Meet The Talented Dr. Lancer

I first heard about dermatologist Dr. Harold Lancer while working on a movie set in Tucson, Arizona, many many years ago during my flirtation with an acting career.

One of the actor’s girlfriends was on set discussing her upcoming wedding, and told me if I ever needed a good skin doc, Dr. Lancer was the man. Years later, I made an appointment to see him at his swank Rodeo Drive clinic in Beverly Hills.

The Art of Skin Care

Dr. Lancer’s office is an accumulation of beautiful things. Paintings by my favorite artists lounge elegantly on the walls while clients like Kim Kardashian lounge elegantly in the clinic. It’s a place where every patient is treated like a star.

When I saw Dr. Lancer, he told me my skin was beautiful and no, I didn’t need a laser treatment. After my appointment, I came to the conclusion that he was right.

“It’s not uncommon for patients to come in for the first time and ask straight away for Botox or a laser procedure that a friend had done,” Lancer said, “without any thought to their own particular needs.”

He added, “I think that’s a big mistake and I always ask them to at least start with good skin hygiene before advancing to the next step.”

It’s refreshing to talk to a doctor who is conservative in their philosophy and doesn’t recommend a major overhaul or prey upon a woman’s insecurities to make a quick buck by recommending countless invasive procedures.

The root of good skin is good skin care, I learned, and Dr. Lancer developed his eponymous skin care line, Lancer Skincare, with the belief that skin care doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective.

“I believe smart, modern, do-it-yourself skincare can deliver rapid, visible results. It is my great pleasure to simplify my patients’ lives, to help them look and feel refreshed and radiant, and to put the gift of smooth, glowing skin in their own hands.”

Now that is my kind of doctor.

With countless celebrities and supermodels raving about his products, I had to try them. Once privy only to his elite clientele, they are now available to everyone and can be purchased online without a pricey doctor’s visit, thanks to a fellow Lancer patient named Oprah Winfrey.

Originally the products were not meant to leave the walls of Dr. Lancer’s clinic, until Oprah insisted they be made available to the public. Thank you, Oprah. And can I just say, they…are…fabulous. I noticed an immediate tangible difference in my skin after the first use.

The Lancer Method is built on his basic three-step philosophy of polishing, cleansing, and nourishing—in that order. Dr. Lancer reinvented the traditional process of facial cleansing by beginning with exfoliation using his scrub named Polish. It is followed by his detoxifying Cleanse wash, and finally with Nourish, a peptide-rich moisturizer that smells, and feels, divine.

Exfoliating first lifts debris from the epidermis and allows the cleanser to perform better on fresh skin cells, he told me.

“The first two steps in the anti-aging skin care method clear away impenetrable debris–a combination of dead skin cells, cosmetics and dirt,” he stated.

It’s the removal of this accumulation on the surface of the skin which will allow the subsequent nourishing components a direct route into the lower layers of the skin. “When those nourishing ingredients are able to get in and do their work, significant change occurs,” he said.

First, the Polish. Unbelievable. With just the first use it made my skin silky smooth, baby soft. It’s truly transformative, possibly the best scrub I’ve ever used.

How does it work? The Lancer Polish scrub, $50, gently resurfaces with natural sea minerals which work as a manual exfoliant while fruit enzymes bromelain (pineapple) and papain (papaya) further the exfoliation process. As the natural sea minerals gently buff the surface of the skin, the pineapple and papaya enzymes play Pac Man on your pores, eating away dead cells and clearing the path for Lancer’s cleanser which will detox, hydrate and oxygenate the skin.

Lancer’s Cleanse, $50, is step two. A beautiful foaming cleanser that doesn’t strip the skin of its natural moisturizing factors, Cleanse only requires a pearl-sized drop to produce a rich lather which contains more of the same fruit enzymes to further exfoliate.

Both the Polish and Cleanse contain Lancer’s own CRT Oxygen Technology Liposome Complex that aids in oxygenating the skin while providing potent antioxidant protection.

Once skin is prepped to receive beneficial ingredients after a thorough cleansing, that’s when the third step, Lancer Nourish moisturizer, $100, comes into play. I am in good company when I say I love this product. Victoria Beckham has tweeted about this moisturizer and Nicole Richie named it as one of her beauty must-haves. Now I am also hooked.

My skin has never felt so soft and supple or looked so fresh and radiant. This moisturizer is spiked with all kinds of yummy skin treats, such as green tea extract (a potent anti-irritant, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory), and vitamins A and E. It also contains long chain poly-peptides to restore skin’s firmness and is ideal for all skin types. After I use these products, my skin glows and is velvety beyond belief. The trinity of the Polish, Cleanse and Nourish products are the foundation for beautiful skin.

But I also got his fabulous Skin Salvation, $50, and Vitamin C Antioxidant Sunscreen, $34, both of which I’ve made mandatory in my preen routine.

The former drenches the skin in deep moisture, firming while it hydrates with vitamins A, C and E, and the latter, of course, protects your skin from damage with the winning broad spectrum combination of the physical blocker micronized zinc and chemical protector octinoxate. The sunscreen is another favorite of Nicole Richie’s. It is very user-friendly and keeps the skin hydrated and comfortable with no greasy white residue.

I absolutely love this intelligently executed line of skin care products from one of the world’s greatest minds in dermatology, Dr. Harold Lancer.

“Beauty grows from confidence,” Dr. Lancer told me. “If you look healthy and happy, rested and at peace, beauty follows.”

And there is no doubt that wherever Dr. Harold Lancer goes, many beauties will surely follow.

Lancer Skincare is available at Nordstrom stores and nordstrom.com and lancerskincare.com.