I’m not the celebrity type. I learned a long, long time ago that everyone puts their pants on the same way — one leg at a time.

I never recognize celebs when I’m out in the world, and when I do, honestly it just doesn’t phase me. Maybe it’s the Leo in me. When I do spot a celeb, I don’t care and certainly never stare.

For some reason, celebs stare at me though.

There was this health food store across from the Kiehl’s Home Offices in the West Village that I used to frequent a few times a week. If we felt like eating super healthy on a particular day, then we’d pop into Health & Harmony during lunch. They had everything vegan under the sun.

I loved discovering new, healthy things in Health & Harmony. It’s my kind of New York City store — the perfect blend of quality products served with a whole lot of New York attitude. I think this Yelp comment just about sums it up: “Good products, mediocre customer service. I'd only go back for the coconut flavored whip cream. But the woman behind the register kinda turned me off from shopping here.”

Mmm…coconut flavored whipped cream? How’d I miss that treat?!

So there I was one day at the check out counter with my arms full of plant-based goodies. I suddenly felt someone staring at me hard from one register over. I hate when people stare. As a kid, if we were caught staring, we were quickly scolded. It’s rude.

But, curious as I was, I glanced in the direction of the rude starer and was surprised to catch Edie Falco starring at me!

You know Edie Falco; she played Carmella Soprano, mobster Tony Soprano’s wife on the masterful, long-running HBO series, The Sopranos.

What can I say; she was fascinated by me! I’m not gonna lie, being stared down by Edie Falco was memorable; but, like I said, we all put pants on one leg at a time.

I gotta admit there is one person, not exactly your average celebrity, that I would swoon over: Paula Begoun!

Paula has certainly taught me a lot of what I know today. But the foundation for my knowledge of skin care brands, products, and ingredients has its origins early in my career as a cosmetics department manager in Los Angeles in the late 80s. It was there that the beauty counter experts taught me the basics of their craft. And, I credited those passionate women for my own love of skin care.

As my career progressed, I amassed more of what would later inform my work as a skincare copywriter at Kiehl’s, then as a skincare blogger and, most importantly, the creation of the Skincarma Blog.

But life is always moving, innovations keep coming, knowledge is never-ending. And intelligent resources for information on individual ingredients, products, and new and established brands is everything. Misinformation and marketing spin are all over the internet, so finding trusted, reliable sources is essential.

The new CBD Skin Transformative Treatment Milk is quite the amazing formulation.

And this is where Paula Begoun plays such an important role for me. Rarely does a day go by, a review get written, or a blog come to life without the guidance of Paula and her team. They’ve assembled three outstanding sources for information that I regularly rely on.

The first is the Paula’s Choice Skincare website itself — and particularly the Expert Advice section of the site. On the page, there are expertly sourced articles on just about anything to do with skin care, ingredients, and their benefits and interactions with the skin.

As I write this, there are several new, educational pieces that I’m itching to read: The Ultimate Guide to pH and Your Skin and CBD Oil's Benefits for Skin: Can it Help With Acne, Anti-Aging, & Other Skin Issues?

One of the things I love most about the product pages on Paula’s Choice Skincare is the way ingredients are explained in the product INCI’s. You’ll not only find a formula’s ingredients listed in descending order, but also the benefits of the ingredient to your skin. No one else does this at the level that Paula’s team does. It’s indefensible to me!

Here is the INCI for the 10% Niacinamide serum; notice the ingredient identifiers in parentheses:

Nobody explains skin care and ingredients better than Paula herself!

Also part of the site is Paula’s Ingredient Dictionary, one of my go-to sources for in-depth ingredient information — along with COSDNA and INCI Decoder. It’s the first place I go when I come across an obscure ingredient in an INCI.

In fact, when I was researching the COSRX Triple C Lightning Liquid for last week’s blog on a Complete K-beauty Skincare Routine, I discovered an ingredient I’d never heard of: Aronia Melanocarpa Fruit Extract, or Black Chokeberry. My initial source for info on the Vitamin C-rich active was Paula’s ingredient glossary.

The third trove of information is Paula’s Beautypedia site. There are several thousand product reviews from hundreds of skincare brands, old and new. On Beautypedia, you’ll find dozens of new, in-depth reviews — like one for the recently introduced 12.5% Vitamin C Super Strength Formula Radiance Strength Serum from Revolution Beauty, which Paula’s team panned with a mediocre two-star rating.

“12.5% Vitamin C Super Strength Formula Radiance Strength Serum from Revolution Skincare pairs pure vitamin C (ascorbic acid) with nourishing grape seed oil. Unfortunately, it also contains fragrant ingredients that pose a strong risk of irritating skin. This thin lotion is packaged in a translucent brown glass bottle topped with a pump. The opaque label covers most of the glass, which is good because the translucency exposes the delicate vitamin C to light, causing it to break down sooner. Alternately, you could keep this stored in its box or in a cabinet.
We’re concerned that the inclusion of fragrant orange oil and fragrance ingredients like citral and linalool will trigger irritation--each is known to be sensitizing. See More Info for details. Another concern is that in a water-based formula, ascorbic acid works best at a lower pH (between 2 and 3, with pH 3 being preferred since going much lower than that really irritates skin). This vitamin C serum has a pH of 3.8, not bad but it also doesn’t make it quite as effective as today’s best vitamin C treatments.
In the end, this is one to pass on due to the deal-breaker of fragrance and, as a final comment, the lack of soothing ingredients to buffer the amount of 12.5% vitamin C, which on its own can be sensitizing for some people.”

