Many if not most skin care products contain a lot of useless ingredients that raise the price of the product without providing any benefits. Some companies do it because they think that a long list of ingredients justifies a higher price in the eyes of th consumer, others indirectly imply that these ingredients help skin rejuvenation while unable to provide any real evidence for it. Some of the most common examples are given below.
Retinol
Many anti-wrinkle / skin rejuvenation products contain retinol which is a form of vitamin A. Many people confuse retinol with retinoic acid (Retin A, Renova), a related but different compound proven to help reduce fine wrinkles and improve skin texture. Retinol, on the other hand, has no effect on wrinkles or skin smoothness unless used in very high concentrations. Typical commercial creams, however, contain relatively low concentration of retinol and are therefore ineffective. Creams with high retinol concentration are not very stable and degrade too quickly to be viable for commercial distribution. Besides, high concentration of retinol can be irritating to the skin. Nevertheless, there are ways to make retinol work for your skin (see article on "active retinol" in the Treatments section of this site).
Topical collagen and elastin
Collagen and elastin are important structural components of the skin. Loss of collagen and elastin in the dermis (the inner layer of the skin) leads to wrinkles and facial sag, whereas replenishing these substances in the dermis may partially reverse signs of aging. Nonetheless, creams with collagen and elastin are useless because these substances are large proteins which cannot penetrate the skin deep enough to have any lasting effect. Fortunately, ways to introduce collagen into the dermis do exist (see the article on Collagen in the Treatments section of this site).
B vitamins
Whereas deficiency of B-vitamins may cause certain skin diseases, excessive amount are of no use for skin rejuvenation and wrinkle removal. If you eat a balanced diet or take a supplement that contains 100% RDA for B vitamins, topical B vitamins will produce no benefit.
Camomile
Camomile is an herb with mild anti-inflammatory action, and therefore can help soothe irritated or inflamed skin. On the other hand it is of no use against wrinkles or other signs of aging.
Bottom line
Of course, people often buy completely useless things. But this should be done for fun rather then out of ignorance or misinformation. When buying a product you should be able not only to spot beneficial ingredients but also see if you are unnecessarily paying for something of no proven value for preventing or reducing wrinkles and skin aging. For a more detailed list of "skin care gimmicks you should know" see Skin
Rejuvenation Infopack.
