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 #2
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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
So, Ramon, tell me.
SPEAKER_00Wait, hi Angel.
SPEAKER_01Hi, Ramon.
SPEAKER_00There we go.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Ramon, tell me. What is something that you love that you feel like is like a guilty pleasure that everybody hates, or you know, something that's unpopular?
SPEAKER_00I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I I have one for you already.
SPEAKER_00What is it?
SPEAKER_01Knitting.
SPEAKER_00Are they gonna say hot dogs?
SPEAKER_01Hot dog? No. Oh my god. Hot dogs are so popular. I love a good hot dog.
SPEAKER_00Um, do people not like knitting? I feel like needlecraft got really popular again, but I feel like people are crocheting now, specifically, not knitting.
SPEAKER_01I learned to crochet a few years ago. I stopped after a while, but No, I knit.
SPEAKER_00I actively knit. I have like four knitting projects going on right now.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow. What are they?
SPEAKER_00Um I'm working on a sweater for husband. I'm working on a scarf for a husband. I'm working on two baby sweaters for a friend of mine. And so for to back reference everything, I taught myself how to knit when I was 10 years old. Because I really my my dad and stepmom were really into crafting. Knitting really seemed interesting to me. So I told my dad I want to learn. He was like, Bet. Took me to Michael's, he said, get whatever you need. And then he was like, figure it out. And I did. I handled it. But um, I was really into a very specific style of knitting called Erin knitting, A-R-A-N Aaron. And it's basically those kinds of patterns that involve a lot of cables, they're really intricate, like cable designs. There is an Aaron Afgan I have literally been working on since I was like 10 years old. I have never finished it, but every few years I'll like work on another section of it.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00So that is still ongoing as well.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So it's like your Sagrata Familia or something. Like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00Literally, yes. Maybe when I have a kid, I'll pass the hopefully completed blanket onto them.
SPEAKER_01Hopefully. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Knitting is fun. It is. It is. It is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, I think especially now, the reason I took up crochet when I did was I was like, I need something to do with my hands that's not being on my phone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It was basically that. So um I would like put a good podcast in or something. Like Divine Skin Intervention. Like Divine Skin Intervention and then Crochet. I made a handful of things. I made like a few hats, a few scarves. Um, my kid lost one of the scarves, so I had to make another one.
SPEAKER_00Umgrateful.
SPEAKER_01Uh I made myself like a some sort of a top.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I will say I do finish projects. I made my husband socks for Christmas a couple years back.
SPEAKER_01What's the verdict on the socks? Thumbs up. Nice.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, I love I love small things that are easy to complete because I love instant gratification. And like baby clothes, it's like regular people's clothes, just a lot smaller. So you can whip them up really quick. That garment construction element of it, I really like as well. Cause I can sew and I know how to put garments together, but I'm not like a sewer. That makes sense. That's actually going to be like a New York thing. I want to do was like take proper sewing classes so I can like bake trousers for myself or whatever.
SPEAKER_01You know what? Yeah, like that's something I maybe we could do that together together at the beginning. Fun, you know, girls project together. Yeah. So my grandmother was a, she kind of like raised me a little bit, but she was a seamstress and a pattern maker.
SPEAKER_00So is my grandmother. She's a Puerto Rican one.
SPEAKER_01No, she's from like from from Italy. And uh she would like even like when my dad was a kid, would come home at night with like detail work. So like she would work in like a shop that made like dresses. So she was like hand stitching embellishments onto dresses and stuff at night for like extra money, which is crazy. But because of her, I learned how to hand sew. And like when I was working in the fashion industry, and even now with my brand, on like certain occasions, like being able to hand sew has been so important, but people don't know how to do that anymore.
SPEAKER_00Lost I mean, back in the day, I feel like those things were actually actively taught in school. Like, wasn't that like the home ec thing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Did you have home ec?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01I think in maybe in junior high, I had home ech, but they were like, okay, um, here's how you oh, I think one of the things was balancing a checkbook. They taught us how to cook a little bit. Yeah, it was stuff like that.
unknownYeah, we didn't have that.
SPEAKER_00I kind of had a version of it in high school, and basically, I don't even know what the point of this class was. And it was the teacher's first year, but basically Shikru would love us. Her name was Miss Harn at Northwestern High School at Lacey, Washington.
SPEAKER_01Shout out, Miss Harn.
SPEAKER_00And it was one of those things where it was like um like life things that are actually really applicable to you that you should know, and no one teaches you. So like the checkbook thing is really interesting. Um I was a senior, I believe, that year, and I had like a whole range of like other grades in the class with me. There was stuff just like how to write a check, how to how to actively like send a letter, which kids didn't know how to fucking do. Like you put your address here and the receiver's address up there. Or stuff like all of us were high school kids, we drove beater cars, and she was like, Oh, if you find that your car's starting to overheat, just blast the heat or it cools down the whatever thing in the car.
SPEAKER_02Open the windows.
SPEAKER_00Stuff like that. Where it's just like life things that are really useful and they're tips and tricks and hacks, but it's not like the most common sense thing, maybe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, some of it's outdated though. I can't believe like I remember having fun balancing a checkbook, but like no need for that now.
SPEAKER_00I actually don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. Before you had online banking, right? Um, you would have to keep track of how much money was in your checking account.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so like a ledger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, basically a ledger. So, you know, you would get your statement, and then between statements, you would be like keeping track.
SPEAKER_00So I took accounting.
SPEAKER_01Did you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Before um the cosmetic science of it all, I was going to school for business. I wanted to do international business. I wanted to actually study language, but if you study language, what do you do with that? Teach. So I was like, if I do international business and have language minors, I'll be good. And my language is a choice for Spanish and French. Because by that point, I was like in the 300 series for both.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Et tu parles français, no?
