By Hannah Sivak, PhD
Senior Scientist
Skin Actives Scientific LLC

The price of skin care
If you think that quality of skin care is proportional to price, think again. For the most famous names, the ingredients account for a small part of the final price, jars and boxes come next, and the biggest chunk is marketing. If you are well informed (and the information is out there) you can choose the best actives for your skin type and add them to a suitable base, a cream, lotion or gel: you will end up wuth a product that is better than anything else in the market.

Licensing
Why better and not the same? Because the actives a brand can use are limited by a number of  factors. The most common is licensing: the scientists or technologists that got the patent for active A may have given an exclusive license to brand X, so brand Y cannot use it even if that active is very good. Conversely, Y may have the license for active B. So if you want a product with both actives, A and B, you can't have it.... unless you buy those actives yourself and add them to a base cream. You can do that and besides having a better cream than that sold by X and Y brands, you save yourself lots of money!

Choosing your skin actives
Ebay is a great source of information. Do a search for your favorite brand and you will find an Ebay seller who will sell you the active present in that brand. If your problem is acne, do a search for acne, look for alternatives. Did you know that benzoyl peroxide will age your skin? Propolis is a natural antibiotic that will kill the acne bacteria whithout ruining your skin.
If your doctor had to excise a melanoma lesion, help your skin by using betulinic acid and pomegranate oil. Palmitoyl pentapeptide (Matrixyl, the active in Strivectin) and sea kelp bioferment will help with wrinkles and hesperidin methyl chalcone in Eyeliss (the active in Haloxyl) will improve the look and health of puffy eyes. Soy isoflavones will help stop the wrinkles that follow menopause.

Can you mix your own skin care products?
Can you prepare a salad? You do not have to know how to boil eggs, but you will have to sit down, measure a teaspoon of this and a tablespoon of that, add to the base cream and mix. If you feel like it, add a drop or two of fragrance. In short, you can make your own, improved, Creme de la Mer, Strivectin, Perricone, Prevage, ReVive, etc. if you can measure a tablespoon of powder and mix it in our Canvas base cream. It will be better because you can adjust the concentration of active to your own skin, and you can add several actives in order to get the best of every skin care product you love.

I am not telling you NOT to spend your money
But maybe you should spend it in a nice pair of shoes or a massage... because if you know that you are not buying the best skin care when you go to the department store and spend $500, there is no excuse to spend your money there. The best anti-wrinkle skin care is more likely to cost your $30 or $40 (the cost of alpha lipoic acid, palmitoyl pentapeptide, GABA and niacinamide plus the base cream) and will guarantee better skin plus fun time if you prepare your products with a group of friends.

Ask questions, they will be answered
There is a lot of knowledge about, in forums, from Ebay sellers, even in feedbacks. Ebay sellers can have surprising backgrounds, and they will be happy to "show off" and teach you what they know! And we, at Skin Actives Scientific, will answer your questions, both scientific and practical, on how to get the best skin care available anywhere.