As a writer, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the freedom and spontaneity of writing a blog. There are no publication deadlines, no limitations of distribution, and no delay in making updates available. When things change, the ability to share the information in a blink of the eye is astonishing. That’s sheer ecstasy for a writer.

However, as you can tell from how infrequently I post, I have lost the focus needed to keep this blog vibrant and up to date.

As Paula’s Choice continues to grow (we had a brilliant year: my international distributors are doing great, and I launched some of the best products I have ever formulated), I just don’t have time to do my blog justice and neither does my team.

Aside from the many responsibilities I have of running my company and formulating products (thank God for the team I have around me), I have a fervent desire to make the information and articles on PaulasChoice.com and my other intertwining websites—Beautypedia.com and CosmeticsCop.com—more dynamic, current, and scrupulously accurate.

As a result of all this, our brains and energies are maxed out. The reality (and this was a big wakeup call) is that none of us have room in our schedules to pay attention to this blog so it can flourish.

Therefore, as of today, January 6, 2011, the Beauty Bunch blog will become inactive. I will definitely miss your feedback and the questions you shared here. To those who took the time to comment, whether it was positive or negative, thank you for joining the conversation.

Going forward, my team and I will be more involved on Facebook (I sporadically go on to answer questions live). We will announce the updates we do to articles and product launches that appear on PaulasChoice.com or CosmeticsCop.com at our Paula’s Choice Facebook page, as well as @PaulasChoice on Twitter.

I want to thank you again for sharing this incredible forum with me. In the future I look forward to reading your comments and concerns on Facebook!

Warmest regards,

Paula

CEO and owner of Paula’s Choice

www.PaulasChoice.com

I finally have time to write again. After three weeks of doing over 150 newspaper, TV, magazine, and online interviews, along with several presentations to Chinese and Taiwanese beauty bloggers, I was exhausted and ready to get on the plane and come home. Unfortunately, for all the anticipation I had before departure, it was a trip from hell.

Shortly after dinner on my flight, I got food poisoning (not from the food served because no one else was affected, and thank goodness it was only me or it would have really been a disaster). I was having waves of nausea, cold sweats, and a feeling I was going to fall if I stood up. Simultaneously, I was also developing a raging flu with a fever and cough (can you believe that!). I needed a wheelchair to get off the plane. Geesh!

Aside from my traumatic trip, everything else was spectacular and fascinating (I was in perfect health until my plane ride home). Taiwan is a small part of the world with a population of 24 million, in comparison to China which has a population of 1.3 billion people. It is so hard to fathom that number!

Taipei has a mix of old world and new development with one of the tallest buildings in the world. Beijing and Shanghai have very little that isn’t new. These two cities are a maze of endless towering buildings enveloped day in and day out with a thick haze of pollution that blurs the horizon as well as buildings just a few blocks away. Picture New York City on steroids with minimal visibility in any given direction.

Beijing has a personality that is a mix of Washington D.C. and New York City as it is the financial and political cornerstone of the country. Shanghai, on the other hand, is a shopping Mecca. You can’t imagine the number of department stores, clothing boutiques, and home décor shops there are.

Despite all this potential to spend money on enhancing my wardrobe and home, it was sheer agony because there was no way anything was going to fit me. I was trapped in a world where on rack after rack there were stunning outfits but only with sizes ranging from 00 to 6. Can you believe that double-zero is actually a size? I don’t think I could fit a double-zero on my forearm, let alone try to make a top or pair of slacks work!

The media attention for the launch of my book in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese and my Paula’s Choice product line was astounding. My reputation as The Cosmetics Cop preceded me, and, not surprisingly, I was asked the same questions in China that I am asked all over the world (what gets rid of dark circles, what stops wrinkles, what products clear up acne), only with a few twists.

Asian women wanted to know what products were best for their skin because they believe they can’t use products designed for Caucasians. From a chemistry standpoint, there aren’t products specially formulated for Asian skin but, not surprisingly, cosmetic company marketing departments reinforce this false notion with products labeled clearly as being designed for Asian skin.

