Skincare Q&A #1 Derm & Chemist Answer Your Questions

As our original Heavenly Thotties, your thoughts, comments, and questions matter the most to us! So for this episode of Divine Skintervention, we’re answering some of your burning skincare questions and sharing our professional opinions and thoughts! (Not medical advice !)

Ramón
https://www.instagram.com/glowbyramon/
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

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Ramon. Hi Ramon. Hi, Angelo. What do you think is the most common question you're getting on social media? When people get into your DMs, what is the one thing that is stumping them? The one product category, like, what is it?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

What's the best sunscreen?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Really?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Yeah. And basically it's just like people want a one-and-done, all-encompassing answer, and they really do not like the reality of what do you mean I have to actually go look and try things out? Like, what do you mean I have to like really explore my options to find the one that's best suited for me? Like, there's not a one size fits all. And I'm like, there's not a one-size-fits-all for anything.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah. That's mine.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Do you get a specific one?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

I get that a lot, or you know, I do a weekly AMA with my followers on Instagram. So if you're not following me on Instagram and you want access to that and the stories, and you want to ask questions, follow me. Angelo Angelo.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

I'll access.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah. So it's it's crazy because a lot of the questions that I get are about very specific things to that person. Like when I first started on social, the most common comment was, What do I do for little little bumps on my face? How the hell do I know what that is? What kind? What color are they? Also, I not not to be angry about it. I think people don't understand that it's unethical for me to answer specific questions that people have about like their own skin, their own skin conditions. I'm a doctor, I can't just give out advice, especially, you know, when all I have is like a little comment or something, no context, no image. Like, yeah, there's liability concerns. So that's why I don't answer those questions. People have asked why I don't answer those questions. That's why. Aside from that, yeah, uh, people are often asking about sunscreen recommendations, but they're very specific. Like, okay, what's the best matte sunscreen to wear under makeup? I've tested hundreds, YouTube, I'm sure, hundreds of sunscreens, and I put out a lot of content. I try to put it all in one place. Um, there's a playlist on my TikTok of my series, the SPF30. That's where I try to keep all of my sunscreen reviews. I do at least 30 sunscreen reviews a year publicly, but I am trying stuff aside from that, and that'll be peppered into my content. And I try to give people more uh qualitative reviews, if that makes sense. Like descriptive. What is the texture like? Who what kind of skin is it good for? Is it good for dry skin, oily skin? What's the finish like?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

And to this point, it's kind of goes back to the one size fits all, there's no such thing. There's not really very often a bad product. It's just a product that's not intended for you and your skin concern, your skin type, your skin needs, daily needs. Um, and I I always have a little bit of a fight to pick with these creators who go into stores and they're like, these are the products that I don't think are worth it. And I'm like, yeah, they're not worth it to you. But the context of what people deem as worth it or what they actually want to use and are willing to pay money for, that varies on a lot of different um based off a lot of different variables.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Um And I'm saying that all the time too, which is why I'm in total agreement. There are very few like out and out bad products on the market. Usually when you see a review and somebody's really trashing something, it's because it didn't work for them, unless they know better. Honestly, yeah, there are a handful of products that I can think of in my life that I'm like, this was bad, or it's just not achieving what it wants to achieve. But uh most of the time it's just a mismatch, and that's why it's trial and error in a way. And obviously, if you're looking at content, try to really take it in, not somebody saying, Oh, this is the best one ever, and I love this, but it's like, why? What kind of skin type do they have? Uh, I'll often say in my reviews, you know, what's coming to mind right now is that there's a lot of mineral sunscreens out there that the way that they even tinted mineral sunscreens, that the way that they get around that drying, chalky zinc feel is by making a very emolgent or oily product. And I will usually say in those reviews, hey, if you have dry skin, you'll probably love this. If you don't, you're not gonna like it. Like, look for stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

