Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles - Dermatologists say you don't need special eye creams. Use what you use on the rest of your face, it's just skin. It's never just skin. (upbeat music) Hey guys, my name is Dr. Michelle Henry, I am a board certified dermatologist practicing in Manhattan, New York, and I do the full range of dermatology, so everything from skin checks to acne consults to skin cancer surgery to Botox and fillers, so I'm excited to be here with you guys today. We're gonna take a deep dive into the Go To Bed With Me comment section and I am gonna answer some of your most burning questions. (upbeat music) So I don't have one specific cleansing method that I recommend for all patients. What's really important is that you know your skin type. Let's say you have oily skin. Now what's going to be critical is that you're removing the oil, the dirt and debris from the day. So you're gonna want a slightly stronger cleanser, so maybe a gel or a foaming cleanser. If you have dry skin, I recommend something like mycellar water. So mycellar water is a really gentle way to cleanse the skin. So really choosing your cleansing method depends on your skin type. So first ask yourself, what is my skin type? And then choose your cleanser. I like that you alternate your cleansers. I'm going to try that. I agree with her. Our skin changes, the weather changes, our micro environment changes from day to day, and some days I have normal to combination skin. Some days I'm dry, and some days I'm oily. And I really do have to change my products and my cleanser on a daily or weekly basis based on my skin's needs. So ask your skin, how am I feeling today? And if you're feeling dry, it might not be the day to use a really harsh exfoliant or to use a really drying cleanser with really strong, active ingredients. Really listen to your skin. Think about your microenvironment. Think about the season of the year. Think about how it's feeling, and choose your products based on that. Does anyone else cringe at her rubbing and tugging so harshly? Rubbing and tugging harshly is absolutely something we do not want to do. Our skin is a very delicate organ, and in my opinion, one of our most important organs, and so we really have to treat it delicately. So when we're cleansing our skin, even if you're wearing really heavy makeup, make sure that you remove it gently and make sure that you're using the appropriate cleansers and makeup removers so that the process is nice and smooth and seamless. But tugging will not get your makeup off any faster. It will not make your skin happier or healthier. It will more likely cause little microtears, causing your skin to become inflamed, making your skin at risk for having infection, and it really is not what we're looking for. Next comment by Red Candy is, she has on her jewelry while doing her skincare routine. Rings and watches carry a large amount of bacteria. No wonder her face gets easily inflamed. Also, calls moisturizer crazy, but uses lemon on her face. So, two things here. Rings and watches, especially rings, which are typically metal, aren't really what we call fomite, so they're not holding a lot of bacteria typically. Of course, could they? Yes. But typically one does not have to remove a nice, smooth ring to tend to their skin. Now if you're wearing a ring that's quite jagged, I'm more concerned about it tearing the skin than I am about it causing a bacterial infection. The likelihood that she's getting bacteria from her ring is teeny teeny tiny, so that's not a concern. What I'm more concerned about is the lemon. Using lemon on the face, lemon can be really drying. It can actually be quite caustic to the skin. Further, citrus fruits can cause something we call phytophotodermatitis, and so they can sensitize the skin, causing inflammation, and actually causing a really, really dark hyperpigmentation. So I really don't want her using that lemon and then going out into the sun tomorrow. That's more problematic to me than wearing her rings. Exfoliators shouldn't be used as a second cleanse. It should really be a cleansing oil to break up makeup, followed by a gentle water-based cleanser like a gel cleanser to remove remaining dirt and whatnot. But whatever works for her, I guess. She's gorgeous. I don't agree with this. It depends on the exfoliator. So if you're wearing really heavy makeup, an exfoliator is not going to be able to exfoliate the skin. And why are we using exfoliators? We want them to remove the dead skin. Of course to remove dirt, oil, and debris, but they're usually more effective at removing dead. We want to first remove that barrier. So if you're using a makeup that's heavy, I'd prefer that you use an oil cleanser or whatever cleanser you're using to remove your makeup, and then use the appropriate exfoliant afterwards. If you're starting out a new exfoliation regimen, I always recommend no more than once or twice a week, and gradually work your way up. It also depends on if you're using physical or chemical exfoliation. So physical exfoliation or manual exfoliation, which is using something like a spin brush or using something that has beads in it or even sugar granules, something that's