ASCP Skin Deep

JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018

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36 january/february 2018 expertadvice INGREDIENTS Inquire Within When it comes to making ingredient decisions, do your homework by Danné Montague-King When I began my journey in this field 46 years ago, cosmetic ingredients were simple and basic. The US Food and Drug Administration was not involved with these ingredients, and if we used everything listed as "safe" in the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association library, we could make anything we wanted. Things have certainly changed. New discoveries, technology, and fierce competition among product manufacturers to get a piece of the multi-billion-dollar skin care pie have created an overwhelming and confusing landscape in which estheticians are faced with conflicting information. On top of these layers is a continual stream of popular fads and trends—from exotic peptides to stem cells from plants, animals, and even illegally obtained human body parts. The real science behind most of these "innovations" is ambiguous at best, with very few clinical trials or testing done outside the companies that sell them. With the money to be made globally through the sale of raw materials and thousands of ingredients mentioned all over the internet, how do therapists make educated decisions about which products to use and how or when to use them? A FEW BASICS To minimize at least some confusion, here are a few basic rules to go by when deciding which ingredients are best for your modalities and your clientele. • Before ingredients are even considered, estheticians must understand the concept, or philosophy of science, of whatever range of products they use. The products are merely tools to initiate that concept with. • Regardless of what may have been done to the skin previously, the basic "remove the damage,

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