Paula Begoun - Full Interview

Exciting news! Recently, we were lucky enough to get the chance to talk with a unique figure of the cosmetics industry: Paula Begoun. Not only is Paula the author of many excellent cosmetics books such as “Don’t Go the Cosmetics Counter Without Me” and “The Beauty Bible”, she is also the creator of the highly respected “Paula’s Choice” beauty line. Her website www.cosmeticscop.com is also fascinating, with a lot of free information on general skin care as well as many reviews of cosmetics products on the market.

Paula Begoun struck us as the perfect subject for our Angelview section. She was kind enough to give us some of her time, and provided us with tons of useful and sometimes surprising information. Check it out!

Angel Child: Hi Paula. I’d like to talk about not just your incredible product line but also about your website and your book and the overall work that you are doing.

Paula Begoun: Sure, ask away! I saw the list of questions and I have to admit they look a bit daunting, but I’ll do my best…

AC: Great! Let’s start with you. How did you first start out in this business? I know you have been a makeup artist for quite some time…

PG: Yes, that is how I started. You know, I was sending myself through university, and one of the things I was good at was doing makeup. I was actually making a lot of money doing makeup. Eventually, I flunked out of my math program. I was going to get my masters, but I stayed doing makeup. It was great! I had a lot of freedom, and when freelance was slow I would work in a department store. That was always a struggle, because the sales representative or the manager would want to train me on how to sell the products. It would almost always end up in an argument. This is not the way to build the best relationship with your manager, and it never worked out. So I went out on my own, moved to Seattle and opened my own stores.

AC: So you started with your own line right away?

PG: Well, relatively… within the first 3 years. I did that for a couple of years and then got a job as a reporter at KIRO television. Then I wrote my first book, using my science background from college and what I had learned through my work in the business and as a reporter.

AC: What would you say were your goals back then, and do you think you have accomplished them in the beauty industry?

PG: Well, I don’t think I wanted to be in the beauty industry at all! So I guess I would have to say I did not accomplish any of my goals. It’s kind of funny that I say that, but back then I had always wanted to be a writer. I love writing, so I thought that after I had written my book on the cosmetics industry, I would go on and write other books. I have written other books, but I always had the most passion for, and sold the most copies of, those that were about the cosmetic industry. So on some level, I have reached my goal: I always wanted to be an author. But if you had asked me this back then, I would have said I was not going to be in the cosmetics industry. It never fails to amaze me how much energy and passion I have for what I do.

Although at times I really feel like I don’t want to look at another product line. Sometimes I can’t believe there is yet another product line, and I get annoyed that they keep making these ridiculous claims. I actually say on a daily basis that I’ve got to get another job, but then I’m still here still doing what I have a lot of love and passion for.

AC: What is your work right now? Are you working on another book?

PG: Yes, I’m working on an update of “The Beauty Bible”,because so much of what we know about skin care has changed. I think it’s about a 30 to 40% rewrite that is new and different

AC: Can you tell us what your books are about?

PG: My two books are “Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me” and “The Beauty Bible”. “Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me” will tell you what to buy and what not to buy, what works and what doesn’t work, what the research is about a specific product and its formula.

“The Beauty Bible” will help you understand what products you need to choose from, what skin type is all about, what is confusing about skin type, how to straighten it out, how to determine skin type, and how to determine different battle plans for different problems ranging from Rosacea, to dry skin, to oily skin, to psoriases, to eczema, to acne, to blackheads. Before you can choose which product to buy, you need to know what you are treating. You also need to know what types of products are best for you and how to use them. There is also a section on cosmetic corrective surgery and procedures like botox and dermal fillers. I tell you what you need to know if you are interested in cosmetic procedures, and what to consider.

So there is actually a balance between the 2 books.

AC: If you were to reveal one of the secrets from your books, what would it be?

PG: No matter how many times I write about it, what most readers, particularly young readers, don’t know is how often the cosmetics industry tells us things that are not true! The product can’t possibly do what it says on the label! It is either misleading information, or they are outright lying to us.

