Divine Skintervention
Divine Skintervention is an angelic exploration of skincare, beauty and culture. Hosted by cosmetic chemist Ramón Pagán and board-certified dermatologist Dr. Angelo Landriscina, each episode delves deep into the phenomena defining aesthetics, personal care and the current zeitgeist to unlock the celestial truths surrounding beauty… with a side of sass.
Divine Skintervention
Hot Take Off!
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It’s time for the Hot Take Off! In this episode, Angelo and Ramón take turns sharing surprising hot takes with each other, and they discuss their respective opinions. Do they agree? Disagree? How scalding hot will the takes get? They tackle skincare, pop culture, and beyond!
Ramón
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https://www.tiktok.com/@glowbyramon
https://www.youtube.com/glowbyramon
Angelo
https://www.instagram.com/dermangelo
https://www.tiktok.com/@dermangelo
https://www.youtube.com/dermangelo
Hi Angela.
SPEAKER_02Hi Ramon.
SPEAKER_00How are we today?
SPEAKER_02Doing well. How are you? Um, you just moved back to New York?
SPEAKER_00Moved back to the US.
SPEAKER_02Okay. How's that going for you?
SPEAKER_00It's I can't say I could have chosen a better time. I will say that right now. Um the level of like tumultuous everything is really concerning. We're about to go to war. Um, the economy's in shambles. My biggest shell shock, obviously, like living in New York, everything's expensive. And I came from London where things were already expensive, but shockingly, I feel like groceries in Europe are really cheap. Coming to the US, anywhere in the US, they're crazy expensive. But especially in New York, some of these prices are actually obscene. For me, it was a box of cereal, like name brands, so like raisin brand or Cheerios, like the big size is like $9.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, groceries are out of control. Like my main thing, I'm a big coffee person and I do buy specialty coffee, but also like in the morning, you catch me with like the full drop, like the grocery store, whatever, and one of those is like I saw $28. Like the basic ass coffee, ground coffee.
SPEAKER_00That's actually crazy.
SPEAKER_02That is crazy. And I mean, I know it's the things are more expensive here, obviously, but it's going on everywhere.
SPEAKER_00And the crazy thing is again, being in the city, yeah, you're gonna expect the higher prices, and that makes sense. But I'm from Florida and I'm from like a small town in central Florida, and going to like publics there, no, like I remember going to my mom, and it was like $65 for like three or four things. And I had to look at my mom be like, is that real? And she's like, Now, do you understand the issues? Because again, it it you become kind of accustomed. I lived in London for five years. Like, I thought groceries there, like some things seemed like, oh, that's kind of expensive. But no, I guess it was like really affordable. Oh, and the biggest one is first, and I get it's like regional, like having to go to a proper like liquor store to get wine and beer. I hate that. But wine here is so expensive. It's like, granted, my husband, he's very snobby when it comes to wine, so we can't get like just anything, but $20 something dollars for a bottle of wine back in Europe. You can get a great bottle of wine for like eight dollars.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, because that's Europe. Like when when I go to France, I find that you could get good wine for cheaper than you could buy a bottle of water.
SPEAKER_00Oh girl, when I was in Germany, I'd get like the bottom shelf bottle of wine. I think it'd be like three euros.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, yeah. Certain things definitely are more expensive here. I do find there's a lot of online discourse about it's always these random ass people that are like, oh, the other day it was like, look at my two-bedroom apartment in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. I bet people in New York City wish they could have all of this. And I'm like, yeah, but you're in the middle of nowhere. It's location, location, location, baby. We pay to be here. And I mean, I'm a lifelong New Yorker, I'm born here, raised here, lived other places for short stints, but always came back. There's nothing like it. Yeah, you are paying a premium, and it's not for everybody. Don't get me wrong. I know it's not for everybody, and it's not necessarily like the best of everything, but to try to flex on people, and this lady was like, she was showing her uh redone apartment, which was like the the contractor special that had freshly installed wall-to-wall carpet in the year of our lord 2026. Look, I don't hold it against you if you have wall-to-wall carpet that's been there a while. It was in style, and I understand people I don't remodel my house like left, right, and center, but it is a choice to choose that new now.
SPEAKER_00I you know how you like a tweet, and then your entire Twitter feed becomes like that specific thing. For me, it was the people talking about like New York is the greatest place in the world, like nothing compares to New York, and like you think it's an exaggeration. This week was the first time this year New York got above 60 degrees, walking around Williamsburg and Manhattan and seeing everyone just out and about in the sun and just like really enjoying like the warmth and like what is hopefully gonna be a beautiful spring. I was like, you know what? Maybe this is like the best place in the world.
SPEAKER_02The first warm day in New York, euphoric, like inject that into my veins because oh my god, I have not felt like that in quite some time. I was like, we're outside, I was wearing my sun protective clothing.
SPEAKER_00Sponsored.
SPEAKER_02I was able to bring my kid outside to run around.
SPEAKER_00No, it's really cute, and it's like, okay, you know what? It costs an obscene amount of money to live here, but there's a lot of things that do make this worth it.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00And I'm not leaving.
