mySkin and Your Skin

You may have noticed a new feature here. On the right side of the page there’s a new “Blidget” from mySkin.com, a network dedicated to providing unbiased skin care advice. The blidget rotates through the blogs that have been selected for the mySkin network based on their coverage of skin care. I'm proud to write one of those blogs.

These days, there are hundreds of sites offering advice on skin care. Why another one? In our saturated beauty market of more than 70,000 cleansers, creams, lotions, serums, and other skin care choices, there’s a constant parade of claims. mySkin was developed to help you figure out what products will give you the greatest benefit for your hard-earned dollars. They accept no advertising from companies making skin care products in order to protect their independence.

How can they help you? Many variables affect skin health and appearance: genetics, lifestyle, health conditions, and environment, to name a few. Using scientific principles and sophisticated modeling and statistical algorithms, mySkin analyzes these variables for insight on skin profiles and how products work on different skin types. They use the information they glean to analyze your skin and match you with others who have the same profile. Then they use information from consumers like you, physicians, bloggers, and industry experts to make product recommendations from well over 100,000 products for which they have data. And they are growing! As more and more people participate in the mySkin community, their database is being enriched.

Want to give mySkin a try? Go to the mySkin Web site and join. Use BTiBeauty as your invitation code. Once you fill out confidential information about your genetics, skin concerns, and the products you use (they only ask for first name), you can also provide additional information about your lifestyle, medical history, and preferences. mySkin will give you a personalized skin assessment report and make recommendations for you based on your own profile and the products in their database. Explore while you are there. You can set up a daily skin journal, and you might win a $50 gift certificate. There's also a forum for reader discussions about skin care.

Most of the recommendations that were made for me were good ones, although I found that many of them were on the low-priced end of the spectrum - probably because there's more data being supplied on "affordable" products. They told me how much I was spending per day on my skin, based on the products I'm using. Lordie! They even told me it was snowing out! The only thing the site got wrong was my sun protection recommendation: "feel free to enjoy the outdoors." My UV range, based on my zip code, was zero. Since mySkin is still in test mode, there's time to work on that. :)

The Blog Channel is a lot of fun, so make sure to click on the blidget here or visit the other mySkin bloggers on the Blog Channel when you are logged in. You can follow mySkinInc on Twitter too. Have fun!

Logo and photo courtesy of mySkin