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Acne is sometimes mistaken for Rosacea because they share some of the same symptoms, such as redness and acne-like lesions. But they are actually very different conditions. And if you have rosacea but treat it like acne, you can actually make it worse. Acne is a...

Here are 10 simple acne tips to minimize breakouts and comedones. 1. Wash your pillow cases frequently. Bacteria, oil, sweat, and makeup are easily transferred from your face to a pillow case while you sleep. You don’t want to sleep on a soiled pillowcase with freshly...

I received many questions about acne this past week. So let’s talk about acne again. But let’s take a different approach. A simpler one. Food! Can we minimize acne by the choices we make in our diet? Absolutely! In fact, taking care of skin is largely how we take care...

I’ve been getting many questions about acne lately. So I think it’s a good idea to review some basics. If you struggle with acne or bad blackheads, this is a must-read. In non-prescription skin care (excluding antibiotics and drugs like Retin-A), there are 3 key...

WHITEHEADS are light-colored bumps on the surface of skin. They are due to clogged pores. So how are they different from blackheads and other types of clogged pores? Today, let’s compare them with blackheads. WHITEHEADS vs BLACKHEADS Both whiteheads and blackheads are...

Salicylic acid vs Glycolic acid? Which one do you use if you have blackheads? Both are good for unclogging pores. Here’s why: SALICYLIC ACID This is the only acid that can penetrate oil. (Because it is oil-soluble. All other acids are water soluble.) Thanks to this...

CLOGGED PORES – We can’t escape them but we can minimize them! What’s going inside this ‪PORE‬? 3 things. Mix these together, and you get a ‪PLUG‬. 1. OIL (‪SEBUM‬) – This is the oil you naturally produce. Oily and acneic skin types produce more oil. 2. DEAD SKIN –...

Need convincing NOT TO PICK your skin? Guess how thin your skin is? – The outer layer, called the Stratum Corneum, is thinner than a human hair. It’s about 0.003 inches, or 0.07 millimeters. That’s thinner than a piece of paper. – The whole epidermis is only about...

It’s that time of year again. In the summer, many of us get more blackheads. Hotter temperatures increase sebum levels. So we’re more likely to get clogged pores. Before I talk about how to control blackheads, let me clarify what they are. What Are Blackheads?...

Let’s go over some common acne mistakes today. Mistake #1 – Squeezing or Popping Don’t pick your face, no matter how tempting it is. There’s a really good reason why you hear this advice all the time. Squeezing, picking, or popping pimples will make them worse. Inside...

Today’s topic is how to treat acne using topical ingredients. There are multiple ways to do this because there are different factors that lead to a ‘plug’ forming in a pore (I mean follicle but use the term pore). So the key to successfully treating acne is to address...

Breaking out? Before you dump your skincare, check your makeup. Many foundations and powders contain solids & fatty ingredients that are comedogenic (clog pores). Comedogenic makeup is an often overlooked culprit of acne. Try eliminating 1 makeup product at a time...

Obsessed with blackheads? Are you a picker? If you don’t know what I mean by this question, then good for you! You’re probably not a picker. Picking refers to popping pimples or squeezing blackheads. In other words, picking at our face. This is extremely common...

Types of Acne Lesions & Grades of Acne What Causes Acne? Acne Triggers Acne Ingredient Sensitizers Acne Culprit – Comedogenic Makeup How to Treat Acne 3 Acne Ingredients You Should Know – Benzoyl Peroxide, Sulfur, Salicylic Acid 5 Common Acne Mistakes How to Treat...

BALM perfection. How can you dip into this? I cringed when my finger put a hole in it. I love the golden honey color. Reminds me of a warm summer afternoon. So what is a balm? See how flat the top is? This is a classic trait of a balm, which is a cream that is very...

If you have a good understanding of exfoliation, then you might want to know some of the finer points of exfoliation. The Effectiveness of an AHA Depends on its pH AHA products must be formulated at the correct pH to be effective. For example, the pH must be acidic...

Today is the third part of Exfoliation 101 – important risks and precautions when you exfoliate. For a review on exfoliation, here are other posts: Part 1: The Benefits and Methods of Exfoliation Part 2: A Close Look At Chemical Exfoliation Part 4: Finer Points of...

So now that you know it’s a good idea to exfoliate, let’s talk about how to do it. Chemical Exfoliation Many of you are probably familiar with mechanical exfoliation, such as a scrub. The kind with rough or small particles that you rub over your face and rinse off...

Exfoliation is an essential part of a skin care routine. It also happens to be one of the best ways to get instant gratification in skin care 🙂 Exfoliating means removing dead or living skin cells from the layers of skin. It produces a noticeable and immediate...

Is the following statement TRUE or FALSE? Oils are good for any skin type, including oily skin. The answer is definitely TRUE! But there is quite a bit of confusion and misinformation when it comes to oils in skincare. For example, I sometimes hear this: “Don’t use an...

Have you heard of skin care boosters? They’re a niche type of product but are becoming more common. Perhaps you’ve heard of protein boosters that you add to a smoothie or shake (protein in powder form). Or a booster shot that you get at the doctor’s office (for...

Serums are my favorite skin care products. I never get tired of using serums or discovering new ones. Some of you may already be familiar with serums. But for those of you who are not, this is a review of the role of serums in a skin care routine. What Is A Skin Care...

Moisturizing the eye area is absolutely essential. But it’s not absolutely necessary to moisturize it with an eye cream. Of course, it is nice to have an eye cream that treats targeted concerns, but you can use a regular face moisturizer if you’re on a budget,...

I’ve talked about hydration quite a bit here and there. But I haven’t described the best way to do this. Because it is such an essential step in skin care, hydration deserves to be in the spotlight. So let’s talk about the best way to hydrate. What Is Hydration? How...