The fact is, physiologically, there are no differences between Asian skin and Caucasian—or darker skin tones, for that matter—when it comes to skin care. Skin is merely the human body’s largest organ. The same way the heart, kidneys, liver, or other organs don’t require different foods to be healthy, nor does skin.  Can you imagine going in for, say, heart surgery and telling the doctor you need a special procedure because of your nationality?

Skin color does not change what skin-care products are needed to fight wrinkles, acne, rosacea, oily skin, dry skin, uneven skin tone, and on and on. The protocol is the same for everyone, and there is no research to the contrary.

I was also asked a great deal about skin-care products that could make skin white. At the cosmetic counters and drugstores in China and Taiwan there are countless products branded as ”whitening.” Whitening products are actually the most popular skin-care products sold in Asia. Wanting to have lighter skin has been part of the Asian culture for hundreds of years, and most Asian women are diligent in this pursuit.

It isn’t so much that Asian women want to be white, they just don’t want to be yellow. In China, I was told there are age old sayings illustrating this beauty issue. One such idiom I had never heard before was, “One white face erases 100 ugly.” Loosely translated, this phrase in essence means that if you have whiter skin, 100 other flaws such as acne, a large nose, or thin hair don’t exist anymore and you are beautiful nonetheless. Another expression describing an unattractive older woman was to refer to her as a “yellow-faced old woman.” Now that was culture shock for this Cosmetics Cop!

Just to be clear, I have no judgment about the pressure Chinese women feel about the color of their skin. Every culture has women fretting about some aspect of being beautiful that sounds oppressive, and Asian women are no different, which is why they need a Cosmetics Cop as much as other women do anywhere else I go.

Speaking of skin-care products, I am thrilled my products are doing so well in Asia despite the fact I don’t sell “whitening” products. I am proud beyond words to find Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese women so warm and open to my information and the skin-care philosophy and research Paula’s Choice provides.

Despite some bumps along the way, I am looking forward to going back. There is so much more to learn and to see. Plus, I continue to be acknowledged around the globe for being The Cosmetics Cop! This international recognition has brought new meaning and challenges to my life. I am grateful for the privilege and am eager to continue and expand the passion I have for this perpetually wonderful, yet at times infuriating, business of beauty.

I
’ve been researching the science of skin care and deciphering its complex facts for people all over the world for years. Wherever I go there is endless confusion about what skin needs and what skin-care products can and cannot do. As many of you know, this isn’t surprising given the never-ending lunatic claims the cosmetic industry comes up with.

Without question, skin care is complex, and cutting through the hype is still a challenge! This is why I love The Dr. Oz Show.

The show’s entire premise is to only present information that can be supported by research. Their producers are eager to know the facts. I’ve done the show four times this year, and am always flattered to be asked to come back. Despite the show’s no-hype format, there just isn’t time in my four-minute segment for me to explain even a fragment of what is needed to understand a particular skin-care issue.

After the airing of a recent Dr. Oz segment I was on (Did That? Try This! For Your Aging Skin!), a woman wrote to us wondering why I suggested serums weren’t necessary, given I have three serums as part of my Paula’s Choice line. Now I know I didn’t say serums were superfluous. It was clear to me she misunderstood my point.

On the show, I was trying to explain to a woman with oily skin why using five different moisturizers every night as part of her skin-care routine was a serious problem. This woman was assuming she needed a moisturizer, anti-wrinkle cream, serum, firming lotion, and a treatment gel of some kind. What I knew for sure is that she didn’t need to use a serum, lotion, cream, gel, and moisturizer all at the same time!

What got lost was my message that serums or any other texture of moisturizer/anti-wrinkle product, when well formulated, can be a brilliant way to take care of skin. The prerequisite: It must be formulated for your skin type and skin-care concerns.

I really wanted to help this woman narrow down the number of products she was using and to only use ones targeted for her skin type, regardless of the name on the label. That might include a serum, but it would completely depend on the product’s formulation and the other products she was using. How could I get that across in four minutes knowing that there were two other women I needed to help as well on the same segment?

