Back by popular demand: here’s our newest member, Forebrain, with another reference-laden post. Enjoy!

Julie’s cleansing question: I’ve read a lot about using baking soda to clean and exfoliate your face. Do you have any evidence this works either instead of a cleanser or for an acne treatment? Is there any down side? This is obviously much cheaper than all the fancy treatments out there if it works.

Forebrain’s favorable response:
I’m so glad you asked this question Julie, I’ve been hearing many great things about all the uses for baking soda as well, especially with respect to its exfoliant and cleaning properties! The quick answer is that baking does in fact work as a great exfoliant and may be useful in treating acne. Read on for more details and how you should use it.

Chemical and Physical Exfoliants

Although many of you already know quite a bit about exfoliating, let’s quickly go over the process and some differences between the chemical and physical methods.

The point of exfoliation is to slough off the cells from the top layer of skin and reveal the younger, healthier cells underneath. Some exfoliants contain mild acids such as Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA for short), which help renew the skin layer by burning off some of the skin. The effectiveness of these chemical exfoliants depends on the acid concentration, with too low being not effective enough, and too high being damaging to the skin. Physical exfoliants (like brushes or scrubs) on the other hand remove the skin cells from the top layer by physically scraping them off. With physical exfoliants, the level of irritation and potential damage to skin becomes an issue when coarser methods like hard bristled brushes are used.

Baking soda (aka sodium bicarbonate) falls under the category of physical exfoliants, and what makes it especially effective is that it is a fine, yet hard powder, making it highly effective at removing the dead skin cells without causing excessive irritation. Chemically speaking, baking soda is acid neutral, and acts a mild buffer which means that it has the ability to neutralize other substances it comes in contact with that are acidic (like vinegar) or basic (like soap). Many people also believe that baking soda has cleaning properties; however, scientific evidence has shown that this is due to baking soda’s physically abrasive nature, and it is not an effective anti-microbial agent.

Exfoliating with baking soda

To reap the benefits of exfoliating with baking soda, add a teaspoon of the powder to your facial cleanser, mix well, and massage into skin like you would with a commercial exfoliant. Do this 2-3 times a week or as per your regular exfoliation routine. If you notice that your skin is red or irritated afterwards, try putting in less baking soda and use the treatment at night so that your skin has a chance to get back to normal while you sleep. Remember to always moisturize afterwards!

Baking soda as an acne treatment

While there are numerous testimonials in which people claim that baking soda cleared up their acne when nothing else helped, please remember to take these statements with a grain of salt. We don’t know what else that person had changed in their skin regimen; it’s possible that besides using baking soda they also started drinking more water, switched their cleanser or moisturizer, or maybe even changed the number of times they cleanse their skin per day. Seasonal changes and stress levels also have a very strong impact on how much and how noticeable your acne may be. However, there is some evidence that baking soda may be beneficial in treating acne since just the exfoliating properties of baking soda alone lead to an increased skin cell turnover rate making your acne look less noticeable. Plus, baking soda’s neutralizing properties maybe reduce redness of the skin also reducing the appearance of acne. If you want to try using baking soda as an acne treatment, my recommendation is to use one teaspoon of it in your cleanser at night to exfoliate your skin, as well as make a thicker paste of just baking soda and water and apply it to the acne as a mask for 5-10 minutes or overnight (beware, when it dries the mixture will crumble so you might up wake up to a messy pillow).

The Beauty Brains bottom line

In summary, all signs point to baking soda being an excellent and cheap physical exfoliant. It is ph neutral and a fine powder, which means that it will be gentle on your skin. Baking soda may also be useful in treating acne when made into a paste and applied to the affected areas although there is not as much scientific evidence to back that up. Please comment if you try out any baking soda treatments to let us know what they were and if they worked for you. And always remember to moisturize!

Fun fact: Did you know that baking soda was the primary cleaning agent in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty? Leave a comment and share your favorite statue and facial exfoliating tips wih the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

References:

Parnes, C.A. 1997. Efficacy of sodium hypochlorite bleach and “alternative” products in preventing transfer of bacteria to and from inanimate surfaces. Journal of Environmental Health, 59, 14-20.

http://www.alive.com/3744a1a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=76

http://www.acne.org/baking-soda-reviews/209/page1.html

http://www.meredy.com/nursetips/skinhealthtips.html

From The Beauty Brains Forum Member: Cate

Most everyone should know how important it is to exfoliate your skin to keep it bright, fresh, youthful and healthy. But if you don’t know here’s a quick overview. When you exfoliate, you remove old layers of skin cells that can dull your skin, thus brightening it. I am always looking for a good facial exfoliant and I was extremely please when I had the chance to try the Neutrogena Healthy Skin Rejuvenator Kit. From the Neutrogena website:

“For softer, more luminous skin today and firmer, younger-looking skin tomorrow, Neutrogena® Healthy Skin Rejuvenator Kit™ delivers noticeable results every time you use it. Even more effective than professional microdermabrasion, Healthy Skin Rejuvenator is a simple, convenient at-home system that features single-use puffs and the Neutrogena microdermabrasion applicator. Each puff is pre-dosed with ultra-fine crystals and mild purifiers for the perfect degree of gentle exfoliation. What’s more, the massaging micro-vibrations boost microcirculation and oxygenation for increased radiance, while surface stimulation increases cell turnover.”

