Dr. Dr. Bailey:
Your antioxidant skin care program has been such a help for my post menopausal skin.  Thank you.  I was wondering if you have any suggestions regarding cosmetics for flaky skin that is prone to breaking out.  Is there any difference between eye shadows, liners, powder and blushes or is one just as good as the other as long as the skin care program is sound?
Thank you, Helen

Dear Helen,
I’m so glad to hear that My Antioxidant Kit is helping your post menopausal skin! Thank you for your feedback.

I wonder why your skin is flaky and breaking out.  Common skin conditions that occur as we age and that cause facial skin to flake and break out include rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis.  You may want to see your dermatologist to see if you may have one of these conditions.

What ever the cause of your skin problems, it’s hard to put makeup on flaky skin. Makeup color goes on heavier in the scaly areas and looks uneven.  To create an even skin surface before putting on makeup many of my patients find it helpful to first cleanse and gently exfoliate their skin with nondrying  Noble Zinc Soap and the Facial Buf Puf.

The second issue is that adult skin that is prone to ‘breaking out’ is often actually sensitive and easily irratated.   The goal with makeup is to create the aesthetic appearance  you want without irritating your skin problems. This means figuring out what products flair up your skin and avoiding them.   Look for products that claim to be gentle and hypoallergenic.   Anti aging ingredients in makeup can be irritating so I recommend avoiding them; they won’t be present in therapeutic amounts and you’re already using great anti aging products in the antioxidant kit. This goes for your moisturizer as well.  Your moisturizer and makeup should sooth and support the antioxidant kit products, not irritate your skin; they should ‘dial in’ the moisture and appearance you want- and that’s all!

My favorite type of gentle, hypoallergenic makeup for sensitive skin is mineral make up. I especially like the loose powders. Powders don’t need to be preserved like liquids do and so they have fewer chemical ingredients that could irritate your skin.  There are great foundations, eye shadows and blushes that are loose or compressed powders and that are made with high quality natural ingredients. They look great and the minerals often provide additional sun protection on top of your sunscreen giving you an anti aging bonus. Eyeliners on the other hand have to be moist or waxy which means they’ll need some chemical preservatives.  The good news is that eye products are formulated to be extremely gentle so they are rarely a problem for sensitive skin.

Mineral makeup brands that I or my patients have had consistently good experience include:

1. Drug store brands like Almay and Neutrogena and Physician’s Formula.
2. Department store brands like Clinique and Prescriptives.
3. Spa and boutique brands like Bare Minerals, Glo Minerals and Jane Iredale.
4. Natural food store brands like Dr. Hauschka, Hemp Organics and Mineral Fusion.

There are many other good mineral makeup brands that I haven’t listed.    Try the products before you buy them.   Ideally you want to wait 24 to 48 hours to see if your skin tolerates a product before you buy it.

One last important point about makeup and post menopausal skin is that we often should use less of it as we age. This seems counter-intuitive but unfortunately makeup can accentuate wrinkles and sagging skin.  This is because makeup products migrate into our creases during the day, making them more visible. The lesson here is that there’s no substitute for powerful anti aging skin care and good sun protection, like the Antioxidant Kit that your using.

I hope this helps.

Warm Regards,

Cynthia Bailey MD, Dermatologist

If you found this information helpful, you may also want to read:

Facial Skin Care For Problem Skin With Rosacea, Seborrhea and Clogged Pores

Disclaimer: Please realize that availing yourself of the opportunity to submit and receive answers to your questions from Dr. Bailey does not confer a doctor/patient relationship with Dr. Bailey. The information provided by Dr. Bailey is general health information inspired by your question. It should not be a substitute for obtaining medical advice from your physician and is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific medical problem (and is not an extension of the care Dr. Bailey has provided in her office for existing patients of her practice). Never ignore your own doctor’s advice because of something you read here; this information is for general informational purpose only.

Warning:

• Most sunscreens don’t protect you from all of the sun’s damaging UV rays!
• Picking the right product is critical for complete and smart sun protection.
• Even one sunburn creates a sun damage debt you can never repay.

There are 3 simple steps to choosing the best sunscreen for your skin:

1. Your sunscreen must block ALL the harmful UVA and UVB sun rays.

Most products don’t!

Only the ingredient micro zinc oxide can block all the way through the UVA wave length spectrum, meaning it blocks all the harmful UVA rays. All the other sunscreen medicine ingredients stop just a little short from blocking the entire UVA spectrum. Plus, micro zinc oxide is stable in the bottle while you’re waiting to use it, stays stable on your sun exposed skin and is not absorbed into your body.

