- What a long day!

I am ready for bed, so why don't you come to bed with me?

As a board certified dermatologist,

I am trained, you know, we are trained to be the experts

at all conditions of the skin, the hair, and the nails,

and so, we know a lot about these products

that are out there, the skincare products,

and know about the ingredients and what they do,

but we definitely, certainly, have levels

of how much we care about it.

Some people have really deep interest in it.

I am definitely, am always aware

of what I'm putting on my skin,

but I am not crazy about it.

I don't have a lot of steps to my regimen,

but I do know my skin type.

I am dry and I'm on the sensitive side,

so I like to keep things to a minimum

and I don't like to do things that aggravate my skin.

The first step I'm gonna do is take off these eyelashes.

I don't wear eyelashes everyday, but I had to do it today,

of course, 'cause you know, we're gonna be on camera,

and I want to use a really good oil makeup remover.

I've used this four years since I've been a teenager.

It's Bi-Facil by Lancome,

and I like to use, I found these really,

amazing, actually, cotton remover pads.

I don't know, I'm a dork, maybe everybody knows about this,

but I don't like the ones you can buy in stores

'cause they get like very linty,

and I don't like Kleenex 'cause it will tear.

This is like Kleenex with a pad in it,

and you can really soak them really well

with these oils and just like dab them across your face.

I don't like to rub 'cause again, I'm very sensitive

so I like to just dab and let it soak up,

and remove my eye makeup,

so that's the first thing that I do.

So the next step is using my SLMD Cleansing Wipes.

These are my favorite wipes and also I dab at my face.

I try to get off the excess makeup and I don't rub

because I'm more prone to getting rashes or irritation,

and when you do that, you get more wrinkles

'cause those change your skin

and make you look more wrinkled and older,

which we don't like.

I mean, even like a washcloth is gonna create micro tears,

so anything that's kind of abrading your skin,

so you just need to be gentle.

I use a hydrating facial cleanser

and I alternate it with a salicylic acid cleanser

because my two issues is that I'm really dry

and it's because I'm darker complected,

I'm prone to brown spots.

So I like to use my SLMD Salicylic Acid Cleanser

and switch it out every other day

with just a hydrating facial cleanser.

This one's by CeraVe.

And salicylic acid is really great

because it's an exfoliant.

It's gonna exfoliate

and get rid of those dry, dull dead skin cells

on the surface of your skin,

so your skin is more radiant.

It's gonna actually settle down within your pores too

and help prevent new acne or blackheads from forming.

And the trick is with salicylic acid cleansers

is you can actually leave it on your face

for a couple minutes if you wanted to,

and really that can help to increase the penetrance up,

and I mean, I think, in a cleanser,

you're gonna wash it off ultimately, obviously,

but it's gonna really help to get off any

of this extra gunk that I missed with my wipes

or with my eye makeup remover.

So one thing that's really important,

I think that's very important about washing face

that I know from a dermatologist perspective

is when you're washing your face,

you're actually getting rid of moisture on your face.

so you really want to not go really hot

and you don't wanna go really cold either.

You don't wanna shock your your system, really.

You don't wanna shock your skin.

Lukewarm water is the best and I don't rub my face either,

just wash off the salicylic acid.

So again, I dab and I also,

what's so important at this point

is when your skin is still moist,

that is the prime time to moisturize your skin actually,

because if your skin is wet, the,

just out in the air, the moisture evaporates

and it actually pulls that moisture,

the air pulls that moisture out of your skin

and you get drier.

That's why you kind of get that tight feeling

after you wash your face,

and you sit around for a while.

So this is the ideal time to put a moisturizer on.

I like my SLMD Hyaluronic Acid Serum.

Hyaluronic acid, you've probably seen it

in a lot of products these days.

Well, hyaluronic acid is hydrophilic,

meaning that it draws in water.

When you put it on your skin,

it's really gonna seal in that moisture

and minimize what we call transepidermal water loss,

and I'm more prone to that than others

because I have dry skin.

I actually actually have eczema,

which is, means that my barrier on my skin

is not as good as other people's,

so I tend to lose moisture more easily,

so I really need extra moisturizer.

In fact, I can put Vaseline.

I could put like petrolatum on my face

and it won't break me out; I'm so dry.

In terms of things that I wish

that I had not done in the past,

I wish I didn't rub my eyes so much.

