“These are the beauty products worth investing in”

Mencia Hermosa is a pharmacist and entrepreneurexpert in dermo and capillary and founder of the nutricosmetics firm, BloombyMencia is the daughter and granddaughter of pharmacists, she never had doubts about what was going to become of her life and although she now works for some renowned pharmaceutical laboratories, she closely follows the activity of her pharmacy hometown in Ciudad Rodrigo, the Lisbon pharmacy.

We talk about trends and why professionally prescribed cosmetics are more efficient, as well as some practical tricks to build our toiletry bag.

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M.M.V.

What about the brands that are returning to the pharmacy after having tried other points of sale?

Going hand in hand with an expert prescriber is not the same as competing on a shelf in a shopping center, the Pharmaceutical Council has highlighted. Recent brands like Moncho Moreno have also seen this, their hair has such powerful assets that its natural place is a serious environment and expert recommendation. I think it’s great that we can recommend it.

Which products are worth investing in and which are not?

I would not invest a lot of money in a cleanser because in the end it is in contact with your skin for very little time, it is very easy for many to be suitable and there are some at a very good price, but what I would invest in is a good antioxidant and a good skin transformer to complete the steps of the skin health pyramid. A good specific transformer for the night (never before 25) and a good sunscreen. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on moisturizers either. A product with vitamin C, hydration and a drugstore retinol at night.

Best-selling drugstore products tend to have loyal followers (Image: Joshua Coleman for Unsplash)

I’m a fan of doing minimalist routines and covering all aspects of all skin needs. In a laboratory to produce a cream that may cost you 100 euros, it has its own technologies, which is a development that takes years and money. It involves many people, many staff and many hours of work and has studies behind it. It is proven that it penetrates, that it acts, where it has to act, that it is phenomenally tolerated. The formulation is very complex. A pure retinol with a super basic base is not the same as a retinol formulated with other objectives with a more complex formula. There is a difference.

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“I love these drugstore beauty products that I always recommend,” the Beauty Director said.

Cris Castany

A very important thing when choosing is to differentiate active cosmetics, which is what we have in the pharmacy, which is a bit halfway between what is cosmetic and what is medicine, retinol, for example, is in practically medical. And then there is high-end cosmetics, for example, which we find perfumeries, there you are paying for sensoriality and you are paying for a luxury brand. Maybe you are very excited to have a bottle with a beautiful design in your bathroom, a three-dimensional golden cap, but it is sensory. Assets. And that is why vitamin C in those establishments costs 150 euros and there is another one from the pharmacy that costs less. And those that are more expensive are because they are highly supported by studies such as the famous CE Ferulic, which has the Doctor Sheldon Pinnell Fundador de SkinCeuticals which has been studying antioxidants in the world of skin cancer for years and has the best patent and scientific validity.

And we have applied that in the aesthetic and beauty center of the family pharmacy, in which we do a 360 approach from skin cleansing with hydration. Even the home routine and a high percentage of our patients are women who followed cosmetic recommendations on social networks.

A dermocosmetic salon?

All the products we use in the center are pharmaceutical products, companies such as Skinceuticals and Medik8 provide us with professional packaging to be able to treat patients with the excellence of the pharmacy in the cabin.

Mencia Hermosa is a pharmacist and entrepreneurexpert in dermo and capillary and founder of the nutricosmetics firm, BloombyMencia is the daughter and granddaughter of pharmacists, she never had doubts about what was going to become of her life and although she now works for some renowned pharmaceutical laboratories, she closely follows the activity of her pharmacy hometown in Ciudad Rodrigo, the Lisbon pharmacy.