I always recommend that my patients use a sunscreen that contains 5% or more micronized zinc oxide. It should be listed as an active ingredient on the back label of your product at this 5% concentration. It’s my professional opinion that all the other sunscreen ingredients fall short of the dependable and broad spectrum protection afforded by micro zinc oxide. In my dermatology practice, I’ve relied on Citrix and Solbar Zinc Sunscreens for years to protect thousands of my patients and my family. These products are formulated for ingredient stability, rub into the skin nicely, don’t sting the eyes and rarely ever cause acne, allergic reactions or skin irritation.

Remember that the SPF number on a product only tells you how well the sunscreen product blocks the UVB rays, which are the summer sunburn rays that are more intense when you’re nearer to the sun. This would include the sun between 10 and 3pm in most parts of North America (except in winter), and in places that are at high altitudes or in parts of the world near the equator. (Geek facts: for every approximately 1000 ft increase in elevation there is a 4% increase in UVB radiation and for every degree of decrease in latitude there is a 3% increase in UVB.)

UVA radiation on the other hand is out all day, all year, where ever you are in the world. The SPF value tells you NOTHING about your sunscreen’s ability to protect you from UVA. Any product can claim to protect you from UVA if it just protects you from some of the harmful UVA rays. You have to read the back label on your sunscreen and look to see that micro zinc oxide is listed as an active ingredient and is present in a concentration of 5% or higher. If it isn’t, then the product will not protected your skin from all the harmful UVA rays in my opinion.

My second tier choice of sunscreen ingredients are products with 5% or more micro titanium dioxide. My third tier choice are the products with Mexoryl SX (ecamsule) as in the Anthelios and Vichy brands. Be sure to pick products that contain either zinc oxide, titanium dioxide or Mexoryl SX.

2. Only use fresh sunscreen products.

Sunscreen ingredients break down over time, especially if they were stored at high or low temperatures. I talked about this in my recent blog post: If You Want A Nice Sunburn, Use Last Year’s Sunscreen. Spring clean your sunscreen and buy a new supply every year. You never know if that tube or bottle of sunscreen from last year was left in your hot car or beach bag. You can’t be sure those old bottles are still good so regardless of the expiration date you should chuck ‘em and start fresh every spring.

3. The third and final trick is to pick the right sunscreen base for your activities and skin type.

Wet sweaty water activities need a water resistant sunscreen – period! You have to use a water-resistant base if water or sweat will be loosening or diluting the product on your skin. You also need to reapply your sunscreen when you get out of the water or dry off after sweating.

If you’re prone to acne, be sure to pick a product that’s in an oil-free base and won’t clog your pores. The mineral sunscreen ingredients micro zinc oxide and titanium dioxide can clog pores a little in really susceptible people. The zinc oxide provides such superior protection that I recommend my acne-prone patients add good pore cleaning acne products instead of using an inferior sunscreen. Only if they can’t make the zinc oxide products work for their acne should use a Mexoryl product instead.

Sensitive skin patients should use a pure zinc oxide sunscreen. My favorite is Glycolix Elite Sunscreen. Zinc oxide is gentle on the skin and almost never causes skin allergy or irritation.

More information on sun protection:

If You Want A Nice Sunburn, Use Last Years Sunscreen

Dermatologist’s Simple Trick To Test Your Sun Exposure

Making Sense Of The Vitamin D Dilemma And Sun Exposure

Reference:

Photoprotection: a Review of the Current and Future Technologies, Steven Wang et. al., Dermatologic Therapy, Vol 23, 2010, 31-47

Photo attribution:

Dear Dr. Bailey,
I like the idea of a cleanse, especially to jump start a diet but I have to take medication twice a day with food and not sure how that would work. I also have COPD and high blood pressure and not sure if it would affect that also. Thanks for any input.
Nina

Nina,
A detox cleanse can mean a lot of things, all the way from fasting on water to simply eating and drinking only pure and chemical free organic foods. The Detox Cleansing Fast I do is somewhat in between.

The important point in doing a cleanse is always that it be safe. That’s one of the reasons that I always adjust my activities when I do a cleanse – I just don’t have much energy on a cleansing fast and I need to be careful.

The second key point is that after a detox cleanse I have a familiar and wholesome diet to come back to when the cleanse is over. If not, then I don’t maintain the benefits of the cleanse and my health problems come right back.