manually exfoliating, is oftentimes a little bit harsher than using a chemical exfoliant. Whatever you do, it's based on your skin type, start out one to two times a week, and gradually work your way up based on your tolerance. Foam cleanser can't remove makeup completely and they all feel light on the skin. It's foam. I don't necessarily agree with this either. So it depends on the type of makeup. So if you're wearing your daily makeup, a really robust foam cleanser, especially foam cleanser that has ingredients like glycolic acid or salicylic acid, which are really great at exfoliating and breaking down dirt, oil, and debris, can remove makeup from the skin. If it's for daily makeup, a foam cleanser, the appropriate foam cleanser can work and can give you an efficient cleanse. (upbeat music) A serum is typically in the treatment phase of your skincare regimen. It's a lightweight product that's pact with active ingredients. So you choose your serum based on your skin concern. So whether that is brightening, fine lines, or dark spots, a serum will help target that specific concern. A serum and essence, they may sound similar but they are quite different. A serum typically has a higher concentration of active ingredients and it's a little bit heavier, whereas an essence has active ingredients but it's a little bit lighter and it's a little bit more hydrating. So let's say you're someone who has more sensitive skin, you might want to start with an essence first. If you're someone who has a little bit more robust skin, you're less sensitive, then the serum might be the answer for you. So the next comment is by Melissa MJ, and she says, she's doing oils first, then serums, no. Melissa, you're right. So, an oil is typically occlusive. And so that means that it doesn't allow things to penetrate, it doesn't allow water to come out, nor does it let water or other ingredients to cross it to get in. And so if you're using an oil first on your skin and applying your serum next, you're wasting your serum, it's not able to penetrate. I'm genuinely interested to see how well the next generation will age. Given what we know about retinol and other skincare ingredients, will there be lots of 50-something-year-old people walking around with baby soft, unlined skin? I certainly hope so. I have been using retinol for as long as I can remember. I actually use it twice a day, which is a little bit naughty, but I absolutely love it. And in seeing my patients and practicing for many years, it is changing skincare. We look at a lot of celebrities that we love and we wonder why they look so fantastic, and I think a big part of it is excellent skincare, which using a retinol is absolutely the gold standard and should be a part of that. The next comment is by Maddy O'Toole. You only need two to three drops of serum. Well Maddy, this is not correct. Everyone's different. Some faces are more generous than other faces. Some serums are a little bit thicker or a little bit thinner, and so you know, there is no strict rule that you need two to three drops. Frankly, I need more than two to three drops. It just depends on the nature of the serum and your skin. What we're looking for is that you're making a thin, even layer. When you're putting on serum, it's not drippy. It's just a thin, even layer. You should allow your skin to absorb it, and that can be anywhere from two to six drops, who knows. How do you know if you're using too much of a product? Your skin will tell you. If you're irritated, if you feel that your other products aren't working because you now have 14 products and your moisturizer can't get in. So listen to your skin. If you're using too many active ingredients, one of the top things I see in my office is that when patients have a skin concern, they turn into little mad scientists and they're using everything and they're trying to improve their skin, and they often get irritation. So I think irritation is one of the top key indicators that you're using too many products. So the next comment is, you can see that the vitamin C serum has gone bad. That's why she's got a yellow tint. Well, this is incorrect. Vitamin C serum typically has a yellow kind of golden hue, so you really can't tell that it's gone bad by looking at it. If it smells bad, then maybe you could tell, but by looking at it, it's really difficult to tell. When you're buying a vitamin C serum, what's key is that the bottle should really be opaque, because vitamin C can be quite unstable. And so we take lots of precautions and lots of steps to stabilize, and because it's sensitive to light, we typically put it in an opaque bottle. The average shelf life, you know, it's hard because different products have different ingredients. Some of them have more water. Some of them have more oil. Things to look for, if your products are separating, that's a concern. Typically you get about a year with your products. Things that have more water in them you get closer to nine months. But typically at about a year you're safe with most products. Once products have gone beyond their shelf life, A, they're not as effective, and B, we start to worry a little bit about safety. Once those preservatives aren't working in