The kit came with the microdermabrasion applicator, 12 rejuvenating puffs, puff attachment head, and 2 AA batteries. It was extremely easy to use. I just snapped the attachment head on to the applicator and then stuck a pre-dosed puff on the head. The directions say to massage for 1-2 minutes per facial area. Use it 3 times a week in place of your normal exfoliant.

I was given a full month’s supply of pre-dosed puffs. I wanted to get the most out of my experience and really see if there was a difference in the way my skin looked so I used it for the entire month every other day in the shower. It’s great because the applicator is waterproof. I just left everything in the shower when I was finished…except the puff that went into the trash.

My experience with this system was bittersweet. I have combination skin and this really dried out my entire face especially my cheeks. I really had to moisturize after using this. Also, I knocked down the length of time that I used the applicator in hopes of less drying. Instead of 1-2 minutes per facial area, I used it for about 1-2 minutes for my entire face. That being said, my face looked amazing and felt smoother. It was bright, clear and acne free. I felt fresh and barely wore any make-up…maybe just a little tinted moisturizer or some powder. I really love the way I looked, but didn’t love all the drying out in the process.

You can get the Neutrogena Healthy Skin Rejuvenator one-month starter kit for $39.99. Refill puffs are available in packs of 24 for between $18-$20. If you go to the Neutrogena website and register you can get a $5 off coupon for the Healthy Skin Rejuvenator Kit and a $3 off coupon for the refill puffs.

What do you think of the new beauty gadgets, like Neutrogena Healthy Skin Rejuvenator? Are they a flash in the pan fad or the future of beauty care? Leave a comment and let us know. Or, you can start a thread and talk to Cate directly in the Beauty Brains Forum. And if you’re interested in getting free goodies of your own, join the Forum now and show us you’ve got what it takes to be a Beauty Brainiac!

Kelly’s question: Hi! I recently read something about the “Hayflick Limit” - but in relation to exfoliating and using products like Retin-A that says you can only exfoliate a finite number of times and then your skin will stop reproducing new cells! Is this true? I’ve just started a regimen of AHAs and Retin-A and my skin looks gorgeous. Am I setting myself up for the “Hayflick Limit” if I use these products once a day?

The Left Brain’s Limited Reply:
The Hayflick limit determines the life span of some types of cells. When cells replicate they lose a little piece from the end of their DNA chain, which is called a telomere. Eventually the telomere becomes so short the cell can no longer reproduce. In a cell culture, normal human cells will divide 52 times before they reach their Hayflick limit. (For a more detailed discussion of the Hayflick limit and exfoliation, check out this thread from Smart Skin Care.)

What does this have to do with exfoliation? Apparently not very much. When you exfoliate you’re stripping off the top, dead layers of your skin (the stratum corneum) which triggers the deeper basal layer to produce fresh cells. I couldn’t find any references that indicated that telomere shortening of the basal layer is a consequence of exfoliation. This sounds like another marketing scam to me, so be very wary of products like Dr. Tolonen’s Bio-Carnosin Beauty Cream, that claim to reduce the Hayflick limit through the use of Carnosine.

Of course, there are other issues to worry about. Exfoliation can cause irritation. so you should still be careful how much skin you strip away.

From The Beauty Brains Forum Member: Cate

I received my sample of The Devil Made Me Do It Chocolate Body Polish just in the nick of time this month. Like most women, I love chocolate. I don’t just love chocolate, I lust for chocolate. But fortunately for me I only have this urge for one week a month, but during that week I am a certified choc-aholic. So it was the beginning of that special week when Klean’s “The Devil Made Me Do It” arrived at my door.

Klean’s Cleaning Mission

“Our mission at KLEAN Bath & Body is to share our gift of scentual discovery with others by providing luxurious and refreshing products that are high quality, competitively-priced, mostly natural, while pleasing the body, nose and spirit.”

I love body scrubs and polishes and in the recent past had a horrendous experience with one that was just all around bad. It was so difficult to use and was hard to spread across my body, not to mention the hours (yes hours) it took me to clean my bathtub. Needless to say that one is in the garbage and so is the $8.00 I spent on it.

