Not All Skin Care is Created Equal

What is the difference between professional grade skin care vs department store retail? Great question. Simply put, professional skin care is sold in a spa environment under the careful eye of an esthetician. Professional lines are exclusively prescribed to each client after a thorough skin analysis. Accordingly, manufacturing companies are more comfortable incorporating the maximum amount of allowable ingredients into their products because of the education based distribution. Hence, the category, professional skin care. As a result, clients can bank on a higher percentage of active ingredients and a more efficient product. Kind of important if you are looking for a bigger bang for your buck.

Retail, on the other hand, markets products in a more anonymous setting, and in doing so, must cut back on the level of active ingredients to address the obvious risk of irritation and sensitivities. It is the "a lot of this and a little of that" story. Having said that, there are some interesting products out there, especially in the past few years. We've come a long way, baby! The top companies in this category have buckets of money and they invest in significant anti-aging research and development. And, that is a very good thing.

There are some truly great products on both sides of the fence, but my money at the moment, is on the professional grade products. But more on that later . . .