news & events

I am counting the days ‘til we don our 3-D glasses to see Johnny Depp as the deliriously Mad Hatter in the new “Alice in Wonderland”. Who’s even playing Alice? Don’t know, don’t care—she’s simply the conduit to Depp. Yes, I’m a fan.

I was discussing the casting of this film with my daughter Molly, the future theater maven. We concur on Depp. We also concur on the brilliant casting of Helen Bonham Carter as the Red Queen—“Off with her head!”. But too-pretty Anne Hathaway as the White Queen just seems so bland. So predictable. So tame. So safe.

Our vote for who should’ve gotten the White Queen role: Lady Gaga. Because she’s odd. Quirky. Peculiar. She probably got picked on a lot in school, while Anne was probably popular. Not only is Lady Gaga weirdly wonderful—she could have sung the soundtrack.

As for Mr. Depp. I believe it’s his oddness that makes people of all sorts go crazy for him. It’s his authenticity that gets people. He’s a great actor, and has fabulous cheekbones. But Hollywood is chockablock-full of talent and pretty faces—Depp has more. He’s got that original oddness. Consider the wild cult status which is now exploding around a local LA leathersmith, Brennan Byers (www.gbbleather.com) , who makes all the fabulous leather stuff for The Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He recently replicated a leather wristband for Johnny Depp, and now the wristband has spawned a crazed, viral following, especially in Japan. Brennan’s leather cuff is an instant icon, an emblem of cool, a feverish, frothing object of desire, because in wearing one, we connect with our own deep weirdness as epitomized by Depp, who makes it OK to be odd. In fact, I may have to have one as my birthday gift to myself….

The lesson for all of us: take a chance. If we must err (and we must), err on the side of something risky and interesting. The truth is that playing it so-called “safe” isn’t really safe. You may die of boredom. Push the edge…and remember the words of T.S.Eliot: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

I am not a dermatologist. I never went to medical school. I respect those who have.

But often, I find that the skills of people like me—a licensed skin therapist—are perceived as second-tier when it comes to knowing about the skin. Not true. Most dermatologists don’t cleanse the skin, touch the skin, apply treatment products or do a non-surgical extraction. Yet these are routine skills which are the skin therapist’s bread-and-butter.

And another thing: some dermatologists get the Big Eye when they see how much money there is to be made in so-called “vanity” procedures. I’m in favor of people doing whatever they want to themselves in order to feel fierce, frisky and fabulous. But it’s unnerving when trusted MDs compromise their professional ethics by promoting new products in which they have a vested interest, even before these products are approved by the FDA.

That’s exactly what happened to Dr. Lesley Baumann of Miami Beach, at the beginning of the new year. She was holding forth about the benefits of Dysport, an injectable intended to erase the “worry furrow” between the brows, even though the drug hadn’t been approved by the FDA. And she got a well-deserved spanking from the Feds for jumping the gun. Naughty, naughty Dr. B!

I think the message is clear: don’t be blinded by the dazzling white of the lab-coat. Yes, doctors are usually smart people. But like all of us, they can get greedy, and this may put the consumer at risk in the process.

March 7 is the 82nd Academy Awards, and from the buzz on the streets, everyone in Los Angeles seems to think they’ve been nominated! Stocking up on gourmet snacks, having a pedi, getting the car washed for the big night, dodging imaginary paparazzi.

Who’ll win what is anyone’s guess. Of course, I look at the nominees with a specific kind of scrutiny. Here are a few of my recommendations for the nominees:

JEFF BRIDGES – I detect very slow cell turnover. Of course he needed that crusty, crispy, craggy, beef jerky look for his leading role in “Crazy Heart,” but J, a professional exfoliation treatment or two will prevent you from being put out to pasture before your time.

GEORGE CLOONEY—The silver fox has a really thick, macho-man beard—he always seems to be fighting after-five shadows. I’d recommend our Shave System, especially our pre-shave prep products for heavy, coarse beards to get superclose and prevent ingrowns.

JEREMY RENNER – Only his skin therapist knows for sure, but I feel that Jeremy may be acne-prone. He always looks shiny, and like he’s about to burst into a flurry of spots. Our MediBac Clearing ™ products will keep his sebum levels balanced.

GABOUREY SIDIBE – See above. She has gorgeous skin, but oil production may be an issue. I’d recommend a daily mattifyer to keep sebum and cell debris from causing blemishes.

