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!

There are many things I love about owning a cosmetic company. I love that I can provide the real information consumers need to make intelligent, rational decisions about their skin care. Presenting the facts doesn’t always make me money; obviously, it would be easier to promise women miracle ingredients that replace cosmetic surgery rather than tell the truth about exactly what my products can and can’t do. Mostly I love formulating new products—that’s the best! Taking research about new ingredients and new understanding of how skin works and then putting that knowledge together in a new formula is thrilling. It is challenging, stimulating, endlessly creative and always rewarding, especially when my customers love the results.

What is often difficult is helping customers understand how to put a skin-care routine together or how one formula differs from another. For example, often one formula is different from another only because the base formula’s chemistry affects the rate of efficacy or a different base is needed to support the product’s claims. How do you explain such technicalities to thousands of people?

Here is where I need your help: The two toners I created for my CLEAR anti-acne line are confusing customers. One is Regular Strength and the other Extra Strength, BUT they both contain 2% salicylic acid. Therein lies the problem! The difference between the two is the base ingredients which don’t seem significant—but they are. Both formulas are liquids but one allows the salicylic acid to penetrate better (that’s the Extra Strength), and the other allows the 2% salicylic acid to be effective but less penetrating so it is essentially a more gentle formula. See what I mean? It’s not so easy to explain when the amount of active ingredient is the same for both products. Based on customer feedback, the names and descriptions we have aren’t helping.

So we are considering renaming both CLEAR toners. Here’s what my team and I have come up with:

The Regular Strength could be named: Soothing Acne Relief Toner with Salicylic Acid
The Extra Strength could be named: Extra Strength Deep Targeted Acne Relief Toner with Salicylic Acid

On the back of the container the percentage of salicylic acid would still be there with the appropriate description.

The Soothing Acne Relief Toner would state:

This toner contains 2% salicylic acid in a gentle formula that allows for effective exfoliation on skin’s surface and inside the pore lining. It is best for sensitive skin or for those with mild acne.

The Extra Strength Deep Targeted Acne Relief Toner would state:

This toner contains 2% salicylic in a penetrating formula that allows for maximum exfoliation on the surface of skin and in the pore, making it more effective for those with moderate or stubborn acne.

So tell me what you think. If this was your cosmetic line, with anti-acne products you knew were some of the most effective available, but there were formula nuances the consumer needed to understand to determine which one to use, what would you change on the label (keeping in mind there isn’t much room)? I would sincerely appreciate your input!

A reader wrote in recently with an excellent question: how to get to convince the man (or men) in your life to take skin care seriously? Here are this woman’s comments:

My boyfriend has very fair skin along with mild acne. He is in his mid-30’s, already showing signs of aging and has developed persistent redness around his nose. He uses soap in the shower and has tried a few benzoyl peroxide products for blemishes, but that’s it—and I can’t get him to follow a routine consistently.

OK, so we’re off to a good start, and her observations are similar to what many women likely notice about their boyfriend or husband’s skin. But here’s the part that got my attention:

Not to be superficial, but I do not find this attractive, and my attention is drawn towards it whenever I see him. I also know how self-conscious I feel when people comment about what’s wrong with my skin.

I absolutely understand where she’s coming from, as you’ll see from my response below. Now to her questions:

What type of “guy friendly” skin care could I recommend to him? And, more importantly, how should I bring this topic up with him?

I responded with these musings and advice:

You can’t even get guys to pick up their clothes, shut cabinets, or put the toilet seat down–taking care of their skin is even further off their radar (and I know there are exceptions to this but as a rule, and given I’ve been married four times and have dated quite a bit over the years I can attest to this fully).

And do not feel guilty that your un-groomed boyfriend is becoming unattractive to you. Red noses, sun-damaged skin, unruly eyebrows, and who knows what else men don’t pay attention to is distracting as it would be in the reverse for an un-groomed woman for a man. Men aren’t drooling over Kathy Bates as opposed to Eva Mendes! And famous men that women typically find attractive (such as George Clooney or Brad Pitt) are clearly doing something right when it comes to skin care! Their visual appeal would surely decrease if they were ignoring what your boyfriend seems OK living with.

It sounds to me like your boyfriend has rosacea and severe sun damage (both not uncommon for men or women with fair skin who’ve been remiss about sun protection). Benzoyl peroxide is the wrong product for him to use. He should be using a gentle cleanser, gentle toner after shaving with a non-irritating shave foam or gel, and following with a BHA lotion (1% to start). He should probably also see a physician for a prescription rosacea medication because for men the red nose is only going to get worse and potentially lumpy ala W.C. Fields (the classic example of rosacea, NOT excessive drinking).

How to get him to do this? Be honest and direct. Tell him you don’t find his lack of grooming and the results attractive. His response will tell you if he cares about what you think. If he wants to change, help him and buy some of my products to start and make an appointment for him with a good dermatologist. If he resists and is willing to accept that his physical appearance is becoming less enticing to you, that’s all you can do without becoming a nag. What you do from there is up to you.

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.