the way they're intended to work, then you can have bacterial overgrowth in your creams or your moisturizers or your cleanser, so it's really important that you abide by those expiration dates. (upbeat music) So some of the most common active ingredients are retinol is a big favorite, vitamin C is a huge favorite, niacinamide is a huge favorite, hyaluronic acid is really popular. Those are really some of our gold standard active ingredients. The next comment is by Jose Lopez. You should never mix tretinoin with vitamin C. Well Jose, I love your passion. He's right. Vitamin C is a really labile ingredient, and so we do have some variations of vitamin C that are a little bit more stable and the chemists are busy in the lab making more and more stable variants of vitamin C, but the most common version of vitamin C that we use in beauty products is a little bit unstable. You will see on the market some products that have a vitamin C and a Retin-A in them and you wonder how could this be? And that's because there are some variants of vitamin C that are a little bit more stable, but the average vitamin C that we see in most beauty products we cannot mix with acidic ingredients like tretinoin, retinoic acid. I know that a lot of people and a lot of my patients will mix two products together to save time. But what we wanna make sure we're doing is getting the full potency and full efficacy from our products. And sometimes if we're mixing them, we're inactivating them. So we have to be really smart about what products we mix. If we're mixing moisturizers which have more just hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid, ceramides, aloe vera, oftentimes those are very safe to mix and layer. But if you're mixing ingredients that have very strong active, you can either inactivate them or cause really massive irritation. Another tip is if you wanna use multiple active ingredients is to either alternate them, so alternate day to day, or morning and night. For instance, I use a vitamin C serum in the morning and I use my retinol at night because mixing them together makes them a little bit less efficacious. But if you want to get the benefit from both, alternating or doing an a.m., p.m. regimen is perfect. So the next comment is, I have sensitive skin. Should I use anti-aging products like retinol? I don't think so. Then what should I use for? If you have sensitive skin, can you use a retinol? Absolutely, it's just about finding the right retinol for you. So retinol products come in varying concentrations, so they can oftentimes it can be as low as 0.02% all the way up to 1%. And so you really have to choose the percentage that works best for you. And a nice cheat that I use in the office is the sandwich method. So if you're using a retinol, if you think that you're very sensitive, start out with the lowest concentration and sandwich it. So you put your moisturizer on first, you put your retinol on next, and then you put your moisturizer on top of it, and that really helps to hydrate the skin, give you a nice intact skin barrier so you're less prone to irritation, inflammation, but still allows you to get all of those good, active ingredients, that stimulation of collagen, that reduction of pigment that we absolutely love in retinols. (upbeat music) What a moisturizer does is that it waterproofs our skin and it keeps it healthy, it keeps the good stuff in and the bad stuff out. And so it's critical that no matter your skin type, whether you're dry, oily, or combination, that you're using the appropriate moisturizer to keep your skin functioning optimally and healthy. So the next comment is, I have normal skin and use coconut oil as my moisturizer. So as much as we love coconut oil, it's very popular, I really don't recommend using it on the face. Coconut oil is quite comedogenic, and that means it can clog your pores. If you're using coconut oil, it's okay to use it on the body, it's okay to use is on the body for those with eczema because it's a slight antiseptic. However, on the face, absolutely not. When patients come into the office and they have a new onset of blackheads and whiteheads, my first question is are you using coconut oil. And the answer is often yes. The next question is by Tosheatower. Waaahh, exfoliates everyday with dry skin and then only a facial oil? No moisturizer? I understand your distress (laughs). So you have to be quite careful. If you have dry, sensitive skin, exfoliating can be quite tough. But again what's critical is knowing your skin, listening to your skin. Your skin will tell you if what you're doing is too harsh. This person with dry skin exfoliating everyday seems like it could be a bit much. I imagine that they might have a little bit of redness and inflammation. But it depends again on how you're exfoliating. Now if you're using a really gentle exfoliant, maybe something with strawberry enzyme or papaya enzyme, which is not very caustic, even some of the more sensitive skin with time can tolerate that everyday. And now onto the next part. A face oil and a moisturizer. Again, this depends on your skin type. So an oil is different from a moisturizer. An oil is an occlusive, so an oil is going to lock in moisture, but