SPEAKER_00See. Yeah, that was my my alternative life. My alternate life, not alternative. Rock and roll. Rock and roll, baby. Uh, my favorite thing about me and my husband. My husband and I are very opposite people. And like I grew up in Central Florida, so it was a lot of like Regetong, bachata meringue, sarisa, hip-hop. And I had a phase once I had internet access where I got into like really weird, obscure alternative, alternative folk music. I was a big Regina Spectre fan.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00But he is like pop punk down.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was really cute. We went to go see Baywatch.
unknownBayside.
SPEAKER_00Bayside, whatever. Bayside. We went to go see Baywatch. We went to go see Bayside, which is what is it? Is that pop punk?
SPEAKER_01No, they're like it's like emo music, no?
SPEAKER_00It was emo music. They were in London. And actually, we bought the tickets, and then we were with Daniela, and we went and got dinner with her. And so we basically almost missed the show. And then the restaurant was right next to the concert venue. So he was like, you know what? Let's just stop by, see where they're at in the set list. And it turns out that night they reversed the set list. So the part you actually walked into was specifically the era of music that my husband did listen to. So they keep watching him watch them. He likes started crying a little bit.
SPEAKER_01So I listened to like a lot of that emo music when I was in high school too. And like I would go to shows in Manhattan and all this stuff and listen to these little bands. And me and my friends would like most of the time we were sneaking away. Like our parents didn't know that we were like.
SPEAKER_00What year? What era was this? What year was this?
SPEAKER_01Oh, it must have been like 1986. 2005, 2006, around there. Um, and we used to go to shows at the Continental, which it is now closed. I think it's a bank or something. But it was a bar, they did shows, but then it became legendary in the era after I was going because it became the bar where you could get five shots of whatever well liquor you want for like 10 bucks or something. So people were like going in there and just getting smashed. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's kind of iconic though, to like live in New York in that era and have the ability to just like come to Manhattan for a show. I grew up in central fucking Florida. Where if you didn't have a car, you were out of luck.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, like I learned how to live life at the correct age, I think. Live life enough. I was uh I was very street smart, I guess. But yeah, me and my friends were like moshing.
SPEAKER_00Ew. Angela, you were like four apples tall.
SPEAKER_01Four apples tall? That's a first. Well, no, I mean, tall enough. Little girls can mosh too. Little girls can mosh too. I just got thrown around like a ragdoll. Yeah. And not in a good way.
SPEAKER_00See, that wasn't my advice. Actually, at the Bayside show, literally, we were like far back, and there was a person sitting in front of me in front of them. That's when the mosh pit all of a sudden just randomly started. And I was just like, we gotta get out, we gotta go. Because yeah, no, like that shit's crazy to see in person. I'm like, why are you doing this to each other? Live life. I'm like, at a hip-hop show, you're twerking on each other. Why are you hitting each other here?
SPEAKER_01I think it's an expression of rage. And I think it's, you know, an important cultural activity.
SPEAKER_00I mean, like the cultural breakdown, the history of moshing, significance.
SPEAKER_01This is white people culture.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, girl, no. That's not about that life. What was your first ever concert?
SPEAKER_01Oh, my first ever concert. I was a little kid. So the wiggles? No, no. My uh dad brought me and my sister to this, like I remember it was like in Central Park or in Prospect Park or something, and it was all of these like disco legends, and the headliner was Casey and the Sunshine Band, and that was freaking legendary.
SPEAKER_00That's why you're gay. That's why I'm gay.
SPEAKER_01Well, I always say, you know, my parents met at a disco. So Studio 54. No, not Studio 54, but yeah, but um that's why that uh maybe explains why I'm like this. And also when I was growing up, the radio stations here in New York, like on certain days, they would just do like a full block of disco all night. So, like if we were in the car, it's like I knew all of those songs. I think all of that music, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You're so lucky, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like that was like my education with music. That and like 90s dance music, like freestyle.
SPEAKER_00Oh, my mom.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, all that stuff. Like, that was what I was raised on.
SPEAKER_00And plus you were in New York actively, too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So that's part of the reason why like I still like dance music. I'm very into music. Well, like, I've always been, you know, partial to that, that sort of sound, things that were influenced by it, house, etc.
SPEAKER_00My first concert was a soul concert. It was for an artist called Liana Havas.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, I love like British artists, but especially like RB and soul music. So yeah, I was 18 in Seattle. My dad came with me.
SPEAKER_01You were 18. My first concert, yeah.
SPEAKER_00My dad came with me, and then he's like, give me your debit card. And then he just went to the bar, the whole show. Give me your debit card. So my dad came with me to the show to just leave me to go to the bar at the show. Um, don't know why he needed my debit card. But yeah, I was 18. And then the concert after that was Marine and the Diamonds for her Electra Heart Tour.
SPEAKER_01I saw her at Coachella like two years ago, and I was like, oh, you know, fulfilling a dream of like myself from like my early 20s.
SPEAKER_00That's the thing is I saw her in 2013. So it was like the height of what was her Tumblr era and all these things. Like Charlie XDX was still super like underground, indie. Lana was just really starting up. Um, and I was in Seattle, so it's like very like art ho core.
SPEAKER_01One of my uh like things that I will always brag about is I saw Lady Gaga, my number one, um, on her first tour. And I remember we me and my friends bought tickets for 20 bucks. And at a certain point, they had to change the venue because they were like, okay, it's like sold out, so we're like moving to something bigger. And like, we're in this venue, you could see into the VIP because it was like multi-level, and it was like there was Madonna and like Marc Jacobs, and this person, that person, like all these people, and like it was just it was literally watching, you know, the birth of a star was born.
SPEAKER_00Period.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but like she in the interim period between when we bought the tickets for 20 bucks and when the show actually was like her entire career just blew up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I remember she was because that was what year, 2008, nine?
SPEAKER_01That had to be 2009 that we saw her, but I bought the tickets in 2008, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And her first like televised performance was the I think New Now Next Awards on logo TV. Remember logo TV? And that was the era of like just dance and all that. And then, like, literally within the next year, that was her massive blow up. The year after her, it was Winter Gordon. Remember her?
