The Fountain of Youth. We've all heard of it, the spring that a drink from which grants an eternally youthful body. It is a legend we all at one time or another wish existed. If it did one can only imagine how long it would be before it were completely drained.

Who wouldn't want to recapture their youth - or at least preserve it as long as possible? There is a wide variety of products, from wrinkle creams to vitamins, designed to do just that. The brisk sales of these anti-aging products demonstrate that, indeed, many women (and men!) intend to keep their skin looking as youthful as it can, well into middle age.

It doesn't help to look at a picture taken of us in our youth. We see the soft, smooth skin and the cracks, lines, and wrinkles we see in the mirror today are not to be seen in the picture. So we look to the shelves of our grocery store, drug store, or health foods store where we find the anti-aging creams designed to do battle against our laugh lines and crow's feet.

Now most consumers are probably a bit suspicious, perhaps very suspicious of the claims made for the products on the shelves. Some of the "magic" ingredients are well known, others are not. In any event a good question to ask is how is the product going to react on my skin? There does not seem to be a simple solution to what is really the best product for the individual.

An active ingredient such as retinol, a form of vitamin A, is the basic active ingredient for many wrinkle creams and retinol- based creams are indeed often more effective in the battle against wrinkles than is the case for other products. Retinol promotes the development of new surface cells and also increases the amount of collagen in the skin, the combination reducing though not completely eliminating, wrinkles.

Another ingredient that is popular in anti-aging moisturizers is alpha hydroxy acid, or AHAs. AHAs are the active ingredient in chemical peels, but the concentration in anti-aging cream is very low, resulting in only a slight peeling effect. The use of AHAs in wrinkle creams effects a glow to the skin by exposing the new cells underneath.

The mere presence of one or both of these active ingredients does not answer the question of which product is better. The degree of concentration of the active ingredients is much more likely to determine the effectiveness. A product with a higher concentration of retinol may be much more effective in producing a more youthful look than a product containing only a small amount of retinol.

Asking the question leads to gaining the facts you are after. Asking "Which wrinkle cream is best?" leads you to doing some investigating. The result may not be as good as the Fountain of Youth would provide but may still be the best choice available.