Glad All Over
By Leesa Suzman

Want to lift your spirits, rejuvenate your skin, and feel like a dream come true? Leesa goes under wraps with the head-to-toe facial.

I am lying on a massage table as Regina Viotto, spa director at Paul Labrecque Salon & Spa in Manhattan, smoothes pure, heated shea butter from my shoulders to my soles. She's rubbed me with a blend of lavender oil and mineral salts and removed the residue with a warm overhead shower spray. As the shea butter melts into my skin, I can't remember the last time I felt as relaxed and distressed, as blissfully blank. No question, this new breed of spa service-the body facial-has given my mind a break. But has it done anything for my skin?

During a scrub or glow-as these treatments are often called-you're covered with mineral salts, sugars, synthetic granules, or creams containing natural enzymes like papaya and pumpkin extracts, which help shed dead cells that can dull the skin. Then comes a moisturizer, usually a fragrant oil or a hydrator like shea butter, followed by a massage.

Another kind of body facial – the wrap - begins like a scrub, with exfoliation, but segues into a massage with an antioxidant vitamin cream, mineral-rich seaweed, or oil-absorbing clay. You're then swaddled in thermal blankets, hot towel, or sheets. (The process can make you feel like a mummy in a sauna.) Aestheticians claim that sealing the ingredients with heat makes then more potent. "When the skin gets hot, it becomes more porous. allowing whatever you put on it's surface to be better absorbed," say Marcia Kilgore, founder and director of Bliss Spas in New York and London. Dermatologists agree that exfoliation with a scrub will temporarily brighten your look. But "wraps and scrubs are better for your mental health that your skin," says Richard Glogau, MD clinical professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco. "If any of these ingredients improve the skin at a deeper level, they'd be classified as drugs and require a prescription." That said, here's what you can hope to get from a body facial:

For breakouts on the back and chest, treatments consist of facial techniques like steaming to open pores, masks to deliver concentrated ingredients, and extraction. Choose and aestheticians who uses tea-tree oil, clay, or glycolic, salicylic, or lactic acid. In general, results are similar to what you get with a facial. "you'll notice fewer whiteheads and blackheads, and some decrease in inflammation," says Diana Hurwitz, MD, an attending dermatologist at Northern Westchester Hospital Center in Mount Kisco, New York.

To replenish dry skin, you need the two-step process of sloughing off dead cells and applying moisture. Salt scrubs are good for exfoliating, but the salt can also absorb existing water in your skin – so if you're extremely dry, choose exfoliating granules like jojoba beads, sugar, or alfpha-hydroxy acids. Look for hydrating ingredients such as shea butter, honey, and seaweed. Results may last until your next shower – or beyond. "But to prevent shin from drying out, you need to keep using moisturizer," say Glogau.

To even out skin tone, the most effective ingredients are glycolic and salicylic acid, which lift surface cells that have become discolored due to sun damage; stabilized vitamin C, which may boost collagen production; and kojic acid, a chemical skin bleach that lightens sunspots gradually. "Spas do a great job of spot-treating sun damage with superficial acid peels," say Glogau, "but peels that penetrate the epidermis should be done in a doctor's office."

I was happily surprised when my skin stayed soft for almost two weeks after my shea butter treatment. It looked better, too: I wore my first strappy dress since last summer. At the salon I was given some shea butter to take with me, and as soon as I noticed my skin reverting to it's former flaky ways. I heated up what was in the vial and did my best to repeat the treatment at home. It wasn't long before I went soft all over again.

Next in Skin Cancer Fight: Protection From UVA Rays

By Jane E. Allen
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

We've all heard that to protect our skin from the sun's aging effects and cancer-causing rays, we should stay out of the sun. The next best thing, of course, is to apply sunscreen or wear protective clothing.

One thing that some people don't realize is that there are two types of ultraviolet radiation that can age your skin and lead to cancer, and the SPF ratings on most sunscreen lotions and sprays address only one; the potent burning rays, or UVB.

Increasingly, though, dermatologists are concerned about the role of long wave ultraviolet radiation, the more penetrating rays known as UVA radiation, as another source of burning rays and skin cancer risk. These are the rays that penetrate below the epidermis of the skin, into the dermis, where the body makes collagen and elastin that provides skin's firmness and structure.

Yet, there is no rating system in place to quantify how well sunscreens shield us specifically from UVA radiation, which is the main type that people are exposed to at tanning salons as well as through sun exposure; solar radiation is about 95% UVA and %5 UVB.

The American Academy of Dermatology has asked the Food and Drug Administration to establish labeling standards for UVA sunscreen ingredients similar to the SPF rating used for UVB. For now, it's up to consumers to find products that provide good protection.

Many products that block UVA rays contain physical sunscreens that reflect, scatter or absorb light. They include zinc oxide, the pasty white cream beachgoers smear on the cheeks and noses, and another heavy cream called titanium dioxide.

You might recognize on some labels the term "micronized zinc oxide, "which refers to a lighter version of zinc oxide. There's also a newer chemical sunscreen, Parsol 1789, that absorbs UVA light.

The jury is still out on how well any of these products protect from UVA rays. Products that claim on their labels to offer "board spectrum" UVA-UVB protection may not do enough to keep UVA rays from damaging your skin, said Dr. Richard Glogau, a dermatologist at UC San Francisco. "We've seen some products with SPF 30 and SPF 45 that have poor and mediocre UVA protection."

Dr. Arnold Klein, a Beverly Hills dermatologist, also notes that there haven't been scientific studies to show that micronized zinc or titanium dioxide are good blockers of UVA radiation.

Klein prefers mexoryl, a product derived from camphor that's available for use in sunscreens in Europe but not yet in this country. It's been shown in several studies to offer superior protection against a broad range of UVA radiation. This product is available in the Anthelios sunscreen line made by France's La Roche-Posay. The FDA is reviewing mexoryl for sunscreen use, but for now you can buy Anhelios products in Canada or France, or from foreign-based Internet sites.

Dermatologists say people are much too sparing with sunscreens. They recommend that people apply sunscreens with a rating of at least 1SPF 15 as part of their daily ritual, before going to school or work, and before outdoor activities. When outdoor, sunscreens should be reapplied after 30 minutes in the sun and every couple of hours after that, move if they rub off or after swimming.

Meanwhile, researchers are working on a sunscreen pill that could make full-body sun protection even better.