Megan Fox's Cosmetic Dermatologist Gives the Secret to Glowing Skin
Dr. Simon Ourian opens up about his luxury skincare line MDO Skin.
Obtaining perfect skin is never easy, but Dr. Simon Ourian's new skincare line MDO Skin combines dermatology-recommended formulation with luxurious ingredients for the optimal routine to revive your skin's glow. Just look at his roster of celebrity clients: Lady Gaga, Khloé Kardashian, Megan Fox, Olivia Culpo, and more.
As a cosmetic dermatologist, Dr. Ourian has experience with cosmetic procedures like fillers and botox, as well as routine skincare. While speaking with L'OFFICIEL, the expert lists his top tips for maintaining healthy skin and offers some insight on the post-COVID plastic surgery craze known as the "Zoom Boom."
L'OFFICIEL: Let's talk a little bit about your new skincare line MDO. What's it about and what makes it different from the other skincare brands on the market?
Dr. Simon Ourian: I felt like there was a void in the market for a skincare line that was both effective and safe and luxurious, and something that had pharmaceutical grade products that when you put it on your skin, you knew it was actually effective. It was going to do something, yet it was safe enough that it would be good for sensitive skin. And for many years, I used to make the jars in our compounding pharmacy and have them make it for us, for our patients one by one. And I realized there's a nice group of patients with that nice common denominator between all the other groups of patients that I have. And we put them, put their categories together of people who have rosacea and brown spots and fine lines, and we came up with five or six different groups of concerns that people have. And we started to come up with skincare for that. And long story short, we came up with our skincare line, which was the Epione Skin Care line, which is more for therapeutic treatments. And then this one is more for everyday use that you can use for your skin to hydrate, to boost, to get your wrinkles, to get your discolorations, and overall give you a much better result.
L'O: As a dermatologist, you see patients regularly. What is the best thing that you feel that they can do between visits to take care of their skin?
I'm biased—I tell them to use the creams. But in general, even if you don't use the creams, I think the most important thing you can do is to obviously stay away from the sun. If you drink alcohol, make sure you hydrate your skin more. If you drink alcohol and coffee, you should drink a lot more water to have an extra life balance so that your skin stays very nice and hydrated. Keep your skin moisturized by using some good moisturizers that don't clog your pores. Also, by putting a good humidifier next to your bed because now, especially during winter times or cold months, we tend to spend more time inside in [air-conditioned] rooms and everything kind of becomes more dried up. So it's good to have more of a humidified mix too—at least eight hours a night to humidify your skin. That's why we came up with this one. You can add your own perfume too, but if you're somewhere that is kind of dry, you can use this to humidify your skin. So those are the most important things that I would recommend for people to do. And of course, good skin regimens are essential. I have kids and I told them ever since they were young to use good skincare, such as a good SPF and a good moisturizer at night—kind of like brushing your teeth where you have to do this every day.
L'O: Tell me these products and tools you have here.
So this is our [Facial Sculpting Wand.] It's battery-operated and it kind of vibrates and, using nanotechnology, causes nano vibrations to your skin. It causes whatever cream you have on your skin to penetrate deeper into your skin. So whatever products you have that maybe the molecules are too large, you can create a little bit of a vibration to allow it to get into your skin faster, like opening up your channels in your skin. Kind of like what derma rollers do without causing a lot of irritation to your skin. The advantage of it, of course, is the fact that it doesn't cause any irritation and the fact that you can actually use it on your skin two or three times a day. The more you use it, the more blood flow you bring to your skin and the more youthful your skin gets.
So this is my favorite tool, [the Skin Hydro Boost.] I use it for my injections also because it causes your nerve endings to become confused. This version of it causes the skin to open up and the cream to get into your skin a lot faster. So this is our favorite. I'll go down the list of things.
We have these ampoules and the ampoules are one-time use. The advantage of them is that you break them off and you put the product on your skin. It's contaminants-protected so it doesn't get dirty and it doesn't get oxidized. Then we go to the different types of it. We have three of them right now. We have the [Intense Hyaluronic Filler Ampoules,] which gives you very high-intensity hydration. So if your concern is mostly lines, use this one.
And we have the [Vitamin C Glow Ampoules,] which if your concerns are getting rid of discoloration and darkness in your skin, use the vitamin C. And you can mix and match and actually become your own pharmacist. You can decide which ones to use on a given day and which ones can help with any concerns. Then you have the [Boost Discovery Kit,] which has everything in it. And of course, my favorite one is the [Powerful EGF Ampoules,] which is the growth factor that causes your skin to get healthier or more hydrated.
[We also have] our newest [product] that we haven't even launched yet. It's a foundation that the more you leave it on your skin, the better. It is a cosmetic that actually heals your skin, so it has the ingredients that you would otherwise put in your skincare. We have it here. So if you forget to remove your makeup before you sleep, it actually makes your skin better the next morning, which is the complete opposite of what I've been telling patients. This is the one that we've been working on. We just got a patent for it, but for the past seven years, we've been working on this subject.
