Every product in this register is read the way a component datasheet is read. Concentration. Container size. The layer the molecule reaches. The measured change against vehicle, the window it took, the population it was measured in, and the record it came from.
Then, because it is the more useful list — everything that gets a product marked down, and why.
EVERY FIGURE RESOLVES TO A RECORD. NO NUMBER ON THIS SITE IS AUTHORED BY US.
Nothing switches off at thirty. Collagen synthesis has been falling by roughly one percent a year since the mid-twenties; turnover has been lengthening; the barrier has been taking longer to close.
What happens around thirty is that the accumulated deficit crosses the threshold of visibility under ordinary light. That reframes the whole category. There is no repair product, because there is no single event to repair — there is a rate, and there are molecules with a published effect on that rate.
Move the scrubber. The honest question is never what fixes this — it is how much of the slope a given molecule takes back, over what window, at what irritation cost.
CURVES ARE A SIMPLIFIED LINEAR MODEL FOR ILLUSTRATION. INDIVIDUAL RATES VARY WITH GENETICS, UV DOSE AND SMOKING STATUS.NOTHING SWITCHES OFF AT THIRTY. THESE SLOPES START IN THE MID-TWENTIES — THIRTY IS WHERE THE ACCUMULATED DEFICIT CROSSES INTO VISIBILITY.
All-trans-retinoic acid
The molecule the whole category is measured against, and the only one a regulator has approved for facial wrinkles. Its own label denies, in capitals, that it reverses photoageing.
Binds the retinoic acid nuclear receptors directly, with no conversion step. Reduces cohesiveness of follicular epithelial cells and microcomedone formation, increases keratinocyte turnover, and over months increases procollagen deposition in the papillary dermis.
Hydroquinone
The most effective topical depigmenting agent there is, the reason every compounded pigment formula exists, and a course rather than a regimen.
Azelaic acid
Does several useful things at once for skin that is inflamed and pigmenting simultaneously, which describes a great many people over thirty. The cheapest prescription in this register.
Roflumilast
The highest response rates in this register, the cleanest tolerability in it, and the worst price in it. All three at once.
A product page tells you what a company chose to say. The more informative document is the list of things it left out, and what each omission costs it here.
8 ENTRIES — APPLIED IN SCORINGSCROLL THE TABLE SIDEWAYS
| REF | DESIGN | BLINDING | N | WK | Δ | GRADE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REF-01 | Four multi-centre randomised trials, vehicle-controlled, on a comprehensive sun-avoidance programme | 559 | 24 | +21% | A | |
| REF-02 | Single-centre randomised controlled trial in darkly pigmented, mostly African-American subjects | 107 | 24 | -14% | B | |
| REF-03 | Randomised, active-controlled against all three two-drug combinations in the identical vehicle | 338 | 8 | +23% | A | |
| REF-04 | Randomised, active-controlled against all three two-drug combinations in the identical vehicle | 303 | 8 | +9% | A | |
| REF-05 | Randomised, vehicle-controlled, co-primary endpoints | 683 | 12 | +26.8% | A | |
| REF-06 | Randomised, vehicle-controlled, co-primary endpoints | 688 | 12 | +22.3% | A | |
| REF-07 | Multicentre randomised, vehicle-controlled; mean subject age 50.6, range 19–92 | 961 | 12 | +8.7% | A |
Across seventeen registration programmes now in the register, three publish a mean or average age above thirty — and two of them are for diseases of midlife. Almost everything a forty-year-old is prescribed for their skin was measured in teenagers.
One molecule, four approved vehicles, and irritation rates that differ by more than the concentrations do. A percentage without a base is not a specification.
In sixteen controlled trials now in this register, between 3% and 58% of people improved on the base cream or the placebo tablet alone. Not one compounded product sold direct to consumers has ever published that number, because not one has ever measured it.
One reader gets a 12 months CoreAge Rx derm plan — the compounded, physician-reviewed subscription we take apart in the register. Worth $780. Leave an address and you are entered.
VALUE IS THE PUBLISHED $64.99/MONTH SUBSCRIPTION PRICE OVER TWELVE MONTHS, AS RECORDED IN R-10. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. WE REVIEW COREAGE RX — WE DO NOT SELL IT.