The following is an excerpt from the Glow Journal Podcast. You can listen to the full interview now on iTunes and Spotify.
Paula Begoun has made a name for herself through her quest for truth in beauty. Unabashedly honest and ruthless in her pursuit of hard facts over opinions, it’s clear to anyone familiar with Paula, and her namesake brand Paula’s Choice, just why Oprah Winfrey dubbed her “The Cosmetics Cop.”
In part 2 of this interview, Paula answers your skincare questions- from SPF to cleansing, evening routines to salon treatments, retinols to niacinamides.
G: There’s been a bit of a push towards just cleansing with water in the mornings of late. What are your thoughts on this and what is it doing for the skin’s pH balance?
P: Well you don’t have to worry about pH for skin- skin will return to its own pH. The only time you have to worry about skin pH is when the pH of the product is too high in the alkaline range or too low in the acid range, but nobody’s making products like that anymore. Water has a pH of 7. AHAs and BHAs are usually somewhere between 3.5 and 4, but skin will recover. In fact, skin actually turns out to be more acidic than we thought. Skin will seek its own pH level- whatever minor change you cause, it’ll go back. It’s not going to be permanent. As long as it’s not irritating, it’s fine.
The issue with water is that it doesn’t cut through oil. Can you imagine doing your dishes with just water? If you had atopic dermatitis, you probably couldn’t even use water. But water just isn’t cleansing in of itself. It doesn’t clean. That buildup of your skincare products at night, and the oil, and whatever has happened over the eight hours of sleep, you just need to get that off to be able to get your other skincare products on. It doesn’t make any sense. Water in of itself isn’t cleansing.
G: How do we choose the right texture of cleanser for our skin?
P: The general rule of thumb for choosing products is to follow your skin type. If you have oily, combination skin, you use very thin, light, watery, gel textures without any thickening agents that could clog the pores of make you feel oilier. If you have dry skin, you then need thicker, richer, more emollient base products. Think about texture all the time. Somebody with oily, blemish-prone, clogged pores using creams and lotions is just ridiculous- it’s just going to cause problems.
G: Is retinol an ingredient everyone can benefit from using?
P: It’s an ingredient that everyone can benefit from, but not everybody can use it. For example, I’m sensitised to retinol, but not everybody is. It’s a small percentage of people. The research shows that small percentages of retinol can work really well, especially if you don’t have advanced signs of damage. If you have advanced signs of sun damage and acne, a 1% concentration is going to do you far better than a lower concentration. Vitamin A is resident in skin, and the research about what retinol can do for skin is 50 years old. It’s really one of the oldest, most researched skincare ingredients.
G: How often can we use retinol safely?
P: It’s safe to use because it lives in skin. Some people use it twice a day- there’s no reason not to. When you have advanced signs of sun damage, there are so many things your skin can’t do because you’ve killed it off. The sun has mutated skin to not be able to do what it needs to do. Some people get great results twice a day, some people once a day, some every other day- it really just depends. If you have young skin you could use a product that just has a small amount of retinol, then don’t damage your skin and you won’t need higher concentrations. It really just depends on the state of your skin.
G: When we say “young,” how young are we talking?
P: For what I call “bio-active ingredients,” then I’m talking teenage. All of the ingredients- the niacinamides, the retinols, the Vitamin Cs, the omegas- when I think of the way brilliant skincare products should be made, you can’t start too young as a teenager.
G: Sunscreen- physical or chemical?
P: Firstly, everything is a chemical. Just to get terms right, we’re talking synthetic verses mineral. Mineral being something that comes out of the ground- although, the way you have to process titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, which are the pure mineral ingredients, doesn’t make it all that natural anymore.
As a personal preference, not based on research, I’m really only talking about my personal preference, I prefer pure mineral. The risk of irritation is pretty much non existent. I personally find that it provides better protection, but that does not hold up in the research so I’m only quoting my personal preference here. In terms of synthetic verses mineral, it really depends on what works best for you. They will protect. The regulation around SPF is pretty stringent, so they will protect the way they say they protect. The best sunscreen is the one you will use regularly.
I like layering sunscreen- the more the better. I use one of my Paula’s Choice sunscreens, then I [apply] my foundation with sunscreen, and my pressed powder with sunscreen. I love layering sunscreens. That’s a great way to make sure you’ve applied enough of it.
G: What are the essential skincare steps? Should we be doing a Korean 10 Step Routine, or are we better off paring things back?
P: The skincare steps depend on the complication of your skin. For example, with my new Defence line, it’s a three step system (three products for day, three at night). If you don’t have rosacea, acne, advanced signs of sun damage, badly clogged pores… if you don’t have skin problems that you are trying too resolve, then the basics are just fine.