The cleansing oils market is heating up. Take a look at these cleansing oils I pulled from Sephora shelves yesterday. These aren’t all the ones available either. Just the ones that were in my local store. I excluded brands that were featured in previous posts in order...

Want cleaner skin? Or looking for a way to get a spa-level cleanse? The Double Cleanse is a method of cleansing that achieves a thorough clean that doesn’t leave skin feeling dry. The Double Cleanse is a two-step cleansing process that utilizes 2 cleansers: an...

Skin is such a dynamic, complex organ that it’s often hard to know what’s going on inside it. How many times do you ask yourself this question: How will my skin will react to this product? There’s nothing worse than putting something on our skin, or having something...

Cells produce garbage. Surprised? Like animals, they take in nutrients and then excrete waste. This cellular garbage is a normal byproduct of metabolism. It’s easy to eliminate the waste when the waste molecules are small. But when they are big, such as cross-linked...

Mitochondria plays an important role in skin aging. It is rarely discussed in the popular media today. But it ought to be. I’d like to give mitochondria the attention it deserves. What is Mitochondria? Mitochondria are small structures inside a cell that generate...

What Is Inflammation? Inflammation is the body’s response to an injury, infection, or irritation. The purpose of inflammation is to contain an injury and clear out the infection. It prevents the spread of infection and prepares the tissue for wound repair....

Glycation and cross-linking cause extrinsic aging. This kind of aging is due to environmental factors such as your diet and lifestyle, not genetics. Unlike factors like DNA repair and mitochondria, glycation and cross-linking are largely within your control. In other...

DNA repair plays a critical role in skin aging. Everyday, the DNA in our cells sustain damage. Every cell repairs DNA up to 1 million times a day! DNA damage is most commonly caused by UV radiation (both UVA and UVB). It may also caused by x-rays, gamma rays,...

To conclude this week’s discussion on Indirect Antioxidants, today’s post is about Antioxidant Enzymes. They’re very important for skin. Note: This is an advanced discussion of antioxidants for those of you serious about anti-aging. It’s heavy on the science, but I’ve...

Yesterday I introduced the topic of Indirect Antioxidants. One of their roles is activating your body’s detox enzymes, the Phase II enzymes. As you can imagine, detox enzymes are vital for good health. We accumulate toxins in our body from what we eat, what we inhale...

This week, I’d like to return to the topic of aging and introduce more advanced anti-aging strategies. By now you know what an antioxidant is. But did you know there are 2 types of antioxidants? They are Direct and Indirect antioxidants. Direct antioxidants are the...

By now, you know the importance of antioxidants in skin care. Today I want to give you some antioxidant tips and 3 Rules for maximizing their effectiveness. To refresh your memory, antioxidants are the FIRST line of defense against free radicals (Reactive Oxygen...

The way to fight free radicals and reactive oxygen species is with antioxidants. An antioxidant is a substance that neutralizes free radicals. Specifically, it reduces oxidative damage. Antioxidants are standard performance ingredients in skin care products. Some are...

What Are Free Radicals? Free radicals are atoms or molecules with unpaired electrons. They are extremely reactive and attack whatever lies in their path: proteins such as collagen and elastin, epidermal lipids, cell membrane lipids, mitochondria, other cellular...

What does ‘aging’ mean exactly? Aging is the loss or damage of important molecules (e.g. DNA, proteins, enzymes) and the accumulation of abnormal molecules. In other words, we lose all the good things and gain all the bad stuff! How we age is determined by how well we...

In case you missed yesterday’s post, the Anti-Aging Strategies Recap provides some helpful background for these tips. The Recap is a 1-page summary of everything I’ve talked about so far, and takes about 5-10 minutes to read. This list is meant for those of you who...

It’s a good time to review aging before I move on to my next topic (acne). Here is a summary of the most important things to know. I have condensed the Anti Aging Guide (so far) into 1 page. I hope that it gives you a more cohesive understanding of aging. Having this...

Welcome to the Anti Aging Skin Care Guide. Aging is a complex topic that is difficult to tackle all at once. So this section of the site will continue to grow over time. My goal is to help you understand the aging process and the strategies for slowing it down. There...

Today’s post continues a topic I started a few weeks ago – different kinds of light treatments used in a professional setting. The last article was about the uses of Intense Pulsed Light (IPL). Today’s article is a brief look at laser skin resurfacing, a much more...

Ever get the sense that there are many copycats in skincare? These days, I’ll walk into a Sephora, pick up a new serum that has just launched, and it smells, looks, or feels exactly like a competitor’s! It’s no coincidence. Of course, copycats are not new or unique to...

We all know what wrinkles look like. Especially if we have them on our face and body. But do you know why you get them? I thought it’d be useful to dig into the anatomy of wrinkles. If you understand how wrinkles form, you will be more savvy about what can and cannot...

An unexpected guest arrived on my cheek last week – a giant pimple. But this time, it was more than just your ordinary pimple. The skin under the pimple felt hard and there was a large bump. The size of the bump was larger than the actual pimple. I felt some pain in...

Is your skin always shiny or does it shine later in the the day? If you answered yes, don’t feel bad! It’s perfectly natural and healthy to have some shine on your face. I understand the desire to be shine-free or less shiny, especially if you have oily skin. But in...

When you’re having a bad skin day, do you have a backup routine to turn to? It’s helpful to have a set of products that you can rely on to get you through those days. The topic of this post is preparing a backup routine. The inspiration for it came from my own...

Hormones and skin. Ai-yai-yai. The two words together can either be a godsend or a curse, depending on which receiving end you’re on. No doubt we’ve all experienced their effects. But it’s hard to know exactly what they’re doing inside our bodies because they’re all...