SCAR WARS

If you’ve ever been called "Scarface" or if the phrase "scarred for life" has painful resonance for you, don’t fret. There’s hope in a jar, and now you can buy it over the counter.

Palmer’s, the 160-year-old American brand that built its name on skincare (today they also do hair care), recently launched its Cocoa Butter Formula Vitamin E Scar Serum at Rustan’s Essenses, which combines five ingredients traditionally used to reduce the appearance of scars.

This is good news, both for moms who’ve undergone a Cesarean section and anyone else with scars or marks caused by surgery, injury, burns, acne, stretch marks, cuts, scrapes and insect bites.

Palmer’s is known for its patented Cocoa Butter Formula, a high-tech concoction that forms the core of a product line that caters to both mothers and babies, from pre- to post-natal and beyond (including a Nursing Cream for breastfeeding moms and a Bottom Butter for babies with diaper rash).

Pregnant women used to be a market segment long ignored by the beauty industry, even if, in the past decade, the fashion industry started offering stylish maternity clothes to up the glam factor of impending motherhood. But rarely have there been beauty houses that address the stretch marks, itchiness, and sagging skin normally associated with expanding bellies.

Until Palmer’s, that is. Only the retro-looking packaging clues you in to the long heritage of the brand.

Palmer’s latest addition to the line, Scar Serum, is a concentrate composed of cocoa butter, vitamin E, shark liver oil, silicone and allium cepa — each boasting its own scar-fighting properties.

Cocoa butter, the edible fat from cacao beans used in making chocolate, is said to help fade the appearance of scars and stretch marks. One of the most stable fats in nature, it contains natural antioxidants that prevent it from going rancid for as long as two to five years. That, plus its smooth texture and sweet fragrance, make cocoa butter a popular ingredient in cosmetics and skincare.

While there are too few studies yet to prove cocoa butter’s efficacy on scars, Palmer’s cocoa-butter formula is designed to duplicate the normal oil mantle of the skin, and studies have shown that such skin-identical lipids do indeed normalize damaged skin.

Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant, has long been associated with scar management. Traditionally, consumers wanting high doses of vitamin E would purchase them in capsules, puncture them and rub the oil inside directly onto a mark or scar. Some physicians recommend topical vitamin E after skin surgery or resurfacing, claiming that it speeds wound healing and improves the cosmetic outcome of burns. If you apply vitamin E before going outdoors, another perk is that it protects your skin from sunlight and reduces the swelling and inflammation caused by sunburn.

Shark liver oil, rich in cancer fighters like squalene, reduces redness and acts as an emollient to soften and smooth the bumpy feel of scars.

Silicone has been widely used by doctors to treat raised scars and keloids since the early 1980s. Fresh surgical scars and burns treated with silicone showed significantly better outcomes than those left untreated, which makes it the first choice by physicians for the prevention and treatment of recent scars.

Finally, allium cepa, or onion bulb extract, is said to help soften the scar matrix, making it the latest hope in anti-scarring technology.

Together, these active ingredients work like a team of scar-fighting superheroes — the Fantastic Five blemish-battlers, if you will.

Scar Serum formerly had an eye-dropper applicator for precision application. Now it comes in a more convenient, hygienic pump bottle that dispenses just the right amount of product. To get maximum results, you’re supposed to it apply every day, three to four times a day, and massage it into a fresh scar or mark. (It’s not meant to be used on open wounds.)

In consistency and smell, it sort of resembles vegetable oil, but don’t let that put you off. Palmer’s devotees who have tested the serum say that it works, and not just on surgical scars, but on all types of marks.

One woman suffering from acne said that it healed her pimple scars sooner than any other product on the market. (Never apply the serum all over your face, though. Its thick texture might clog your pores and cause more breakouts.)

Another woman who had undergone surgery attested to its effectiveness in speedily healing her surgical incisions.

A mom who had recently given birth said that Scar Serum dramatically reduced her stretch marks.

Another satisfied client raved that it had a pleasantly surprising side effect: it even reduced her cheek redness.

Unlike other moisturizers that are 85- to 92-percent water, which, when it evaporates, can leave skin feeling drier, Scar Serum uses no water, and forms a moisture-proof barrier to promote healing. It won’t dry skin out like other treatment creams. Scar hydration is an important factor in wound healing, as I learned when I had my own C-section four years ago.

Now Scar Serum is a staple in my first-aid kit for my daughter’s cuts, scrapes, and mosquito bites, and who knows, possibly more stretch marks and another child in the future.

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Palmer’s Scar Serum (30 ml) is available for P995 at all Rustan’s Essenses, Rustan’s Supermarkets, Shopwise, Royal Duty Free-Clark, Watsons, Baby Company, PCX and Chimes Davao. For more information, log on to www.palmerscocoabutter.com.