SPEAKER_02Okay, welcome everybody to the hot takeoff. Um, what this is, is basically me and Ramon are going to go back and forth with our hot takes, make a case for them, and then discuss and react. We are doing this blind, so neither of us knows what the other is gonna say. Um, and we may disagree, we may battle it out. Who knows?
SPEAKER_00Oh, we're actually debating each other too?
SPEAKER_02We we can. I mean, I'm gonna want to hear what you have to say about what I have to say.
SPEAKER_00So the girls are gonna fight.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay. You can go first. I'll let you go first.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I'm shy.
SPEAKER_02Um, most people's attitudes towards personal health is really about morality and judging people. And that's why they don't know enough.
SPEAKER_00What's an example of that?
SPEAKER_02What's an example of that? Okay, so um saying, oh, people in the US are so unhealthy because everybody chooses to eat hyper-processed foods rather than looking at the entire system that set us up to be this way. And I think it's just because people like to judge other people. Not everything that happens is a personal failing. And I think the way this plays out, too, is really detrimental to some people. So, um, for instance, cancer research and how much money people will um put towards it. Um, there's so much money raised every year for breast cancer. That's great. Everybody likes that as a cause. There's a whole month about it. We need much more research about lung cancer. In fact, I believe the statistic is that lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer. However, people think of lung cancer as caused by people's personal choices because it's quite often linked to smoking. So people are naturally gonna be less empathetic towards those people, even though you don't have to have smoked to get lung cancer. So, well, also to say that there are underlying uh public health issues when it comes to the dangers of smoking. I think people need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Sorry that I got all medical on you, but I was scared.
SPEAKER_00No, I mean, like to your point, especially with the example, it's like people love to hate on Americans. Living abroad, people love to hate on Americans, and understandably so. Like, I'm not saying it's not justified, but yeah, I think even going on top of that, especially when it comes to like the morality and judging of things, is a lot of these things also come down to like the socioeconomic the situation, yeah.
SPEAKER_02The features of the society that we've set up, truly.
SPEAKER_00Because it's the whole thing of like these ultra-processed foods, they tend to be things that are like really affordable or things that you get at the dollar store, for example. But it's like if you're from a lower socioeconomic standing or neighborhoods where that's kind of all that's really available to you, like that's what you have at your disposal.
SPEAKER_02If you live in a food desert, you gotta make do with what you have. So uh I think especially with the whole uh Maha movement now, it's very anti-science, but I think it's also very like pro-judgment. So people gotta look at the bigger picture. That was heavy, right? Sorry.
SPEAKER_00Um, should I go with like a lightweight one right now, then?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I am Sasha Fierce is Beyonce's best album.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, okay, say more.
SPEAKER_00Um, she really gave versatility, and I think the long-standing impact of that record, what that did for her career, that really set everything up for what was because afterwards it was four. Four, which is also a really great album. But no, I think it maybe I am such I'm not gonna say it's like her best, best, best album, but everyone shits on that record, and it's not her worst record, it's like top three. And self-titled is not in my top three if I know.
SPEAKER_02Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I always say this. Um, Beyonce gets really corny, and to me, reflecting back on self-titled, it's a really corny record.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, I hope, I hope the hive does not come for you on this.
SPEAKER_00I am Beehive. I will say that my top three for sure Renaissance. I am Sasha Fierce. And then it bounces between B-Day. What are your what is your top three?
SPEAKER_02Uh I would probably say also Renaissance, I am Sasha Fierce, and Ooh.
SPEAKER_00B Day's it's a good, there's some coriness on there. Freakum Dress?
SPEAKER_02Freakum Dress. Green light. Green Oh, yeah, that's like a fun, that's a fun album. What I will say about I am Sasha Fierce is um the Sasha Fierce side of the album was very experimental, and I think that that, to your point, set her up for you know, you'll see flashes of that in like lemonade and renaissance. It's like it's just like playing with the art form a lot, even with Cowboy Carter. It's like it's just like chopping and screwing things. I would also say the fashion from that time, because Terry Mugler was her fashion director, so she got to wear iconic pieces and the style was amazing. Um, that album was out around the time I was in college, and I remember the last project I ever did was for um a class that I took that was all about Don Quixote, and we read it, and uh we read the the book, which if you've ever read the whole thing, it's very long, and I read it in Spanish and wrote about this all in Spanish, but I pointed to um several uh you know works in modern culture that I felt like were inspired in some way by Quixote or were connected to it in the tradition. So um a lot of it was about meta-narrative and creating a um character to tell your own story. Um so Quixote did that. He was obsessed with, you know, um reading about tales of knights and made himself into this fictional knight in his life, and Sasha Fierce is like that for Beyonce. It's like creating your narrative by making this character that's outside of yourself that you get to act as.
SPEAKER_00I was waiting for it to come back to Beyonce. I'm like, how does this come back to Queen B? Okay, that makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I mean, I connected it to a lot of other things too. I was like getting my little gay life, also because I was finally done with my classes, got a few weeks off before I had to go to medical school. So But yeah, no. I I don't know if I'd say it's her best album.