A thousand percent. And that's why it's like I see a lot of people, and like granted, the negative content gets great engagement. People love to trash a brand and be like, oh my god, this person's so pissed and hates this product. I can't wait to watch this video. But on the other end, people always want the one size fits all answer. And this recommending one product is not gonna be sufficient for like your entire following base. Um, another one is people who try to, we talk about dupes before. I saw recently a Durham do a video where they were like, oh, do you like these higher-end products? Here are lower cost dupes or like versions of them. But then what they're entirely missing is the sensory and the texture and the feel and finish of these lower end dupes. Nowhere near, and they're not saying dupes, they're saying just lower cost alternatives, or nowhere near the same experience you'd get with the higher-end option. And that's saying like, oh, the more expensive ones better. Just you're recommending two products that have retina, but they're not even remotely similar textures. And that's what I'm just like, what's the point of that kind of video? Yeah, the product's cheaper, but it's not like the person who liked the givea products.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Ooh, um, the uh uh the the milky toner from Bioma. Somebody likes it.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Well, that's like someone saying, like, oh, that milky toner has this peptide, this ordinary serum has a peptide, that's a dupe, but now I'm like, again, it's not even the same product type, not the same texture, finish, feel, experience. And that was the video that the person was giving, and I'm just like Who is this helping? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Well, uh, it's I think in a way better to just be like, hey, here are you know great budget products or drugstore options if you're looking for this effect, rather than being like, this is just like this expense, this is just like La Mer. Nivea and La Mer. There you go. There you go. Worlds apart. That that's one where, yeah, you're getting some of the sensoriality of it, but you're not getting the key ingredient. That's like the flip side of it. The miracle broth. The broth. Broth. Today, cherubs, we're answering some of your questions. Submitted vertically vertically? Submitted via Instagram. We're trying to give you both the derm and cosmetic take on this. The cosmetic take? Cosmeticemist. The cosmetic take. My brain is not working today. We're gonna give you our informed takes on these questions. Okay, our first question is about best peptide serums and if DNA repair serums are good.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Ooh, that's a good one. I saw actually Capricornium talk about the DNA repair enzymes one.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

I don't think there's good in vivo data about DNA repair enzymes at all. I did see I'm remembering a small study from probably like the last two years where they showed it they did nothing.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yeah, I don't know too much about it, but from my understanding of it, a big factor in the success of them is delivery, as with most things. Which actually goes back to the peptide question too.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

If you think about it, if we're looking at DNA repair, most of our cosmetics, they're gonna work on like the outermost layers of the epidermis, so the stratum corneum, and then you need penetration. The reason that you need penetration for DNA repair is that those skin cells that are in those outermost layers don't have DNA in them anymore.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Which technically, I mean, if you're going to like the lowest level of the epidermis, yeah, you have to go to the the basal layer.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So the delivery system's gonna be very important.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Correct. And even still, it's like what what benefits is what are the biomarkers for that?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

That might be too deep for the episode, actually. I think, yeah, there's specific biomarkers that they look at when, you know, exposing the skin to uh radiation and all of that. Like I would have to look into the exact methods, but yeah, we don't have great data for it yet. Uh peptides, on the other hand, I think one thing that people don't realize is that you know, different peptides have different levels of data behind them. Saying that something has peptides is like saying, um, I don't know, it's like we put oils in here. What kind of oils? Is it, you know, jojoba oil? Is it coconut oil? Is it, you know, and obviously like those things have different properties. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but you know, it's basically like say we put different little chopped-up proteins in here.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Now, to your point, the oils have different properties, and that's just a result of the different fatty acids in them. So that's why some oils are better for oily skin versus dry skin. They impart different levels of moisture. So to Angela's point, yeah, like different peptides have different levels of efficacy and data associated. And different functions, too. Different functions. My favorite thing is people associate peptides with uh phylenes and wrinkles, but there's peptides that address things like pigmentation that also help in exfoliation, for example.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

I tend to like the peptide products that are introducing some sort of like innovation for delivery. So Neutrogena Collagen Bank Line, if you're looking for something, drugstore, um Medicaid makes a good uh liquid peptides advanced MP.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

That's a great product, and that one is like cocktail of peptides plus delivery systems. A really popular one I got, so I did a peptide review, a roundup, and they talked about educated messes. And people were like, Oh, you should try Geek and Gorgeous because they have a really affordable peptide. And Geek and Gorgeous's thing is they will call out what complexes they use. So they say, Oh, we use Tego, whatever, whatever, and Matrixel 3,000? Yes. Um, and those are very different price-pointed products, the educated mess and geek and gorgeous one. But the Geek and Gorgeous one has one specific delivery system that's tied to one of the peptides that they have in the product. Educated Mess has three delivery systems for the different peptide complexes they use. And Educated Mess also did the clinicals, thus the higher price point for that product. But then the ordinary also has really good peptide products as well. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

