ZO Skin Health
What’s Hot in Skincare for Fall (and what’s not!!)
Want to know what is supposed to be hot (and what’s not) in cosmetics/skincare departments this fall? According to the beauty experts at Nordstrom, look for new anti-aging products for boomers and Gen X (born between 1974-1980)! Here’s what these women want–and what they can look forward to:
* Brighteners–they used to be called lighteners, but the new ones target hyperpigmentation and uneven skin tone. Remember the good old days of using baby oil and aluminum foil reflectors, and toasting your skin? Now all of that damage is really surfacing.
* Treatments–with some of the new technologies, you can enhance the penetration of active ingredients and stimulate muscle tone with microcurrent technology. This is a big advance in the state of the art.
* Retinol–it’s now bigger than ever, and better than ever. Everybody is jumping on the bandwagon for Active Vitamin A. But can they catch up with Dr. Obagi’s ZO Skin Health? Well, he’s already one step ahead. We’ll tell you more later! But the beauty experts at Nordstrom said, “Awesome”!
And what has lost popularity with boomers? Natural and organic products. Botanicals are good, but when it comes to anti-aging, people want what really works.
ZO Skin Health
Make Your Skincare Wishes Come True Part II
We recently asked our Facebook fans to share with us their ONE skincare wish. The “wishes” were as diverse as the women themselves. What many of them didn’t realize is that they can easily make their own skincare wish come true.
ZO Skin Health’s founder, Dr. Zein Obagi, thinks of skin like algebra. Every problem has a solution. Here, we follow-up where we left off Friday, and show the ladies who replied to our Facebook post the cause and solution to their skincare wishes. Take a look. And, to participate in our future Facebook conversations, follow us here.
ARLENE’S WISH: To find one moisturizer for combination skin (super oily and super dry).
Cause: Other than the weather, this can be caused by aging and hormonal changes. Some people start out with dry skin and then develop combination skin when puberty hits. Others start with oily skin and develop combination skin when hitting their 30’s.
Solution: We want to create a balance, to dry out the oily parts and hydrate the dry ones. Ommerse Daily Renewal Crème might just be your answer. It provides the excellent hydration your dry areas need, but the Hyaluronic Acid controls the oiliness, too.
KATHLEEN’S WISH: To get rid of dark spots.
Cause: You can usually blame sun exposure for age spots that aren’t brought on by a medical condition, like melasma.
Solution: SPF will help ward off new ones (the beauty experts never stop raving about Oclipse), but to work on existing age spots, our Daily Power Defense helps to fade their appearance. Its two forms of Vitamin-C make it work overtime, even lightening up unwanted freckles.
KATHLEEN’S SECOND WISH: To get rid of wrinkles.
Cause: The older we get, the more inactive our skin cells become. When they go dormant, the signs of aging emerge.
Solution: Wake up those skin cells! The best weapon you’ve got against dormant skin cells is Retinol, the only ingredient the FDA recognizes for stimulating collagen and elastin. It’s a hero ingredient, which is why Radical Night Repair Plus is a superhero product. It contains 10 times more Retinol than the competition.
**A special shout-out to Teresa, who had a wish, but has found what looks to be the solution in the ZO products. Glad your dark spots are improving, Teresa!
ZO Skin Health
You Multitask — So Should Your Skincare.
If you know how to do five things at once, most business professionals would refer to you as a fine multitasker, but you know better. You know it actually means you’re a fine example of today’s modern woman. You know that to get everything you want out of life, multitasking isn’t a choice, but a requirement.
The same can be said for your skincare. To get everything you want for your skin, your products simply must multitask. If anyone can appreciate this concept, it’s today’s modern woman: YOU.
That’s why Dr. Zein Obagi created products like ZO Skin Health’s Oraser Body Emulsion. Similar to your Blackberry, it accomplishes a multitude of tasks at once. We’re talking hydration, exfoliation, hyperpigmentation reduction, wrinkle prevention and wrinkle reduction. How? The ingredients are your personal skincare dream team: Retinol; Lactic Acid; Glucosamine; Vitamin E and Coenzyme Q10.
Dr. Obagi formulated this product with supreme efficiency because he could. When he sees an opportunity to give you the kind of product that works as hard as you do, he seizes it. He firmly believes that if skincare companies truly want your skin to have it all, they need to start giving it their all.
That was his thinking when he formulated Oraser Daily Hand Repair SPF 20. This product is a workaholic. It improves age spots, wrinkles and hyperpigmentation. At the same time it’s protecting your hands from free radicals and blocking UVA/UVB rays. Oclipse Sunscreen + Primer SPF 30 gives 200 percent, too. It protects your face from the sun’s harmful rays AND acts as a primer under your makeup. We’re not done. On top of that, it’s tinted, so that natural glow you’ve got? You’re welcome.
You know what it’s like to work hard. Isn’t it time you knew what it’s like for something to work hard for you? That’s what we thought.
ZO Skin Health
We Know What Mom Really Wants
You can call the local florist and have them arrange the biggest bouquet she’s ever seen. Or you can take her to brunch at that impossible-to-get-reservations restaurant downtown. But flowers wither and food digests.
This Mother’s Day, give your mom something she can appreciate every day: beautiful skin.
For the no-nonsense mom who never lets anything slip past her: Synergy Pack. With Radical Night Repair Plus’ high concentration of Retinol, you’re truly giving her an aggressive plan of attack on aging a woman like her can appreciate. But, if Mom’s skin can’t handle an approach as tough as she is, Ommerse Daily Renewal Crème calms things down.
For the mom who always thinks of everything: DNA Repair Program Kit. Like her, it covers all the bases. It starts with clean skin, which Exfoliating Cleanser delivers. Daily Power Defense incorporates pure Retinol to fight the good fight. Growth Factor Serum firms and tones and who could forget SPF? Certainly not this mom and she’ll love that ours doubles as a primer, too.
For the mom who means well: Anti-Aging Hand Care Program. She’s been so busy trying to minimize the wrinkles on her face that she forgot all about her hands. Microderm Hand Renewal, Daily Hand Repair and Overnight Hand Recovery can soon change that, though. Dead skin cells will slough off, age spots will fade and wrinkles will improve.
You have six shopping days left. Here’s where you can pick up the gifts that keep on giving.
ZO Skin Health
Ingredients: Know What to Look For
When you get serious about skincare, ingredients become priority number one. As a formulator, that is the way I develop my products. I don’t have time to waste on the ineffective stuff and neither do you. But I often hear women express that they just don’t know which ingredients are the real deal.
Is it pure caviar, shavings of 14 karat gold or particles from an exotic fruit everyone seems to pronounce differently?
None of the above. It’s much more simple than that — and nowhere near as sexy. Take a look:
Let’s start with the anti-oxidants. They protect your skin cells from UV damage, pollution and free radicals. The most common ones (and the most important !) are Vitamins A, C and E.
Retinol (aka Active Vitamin A): This ingredient’s main function is skin cell turnover, which produces collagen — the stuff your skin had a lot of in its prime. If you’re familiar with my skincare philosophy then you know the key to younger looking skin lies in keeping skin cells active. When they go to sleep — a result of aging —fine lines, dull skin and wrinkles form. Retinol is like a bucket of cold water to sleepy skin cells. Continued use of it in high concentrations wakes cells right up and puts them straight to work.
Active Vitamin C: This is another antioxidant, but it works differently — it helps synthesize collagen. This property lends a very valuable feature to your skin in that it stabilizes free radicals and in doing so protects healthy cells from getting damaged. In English? It’s an excellent preventative measure against wrinkles as well as the photoaging sun exposure can cause.
Vitamin E: It helps protect the skin from UV rays and, as an added bonus, softens and smoothes, too.
Be advised: Retinol is a pure and active derivative of Vitamin A. If you use a synthetic form of Vitamin A, or take oral supplements of these vitamins, you simply will not achieve the same results. It just doesn’t work that way.
Be advised: Vitamins A and C have to be properly stabilized, packaged and stored. They can’t be exposed to light or UV rays or the formula could turn colors, or just go inactive. If isn’t stabilized then it oxidizes and turns yellowish or dark when exposed to air or water, essentially spoiling it.
ZO Skin Health
Getting Older? Looking Older Too? Here’s How to Reverse that Trend.
Dermatologists like to tell people what they can do to treat lines and wrinkles caused by UV damage/wind/smoke, etc. It’s easy. There are lots of good ingredients for treating environmental aging.
But intrinsic aging—meaning, you and your skin are just getting older—is different. Until recently, if you asked dermatologists what ingredient worked best–hmmm, they would twittle their fingers, rub their fingers through their hair…because they didn’t know what ingredients worked for natural skin aging! But now, that’s changed…we have something to say to people who are getting older (and look that way!)
Intrinsic skin aging (aka natural or chronological aging) looks a little different from environmental skin aging. With intrinsic aging, the wrinkles are finer, and the skin gets thinner and more lax. Environmental factors, on the other hand, cause deeper wrinkles and hyperpigmentation.
John Voorhees, MD, and his team at the University of Michigan, did a test on the underside of the upper arms of older women—and found that high concentrations of retinol significantly reduced wrinkles and other signs of aging. The study was controlled (meaning that one arm was tested; one was not) and double-blind (meaning that neither the researcher nor the subject knew what products were being tested). The underside of the arms have never been exposed to the sun, so it’s easy to isolate skin aged due to natural causes.
The conclusion: high concentrations of retinol successfully treat intrinsic aging due to retinol’s ability to stimulate collagen and retain water. As Dr. Voorhees said, “this is the first systematic, double-blind study showing that it (retinol) improves any kind of aging – photoaging as well as natural aging. You can rub it anywhere, and it will help to treat the signs of aging.”
The study was widely reported, but first published in the Archives of Dermatology.
That’s why I’m so committed to ZO Skin Health’s Radical Night Repair Plus. Whether you’re concerned about environmental skin aging, or natural skin aging… Whether you’re concerned about your face or your arms, retinol—properly formulated—can make a big improvement.