AC: You have so much free information on your website www.cosmeticscop.com! For example, you have an ingredients dictionary where people can just type in an ingredient and find out what it is. You also provide battle plans for skin problems. Why do you give us all this free information?

PG: Free information versus my book? Well, I hope people will read both! There are always people who read books. But I’ve always felt strongly that in order to help people, you also need to give them some immediate, direct information. While people are running around the Internet seeing that there is so much bad information, I thought it would be useful to have one site with clear, simple facts. I always think of the problem, so if you are looking around, I hope that you find my page and think: “I wonder what Paula has to say about…” The information is readily available, because boy can you get bad information over the Internet!

AC: You also have a section on beauty myths on your website. What do you think are the most stubborn myths out there?

PG: The big three are:

1. Expensive means better.

2. An all-natural product is the best product to use.

3. Everybody needs an eye cream.

AC: Why do you think we are so vulnerable to the beauty product ads out there? Even after having tried out tons of anti-acne treatments from a certain line and having seen no results at all, we happily go ahead and buy the newest one out there…

PG: This is a very good question!!! I’m not much of a sociologist, so I can’t speak to the depth of it, but I think it’s because feeling and looking beautiful is so important to women and the claims of products are so seductive. The analogy I often use is with relationships: I got burned in the last relationship with a guy, but we are back at it again. All right, that didn’t work out, but I’ll find the next guy! I think there is the notion that hope springs eternal, that if we just keep trying eventually we’ll find the right one.

Hopefully, what I have done is taken some of the guesswork out, because guessing doesn’t help your skin, it’s just a waste of money. There are things that can help and make a difference; you just need to get to the good products because wasting money isn’t pretty.

So I think it’s because we want to believe, and we hope that the next one has the answer. We want to feel beautiful and we are not giving up on that.

AC: Is there a difference between skin care for teenagers and skin care for adults?

PG: The problem with that approach is that skin type by age is a foolish notion. This is true for many reasons, but primarily because you might be 16 and have dry skin or you might be 30 and have oily broken-out skin. If you shop for product by age, you could easily end up with absolutely the wrong product for your skin type.

Often, they formulate teenage products with drying, irritating ingredients because kids want to feel that dry, tight feeling. It is irritating and damaging and actually makes things worse, by causing inflammation and so on. If you do shop by category of age as opposed to what works for your skin type, you can end up with something that makes it worse. You want to shop for products that excel in that special category … I’m 54 years old and I still have oily skin that tends to break out. If I used a product aimed at my age range, I’d be a greasy, oily mess.

AC: Can we actually heal blemishes and wrinkles with good skincare?

PG: No! Regarding acne, you can keep it under control but you can’t cure it. The only thing that is a potential cure is oral medication, like Accutane. Everything else is about maintenance. Of course, you can make a huge difference with the right products. I have seen amazing results from a good skin care routine, but it doesn’t get rid of the acne. There are many different philosophies about why skin breaks out, but they are all about maintenance.

In terms of wrinkles, we know that if you don’t suntan, and if you keep your skin protected from the sun and the damaging rays that come through the windows, then you can stay relatively wrinkle-free for most of your life. In terms of healing wrinkles, you can definitively have an impact and make things look better, but you are not going to erase them in the long term. There isn’t a plastic surgeon or a cosmetic dermatologist that is going out of business because of the latest anti-wrinkle launch. And if these products did work, how come they are launching new ones? They launch a product and say it’s going to firm and lift the skin, and six months later they launch another one. So does that mean that the one they launched before didn’t work and they were just lying?

The research shows pretty clearly that skin care can do some very impressive things, but it can’t get rid of existing marks. It can make things better, most definitely. But it can’t live up to the claims on the label. It doesn’t happen that way or the way their ads make it look.

AC: Would you say high priced products are better than drugstore products?