So uh the ordinary is doing stuff with copper peptides. Their sister brand, Neon, kind of was one of the pioneers of putting copper peptides in skincare. It trickled down to the ordinary. They have like buffet plus copper peptides. Also, people don't realize growth factors are peptides, so I like that the ordinary they have a GF 15% serum, so there's a growth factor serum with plant-based growth factors that's not super expensive. I think less than $20. Yeah. Good option if you're looking to try something with growth factors on a budget.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, and good clinicals from that. Although I think those are still in-house, but still good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Okay, moving on. Simplest way to tell if a sunscreen is effective. Are you burning? So, yeah, I think there's this idea online because there's been a lot of these like gotcha sort of videos that have no science behind them that, oh, this sunscreen really isn't effective. Look at this one. I'm putting it on on the UV camera, I'm putting it on the blotter paper, I'm gonna split up half my back and then you know, do little squares of it. It doesn't work like that. The sunscreens that are on the market have been tested for SPF, for depending on where you are, broad spectrum designation, PA plus rating. That testing has been done in a laboratory in controlled uh environments that are going to be like much more precise than anything that you could do at home.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

There's a standardized method for these in vivo SPF testing, so that ideally also all the markets in the world have a very similar, if not exactly the same, practice and method to run these tests.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

So, yeah, it's not on you to figure out if a sunscreen is effective. I think what's on you, the consumer, generally, is finding one that you could apply enough of. I think for efficacy, what the consumer needs to work on is their application technique, their adherence to the sun protection plan, which isn't just sunscreen. Check the UV index, please. Sun protective clothes, things like that. But um, yeah, it's not on you to be like this product is effective or not.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Correct. In order for a sunscreen to launch on the market, it has to pass very rigorous testing and be compliant in that regard. On top of that, I always get, well, I tanned. First of all, sunscreens, again, to Angela's point, sunscreen's not the be-all end-all. You need a full like sun safety wardrobe per se. But on top of that, are you wearing enough? Are you reapplying consistently? And always people always say that, and then I'm finding out what sunscreens are using, and I'm like, this is why I don't love this. Is a very personal thing. This is why I don't love mineral sunscreens sometimes. Yeah, you can see how much you're putting on very visually, and therefore you're like, well, if I take it on, I'm protected. But I personally don't think they offer the best UVA protection. And that's part of the reason why you might be tanning.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Interesting. Well, also keep in mind no sunscreen is ever gonna filter 100% of UV.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

And I say we don't say some block, because that's not a regulated term, like that's actually illegal to say.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah. And so I think a lot of the time when people are like, I tanned, there's still UV getting through. It may have been too intense, and I bet you 98% of the time people are not using sunscreen perfectly.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