Somebody like me who has got to 65 and has sun damage, wrinkles, I didn’t know about sun protection back in the day, I could tan with the best of them, I still have clogged pores and I still have some amount of acne. In that regard, then my skincare routine is more complicated. It can be complicated, meaning how many products you’re using, but it can go fast. You just slap the stuff on, I wash my face, I do a double cleansing method at night, I put one product on after the other, you don’t have to wait between products. The ingredients are going to absorb based on their molecular size, nothing’s going to block it, they’re going to get through. I go and put my pyjamas on and by the time I do that everything is dry, I’ll put my lip balm on and I’ll go to bed!
G: Chemical or physical exfoliants?
P: There is no way a scrub or a cleansing brush is an exfoliant. It is an extra cleansing step. When you have sun damaged skin, the outer layer of skin becomes sticky and thick where scrubs and cleansing brushes, or even a gentle wash cloth cannot get to. What AHAs and BHAs do is very, very different, because they go after where the scrubs can’t get to. As a matter of fact, we first learned of AHAs and BHAs because of their hydrating properties- because of the way they restructure and realign skin in a healthy manner, getting off the uneven, unhealthy outer layers of skin that these cleansers can’t get to. They are actually hydrating. They not only exfoliate. BHAs exfoliate in the pore and have incredible anti-acne benefit. There’s nothing about a scrub that matches the properties of an AHA or BHA exfoliant.
As an extra cleansing method I’m all for it. We just brought out a gentle cleansing scrub, you can use the Clarisonic with the cashmere head (the other heads rip at the skin), but they aren’t exfoliants. They are an extra cleansing step- which is great!
G: Most underrated skincare ingredient?
P: Azelaic acid is an unsung hero. I was going to say BHAs, but now I think people are catching on to the value of BHAs so its not quite as unknown as it was when I first was launching BHA products back in the day. Azelaic acid is just astounding. I think peptides are [also] kind of unsung. I think people know about them but I don’t think they get, when the right ones are used, how powerful they can be. A lot of people know about niacinamide but I don’t think a lot of people know what niacinamide actually does.
I think we hope that one ingredient will do it all. The issue is that while there are a lot of brilliant ingredients, I would never formulate Paula’s Choice product with just one ingredient. While we showcase some ingredients, it always needs backup friends. Skin is complicated. The best formulas are a combination of brilliant ingredients and then, depending on your skin need, sometimes it needs a hero ingredient to help resolve the issue.
G: Are salon treatments really worth the expense?
P: No. I know, I’m pissing off every esthetician in the world!
What is absolutely worth the expense, without any question about it, are the procedures that a cosmetic corrective dermatologist or plastic surgeon can do. No question about it. Nothing compares to a face lift. For all the money we’re going to spend on those things [facials], put it in the bank and then by the time you want to try botox, or try fillers, or get a face lift, or get your eyes done, they’ll really make a difference. The problem is, a lot of the times, I see people selling multiple treatments, you’ve got to go in for more than one, and I worry you’re damaging your skin because I don’t know why you would have to go in [repeatedly]. Maybe for brown marks or red marks, but I just worry that it gets overdone and then you would start getting negative returns.
G: Skincare during pregnancy- what do we need to cut out?
P: I stay away from that question because each obstetrician has different opinions. Follow what your doctor says- that’s the most important thing. Some people say no BHA, no retinol… I don’t know, I hear all kind of things. You need to follow what your doctor says, that’s the best route.
G: Adult acne…
P: Adult acne, in terms of treatment, isn’t any different to teenage acne. When you have what they call “hormonal acne,” which is about 85% of all acne, it doesn’t matter how old you are, but what treats it is not using ingredients that clog pores. No thick moisturisers, no products that clog pores. Lotions and creams are deadly. BHA 2% is very important. Benzyl Peroxide is very important. Azelaic acid is a brilliant ingredient to help reduce inflammation and redness from acne, and also the post inflammatory hyper-pigmentation, the red marks left over.
G: How can one treat rosacea, when told to avoid acids, as well as sun damage and pigmentation, where they’re told to use acids?
P: Everybody needs to be gentle. When I created my calm line, which was aimed at people with rosacea, we put extra anti-inflammatory ingredients in and we loaded it up a little bit more with ingredients known to reduce inflammation. BHAs are absolutely something that somebody with rosacea can consider at a 1% strength. Some people actually do well with a 2% strength, but you would want to experiment to see if it worked for you. I think that the other thing for rosacea would be to consider Azelaic acid.
G: Three desert island products- what couldn’t you live without?
P: [laughs] I’m not going to the desert island! I can’t live without any of them! I’m taking a good looking guy who’s taking my makeup and skincare bag! It’s all coming with me- I’m not leaving anything at home!
G: Maybe that’s the loophole- rather than three products it’s three handsome men with your bags.
P: One’s carrying my makeup, one carries the skincare and the other carries the toiletries. You’ve got it, that’s what I need!
To listen to the full interview with Paula, subscribe to the Glow Journal podcast now on iTunes or Spotify.
