Deals Episodes
Budget Wrinkle Fighters
Fighting the signs of aging, on a budget.
Getting a microdermabrasion or chemical peel in the doctor's office can remove dead skin cells, fight wrinkles and keep your skin looking young and fresh. But Doctor Melissa Bogle says a lot of what she does in her office, can be done at home with items from the drug store.
"It's the same ingredients, it's just lower concentration. But I tell people slow and steady wins the race. We can get where we are going it just takes us longer and we are using it on a regular basis.
One of the most popular doctor office peels - glycolic acid. There are versions you can also buy "Aqua Gycolic facial cleanser" and "Enhanced Cream Glycolic".
"You can get quite high concentrations 10 percent and 12 percent. So if you think about a chemical peel might be 30 percent strength, you are really getting half that with something that might be over the counter. So you can use that a couple of times a week or nightly if tolerated and really speed up our cell renewal. Glycolic acids are mild acids. What they do is they dissolve the glue that holds our cells together."
Products like Neutrogena acne wash and Neutrogena clear pore toner contain salicylic acid to fight acne and also help fight wrinkles.
"Anyone can use them, and they tend to be slightly less irritating than using glycolic acids and they are great for anyone with acne or sensitive skin. The best place to find these is the acne aisle. You can either use a wash or a toner, sometimes a leave on with these ingredients and do quite well. Salicylic acid is a beta hydroxyl acid. Beta hydroxyl acids tend to be a little bit better for getting down into oil glands. And that's the reason we see them a lot of times in acne products or products for oily skin."
Prescription "Retin-A" is also used to treat acne. And, there's a version anyone can buy, "Roc" and "Perlabella."
"Over the counter we can find a product very similar to retin-A called retinol and that can accomplish some of the same benefits. It can be a little bit gentler. A lot of us think of retin-A as something a teenager would use for acne and we don't realize all its other benefits. But it can really help us with scars, wrinkles, brown spots."
Dr Bogle says products with retinol increases skin cell production, basically taking off the top layer of your skin.
Sometimes the products won't list how much of something it contains, but you can get an idea by how it is listed in the order of the ingredients. So turn over the package and take a look.
"So for example if you flip over a product and you see retinol in the middle of the list or towards the top, then you know it's probably a higher concentration," said Bogle, "If you see it listed last, it's probably a lower concentration. That doesn't mean the product is bad."
One of Dr. Bogle's favorite products contains lactic acid.
"I feel like it's an unknown little jewel. If you look at studies using over the counter strengths of lactic acid, which is about 12 percent. Over about a year of use you can thicken up your skin by about 15 to 17 percent. Lactic acid is also great for mature skin because it adds hydrating properties. You can use it on your body or your face."
The items to look for with lactic acid are "Am Lactin" and "Lac-Hydrin."
Whenever you choose a "scrub" product to exfoliate, the brand doesn't really matter, Dr Bogle says just look at the texture.
"You can do exfoliation at home as well, the important thing to remember is you want to look for a really fine grain in your exfoliation products. A lot of us go for products that feel gritty or you feel pits -- thinking, 'oh, because I feel this scrubbing it must be working.' But what happens is when you use that on delicate skin such as the face or chest it can cause micro tears in the skin, so sometimes we are doing more harm than good."
Beauti Control makes a "Spa Resurface Microderm Abrasion for Face" that actually includes aluminum oxide crystals. Dr. Bogle says this is the same type of product that is used in her hi-tech office machine.
Whatever you decide to try out, Dr Bogle warns -- using over the counter products means you will have to be more patient.
"I see this all the time where someone will buy a skin cream and use it a couple of weeks, not see a huge amount of changes, then they'll discard it thinking it's not good, it's not doing something for them. We don't have to see fast changes. So what you want to think of is using this long term basis and incorporating this as part of your regime."
Complete list of Products:
Glycolic Acid
Aqua Gycolic Facial Cleanser 12% Glycolic
Enhanced cream 10% Gycolic AHA
Salicylic Acid
Oil Free Acne Wash (Neutrogena)
Clear Pore Toner (Neutrogena)
Lactic Acid
AM Lactin XL
AM Lactin Lotion
Lac Hydrin Twelve
Tretinoin
Roc deep wrinkle night cream
Perlabella - Retinol
Skinceuticals - Retinol
Skin Medica - tri retinol complex and tri retinol ES complex
Microdermabrasion Scrubs
Skinceuticals micro exfoliating scrub
BC Spa Resurface Microderm Abrasion for Face
For more information visit lasercosmetic.com.
