Lux Likes This Question… I wanted to know about glycolic treatments and peels available in drugstores and beauty counters. What do these treatments do? Are these treatments effective or are you better off going to a Dr’s office for a facial peel with a higher acid content? If the treatments the public can buy are effective, what ingredients and/or percent concentration should I look for?

The Right Brain responds:
Glycolic peels performed by a dermatologist can be pretty potent. One study shows they’re equally as effective as microdermabrasion. Ouch! These high power Derm peels use a glycolic acid concentration of 20% while over the counter like Peter Roth only use about 10%. So yes, there is a difference. You might be satisfied with the drug store brand, but if not, see your doctor.

What do YOU think of facial peels? Leave a comment and share your brainy-ness with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Cee Cee says…I usually wash my face with the cheaper drug store brands but my friends swear by the more expensive Clinique Liquid Facial Soap. Is there something about this product that makes it worth the extra money?

The Right Brain replies:

Clinique Liquid Facial Soap (which sells for $18.00 sells for 6.7 ounces) is formulated with sodium laureth sulfate, a milder cousin of sodium lauryl sulfate, as the primary cleansing agent.  It also contains seven or eight additional secondary cleansers and conditioning agents. Here’s the ingredient list if you want to make a full comparision.

Clinique Liquid Facial Soap ingredients

Water purified, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium chloride, cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine, lauramidopropyl betaine, sodium cocoyl sarcosinate, TEA-cocoyl glutamate, di-PPG-2 myreth-10 adipate, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, PEG-120 methyl glucose dioleate, sucrose, sodium hyaluronate, cetyl triethylmonium dimethicone PEG-8 succinate, tocopheryl ethyl succinate ethyldimonium ethosulfate, butylene glycol, matricaria, hexylene glycol, polyquaternium-7, laureth 2, caprylyl glycol, sodium sulfate, EDTA, disodium EDTA, sodium benzoate, phenoxyethanol.

Are there other products that are cheaper? Sure. Freeman, for example, has a simpler primary surfactant and it’s about half the cost.

Freeman Foaming Facial Cleanser Ingredients

Water, Glycerin, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Chamomila Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Witch Hazel Extract, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Rice Extract, Punica Granatum Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Grape Seed Oil, Panthenol, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Cocamidopropyl PG Dimonium Chloride Phosphate, Polysorbate 20, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Disodium EDTA, Butylene Glycol, Methylchloroisothiazoline, Methylisothiazolinone, Limonene, Linalcol, Fragrance

While the Freeman product contains multiple natural extracts, it’s cleansing system is not as sophisticated as Clinique’s. Plus, it contains fragrance which is a no-no for products designed for sensitive skin. Finally,  Freeman’s packaging is not as upscale  as Clinique’s shiny chrome pump and frosted bottle.  So with Clinique you’re not only paying for a more sophisticated formula but also the aesthetics and style of the Clinique name.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Clinique is a very well formulated and nicely packaged product even though it may be a bit expensive for some people. The good news is there are plenty of other alternatives. As always, we suggest you experiment with a few different products to determine what’s right for your skin. You don’t have to buy a more expensive product just because your friends tell you it’s better.

What do YOU look for in a facial cleanser? Mildness? How well it moisturizes your skin? Or just how well it gets rid of makeup? Leave a comment about your fave face wash for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Mo wants to know… I came across an excellent brand called Biotique and all their facial cleansers are soap and surfactant free. The primary ingredient in all their products is “Sapindus / Soapberry/ Soapnut.” Is Soapnut a good cleanser?

The Right Brain is nuts about soapnut:

Actually, Mo, soapnut is one of those natural ingredients that may really be worth the hype. So before we talk about Biotique we’ll give you some background on non-soapy soapnut.

Soap to nuts

Soapnut, also known as soapberry, is a plant belonging to the genus Sapindus. You can extract a chemical called saponin from the plant’s berries which is a natural, low-foaming detergent. Saponin belongs to a class of chemical compounds known as amphipathic glycosides, for those of you keeping score at home. They can be found in may parts of plants including leaves, stems, roots, bulbs, blossoms, and even fruit.  

Are saponins good for skin?