Your medications and medical issues mean that for you to safely consider a rigorous detox cleansing fast like I do, you would definitely need your doctor’s supervision. I would guess that your doctors would even caution you against doing a cleansing fast and instead recommend dietary changes that are much gentler. My health issues are different; I don’t take medicines or have complex metabolic health issues, all of which would impact the safety of a fast. It’s important to understand that doctors carefully adjust a patient’s medicines based on what they know about that person’s baseline lifestyle. A cleanse would be a significant change in that lifestyle meaning that your doctors would need to monitor you and undoubtedly adjust your medicines as your body and activities changed. Talk with your doctors regarding how you might go about safely modifying your diet to make it pure and chemical free and then have them monitor you as you begin to make these changes in your lifestyle.

The second important point in doing a detox cleanse is that it’s only of benefit if the diet one comes back to afterwards is healthy and pure. In my experience, this is what makes the cleanse such a powerful tool to improve my health issues. The book I mention in the Detox Cleansing Fast post talks about this in detail and I recommend that you read that book before considering a cleanse. The author talks about people making themselves ill by eating the wrong foods too soon after a cleanse.

I’ve written about the 3 most important features of a healthy diet in my opinion: 1. the Alkaline Mediterranean Food Pyramid, 2. eating foods that are fresh and organic, 3. adding natural probiotics foods to the diet. Try to create this healthy diet before considering a cleanse, so that it’s easy to come back to afterwards. I would recommend looking at these posts to see what I think is an ideal diet for good health. See how you might gradually adapt your current diet to fit these concepts. Have your doctors monitor your medicines and go slowly. Switching from the normal American diet to a heavily plant based organic diet that includes only moderate amounts of healthy fats and animal products is a big shocker to the body. It will undoubtedly change your medicine dosages so again your doctors need an active role. Again, these dietary changes are important. They take time to figure out and implement in your lifestyle, and will undoubtedly impact your medicine dosages.

Remember, it’s so easy for us Americans to grab convenient processed foods filled with sodium and chemicals. Doctors adjust medicine dosages to handle this American diet. When a person stops eating all our modern food chemicals, their medicine dosages need to be changed. It’s all part of the ‘detox’ and it’s why we feel so different eating a wholesome low chemical diet. In my personal experience this is why I feel so much better when I’m careful with my diet, and why I feel so lousy when I grab the convenient, delicious processed foods that are everywhere.

Best of luck, this is a huge but worthwhile project. I admire you for considering it.

Warm Regards,

Cynthia Bailey MD, Dermatologist

Disclaimer: Please realize that availing yourself of the opportunity to submit and receive answers to your questions from Dr. Bailey does not confer a doctor/patient relationship with Dr. Bailey. The information provided by Dr. Bailey is general health information inspired by your question. It should not be a substitute for obtaining medical advice from your physician and is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific medical problem (and is not an extension of the care Dr. Bailey has provided in her office for existing patients of her practice). Never ignore your own doctor’s advice because of something you read here; this information is for general informational purpose only.

Warning: Last year’s sunscreen won’t help this year’s sunburn! It’s 2010……throw out your 2009 sunscreen now or……

BABY, YOU’RE EXPOSED!

Sunscreens don’t last forever! You can’t even trust the expiration date on the bottle. That’s because sunscreen ingredients are fragile. They sit in the bottle breaking down over time. If stored at high temperatures, they breakdown even faster. Don’t trust that old bottle sitting in your cupboard- it’s not worth the risk. Start fresh, and do it every spring – it’s smart spring cleaning!

For years, my dear husband used to demonstrate the importance of using fresh sunscreen every spring. On the first sunny spring weekend he’d apply last year’s sunscreen from the tube that was still sitting in the kitchen ‘junk drawer’. He’d hop on the tractor and go mow the field. Even with a hat and a thick coat of old sunscreen, he’d get burnt, and he’d be stunned. The old tube of sunscreen never exceeded its expiration date, but this was before we had micro zinc oxide sunscreens and the old sunscreen ingredients were really fragile. The micro zinc products are more reliable, but the point is, you just can’t trust the old stuff that’s been sitting around. Who knows if that tube sat in a hot car, hot beach bag or had any other thermal misadventures. You don’t even know if it’s older than a year. Just chuck the stuff and start fresh. It’s not worth the permanent damage you’ll suffer from even one sun burn.

Having learned from my husband’s mistakes, I now preemptively restock my family with fresh tubes of sunscreen every spring. I check the junk drawer and stock it with a fresh tube of Solbar Zinc. I go through my husband’s gym bag, the bathroom drawers and cupboards. I even see to it that my grown kids who live out of state have new sunscreen every spring. Regardless of the expiration dates printed on sunscreens, the ingredients still break down at differing rates depending on how they were stored … and I don’t take chances.

