Hello Dr. Bailey,
I follow your skincare recommendations carefully as I’m so impressed with your comprehensive knowledge. If I was on a budget, is Professional Cell Repair Serum or Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy – Replenix Power of Three Cream the most effective product for antioxidant purposes? I know a variety of antioxidants is best, but it can be quite expensive!
It seems too that the Replenix might make my glycolic acid and retin A a little less effective if it goes on first because I have no redness or irritation.
Thank you in advance for your time and dedication. Your knowledge and advice is invaluable! (I’m the fan you blogged about.) 
Linda M.
Hello Linda,
I love this question. It’s sort of like, “if I were stranded on a desert island, which of my two beloved antioxidant products would I want to have with me?” The answer is, “It depends.”
If your budget forces you to pick just one of these two great antioxidant products, then your personal skin care goals and needs are important factors in deciding which one you choose. Both products handle free radicals well. The big differences in what else they accomplish are:
- Vitamin C products have been shown to stimulate new collagen formation in sun-damaged skin. So, if wrinkles are your main concern, then the Professional Cell Repair Serum is the best antioxidant product to choose.
- Green tea polyphenols help to quiet inflammation and may also help protect against non-melanoma skin cancers. So, if you are prone to skin inflammation or if your skin is at high risk for non-melanoma skin cancers, then Replenix CF or Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy – Replenix Power of Three Cream would be the best antioxidant product. By skin inflammation I mean conditions like rosacea, facial dandruff, acne, or even irritation from powerful anti-aging skin care products like glycolic acid or tretinoin (Renova, Retin A or Tazorac). I’ve found these two Replenix products help my patients use the products more successfully without sacrificing any anti-aging results. You’ve noticed that there is less irritation from your glycolic acid and tretinoin and that happens because the polyphenols are anti-inflammatory. It’s actually one of the great benefits that I utilize to help my patients; adding Replenix CF or Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy – Replenix Power of Three Cream to their skin care routine often allows us to move them up to a higher strength of tretinoin or glycolic acid, which gives them more anti-aging results.
Ideally, we want both the vitamin C and the green tea polyphenols (with caffeine in my opinion). So, when my patients are on a tight budget, what I have them do is to use the Professional Cell Repair Serum every other (or even up to every 4th) day. Professional Cell Repair Serum can be alternated with glycolic acid during the day (since vitamin C and glycolic acid can’t both be on the skin at the same time anyway). The half-life of vitamin C in the skin is four days, meaning it sticks around for a while. Therefore, you can stretch your investment in Professional Cell Repair Serum and still have all the antioxidant and anti-aging benefits of both vitamin C and high concentration green tea polyphenols. It also means that when stranded on a desert island, I need my toiletry bag for both!
Click here to read more about Professional Cell Repair Serum.
Click here to read more about Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy – Replenix Power of Three Cream
Warm Regards,
Cynthia Bailey MD, Dermatologist
Disclaimer: Please realize that availing yourself of the opportunity to submit and receive answers to your questions from Dr. Bailey does not confer a doctor/patient relationship with Dr. Bailey. The information provided by Dr. Bailey is general health information inspired by your question. It should not be a substitute for obtaining medical advice from your physician and is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific medical problem (and is not an extension of the care Dr. Bailey has provided in her office for existing patients of her practice). Never ignore your own doctor’s advice because of something you read here; this information is for general informational purpose only.
hi. Do you sell any of these products in south Africa?
Hi Dr. Bailey:
I am a bit confused by your statement that “vitamin C and glycolic acid can’t both be on the skin at the same time anyway.” If that is the case, for daytime use is it an either/or scenario when using vitamin C and glycolic acid? I use a 15% vitamin C and can tolerate the 20% glycolic acid. From what you said, I use one product or the other in the mornings, but no both on my skin?
Thanks for your time,
Karlyn
I, too, follow your advice carefully, and have been delighted with both the way my skin looks and the compliments I’ve been getting on it. Having had acne most of my life, this a quite a change, and a real pleasure.
My question is about your comment that Vitamin C and glycolic acid can’t be on the skin at the same time. I do the following: wash face, use glycolic acne cleaning pad for tolerant skin, Power of Three, CRS, and sometimes the glycolic face cream, and then the Citrix sunscreen.
Is this negating the protection of the CRS? I don’t have any irritation problems, but want to be sure I’m getting the full benefit of the products.
Thanks!