So you see the people that like when you're at the polar beach, they use a spray sunscreen, they just do like the tss then.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah, you gotta rub those in and apply way more than you think.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Facial massages, how helpful are they? You are the biggest hater of facial massage, especially because people are always like, look, I did a facial massage and now I'm like lifted and toned.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah, there's this girl on Insta who says they're life-changing. Here's the thing with facial massaging: little to no data about it. There was like one small study that they did where they put people on a regimen and like their appearance was improved based on this grade, or it was too small to really draw conclusions and it's hard to standardize. A lot of these people will talk about facial facial massage and all of this and say, Oh, well, like it looks like I got Botox, but I didn't, or I like slimmed my nose or whatever. Facial massage, if you think about it, could help with like depuffing the face. If you have a lot of water retention, very puffy face, definitely could help with that. If you have, you know, and this is theoretical on my end, but like if you have certain muscles with a lot of tension, so people who grind their teeth deal with TMJ stuff, like massaging your master may help with comfort. But yeah, there's these massage brushes that people are asking me about all the time now because people are making these videos saying, like, look how lifted one side they're they're going like this. Look how lifted it, and then they're like lifting one. I can't lift my eyebrows, but you could do it. Like they're lifting one eyebrow.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Look how lifted my brow is. It just brushed it.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, so it's it's not what people are making it out to be. It's the same thing with gua sha. So I think the utility of it is low. Um, like I said though, in those cases where if you feel like you look a little bit puffy, you want to pull out the gua sha or the massage tool, great. If it's something that helps you relax and you like doing it that way and it feels good, great. Amazing. Um, but I wouldn't expect big changes from it. Why so much debate with chemical sun filters? Is it true some are endocrine disruptors? No. There has never been one case of endocrine disruption from any of the like commercially available sunscreen filters on the market. We have never seen that in humans ever.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, and a lot of the data this comes from really is down to these like rat studies, where again, consumption in high volumes is a really big factor in that. And my thing is people always like try to spread this message of, oh, these are endocrine disruptors, they do all these things to your hormones, but then they never people never go into details about what that actually means. And I know your favorite thing to say is like what endocrine is getting disrupted. Yeah, which hormones name them. Yeah, and again, people don't realize there's heavy, heavy scrutiny already on these chemical filters, so they are constantly reassessed for safety, and they're used in every market across the world, or at least approved for use in every market around the world, for a reason. So that's why, yeah, you don't see them in Korean sunscreens, but they're still approved to be used in Korea. They're used in Australia, they're used in Europe still.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, for the US um UV filters, if I'm not mistaken, all of them are approved for use around the world too. They're just not used because they're old and there are better options around the world.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

It is not efficient, per se, so you need a higher quantity, and that can affect things like elegance. But it's 2026. We've gotten really good stabilization for these FDA-approved filters, and on top of that, again, they're used everywhere for a reason. Some of them, like again, Avobenzone, which we have in the US, is one of the top-notch best UVA filters that we have. What is the right skincare for crusty heels? Ooh, I feel like this is like a U answer, but like urea 40%. Yeah, high urea. There's these little tubs of urea cream you can get on Amazon for like $7.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Yeah, that's probably like the most efficient way. I've seen people do these baby peel things on their feet, like with the doors. I I tried it once.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

I didn't peel like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

I didn't peel like crazy either.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

I was like really underwhelmed. And I've I've had people be like, no, you're gonna peel so much, like you're gonna find dead skin everywhere. And I'm like, I did not peel like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

It's mostly AHA, so.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah. Just exfoliate your feet. I'm a big fan of urea, but also like maintenance. I'll like after I shower, I'll use the glycolic acid ordinary toner on my feet.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Best tretinoin layering and barrier support products. Well, so for tretinoin layering, let me just say um a lot of the info that we spout off about trenoin layering it with moisturizers is from one very specific study that's very old, that if I remember correctly, they were putting tazerotine on after applying Cera V cream, and found that results were like equivalent to just putting on straight tret and then moisturizer after or something like that. Basically, everything gets onto the skin anyway, but yes, I have referred to this as um skin doping before, where it's like you're putting on basically like barrier support products or calming products together with your actives that might be more irritating. That way you could get some of the results without as much of the irritation. What are some of your your favorite calming products?

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Calming products. I go to staple my routines always craves uh great barrier relief. Okay. I at least once a month will fuck up my skin and like have a horrible reaction, and that will always bring everything down within 30 minutes. But like I always get questions about barrier creams, and I'm like, I personally, especially for something like related to like tret sandwiching, I don't think you need like a barrier cream-specific product. To me, it's just like a really good moisturizer for like your specific skin needs. Because there's always that talk of like, no, a barrier cream has to have the ceramides and the fatty acids and cholesterol, and you have to know the ratios of 3-1-1. And I'm like, well, A, how are you guaranteeing that? And B personally, I in my opinion, unless you were very compromised already, and I'm talking like atopic dermatitis level, like, you don't need to really focus on like a proper like berrier cream.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah, I some of my favorites with Treat. Uh Skin Seuticals Triple Lipid Restore. I've never I've never used that product. Very nice moisturizer. Um Dews. I don't know which one it is. Instant Angel. The white one. The white one. Instant Angel, yeah. Very nice alternative to that. The original Cerevi cream is good. Noturium's Plant Serumine moisturizer is really nice. Yes. Another thing for people who are using Trett, they may find that they're getting flaky in certain areas, like around the nose, around the mouth. You can moisturize by zone, uh, which is my term for like use a lighter moisturizer all over the face, then go in with something thicker around those areas, including you could go all the way up to Vaseline. Yeah. So that's definitely a strategy. If you want to include something with like scintilla, Metagasa side, that could be helpful.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yeah, La Roche has theirs, but honestly, I like Skin 1004s, uh the Madagascar vanilla, no.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Cintella. Madagascar vanilla.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Sorry, we're hungry.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Okay. That's definitely an option. Yeah, I like those two. Yeah, there's plenty of options on the market for that.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Yeah, and for me, like I love an occlusive, but I also love like really fun textural takes on that. So, like experiments buffered jelly is a really good example, or Bloom Effects uh Royal Tulip Nectar. That one to me is really fun because it's like a really high glycerin content occlusive.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

