Skin Care

Why some women spend more on looks in a recession?

During an economic downturn, women are more likely to spend more on their looks then in more prosperous times.  This anticipated phenomenon is labeled the "lipstick effect".  This is because the cosmetics industry, including Botox and fillers, are actually rising in popularity.  The theory is that women are making themselves more attractive to grab the attention of more financially secure wealthy suitors.

Sarah Hill, researcher of “The lipstick effect,” noted that L’Oreal saw its sales grow 5.3 percent in 2008, the heart of the most recent recession. One reason Hill notes for the existence of the effect is that during "periods of scarcity," women see a decline of the availability of quality mates. Hill states that because unemployment and low returns on investments occur at a higher rate during recessions, a recession may signal to women that financially secure men are becoming relatively scarce.

While some of you may think this is ridiculous and superficial, Hill has tested this theory out using four separate experiments and all have said that yes, the effect in fact does exist. Women do increase their desire to buy products such as lipstick, designer jeans, high-heels, and perfume.

Facial redness can be a constant problem for some patients. It can be embarrassing, hard to cover up, and challenging to treat. Some forms of redness can be early signs of rosacea. Rosacea is a wide spectrum of facial conditions which can range from facial flushing and redness to vascular lesions and raised lesions across the skin. The redness can be triggered by spicy foods, alcohol, cleansers, birth control pills or stress. When possible, the elimination of an offending trigger may improve redness. Rosacea is typically treated with oral medications such as tetracycline, minocycline, or doxycycline or prescription topicals such as metronidazole.

One new breakthrough in redness relief is SkinMedica Calmplex. Calmplex treats the underlying cause of redness and also improves the skin's natural barrier. It does so by using 4-Ethoxybenzaldeheyde which inhibits the release of the natural vasodilator, prostaglandin E2. Patients have found their redness to be greatly improved in a little as two weeks. Calmplex can also be used to expedite the dissipation of redness after a Cross TCA or other acne scar treatment.

Overall, redness relief can be a difficult problem and involves identifing and eliminating triggers when possible and in some cases the use of select topicals to help decrease redness.

Triggers to Redness:

Food- alcohol, spicy foods, hot drinks, alcohol
Activities- exercise, hot water (bath or sauna)
Environment- Hot weather, cold weather, humidity, sunlight, wind, computer, fluorescent lighting
Emotional- Stress, anxiety, embarrassment, laughter
Hormonal- Birth control pills, menopause, chronic cough,
Irritants- Skin care products, alcohol containing products, sunscreens
Medications- Blood pressure drugs, pain medications, nicotinic acid, tamoxifen

As we know our body needs vitamins to maintain good health. While a healthy diet is important for most of these vitamins, Vitamin D is one the Vitamin which we get from sun exposure. But isn't sun exposure supposed to be bad?

An internal medicine physician friend of mine suggested making sure that enough Vitamin D. He stated that Vitamin D, while known for causing rickets when deficient, is now being seen as a much more important factor in health in completely unrelated areas. It is thought that Vitamin D can reduce the risks of cancer, reduce risk of autoimmune disorders, decrease risk of cardiovascular disease, and ward off infections like influenza.

So this begs the question, how do I get Vitamin D? The USRDA recommends getting around 400 IU for an adult. That's the amount found in most multivitamins. However, some experts feel that the benefits of Vitamin D should be around 5,000 IU a day. Thankfully, the sun can provide about 1,000 IU of vitamin D per minute in summer sunlight.

But isn't sunlight bad for you?

Anything in excess is bad for you, including sunlight. Here are some guidelines to balancing sun intake with Vitamin D levels.

All the right places. I still suggest patients but on daily sunblock on their faces. The ravage of years of sun on the face, the most common location for skin cancers, can be minimized. If you are going to be in the sun for a limited period of time, considering leaving arm skin exposed.

Don't Overcook It-Right amount of time. If you are fairly pale, being in the sun for 10 minutes, three times a week may be all that is necessary. If you have a darker complexion, consider up to a half an hour.

Eat it. During the winter months, sun can be pretty hard to come by. Vitamin D is not that common in our foods, but is found in some seafood and is fortified in milk. During the winter months, if you do decide to supplement it make sure it is the D3 format which is also known as cholecalciferol.

Probably one of the more common questions after a facelift or botox procedure is what should I do to take care of my skin everyday?

One key component of that is finding a daily sunscreen to wear.  The is is a key in preventative aging. Here is the science on this in a simplified format. Our skin ages in two different ways: intrinsically (our cells getting older) and by the sun (dermatohelosis or photoaging).  A daily use of sunscreen will help limit our exposure to harmful sunrays UVA and UVB. Even if you are driving, UVA rays can penetrate your car window. This is the reason most of us in the States have more aging on our left side, while those in Britain have more aging on the right side.

The problem with just any sunscreen is that it has to feel good on your skin, be effective, and non-irritating. In order to be effective, your sun screen must block both UVA and UVB. The spF number just means that it can block UVB. It must state that it can block UVA as well.  Sometimes patients will believe that a spF 70+ is way better than a spF15. While there is more sunblocking ability, spF 15 product will block 92% of sun, while a spF 30 will block 96%.

If a product does not feel good on your skin, you will not use it- plain and simple.  If it causes irritations or breakouts, again the product is not likely to be used.

There are a large number of great sunscreens, particularily in the daily moisturizers, out there. Some of my favorites (all block UVA/UVB) include:

La Roche-Posay Anthelios SPF 40 ($40) - fantastic UVA blocker with Mexoryl SX:

Clinique City Block Sheer Oil Free Daily Face Protector spF 25 ($18)

and for sensitive skin Vanicream Sensitive skin ($13).

Durable and Long Lasting favoriet is Neutrogena Healthy Defense SPF 45 ($13)

For Oily Skin Purpose Dual Treatment SPF 15 ($9)

Acne Prone Skin, UV Essentiel by Chanel ($48)