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Softening the skin and relieving wrinkles with anti-aging moisturizers is becoming a welcome and effective method of treating acne. To date there is a large and growing number of people, especially adult women, who have benefited from new techniques that not only reduce acne but also improve aging skin.

There is connection between anti-aging and acne. In the 1970's two Dermatologists, Dr. Eugene Van Scott, and Dr. Albert Klingman begin investigating vitamin A as an alternative to benzoyl peroxide for the treatment of acne. Benzoyl peroxide is the active ingredient in most over-the-counter acne remedies. such as Proactiv, Clearasil and others. Dr Klingman eventually developed Retin A, a derivative of vitamin A, and Dr. Van Scott began working with the structurally similar Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs). Neither of these researchers attracted much attention until it was noted that women using these substances for acne were experiencing a reduction in skin wrinkling. Retin A and AHAs quickly became most widely used anti-aging skin care ingredients worldwide.

Acne and Wrinkling share the same problematic skin condition: excessive undetached dead skin tissue building up on the skin's surface. This stiffens the skin. Wrinkles result because a less flexible outer layer of skin creases the underlying growing tissue. The skin thus increasingly grows into deeper and more pronounced lines. Acne results when this dead skin tissue clogs pores and inhibits the normal passage of oils and moisture, causing whiteheads or blackheads and eventually pimples. Both AHAs and Benzoyl peroxide, however, can relieve this condition by exfoliating this dry outermost layer of the skin.

The problem is that benzoyl peroxide, while it is effective in removing oil, dries out the skin thus increasing the amount of dead skin tissue on the surface of the skin. This in turn clogs pores. For most women however, using moisturizers to relieve this dryness is not an option. The oils and waxes used in moisturizers aggravate acne because they compound pore blockage.

Several companies have worked to solve this problem and have developed moisturizers for acne prone skin. Murad and Olay have developed a number of products. At Niora, we have worked to solve this problem by creating moisturizers formulated with specially emulsified jojoba oil. Jojoba oil, while intensely moisturizing, is a fine oil with a far smaller molecular weight than sebum, or skin oil. Jojoba penetrates these heavier skin oils, unclogging pores and dissolving nascent blackheads and whiteheads. Because of Niora's emulsification process, dissolved sebum and excess oils rinse free leaving the skin soft and clean.

These lighter moisturizers can be blended with alpha hydroxy acids, which in turn exfoliate the skin and work to prevent excessive tissues from building, back up in the pores. Typically these types of exfoliating cleansers must be used daily to be effective, but they replace normal moisturizers and cleansers and fit easily into most skin care regimes.

These new skin care products thus offer the best of both worlds: an effective acne treatment that moisturizes the skin and reduces wrinkling. To date thousands of women have successfully used these new products demonstrating that the best acne treatment might well be anti-aging skin care.