Hello Martha,
Yes, quite possibly. It’s best to use the CRS during the day (Replenix first, then CRS, followed by one of the non-glycolic acid moisturizers and then Citrix) without the glycolic acne pads and glycolic face cream. It’s possible to alternate those days with a day using the pads and glycolic cream. Alternatively, the glycolic products can be used at bedtime and the CRS during the day. This assumes that Tretinoin is not used at bedtime! This is the problem we all face, too many great ingredients three of which can’t be on the skin together: tretinoin, vitamin C and glycolic acid. So, we have to be creative to get them all into our skin.
They can’t be on at the exact same time; you can use them both but on alternate days or by alternating one in the morning and one in the night.
I will forward your question to my office staff and they will research whether we have or can do it. Thanks for your interest.
Hello Taryn,
Yes, we do ship to South Africa! To begin your customized International shipping order,
please send us an email with your complete shipping address and the products you’d like to purchase to orders@cynthiabaileymd.com.
Hi Dr. Bailey,
I have rosacea and wondering if I can work the CRS into my regimen or would it just be too irritating for my skin? I’m currently using toleriane, zinc bar, Power of 3 & fortified moisturizer with good results. However, I have alot of sun damage and the start of wrinkles I feel I need to address.
Dr Bailey,
Looks like my summer anti-aging question was a success among your readers
It’s closed for comments, and I have a question about your below comment you made there, and it’s relevant to the above subject too.
What exactly do you mean by “evening out skin pigment”? What conditions require it? I have acne scarring, not too bad and improved by tretinoin, glycolic, vit C and maybe some other less strong serums. Someone recommended I look into Obagi… Do you think I can try it like you say short term and then go back to tretinoin and glycolic? Is it not OK to use vit C, kojic and arbutin together in same routine as Obagi? Say former in am and Obagi – pm? Thank you.
Cynthia Bailey MD June 13, 2012 at 7:38 am #
Yes and no, the difference being in the duration of treatment. I almost never like having my patients use hydroquinones for long term use. In my practice we use Obagi Nu Derm like a procedure in that people are on it for 3 to 4 months, then they stop. I’ve never seen any skin care regimen that’s more effective than Obagi Nu Derm for evening out skin pigment and that’s why we use it. After the Nu Derm treatment I then use other skin lightners to maintain results such as vita c, glycolic acid and tretinoin. Kojic acid, licorice root and arbutin are also lightening agents and I sometimes include those, but their results are more subtle.
Hi Vera,
What’s so brilliant about the Obagi NuDerm system is the synergy of the products. It really is best in my observation to put all the other products away and just use the NuDerm for a finite period of time. After that, then the products can be integrated into other products for a maintenance routine if needed.
The real ‘magic’ comes from using them all together though; the cleanser is just right to clean but not too irritating, the toner is soothing and cleanses the skin further, the Exfoderm is just enough exfoliation but not too much to help the hydroquonone penetrate, the sunscreen is broad spectrum zinc and yet also soothing, at night the tretinoin plus two layers of 4% hydroquinone really pushes the hq into the skin. It’s an aggressive regimen titrated to the edge of tolerance, and that maximizes results. Like a house of cards, one card out of place and it’s all destabilized.
At the same time, I’m not big on using the NuDerm hydroquinone products for maintenance because I’m not an advocate of long term HQ use. I have only a few really melasma prone patients who we do that with. Everyone else goes back to a health promoting routine of tretinoin, vita C and glycolic with zinc ox sunscreen and facial sun protection.
Dr Bailey,
Thanks very much for your thorough response. I didn’t get if you recommend NuDerm for acne scarring. I see that it works for melasma…
Is it also your experience that results from one session of NuDerm are there to say and can be maintained with tretinoin, etc afterwards? I’ve had laser work to improve skin tone, and it seems I have to keep repeating to maintain results.
Is NuDerm available without prescription and does it come it different strengths? I don’t see the whole NuDerm package available on your site…
Thanks.
Hi Dr. Bailey,
I have rosacea and wondering if I can work the CRS into my regimen? I’ve got past sun damage and some wrinkles I need to address. I’m currently using Toleriane, zinc bar, power of 3, and fortified moisturizer.
Hi Angie,
Maybe. I do have patients with rosacea use the CRS, myself included. But, it’s not a guarantee. Often the sides of the face, crows feet and upper lip are more tolerant and will allow application of CRS without aggravating the rosacea. Also, if the skin is feeling sensitive for any reason then not putting the CRS on that day is important. It’s tricky though because it has an acid pH and if the barrier state of the skin is compromised by background inflammation of rosacea then it’s a ‘no-go’. Hope that helps.
