Hope Springs Eternal

By: Lorna Bowes
Created on 18th February 2011

Lorna Bowes of Wigmore Medical divulges the secret to a glowing complexion

There is no doubt that we all feel better when our skin ‘glows with health’. It doesn’t matter whether we are practitioners, aestheticians, patients, male or female; when our skin feels soft and more youthful than we feel inside, we will feel great about our skin.

Never more strongly than now has society led us to want to stay or appear to be young. So, what are the signs of ageing and how can we create a feeling of youth?

The process of ageing first shows itself in the skin. Many of the changes are inevitable, however some can be reduced with healthy lifestyle choices and good skincare. To rejuvenate the face we need to reverse the damage done in‘photo-ageing.

How can we create a feeling of youth?

There are many peeling agents and skin care ranges available to us, but in the 1970s Drs Van Scott and Yu came across glycolic acid (an AHA or alpha hydroxy acid, one of a family of naturally occurring organic fruit acids) and discovered the effects that AHAs can have, not just on conditions such as plaque psoriasis and lamellar ichthyosis, but also on acneic, oily and photo-damaged skins.

With further research the doctors became aware of the positive benefits that glycolic peels and hydroxy acids can have on skin conditions such as rosacea, and how the use of AHA, BHA (beta hydroxy acid), PHA (poly hydroxy acid), and bionic PHA (first, second and third generation hydroxy acids) skincare products can improve a multitude of skin imperfections, such as fine lines and wrinkles, pigmentation irregularities, mild to moderate acne, superficial acne scarring, keratosis pilaris, pseudo folliculitis barbae, keratoses and benign lentigines.

Dr Van Scott and Dr Yu decided to set up a company called NeoStrata – a company that is still, many years later, at the forefront of new technologies in skincare, with the fourth generation of hydroxy acids emerging this year, and an amazing pipeline of products due to be launched through 2011 and 2012.

NeoStrata also produces a glycolic peel system that is 100 per cent free glycolic acid, allowing for peels with remarkably low pHs for maximum peel efficacy balanced with low downtime and high patient tolerability.

The NeoStrata 70 per cent Glycolic Acid peel has a pH of 0.6. The full range of strengths (20 to 70 per cent, ph 1.6to 0.6) enables the aesthetic practitioner to safely design a treatment programme around each patient’s individual skincare needs and tolerances.

Combining the NeoStrata peels with either home care and/or other in-office procedures allows us to maximise skin benefits. From a practitioner’s perspective, a simple peel which can be titrated both in terms of pH and exposure time to ensure that the treatment is tailored to each patient, but still only using one key ingredient, allows for simple, straightforward, effective solutions for the clinician.

From a patient perspective, how great to be able to get visible benefits, a smoother, clearer and more radiant skin with little or no downtime.

Benefits include improving skin texture and tone, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, moisturising dry and severely dry skin, helping to manage oily and acneic skin problems, unblocking and cleansing the pores, and reducing age spots and hyperpigmentation irregularities.

That is how to get that feeling of youth!