Wrinkles in the facial skin have various causes. They are part of the natural aging process, as skin cells lose fat content, elastin and collagen, over exposure to the sun over a period of time, and repetitive facial gestures, such as squinting or pursing the lips in the case of smoking. In addition, the skin cells lose their ability to retain moisture, as the fat contents become depleted, causing once plump cells, to take on the look of shriveled, dead skin cells and the underlying facial muscles to lay in a position they have been trained over time. This is where the smile lines, frown lines, eyebrow and forehead lines and crow's feet lines start forming.

In , the objective is to keep the lines and wrinkles from forming in the first place, and in the case of anti wrinkle creams, the purpose is to try to retrain the skin cells, to retain moisture and skin muscles to relax the positions they have formed over the years to cause certain skin wrinkles, as in the smiles lines and crow's feet. There are methods of "rebuilding the skin structure" or "remodeling skin cells", as it has been referred to. It usually involves the use of peptides, which is a wound healing process, much like in the case of burn victims, where the skin is remodeled to encourage new skin growth.

In the case of facial and skin muscle regrowth or retraining, peptides have been used, as a sort of muscle relaxer, as peptides tend work on a deeper level than some topical cream treatments. Argireline is a trade name for Acetyl Hexapeptide-3, which as the name implies is a peptide, a synthetic anti aging chemical derived from natural proteins, making a chain of amino acids, which can be used to stimulate muscle relaxation and reflex reactions, that can be the underlying cause of a wrinkle appearing in a certain position over time.

Argireline is very successful at reducing muscle relaxations over time. Improvement begin at the 4 weeks period, with the effect double over 27 weeks. However, just like all other anti wrinkle cream and anti aging creams, once you stop using the product the wrinkle begin to reappear again.

Argireline treats the underlying muscles against normal treatment of the surface skin cells. This makes it a lot like a topical form of what Botox does. The cessation of the facial muscle contractions is a short-term solution, even with Botox. Makers of Argireline use less than a 10% ingredient content as a higher level could have side effects, like relaxing the facial muscles too much and creating sagging. While Argireline has not been on the market for long time, long-term effects have not been measured. It is an effective ingredient in topical anti-aging creams and anti-wrinkle creams and is sold in many formulation.