Jeanine Downie, M.D.

Image Dermatology • www.imagedermatology.com • Montclair, NJ

Dr. Jeanine Downie is director of Image Dermatology in Montclair, New Jersey. She has extensive training and experience in all aspects of dermatology. Dr. Downie provides both adult and pediatric patients with competent, compassionate care and all patients are treated utilizing the most medically advanced techniques.

Dr. Downie is a graduate of Tufts University, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Psychology. She received her Master of Arts degree in Biology from American University and her Doctor of Medicine from SUNY-Health Science Center at Brooklyn. Dr. Downie completed a two-year pediatric residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. She then completed her dermatology residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City where she was Chief Resident. She is on staff at Mountainside and Overlook Hospitals and has published fifteen scientific papers.

Philosophy for Healthy Skin

"My philosophy about health in general is that one should try their best to take excellent care of themselves. With skincare it is from the outside in, and for health in general it is from the inside out. So, my philosophy about skin care starts with sun-block - and that is wearing a SPF 30 every day, rain or shine, January through December regardless of ethnicity!"

How do you convey wearing sun block to women of color?

"What I tell them [women of color patients] is that Bob Marley died of a skin cancer and I'm sure they are not interested in doing that. Then, they look at me seriously and say, 'no way' and we start talking a little more seriously about sun block. Unfortunately there are some ethnic patients that still won't get it from that. I try to convince people that they will have a more even skin tone and that they will look younger - that goes a long way. But more than anything else, I tell them the bottom line is that, we as African, Latino, and Asian Americans are less frequently diagnosed with skin cancer. So when we are diagnosed, the skin cancer is much further along. So although we have much less, we tend to have more and more morbidity and more and more mortalities from skin cancers."

"I had an African American patient when I was back at Mt. Sinai who was told that it was dirt underneath her toenails when it was actually a changing mole. She was a very clean upper middle class woman - it was ridiculous to tell her it was dirt. She lost her toe, but fortunately she did not lose her life. So we are being under-diagnosed and we are helping it along with not wearing sunscreen. I think the statistics from the skin cancer foundation is only 33% of adults wear sun block regularly. And regularly unfortunately doesn't mean every day, which is ridiculous."

What sun blocks do you recommend?

“We have two here that are very light and blend into most skin tones. Those are M.D. FORTÉ® and Alyria. Those are cosmetic sun blocks that have broad-spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen protection, but are not sticky at all. They won’t block your pores and won’t break you out.”

What other products and services do you offer?

“We sell all cosmeceuticals for the face and body. We sell a lot of different products that have science behind them. So what I mean by that is products that will complement the services – we do mostly cosmetics procedures in our practices. Basically there has to be clinical papers written; there has to be some proof. It can’t just be from someone’s brain that this works.”

SKIN MEDICA - TNS Essential Serum

"So for example, Skin Medica is a private line we sell here. There is a product that is called TNS Essential Serum (Tissue Nutrient Solution) which contains growth factors that you put on your skin and builds collagen and evens out your skin tone. It also has antioxidants in it. This super product helps to even out your complexion. It smells awful. I had it with me on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and one of my colleagues had it on the Oprah Winfrey Show. It is a very successful product once you get over the sticker shock of the fact that it is $250. The regular TNS, which is just their regular compound - goes for $149. So, a lot of my patients like that even though it's a little bit smaller because it's a hundred dollars cheaper. That also evens out your skin tone as well."

REVALÉSKIN

REVALÉSKIN has CoffeeBerry in it. CoffeeBerry is great for sensitive skin - it actually builds your skin barrier, it hydrates very nicely, it decreases redness, and it helps with tone and texture. The one I am mostly in love with from REVALÉSKIN is the Intense Recovery Treatment because that is actually a 1.5% CoffeeBerry solution.”

VIVITE

"They have a cleanser, an eye cream, day cream and a night cream. They have lots of botanicals ingredients in them and have very powerful antioxidants."

"These are three systems besides the M.D. Forte that I really like a lot. I feel like there is science behind the products, and therefore value to my clients for using the products."

Services at Image Dermatology

BOTOX (Botulinum Toxin)

"We do BOTOX . Our fastest rising population of BOTOX lately has been Caucasian men. A lot of men feel like when they BOTOX they have their game face on - can't figured them out during deals if they are upset about something because they are looking Zen even when they are furious. That is also one of the reasons I like to use it. All of this nonsense talk about Michelle Obama being angry, it's not that she is angry, she's got these frown lines between her brows and every time she focuses or is concerned about something they flex in. If she had BOTOX it would just take that away."

"If you are a man, in this man's world, and you have creases and lines in between your brows like Barak Obama does, it is not thought of as a detractor. In women if you have those frowns lines it is thought of as detractors. It is just not fair. It is thought of as you are stressed, unhappy and you are mean whereas in men they are rugged, enthusiastic, and they're adventurous - you know the adjectives are not the same. So a lot of my female patients will come to me and say, 'You know what, everybody keeps saying I look mean and I am not mean. I am sick of this - what can we do about it? - I don't want to have a face lift.' I am like, 'we need to do BOTOX.' And people love it - I have rarely had any one ever stop doing BOTOX."

FILLERS

"I do lots of fillers. Fillers are the plumping up agents that help with the lines between the nose and the mouth. It helps with the dents on the chin - as my patients like to call them. A lot of people when they start to get older their eyes start to hollow out, kind of like Clint Eastwood's eyes are doing now - how they look hollow underneath - he just needs a little filler underneath there. I would love to see him as a patient."

