So after seeing the My Silhouette My Skinny Jeans Challenge commercial a few times I finally caved in and checked out Nivea My Silhouette Redefining Gel-Cream with Bio-Slim Complex. I bought it today.

Nivea’s My Silhouette Redefining Gel-Cream contains White Tea and Anise extract which tones and defines your skin by making it firmer, tighter, and more elastic. White tea is said to slim down fat cells and prevent them from growing back while Anise activates your skin’s cell-metabolism which leads to increased collagen production to tone and reshape the skin. You use the product once or twice a day on your thighs, hips, waist and belly and you are supposed to see visible results after a month.

I was curious to see what the benefits of white tea and anise extract were for the skin. We all know there are health benefits from both but I was not familiar with the cosmetic benefits of these natural ingredients. So white tea contains antioxidants (more than green tea) that absorb, weaken and neutralize free radicals continuously. “So what?!” you say? Well free radicals have been associated with physical aging since they attack cells in your body, causing them to die or become cancerous. So if thousands of cells die in a particular part of your body (like your skin), then over time you will be able to see the damage (with skin for instance… in the form of wrinkles)!

There was also a study done where they found that a white tea extract cream was effective in boosting the immune function of skin cells and protecting them against the damaging effects of the sun. This discovery was a great find to aid in the battle against skin cancer but they also noted that this also suggests that white tea could provide anti-aging benefits. Science Daily stated that the “same process of oxidative stress in skin cells that lead to immune system damage can also promote skin cancer and photo damage, such as wrinkling or mottled pigmentation”. Kevin Cooper, MD and chairman of Department of Dermatology at UHC and CWRU, said “We know that younger skin tends to be able to resist the oxidative stress associated with exposure to the destructive rays of sunlight. The white tea extract also appears to build the skin’s resistance against stresses that cause the skin to age”.

As for the cosmetic skin benefits of Pimpinella Anisum (Anise) fruit extract, it apparently works on a cellular level to reduce the contraction of the muscle cells responsible for wrinkles, crow’s feet and frown lines. I did not find any studies for this one but did find a patent for cosmetic compositions containing anise extract and retinoids. I won’t go into details but it mentions a cosmetic method of treating or preventing the appearance of wrinkled, lined, dry, flaky, aged or photo damaged skin and treating skin thickness, elasticity, flexibility and plumpness!

Very interestingggggg…

So I’m going to try it out. Check back in a month or so, we’ll see if this My Silhouette works for me…

Sources:
- The Health Benefits of White Tea
- New Study Shows Tea Extract Protects Skin; White Tea Extract Reveals Anti-cancer, Anti-aging Properties
- Anise Day Serum