On Beautypedia, you can also search by brand. Take Clinique, for example. There are in the neighborhood of 300 individual Clinique products reviewed on the Beautypedia site. Included along with star ratings and in-depth analyses are ingredient lists, pricing and product comparisons.

So, Paula is my muse! And several of the Paula’s Choice skincare products are OG’s, long-time faves; among them the C15 Super Booster and the 10% Niacinamide Booster. Paula’s 1% Retinol Booster was the first Retinol treatment I ever tried!

So I thought it would be cool to pull together a few of my faves from Paula’s Choice and share what I love about them and why. Have a look at three Paula’s Choice products that make me purr like Orpheus…

Paula’s Choice | 10% Niacinamide Booster

There are few skincare ingredients that I consider as indispensable as Niacinamide. While I had heard of it over the years, I had never paid much attention to the form of Vitamin B3 until Paula's Choice introduced their 10% Niacinamide Booster serum — the first serum of its kind on the market.

I bought it that very same day.

Three or so years later and a 10% concentration of Niacinamide is considered the gold standard. Paula’s Choice recently introduced a 20% concentration, but I’ve held off so far. The #fomo is intensifying by the day, though, so stay tuned!

I use a Niacinamide serum every day, twice a day — in both my AM and PM routines. And every time I talk about Niacinamide, also known as Nicotinic Acid, I feel the duty to impress upon my readers its indispensable qualities and remarkable benefits on the skin.

From Paula (of course!):

Also known as vitamin B3 and nicotinic acid, niacinamide is a very effective skin-restoring ingredient that offers multiple benefits for aging and blemish-prone skin. Among these benefits is the ability to visibly improve the appearance of enlarged pores, uneven skin tone, fine lines, dullness, and a weakened skin surface. Niacinamide can also mitigate and to some extent help visibly repair damage from UV light and offset other sources of environmental attack, including the negative impact of various types of airborne pollutants. Unlike many beneficial ingredients, niacinamide is stable in the presence of heat and light.

Paula’s 10% Niacinamide Booster serum was the first dedicated Niacinamide product I ever used.

The Paula’s Choice Niacinamide serum is one of the most well-rounded serums available. It goes far beyond just the brightening potency and pore-flushing benefits of Vitamin B3 alone — with Ascorbyl Glucoside (a form of Vitamin C) and Sodium Hyaluronate (a form of Hyaluronic Acid) at very high levels.

Interestingly, Ascorbyl Glucoside and Niacinamide are true BFFs. Considered a stable form of Vitamin C when combined with Glucose, Ascorbyl Glucoside converts to Ascorbic Acid (the pure form of Vitamin C) when absorbed by the skin. Read more about this power duo here.

While it’s a true powerhouse for skin, the 10% Niacinamide Booster has also got a super watery texture (as light as water itself!) that makes it relatively easy to layer into any skincare routine. And, it works perfectly in the “Skincarma ABC” step at the heart of every regimen; that is, Vitamin A (Retinol/Bakuchiol), Vitamin B3 (Niacinamide) and Vitamin C. You can’t go wrong if you stick to that — and it’s easy to remember at night when the last thing you want to think about is the application order of multiple serums!

At $44, 10% Niacinamide Booster is one of the priciest options, but as you can see, it’s well worth the money.

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster for $44 here.

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**Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster**
**Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster**
**Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer**

Paula’s Choice | Hyaluronic Acid Booster

Right up there as a skincare ingredient essential is Hyaluronic Acid. And, as was my experience with both Niacinamide and Retinol, the Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster was my first dedicated serum of the tried-and-true humectant.

I have long been fascinated by how Hyaluronic Acid works in the skin and by the multiple forms of the active, among them Sodium Hyaluronate — the salt form of HA that’s the most compatible with the skin.

You’ll find some form of HA in just about every serious moisturizer, hydrating treatment and anti-aging serum. Every skinfluencer and skincare junkie has a dedicated HA serum.

As I said in last week’s blog, hydration is key to maintaining skin health. And a well-formulated Hyaluronic Acid serum is essential to any pro-skin health regimen.

It’s a fascinating ingredient; and while there are multiple humectants available for inclusion in skin care, including Beta Glucan, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Snow Mushroom and Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Hyaluronic Acid seems to be every formulator’s go-to.

Paula and her information-rich websites aren’t my only source for legit ingredient information. I do a lot of googling. But, again, there’s a lot of misinformation out there, so you have to be discerning.

