So... Where do we sign up?
It’s not that we don’t love our smile lines or can’t deal with the occasional wrinkle, but who are we kidding? Our eye bags aren’t exactly Chanel and our crows feet are… well, they are crows feet. So, can you really blame us for wanting the most potent anti-ageing cream available on the market?
(Answer: no.)
Enter a new topical solution then: the so-called 'second skin'.
Developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (so you know it's gotta be good), the 'second skin' is a lotion-type cream that is designed to make aged tissue appear more youthful and sits on your face.
To get all science on you – the polymer is composed of an atom of oxygen with two atoms of silicon that repeats to form a large molecule. In layman terms, it’s like thin, stretchy spanx for your face.
Even better, it lasts for days and over time may even reshape your face. It also locks in moisture, scatters light for a more ‘candlelit look’ and is completely breathable (you’d want to hope so!).
The team says it systematically built the polymer to match young skin’s stretchiness, its reflectivity and its ability to return to its former shape when you pull it. For instance, when painted onto the bags under your eyes, the skin tightens and the wrinkles around them reduces.
‘It’s something you can wear for a whole day or longer depending on the physical forces that get applied to the area where it is worn,’ said Daniel Anderson, who helped develop the product at MIT. ‘You can’t tell you’re wearing it.’
‘You can rub it from the corner and peel it off. But it doesn’t do that under standard manipulation. We don’t want something that falls off,’ he added.
It’s also being touted as a miracle worker for problematic skin conditions like eczema, thanks to its heavily hydrating abilities that restore your skin’s barrier, making it less sensitive.
A world where we all look like we’re 20? Scary. A world where we can look a bit more youthful without having to do anything too drastic? Brilliant!
