SkinBetter: The App for Improved Skin?

— -- Amazing skin -- Is it genetic or the work of a seriously gifted dermatologist?

There are plenty of sophisticated formulas of serums, antioxidants, creams and potions that claim to help you look younger. So could an app help you navigate this skin care puzzle with ease?

The SkinBetter app created in partnership with Allure magazine promises a personalized evaluation of your skin care needs.

The app is free and the makers say it works regardless of your skin color or ethnicity.

Allure’s editor-in-chief Linda Wells says, “We found in research that 45 percent of American consumers think that dermatologists are the ultimate beauty experts. But only 9 percent of American women visited a dermatologist in the past year. So clearly there’s a gap.”

I tried it on my cellphone, first lining up the ghost image that overlays on my face as it’s being taken by my phone’s camera. You basically take a selfie and then the SkinBetter app analyzes and grades your skin in different categories.

The app showed me a black and white image that uses Canfield UV technology to show emerging brown spots and sun damage. This image in particular is pretty compelling. I grew up in Hawaii and I know I have sun damage, but to see all the age spots looming really motivates me to stay vigilant on the sunscreen, both for me and my kids.

The app then uses another image to show me where I have clusters of redness. And then it tells me that for my age I have more than an average amount of wrinkles, especially around my eyes.

The SkinBetter app then suggests products for me. There are eight different categories of recommendations, from reducing pore size to improving elasticity to decreasing redness. In each category there are three to four products that the maker later explains to me are different price tiers from most expensive (listed first) to least expensive (listed last). While there is a range of product,s none of them are budget or over-the-counter drugstore-type items.

To be honest, it’s overwhelming. I’m not sure whether it’s saying I should buy all the products (one in each category) and it doesn’t prioritize them. Also, the first product they recommend costs $256 a bottle and I almost drop my phone.

Allure’s Linda Wells explained that their board of advisors hand-picked the products.

“The dermatologists and plastic surgeons have vetted the products on the SkinBetter app," she said. "And these are generally mostly products that have been available only in dermatologists’ office, but they’re not prescription products, they’re over-the-counter products, and they are products that are really high-quality, really effective and have the highest percentage of active ingredients.”

The app also clearly states that its makers get a percentage of all purchases you make.

Because I am equally overwhelmed and confused when I go to the drugstore to buy skin care products, I turn to Dr. Vic Narurkar, a dermatologist in San Francisco, to see how his recommendations compare to the app’s.

After examining my skin and talking with me about my concerns, Narurkar says I do have some age spots but his immediate observation is that I have a medical condition

"Do you have a family history of rosacea?" he asks.

Narurkar says the redness around my cheeks is from broken blood vessels and he says I need a prescription cream.

While this isn’t a major health issue, it is something the app didn’t diagnose.

Wells notes the app is not your doctor.

“SkinBetter is definitely not a substitute for going to a dermatologist," she said. "If you have a medical condition, you need to go to the dermatologist and get it diagnosed and treated. And you want to go to a dermatologist for mole checks, and if you really want to get more dramatic treatments, like for acne or aging, including lasers and injections, you need to go to a dermatologist for those things.”

Narurkar is impressed with the technology in the app, especially the Canfield imaging. He says this visual representation of sun damage can motivate people to do the most important thing in skin care: “Wear sunscreen!”

Then, much to my relief, Narurkar disagrees with the app’s assessment that I have more than an average amount of wrinkles. He points out that when I used the app to take my own picture, I smiled, which creates the appearance of more wrinkles. I asked the app makers about this and they pointed out that the app has an informational click through (not in the directions) that mentions your face should be expressionless when you take the evaluation photo.

In the end, Narurkar makes his recommendations for products. Many are similar to the app’s but his tally for four products is $430. The recommendations from the app totaled $594 for five products. (It recommended eight products in all but I tried my best to decide which might have overlap and stuck with the top five.)

While a few were from the same manufacturers and many had similar functions, Narurkar picked the best bang for your buck choices and excluded products that had overlap. In some cases he recommended one product that did the job of two or three that the app suggested.

So, while new tools may help you see your skin in a new light, they might be best used as a motivational tool to do the basics (like wearing sunscreen more often) and a nudge to make that appointment with the dermatologist.