Episode 35 - Skincare Secrets and Summer Tips

 summary

Join Megan & Charia as she chats about skincare, personal stories, and upcoming events, blending humor and insights into health, beauty, and relationships.

Chapters

00:00 Celebrating Birthdays and Personal Life
03:30 Exploring Relationships and Understanding People
06:09 Navigating Narcissism and Personal Boundaries
09:53 Challenges in Professional Relationships
13:59 Aesthetics and Skin Care in Summer
18:28 Understanding Melasma and Skin Treatments
29:07 The Power of Ongoing Research in Skincare
32:13 Understanding Skincare Products and Their Synergy
34:16 The Importance of Neck Care in Skincare
37:54 Navigating Hormonal Changes and Their Impact on Skin
42:10 The Role of Sun Protection in Skincare
50:20 Hormonal Changes and Relationship Dynamics
54:25 Supporting Partners Through Hormonal Changes

Resources

The Handmaid's Tale (TV Series) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754357/
Obagi Skincare Products - https://www.obagi.com/
ZO Skin Health - https://zoskinhealth.com/
Bright Alive Serum - https://zoskinhealth.com/products/bright-alive/
Daily Power Defense - https://zoskinhealth.com/products/daily-power-defense/
VIPL Laser Treatment - https://zoskinhealth.com/treatments/vipl-laser/
Melasma Treatment Protocols - https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/hyperpigmentation/melasma
Skin Cancer Prevention Tips - https://www.cancer.org/cancer/skin-cancer/prevention-and-early-detection.html

Follow & Connect

🎧 Podcast: @btwc
👩‍⚕️ Hosts: @megan_delcorral | @injectorchacha_np 

Hue Aesthetics: https://huemedspa.com/

Vidal Medical: https://vidalmed.com/?fbp=fb.1.1772297993691.763284198923359903

📚 Integrative Medical Peptide Course:
🔗https://www.metabolicmentor.com/peptides-integrative-medical-coaching/

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Beyond the White Coat Podcast, where we break down myths in health, beauty, and wellness so you can look, feel, and perform your best. We're your hosts, Sharia Mamm and Megan Del Corral, here to bring you real talk beyond the medical titles. Before we dive in, quick disclaimer. The views and opinions shared in this podcast are for entertainment purposes only. This is not medical advice and does not reflect the host's roles or responsibilities at Vital Medical or Hue Aesthetics. Now let's get into it. Hello out there. Online world. We're shooting on Monday. On a Monday, I know. It's a different day. So Wednesday is the big dog's birthday. No numbers. So I always tell people how old David is because I'm like, because you look so good. You know, I'm like, oh, you wouldn't know he's whatever. And he always says, He's keeping up with his skincare routine. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's obsessed with it. Um, he's actually very diligent. And yeah, he's the only guy who, like, on vacation, we were in Montreal, and he's like, I brought two different face masks with me. And he's like sitting there with a sheet over his face. He has like the mouth whitening stuff in in a robe. I'm like, I'm glad you're very comfortable and you're feminine. But if I tell people how old he is, he gets so mad. He looks amazing. I know. I'm like, bro, you're good. You got this. But yeah, so my father has his birthday tomorrow, and then David's birthday is on Wednesday. So I appreciate it. We're gonna go to the precinct. He has a big case on Thursday, which he's told me like 17 times. Like, I have a really big case on Thursday. I can't stay out late on my birthday. I'm like, okay, you're an adult and you can like rein yourself in. We also can just stay home. He's like, no, it's my birthday. I have to go out to dinner. I was like, okay. When you reach down, we're like, let's shoot on Monday. It's David's birthday on Wednesday. I'm like, okay. This is gonna be a fun week for us. I know. And then we're gonna see each other on Saturday because we're throwing a big birthday bash, which again, in true David Morales fashion, he's it's Monday. And today he goes, Well, first it started with, Do you think we can get like a magician or a mentalist for the party? And I was like, Your party's in six days. And he goes, Well, you got a tarot card reader for Lucy's baby shower. Can we have a tarot card reader? And I was like, David, we're gonna have 40 people here. And he's like, Yeah, it would be great. It'll be like entertainment. I'm like, the DJ is not enough that we're having. Private chef. I know, yeah. Private chef, bartender. He's like, I think it would just be so cool. So I'm like, You could always hire your makeup artist, the girls are like, I know, to come back. Yeah, it's really just he has FOMO. I'm not trying to like be an elitist and brag. It's to show the point that like my husband has a fear of missing out, and he's like, Lucy had a tarot card reader. I'm on a tarot card reader. And I'm like, Well, I like Lucy more than you sometimes. So that's probably the truth. Yeah. How are you? I'm tired. I am tired too. You know what? I took, I was waiting for you. I was seeing patients up until like five, and I sat down and a friend of mine, I don't have the book somewhere, I don't know the name of the book, it, but it talks about the art of gathering. Ooh. And came highly recommended to him. But I was getting ready to open up the book. I sat down and I'm like, you know, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna lean back, and I got like through a paragraph, and I was like, oh, caught myself snoring. Yeah. Like, what is going on? I know. How's your weekend? Weekend was good, actually. It was very quiet. We like on Friday literally did nothing. Um, he got home kind of late, so we've been watching the handmaid's tale. Like, it is no one's business. Have you seen it? I I've heard of it, but I I don't really watch like TV movies and stuff like that. Success. It is about like a essentially the it's like a dystopia, but there's an infertility crisis, and the idea that these radicals have is that the root cause of the infertility crisis is of course I guess the woman. Right? And like as someone who works in fertility medicine nowadays used to be like 80% the woman, 20% the man. I would say we are at least 50-50 that it it's the man's fault. Anyways, so in this dystopia, infertility crisis, and it's worldwide. So in America, this again group of radicals decide it's not only the woman's fault, it is because of her in and that she's you know gotten so much into being a career woman and we gave them the right to vote, and and like that a renaissance woman. So we we can't have children because we're because we're impure. Because we're impure. Oh wow. And no, I don't think I want to watch this. Oh, you think you're so mad. So, anyways, they like take over the United States, they rename it Gilead, and they capture anybody in the last like couple years, any woman who's had a child, like who's been successful, and they make them handmaids. And the role of the handmaid is to produce children for these families who are commanders, and and so once a month during their ovulation, they have a ceremony where the wife holds down the handmaid so that she's involved, and the husband essentially rapes the handmaid. Oh wow, and then she makes a baby for them. Wow, it is wild. How many seasons? Six. Six seasons? Yeah, it won it won. I read about this, won 15 different Emmy Awards and like Gordon Glove Award. It's really good, but it is the first two seasons at least. I was like, this is garbage. I just and I kept saying, and it's clearly because a lot of times it doesn't work. I'm like, it's not her. Have we not thought about the semen that's coming out? You know, like so, anyways, it's it's a lot of