So interesting!! Being almost 40, I get influenced by all things skincare. I felt like I needed the serums and the creams. After reading this book, I feel like I will create a manageable process to take care of my skin.

Thank you to Skyhorse and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This book was great. She gave you lots of information about the products we purchase and if we should or shouldn't purchase them. I thought this book was great. I will definitely be recommending it to people I know. Also if you go to the authors website, you can look up and see what products she recommends for your skin. I think this is a really cool tool, and I plan on showing it to my mom in the near future. She is always looking for new face creams, so I will see what the author comes up with.

This is well-written, well-organised, easy to read, informative, and humorous in tone. I don’t think I can say the same about other nonfiction books that I have ever read. This is a pleasure to read!

Readers will learn the hoax, mostly marketing tricks with play on words to confuse and lie to consumers. Readers will discover what they really need, with recommendations of good products that actually do the job. The book lists a few products, but on the author’s website, there are a lot more product recommendations, which is very helpful. Highly recommended to… well, all humans, because if you have skin on your body, you need to have the two (maybe three) products that are truly necessary to keep your skin healthy. :)

I thought this was gonna be my non fiction for the whole month of september and october but instead I finished it in like five days. Which says more about the book than it says about me.

Just the week before I read this, at 23 years old, I decided to do something about my face. I had applied drugs on it, sure, as I have a type of dermatitis that works in a cycle and breaks out like twice a month, but I had never had a routine. So I grabbed a random moisturiser that I had laying around and started applying it everyday. And then I felt bad bc all of my friends were using toners, day creams, night creams, sunscreen, eye creams, micellar water, primer and like 15 products every single day twice a day and I was just squeezing some cream on my face in the morning. And then I came across this book!

(needless to say I will be buying sunscreen lol)

The author is a dermatologist with no ties to any pharmaceutical and/or cosmetic company, so she just tells it to you like it is. I do have a bit of a background in biology so I honestly don't know if this book can be understood by people who have forgotten high school chemistry, but for me everything was explainded extensively and simply. She's very straight forward in her writing style, and isn't afraid to write "this works, this doesn't work, this is actively harmful" and the reasons why she thinks like that. Said reasons ALWAYS involve extensive research on her part, done independently either on her clinic or reading a ton of research from other people, which I appreciated since I'm an investigator at heart (and also at uni but whatever).

While reading this I became the annoying friend that always cut out a conversation with "hey do you wanna know something I learnt in that skincare book I told you I was reading" and that's because everything was SO interesting to me. Science and medicine can easily be boring, but she makes sure to speak in a way that makes it so everyone can understand where she's coming from, what the effects are for every product, why they're so expensive, etc etc etc.

She also keeps going back to the cultural standards that make us feel bad for having "imperfect" skin, which I appreciated. I've seen my mom and women her age worry and honestly suffer bc their skin isn't the same it was as when they were 20, and it never made sense to me. The author makes it clear in her clinic and her book that aging is not a disease you have to cure, but a privilege that comes with certain markings that no amount of product will make disappear. And that we are all, first and foremost, beautiful just the way we are. Which may sound stupid and basic or whatever, but when you apply 20 things to your face to make you feel not-ugly is a thing worth remembering.

This was an absolute life changer for me and I'm so glad I read it at the time I did! I will fight with every dermatologist I go to from now on lol.

Also if you're curious: just use moisturiser and sunscreen. Maybe a cleanser. You don't need anything else if you don't have a skin condition. And even if you have, what you need isn't day cream night cream eye cream toner primer face mask coconut oil aloe vera yadda yadda yadda.

After reading Marquise's great review, I was intrigued with this book. Dr. Frey brings up concerns many of us have and backs up her statements with valid studies. She is a big proponent of washing your skin with water, using the correct type of moisturizer based on skin type (and other concerns you may have) and the use of a good sunscreen. She goes on further by linking you with her website so you can enter basic information and find the best brands of moisturizers and sunscreens that work for you.

Besides myself, I read this book because I assist an elderly relative who has issues with her skin. I used her as a guinea pig when I entered information on the website. She has used a number of skin care products recommended by her dermatologist with little relief. Oddly, my daughter who is a nurse gave me a product name and I bought it and she really likes it. Lo and behold, this product was listed as one she should try on Dr. Frey's website.

