Hot Flashes, Cold Cream & Bringing Bounce Back to Midlife Skin

Menopause doesn’t just announce itself with hot flashes; it sneaks into your mirror with paper-thin skin, a tighter, drier face, and that telltale “gobbler” neck. We got curious about why midlife skin changes so fast and built a gentle alternative to harsh actives: a custom-compounded cream with estriol, DHEA, collagen, and hyaluronic acid designed for sensitive, perimenopausal skin. The goal wasn’t hype—it was comfort, bounce, and a barrier that actually behaves.

We walk through what estrogen does for skin health, from collagen support to moisture retention, and explain why loss of estrogen in perimenopause and menopause accelerates thinning and dryness. Then we connect the dots between low-dose topical estriol—long used safely for local genitourinary symptoms—and facial application with minimal systemic absorption. You’ll hear real results: calmer rosacea-prone areas after one night, smoother texture within days, and a perceptible return of cheek “spring” and a softer neck by week six. We also share why we skipped tretinoin in favor of a kinder, nightly routine that people with eczema or psoriasis can actually stick to.

Along the way, we tackle updated FDA perspectives on estrogen safety, separate myths from evidence about HRT and cancer risk, and make a case for night routines that work with your body’s repair window. Expect practical how-tos: where to apply (face, neck, chest, hands), how much to use, how long a tube lasts, and what it costs. If you’ve felt written off by one-size-fits-all skincare or told to “just deal” with menopause, this conversation offers a clear, science-aware path back to hydrated, resilient skin.

Ready to rethink menopause skincare with a routine you’ll love at night? Listen now, subscribe for more midlife health strategies, and share this episode with a friend who’s navigating the same changes. Your review helps more women find real answers.

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Transcript

Why Midlife Skin Feels So Dry

Kelli 0:26

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Tattoos in Telehealth. And Nicole and I have been doing something different this year, and it's really kind of cool. We just uh sit and chit-chat about some of the things that we encounter while we are working our little tails off in telehealth. But before we get started, we need to tell you that this conversation does not constitute a patient-provider relationship, and that anything we are telling you is also not constituted as medical advice. So please, please check with your providers before you do anything we are talking about uh today or any of our podcasts. So, Nicole, I know that we all know that women's health is kind of my side piece, it's my my side gig, my love, my my hot topic at most times because you know we're perimenopausal and we're going through it. And so it's it's a hot topic, literally some days hot. And I do all the things to try to stay up to date and I get on my soapbox about hormone therapy for women and you know why the FDA just can't seem to get their head out of the sand. But in doing so, I have gotten you guys on my little bandwagon.

First Results From The Face Cream

Estrogen Safety And FDA Updates

Nicole 1:27

Yeah, so it's funny because in, you know, being in mid-40s, late 40s, I'm, you know, you definitely start to appreciate your skin and all the things and hot flashes. And I feel like my skin is like paper, like I feel like a reptile. But anyway, and I moisturize, moisturize all the things. I was never a big skincare, you know. I think I was gonna maybe keep young skin forever foolishly. But anyway, so I know you had said contacted one of our pharmacies and was like, hey, will you put some of these ingredients together in a cream? And it's like Estradol, DHE. I'll talk, I'll I'll let you talk about the details of what it is because I can't remember. But anyway, you started using it on your face, and you've been using it for six or seven weeks, and you loved it. So I ordered it, and I put it on one night, and the next morning I woke up and I was like, man, my skin looks good. What what's what happened? What happened? My skin looks good, and then I remembered that I put the cream, your cream on my face. And I was like, no way, no, there's just no way. There's no way this is a thing. But it looked amazing, and I have a little bit of rosacea too, so it was like it was just smoothed out my skin. I just felt like my skin was moisturized again, it was smoothed. So I can't wait to continue to use it. I put it on last night again and I put it on every night. Now I just as soon bathe in it. But so I thought it was super cool. So I get on a call with Dr. Mo and Maribel, who are uh colleagues of ours, and I'm like, hey, y'all, like, you know, we need this is let me tell you about this because I want everybody to know. And Maribel's like, I'm all about what is new, like I'm ready. And so, and Mo is too, because she's she's a little bit older than us, and so um they're gonna order it too. So I'm like, I feel like all of us are on this cream and it has the estrogen in it. And I know that historically people have shied away from estrogen, and I know the the things have changed, and I'll let you update on that. But when I when I asked you, hey, what about the amount of estrogen in it? You said it's not clinically significant. So, like it's not there's no effect from it, but lacking estrogen as we go through menopause and perimenopause is what makes our skin thin and not elastic anymore and gives us the gobbler neck and all the things. So talk I want you to talk about your mixture. And if if you're interested in the mixture, you can let us know. It's and Kelly will tell you how to how to find us. But Kelly, talk to me about what made you connect these ingredients together to make this compound to try it to say, okay, this is something that I really feel like it could work. Because I know your women's health is your jam. And so it's just it has been really amazing quickly for me.

