Donna Queen
TURNING BACK THE HANDS OF TIME
Remember the scene in “Home Alone” when the mother sits back in her airplane seat and finally takes a moment to relax before departing on her Christmas vacation?
She feels so relieved after packing all the presents, getting all the kids through baggage security and fitting her carry-on in the overhead compartment. Then it hits her like a UFC punch: She forgot one crucial, blonde-haired, 8-year-old item.
You’ve likely had an equally alarming oversight with your skincare regime.
So caught up with the damage control above your neckline, you forgot all about the other two body parts that sing your age like a canary if you don’t properly care for them: YOUR HANDS.
Yes, your hands. You know, the things you use to punctuate a lively story, greet people for the first time, exchange money, make a toast, break bread, hold your steering wheel, check the time and well, do just about every other human function?
We realize your face is your face, but your hands attract their fair share of attention, too. And, if you don’t care for them properly, you may as well add 10 years to your birth date and tattoo it across each finger.
That’s exactly why Dr. Zein Obagi created our 3-step Oraser Anti-Aging Hand Care Program. Take a look at the kit and decide if your situation requires all three products or if you can get away with just coupling two. Who knows, maybe your hands just started showing signs of aging and you only need to use one independently. That’s for you to decide.
Designed to correct the damage that’s already been done and to prevent future damage, the products will make it look like you never experienced that panic-stricken moment of realizing you overlooked your hands. And, it’s never too late to get started. Let’s face it, you can’t get away with gloves year-round.
Donna Queen
AND THE AWARD GOES TO …
Surely you tuned into the 82nd Annual Academy Awards last night and watched Monique, Sandra Bullock, Kathryn Bigelow and the others accept their little gold men. Well, today we’re giving out an entirely different kind of award.
Consider these the ZO Skin Health awards for best performing pores, skin tone and elasticity on the red carpet. Without further ado, we’d like to present the Best Skin at the Oscars.
Best Performance by Fair Skin:
Let’s face it. The fairest of them all have a bigger battle against sun damage. That’s why we tip our hat to Tina Fey for keeping her face, neck and chest, well, much better than just fair.
Get the look: Oclipse Sunscreen + Primer SPF 30
Best Shine Control:
We’ll let you decide whether or not she shines on stage, but teenager Miley Cyrus’ oily skin often has her shining on the red carpet. And not in a good way. But, not this time around. Kudos for keeping the shine in check, Miley.
Get the look: Offects TE-Pads Acne Pore Treatment
Best Overall Elasticity:
We give this award to the cougar with the loudest meow. Just look at Demi Moore’s arms. If that’s not stellar acting — 40 something arms acting like 20 something arms — than we don’t know what is.
Get the look: Oraser Body Emulsion
Lifetime Achievement for Best Skin:
It takes guts for any woman to sport a plunging neckline. But for a 60-year-old woman to do it? It takes magic. Or one powerful skincare regime. Bravo to Meryl Streep whose flawless skin over the years is the only performance for which she hasn’t been recognized.
Get the look: Ossential Daily Power Defense
Did we leave anyone out? Let us hear whose skin wowed YOU at the Oscars.
Dr. Zein Obagi
For Valentine’s Day–Go Straight for the Wine and Chocolate
For Valentine’s Day this year, skip the hearts and flowers; go straight for the wine and chocolate–they’re rich in anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants help prevent the damage caused by free radicals, and also help skin tolerate UV exposure and environmental pollutants.
But not all wine and not all chocolate are equally good, so make sure that you get the right stuff.
Chocolate—it’s good for you! Indulge a little.
- Dark chocolate is much richer in anti-oxidants; it has more chocolate liquor and has less sugar. Eat dark chocolate whenever possible–it’s the milk, cream and daily products in milk chocolate that reduce its anti-oxidant value.
- Go for the good stuff. High quality chocolates are generally made from natural ingredients, and contain higher percentages of cacao and less sugar.
- Eat while you enjoy it. It will help reduce stress.