From the Klean Bath & Body website:

“Our luxurious sugar polish could almost be the all-in-one product you have been searching for. For scent-sational smooth soft skin, buffed to perfection and lightly moisturized, just add Klean Body Polish and water. All of our polishes are made with pure cane sugar from Mexico. We mix each batch by hand, to ensure the quality of each product. Our “flavors” inspire us to continue searching for an even more amazing variety of scent combinations …”

Sinful sensation

One word describes this product. Sinful. It has an amazing chocolate smell that drove my senses wild. It’s easy to use and clean up. I looked for reasons to use this scrub. I probably over used it, but did not rub my skin raw. I used it daily on my hands as kind of a quick manicure and then applied lotion to try and keep my hands smooth. I really despise shaving my legs in the winter mostly because my bathroom doesn’t warm up to quickly, but I used the chocolate body scrub as an exfoliator and my legs felt SO smooth after shaving and moisturized. I used it on my heels, knees, and elbows daily to try and smooth them out. I wanted to take multiple showers a day. After a week, it’s just about gone so I guess the devil really did make me do it!

There are OH so many different flavors of body polishes that Klean Bath & Body sells such as Mango Mandarin, Brown Sugar, and Pink Martini Body Polishes. They range in price from $10.50 - $13.50.

I certainly love love LOVED this product. It would make a great gift for anyone that is into relaxing with a spa like experience without the spa price.

Are you craving a chocolate body polish? Leave a comment and let us know. Or, you can start a thread and talk to Cate directly in the Beauty Brains Forum. And if you’re interested in getting free goodies of your own, join the Forum now and show us you’ve got what it takes to be a Beauty Brainiac!

Stephanie says: My friend raves about Estee Lauder Idealist Micro-D Thermal Face Polisher so I looked up the ingredients. The first one listed is calcium chloride, which, apparently, is corrosive and is used to make bleu cheese. How can this be safe to use on your skin? My friend also wants to know if adding an eye dropper-full to a jar of her regular scrub would yield the same exfoliating results?

The Right Brain’s cheesy reply:
We’re not sure what calcium chloride does for cheese, (our guess is that it’s a protein cross-linking agent) but in this formula it functions as a gritty abrasive. And yes it can be corrosive if left in contact with metal surfaces, but in the context of a rinse-off facial scrub you don’t need to worry about that.

Salty scrub

Can you add calcium chloride to your regular scrub and save a ton of money? No, and here’s why. This Idealist product is basically a type of salt scrub. As the name implies, salt scrubs use salt crystals as exfoliating agents (sugar scrubs do the same with sugar.) Since salt dissolves in water, these scrubs have to be made with oil or some other anhydrous base. (Anhydrous just means “without water.”) In the case of this Idealist product, the formula is based cyclomethicone, a type of silicone, instead of water. But if you added calcium chloride to a regular water-based scrub, like St. Ives Apricot scrub, it would just dissolve and would have no benefit.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

This may be a perfectly fine product, but it’s really just a glorified salt scrub. The most important question in our mind is, is Idealist Thermal Face Polisher worth it’s $63 price tag?

Does anyone use expensive department stores brands, like Estee Lauder, instead of drug store brands? Leave a comment and share your experiences with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

LeighAnn longs to learn: The new Keri Renewal Serum claims to moisturize, protect and exfoliate with visible results in three days. I was wondering what your opinion on this product is and since they call it a serum, how different is it from any run of the mill moisturizer.

The Left Brain’s reply:
The Keri brand, which was created by Bristol Myers Squibb and recently acquired by Novartis Consumer Health, has gotten a make over. One of the new products they’ve launched is Keri’s Renewal Serum which claims to be “a triple-action formula that moisturizes, protects and exfoliates to give you fast, effective relief from rough, dry skin. This patented formula combines specialized polyhydroxy acids with rich moisturizers to help repair and nourish the skin while providing a protective barrier to retain moisture.”

Serum vs lotion

Let’s take the easy question first: why is this a serum and not a moisturizing lotion? In the cosmetic industry there are no absolute definitions for these terms; companies are really free to use whatever descriptors they want. But in general, lotions are creams made by mixing water and oil. Serums tend to be thick liquids, usually clear, because they don’t contain oils. The Keri product is a mixture of water in a silicone base.

Moisturize, protect, and exfoliate

Based on a review of the ingredients, this product should pretty much do what it says. That’s because it contains propylene glycol, a known humectant-type moisturizer, as well as lactobionic acid which is a relatively new type of cosmetic ingredient known as a Polyhydroxy Acid, or PHA.

