Uncategorized
deborah
The Worst Cities for Healthy Skin, Part III
It’s our last installment on the worst cities in the country for your skin. TotalBeauty.com conducted a study to find which cities are most harsh on our skin and we’ve taken the liberty of adding our commentary. Take a look at the five worst to see if your city made the unfortunate list.
#5: Phoenix, Arizona: “But it’s a dry heat!” Whoever came up with that never knew the wrath of severely dry skin. Without the hydration it needs, the lipid layer depletes and skin dries out as a result. To make up for the moisture deficit, Dr. Zein Obagi recommends drinking more than 8 glasses of water daily and avoiding hot water like the plague.
#4 Las Vegas, Nevada: Your skin’s luck runs out fast in this city. Las Vegans endure triple digit temperatures, a dry climate and high smoking rates, but its stress level is so high it’s stressful. Rosacea, acne, psoriasis — all of them flare up under stress. Meditate, take up yoga, count to 10. For the sake of your skin, Las Vegas, relax.
#3 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Take away the pollution and you still have the tanning beds. Take away the tanning beds and you still have 20 percent of the city puffing away. No need to fear, Pittsburgh. Dr. Zein Obagi’s daughter, Dr. Suzan Obagi, is assistant professor at the Cosmetic Surgery and Skin Center at University of Pittsburgh. When she’s not making women look younger, she’s dermatologist to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Consider her your saving grace!
#2 Houston, Texas: Ninety percent humidity and high ozone pollution prove you can’t mess with Texas, but Texas — Houston specifically — can mess with your skin all it wants. Pollution is one thing, but high ozone pollution will make your skin more susceptible to burns and damage layers of tissue. Three words: Ess. Pea. Eff.
Get the #1 worst city on our Facebook page right here! And, remember, outside influences can try to damage your skin all they want, but the health of your skin is completely up to YOU.
Uncategorized
deborah
The Worst Cities for Healthy Skin, Part II
As we shared with you Tuesday, a recent TotalBeauty.com-conducted study found the 13 worst cities for your skin. We showed you four already. Is your city on today’s list? Read on to find out.
#9 Kansas City, Missouri: More than 25 percent of Kansas City residents smoke cigarettes. That makes for a large population depriving its skin of collagen and elastin, the stuff that prevents wrinkles from forming as fast. Are you a non-smoker and want to look younger? Move to Kansas City.
#8: Detroit, Michigan: You’ll find better air quality in a poker room. That’s due to Detroit’s humidity, second-hand smoke and pollution. Aside from increased sebum and loss of hydration, pollution also deprives your skin of essential oxygen, which results in premature aging. Reason number 58 not to move to Detroit.
#7 Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland, you over-achiever, you. Not only does your pollution and tanning salons top the charts, but so does your penchant for smoking. Cigarette smoke puts over 4,000 toxins into your bloodstream. That transfers to your skin, ultimately producing less collagen. According to Dr. Zein Obagi, Creator of the Obagi NuDerm system and ZO Skin Health, “you’ll start to see the wrinkles after smoking only 10 years and not just on your face. Even on your hands and arms.”
Five cities remain. Check back tomorrow to find out if yours is ruining your skin, but click right here to find out which city came in at #6 for its ignorance about UVA rays.
Uncategorized
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.
Uncategorized
deborah
The Worst Cities for Healthy Skin
A recent TotalBeauty.com-conducted study sought out the worst cities in the United States — for your skin. Findings were based on several factors including smoking rates, climate and pollution, to name a few. (And you thought it all came down to genes and Botox.) Did your city make the list? Here’s hoping a move isn’t in order.
#13 Portland Maine: This city has a penchant for tanning beds, which explains why its skin cancer rates are so high. You know how dangerous the sun’s rays are, but did you know the UVA rays in a tanning bed are two to three times stronger? Hey, folks in Portland, Maine, meet the spray tan.
#12 Tacoma, Washington: This city, largely populated with blue collar workers and military servicemen and women, grabbed a spot on the list for its stress levels. When your life has tension, your body recognizes it and answers with stress hormones, like cortisol. Cortisol is a green light for oil production, which leads to blemishes. Put. The Blackberry. Down.
#11 Macon, Georgia: The state may be known for its peaches, but there’s nothing peachy keen for your skin with 88 percent average humidity. All that moisture in the air leads to more sebum in the sebaceous glands, which increases your chances of acne. ZO Skin Health’s creator, Zein Obagi MD, recommends cleansing skin one full minute to rid of sebum, but Macon residents might want to go longer.
Your city didn’t make the list? Don’t say “Phew!” just yet. We’ll share 9 more cities with you over the next week. Which city needs to substitute its nicotine addiction for an SPF addiction, making it #10 on the list? Find out right here!
Uncategorized
ZO Skin Health
The Games (Some) Skincare Companies Play
Read the fine print. You hear that advice all the time, but probably only follow it when buying a home, signing a lease or negotiating some other major purchase. Pick up the nearest women’s magazine and you’ll learn it applies to skincare products, too. But, we’re warning you: Prepare to feel duped.
