Skincare Philosophy

SkinShopMD™ and the Whole Beauty® skincare collection is the culmination of a 20 year effort to help my patients find the best skin care possible. Like most of the advances that have occurred in my practice, it came about as a response to my patients’ observations.

Early in my practice one of my patients remarked to me, “I love the face lift, Dr. Cook, but it would look even better if you could help me with my skin.” As I looked at her skin in the sunlight, I had to agree. The patient had spent year in the sun: golf and tennis in the summer, paddle tennis in the winter and she hadn’t been particularly careful with sun protection. We all know what happens to the skin when it is subjected to a combination of sun, stress, and the passage of time. The surface of the skin develops fine lines, the skin becomes thin and less supple, the skin looks dull, and brown and red patches appear.

At the time when my patient made her remark most plastic surgeons had a less than enthusiastic view about skin care. Plastic surgeons, in a view that was common at the time, should do big powerful operations and leave the minor details of the skin to others. In my opinion this was simply wrong. First of all, other physicians and practitioners weren’t doing anything all that exciting for the skin. Second, I owed it to my patients to help them achieve the best results possible and to obtain this, you simply couldn’t ignore the skin!

Thus began my education. I learned how to do TCA peels, became familiar with emerging laser technologies to help treat vessels and buff down the skin, learned about alpha hydroxyl acids when they emerged as an option, and went to meetings in Paris to learn about Botox and Restylane when they were not yet available in the United States. Many new technologies have emerged since that time, some beneficial, many rather worthless, and some harmful.