Although they don’t foam much, saponins are good, gentle cleansers. So while they may not be powerful enough to remove waterproof mascara, they are very good at gently cleansing skin to remove excess oils. And, the benefits of this natural extract may extend far beyond mild cleansing. There are numerous studies on the medicinal properties of saponins; for example, according to this article on saponins from Pubmed, certain types of saponins from red ginseng can counteract the effects of ultraviolet B-induced skin aging in hairless mice and have a positive effect on skin thickness, elasticity, and wrinkle formation. Interesting! 

Baffled by Biotique

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any specific list of ingredients for any Biotique products. Without that crucial information we can only speculate about how they use soapnut. One possibility is that they really do use soapnut as their primary cleansing agent leaving out any soaps or synthetic detergents. In that case, it may be a very mild cleanser (although probably low foaming). Another possibility is that Biotique uses soapnut as more of a marketing ploy to differentiate their products in which case they may be adding small amounts of soapnut to formulas that contain typical cleansing agents. A quick review of a Biotique ingredient list, if we can find one, will make the answer obvious.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Soapnut (also known as soapberry) is a valid, gentle, natural cleanser but we don’t know how Biotique is using it. We’ll keep our eyes open and if we find an ingredient list we’ll update this post.

Has anyone bought Biotique or any other soapnut based products? Leave a comment and share your experiences with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Dagga91 wants to know…I am interested in becoming an independent consultant with a new skin care line called Votre Vu. I got samples and loved the product. I was hoping someone could shed some light on their products.

The Left Brain is vehement about Votre Vu:

Votre Vu is a French direct marketing company that offers a variety of skin and hair care products.  Here’s a quick summary from NPROS.com:

Vu brings spa quality french skin care products to the home party business. The Votre Vu motto is “stay pure, stay simple, work hard”. Launching in August, 2008, Votre Vu consultants will have the ability to run an inventory free business, direct customer orders via their personal web site, no monthly ordering requirements, and have all credit card transactions handled directly by Votre Vu. Consultants may also receive all weekly commission payments directly onto a personal debit card.

As you know from previous posts on Arbonne and Mary Kay, I’m very cautious about working with direct marketing companies. But I’ll set that issue aside for the moment and focus on Votre Vu’s products. I looked at their website to learn more and didn’t find much to be impressed about in terms of their formulations. 

Votre Vu Sweep Eye Makeup Remover

For example, look at their Sweep Gentle Eye Makeup Remover. The website gives a list of  ”Power ingredients, the hard-working ingredients that make this product so powerful and beneficial for you.” For this product these Power Ingredients are identified as Isotonic Solute, Rose Water, Boric Acid, and Bluet Water. But a another click reveals that the rest of the ingredients in the formula include five or six different surfactants including our old friend sodium laureth sulfate. Now, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with using sodium laureth sulfate in an eye makeup remover, but there are number of cleansing chemicals that are milder and less likely to dry out your skin. If I’m paying $25 for 4 ounces of product, I’d expect to see a more premium formula.  

Votre Vu Cheveux Heureux Conditioner Riche

I also looked at one of Votre Vu’s hair care products:  the “Conditioner Riche.” It uses a pretty standard combination of fatty alcohols, stearamidopropyl dimethylamine, quats, and silicones. These are the same conditioning agents you’d find in a Pantene or Tresemme type of formula. Once again, there’s nothing wrong with these ingredients but $29 for a bottle of conditioner that doesn’t provide any additional functional difference seems a bit steep to me.  Another note: the website proudly proclaims that this conditioner formula is SLS-free. This is amusing since SLS (aka sodium lauryl sulfate) is a foaming/cleansing agent and is rarely, if ever, used in conditioners! I’d feel much better about this line if they were attempting to honestly educate consumers instead of claiming confusing half-truths like this.  

The Beauty Brains bottom line

I certainly can’t advise you on your business venture, Dagga91, but I’d have a hard time recommending Votre Vu formulas based on the information available on their website. I don’t hesitate to recommend trying expensive products if I see a potential technical benefit (like in the case of Living Proof No Frizz) but I hate to see people pay too much for over-priced products that aren’t really that different. Having said that,  I’m always open to new data that could change my mind. So if anyone has further information that explains the value of Votre Vu products, I’m glad to look at it and discuss it in a future blog post.

Has anyone else tried Votre Vu? Leave a comment and share your experience with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Clarisonic Skin Care System – Pink Think you’ve removed all your makeup with your cleanser? There is probably makeup, dirt, and other impurities left behind after you cleanse that you can’t even see. Clarisonic Skin Care System removes six times more makeup than cleansing alone

Our previous Clarisonic assessment sparked a bit of controversy with one responder claiming

you are a complete idiot…
before you write a hack review on a product know what you are talking about first.

