Santa Barbara Skin Care Event at Evolutions Medical Spa Recap

Guests indulged in complimentary Clarisonic and Vibraderm mini-treatments and Colorescience mineral make-up application. Santa Barbara cosmetic surgeon Dr. Terry Perkins educated clients on the importance of home skin care including essential steps and the quality of products. Recap follows:

The answer may surprise you: both are equally important to achieve a desired result such as healthy, smooth skin that glows.

Routinely participating in spa procedures (facials with extractions, chemical peels, professional exfoliation with Vibraderm) contributes to about 50 – 60% of your desired end result while home care contributes the other 40 – 50% in helping you toward fabulous skin.

The take home message is that consistent use of professional home care products builds upon the work that is done on your skin at the spa.

Dr. Perkins highly recommends pharmaceutical grade skin care products because they have higher active ingredients which renders them more powerful. Mass market skin care products have lower active ingredients so that they can be used by a large audience without many problems. In mass market skin care, usually the packaging is half the cost of what you are buying.

1. Cleanse twice daily. Use the Clarisonic skin care brush when washing your face. The 1 minute sonic cycle gently removes dirt and sebum under your skin, up to 2x more than cleansing with your hands alone.
2. Exfoliate two times per week. Chemically or physically exfoliating the skin helps to slough off the older skin cells and eventually creates more evenness to the surface of the skin.
3. Antioxidize three times per week to decrease damage from free radicals that cause aging and possibly the beginning of skin cancer. Applying a topical antioxidant on your skin is much more powerful than taking something orally. For example, topical vitamin C (known as L-Ascorbic Acid) packs 50x more of a punch than would ingesting vitamin C. We are not discouraging you from eating food that is rich in antioxidants rather we encourage you to use a topical antioxidant along with eating plenty of fruits and vegetables! A powerful topical antioxidant moisturizer made by Revale contains CoffeeBerry® – derived from the fruit of the coffee plant – it has one of the highest antioxidant scores recorded. Revale is available at Evolutions.
4. Retinoids – commonly known as “Retin-A” – are great to use two times per week. You may have heard of Retin A (or “tretinoin) traditionally used for acne. Research has found that retinoids also normalize cell differentiation along with decreasing the plugging of pores and helps to correct DNA damage which may help to keep skin cancer at bay.
5. Sunscreen – this is the most essential step – and must be used daily, year round! Preferably the use of a physical block sunscreen is best as it deflects the UVA and UVB rays. Physical suncreens contain titanium dioxide and/or zinc oxide. At Evolutions we carry Obagi sun protectors (Skin Protection in SPF 35 and Sun Shield in SPF 50) and TiZo (in various SPFs).