SPEAKER_00My thing is everyone shits on it, but it is a great album. And you have the duality of the I Am and the Sasha Fierce and Sasha Fierce, like to your point, video phone. Oh exactly, D.A. Mm-hmm. What else? Sweet Dreams. Turn the lights on. Like, it's so impactful. When I cried at Renaissance, the first time was because I cried multiple times. Um, I cried when Alien Superstar transitioned into Sweet Dreams. That was sick. I'm like, wow, that's like that's like my childhood. That was a really great moment. The second time was when she did um Rather Die Young, just because I always listened to four while I was driving in high school, and it's like it just took me back to being in my car.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, I agree with you on that one. Thank you. AI is making some of you dumb.
SPEAKER_00That's not a hot take. That was gonna be my next one, too, to some extent. Yeah. It's I was at an airport lounge, and this mom came in with her kid, left the kid so she could go to the buffet, but the kid was like on his iPad, full volume in the middle of this lounge, no headphones, and he was just scrolling through shorts, and most of the stuff was just like AI slop on YouTube shorts.
SPEAKER_02I've noticed that too. Yeah, I've seen kids uh just going on that meta-ai app and it's mostly well, it's all AI generated stuff. Also, I think when it comes to the chatbots, we've talked about this before here about how it doesn't give you anything accurate, but I also think if you're at the point where you can't make a decision, so you ask Chat GPT, come on. I think decision making is something that's really important to being a functioning human. And I've been told in a lot of my work that, you know, people like working with me because I'm very decisive, and that's something that I've had to work on for a long time because you could waste so much of your time overthinking things, and I could understand the impulse of wanting to take that out of the equation, but then is it really you making the decision? Is it really what's best for you, or is it just this thing that's telling you what you want to hear? Plus, like, oh, I don't know what to make for dinner, so I'm gonna ask Chat GPT. What? What? That makes no sense to me. In addition to that, like people using it to do their work of like writing or something like that. I'm like, I could understand maybe the applications of using it for like repetitive tasks or things that are just like data entry or whatever, but like, I don't know, write an email for me. Most of the time, like, I mean, I'm using Gmail, I gotta figure out how to shut off the AI because the responses that it comes up with, I'm like.
SPEAKER_00My thing is every website you use now, it's like an AI like assistant. Is there if you need it? I'm like, I don't want this. Adobe has it, all the like G Suite stuff comes with little AI assistants. It's irritating.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's so annoying. And I mean, in the end, I think, you know, there is a certain amount of skill that's developed through doing some of these things on your own, like deciding what recipe you want to make for dinner, like you'll maybe learn about something new, being able to write and communicate because you're not always gonna have that thing with you. So I don't know, it's like uh can't write an email. Maybe you're not gonna be able to have a conversation or like communicate with others effectively. So yeah, I think using it as a crutch for everything, people using it to do therapy.
SPEAKER_00My next hot take was gonna be um I think generative AI usage is kind of like an indicator of like the rapid decline of like human civilization. Because I just to your point, it's making people really lazy. Critical thinking is going out the window. The capabilities of what AI can do, generative AI, is being greatly exaggerated. And you know, in like Wally, when like all the people are like fat and they have like little tiny bones and stuff, because they just got really lazy and shit. That's that's basically what I'm seeing happening. And I I I have a brother who's a lot younger than me, and just some of the things I'm seeing in like that generation, I'm just like, when was the last time you read a book?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you like he has issues. Sorry, I shouldn't, I should not jog my brother. Wow, but I just see just clocking all of your brother's tea. Edit that out. But um I see um yeah, like an inability to like socialize, talk to people, like even order at a restaurant.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00And it's not even uh like um an issue of like indecisiveness, it's just like the lack of social ability to just order. It's like how kids nowadays can't talk on the phone.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I mean to some extent, I think a lot of our communication used to be more verbal, whereas now kids do have to learn how to communicate through text, write emails and stuff. So it's like it's changed, but at the same time, I think like it is just a human thing to be able to interact with people and to like not care what somebody on the other side of the phone like thinks. I don't know. A lot of the time they don't know who you are, so it's like why do you care?
SPEAKER_00I don't care, but it's like to the point where I worry in like a generation or two the skill set certain people will have. Like, I think like we're seeing a decline in pilots for like airlines right now, and I'm like, are kids in like the next 20 years even gonna be able to like fly a plane? Like, do they have that level of critical thinking and like intelligence for lack of a better word? Or like, are doctors going to be as skilled in 50 years as they are now?
SPEAKER_02Like one thing I will say with medicine is that you know, as technology improves and we make more breakthroughs, things get better for people's overall health.
SPEAKER_00Are we gonna keep being able to make breakthroughs? That is my concern.
SPEAKER_02The thing about it is to your point before, I think the capabilities of AI have been overblown. And I think there are certain things that come and go in the zeitgeist as far as technology. Like, uh do you remember NFTs? Yeah. Do you remember how everybody said that um cryptocurrency was gonna be the future? I mean, it's still around, it's just it's not to the level that people really thought it was gonna be or was gonna be of the utility that people thought it was. Um, same thing with the metaverse.