SPEAKER_01I do.
SPEAKER_02Dirty too.
SPEAKER_00We still listen to her. That that song is so good. It is, it's very sexy. But no, it's funny. Um, we live a very different life where you were like, Yeah, I went to a show, it was Gaga, the VIP was star-studded. I'm like, I lived in Seattle. Our celebrity sighting was Macklemore, who you would see almost every other week.
SPEAKER_01It's like, oh, her? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Macklemore and Josh Grobin, who looked very homeless. But he loves Seattle. He would go um kayaking or something off the near the Canadian border in that area. There's the Orcas Islands. Stunning. Um, he had a place up there or something.
SPEAKER_01Cute. Okay, everybody. It is our second installment of the hot takeoff. So we've come prepared with hot takes that neither of us like we we don't know what we brought, and we're gonna have the other react to it in a way. We're gonna be able to fight. Disagree. Yeah, I came to fight.
SPEAKER_00That's why he's wearing that top.
SPEAKER_01Hold my rings. Oh.
SPEAKER_00Who wants to go first?
SPEAKER_01I think you.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I think we've talked about this on an episode, actually. Um, basically, as I like live life and do things, I'll think of a hot take and I'm like, oh, I should talk about that with Angelo. So I have a whole list. I have an Angelo folder, actually. The first one is Y'all are doing too much when it comes to US versus international sunscreens. Just where are your fucking SPF 50? No matter the filters are still filtering. The SPF is still a 50. They might not feel and look the same, but we'll just wear where your sunscreen.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. You know what? I feel this. So SPF testing is standardized across the world pretty much. There's a few methods of doing it, but there's one that everybody uses, right?
SPEAKER_00It is an ISO I international standardization. I forget what the O stands for.
SPEAKER_01So this came up in my content recently because I reacted to a video of an Australian aesthetician saying, Oh, if you live in Australia, you shouldn't use Korean sunscreens because Korean sunscreens were made for the Korean sun.
SPEAKER_00It's a different sun.
SPEAKER_01It's a different sun. By the way, the hole in the ozone layer that was over Australia is much smaller than it used to be, from what I hear.
SPEAKER_00It's been tightened.
SPEAKER_01It's been she went for a procedure and the ozone hole has been rejuvenated. But that SPF testing, no matter where it happens, is is done the same. So the Australian sunscreen SPF rating is going to be analogous to the Korean sunscreen SPF rating. There may be different standards. Well, because there, I think they they kind of have some drug standards applied to the sunscreens about like what you can use as a filter, right?
SPEAKER_00There's also, I think there might be subtle differences in like the irradiation source to some degree. But yeah, it's like basically it's a standardized method. And so therefore, internationally consistent results should be obtained for the most part. But we also do these testings in vivo. So there's a biological factor added on top of that. And actually, Korean brands are very transparent with this. And usually what they'll do is they'll do a testing site in Korea and one, usually in Spain. And even between those results, while there might be some consistencies, you might see a variance in, oh, well, Spain tested a higher SPF actually.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh another good point there is just because a sunscreen is sold in your country doesn't mean it was tested there. It could be tested really anywhere in the world.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, but to Angela's point, I think depending on where it is, sometimes they're very specific of we only accept from these sources. In order to do in order what I'm trying to say here, you have to have certain accreditation or licensing in order to actually do N vivo testing as well. So but yeah, like yes, US filters are not efficient. And yes, you need a lot more of them to obtain equivalent SPF values, which is why American sunscreens can be a little bit greasier and shinier. But these same filters are used internationally. And it's still an SPF 50.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think a lot of the confusion about the American sunscreens is that here, because of the drug approval process that we need filters to go through, we don't have the most up-to-date or you know, advanced filters. And the issue is having to use more of them and then making the formulas less elegant. And that's where you get people saying they don't like to wear sunscreen because they feel like it's too oily, it clogs their pores, it's too thick, et cetera, et cetera. That's the issue. It's not concerned that they don't work or they don't work as tested.
SPEAKER_00Or that they clock off like halfway through wearing them. It's just they're not as efficient.
SPEAKER_01So the overall formula is not going to be usually as nice for the consumer using it.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01So I agree with that.
SPEAKER_00Just wear the sunscreen.
SPEAKER_01Just wear the taste. Sorry, I'm mad. My first take. Color analysis is fake. Ah okay, so color analysis comes back into vogue, I think, every like 10, 15 years. Like it initially came around, I think, in like the late 70s, early 80s.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think so. And then you you begin, well, it was popularized by a book back then. And then it comes back in every so often. My issue with color analysis, this is where they, you know, look at you, and uh, you could either do this through a book, or uh, there are a lot of people who will go get it done by an expert, and you're told you're a certain season. So in the beginning, there were the four seasons, and if you were a fall, then you should wear, you know, browns, oranges, yellows. These are the tones you should wear that are gonna look best on you, the kind of makeup, etc. Then they started getting into there's like 16 seasons or something now. It's like, oh, you're a you're a cool winter, a warm winter, or this or that. The reason it gets so minute, I feel like, is one, all of this is subjective. So if it's one person looking at you and telling you what they think, you could get a different answer somewhere else. Two, I think there's inconsistency with how that plays in different settings. So whether you're indoors, outdoors, what kind of lighting it is, what time of year. Also, I think that sometimes I don't know, it's about the overall outfit. So it doesn't need to be perfect.
SPEAKER_00Also, to me, it's just like a weird way of being like, oh, you can't wear that color. I'm like, wear whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. This is what I'm saying. It's like wear what wear what makes you happy.