That said, I recently found an excellent albeit wonky article on Hyaluronic Acid titled, Why Science Says Hyaluronic Acid Is the Holy Grail to Wrinkle-Free, Youthful Hydration.

This bit stood out to me, in particular:

“The benefits of hyaluronic acid on the skin has to do with its molecular weight and concentration. In this case, size matters! The molecular weight refers to its mass, or how big the HA molecule is. This is measured in something called unified atomic mass units — daltons, or kDa for short.
HA between 50 to 1,000 kDa is the most beneficial for skin, with about 130 kDa being the best, according to the most recent human studies. Anything higher won't make too much of a difference. Anything lower might cause inflammation. How did we get this number? When you look at studies, you'll see a pattern, but one of the most thorough studies looked at HA with different molecular weights, including 50, 130, 300, 800, and 2,000 kDa.
After one month, they found that treatment with 130 kDa HA was the most effective, increasing skin elasticity by 20 percent. Both the 50 and 130 kDa groups had significant improvement in wrinkle-depth and skin roughness after 60 days. All the other molecular weights still improved elasticity and skin hydration, just less so. You can read more about this molecular weight analysis from the original breakdown here.”

So, what makes the Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster a personal favorite?

First, I love the texture! It’s not as watery as, say, the pricier option from Dr. Dennis Gross — the $68 Hyaluronic Marine Hydration Booster. But it’s also not as pulpy as the cheaper HA serums available today from The Ordinary and The Inkey List — which are $6.80 and $7.99 respectively.

Paula’s Hyaluronic Acid Booster “contains a specialized matrix of skin-smoothing hyaluronic acid, skin-replenishing ceramides, and panthenol that penetrates skin’s surface to help lock in moisture, keeping skin hydrated and ultimately moisturized.”

The first ingredients immediately after water are Glycerin, Sodium Hyaluronate and Hyaluronic Acid, followed by three skin-replenishing forms of plumping, replenishing ceramides.

It’s a terrific formula and relatively affordable at $36.

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster for $36 here.

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Paula’s Choice | Omega+ Complex Moisturizer

I’ve talked quite a bit about what has to be my favorite moisturizer of 2019. In fact, the Omega+ Complex Moisturizer was a serious contender for the Skincarma Product of the Year that I announced a month ago.

Last fall, it played the starring role of dream moisturizer in my Complete $175 Skincare Routine, available here.

There’s just something so fluffy, creamy and deliciously wonderful about the Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer.

It’s funny to me when a brand describes a moisturizer as having a “whipped texture.” That’s almost always fluff! (I know because I’ve written it myself like 87 times in my own packaging copy!) But here, with Paula’s stellar skin-replenishing treatment, it’s actually true.

The PC Omega+ Complex Moisturizer is honestly a really well-formulated product that all skin types can benefit from. To start, it’s loaded with superfood omega fatty acids, those replenishing ceramides, and so many antioxidant botanicals and non-fragrant plant oils that I couldn’t count them all. I’m gonna take a guess and say there are 75-80 ingredients in all.

The formula’s plethora of skin-strengthening omega fatty acids is found in the INCI in the form of Linseed (Flax) Seed Oil, Chia Seed Oil, and Passion Fruit Seed Oil — each rich in some variation of omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids.

What are fatty acids?

Well, they’re substances that are found in both plant and animal lipids — aka fats. They also happen to be super healthy for our skin as they’re recognized by the skin as friendly, active ingredients (as are Hyaluronic Acid and amino acids). Because they’re found naturally in the skin already, they’re quickly and readily absorbed so they can get right to work.

How did I learn all of that? From Paula, of course! There’s an excellent article on the brand’s website titled, How Omega Fatty Acids Help Skin.

This stands out:

Omega fatty acids are truly remarkable ingredients for skin. They serve as the essential building blocks of skin’s surface layers, creating a smoother, more even, younger-looking, and healthier complexion, no matter your age or skin type. And if the idea of putting fish oil on skin sounds a bit gross, don’t worry—the plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids are just as remarkable for skin!

Here just a few of the things that topical application of omega fatty acids can do for your skin:

Reinforce and smooth skin’s surface.
Increase hydration without feeling heavy, and help keep skin hydrated.
Calm signs of external stressors, including redness and sensitivity.
Eliminate signs of flaky, dehydrated-looking skin.
Visibly strengthen skin against signs of environmental damage.
Deliver antioxidants for anti-aging results.

Because Paula’s Omega+ moisturizer is so light on the skin, it would work well for all skin types — from very dry to oily and everything in between. The only skin type I would imagine it not agreeing with would be super oily, acneic skin.

Omega+ is available on the brand’s website for just $35 — a steal for such a well-formulated, pro-skin health treatment!

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer for $35 here.

BUY PAULA’S CHOICE OMEGA+ COMPLEX MOISTURIZER

That’s it guys! I hope you’ve enjoyed a peak at three of my favorite Paula’s Choice products. And next time you’re looking for a really great Niacinamide serum, you know exactly where to go. In fact, this week all boosters are 20% off on the site!

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