Pharmacies are first port of call for skincare issues

In 1934, Louth’s Gardiner family set up their skincare apothecary, developing products to service what was then known as the traditional chemist shop right across Ireland. Their brands Ovelle and Elave are now household names, helping to protect against a range of skincare conditions such as eczema or dermatitis.

Generations of Dubliners will know the Mushatt’s brand too, developed even earlier, in the 1920s. Made in Dublin by two pharmaceutical brothers, Louis and Harry Mushatt, today it’s most closely associated with Foley’s Pharmacy in Dublin’s Liberties.

Still today, pharmacies are the first port of call for anyone looking for help with their skin, says Oonagh O’Hagan of Meagher’s Pharmacy chain.

“We are accessible. We are also trained in dermatology as part of our undergraduate studies,” she explains. “People think it’s only tablets we are trained up in but we cover all the main skincare issues, from psoriasis to eczema. In our business, we also send our staff our for further training both with brands and with our in-house skincare experts.”

A trained pharmacist will not talk about brands but about ingredients. When it comes to skincare, it’s what’s in the pot that matters, not what’s on the packaging.

For dehydrated skin, hyaluronic acid can help. For skin pigmentation issues – the kind of spots that emerge with age – something with Vitamin C is the go-to.

“We provide you with a choice and we work on the basis of good, better, best, depending on how much of the ingredient is in a cream or serum. Some may have 4 per cent and some may have 10 per cent of an ingredient, so works more quickly. We also talk about consistency and application, and then the customer decides,” she says.

A pharmacist is well qualified to talk to the customer about lifestyle issues, from the impact of diet, exercise and stress to the impact hormones are having on pubescent skin or the loss of them is having on menopausal skin.

“It’s treating the skin from within and taking a holistic view of what is going on and what the customer is looking for,” she says. No prizes for guessing what you’ll get if you go to a counter at a department store looking for advice – their product.

What your local pharmacist has is a wealth of knowledge. “Women lose 30 per cent of their collagen from their skin in perimenopause and lose 2.1 per cent of what’s left each year thereafter, with most women entering into perimenopause at 45. When we explain that we can talk to people about what their options are, from creams and collagen supplements to possibly HRT [hormone replacement therapy]. It’s a very bespoke service. A department store counter can’t give you advice about what’s happening in your body because they are not trained in that,” she says.

Inquiries about skincare soared during the pandemic. “People were on Zoom and became much more conscious of their skin. They also had time to finally address issues that they wanted to,” she recalls.

The level of demand prompted Meagher’s to launch The SkinLab at Meagher’s, offering what she describes as a “next-level cosmeceuticals”.

The term, a portmanteau of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, is used to refer to products that have active ingredients with purported medicinal benefits, though this may not be the case. Whether or not an active ingredient does what it says on the tin, it’s always important that it is used properly. Such ingredients can be potent.

It’s particularly important for teenagers making their first foray into skincare routines and indeed, battling with spots or acne, the most common reason this age group comes to talk to pharmacy staff, says O’Hagan.

It’s good that they do. “They’ll see something on Tik Tok which might be the right product, but might not,” she explains. With tender, young skin, that matters. One of the most frequent issues she sees is chemical burns from the use of products which are too acidic on young skin.

“It’s a real problem,” says O’Hagan. The other advantage of your local pharmacy is just that, it’s local. “All this advice is free, and you can come back as often as you like,” she says.