She's sticky.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

She's sticky, she's a lot of my friends with eczema, though, swear by that product. It's a really nice, like soothing product.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Shout out to Kim Van Haster. That's a girl. What to buy from France? Ooh, I feel like this is something you have a lot to say. Yeah, I'm in France a lot. Questioner, you are like me and you live in the US. Sunscreen. Yeah. That's what I buy a lot of in France, just because they're a different international market. They have access to you know different filters. The sunscreens are much nicer. Um, if it's just a question of like, I'm ordering French skincare products, that's a little bit different. I think unfortunately, there's a lot of content out there about shopping in a French pharmacy that's just weird to me. Like, buy the Nooks oil. You can get that anywhere in the world. Yeah, it might be a little bit cheaper in the in France, and you could get like D tax on it, but a lot of people are also saying, like, get Biafine. If you're getting Biafine, understand what it's for. It's burn cream because I've seen creators, creators go and be like, oh, I'm gonna buy BFN, and they just put it all over their face, and that's not what it's for. Um, there's like a lot of homeopathic stuff in French pharmacies, so a lot of people say, buy homeoplasmin, it's nipple cream, and da da da da. Because it's homeopathic, it's basically an ointment, like uh petroleum jelly-based with like tiny amounts of plant extracts in it. You're buying overpriced Vaseline, basically.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

It's like the way that we hype up Korean skincare because Koreans have great skin, same thing with the French, and I feel like a lot of there's a lot of hype around specific French, like staple products, but from the American, or like no, from any objective perspective, I'm like, why? There's the what's the retin retinal pometeate, the A313?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

A313, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

There are so many really affordable, great American drugstore retinols that will outperform that any day.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

I would say if you're a La Roche-Pose fan, definitely shop their sunscreens in France. And also they have a bigger catalog there than they do a lot of other places in the world. So I'll find products from them there that I'm like color cosmetics or certain lines that they carry here, that they just have more options there.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Yeah, Even also.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Even also, yeah, they have more options basically. Um what else to buy in France?

SPEAKER_01 25:31

So I think I feel like someone sunscreen focused. There was a lot of hyper on a lot of different uh brands I hadn't heard of, like SVR. Yeah. Did not love their sunscreens, horrible textures. Across the board, a lot of perfume as well. And like not even like nice smells, it's just very strong perfume in the leave-on facial products.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Bioderma has some good sunscreens out there. One thing that you will notice about French skincare, they love fragrance. There's fragrance in everything, which I'm fine with, but it's like some of the stuff is very strong as opposed to. I mean, in the US, I think there's been a movement against putting fragrance in skincare products. Sometimes it's a little bit much. Yeah. And it smells a little old lady. That's the thing, it's it's never a good smell. One thing that I've liked that a lot of people don't know about, I've never heard anybody else talk about this. Yeah, I went on and on about Biafine, but now there's a whole skincare line called Sica Biafine, which is not the same thing as the beauphine ointment. But they make like a lot of good barrier repair products. It's more body focused, so that's something to look into potentially. I think it's kind of a myth that oh my god, all French people have great skin. Do you know how many people smoke there? And they like the sun too. They like a good vacation, they like leisure, so I don't think that they're necessarily like the best when it comes to skin. Style is something that we've looked to them for, but it's more about they're very low-key. That's their style. They don't wear a lot of bright colors, it's very the the reason they're chic is because they don't take risks. So drag her. Uh no, and I say this as somebody who is, you know, my life partner is a Frenchman, and I spent a lot of time there. It's a great culture, I love it, and yeah, the people are great, but I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

