Eyes on the Prize

An interesting phenomenon occurs in the skin care business: it’s far easier to convince people to use a product that claims to prevent wrinkles than a product that promises to prevent health problems. In esthetician’s school, we even had a saying I thought was very insightful: “It’s better to look good than to feel good.”

Over the years I wondered why it was so hard to convince men to wear sunscreen given all the evidence linking skin cancer and UV exposure. My even more compelling argument—that sun exposure would give them wrinkles—didn’t seem to work either (though few women could resist that argument). The reason most men gave for refusing to wear sunscreen was that it “showed,” indicating that they did care about how they looked.

My skin care education then developed an interesting wrinkle, so to speak. Men didn’t want to wear sunscreen, but it astounded me how many were interested in “something for the eyes.” Okay, eye serums don’t show the way a sunscreen would, but how does that explain people like my rocket scientist son-in-law clamoring for eye serum?

Then it hit me: Men have a higher collagen density than women. In fact, when it comes to intrinsic aging (aging that involves internal processes like collagen and elastin production), women are about fifteen years older than their male counterparts. It might even be a good thing that men don’t wear sunscreen, because the years they add to their faces by exposing themselves to UV helps narrow the visible aging gap between men and women.

The realization that men and women are different, certainly dermally, helped me understand why men weren’t as concerned about wrinkles. It wasn’t because they occupied some vanity-free high ground—they just weren’t pruning up! But when wrinkles did start to appear (finally!), they first showed up around the eyes where the skin is much thinner and subject to abuse from squinting. And, when wrinkles crop up, men don’t like it (just like the rest of us flawed mortals).

Men and women are enamored with our Eye Repair Serum because it uses multiple approaches to relieve skin-aging problems around the eyes that everyone eventually experiences. For example:

Wrinkles and fine-line formation caused by glycation, which promotes protein cross-linking and brittle collagen fibers, is slowed by aminoguanadine, a glycation inhibitor.

L-carnosine intercepts intrinsic aging processes like mitochondrial dysfunction and telomere shortening to help reduce sagging. Stabilized vitamin C promotes collagen production, resulting in firmer skin.

The combination of N-acetyl glucosamine and niacin amide is an effective skin lightener, helping to fade dark circles.

The combination of vitamins E, C and ferulic acid  provides some sun protection (for those men who still won’t wear sunscreen).

And lastly, it doesn’t show!