Beginners skin science
March 18th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
One of the saddest things about the hair care industry is its inability/unwillingness to use keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), a key tool in hair growth and restoration. The same goes for all those businesses dedicated to “restoring” eyebrows and eyelashes. Another problem is that humans’ pursuit of immediate gain often goes together with an inability to appreciate the future. When a teenager uses heat or oxidants to push her hair in today’s fashion directions, she is also damaging her hair follicles. But who cares about what will happen in 60 years? The 75-year-old will care, and let’s hope that in 60 years, there will be something to stop baldness besides…
March 5th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Why do we use so many plant extracts in our products? Because plants, to survive in difficult environments and fight bacteria, fungi and viruses, evolved sophisticated chemical reactions capable of making complicated chemicals with very special abilities. And we don’t. Humans are complicated enough, but we can’t make stuff like apocynin, beta-glucans, or azelaic acid. For example: if you plant sunflowers in your garden they will do a good job suppressing weeds. How? They produce a chemical called sesquiterpene lactones. These chemicals are a rich source of drugs (some have cytotoxic, anti-tumorgenic, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties). They can be toxic to grazing livestock, causing severe neurological problems in horses. Some…
February 29th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Why synergy? “Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole greater than the simple sum of its parts.” The term synergy comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία synergia from synergos, συνεργός, meaning “working together.” Most advertising for skincare products tells you about a (secret, new, magical) ingredient that will make all the difference. This is, scientifically speaking, rubbish! Let me explain. Suppose we are discussing one of the ingredients that approximate most a “miracle,” epidermal growth factor. There are thousands upon thousands of scientific articles describing many more experiments documenting how EGF influences the skin. And yet, EGF will do nothing unless the cell its influencing…
February 21st, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
These are the “skincare” practices that will harm your skin and scalp, some of them permanently. You may be able to reverse some of the damage, though. The skin has ways to eliminate damaged cells, but you have to give it a chance. Even better, avoid the stress if you can! The ten worst culprits 1) not protecting your skin from UV radiation 2) Benzoyl peroxide and other strong oxidants, like those used to bleach the skin and hair 3) Plucking. Yes, eyebrows will regrow after plucking until the hair-making cells die or change into skin-making cells 4) Copper-containing “skin care” products. They promote oxidation when the antioxidant system of…
February 17th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The first 10: Babies have perfect skin, or at least what looks like perfect skin. But is it? The skin barrier is far from perfect, and it will allow water loss and irritation by chemicals that an adult’s skin could take without a problem. This is why you have to be so careful with the baby’s skin, and even young children. When the adult forgets to look at the ingredient list of a diaper cream, that can spell trouble, lots. Use a “natural” product with a lovely smell and a dreamy named ingredient in it (Balsam of Peru sounds like Paddington would use it). Some irresponsible “skincare” companies use it.…
February 15th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Caveats:Luxury products won’t make you feel rich. Not even very rich people feel rich! Buying a luxury product may make you feel like a fool, especially when you look at the ingredient list after you buy it and then discover that it is not returnable.What people say: “It makes my skin feel soft and comfortable.” Hack:Buy the perfume if it’s the perfume that makes you feel that a product that costs more than $1,000 per oz. is not ridiculous. If you still like it after wearing the perfume for a week, add a drop to the $20 skincare product that actually helps. Buy yourself a pretty pump to dispense the…
February 14th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What’s in your skin microbiome? An enormous variety of living organisms, sustained by your skin and helping (or not) to keep it healthy. If before we were constrained by the ability to grow the microorganisms in culture, now it’s possible to identify them using DNA, and this allowed us to uncover microbes that are hard to culture in a Petri dish. What do these microorganisms do for you? They are there to serve themselves, kept warm and in nice humidity, and they are fed. This is a relationship, commensalism, in which microorganisms evolved with humans. We inherit microorganisms from our mothers when we are born; they will colonize our skin…
February 13th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
