Skin Actives Products
September 10th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The Ordinary Peeling Solution: Glycolic Acid, Water, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Daucus Carota Sativa Extract, Propanediol, Cocamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Salicylic Acid, Potassium Citrate, Lactic Acid, Tartaric Acid, Citric Acid, Panthenol, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Tasmannia Lanceolata Fruit/Leaf Extract, Glycerin, Pentylene Glycol, Xanthan gum, Polysorbate 20, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Ethylhexylglycerin, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol. Very ordinary. Why? more of the same: an inflated number for concentration of acid when in reality most of it is a salt. More ordinary: a list of acids that are here just for “label value”. Also, present as salts. Useless! The red color is also a “value” thing. The acids are not colored.…
July 26th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What are mitochondria? Let’s go back in time to high school and try to remember the good stuff (and forget the bad stuff). We are made of cells. Our cells need the energy to keep going. We are not plants so we depend on food to get energy. Our mitochondria convert that food into energy we can use to live. That’s all! Of course, there is a lot more exciting stuff you can learn about mitochondria but I already told you why you need the mitochondria in your skin happy so that it can do its job. Unfortunately (you knew that this was coming, right?) older skin has older mitochondria.…
July 10th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
‘I had never known that the world was beautiful until I reached old age.” Alvise Cornaro (1467 – 1566) in The art of living long. The Fountain of Youth, a myth persistent in the human imagination throughout the ages, was at times a river, or a spring, or any other water source that reversed the aging process and cured sickness when drunk or bathed in. We can’t blame Herodotus for dreaming about it, as did the Chinese and the Arabs (who created the word “elixir”). You can’t blame people for dreaming, and you can’t blame the Chinese emperors for sending explorers to look for the fountain of youth. Whoever…
July 9th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
There are so many reasons to take care of our sun-damaged skin. Our skin is your protection from the environment, it prevents the loss of water, damage by solar energy, penetration of noxious chemicals and infection by microorganisms, and virus. How do you recognize skin damaged skin? No need to do any hard work: any skin surface that is ever exposed to the sun is sun-damaged. Exceptions? None. It is true that dark-skinned people have some more protection given to them by some extra melanin, but that’s it: some extra protection. Not total indemnity! To understand more about the damage that UV inflicts on the skin, compare the skin of…
June 27th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
As we age, crucial DNA mutations accumulate in our cells, and the mechanisms that regulate cell division fail. Out of control cell division plays havoc with our bodies: it’s called cancer. As the general population ages, the incidence of cancer increases. Science had progressed enormously in the understanding and treatment of cancer, and some amazingly sophisticated therapies do exist forme some specific types of cancer. For many other types of cancer, a big part of the treatment involves removing and killing cancerous cells. Thus, surgery to remove cancerous tumors is often followed by radiation therapy. In addition to dealing with sutures still healing, the patients (us) have to contend with…
June 10th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I will admit to being vain. I always had great hair, even when I thought it wasn’t great hair because wavy hair was not in fashion and women went to a lot of trouble to get straight hair (I didn’t). In my family hair loss for men and women is common, and I felt lucky that I had avoided that trend and my genes were the “lucky hair” ones. A couple of years ago, after surgery, I lost a lot of hair and I panicked, and for the first time I had to use our hair serum with KGF. I again felt lucky when the serum reversed the hair loss…
January 19th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I am here, writing this post while drinking my morning coffee, so I can’t pretend to be impartial. How safe is it? Very: it is used to stimulate breathing in premature babies. What can it do for your skin? Figure. Caffeine. The dry data The purine alkaloid caffeine is a major component of many beverages such as coffee and tea. Caffeine and its metabolites theobromine and xanthine have been shown to have antioxidant properties. Benefits Caffeine decreases the risk of skin cancer promoted by UV irradiation, apparently by slowing down repair of DNA mutations caused by UV making it more precise and preventing mutations that may lead to cancer.…
January 18th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
We get attracted to plant extracts for many reasons. Besides advertising, there are cultural influences (what did your grandmother use when you were sick?), the attraction of the exotic (if it is Korean, it must be better), and even the common name of the plant (dragon’s blood, anybody?). As a scientist, I have to be more careful with how I choose plant extracts as an ingredient for our Skin Actives products. Yes, I look at plants that were used for centuries by different peoples. I read the publications that deal with the ethnological use of the plant extracts, but that is only the beginning. Maybe the ancient people who used…
January 1st, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Answer: We understand the seriousness of the problem and we face it differently. The key concept is that the skin is alive and quite capable of doing its job, until it isn’t. What has changed? The skin ages, or is damaged, or the environment changes and overwhelms the defenses. Our answer: we replenish the skin’s natural defenses, by carefully following the established antioxidant system already at work in our skin. We don’t innovate in the sense that we don’t build from scratch, we only refresh, “top-up” the natural order. We can achieve this because we understand how the skin functions: its anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Amazing scientific advances…
December 25th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Do men need skin care at all? YES. We “accept” men’s aged skin not because it looks or works better (than that of a woman) but because we (society) judge men by other standards than how smooth their skin is (money and power come to mind). If men do need skin care, do they need skin care especially designed for them? NO. Why do men need skin care? Because skin care is not just a matter of beauty but also health. You can’t wait until things get bad to go to a dermatologist for a lesion that may be skin cancer. You need to prevent damage and reverse skin aging…