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah, there are colors that are probably gonna wash you out. And do you like the outfit? Do you like the shirt? Wear it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00For me, it's when they do the videos of like so they'll have like the swatches of fabric and like the camera's on the person and like they're doing like the really like washed out pastels, and I guess like the really vibrant section, that's when like their coloring looks a lot more flattering on camera. But I'm like, I think that's to do with like aperture or lighting or camera shifting, the camera shifting according to tech.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, according to Jorge. And I believe that exactly. Yeah, sometimes even when I'm shooting on my phone, it's like the the light shifts based on what I'm putting in front of it.
SPEAKER_00So exactly.
SPEAKER_01But it yeah, I think people should just wear whatever makes them happy. And instead of spending the money to get your colors done by somebody, you know what's gonna make you look great? Use that money to tailor some of your clothes. That's where people are are slacking. You will look great if your clothes are more fitted to you.
SPEAKER_00Yes. It honestly you can buy a very cost-friendly outfit. The minute that shit is tailored and fits you well, it looks like a million dollars.
SPEAKER_01Get your coats tailored, get your formal wear tailored, your suits.
SPEAKER_00Underwear.
SPEAKER_01Your underwear? Why not? Did you get your underwear tailored?
SPEAKER_00Don't worry about it. No, but yeah, I think that's one thing where I feel like that wasn't really emphasized for me growing up. The importance of like quality tailoring and just the way that that really like something custom fit and really made for your proportions, your size, your heights does a lot for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, now people just think clothes are disposable, so they're not gonna spend more money. I have outfits where I spent more money on the tailoring than I did on the outfit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I love thrifting.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, yeah, that too. Actually, I've had stuff that I bought secondhand that I tailor to.
SPEAKER_00And for me, it's like because I love a very specific like 70s, 80s like uh cut. Um I'll go thrift I uh articles from that era and then I will tailor them to fit me, especially because like they didn't have an ass back in the day, so like they always fit really tight around my ass.
SPEAKER_01They didn't have an ass back in the day, they were all flat.
SPEAKER_00BBLs weren't in vogue.
SPEAKER_01So what you're saying is you got a BBL.
SPEAKER_00No comment. No, but tailor your clothes, invest money. Next hot take. Brands need to stop developing products as standalones and start considering them as part of a fuller routine that doesn't include solely their brand. Ooh.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Expand on that. We've talked about this in prior episodes where it's like, oh, let's launch a product based on trendy buzzwords, PDRN, exosome serum. Okay, well, how does that fit in the rest of your arsenal or products, first of all? But also, if someone doesn't solely use your products, how can that fit into maybe just a more holistic routine featuring another sunscreen or a different cleanser? Um, I feel like a really good example of this is Drunk Elephant.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Remember their whole deal where they you're like, keep going, drag her. Drag her? Remember her their whole thing about um, first of all, you could cocktail all their products together. Don't do that. And second of all, if there was ever any issue, like you complain, like, hey, sorry, I got really bad irritation from your exfoliant mask that has 25% AHAs, it'd be like, oh, that's not our product. It's because you use something else. It's definitely not our product.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. I see brands marketing more like individual products now. But whenever they come out with a line that they're like, hey, we're gonna sell you a routine, obviously they're doing that because it's like they stand to make more money that way. If they're like, hey, wipe away everything else that you're doing and just use our three, like I'm thinking of proactive right now. But miss her. That was so dumb though, because it was like there was benzoyl peroxide in every step of the three steps.
SPEAKER_00I kind of want to revisit proactive now as an adult and like someone who's more aware of like skin and all these things.
SPEAKER_01That shit was crazy.
SPEAKER_00I remember the first time I used Proactive, I had a full-face reaction. My face was red for like three days.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it was benzoyl peroxide three times in a cleanser and then two leave-ons. That was crazy. But uh yeah, they stand to make more money if they're selling you a system or you know, three products, four products, and most people don't buy skincare that way or use skincare that way. I think a lot of the brands have, well, at least the drugstore brands have moved towards selecting things for your skin type. I'm thinking of like the Cerevs and the little Rochepos of the world, where it's like, okay, choose one of these three or four cleansers, and then one of these three or four moisturizers. But in a way, those are just kind of like the base products, and then you know, you can mix in whatever, you know, serum or whatever you want in the routine.
SPEAKER_00For me, I'm like, I see brands that go against this, like the brands who actually, I think, more intentional with it. They just see it as more of a concept comprehensive uh product. So I think of like what you did with Continuum, where you're like, it has this like very multi-modality focus uh approach to blemishes and like the before, during, and after. But we designed this to really complement any other actives using in your routine. It fits in everybody's routine, hopefully. So it's very approachable, but it exists to be used with any other brand, any other product. Um, I think Remedy also does a really good job of it too. Nuturium did for a long time. I think where it's like, hey, yeah, we're gonna really market like this niacinamide serum. But if you actually look at the active breakdown, it's a lot more comprehensive than just that niacinamide for Neturium. I always say Remedy, you can tell it was made by a man for man because they were like, let's put as much possible into this one product, but it's really comprehensive.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So it's like no matter what cleanser or moisturizer, sunscreen you're using, all the benefits are there on the one thing.
SPEAKER_00Correct. I think the brands that are really abuse what I'm calling out is actually what are the Korean brands who really focus on like the one ingredient buzz, launch three different products for that line, but it's very single ingredient focused, and it doesn't really do much beyond that because it's like, okay, yeah, it has exosomes, but it has nothing else to really target skin fullness, collagen production, any of that stuff. So I'm like, so I still need to use 15 other products along with this for a benefit that I may want in the end.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Why are you hitting PDRN in five different steps? Why do I need PDRN cleanser, PDRN facial spray, PDRN toner, moisturizer, this, that, the third, the serum? It's like, at what point is the benefit clocking out? I think one thing that people don't realize, and especially when it comes to some actives, usually in these lines, it's not things that are necessarily gonna irritate the skin if you use them over and over again, like hyaluronic acid and every, okay, fine, super hydration, but people don't understand that there's a therapeutic window. I steal this from pharmacology to talk about some of the skincare actives, but there is a window in which you're gonna see an effect. Once you reach that dose, like you're getting the effect. And if you go past that window, if you go over that window, you get to the point where the effect that you're getting from the active is maxed out. You're not gonna get anything else, but your chance of having an adverse reaction to it, like getting your skin irritated, having uh, you know, barrier impairment and all of that goes up. So we don't want to hit that. That's why there's too much of a good thing potentially, and why certain actives, it's like using a super high uh concentration of it and isn't necessarily gonna give you a better result.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So it's just like be more intentional with product development. Don't keep going for like the buzzwords, like be very intentional with a purpose, develop a product that's actually needed or can actually do a lot of things, but be beneficial so that people aren't buying the product and being like, So is this brand a scam? I feel like I see with a lot with like the Korean brands that are launching to just try to gain international success and then quickly exit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00We love Korean skincare, but also sometimes these brands just out of pocket.