SPEAKER_00Like I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_02They kept trying to make it happen, and it they were like, this is the future, but it's like it didn't really serve a purpose. So I think my prediction right now is that yeah, AI is gonna stick around in some way, but it's not going to be so all-encompassing as some people make it out to be. I think it's gonna be another tool.
SPEAKER_00And if all you have is something that's able to generate based on what there already is, then I mean you just see I've I have friends who work in tech, and it's like the layoffs that are happening because they're using AI to be a lot more efficient. Or even just like I saw Days, like Days magazine, they did this article on this girl who basically was talking about time theft, but she also they specifically featured a quote about how she used Chat GPT to diagnose herself and then treat herself. And I'm like, A Chat GPT is not a medical diagnostic tool. That in itself was like for them promoting that or featuring that in the article was like it felt very ethically and legally wrong. But on top of that, I'm like, this is Days Magazine, which to me was like a very like subversive art-focused magazine. And I'm like, you're promoting generative AI usage?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Some of the people that are that are promoting generative AI, I'm like, is this really um like um Isimea French? Do you know her? Yeah, like I like her brand, I like her work. She's a makeup artist, for those of you who don't know, but she's she recently wrote an op-ed how like AI is the future of makeup. I didn't get a chance to read it, so I'm not gonna, but I was like, oh, seeing somebody who's in such a creative field kind of propped that up.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, Which I mean, you're a makeup artist. Like AI cannot replace what you do on a person with makeup.
SPEAKER_02It's such like, yeah, physical. It's a tactical, yeah. Like, how are you? But yeah, I mean, well, I guess we'll see what shakes out. I feel like this kind of leads into my next take. Or do you have another one?
SPEAKER_00No, that was my ego.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so we need to stop platforming people who don't know what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00That's not a hot take, girl.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. Well, no, I I think there's so many like human interest stories that well in our last episode we talked about Dr. Barbara Sturm, who is somebody who doesn't know what she's talking about and gets platformed all over the place, but also um the recent interest in looks maxing and people talking about clavicular and who you know what I was surprised to find out his online following was not as big as I thought it was.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't even know. I don't know who he is, but like I think it was wasn't the deal like he's very like alt-right or very Well uh yeah, racist. Uh and then he was like at Fashion Week and some shit?
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, but like the person the who the designer of that show is somebody who's very right wing and mega. So there you go. Um, but I think uh media likes to focus on these people that are so clearly like full of shit. Like, okay, clavicular, they're like, he takes meth to have like good cheekbones, and he does this and he does that. I'm like, okay. Um it seems like, and I mean I'm not trying to diagnose anybody, I just mean this colloquially. This is somebody with mental illness, babes. And why are we, you know, platforming that and and amplifying it? Um, I also think a lot of journalists, when it comes to health topics, fail to really get their stuff accurately fact checked. Well, no to
SPEAKER_00A journalist sometimes I you've done interviews too, right? For fun. You'll do an interview and you'll explain something to them, and then you get the article, and you're like, How did they get that from what I said? Or how did you mess up what I said entirely?
SPEAKER_02Most of the time I'm providing comments, so I've never had anybody really screw up anything that I said, but um there was one article, I forget what it was about, where um I said that certain a certain type of product was basically like useless or could be dangerous, and then they turned around and were also like I was the counterpoint to what they were saying. Uh so they were presenting it in a positive light and put a bunch of affiliate links in it. And I went back to them and I was like, take my comment out of this article. Like, you are not using me to I was like, Wow, drag her. I didn't talk about it publicly because I was like, I'm not gonna drag them, and it was like it had just gone up, so I was just like, get me out of there because this is ridiculous. I got pissed. I was like, You don't use me for this. But anyway, yeah, I think even people like Andrew Huberman. But the doctor. He's a a PhD neuroscientist, he's not a doctor. Um and he has a big following in a podcast where he talks about all different kinds of health-related stuff, and he just doesn't have the vernacular that he thinks he possesses in some of these things. It's just he's not an expert in everything. So for people to just take anything that he says, and he has some really weird ideas about health. Um, and some of the people he has on his podcast are like spewing misinformation. He's now teamed up with Gwyneth Paltro. Goop. Goop. Which don't get me wrong, uh, Gwynne Paltro, if you want to talk to her about something like acting, starting a business, being an epo baby, like all things that she has experience with, but like not personal health. Come on, jade eggs, yoni eggs, yoni eggs.
SPEAKER_00My next hot take is I feel like we're not having fun with phones anymore. And I want us to have fun with phone design in that high key. I want to go back to the Motorola Razor like flip phones, T-Mobile sidekick, Apple keeps doing the Mo, trying to like make the most minimalistic, simple iPhone, big screen. I want a fun phone.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I remember when I got the Motorola Razor, you couldn't tell me nothing. I wanted the tiniest phone ever. There was there was this one Nokia where it was like the screen of it was a circle and it like had things that spun around for you to open it. Um there was like the chocolate. Do you remember the chocolate?
