Navigating skincare advice online
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What is the purpose of this episode and who is the expert guest?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now, I'm joined in the studio by consultant dermatologist at Blackrock Clinic, Dr. Rosemary Coleman, who's here to talk about how to navigate false skincare advice from AI and on social media. Hello, Rosemary.
Good morning,
Clare.
We need
a few hours for this,
don't we? We do indeed.
Weekend. There's a lot out there. I mean, I've gone through some of the trends this morning. Skin cycling, slugging, skin flooding. Yeah.
It's all out there. It's just crazy. And all I can say is buyer beware. At the end of the day, our skin is a complex organ. It does not follow an algorithm. And just because some teenager on TikTok decides that X and Y would be great for your skin, please stop and ask who they are, what are their qualifications and why would you follow them? So often, if you've noticed, a lot of these skin influencers, they're very young and youth is beauty. They have beautiful skin and they're trying to sell you what they have. You very rarely see a 65 year old advertise glass skin. Oh, glass skin is huge. That's the Korean skincare. Absolutely. There's
nothing wrong with Korean skincare. I'm sure there's plenty of it is great. But like if you're in your 50s or 60s or even in your 40s, you're probably not going to get glass skin.
No, and you want it. It's very artificial. Yes, it might be nice for a good night out, but it involves using copious quantities and layers of active ingredients, alpha hydroxy acids, beta hydroxy acids like colic acid, salicylic acid, retinol, scrubbing, layer after layer.
Which current skincare trends (skin‑cycling, slugging, glass skin) are confusing consumers?
And your skin can only take a very small amount of that. I always say to people, would you buy yourself a leather handbag and sit at home and jiff it and scrub it all day? No. And it's the same thing. Think about what would happen to the leather. That's what's happening to the skin.
Now, with AI, what we're seeing is people can put in, I have dry skin with some red marks. What do you recommend as my skincare routine?
And they're
getting back the seven steps.
I don't think AI is good at that yet. No doubt it'll replace me someday. At the moment, AI is very good if you want to say, what is niacinamide and who does it benefit? OK, but it's not good at making diagnoses because don't forget, a lot of people aren't terribly observant. And people have said to me when they look at their own skin, my skin is a disaster. It's this, that, the other. And I examine their skin and I say... It certainly isn't. There's nothing wrong with your skin. Or they might think their skin is perfect and they're actually getting a lot of sun damage. So the public who's feeding the information into AI may not be qualified to give it the correct information. And AI is not accurate at diagnosis yet.
And I personally find it extremely hard to make any diagnoses from photographs. So uploading your photograph into AI and then following what it's going to tell you to do is daft.
Well, you've got to be very careful with it, I suppose, is what you're saying, right? Because you could get a recommendation for active ingredients which could cause you problems. More than likely you will. I'm looking here as well at another trend for alternative moisturisers. Unusual hydrators like beef tallow and snail mucin. Yes. What's that?
How reliable is AI when it suggests a full skincare routine?
That's snail
droppings. That's exactly what you see on the window when the snail walks up the window and ruins the window you've just washed. That's going to be good for my skin, is it? Well, look, some people are selling it to you. People will sell you anything, Clare, and maybe it's good for some people's skin, but it's not necessarily good for yours. So the important thing is to not blindly follow these... regimes. Influencers tend to make skincare regimens very complicated, layer after layer, lots of products. And I always get very sceptical when at the end of it all, there are a couple of codes there for you to avail of. That puts me right off. Yeah, well, you've got to ask yourself, who's benefiting? What is the motivation?
Whereas when you go to the dermatologist, they tend to strip back the skincare and simplify it completely.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the purpose of this episode and who is the expert guest?
0:01–1:46
2
Which current skincare trends (skin‑cycling, slugging, glass skin) are confusing consumers?
1:46–3:30
3
How reliable is AI when it suggests a full skincare routine?
3:30–6:02
4
Why can AI‑generated skincare advice lead to misdiagnosis and skin damage?
6:02–7:40
5
What are the dangers of using too many active ingredients and layered products?
7:40–8:40
6
How does a consultant dermatologist simplify a skincare regimen for different skin types?
8:40–9:27
7
What simple steps protect the skin barrier without over‑stripping or exotic ingredients?
9:27–9:40