SPEAKER_01I think one Korean brand that actually does good with this is like I don't know, I feel like a broken record. We we talk about Beauty of Joseph a lot, but yeah, they're I'm thinking of like their eye serum and you know why?
SPEAKER_00And I've talked about this before. So the founder of Beauty of Joseph, Sumin, she did a lot of like education and work abroad. So she's lived in China, she's lived in the US, and I think having a global perspective and an awareness of okay, here's what's happening in these different markets, uh, what are the trends, but what's really going to be beneficial, bringing in actual experts beyond that to also advise, again, not biased, um, has been really beneficial for them. And I've had a lot of meetings with her. I mean, I again very objective. I work with the brand a lot. I launched a product with the brand. But that's been for me the big key to their success, is they have that awareness and they are intentional with how they develop and launch a product. So yeah, I mean, it's still within the realm of like, again, the Hanbang uh aesthetic and it's still within Korean regulations, a lot of their products. But I think they have a lot of awareness of what actually could work and do well for them internationally, and they hit a lot of the things first, and they I feel like they intentionally don't do what the other brands are doing.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01I agree. Okay, my next hot take. If I see you clipping your nails in public, it's on site. Oh my God. I live in New York City. The amount of times that I've been confronted with people clipping their nails on the subway, and those shits are flying all over the place. You're in public, there's other people around. That is gross. Including the fact that I know that there are nail clippers that come with like fellow catchers. Well, they come with catchers, which is okay, but they come with like a little chain so that you could put it on a keychain. Why do you need to have nail clippers on a keychain? Nails don't grow that fast that you need that thing every day. Me, I don't know about you. Everybody's nails grow at slightly different rates, but I clip my fingernails once a week. Our toenails typically grow about three times slower than our fingernails. So even less with that. Thankfully, I don't really see people clipping their toenails on the subway that often. But you couldn't do that at home, or you couldn't wait until you got to at least a public bathroom to do that. You had to do it in around people with your freaking nails flying all over the place in one of the dirtiest places on earth.
SPEAKER_00I think people I've seen people do that on airplanes.
SPEAKER_01Clipping their on an airplane? Insane. Fingers or toes? Fingers. Okay, thank God. Because we already talked about toes on planes. Nope, nope, nope. I don't want to see it. There's certain things that are only meant for a bathroom. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, what about like filing nails?
SPEAKER_01Also, that like you're getting your nail dust all over the place. That should be to me, that should be done either in your own home or if you have to do it in public, I feel like do it in a bathroom.
SPEAKER_00Which almost like, yeah, why are you just why are you doing this in public? Period. That's a private matter. I agree. That's disgusting. I'm trying to think of like what else I think people do in public where I'm just like, why is this necessary right now?
SPEAKER_01Um, I've seen people uh tweezing their eyebrows in public. That's another one.
SPEAKER_00I think that uh that's not as weird, but it's also just like yeah, why on the train?
SPEAKER_01Why yeah, why is it on the subway specifically that it happens and nowhere else?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. In terms of like the grooming, like the the spectrum of grooming in public, like nails gross. I think people do makeup. That's a big thing now.
SPEAKER_01I think people do makeup on the subway, but at least, at least you don't have your own bodily tissue flying all over the place that's self-contained. It's different.
SPEAKER_00For me though, the and the my qualm with that, I'm just like, it's nasty here. It's about enough the days where I do skim prep at home and come all the way over here to shoe and I do my makeup here, and I'm like, you know what? I had to walk to the city, but we'll live. It's like you're doing your makeup on the train. To me, that that's not what if you drop something? What if you drop something? Oh, so again, shit in the air. One of our friends had a video that went up last week where they're doing their makeup in Times Square. I'm just like raw dogging the air in Times Square doing your makeup.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, guys. That was a few of you. I don't know. I guess you got your point across, but I love the message.
SPEAKER_00I just hate the action.
SPEAKER_01Where is your nightmare place to do your makeup? Like, if there was one place that would be the worst place ever to do your makeup, where would it be? I have one.
SPEAKER_00What's yours?
SPEAKER_01Port Authority bus terminal. Which for those of you who live in New York, you already know. I call this the mouth of hell.
SPEAKER_00I've never been.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Uh it's a major bus depot in the center of Manhattan. It is disgusting, it is crazy, um, and you literally feel like you're in hell.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I probably stand with that. Anything in public with a lot of people. I mean, I've done my makeup in cars, on planes, but like something like that. No, I I don't like doing makeup in public. A, I don't need people watching me. B, disgusting. Like just germs, pollution, it's mog, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think it well, online it's become popularized by these like male makeup creators who try to like make a point by doing their makeup in public.
SPEAKER_00Which again, I love the message. I hate the action.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But be who you are for your pride. Oh, I bitched about this from one of our code opens already. But people are too focused on being perceived as cool and nonchalant and don't allow themselves to enjoy things or be happy.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Okay. Yes. No. Um, recently I heard of a term. Uh, well, like I've heard the term before, but I had to look it up. Aura farming. Have you heard of this? It's when people try to do things just to appear cool, like carrying around a book or like reading at a bar. Reading at a bar, yeah. I don't know why people are so obsessed with being cool. However, I I think I'm past that part of my life, maybe, and that's why. Do you care what people think of you like that?
