Skin Interactive: Blog

The team at pH Advantage is pleased to announce our new website look and improved functionality. We listened to our customer comments and have incorporated many of your suggestions into this new site. We hope you find products that you enjoy and perhaps get a bit of helpful advice along the way. In recognition of this event and our loyal customers we are offering our products that are purchased through our website at a 50 percent discount. This promotion will be for a limited time only.

Bruce Hayes
CEO

pH Advantage products are sold in higher end Spa’s and Medical Spa’s both in the US and overseas. We have often been asked where our products are available at the retail level. While we do enjoy strong relationships with such renowned retail department stores as Harvey Nichols, we are continually looking to expand our retail footprint with qualified partners. If you have interest in making high quality medical grade skincare products available to your customers, please feel free to call us at 800-718-4968 or drop us an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

At pH Advantage we are committed to making your purchase as secure and effortless as possible. If you would like to make your purchase over the phone or ask any question regarding our products, please call 1-800-718-4968 or if you are in the Washington, DC area call 301-754-2500.

Bruce Hayes
 
CEO
pH Advantage

At pH Advantage, we are constantly looking for better ways to interact with our valued customers. We recently rolled out a loyalty reward point program “pH Preferred Points”, which has been favorably received by many of you. We have also created Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Myspace pages, which are in the process of being updated at this time. Please check out our various social networking pages and become a fan of pH Advantage.

We continue to view this website as our main medium to communicate company information and provide helpful skincare advice. We encourage everyone to visit the various websites, ask any skincare related questions you might have and of course provide your candid feedback on our products.

 
With 2010 upon us and with an exciting year planned for our company, we are truly appreciative of your support. Many of you may have been introduced to our products during Dr. Barry Cohen’s appearances on ShopNBC. Our family has grown, but we remain committed to delivering high quality, effective skin care products. And along the way, hope to provide some no-nonsense advice for healthier looking skin.
 
Thank you and best wishes for a prosperous and healthy new year!
 
Bruce Hayes
CEO

As one can tell from the name of our skin care line, pH plays an important role in determining how effective topical skin care ingredients are in improving one’s skin. If you look around all the beauty shops in the world, there are literally millions of products on the shelves. The real truth is that you can distill all of these products down to about forty jars to meet the needs of EVERY person in the world. In fact, there are only about two handfuls of clinically proven active ingredients, known to impact human skin quality.

All the differences among the myriad of products on the market come down to smell, texture, packaging, concentration of active ingredients, and the pH (or level of acidity) of the active ingredients. So where does bioavailability come in? Let’s begin with a basic definition: Bioavailability refers to the difference between the amounts of a substance, such as a drug, herb, or chemical, to which a person is exposed and the actual dose of the substance the body receives. Bioavailability accounts for the difference between exposure and dose.

Our skin lives healthily at a pH of around 4. Most soaps are quite alkaline (pH above 7), and should never be used on the face. Common therapeutic skin care treatments include alpha hydroxyl acids such as glycolic, salicylic, or lactic acid. When using products such as these to help turn the skin over, freshening its appearance, the ideal treatment pH is 3.0. So what does this all mean as a consumer? Let’s take glycolic acid as a common example. Many glycolic acid products list the concentration or percent of glycolic acid in the ingredients on the box. This is only part of the formula determining its bioavailability. If you compare 3 products, each with a concentration of glycolic acid of ten percent, and the first has a pH of 5, the second with a pH of 4, and the third with a pH of 3, the one at a 3 pH is 100 times more effective as the one at a pH at 5. The pH scale, like the decibel and Richter scale is logarithmic. This means that a movement of 1 point represents a tenfold change. Therefore, the same concentration of glycolic acid at a ph of 3, is 100x more bioavailable than one at a pH of 5! Knowing the true bioavailability tells the whole story of the skin care’s expected efficacy, and why we at pH Advantage provide complete disclosure to our customers. Given that there are so few products which are effective, getting the right bioavailability is crucial. Our products are produced, where appropriate, to deliver MAXIMUM bioavailibity of each product we sell, allowable by law. So, an educated consumer is our best patient. Knowing they are getting the best products, and the correct bioavailibity, should clear up the need to search through all the millions of other products on the market!

Barry J. Cohen, M.D.

