Countless beauty lovers changed their ways over the past few years, explicitly trading in products providing purely aesthetic perks for those that benefit their skin’s health. While there’s plenty to choose from, medical-grade skincare offers products with higher potency and concentrations of active ingredients. They target specific skincare concerns such as acne, sun damage, and premature aging, but on a deeper and more effective level than over-the-counter products.
How To Know If A Skincare Line Is Medical-Grade?
A medical-grade skincare line must have clinical research that backs up its claims of the reported benefits. The best way to ensure a medical-grade line is to talk to a doctor or dermatologist and see which products they recommend. From there, buying online should be the next step, but they should come from reputable sites such as the brand’s official website.
What Makes Medical Grade Skincare Unique?
Between medical-grade skincare and over-the-counter, there are indeed a few key differences. One is accessibility since it used to be available in doctors’ offices, but now (with the help of the internet), accessibility has increased. In fact, most medical-grade companies will use highly stabilized ingredients that last longer and take longer to degrade, using more involved mechanisms of absorption to enhance delivery to deeper areas of skin.
Some mainstream brands may recommend their retinol serum or night cream as an incredible skin-transforming product. Still, sometimes there are trace amounts of actives surrounded by synthetic additives, a false claim medical-grade brands don’t stand behind. Unlike medical-grade skincare products, over-the-counter products are “regulated not to make any medical claims, and they cannot state that they treat a skin condition.
What Are The Best Medical-Grade Skincare Products?
While every medical-grade skincare line below is professed as best, each of these brands offers clear and distinct benefits for specific challenges and unique advantages over other over-the-counter or prescription brands. Nonetheless, here are the world’s most loved and effective medical-grade skincare brands:
Obagi Clinical
Obagi is all about bringing transformative solutions for every step of the skincare routine. It addresses prevention and correction and believes great skin can only happen with a diligent and consistent routine. For over 30 years, Obagi has been a brand backed by physicians, providing medical-grade products to fight almost any skin concern.
That said, Obagi’s clinical line is formulated with the best-in-class ingredients to combat skin conditions like dark spots, damaged skin, saggy, wrinkles, and fine lines and improve skin’s firmness and texture. Some products include:
- Kinetin+ Hydrating Cream
- Retinol 0.5 Retexturizing Cream
- Vitamin C Eye Brightener
- Kinetin+ Rejuvenating Serum
ZO Skin Health
Stocked in aesthetics clinics, this well-known brand defines itself as medical grade due to its “multi-modal formulations paired with delivery systems that enable greater product penetration and precision.” ZO Skin Health believes in creating and maintaining healthy skin for every skin type, regardless of age.
Zein Obagi, the inventor, is a world-renowned dermatologist, and their various products are clinically tested. Zo Skin Health provides an impressive range of products, such as Wrinkle + Texture Repair, Firming Serum, and Growth Factor Serum, to fight signs of aging like acne, blemishes, breakouts, wrinkles, and lines.
SkinCeuticals
The brand has been one of the most famous brands in the skincare league since 1997. They’ve earned a reputation for providing advanced, dermatologist-recommended products.
In fact, SkinCeuticals products are a combination of the best of science and nature, which means it uses powerful formulas enhanced with bio-available chemicals. Apart from that, the philosophy of SkinCeuticals embodies a skincare routine that should simultaneously prevent, correct, and protect the skin.
Moreover, the brand’s best medical-grade ranges target discoloration, sun damage, acne, and aging signs alongside its most iconic skincare products, such as C E Ferulic and Blemish + Age Defense.
PCA Skin
PCA Skin is another medical-grade skincare brand with a wide range of products that target different skin conditions. Since being founded in 1990, it has been among the first to research and develop professional cosmetic treatments and daily skincare solutions.
PCA Skin provides a whole arsenal of effective daily care products, including exfoliants, cleansers, serums, sunscreens, and body creams. It remains best known for its innovations in formulating enhanced chemical peels. In fact, about one million PCA Skin peels are performed each year globally, according to the brand’s claim— so they are that popular.
iS Clinical
The brand combines dermatological biochemistry with the highest-grade ingredients. In addition, iS Clinical’s philosophy is that a 4-step skincare routine includes cleansing, treating, hydrating, and protecting, which is often enough to achieve a healthy and resilient complexion.
Moreover, their products are clinically-proven and help boost the skin by nurturing and accelerating the natural processes of blood flow, cellular regeneration, and exfoliation. iS Clinical has a wide range of products, which include eye creams, brightening products, and cleansers to correcting treatments and serums.
SkinMedica
For over two decades, this medical-grade skincare has already existed. As the first brand to introduce growth factors in skincare, one of the most potent anti-aging proteins, SkinMedica launched its very own “TNS Recovery Complex” in 2001.
The brand started focusing on skin biology a bit later in 2012, investing in pre-clinical studies to understand complex biological systems better and deliver skin-transforming products. That said, SkinMedica has become one of the most active skincare brands since then, specializing in products that target blemishes, texture, aging signs, uneven tone, and sun damage.
Sesderma
Born in 1989, Sesderma Laboratories is a Spanish dermatology company that now stands as a leader in medical-grade skincare. As a matter of fact, the brand was one of the first to come through with the use of glycolic acid and has been one of the first to adopt nanotechnology in skin care. For that reason, nanometric liposomes have been created, delivering active ingredients to the skin’s deeper layers and ensuring maximum benefits.
EltaMD
As the world’s first sunscreen professional brand, EltaMD offers one of the best medical-grade suncare with a vast diversity of products that address people of all ages and skin types. EltaMD focuses on shielding skin against sun damage while healing and renewing it with tried and true ingredients and research-backed formulas.
The Bottom Line
There are many reasons to believe that medical-grade products work better for specific skin conditions with better results due to their higher concentration of active ingredients. ZI Bloom Aesthetics offers Medical-grade skincare that is thoroughly researched, repeatedly tested, and cleared by the FDA for client use. At ZI Bloom Aesthetics, they are after results and offer medical-grade skincare based on science and rooted in research that provides results.