SPEAKER_00I mean, to an extent, one of the big things is objectively, if you want to be really successful in content creation, you really have to let go of feeling cringe. And you really have to just commit to the bit. And especially in New York, there is a level of no one gives a shit about what the fuck you're doing. So just do what you're gonna do. And realistically, your background character and everyone else's life. But there's a level of being cringe I will not allow myself to reach.
SPEAKER_01Okay, like what? What would be like a cringe thing? Dancing on camera.
SPEAKER_00I mean, ironically, like the first round of really successful creators on TikTok were the like TikTok dancers. And so there was an element of like being really cringe, and that paid off really well for a lot of people. Addison Ray. Yeah, now we're in this era of like people want to be social media famous. And so they do a lot of things that are like very out of pocket, unnecessary to get that fame. But then at the same time, a lot of people right now they don't want to be perceived as standing out, looking different. So you have this entire generation of kids that dress the same, look the same, act the same.
SPEAKER_01Um so the moral of the story is be cringe if you want to succeed.
SPEAKER_00Kind of. And like in a more practical application of that, we have a generation of kids who don't know how to like go out of their way, network, socialize, work a room when it comes to like a work event. And that's actually a really crucial element to being successful in honestly, any career. I think of like the trade shows I go to, a lot of the specific like chemistry-related events, but even as an influencer, we talk about how I was talking with someone about this yesterday. We'll go to an event and you can see the old generation of creators, especially those who've had jobs prior to content creation. We understand the importance of networking. You get to a room, you want to meet the other creators, but also like the influencer marketers, the people that work for the brand that are important to socialize with, connect with. We get, we understand it's important to talk to them, have that FaceTime and have that connection. Because they're the ones that are emailing you, hopefully, with the like collaborations in the future. The new generation, they come to the event, plop their phone up somewhere, do some content, and they leave. They don't talk to anyone. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's weird.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. I think being able to network is something that's really important, being able to socialize, being able to interact with other people. And I think maybe these younger creators, they're like that because some of their formative years, and when they really found the success was during the pandemic, where maybe they were a little bit more isolated. Also, they did grow up with the internet and social media in a different way than we did. Um, where I remember a time before, right? So I remember dial-up. Oh, yeah. You had to hear, and then if somebody tried to make a phone call, it was over. So uh one thing about this though, about the cringe and all of that, I decided a little while ago, well, a few years ago, and I've talked about this online. I really don't care what people think about me anymore. I don't care if you know other people think that I'm great, I suck, I'm a terrible person, this, that, or the third. I care about what I think of me. Me. Me. No, and what I mean by that is okay, people could think I'm cringe or what have you. People have left comments saying that I'm cringe, which fine. And those people. Right? Sometimes it's your own friends. But what I really care about is at the end of the day, am I proud of myself? Am I proud of what I'm doing, what I'm putting out there on the world, what I'm doing for other people, or am I disappointed in myself? And if there's something that happens where I'm like, hey, I could have done that better because that's what I think, then you know, I know that's something that I really want to work on. Yeah. Um, because at the end of the day, you go home at night and you're just with yourself, and maybe you're boo. I'm gonna say, I gotta child, but you know, no child yet. Um Ramon might be uh pregnant. We'll see.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna make a point to that. For me, it was really realizing like people will make up entire stories about you, their own version of you in their heads, and it's the most out-of-pocket thing. And when you really come to realize, like, oh, people think they know me, they know nothing about me. That's when you get to the point of like, you know what, I'm just gonna do whatever I want to do then.
SPEAKER_01People have their own narratives and motivations, and and they may delusion, delusion, they may think stuff about you, and like it's based on something so inconsequential that like you forgot about.
SPEAKER_00So, I mean, I was beefing with someone on Twitter like three, four years ago, and I forgot what it was about. And at one point they were like, that's why you had to go to school overseas because no schools in America would would uh accept you. And I was like, Oh, okay, you what that is so fucking stupid, but also that's what clicked in my head. I'm like, oh, you're actually just crazy. That was my moment of like, okay, people online parasocial relationships are interesting and they can be fun, but also it's like people online don't know me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's weird kind of having a little bit of a following, and sometimes people being so vicious towards you when you're like, I don't even fucking do anything. Like, I don't even know you. I don't even know you. Well, sometimes it's I don't even know you, that's happened. And then I have to, you know, get the girls in line, but if anyone's gonna do it, it's gonna be you.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Do you have one more? I think that more cafes and coffee shops need to go back to iced coffee because for me, cold brew is inferior. Wow. Okay, for those of you who don't know, there's a difference between cold brew and iced coffee. Iced coffee is coffee that's been brewed hot and then put over ice.
SPEAKER_00It's brewed double concentrated, so it dilutes to normal concentration when it's mixed with ice.
SPEAKER_01Usually. Or it's cut. Oh yeah. And then cold brew is actually a cold process where the uh coffee beans are like infused into the water, it sits for a long time, and then you separate it. Yeah. Cold brew is has like a higher caffeine content and it loses some of the acidity of the coffee. And for me, I just don't like the taste and it bothers my my little tummy. So I always stand coffee shops where they still carry regular iced coffee, and I think that most places should have both options for the people who like the different types of cold coffee. Um, I do usually get an iced Americano now if iced coffee is not available. But I think that more coffee shops need to bring back iced coffee and have all of the options for everybody. I understand why people like cold brew. You know what? More power to you. Love that for you. It's just not for me.
SPEAKER_00That is the gayest opinion. I need multiple iced coffee options.
SPEAKER_01Well, okay, if if you're gonna be a coffee purist, actual coffee people dislike cold brew a lot of the time. Because they think it's a waste of the beans.