that. And they like, I mean, it's it's crazy, but it's very infuriating. So I want to ask you a question. Go for it. How long, whether it's like theoretically speaking, like a boyfriend or a friend, how long do you think it takes to really get to know someone? Oh my god. I'm gonna tell you, I'm I'm just like, you know, I'm starting to develop different relationships in my older years, and I'm like, I think there are layers, right? Yeah. I think there are layers. So I think like the initial connection is very important. So I think about like the people in my circle. So it's you, Lucy, Robin, Carrie, Olga, Sarah, and then Libby and Olivia. They've been like those are babies. My children, yeah. But in all of those people, I had a like immediate connection, and that was like one layer, right? And then as we've gotten to know each other, like you and I, this is very organic. We opened a business together, that's another layer, right? And in that business now, we're going one step further. We're like, we're producing a product like our bed, right? It's another layer. But Lucy, it was like helping her through fertility, like working. I feel like Wiley, like her son, is like such a part of making some like, do you know how hard we all worked for you to come into this world? Yes. And cheered for you and prayed for you and all of that. Yeah. So I think to initially get to know someone well, like where we are at this stage of life. I mean, it can be quick a day, a month. But I think again, to go into those layers, I think it takes years. What do you think? You know, I I'll tell you that uh, you know, I I am single and I, as of recently, have She's on the market. I'm not saying that to say that. Do not DMs. Slide into her DMs. Please do not. If I showed you my DMs, you would be like, what in the world? You'd be like, 'My way, that'd be like that.' You would be, you would get David a tarot card reader of whatever else he needed and wanted. That's how happy you would be. But no, I'm only saying that. And I'm not just talking about just out here like meeting people and dating people, but also just in general, meeting new friends and associates. And I just think that people just show you what they want you to know or want you to see. And as time progresses, there are things that are like shocking to me. And I'm like, am I not like a good judge of character? Because sometimes like things that are off-putting, things that are off-putting and like narcissism. Oh, that is so hard. Like, I I never really understood that word. Like when you're younger, you think of a narcissist like a commander, someone against someone kind of evil, right? But now I think about my life, and I'm like, oh my god, I know a lot of narcissists. Like, again, what does that say about me? Right. Are we a child? My I feel like my dad's a narcissist. I'm not gonna lie. Oh, sure. My father definitely is like the sun, moon, and stars revolve around him. I mean, my husband, kindest person, biggest heart in the world, definitely a narcissist. I think he would even, but he would even say he is. The one thing about David's very self-aware, he'd be like, Yeah, of course I am. Because I think he has to have a belief that he can do the things he can, you know what I mean? Like he can't go into like he just did like this lung transplant. This kid was on a device for two years, da da da, like this huge thing. He can't go in there like feeling like a pussy, right? He has to be in there being like, I'm the man, I can do this, no one else can save this child but me. So there are great things through narcissism, but then like most of it's kind of bad. So my mom actually shared a story, and this it goes down to exactly who my father is. It's like I'm hungry, okay. Sure. You have a selection of things, like I've made you three things. Like my mom is so catering. A, B, or C. Yes, A, B, or C that I've made for you. And he's like, I don't want any of that. And so it's like almost and a lot of it is like a cultural thing too, because my mom in our culture, she's very like serving and subservient, right? Yes, I'm listening. But Megan, there comes a point where it's like you can't, you just can't be a jackass like that. You have to be fully aware. You can't be rude. You can't be rude. And like sometimes I I you know, I have a couple patients sometimes that have been challenging, and I look at it like, okay, we come from different paradigms, we have different experiences and I'm trying to like I have a good friend and mentor that's like always try to put yourself in somebody else's shoes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, but as of as of recently, I've kind of like stepped back from like not, you know, my close friends, but developing more relationships. I feel like I'm a little bit more guarded as opening up and getting to know people because I I will tell you, I had a situation where I thought we were fully aligned, fully on the same page, our objectives to get to a certain goal. And uh we had some disagreements, and it was like, no, this person is saying to me it's my way or I'm not doing it. So what do you do? Do you walk away from a project or do you walk away from a situation? Or how do you move forward? Is it worth it to invest and try to get through that? Or do you just say, you know what, this is not a good fit for me? So I think, I mean, obviously the answer is always it depends, right? In some relationships, like it's harder to sever than others, right? So it's very easy in a superficial relationship to be like, okay, like obviously that was very off-putting, not for me. I'm just gonna walk away. But if you are in a project or you're working with someone, and I I mean, I've gone through this even with my colleagues and my employees, where I'm like, okay, like and I've talked to you about it, where I'm like, I'm really struggling with this individual. Is it bad enough that it warrants? I mean, technically, right, I should I should fire them. And then I think about what's the backlash and and about them as a human and their situation and their family. So sometimes I choose to tolerate it. And what I try to do in my mind is kind of put them in an avatar or box where I'm like, okay, you know what? We are not friends. We don't need to be. This is strictly transactional. You know, are an employee. I'm gonna respect you as an employee, I always treat you with respect, and that's it. And I'm just not going to dive deeper. And then sometimes I'm like, you know what? No, this is worse for both of us. Like us staying in this relationship is actually worse for both of us and the outcome. So us being the patients, then it's a no. And then sometimes, you know, it's introspection of like, is it me? And is there something I need to do differently? Because at one point I really value this relationship and this friendship, and I've done something to not water it. And I think when I think of that in business, I think of like my partners, where I'm like, every time we butt heads or we get into an argument, or I'm viscerally upset with them about something, I always think about like what did I do to put myself in the situation? Is there something I can do better? You know, I'm such a to a fault. Somebody said this to me. Actually, they said to a fault. They're like, you just think with your heart sometimes and not your head, and you lead everything with your heart, and sometimes you have to be able to compartmentalize the two. Yeah. And it's been really, really, really challenging for me because I always want to see the good in people. Of course. Yeah. I know one of my partners, Julie, I'm gonna give her a shout out because every time I'm about to have an emotion, an emotional breakdown, she's always like, Well, you know, she always gives people the benefit of the doubt. She's yes, yeah. She's such a great people manager and uh in a leadership role. You know, I belong to a couple different committees and things of that nature, and I'm always so emotional because I I want everybody to be so heartfelt and like feel like my intentions, like nobody's gonna feel my intentions, right? And you want people to be as hardworking as you. And I think you and I have talked about that. That it the thing that uh upsets us the most is when they're not. And we can't make someone something they're not, right? Like I know some things that you've struggled with really are that like when someone's not producing, not because of a because sorry, because of a lack of effort. You know what I mean? Where you're like it's one thing to be like, man, they are grinding, they are trying, and it's just not happening. And then you feel empathy, yes, but it's another thing to be like, you are doing nothing to improve your situation. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so I've had I can count maybe on three different occasions. God, and it's just the start of the week. I can't even imagine what's gonna happen. But yeah, just really challenging situations where I'm like, God, is this worth it? Is it worth the energy, right? Yeah, because we have very little energy right now. I know. So many different projects with our event planning and all these things. I was gonna say, is it the event you want to back up? I was like, please don't do that. I think it's gonna be great. I think I promise to deliver. You're like, is it me? I know. Are you using me as an example? Yes, Megan, it's you. No, which is fine. I don't get too bougie. We have a budget, Megan. It's really you. I was gonna say, I always say, but I will make a word, we'll find the resources. I'll find the resources. This is Megan. We'll we'll just we'll figure out a way. Go ahead and order the caviar from London. No, Megan. I don't say that thing. I'm just kidding. I know, but it is true. It's okay. I'm always like, Megan, it's not in our budget. We'll find a way. We'll find a way. It's fine. I'll give them free bow talks. We'll find a way. Okay, I did, I did sling some more cash for us last week. I uh yeah, I had some conversations that needed to be had about appropriately remunerating me for some services. So yeah, and I was like, all right, that's money for the event. Like, thank you, Don. So move on. So I'm always I'm out there hustling for us. I'm I'm hustling too. Yeah. We've got some, thank you so much for supporting us. Yes, thank you for supporting us. We're reached out. Yeah. So many DMs are like, oh my God, I'm excited. Where the thing that I didn't, this camera is really annoying me. I didn't appreciate was that I think we're gonna have some people travel. I thought it would just be local. I mean, it's not gonna be a huge book, but so many of my patients, shout out to all of you. My patients are the best, especially the ones I've had for some of them I've had for so long, like through three different practices, and now we just like laughs. That's love following me through three different 100%. That's so much love, and you know who you are out there, and I love you and I appreciate you, and I appreciate your appointments because all we do is like catch up on life. Right. It's just like social hour. I'm like, hi, what are you doing? How's your husband? But um no, I think we're gonna have some people travel, which will be cool. You know, one of the things that I never knew was that if you're asking, like, well, I'm sure that different policies, different hotels have different policies, but like the whole attrition thing, like I didn't know that was a thing. Like, yeah. I mean, as we're putting together the budget, like I didn't know that if you ask for like a block of rooms, you have to pay for like 80%. 80%, otherwise we have to pay it. Yeah. So what we will do is we'll send people a list of hotels from Tariffs and people can choose, yeah. And feel free to DM us because this is our I I I would love to include you guys in what you want. It's really for you guys. It's all for you. So I mean, give us exciting things. So how do we keep Megan within budget? We're not gonna have a tarot card reader, but we are gonna have a makeup artist. I'm just saying that now. I haven't even asked her, but Camille, I'm telling you, you're gonna work this event. She's the best. Yeah, and she'll do many makeovers, people will love. Now we have a lot of exciting things, a lot of good speakers. We're gonna do a live podcast, which is gonna be so fun. Yes, yes, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be awesome. I didn't tell my parents, I forgot, but they're gonna come because I need help with the dogs. My husband's unreliable. He's like, I'll take care of the dogs for two days. And I was like, Do you know what they eat? Have you ever fed the dogs? I don't know that's I it's not reliable. And your dad's birthday, he's coming. Yeah, he's coming this weekend. He's so my dad's birthday, shout out to Mark, is tomorrow. He'll be 73. He doesn't mind me saying his age. He looks incredible. He does look incredible. I give my parents big kudos. So when I got really into like health and wellness, they were like good students of the craft, and the best thing that they did was move to Florida. So when my parents moved from Ohio to Florida, I think it really extended their life because yeah, they're in it one, they're in a community and they made a decision to not do a 55 and up. This camera is really frustrating me today. It's picking up on you. Yeah. Maybe because I'm moving around. There you go. It's okay. So they decided not to, well, now it's only on me. It's okay. They can't move to a 55 and up, and they so they babysit a lot of kids. My mom was a first grade teacher, so she like tutors a lot of children. So it keeps them engaged with young families, right? And they're in a place that has this like huge, it's like a 10-mile path. So they walk every day, they ride their bikes. So I really do think like sunshine, exercise, community, right? It hits like those pillars of health, has helped them so much that I mean they look incredible. They can walk seven miles and yeah, feel fine. So when I was looking at your wedding pictures, you showed me your dad hugging you. I mean, literally, he looks like your older brother. Incredible. He would love that again. He's a narcissist. As he's sobbing hysterically through the whole thing. All right. So let's talk about summer. My goodness. I'm just I know it's June. It is June. And there's there's a couple things that I want to tackle. As I was thinking through, you know, for I don't know if this is true for you, but in the world of aesthetics, summer is always challenging because people are. Oh, yeah, you probably want to murder also your patients because I literally'm so good. Look how pale I am. I was actually looking at you really close. I am I am proud of you. Let me see the other side where you're my God. Well, they did the liquid nitrogen. Yeah, but uh overall your skin looks amazing because I know that I know, but I have this guy right here. Yeah, we'll take care of that. I made an appointment next, no, I think it's this month or end of this month, beginning of next month. And I I made it just for toxin, but I figured you could just slide something in there. Yeah, we'll throw some smooth threads right in there. Or it's like a little filler. Just get rid of it. I have so those of you listening, I have like, what is it? A marionette sign, is that right? What would you call this? Yeah, and no. Um, that's just when you