We’re going to conduct this little exercise every so often just to keep you as educated a consumer as possible. We’ll flip through a woman’s magazine and go through the promises, one by one.
First up, a skincare cream from a brand better known for its hair products.
The claim: “Look up to 5 years younger in just weeks.”
The fine print: Based on a consumer perception study, women judged they looked up to 5 years younger starting at 4 weeks.
Notice the word “perception.” Here’s the dictionary definition: the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding. In other words, the results are all in your head.
The real deal: Read between the lines: their clinical studies revealed that if there was measurable improvement — any improvement, any at all — it was negligible.
Next, we have a two-page spread devoted to a youth activating cream serum. This one has three footnotes in fine print, but we’d rather focus on the term “youth activating.” We all know what youth means. This is how the dictionary defines “activating”: to make active; cause to function or act.
The real deal: Notice there’s no specification on exactly WHAT will be acting youthful. A sports car or a trophy wife or an old cheerleader’s uniform could all be justifiably referred to as youth activating. But will they make your skin look younger?
The only asterisk marks you’ll find on ZO Skin Health products are to alert you to the potency of our ingredients. And fine print? We don’t need it. We’re so proud of what we’re doing here, we want to make it as clear as possible.
Uncategorized
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.
Uncategorized
ZO Skin Health
Read Our Lips!
When was the last time you celebrated something on your body plumping up? It’s probably been a while, but at my Obagi Skin Health Institute, we have something that you might like — it’s your lips.
As we get older, all of the things that we don’t want to be thin — like our fingernails, our lips, our eyelashes, and our hair — get thinner. Somehow that’s not fair, but it’s the result of aging and environmental conditions and hormonal issues. As we age, our bodies slow down the process of regenerating cells, so our lips, which are already thin, get even thinner. Smoking, wind and cold weather can also dehydrate our skin so lips look less plumped. In order to slow this process, there’s not much you can do, but be sure to wear a lip product with an SPF. If that’s not enough, a dermal filler (like Juvederm, Restylane, Sculptra, etc.) is an option.
Several months ago I was featured on Style Network’s “What I Hate About Me” show where people have lifestyle make-overs. In this particular case, the woman, who was newly divorced, was taught how to safely and properly use an internet dating service, walk in high heels, have a carefree hairstyle, and of course, she wanted to look a few years younger, so the producers brought her to me for lip plumping.
I used dermal filler Prevelle to give her lips extra fullness. Prevelle uses lidocaine, which reduces discomfort during procedures. And for the patients with no patience, results are immediate.
If restoring the youthful look of your lips appeals to you, but the idea of a needle — lidocaine or not — is not your style, you’ll want to consider something that’s now available from my office, Vivité Defining Lip Plumper. The name says it all.
No, it’s not at all similar to the lip gloss the girl at your beauty store sold you that did NOTHING. This actually works. Two people in my office, Dianne and Melissa, used Vivité for a week when they noticed their lips had gone off their hunger strike and started filling out.
Isn’t it time you were happy something was plumping up?
Uncategorized
deborah
CUSTOMIZED SKINCARE? MORE LIKE CUSTOMIZED DECEPTION
You’ve seen the commercials. You’ve heard the pitch. Skincare companies want you to think they’ve customized a product just for your pre-menopausal pores or for your husband’s ever-so-masculine glands or your tween’s pre-pubescent t-zone.
What’s next? An anti-aging line specially-designed for the twice-divorced Japanese-American Ivy League graduate who enjoys spin classes and Bunco? A pore minimizer for the green-eyed metrosexual from Miami with a hybrid car? An acne treatment exclusively crafted for the Latino captain of the football team with an Eagle Scout badge?
Skin is skin. World-renowned dermatologist and creator of ZO Skin Health, Dr. Zein Obagi, will tell you there’s oily skin and dry skin. Beyond that, it’s not nearly as complicated as some people would like you to believe. Don’t let deceptive marketing tactics make you think otherwise with silly new schemes intended for nothing more than getting you to open your wallet. ZO Skin Health wants you to open something else: YOUR EYES.
Unless you’ve consulted a dermatologist with a one-on-one appointment and that dermatologist turned around and put together a research and development team to craft a treatment based on your appointment — then there’s no such thing as a custom skincare program JUST FOR YOU.
Open your eyes to what’s really going on. Recognize that your husband needs a skincare cream “custom-made for the kind of guy who cares about skincare” about as bad as he needs a toothbrush with bristles designed to only attack the tartar of middle-aged men.
As Dr. Obagi puts it, “Is there a treadmill for short people and another one for tall people?”
Think about it.
When you take away the age, the race, the sex and whichever other gimmick is being used to peddle products, what’s left? Skin cells. When you take away the manly packaging or the commercial with that celebrity your teenager idolizes, what do you have? A product. It’s up to you to decide its quality, but we suspect the trickery is used for a reason.
ZO Skin Health doesn’t need trickery. The truth, aka YOUR RESULTS, is our hard sell.
Uncategorized
deborah
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.
Uncategorized
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.
