The Drip

The jury is still out on cryotherapy facials, also known as frotox, which involve freezing the face and neck to make the skin look tighter and smoother. But while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to give the procedure the green light, a growing number of beauty-seekers are touting its effectiveness. Cryotherapy is attributed to a Japanese doctor named Toshima, who first used extreme cold to treat rheumatoid arthritis in the 1970s. He discovered treating patients in a tube of freezing vapor reduced inflammation and pain in their bodies. Since then cryotherapy -- the application of liquid...

The Farm Bill 2018, which legalized industrial hemp in the United States, capped more than a half-century of the plant’s criminalization. The effects were far-reaching; the legislation opened the door to an industry currently worth more than $50 billion and estimated to be worth $77 billion by 2022. Hemp-derived oils are being sold for all kinds of medical conditions. People are selling paper and clothing made out of hemp. The plant is even being used to make durable, weather-resistant building blocks that remove carbon dioxide from the air. Even beauty products are being infused with CBD oil, an oil derived...

If you don’t follow KimKardashian on Instagram, or if you haven’t watched the episode of Kim and Kourtney Take Miami on which the elder sister gets the treatment that ended in a bloody selfie, then you may not have heard of—and you may be appalled by—the increasingly popular cosmetic procedure known as the vampire facial. The vampire facial, otherwise known as a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) facial, looks gruesome and hasn’t been clinically proven to work, but it has nonetheless a considerable following. The procedure promises to wipe decades off your face,eliminating wrinkles, acne scars, and an uneven skin tone. A...

Where do freckles come from? Why do we accumulate freckles as time goes on? Why do they sometimes disappear? Once you understand what freckles are and the biological processes that create them, it all makes a little more sense.  Freckles are basically small specks of a tan. They’re produced by melanin, a protein that the body makes to protect the skin from the sun. Melanin -- a word derived from the Greek melanos, meaning dark -- is a pigment manufactured by melanocytes, or cells found in the skin, eyes, and elsewhere. Ultraviolet radiation triggers melanocytes to make more melanin, which...

Pretty much everyone in the skincare industry, from chemists to dermatologists, agrees Vitamin C is good for the skin. Found in high concentrations both in the skin and in many fruits and vegetables, Vitamin C acts as a powerful antioxidant, blocking chemical reactions that damage the cells. It’s also part of the process that stimulates the production of collagen—the protein that holds your skin together, keeping it tight, elastic, and youthful. Sailors used to carry lemons—a fruit full of Vitamin C—to hedge against the threat of scurvy, a disease that developed because of impaired collagen synthesis and caused bleeding of...

Most of us grow up thinking that dark skin under the eyes is a sign that we need more sleep. Mothers often remind their children, and particularly their teenaged girls, that a lack of sleep manifests on the face and dark circles should warrant earlier bedtimes. But research shows that while fatigue can contribute to dark circles beneath the eyes – it causes the skin to become dull and pale, revealing the dark tissues and blood vessels beneath – there are other reasons for this besides. Sometimes the reason is genes. (If only you’d known that when your mother told...