You Don't Know Joe
Alpha Male
Lewis came up with his first skin-care hit, alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs), in the early '80s. He was working as "chemist, cook, and bottle washer" at a five-employee shop, Herald Pharmacal. It made unsexy drugstore products—Aquamed Lotion, Herald Tar Shampoo, and Mapo Bath Oil—that were recommended by dermatologists. But it was letters from grateful users of its AquaLacten Lotion that provided the eureka moment: "If it can smooth seriously dry skin, what can it do for the rest of us?" recalls Lewis.
In 1983, Lewis launched Aqua Glycolic Lotion, the first skin-care product with glycolic acid, a type of AHA. It was recommended for dry skin. "We didn't even know it was good for wrinkles then," says Lewis, about the now-ubiquitous ingredient. In 1988, he created MD Formulations (now owned by mineral makeup giant Bare Escentuals), a brand dedicated to AHAs. The ingredient and its marketing were way ahead of their time: The front of the box had a space where the doctor could put a sticker with his or her name—this was before the Murads and Perricones. And magazine ads compared the benefits of AHA on skin to a peeled onion. It was an incredibly successful campaign. "When I started in this industry, skin was thought to be dead," says DiNardo. "Into the '80s we began to realize that everything has an effect on it. That's where AHAs really took off." Says Lewis: "We were all discovering that AHAs were doing more than treating dry skin. It was doing something for radiance and for fine lines and wrinkles. And then, well, it was a mad race."
Lewis likes to say that AHAs really started the cosmeceutical revolution. "Before AHAs, cosmetics could cover up, fill in, and hide. That's it. The benefits washed down the drain," says Lewis. "For the first time that didn't happen. There was a lasting visible improvement in the skin. It gave people that glow that they loved."