NuDerm works for color and fine texture issues. I tell my patients to think of laser and NuDerm as both intervention and maintenance because skin is always ‘changing’ and we need to keep putting it back where we want it. NuDerm includes prescription products so I don’t sell those parts of it on the site.
My skincare regimin in AM is : glycolic toner, vitamin c serum, sunscreen
and PM : moisturizer, retin-A
After I read your blog that vitamin C and glycolic acid can’t both be on the skin at the same time so I cut out gycolic acid from my AM regimin but I feel that my skin looks not so good as before. My skin is more clarity and radiance when I use glycolic and vitamin together at the same time, why?
Thanks
Could be the product residue that creates such a nice feel and look or it could be that your skin just loves the glycolic toner. One idea is to try alternating the glycolic and vitamin C to see if there is enough carryover from the prior day’s skin texture to ride you through. Alternatively, trying a stronger glycolic acid product used alternately with a strong vitamin C product might get more result carryover when used on alternate days.
Hi Dr Bailey!
Thank you so much for sharing through your great website. Also, thank you for the great and reasonable thoughts on skin care.
After having wasted a few thousand dollars on skincare nonsense, I started to do my research and I learned a lot. When I found your site, your information was spot-on and confirmed my amateur research. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I am thinking about purchasing the Replenix CF Cream or the Dr. Bailey Skin Care Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy (Power of Three). I have read that tea is great for skin and I am eager to try these products, but I have a few questions.
1) A few places mention that white tea is even more effective than green tea, as an mmp inhibitor and antioxidant (www.smartskincare.com has a number of articles on this with links to various studies). I understand that your green tea products have very concentrated active ingredients, rather than just having tea extracts added, so do you think your products will be as effective as a white tea product? Do you have any plans to use white tea in the future or is that unnecessary?
2) I understand that caffeine enhances the work of the tea antioxidants. A popular makeup artist (Lisa Eldridge) has a video on her website regarding puffiness and bags under the eyes.
She mentions studies of how caffeine changes the metabolism of fat cells so that fat cells under the skin shrink. While this may be great for fatty bags under the eyes, I don’t want to lose my plump skin! Will the caffeine in your creams cause my plump fatty underlayer to shrink, or is it too busy working with the tea on other things. Help!
3) I don’t know which cream to choose. I have read good things about resveratrol, but does the cream containing it have less green tea ingredients?
Thank you for your help,
Michele
Hello Michele,
I have many years of experience with the 2 Replenix Green Tea and caffeine products that I sell. They are so highly effective that I noticed their benefit for my patients before the recent scientific studies came out validating the efficacy of green tea for skin problems. Both of these products contain the amount of antioxidants from 500 cups of brewed tea per ounce. Those antioxidants are extracted and then concentrated into these products. The amount does not vary based on the presence or absence of the resveratrol.
There is no clinically relevant product or research that I am aware of for the white tea v green tea “thoughts” that are on the smartskincare site. I have no plans to use white tea. Incidentally, I’m drinking my daily pot of green tea while I write this and I have no plans to switch to white tea there either
I don’t think that the topically applied caffeine in these products will diminish the fat cells in skin. If they did, people would be buying it in buckets for cellulite. I’m aware of the caffeine/fat research and it’s just not clinically relevant in my opinion.
Regarding which to choose, it is the green tea antioxidants and caffeine that are the most important elements of these two products so I use them interchangeably. Resveratrol is yet to be really proven as an ingredient in skin care, in my opinion. That said, the Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy has a very nice feel on the skin, a different preservative system and, in my opinion, the resveratrol is a little something extra (lagniappe as we would say in New Orleans).
I hope that helps,
Cynthia Bailey MD
hie Dr, i’ve just recently started following you. would like to know how i can get some of the products you recommend. i’m in Zimbabwe. have been using tretinoen on and off for years now but have not really had a specific skin care routine. i’m in my late 20′s, have combination skin, with some sun damange and acne spots that seem not to want to disappear. would also love it if you recommended something for my body too.
thank you!
Hello Patricia,
I will ask my staff if we can ship to Zimbabwe. I like glycolic acid products and of course broad spectrum sunscreen. Some skin types can use both glycolic and tretinoin together and they get great results. Others find it too irritating. The antioxidant kit with or without glycolic has a great combination of products. The glycolic body kit is also highly effective and gives results when used as little as twice a week.
Hello Patricia,
Yes, we do ship to Zimbabwe! To begin your customized International shipping order,
please send us an email with your complete shipping address and the products you’d like to purchase to orders@cynthiabaileymd.com.