news & events

I read with pleasure a recent article called “Blinded by Science” by Kristie McDermott, about the buying habits of wily British consumers (herald.ie.com). The article contained some choice examples of what annoys consumers to the point that they refuse to buy the product. For instance:

MAC, for being busted using a competitor’s products, a brand called Ben Nye, to illustrate effects promised by the launch of their own Colour Craft collection – naughty, naughty MAC!

L’Oreal’s mascara ads with the lovely Penelope Cruz, who was clearly and obviously wearing false lashes as well as the mascara being advertised. Quelle horreur – that’s just plain cheating, and not even clever.

Something else which brought frosty disapproval from shoppers in the UK and Ireland: celeb spokesmodels in ads. That’s why we don’t use them. Of course, we don’t buy ads in your favorite glam and beauty magazines, anyway—sorry! But we do take photographs of people to show how our products are used, and how they improve the health of skin.

But we use real people. Like these two. Stuart Leitch and Sona Tolani work in our marketing department in Los Angeles. They’re our kind of people—the kind of people we put into our posters and consumer information.

And about those moustaches. While you may think they’re undercover spies, lurking in the shadows to suss out skin care scandals, they actually are showing their support for MOVEMBER.

We hope that you’ve already gotten involved as a MOVEMBER partner with Dermalogica! This international movement creates awareness of men’s diseases such as prostate cancer. Men participate by growing a moustache during the month of November, sponsored by friends and family the way we support walkers and runners in marathons for other causes. And we’ve put together a fantastic incentive program centered around our Shave system.

In fact, some of the guys we work with—like our CEO Jerry Wenker—are growing a ‘stash to support the cause. Stubble and five-o’clock shadow aren’t quite as glamorous as long eyelashes—but we like the way it makes us feel.

Any economists out there reading? Would love to hear from you on this one.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking on a distinguished panel of “Women of Influence,” hosted by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Los Angeles chapter. The theme was “mentoring” – and it got me thinking.

After eons of collective, cooperative shared work, where young people learned at the elbow of a master, the Industrial Revolutions changed everything. Replacing mentoring and apprenticeship traditions: the individualistic, every-man-for-himself brand of capitalism which has now reigned in commerce for close to two centuries.

Women can bring the practice back. Part of the reason is not because we are morally superior to men, but because we have never been fully vested into the Good Old Boys network. Yes, for the past few decades, stilettoe’d and pin-striped women here in the prosperous and progressive West have taken delight in proving that they can be excessively selfish and ruthless in business. Point taken, ladies.

But in most of the world, where business is done in more traditional ways, women are lower down the food-chain. They must work together like dolphins rather than prowl alone like sharks, and I think that there is a lesson here for all women, and for the world economy.

In more depressed economies, people work collectively because they must. While personal initiative is rewarded, the larger truth of interdependency is recognized and embraced.

This concept is illuminated so beautifully in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “OUTLIERS,” where he explores the notion that seeming disadvantages can become great opportunities. In the shadow of centuries of oppression, women are fluent in mentoring, apprenticeship and networking. Aren’t these skills the pillars for a new business template, as we step over the charred remains of our old paradigms?

Remember – dolphins are smarter than sharks. I think that this is because they share ideas and collaborate. Start swimming, ladies!

Are you turned on to this above idea—this idea of Lovemarks? It’s the stunning insight of a guy named Kevin Roberts, who was the CEO Worldwide for Saatchi + Saatchi.

He wrote that brands, per se, were losing their hold upon the imagination and loyalty of consumers like all of us. And that it takes unique qualities – mystery, sensuality, intimacy—to make a person fall deeply, madly, truly in love with a brand, and stay in love.

The analogy which comes to my mind is UGGS vs. CROCs. Okay, yes, I do have a footwear-fetish. So here is a story of two ugly shoes. One is a Lovemark; the other is a lesson in how to lose the confidence of the American public.

Real UGGS are a Lovemark. People are willing to pay a lot for them. They’re willing to wait-list for the new colors which come out occasionally (this past spring, I knew several people who were delirious over the seasonal, short turquoise Ugg). Why? They do make your feet feel like hot buttered toast, and the quality sheepskin wicks moisture away from your bare feet. Fake UGGS with synthetic fleece linings get wet inside after a few hours—can somebody say “toe fungus?”

These are contributing factors, but the real reason that UGGS make people crazy with desire and happiness, and have done so for decades, is that UGGS are real. They are the real deal, and they are not sold everywhere (although their imitators are).

CROCS seemed real in the beginning. They made claims as a child-minded safety brand, making antibacterial claims about their foam fabrication. They were clunky yet lightweight, and came in funky colors. As with all shoes, the baby sizes were adorable.

But CROCs overexpanded. Suddenly, they were everywhere, in places we wouldn’t want to buy shoes, surrounded by brands we didn’t love. And, unlike UGGS, the cheap CROC imitators seemed able to replicate the shoe’s magic so well that no one could tell the original from the fake.