SPEAKER_00The chocolate.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. The um the the sidekick or whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00T-Mobile sidekick with the little you flip it up. That was like the phone.
SPEAKER_02The blackberry. I missed the blackberry. I had like two or three blackberries, and let me just tell you, I was so fast on that keyboard. The way I was BBMing of Blackberry, Blackberry went out of business while I was still in high school. I got I guess we established that I'm old. Yeah, I didn't get an iPhone until I was in medical school, I think. I think I went into medical school with a Blackberry.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02I think maybe I'm getting the timing wrong. Yeah, I feel like I went into college with a Motorola Racer, and I came out with a like my last Blackberry. R.I.P. Blackberry.
SPEAKER_00Truly. Which I mean like a renaissance is very much needed. And that's why I'm saying like I want fun with phones again. Samsung's kind of doing a little stuff here and there. Like they have like the like you can fold your like touch screen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which that's cool. That's fun. It's it's a moment. But it's like, no, I want like a fun kind of we we do nostalgia in so many different industries and aspects, but that is the one that I'm just like, we need to go back to that. Like the whole Y2K aesthetic, too. Like, if a lot of technology can go back to that aesthetic and that look, but like maintain like the functionality of modern technology, that'd be really fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Something more tactile. Something that you can like. Something cute, something cunt.
SPEAKER_00Like, I'm sorry, like we I want to have like a cute phone, it's all bedazzled, have all the little accessories, and it matches like my outfit, like that vibe.
SPEAKER_02What do you think about like uh phone cases that are uh decked out and stuff like that?
SPEAKER_00Like for the iPhones? Yeah. I think they're cute. Again, I I love whimsy. I love fun. I also love an element of like I am a unique person and I have these interests and like this aesthetic, and that can be applied in a lot of different aspects. Like a really fun, interesting phone case is cute. I had a bunch.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, I'm boring as hell, but um yeah, I mean, um I don't know why my mind keeps going to the road the lip balm. The lip balm phone case. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_00It's fun. I love fun, and I love I don't like conformity. Another hot take, I'm just saying now. I think right now we're in too much of an era of like homogeneity and conformity, and I really miss like being bold and like being interesting and like being unafraid to stand out.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I agree. Have some personality. Be fun. Be fun.
unknownBe fun.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Some aesthetic procedures should be covered by insurance. A lot of things should be covered by insurance. Well, okay. Since we have a global audience or should be covered by your government where you are, I know in Brazil there is some plastic surgery that you will get covered by like the national health plan. Um, and I think it specifically has to do like with when you get to a certain age or something like that. So a lot of I've heard part of the reason for the BBL becoming so popular there is that a lot of women, after they have kids, they get a procedure covered where they get their mommy makeover done because the government has said that's good for people's mental health. So, like here, um, it's not always covered, but for some of our trans feminine patients, we can get laser hair removal covered for them because it's of a psychological benefit. And I think things like that should be expanded. For instance, uh cis women who just have hair sutism, which is you know excess hair growth, that could be really mentally taxing. And I think that their health coverage should pay for getting that hair removed. Even things like uh breast reductions, which can be covered in some cases, but there's a lot of hoops to jump through.
SPEAKER_00And in the spirit of Luigi Mangioni, um, yeah, no, there's like going through insurance for even like necessities is such a hassle and such a burden, and we need a lot a lot more things should be covered.
SPEAKER_02You know what? The villain here, as it always is, is capitalism. But yeah, it's health care and health coverage should not be for profit, I think, at all. Because it's like, yeah, they're an insurance company. It is in their best interest to deny everything. Do y'all know how many hours of my life I've spent arguing with insurance companies? Tell us so many, because it's like they they will put roadblocks in place just to make it difficult to get stuff covered because they want you to give up. So, um, you know, sometimes I'll prescribe something for a patient and I'll be like, you need to do prior authorization. So my office needs to do paperwork to get this medication covered for my patient. I have to explain to this insurance company why I think this is the best for my patient that they don't know, but I take care of. And then sometimes they could deny it and tell me, Oh, you need to do a peer-to-peer meeting, which is I have to talk to another doctor who works for the insurance company and tell them why this thing should be covered. They make it very difficult to get on the phone with this person. There, the you can't schedule a call. They randomly will call your office and be like, Are you available? And if you're not, too bad. Gotta call back or wait or something like that. And nine times, well, not nine times out of ten, I've never had one of these that I've done myself where I was speaking with another dermatologist. So I'll be like, hey, I need to cut the cyst out of my patient's scalp, and I'm talking to a pediatrician about this, and I'm like, this is medically necessary because the person's in pain and is draining and all this, and like, what are they gonna say to me? No, it's just wasting everybody's time. Time that I could spend with my patients.
SPEAKER_00It's dumb. We need universal health care. Um, my hot take basically is like, I feel like people are get really worried about a product being acne safe when comedogenicity isn't actually like a consistent factor, and I feel like they worry about these products being acne safe or not. But I'm like, is your entire routine even focused around like anti-acne in the first place? I see that as someone who has very acne-prone skin, and it's taken me a while, but like my routine, I know what actives I need to use to maintain like no breakouts. Um, and I use a lot of things that people say are they pork logging and they're not acne safe, but that's because my entire routine is based around not breaking out.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I always say you can't look at an ingredients list and tell me a product is combinic or not, because it doesn't just depend on the ingredients, it depends on the overall formula and also you.
