My Skin Journey
PAULA BEGOUN
A
uthor of over 20 best-selling books,
in-demand beauty expert and creator
of her own skin care line, Paula Begoun
is a force to be reckoned with. Her real, honest,
unbiased insight into the world of skin care has
proved invaluable to millions, so who better to
share their skin journey in our tenth issue? Here,
the founder of Paula’s Choice talks skin struggles,
getting fired and how the industry has changed.
My skin struggles started when I was very young.
I had terrible acne from the age of 11, but no
matter what I tried (and I tried everything),
products and treatments either made my skin
worse or did nothing at all. It was emotionally
devastating. I became obsessed with wanting to
get my acned, oily skin under control. To make
matters worse, the rest of my body was plagued
by eczema and all the itching and incessant
dryness that comes with it.
Fixing my skin became my primary focus in
life. At first it was all about solving my own
skin concerns, but then as the research about
skin exploded and I started writing my books,
every skin type and skin problem became a
challenge for me to understand and find solutions
for. I started working as a make-up artist to pay
my way through university, but I also worked
at department store cosmetic counters. The only
problem was that I kept getting fired because I
was always arguing with the person who was
training me on how to sell products because I
knew from the science and from my own expe-
rience that what she was saying just wasn’t true.
I never thought I would remain in the world of
skin care but I kept being drawn back to it in
very non-traditional ways.
I had just finished the third edition of my book
Don’t Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without
Me, which was over 700 pages! I thought I never
wanted to write another book ever again but the
beauty industry is what I knew and loved, and I
knew for certain no one was going to hire me—my
books and message in the media were too con-
troversial. Then friends, family, and fans started
asking me to create products and it just sounded
too perfect. As my books gained in popularity, I
received letters from women of all ages and all
locations begging me to help them find the solu-
tions to their skin problems. I’m proud to say this
was strong motivation to continue.
Creating my own products was the best of all
worlds. It combined my years of research and
what I knew about thousands of other products
to know how to formulate with only ingredients
that could truly make a beautiful difference for
the skin.
The beauty industry is wonderful and crazy at
the same time. When products work, it’s just
amazing but when products don’t work or make
skin worse, that’s just so frustrating and sad.
Acne, clogged pores, oily skin, and sun damage
(which is what really ages skin) are by far the
most difficult skin conditions to treat so, to
formulate a product, it takes endless days of
research and then long discussions with the team
about how to combine the best ingredients,
while always listening to what our customers
are telling us. Eventually we end up with a new
brilliant formulation we’re proud to launch. I’ve
been listening to women who’ve since become
long-term customers for years; you might say
Paula’s Choice was the original crowd-sourcing
ISSUE #10 | 2019 | SkinHealthMagazine.com 26