If education of your skin matters to you, this is a great book to have on hand. You will find out why certain ingredients are found in various products, some that are good and others that are bad. The higher the price does not mean the better the product is. Many thanks to NetGalley, Dr. Frey and Skyhorse Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As I get older, the miracle treatments out there do become tempting, so I really appreciate this excellent discussion from an expert who has nothing to sell.

I really enjoyed this book. I always know I have a good ARC when I find myself frequently talking about it to my friends and family. I kept telling my best friend about this one as I read it, to the point where she wrote down the title to look it up once it's published.

Dr. Frey is a dermatologist with over 30 years experience and I trusted her advice. It was refreshing that her advice was basically to ditch the expensive creams and superfluous products, and to concentrate on the basics -- wash with water, use a moisturizer (she helps you figure out which one, and her recommendations tend to be quite affordable) and use a sunscreen. Again and again, she teaches us why all of those claims about polishing, rejuvenating, reversing age and changing skin are absolutely false. She also does a great job reminding us that we're beautiful (really!) even if we have a few lines or spots. She's also pleasant, encouraging and reassuring. The book is well written and an enjoyable read.

I do wish she'd gone into her recommendations for special issues like acne, eczema and such. She basically says to see your dermatologist for these things and she focuses on just the basics that we all should do. That said, it's solid advice and such a relief to know the facts about all of this. I really appreciated all of it.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

I really enjoyed the information provided in this book. It was informative and changed the way that I will look at skin care in the future.

From seductive marketing claims to skin regimen "essentials," Dr. Frey debunks skincare myths in a straightforward manner. The Skincare Hoax should be required reading--a timesaver and money saver for anyone who has searched for products to use in their skincare regimen.

Thank you, NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for allowing me to review The Skincare Hoax. All opinions are my own.

“The Skincare Hoax” is like what would happen if some of my favorite topics – science, advertising, and skincare – all got together and had a party. As a mid-40s woman overwhelmed by the skincare aisle and generally skeptical of pseudoscience and marketing hype, this book was right up my alley.

Dr. Fayne Frey, a dermatologist with an expertise in skincare, is here to tell it like it really is. Her delivery is accessible, funny, and uplifting. This book is extremely well researched, and Frey backs up her claims with plenty of credible evidence. Don’t worry if you failed organic chemistry (like I did), Frey breaks down complex scientific concepts so they are easily understood by the layperson. Even more interesting to me is her exposure of the way skincare manufacturers utilize misdirection, clever language, and repackaging of the same product in multiple different ways.

The role of cosmetic marketing is fascinating, convincing women they need a lot of products they don’t by making them feel old, inadequate, or otherwise “less than.” Dr. Frey is having none of that nonsense, often reassuring readers that they are wonderful just the way they are. That’s a message the world needs more of!

Ultimately, Dr. Frey is a skincare minimalist who says we only need moisturizer and sunscreen. The science backs her up, but I’m not quite ready to ditch my Vitamin C serum just yet. But I’m digging her overall message and her humorous delivery. Many thanks to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Learned a lot about basic skincare. Some very interesting ideas and information. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I loved reading this book! I learned so much and now I feel confident in my ability to take care of my skin and beware of skincare scams. This book provided easy to follow information and provided insight about skins in a way that didn’t feel overwhelming.

My first acquaintance with expensive facial creams was as a young teen, when my older sister brought home a pretty pot of Apotheker Scheller for herself. And I, being the curious lass I was, opened it and saw it looked like the baby food for my months-old niece that I used to occasionally filch a bite of (adolescence is weird, don't judge), and smelled just as delicious as the maize & fruit puree the baby and I ate.

Later on, big sis filled her vanity with lots of other creams, not as appetising but just as expensive, and to date she's the one in the family with the best skin, which I always attributed to my mother's genes rather than to the creams she buys and whatever funky facials she gets at the aesthetician's. Proof: the rest of my family look much younger than we really are, and we've never used anything but moisturiser and sunscreen. More out of laziness and not having time for a long skincare routine than scepticism, I should add, because nobody in my family is suspicious of cosmetics. Another of my sisters has such good skin that her hairstylist told her right away that she could tell she didn't use tonnes of make-up products and creams worth a mortgage payment because her skin was the most youthful she'd seen in a woman her age (late 40s).