In my clinic, we have a dish of dark chocolates in the front lobby—it’s an ounce of prevention!
Wine—propose a toast to your health!
- Red wine—it doesn’t make any difference if it’s merlot, cabernet or pinot noir—all red wine is rich in anti-oxidants, because the skin and the seeds ferment in the grapes’ juice during the fermentation process.
- Stick to one glass per day—120 calories is plenty. If you have two glasses, you’re getting more calories, not more anti-oxidants.
- Moderate amounts of red wine may help protect against estrogen depletion.
- Sit down and enjoy your wine—especially with a good friend. Reducing stress is good for your heart and for your skin!
Happy Valentine’s Day—it’s a perfect excuse to enjoy some dark chocolate and red wine. Remember, it’s Doctor’s orders! For the other 364 days–be sure to also use skincare products that are rich in anti-oxidants!
Dr. Zein Obagi
Tattoos (and Tattoo Removal)
One of the leading online news-magazines (www.msnbc.com, to be exact), had a story yesterday about Hollywood celebrities who have tattoos. What’s especially interesting though, is that that story got more hits than any other story on the homepage—generating more visitors than stories about Iran nuclear weapons, Haitian refuges, and gubernatorial primaries. I guess we all need a break from reality now and then.
So why do people like Penelope Cruz (she has the number 883 tattooed on her leg), Angelina Jolie (she had her Billy Bob tattoo lasered off, and later replaced with a map of the birthplaces of her adopted children) and Pink (too many tattoos to enumerate!) get tattoos?
I live and work in Beverly Hills, but I have no idea.
Some people have tattoos for cosmetic reasons (aka permanent cosmetics), for eyebrows, eyeliner, lips, lipliners. Also, some women have tattoos as part of post-surgical breast reconstruction.
Then again, there are Elvis tattoos, dragons, butterflies, leopards and lizards. For all of those crazy varmints and witchcraft tattoos, 50% of the people who get them later regret it. Luckily, there are several ways of removing them, and which technique a dermatologist uses will depend on the size, position and age of the tattoo.
In my practice I use a QS laser, which breaks up the pigmentation. The body’s scavenger cells then remove the pigmentation, over a period of about 30 days. The lasers cause bleeding, oozing and then crusting, so healing takes about 7 days. Generally, multiple treatments are required—but there’s no way of telling in advance.
After treatments are completed, there will be no residual pigmentation, but a flesh-toned outline of the tattoo will remain. Just a little tint—like in ZO Skin Health’s Oclipse sunscreen—will help even the tone and conceal the outline.
Whereas tattoo parlors are sometimes suspect and of questionable quality, it’s important to work with skilled and trained medical specialists for tattoo removal. Before you get a tattoo, just think about Halle Berry. She had the name of her first husband, David Justice, tattooed on her derriere. After she divorced, she had his name lasered off, and a sunflower tattooed in its place. As she said, “I wish I never had the tattoo in the first place. Clean, clear skin is always better.”
Good point, Halle.
Dr. Zein Obagi
When You Lie About your Age…
There’s a new book called “When You Lie About your Age, the Terrorists Win” (Carol Leifer). It has some funny essays about aging, and one line that I especially appreciated was “at age 45, you’re only called ‘young’ if you drop dead”.While age 50 is “the new 40”, there’s no doubt about the fact that our culture values youth—if not the reality of youth (would you really want to make the same mistakes?), at least the appearance of youth.
But I would go even one step further than that book. Fact is, that at age 30 your skin cells go dormant, become lazy, and slow down cellular turnover and activity. So your skin ages considerably earlier than the rest of your body.
If you want to fight aging, fight hard! Beginning at age 30, be sure to use a skincare product that activates and stimulates your skin cells so that your skin cells regenerate, produce collagen and maintain a youthful appearance. During the daytime, consider a product like ZO Skin Health’s Daily Power Defense. In March, we’ll be introducing ZO Skin Health’s cult-favorite, Radical Night Repair-Plus. Now, it’s better than ever—and very effective at anti-aging. Can’t wait til then? In the nighttime, try ZO Skin Health’s Ossential Growth Factor Serum. Keep those skin cells active and vital!