SPEAKER_00Who said that?
SPEAKER_01The coffee community.
SPEAKER_00I worked in the coffee industry for 10 years. My other life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And no one's ever said that.
SPEAKER_01Did you work at a place that carried iced coffee?
SPEAKER_00And cold brew, yeah. So But we all said nitro. People love nitro.
SPEAKER_01Nitro is intro every now and then I'll go for nitro.
SPEAKER_00It's a very creamy body, like me.
SPEAKER_01A creamy body.
SPEAKER_00Um, no, that's such a strong opinion. It makes sense. I will say to Angela's point, yeah. Cold brew, um, it's an 18 to 24 hour steep time in cold water. And I feel like the flavor profile you get from a coffee is substantially different than when it's a hot, concentrated brewed over a few minutes and then diluted down. Certain coffees lend themselves gorgeously to a cold brew moment, particularly like a very fruity, very floral, very bright African or Latin coffee to me. Gorgeous as a cold brew.
SPEAKER_01Light roast or light to medium, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Especially like a natural process Ethiopian on a cold brew where it's like very berry forward. Love that. I don't like iced coffee though.
SPEAKER_01Okay, why not?
SPEAKER_00I don't like cold. I don't like my so I think we talked about this before. I don't like extreme temperatures when it comes to my food or drinks. So I like my like hot food lukewarm and I like my cold drinks lukewarm.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Like I love a warm can of soda.
SPEAKER_01Oh, sometimes that hits. Okay, this is this makes no scientific sense. But uh when I was a kid, my dad would give me if I had like a little upset stomach, cola syrup, which you used to be able to buy in the drugstore as like a stomach remedy. So I'm like a warm Coca-Cola when I have like nausea.
SPEAKER_00What's the whole point of a ginger? Ginger rail though.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that too. But a warm ginger rail hits. A warm Coca-Cola though, full fat.
SPEAKER_00Because I feel like with that, you're able to like really drink a lot of it and get that carbonation really working down there.
SPEAKER_01Start burping.
SPEAKER_00Big burps.
SPEAKER_01Big burps.
SPEAKER_00Big burps.
SPEAKER_01For girls with big booties and big burps.
SPEAKER_00Girls burps. Women belch. Bad bitches, belch.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I don't say any of that in my capacity as a doctor. This is just no medical advice. A familial remedy, okay, and something I enjoy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but like the cold brew iced coffee, I do I do get it. I just think it's really funny and very homosexual. Be like, you know what? I need iced coffee options. Are you an iced coffee during the winter kind of girl too?
SPEAKER_01Um less so. I like an iced coffee in the afternoon and a hot coffee in the morning, no matter what time of year. But I will do more iced drinks when it's warm out.
SPEAKER_00If you didn't live so far away, I would totally invite you to come over and we could do like an ice chemix on my balcony.
SPEAKER_01If I didn't live so far away, we both live in redacted, so yeah, and from door to door, it takes me 40 minutes to get here.
SPEAKER_00You got a car though.
SPEAKER_01I do.
SPEAKER_00Uh but no, an ice chemix during the summer when it's like really hot.
SPEAKER_01What like you brew in the chemex and then you ice it?
SPEAKER_00No, so basically, you have the chemex, and uh essentially instead of doing the full quantity in water, you do half the quantity in ice in the basin, and then half the quantity of the hot water on top. Uh-huh. And then you uh brew that over or pour it over ice. And a chemicx, it basically lends itself, it lends itself really nicely too again. A very light roast, very fruity, very bright floral coffee, and it's a very lightweight, refreshing cup of iced coffee.
SPEAKER_01Okay, girl, have me over for a nice chemex. And then maybe a bottle of wine after that.
SPEAKER_00Or four.
SPEAKER_01Mmm.
SPEAKER_00Okay, my turn next. Apple's doing way too much, giving me the same fucking iPhone. What I need is for phone companies to come back and bring whimsy, bring design, bring fun. I feel like we bitched about this before.
SPEAKER_01This may have been one of your hot takes from the last episode.
SPEAKER_00Ah I want a sidekick.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we talked about the sidekick, the chocolate, all that.
SPEAKER_00One of my weird things is I can't do emails on my phone. I hate having limitation to just this when I'm doing emails. I need full-fledged keyboard. Um, so like a sidekick, just like flip up the screen. I have all the letters right there. I can do my email, blackberries.
SPEAKER_01I've spoken about my love for blackberries. We did this last episode, though. We do. We did. One thing, okay, I gotta give it to Apple. There's certain features where um, like being able to copy something on my computer and then paste it on my phone, great. The thing where it's like, oh, the you get the verification code and it automatically grabs it for you, amazing. I have had to figure out how to do uh text expansions in my phone and they carry over to my computer, but those are good. Like you have to go into the keyboard and say, oh, autocorrect this, you know, series of letters to whatever. And if it's I have things in there that are like my home address, my office address, uh, email response that I send to brands all the time. I just have that extension. So I just go bloop, the email's ready, send it. Um, so Apple is doing some things well.
SPEAKER_00Functionality-wise, yes, especially accessibility-wise, I think there's a lot of really cool features Apple has invested time and energy in. I just want a fun phone. I see all the Samsung users with their foldy little Androids and like their big ass Samsung phones. Huawei? Have you seen what Huawei do?
SPEAKER_01Have you seen have you seen what Huawei do?
SPEAKER_00Have you seen what have you seen what Huawei is? Am I saying that right, Huawei? What they're doing? I went to public school in Florida. I just want that out there.
SPEAKER_01I don't know why that's Killaber.
SPEAKER_00Have you seen what Huawei do? I've seen some. I've seen some. Oh, god damn. I'll give you a second. Huawei is doing some really fun stuff. And we don't have access to that here in America.