have a little bit of collagen loss, elastin changes that are construction. It's like a line divot on the right side of my mouth that drives me nuts. We can stick some smooth threads in there superficially and it can stimulate some collagen. It won't be like the immediate thing, but over time with a little bit tightening and contraction. I know, Megan, you think that filler can be placed everywhere for every single reason, but we can't. All I know is when it was in my chin, it was the best thing ever. It was my favorite, it was my favorite filler moment with chin. I was like, oh my God. Oh my god. I did actually, I was talking about talking about chins. Have a patient of mine, her husband's a plastic surgeon, and she uh was nervous because you know, you always think like chin implant, you know. Immediately. Well, yeah, chin implant. And I and I'm telling you, like there's so many different structural changes that happen as we age, and just restoring that in the right way and respecting, like, you know, we don't want to have any myomodulation. So the the biggest problem with chin filler is if you don't put it in the right layer, you can affect the way the muscle is moving. So, like dynamic-wise, like you'll lose the motion of having like full range of motion, like smiling and and things in that. Like you don't you haven't lost anything. Yeah, you've got to be able to do that. Oh, it was like a year ago we did it. Yeah, yeah. And so putting it in the right plane with the right product and just restoring balance because as you age, your lower third of your face changes drastically. You know, the platisma band is below your neck, right? So the platisma band is a muscle that comes from um the sternomastoid all the way up to the lower portion of your face. It gets stronger as we age. It's one of the muscles that gets stronger. So you're already losing, you know, bone. So you have some bone absorption, you have fat pad loss, you have dynamic changes in muscle movement. So your chin really takes a beating, and you definitely need structural support to kind of give that balance back. So a lot of people don't know that. That they just think, like, okay, like what can you do down here? Yeah, to tighten it. But it's like an overall like looking at, you know, do we need to support fat pads? Do we sub need to support muscles? Do we need to relax the muscles? Which is why a lot of times I'll recommend a lower third tox to give you a better balance as well. Yeah, we've done tox in my chin. That's so fun. So when you put when you put tox in in your chin and then you go to sneeze, it is the funniest feeling ever. Why is that? This is I'm hearing this for the first time. No, like it's never told me this shit. It doesn't because your chin doesn't move, but when you sneeze, your chin wants to move, and it's just like a really funny sensation. Wait, so why don't so why don't you like summer besides all of us out there soaking up the sun, ruining our skin? Okay. So slow business. I'm just gonna say this. Or it's slower, but it's not because of just the slow business. It's I I feel like I'm not educating my patients enough when I'm like, you have to suppress your hyperpigmentated lesions throughout the summer. Yeah. Because just because we cleaned you up and you're like your skin is flawless now, you've already anytime you see coloring or speckling, whether it's melasma, whether it's freckling, whether it's a tan, your body is spitting out damage. It's literally already said, Hey, you already ruined my skin. So what can we do? So the biggest thing for me is how do you supp how do you quiet the melanocytes in your skin? Okay. How do you do it? So we have two options. You know, there's different suppression melon medical grade skincare products. So one of my favorite ones is Bright Alive, right? So that's like a daily thing. It's a daily thing and it it you just put it part of your routine. I'm actually using it right now because I actually get PIH in the summer. So I'll get post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation because I generally break out and have like acne, right? Okay. So it just lingers for me. But what happens is if I've cleaned up your skin and you've got beauty, like for you, you know, I know that you have some pigmented lesions in your skin. If you're not keeping them quiet, they're just gonna react and they're gonna react, they're gonna come back full force. The other, the other thing that we do is we wait. Hydroquinone is a fantastic. I've always wanted to use that. I've never used it. Can you prescribe it? Well, you can, but there's rules and limitations to it. It's something that you can have rebound effects, so you have to be a very, very compliant patient. And literature shows that you shouldn't be using it more than three months, and you have to wean off of it. So it's a very delicate. Oh wow, I didn't know that. Yes, it's good education. But another option is one of my favorite things is doing a VI peel. Yeah, you told me that. So I always thought peels only in the winter, and then you were like, no, you should do it in the summer. Yes, as well. Yes, it's just again, just keeping quiet the melanocytes. I could probably use one. And you know, the thing is like there's different uh ways that we compare the VI peel. Like, you can make it a lighter peel, or you can make it stronger by pairing it with microneedling or IPL, which you've had in the past. We did that in the winter, yeah. I love just even LED therapy. Yeah, you know, light therapy, just controlling the inflammation. Sure. Because on the back end, is you disappear for two months and then you show up to me in the fall, and I'm like look what I did to my face plan of care now, right? And guess what? That $10,000 that you used for IPL, VIPLs, LED therapy facials, it's gonna be all reactivated. Melasma is extremely hard to treat. It's it's a disease of unknown ideology, even though we know it's related to hormones, hormones and all these things. It's just something that just we it's hard to lay that to sleep. So if you have chronic melasma, which so we got this question from a patient. So good. And you so you have chronic melasma and you're not pregnant, you're out out of that. So what's my plan of care? What's my treatment? First line, what do I do? So I will tell you one of my favorite treatments for melasma is actually IPL with the VIPL, which is a laser. It is a laser, and that's what does IPL stand for? Intense pulse light. So there's different types of lasers out there. So you have to go to somebody who knows what they're doing. Oh, for sure. I mean, we're talking about lasers, like heating up your face, heating up your skin, which is actually a trigger for melasma, right? So it uses it. But so when done incorrectly, it could be bad. It could make it worse. Yeah. And so here's the thing you also have to know what like your triggers are. So for some people, it is, you know, you could be triggered by hormones, you could be triggered by stress, you could be triggered by lights, you could be triggered by a bad treatment. When it comes to lasers, there's such a science behind the different wavelengths. Like literally in your skin, you have all these different layers, and we have to set the right like wavelength to attract the different colors. So in the wrong hands, you could make melasma uh melasma worse. But I always am like, okay, let's do a test spot. So for me, it's like let's do a test spot and see what happened. And you know, we'll do something on around your neck or on the side there. And then I'll kind of watch it, right? So, and then one of my favorite things is using medical gray products to again suppress some of that uh color. My