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I find it hard to believe that skin products actually change your skin quality. My wife has been applying all kinds of creams and products to her face half an hour or more every day for decades. We're the same age and our skin quality is pretty comparable.

Now, she does look a lot better when she's wearing makeup, that stuff really works when it comes to hiding minor imperfections especially from a distance.

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Yes, there are absolutely skin products that improve the skin. If you read the article, they mention tretonoin (originally marketed as Retin-A), a retinoid, is frequently used as a skin rejuvenating agent. It has genuine medical uses; softening fine lines is a happy side effect more than anything. It's a prescription cream. There's also urea (also called carbamide), niacinemide and many others that modify skin biology in subtle ways. As the article mentions, many of the beauty treatments are in fact not creams, but things like laser treatments.

My wife spends a lot of time (and money) on skin care, but I'm very skeptical of the regimen that she follows. I've suggested that she secretly only treat one half her face for a few months and then ask me which side I like better, but she isn't that curious about the efficacy of her facial products and procedures.

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