Use It or Lose It: Which Beauty Treatments Work and Which Don’t?

Every day a new product is released that’s [insert claim here] guaranteed to zap your cellulite! Erase wrinkles forever! Give you Angelina’s lips without surgery! But can science really fight nature? “Science is the study of nature,” corrects Sue DeCotiis, M.D., a physician with a practice in New York. “Think of the trees shedding their autumnal leaves only to bloom again in the spring fuller than before. Understanding the biological processes involved is how science works with nature to maintain health and beauty.” To that end, we asked Dr. DeCotiis and Dr. Gabriel Chiu, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, to tell us—scientifically speaking—which beauty treatments work and which products you can stop wasting your money on.