“Small” differences in chemical structure make a world of difference in the behavior of the chemical and its effect on your skin. Here, we have a few examples illustrating different aspects of chemical structure and how they are used in skin care products. Azelaic Acid and Azeloyl Glycine. Adding an amino acid makes a world of difference in solubility and effect on the skin, azeloyl glycine is soluble in water-based serums and creams. Retinol is an alcohol, and retinyl acetate is an ester; both are retinoids, forms of Vitamin A. The skin can convert one into the other, but they differ in their stability, making retinyl acetate the ingredient of…
February 12th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I don’t like to use the word “should” (telling others what to do), but I will in this case. Using fragrances in skincare is an unnecessary risk. About 2500 different fragrance ingredients are currently used in the composition of perfumes, and at least 100 of these are known contact allergens. If skincare is a product that improves skin health, why take unnecessary risks? For those lucky enough to use perfume without trouble, this is what perfume is for. Not skincare. Lazy skincare companies add fragrance and pack their products in fancy jars to give an impression of luxury. Never mind that there is no correlation between the benefits you can…
February 9th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Wouldn’t you like to know what will happen tomorrow? I wouldn’t. I prefer to believe that what will happen tomorrow will depend on what I do. But if you were a King trying to decide whether to go to war against the enemy, you may feel safer if your personal seer told you that you would triumph (never mind that the seer couldn’t see that tomorrow, he would slip on a wet floor and break his leg). Another problem with this system is that the prophet may lose his head if he had the bad idea of predicting defeat. I love the movie Stardust, where the future is foretold using…
February 7th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
If “adaptogens” are a soviet era dream, what can you do about stress? Here we can discuss skin, because life stress is beyond my expertise. When you see a plant in the desert, you may wonder how it can survive these conditions. Their strategy is to avoid the conditions. Some evolved to do photosynthesis with closed stomata (to prevent water loss) like CAM plants (pineapple is an example). Others avoid the dry season altogether by spending it as seeds. Or they may have extra water storage capabilities or may have lost leaves (and their stomata) during evolution. These are all avoidance mechanisms. We can avoid stress to the skin. The…
February 7th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
….if any! “Adaptogen” may sound scientific, but it’s not a term used in science or medicine. According to Wikipedia, “As of 2020, the term was not accepted in pharmacological, physiological, or mainstream clinical practices in the European Union”. Also, according to Wikipedia, “adaptogens or adaptogenic substances are used in herbal medicine for the purported stabilization of physiological processes and promotion of homeostasis”(purported as in “there is no there, there.”) Incidentally, what do you know about science in the former Soviet Union? Dictatorships are not good for science, as scientists are human and will try to “find” results that comply with the dictator’s opinion. For example, the Soviet Union invented Lysenkoism,…
February 4th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I will limit this post to damage to the skin. Please remember that the lungs also suffer from pollution, but we have less control over what reaches our lungs. What control do you have? Don’t smoke and try to choose a place to live (if you have that luxury, most people don’t) with low particulates. Reactive oxygen species (ROS*) What are ROS*? They are chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen and they are bad news for the chemicals that form our body. While “organized oxidation”, i.e. respiration, is essential to making energy we need for life, “disorganized oxidation” by ROS* is a whole different thing. ROS* steal electrons and break chemical…
January 31st, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What do you need to get your skin to glow? You could get some fireflies to do the work using luciferin and luciferase. Fireflies make light; it’s called bioluminescence. Humans don’t make light. Figure. This gorgeous photo of Greta Garbo makes it look like she is glowing. Actually, her face is only reflecting light perfectly positioned by the photographer. If trying to catch fireflies is too much work, you may be content with skin that doesn’t glow but reflects a bit more light. And how do you get that? Removing the upper layers of cells from the epidermis should do the trick; smoother skin (or makeup) will reflect more light.…
January 24th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Proteins are like long words made of just 20 letters that can be repeated many times in different orders. Just like words, some amino acid sequences can form meaningful words or, in the case of proteins, working molecules. The amino acids are the letters, and the polypeptides or proteins are the words. If you give a monkey a typewriter (or, nowadays, a computer), it is unlikely that the monkey will produce a meaningful story or a lovely poem. Oligopeptide: a few amino acids joined by peptide bonds Polypeptide: many amino acids joined by peptide bonds Proteins: large molecules comprising one or more long chains of amino acids The proteins in…