You're like, France, don't cancel me, France.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah, I've like even though I will hit up the pharmacy when I'm there, I'm more likely to be spending my time eating.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

At the wine bar. Get your luxury goods in France. That you don't know. If the fashion house is based in Paris, it'll be cheaper.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Effective acne scar treatments versus trends, paid promoted products, etc.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

I have a bone to pick with this specific question and this thought process, because first of all, you need to specify what kind of scars we're talking about. Because you have the textural pitted scars versus like dark spots.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

So, yeah. One thing that I have to say as a dermatologist, I don't know how this got started. Acne scars are literal defects in the structure of the skin. So pitted scarring, ice pick scarring, boxcar scarring, it's permanent. The dark spots left over after, that's post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. These are different. And cosmetic products can make claims about dark spots, not really post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, because that's considered a medical diagnosis. But they cannot make claims about true acne scarring.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

There, we have seen brands try to do this. I've actually fought with brands about mentioning that because yeah, the you can't, there's not really a cosmetic solution for getting rid of the textural scars. That's what did we even use for that in like in office, in clinic?

SPEAKER_00 29:04

In office, it could be a mix of lasers, chemical peels, microneedling, radio frequency. Like most of the time, people need multiple modalities too. Topically, the best evidence that we have is for retinoids, but specifically the best studies were done on a dappling 0.3%, which is still only available by prescription. They didn't just do like investigator grading, they took actual skin biopsies and found new collagen deposition in old scars. That's gaggy. It is gaggy. Like they they really went there. Um, and so yeah, usually for my patients who are looking to try to use something topical to decrease that pitted scarring, I'll prescribe them that. For people who want to buy something over the counter, theoretically could 0.1% adapene OTC do something potentially, but we can't really say. There's no evidence on that formula.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Do you know off the top of your head, like the amount of improvement that the study showed?

SPEAKER_00 30:14

I do not know exactly like what the percentage was. I don't remember off the top of my head how long they were using it, but there's histologic evidence of newly formed collagen in these scars, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Yeah. So yeah, for actual what is acne scarring, that's a solution. For dark spots, dark spot serums.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Aggressive sun protection. Retinoids, exfoliance, tinted sunscreen, visible light from her, the sun, not the roof. Soleil. Soleil, get that visor. What would be an ideal husband skincare starter kit? Product Rex, please. I don't know your husband. I'd like to. Just kidding.

unknown 31:09

Ha!

SPEAKER_00 31:10

But the starting point for anybody should be cleanser, moisturizer, sunscreen. And if your husband is the type that has never done skincare before and doesn't want to do much, you only have to wash your face once a day. Typically at night is better, but you could use your sunscreen as moisturizer. So in the morning it could just be rinse with water, put on sunscreen.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Yeah, with husbands, with men, straight men, um, streamlined, as concise and easy to follow and understand as possible. And texturally, that's another big concern men have is they don't want to feel a product. So um, yeah, D'Angelo's point, rinse your face off if that's what you're gonna do. And then just a lightweight sunscreen in the morning. Do you have a preference?

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Not really. Like the proc product selection is gonna depend on like this guy's skin type. So does he have dry skin? Does he have oily skin? Does he have rosacea? Is he sensitive? Yeah. So, yeah, but hopefully that helps. Can you explain nano versus non-nano zinc? Of course. Particle size. Yes. So typically, nanoscale is gonna be anything between one and a hundred nanometers as a particle. So, excuse me for geeking out, but I've done bench research and nanoparticles. Basically, the idea is you're breaking that particle size down to be smaller, and that presents certain advantages. It can still confer UV protection, but at the same time will reflect less visible light. And what that means is less white cast. However, it's not been included in a lot of sunscreens because people are afraid of nanoparticles, even though there's no reason to be alarmed from a toxicology standpoint. The concern would be uh penetration into the bloodstream, which zinc already exists in our bodies, so Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Um, yeah, there's no concern. I think actually a round of studies have reconfirmed there's no concern with nanoparticles. And to Angela's point, if more brands would be willing to use nanoparticles, we'd have a lot more elegant options for these mineral sunscreens. Um, but beyond that, we know min we know mineral sunscreens primarily function by absorbing UV energy. When you make the particle size smaller, it shifts the range of absorption. So the particles become a lot more UVB centric. Um so while there's less reflectance of visible lights, it also takes some of the protection down away from like the UVA side into the UVB side. So that's the one thing from our perspective that we have to be mindful of is just if you want that broad spectrum designation, um, how do we balance particle size while still getting a good absorption spectra?

