Skin Truth or Myth? Dr. Jessica Weiser Debunks Midlife Beauty Myths

Can you actually damage your skin barrier without realizing it?

Do women in menopause need a completely different skincare strategy?

And are we all overdoing skincare in the pursuit of looking younger?

In this rapid-fire “Skin Truth or Myth?” episode, board-certified dermatologist Dr. Jessica Weiser joins Roxy Manning to separate beauty fact from fiction — tackling some of the biggest misconceptions women hear about aging skin, retinol, exfoliation, injectables, skincare trends, collagen loss, and midlife beauty pressure.

They also discuss:

• Why “more” skincare is often the wrong approach

• The truth about overusing active ingredients

• Why neck aging can happen faster than facial aging

• The skincare trends dermatologists secretly hate

• What women waste money on constantly

• The most underrated thing for great skin that has nothing to do with products

Smart, funny, honest, and packed with genuinely useful information for women navigating midlife skin changes.

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If your skin care suddenly stops working, you should just add more active ingredients.

Myth again, most of the time it's that your skin is not responding to what you're doing anymore, and you just need to change the entire methodology of your approach.

Do you find that you have to, like, coach patients and kind of pull them back from the filler needle at times?

Yes, for sure.

But what I would say about my practice is that I'm sort of known for my natural aesthetic, so generally people who are coming to me are not coming for overfilled faces.

What is one skincare trend you wish would disappear forever?

Oh, there are so many. At the end of the day, trendy skin routine can't possibly work for most people. Maybe it works for an occasional person.

It's generally not going to work for the majority.

I feel like beef tallow swept social media and all of a sudden it was like every video that was like having to do with skin was about using beef tallow. This is a rapid fire game called Skin Truth or Myth. So basically, I will read out a situation and you tell me if it's a myth, if it's a truth or.

It depends. I mean, you can, you can explain things too if you feel that it needs it. So that'll be fun. Okay, let's start. Okay.

More expensive skin care always works better. Truth, myth, or it depends.

Myth. The idea that $1,000 skin care product is going to work better than $100 skin care product is not true. I do think there are some small exceptions.

And again, not really expensive antioxidants are one of the few places where we find really unstable antioxidants can be cheap and they tend be either ineffective or damaging to the skin. So cheap antioxidants are a no go always. But expensive does not mean better.

Okay, good to know. Good to know. You need harsher products in midlife because your skin gets tougher. Definitely, definitely meth.

There is no, no truth in your skin getting tougher.

As we get older, your skin gets weaker. Anything, um, what we find with age and particularly in midlife as we go through those hormonal transitions, is that the skin has less of a barrier.

It has less of its own defenses, and so it needs us to sort of protect it more. Hmm.

Very good. Okay. If your skincare suddenly stops working, you should just add more active ingredients.

Myth again, I think that a lot of people love the idea of just adding on. Oh, it's not working. I need something more. I need something harsher. I need something stronger. Most of the time.

It's that your skin is not responding to what you're doing anymore. And you just need to change the entire methodology of your approach.

Okay. Women in menopause should exfoliate less aggressively.

True. I think that that is a fact. What we find as we lose our barrier function, estrogen makes the skin drier.

Estrogen compromises the barrier function that naturally protects us from our environments, from our products, from our perfumes, from our makeup, that the skin gets more sensitive.

And so if you exfoliate it, what you're doing is you're actually unveiling those more sensitive cells even further, peeling away what is left of that barrier and giving us more risk for irritation. So ease up on the ear, on the exfoliation. Less is more.

Less is more. Okay. Neck aging can happen faster than facial aging.

Truth, for sure.

I feel like that was one of the first places I started noticing things were looking different. Everybody does. Okay.

We have 32 year olds coming in, being like, this is starting to go. And I'm like, 32. I feel, you know, too young.

Right.

But it is really common. The other thing about neck aging, which I think is so prevalent, is that so many people have this concept of what is called tech neck.

In an era where everyone works with an iPad or a laptop or a phone in their lap, we have essentially taken away the space between the chest and the chin, and everyone now sits in this very compromised position. I always tell patients, one of the most important things you can do is maintain at least a fist distance between your chin and your chest.

Your chin should never go closer to your chest than that because you're compromising two things. One, you're constantly putting that skin in a seat where it's folded, and people get those horizontal necklines.