Dr. Zein Obagi
Take Good Care…
When you’re in debt, a financial advisor will advise how to pay off creditors, based on which debts are most costly and damaging. After you prioritize your credit problems, you can knock them out accordingly. But if you’re concerned about wrinkles, and you know you can’t expect to solve all of your problems overnight, where do you start? Should you avoid sunshine and UV damage, reduce stress, change your diet, quit smoking and/or drinking, use better (or more!) skincare products, eat foods rich in anti-oxidants, take nutriceuticals, stay hydrated, exercise, have more facials? Taking good care of your skin isn’t your only priority, so let’s address the biggest problems and worst offenders, and then face the facts.
* 1 UV exposure. This one is the real culprit of aging. UVB rays cause burning, but UVA rays, which penetrate the skin more deeply, cause wrinkles, loss of elasticity and photoaging. You’re exposed to UVA rays even when you’re inside—about 90% of UVA rays are transmitted through ordinary glass and windshields. Wear a broad-spectrum sunscreen (like Oclipse SPF 30) every day, and use skincare products high in anti-oxidants.
- 2 Wake up your skin cells. Dormant skin cells exacerbate all of the signs of aging. You need to activate and stimulate them with high concentrations of retinol, which is generally considered the best topical anti-aging ingredient. In fact, scientists recently revealed that retinol (and other Vitamin A derivatives) is the only topical ingredient proven to provide anti-aging benefits.
- 3. Kick the sugar habit. Too much of the sweet stuff—either as sugar or as fructose– is the most common cause of glycation and inflammation. It binds to collagen, weakens it, and then induces sagging and wrinkles. Too much sugar will also reduce skin circulation and damage the texture.
- 4. Stay hydrated. Drinking 8 glasses of water/day is important for digestion, circulation and excretion. For skincare, you need even more than that, especially after reaching age 40. Water helps hydrate the skin (thereby disguising wrinkles), flushes toxins from the skin (reducing acne), reduces dark circles underneath the eyes, and reduces eczema and psoriasis. Water is surely the most readily available, and the cheapest, skincare remedy.
- 5. Huff and puff (but not nicotine!). Cardio-vascular exercise is good for your skin. It improves the circulation and delivers nutrients to the skin. Plus it makes you feel better about yourself, and the radiance shines through.
- 6. Relax. Being divorced, a single parent, employed (or unemployed!), a caregiver for an elderly parent can all increase stress, and that stress can cause or exacerbate a blotchy complexion, blemises, dullness and acne and rosacea flare-ups. It’s impossible to eliminate stress, but you should help reduce it. Find time for yourself, exercise, get 7 hours of sleep a night, enjoy friends, practice yoga—whatever works for you.
- 7. Eat a healthy diet, rich in anti-oxidants and Omega-3’s. It’s the perfect excuse to have an ounce of dark chocolate.
Peels, laser treatments, Botox and fillers may be an option, but they shouldn’t be your first choice. What you do every day, how you treat your skin every night may make medical procedures unnecessary.
Women are great at taking care of others. Now try something else: for the benefit of your skin and your health, take good care of yourself as well.
Dr. Zein Obagi
Facials for Acne
Sometimes, despite your best intentions, at-home care for acne just isn’t enough. Sometimes you need the advice and treatments of an aesthetician or a dermatologist. A facial may be a good idea, but make sure that you’re getting the right kind of facial. Some acne facials can actually make it worse! Here’s what to look for–and what to look out for.
* A good acne facial requires four steps– cleansing, exfoliation, extractions, and sunscreen. The exfoliation can be mechanical ( a good scrub, like ZO’s Exfoliating Polish) or a device such as a crystal-free microdermabrasion. Particle-based microdermabrasion (like aluminum oxide) can inflame acne, nick the skin, spread bacteria and cause contamination.