You know, I love my cats.

I have cats and I can't give them up,

but I probably shouldn't have had cats in the first place

'cause I'm a little allergic to them

and any kind of inflammation that you get,

any irritation, any kind of like rash

that you get can really age you, actually.

It's cumulative and it really increases the wrinkles

and increases the aging,

but I also feel like "Thank goodness,

"I have good genes from my mom,"

so hopefully, I'll balance out somehow.

So at this point, I like to take a little break

and let all of this soak in for a moment,

and I like to put on my deodorant.

At least, it gives me a little break

because this is a little secret that I have for you.

Deodorant is best applied at night.

It is most effective at night

because you're putting it on

when your sweat glands are the most dormant,

so it's going to make it more effective,

so this is the time that I put on deodorant.

And I can't believe I'm doing that on camera,

but here we go.

The reason I want this to settle in

is because I like to put my moisturizer on

before I put on any retinol or retinoid.

These are products that we know as dermatologists,

they've been around for generations

and we know that they help to minimize fine lines

and wrinkles overtime.

Retinol is an over-the-counter version of this product.

There's a prescription variety as well,

but they are a little bit irritating to the skin,

so I like to put moisturizer on before

and I like to let it sit for a little bit.

There is some question as to whether retinol

or retinoids interact with a moisturizer

or lose their effectiveness

because you apply them the same time as moisturizer,

and I think there is some truth to that,

and some people might actually put a retinol on

before they put on moisturizer on.

I just like to put the moisturizer on first

'cause I really wanna keep that moisture in my skin

after I wash it and I like to just let it sit

for a little bit, and then apply the retinol,

and that makes me feel

like it's gonna be pretty effective now.

This is something that I actually, I live by as well,

the healing ointments.

These are really important for me, again,

'cause I'm saying I'm super dry.

I put them everywhere.

I put them in around my lips and around my eyes at night.

And some people, be careful putting them around your eyes.

They could promote milia,

which are like these little baby cysts around the eyes.

So some people can't tolerate that,

but I can 'cause I'm very dry,

so I put them there to protect those areas too

because you don't wanna put a retinol

close to your eyes, the skin there is too sensitive,

and it will irritate you.

I get acne bumps every now and then.

It's sort of like a hormonal thing,

which is with most of us when we get hormonal acne.

Usually for that sort of thing,

I'm gonna put a benzoyl peroxide spot treatment

on the area.

So, I usually just, benzoyl peroxide is really great

because it's antibacterial

and I just will usually just spot treat the area.

That works in two ways.

It's gonna help destroy bacteria

that are really thriving in that area

and also it really keeps your hands off the area.

The other thing that I can do

that I'm sorry most of you guys can't do,

just because I'm a dermatologist.

I inject my own pimples if I have one

that I feel that's under the surface of the skin.

If you have a dermatologist

that you see, you can potentially see them

and they can give you a little shot

of low potency corticosteroid in the area,

and it gets rid of the zit within 24 hours.

So, in general, I can get big ones,

but I usually get rid of them within 24 hours.

But what sucks for us because throughout our life,

we think, "Okay, why am I not done with acne?

Isn't this supposed to be a teenage condition?"

But throughout our life, we're still getting adult acne.

While it's really common

and it is completely driven by hormones,

but remember, it's a good thing in a sense

because it shows that you have hormones,

that's a youthful thing, and to have oil in your face

to get acne is a youthful thing.

So, try to remind yourself of that.

The problem is that people will try

to pop a pimple too early 'cause it's there

and you can't keep your hands off of it, I get it.

If you just squeeze a pimple when it's too early,

it will just get bigger, and redder,

and angrier, and end up worse.

The ideal time to really extract a pimple

is when they are as close to the surface as they can be.

You wanna make sure any kind of pimple comes

as close to the surface as you can

because then you can just gently nick it,

if you do anything at all.

Like, I'm a dermatologist,

I'm gonna tell you to do anything.

I don't want you to do anything.

I can't 'cause I don't you to be unsafe,

but I know people are gonna do it

so that's my best advice for you

to just know that the more superficial something is

in your skin, the less risk you have

of permanently scarring yourself.

A lot of blemishes that are red or brown,

they're gonna go away,

but that's probably from a lot of pushing

and manipulating, so,

trying to leave things alone is the best thing to do.