Skinformation (eBook)

A Clean Science Guide to Beautiful Skin

Terri Vinson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
384 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-0-7303-8521-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Become an empowered skincare consumer and uncover your best skin 

SkInformation?is a must-have handbook for the skin-savvy woman who wants to cut through the hype and choose the best for her skin. 

Cosmetics companies will tell you anything to convince you to buy their latest skincare lines. Millions of women fall for these marketing campaigns designed to look like science - potentially to the detriment of their skin (not to mention bank accounts!).  

Cosmetic chemist and educator Terri Vinson exposes the misinformation and 'white noise' about miracle products and ingredients, debunks current skin 'mythology' and empowers you to make your own smart skin choices. 

If you have an interest in skin health and want to understand the science behind the cosmetics you purchase, this book will take you to the next level of understanding and make you a truly informed consumer. SkInformation is written in an easy to digest manner so you don't need to be a science graduate to understand it.From sunscreen and mineral formulas to skin-friendly nutrition and lifestyle tips, SkInformation covers everything you need to know about your skin. You'll also find special sections on the skin issues that matter most to you.   

Terri Vinson covers acne, skin aging, enlarged pores and many other concerns, teaching you the scientific explanations of these phenomena and explaining which skincare products really work - and why they work. Use this new knowledge to amp up your skincare regime and cut out the products that don't serve you.

• Familiarise yourself with the basic science of skin, including how essential skincare products work
• Become an empowered reader of labels to avoid harmful ingredients and marketing hype
• Improve your skin and guard against aging with diet and lifestyle tips from a cosmetic chemist
• Discover the skincare routine that will work best for your unique skin challenges 

For ladies (and gents) who love to learn, this book goes beyond the average beauty and skincare advice guide, diving into skin conditions and concerns in a way that anyone can appreciate and enjoy! 

TERRI VINSON is a self-confessed science nerd. The cosmetic chemist behind a leading global brand of mindful and evidence-based skincare products, she trains aestheticians and medical skin professionals on ingredient technology to help everyone get their best skin.

Textauszug

Preface: my story

It’s funny—I’m so confident writing about almost anything in this book: skin, science, ingredients. But the ‘why’ of writing the book, and why I feel so passionate about what I do … that’s the hard bit. It feels so intensely personal to me, so it’s quite scary thinking of people reading about my journey in such detail. But I’m proud of how I got here … so here goes!

Discovering my inner confidence

My early years were filled with low self-esteem. I never quite felt like I fit in—a common story, but it impacted me significantly as a child. When I was 12 I discovered I was adopted. I don’t remember being shocked or upset at the time. What I do remember is the feeling that my past now just had a black space … and that when I looked forward, there was a big spotlight that I could choose to step into. I knew with every fibre of my being that I was here to make a difference. I had no idea when, or how, but I knew that I would.

Despite the difficulties this reality presented for me growing up, I was given a lot of opportunity. I came from a lower middle-class home and my parents spent all their earnings ensuring I had a good education. My dad was a distinct source of support, always encouraging me to reach for anything I wanted. He was an incredible early feminist role model for me, which was rare to find in a male at that time. My mum did the best parenting she could at the time, but unfortunately she had no idea about nutrition. My diet consisted of processed food, refined sugar and coke. Fast-forward to the end of Year 8 and I was totally lacking confidence and straddling the awkward line between childhood and adolescence.

That summer holiday I began poring over Dolly magazines and applying makeup to my dolls. I convinced Mum to buy me a jar of Oil of Ulan and let me get my hair permed … eeek! But very ’70s! I soon retired my doll to the cupboard and started using the makeup skills I had practised on my own face.

I was addicted to Monte Carlo biscuits and could down a whole packet along with a can of coke. I was looking decidedly ‘pasty’ and my congested skin was a good barometer of my overall health, so I decided to reduce my sugar intake.

In hindsight, I had so much to learn about nutrition. I came across a crazy diet called the Israeli Army Diet, and I spent just over two weeks eating apples, chicken, salad and cheese. OMG! My digestive system was in total distress and I would never recommend this diet, but I got over my addiction to sugar. I wish I had had access to the educational and professional advice available today. We’re lucky there are so many great resources available for young girls to embark on healthy eating without crash dieting. To me it’s about building a good relationship with food to create the healthiest version of you.

After finishing this horrendous 16 days of torture, I decided to look at food as my new friend and seek fresher options. My mum even stopped spending so much time in the sweet aisle.

When I returned to school in Year 9, one of the ‘it’ girls did a double take and exclaimed, ‘Theresa, is that you?’ (Theresa is my actual name but I was only ever called Theresa at school or when my mum was mad at me!) I was the same girl, but my skin was clearer, I looked healthy, my shoulders were back and I stood taller. I was wearing a new uniform: inner confidence! And everything changed from there.