Well, nobody except my mother, and (much, much later) myself. Initially, whilst still in my teens, I began spending my allowance on beauty products, naïvely thinking I should follow my older sister's example even though my other sisters didn't. She's the prettiest of us all, and who wouldn't want to look like your more glamorous sister who had so many admirers and even did modeling? Especially if you're the youngest and the official ugly duckling who looks more like dad than mum. Fortunately for me, I had to face mum's disapproval and lectures on why all those creams on my kiddie skin weren't going to work precisely because you don't get wrinkles at 14; and also because I was a bookworm and faced with the prospect of choosing between buying books and beauty products, the choice was crystal clear. I wince at the memory of the stuff I was putting on my face back then, and am thankful that my interest in skincare went away with adolescent acne, praise Jesus. When I got into college and there was a science fair in which the chemistry students were promoting some all-natural skincare line they had created in their kitchen, I walked past their stall and went to buy a whole box of books at the stall of the English students instead.

As an adult, I became a regular blog reader and amongst my favourites was a cosmetics exposé one run by an anonymous blogger that claimed to be still working for the industry. It wasn't skincare but make-up products, and the lady wrote harsh but humorous articles revealing just how scammy and fake the claims made by the cosmetics industry are, promises like this mascara will enlarge your four remaining lashes and make four more grow, this lip gloss will rejuvenate your lips and make them so full you'll look like you were making out with a bee, this eyeliner is ophthalmologist-approved and can prevent your eyelids from shrinking like prunes, and so on. By this time, I had lost any interest in the beauty industry at large, but I read this blog (which I sadly can't find again, it must've been deleted or was buried someplace I can't find) because of the exposés on this multi-billion industry that scams women the world over from their hard-earned money.

It was the memory of that blog that made me pick up Fayne L. Frey's "The Skincare Hoax," who makes arguments so similar to those of the blogger I knew that at first I assumed they might be the same person, maybe? But they aren't, because Frey is a dermatologist and has never worked in the beauty industry in any capacity. She has no strings attached and no horse in this race, which allows her a degree of brutal honesty other beauticians, dermatologists, and magazine editors can't afford, not without losing revenue. A trained professional who knows chemistry inside and out, Frey doesn't hold back in telling you that, long story short, you're wasting your time and money by buying skincare products other than cleansers, mosturisers, and sunscreen, the Holy Trinity of healthy skin, in which sunscreen is the most important of the three.

With my personal story with cosmetics, I didn't need any convincing. I was already very well aware of the scams Dr Frey elaborates on in this book, nothing is new to me, but I'm so glad she wrote this book. She has the authority (she's a professional in dermatology), the experience (over 30 years), and the strength of character (she's lost clients and op-eds in the media for this) to tell the truth about skincare products in a way laypeople will understand. She goes through the basic and most marketed products such as eye creams, night and day creams, rejuvenating creams, etc., and tells you in no uncertain terms that in most cases you're not doing anything better than the Roman matrons with their dung-based facials.

Harsh? Yes, undoubtedly, she's harsh. Not that the industry doesn't deserve it, in any case. But also compassionate, because Dr Frey promotes self-love, self-acceptance, and also cares about the psychology of her clients. The scenes where she describes her clients' reaction to her telling them to look at themselves in her office's mirror and say "Dear me, I am awesome!" were touching. I have been there, too, I'd have burst into tears as a pimply teen if she'd have asked me to do that, especially with my gorgeous sisters right there to contradict the mirror. I really appreciate that Fayne Frey brings a human touch to her practice.

But, knowing women won't stop spending money on unnecessary beauty products and that many of them, especially other professionals that do have a horse in this race and women that simply "feel better" by using these pricey products (placebo effect, anyone?), I am starkly aware that many, many, will scoff at Frey's simple recommendations of cleanse, moisturise, and put sunscreen on. It's too easy, too simple, people want "solutions" and to feel that they're "doing something" to fight the clock, and simplicity doesn't sell. Plus, the industry has had decades and a huuuuuge and overfunded PR and publicity machine, against Frey's and others that think like her simple books and blogs. It's a losing battle, really, but a battle worth fighting, I would say. And, in any case, Frey does make it clear that if women want to keep spending their money in these products in spite of every evidence being against, for psychological or cultural reasosns, then she's not going to stop them. She wants women to make an informed choice, even if that choice ends up being not ideal, and that's why she wrote this book.