* Crystal-free microdermabrasion is an effective treatment to rejuvenate skin, shrink pores, and most importantly, stimulate the regeneration of healthy skin cells (via the removal of dead skin cells). Here’s how it works: the dead or damaged top layer of the skin is gently exfoliated, while the dead skin cells are vacuumed away in a sterile, controlled environment. This procedures not only improves extractions, it makes the whole process much easier to tolerate, and less painful. The DiamondTome®, Hydra-Facial®, and DiamondPeel are a few of the devices that utilize a diamond tip wand and avoid particles.
* Steam is relaxing and makes extractions easier, but it’s horrible for your skin, especially if you have acne or rosacea. Because of the fact that steam enlarges the glands, it can actually cause acne.
* Either the Blue LED light or Red LED light can be very valuable. Blue wavelengths are very effective in killing the p-acnes bacteria, the major source of acne. You should see a noticeable reduction in acne lesions 2-3 days after treatment. The wavelength is critical to success. Devices that are purchased over-the-counter are not going to penetrate as deep as devices used by your aesthetician or dermatologist. Red lights reduce inflammation but should be used in conjunction with blue wavelengths.
* Tea-tree masks help tighten pores, reduce oiliness and can be a good addition to an acne facial.
Successful treatment for acne however, starts off at home. Be sure to use a cleanser designed for oily skin, cleanse for at least one minute, use an exfoliating polish, and an anti-bacterial topical. Occasional facials are not a good substitute for proper at-home daily care.
Dr. Zein Obagi
Skincare Products–Who is the Fairest of them All?
Skin Care Products—Who is the Fairest of them All??
Are skincare companies treating you fairly? Or are you being ripped off?
In recent weeks there have been a number of articles and ads comparing the effectiveness of a skincare products in relationship to their cost. While these reports raise some interesting questions, they generally don’t provide any meaningful answers. Consumer Reports concluded that just because a product is expensive doesn’t mean that it’s effective, and just because it’s inexpensive doesn’t mean that it’s worthless. I agree—to a point.
How do you know? That’s a complex issue. I want you to make informed decisions, so let’s face the facts and see what factors influence the cost of skincare products.
- The nature of active skincare ingredients. Some ingredients (peptides, entrapped or encapsulated active ingredients and rare extracts) are very expensive. That’s because frequently these ingredients are patented, and sometimes are very difficult to manufacture.
Some of the least expensive ingredients are water, alcohol and glycerin – they’re basic, generic ingredients that are mass-produced. They may be nice additions, but they won’t affect a change in your skin.
Other inexpensive skincare products contain heavy fillers which can clog your pores. Some inexpensive skincare products contain an ingredient that’s almost like glue—it may tighten your skin temporarily, but it also clogs the pores and prevents your skin from breathing.
You shouldn’t have to be a polymer chemist to figure out which products contain skincare ingredients that really work.
- The number of skincare ingredients. Some of the least expensive products (typically sold on infomercials and via multi-level marketing) have very few ingredients, because they’re quicker and easier to produce. Since water is an ingredient in most skincare products, the fewer the ingredients, the more watered-down the formula. Do you want to pay a lot for a product that is mostly water?
If a manufacturer wants to produce a product that is highly active, that generally requires “loading” the formula, so you get a long list of ingredients, and obviously, that adds to the cost. A good case in point here is the ZO® Skin Health Oraser Daily Hand Repair. Instead of just producing a product that made softer, smell-good hands, I wanted a skin care solution that would provide immediate and long-term anti-aging benefits, and that includes lightening age spots, softening hands, strengthening the skin and reducing wrinkles. The Oraser Daily Hand Repair is jam-packed with active ingredients. Could we have produced something less ambitious? Sure. But there are already too many hand lotions that don’t do anything.