PG: No! In essence, if you take a look at the formularies, you will see that there are some high priced products that are nothing more than wax and water and that contain nothing state of the art. Or they contain alcohol, or they contain irritating ingredients, or they come in a jar package. Even if they are well formulated, if these vitamins and anti-oxidants come in a jar package, they don’t stay stable and won’t last. I see lots of pretty jars, $300 to $400 containers, and whether the products are terrible formularies or great formularies doesn’t matter, because in a jar they will be a waste of money. There is nothing about a price tag that tells you the value of a product.

AC: What is the philosophy behind your skin care line, Paula’s Choice?

PG: That’s a hard question, philosophy… I know about all those philosophies that you hear when you talk to somebody at the cosmetics counter. They always tell you things like “this product is all natural”, and “it has this miracle ingredient”, and “it’s the best thing out there”, and “you know nothing else like it…”

So I don’t know how this is going to sound, but my philosophy has always been to make the best of the best that is out there, make it reasonably priced and put it in stable packaging. I ask myself what the research says is great for skin, who makes it the best way possible and if I can make it better or at least as good without charging as much. Maybe it’s kind of a naïve look at it. It’s not a very sexy philosophy, but it’s the truth.

AC: Would you say it’s more important to know what’s NOT in a product than what is actually in it?

PG: Have you seen Beautypedia? It is the online version of the book “Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me”… We keep updating it on a weekly basis. The problem with trying to educate someone about ingredients, even just the ingredients that aren’t good for the skin, is that the list could be endless. A cosmetics chemist has over 20 000 cosmetic ingredients that can go into a cosmetic product. 20 000!!! It’s impossible for people to keep up with. I can barely keep up with it myself, and that’s what I do for a living! So, hopefully, what I have done is put a stop to that illness of analyzing each product. It is impossible for any consumer to do that because it is as important to know what’s in a product as it is to know what shouldn’t be in it.

AC: When I look through your line, I don’t see speciality products like stretch mark creams or eye creams. Why is that?

PG: First of all, there is no stretch mark cream that works the way they say it works. There are things that you can do to make your skin look healthier, but there isn’t a special stretch mark cream that gets rid of it. You can use sunscreen, and there is definitively a battle plan for stretch marks, but there isn’t a miracle product out there getting rid of anybody’s stretch marks.

The other thing is: eye creams are a waste of money. Products work the same way on your skin regardless of what area they are used on. There isn’t a shred of research showing that the eye area needs something different than the rest of the face. I haven’t seen a study, I haven’t seen a piece of research, and I haven’t talked to a formulator or a physician who told me that the eye area needs something different than the face. What they tell me, just to come up with something, is that the eye area doesn’t need ingredients that cause irritation. My reaction always is… “...and the face does?” Oh I see, the eye area gets the good ingredients and the face gets the bad ingredients. It’s ridiculous.

AC: Why are Paula’s Choice products only available online?

PG: It has always been my business model. I’ve been online since the beginning. For me to compete in the world of the Estée-Lauders and the L’Oréals, I would have to lie the way they lie.

For example, everybody wants to buy an anti-wrinkle cream, and you noticed my line doesn’t have an anti-wrinkle cream. My products are as good as anybody’s. They contain the same elegant, gorgeous ingredients that I recommend in other brands’ products. But if you have to make claims in order to stand out on a shelf or in an ad because of the cost of being what they call “mass market”, I don’t want to be in that game.

I like the world of the Internet, and I like to give great information. Aside from the facts that I love my line and that they are all my own formularies, the thing that stands out is the amount of information you get as to why I’m recommending what I’ve created. It isn’t based on the hype or lies about miracle ingredients. It is all founded on real research, cited and quoted, which you can look up yourself.

This is why I think the Internet is a powerful and remarkable place to shop. I think this is the way the rest of the world is going, and I’m just a few years ahead.

AC: If you were to recommend one skin care product that should be part of everybody's skin care routine, what would it be?

PG: Sunscreen.

AC: Can you tell us what is important about a sunscreen? What should be in it? What should we look for?

PG: Sunscreen is a very complicated issue, but there are 4 major facts you need to know:

1. It is a 365-day-a-year commitment on any part of your body that is exposed. It really isn’t about sun, it is about daylight, because light coming through windows is damaging too.

