I hate watching infomercials or any cosmetic advertising for that matter. I can barely tolerate listening to what the salespeople behind cosmetics counters have to say; it just makes me cringe and my skin crawl. The utter nonsense that is spewed to unsuspecting women is beyond my tolerance level. I just get so frustrated, my blood boils, I start grousing, and that can eventually turn into a rant, and well, that just isn’t pretty.

Such was the case last night when I was watching the latest spate of infomercials from Dr. Murad. He was explaining why his acne line doesn’t include benzoyl peroxide. Is he serious that there is a rationale for ignoring a basic skin care protocol for acne? Did he miss the research published in the Lancet, December 2004, pages 2188-2195, stating that benzoyl peroxide is the most effective treatment for acne, especially in comparison to oral antibiotics (such as tetracycline), topical antibiotics (such as erythromycin), or combination treatments? Another nice benefit over and above a significant reduction in breakouts: the study noted that benzoyl peroxide was also the most cost-effective treatment.

Dr. Murad’s explanation for not using benzoyl peroxide was that it can be drying and irritating. Well, so can watching infomercials for some people, but not for everyone. As a matter of fact, you would be far more able to easily tolerate benzoyl peroxide if the product didn’t contain irritating ingredients such as alcohol or menthol, lime, lemon, or peppermint, or you used gentle cleansers along with it. While Murad is worrying about benzoyl peroxide (at the very least he should offer it as an alternative, something most any reputable doctor would do) he isn’t worried about the irritating ingredients he does use in his acne products including menthol, citrus extracts, alcohol, and lavender.

I won’t even get into the pandering he does with his anti-wrinkle products categorized by hormonal, environmental, and genetic aging. Or maybe I’ll get into that the next time I’m in a blogging mood…