Claire Chang: "The more you wash your face, the better."
Ni'Kita Wilson: Oh, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
"You don't need to exfoliate." Pssh.
Chang: [laughs] Oh, man.
Wilson: Oh, I love this one.
Myth: "If you feel a tingling or burning sensation,
it means the product is working."
Chang: Oh, my gosh. I had to say, "No!"
when I saw this myth.
My name is Ni'Kita Wilson, and I'm a cosmetic chemist.
And my name is Dr. Claire Chang,
and we're here today to debunk
a few myths about skin care.
Wilson: Let's get started!
"Drinking extra water will make your skin look better."
Ooh, take it away, Dr. Chang.
Chang: Although drinking an adequate amount of water
is important for your overall health,
there's actually no scientific evidence
that drinking extra water goes straight to your skin
or that it can improve your skin hydration.
Excess water is most likely just filtered
out of your body through urine.
Wilson: I can personally attest to the extra water
just passing through.
Chang: Our next myth:
"Your skin will get used to the products you use,
and then they'll stop working."
Wilson: Oh, I love that one.
It's not a matter of your skin getting used to the products.
A product can only do but so much.
There comes a point where those ingredients have done
all they could possibly do for your skin.
Chang: If you've noticed a huge improvement
when you first started using a product
and then notice less improvement over time,
just like Ni'Kita said,
it may be because over time we reach a plateau
in which your skin's visibly improved,
and at this point the ingredients are still working,
but they're maintaining a new normal.
Wilson: "The order in which you use
your skin-care products doesn't matter."
Chang: Order definitely matters.
In general,
you should apply your products thinnest to thickest,
and those with the active ingredients should go on first.
Wilson: Agree 100%.
If you have a water-based serum,
it's going to be hard-pressed to fight its way
through those barriers that we created in the cream
in order to get into the skin to work.
So definitely thinner, more active first,
and then build up heavier later.
Chang: So, I recommend doing a cleanser first,
then a toner, essences or ampoules,
then do your thicker moisturizers and your creams,
then your facial oils,
then your sunscreen, and then your makeup.
Our next myth is, "Pores can get smaller."
Wilson: Oh, nope.
Your pores do not get smaller.
Chang: There is also a circulating myth going around
that cold water can shrink the pores,
but this is just a myth.
Wilson: Your pores are the same size.
What can happen is your pores could swell up,
you know, oil can bring dirt, debris,
dead skin cells can get in there and swell.
They get engorged, you know,
from all this stuff that gets stuck in there,
and then when they're cleaned out,
they just get back to the normal size.
But the walls can also get compromised,
and so they can kind of lean and become weak.
And that also could change the appearance
of how your pores look.
"You don't need to moisturize your face if it's oily."
Chang: This is definitely a myth.
There is a difference between skin oil and skin hydration.
So, skin hydration is the water content
or the moisture levels of the skin,
whereas skin oil is the sebum content.
So, sebum is secreted by your facial oil glands
or sebaceous glands,
and it helps protect the skin barrier.
But sebum can contribute to that oily, greasy look
on the face, so people don't like it.
The important thing to remember is
that oily skin can become dehydrated
and have a low water content,
so moisturizing is still important.
I advise that you use the right moisturizers,
oil-free moisturizers that are noncomedogenic.
Also look for lightweight lotions
rather than thicker creams.
The lotions have a higher water-to-oil content,
whereas creams have a higher oil-to-water content.
Most recently I've been using Sulwhasoo,
which is a Korean brand.
S U L W H A S O O.
Wilson: You didn't know this was going to be
a spelling bee too, did you?
Chang: "You don't need to wear sunscreen,
even when it's cloudy."
Wilson: You need to wear sunscreen when it's cloudy,
when it's sunny.
The only time you don't need to wear sunscreen
is when there is no sun. It's night.
Just because you can't see the sun,
the UV rays are still there.
They're still present.
And it's the UV rays that are doing the damage.
And it doesn't matter what your pigmentation load is,
you need sunscreen.
I recommend 30 and above,
because if you're using 15 and then using
a little bit, you're not going to get
the level of protection that you need.
"The more expensive the product,
the better it works."
Chang: Absolutely false.
Many of the products that I use
and that I recommend are very affordable
and found in the drugstore.
I say that the efficacy of the ingredients
and the formulation matter a lot more than the price.
Wilson: I agree.
You know, as a chemist,
I want you to buy the most expensive product we make.
[laughs]
But the reality is,
it really does get down to the ingredients
and what you're looking for.
You can go to the drugstore
and you can pick out really great products
that can really help you and really
make a difference in your skin care.
Chang: The next myth is,
"The more you wash your face, the better."
