What do you think of Obagi cosmetics?
I think I’ll just tell you the pros and cons in my mind because it’s a little complicated. Obagi was one of the first doctors who tried to base skin care more on science, and for that I admire him. Prior to that it was pretty much just marketing and not the mix of marketing and science based skin care that we have now. He also tried to do lines more specific for skin types and problems as opposed to the just the “dry, combination, normal, oily” classifcations. I think he was fairly succesful in doing that.
The con is that he has really relied on chronic hydroquinone use in many of his products as a “brightening” agent and to combat pigment problems. Many of the people using his line didn’t realize that they had been using hydroquinones year around for years and years. There are questions now about the safety of chronic use. I personally think short courses are fine but even this can be controversial now.
Also, he used retinoids often in his regimens. A good think right? Well, except the way he used them tended to be very, very irritating and caused a lot of redness and peeling. He believed, it seemed, that this was necessary for good results. We know now that that’s not true and, unfortunately, many people were so turned off by the experience they never wanted to use a Vitamin A cousin again on their skin. Hope this helps. Dr. I