Are Super Fruits Good For Your Skin?
Submitted by Beauty Brains Blog
Volcom wants to know…In the midst of the new antioxidant craze I have noticed the touting of several “exotic” tropical fruits for their exceptionally high antioxidant content. It seems like some people are on a mission to find the world’s antioxidant super fruit. Naturally, these “super fruits” are crossing over into out skincare products. For example, DHC features lines based on both the Acerola and Camu Camu fruits. These key ingredients are supposed to help brighten and even whiten your skin! Can a product containing a fruit with a high antioxidant content help whiten or brighten aging, sun damaged skin?
The Left Brain responds:
Before explaining about antioxidant effect on skin, let me explain a bit about super fruits.
What is a super fruit?
According to Wikipedia “superfruit” is a marketing term first used in 2005 to describe certain antioxidant rich fruits such as acai, mangsoteen, goji, pomegranate, and noni berry. They’re promoted by marketers as having science-based health benefits and have moved from juices to ingredients for functional foods, confectioneries and cosmetics. However, despite this marketing hype, super fruits “have not been defined by scientific criteria that would allow consumers to objectively assess nutrient value and potential for furnishing health benefits.” Consequently, the term is unregulated and therefore easily abused by ambitious marketers.
Are super fruits really super?
Bill Dunning at Skeptoid has written about an excellent article that explains the antioxidant abilities of super fruit juice (as measured by Total Antioxidant Capacity). He explains that, in general, super fruit juices contain far less antioxidants than you’d get by eating “regular” fruit.
Do antioxidants brighten skin?
A small amount of super fruit extract that would be contained ina cosmetic product, heck, even a LARGE amount, won’t have any effect on your skin. Beauty Brains forum member Purplerules submitted this link that talks about this issues with topical antioxidants: they aren’t stable on the surface of your skin and they don’t penetrate beyond the dead layers anyway. Even if they were functional, they wouldn’t have a skin lightening effect. You’d need a product like Meladerm that contains active levels of Alpha-arbutin or Kojic acid.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
Fruits (super and other wise) are an important part of a healthy diet. But unlike an apple a day, camu camu extract does not keep the doctor away.
What do YOU think? Do you like super fruit juices? Have you tried any cosmetics based on super fruit extracts? Leave a comment and share your fruity fantasies with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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