Botox has taken root well in the beauty industry only because the result is really visible to the naked eye: before Botox, there were wrinkles on the face, after Botox - no.
The essence of botulinum toxin is to block the nerve signals that make our muscles contract.. Due to this blocking, the muscle is at rest, and wrinkles are smoothed out. I think this information is familiar to everyone who is even slightly interested in personal care and cosmetic procedures.
But why are many people afraid to inject Botox? It's not about the toxin, but about the most invasive procedure (those. in how they will prick correctly). To make a couple of injections of botulinum toxin is not a cream to smear an area of skin along massage lines, which cannot be learned in a monthly course. These are years of study in a medical school and years of practice: an injection should be made so as not to touch the artery, to prevent subsequent tissue necrosis, and also to know about diffusion (those. how botulinum toxin will migrate from the injection site to adjacent tissue sites).
In addition, there is a black market for drugs. There were cases when a non-certified substance was injected instead of Botox or Dysport, after which there was severe swelling, and in the worst case, death. In general, in order to get the desired result from botulinum toxin, while minimizing the risks from such a procedure, the client must understand all this no worse than a cosmetologist.
Is there an alternative to botox in the form of creams or serums?
In fact, there is. Imagine: what can block the nerve muscles responsible for muscle contraction? What can, roughly speaking, paralyze a person? That's right, poison. Snake, spider, frog, even the poison of some fish can paralyze a person.
And what is great about the work of chemists, bio-engineers and toxicologists is that they are able to turn poison into medicine or withdraw a synthetic analogue of the poison, which in low concentrations will only benefit a person, even if in aesthetic plan.
The first alternative to botulinum toxin is the poison of the Indian temple viper. The action of snake venom is somewhat similar to botulinum - it weakens the contraction of the victim's muscles, causes paralysis, and in high concentrations, leads to death.
In the venom of an Indian temple viper, two Italian scientists have found two valuable molecules for medicine and the beauty industry. Its synthetic counterpart was bred and named Syn-Ake. It is a peptide that has proven itself over the years as an effective anti-wrinkle agent. It relaxes the muscles of the face in the area where it was applied. It is cleaner and safer, unlike natural snake venom, and is excreted from the body on its own over time. There are many foreign studies on the Internet regarding Syn-Ake.
The problem with the synthetic analogue of snake venom was as follows. So that it penetrates into the deep layers of the skin (where muscle tissue and nerve endings are), a high concentration was needed, and this is unsafe. In low concentrations, such a peptide had to be competently "delivered" to the deep layers of the skin, therefore modern formulas of working products are more a story about high-quality and safe "delivery" of the active ingredient to the deep layers of the skin, and not about a large number of working active ingredients in high concentrations, which without a doctor's supervision can turn into a toy the devil.
In the early 2000s, a safer analogue of Botox appeared on the cosmetic market than synthetic snake venom - acetyl hexapeptide-3 (trade mark - "Argirelin"). Now it is found in many anti-aging products, in the budget and expensive. The difference, again, is in the formula and method of delivering the peptide to the deep layers of the skin.
Then acetyl hexapeptide-3 had a much more powerful counterpart - acetyl hexapeptide-8. It has a much stronger effect, it is used in medical cosmetics for those who suffer from blepharospasm (and this is an unpleasant disease, when a person's eyelid twitches strongly, or it closes, that it is impossible to open the eye). But the most interesting thing was that during clinical trials, acetyl hexapeptide-8 did not show irritation and toxicity even at high doses.
Cosmetics with "Botox alternative" (not for hair, but for skin) there are many. There are inexpensive Chinese serums, but there are a lot of alcohols (not fat) that either dried their skin to girls, or simply had no effect. Acetyl hexapeptide-8 working products are not cheap, and you also need to know the indie brands that make such creams.
For me, the best option (in terms of price / effect ratio) is "silicone fish" from a Scandinavian brand Ecooking Firming Serum. The fish format is very convenient:
1) you can accidentally forget and leave in the sun - nothing will happen to the serum, no oxidation will occur;
2) the exact amount of application of the serum on the face: no more, no less, and the concept of "apply with a pea" is different for each of us.
Initially, when I first started learning all about personal care, the composition scared me. As you know, the ingredients in each product are listed in descending order of concentration. And we are used to seeing water (aqua) in the first place. Here, whey comes first - cyclopentasiloxane (cyclopentasiloxane). At first it scared me a little (chemistry, synthetics, everything), but then smart people explained that this is a volatile silicone that is popular in professional hair conditioners. It evenly distributes other components in the composition over the entire surface. And it dissolves viscous silicones well.
After using the first "fish" (the tail breaks off easily, and you squeeze the serum from the body of the fish) the result amazed me: the skin quickly becomes soft and moisturized, with a fashionable natural radiance effect. You will have to wait 2-3 minutes for the whey to dry. Feels like the skin is slightly moisturized. Silicones even out skin texture and color. It is a pleasure to apply the tone on it: it lays down easily and the makeup is more resistant. That is, it can be used as a makeup base.
The advantage of serum is that it is designed for the "here and now" result, due to silicones, and also works on perspective: acetyl hexapeptide-8 after daily use of the serum accumulates and fine wrinkles become less pronounced. If you use it every day, then after a week you will see the result without using "fish". Cool thing. You can view here complete description of the serum.
There is even more powerful effect of "botox" cosmetics. For example, leifazil. This peptide mimics the work of enkephalin (what our neurons produce during any manifestation of emotions, kmu interesting - google). In simple terms, leifazil blocks the flow of calcium ions in the neuron, the impulse is not transmitted to the muscle. Means with leiphazil and acetyl hexapeptide-8 at the same time, according to scientists, do not just complement each other, their effect is multiplied at times! As you can imagine, cosmetics with similar peptides will not be cheap.
Today's material is only 0.5% of what can be said about peptides. The statement that no cosmetics can replace injections is slightly outdated. Of course, from what we smear on the skin, the effect is to wait longer than from injections. But also to argue that the entire cool composition of a cream or serum remains on the stratum corneum is only Gauvre that a person simply does not follow the new products in the industry and has never used such means.
If you are interested in materials about peptides (with all the links to authoritative sources that prove that these are far from inventions of marketers, but serious things) - put your "thumbs up" and subscribe to the channel so as not to miss.