From Vaginal Estrogen To Facial Use

Building The Gentle Anti‑Aging Formula

Kelli 4:49

So what really got me started is, you know, back up several months ago when Dr. Kelly Kasperson took on the FDA, right? And and I don't mind saying her name here because she's all over social media. She's a big uh presence when it comes to women's health. She's a champion. I freaking love her. If I could go spend a week in clinic with her, I would do it in a heartbeat. But she has released, uh she has a podcast, she has several books out. Like she's just she's a hot mess. But I listen to her all the time about all of the things that are coming out about women's, you know, women's health. She stays very up to date. She releases information about articles every single day. And so it started, it really started getting me pumped up to stay up to date on what's going on. And so when the FDA finally pulled their head out of the sand and took off the black box warnings about, you know, estrogen therapy and hormone replacement therapy in women, it really got me excited because it's things that we already knew. You know, things that we knew, we just couldn't get them to understand that hormones are safe. You know, hormones didn't cause breast cancer. Estrogen did not cause breast cancer. We we were born with estrogen, just like men are born with testosterone. Testosterone does not cause prostate cancer. Studies have shown that it doesn't. Like it stop saying that the hormones God made us with caused us to die. I mean, come on, stop. So it really got me going. And so, anyway, fast forward to now with me really being aggressive, with women having access to care and access to being healthy and happy and safe and the things that we need to feel good about ourselves. And what women need to understand is that when estrogen leaves the building, which is what happens when you go through menopause, you are essentially castrated. Estrogen just suddenly stops, gone overnight, gone. When estrogen leaves the building, your your tissues downstairs, we'll leave it there, just shrivels up, like it dries out, it it thinks that it no longer needs to be used. Things start to atrophy, meaning they disappear, they they they draw up, they shrink. Um, things that we like to do become painful. Women get recurrent UTIs, they get prolapse, they get you know recurrent infections. And so fast forward to women using estrogen cream downstairs. It is not clinically significant enough to be absorbed into your bloodstream. So you can use estrogen cream downstairs, and it is not going to be absorbed into your bloodstream enough to be clinically significant. So that got me thinking, why can't I use it on other tissues that gets thin and shrinks like the areas underneath my eyes, the areas on the sides of my nose. So I started doing some research. And lo and behold, other women thought the exact same thing. And so they started using the exact same estrogen cream that they were putting downstairs on their faces. And I thought, okay, well, there's different mixtures of estrogen. And estriol is a form of the estrogen cream that they use there. And so I thought, okay, well, estriol is a different type of estrogen cream that you can compound with other stuff. And so I started looking that up and started doing some research on that. And there are companies that compound estriol with tretinoin, an anti-aging cream. Great. That's wonderful. It's wonderful for women that are, you know, in their 30s and 40s that want to use tretinoin on their face. I personally cannot. Um, Nicole probably can't use it as much or doesn't like it as much because tretinoin can be a little harsh to people like me that have eczema on my face. She has psoriasis. If you have those inflammatory conditions on your face, tretinoin's probably not your friend. And it's not. And so then I started thinking, well, that's not gonna work. So then I just started trying to figure out what I can do? Do I am I just gonna go buy a cheap tube of estrogen cream and put it on my face? Which you can. You absolutely can, and it's cheap. And so that's what works for you, then great. But I started thinking, what if I could get our fantastic compounding pharmacies that we work with every single day to come up with something for me that has the few little things in it to have an anti-aging effect that won't be harsh on my skin, that can replace some of the things that we lose, like, you know, the bounciness in our cheeks and the chicken neck that we get. What if I could come up with something? And so the thing, the key factors are we lose estrogen, we lose collagen, you know, women are constantly injecting, you know, the collagen-like substances in their face. And then some stuff that maybe has a little bit of extra for anti-aging. So what does that look like? Well, it looks like estriol. That looks like because it compounds really well, no other reason, collagen, which they do, DHEA, which is a precursor to some testosterone-like hormone, so kind of offset that estrogen a little bit, give us a little bit of that back. And then hyaluronic acid for the anti-aging effect, which is very, very, very nice for people with sensitive skin. So you get that anti-aging effect without it interrupting or causing irritation to our skin. So I thought, okay. So I start bugging our practice manager, whom we we know and love and you know dearly, and I start telling her this is what I want. And so she goes to work and starts calling our pharmacists, and she's coming back at me with, you know, esteryl tretinoin and these tretinoin and that. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, I don't want tretinoin. I don't want tretinoin. I want this is what I want. And so finally, one of our pharmacists says, here's what I can do for you. And it had all those four things in it. I'm like, yes, that's what I want. That's what I want, those things. And so they sent me a tube. And like, here, just try this. And I was like, Nicole, after the first three or four nights, I'm like, this is nice. I didn't wake up with any irritation. My face wasn't stinging when I put it on, like it was good. And six weeks later, like my dimples are back. I have the little puffiness, like the like the bounciness back is back in my cheeks, my neck is starting to feel less, you know, less saggy. Like it's coming back. I'm like, my face is starting to feel so much better. I love that.