There is much more that I would have added, but it’s not The Paula Begoun Show, it’s The Dr. Oz Show. Here’s what I would’ve said if given more time:

• Packaging is as important as the product! Jar packaging exposes the air-sensitive ingredients in a product to light and oxygen, which causes sensitive ingredients to deteriorate after opening. Plus, it isn’t sanitary to dip your finger into a skin-care product.
• There is no single ingredient more important than another. Vitamin C or some exotic plant from a remote part of the world isn’t going to reverse the aging process or get rid of your wrinkles. Applying a product that only contains vitamin C is like eating only oranges; it’s a healthy addition to your diet, but you can’t live off them! You need a variety of antioxidants and nutrients for optimum health. Skin, as our body’s largest organ, isn’t any different.
• Fighting wrinkles involves an AHA or BHA exfoliant, products that are loaded with antioxidants, ingredients that help skin produce normal cells, and skin-repairing ingredients. But most importantly, you need a sunscreen 365 days a year. The best anti-aging products on the market are useless when you aren’t protecting your skin from UV exposure.
• Fighting oily skin requires gentle, non-irritating products so you don’t stimulate more oil production.
• Someone with oily skin should only be using products with a gel, liquid, or extremely lightweight serum or lotion base.
• For oily skin, it helps to use a mattifying product during the day.
• Age is not a skin type! What works for oily or dry skin at 30 will work at 50 or 60. “Mature skin” is a marketing buzzword, nothing more.
• Ignore the claims! It is the rare skin-care product that doesn’t have misleading information on its label.

Skin care is complicated, and there is (and always will be) a lot of misinformation, half-truths, and blatant lies to sell women products that can’t live up to their promises. Explaining how to really keep skin younger and healthier longer, how to reduce acne, fight wrinkles, heal dry skin, and on and on is far beyond what can be stated in a few minutes on a talk show. Dr. Oz is doing his best, but there is just so much time in an hour to talk about your liver, kidney, heart, knees, and skin!

Paula’s Choice is thrilled to welcome Paula’s Choice Thailand as the official Distributor for our products in Thailand.

From the beginning my goal has been to help women find products that will give them the skin they’ve always wanted. Over the years, I have watched my passion of providing brilliant skin care products for every concern grow from being just distributed in the United States, into Paula’s Choice products being distributed in 42 countries around the world. Adding Thailand to the Paula’s Choice family is a dream come true!

Visit the official Paula’s Choice Thailand website here!

Warmest regards,

Paula Begoun

Oops, I did it again. Even though I know better—and even though I’ve endured the aftermath the next morning in the mirror too many times before—I still fell asleep in my makeup, again, last night.

I knew I’d regret it, but the choice between getting up to cleanse at the sink or staying in bed (and sometimes the couch) is too overwhelming. At the end of a long day, my body longs to lie down rather than stand at the sink ritually going through my skin-care routine, and flossing and brushing my teeth, and using Latisse and using Minoxidil, and putting body lotion on, and putting a foot exfoliant cream on. Damn I have a long routine!

So I tell myself, “I’ll just lie down for a few minutes and finish the end of CSI or Glee.” Yeah, right. Who do I think I’m fooling? I know the odds are 10 to 1 that I will ever get up to do what my boyfriend affectionately calls “exit procedures.” But I stay lying down, nonetheless, knowing there will be hell to pay in the morning.

Foundation, blush, mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick look like hell the next morning when you’ve slept in it all night. The smeary, flaky mess you see looking back at you in the mirror is a disaster. Speckles of black mascara in and around your eyes, the streak of lipstick across your chin, and dark rings of shadow are a sight to behold. It looks like something out of a bad movie about the drug underworld.

But how bad it looks is only half of the disaster. Swollen, red, irritated eyes with veins bulging are coupled with crusted tears at the corners to create an itchy, sore, and uncomfortable mess. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, your skin is about to punish you for your negligence.

One of the problems with sleeping in foundation, pressed or loose powder (whether they’re labeled mineral or not), and blush (cream or powder) is that they all keep skin cells from sloughing off your face as they should. The combination of makeup and built-up dead skin cells ground into skin immediately clogs pores. For those prone to breakouts, it will trigger a new crop of pimples or blackheads that will appear first thing in the morning or will creep up on you by the end of the day. For those with dry or sun-damaged skin, it will just make your skin look dull and ashy. Yuck.