Remember- Spring clean your stock of sunscreen and enjoy the sun without the burn!

Photo attribution:

Dermatologist Dr. Cynthia Bailey answers your questions about skin care and skin problems

Dear Dr. Bailey,

I have facial seborrhea dermatitis, rosacea and clogged pores in the T zone, plus age spots. I am 49 years of age. I recently tried Obagi Blender which caused acne. I have Solbar sunscreen which also causes some breakout and seems a bit heavy/oily. With my skin so problematic and sensitive, I thought to try your green tea cream, zinc soap for the seborrhea, but am unsure about sunscreen and when to work on the congestion and age spots. My dermatologist really isn’t into cosmetic treatments, but does have me on Oracea for my rosacea, but is not approved for long-term use. Complicated, I know, but hope you can help. I though about Rodan + Fields new line, but it has fragrance and is really pricey.

Thanks, Lisa

Dear Lisa,

You sure have the double, triple, quadrupedal whammy of facial skin issues-and your not alone!

I can’t tell you how many patients I see with exactly your combination of skin problems, including myself.  You have tried some good products, you have some good ideas and your on the right track.  Assuming that your doctor has correctly diagnosed your rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis, I totally agree with your idea to try the Noble Zinc Soap and the Replenix CF Cream to quiet these skin conditions.

I have found Replenix CF Cream and Noble Zinc soap to be wonderful skin care products for helping to calm both rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis. These are also the foundational products for many of my anti aging skin care regimens.  They are oil free and should not clog your pores.  Plus, they are non irritating, and in fact very soothing for facial skin rashes.  Both of those are key characteristics for skin care product tolerance in people with sensitive skin.

I also applaud you for your determination to use a high quality, micro zinc oxide sunscreen like Solbar Zinc.  I love this product, but it does have a heavy feel.  It is actually oil free, but the water resistant base feels oily.  I recommend Solbar Zinc for wet, sweaty activities, but most people don’t use it as their every day sunscreen in my practice.  I recommend instead that you try the Citrix Sun Screen. It has a drier feel yet the same excellent UVA and UVB protection as the Solbar Zinc because it too is a micro zinc oxide sunscreen.  Patients find that it is non-irritating, doesn’t sting eyes and won’t clog pores.

I can’t stress enough the need to wear a  5% or higher Micro Zinc Oxide Sunscreen EVERYDAY!

Broad spectrum UVA and UVB sunprotection is critical for anyone who wants to lighten their age spots.  Micro Zinc Oxide is the best sun screen ingredient for complete, broad spectrum UVA and UVB sun protection in my opinion. Sunscreen needs to be applied every day, regardless of what activities are on the adgenda and regardless of what time of year it is.

I tell people to put their sunscreen on with their skin care products first thing in the morning.  I have them wash, put on Repleinx CF Cream followed immedietly by any other products they use. They then finish with Citrix.  Make-up of course goes on top as the last product applied.  No need to wait and let things dry.  Skin products are like the different foods we eat, they all get mixed up when they reach their final destination so they can be applied together.

Your last question is about  products that actually fade age spots.  Picking age spot fading products is tricky for people with rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis because these conditions make the skin sensitive, and age spot lightening products are usually irratating.  You need to chose these with your doctors help.  My favorite anti aging and age spot fading skin care product for patients with rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis is Retin A (tretinoin) at the lowest strength.  I find that if I can really quiet down the 2 rashes, I can sneak up on the skin and get it to tolerate the Retin A (starting twice a week and working up slowly as tolerated).  This is tricky though, so you need your doctors help.  Plus, Retin A is a prescription, Retin A use makes skin more sun sensitive and it can’t be used when pregnant.

Bring this information to your doctor and see what he/she has to say.  Best of luck!

Warm Regards,

Cynthia Bailey MD, Dermatologist

Disclaimer: Please realize that availing yourself of the opportunity to submit and receive answers to your questions from Dr. Bailey does not confer a doctor/patient relationship with Dr. Bailey. The information provided by Dr. Bailey is general health information inspired by your question. It should not be a substitute for obtaining medical advice from your physician and is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific medical problem (and is not an extension of the care Dr. Bailey has provided in her office for existing patients of her practice). Never ignore your own doctor’s advice because of something you read here; this information is for general informational purpose only.

If you found this information helpful, you may also want to read:

Early Skin Cancer Detection Saves Lives; You Need An Annual Full Skin Exam

Dermatologist’s Tips for Dry Flaky Skin On Your Face and Scalp; Tis the Season for Seborrhiec Dermatitis