- The concentration of active skin care ingredients. This, I think, is one of the biggest scams in the industry. Two products can have the EXACT same list of ingredients, and one is highly effective, and the other totally useless. The difference is the concentration of those ingredients. One product may use only a miniscule amount, the other uses a clinically active level but unfortunately, there’s no way to understand that distinction. That’s because all ingredients are supposed to be listed in order of their concentration—but for ingredients with a concentration less than 1%–they can be listed in any order. There’s a big difference—an enormous difference—between a concentration of .01% and 1%. But you’d never know it from the label.
Since formulations are proprietary, cheap products can easily disguise themselves as looking like quality products. So just reading the labels when comparing two products is not sufficient. The credentials of the manufacturer, and the positive results experienced by bona-fide customers make all of the difference in skincare.
- Skincare Innovation. Most mass market companies either use the same inexpensive ingredients in their skin care products that they have been using for years, or try to copy quality products by claiming that they have the same ingredients. Companies like ZO Skin Health by Zein Obagi are always working towards new and innovative formulas with the latest technology. They may take years to develop, test, refine and produce a new lotion, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research and development. After the product has been available for several years, those R and D costs have been amortized. But initially, the manufacturer will attempt to recover some of those costs.
If you want a skincare product that is innovative, there is usually a premium to be paid. The old adage holds true, you get what you pay for.
As an analogy to another industry, Dell Computers is known for its low costs and mass market appeal, and it used to brag about the fact that it didn’t even have a Research and Development department. Understandably their costs can be lower, if they don’t create or innovate anything.
- Sunscreens. I believe that there is no better example of the disparity between cheap, mass-marketed skincare products and effective, high quality products, than in sunscreen. I am constantly amazed at mass-marketers who tout outrageously high SPF ratings on their sunscreens. They mislead people into believing that just because their SPF numbers are high, they’re more effective. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, those sunscreens with ultra-high SPFs are loaded with chemicals. The increase in protection is negligible. And they claim things like “waterproof”. There is no sunscreen that is waterproof—mine or any other. I’m happy that the ZO Skin Health Oclipse SPF 30 sunscreen was named the #1 sunscreen in the US—and part of that is because we don’t misrepresent the product.
In my next blog I’ll talk about some of the other factors that influence the cost—and effectiveness—of skincare products.
Dr. Zein Obagi
Care for Acne and Oily Prone Skin
First, let me straighten out a misconception. Adult acne is no different from juvenile acne; and it should be treated the same way.
Acne may be attributed to genetics or hormonal imbalance. Contributing factors, or acne triggers, include lifestyle choices, such as diet, sleep pattern, hygiene, or stress. When skin does not exfoliate as it should, dead cells build up on the skin surface and inside the pore. Dead cells mix with trapped oil and pores become clogged, resulting in blackheads and whiteheads. Some forms of acne require medical supportive treatment, such as oral medication or procedures. Recommendations for acne skin care are based upon the severity of acne, presence of discoloration, age of patient, and probability of scarring with acne.
Here are a few rules and tips for acne-prone skin:Cleansing. Skin should be cleansed AM and PM with a suitable cleanser that removes sebum and thoroughly cleanses skin, without stripping the skin. Hot water should be avoided, as it dries the skin and increases oil gland activity. Skin should be washed for one full minute, as it takes this long to reduce surface sebum and remove dirt and debris. A toner or astrigent should follow washing AM and PM to restore the pH and reduce surface bacteria. I recommend the ZO Skin Health Exfoliating Cleanser for oily and acne-prone skin.
Unclog the pores. A build up of dead cells, oil and debris results in clogged pores. When oil and debris mix with bacteria inside the clogged pore, the pore can become inflamed and result in papules (small bumps) or cysts. It’s important to keep your pores open, allowing oil and dead cells to exit the pore naturally. Exfoliation is one way to keep the pores clean and skin smooth and can be achieved by use of a scrub, one time daily, AM or PM. To be effective, a scrub should not be too gentle, or too harsh. Harsh scrubs may result in microtears on the skin surface, allowing bacteria to enter, creating further problems. Magnesium crystals, such as those found in Exfoliating Polish by ZO Skin Health, are perfect for exfoliating the skin, as they are round, so they do not tear the skin, yet they do the job in clearing off dead skin cells and removing surface debris.