my aunt has horrible melasma, and I put her on a great treatment protocol with just exfoliation, daily power defense. Any antioxidants is fantastic for melasma because it's really uh it's the oxidative stress in your skin. Yes. So if you're using antioxidants, it really does help because it controls the free radicals that should cause melasma to get worse. So you have to have to have an antioxidant, and that includes eating great diets with antioxidants in them as well. Yeah, but we have one of my favorite ones is Zio, uh Daily Power Defense. I can't keep that on the shelf. Yeah, that's why David uses, he's obsessed with it. He always says, Where's my sauce? Oh, pairing. Okay, my favorites are like your peptides, right? Your growth factors. Oh, yeah. The Zo Growth Factor Serum is the goat. It's like it's the goat, right? As of recently, I've been using people have been asking me, have I had my neck, my any neck treatments? And I'm like, no, it's literally medical grade products. So my I call it the um the quad squad. I love it. So my quad squad is my ZO peptides that works on the pathways of like muscle contraction. So I'll usually put that first, and then I pair it with firming serum. Oh, yeah. And firming serum is something that I'm gonna tell you just as of the last three months, I've been using it. And Dr. Obaji, who is an international dermatologist, super. He's the one who he has Obaji and then he has CO. Yeah. I've been using Obaji. I to this day I have this like little toner bottle. I have been using it's 2026 10 years at least. Not I mean the same, I'm obsessed with that toner. It's so crazy. He's incredible. He's incredible. You know, one of my favorite things about Dr. Obaiji is that he does ongoing clinical research. Yeah, he's super like crazy to say, hey, actually, we need to do it this way, yeah, right? Which is one of my favorite things. And when I'm talking to a patient, they're like, wait a second, you told me that this goes on first and this goes on second. I said, but we have ongoing research. This is how we learn, right? Yeah, for sure. You have, I mean, you have to adapt. Yeah. I mean, that's the whole name of the game. No, his stuff. They also have again, it's old school, and you only need the tiniest amount. Like one little tub will last me like six months. Obagi has this, you it's a mask you put on in the shower and you leave it on for like 10 minutes. So I do it like when I'm washing my hair or whatever, and it's this really potent vitamin C mask and it tingles, and I'm not sensitive at all. It's so good. And when you take it off, like rinse it off, your face feels like butter. I mean, it is so smooth, it is so nice, very like exfoliating. So, like once a week at most. Have you tried our exfoliating uh it's called a um accelerator? I'm gonna let you try this one. You actually sleep with it on. Oh no, I haven't done that one because David's obsessed too with the little green one. It's like it's a scrub. We have it, we have a big tub of it from uh Caitlin got it for us last time we were there. But it is awesome. We don't sleep with it though. No, I I've gotta let you try this one. Okay. Sometimes I'll sleep with it the next day. Your skin is like butter. But going back to my uh Oh, yeah, Melanch squad. Sorry, quad squad, melancholy, all the things. So uh peptides, firming serum. I was this is what I was saying. I lost my train of thought. Firming serum. If you are out there and you are in your 20s and early 30s, you have to get this firming serum. Dr. Obaji swears that if you start it on your neck, your face, then you're not gonna need a facelift. Oh my god. If only you could talk to my younger self. I literally well, so I started getting into skincare when I was like 27. So not too bad. But before then, I literally was like a vino. I think that was like my thing. I saw a commercial Jennifer Anderson. She was clearly getting paid for it, I'm sure. And I was like, I'll use a vino. And then I'll use olive order. Oh, olive order. Oh, yeah. Do you remember Lopez? Do you remember? Oh my God. It used to be in like Women's Health magazine, and it was like egg whites with turmeric, honey, and olive oil. And you like put it on your face, put it on your hair. I used to rock that all the time. It was like this is going to work. And my skin was horrible. And then I switched to medical grade products, and what do you know? Like everything got better. Yeah. So peptides. Peptides. My firming serum. Okay. And then the next thing, I'll use Bright Alive, which I told you what Bright Alive was. Actually, that's not in the power. And it's a Zoo, it's a ZOO. And I love products that are synergistic. Yeah. I I kind of compare it to, it's like if you have like who who just won the NBA conferences. Is it the Timberwolves? Oh my God, we're gonna get murdered for this. All I know is all I know is Kimmy Antonelli won the Formula One Grand Prix in Montreal. That's my sport knowledge. Oh my god, how do we not know who made it to the NBA finals? I wish David would David would know for sure. No, sorry, don't kill us. Don't kill us. Okay, let's just imagine like it's one of those teams. It's like you know how the players play, and you wouldn't pull like another player to substitute for that. That's like that's how like these products work together. You know that they're synergistically, yeah. You know, they know, you know, and I that's the point, is they work together. They work together. So I use Bright Alive and then also Daily Power Defense with the antioxidants. That's what David loves. That's his favorite. Yeah, love it, and it serves as a moisturizer as well. And my growth factors, so the ZO growth factor, serum is and it smells amazing. So someone told me that, like again, 12 years ago when I started taking my skincare seriously, that anything I put on my face, I should put on my neck. They were like, you know, you need to treat both areas essentially. So to this day, I'm always like yeah, slathering it all on. So a patient of mine came in for a follow-up after sculptor. She looks freaking incredible, but best. She was like, Charia, like my neck, it took forever to heal. Like I had bruises and all of that. So I'm gonna tell you guys that your neck and your face will heal differently. Your neck skin and your face skin is completely different. The annexes of support. I've talked about this many times. I call it this is the highway to heaven because all these vessels and blood supply lands here. So when you're in when I'm treating you and you're bruised here, you're gonna heal quicker. Your neck is not that skin is sensitive. We know it through biopsies. We know that the you know, it's just it takes longer. Longer, it takes longer to regenerate. We're doing any regenerative stuff. Yeah. And you have to, and people are, you know, ask me all the time there's a growth factor for the under eyes, there's a growth factor for the face, there's a growth factor for the neck. Yes, they all are different, they're very specific to the skin. Sure. They're very specific to how we regenerate new skin cells. We know in the face that you can and are capable of repairing the skin every 18 to 25 days. That's what we want. Unfortunately, no matter what we do to the neck, you're not gonna regenerate that quickly. You're probably gonna be at least four to five weeks out before you get full regeneration. Where in the face, we can, there are things that we can do to accelerate that. So you just have to know the process of healing and what that looks like. So we've got the power squad. We know we should do VIPs. So if you're struggling with melasma, how often and how many VIPs? It's gonna be dependent because it depends on the medical