INTERVIEW Tim Probert – Editor, Personal Care Global
Dr Katerina Steventon is a Czech skin scientist, consultant, practitioner and brand owner whose expertise stems from an MSc in clinical biochemistry, a PhD in transdermal absorptions and global working experience with the likes of Shiseido, La Prairie, Smith & Nephew and Allured. Editor Tim Probert caught up with Dr Steventon prior to her chairing of the recent 8th
Anti-Ageing Skin Care Conference in London.
TIM PROBERT (TP): What makes for good skin care, in your experience? What have you learned from your time in the industry? KATERINA STEVENTON (KS): That every face is different, every face has a story and all skin is different. If you are working outdoors and your SPF is of such an importance to you and your lifestyle and your ageing process, that getting that right is primary. Yet if you are working in an
office in a polluted environment and perhaps not sleeping because your child is up through the night, you will have very different needs whatever your age or ethnicity. Most people buy their skin
care online now and bypass skin care expertise in the shop. But knowing yourself as a customer, having an understanding of who you are, where your weaknesses are, what are you exposed to, and how diligent you are with your skin care, come into play just as much the brand and the ingredients.
TP: Do you think the industry educates people to know their own needs? KS: They need to understand the human factor, they need to understand who their consumers are, who they are not, and that they are selling formulations for skin that changes. It changes through the menstrual cycle, it changes through the season, it changes through stress, it changes through travel. They need to understand how what they put in the jar interacts with the individual.
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TP: And do they do that enough, in your view? KS: Perhaps not enough but I do understand that they all have a raft of proprietary technologies they need to sell. However, I think consumers are more educated and pay less attention to celebrity endorsements and maybe more to dermatologists. There is much more and better
quality information online than in the past for people to understand what their skin is really like. Yet I would argue some people don’t care as much as I think they could or should. I think Britain, for example, has quite a slow uptake on anti-ageing skin care. People tend
to go in for rich formulations and they want a little bit of comfort. But perhaps they don’t achieve with their skin care as much as they could. For some it’s a function of budget, for some it’s a function of not knowing the daily diligence required for the long term.
TP: Other than self-awareness, is there anything else in terms of what makes good skin care? KS: There are some wonderful ingredients and I could give you a few, but they would work for some and not for others. I am really interested in Vitamin A alternatives, plant ingredients, and I am very much into seaweed and marine extracts. There are a raft of technologies
INTERVIEW
Taking skin care beyond the surface
out there for what people want to achieve whether it be low pigmentation, evenness
of skin tone, reduced lines
and wrinkles, but in the end you have to look at yourself as a
whole. Understanding your
skin type is really important. And I always say skin care needs time. Reducing lines and wrinkles doesn’t happen overnight, rather than days it requires weeks and months.
TP: What trends are you seeing in skin care right now? KS: It’s not so much about the technology anymore, it’s more about understanding the interaction between the product and the person. I think that’s where it’s shifting. It’s not so much about a new
item in the jar like a new active. It’s understanding, for example, how much of the active is truly released from a product. It’s also about understanding
where it belongs on the face. Is it in the oily region? How does it interact with the skin? How does it interact with the human? That kind of social human factor is coming more and more prominent because different people have different connotations about what oily means depending on their background, their ethnicity. I think that’s where skin care is
leading now, it’s not just that the formulation works per se - it also needs to work for a specific skin type.
TP: So you’re talking about personalisation, really? KS: Yes, or perhaps customisation. Women of a certain background and certain age in Asia, for example, their perception or acceptance of their skin
January 2023 PERSONAL CARE
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