skin wreckers damage to our skin comes from external and internal sources but the common theme is that they all cause oxidative damage sources are those things that cause damage from the inside and natural aging process or rid our lives completely of the external antioxidants that counteract the effects of these skin wreckers defend your skin with antioxidants oxidative stress plays a major role in the development of lines found that skin on and around the nose and between the eyebrows showed higher levels of of oxidation positively correlated with more best defenses against this type of damage one group of antioxidants that has been researched for their role in skin health are the phytonutrient proanthocyanidins found in grape seed extract and pine bark extract that included 20 postmenopausal women supplementation with 75 mg of pycnogenol per day for 12 weeks that the pine bark extract increased the production of hyaluronic acid in the skin by 44 percent and also appeared to promote the humectant a substance that attracts and holds moisture-and is resveratrol is another antioxidant that protects and fortifies skin resveratrol's effect on facial skin included 50 men and women between the ages of 35 and 65; they all showed signs of skin aging also committed to not use any face creams for the duration of the produce collagen supplementation on skin health in a group of outdoor workers previous research has shown that pine bark extract is also and reduces hyperpigmentation antioxidant vitamin which is necessary for making collagen and for in the skin and research has found that those with aged and sun- damaged skin have diminished vitamin c levels hyperpigmentation caused by oxidative damage to 2,000 mg per day of vitamin c in divided while we can't stop the natural aging process or rid our lives completely of the can nourish and fortify our skin from the inside out astaxanthin and lutein are carotenoid antioxidants that seem to be particularly effective at protecting one study found that astaxanthin "exhibited a pronounced photoprotective effect" on human skin cells exposed to moderate also observed that there was a preferential uptake of astaxanthin shown that 6 mg of astaxanthin daily for eight weeks improved with mild-to-moderate dry skin took a supplement containing 10 overall skin tone and "luminance" were significantly increased in photoprotective and antioxidant properties natural grocers® 49