SPEAKER_00Correct. And to go off of that too, it's I think people, and again, acne is a very traumatizing condition as someone who's dealt with it. I think people were like, oh, this it's the product, it's always gonna be the product, and that's the factor I can control. But it's like the pathogenesis for acne is so complex, and it can stem from like internal factors as well. So it's like I don't think the oil in this moisturizer is gonna cause the breakout.
SPEAKER_02I mean, and this is definitely something that I've evolved on as I've learned more about formulation. Um and uh another uh fold in this that has come out recently is um fungal acne safe. Your favorites. I haven't talked about fungal acne in a long time. Just for those of you who don't know, a lot of people will say that if their acne is treatment resistant, it must be fungal acne. Fungal acne is not a diagnosis, they're usually referring to something called piterosporum folliculitis, which is a totally different entity that, you know, is treatable that you could put into remission pretty easily. I think a lot of people who think they have fungal acne just have acne that's not been, you know, effectively treated yet. And now there are blogs online and people online saying, hey, this uh this product is fungal acne safe or not, because they're looking at really old studies where they're saying, hey, if we use this one ingredient in the growth medium for Peterosporum for these malassea um yeast, will they grow on it or not? Which totally divorces uh the concept from the overall formula, but also um the fact that we're talking about this on skin. We're not just putting pure, I don't know, let's just say squalane in a dish and seeing if yeasts grow on it. This is your face.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a lot of biological factors there to consider.
SPEAKER_02It I wish it was easier. I wish it was easier to tell. But I mean, any of those apps that will uh, you know, crunch through an ingredient list and spit out an answer for you. No. Not about acne safe, fungal acne safe, safety, any of that. It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_01It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_02It doesn't work. Everybody wants to be anti-plastic surgery and anti-cosmetics, but you never realize when you're looking at good work. I say this all the time. You only realize when people look weird or too different or overdone. For those of us who don't do that kind of work, it is unclockable. And I've said this before, I'll say it again. You have seen my work on magazine covers, on red carpets, on TV.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And it is unclockable. It's just uh you give people a healthy look. You turn back the clock a little bit, you keep them looking like themselves. What a lot of people base their viewpoints on is celebrities who will go to somebody who won't tell them no. And I've said no to a lot of things for a lot of patients. Um, if I think it's not right for them, or if I think it's gonna make them look weird, I will tell them no. Usually what I base my approach on is I ask them, you know, what's the result you want to achieve, or something you want to address. So say it's uh, I have a lot of dark spots from sun damage, versus them coming to me and being like, hey, I want this laser. If somebody says that to me, I'll be like, why? And I want to steer them in the right direction. It's the same thing with like filler. I've had a lot of people come to me and ask for filler for certain things, and then I've steered them towards other stuff that makes more sense for their concern. Not to say that filler is bad necessarily. I do a lot of it, but um yeah, I think knowing how to keep people looking natural is an important skill that not everybody has.
SPEAKER_00And it's also okay to not look natural. I will say that as well. Like people are just shit on plastic surgery, period. But yeah, to your point, it's we notice it. I mean, for example, with celebrities, we're so used to how celebrities look, and we see them, you know, as their careers progress, that one day they show up snatched, pickled, like everything is tight and right, and it's like that is jarring. And I feel like this last one, two years, we've really seen like a a surge of A-list celebrities really kind of get a lot of things done. But you know, we're also very quick to criticize women. I will say that.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I feel like the one exception to that that I've seen recently is that a lot of people are like getting on male celebrities about their facelifts and stuff like that. I mean, recently uh Jim Carrey made a public appearance where people I thought that wasn't him. It wasn't him? It was him.
SPEAKER_00It was him. Okay, turn away, carry on.
SPEAKER_02I believe it was him, but you know, people, you know, got on him for that. And I mean I don't know. I'm all for equality, gender equality, but at the same time, like just let people live their lives. Oh, people were saying that it was a clone. That was the thing.
SPEAKER_00I heard I heard it was Alexis Stone.
SPEAKER_02Correct. And it was not.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Because people were like, they said that because uh for those of you who don't know, Alexis Stone is a UK drag art personality? Yeah, who does like a lot of uh prosthetic makeup, celebrity impressions, yeah, does it and has gone to like a lot of fashion shows and events where she's basically done herself up to look like um Mrs. Doubtfire once, and I forget who uh Jennifer Coolidge, but like it's all with prosthetics, so it's not just makeup, it's like she really goes for it. So she was in Paris at the same time that this was going on, where Jim Carrey made his appearance in Paris, and then somebody um corroborated that like she was at another public appearance, so it couldn't be her. The amount of of work that people put into this was crazy. And I also think um it's a little bit uh brain rot for people to be like, oh, they got cloned. Sometimes people just get older.
