“UVA is most responsible for causing signs of aging, and UVB is most responsible for sunburns and skin cancer,” explains Muneeb Shah, MD, a board-certified dermatologist who’s amassed a following of 6 million on TikTok for his skin expertise. Every sunscreen you use ought to be broad spectrum in order to be fully protected. Fortunately, almost all modern sunscreens are broad spectrum, so that should be easy enough. “Most reputable skin care brands do test for safety on at least 30 participants prior to releasing a product. Now some brands take it a step further and will do testing for efficacy,” says Dr. Shah. “Most of the results are participant-reported, or reported by the company doing the testing. Basically, the testing can be very biased.” While testing for safety, stability, and longevity is super important, Dr. Shah says not to hang your hat on the phrase “clinically tested.” “Most color correcting products have ingredients that balance out skin tone. For example, the addition of green oxides in skincare products help to balance out redness,” says Dr. Shah. “Some products, like Dr. Jart’s ($52; sephora.com), have ingredients that actually treat underlying redness, like centella asiatica.” “Dermatologist tested and approved means that a dermatologist reviewed the clinical data and ingredients before the product was brought to the market. This term means little with respect to the aesthetics or effectiveness of the product itself,” says Joshua Zeichner, MD, a NYC-based board-certified dermatologist. While it’s nice to have that stamp of approval from an expert, it’s important to take this phrase with a grain of salt. “True DNA repair is done by enzymes in our own body that can recognize DNA damage, remove the DNA damage, replace it with a normal piece of genetic code, and then glue it back together,” explains Dr. Shah. “Some products that claim to be DNA repairing will be antioxidants that help to protect against DNA damage. Additionally, some people will claim that sunscreen is DNA repairing.” With that in mind, there actually is a burgeoning category of skincare products that may go above and beyond this loose definition. “They contain enzymes similar to our own repair mechanisms, like photolyase seen in Neova DNA Total Repair ($89; dermstore.com). These are promising, but more studies are needed,” says Dr. Shah. “There is one enzyme that was developed almost a decade ago that was actually found to repair DNA—T4 endonuclease V—but it really hasn’t taken off in the mainstream.” “Simply put, growth factors are messengers that tell our cells to behave in a youthful, healthy manner to regenerate,” says Dr. Zeichner. “However, it is unclear how effective these growth factors really are and if they even penetrate into the skin at all.” Basically, scientific data has yet to catch up to the excitement, but EGFs show promise. This is a space to watch. So why do companies use it? The word is commonly used for marketing to lead consumers to believe that products will be gentler to their skin than non-hypoallergenic cosmetics, but don’t take that to mean that they absolutely won’t give you an adverse reaction. The truth is that there is no such thing as a universally “hypoallergenic” cosmetic. Both dermatologists and the FDA agree that it has very little meaning, so you should always head into a new skincare product with caution by patch testing. “Who owns the patent is another story, as it can be owned by a large company that licenses out the use to many different companies, so it may not be unique to that particular product,” says Dr. Zeichner. The moral of the story is to not let the word “patented” persuade you too much. It’s neither inherently good nor bad. This includes 3- free, 5- free, 7-free, 9-free, or 10-free, with 10-free being considered the purest of all ‘free’ nail polishes. That means they are created without 10 of the most common chemicals found in nail polishes: toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor, Ethyl Tosylamide, Xylene, parabens, animal by-products, and fragrance. In other words, the higher the number, the better the formula.