Though you shouldn’t have done it (and, as evidenced above, I’m just as guilty as many of you), here’s what you can do to minimize the repercussions of falling asleep in your makeup:

• Wash your face twice, and use a soft washcloth to be sure to manually (but gently) exfoliate your skin.
• You must absolutely use an eye makeup remover that has no chance of further irritating your eyes, and get every last trace and fleck of makeup off and out of your eyes. Paula’s Choice Gentle Touch Makeup Remover fits that description.
• Use lubricating eye drops (not Visine-like products) to soothe your eyes (this really helps!). The Refresh brand is excellent!
• Go over your face with a well formulated toner to add antioxidants to your skin and remove last traces of makeup from your face, particularly around the hairline.
• If breakouts or blackheads are a concern, it is essential that you apply one of Paula’s Choice BHA exfoliants (I prefer my Exfoliating 2% BHA Liquid, but you can always check Beautypedia.com for our list of best BHA products from other lines).
• If you can grab a minute, lie down with your head elevated and place an ice pack over your eyes (it will feel great and reduce puffiness and swelling).
• Apply a lightweight moisturizer such as a serum or a gel on your face and, if needed, a more emollient moisturizer around your eyes.
• If you can wear a lighter makeup than you did the day before you fell asleep with your makeup on, that would help a lot.

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Do not fall asleep in your makeup again tonight. Taking brilliant care of your skin at night will always reap far better rewards than those five extra minutes you get by lying down before you get your makeup off. I know, better said than done, but my job is to say it. Now if I could only practice what I preach!

Accutane was a brand name for an oral, anti-acne medication that is no longer being prescribed, but the active ingredient in it (isotretinoin) is now available as a generic. Accutane/isotretinoin has the potential to cure acne or at the very least make it go away for awhile. Once a round of isotretinoin is done, the acne may still return; however, if it does, it is rarely as bad as before.

Regrettably, isotretinoin is a difficult drug. There are lots of serious side effects such as elevated cholesterol, liver problems, loss of hair, unbelievably dry skin, birth defects if you get pregnant while taking it, depression (though that side effect is controversial), headaches, bloody nose, and on and on. But for me, my acne was even more difficult than all of those health risks, which is why, once I was fully informed about the risks, I still opted to take this medicine to help my acne.

Prior to Accutane, every morning for me was a living nightmare of having to look in the mirror to see what had happened to it overnight. It was agonizing and it was rarely good news. And then during the day I could feel eruptions developing as I touched my face or felt the small throbs where swollen bumps were growing. I even hated the word “pimple.” I found it embarrassing and insulting. I am sure anyone struggling with acne knows just how I felt, and how strong the desire for clear skin becomes.

When I finally decided to try Accutane it was with utter abandon. I would do anything to not have this struggle of seeing red, inflamed, white dotted lesions on my face.

When I started my prescription I noticed a difference within the first week. I’ll never forget the moment when I touched my face and felt nothing that I was so used to feeling. All I could feel was smooth skin! Much to my continued surprise, it remained that way for weeks. I had some of the side effects I was told about, including bloody nose, dry lips, and headaches. No one tested for liver function and cholesterol levels in those days and I was beyond getting pregnant so there is much I don’t know for what did or didn’t go wrong for me internally. What I do know is that it was the first time in my life since the age of 11 that I liked looking at myself in the mirror.

At the three month point I started experiencing hair loss and that freaked me out. As a result, I stopped taking the drug and, as expected, the hair loss stopped. The trade-off for stopping too soon to save my hair was my acne came back about two months later. I did a great deal of research and found that the dosage and timing was a big deal. A lower dose taken over a longer period of time seemed to be far better. I discussed this with a new physician and started another cycle of Accutane. Thankfully, it went much better the second time around.

Today, almost 17 years later, I still struggle with breakouts but nothing like I did before Accutane. I sometimes think I should have taken another treatment cycle but never did, not because of the risks, it was just that I never got around to it and I was happy enough with the results two rounds of Accutane provided.

