June - Stylist and Salon Newspapers

Know Your Cosmetic Ingredients
Esthetic Endeavors
Judith Culp
Skincare is exploding and attracting involvement
from diverse professions.
An esthetician must invest more time in
self-education and scientific analysis of the
products they choose if they want to maintain
client loyalty.
Physicians and pharmacists are paying attention
to the increased demand for anti-aging
skincare and meeting it head on. As estheticians,
we will have to enhance our knowledge
to a new level to meet this competition for our
clients and their dollars.
With each new magazine issue a new
ingredient is touted. Some articles include
scientific data to support the claims while others
take tidbits of information known about an
ingredient and attempt to apply it to skincare.
Herein lays a potential pitfall.
Clients are looking for products that will
generate results. Yes, they are looking for
hope in a jar. However, they want to become
educated about those products to know first,
if they work and then how they work. We need
to be prepared to answer these questions with
honesty and knowledge.
In order to do this we need to become
educated. We need to ask manufacturers what
is in their products and what documentation
there is that they work. Have they done scientific
tests? What type? How was efficacy of the
product evaluated?
While it is not my intent to cast question
on manufacturers, it is important for the
esthetician to do some of their own research
and reach their own decisions about “hot new
ingredients.”
Consider some of these factors in reaching
your decisions: skin compatibility, molecular
structure, delivery system and effect/affect on
the skin both immediate and long term.
Compatibility: how a product feels and
reacts to the skin and the skin’s immediate
response to it. If texture, efficacy, smell or
residue of a product doesn’t make it pleasant
to use, the odds are it will not stand the test of
time, either in the treatment room or for home
use. As professionals we know how we like a
product to feel on the skin both immediately
after and during its wear.
If it does not provide the desired effect or
is unpleasant to use, we will probably not use
it up and not reorder it. Given choices we will
lean towards products that have become our
favorites, (they smell good, apply well, wear
well, function well and / or provide a good
Ten brilliant highlight
selections ranging from
intense reds and coppers
to luminous blondes.
You won’t believe
your eyes!
return on our investment). By keeping this in
mind as we make our product investments, we
avoid the ones that are eventually pitched or
don’t sell.
Molecular structure: Not all estheticians
want to get into chemistry but with the
changes in our industry this is going to become
more of a requirement. This knowledge
will make us better technicians and more astute
product shoppers. What is the ingredient
supposed to do? Does its molecular structure
provide for this?
If you were looking for a deeply hydrating
product, collagen would be a poor choice. If
you want a surface moisturizer collagen is very
good. Its molecular structure doesn’t allow it
to penetrate. It is a large molecule that sits on
the surface of the skin. There have been books
written on this subject and there is no way to
address it fully in a brief article. It is only my
goal to draw your attention to what you need
to find out so you can have the best success in
your practice.
Another example is Vitamin A. There are
many forms of Vitamin A and they don’t all act
the same on the skin. It is our responsibility
to learn about the differences between these
variations and then apply this information to
product and ingredient selection.
Delivery System: this relates to how the
ingredients are getting onto and into the epidermis.
Vitamin C is a good example. Vitamin
C has proven topically beneficial by protecting
the skin from UV rays and playing a role
in anti-aging. But the Vitamin C used during
testing, L-ascorbic acid, is unstable. Some
manufacturers, in order to offer a product
with longer shelf life, have switched from this
form to another more stable form of C esters.
However, there are not studies to document its
effectiveness. As with many other ingredients,
it has been assumed that if a little is shown to
be good, then more is better. What we have
found with other acids is that more is irritating
and drying to the skin.
At least one manufacturer has found a
way to provide slow-release of low levels of
Vitamin C to the skin. With this technique the
best form of Vitamin C can be used because it
is incorporated in lower percentages. To also
mitigate the tendency for dryness, check to see
if there are hydrating agents incorporated into
your Vitamin C. At the appropriate levels this
can totally change the C from a good product
to a very efficacious product.
Affect / effect on the skin: While there
are standards for production to create safe
products for the consumer, this doesn’t mean
they all work. I believe this to be true not just
for commercial but for professional products.
Manufacturers hear about a great new hot item
and work with their local chemist to create one
to sell. This is more common in our industry
than any of us would like to think. All of the
clinical trials are done at the market level.
For all of your products you want to know
not only how long they have been on the market
but are they purely cosmetic or are they
cosmeceuticals. Cosmetics only make the skin
feel good. They clean the skin, tone the skin or
provide moisture. If this is your goal just about
any product line will do. If you want to deal
with correcting skin conditions or anti-aging,
you need to know more. What tests show this
product helped aging skin? What were the
signs of improvement?
It is necessary to understand what, how
and why we are affecting the client’s skin with
ingredients and formulations and be able to
advise them as to product usage.
If we hope to compete with compounding
pharmacists and physicians who require medical
data on their products then we need to do
our own research.
Judith Culp, a CIDESCO Diplomat has been in the esthetics industry since 1980.
A CPCP permanent makeup technician for over 18 years she served a 4-year
term as a Director for the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals, two
years as their president. She is president of Culp Enterprises Inc. and CEO of NW
Institute of Esthetics. Judy Culp is available for consulting. For more information
visit www.estheticsnw.com.
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| JUNE 2010 | OHIO STYLIST & SALON