The cosmetics industry is overflowing with people who have no clue what they are doing, and the issue of oxygen in skin-care products demonstrates that perfectly. After selling us products to ward off oxygen’s effects on the skin (the word antioxidant means anti-oxygen), the beauty industry then turns around and sells us products that claim […]

Getting to the truth about the use of nanoparticles in cosmetics, like many issues in the cosmetics industry—with its confusing screen of distorted information—isn’t easy. But getting it right is important, particularly because the sunscreen ingredients titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, so essential to the health of skin, are involved. Nanotechnology is about changing any […]

You may not think of them as an essential part of your skin care and cosmetics, but without question skin-care and cosmetics products need preservatives. This is especially true for products that contain plant extracts—just think about how long a bunch of broccoli lasts in your refrigerator before it becomes a mushy, discolored mess. Whether […]

The notion that mineral oil and petrolatum (Vaseline) are bad for skin has been around for some time, with Aveda being the most visible company to mount a crusade deriding these ingredients. But now there are dozens of others. According to many companies that produce “natural” cosmetics, mineral oil and petrolatum are terrible ingredients because […]

Be Afraid, Be Very afraid Over the years I’ve spent a good deal of my time battling the endless bombardment of inaccurate and absurd information disseminated by cosmetics companies and cosmetics salespeople from every corner of the industry. Over the past several years the Internet has given rise to another form of cosmetics insanity, coming […]

There are many ways to take beautiful care of your skin, but the first step is to acquire a clear understanding of how the so-called “beauty” industry works so you don’t repeatedly get waylaid by bad or ineffective products and misleading, absurd claims. Let’s start at the beginning with some basic guidelines that can help […]

Almost no one has perfect skin, but perfect skin is what we are all after. I’m often asked why we believe all of this foolishness, given the copious amounts of in­formation to the contrary and the endless redundancy. (How many anti-wrinkle products can an industry launch until we realize they just can’t live up to […]

It is sobering to know that doctors are the second leading channel for distribution of skin-care products. More than 10,000 physicians sell skin-care products through their of­fices. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, now that doctors are in the mainstream of cosmetic sales their objectivity has gone in the same direction as […]

Ask yourself: Why should you be loyal to a cosmetics company if the cosmetics company isn’t even loyal to itself? For example: • Estee Lauder owns Aramis, Aveda, Clinique, Bobbi Brown, Prescriptives, M. A.C., Origins, Jo Malone, La Mer, Tommy Hilfiger fragrances, Bumble and Bumble, American Beauty, Flirt, Good Skin, Grassroots, Michael Kors Beauty, Darphin, […]