Alumnus Arthur Perry is a busy man. As a board-certified plastic surgeon, he does facelifts, tummy tucks, Botox injections, and more. He’s also an entrepreneur, book author, the host of the radio show What’s Your Wrinkle? and a frequent guest on The Dr. Oz Show. “I love what I do—all of it,” says Perry RC’77, a clinical associate professor of surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School who performs eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty, breast lifts and reductions, liposuction, laser surgery, and more from his offices in Franklin Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan. “Recreating someone’s appearance, whether it’s reconstructive or purely cosmetic, is like sculpting,” Perry says. “In unique situations, you invent your own procedures.”

Perry graduated from Rutgers in three years, earning high honors in zoology. His father and other family members were dentists, and initially he thought he’d become one, too. Instead, he chose plastic surgery, attending Albany Medical College. With fellowships in burn reconstruction and aesthetic surgery, his practice is now “100 percent cosmetic.”

Through the years of practice, he has encountered his share of damaged skin, usually caused by sun exposure and sensitivities to beauty regimens. “There isn’t much point in doing a facelift without addressing skin damage,” says Perry. “It was difficult for me to find skin-care products that are effective and nontoxic, and many regimens have too many steps.” So, he developed a line of skin-care products, available through Dr. Perry Skindustries LLC.

“I created my first product, Dr. Perry’s NightSkin, in 2006 for another company,” he says. “It worked so well that we sold 800,000 bottles.” The company changed hands and in 2012 Perry launched his own company, headquartered on the second floor of the Perry Plastic Surgery Center in Franklin Park. The company has four products, with more to come: the CleanThyme cleansing bar, NightThyme moisturizing serum, SoftThyme skin cream, and DayThyme skin protector, an SPF 20 sunscreen for the face. “Making skin products requires a chemistry background, clinical experience with skin problems, and creativity.”

Perry’s sunscreen, based on zinc oxide, contains 17 FDA-approved sunscreen ingredients: 15 are clear chemicals that absorb UV light and two are made of minerals that reflect UV light. Most sunscreens contain clear chemicals that Perry believes are unsafe. “The chemicals are absorbed into the body where they stay for up to two days,” he says. “Most clear sunscreens are endocrine disruptors. They act like estrogen, which is linked to breast cancer. Why would you want to use them?”

The zinc oxide in Perry’s sunscreen is transparent. Rather than being absorbed, it remains on the skin’s surface, blocking UV light. Perry is developing another product, a full-body sunscreen, based on zinc oxide, which is now far less expenisve.

No matter how busy he is, however, there are activities Perry will never give up. One is his radio show. He got hooked as an undergraduate, working at the Rutgers radio station, WRSU. He’s made numerous television appearances as well. A few years ago, Dr. Oz and he removed a mole from Jimmy Fallon’s hand on live TV.

“The audience loved it, but not Jimmy; he was a bit squeamish,” says Perry. Fortunately, the mole was benign. “The show was a great opportunity to teach people about the importance of having potentially dangerous moles removed. And it may well have been the first live surgery ever performed on a celebrity on TV.”

To learn more about Arthur Perry, visit drperrys.com.