SPEAKER_00Do you believe Avril Levine got cloned?
SPEAKER_02Is this one of the the conspiracy theories essay?
SPEAKER_00It's like a very like well not well established, but like well-known conspiracy theory that like people allege that she got like cloned. And so the Avril Levine that we see now is like not the Avril Levine.
SPEAKER_02Based on what? What happened to Avril specifically that they were like, oh, she's a clone?
SPEAKER_00I don't remember. But no, this is one of those, because like I like Loki love old school like Avril Levine, like record one, record two. And then it's like this complete 180 in terms of like musical style, artistic expression, and like also like how she looks was like a little bit different. But I mean, like to your point, like she just grew up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, yeah, that's somebody that we watched from when she was a teen to now. I recently saw also somebody was like talking about Ryan Seacrest and how he looks and everything. I'm like, people just get older, yeah, and like, yeah, it's like they're gonna look different, and yeah, they may get procedures done, but I don't know, man. Sometimes people get a mind like can't there be something more constructive we could be thinking about?
SPEAKER_00The answer to that is yes, but going back to your first point, people just love to judge T. But I also feel really bad for celebrities who got work done in the eras before plastic surgery got really good. Where it's like the really bad like cheek fillers and the really bad nose jobs.
SPEAKER_02Because, like, to Angela's point, now that work can be done very well and very unclockable, but back then it's kind of like Yeah, like yeah, there were some uh celebrities who got early work done with um silicone as fillers in their face, that never dissolves and can cause a lot of problems. So a lot of the people that you see that looked crazy or still do, it's probably because of that, sadly.
SPEAKER_00They're really bad OG like facelifts. I guess if I want to stay on the same topic, we allow men to be ugly and we shouldn't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Keep good, go, go for it.
SPEAKER_00And particularly straight men, it's like we just it's like, no, you can be ugly and it's okay. And obviously, all the pressures we put on women to like be perfect and flawless and thin and young all the time, but it's like men can get old and get fat and get gross and get nasty, and we're like, it's okay. Um, we need to stop that. We need to actually put an end to that. And like, ironically, it's we should be promoting and uplifting men to pursue personal care and bettering themselves because we have to look at you, and I don't like doing that.
SPEAKER_02I have several thoughts on this. One is that um it's not important to everybody to subscribe to traditional beauty standards, so and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I think anybody has the right to be ugly. However, there is a double standard where women are forced to do all these things to fit a certain criteria when I think everybody should feel free to express their looks how they want. That said, there have been many a time where I'm just out and about and I see a straight couple, and you see a beautiful woman who clearly is trying a lot and doing all of these things, and she's with a guy who couldn't even put on a clean shirt.
SPEAKER_00Or they're dressed for very different events, basically.
SPEAKER_02And I'm just like, look, I don't play in straight people's business. I try not to, but I'm just like I don't even dabble. I'm just like, if he could maybe, you know, put in some effort the same way that his partner is, maybe that would maybe she would appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00Let me rephrase my hot take then. Um basically we allow and uplift men to be very low effort when that same grace isn't extended to women. And also, like, we kind of like teach guys from a really young age like you shouldn't you shouldn't try hard for your looks or you like personal care isn't for you because that's like effeminate.
SPEAKER_02It's gay.
SPEAKER_00It's gay.
SPEAKER_02Um want people to think you're gay. There's no worse thing in the world than that.
SPEAKER_00And ironically, like a lot of men reach out and they ask questions because they're self-conscious about uh like visual things on them, but then they're like really reluctant to want to pursue something that could change that and make them feel better because again, it's effeminate, it's gay. I get a lot of questions about like under-eye bags from like older men, and I'm like, girl, get that lower blef.
SPEAKER_02You know what? Yeah, another kind of archetypal situation that I see sometimes is like the guy who doesn't take care of himself that then gets a girlfriend that totally transforms him. And it's like that's the influence that he needed in his life because he was so scared that it was gay. But like, since his girlfriend is like, okay, I'm your fairy godmother now, and I'm not gonna tolerate this.
SPEAKER_00My favorite from that is um when white guys date ethnic girls, and it's like a complete shift in like how they look and how they dress and everything. That's my favorite.
SPEAKER_02I I guess women really are the heroes. Um, especially because I do find when men get more into their aesthetics, you end up with something like looks maxing, which is basically like this malignant. Uh ideology of like, you know, like really awful ideas of what masculinity is and what looks are. So it's like uh you're at one of two extremes. Either like caring is gay or you need to care to the point where it's like you're risking your health and like feeding into what is frankly kind of racist ideology to achieve something. So yeah, I mean there's a lot of issues when it comes to men mental health and our place in society, but this is definitely one of them, yeah.
SPEAKER_00What's really cute is I think that like the younger generation is really embracing like feelings and like expressing them. I see like my brother talk to me about things, and I'm like, Can you guys talk about your feelings? That's so cute.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Um I mean, if anything, I feel like uh younger generations are dealing with so much more now, so it's like they need to go for them. I mean, I feel like they kind of got the shit under the stick with a lot of stuff, so sorry. Sorry, it's not our fault, it's the boomers.
