Skin prep for ’17
It’s been a long, poisonous fall. Perhaps you succumbed during a Labor Day barbecue, refilling that red Solo cup countless times and falling into bed without cleansing, toning and moisturizing. Maybe you waited until Halloween or Thanksgiving to surrender to your lesser devils, consuming sugar and pumpkin lattes or mashed potatoes and gravy as though the apocalypse were upon us. And this leads us to right now — a blur of holiday parties, sweets, cocktails and dehydration.
At some point during the next few days or weeks, you will probably look in the mirror and feel some remorse as you inspect the evidence of your bad behavior. And as 2016 comes to a close, you’ll likely make promises to yourself to change, to alter your routine, to detoxify your skin and rid it of impurities.
Stop fretting. There’s a crush of beauty products waiting for you — serums, creams and sprays that promise to correct (or, at the very least, minimize) the conditions such as inflammation, red or sallow skin tone, puffiness, fine lines and pores that could use a little tightening that frequently accompany certain holiday traditions. And if you’re wondering what distinguishes one jar or tube from another, it’s all about the ingredients. Some of the most popular include charcoal and coffee extract, as well as clay and mud, which have been used to rid the skin of impurities for centuries, but the list of possibilities continues to grow.
Margaret de Heinrich, cofounder of the Omorovicza skin care line, mentions the “incredible” mud harvested from a thermal lake outside Budapest, Hungary, and used in her line of products such as the Thermal Cleansing Balm. “In addition to the detoxifying properties of the mud, it has sweet almond oil,” she says. “It’s a misconception for people with oily skin that oil is bad. Oil can be the best thing because it can regulate the moisture level in your skin.”
Clarins Booster Detox includes a green coffee extract that is supposed to ease skin congestion, while Clarins BB Skin Detox Fluid SPF 25 includes acerola extract, a source of vitamin C, which can brighten skin and even skin tone. And Rahua’s Hair Detox & Renewal Kit for the hair and scalp is “100% plant derived” — appealing to consumers who hope to avoid as many synthetic ingredients as possible.
Much of the damage to our skin occurs the minute we walk outside. “We hear about environmental pollution [ozone gases, heavy metals] and how it can have a negative effect on the skin, particularly collagen,” says Dr. Dennis Gross, a Manhattan dermatologist who has an extensive skin care line. “Collagen is the structural protein of the skin, and when injured that can lead to a host of problems.”
Products in his line include chelators, organic compounds that, he says, “gobble up heavy metals and won’t allow them to penetrate your skin and do damage.”
May Lindstrom, founder of a Los Angeles-based skin care line that carries her name, sells the Problem Solver, one of her most popular products. (Her skin care line is known for its handmade products carried in stores, including the Detox Market, whose founder, Romain Gaillard, refers to Lindstrom as a “skin chef.”)
The Problem Solver includes raw cacao (“insanely high in antioxidant superpowers,” according to Lindstrom); activated bamboo carbon charcoal (“used for centuries for its ability to deeply and gently cleanse your pores,” the company says, “absorbing minerals, toxins, impurities and other harmful substances from your skin”); and different types of clay.
Gaillard emphasizes green beauty and the natural ingredients used in the offerings at the Detox Market, which has stores in Los Angeles and Toronto, as well as beauty counters selling products at several Cafe Gratitude locations.
“Green beauty is all about education,” says Gaillard, and taking time to understand what products and ingredients work best for your skin. “Think about the slow food industry, especially in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Slow food is a lot like slow beauty.”
Dr. Gregory Henderson, a dermatologist with offices in the South Bay and clinical instructor in dermatology at UCLA, says he looks at the world of cosmeceuticals through the prism of scientific research. Beauty products, he says, aren’t “evaluated and approved like medicines. They lack large trials to show their efficacy.”
But Henderson acknowledges the historical use of “mud therapy” (“mud is rich in minerals and organic compounds”) and the possibilities of ingredients such as charcoal (“when used as part of a mask or strip [it] may help remove ... debris from skin pores”).
What he hopes, he says, is that his clients and others embrace a healthy lifestyle — and wear sunscreen. And that just might be your first New Year’s resolution.