Oil-producing glands tend to be more prominent in the t-zone (around the nose, forehead and chin), so oily skin is more problematic there. ZO Skin Health TE pads are soaked in salicylic acid and glycolic acid to exfoliate the skin cells and reduce oiliness. It’s the combination of these two—a mechanical exfoliant and a chemical one—that work together to control oiliness and breakouts. Generally, having one without the other just isn’t enough for acne prone individuals.
Have a Facial. Tea tree oil is well known for it’s anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. Apply a tea tree mask once or twice a week to help control acne break-outs. Additionally, you can use this mask to spot treat pimples, leaving the mask on overnight. If you wish, ask a good and trusted aesthetician for an acne mask.
Manage your Diet. Rumor has it that chocolate causes acne, but there has never been any proof of that. There is general agreement, however, that fatty, oily foods, and diets high in refined sugar and carbohydrates can trigger acne flare-ups. Salty, iodized, or spicy foods can also be a problem for some people. Water is essential to good health and necessary to keep the skin hydrated and looking its best. Drinking plenty of water helps to flush out toxins from the body.
Be careful with Cosmetics. Beware of the term “oil-free”. Many manufacturers use synthetic oils, rather than natural oils (like animal, vegetable or mineral oil), because these oils technically can be called “oil-free”. But the synthetic oils can still cause or aggravate acne. Frequently acne caused by cosmetics will appear as whiteheads over the cheeks, forehead and chin. Mineral make-up is generally recommended, as it contains natural ingredients that do not cause irritation or harm the skin.
Moisturizers. Similar to cosmetics, some moisturizers will provoke acne and therefore are not recommended for acne-prone skin. Moisturizers result in a build-up of dead cells, decreased cellular exfoliation, and damage to the skin. Moisturizers are only recommended under certain circumstances and then only a functional moisturizer (one with active ingredients that stimulate cellular activity) is recommended, like Ommerse Daily Renewal or Ommerse Overnight Recovery, from ZO Skin Health.
De-stress. When you are stressed, stress hormones become imbalanced and a variety of health problems may occur. You may not be able to avoid stress, but you can manage it with exercise, meditation, and personal down-time.
If acne problems persist, it’s important to get medical treatment, because acne can cause scars. See a dermatologist for a recommendation, treatment and/or prescription.
Dr. Zein Obagi
If you follow all the rules, you miss all of the fun.
I like that expression–”if you follow all of the rules, you miss all the fun”. To a certain extent, that’s the way I’ve lived my life.
So I like it when people do their research, follow package directions, but ultimately–change things a little and do what’s right for them. Sometimes, when it comes to skin care, I learn a lot from those people.
That was the case with a blog that came to my attention–from Diva Debbi. On her blog, she rated Oraser Daily Hand Repair as “one of 2009’s Top Beauty Faves”. That was nice, but it’s even more interesting what she said about it. She said:
ZO Skin Health’s Oraser Daily Hand Repair is part of a trio of hand repair products. Despite wasting the SPF 20 while I sleep, the day version is richer and more emollient than the night, so I use this one twice a day. Packed with retinol, vitamins and anti-oxidants, this hand cream truly lifts away dark spots, plumps wrinkles, improves elasticity and softens cuticles. Nothing gives your age away faster than old looking hands. Worth every cent of the 6500 pennies it costs…and yes, I’ve contemplated using it on my face…many times.
Wearing a hand repair lotion on your face? I’ve reviewed the formula, and it does contain good anti-aging ingredients that would work well for your face. I personally prefer SPF’s of at least 30, though, for your face. But darn, you’re right… I’m glad that you’re an independent thinker and realize that a day hand cream can work perfectly well at night. It will even work for your face (provided it’s not too heavy!) There’s nothing in the formula that would cause any contraindication.