Given everything known about isotretinoin/Accutane my only personal regret is that I waited so long to take it. I can only guess what my mornings would have been like in my 20s and early 30s had I taken the drug back then, and not wasted so much time and money on irritant-laden products that made matters worse not better. Like many of you, I just didn’t know any better and just kept buying product after product hoping something would work.

Everyone has to weigh the pros and cons of many things they do in life; for me, Accutane was a no-brainer. Whether you feel the same way is a decision only you can make, but if you decide to take isotretinoin, be certain you’re fully informed of the risks, particularly if you’re a woman of childbearing age.

There is some pretty silly and often imprudent advice floating around on Internet sites and in fashion magazines offering beauty suggestions for traveling women. Traveling is challenging enough without having to waste time packing things you don’t need, or won’t help you get through security. The tips below will help you arrive looking gorgeous and feeling great!

Here is absolutely what you need to do so you can be a happy camper anywhere you go:

• Pack your carry on wisely. Do not try to get cuticle clippers, scissors, razors, or bottles over 3.4 ounces through airport security. Sharp objects of any kind are not allowed (I had a pointy pair of tweezers confiscated recently).
• Use a quart-sized plastic bag as recommended by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). You are only allowed one plastic bag, and because it can’t be said too often, the enclosed containers must be 3.4 ounces or less.
• Wear sunscreen! Not only are you going to be dry up there, you’re going to be exposed to intense UV light when the windows are open (it really helps to close those windows if your neighbor doesn’t mind).
• Wear shoes that expand. Your feet will swell up. Think brands like Clarks, Munro, Merrel, and Fitzwell.
• Forget the heels. Watching women all over the world teeter on heels trying to get through airports is just sad to see.
• Don’t wear flip flops. They offer no support which will make you feel and look tired and put your body into an unattractive and unhealthy posture (almost as bad as really high heels).
• Wear loose, nice clothes that expand and don’t wrinkle; you will look and feel great. Stretch jerseys are the absolute best. For high end, check out Misook at Nordstrom.com, and for less-expensive options check out MyShape.com! They have the most amazing collection of stretch jersey clothing ever!
• Whatever makeup you wear, be sure it is easy to remove for long flights. Sleeping in your makeup is awful for your face. You can end up with swollen, puffy eyes, breakouts, and dry, flaky skin.
• Wear lip gloss or a creamy lipstick. Lips dry out in an airplane and at high altitudes. You can also try a lip stain like Revlon’s Just Bitten Lipstain and keep reapplying the gloss that’s part of the packaging.
• Bring oil blotting papers. They help anywhere you are, but are especially helpful after a long flight.
• Do drink a lot of water and don’t have more than one cocktail. Your body and head will thank you for it.

What you should bring on the plane that can get through security:

• Afrin or some other nasal spray for when your ears get plugged during landing. It can make all the difference and can be used in the moment when you start feeling uncomfortable pressure.
• Bring a travel size container of your favorite fragrance, but don’t overdo it. The person you are sitting next to might have a sensitivity or allergy to fragrance (I know I do).
• Travel-sized packets of your skin-care routine are a must, and include a toothbrush and tiny travel-size of toothpaste. At the end of the flight it helps to do your skin-care routine, brush your teeth, and apply simple makeup. It will feel wonderfully refreshing and look beautiful.
• All Paula’s Choice skin-care products come in travel sizes, and I’ve never had them questioned at security so I don’t pack them in my quart-sized bag.
• To get your makeup on the plane, pack your foundation in the quart-sized bag. Other than my foundation I’ve never had my lipstick, concealer, mascara, or other makeup products questioned at security.
• Include a travel-sized packet of a rich moisturizer for your hands. My Beautiful Body Butter is perfect. It is dry up there and your hands will feel it. And don’t forget to apply sunscreen as a finishing step.
• Lubricating eye drops—what a difference these make! Not only does your skin get dry, but so do your eyes!
• Hair does dry out up in the sky; a silicone serum spray can instantaneously put shine back in your hair and make it feel soft and silky. Garnier Fructis Brilliantine Shine Glossing Spray, $4.99 for 3 ounces, is perfect and can get through security, too.
• For more detailed information about security at the airport, check out www.tsa.gov, especially their travel assistant section. This is a thorough and easy-to-navigate site.

