Trying to read a cosmetic ingredient label is a lot like trying to read Shakespeare: you know it’s important, but you may have no idea what you’re reading really means. The Cosmetics Cop Team’s Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary can help a lot, but the issue of how much of an ingredient should be in a formula is, for the most part, impossible for a consumer to understand.

For example, if you decide to look up decyl glucoside you’ll find out it is a gentle cleansing agent. But how much of that ingredient do you need and what other ingredients does it work best with? Or what about the dozens of other gentle cleansing agents that can be used instead? The same is true for antioxidants and countless other beneficial ingredients.

Making it even more complicated is the more than 20,000 cosmetic ingredients that a cosmetic chemist can select from to use in any formula in an endless variety of amounts. Now that’s really confusing!

Here’s what you need to know to make the most sense of it all:

1. The benefit or risk of any ingredient is in the dose, the form, and the delivery system. For example, salt is composed of sodium and chloride. Pure sodium and chloride by themselves are corrosive (think what happens when salt is sprayed on ice-covered roads), but together they become a tasty seasoning for food. But consuming too much salt can be a serious problem for high blood pressure. It works this way for each and every cosmetic ingredient as well.

2. While concentrations and formulation are everything, there is very little consensus in the cosmetic industry on how much of an ingredient is best or in what combination with other ingredients it should be used with. What studies do exist have limitations as the possible combinations are, quite literally, endless.

3. For most ingredients, knowing the percentage doesn’t give you much information at all because ingredients often work in combination with other ingredients, or as a part of other products’ formulations it is meant to work with. How much of each, and with what other products it’s to be used with, is the art of the formulator. I could never explain that for the large range of ingredients and products I’ve chosen to use for Paula’s Choice various skin-care systems, which is why, with a few exceptions, I have chosen not to reveal specific percentages for ingredients.

Delving a bit further into individual ingredient percentages, we always disclose the percentage of active ingredients required by the FDA for sunscreens, skin lightening, and acne products. We also share concentrations of the salicylic acid and glycolic acid we use because those ingredients do have specific research about how much is needed for optimal efficacy. But for the other ingredients I use in my products the specific percentage is what makes each formula unique to Paula’s Choice. Most important for you to know is that I have formulated my products based on my 30 years of experience in the cosmetics world using a cocktail approach to skin care.

Why “cocktail”? Research makes it abundantly clear that skin requires a cocktail (mixture) of ingredients to keep it healthy. Just like your diet requires many different foods to keep you healthy, skin is just as complex. No one skin-care ingredient can provide what skin needs.
Mixing different, state-of-the-art, and effective ingredients results in a more powerful blend that can make your skin look beautiful and radiant. Now that’s great skin care—even though the ingredient lists may stir more questions than answers!

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.

After a flurry of meetings in the office the other day, I sat quietly at my desk for just a moment before the phone rang. I picked up the receiver and said, “Thank you for calling Paula’s Choice, this is Deborah, how can I help you?”

While this greeting is considered standard in the world of customer service, something at that very moment struck me and I realized just how different Paula’s Choice is when it comes to our level and dedication to customer service. In fact, we are by most measures fanatic about it. Our company culture truly believes in service at the highest possible level. Each and every department in our organization wants the best for the Paula’s Choice consumer and while we want to generate orders, we think it is far more important to be sure you get the right products (not just sell you more and more products or, even worse, the wrong products), along with services that make you feel comfortable and safe and better help you navigate the complicated world of skin care and makeup.

Upon reflection, I am proud to tell you that many of our meetings are about what we can do for YOU. From specials and upcoming articles to packaging, customer service troubleshooting, generous return policies (better than almost any other company we’ve heard of), easy refunds or credits when you have any problem, and even free rush shipping when we make a mistake. You are always the focus. Although I personally hear from many of you that we are meeting or beating expectations, I thought, why not open this up to further discussion? What I want to know is: Are we meeting the mark we strive for daily? Are we truly stepping up to serve you at the highest level possible?

