Coenzyme Q10: Definitely an ingredient worth befriending.

Wed, 19 August 2009 10:19AM

Coenzyme Q10 is a bit of a skincare heavyweight. A bit of a Tony Soprano. It is ubiquitous (exists in every cell of the body), important (is vitally important for cell functioning and plays a major role in energy production) and is a pretty impressive protector (an exceptional antioxidant).

Before CoQ10 fell into the hands of those mad scientists who roam unfettered around skin care R&D labs, it was used (and still is) for a smorgasbord of ailments including heart and liver functioning, muscle activity, boosting immunity, lowering blood pressure, minimising stroke consequences and cancer treatment. (What a star! I’d like to buy CoQ10 a beer.)

But of course, this being PRIMPED, our concern is in skin. And golly gosho, is CoQ10 good when it comes to skin. It is a frightfully powerful anti-oxidant, which as I’m sure I’ve told you roughly 683 times before, are worth seeking out in your skin care, because they neutralise all those nasty free radicals (caused by exposure to sun and other environmental factors, pollution, toxins, ciggy) which stiff up collagen/elastin production and cause prematurely aging. (Read: Wrinkles.) Basically, it’s a keep-your-face-looking-young tool. (Anti-aging, I think they call it.)

It is generally agreed that the most powerful antioxidants in skin care are:

Idebenone, (found in Priori and Prevage products)
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
Vitamin E
Kinetin,
Alpha-lipoic acid,
and our mate, coenzyme Q10.

See? It’s right up there with the big guys! A big deal! And yet, strangely lacking in PR. Green tea has been thieving the ‘anti-oxidant hero’ press for too long. But can green tea help with the reduction of cancerous tumours? NO. (I haven’t researched that. Please let it not be a colossal error.)

In possibly one of the most brilliant marketing exercises ever, (aside of the new VB campaign, which is an absolute triumph), Nivea masterfully snuck out and when no one was looking, put a Nivea label on coenzyme Q10. Well think about it, which other skin care line do you associate with coenzyme Q10? It’s always been linked to Nivea in my mind, ever since they first released their first Q10 Plus product in 1998.

Speaking of which, Nivea’s most recent Q10 offering is their Nivea Visage Q10 Plus line, which has double the amount of Q10 as the original Q10 line (as well as creatine, a skin-firming protein) and promises to “reduce the look of deep wrinkles in four weeks”.

It’s been a monstrous best seller, I’d say because it has the luxury of having a whopping great fanbase the world over, is very reasonably priced ($19 face cream? Niiice), and, well, and this might sound crazy, but the women who use it reckon it works. (Seriously. Have you ever met a Nivea skin care user? They. Are. Obsessed. It’s like some kind of collagen-building cult.)

But there’s clinical data too: In the study of 20 elderly volunteers, scientists applied a cream containing the Q10 to one eye, and a control cream to the other. After six months, the Q10 caused a 27 per cent reduction in wrinkle depth. Bang! Factariffic! (And, in especially fun news, if you haven’t noticed on our homepage, you can snaffle a free sample of Q10 Plus.)

In other clinical data, in a study of 100 make-believe women who read PRIMPED, 99% of them said it was the best website in the whole world, ever. (The other bird got drunk and forgot to turn up to the data submission… day… thingy.)

Posted by: Zoe Foster

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Tags: anti-aging, antioxidants, coenzyme q10, nivea, q10, skin care