What you absolutely don’t need to do:

• Don’t spray your face with water; what a waste of time! Water isn’t moisturizing, it just evaporates and leaves your skin feeling drier. What your skin needs is to keep the natural water content (which is about 30%) and healthy substances in skin so it feels soft, smooth, and looks radiant. Using a brilliant skin-care routine will get you through life anywhere you are.
• If you are flying first class or business, don’t use the hot face cloth they hand you on your face. I never recommend steaming the face (heat can cause spider veins to surface and create irritation).
• Don’t pack aerosols because they can drain out under the pressure of traveling at 30,000 feet up in the air.
• Don’t pack pumps that don’t lock down. They will leak.
• Some caps come loose no matter what you do. If you are packing a particularly greasy item put it in a separate plastic bag.
• Don’t pack full sizes of your skin-care or hair-care products in your checked luggage. Travel kits are the best. You can find them in drugstores, online, and Paula’s Choice will be launching one this fall!

A Facebook fan of ours wanted to know more about how I develop Paula’s Choice products from concept to the final version, ready to be launched. They also wanted to know how my process is different from the way other companies create beauty products. I have to say, I love this question!

It is astonishing even to me how incredibly different my product development methodology is from other cosmetic companies’.

Creating new products and improving our current formulations is my passion and it has been my life’s work. Every product is my achievement or concept and I personally oversee the formula from every perspective. That alone is rare.

There are no owners or formulators for cosmetic companies who have spent the past 30 years writing 18 books on skin care and makeup. Most of the people developing skin-care products either don’t take the time or they don’t know how to evaluate a peer-review scientific study.

Many of the scientists who work for cosmetic companies are not penetrating past the claims of one product, or they don’t actually understand or are involved in an entire skin-care routine. You only have to look at the vast number of products in jar packaging, or that contain alcohol among other notorious irritants, or are antiquated formulations; for some reason this still shocks me.

My team and I always obsess over:

1. What the research says about the ingredients we want to use.
2. Analyze what the actual overall benefit to skin will be for a specific skin type or concern based on published research and then on our own clinical panel testing.
3. How it compares to other products (if I can’t make it far better and sell it at a more reasonable price than other cosmetic companies, we won’t make it).
4. Most importantly, it must work within a framework of superior skin care (gentle cleansers, toners loaded with “bio-active” ingredients, sunscreens enhanced with antioxidants, moisturizers and serums containing substances that repair skin and fend off environmental damage, effective exfoliants—not scrubs which tear at skin, etc).

What makes our process different is basically the following:

1. I have a unique concept of skin care based on published research about different skin-care concerns ranging from acne to rosacea, wrinkles, sensitive skin, oily skin, and dry skin, etc. Most cosmetic companies don’t approach skin care in a cohesive, systematic fashion; they follow trends or an exotic ingredient they can build a story around.
2. We never jump on bandwagons. Just because apple tree stem cells or ingredients claiming to work like Botox are being thrown into moisturizers, I would never include it simply because it would make for good ad copy or a fashion magazine editor would think it was new and different. The research must be there to support adding it to a formula.
3.  My fundamental philosophy is to never harm skin: Irritation and inflammation is bad for skin. There is no contradictory evidence on this one. Other companies throw in known irritants ALL the time because it sounds natural or they just don’t know what they are doing.
4. In the world of cosmetics most product development people are in the marketing department (that never fails to kill me). They decide they will be able to build a story around some new ingredient and then give that information to the chemists and a new product is born. That process has nothing to do with skin care.
5. Because my team and I have reviewed thousands of products and have spent every day poring over published research about skin, we know up close and personal what hundreds of other brands are creating and understand their formulations. We have a bird’s eye view of the industry and we can avoid formulary mistakes and can discern formulary excellence from every angle.

I’ll never forget the time when my product development manager, Kate Mee, and I met with a prominent cosmetic lab down in California (they did work for many of the major cosmetic companies). We sat around the table with three of their cosmetic chemists, two of the owners of the lab, and two of their main sales representatives. When we began discussing the formulas they had been working on for us, they were taken aback at the research we had done and the meticulous detail we went through to evaluate the ingredients.