Perhaps next time I am at my sister's house, I'll stick a finger in her cream and taste it at long last, just to convince myself once and for all that Dr Scheller isn't selling cucumber baby puree...

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I would just read the information on her website if you want a minimal approach to skin care. I’ve often thought Dermatologists are subsidized
by companies like Neutrogena, Cetaphil, and Olay. Having a skin care regime is important and personal choice of products is probably
dictated in some part by advertising due to lack of scientific consensus…could be made simple but not in USA. I would say find the products
that work for you and don’t switch end of story…

The author is a medical conservative who eschews basically everything but sunscreen. Not even retinoids or Vitamin C pass her risk/benefit assessment.

I read this in hopes of finding a science-based approach of separating the wheat from the chaff. (Is EGF proven, or is it problematic? Does any evidence back topical collagen?) Instead, I got a minimalist, condescending, surface-level poo-pooing of showering, shampoo, exfoliation, makeup primer, and more.

I’m not a total maximalist: there are some products that I don’t think are necessary — what is the point of a fancy cleanser with active ingredients that stay on the skin for mere seconds before they’re splashed down the drain? But this book and the philosophy that underpins it discard nearly all products under the argument that aging is natural and therefore we shouldn’t fight it. Happiness and a glow may not live in jars of eye cream or tubes of tretinoin, as Dr. Frey rightly writes, but those potions make me feel good about myself and some do work.

If you want to pare down your regimen or, I guess, scale it up from doing nothing, maybe this book is for you. For someone with a baseline understanding of and interest in skincare, this is a hard pass.

A useful guide to skincare and what you don’t need. I wish the product recommendation section was larger and included items for those with sensitive skin or rosacea. Dr Fret’s site also does not list rosacea as a filter, and I’m red like a tomato and could use some help. Happy to see no nonsense recommendations given to the public.

One of the plusses of having a slow work day is that I get to read titles like this. When I tell you I audibly gasped at some of the information written here, it is not an exaggeration. I'm almost 40 and could write an entire blog post on "today I learned" regarding skincare and the industry as a whole. The blatant lies ("natural ingredients") the unneeded products that could actually age you FASTER, just...wow.
A must read for anyone who has ever put any skincare products on their skin. You will be AMAZED at what you learn, I know I was.

As a Sephora addict, I was horrified when I saw this and knew I had to get my hands on it immediately. I love skincare and makeup but I’m open-minded and know I spend too much money on it.

At first I thought it was just a dermatologist ranting about work and wondering why we don’t love ourselves, warts and all(pun intended), when fixing it is literally their job. I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of what I read, though.

“Dozens of beliefs we commonly hold true today were made up more than fifty years ago in an ad campaign.” That is so true! That’s what Darren from Bewitched was up to when Samantha was at home doing witchcraft. I have always found the tricky languages of ads funny. “Promotes xyz”, “Reduces the appearance of”, “Healthier looking”. A fancy way of saying they can’t guarantee anything so don’t sue them. Also, “detox” claims annoy me.

As someone with sensitive, oily skin and hormonal adult acne, I know that what you use on your skin is important. So we do disagree on this. If I have smooth, exfoliated skin, my makeup is going to last longer than the crusty oil slick it is when I don’t. We agree on sunscreen! You’re silly if you don’t have that.

Ultimately, they aren’t being judgmental about what we use, they’re encouraging us to make informed decisions and have reasonable expectations. I believe that, more than the promises made by companies, we enjoy the feeling of self-care. As a generation plagued by war, recessions, and viruses, I think it’s one way we pamper ourselves.

This does go through the very interesting origins of the cosmetic industry and how they’ve convinced us we need all of these things to feel beautiful and clean. I was happy to hear about the eye cream because I’ve suspected that so it’s nice to have it confirmed.

“If you work the night shift, should you wear day or night cream?” I disliked this bad faith question. The night cream is before bed and you know that. It means don’t put retinol on and walk directly into the sun.

Anyway, it was an interesting and thought-provoking book that I would recommend to other skincare lovers. (Drunk Elephant 🐘 for life)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy to read and review.