December 19th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The scalp, usually hidden behind one of our precious possessions, our hair, is exposed to the same stressors than the rest of our skin, like UV radiation, reactive oxygen species (ROS*), heat, physical stress and more. On top of the usual suspects, add the long list of chemicals, usually unwanted, that are present in the hair “care” products we use. Hair coloring, perms, straighteners, plus hair dryers, chemical and physical stress endured by those wearing “extensions”, and who knows what else. It is not surprising that most people, starting at a relatively young age, have hair problems which are actually scalp problems, because hair is dead protein and all the…
November 25th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Why combat dry skin? Dry skin is uncomfortable It is a bad barrier against the elements and microbes, and will not do a good job of keeping your body from losing water to the environment. Dry skin is an “entry” point to wrinkles, and will make the existing ones more noticeable. How NOT to combat dry skin. 1) Don’t remove most of the epidermis with strong acid peels or dermabrasion or whatever methods is suggested to give you “glow”. The glow will be from an inflamed epidermis that has lost its capacity to do its job as skin barrier. Do you really think that a cream sold in a store…
November 10th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
If the wall in your home has a crack in it, you call a painter. He will patch up the wall, prime it and paint over. The wall will look like new. If your left eyelid is a bit “droopy”, and your first instinct is to see a plastic surgeon, think again. Because your skin is alive and it is silly to think of surgery as the only option. Your skin is not like a wall: your skin is alive and capable of changing for the better. %0, 60 or even 70 does not mean that you have yo give up on skin care, on the contrary. Almost anything good…
October 24th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Warning: this is a “heavy” post that may feel to you like you are back in school and not in a good way (like for prom). You don’t have to read it but the objective is to convey to you the complexity of skin metabolism and molecular biology and why you should never look for a “magic” ingredient when it comes to skin youth and health. In short, life (LIFE) is complicated. Your skin is alive. Below the few layers of dead cells in the epidermis, perfectly designed for the tough job of protecting your body from pollution and damage, is the basal cell layer. Here is your stem cells…
October 1st, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What is all that noise about ugly masks? A protein or carbohydrate solution in water will dry as a film, tensing your skin and make you look ugly until you rinse it off. Benefits? None. A leave on serum will give more time for any active ingredients to make its way into the skin. Hanacure all-in-one facial ingredients Mask: Water, Carbomer (thickener), Nelumbo Nucifera (Lotus) Leaf Extract, Yeast Beta-Glucan, Caffeine, Niacinamide, Ethyl Ascorbyl Ether, Hovenia Dulcis Fruit Extract, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Honeysuckle Flower Extract, Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Peony Root Extract, Sophora Angustifolia Root Extract, Rhus Semilata Gall Extract, Peach Leaf Extract, Ginkgo Biloba Leaf Extract, Caprylyl Glycol, Scutellaria…
September 25th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Why is it worth your while to make a skin care product yourself? I can see two reasons: 1) When what you want does not exist in the market 2) When what you want does exist but it is too expensive. However, first you should make sure that what you want is what your skin needs, and not something that has been pushed on you by advertising. When not to do DIY 1) Don’t make a product so that you can add to it all the peptides that are in fashion. Why? Because such a product is unlikely to benefit you or your skin. If the ingredients are not beneficial,…
September 24th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Look at your face and hands and see what last Summer, the one that just ended, did to them. Ouch! Pigmentation is more irregular, plus there is a new scar or two and, how about those new wrinkles? First of all, as the Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy will tell you: Panic is the worst advisor when you have any problem, especially a health problem, panic makes you take bad decisions. My suggestions 1) NOT suitable for sensitive skin: A good start would be a super light “peel”: 15% Vitamin C serum or alpha/beta exfoliator, but not both. More is less, in this case. Follow the instructions carefully. Rinse the…
September 19th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Remember: All protective mechanisms in the skin are interconnected and regulated by redox-dependent processes. What is glutathione? Figure: glutathione (a.k.a. γ-L-Glutamyl-L-cysteinylglycine), with that all-important SH group. When oxidized, two glutathione molecules are joined together to make a S-S bridge. L-Glutathione (gamma-L-Glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine) is a tripeptide composed of the amino acids L-glutamine, L-cysteine, and glycine. Glutathione is part of the antioxidant defense system of the cell, together with superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutharedoxin, thioredoxin, alpha-D-tocopherol (vitamin E), ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and others. GSH protects cells by neutralizing (i.e., reducing) Reactive Oxygen Radicals (ROS*). This conversion is illustrated by the reduction of peroxides: 2 GSH + R2O2 → GSSG + 2 ROH (R…
September 14th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Striae distensae or stretch marks are deep scars caused by the skin being stretched beyond its capacity to stretch, followed by ineffective repair of the damage. Latin does not make them any less noticeable. They may start as striae rubra, which are reddish streaks (indicating increased blood flow), and “mature” to as striae alba, which are hypopigmented atrophic bands. Location: abdomen, thighs, breasts, more or less anywhere when the skin was stretched too fast. What you see is skin that has less elasticity, more roughness, and lower dermal density than normal skin. At the molecular level What you see at the molecular level is that in normal skin, dermal collagen…
September 14th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
We need to start with the basics: what is a pore, and why they are so important. There will be some repetition here but I hope our readers will not mind too much. As usual, feel free to skip whatever is too boring, but, hidden within the boring stuff you may find some useful facts you have not heard about in the past. Celebrities’ photos how no pores. This is not because celebrities have no pores but because magazines use Photoshop to a ridiculous extent. Is this a problem? I think it is. False advertising makes women buy products that can’t possibly have the effect advertised, which was obtained with…