history. And I will tell you. Let's say I just have like the upper lip. Which is common. Do you want to know my theory about the upper lip? I think a lot of that comes from people who used to wax. Oh, why do you think that is? Because you're exfoliating that area over and over again. And you're interested. Anything that's stimulating to the skin, we want it to be controlled injury, right? So if you think about it, you're throwing hot wax on there. Yeah, you rip it off. You they mean if you looked at it under a mic microscope, there's definitely skin cells there, right? Yeah, yeah. So then what do you do then? We put retinals and all these things. So another active thing. So you have a you have an ongoing uncontrolled inflammatory response. Your body, as much as it wants to heal, it's been disrupted. That that so would laser hair removal be better? Laser hair removal if you're a good candidate for it. But I think also, and and we know this, so you would probably know this. Um I don't know if you've heard of this, but I've been reading some literature, and I'm not gonna sit here and say I I've been able to do a deep dive, but just generally speaking, I've been reading some research that they think that oral contraceptives are affecting the immune system. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. And it's so interesting because what is the first thing that they do? I mean, my story is that I didn't have my period. And so they were like, here, take birth control. Birth control pills. When I didn't have a menstruate, I was like, Yeah. You're like, I'm sorry, what? When I think back, I'm like, where was science in this time? I mean, I look at my I look at my patients who are, you know, there's a broad age range of patients that I see from 20s all the way to 70s, and all my I call them my young babies because they're, you know, they're so young. They're all on oral contraceptives. And of course, for whatever reason, I'm not questioning. We do need to look at that, right? Yeah. And I always say, you know, a woman's right to choose her procreation and how she wants to bring life into this world. I'm not demonizing birth control. Like, I'm definitely not. I think there's a context and a need for it. And but, you know, it needs to be just that. There needs to be a clinical indication, it needs to be properly oversought, and we need to be giving counseling for like, okay, this is when we should stop the birth control. And, you know, there's also some accountability when we're using it solely for contraception. Okay, there are other options. You can get an IUD. You can use things like FEXI, which is uh intravaginal, uh kind of like spermicide essentially. Prior to course natural family planning. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it, but for things like dysmenorrhea, menorage, acne, we actually have better agents. We have progesterone, we have even sperolactone, yeah, for sure. There's counseling on skincare products again, going back to like the aveno versus medical grade products. There's education on healthy diet and lifestyle and whatnot that should all be taken into context as well. Um okay, so VIPLs, when do you think yeah, lasers, there's the right indication for something like hydroquinolone? I I think it's very patient-dependent. I will tell you, I've had phenomenal success, but the consent that I make you sign and the information. You're like literally you sign your life away. Yes, because you cannot, you can have a rebound effect. See, I didn't even know that. I mean, obviously, I don't prescribe it because it's not my wheelhouse. I've had patients ask about, and I always say you gotta see a dermatologist. Like, not my thing. Um, but I didn't realize you had a taper off of it. Yeah, I actually um there was a patient of mine that clinically speaking, she would have been a great candidate. But based off of our conversation and even a deeper dive, I didn't think it was the best course of action for her. And she was really upset. If you if you're interested in it, I would and and you really are wanting to do this, I would advise you to first look at the clinical effects when you don't follow instructions because it is really difficult to manage and control. And once, like once I say your color factory system gets out of sync, it's really, really hard to control because when it c it's a systemic thing, right? So it can be triggered by anything. It is stress, it could be triggered by um, you know, inflammatory processes. Anything can trigger looking at like why you're using it. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, color is really hard. Color is hard because I I share with my patients, like if you can clean up color, okay? If a patient's coming in and they have, you know, they're presenting with riotids, deeper or wrinkles, I'm sorry. Uh if they have deeper wrinkles and they have like poor skin and their barriers just like really just beat up and they have discoloration in their skin. If you can clean up the discoloration and get their skin barrier back to health, I'm taking 10 years off their face before I even do anything. Yeah, they look so much better. So good. So good. And sometimes that's all that I need to say to them. So if you're the type of patient that's like, listen, like I get it, you know, the world of injectables, of botox and all that. And I'm like, no, actually, we don't have to do that. Well, let's talk about a healthy, let's get your skin healthy. Because your skin is the largest organ in your body. 100%, 100%. And you're wearing it all the time. And I think you're right, it's all about education. I mean, going back to the hydroquinolone. So I have these like two, I don't have any makeup on right now. So these like two red spots over here. And we've done peels, I've done lasers, and I went for my first, because I turned 40 annual skin check, and it happens to be my neighbor who's my dermatologist. I love it. And I actually in the neighborhood. I know. And I asked her, I was like, you know, do you think I actually asked her, I'm like, do you think hydroquinolone would work? And she said kind of said the same thing as you. And she was like, honestly, she's like, that spot right there, she's like, in 10 years, you're gonna have skin cancer. And I was like, What? And I was like, what do I have to do? And that's when she was like, you know, again, educating about the color and the skin integrity. She's like, what we're gonna do now is liquid nitrogen. Like, we actually need to like, it's which is a little chemical to kill off the cells. So I'm supposed to do two rounds of that, and then they want to do a CO2 laser to like ablate it. And the reason it made me nervous is because my mom has had skin cancer on her face four times. So she's had four most procedures, and they are horrible. And it's like broken my heart so many times, and I'm like, oh my god, I don't want to have skin cancer on my face. So I've been lathering the SPF like all over me. Thank you for sharing that because I cannot stress to you the importance of really recognizing the changes, like our atmosphere, our sun is completely different, and now we're being exposed to artificial light. I really thought this was just like a little pink sponge. She was like, No, no, no, those it's like eikeratosis, right? Yeah, she's like, You're gonna have a squamous salad. I was like, What? Yeah, and we tried you know, we and we learn about these basic things. If you had blonde hair, blue eyes, if you had red hair, yeah. I mean, really, and we talked about prevention, right? So we've always talked about prevention and getting in front of things. And if you're listening, the sub look, we're talking about the