I became more confident with my studies too. My dad believed in me and I was determined to make him proud. He was never one to say, ‘only boys do science’, so I focused on science and soon the results matched my passion. I remember drifting off to sleep in my final year of high school with the voice of my biology teacher in my ears, reciting notes on a cassette tape.

I had found my passion, and it didn’t waver from then on.

Nurturing a love for teaching

I completed my science degree at Monash University, majoring in immunology and microbiology. I loved the learning environment and felt I was finally free to explore my love of science and the human body. I considered pursuing a research career when I came top of the class in my final-year immunology exam (yes, it sometimes pays to be a nerd), but I couldn’t shake my second passion: people! I could never see myself in a research lab, poring over test tubes for the rest of my career life. I was 20 years old and needed a way to combine my love for science with my passion for people.

I decided to do a post-graduate diploma in teaching secondary school science. Following graduation, I taught at a Catholic girls’ school for two years. Being in a school reminded me of the lack of self-confidence I’d experienced, and with a goal of helping the girls find inner confidence I started an after-school skincare and makeup course. A few months in, I mentioned to the principal that I had made a few hundred dollars from the course. I was told to stop the course immediately because the church had no place for entrepreneurs like me! A very different time! Disappointed that I had to stop, I began looking for a new career, but I never forgot how it felt to make a difference in those girls’ lives. In the late ’80s I began working for Colgate-Palmolive, where I gained a huge amount of business knowledge and really learned how to negotiate. After coming out of two almost entire female environments, it also taught me some valuable life lessons in discovering myself as a proud feminist in the early 90s.

Becoming a formulator

Getting married and starting a family meant putting my career on pause. But my entrepreneurial spirit remained strong!

At home I created essential oil-scented moisturisers and body oils and sold them at local fetes. When my friends at the gym vented to me about their dry skin, I would turn my kitchen into a ‘mini lab’ and create lotions for them. If I didn’t have the ingredients, I would go to my local chemist and have them made up.

When my children started school I began working part-time for a skincare company and later gained a post-graduate qualification in formulating chemistry. Sometimes the greatest challenges present the biggest opportunities: my husband was retrenched twice in a short time frame and it hit the family hard. I knew it was my time to step up. I had saved some money from my part-time work over the years and decided to take a deep breath and open a skincare clinic at the age of 40.

I remember sitting in a café at Chadstone shopping centre waiting for my daughter to come out of a movie, as I wrote a list of what I could offer women. I was disillusioned that I couldn’t find skincare products that actually worked, and frustrated with the white noise and false claims that so many skincare companies were making. There was no range that contained the ingredients at the dosage I wanted, and I couldn’t find any products that had evidence-based science behind them! There were many ingredients in products I wanted to source for my own needs (in my case, anti-ageing) but reading the ingredient labels literally made me cringe. Plus it was a real challenge to find clean products for my kids’ young skin. Even when it came to basic sun protection, the choices were limited. I decided the only way to find products that I’d be comfortable putting on their skin and mine was to make them myself.

I knew that skin was a highly absorbent surface but wasn’t aware that the average woman absorbs over two kilograms of questionable and potentially toxic ingredients through her skin each year! After reading about the toxic load of personal care products on our bodies, I became determined to minimise my personal toxic load and pledged that what I didn’t put in my products would be as important as what I did.

So I created products that used ingredients with a scientific basis, coupled with botanicals that really create change. I also created my list of ‘no-no’s’: ingredients that I believed were questionable and could potentially cause harm. I hate fear mongering, so I didn’t say these no-no’s would cause instant harm to your body, but I was (and still am!) concerned about the ingredients that may accumulate in the body’s tissues over time, and how this toxic build-up may negatively impact our bodies.

Opening Skinformation

There are very few female cosmetic chemists who truly understand the skincare needs of women, and I felt I knew what women like me needed. I’m also passionately Australian and was determined to make all my products on my own turf. Outsourcing to other countries took away both Aussie jobs and my quality control. Yes, I’m a control freak, and I’m constantly trying to keep that under control. Hah! … I just realised what I wrote!

I spent my savings renovating a little shop in Camberwell, Melbourne, that would become my clinic. I decided to call my clinic Skinformation, which is kind of a morph of ‘transforming’ the skin and ‘informing’ women about how to make their skin healthier. My book title is paying homage to where it all began.

I remember sitting at the bay window, overlooking the train station and praying for commuters to venture into my little clinic. In the first week of opening, waiting for a client to walk in the door, I thought, ‘Whoa Terri. What were you thinking?’ But soon, clients...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.11.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Bewerbung / Karriere
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Schönheit / Kosmetik
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• ISBN-10: 0-7303-8521-3 / 0730385213
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7303-8521-9 / 9780730385219