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!

To be honest, doing “field work” for Beautypedia is always stressful. Though I’m certain I’ll probably never be exposed as working “undercover” for Beautypedia at the cosmetics counters, there are a fair amount of nerve racking encounters (pun intended) that take over when I’m trying to get information that you know someone doesn’t want you to have, regardless of whether you are entitled to it (and when it comes to ingredient listings on cosmetics that is absolutely public information).

Before I came to work for Beautypedia, I was easily intimidated by cosmetic counter people; they always made me feel “sized up,” and less aware and informed then they are. Now that I have learned quite a bit doing my job here at Beautypedia and reading Paula’s reviews and accumulated research I know these salespeople are pathetically misinformed and I can see that the judgmental arch in their brows is completely meaningless.

A recent OMG moment took place at a Clarins counter. I approached with my Beautypedia coworker, and we browsed the displays, picking up testers and trying to seem interested while we scanned for the specific item we were seeking. The counter person greeted us, and I explained that I was doing some pre-Mother’s Day shopping for my Mom who has very sensitive skin. Before I bought her anything, I explained, I’d need to check the ingredient list with my Dad to be sure that it didn’t contain any of her “no-nos.” This all seems plausible enough, and well within my rights as a consumer, so once I’d found the $80 jar-packaged anti-wrinkle cream I sought, I began to jot down the ingredients on a small notepad.

Before I’d finished the first row of ingredients, the lady stopped me and said, “You really only need to write down the first five ingredients.” She looked me square in the eye, and continued, “The rest aren’t really that important.” Really? Really!! That’s interesting because the product’s claims showcase the inclusion of specific extracts, and in this product, which has 42 ingredients total, the ingredient featured by name on the box is #18! So if the first five ingredients are the only ones that matter, then why boast about the 18th ingredient? Doesn’t make sense, does it? Needless to say, I wrote down all 42 of the ingredients, and walked away, shaking my head in disbelief once again.