Here’s the complete ingredient list:
Water, Urea, Propylene Glycol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Cyclomethicone, Lactobionic Acid, Gluconolactone, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Arginine, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Ammonium Hydroxide, Dimethiconol, Chlorphenesin, Methylparaben

What are PHAs

A PHA is special type of Alphahydroxy Acid (AHA) that is larger and has more hydroxy groups. Keri contains two: lactobionic acid which comes from oxidized lactose or milk sugar, and gluconolactone which is made from oxidized glucose (a natural sugar found in the human body). PHAs are considered to be the next generation AHA because they provide milder exfoliation and better moisturization. (Learn more about PHAs). This particular formula is patented, but I couldn’t find a reference to it (Novartis has over 2000 patents in the US!) If anyone has a bottle of the serum, let me know if the patent number is on the package and I’ll look into it further.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Keri product sells for about $16 US which is considerably more than a typical lotion. Is it technically worth more ? It might be, depending on your needs. If you have very dry skin, need exfoliation, and don’t tolerate AHAs very well, then buy a bottle of Keri serum and give it a try. But if you just need a regular moisturizer, save your money and buy a typical lotion.

Marci’s Enymatic Inquiry: My esthetician told me about Babor’s Intelli-zyme and highly recommended that I try it. She says it’s great because it uses natural enzymes that target only dead skin cells and leave living skin cells alone. Can this really work? The Right Brain’s Catalytic Comments:

As a matter of fact, enzymes can cause very specific reactions. But let`s start at the beginning…

What Is An Enzyme?

Enzymes are chemicals that speed up the rate of chemical reactions without themselves being consumed in the reaction. They`re incredibly useful in biological processes because they can make a reaction that normally requires dangerously high temperatures occur at normal body temperatures. Basically, without enzymes we`d all be dead.

The particular enzyme used in the Babor product is Subtilisin, which is produced by soil bacterium (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens). It`s used in the food industry as a meat tenderizer because it catalyzes the breakdown of proteins, in particular keratin protein, into smaller pieces called peptides.

Can Enzymes Really Work on just Dead Cells?

The upper layer of your skin (aka the stratum corneum) is made mostly of dead keratin cells. Subtilisin very specifically breaks down keratin protein and by lysing, or breaking, the 10-end peptide bonds of keratin. Since the living cells deeper in your skin don`t contain much, if any, keratin, they are left unaffected by the enzyme. So yes, Subtilisin will break down the dead skin instead of the living cells.

So Does Babor Intelli-zyme Really Work?

Does it really work? In theory, yes. According to a report in Dermatologic Surgery, Subtilisin and related enzymes can be effective exfoliants. And they can be more gentle than other methods of exfoliation like dermabrasion. (Read our previous post on home microdermabrasion here.) However, knowing that enzymes are very tricky beasts, it very much depends on the final formula. The wrong pH and the enzyme is worthless.

The Beauty Brains Bottom Line:

There is real science that says Babor Intelli-zime could improve skin condition. But only you can decide if it`s worth almost 100 bucks to try it out. Gee, I wish they gave free samples.

Kim and Kate both want to know the right way to apply alpha-hydroxy and beta-hydroxy lotions. Kim uses acne products that contain salicylic acid (a beta-hydroxy acid) and she`s worried that applying moisturizer on top of the sal acid may be making it less effective. Kate`s been told that she should wait 15 minutes after showering before applying an AHA because the water in skin will dilute the acids. So, she`s concerned that she`s not waiting long enough after she showers before applying her AmLacTin AHA lotion. The Right Brain attempts an answer:

The answers to these questions were surprisingly tricky to track down. Concentration is a crucial factor for AHA efficacy in products like Alpha Hydrox. According to the FDA, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review board has determined that AHA`s are safe at concentrations up to 10% for over the counter consumer products. For products used by trained cosmetologists, the concentration can be as high as 20 to 30%, and for doctors it`s an astonishing 50 to 70%. These higher concentrations are safe only if followed by thorough rinsing and application of a sun protection product. (That`s because AHAs can increase your sensitivity to UV radiation. But that`s a topic for another post.)

But while everyone agrees that AHA and BHA functionality is affected by concentration (and pH) we couldn`t find any direct evidence that to show that either skin moisture or moisturizing lotions can reduce the effective concentration of these active ingredients.

The Brains Bottom Line: We did find out that BHAs penetrate skin quickly, so it`s unlikely that use of a moisturizer on top of sal acid would cause significant problem. But if your just-showered skin is really wet when you apply an AHA, it is at least theatrically possible that you`re reducing its efficacy. Better safe than sorry, we say. So until we can find some data to the contrary, we`d recommend making sure your skin is dry before using AmLacTin. If you`re still worried about sealing in moisture in towel dried skin, you may want to use a conventional moisturizer.

Liz’s Abrasive Question: