I do skin needling with a digital permanent makeup machine, not the derma roller. What products would you recommend for dry skin to enhance the results of the procedure areas? I also work with scar reduction in the same manner. What products would you recommend for oily/acneic skin?

Marie

The best products would be CP Serum followed by Emu Oil for Skin with Antioxidants.

Use both lightly after needling.

Thank you, Dr. Pickart, for your reply. What can my clients expect after inital application of these products? Is there flaking, extra dryness, or anything other than what they would experience if they used just a regular moisturizer?

Marie

The best followup is with a very light amount of Emu Oil with antioxidants.

Common moisturizers wet the proteins of the outer skin layers. This produces damage to the skin barrier.

Real biological Skin Moisturization depends on only three items.

1. The outer skin oils that help water-proof the skin. This is the Acid Mantle of natural skin oils and acids.
2. The tightness of the skin barrier. This is the outer skin proteins that must remain hard to block water loss through the skin.
3. Within the skin, a high internal level of water holding proteins and sugars such as the proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans.

Our Skin Biology water/oil creams have no detergents and are always close to breaking up into a water phase and oil phase. They cannot open the skin. Four published studies found they increase the skin barrier strength. The SRCPs in our skin creams and Day Cover also increase the production of the water-holding proteins and sugars within the skin.

You can also use for skin oil either Emu Oil for Skin or Squalane from olives.

Daily supplements of 1 gram vitamin C and 1 gram MSM (glucosamine and chrondroitin sulfate does much the same) will help the production of the skin's water holding proteins.

Skin Damaging Cosmetic Moisturizers are designed to push water into the skin and wet the outer skin proteins. Various detergents (but they may not be called detergents) and water-holding molecules such as collagen fragments or hyaluronic acid often used to loosen the outer skin proteins so water can interact with them. But this weakens the skin barrier and lets in viruses, bacteria, and allergens.

In about 1997, there were studies from Denmark that found that oil/water skin moisturizers broke down the skin barrier. The concern was that this could increase infection in hospital patients. Since then, it has been found that hydrating (wetting) the outer skin proteins slows or even stops the normal flow of keratinocytes to the skin surface.

This means to skin is more slowly replaced and damage remains longer. We are working on a page about skin products that speed aging. But I need to get the references. Cosmetic moisturizers are designed to wet the outer skin proteins and push water into the skin to puff it up. Various detergents (but they may not be called detergents) are used to loosen the outer proteins so water can interact with them. The best example is the "cold creams" that women applied every night in the 1930s and 1940s. You may have seen these in old movies. Their skin was kept moist but the women ended with horrible wrinkles.