decide to stop sending messages to each other. They decide that we're not going to make the same amount of collagen anymore. They've decided that we're not going to make the same hyaluronic acid, which is a lovely bouncy substance in our skin. And actually, we're going to start breaking down the collagen that we have. And that is something that happens to everybody as our skin ages. So if you're somebody who's had a lot of UV exposure or you've been a cigarette smoker or you've maybe not been so good with your skin health, then you will have those changes already in the skin. So your lines, your wrinkles, your pigmentation, your lack of glow, all of these signs that we regard as something called photo damage. And the way to counteract both of these problems really, so in other words, switching back on those cells that behave like younger cells and starting to reverse or reduce the rate of decline anyway of those changes that have happened because of photo damage. The number one is undoubtedly a retinoid. We have the most evidence to suggest using a prescription grade retinoid to do those things. Would you agree? Yeah. What age would you normally recommend people to start a retinoid? I mean, I have people at different ages because I'll also use retinoids if somebody has acne. So sometimes it might be part of the acne routine anyway. And then they will go on to use it to treat the acne scarring. And then from then they might go on and then decide to continue to use it because they want to have that good skin cell turnover. So when we're using a prescription retinoid, it's doing a number of things to the skin. The one of the first things that it does is it stimulates our skin fibroblast, which are these cells that make collagen to make more collagen and to make more hyaluronic acid. But that takes time. It switches it on quickly, but it actually takes time to see the results from that. And it usually takes around about 9 to 12 months until we're seeing the effects of it. But what you tend to see more quickly is because of this skin cell turnover. So as we have, when we have older skin, our skin cells don't turn over in quite the same way, especially those skin cells that have had additional ultraviolet damage. Or as you describe the cigarette smokers where the skin's a bit duller, the skin cells just turn over there a bit more sluggish and they end up just being a bit by the time they get to the surface. It's slightly a bit more haphazard and how they're made. But with the use of a retinoid, this process is streamlined. So you get this faster cell renewal and you get a more smoother, kind of, utter most surface. So then people see this glow more quickly. So some of these things that we see associated with skin aging, such as the dullness of the skin actually gets rectified pretty quickly with these prescription retinoids. but some of the other things associated with the aging of the skin, like lines and wrinkles, saloness, then that takes longer. And it's really important, I think, that people understand that it takes longer. And I mean, there's nothing that bugs me more than these before and after pictures, where you see somebody who's, "Oh, I've used this cream around my eyes and in three days." Look at the wonderful result. I always tell people that's physiologically impossible. Physiologically impossible. I mean, I know what happens in these kind of studies. Those people will have not been used a moisturizer for a number of weeks beforehand. They will be in these kind of humidity-controlled rooms. And then they use the cream, which may have a very good moisturizer to it. And then it plumps out the wrinkles and doesn't look automatically better for that picture, for that after, which is also usually photoshopped in some kind of a way. When they lie. Yeah, I always say it takes 28 days for a carrot in a side. So the cells that make up, mostly make up the top layer of our skin, to go from the bottom of the top layer of skin to the top of the top layer of skin. So actually, any changes that we put on our skin today usually takes that sort of length of time. There's one to two sort of skin cycles to make it meaningful difference. And as you say, with retinoid, it takes even longer. You get some of those immediate benefits from the exfoliating benefit, the increased saltynever, but the improvement in the wrinkles, pigmentation, building up new collagen, that all takes longer. At least six months. At least six months. And it keeps getting better and better with time. But you know, you look at somebody who's been on it for like two years and then you ask them to see a picture of themselves from two years previously. And there is a big difference in how their skin is, but it does tick that amount of time. So the- How old are you when you started your trust now? I mean, I'm somebody who is Irish, as you can tell, by my dulcet tones, and spent a lot of time in the sun as a child actually, because I spent a lot of time putting up in Dubai. And then also on lots of hot holidays, and just to enjoy getting a sun tan. So I very much had full of damage to my skin. I mean, I even look back at pictures of my wedding day, you know, 20 years ago. And I- You look younger now. I'm- I'm going to say that my periocular area, so in other words, the area around my eyes, that it looks younger now than it did then. And I haven't had any resurfacing work, but it's purely just been retinoids. But there is that difference, you know, I'd lots of pigmentation marks and spots. So it takes that time to see the difference. But so yes, so when did I start using a retinoid religiously every day, probably from when I was 37, I would say? Yeah, I started when I was 40. Yeah, so I rhymed about that time. And also partly because I was just never very good at sticking to skincare routine. And you know, even as a dermatologist, and