MERYL STREEP and HELEN MIRREN – I love the fact that these glorious midlife lionesses aren’t all tarted up in an attempt to look like ingénues. I’d just stick with Dermalogica AGE Smart™ to keep the integrity of collagen and elastin intact, exfoliate gently and consistently, and masque twice-weekly for vitamins and deep hydration.

SANDRA BULLOCK Is so appealing because she lacks the diva-gene—she’s the perpetually sunny girl-next-door. Speaking of sunshine and UV exposure, I’d suggest that she address hyperpigmentation and brighten her skin with our ChromaWhite TRx® system, especially Extreme C and Pure Night.

May the best skin win!

March is National Women’s History Month — suggesting, of course, that the other eleven months of the year belong to men?

This is so relevant to us and our profession — over 90% of skin therapists are women, and most of our clients are women. One of the reasons I love what we do is that our profession extends an opportunity to women to create personal wealth, without benefit of male power. This would please legendary feminist Gloria Steinem, since she’s on a real tear these days about the persistent discrepancies in pay between work as performed by men and women. News flash: men still get paid more for the same work. And, their dry-cleaning and hair cuts cost less. Just so wrong.

But here’s another twist. In one aspect of what has for centuries been considered “men’s work”: the military-women now are being brought in to do a job that men cannot. The job: peacekeeping in a war zone.

The UN is now conducting a recruitment campaign that’s called the “thin pink line”: a female peacekeeping initiative. Right now in Congo Town, Liberia, a place so torn and shattered not only by war but by a history of governmental corruption, a female unit has taken to the streets. There also are similar female units in action in Afghanistan, who patrol neighborhoods on foot, coming into intimate contact with the local residents who are largely female — the men are all fighting on the front lines, or dead.

The mission of these Kalashnikov-toting girl-power units is to curb violence. On a subtler level, they connect with other women and their children, since the peacekeepers by and large are also married women with children.

So women are warriors for peace. These female peacekeepers also support another of Steinem’s messages: that physical strength and fitness, versus mere beauty and slenderness, have never been more politically relevant for women. She explained recently in a Los Angeles Times interview that rich patriarchal societies pressure women to be thin; poor patriarchal cultures encourage women to become hugely fat. She says, “But all patriarchal cultures value weak women. So for women to become physically strong is very profound.”

So, you may not be ready to put on a military uniform and fire an assault-rifle. But, in the interest of unleashing your own inner “Iron Woman” (that’s what the Liberians call their President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf), eat healthfully, make yourself strong, and be fierce. Your specific partisan stance is not the point here, sister. The mere fact of making yourself a strong woman sends an unmistakable message of power.

March 20 is the Vernal Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun will cross directly over the Earth’s equator. This brings the tilt of the Earth’s axis to 23.4 degrees, and this means that the sun’s rays hit us full-on.

March 20 also is Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Doesn’t it make sense to you that the new year begins on the first day of Spring, when birds court and coo, and tender buds swell, rather than in January? I’ve also read that the Great Sphinx is angled in such a way that the rays of the Spring sun point directly at it.

Which brings me to: unless you, too, are an ancient stone carving, you need to step up the solar protection starting right now. It’s incredible to me that, even though the American Cancer Society has been conducting an aggressive public service campaign about the risk of melanoma for more than two decades, the incidence of skin cancer is up, not down.

I think the reason is that new technology makes people cocky. They read that their sunblock is SPF 400, and they think they can bask safely.

Not so. Also, many consumers simply don’t slather on enough of the stuff. You need a teaspoon on your face, a shot-glass of it on your body. Re-apply as you swim and sweat, or just every few hours if you’re in intense exposure.

Or here’s another bad reason not to protect your skin: you’ve experienced breakouts as the result of using sunscreen. This is simply because you’re using a formula which doesn’t make your skin happy. Check with your Dermalogica skin therapist and identify your skin conditions. If your skin is sensitized, acneic, in need of deep hydration, and so on, there is a UV product which will keep your skin safe from free radicals and worse without causing more problems.

And here’s a flash from Dr. Diana Howard, our resident chemistry authority. Properly exfoliating skin after sun exposure—which really is every day—may be helpful in averting carcinogens. They may literally be whisked safely off the skin’s surface. Talk to your skin therapist to choose an exfoliant which works for you.