BBC1: The Truth About Looking Good

Beauty lovers across the country found themselves glued to last week’s tv programme ‘The Truth About Looking Good’ – amazed at the secrets the BBC and Cherry Healey unearthed on the ¬£9 billion cosmetics industry.

The investigation was pretty ground breaking – with Cherry teaming up with independent scientists and volunteers to test the effectiveness of those everyday products we all have in our bathroom cabinets (*spoiler: you’ll never look at a moisturiser the same again!*).

Sun damage was a topical issue…

Ageing, and the cosmetics which claim to prevent wrinkles, were a key focus for the programme.

In truth their investigation found that you don’t necessarily need to spend lots of money on a moisturiser -¬† testing found¬†the super expensive¬†Embryollise¬†moisturiser proved less effective at hydrating the skin than the more affordable¬†Nivea Soft¬†(as the latter contained the hydrator glycerin). And when combined with Dr Danby’s claim that ‚Äúas far as I’m aware, there’s no evidence that using moisturiser will have that long-term¬†anti-ageing effect,‚Äù the results were pretty damning.

Retinols and Retinoids were the only anti-ageing products flagged as having evidence to back-up their claims - the Amway Corporation and the University of Michigan found that test participants using a 0.1% retinol saw an improvement in fine lines, wrinkles and pigmentation.

HOWEVER, the most effective anti-ageing method was clearly¬†avoiding the sun’s damaging UV rays¬†in the first place – (it causes an alarming three quarters of lines and wrinkles!). So with this in mind‚Ķ

Key takeaways on sun damage

• It’s not just the sun’s direct rays that you need to be conscious of – surfaces such as water, sand, concrete, snow, ice and even grass(!) reflect the sun’s rays right back at you, giving an even larger dose of this premature ager
• UV rays pass through windows and can even be harmful on cloudy, misty and rainy days
• Even if you don’t burn your skin can still suffer long-term damage from the sun
• The sun’s rays provide the beneficial Vitamin D, however this can be consumed more healthily through your diet (think fish, milk, eggs, cereals, etc.)

In terms of preventative products Рsunscreen has to be top of the list. To prevent skin damage the programme recommended using a daily sunblock (even in winter) which combats both UVB rays (the burning kind) and UVA rays.

And if you’d like the best of both worlds – anti-ageing from a sunscreen plus the joy of a gorgeous natural-looking tan – this is where a good quality Sienna X¬†self-tan or spray tan can come in. Whether you’re looking for an everyday glow or something more sun kissed for holidays there are plenty of lotions, mists, mousses and treatments available to meet your needs…