Skin care’s new favorite ingredient: hyaluronic acid

Jun 7, 2010, from Alene Dawson, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Click here to view this article on the LA Times website

The plumping and moisturizing substance, naturally occurring in the body, is being add to moisturizers, makeup and soap and is used as an injectable filler as well.

The beauty business loves a good buzz word, and when its marketing genies find an ingredient that the public responds to, they'll ask their scientists to add it to just about everything. Think of collagen, green tea, peptides and vitamin C.

The latest is hyaluronic acid, a substance that plumps and softens skin and has been added to products including lip gloss, eye shadows and moisturizers — and almost everything else in the beauty aisle. Hyaluronic acid is also the key component of several injectable wrinkle fillers.

FOR THE RECORD:
Beauty column: In a Sunday Image article about hyaluronic acid, a skin-care ingredient and injectable filler, Dr. Nowell Solish was quoted as saying that if people change their minds after receiving an injection, there is an anecdote. It should have quoted him as saying there is an antidote. —

Although buzz-worthy ingredients can be quite effective, with the ever-increasing mix of new technologies and formulas, it can be confusing to figure out what works best for your particular needs.

So, first of all, some facts: Hyaluronic acid is a viscous, gooey substance that's a key component in connective tissue. It lubricates the joints and even sustains the shape of the eyeballs. Dr. Nowell Solish, a cosmetic dermatologist, dermatological surgeon and director of Dermatologic Surgery at the University of Toronto, says it's important to understand that all hyaluronic acid is the same. "In fact, so much so that your hyaluronic acid is identical to mine and identical to any species even. Originally, before they started making it synthetically, they used to get it from a rooster."

One of the main reasons dermatologists use it as an injectable is because it naturally occurs in our skin, he adds. "We can inject it in there and our body doesn't really see it as foreign," says Solish, who is one of Canada's first cosmetic dermatologists to use Botox.

Many fillers with hyaluronic acid are on or are coming to the market. "The first one on the market to be big and do really well was Restylane," Solish says. "It comes in different thicknesses. Restylane was sort of the middle one, and they make a thicker one called Perlane, and there's a thinner one, but I don't think that you have it in the U.S. It's called Restylane Fine Line in Canada." He says that the other main player in the North American market is Juvéderm and that it comes in different thicknesses as well.