This is a part of a letter I get every month.  I've mentioned Paula before, but her reply to this readers letter is why I TRUST her opinion on all my skin care.

I buy some from www.paulaschoice.com the BEST moisturizers!

Dear Paula,
As much as I have enjoyed certain aspects of your bulletins, I do find them to be too negative about many products that I have used throughout the years.

I can tell you from experience that there are many products that have been extremely helpful in maintaining youthful skin that I have used. But when some of these products are reviewed by you, you always have negative things to say, instead of saying that results vary from individual to individual.

I am 60 years old, soon to be 61, and I have been told that I look nowhere near my age. Good genes definitely, but also good maintenance of my skin. I use a combination of products, some from the Dead Sea by a company called Premier. I use their peel once a week and their face mask and I think they are excellent. I use Pond's Cleansing and Make-up Remover Towelettes and Wei East products as of late (in the evenings) as they nourish my skin. Bare Escentuals foundation (which admittedly take a while to get the hang of but once I got it I love it!) and RoC moisturizers.

I purchased your book "Don't Go to the Cosmetic Counter Without Me" at the suggestion of an Avon Representative but in perusing various product reviews I have realized that you tend to rate a lot of tried and true products negatively except your own products which you always include favorably.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you should not be so general in your reviews of products. There are so many skin types out there and each one reacts differently to products. I wonder if you have personally tried all the products you reviewed?

Maria, via email

Dear Maria,
I appreciate this opportunity to explain my review and rating process. First, I absolutely do not personally test every skin-care product. That would be useless (and a real problem for my skin, given I review thousands of products). Moreover, basing my reviews on how my skin reacts would not be helpful any more than it would be if a doctor tested a drug personally to see if it works for patients. That's what my research is all about looking at the scientific data of what can help and what can hurt skin. Yes, personal preference plays a role in how someone experiences a product, but using a poorly formulated product or one that comes in packaging that's unable to keep ingredients stable is a waste of money.

Sadly, lots of people like what isn't good for them. A high-calorie diet is one example, but closer to the topic, lots of people like getting a tan or don't understand the complexity of sun protection, and that not only causes wrinkles and other problems, but significantly increases the risk of skin cancer. More to the point, lots of people like products that can't even remotely live up to the claims on the label or can actually hurt skin. When you don't know how to decipher an ingredient list and you aren't familiar with the research about the myriad ingredients that can show up in a product, you're left believing whatever the company tells you. I base my reviews strictly on what is known through peer-reviewed, published studies or interviews with cosmetic chemists, physicians, or biologists about how ingredients function (alone and mixed in products) and affect skin.

I found your comment about tried and true products extremely interesting and one I hear quite often. But if there were such a thing, why would cosmetic companies constantly launch new products with higher and higher price tags touting their exclusive formulations with heretofore unheard of ingredients? It turns out that there is nothing tried and true in almost any arena; whether it is cars, computers, or washing machines, there is always something that has new research showing it functions better (and there is also research pointing the way when an improvement isn't an improvement after all; thank goodness for Consumer Reports, Consumerlab.com, etc). For example, it was once "tried and true" to smoke cigarettes as a way to relax; they were actually advertised by physicians as being good for you, and we now know how wrong that was. In terms of skin care, it is only within the past 5 years, with the accumulation of abundant research, that we know how advantageous antioxidants, cell-communicating ingredients, ingredients that mimic the structure of skin, and anti-irritants can be for skin. Tried and true would leave you with products that lack those kinds of ingredients (they have only come into use over the past few years), inadequate sunscreens (even that information is relatively new), and jar packaging that won't keep the ingredients stable.

And about nourishing your skin, I haven't reviewed the Wei East skin-care line yet, but given the packaging, which, for the most part isn't air tight, all the claims they make about containing plant extracts and vitamins are meaningless given the packaging can't hold those ingredients stable. Think about it this way, how long does a head of lettuce last, even when it's in your refrigerator? Unfortunately, with this packaging, the only thing you would be nourishing is the company's bottom line.

Being disconcerted by my "negative" reviews is sort of like shooting the messenger. I cite all my sources, so perhaps you should be upset at the facts or the medical journals I quote from, but I'm simply presenting the data and the rest is up to you as to how you want to spend your money. One of the points I make in my books is that you don't have to agree with my reviews, but that doesn't change the research and reality about what works and what doesn't work when it comes to skin care. As far as my product line, I never add ratings next to my products. Believe me, I did not write a 1,400 page book that takes endless days and nights to accomplish merely to endorse my own products--there are easier ways to do that.

Of course the comments I make about my products are assuredly positive but then again I have complete control over each and every formulation, and I strive to make sure each one precisely meets my rigorous criteria for performance and efficacy. When other cosmetic lines meet these standards, they are rewarded with a "Paula's Pick" rating which I also choose to leave off of my products. As far as I know, I have the only cosmetics company that comments favorably about competitor's products in print, on my Web site, when I appear on radio and television, and in my newspaper column published across the U.S. That not only communicates volumes about my goal to help consumers find the best products possible, but hopefully it also is proof of my sense of fair play when reporting on the industry.

Just one more point for clarification, while I don't test skin-care products on myself, our makeup reviews have a different criterion that is indeed usage and tactile-based. This determination is based on years of my work as a makeup artist and continually monitoring how makeup has changed over the years (which, for the most part, has been completely for the better).

I thank you again for this opportunity to elaborate on how I do my reviews. This is not the first time I have heard this feedback and I do try to list what benefits certain products can deliver and not just talk about the negative. However, I realize that when I simply describe what ingredients can or cannot do, it's not nearly as enticing as marketing language like "nourish and repair." My only goal over the years (and I've been writing about the cosmetics industry since 1985) is to help sort through the hype and help consumers make educated decisions about what they buy.