Miracle creams that “defy aging; ” serums that “lift and firm, ” masks that will “blitz crow’s feet” — according to a recent survey , the average American woman spends around $3, 756 per year on beauty products.   But dermatologist Dr . Fayne L. Frey says most of these bold claims are bogus —  and that all you really need for healthy skin are three things: a good moisturizer, mild cleanser and a sunscreen.

Frey is taking on the trillion-dollar beauty industry with a new book, “ Skincare Hoax: How You are Being Tricked into Buying Lotions, Potions & Wrinkle Cream” (Skyhorse). “My hope is that will it will empower women around the particular globe to turn away from the ‘I’m not good enough’ marketing messages they see hundreds of times each day plus realize how truly awesome they already are, ” she writes.

Frey has always been the self confessed “chemistry nerd” interested in skin-care ingredients. Early in her career, she bought a Corneometer, an instrument which assesses the water content of skin. She started testing her patients, building up a database. In 2014, she launched Fryface. com, the definitive resource of items she had discovered to be effective.  

While she is careful to point out that will beauty companies are not villains, and that not everything they sell is a waste of money, they are obviously in the business in order to move products. They do this by playing on common fears of getting older — “Feel confident within your own skin and reduce the appearance of your own fine lines” — plus by using vague, often medical-sounding terms that create an illusion they are backed by science even when they’re not. These include promises to “nourish” or “replenish, ” when skin is actually made up of dead skin cells — meaning these claims are medically impossible.

Other items say these people “detoxify, ” when no toxins have been found to accumulate on pores and skin — or “rejuvenate, ” when epidermis does a very good job of doing this on its own. The claim “dermatologist-tested” doesn’t really mean anything either, as there are no universal standards established regarding how the testing was done. The same applies for the particular terms “cruelty-free” and “not tested upon animals. ” The term “hypoallergenic” suggests the product will not cause an allergic reaction — but without proper comparison testing, it means very little.

“People don’t have the particular chemistry background to understand them, ” states Frey associated with complicated-sounding components such as isopropyl alcohol and propylene glycol.

“So they’re confused by all of them. ” 

Strip away the hype, Frey says, and the majority of skin creams are simply moisturizers formulated through the same recipe.   And one decent, inexpensive moisturizer is all you need. “When it comes to eye lotions and night creams plus neck creams and foot creams and toners plus astringents — in my opinion, if you have healthy skin you don’t need any of those, ” she says. “If you want them and they make you feel good, enjoy them. I’m not really telling a person how to spend your hard earned money, yet they’re not necessary. ”

Even the most reputable brands sell things that are completely superfluous; Frey cites CeraVe and Neutrogena, saying that both brands produce excellent lotions — but also sell unnecessary products such as eye and night lotions.

“Remember, this is a consumer driven business, ” the girl says. “If we stopped buying eye creams, those companies wouldn’t make them. ”

Here are the five things Frey wants people to keep in mind next time they are shopping intended for skin care.

Anti-aging creams won’t banish wrinkles

Anti-aging is a $26 billion market that will plays on our insecurities. “But aging is really a losing battle, ” the lady says. “We all get old. Nobody knows what causes it, let alone has a cure for it. ”  By law, beauty products are classified because products that “promote attractiveness and alter appearance. ” If a wrinkle cream was invented that went further than that will and changed the structure of the particular skin, this would have to be classified as a drug by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That’s why you see creams with vaguely worded guarantees like decreasing “the appearance” of fine lines. The particular closest thing to slowing aging is using the 30 SPF sunscreen (which is defined by the FDA since a drug). In fact, many lotions add sunscreens to their formulations to support their anti-aging statements.

Retinoids aren’t worth the pain

The only anti-aging ingredients worthy of closer scrutiny are retinoids (often available with a prescription) plus retinol (less potent, over the counter). But, after years of prescribing all of them to the girl patients, Frey believes that they deliver little reward against the risk associated with side effects for example burning and irritation — and only 10% of her patients reported “moderate improvement. ”

There’s simply no such point as the ‘miracle in a bottle’

Hyaluronic acid plus antioxidants such as CoEnzyme Q, Resveratrol, vitamin C are all what Frey calls “marketing tool ingredients” with zero significant scientific evidence behind them. Creams containing them simply increase the water content of the particular skin — which, she says, will be just what a well-formulated (and less expensive) lotion will also do.  

Be aware of repackaging tricks

The elegance industry frequently repackages the same product and sells it to a different customer base, meaning that the same formulation might be seen on the baby, skin or even body aisles. “If the particular price point stays exactly the same, I’m OK with that, ” says Frey. “But exactly what bothers me is when they repackage it in a smaller tube as well as the price per ounce is higher. I don’t think that’s fair. ”

The truth about parabens 

Another trick is to use fake problems as the way of shifting items. Take paraben-free moisturizers. Parabens — a k the preservatives — became a target after a poorly designed 2004 study led the media to link them to breast cancer. As the firestorm raged, attractiveness companies saw dollar signs and a new market segment was born. Ironically, Frey suggests, alternative preservatives used in paraben-free products could be much worse to get skin, although she admits the medical data on that is sketchy as well.    

Six regimen “essentials” that are not really necessary 

By Dr. Fayne Frey

MASKS AND FACIALS

Masks are seemingly arbitrary products applied in order to the skin and left upon for an arbitrary period of time, usually with skin-care claims that will overpromise. Science doesn’t prove any one of their own claims to be true or that masks are more effective than a well-formulated moisturizer.   Like masks, facials have no standard definition plus little technology substantiates their particular marketing promises.

EXFOLIANTS, SCRUBS AND POLISHING CLEANSERS

No one has proven that removing loose pores and skin cells, also called exfoliation, is beneficial for epidermis health. Skin naturally falls away in its normal shedding process. When you keep your own skin hydrated with good quality moisturizers, exfoliation happens gently. Scrubbing might make your skin feel smoother, yet removing too many skin cells can result in irritated, dry, and even inflamed pores and skin.  

NIGHT CREAM

The particular fact is usually, skin does not change from day to night time, and elements can’t tell time. The entire night-cream topic is definitely beyond logic and has one sole purpose: to sell two bottles or even jars instead of one.  

EYE CREAM

Eye cream is the moisturizer in a tiny tube at a higher cost. Yes, your skin around the particular eyes can be thin, but under a microscope a pathologist cannot distinguish a skin sample through the cheekbone from epidermis taken around the eye. Some might say that the thinnest eyelid skin is more susceptible to damage from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, but ironically, most vision creams do not contain sunscreen.  

SERUMS

The buzz about serums is the declare that they contain a higher concentration of certain ingredients than other facial skin-care items. My concern with serums is a lot more about substances that these people don’t contain. Most serums do not really contain ingredients that keep water from evaporating from your skin, like petrolatum, mineral oil, or dimethicone. Without one associated with these types of ingredients, a product is not very effective as the moisturizer.  

3 Moisturizers along with SPF recommended by FryFace. com

Normal skin

CeraVe® AM Facial Moisturizing Lotion with SPF 30

Oil and fragrance-free

Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisture Broad Spectrum SPF 35

Eczema- or acne prone

Cetaphil® Daily Facial Moisturizer with Sunscreen SPF 50

Copyright © 2022 simply by Fayne D. Frey, MD. Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.