ZO Skin Health
Pushing the Envelope–with 1% Retinol
It’s true; I do like to “push the envelope”. For me, “pretty good” is not good enough. That’s why in my new Radical Night Repair Plus, I amp’ed up the formula to put in 1% retinol. That may not sound like much, but to your skin–it’s a whole lot! Here’s why:
Retinol is the most effective topical ingredient for anti-aging—and the only one that is clinically proven. But for it to be effective, it has to reach a concentration in the skin of at least .60-.70%.
Typical drug-store retinol products (even the best selling one!) only contain about .15%—not enough to make a meaningful difference. No matter how much you put on—you can put it on all night—you’ll never reach .60%.
With a 1% concentration—like Ossential® Radical Night Repair Plus, you can activate and stimulate your skin cells so that they begin producing collagen and accelerate cellular turnover.
Scientists agree that an even higher concentration (for ex., 2% or 3% or 4%) would be even more effective, however the product would be unacceptably irritating. 1% is the ideal “cap rate”—the greatest concentration of retinol, with little or no irritation.
Please use Radical Night Repair gradually and apply according to label directions. Do not use in combination with other nighttime skincare products that may compete with it or induce irritation.
ZO Skin Health
Radical Night Repair Plus–it’s back, and better than ever!
I’ve seen and heard statements to the effect that when it comes to anti-aging, Zein Obagi, MD doesn’t mess around.
I have to agree. And here I go again.
My newest case in point is ZO Skin Health’s Radical Night Repair Plus. This is a product that I’ve worked on for several years, and although there was an earlier version (called Radical Night Repair), this one is even better. Talk about no frou-frou!!
Typical drug store retinol products contain clinically insignificant amounts of retinol. Miniscule, in fact. Why? Because retinol is difficult to formulate with, and because when used in high concentrations, it’s potent. Maybe too potent for some people. So rather than produce a lotion or cream that really works, manufacturers put in just a little. So little, in fact, that it’s worthless. The industry nickname for that is “fairy dust”–like a fairy sprinkled just a little powder from her magic wand. And if you believe in magic wands, you may believe the claims that those manufacturers make.
Here’s a tidbit that you may not know–it’s an unfortunate fact that the cosmeceutical industry is not regulated, and manufacturers are allowed to promote that a product contains retinol (or any other ingredient), even though it contains only a trace amount. That’s not fair to you–the consumer.
That’s just not my style! The concentration of retinol in Radical Night Repair Plus is 6X more retinol that the leading retinol product sold through drug stores and 15X the amount of retinol sold through infomercials and home shopping channels.
The high concentration of retinol in Radical Night Repair Plus enables it to work hard to awaken your cells so that they start producing collagen and enable your skin to act and look younger.
For me, this is exciting. Radical Night Repair Plus could very well be the most effective over-the-counter anti-aging product. In fact, I’m betting on it.
It’s a good thing, but please, don’t get too much of a good thing. It may take your skin days or week to tolerate the high concentrations of retinol. Please begin by applying it only once or twice a week, and as pharmaceutical manufacturers say, follow label instructions carefully. Within weeks, you’ll be able to increase the frequency, and eventually get to apply it 7 nights per week. And then, wow!! You’ll see great improvement.
ZO Skin Health
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.
ZO Skin Health
If you want to look younger, hold up your hands.
At about age 35, your hands begin to make you look older. Then, wham! Wrinkles, age spots, loss of elasticity, protruding veins.
In fact, 68% of women claim that their hands make them look at least 10 years older (if you’re in the 32%, you don’t need to read any further).
So why do most hand lotions fall short?
Tip: As we get older, the skin on our hands begins to thin. Because there’s so little fat and muscle in our hands, the bones, wrinkles, veins all begin to show. You need to thicken the skin on your hands—and retinol is the best ingredient for that. Retinol is the only ingredient proven to work on intrinsic (not environmental) damage. So why don’t most companies put in retinol? It’s expensive.
Tip: Your hands are covered with up to 30 layers of dead skin—called the stratum corneum. Occasionally you need to exfoliate all of this dead skin so that the active ingredients can penetrate the epidermis, and to make your hands soft and smooth. At least once a week use a good scrub to polish your hands. Try the ZO Skin Health™ Oraser™ Microderm Hand Renewal, or mix sea salts in an acidic base (like lemon juice).
Tip: Fragrances like “peppermint kiss” may be nice for your nose, but don’t do a darn thing for your hands. Look for ingredients that really mean something—like:
- Shea butter (it moisturizes and protects, and is particularly beneficial for sun-exposed skin).
- Retinol (it boosts cellular turnover and reduces the appearance of lines and wrinkles, plus it reduces hyperpigmentation—aka sun spots)
- Sunscreen with an SPF15+. UV rays are your skin’s worst enemy. Wear it every day!
That’s what we mean by “no frou-frou skin care.” Our anti-aging hand lotions aren’t loaded with the namby-pamby stuff. Just high concentrations of active ingredients.
One woman that I spoke with told me that she doesn’t worry about how old her hands look—she just sits on them! She meant to be funny, but hands that make you look older are no joke.
