Fayne L. Frey - The Skincare Hoax: How Youre Being Tricked into Buying Lotions, Potions & Wrinkle Cream

WARNING

What Im about to reveal will be completely contrary to what you believe about skin, about skincare, and about yourself. The opinions expressed in this book are based on my chemistry background and my experience with skincare formulation, along with my knowledge of medical research and thirty years experience as a dermatologist. The material I provide is designed to offer helpful information on the subject matters discussed and is not, in any way, meant to be used to diagnose or treat any medical condition. To do so, consult your own physician or medical provider.

Now Im ready to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Please keep an open mind and get ready to be blown away.

Copyright 2022 by Fayne L. Frey, MD

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Jacket design by David Ter-Avanesyan

Jacket images by Shutterstock and gettyimages

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-7155-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-7156-7

Printed in the United States of America

To every woman who was told she needed a beauty fix and walked away.

Contents

Foreword

T his gem of a book, written by well-known dermatologist Fayne L. Frey, MD, exposes some well-kept secrets of the beauty industry, such as repurposing the exact same ingredients into differently sized and colored jars and tubes. Each of these products is designed to target a different market, for instance, face, body, eyes, or kids. Each category has a different price point (and a widely varying price per pound). Its as if the industry believes that we believe that the skin of our eyes is worth much more than the skin elsewhere on our bodies.

The book also reveals how big marketing is used to sell us on the idea that we must use certain products in order to be worthy in our beauty-conscious society. You know the spiel: Use this product to look younger, more beautiful, more alluring. The problem is that this type of messaging works. The half-trillion-dollar beauty industry is a tribute to the marketing genius that gets us to spend a lot of our hard-earned money on products that dont come close to delivering what we thought they were promising.

What I really love about this book is that the author does not shy away from naming names. Thats how I learned that my old faithful moisturizer is not on her list of most effective moisturizers. She should know; she has used a device to measure the water content of her patients skin after using different products.

She also doesnt dumb things down. She explains the science, provides the references, and encourages us to actually learn what is in the stuff that we liberally smear all over our bodies, sometimes multiple times a day.

Dr. Frey warns us at the beginning of the book that she is going to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truthand she does. This book is a valuable resource for anyone who uses beauty products on a regular basisand that includes most of us. I highly recommend that you get a copy and keep it near your computer to consult the next time you go online to replenish your products.

Patricia Salber, MD

founder and editor-in-chief,

The Doctor Weighs In

Introduction

A lmost two decades ago, a friendly woman from Philadelphia (Ill call her Lisa, not her real name) visited my office in West Nyack, New York. She came in for a first-visit evaluation. She walked into my office carrying a sizable bag of skincare products and dumped bottles and tubes all over my desk.

She said, Dr. Frey, everything I put on my face makes me break out.

I picked up one of the bottles and read the ingredients. Lisa had no way of knowing that in college I was a chemistry buff. I was curiousyou might even say obsessedabout the ingredients in skincare products. Chemical names fascinated me. I wanted to know what they were and how they worked. That was my nerdy secret.

Lisa sat quietly while I looked through her pile of products. I saw all kinds of red flags: octyl stearate, isopropyl myristate, acetylated lanolin alcohol, cocoa butter, and more. Finally, I said, From what I know of the research, you shouldnt use these. Many of these products have ingredients that might cause you to break out.

She tapped the arm of her chair and burst out, I went to an Ivy League school, and I have a corner office at my firm. I consider myself a fairly bright woman. How am I supposed to know what to use?

Thats when it dawned on me. Every single day, women stare at that wall of skincare products in their local pharmacy or surf online, with no idea what to choose. All they see is marketing on the front label that convinces them theyre not adequate the way they are. Where do people go to find solid, scientific information about what to buy?

That conversation with Lisa stayed with me all day. I went home that evening and put together an idea for an online skincare product selector that would help women make informed decisions. By filling in a few criteria, the program would list the products that fit their personal preferences and their specific concerns. After many months of research and design, I hired a computer programmer to put the selector on my website, FryFace.com , and introduced it to several of my acne and eczema patients. In my mind, the project was complete.

A few weeks later, I received a call from Z100, a New York radio station. They told me my website was trending. I wasnt exactly sure what that meant, but they assured me trending is a good thing. They asked to feature my Product Selector on their Whats Trending segment of Elvis Duran and the Morning Show .

The website was free to everyone, so why not? I said, Sure.

That opened the floodgates. I got a call from CBS TV asking, Are you Dr. Frey from FryFace.com ? After I confirmed my identity, they asked, Do you sell products? Do you represent a manufacturer? I answered no to both questions.

They then asked me if I would participate as a medical expert for an expos on the safety of over-the-counter skincare products. They wanted facts. They came to my office and filmed for several hours. I talked about a day cream being the same as a night cream, except day cream has sunscreen. I revealed that eye cream is simply a formulated moisturizer in a smaller tube. The only thing special about eye cream is the price.

I received a call from a writer at USA Today. Are you Dr. Frey from FryFace.com ? Once again, I confirmed my identity. Do you sell products? Do you represent a manufacturer?