And so optimizing your ergonomics, getting those devices at eye level so that you're looking at them straight and not looking down into your lap is so important. But the most important factor there is actually that you're compromising your cervical spine.

If you think about what you're doing, you are literally flexing your spine all the time. And ultimately that's going to lead to neck pain and orthopedic issues. And so I always say to patients, optimize how you sit.

Your laptop should not be on your desk. Your laptop should be at eye level.

If you need a remote, you know, a wireless keyboard or a mouse or something else in order to optimize that space, it was. But take the phones and the tablets out of your lap, and it's filling the skin, all the neck.

Oh, that's such a good point. I didn't even think about that. Especially with the spine curvature. With both neck. The neck bands.

I mean, we're just wrecking ourselves neck for a reason.

It's literally from your technology. So figure out how to use it in a more productive way.

So start slathering on the cream because.

Yes, lots of net cream and sewn out of your lap. And winning companies.

Absolutely. Injectables are the only real solution once skin care plateaus.

Myth for sure. I think that injectables have a place in esthetics and I think that they should be used very delicately.

But when your skin care plateaus, the last thing you want to do is try to over inject your face because that doesn't actually impact the face quality of the skin. Shift your skin care products, talk to somebody about what you could be doing differently.

Get good advice on proper skin care regimen because what you're going to find is that injecting your face is going to change how your face moves. It's going to change the structure of the face is never going to change your skin quality.

You know, and frankly, especially here in Los Angeles, I see a lot of overfilled faces. You know, it's so common, I'm sure in New York as well.

You know, you see it everywhere, but like it's really, it's really become like almost an epidemic. These overfilled faces, right?

Yes, it's very scary. They call it pillow face because you literally look so cushiony. But it's not natural looking and generally it's not useful looking.

What we actually find is that most of those people look older than they are because they look like they're trying so hard to be someone else or something else that it can be quite aging.

And what we're seeing actually is younger patients trying to fill their faces to compensate for the fact that they either don't have good skin or that they don't, you know, particularly like something about themselves. And we'll end up seeing these very overinflated temples, shapes under eyes. And it looks very alien, it looks very unusual.

And instead what we like to focus on is skin quality. If you can make their skin smooth, right.

Even, you know, if you work on the tone, hotness and the texture and the tone of the skin, you're going to find that you look refreshed and subtle and more natural. And I think there's something so lovely about that as a better sort of direction forward.

Absolutely. Do you find that you have to, like, coach patients and kind of pull them. Pull them back from the filler needle at times.

Yes, for sure. But what I would say about my practice is that I'm sort of known for my natural aesthetic.

So generally, people who are coming to me are not coming for overfilled faces.

I actually have spent years dissolving excessively filled faces, and that's a different process because you are dissolving the natural hyaluronic acid in the face, and so you're actually compromising the skin quality by dissolving.

But if you don't take out all of that excessive filler, patients are so distorted, and it can be really, you know, both uncomfortable for them and it can be quite unsightly. And so what we have found is, you know, filler can be used and there's a time and a place, but it doesn't replace skincare.

Retinol is the answer for everyone. True or false?

A lot of people will say true here, and I will be very comfortably say false. There are certain people who don't tolerate retinol.

I think that the idea of retinol or retinoids as a prescription world is that it's a vitamin A derivative, and it is one of the only topicals that can be shown to stimulate collagen production. So there's something about retinol that's very interesting and very intriguing.

But what a lot of people don't understand about retinols is that they also cause a lot of dryness, a lot of skin sensitivity and peeling or irritation. And so you actually can compromise your skin barrier further.

And so there are ways of using them where you're sandwiching them between moisturizers and you're coming up with other strategies, but some people simply don't tolerate them. And going harder or going more aggressively with a retinol is not the answer for a lot of people.

And I think that that's something hard for patients to understand. And not 100% of people can use it. If you can tolerate it and it doesn't cause any problems on your skin, sure, great.

I'm happy to add retinols, and I do it all the time, but it's never going to be 100% of the population.

Okay, good to know. Overdoing skin care is one of the biggest mistakes women make in midlife.

Truth. What I have found is that people tend to find.

To tend to find, you know, facialists or, you know, people who work in skincare boutiques or whomever it is to try and further Enhance. And I actually think there are a lot of wonderful people, you know, recommending skin care out there.