People who love their CROCs are in good shape—one pair lasts for decades. But people who love UGGS can’t wait to see what fleecy fun the next collection has in store. Because you see, with a Lovemark refuses to sell itself short, the consumer—that’s all of us—can never, ever get enough love.

I’ve been in the professional skin care industry for three decades—my entire working life. During that time, I’ve met a lot of people. Of course, I’ve met lots of skin therapists, and students who aspired to become skin therapists. I’ve also met lots of people in our sister tribe, the hairdressers’ tribe. And I’ve often drawn this comparison between the two:

Skin care people tend to be introverts. They hate selling. They are not show-bizzy performers—they often prefer the dimly lit, gently scented cave of the treatment room where they enter into a silent, energetically healing bond with the client.

Hairdressers, on the other hand, tend to be loud, funny, extroverted, social, attention-loving, the life of the party—and their passion for hair is framed by a rowdy rock-star persona.

Well, please just forget I ever said anything of the kind. Meet Talia VanDoran lately of Nashville, Tennessee, who just won the 2009 “My Favorite Dermalogica Product” contest.

This is an annual contest sponsored by Dermalogica. Each year, we ask skin therapists to create videos and send them to us—all about why they love our brand and what specific Dermalogica product rocks their world.

Talia is a newcomer to the tribe, just having received her esthetician’s license in June, 2009. She also is a recipient of the prestigious scholarship offered by The International Dermal Institute (IDI), the advanced skin care academy where our products are developed and researched.

She’s also a model and competitive weight-lifter, and loves riding and working on her custom Harley. So much for being a shrinking violet.

Of our profession, she says, “I get to rub your face, rip out your hair—and we call this ‘work’ !!!”.

This ball of fire is on her way out to visit us soon, here at our world headquarters near Los Angeles. Judging from the fishnet stockings, the tattoos, the lashes, the peacock feathers and the rhinestones (bear in mind that some of these are Talia’s recent wedding photos…), we anticipate an entertaining visit. She’ll be blogging with me while she’s here, so stay tuned. Congratulations, Talia!

By this headline I mean that skin care—the idea that taking care of your skin will make it healthier, and impact the way in which it ages—is not a bizarre subculture which requires belief, the ingestion of mind-altering substances, secret handshakes, the recitation of oaths or the droning of mantras. We don’t even award merit badges for not flinching during extractions.

So my professionally-arched brows went sky-high recently during the HBO debut of the documentary, “Youth Knows No Pain.” Created by the daughter of a cosmetic surgeon, this program was compelling and disturbing on a couple of levels. But I was most struck by the comment from a prominent magazine editor on the subject. Allure Editor-in-chief Linda Wells says it’s okay that women waste their money on anti-aging skin care products that don’t really work, since just slathering that stuff on makes them feel better about getting older. Not to mention that those products buy the ads that keeps Allure in business. And you wonder why Dermalogica doesn’t buy ads in magazines?

As for your money. Spend it however you want. Just remember that some products do work—no belief-system required– and you don’t have to drink the Kool-Aid.

Have you heard of the so-called Lipstick Index? It’s a pseudo-scientific barometer for measuring economic misery. The common wisdom goes that even in hard times, women still buy lipstick.

Uh-oh. Financial reporter Simon Pitman, www.cosmeticsdesign.com, reports that US prestige makeup sales in all categories has dropped between 3 and 20 percent, including lipstick which until now has seemed a sacred cow.

Interestingly, the same report notes that men’s fragrances are a bright spot—a 23% increase in new male fragrance launches.

So, what does this mean? That men smell better, but women are kissing them less? Are men splashing on the attractants and pheromones in a desperate attempt to get their women to come home?

I say this as I plan a getaway with a group of female friends. We’re heading for a quiet Mexican destination called Punta Mita. There’s not much to do there except yoga, watch the waves, and, if you’re so inclined, have a few margaritas. I had the idea of asking a few girlfriends to join me for this excursion, thinking none of them would go—they’re all married, and all but one of us has children after all.

Can I just tell you: within minutes, I had several resounding RSVPs. One asked ‘can we leave tomorrow?’ By the way, in case you didn’t surmise, this is a trip without Significant Others. My friends can’t wait to get away without their men! This is food for thought, since we’re all happily married. Maybe we just are being driven out of town by all of that male fragrance.

I loved reading today that Wal-Mart plans to develop a “prestige” beauty line with Hard Candy cosmetics. That’s a whopper of an oxymoron on so many levels, it’s delicious.

In the news release, a Wal-Mart spokesperson correctly described Hard Candy as a “legacy brand with lots of equity.” I remember when the brand made its stunning debut, the result of a resourceful and fashionable pre-med student hankering for a powder-blue nail polish to wear to a party. At the time, there was no such thing, so young Dineh Mohajer created her own.

