Hello - I am new and just am reading through the book. Thank you Dr. Baumann - the correct approach to treating my skin brought by the book is invaluable. It is very educating, I find. (your book has become my skin care bible in the last few days )

I have a few questions at this point.

The fist one is about hydroquinone. There are claims that this chemical is cancerogenic in the long run (www.civantskin.com/research.html) and is band in UK. I do have hydroquinone cream, but I am reluctant to use it. Can you, please, comment on that ? I will try magnesium ascorbyl phosphate products for now (it is a form of vitamin C, is it not?). How high should be the concentration for it to work ?

I am following your recommendations - stopped exfoliating (thank you - I can see the improvement within 5 days already), I stopped using any sort of soapy products to clean, and I spray Evian on my face before applying moisturizer - what a difference. I make sure to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize (and I used forbidden ingredients list to select the right moisturizer for me).

What is interesting that I was hesitant to use moisturizer before, since I had breakouts and felt it was counterintuitive to do so. But with Evian on my face and the right moisturizer I observe remarkable thing - my clogged pores are opening up and clearing on their own ! How is that possible ?! :o) I am 38 years old and I never knew that moisturizing clears acne !

Well, thank you again and I am looking forward to reading interesting things on this forum.

P.S. And I apologize for my poor grammar - English is not my first language, I am actually Russian, so I hope no-one gets offended at my writing mistakes

Hello - I am new and just am reading through the book. Thank you Dr. Baumann - the correct approach to treating my skin brought by the book is invaluable. It is very educating, I find. (your book has become my skin care bible in the last few days )

I have a few questions at this point.

The fist one is about hydroquinone. There are claims that this chemical is cancerogenic in the long run (www.civantskin.com/research.html) and is band in UK. I do have hydroquinone cream, but I am reluctant to use it. Can you, please, comment on that ? I will try magnesium ascorbyl phosphate products for now (it is a form of vitamin C, is it not?). How high should be the concentration for it to work ?

I am following your recommendations - stopped exfoliating (thank you - I can see the improvement within 5 days already), I stopped using any sort of soapy products to clean, and I spray Evian on my face before applying moisturizer - what a difference. I make sure to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize (and I used forbidden ingredients list to select the right moisturizer for me).

What is interesting that I was hesitant to use moisturizer before, since I had breakouts and felt it was counterintuitive to do so. But with Evian on my face and the right moisturizer I observe remarkable thing - my clogged pores are opening up and clearing on their own ! How is that possible ?! :o) I am 38 years old and I never knew that moisturizing clears acne !

Well, thank you again and I am looking forward to reading interesting things on this forum.

P.S. And I apologize for my poor grammar - English is not my first language, I am actually Russian, so I hope no-one gets offended at my writing mistakes

Oh, yes - dr_darling stands for 'dear' darling :o), not for 'Doctor'

That's awesome! Which moisturizer are you using?

Marcy

Hi dr_darling, I was also concerned about hydroquinone. I looked through the book, cross-referenced with some information online, and decided on SkinCeuticals Phyto Corrective Gel (which doesn't contain hydroquinone). It's not in any of the Sensitive lists, but the company information and many reviews I read indicated it would be fine (the company recommends it for sensitive or troubled skin). Anyway, my Phyto Gel arrived today - first time ever using a lightening product! We'll see how it goes

Btw, I also found that not exfoliating has helped - I used to use scrubs often! I am sure they were contributing to breakouts and inflammation.

Hi, guys. I am using the following:
Day
- I wash face with L'Oreal self-foaming cleanser www.americarx.com/index.asp?PageAction=V...ROD&ProdID=17133 (I am DSPW)
- Pat dry. Spray with Evian water (do not wipe)
- apply Avalon Orgianics vitamin C serum (Magnesuim ascorbyl phosphate) with cucumber extract to target pigmenation
- apply moisturiser on the wet skin. That one I got at a Health food store. The name is Patric Curelle. Here are the ingridients - Purified Water; Cetearyl Glucoside; Avocado Oil; Sucrose Cocoate;Glycerin (veg)-alpha-tocopherol (natural vit. E); Panthenol (vit. ;Lanicera Japanica. (it actually a hand and body lotion, but it is so mild - there is not a single irritant in there!)

I also have my DIY oil - sufflawer oil with vit. E added and sweet almond oil. I add it just together with moistiriser if skin feels too dry (Ooh those oild are so nice!). I massage the moisturiseres into the skin and let then sit for a while (2-3 minutes) and then pat face with a towel to get rid of the excess. Ta - da !

Thanks for the SkinCeuticals tip - I'll take a look at the ingridients. I also have a link to a prertty good (informative) site:
www.smartskincare.com/treatments/vitcderiv.html

I really like it. It is by dermatologist Dr. Todorov. I think it is complimentary to Dr. Baumann's book. He goes into the latest and greatest scientific ingridients why and how they work and what for. He has a bit of a holistic approach to treatments.