summertime. Yeah, we're talking about all these things to make sure, you know. When I first opened up Hugh about two and a half years ago, I was asked to be uh on the news and it was very specific though. They wanted me to cover uh skincare and in colored patients. Oh wow, and uh and I was like, this is great because a lot of times, you know, people who have we darker pigmentation to classify skin differently. So people with darker pigmentation actually have a higher um a higher opportunity of not opportunity, they have a higher rate of death because we catch it late, right? Yeah, and so the signs are are there, and I think that with with the summer coming and being out in the sun, the atmosphere changing, we really, really need to talk about making sure that you protect your skin. Absolutely. So, what SPF should people wear? And how do you decide that? So I am a big proponent of reapplying. Yeah, like I don't I don't care. I know it sounds crazy. No, I give it to us. I slap it on every two to three hours, especially if you're on the boat. So there are different types. There's sun block and sunscreen. So you have to make sure that you are blocking the sun rays and not screening. So literally think if you're blocking it, you're blocking it, right? Okay, like blackout shades versus a screen. Yeah, got it. Right. So especially if you're on the on, like I'm getting ready to go to Destin. I'm definitely looking for a sun block instead of a sunscreen. And what about do you like the mineral-based ones or no? They're they serve different purposes, right? And I I like the mineral ones just because it doesn't like I have acne skin. Yeah, it doesn't matter. I like them. They're like a little bit more gentle. They are gentle, but you gotta like think about your needs, what you're doing, you know, what activities that you have. And don't forget, especially men, if you are out there listening to me, I was in, I was in line at Cross. Kroger. Oh gosh. And um it was a shorter guy because I'm short. Okay. But I definitely could recognize that something was going on right at the base of his and I actually told him and I'm sure that poor and I don't mean to throw you guys under the bus, but you are less likely to have your annual skin check. Yeah. Yeah. Which is so terrifying. Yes. And you can die from melanoma. Like it is in the leading cause of death. And and you can like, you know, I if you have a partner, like if you have a partner, check them out. Like, you know, like in the past. Something doesn't look right, right? Have it evaluated. Just have your partner look at your back. You know, make sure you're reapplying and helping each other out. Yeah. They've you mean you can get skin cancer in your toenail. Like a hundred percent. Back of the knee, back of the neck. Back of the knee, and you know, your sacral area, everything. Yeah. Bend your partner over. No, I mean, we again we talk about too much in my marriage, but I'm always like asking David, he gets an executive physical next month, actually, in July, and I'm always like, how thorough is the skin evaluation? Because he is a pale boy. And he's like, Yeah, they do a skin check. I'm like, no, no, no. Like they need to be all up in there. I want everything in your hoochie coochie checked. Like these kids need you to live. Yeah, but because I'm like, I don't want to be like a bro evaluation. Like, oh, you're fine. Yeah. No, I was just like, does David wear a hat in the summer? So I will say he is a psycho about sunscreen. And his biggest thing is he gets um like HSV on his lips if they're on the sun. So he's true. Oh yeah, so he is always psychotic about sunscreen, but he still uses like I'm not gonna name names, but like the old school, very bad for you, like full of endotoxins, endocrine disruptor, like spray sunscreen stuff. And I'm like, no, here's this really, really nice, beautiful mineral-based, like SPF 1000 sunblock I have here for us. And sometimes I even use like the one with Astaxantham where it's like white. He's like, you can see it. I'm like, I don't care. Yeah, like skin cancer does not care. Yes, skin cancer does not care. Because he's like a pale black. We should wear a shirt to promote skin health. Skin cancer does not care. Yeah, does not care. It is terrible. And if you've seen these most procedures, I know I know we want to live our best lives in the summertime. I get it. You want to be outside, and I I am right there with you. I'm always running outside. And that was one thing again, because she's my neighbor, so she sees me running every day, and she's like, Are you pulling your visor down when you drive? Do you have something drive that? I don't leave my house. Okay. Well, if I do, I will. Just another tidbit for you that I I and people are like No, you're right. So I have OCD, so I can't wear hats, and that's been a a big thing because she and I talked about that as well. So I I really lather in the mineral, and what I'll do now, I have packets of it that I can reapply like on my longer runs because I'm probably sweating some of it off. But even this weekend, it was only in the 60s, and I put my OCD and you can't work. I don't like things to touch my head. Yeah. Okay. So it's it's a it's a thing. You've never seen me wear hats. I don't wear hats. Yeah, I didn't think about well, good thing I didn't get you the hats. Oh no, no, no. I don't wear hats. I can barely wear sunglasses. I'm trying to get better because I have so I have terrible eyesight. Like I'm negative 1050, which means if you have 2020 vision, I see at 20 feet what you see at 1,050 feet. Like that's how bad my eyes are. And I was talking to my eye doctor, and he was like, you know, you are at a really high risk of macular degeneration. How are you with wearing sunglasses? And I was like, Well, I have OCD, I don't like things on my face. He was like, And you run a lot? I was like, Oh yeah, I'm outside all the time. 10 miles a day. Yeah, and he was like, You have to wear so I got that's why my husband bought me those meta sunglasses. What I do like about them, I will say, one, they're very light, so I can't feel them. Two, it's like a wrap around, so I don't physically feel them. Uh-huh. So I I wear sunglasses every once in a while, and I try to be okay with it, but the whole time I'm like fidgeting. So again, it's this is me just being. No, I'm I never knew that. See, yeah. That's what I was talking about. So, yes, I wish I could wear I definitely could never run in a hat. It would never happen. Like the the feeling of a brim on my head would be hard. Yeah. I remember one time we were in Turks and Caicos, and David wanted to go bone fishing, like on a little boat. And it's one of those we were going out, and the captain was like, Where's your hat? And I was like, I you know, I don't have a hat, I wear hat. He was like, No, no, no. Like, we actually don't let people go if you don't have a hat because the UV rays are so bad because it's coming off the water. Yeah. So they got me one of those like big hats, and I had it like tucked at the back of my head. So the flat, I mean literally look like a veil was like over my head, which I was grateful for because I would have definitely burned to death out there, even though I was like putting my sunblack on and whatnot. So I'm trying. I need to be back in therapy. It's like a clear I was talking to Lindsay about this the other day. Now I want to know, like, does it make it? No, no, no. No, it's like a nervous tick. So with obsessive compulsive disorder, I mean, there are triggers and it's an obsessive thought. So even if it's not a physical feeling, I like perseverate over it. I'll be like, Oh, I have a hat in my head, I have a hat in my head, I have a hat