In a quest to find youth, similar to the explorers of the 16th century, men and women today are looking for the perfect anti-aging creams. Who doesn’t want to feel younger, let alone look younger? While the health craze is just beginning amid generations of obesity, people want to do more than feel good—they want to look good. Baby boomers have always wanted to get away with it, and these products promise to give them just what they want: youth forever.

In fact, the baby boomers alone have fueled the economy of the skin care market. Scientists are constantly looking for ways to meet the demands of this generation that wants to stay young and refuses to age gracefully. Salicylic and glycolic acid products saturate department store wings. Goops that promise to erase wrinkles and potions that promise to plump up sagging skin have landed in dozens of shopping carts.

Creams that promise to delay the effects of aging actually promise to save consumers thousands of dollars as well. A new generation of plastic people has emerged: those who swear by their monthly collagen injections to plump lips and cheeks, and their annual microdermabrasion to erase wrinkles. This entitled generation often throws out plastic cards like a teenage girl going through her closet. They care little about the financial or physical cost of their treatments, only the immediate results.

Anti-aging skin care means more than just looking good. It means taking care of what a person has for the rest of his life. Obviously, our bodies were not created to last more than one lifetime. So looking for the best products to help keep them as vibrant as possible makes sense. We are only taking care of what we have been given to take care of in a small amount of time.

Dermatology would totally agree with this theory. Doctors and skin specialists often cringe at the efforts some people make to make their skin look younger, rather than just worrying about what they have at the moment. Its science exists primarily to help people maintain healthy skin.

Consider those with lifelong skin conditions, for example eczema. Such a chronic rash not only affects a person physically but psychologically as well, as those who suffer from this debilitating disease often choose to stay home rather than see others simply out of embarrassment. Fortunately, the same science that helps people look younger will create new life for those who have shielded themselves from the public eye for decades.

Ponce de León and his followers ardently searched for the fountain of youth, knowing that in their youth there was something they wanted to have forever: beauty and energy. Our scientists can’t create a fountain of youth, but their remedies could surprise even the likes of Ponce.