The 18 best facial cleansers

Video: Must-have anti-aging products for 2011

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2. Transcript of: Must-have anti-aging products for 2011

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   NATALIE MORALES reporting: This morning on TODAY'S BEAUTY , turning back the clock in 2011 . More than half of all women aged 25 to 34 say they use anti-aging products on their face. So which ones are really worth the money? Linda Wells is editor-in-chief of Allure magazine. Linda , good morning.

   Ms. LINDA WELLS (Editor-in-Chief, Allure Magazine): Good morning, Natalie .

   MORALES: And I think the great thing for the consumer is you're finding a lot of these at-home treatments that -- or the now treatments at home that you could only before -- you had to go to the dermatologist to get, right?

   Ms. WELLS: That's right . And a lot of them are -- they originate in the dermatologists, they're milder forms so you're not going to have the terrible reactions or have to need medical supervision to use. But it's this idea of being able to do it at home and maybe, you know, benefiting over time .

   MORALES: Right.

   Ms. WELLS: You really have to put time into these, though.

   MORALES: OK. All right, let's talk first about what you have here from Olay , and this is a cleansing system. And you're seeing a lot of these, which is sort of the exfoliating brush, right?

   Ms. WELLS: Right. Exactly. It's Olay Pro-X. And this has a -- this is a battery-powered brush. It's really light so you can take it travel...

   MORALES: Mm-hmm.

   Ms. WELLS: ...you can use it morning and night, you can use it in the shower. And it cleans and exfoliates the skin, as you say, but what it does -- and scientists have found that it actually stretches the pores just a little bit ...

   MORALES: Mm-hmm.

   Ms. WELLS: ...not too much, and a just a little bit so that when you put on the serum afterward, it goes in deeper. And the whole game in anti-aging put -- skin care is you got to have the ingredients go beneath the surface of the skin or they're not going to work.

   MORALES: Yeah, to be more effective. OK. So it makes the product much more effective.

   Ms. WELLS: Right. So this is great. And this is 29.99, which is another way of saying $30.

   MORALES: Great price point.

   Ms. WELLS: And they -- this is -- it's similar to a product that's over $200. So it's great, you get it the drugstore, and it's a terrific thing.

   MORALES: Wonderful. Now, OK, I love the sound of this next one. It's a sunscreen that actually change -- takes those UV rays and makes them into something that's actually good for your skin. How does that work?

   Ms. WELLS: Right, well, this is DERMAdoctor Photodynamic Therapy . And it sounds completely preposterous and sort of futuristic.

   MORALES: Right. It does.

   Ms. WELLS: But it's an SPF 30 sunscreen. When you're in the sun, it converts the sun rays into visible UV light . And if you've ever been to the dermatologist, they put you under these lights to stimulate collagen and elastin.

   MORALES: Uh-huh .

   Ms. WELLS: So this does it using the sun. And that sounds like it's impossible, but doctors have studied it and they say it's really promising.

   MORALES: OK.

   Ms. WELLS: Yeah.

   MORALES: So it's showing some good effects already then.

   Ms. WELLS: Exactly.

   MORALES: OK, now, this one, I know, has also been proven by doctors to work, too, and it's this microneedle therapy system, which you can't really see these little fine needles on these roller balls, but those are little itty bitty needles. Now, how does that work...

   Ms. WELLS: Right. And you can feel it...

   MORALES: ...on your skin?

   Ms. WELLS: There are these -- there are 200 little needles on this, which sounds like medieval torture.

   MORALES: Uh-huh. Whoa.

   Ms. WELLS: And you use it on your clean skin when it's dry, and you go over your skin, and it causes these tiny injuries, and injury in this case is good, it's not bad.

   MORALES: Mm-hmm.

   Ms. WELLS: It actually stimulates the production of collagen and elastin to compensate for the injury, and then again it opens up a little -- a little possibility of allowing these ingredients to go into the skin in a -- in a deeper way. So it comes with all these other serums and skin care products and ingredients and really penetrate.

   MORALES: This is a little more expensive.

   Ms. WELLS: It's $200.

   MORALES: Two hundred dollars, but may be worth the investment as it's really working.

   Ms. WELLS: And it's, you know, it's from the doctors. It's from two dermatologists who came up with ProActiv . So they really have proven history.

   MORALES: Rodan and Fields , right.

   Ms. WELLS: Right, yeah.

   MORALES: All right, let's move over here to makeup powder that actually protects the collagen in your skin.

   Ms. WELLS: Right.

   MORALES: How's that?

   Ms. WELLS: This is Priori . It has CoffeeBerry in it, and CoffeeBerry is one of the most potent antioxidants on the market. And what that does is it protects the skin cells from damage, from the sun, from pollution, from smoke.

   MORALES: Mm-hmm.

   Ms. WELLS: And so you're applying this, it has SPF 25, it's covering your skin...

   MORALES: Wow, that's great.

   Ms. WELLS: ...and it's also actually doing something while it covers your skin.

   MORALES: And it's all very natural ingredients , I was reading, so -- which is great.

   Ms. WELLS: It's natural, yeah. Exactly.

   MORALES: OK, wonderful. And then over here, this anti-aging serum that fights wrinkles but without some of those harsh side effects that you can get from some of the other products, right?

   Ms. WELLS: Right. The gold standard in wrinkle fighting, besides sunscreen, is retinoids.

   MORALES: Yeah.

   Ms. WELLS: And retinoids are great. But what they do is they can cause irritation and redness and flaking. And once that happens, people stop using them.

   MORALES: Mm-hmm.

   Ms. WELLS: And so once you stop using them you're not doing any good at all. So Origins has this Plantscription . It has various ingredients in it that duplicate prescription retinoids, it's 88 percent as effective.

   MORALES: Mm-hmm.

   Ms. WELLS: But it doesn't have any of the irritation, and it's also natural.

   MORALES: Very good.

   Ms. WELLS: And what's different about this, too, is natural products tend not to be studied medically, and this one has scientific studies to back it up.

   MORALES: OK. Wonderful. We like that. OK, and a lot of people, as they get older, especially women, you start -- your hair starts to thin, you start losing your luster.

   Ms. WELLS: Right. Right.

   MORALES: And this is a product that tackles that.

   Ms. WELLS: Right. This is Living Proof , it's full, it's a -- it's a thickening mousse. And what it -- it was invented by an MIT scientist, so already that sounds better than your average mousse.

   MORALES: Right.

   Ms. WELLS: And it has these -- it puts these little microdots on your hair, and it separates one hair from the next so it gives the impression of fullness, but with no stickiness, no crunchiness, no -- none of that awful, unpleasant stuff that you have with some...

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