On April 22, I blogged asking for your help with finding better names for the two “toners” I created as a part of my CLEAR anti-acne system. I can’t thank you enough for all of the insightful and truly valuable feedback you provided. I wish there was a better way to express how truly grateful I am, but hopefully the great results you get from using my products speak for themselves!

From the moment I started to see your comments, my team and I began meeting to incorporate your feedback and suggestions to find the best way to explain our CLEAR products. The goal was to help those people visiting my Web site to find the best combination of CLEAR acne-fighting products for their skin type. Based on all of your feedback, here is what we came up with:

• Step 1 – the cleanser in both routines will keep the same name: Normalizing Cleanser Pore Clarifying Gel
• Step 2 – the “toners” will no longer be called toners. Essentially, these products are exfoliants and can (and often should be) used with either Paula’s Choice Moisture Boost or Skin Balancing toners.

The new name for each will be:

Regular Strength
Targeted Acne Relief
Exfoliating Solution
with Salicylic Acid

Extra Strength
Targeted Acne Relief
Exfoliating Solution
with Salicylic Acid

• Step 3 – the benzoyl peroxide products will be called:

Regular Strength
Acne Fighting Treatment
with 2.5% Benzoyl Peroxide

Extra Strength
Acne Fighting Treatment
with 5% Benzoyl Peroxide

We are starting to change the names on PaulasChoice.com, and in the months ahead, the new names you helped us create will be reflected on the packaging and in our catalog as well.

I have always said it takes a village to handle life, but it also takes a village to run a company! I want to thank all of you for being a part in our village. As always, your comments have a real impact on the decision process here at Paula’s Choice!

My team and I sincerely welcome your continued feedback about any and all Paula’s Choice products. After all, we create them to help YOU have the skin you’ve always wanted!

One more thing about my trip to Los Angeles to meet with some of the labs that help us formulate our products, almost without exception the most common comment I get is how different it is when my team and I meet with them. Why different? Because we talk ingredients, we ask for studies, we want products with no fragrance and no coloring agents, we provide air tight containers, we ask for plant extracts and vitamins with proven benefits, we only want “natural” or “organic” ingredients that can make a difference for skin, we want effective exfoliants, effective anti-bacterial agents for acne, effective antioxidants, cell communicating ingredients, and skin identical ingredients, and we want an honest discussion about how to make a product stable. Primarily what we don’t want is the hype. It usually takes awhile to wade through all but eventually we do get to the other side.

Eternally perplexing to the cosmetic chemists we work with is the need to see in an ingredients deck (the proposed formula as it would appear on the ingredient label) before we see the product. I’ve been formulating products for more then 15 years and it is the rare lab that does this. Their system is to send the product because no one is all that curious about what the product contains (they only want the “special” ingredient they can showcase to the consumer); they want to know how it feels and smell. Feel and smell is important but if the ingredients aren’t healthy for skin why bother. From my perspective it is a waste of time and money, show me the ingredients.

At some point I’m always expecting this to change, that at some point there will be a learning curve and our account representative and chemist will cut back on the salespitch but that has yet to happen. They see dozens of companies a month and we appear to be the only one asking for formulation details. I shouldn’t be that shocked, that’s my learning curve, I never get used to the way my industry works.

Anti-wrinkle. There I said it. Well, to be completely direct and clear, what I’m talking about is that I can barely say the word without faltering or hesitating with a roll of my eyes and an exhausted gasp. Now here’s a term that has been used to death for decades with no learning curve. Ironically, the best and worst formulations all make the same claims. How galling and infuriating.

If a product claims it gets rid of wrinkles we want to believe it, and while there are no products that get rid of wrinkles, as I have written extensively over the past 10 years there are lots of products that can make an impressive change in the appearance of wrinkles. In fact, if you keep using them, you’ll see a big difference (think sunscreens, moisturizers or toners loaded with antioxidants, cell-communicating ingredients, and skin identical ingredients, and exfoliants such as AHA and BHA). So here’s the issue: if my products have the same “anti-wrinkle” benefits as the products I rate highly because the formulas are similar (or if I may brag a bit, often better) why can’t I utter the same word (anti-wrinkle) and get the attention of women the same way other companies do? I can’t tell you how many times I’m asked what anti-wrinkle products I sell (or why I don’t sell products making anti-wrinkle claims). Sigh.

For me to use the term anti-wrinkle to describe my products just hits me below the belt and takes my breath away. Is the term misleading, the way the industry uses it suggesting miracles and the fountain of youth? Absolutely. But without question, well formulated products can reduce lines and make skin look younger, there I said it, anti-wrinkle products do exist.

Back to my point, what am I willing to say or rather what am I not willing to say about my products? This struggle is a problem for my company, particularly my Product Development Manager, Kate, who frequently lectures me about this point. She insists that the ingredients we use in our moisturizers meet my standard for improving the appearance of skin, improving skin cell function, enhancing barrier function, restoring substances to skin that it needs to reduce damage, and yes, fighting wrinkles and make skin look better, which includes looking less wrinkled. What to do? For now, that’s a good question, we are talking about this extensively of late and may make some changes. In the meantime, your feedback is welcomed.