But if your job at the end of the day is to sell more skincare products, you're going to sell more skincare products, and you're going to tell people that they need five layers in the morning and five layers in the evening in order to accomplish, you know, their skin goals. And what we find is, for a lot of patients, finding the correct products so much more important than finding more products.

And so shifting and making these appropriate changes is really what solves so many people's problems. And we do this every single day here.

Patients come in not, you know, thinking they're using the right things because they're expensive, or a friend was using it. It's not a one size fits all situation. And finding products really work in that midlife period of time is so challenging.

So finding the right ones, the simpler ones, the gentler ones, sometimes feels like giving up. And actually, sometimes it's really just the right answer.

Right. And it's effective. It can still be just as effective.

Yes, it can be more effective, definitely.

Okay, just a couple little bonus questions. What is one skincare trend you wish would disappear forever?

There are so many. A really current one. I wish beef tallow would disappear forever. I think that's so trendy. Who came up with this idea?

Now we have the, you know, animal equivalent of coconut oil. What are we doing?

Yes, just.

It's so hard to understand. But, you know, I think that sometimes what we realize is that influencers are trying to be doctors.

And I think some of them are wonderful influencers, and I think that some of them have really great perspectives. But at the end of the day, trendy skin sort of routine can't possibly work for most people.

Maybe it works for an occasional person, but it's generally not going to work for the majority.

Good point, good point.

I know that I feel like beef tallow swept social media, and all of a sudden it was like every video that was like, having to do with skin was about using beef tallow. It was wild.

Absolutely. It's really crazy. Things like that happen. And you have, wow, who did this?

So true. What's one thing women waste money on constantly as it relates to skincare?

I think, again, I'm going to go back to too many products I think that women waste money thinking that they're going to fix a routine that they think should work by adding more to it. I think that also people think they have to use the product to the last drop.

If there's a product that doesn't work for you, I understand that you paid money for it, but using something that is fighting against your skin is so much more expensive in the long run, trying to fix the problems that it can cause. But I think sometimes you're better off giving it to somebody else who might tolerate it better or throwing it away.

There are certain skin care products that just will not work with your skin. Skin chemistry is real. When you're not working on a single product, you add something that's really aggravating you.

Pushing through is not always the answer. Sometimes it's okay to throw it away.

Good point, Good point. Your skin is the most important, right? It's. It's. What is it doing to your skin? What do you think is the most underrated thing for good skin exercise?

I think that that is not a thing that we consider as part of our skincare routine. But exercise and sweating do two things that are really wonderful.

One, you're going to reduce your inflammatory burden and you're going to detoxify the skin. So that healthy flush that you get when you're working out is increased blood flow to the skin. What does that do?

It brings more nutrients, it brings more oxygen to the skin surface. You're promoting more of a healing response. And then as that blood flow goes away and returns back to your heart, you're detoxifying the skin.

You're taking the toxins and the breakdown and the metabolic waste from the skin and removing it more efficiently. And so I think that we think about exercise as healthy for our muscles and healthy for our body. And people talk about the mental health implications.

It's great for your skin.

That's good to know. So sweat it out every day a little bit.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And lastly, what is the biggest skin care myth that you think women still believe that you would like to dispel?

Gotten so many skin care myths out. Always the biggest is always one of those questions I have to think about for a second.

Yes, I think that the idea that it works for my friend, it's going to work for you, me, is a really common myth.

We have people come in all the time who will say, you told my friend, use these three skin care products and I went out and bought exactly the same one, or you told my friend to have this procedure and I want the same procedure. We don't all look alike. We don't all have the same skin. We don't all have the same, you know, biology or chemical makeup to our skin.

And we all need slightly different things. And so it's never going to be that you and your friend are going to have exactly the same needs as far as skincare goes.

And we're not all going to hit that midlife perimenopause or menopausal shift at the same time.

And so the idea that, you know, someone will enter that shift really early and need a change earlier, that you need to follow suit, is not always true. Or the idea that, you know, 57. Some people still haven't totally reached that.

I think we need to learn that we are unique individuals and that every single person has different needs and that your skin is not really going to follow the trend or not going to follow the timeline, chronology that you expect it to follow. And it's okay to listen to your skin and to follow what it means uniquely.

Well, this has been so informative. Jessica, thank you so much.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.