in my head. I know it's crazy. Maybe that's a thing that I have because I always have to wear socks. It's if I don't, I don't feel I feel like and mine is triggered for a nervous tick. I feel it comes from my childhood where I thought that things would grab my feet and if I could just cover my snake, yeah, or like a thing, like a monster. Basically. Oh, interesting. I don't think anything happened. When I was a child, I actually think I wore hats. I mean, for me, when I'm my most productive self, so like when I'm you'll see as we get closer to our event, when I'm like in my productive era, my OCD is way worse. Whereas when I haven't been my most, even though I would say like not my best self. So when like periods of my life when I wasn't doing as well in school, I wasn't performing as well in sports, so I was just kind of like half-assing it, my OCD is much less. So it just I think goes with that personality switch. Which I'm always trying to crush it now. So my OCD is always like bull on. I have a challenge, and maybe you can answer this because we get off here. No. I want to ask you a question because I was reading something where it said that when met when women go through perimenopause and menopause, the divorce rates go up. Oh, I'm sure. 100%. We gotta, we gotta look at that. Yeah, so I don't know the stats, but it has to do with the the you know the hormonal changes and you don't have the patience and you're just like give zero fucks at that point, and you're like not dealing with you, yeah, not having sex with you, no more BJs. Like none of that, right? Well, I think there's like the psychosomatic piece. So one, when you, you know, you meet when you're young, you fall in love, you get married, you have the kids, you build the career, kids move out, and then your hormones drop off a cliff. So there's there's progression. One from a from a hormone standpoint, there's a natural declination. So hormones naturally decline as we age. So we have three major reproductive hormones: testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone, talking about females. And progesterone is the first one that takes a deep dive. So what are signs of low progesterone? Anxiety, irritability, mood swings, lack of sleep. If you really want to test someone and test someone's patients and test a marriage, make them sleep deprived. Right? I mean, that's the highest form of torture, is sleep deprivation. Second, testosterone. So lack of libido, lack of drive, lack of lean muscle, brain fog, all these are symptoms of low testosterone. Third is estrogen. That's the one that kind of holds on till the end. And it's always tricky, as we've talked about a lot, like when to introduce hormone therapy, how to do it mindfully, because it's not a one size fits all. But low estrogen, you'll have vaginal dryness, painful sex, hot flashes, night sweats, again, mood swings, all these things. So she feels horrible and also body composition changes. So weight gain during perimenopause is rampant. I mean, 95% of my patients, part of their Christmas wish list with hormone decline or perimenopause is that they've gained weight, especially in their abdomen, hips, thighs, all of that. And again, it's a fine song and dance of how to treat that and how to make them feel better. So not only do they feel horrible, they can't sleep, they're irritable, they're moody, they're sweating all the time, they can have brain fog, then now they've gained weight, they don't feel sexy, so they don't want to jump in bed with you. And then the man perceives that as like she doesn't love me, she's obviously her body's changing. I want someone younger, more attractive, right? And it's just like a vicious cycle in people's marriages, and it's horrible. Yeah. So probably some truth to that. It's horrible, definitely some truth. And so if if if men are out there listening, listen, we need we need you to be the partners that we know you're capable of being. Yeah, no, it's a good conversation. So the last thing I'll say when we were in Montreal, we met these like a couple guys who were on the guys trip, and they were all met each other at Stanford Business School, so they had the nerdy thing in common with David. So a bunch of nerds out there just trying to live their best life. Yeah. And they were just a bunch of nerds. Nerd alert, you know, at a Formula One race. It was just like silliness. And we were talking, and they were talking kind of like struggles in their marriage and asking me my advice. And what I said to them was one is recognizing that it's not in her control. Not that like that gives her a pass for everything, right? But two, I mean, you're all you're all here at the Formula One race, you all make money. I was like, have you given her the tools to help herself? And they're like, Well, what do you mean? I'm like, do you tell her, hey, you should I I'm help I would whatever the money is, however it's gonna cost, I want you to see someone to help improve your hormones or to help evaluate your hormones, help treat you. And if she comes back and she's like, it's gonna cost ten thousand dollars, I'm gonna be on a GOP one, I'm gonna be a hormone therapy, I'm gonna get some Botox, but your only answer should say, of course, because I support you and I love you. At the end of all of that, if she feels better, feels like herself again, but you still don't love each other, then it is what it is. But don't blame her and not give her resources to improve her life. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? All you can do is support her. Yeah, and then you guys make a decision together. And it was kind of heavy to end with. Tell us a joke. Something funny that's happened recently. Your lips look really good. Did you get them done recently? No, I've been using Caitlin like gives me all these like ideas for lip plumpers, and my niece is 18. They love all these different lip glosses. I will also I'll end with this because it someone asked me. So I don't have any lipstick on. If you're watching on video, does Kiss have like some pigment in the filler? Because I lips look pinker. Yes, like they always look like they have lip stain on and they don't have anything. They look great, and no, you can't get any more. Yes, I will. In September. I know my six-month mark with Charia for listeners. I can have lip filler in September and February. So those two months, I look snatched, and then the rest of the year I just wait for it to be like a six-month mark again when she lets me come back for more. I was even thinking, I was like, I wonder if she'll let me come in in August. Like if I could trick her and be like, it's been six months, even though it's like obviously in record. Your lips look fine. And I do, yes, if we're you all out there, I will say no to you when it's not appropriate. But we also get in physical fights when we well, this was a good Monday. I'm very good Monday. So happy. I feel better afterwards. After. So we are going to the next time we talk, we're gonna go over this party and see if we can find a tarot card reading. If you know anybody out there, please hit me up. If you know a tarot card reader, they're in the Cincinnati, northern Kentucky area. If you have questions about our event, so dates are September 18th and 19th. Let us know. We would love for you to be there. More details to come. We have some amazing guests lineup. I I think you guys are gonna be shocked. We are coming from afar and we're gonna have a makeup artist. We're gonna have we're not gonna have a magician, but we're gonna have a lot of cool things. We'll have a VIP dinner. Yeah, super excited. Love you all. Like, subscribe, share. Have a great week, guys. Have an amazing week. Bye.