Everyone wants great skin. We are bombarded daily by advertisements and marketing proclamations that claim to deliver it. The skin care industry is a 10 billion dollar business made up mostly of products containing oils and waxes, solvents, emulsifiers and chemical ingredients that allow for the creation of cosmetic commodities that modify the superficial appearance of the skin, without actually creating real changes.

Yet skin is naturally dynamic and normally regenerates itself on daily, weekly and monthly basis. It is the quintessential renewing organ and this assures a constant supply of youthful, healthy tissue. Within 4-8 weeks old skin cells have been completely replaced. This ultimately means that, with the right products and techniques, the characteristics of less than healthy skin can be transformed and your skin's naturally beautiful, radiant and healthy appearance can be restored.

To best leverage your skin's inherent healing and renewing capacity, we need to understand how the skin is constructed. While to the naked eye it appears like a covering that protects the inside of the body, in reality it is a complex organ that is structured in multiple sheets that can be generally classified into two major strata. The upper is referred to as the epidermis, which makes up about 10% or so of the skin, and underneath that, the remaining 90% is called the dermis. The surface of the epidermis is made up of a protective coating called the stratum corneum.

In less than two minutes, Ben Fuchs discusses how treatments based on benzoyl peroxide work (its a poison!) and makes simple dietary recommendations to help keep skin healthy.

One of the most common and poorly misunderstood ingredients in the world of skin care is silicone. It’s nearly impossible to find a moisturizer, anti-aging formulation, makeup, foundation or even hair care product that doesn’t contain it. Since its invention in the 1950’s, it’s been prized by cosmetic formulators and consumers for its soft velvety texture, smooth tactile quality, ability to protect the hair cuticle, waterproofing properties and ability to improve the application of products, allowing them to be applied with a frictionless feel with no greasy or oily sensation.

Silicones are highly processed chemicals derived from silica, a blend of silicon (the 14th element on the periodic table and NOT the same thing as silicone!) and oxygen, the 2 most abundant elements on earth, which together form nearly 60 percent the planet’s crust. Silica, also known as silicon dioxide, is a common constituent of sand quartz crystals and is widely used in the production of glass.

There is no one ingredient called “silicone”. Rather silicones are a family of molecules that come in numerous forms, all of which are inert chemicals, structured like a chain made up of repeating units of links called “siloxanes”, substances that are similar to water, except for the substitution of an atom of hydrogen with an atom of silicon. The net result is a siloxane molecule (technically Si2O instead of H20), that has the liquidy qualities of water with a different characteristic feel. This feature of being water-like, with a distinct and highly unique texture, is what gives silicone its multifunctional characteristics and is the main reason for its ubiquity in the world of cosmetic formulations.

While many topically applied vitamins have skin benefits, none can come close to the wide ranging salubrious effects provided by Vitamin A, a powerful and multifunctional oily nutrient that is available in three major forms.

The most common and the most stable form of Vitamin A is called retinyl palmitate. Retinyl is the Latin designation for Vitamin A and palmitate represents a carrying case or ferry for Vitamin A, acting to shuttle to the nutrient around in a protective bubble. This is the type that is absorbed into the body from the digestive system when we take supplements or eat Vitamin A containing foods. Topically it has some nice moisturizing and skin softening properties and there are enzymes in the skin that can break it down and activate it.

The second form of Vitamin A is known as retinol. It’s more active than retinyl palmitate and, in fact, if you use a high enough concentration of retinol (say 5 to 10 or even 20 percent) you can get a nice exfoliating Vitamin A skin peel. However retinol is quite unstable and for this reason you’re really not going to find these kinds of concentrations in topical products. At lower concentrations retinol can be “somewhat effective”, although the amount of retinol in most retail products isn’t going to get you much effect.