That was a lifetime ago, and now a massive (and decidedly unfashionable) corporate giant is attempting to recapture that moment of genius. Not to mention profit. Not gonna happen.

Something else called the Fitch Rating report tells us that the “luxury” market is weakening worldwide. Well, it’s about time. I’m a consumer, and I’m not amused by the notions of prestige and luxury anymore, are you? Like every girl, I need my stuff. But I don’t want it swathed in a lot of marketing mumbo-jumbo.

Just give me the baby-blue nail polish and the woman who dreamed it up.

Everybody’s always yapping about how “crazy-busy” they are. Including me.

But here’s the really bad news: you will spend more time reading this blog than you will cleansing your skin today. And that’s not good.

You probably spent less than a minute washing your face this morning or last night at the sink. Even less time if you wash your face in the shower. That’s just not enough to get skin into a pristine, receptive state.

Consider all of the high-tech cosmetic products which crow about their ability to last 12, 18 or more hours. Long-wearing foundations, waterproof mascaras, and the new nearly indelible lip stains which outlast talking, eating, smooching and what have you. And sunblocks are also notoriously indelible, made to last during strenuous outdoor sports. So getting this tenacious stuff off your skin each night requires equally advanced technology.

I recommend that you check out Dermalogica Precleanse if you’re in such a big hurry. Use it on your face before washing. It seems like an extra step, but it actually speeds up the process—makeup and grime just melt away. Pick up a sample at least next time your passing a Dermalogica Super Star skin therapist [they all are!] Then cleanse—twice—with your favorite cleanser. The first cleanse just dislodges the surface debris. The second cleanse actually treats and preps the skin for exfoliation, moisturizing and other skin care.

Getting skin really clean is the crucial starting-point for skin which resists damage, recovers well from trauma, and serves as a vibrant canvas for all of that indestructible makeup. So, give it a minute, and then another minute—it’s the first step in a lifetime of healthy skin.

Abraham Maszlow’s famous hierarchy of needs tells us that we all need to belong, to be a part of something—family, team, tribe, nation. True enough—but leave your skin out of it.

To cut right to the chase, there are no real skin “types”. This idea is an oversimplification which makes the work of manufacturers so much easier. But it does not help you, the end user, get your best skin to happen.

The huge general categories of “Dry”, “Oily” and my favorite, “Combination,” only begin to tell a fraction of the whole skin story. Somewhere, there may be an individual whose skin is consistently one and one thing only. This is the exception, however. Skin, like every other aspect of our health and indeed our being, is a moving target. Oh, sure, that may LOOK like your face in the mirror there this morning, the same face that you cleansed, exfoliated, moisturized and admired just last night. But the truth is—different day, different skin.

Manufacturers and retailers rely upon your consistently finding your favorite drug store chain, going to your favorite shelf, and snapping up your favorite product, whether in Dubai, Dublin or Des Moines. This is the great profit incentive of the world monoculture. But the trouble is, your skin is always changing, and this buying pattern based upon skin-types does not allow you to find products which accommodate these changes.

Just face it, you’re inconsistent. We all are when it comes to skin, and this is not a bad thing. Our skin continually adapts to a thousand subtle signals and messages from the inside (hormones, diet, brain chemistry) and the outside (weather, environmental pollutants, altitude). And so it changes to protect and serve us, as it has for millennia.

The smarter way to see skin as is a constantly evolving condition. This doesn’t mean that you need to buy more products. You simply need to consult with a professional about which products will best suit your needs, and help you continuously chart the movements of that fantastic, living beast we’re in: our skin.

We live in a culture of instant gratification. Healthy skepticism is superceded by the desire for thin thighs in ten days, or thicker, longer hair in two weeks, or whiter teeth, plumper cup size, you name it, there’s a product claiming to deliver it.

For instance, many products claim to make cellulite vanish. This is simply not possible through the use of a topical cream or lotion. Manual lymphatic drainage may have a visible effect upon the wiggly, cottage-cheesey stuff we all hate, but even this is a truly subjective call. Yet cellulite cures remain one of the biggest promises in the skin care universe—promises which will inevitably be broken.

You’re after results. What’s possible? Hyperpigmentation, or darkened areas of the skin, may be effectively lightened. Acne may be tamed and reversed. Fine lines and other signs of age may be reduced through exfoliation and hydration. Overall skin texture may be revitalized by botanical components which trigger collagen growth, improving firmness and elasticity.

But how long will it take? Which specific products to use? How to make it happen? How can you know what’s true and what’s not when it comes to skin care? You need to consult with someone who has studied the science of skin and actually been tested and licensed in its care—namely, a professional skin therapist.

But unfortunately, you won’t get a set of Ginzu knives or a crinkle-cut French fry slicer in the deal.