Snapback........

If you have read the label of any anti aging skin care lotion, serum, or cream, you have heard about Collagen, or Hyaluronic Acid.  Collagen gives you the fuller and plumper skin.  Dermal Fillers for the face such as Radisse, Juvenderm, Restylane and Perlane are injected below the dermis to give your face a "fuller" effect.  Lasers and other treatments talk about boosting your collagen.  Collagen makes up about 75% of your skin.  There is a naturally occurring protein that is present in skin in very small amounts, like 5% or less; elastin.
Elastin is what is responsible for making the skin "snapback".  (we are not talking about hats)  After our teenage years, the production of elastin stops.  Unfortunately,  the older we get the more elastin we need  to give our skin elastic firm appearance.  A way to test the elasticity in your skin; pinch the back of your hand a count how long it take for you skin to stretch and recoil.  Over the years skin will loose ability to rebound it's shape.

Elastin is found in the depths of the dermis.  In the connective tissue, fibroblasts synthesize the collagen and elastin.  Collagen and elastin go hand in hand.  If you don't have one, or enough of one, the other will not support the skin properly.
When you see "elastin" present in skin care products, it is different than the elastin found in the skin, not being able to penetrate past the epidermis; the outer layer of skin.  The fibroblasts must be stimulated to coerce the skin to produce elastin.
Have you ever seen a older woman or man with a "waxy look", looking like they have waaay too much filler?  That look comes from the loss of elastin in the skin.  Some of the first CO2 lasers annihilated any elastin in the skin.
Now what?  It is easier to preserve elastin than to reproduce it.  Keeping the inflammation down in your body, with a healthy diet will preserve you collagen and elastin.  Protecting your skin from environmental damage will also help your skin preserve elastin.
Fillers are being diluted and injected with a finer needle into the dermis layer (instead of below the dermis).  First results show collagen isn't being created, but actually signaling the production of elastin.  Hopefully we will see injectable products that will work to preserve or replenish what skin has lost.

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