We do a lot of talking to answer your questions, but we also do a lot of listening and I am curious to hear what you have to say. So now it’s your turn. What’s on your mind about how we can do more for you here at Paula’s Choice?

I want to thank all of you who responded to my request to help me figure out exactly how to describe my skin care and makeup company, Paula’s Choice, to other people who don’t know my products, books, or bulletins.

All of your comments were thoughtful, insightful, flattering, humbling, and truthful. Most of all they stimulated a meaningful contemplation of what my business is all about.

My marketing team and I have spent quite a bit of time discussing what you have contributed. It has brought a keen understanding of how those of you who shop Paula’s Choice, read my books, or use Beautypedia.com experience what we have created.

After reading all of your absorbing and fascinating comments, I think I can sum up my company and life’s work like this:

Paula’s Choice is a specialized range of skin care and makeup products I formulated after 32 years of research and writing 18 books analyzing the facts about skin care and makeup products.

Because my only mission is to help you find the best products to take care of your skin I am the only cosmetics company in the world that recommends products other than my own.

Come visit us at PaulasChoice.com and find out what you are missing!

I was sitting on an airplane (once again) when the woman next to me asked what I do for a living. Somewhat evasively I told her I owned an Internet company. I rarely start off saying I own a cosmetics company because inevitably the questions that follow leave me feeling awkward and sounding juvenile. It’s not that I’m not proud of what I do; rather, I don’t know how to succinctly, logically, or with any panache explain what Paula’s Choice products are all about. That could be about to change with your help, so please read on!

It’s silly for me to not just say from the get-go that I own a cosmetics company because, as usual, this woman asked, “What kind of Internet company do you own?” I gulped and responded that I own a cosmetics company. She said, “Oh really, what kind of cosmetics?” I said, “A skin-care and makeup company.” She asked, “Whose products do you sell?” I answered, “I sell my own products, the formulas I developed.” Then, in understandably typical fashion she asked, “What kind of products are they?”, and that’s when I get stumped.

When a woman asks me what makes Paula’s Choice special or what kind of products I sell I know what she really wants me to say. I’m supposed to respond by saying my products are all natural, or organic, or herbal, or plant-based, or contain essential oils, or contain vitamins, or some miracle ingredient from some exotic locale that only I know about, and of course the products get rid of wrinkles, stop aging, work like Botox, or cure blackheads, or oily skin and on and on. Of course, I can’t say any of that. Aside from being completely useless, simplified, inane descriptions, none of those tidbits other cosmetic companies spew like a bad case of food poisoning have any basis in creating a superior or even decent skin-care routine.

So because I can’t use the same misleading information every woman is waiting to hear, I just sit there and say something like, “Well, they’re my formulations based on what the research says is good for skin.” That goes over like a lead balloon. Even I think it sounds dull and uninteresting.

Then it dawned on me in a recent meeting with my customer service team that no one in my company, not even me, can explain or has a concise understanding of what makes Paula’s Choice products unique, and they are absolutely unique. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized they’re unparalleled in the world of skin care. I can say that confidently because I’ve reviewed thousands upon thousands of products, more than enough to know what’s brilliant and what’s terrible for skin. During that meeting the most outstanding thing happened: I finally grasped how to view and relate what my products are all about. Here it is:

Paula’s Choice is a range of skin-care products that work together synergistically in comprehensive skin-care systems to address a wide range of concerns including wrinkles, acne, oily skin, dry skin, rosacea, and sensitive skin. All of our formulations are state-of-the-art, based on published scientific research, designed to give skin exactly what it needs to be as beautiful and healthy as it can be.

Does that make sense? What do you think? If you were sitting next to me on a plane and I explained my products in this manner, would that make sense to you?

Let me know, I really want to grasp this. It’s about time, don’t you think?

The following blog entry was submitted by Elizabeth C. from Chillicothe, Ohio. Elizabeth is a Paula’s Choice customer and fan of Paula’s work. As the presidential election draws closer, Paula and her team thought that Elizabeth’s musing were timely and amusing!