Ouch! Sometimes it’s hard to be a Beauty Brain.


Mostly, we ignore criticism like this, but two things happened. First, my sister asked if stimulating skin makes it produce extra collagen and I was not sure. Then we serendipitously got another Clarisonic device in the mail. Since the Clarisonic definitely stimulates skin it got us Beauty Brains talking about it again. Sarah said it was a sign.

I do not believe in signs, but was interested enough to take a closer look at Clarisonic.

Clarisonic Science

The Clarisonic Skin System is a water-proof, hand-held device with a vibrating brush head. You apply a cleanser then move the brush on your face in a circular patter. A built-in timer tells you when to move from one face section to the next.

Think of it like a high-tech poof or washcloth.

The product claims to use “sonic technology” which is not defined. I
guess it is a reference to the brush heads which move at “super-sonic” speed? The brushes do move fast and that helps clean skin. Certainly, Clarisonic was trying to get people to connect sonic toothbrush technology with this product figuring if one works so will the other. They do have a few patents on the design and the motor. (US 7,157,816)

Clarisonic Exfoliation

We mentioned in the previous post you could probably get the same effect by exfoliating. One reader pointed out that Clarisonic does not exfoliate. True, Clarisonic does not advertise itself as an exfoliating system, but it does lightly exfoliate your skin so keep your daily use limited.

Clarisonic Claims

Clarisonic makes the following 3 primary claims and a few soft ones.

More than twice as effective as manual cleansing

We don’t have access to their test data, but this claim is confusing. What exactly does it mean? Do they mean effectiveness at cleaning? It seems like it but that’s not clear. No set guidelines means companies can come up with any reasonable test and report positive numbers. So, if Clarisonic could’ve found some specific compound removed better with their device than manual cleansing they could make the claim.

That doesn’t mean your face will be twice as clean.

6 times more make-up removed

Without their test data/protocol it is hard to say exactly how they proved this. However, you can bet the number sounds much more impressive than what you’ll experience in reality. If manual cleansing is done properly, it adequately removes make-up.

61% greater vitamin C absorption

We don’t know how they proved this, but it was most likely an in vitro test (lab) meant to simulate human skin. It is doubtful that you’ll get 61% vitamin C absorption in real use and even more doubtful you would notice if you did.

Clarisonic soft claims

The soft claims include “reducing the appearance of visible pores” and “reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.” You prove these using consumer panelists who try the product and answer some questionnaires. ANY product will score well in a test like this, especially one like Clarisonic which is novel and feels good when you use it. While it will “appear” to you that your pores & wrinkles are reduced, don’t count on them actually being affected.

Clarisonic and Collagen

As to my sister’s question about stimulating the production of collagen, there is no definitive evidence that it does. Some in vitro studies have suggested it might. The company does not make this claim so they haven’t done the testing. It would be a big challenge to safely design this kind of study anyway. So, it probably doesn’t stimulate collagen production but it won’t hurt.

Clarisonic Benefits

Beyond their claims, three things make Clarisonic interesting to try.

1. Less exposure to harsh surfactants and exfoliating particles
2. Timed cleaning so you’ll be more consistent
3. It feels good

While it doesn’t mean much, most people who try the Clarisonic love it. It’s a unique experience and makes face cleansing fun. Whether that is worth the >$150 price tag is only something you can decide for yourself.

Will Clarisonic change the face of daily cleansing?

Clarisonic requires a behavior change and most people will not be able to change for long. They’ll use it religiously for a month or so then forget to get new brushes and eventually it will end up under their bathroom sink next to their lipstick stencils. We could be mistaken, but results are not vastly different from standard cleansing so lasting behavior changes will be difficult.

Beauty Brains Bottom Line

There are definitely some benefits of Clarisonic over other methods of cleansing like more consistent cleansing, less exposure to harsh surfactants & exfoliating particles, and it just feels good.  Who wouldn’t want a fresh-feeling face?  It is also a unique alternative to standard products. We here at the Beauty Brains want to encourage all cosmetic companies to make unique products rather than unique product stories. Clarisonic is definitely a unique product.

If you are unsatisfied with your current cleansing routine, try the Clarisonic Skin Care System (or something like it).

–Right Brain

Do you have a Clarisonic device? What do you think? Are you still using it after a couple of months?