Archive for July 2015
July 21st, 2015 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The Good, the Bad and the Very Bad. We see these beauty articles nearly every day: Reader’s Choice, Best Picks under $20, Beauty Editor’s Favorites, Best Eye/Lip/Anti-Aging (You name it.) Every beauty publication out there is giving us endless lists of “Must-Have” products we need ASAP. It makes you wonder, what is the motivation for publishing these lists? The products on these lists change so frequently, what about the “Must Have” from the last list? Nowhere to be found… Gone forever. Are companies paying for these product placements? Are editors desperate to put out brand new content? Are thei really testing these products before they tell millions of readers to…
July 20th, 2015 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
From: Otto Wilhelm Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885, Gera, Germany More than one thousand years ago, humans in different continents discovered that the leaves and bark of the willow tree could alleviate aches and fevers. With the advent of modern chemistry, in 1828, salicin, the major salicylate in willow bark, was isolated by Johann Buchner. A few decades later, industrial production of synthetic acetylsalicylic acid, trade name Aspirin, was introduced in Germany by Bayer. In skin care, we use two chemicals of this family: salicin and salicylic acid. Salicylic acid belongs to a diverse group of plant phenolics, compounds with an aromatic ring bearing a…