I will apologize for this short zinger right up front, it is just a late night rant. While the entire world frets about financial and credit crises, someone must be alert to the more mundane items. I don’t know who will win this election, and for purposes of this discussion don’t very much care who deserves to run the country. I am however irritated when I catch video or photos of the inimitably handsome Barack Obama and less handsome but still dapper John McCain during the more important of their myriad press encounters. McCain appears so pink you’d think he’s got sunburn and the foundation coverage so heavy his eyes, brows, and lips seem to actually LOSE definition. Obama’s natural skin color is a beautiful cool-toned deep African shade of mahogany that is gorgeous on its own, regardless of the owner’s political credentials, yet every time a big press event arises he is coated down in streaky layers of over-yellowed BRONZE that I find distracting and offensive. In both cases these men look worse for having consulted a make-up specialist. What’s up with all this? I have even seen Bill Clinton recently looking like he also was visited by an intoxicated Pancake Fairy, with suboptimal results. Can’t we get men’s make-up right? It appears I was not the only one to notice these cosmetic blunders, because after watching snippets of the last presidential debate, I had these observations concerning the candidate’s appearance:

The TV set was built to create a more intimate feel, I saw more angular shadows in general, but did not feel either candidate was sitting ‘in the dark’ a great deal. Bill Moyers appeared not to have been as lucky for either facial enhancement, camera angles or lighting. Didn’t see streaks or obvious jaw-line cut-offs with foundation, didn’t catch any shiny foreheads or scalps. McCain struggles with facial lymphedema and he could have used more contouring, his brows begged for better definition which would go a long way toward de-emphasizing the lymphedema below. Likewise a pale lip liner even without filling in would have been helpful. Once again Obama’s naturally dark lips appear to have been muted with pancake or lip color, which just doesn’t do a thing for him. A little espresso lipstick would be more like it, as far as I’m concerned. All three esteemed gentlemen suffered with overly pale eyelids which was unattractive, but won’t change my voting preference.

Happy Election!

If you have a blog entry you would like to see published on the Beauty Bunch, please submit it for consideration to: deborah@paulaschoice.com.

G’day mates! How ya goin? No worries, everything has been like a dog’s dinner and I’ve been running around like a blue arse fly! (Australian slang is just a trip).

I’m in Melbourne now. It’s been quite a weekend. My time in Korea ended up great; what an experience, and Paula’s Choice Korea has been a wonderful launch. I’m so flattered that Korean women have taken to my products with such enthusiasm! I am thrilled with the businessman heading up Paula’s Choice Korea and am confident he will continue to be successful given his Web savvy and intuitive nature concerning the cosmetics industry.

I spent the weekend in Melbourne with our Australian distributors for Paula’s Choice talking a lot of business and doing a lot of drinking, especially some outstanding red wine; Australian Syrah is the best. Australia continues to be a great market for Paula’s Choice since so many of the locals are familiar with my books (all my books have been best-sellers in Australia since I published my first one there in 1989) and many subscribe to Beautypedia.

We went to an animal sanctuary today (Sunday) and we saw kangaroos (we got to feed a group of them, just precious), wombats, koala bears, emus, and a bird of prey show that had the birds swooping over our heads.

I also went to a footie game on Saturday (Australian-rules football); This is their version of our football, but it is more a mix of soccer and, well, I’m not sure what, but it was very interesting and the stadium was huge and packed, such energy. There were over 75,000 people in attendance and this is just the beginning of the season. Sports of any kind is a religion in Australia. My Australian distributor belongs to a footie club and we had lunch with this large group of sports enthusiasts and they had me speak for 20 minutes. In the 75-year history of this organization I’m the first woman speaker they’ve ever had. It was a resounding success; everyone laughed at all my jokes, including the need for a burka to cover cellulite.

I’ve attached a picture of a bookstore carrying my books here. I have a book signing there on Tuesday evening and then off to Sydney. I have a total of 30 media interviews throughout the week and then I plan on sleeping all day Saturday. I come home on Sunday (a 16 hour non-stop flight to LA) and boy am I ready to be home! I’m having I’ve-been-out-of-the-country-too-long-traveling-the world-airport weary blues!