"One of our patients came in after a bad nose job. She was horrified and the guy told her it was going to be $8,000 to fix it. I said, 'No-no-no,' and I put some filler in the tip of her nose and it looks great. So she loves me because I saved her $7200."

FRAXEL LASER TREATMENT

"I do a ton of lasers. Fraxel is one of my favorite lasers. The Fraxel laser helps with acne scaring, dark spots and patches, sun spots, wrinkles, and it picks up the neck. This past spring I did an acne-scarring patient on the Montel Williams show and you can see how bright red the Fraxel makes you - but it really does help these deeply scarred people that thought they would never ever heal. It's actually quite a good treatment so people love it! It is fine for all skin types. It's fractionated laser light. If you think of your face as a television screen, the Fraxel light hits it kind of like pixels and goes down these columns of light to help to either regenerate collagen or help to disperse pigment. It is completely cool and very new technology that works great. There are different types of Fraxels, but the one that is my favorite is RE:STORE. The RE:PAIR is too heavy a laser for most skin and color types. That is really for the 65 year old very sun damaged lighted skinned women who have smoked for a while. My patient population is more like the thirty to seventy year olds of all races who are not as sun damaged, so the RE:STORE works fine for them. There are the RE:STORE, the RE:FINE - which is too light, and the RE:PAIR - which is too heavy - so the RE:STORE is kind of in the middle."

Dr. Downie also indicated that she uses Fraxel laser treatment to remove stretch marks.

"We do chemical peels, sclerotherapy (treatment for varicose and spider veins) we do mole removals, skin cancer checks - I remove skin cancers, I mean you name it. Anything that has to do with the skin, I do. All is offered at Image dermatology."

Major Skin problems among ethnic women?

"Like I mentioned before, skin cancers that are a little further along because they have been misdiagnosed is a problem I see. But more than anything we, ethnic women, age with irregular pigmentation from the sun and people hate it. So therefore they want help. So I Fraxel them or I peel them. The chemical peels that I do are the lighter ones - the salicylic and the glycolic acid peel. They help with texture, tone, acne, and fine lines."

How may of the chemical peels do you need?

"You really need to do three before you start seeing a difference. But most of my patients swear that even after one they start to see a difference. I do them on myself once per month - I swear by them. I do BOTOX once every three months, I do my leg veins with sclerotherapy. Nothing says grandma quite like leg veins. I get mine from standing all the time and from my family's history."

"Hair bumps are a problem with ethnic women. The hyper-pigmented patches, skin cancer, dark circles around the eyes, and dry skin would be the most common problems I see with ethnic patients. Hair bumps are huge, a lot of ethnic women don't want to admit that they are getting a heavy mustache or they are getting hair under their chin. I tell them that I laser myself for laser hair removal because I fear to think of what my upper lip would like without it."

What should we be eating to help overall skin health?

"I try to tell people to eat organic. The amount of hormones in chicken, meat, and milk make our faces break out more with acne. Then it leaves us with dark spots after the acne and it make us have more hair on our chins and upper lip. So, eating organic when you can is important. Beyond that I would say that women need to be better at cutting out sugar and decreasing their carbohydrates. A lot of women tend to get what we call centripetal obesity. That is obesity around their waste line as they start to get older - and it leads to heart problems. You have heard them talk about the heart attack rate is up tremendously for women because we are working as hard as men, but then we are still expected to perform domestically in the home. We are raising are children, and we are just saying yes to the church and yes to this and yes to that and over stretching ourselves. So in general, the diet needs to support your state of action. I always tell people heavier on the proteins and lighter on the carbs. I like sugar too - I have a chocolate addiction. But decrease the sugar as much as possible and then just limit your coffee if you must. I don't drink coffee, tea, or alcohol - they all are dehydrating. Limit the coffee to one cup a day. Then try to limit your alcohol intake also."

"I tell people to plug in a humidifier and use it all winter if you are in a cooler climate. It will add a lot of moisture to your skin, your hair, and your nails."

"In terms of moisturizing, I like Cetaphil a lot. The Cetaphil cream is for the body. But not so much for the face because it is a little heavy. I like Aveeno products - they work really well in terms of moisturizing. The Aveeno Skin Relief Body Wash that is unscented is my favorite body wash. I tell people use scent free detergents."

The ultimate treat for skin?

“Make sure that you are sun-blocking and using antioxidants to help fight against free radical damage. I mentioned the antioxidants - Another one I didn’t mention is Prevage MD –So REVALÉSKIN, Prevage MD, VIVITE and TNS Essential Serum all have great antioxidants in there. So using an antioxidant and then sun-blocking is the ultimate treat because then you have the ultimate line of defense for ‘environmental assassins’ like smoke, toxins, etc.”

Maintaining healthy skin?

Don't pick your pimples!
Don't rub your eyes!

"My patients they kill me. They come in and say, 'Ooh look at my face." And I am like, 'Why did you have a 'picking festival?' And rubbing the eyes - every single time you rub your eyes you putting more pigment around your eyes. So unless you are really trying to look like a panda, you shouldn't rub your eyes."

"I tell my patients when they tissue off their makeup that they should make sure they use a good effective eye makeup remover, such as Bobbi Brown. She has a long wear eye makeup remover that has green tea in it which is a nice antioxidant as well. It nicely removes your makeup without tugging on your skin around your eyes."

"Wear sun-block, use antioxidants, drink water - at least eight glasses a day, and exercise at least four times a week. And I am talking aerobic exercise - getting out there to sweat. I have too many African American women who are like, 'My hair! My hair!' And I know how it is - I am sitting here with a perm trying to make it through the day."

Must-Have Products

SKIN MEDICA - TNS Essential Serum
REVALÉSKIN
VIVITE