Nicole 10:43

I love that. And just for context, for people who are watching or listening, Kelly created this for herself. She didn't create it to like market it or to do anything with it. She was looking for something specific for her. And so that's something that's very unique is that it wasn't created to make a profit. It wasn't created to do all these things, but she's on it and I connect with her and I'm like, okay, your skin's looking good. What's going on? And so, you know, five weeks into it, I'm like, okay, I need to order some of this because something's going on here. And so, and that's when I ordered it, and I was like, dang, like I'm like, it's this works really, really good. So now I just want to bathe in it because you know, I it's just it's great. It's great.

Real‑World Results And How To Apply

Kelli 11:33

You really can. Like, there are so listening to so many podcasts and and and all these things, there are women that bathe in their estrogen cream, and that is okay. Really? Legit, guys. That's yes. Like they on their neck, on their chest, the and the backs of your hands, ladies, don't forget the backs of your hands, like the backs of their hands really shows your age a lot. Yeah, shows your age. Tops, you know, tops part of their forearms, their necks, they're like all the places, and you can, like, you can, ladies, you can, and it's still not gonna be enough to be systemically significant, like just it's okay, but it does, it does us a world of good, it really does.

Nicole 12:11

I love that. I love that. So if you want to try out Kelly's Cream, you call it Kelly's Cream because she's with with our company, she's the one that put it together and brought it to food brought it to fruition. So you can go to uh HamiltonTelehelp.com and just click get started and let us know what you're looking for. Seriously. You can also email us or whatever the case may be, but and we'll be happy to get it to you. I don't think it's very expensive total. I don't I don't think it's expensive. I'll have to get with Virginia to find out, but I think it's like 50 bucks or less.

Kelli 12:42

Yeah, I think I think 60 bucks was what I we had we charged a patient for last week for it was 60 bucks for everything for shipping and everything. Yeah, and the the tube lasted me six weeks.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Like I just hit the six-week mark and I just finished my first tube. Let me go grab mine. I have it right here. Hold on one second. So this is this is my my tube. And just a little pump tube.

Where To Get Kelly’s Cream

Nicole 13:18

So you just pop up the top, put a pump on. Yep, you know, whatever, use a couple, rub it in, rub it in really good, rub it in, rub it in. But anyway, so I use this. You just use it at night. And Kelly, you had said at night is when your skin does most of its work.

Kelli 13:38

So if you think about it, nighttime sleepy time, that's what I tell people. Nighttime sleepy time, that's when your body does its best work because you're not asking it to do anything else. So it is resetting, it is doing all the work from what you did that day, which includes cellular regeneration. Like that's when you, that's when women put on their face creams, that's when you put on your lotion before you go to bed. That's that's when your body metabolically resets. That's why sleep is so important, especially for people that are athletes, for people that are transitioning during peri and postmenopause, for people that are have that work high stress jobs, like your body has to have that time to metabolically reset. And that's when it does its best work. So all of your all anything you're trying to do to help your body happens at night while it's sleeping because you're not asking it to do anything else. It digests its food, it resets its metabolism, it works on your on your face, it works on anything. So at night before you go to bed. So, women, you wash your face, you do what all your stuff that goes on last, go to bed. Set it, forget it.

Sleep, Night Routines, And Skin Repair

Broader Menopause Support And HRT Wins

Nicole 14:39

I love it. I love it. So I put it on my neck too. So we will keep you guys posted on happenings. But uh again, if you are interested in Kelly's cream, www.hamilton telehealth.com, just click on get started and we will take care of you. But that is the uh skinny for today. Uh, thank you guys for joining us. We will are gonna be doing more menopausal tips and things like that because it really is a realm that is not forgotten, but uh sort of forgotten, right? If it's just, you know, you're just supposed to just deal with it, deal with menopause. And so we're trying to be uh the breakthrough for that is you don't just have to deal with the vaginal dryness, you don't just have to deal with the paper reptile skin, you don't have to deal with even the moods. Uh, you know, this is for another podcast, but really quick, I was having so bad hot flashes, was so bad. I was waking up drenched, and then Kelly put me on a very low dose hormone therapy, super low dose, and within 12 hours, I shit you not, I felt so much better. I wasn't as snappy, I wasn't because I mean, I'm just I'm I'm not a grouchy person, but I was. And the hot flashes stopped like within really within 12 hours. I even put my sister on it because she's like, I feel like I'm a crazy person. And I'm like, oh, welcome, welcome to menopause. So, and that's for another story, but we are really wanting to help women in the menopause, perimenopause area, anyone 35 or after, or before if you have certain conditions and you're, you know, pushed into early menopause, but it's a thing. And Kelly is the queen of hormone therapy menopause specialty. So reach out and we'll be happy to help you. Absolutely, guys. All right, have a good week. We'll see you next time. Take care.