Wilson: Oh, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Your face is not that dirty.
You know, you wash it in the morning, you wash it at night.
You don't have to overdo it.
Actually, the more you wash your face,
your skin could be worse off.
One, you are getting rid of the microbiome.
You're throwing that all off balance,
and when you do that,
you compromise your skin barrier,
and when your skin barrier is compromised,
that can lead to irritation, sensitivity.
Chang: Over-washing your face,
especially with harsh soaps or scrubs,
the ones with those beads in it,
can really dry out and irritate the skin.
I just recommend washing your face twice a day,
and then also after sweating heavily,
because sweat can clog the pores
and irritate the skin further.
Wilson: "You don't need to exfoliate." Pssh.
Chang: [laughs]
Oh, man.
Everyone can benefit from some gentle exfoliation.
Exfoliating can help renew and brighten your skin,
even your skin tone, de-clog pores.
It helps in anti-aging,
and it can actually improve the absorption
of other topicals you're putting on your skin.
Wilson: I love exfoliation.
I love it for every reason you just named.
And for me, again, because I have
very oily skin and acne-prone
and also hyperpigmentation, exfoliation really helps.
Chang: You're reminding me
I need to go exfoliate today. [both laugh]
If you're using a very gentle exfoliant,
you can do it every day.
If you tend to have sensitive skin
or you're using a higher concentration,
you might want to limit it to two times a week,
even one time a week,
and then if you're using in-office kind of chemical peels
and going to a facialist or your dermatologist,
you may want to limit it to every two to four weeks,
because they're using much higher concentrations
of chemical exfoliants.
Wilson: I can't end this without giving a shout-out
to Dr. Dennis Gross
and his AHA/BHA pad.
Beautiful, beautiful.
Chang: The next myth is,
"You need to use a lot
of skin-care products to get good skin."
Wilson: Again, as a cosmetic chemist,
I wish that were true.
You don't need to use a lot of products,
you just need to find the right products
that work for your skin needs.
Chang: Sometimes, actually, using too many products
can do more harm than good.
Wilson: Oh, I love this one.
Myth: "If you feel a tingling or burning sensation,
it means the product is working."
Chang: I had to say, "No!" when I saw this myth.
I was just like, "Ah!"
I always say actually your daily skin care
should typically not be uncomfortable at all.
And if it is,
it's a sign that your skin cannot tolerate the product.
Wilson: It's not always good to ask someone,
"What are you using?" and then go and buy it,
because your skin may not have the same tolerance level
as theirs, so you may have a different reaction.
Chang: And I know a lot of people who try to use
the best, the most effective ingredient,
and they try to kind of stand through it.
They want to persist because they want
to get their skin looking shiny and wrinkle-free.
But your skin, again, is different
from all of those people out there,
and it may not be able to tolerate it,
so you want to find the right product for you.
"Acne is only a problem during puberty."
Wilson: [laughs]
Can someone tell my skin that, please?
You could have not had acne during puberty,
and all of a sudden, as you enter 30s or 40s,
you all of a sudden start to get it.
You know, your hormones are changing,
and I'm a living, breathing testament
that that is not the case.
Chang: Adult acne may be persistent from puberty,
but a lot of times it's late onset
in patients who've never had acne before.
The reasons for acne in adulthood are genetics,
hormones, clogged pores, inflammation.
Stress can definitely worsen acne.
Certain diets can worsen acne, including, you know,
high-sugar, high-carb diets.
Pregnancy can sometimes trigger acne.
I definitely had acne during my pregnancy.
Cosmetics, too.
It's nice to really kind of localize where the acne is,
because those might be triggers
that you can remove
and see if your acne gets better
by removing those triggers.
You just want to be patient with it.
Remember that any treatment for acne
can take six to eight weeks to work,
so you just really want to stick to it,
unless of course you're getting that burning,
tingling, or irritation from it.
Wilson: "Dark undereye circles
are always due to a lack of sleep."
Chang: They can be actually due to
a lot of different issues,
and everyone's different.
So, sometimes it's due to lack of sleep and puffy eyes.
In other patients it might be due to,
you ate a salty meal the night before
or had some alcohol and it's causing swelling,
but it also may be due to genetics.
A lot of patients have dark undereye circles,
even since they were younger.
Allergies can also cause dark undereye circles,
so if your eyes are itchy
and you're rubbing it all the time.
Or, as we all mature,
we lose fat in our cheeks and our undereye area,
and that can create a contrast and a shadowing effect.
Wilson: Knowing the cause really is the key
to finding the best way to go about treating it.
Chang: The next myth is,
"You shouldn't use eye creams unless you have wrinkles."
Wilson: [sighs] No.