SPEAKER_00 33:55

And if you know the electromagnetic spectrum, that makes sense because UVA is like that part of the spectrum is right next to visible light. It's ultra violet, which is just above violet. So please discuss the rising trend of at-home microneedling.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

I actually don't know. Don't do it. Don't do it. Brands are coming out with devices to make it a lot easier to do at home, and there are benefits to getting professional microneedling done, such as I mean, we use microneedling for skin resurfacing.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

The idea is you're producing a controlled injury, and for the most part, the skin is gonna come fill that in with new collagen. The reason I don't love people doing it at home is that you could scar yourself, you could cause infections, you're not working in a sterile environment. And I know people say, well, I've done it and it's been fine. It's always fine until it's not. It's like you've ridden in a car without a seatbelt and didn't get in a car accident, but you do that enough, your chances go up.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Also, that's one of those where I'm like, what's the issue of going to see someone professionally to do it right?

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Money. If you could only use one skincare product for the rest of your life, what would it be? A sunscreen for me.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

But which one?

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Dalpa Pete Mog Waterful UV essence.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Oh, that's gaggy.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

The Korean version.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

That's a good sunscreen. It's a great sunscreen.

unknown 35:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Oh, I would not have gone that route. The Beauty of Joe Sun Matte Sunstick. She formulated that her that herself. Developed the formula.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

I didn't make I didn't was not up in the lab formulating that one. Do topical exosomes really work? Uh, this is a really tough one. Jury's out. Exosomes are really just delivery systems. Correct. So does it work? What is it loaded with? Where do they come from? Uh background on what exosomes are. Basically, they're like lipid pockets. Pockets that are pinched off of cells. Um, and so they could excrete things. Uh jury's out on this.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Yeah, like the thing is the data is for human-derived exosomes, and we're seeing a lot more widely available plant exosomes, which is why so much of the data is kind of like, oh, we don't know about the plant-based ones. But a lot of suppliers are coming out with ex-vivo data to show efficacy. The big thing is after manufacturing, are the exosomes still viable, in my opinion. Um, and I always just look at what are the clinicals for the products. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Yeah, so uh is it true that you shouldn't use vitamin C and niacinamide products at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Untrue. That was a big thing 2016-17. No. Because one study put them together at ultra high temperatures and showed, I don't even know, instability, some bad reaction, but like we're not seeing those temperatures on the skin. If anything, I think they personally complement each other. I think the ordinary did do a study that showed some weird incompatibility, but I've never actually seen that widely published.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Yeah, I I've heard of no concerns with this. So can you talk about clay masks? Do they dry the skin? They absorb oil temporarily. Yes. I always say like a clay mask is a good thing to do to maybe like make your pores appear smaller right before an event.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Correct. Because it's like you're always going to produce oil. That's my thing around like, well, this regulates even production. I'm like, uh, I don't know if it's really doing a lot to make a huge difference. Like you're gonna make oil, and the clay is just gonna absorb a lot of that excess oil so that you have the short-term impact of I'm a shiny, pores look better, but so yeah, a nice thing to do, like right at the time that you want to look great if you have oily skin.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

They're fun, they're cute.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Okay, I think we're gonna wrap it up there. Thanks for your questions.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Yeah, feel free to comment more below or DM them to Angelo or myself or the Divine Skin Intervention Podcast Instagram account.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

Yeah, and maybe the next time we do this, your question will get answered. Please remember to subscribe, like, comment, five stars. Um, show us some love. Because we love doing this.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Because we love you. Bye.