My August 5 Online Radio Show was all about rosacea and what you can do to treat it. You can listen to the archived version here.

We were delighted to answer many of your questions about rosacea, but we know there were lots of questions that time did not allow us to answer. Here is a link to our complete guide to understanding rosacea which covers everything you need to know to gain control of this frustrating skin disorder.

When it comes to finding out your skin type, the first thing you need to do is forget everything you’ve heard before! What you’ve been taught by cosmetics salespeople, aestheticians, fashion magazines, and even some dermatologists, is likely incorrect, confusing, or designed to simply keep you buying more and more products—it all ends here!

Click here to get the full article.

Every now and then we receive a letter from a reader that reaffirms what we know to be true: a large part of the cosmetics industry, and particularly the spa industry, is mostly crazy! It’s not that there aren’t great spas and spa services (massage, anyone?). And there are countless estheticians who have an earnest desire to help their clients achieve and maintain their skin care goals. So before I get attacked for insulting estheticians—this blog entry is about showing how really bad skin-care information gets perpetuated by a company’s product educator that then gets handed down as truth when it is anything but truth. What a vicious cycle!

Dear Paula,

I work in the skin care industry and my company recently sent me to the International Dermal Institute for a class on their Dermalogica products. I was ASTOUNDED. I have worked with that line for over 3 years now, and I always knew there was something “off” about it. My class today confirmed that this is no line I would ever go out of my way to recommend again. The instructor was, in a word, odd. She was also very defensive of Dermalogica’s products. She was immediately defensive when students would ask any question pertaining to irritation from products their clients had experienced.

At the end of class we had “skin bar” time, where we were able to try the products on our own skin. People were actually BURNING from the Multi Active Toner!

I actually have two questions for you: the first is that I saw “Pine cone” listed as an ingredient in one of the Dermalogica products, what is the benefit of slathering pine cone on your skin (or IS there a benefit at all)? The other thing that I found it strange when the instructor stated that in order to have a “true” sensitive skin you have to be of Northern European descent, have light hair & eyes, and also have eczema or asthma. She claimed that all people who do not fit this mold are “sensitized” not sensitive. Is there any merit to this claim?

This is what I replied to her:

Thanks for sharing your experience with us and we’re not the least bit surprised! We are always fuming over training information we’ve seen cosmetic companies provide to the people who sell their products. In the case of Dermalogica, despite their skin-oriented name, they are one of the many problematic spa/esthetician brands around when it comes to their training. Of the 83 Dermalogica products we’ve reviewed on Beautypedia.com, 59 (or, looked at another way, 71% of the line’s offerings) received an unhappy face rating, mostly due to the inclusion of far too many irritating ingredients. Only 12 of Dermalogica’s products were rated highly, including a couple of their expensive serums. This isn’t a line I’d encourage any budding or seasoned esthetician to embrace with gusto!

As for pine cone extract, it can be a good antioxidant and also provide mild antibacterial action for skin. In contrast, pine oil contains several volatile fragrance chemicals that can be a potent source of irritation for skin. Dermalogica uses pine oil (among other fragrant oils) in their Close Shave Oil (I feel sorry for any man who uses this oil).

As for your instructor’s comment about who has sensitive vs. sensitized skin, I would’ve told her this (and keep in mind I’m not known for my subtlety and tend to be blunt): “Your explanation is just silly and doesn’t make any sense. Sensitive skin doesn’t have an ancestral profile, not to mention that, by definition, someone with sensitized skin is someone who has sensitive skin; they aren’t two different skin conditions. If skin wasn’t sensitive, then it wouldn’t become sensitized by things you put on it.”

In reality, though there are degrees of how sensitive someone may be in terms of a visual reaction to things we put on our skin, the prevailing thought is that everyone has sensitive skin to one degree or another. Much of what causes irritation and then a sensitizing reaction, even when it doesn’t show up on the surface as red, irritated, or itchy skin, is still causing damage underneath the skin. Think about sun damage: everyone is sensitive to that because it causes damage under the skin within the first minute of unprotected exposure, even if you can’t immediately see the damage on the surface.

So regardless of what skin type you have, we all have sensitive skin. That’s why it is best to avoid cosmetic products that contain needless irritants including fragrance, fragrant oils, menthol, peppermint, alcohol, and camphor, to name a few. After extensive research, dermatologist Leslie Baumann stated that “Sensitive skin is a very common complaint globally,” and research confirms this worldwide fact!

“Lavender is the most widely used and safest essential oil for sensitive skin. It does not cause irritation! I’m overwhelmed when people say things like that; they need to do their research.”

Lavender is indeed a commonly used essential oil, but it is by no means the safest one for sensitive skin. For someone with sensitive skin, it is best to avoid essential oils completely because of their volatile nature, not to mention the many fragrant compounds in them. However, lavender oil rarely causes contact dermatitis (Source: Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, Fourth Edition, 2002, page 795; and Contact Dermatitis, volume 43, issue 3, September 2000, page 157), but that does not mean its use should be green-lighted for someone with sensitive skin. Lavender oil contains more than 100 components, including linalool, camphor, and limonene, and is used primarily as a fragrance ingredient in cosmetic products (Source: Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients, Second Edition, 1996, pages 339–340). There is no definitive research to show that lavender extract or lavender oil have any benefit for the skin (Sources: Phytotherapy Research, June 2002, pages 301–308; and Healthnotes Review of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, www.healthwell.com/healthnotes/Herb/), yet there is research proving lavender to be a skin sensitizer (Source: Cell Proliferation, volume 37, issue 3, June 2004, page 221). Many people find lavender’s aroma pleasant, which is why inhalation, not topical application, is how this plant is best enjoyed.