Cathy's One-Month Visit

Cathy's doing well. She likes the non-gooey, absorbent texture of RENOVA and has used it on all but one night--when she got home late from a party. The first couple of weeks it burnt a bit. After that, she had slight scaling around her nose, cheeks, and chin, and a dry spot on one cheek.

Otherwise, no adverse reactions. The freckles and Crow's-Feet are still there, but her skin is a little smoother--something she feels more than sees. At times, she senses her face is glowing. Once, she caught that glow in the mirror and loved it. Already she's a RENOVA believer, and now, whenever she's out in the sun, she wears her SPF moisturizer and a hat.

Shupack is pleased. The flaking is part and parcel of the retinization process, he says-- a sign that the medication is working. In time, as the skin is regulated, there'll be less flaking. Meanwhile, to ease the situation, he tells Cathy to avoid soap on her face in the morning, and to rinse it with plain water instead.

Barbara's One-Month Visit

The first few days, Barbara developed some red blotches. These cleared up, and she's used RENOVA every night--with no other sign of irritation. The only change she's noticed is that her skin seems a bit smoother. Her fine wrinkling is unchanged, and no glow has shown up.

The blotchiness could be due to Barbara's skin sensitivity as well as to the retinizing effect of RENOVA. Either way, assesses Shupack, it hasn't reached the stage of a serious problem. As for the no-glow, it's early times yet. He does notice that Barbara's freckles are slightly lighter in color, and he's pleased that her sensitive skin is handling RENOVA with relative ease.

Cathy's Three-Month Visit

Autumn in New York, and the weather is skittish--freezing one day, warm the next. That doesn't affect Cathy's complexion. "Everyone tells me I look terrific," she announces delightedly. Her skin is much smoother. She's given up wearing foundation. In the morning, her face doesn't look or feel sluggish. It has, instead, a steady glow. The freckles on her cheeks and forehead have all but disappeared, and some slight peeling she had on her nose, between the brows, and around her mouth has completely stopped. Her skin feels tight, but she doesn't mind that sensation. Shupack is very pleased. "You're 90 percent to perfect," he declares. "Peaches and cream ...skin health on the march."

Barbara's Three-Month Visit

Barbara looks decidedly changed. Her freckles are substantially fewer in number. With her fair skin far more in evidence, she, too, is cutting down on the foundation, and she's lightened her hair to go with her fresher looking face. But she stopped using RENOVA a few days earlier, after more blotchiness showed up on her cheeks, nose and eyelids--a result, she now speculates, of taking a prescription antibiotic, for a seasonal cold. Also, her complexion seems shiny--almost greasy.

Antibiotics don't interact with RENOVA, Shupack notes. This bout of redness is more likely related to the cold weather and the lower indoor winter humidity. He regards it as a stage to be gotten through that usually occurs partway through the six-month initiation. But for the next two weeks, Barbara's to apply RENOVA every other night, and then switch back to daily use. As for the oily sensation, Shupack proposes that Barbara's interpreting her newly smooth, almost glassy skin as greasy. It isn't greasy, but she's welcome not to use a moisturizer on RENOVA nights. NEXT

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