I said, “Doesn’t every cosmetic company you work with do this?”
They said, “None of them do this.”
I said, “Then what do they do?”

Their response was that they “talk marketing ideas and what star ingredient they want the product to contain, or how the product should smell, or what natural ingredients we can put in it, but never research and definitely not an analysis of every ingredient.”

I said, “But if the product is for acne and they don’t have acne, or if the product is for dry skin and they don’t have dry skin, why would they try it?”

Their response: “They don’t really care about the ingredient deck. The people we meet with are from the marketing team; they don’t know anything about the science of skin, skin problems, or cosmetic chemistry. They care about appearance and how they can sell the product.”

Geesh! That was one of the most eye opening experiences of my career. I have written extensively about what can and can’t benefit skin. As new research comes to light we change or improve what we do. As new requests come in from our readers or customers we examine how we can meet those needs—often we can, but often we can’t. What we will never do is pretend a product can do more than what is possible. All of this adds up to skin care you can trust, whether it is from my product line or from other cosmetic companies’ products we recommend on Beautypedia.com.

If you are anything like me, when you envision the CEO of a cosmetics company you may picture an authoritative figure wearing a designer outfit with an executive assistant sitting right outside their door, waiting to answer every beckoning call. Ok, The Devil Wears Prada may have influenced this vision a bit, but the fact remains that we often perceive these high power individuals to be intimidating, untouchable, and far removed from everyday people or everyday life just in general.

While that may be true for some corporations, let me set the record straight here at Paula’s Choice. I would know; I’m Paula’s assistant! First of all, I have to start out by mentioning that in the 30 years Paula has been flying around the world educating women about skin care, and running Paula’s Choice, this is the first time she has had an assistant. I’m flabbergasted at how she managed to juggle it all on her own (though to the credit of the office, she has had great support). Nonetheless, let’s get down to the details you really want to know…

Is Paula a diva? Well, she does like her Perrier mineral water and flying first class (but she flies me first class, too, so that part of her being a diva is fine with me), yet in reality Paula is about as down-to-earth as they come. Some days she comes into the office dressed to the nines, but other days she’s completely comfortable sporting a casual ensemble. She’ll be the first one to greet everybody as she enters the building, compliment you on a new hair cut, or stop to play with the dogs in the office. It’s easy to tell when Paula is here because you can usually hear a roar of laughter before she has even made it up to her office on the second floor. (Speaking of laughter, she has been known to interrupt a meeting to play a funny video she just saw on YouTube, but you didn’t hear that from me.)

Another surprising fact is how hands-on Paula is. You might typically think of a CEO as someone who has “people” for everything, but as busy as Paula may be, she will actually read letters from customers and take the time to respond. She holds weekly meetings with our Customer Service department to keep them up-to-date with the latest information, as well as get feedback on what our customers have to say. Even when she is traveling across the globe to different time zones, Paula will wake up at 3am to do her online radio show. Every product development idea, Beautypedia.com review, or Paula’s Choice promotion goes through Paula.

Last, but certainly not least, what sets Paula apart as a CEO and as The Cosmetics Cop is her capacity to relate to people. Fans catch a glimpse of this on her weekly radio show where Paula tells all from her struggles with puberty and acne as a teen, to her experiences with menopause and plastic surgery. Paula has sincere empathy for the skin-care issues that her customers, fans, friends, and employees face and she is always there to lend advice and sometimes even some free products. Moreover, what other CEO would recommend products outside of their own? Only someone who is dedicated to helping you find the best products for your skin. Now that’s a far cry from what most of us would picture of any CEO from any other company in the world.

I think I left off my European travel tales with Harsha heading for Mumbai and me flying off to Rome where I met my girlfriend Julie for our 9-day Italian escapade. Almost everything went off without a hitch. Flights were on time, drivers were where they were supposed to be, the hotel was lovely, our guide was wonderful, and the food, ah, my taste buds and hips will never be the same (but my hips weren’t doing so well when I first got to Europe anyway).

