If you’re not ready to partake of lasers, fillers, Botox and other appetizers, entrees and desserts on the plastic surgery menu, you can now feel more confident about that expensive jar of face cream. According to a new book, “Face Value: The Truth About Beauty,” there are more evidence-backed skin care formulations. In other words, we are seeing less hype and more laboratory testing for skin creams.

First, there is a skin cream designed to repair DNA. Interviewing prominent dermatologists and academic researchers, Allure magazine, December 2011, learned, “Your body’s own enzymes can locate and cut out damaged bits of DNA.” You can also use supplementary enzymes to travel into the cells and stimulate the process, paving the way for a new generation of skin products. One such formulation is Celfix Cosmeceuticals DNA Youth Recovery Facial Serum, which a researcher found to correct 40 to 50 percent of damage caused by UV rays when applied twice a day for three months.

Then, there’s Xeomin, a formulation that is said to work like Botox, but is not injected. It comes as a gel, which is applied by a plastic surgeon or dermatologist for 30 minutes and then wiped off. In tests on crow’s feet, 44 percent of patients reported significant improvement, lasting four months. Further, without needles, it can be used to control sweating in the hands and feet, areas in which injections are painful.

Do I dare suggest an enzyme collected from tree fungus? Allure refers to it as a “blotch buster.” It’s called melanozyme, and according to a prominent dermatologist it works incredibly well on erasing stubborn melasma splotches and sun spots. Melanozyme, aka tree fungus, can be found in Elure Advanced Lightening Lotion.

And there’s good news about sunscreen safety. Finally, sunscreens with nanoparticles of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, the tiny mineral grains that create an invisible sun shield on the skin, have been decreed absolutely safe. Previously, it was thought that these nanos might be able to pass through skin and enter the bloodstream, causing inflammation and other problems. Now, such sunscreens have passed muster with their harshest critic. The Environmental Working Group now considers formulations with nanoparticles “Among the safest, most effective sunscreens on the market.