Actually, I know a lot of younger people
who are using eye creams as more of a
preventative measure, because they're trying
to prevent their skin from drying out.
They're trying to keep the skin elastic.
Chang: Ni'Kita, I think you said it beautifully:
Prevention is key in skin care,
and the eye area is often the first area
to show signs of aging.
Actually, late 20s, early 30s
is when you start losing collagen.
Wilson: I have to go tell my daughters
to start using a cream.
[both laugh]
Ha! "Serums and oils are a waste of money."
Chang: No!
Serums are actually what I spend the most money on.
Wilson: Right.
Chang: Serums are highly concentrated
with active ingredients like antioxidants
and hydrating factors that really benefit your skin.
Serums really are what's doing the brunt of the work.
Wilson: Agree 100%.
You can budget your cleanser.
You can budget your moisturizer and even your sunscreen,
but where you should think about spending
the bulk of your budget should be on the thing
that's going to give you the biggest treatment,
and that's the serum.
Chang: There's a huge range of skin issues
that serums can really help with.
Wilson: Ha! You can get rid of dark spots.
Chang: I do this every day at work.
Wilson: It takes time,
it takes discipline, and it takes you truly,
truly being committed to understanding the source
and why you're getting your dark spots.
Chang: Dark spots often have a component
of deeper pigment in the skin,
and that's where laser treatments come in.
Brown spots can always come back,
and you can get new brown spots.
So sunscreen is the most important thing you can do
to help prevent and treat dark spots.
Wilson: One thing about skin of color
is we were always told that, you know,
lasers are not good for our skin
because it'll end up causing more dark spots.
Have they improved the technology now
where somebody like me can come to you and say,
"Hey, Dr. Chang, how about these spots?"
Chang: It is true that skin of color
is a little bit more sensitive to laser,
and the reason is that there is more pigment
in patients in skin of color or darker skin tones.
There are resurfacing lasers that are lower in energy
and gentle but can help improve brown spots
over a series of treatments.
Wilson: I'll make an appointment with you
as soon as we wrap this up.
[both laugh]
What do we have here?
"Losing weight will help get rid of my cellulite."
Chang: Ah. So, cellulite,
it's one of the most common complaints I see,
but one of the most difficult to treat.
You have to remember that cellulite
is not just a condition of excess fat
or being out of shape, and, in fact,
I see cellulite in all weight groups.
We don't know exactly what causes cellulite,
but it can be associated with genetics, hormones,
and then lifestyle can also play a key component.
On a more biologic level,
cellulite is due to poor circulation,
it's due to inflammation, so, again,
a lot of reasons why people get cellulite.
Physical activity may actually help a little bit
with cellulite by increasing circulation and blood flow,
but weight loss in and of itself
may not improve your cellulite.
Wilson: When it comes to the beauty industry
and products to solve it, there's no silver bullet
in a cream or serum can give to you, and I've seen
some of the most in-shape women have cellulite.
Chang: "If you don't get eczema as a kid,
you won't get it as an adult."
Wilson: I don't believe that to be true. [laughs]
Chang: I actually just saw several cases
of new adult eczema patients this past week,
so it's very common.
Eczema is especially common in adults
who actually have work-related contact.
So healthcare workers, construction workers,
or hairdressers who wash their hands frequently
or come into contact with a lot of chemicals.
Eczema is managed primarily
by a really good skin-care routine.
Dry, irritated skin can make you more prone to eczema,
so you want to make sure you're hydrating
and moisturizing very frequently.
Wilson: "K-beauty only works for East Asian customers."
That's not how skin works.
Chang: K-beauty is definitely not just for Asian skin.
You have to keep in mind that
in terms of ethnicity, though,
there are slight differences in terms of pigmentation
and moisture levels between ethnic groups.
The basic structure of the skin
and the aging processes that the skin goes through
is essentially the same,
no matter what your ethnicity.
Differences in distinct skin types,
oily skin versus dry skin versus sensitive skin,
is likely more significant than ethnicity
when it comes to skin care.
Wilson: I created my products,
and I was looking at certain things.
Like, I know in Black skin,
the level of ceramides is lower than in any skin types,
so I include ceramides.
Overall, anybody can use the products.
If your skin doesn't need it, it won't use it.
If there's one thing people should take away
from all these myths, it's just know your skin.
I believe in having a relationship with your skin.
You know, you're in a relationship with another person,
you know what makes them happy.
You know how to push their buttons.
Have that same relationship with your skin,
and then a lot of these things you won't have to rely on.
You will know what works for your skin.
Chang: Be patient. Skin care always takes time.
And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Ask your dermatologist or ask your physician.
Really just choose a good skin-care routine
that will take you over long term
and work well with your skin.