at that stage I've been a dermatologist for many, many, many years. But I still would, oh, I'll try this. I'll try that. And then I just thought, actually, no, I really need to make sure that I have my skin in as good skin health as possible and looking as healthy as possible. And for as long as possible. For as long as possible. And the way to preserve it is the gold standard, which is the retinoids. So that would be my absolute number one hand's dying. Yeah, there's loads of work now thinking about epigenetics, which you are alluding to. So the influence of the environment on how our genes are read or transcribed. And our genes make proteins. So you can upregulate or increase the making of the protein by influencing that gene process. And so yeah, I think retinoids have good evidence for improving those genetic pathways to be producing proteins in the skin that function better. Yeah. And are more stable and are more organized. So yeah, it's definitely the hero ingredient for better ageing. And that's exactly the way I describe it to my patients. I say we all have skin cells, but sometimes those skin cells are just not expressing themselves in the same way over the course of our lifetime. And what the EM is really is to try and switch the cells to be expressing like they perhaps were at an earlier part of our lifetime. Express your cells. Yeah. Just express the collagen. Just express it. Come on. So I mean, these things have the best evidence in time for better ageing. Because this is a, the longevity field is a minefield really whenever it comes to what evidence is going to be. And some of the things that we'll talk about maybe next don't have quite as much evidence behind them, but still probably worth a thought. Yeah. So what do you think about topical antioxidants? So I use topical antioxidants. I mean, living in London, it's a polluted city. I get on the tube every day. And just to try and minimize the impact of pollution on my skin, I tend to use an antioxidant in that sense. So yeah, I do, I use vitamin C antioxidant. And that came after I'd already established myself on a retinoid. So sometimes if you establish onto both at the same time, it can be a bit irritant. And so once I was safely onto my tretenine, then I started to incorporate it in later on. I love that actually. I think that is probably a really good message to say, you know, the number one thing to establish yourself on is your SPF. Number two is your tretenine. Yeah. And then once you've got those things, then you can bring in, I'm going to borrow that now. And I suppose as well as antioxidants, the other area in the Cosmaceutical world that's kind of starting to thrive is peptides. Yeah. Massive now. And these are essentially little like chains of amino acids. And they influence high cells behave. So some of them tell cells to make collagen. Some of them tell cells to camdine. Some of them in other words, not be as inflamed. But they have different messages and how they react with the skin. But they don't have quite the same evidence and quite the same kind of rigorous testing as what we've just described. No, it's a bit more new. It's a test, you know, we just don't have the data to really support it. Yeah, we should do a whole episode on peptide. A whole episode. Because there is a lot there. There's lots of emerging data definitely. So we'll do an episode on that. And then all of the other regenerative techniques of which you are the master Ellie Rashid whole session. So it's the whole session of that. God, we're doing a whole lot of whole sessions. I mean, we haven't even touched on some of the regenerative approaches. So now we're thinking about exosomes, growth factors, these little messenger cells that can help tell other cells to do more or less of a satin function in the skin. How about energy-based devices? Yeah, I mean, we've got all of the lasers that I be using in clinic to help people's skin look better and behave better for longer. So maybe we break down all the energy-based devices and we break down all of the regenerative techniques because I'm conscious of the the science behind some of these. There's a lot of bold claims that are made often without the science to back it up. And that's actually with both the energy-based devices and the regenerative techniques. So let's take both of those subjects together and let's look at the science of them and tell people, you know, is this where you should be spending your money nigh? I think that would be a good episode. Yeah, perfect. But where we're suggesting spending your money right nigh is a good SPF, a good prescription retinoid and an undue attempt. Perfect. And that's a wrap for today at the Afterdoor Skin clinic. Thank you so much for joining us. And if you haven't already, please do subscribe. As we're a new podcast, this is what really helps us reach more people. And it also means that you won't miss an episode. So until next time, lovely listener, take care of yourself, and your skin, and we'll see you on the Afterdoor Skin clinic. As always, this podcast is for informational purposes only. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every five seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing and awareable. So your vitals app, not with heart rate variability, can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest, and when to push. iPhone 11 or later required based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026. Visit apple.com/applewatchseries12 fall never arrives all at once. Verse the air, then the light, and slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf, because you don't simply step into the season. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross. And is not a substitute for medical advice. Please consult your healthcare professional before making any changes to your treatment.