Beauty News
Elle Magazine, May 1, 2007

Elle praises The Beautiful Skin Workout.

If you want to overhaul your body, you put yourself on an exercise plan. To transform your skin's quality, argues New York City plastic surgeon Michelle Copeland, M.D., D.M.D., you need to be just as rigorous with your beauty routine. In her second book, The Beautiful Skin Workout (St. Martin's Griffin; written with ELLE editor Megan Deem), Copeland lays out the five exercises (cleanse, exfoliate, activate, moisturize, and protect) that will give anyone's skin a dewy, radiant glow. Besides proffering advice on how to read product labels and what to purge from your bathroom (start with the loofah), Copeland dispenses a variety of tricks such as misting your complexion with water between layers of face cream and SPF lotion. (A moisturizer's humectants draw surrounding water into cells, plumping them.) She also suggests applying the acid-based exfoliating cream you use on your face to your hands to stimulate cell turnover, thereby strengthening nails. To prevent scars anywhere, Copeland recommends gently massaging the closed wound to soften collagen. The healing process sometimes stimulates pigment production, so a skin lightening product can be a beneficial step.