it's not going to give you moisture, whereas a moisturizer is going to give you moisture and it's going to draw in water to the skin. So it depends on your skin type. If you're using an oil on damp skin, it's locking in moisture, that's exactly what we want. However, if you're very dry and you're using this oil and you realize that you're dry throughout the day, then an oil is likely not sufficient. So for someone who's dry throughout the day, I would say use your moisturizer first to give you that moisture, and then use your oil on top to lock it in. So again it depends on your skin type, your environment, and kind of what activities you're doing throughout the day. Dermatologists say you don't need special eye creams. Use what you use on the rest of your face. It's just skin. It's never just skin. Skin is very important. So you know, I'm a fan of eye creams. I know there are a lot of people who believe that eye creams are just moisturizers in a small bottle. I don't subscribe to that. I think that there's a lot in that field that we're creating some really great products that are really safe for the eyes. So why I like eye creams is because they're tested to be used around the eyes. I see a lot of irritation around the eyes. I see a lot of patients coming in with redness, dark circles from irritation or from using the wrong products, so I really do like eye creams because it gives us that additional level of safety. So it's not just skin. Use the appropriate creams in the appropriate area to make sure that you're keeping your skin safe and happy and healthy. (upbeat music) So moving on to what I believe the last step in your routine should be, oils. Not everyone needs an oil, but if you like to, you can incorporate it, and it really doesn't matter your skin type. So I have a lot of patients that come in and say I have oily skin, I can't use an oil. Or if I have dry skin I absolutely must use an oil. There's a lot of variation. It depends on the type of oil that you're using. So some oils are a little bit lighter and they function more like the natural oils in our skin. Oils like jojoba oil. Jojoba oil is a really great oil. You can use independent of your skin type. There are a lot of oils that are heavier, so some will use olive oil on your skin. I do like oils like argon oil, which is a little bit heavier than jojoba oil. So it depends on your skin type. Everyone can use oils. Everyone just can't use the same oils, so you have to find the right oil for you. If you're someone who doesn't want to use a moisturizer, or let's say you're someone who's a little bit oilier, so then you're going to use your oil immediately after cleansing your skin. So you're gonna cleanse your skin, you're gonna pat dry so you still have a little bit of moisture there, and then you're gonna lock that moisture in with your oil. So I am a fan of oils. You just have to use them appropriately. Why does oil always peel off? What am I doing wrong? Likely, you mean, why does oil often build up. And if it's building up on you, it might mean that the oil is not for you. That's an indicator that likely it's too heavy, it's not penetrating, it's not allowing other products to penetrate, you're not washing it off appropriately. So the appropriate oil for your skin should really absorb easily. It shouldn't leave a greasy buildup or a greasy residue. So if you're noticing greasy residue or greasy buildup, that is not the oil for you. It's entirely too heavy. Next comment. Essential oils can be irritating to your skin, and they are not recommended because it has an aromatic scent, which is often used to make yourself smell good. Essential oils can actually, they can be quite powerful and they can be quite irritating. I have a lot of patients that come in using pure tea tree oil on their face and they're usually seeing me because now they're inflamed and they have hyper pigmentation. So you have to be really careful. Oftentimes if you're using an essential oil, I often like to dilute it in what we call a carrier oil. Something to protect your skin, to dilute the product so you're not as inflamed. But you know there's a huge trend in using things that are natural. Natural things can also be a little bit dangerous for the skin, so you have to be really careful. So using a pure, undiluted essential oil can be dangerous, so you have to be careful when you're using them. So that was the last comment. Overall, my skincare philosophy really is less is more. You don't need 35 steps to have beautiful, healthy skin. You don't have to spend a ton of money to have beautiful, healthy skin. Really invest in a few quality products and stick to it. Consistency is absolutely key. So this has been Derm Reacts, a new series by Harper's Bazaar, straight from our Go To Bed With Me comments section. So subscribe below, give it a big thumb's up, leave all of your burning questions below and maybe I'll be back to answer even more questions. If you have immediate questions for me, you can find me at Dr. Michelle Henry on Instagram. If you wanna see me in the office, you can see me here in Manhattan at the Laser and Skin Surgery of New York. (upbeat music)
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