Donna Queen
WE HAVE A SUPERSTAR ENDORSEMENT OF OUR OWN
If you’ve watched TV in the last five minutes, we’re willing to bet you’ve seen a commercial in which a celebrity is endorsing, or acting as the spokesperson of, a skincare line.
Whether it’s a flavor-of-the-month teen idol wearing nothing but a bath towel or one of the plethora of celebrities who’ve cured their news-to-us acne problem with 3 easy steps, skincare companies seem to think that stardom equals a medical degree in dermatology.
The latest endorsement comes in the form of the Kardashian sisters acting as spokespersons for a skincare line set to launch this spring. The threesome —famous for … let us get back to you on that — made the announcement earlier this week.
If you need a reality TV personality to tell you how to care for your skin, you’re in the wrong place. We do, however, have an in-house rock star who has a few recommendations for you.
See, the ZO in ZO Skin Health stands for Zein Obagi. As in Dr. Zein Obagi. The same man responsible for the Obagi Nu-Derm system and other products you’re so familiar with. Yeah, that guy. He’s the creator of our line and he’s the only one we need backing our products. Is he a celebrity? Yes — to dermatologists the world over.
ZO Skin Health doesn’t have to pay teeny bopper actresses with all of two years experience caring for their own skin or singers whose skin problems require a magnifying glass to see them to put their seal of approval on our products.
Our seal of approval comes from one of the most respected doctors in dermatology. Our endorsement is in our name, not in a celebrity.
ZO Skin Health
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.
