Anti wrinkle, and what the words can honestly mean
Anti wrinkle is on a great many labels and it is doing less work than it looks like it is doing. It is worth knowing exactly what the phrase can and cannot promise before you spend anything on it.
Cosmetic and medicine are different categories
A cosmetic works on the surface and changes how skin looks and feels. A medicine changes how the body works, and it has to be approved before anyone may sell it as one. A serum on a shelf in New Zealand is the first thing. That is not a technicality, it is the whole boundary, and it is why the honest version of anti wrinkle is always about appearance.
So what can a serum say
That skin looks smoother. That the surface looks more even. That fine lines look softer while skin is well hydrated. All of those are about the look of the surface, all of them are checkable in a mirror, and none of them require you to take anything on faith.
What it cannot say
That it removes wrinkles. That it reverses ageing. That you will look a stated number of years younger. Those are claims about changing your skin rather than its appearance, and under the Fair Trading Act a seller needs evidence for a claim before making it, not afterwards.
Why hydration keeps coming up
Because it is the honest mechanism. A line in skin that is holding water sits in a fuller surface and catches less shadow, so it looks softer. Let the skin dry out and it looks the way it did. That is a real effect you can see, and it is upkeep rather than a change.
How to read a page quickly
Look for the verb. Looks, appears and feels are appearance words and are fair. Removes, erases, reverses and repairs are claims about your skin, and a cosmetic making them is either overreaching or selling something that should have been approved as a medicine. A number attached to either is the loudest warning of the lot.