January 19th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Makeup: gives the look of more and more volumized eyelashes. Incidentally, volumizing is a styling technique that refers to giving body to hair. Think 1970s. Ingredients: Water, Acrylates/Ethylhexyl Acrylate Copolymer, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Alcohol, Glycerin, Dimethicone, VP/Eicosene Copolymer, Carnauba Wax, Stearic Acid, Shea Butter, Castor) Seed Oil, Biotin, Panthenol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Tromethamine, Hydroxyacetophenone, Acrylates Copolymer, Xanthan Gum, Disodium Carboxyethyl Siliconate, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Laureth-21, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Citric Acid, Tocopherol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Iron Oxides. Actives: support growth and health of hair and the live cells that make it. Ingredients: Water, Seakelp (Kelp/Lactobacillus Ferment Filtrate) Bioferment, Propanediol, Glycerin, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Caffeine, Serenoa Serrulata (Saw Palmetto) Fruit Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape)…
January 17th, 2024 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I learned a lot. Here it goes. 1) The skincare industry is slooooooooow to learn. 2) The double whammy: Wasted opportunities (to do good) and primum non nocere (first do no harm) go unheard 3) The taxpayer pays for basic scientific research but doesn’t get to enjoy its fruits. 4) Skincare is not a priority for scientists and doctors unless it’s cancer. 5) Not all advances in basic knowledge will translate into advances in skincare 6) What can we expect from the future? 7) You need practice reading word salads to discover what’s inside a skincare product 1. The skincare industry is slow to learn. Why? In 2024, a premium…
November 27th, 2023 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Why can’t they (the skincare industry) do what they promise? Because, by law, and for safety reasons, you can’t sell a product to apply to the human body that contains live bacteria. Then, why promise? Promises are cheap, and ingredient lists help muddy the waters. Here are two examples. Heiq Synbio care Athlete foot spray Ingredients: Water; Bacillus ferment; Phenoxyethanol; Inulin; Ethylhexylglycerin; fragrance; Dimethicone. Heiq Synbio Hygienic hand gel Ingredients: Denatured alcohol; water; Bacillus ferment; inulin; Xanthan gum; Triethanolamine; [4-(4-diethylaminophenyl)-5-hydroxy-2,4-disulfophenylmethylidene] diethylammonium hydroxide; fragrance. Advertising departments add to the confusion with the misleading pseudo-word “Synbiotics.” Plus another: “postbiotic.” Any “biotic” will do? Maybe inventing silly words is easier than creating a…
October 18th, 2023 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
No injection. But doesn’t the name make you think of a medical treatment? Let’s seeMineral Oil, Avocado Oil, Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer, Jojoba Seed Oil, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Tocopherol, Butylene Glycol, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, Polyglyceryl-10 Tetraoleate, Soybean Oil, Atelocollagen, Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate, Tribehenin, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Benzyl Nicotinate, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Tin Oxide, Silica Dimethyl Silylate, Silica, Sorbitan Isostearate, Butylene/Ethylene/Styrene Copolymer, Pentylene Glycol, Pepper Resin, Fragrance, Benzyl Alcohol, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Phenoxyethanol, Red 27 Lake (CI 45410), Red 40 Lake (CI 16035), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Yellow 5 Lake (CI 19140). In short, mineral oil, vegetable oils, colorants, silica, fragrance, preservatives. Label value: atelocollagen, sodium chondroitin sulfate, palmitoyl tripeptide-1. Label value are…
September 27th, 2023 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The promises? Essential lipids, antioxidants, and vitamins. The ingredients: Water, Dimethicone, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Glycerin, Cholesterol, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Ceramide 3, Sunflower Seed Oil Unsaponifiables, Bis-Peg-18 Methyl Ether Dimethyl Silane, Sodium Polyacrylate, Peg-10 Dimethicone, Nylon-12, Lauryl Peg-9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Dimethicone/Peg-10/15 Crosspolymer, Phenoxyethanol, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Hydroxyethylpiperazine Ethane Sulfonic Acid, Ammonium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate, Chlorphenesin, Caprylyl Glycol, Peg/Ppg-18/18 Dimethicone, Propylene Carbonate, Disodium Edta, Acrylonitrile/Methyl Methacrylate/Vinylidene Chloride Copolymer, Adenosine, Dipropylene Glycol, Lavender Oil, Rosemary Leaf Oil, T-Butyl Alcohol, Peppermint Oil, Sodium Citrate, Linalool, Isobutane, Ceramide Eop, Bht, Tocopherol, Limonene. What it gives you: There are several silicones and lots of formula improvers. Irritating essential oils. Fragrances galore. Not much stuff that your skin can use…