Where do you find the best anti-aging skin creams? For the safest and most effective anti-aging skin cream, skip the department store, don’t buy something you see on television and forget the ads in the magazines that you read.

In order to afford all of that advertising and marketing, cosmetic companies skimp on safety and effectiveness. The major manufacturers refuse to confront the issues that have been put before them by researchers and scientists.

In order to qualify as the best anti-aging skin creams, the ingredients should not include perfumes, preservatives or petrolatum, but that leaves out about 99% of the cosmetics on the market today. You might wonder what’s wrong with those ingredients.

Perfume smells nice. All of the commercials say that it makes you more attractive. A dab on the wrist or behind the ears is fine, but for your skin’s health, you should not buy any anti-aging skin cream that lists “fragrance” as an ingredient.

First, of all, it is the most common cause of allergic and adverse reactions. Second, the term “fragrance” could mean any one of a thousand different synthetic chemicals. Most of them are toxic. Some of them cause cancer. And, there is no way to tell which one the company used.

One more problem with scents is that the nose or the olfactory system leads to the central nervous system. Certain fragrances can cause feelings of depression, anxiety, nervousness or agitation. The best anti-aging skin creams are fragrance-free.

Preservatives are the second most common cause of allergies, irritation and itching. An anti-aging skin cream might contain mercury based preservatives or parabens. Mercury is a toxic heavy metal. Parabens have been linked to cancer. I recently reviewed the ingredients of one anti-aging skin cream and it contained four different parabens.

Preservatives would be unnecessary if companies would use natural vitamin E. The best anti-aging skin creams use natural vitamin E to provide better results and to prolong the shelf life of their products.

Petrolatum is the most common based cream used by cosmetic companies. It is supposed to moisturize, but it cannot be absorbed by the pores, so it causes greasiness. It is counterproductive in an anti-aging skin cream, because it inhibits the natural rejuvenation process.

Mineral oils may sound nice, unless you know that they are simply liquid petrolatum. They are byproducts of the process used to convert crude oil to gasoline. Personally, I am not sure why anyone ever thought that would be good for your skin’s health.

The best anti-aging skin creams contain plant oils that are very similar to the skin’s own sebum. For example, grape seed, olive and jojoba oils are all very similar. They are naturally moisturizing and have been shown to reduce the signs of aging.

In order to be effective, an anti-aging skin cream should increase production of new cells and fibers. When we are young, the production is very quick, but the process slows with age. Many nutrients required for rejuvenation do not reach the outermost of the skin’s levels.

So, in order to slow down the aging process, we need to apply those nutrients directly. The best anti-aging skin creams contain those nutrients. You can look younger, without destroying your skin’s health, if you choose the right products.