L'O: Coming out of lockdown, there were a lot of people that were looking into cosmetic procedures. Is that something that you notice in your professional life?
Absolutely. It's something we call "Zoom Boom," which is where you'll look at yourself all day long or on Zoom and you start noticing all the various flaws that they perceive in their face. And of course, the filters help also, so you tend to want to look like the best version of yourself. Now in California, we were closed for three months. When we opened up things, we noticed that we were busier than ever and people, instead of traveling, decided to come and get procedures done. Everything from just a little bit of Botox to all the way to major procedures and major surgeries. And yes, we've been very busy because people want to look their best and they want to get some sense of normalcy back into their lives.
L'O: Is there any procedure in particular that you noticed that people were coming in a lot more for or that were popular?
Right after the pandemic kind of ended and we first opened up, the first thing we were doing were fillers for the face. You know, contouring for other places—getting jawlines and more chiseled cheeks and nose jobs. And these are the nonsurgical procedures that people wanted to have done. But as time went by, we all had gained five, 10 pounds, so there were procedures that they wanted us to do such as everything from liposuction to non-surgical body contouring, to body enhancement. What it has meant is that we're more full body. So now it's become back to a normal mix, but in the beginning, it was just faces.
L'O: Is there any sort of new procedure that you've seen pop up on the scene that you're trying out?
A lot of things that used to take a lot of time and more surgical procedures now have become a lot easier to perform. People see the results faster. I think the one stat I perform a lot of are the facial contouring and giving people nice, higher cheekbones and nice jawlines and giving them more sculpted facial features. Those are the things that people come to me for from everywhere. But some of the procedures that are becoming more popular are body contouring procedures nationwide, not just in my office, because now you don't always have to go under the knife. You can do a lot of procedures without surgery and you get really nice results. So those are the ones that are also becoming popular.
L'O: As a cosmetic dermatologist, are there any skincare or cosmetic myths out there that you want to dispel?
Luckily, most of the information people get is correct because there is a vast amount of knowledge out there that you can learn from. Well, some of the things are perhaps thinking that you can remove melasma, for example, by cream. Those are difficult to do and you have to get procedures for them. Right now, we have laser procedures. Or believing that you can use a cream and reverse the signs of aging by 10 to 15 years. It's really just not possible, but it's all about consistency and using creams and products on a regular basis. And if you really want to maintain your youthful appearance, you've got to go see a doctor at least once a year, just to maintain what you have. It's important. It's really not possible to reverse all signs of aging or maintain your appearance for many years without visiting your doctor. Maybe in 10 years, we can do things in the jar, but with the creams and the products we have, at best, we can maintain what we have. And maybe we can reverse the signs of aging by maybe three or four years. I think that's a very good, healthy goal to have. More than that, you need to be a little bit more proactive.
L'O: Accept the fact that you're going to age. How often would you recommend that someone see their dermatologist?
Well, the dermatologist for regular dermatology—I think at least once a year because we all get skin moles or anything else that you have to check on your body. Especially if you have lighter skin, you really have to check with your dermatologist. For cosmetic dermatology, you look like you still are very nice and avoid the sun. It's wonderful. It's good. I'm a big fan of that.
You really have to stay away from the sun, so I recommend that. But to really take care of your skin—to reverse the signs of aging—I think initially, if you haven't been to a cosmetic dermatologist until your thirties or forties, you may want to go a few times in a row to really take care of everything. And then once you have achieved a level of comfort and that you're comfortable with the way you look, you can go once a year or once every two years just to maintain everything. Certain things don't last long. So Botox, for example, only lasts for like three or four months, so if that's what you want to do, you have to go a little bit more regularly.
L'O: What would you say to people out there that are maybe a bit skeptical about having a cosmetic procedure done or a cosmetic alteration in some way?
Well, they shouldn't do it. If they really have skepticism, they shouldn't do it. I'd never want to convince people to have anything done, but it's good to have all the information and make a decision on that. Every procedure has risks involved, so you have to know all the risks. Just because everybody does it, you think, well, it must be risk-free. You have to be respectful of the fact that these are medical procedures that you have to go to somebody who really knows what they're doing, but the major concerns people usually have are is it going to be painful? Am I going to look like someone else? Is it going to be reversible? And for all of those, we have an answer.
For pain, we have now amazing products that completely make it almost pain-free. You can use laughing gas, you can use sublingual pain medications that completely get rid of your pain. So pain is no longer a concern. Are you going to look like yourself? In order to achieve that, you have to go slowly. Don't do everything all at once. Do maybe one or two procedures. If you have any kind of hesitation, just do one or two procedures at a time and go as slowly as you can. And we can always fix it. Most of the products and most of the procedures that we do are reversible. If you don't like it, we can dissolve the product. If you don't like the way it looks, we can take this stuff out or add something to go back to make you look the way you did. So the reversibility factor, it helps a lot.
