What can cosmetics do to address life's major challenges? A great deal. The increase in life expectancy that has characterized human history in recent years is not only the result of the discovery of drugs, but also the result of improved hygiene, due precisely to the use of detergents. When we think of cosmetics, we often think of frivolous, superficial, and futile products, and lipsticks, foundations, nail polishes, and so on come to mind. In reality, beyond these classes of cosmetics, which nonetheless possess great social and anthropological value, there are many products of fundamental importance to health, such as detergents, shampoos, toothpastes, and sunscreens, which fall within the cosmetics category. Since the WHO changed the concept of health from "the absence of disease" to "the maintenance of a state of psychophysical well-being over time," cosmetics have assumed fundamental importance, becoming first and foremost a preventative measure.

It's inevitable to begin this preface by mentioning the situation in which I wrote these lines, a situation we've all experienced in Italy, especially in Milan: the Covid-19 Novel Coronavirus epidemic. Indeed, the Lombardy capital is the city where I have been the director of the Postgraduate School of Aesthetic Medicine for over thirty-three years. Today, more than ever, I champion the most intrinsic meaning of Aesthetic Medicine: its "social value," as I've already emphasized in my book, The Beautiful Aging Method: Beauty as a Mission of Well-Being.

and health that inaugurates this series, and is intended to be a sort of vademecum that analyzes the genesis of the blemish, intervention techniques, effects and indications, based on forty years of medical experience that I have willingly made available to an increasingly aware public and at the same time eager to separate "hoaxes" from news of scientific importance.

Cosmetics do not directly address disease, but interact with the physiological processes of the skin—a living organ, the largest and most extensive in our body—helping maintain it in good condition. Therefore, they do not have a pharmacological effect, but rather help protect and maintain the targeted body parts in good condition: in this sense, they help prevent potential diseases. Given this specificity of cosmetics applied to dermatology, we have chosen a prominent figure, Dr. Magda Belmontesi, a dermatologist and member of the Agorà Scientific Committee, as well as a personal friend of ours for over 25 years. It will be a highly renowned and experienced specialist like Dr. Belmontesi, through citing many misconceptions circulating in a field steeped in expectations, who will concretely explain the value, advantages, and limitations of facial "dermocosmetology," with its products, the fruit of scientific innovation, designed to "caress" the skin. Science thus becomes our companion in everyday reality and offers us that “caress” that translates into well-being.

Happy reading.

Alberto Massirone