All the best!

At least once a month everyone at PCI gathers in our lunchroom to surprise someone of the staff whose birthday happens to be in that month. Sometimes they do not suspect it and are truly surprised and others (like me) really do know what is going on. The fun is not in the actual surprise rather it is how we get someone into the lunch room.  Sometimes it is as simple as “We need you in the kitchen” or as complex as “You received a delivery and it is in the kitchen.” or ” The garbage disposal is broken can you fix it?” My favorite was one that we did not use. It was Paula’s birthday and we had decided to lock all the doors and turn off the lights (she had gone out to lunch and was in the process of returning to the office and we thought it would be cute for her to return to a “closed” office.) Bryan suggested that we put a sign up “Caution Biohazard: Closed for Skin Care Repairs.” I think Paula would have thought that was funny, because she usually does. Once you get her going, she can laugh until tears spill down her cheeks and wreck her makeup. 

We also have a list of all employees’ favorites as far as cakes or pies. While nothing can compare to my Mother’s homemade Chocolate Soufflé some of the Costco cakes that we have had were really good! It always amazes me the different types of people and their discriminating tastes. Some are ”frosting inclined” and others not so much. I remember past birthdays where people specifically requested a corner piece so that they can maximize the amount of frosting they would get. Now, that is obsession and I am not talking about the perfume!

There is also the part about singing Happy Birthday. The hardest part is when we have a lot of birthdays to sing. For example something like:  Happy Birthday Dear Bart, Deborah, Kate, Patrice, Roxanna, Karoline, Ann, Pablo, KoKo and Mark (Pablo and Koko our a few of the 11 dogs we have here in our office). A Verdi opera would be less challenging to sing some months (believe me, I know.) Also, if we leave the door open sometimes the customers on the phone can hear it. I had one customer ask what all the noise was in the background. I was pretty new at the time and so I told her it was the radio. She told me that I would lose my hearing if I kept listening to music so loud!

So next time you call in and hear a lot of noise in the background just ask whose birthday it is at PCI and I promise to to let you know!

Over the years that I have worked for Paula’s Choice many customers have asked “ You must use only her products right?” While I do use several of Paula’s products and follow her advice, one item in my cosmetics wardrobe that is not a Paula’s Choice product is mascara.

I’ve been wearing it since I was 11 and found a tube on my mom’s vanity table. I noticed it made my eyes appear larger, which was a great help given that I wore giant red Sally Jesse Raphael style glasses which made my eyes appear diminutive at best. Combine that with shoulder length mall hair, jelly bracelets, frosty pink lip gloss and I was quite a sight to behold.

Until recently, I had never found a mascara that truly performed for me in all aspects. Most had provided thickness but not much length, or length but not much thickness. Call me greedy, but I just really want a mascara to do both. Last December, while doing some Christmas shopping, I stopped into a local Sephora to check out a mascara I had heard about called Blackout by Dior. It was $25 and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend that much money on a mascara when Paula suggests several which cost much less. I justified this purchase on the principle that a $25 mascara is infinitely cheaper than a Hermes Birkin Bag.  I know Paula would cringe, I didn’t check her review of this product and I spent well over the amount she considers necessary. Thankfully Paula is patient and rarely cares about her employees straying from her path.

I tried the mascara the next day by itself without liner but with a bit of concealer and powder on my eyelids. I had to run to the grocery store for some last minute baking ingredients. As I am pondering the difference between pre-sifted and non pre-sifted flour a customer had asked if I wore false eyelashes or had eyelash extensions. When I told her they were not she asked which brand of mascara I used. This was the first time I had ever had someone stop me in all my years of wearing mascara, so it must be doing something right! The compliments did not end there, I probably did more business for Dior then some of their sales reps!

I’ve since purchased this product two or three more times while, of course, still trying the ‘latest and greatest’. It’s nice to know my Holy Grail of mascara is attainable for less than a designer handbag.