The sole hitch was a struggle at the Rome airport trying to find the right baggage claim area after I deplaned. Seems once you are in the wrong place in the Rome airport, it is a convoluted, circuitous, confusing process to get to the right place. After 45 minutes of asking directions and getting different answers and misreading signs (which make no sense in any language), my frustration had built to a crescendo that finally burst when I asked a policeman for help and instantly started blubbering. I felt like a child lost at a shopping mall looking desperately for a parent. My only solace was not being the only passenger trying to find the right baggage claim location (even Italians can’t make sense of the signs). Organization, Italian style!

Shortly after being reunited with my luggage I was in Roma and hungering for pasta, pizza, and pomodoro!

Without question, Rome is my favorite European city. Most of Italy is a tourist’s dream come true. It is the best of everything: ornate churches, opulent palaces, villas filled with antiquities, art, and sculpture for as far as the eye can see. There is also rolling countryside, greenery, mountains, a shoreline dotted with picturesque villages, incredible dining, charming shops, and palatial museums adorned with stunning décor and art work created by artisans endowed by the Divine. Of course, we went to all the traditional places and I am pleased to report that it was perfect with relatively tame crowds all around.

Visually, there is so much to take in it becomes instantly overwhelming. There are moments of breathlessness mixed with astonishment and wonder. In particular I am still surprised at my reaction every time I see Michelangelo’s Pieta at the Vatican, plus the Vatican is without question one of the most gorgeous buildings in the world. Michelangelo’s Pieta is mesmerizing and haunting, an achievement of sheer genius and passion. But it is all astounding. This time I was surprised to find out that all the “paintings” in the Vatican I’ve stared at during previous visits weren’t paintings at all; rather, they are elaborate, unexplainably complex, intricate tile masterpieces. We finished our Vatican visit with the spellbinding, enthralling beauty of the Sistine Chapel. Viewing the ceiling and walls painted by Michelangelo can be a painful experience as you linger over the art work towering overhead with your neck stretched and wrenched back and upward for way too long so you can take it all in.

When all is said done, all of the art and architecture of Rome are not about the Catholic church, but rather a living testament of the soul’s need to express itself through diverse mediums and arduous endeavor. No wonder all roads lead to Rome; it is truly a Mecca for anyone with eyes hungry to see unparalleled parts of exquisite European beauty prefaced by a torturous, complex history.

After Rome, Julie and I went to Milan for the penultimate part of our trip to Italy: Opening night at La Scala to see Placido Domingo singing the title role in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Milan is a lovely city, but it is really just a city with some fabulous shopping for the too thin and too extravagant crowd that also happens to have a mind-blowing massive cathedral (I know, not exactly unusual for Italy). But what it does have that no other city in the world has is La Scala, the pinnacle of opera houses where the who’s who of operatic talent has graced its stage. I couldn’t believe it. Adding to the drama of the moment was the delivery of the tickets I bought almost six months earlier: They didn’t show up until the night before the performance. I thought I was going to faint! When that anxiety ended it was all well worth it. The performances were ardent and the musical quality pure and thundering. I felt blessed and humbled by the experience.

From Milan we traveled to Florence which is yet another scenic, idyllic, art-endowed city with the Pitti Palace, Boboli Gardens, and the Arno River cradled by adobe colored buildings with classic tiled roofs and lush grape-vined hillsides spanning the horizon. Uffizi Gallery was certainly the high point with Botticelli’s numerous breathtaking pieces a prime reason to visit and marvel!

As you already know, the last part of my almost two-month journey was the global calamity caused by that unpronounceable volcano in Iceland spewing its pent-up fury and bowels in a rolling mushroom cloud of environmental and commercial destruction. Every day from April 15th on, when almost all the airplanes in Europe were grounded and hundreds of thousands of people were stranded, we had no idea what we would do. I was working hard on trying to be very Zen about the whole thing, but mostly I was just being a nervous wreck who wanted to come home.

To make a long story short, I wrote this partly on the plane from Rome to London (that left on time and landed on time) and while waiting for the plane to Seattle that also left and landed on time. As I complete this, I am finally at home in my own bed. I can’t believe it. I am flabbergasted and filled with relief.

Of course, I will be hitting the ground running in no time (Vancouver, Toronto, and San Francisco, here I come!) but it has been one of my best trips ever in so many ways, yet, when all is said and done, there is no place like home!