Johannesburg - Professional instant medical advice online came first and now it looks like you can even have a face-to-face consultation with a dermatologist from the comfort of your desktop.
Similar to apps such as Hello Doctor, Dr Alek Nikolic, who has practices in Cape Town and London, has launched SkinMiles.com. The online store allows you to do skin assessments from your device, then have the prescription only products delivered to your door.
We asked him to predict the major skincare trends for this year:
Trend 1:
Consumers will learn very quickly that active ingredients need to be in the right concentration to have an effect on the skin.
Just because a product contains vitamin A or vitamin C does not mean it has any effect on one’s skin. Vitamin C must have at least a 10 percent concentration in a product to have an effect and, similarly, vitamin A needs to be in a specific form and in high enough concentration to be easily converted to its active form (such as retinol).
We have skincare brands that contain 10 percent hyaluronic acid and for similar prices we have other brands that contain 40 percent hyaluronic acid.
Trend 2:
Busy lifestyles mean convenient, at-home medical treatments will play a significant role. If you love chemical peels, but can’t manage the expense and time away then true at-home peels will become popular.
Trend 3:
As more brands introduce skincare products, the prices for active ingredients and hence the product prices will decrease. Then combining skincare steps into one product will further reduce the confusion of a multi-step process.
Trend 4:
Some ingredients such as vitamin A can irritate the skin, causing dryness, redness, even flakiness. Recently, companies found a way of nano-encapsulating retinol, which allows slower absorption, making the ingredient more effective and less irritating for the skin.
Future advances may allow us to have a single application that may last days, even weeks. This would be a great breakthrough for sunscreens.
Trend 5:
The cosmetic use of Botox is constantly changing with new injecting techniques and areas of application. It is possible to lift the nasal tip, lift breasts, lift and reshape eyebrows and the corners of the mouth.
Total volume restoration and dermal fillers can restore definition and youthfulness to faces and in some cases slightly lift sagging jowls.
South African consumers are becoming more attuned to their skin and are investigating products for themselves.
The Star