SPEAKER_00So I have one more. We're seeing all these TV and movie remakes and reboots. The only one I need is a follow-up to Ugly Buddy. I need to know what happened to Justin when he grew up, and Amanda has to be a part of the series. I don't know if Justin works at mode at this point, and Amanda is still a receptionist. I also need Hilda back because Hilda as a character is everything to me. Ugly Buddy can pop in every once in a while. But um, I did just finish rewatching Ugly Buddy for like the third time. And yeah, like Justin was such a pivotal character for me growing up. Like that representation, because I saw so much of myself and Justin. Um, so yeah, like I want to know what he's doing. Like 20 years later, I want to know like what he grew up to be. And we've had a lot of like really weird reboots, and we had reboots that almost happened that didn't, Lizzie McGuire. I really wish, and then what pisses me off is Hillary wanted to do with that what I want with Ugly Buddy. Like, where is Lizzie Maguire now as an adult, and what is she doing in like her adult life? Because like, wasn't the rumors that like Disney axed it because the situation got a little bit like too adult?
SPEAKER_02Maybe, yeah. I mean, honestly, I've never seen Ugly Betty. So I know nothing about it, but weren't there multiple versions like internationally?
SPEAKER_00So it started as Betty La Fea in Colombia, and then like further iterations, but yeah, the guy who started that, they did the American one because Salma Hayek really wanted to bring that. And she was like executive producer and she was in the first season as well.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um and I mean if you watch it back, it was a it's a it's a problematic show. It's that era of like early 2000s. Um, but they did touch on a lot of I think still very like interesting topics in a more ahead of its time way. Like again, Justin. Um but yeah, like it's I want to see like the modern interpretation of the same concept, the same show, but from Justin's life.
SPEAKER_02Do you think Academy Award nominee America Ferrara will come back?
SPEAKER_00That's what I'm saying. I she'll she'll I'm trying to word this.
SPEAKER_02Uh Ferrera, sorry.
SPEAKER_00You she does TV still, so I don't think she's above doing TV. On top of that, you really could tell like she would bring people in from prior projects. So like her having those connections and being part of those like projects, or having those people be part of her projects is really important to her. I don't think she needs to be a fixture by any means, but like she that was her show. That was like her big break. Wasn't uh Vanessa Williams her boss in the She was Willamina Slater.
SPEAKER_02Well, okay, so I don't know if she's still doing it, but she was in the Devil Wears Product musical on the West End.
SPEAKER_00And I saw her. I saw her in the flesh. Oh god, she was so good.
SPEAKER_02I I was at like some sort of pride event for a brand a few years ago, and she was she was the the musical performance they had. She was great.
SPEAKER_00Amazing, gaggy, very gaggy. Um she sang.
SPEAKER_02I don't even remember. She definitely sang um Save the Best for Last, for sure. Cause her number one hit.
SPEAKER_00Anthem, iconic.
SPEAKER_02But I I find it so funny that now, yeah, she's almost made a career out of playing uh fashion editors.
SPEAKER_00Like bitchy fashion editors. Bitchy fashion editors, and again, she could be on the show too. I don't care. Another, like going back to like America Ferrara, I actually think she's an amazing actress. It's like I I she does have to be part of the show. But give her executive production credit. I don't know. Pay give her a fat check, but I need this reboot to happen.
SPEAKER_02Well, I hope it happens.
SPEAKER_00If you could reboot a show, what would you reboot?
SPEAKER_02Ooh, I don't know. See, that's a good choice because it's like it's it's not like it was a children's show. It was like a young adult, I would say. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'm like, what show did I watch that was that good? Oh, you know who I would like to see come back? Okay, there was a show, United States of Terra.
SPEAKER_00Uh Tony Collette.
SPEAKER_02Tony Collette.
SPEAKER_00Amazing actress.
SPEAKER_02Which they kind of jumped the shark in like the last season, but she played somebody with dissociative identity disorder, so it was like she had multiple personalities. And I don't know if it was the most like accurate depiction because it was kind of a comedy too, but Tony Collette is such a good actor, and I would love to see her do that again because it allowed her to play various different characters and all of that. And I feel like that show came out when I was a young adult, and I really uh yeah, I was like, damn, like this is television, and also, yeah, there was like a young gay character on it. And that was the start of Bree Larson, Academy Award winner, Brie Larson. The Oscars are this weekend when we're filming this, so that's why this is on my mind.
SPEAKER_00Wait, I'm really excited to I hope something big happens so that next week when we film we have like good talking points.
SPEAKER_02I hope so.
SPEAKER_00What is in your opinion is like the biggest Oscar snub?
SPEAKER_02Ever? Ooh. I don't know. The first thing that's coming to my mind is Debbie Moore for the substance.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, because was that who won that one? Mikey Madison. Yeah. I don't have an answer. I say that like actually no.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, hopefully we have something to talk about next time because clearly, you know, we're at a loss for topics. Until then, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Give us your hottest take in the comments.
SPEAKER_02And uh like, subscribe, leave a review, comment, whatever, wherever you are. Please. Bye.