2. You need to wear it liberally to get the appropriate SPF on the label, which means an expensive sunscreen might be dangerous because you wouldn’t put it on generously.

3. It has to have an SPF 15 or greater, and greater is better.

4. You have to have UVA protection. The SPF number only tells you about the UVB protection. There are 4 ingredients that are approved in the US that protect from UVA damage; they are Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Avobenzone and Mexancole.

I have all the necessary information on my website.

AC: Another outstanding feature that sets your company apart is your product reviews. From Almay to Zapzit, you have researched every skin care line in today’s market, and have published the results on your website and in further detail in your books “Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me”. Why would you go through all that stress to do that?

PG: You can’t imagine how stressful it really is, and I’ve been doing this since 1992! This is the 7^th edition of “Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me”, which just came out in January. After each edition, I say I will not write another one. That’s what I actually announced in the last edition! And in this one, I wrote: “Don’t trust me, obviously you can’t rely on what I write”!

I wrote a series of books called “Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal”. After I wrote the last one, everybody I knew, from family to readers, asked me why I didn’t put into writing all the advice I had been giving about the cosmetics products on the market. So I wrote the first edition of “Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me” because of the demand, and then it just snowballed from there. The demand for the book has been amazing.

AC: Your reviews are very honest, and you don’t shy away from saying that a certain product is not worth buying. Did you ever face any consequences from the cosmetics industry after publishing your product reviews?

PG: No, not really. The few times I received letters saying “How dare you?”, I replied by sending them my research. “Here is why I said what I said, now you send me your research and I’ll retract, I don’t mind”. I’m a reporter, and if I got something wrong, I would be happy to retract my criticism. But first they need to show me their research. In the 30 years that I’ve been doing this, since I wrote my first book in 1984, I haven’t had anybody send me research that had altered the review.

First of all, they don’t even answer my calls. Why do they even bother complaining? Do they think just because they are upset at me, I’m going to change the report? They are entitled to their opinion, but I’m not going by opinion, I’m going by research. So if a company thinks its product is great, it needs to show me the research that says it is.

AC: On the other hand, you also don’t shy away from recommending competitors’ products. Why is that?

PG: I know: why would I recommend somebody else’s products? Isn’t that a strange business model? What is interesting is what happens at a company like Estée-Lauder, which owns Clinique. If you go the Clinique counter, they wouldn’t tell you: “You know that product we make over at Estée-Lauder is really good, you should use it!” Even lines that own each other don’t recommend interline. So we are clearly the only cosmetics company in the world that recommends products other than our own.

AC: Yes, but why would you do that?

PG: Well, what is there to hide? I think I make great products, but women need options. Some people might like my products; others might like somebody else’s. In the long run, they need to use whatever they choose from the best products available. It’s just what I do, it might be strange, I admit!

AC: Why is it that Paula’s Choice products are not promoted in any magazines? I never see ads for your products, and I don’t see any magazines promoting your product in their Beauty sections.

PG: The first explanation is that the editorials are often paid for. You rarely see beauty products being recommended in fashion magazines if they don’t have ads in them as well. And we don’t advertise.

The second factor is that I’m very critical of fashion magazines if their work is just little more than editorial. What they really do is just promote the beauty industry. You never read anything critical about the cosmetics industry in those magazines. For example, you know how they have their “best list”? Well if these are the best products, where are the worst products? But of course they are not going to tell you that. And since I’m very critical of the fashion magazines, they like to keep ignoring me.

AC: If you could change one thing about the cosmetics industry, what would it be?

PG: It would be that they not lie, that they be straight! I wish they would just say what is really possible about a product, and not that it’s a miracle that can achieve anything they say. Yes, it would be that they not lie!

AC: What are your plans for the future?

PG: Well, as I’m always writing something, I’m currently writing another book. We also update “Beautypedia” on a regular basis. Product-wise, we are launching a couple of new lines and developing groups of products that I am very thrilled about. We are also expanding internationally, working for example on Paula’s Choice India.