ONE OF THE FIRST PLASTIC SURGEON- DEVELOPED SKINCARE LINES GOES BEYOND AESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS IN PURSUIT OF A SKIN BURN SOLUTION.

ELIZA CABANA

PLASTIC SURGEON, DR. JAMES BECKMAN, CEO and found- er of Therapon Skin Health, didn’t envision starting a skincare company over two decades ago. He set out to develop prod- ucts not available at the time to improve the overall skin health and appearance of his own patients. Since then, he has creat- ed a solid, but simple, product line based on science, with a burn treatment product in the pipeline.

Dr. James Beckman

Fayetteville, Ark.

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS, 1988
Five female facelift patients in- spired Dr. Beckman to use his bio- chemistry expertise to create a skin solution.

“Interestingly, they all had a one-sentence statement that just stuck out in my mind. And that statement, pretty much was, ‘At

20 feet away, I look 20 years younger. But I’m putting my makeup on 18-inches from the mirror, and I don’t like what I see in terms of pigment change and fine lines and wrinkles.”

Dr. Beckman points out that in 1988 there weren’t any medical skincare companies yet. “Obagi was just getting out of medical school and Skin Medica hadn’t even become a company yet.”

So he went to the drawing board to find a solution. Dr. Bookman pulled out his books and studied the science of skin cell turnover and noted that it slowed over time. He discovered that every time a cell exfoliates, it stimulates new a cell division at the basal layer.

“So I said, well, if I could cause those surface cells to come off quick- er at age 40, then it would build new cells quicker and it would be younger looking skin.”

Thus, Dr. Beckman created glycol- ic acid and lactic acid prototypes

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