301-656-6398

Now that Labor Day has passed, it is most appropriate for those of us who spent too much time in the sun to rethink our skin care regimen. First, I would urge everyone to continue using a sun block as part of their daily regimens. Sun exposure is a cumulative phenomenon, and using a UVA and UVB blocker year round is essential. Second, lighter lotions should be replaced by slightly heavier moisturizers. For those of you just back from a beach vacation, I suggest a few weeks of the pH Advantage, moisture recovery cream. It will hydrate and restore what the sun removed from your skin. Additionally, I would urge you to consider a regular exfoliation regimen. Our pH Advantage glycolic 10/50 pads are among the best in its class, and may be used either once or twice a week, to rid yourself of the dead skin left in the sun’s wake. If you developed any sun spots, which used to be cute freckles, consider adding vitamin C serum, vitamin A serum as well as hydroquinone. In a matter of a few weeks, you will have a more even complexion.

Do not forget to add some antioxidants to your diet. Vitamins C, E, and B-complex will help deal with the free radicals that do harm to your skin, and build up with regular sun exposure. Keeping your skin hydrated with lots of water intake, and emollient rich moisturizers, will keep your skin soft as we ease into cooler weather. And finally, do not forget your chest and hands! They were likely exposed to sun as well.

Regards,
Dr. Cohen

I thought it would be important to share a personal experience that I recently enjoyed. pH Advantage contributed a large basket of our products for a fund raiser, and I decided to place one of my business cards in the basket.  

Several weeks later, I recieved a letter from the recipient of the basket that said simply “I cannot express the incredible results I enjoyed after using your products. I have been a user of several brand name products over the years, many of which are prominently sold in department stores. I have since told my friends about your products and actually let one of my closest friends try it. I wish your products were sold more widely but I kind of like the idea of keeping it a little bit of a secret!” 
 
 Needless to say I was delighted to receive the note. I have since exchanged a few emails with this person to get a little better understanding of why she enjoyed our products so much and also why she wanted to keep it a secret. It gave me some pause to think about our growth plans for the future and our desire to keep to our commitment of providing the most efficacious products at a reasonable price.
 
Bruce Hayes

CEO
pH Advantage

A walk down the cosmetics section of any department store, or a glance at the long list of skincare products sold on specialty web sites, is enough to make even the most die-hard skincare aficionado head for the bar of soap. How in the world can anyone without an MD or a PhD in Biochemistry, figure out what products to use, and what products transcend the hype presented on the box. Whom do you believe about the efficacy of the latest ingredient, guaranteed to cure all that ails your skin? The doctor, the women in the white coat at the mall, the lady next door, or perhaps the hypester screaming on the late-night infomercial.

The truth is that there are very few active ingredients in skincare that have EVER been shown to produce real, clinically documented improvements in the cosmetic appearance of the skin. The appropriate combination of these products, at maximal concentrations of the active ingredients, and at the correct pH (level of acidity), is what separates the wheat from the chaff in skincare. The reality is that the skincare needs of every person in the world could be met by distilling all the products sold into about 30 jars. An educated consumer will realize that most expensive, rarely equates with most efficacious, and that the prettiest jar or best smell, is not usually the best use of money.

The basic ingredients which reside on the clinically proven list include: glycolic, salicylic, and lactic acids, kinetin, Vitamin A and retinols, Vitamin C, various peptides, hydroquinone, niacin, hyaluronic acid, kojic acid, arnica, and sun blocks such as zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, and parsol.

At pH Advantage, we strive to include only those ingredients with clinical efficacy, at maximum concentrations and pH Levels in our products. Our online skin analysis software optimizes and personalizes a regimen for each set of unique individual needs. We also recognize that each individual’s needs change over seasons as well as stages of life. We firmly believe that a well informed consumer is our best patient! Enjoy our products, don’t cheat on us, and send your friends!

Dr. Cohen

There is a constant battle between the naturalists and the medical cosmeceutical afficionados in skin care. The truth is that there are some natural ingredients which are effective, such as the plant hormone kinetin (found in pH Advantage kinetin Ultra), as well as some fruit acid products. Unfortunately, most of the products which are clinically tested and proven to work fall in the cosmeceutical realm.

If you look at the spectrum of all skincare, there are only a handful of ingredients which have documented efficacy for the skin: Vitamin A, C, E, Glycolic, lactic, and salicylic acids, Kinetin, Peptides, Hydroquinone, Sun blocks (zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, parsol), GABA, and hylauronic acid. Everything else is “untested”. We at pH will offer only those products which have clinical data. If independent research does not show efficacy, we don’t offer it. If research does show efficacy, we offer products at the most meaningful levels of pH and concentration.

We hope you will find this part of the site interesting and fun. Everyone has an interest in skincare and this is your opportunity to share experiences, problems or any issues that are skin related. This is a large part of the skincare community that we endeavor to encourage. Please do not use this part of the site to write about issues other than skincare or the company reserves the right to remove the comment.