SPEAKER_01We don't. We don't. Thank you, Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Literally. Um, but no, it's like it's interesting that Apple's focus has been such minimalism and such restriction to just this format of phone, where now it's just cunt if the phone is skinnier or if it's like bigger. But I want more like aesthetic, fun functionality to a phone design. I want to clack the phone when I'm done talking to you.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that they exist. You just have to switch from the iPhone.
SPEAKER_00I might want to go back to a flip phone, honestly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like the it's a flip touch screen now. What? It's it's a touch screen that folds and it goes, it's like a little clamshell, and then they have another one that opens like a book, and it's like it looks like you got a mini tablet, and they go Samsung! And it's the that size, yeah. No, yeah. It exists.
SPEAKER_00Ugh, I know, I just can't. I'm in a text bubble with a bunch of chemists, and one of them, Julian Sass, is the only one that has a fucking Android, and because of him, all of our group chats are in green bubbles. He would have an Android. He would have a derogatory, he would have an Android. But it's like, that's the thing is you don't want to be that person that's like ruining the group chat. So I want fun phones, but I need Apple to do it. If Apple's already investing all this time, effort, money to like making like really cool features, I at least want the phone to be like a little cunt. Can I say that? Yeah. To be a little fun.
SPEAKER_01Okay. My next one. I hate, and you could narrate for the listeners what I'm doing right now.
SPEAKER_00Angela, you can't do that. That's disgusting. Putting like your why are you using your mouth for that?
SPEAKER_01Exact exactly. So these influencers that are doing makeup content where they're holding the phone with one hand, then they put the product, like a lip gloss, in their mouth. Like the the the tubi part that you touch. And then pull out the applicator with the other hand. The reason I say I hate this is one, that's disgusting. Two, it looks kind of stupid. Three, you probably had to loosen it with your other hand already to be able to open it. So what are we doing? We're doing it for the aesthetic, and nobody does that. You couldn't put the phone down. I could open this with one hand, too, actually. So excuse me. Surgeon's hands, that's why.
SPEAKER_00But um, no, I feel like content creation in the era and lifestyle of influencing has introduced a lot of weird things that people do for the sake of I want to make a video for it.
SPEAKER_01Also, the tapping. ASMR. ASMR.
SPEAKER_00I never got that. Is that like a kink?
SPEAKER_01People find it relaxing, some people, but I think there is content now where people are doing the tapping where it's like not ASMR content. It's just like carried over. It's vestigial ASMR.
SPEAKER_00It's what?
SPEAKER_01Vestigial.
SPEAKER_00What's that mean?
SPEAKER_01Computer? It's it's like it's an artifact, basically, and it's a a feature that like it's like our appendix is a vestigial organ. It used to have a function and now it's just there and doesn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00Vestigial. Vestigial.
SPEAKER_01It's a vestige.
SPEAKER_00Vestigial. Forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable. New word for the day.
SPEAKER_01See, educational and fun.
SPEAKER_00Was there more to that point?
SPEAKER_01Not really. I just hate that.
SPEAKER_00No, it's gross.
SPEAKER_01Also, d you could spill the product out. Some of these lip products, they're really runny. And like it'll get all over like a lip oil.
SPEAKER_00The amount of comforters and sheets my husband has stained by accidentally doing that with Huda Beauty Concealers and color correctors. It's been like three.
SPEAKER_01Or hey. What was I putting on? This is the Charlotte Tilbury. Hello talk what?
SPEAKER_00This is what my grandma does when she looks at the phone.
SPEAKER_01See, I got my eyes done. I don't know if I talked about this. Uh I now have 2010 vision, but that doesn't mean I can see up close. Because I'm getting old.
SPEAKER_00Do you want me to read it for you?
SPEAKER_01Okay, it doesn't say what the product is, but it's a pillow talk lip thing. From Charlotte Tilbury. That's the other thing I was I was talking about recently. I really like the Charlotte Tilbury pillow talk stuff, and because of that I feel basic.
SPEAKER_00No, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01Everybody's a little bit basic, right?
SPEAKER_00I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01Pinky nude? Pinky up. Pinky up. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Um, no, basic is fun. I don't see an issue with it. You're not like lame.
SPEAKER_01I mean, what if you just like pillow talk?
SPEAKER_00It's normal.
SPEAKER_01What if I showed up in a full Charlotte Tilbury style beat?
SPEAKER_00Show up in full Charlotte Tilbury drag. Dolly! You know she speaks Spanish. Oh. But she speaks Spanish Spanish. Ooh, okay, I love it. It's kinda con. I thought it was AI when I first saw it because I'm like, wow, her ac accent's really good. Apparently, no, she just like grew up in a visa or something.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so does she have the real like? Yeah. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Mis amores.
SPEAKER_01Misamores. Um, that'd be really fun.
SPEAKER_00Full Charlotte Drag.
SPEAKER_01And she's the guest on the podcast.
SPEAKER_00You know Maddie Morphosis.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00How she always dresses up like the Yeah, we'll do that.
SPEAKER_01We'll do that. It'll be the two of us dressed as her.
SPEAKER_00Except we'll look like Jinx Monsoon and who's another redhead?
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah. Two Jinx Monsoons. Two Jinx Monsoon.
SPEAKER_00But like season five Jinks Monsoon. Not like now Jinx Monsoon.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00She looks good now. She does. Darling. I think my biggest hot take right now is and it's- I don't know how to word this exactly. We're getting too used to how expensive things are getting for no reason. Where we're making we'll make an excuse for it. And then that doesn't actually excuse the increase in price, but then that normalizes further increases in prices in the future. This comes from, I have been ordering a lot of Uber Eats this week. And stuff from like restaurants I've gone to for decades where I'm like, back in my day, this used to cost $1.50. Why is it $6 on Uber Eats right now?
SPEAKER_01Okay, baby. Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00Baby.
SPEAKER_01Uber Eats jacks up the prices. That's the thing. So um I'm a DoorDash person when I have to order through an app or something, or call the restaurant directly if they do delivery. But um yeah, no, the price of everything is higher on Uber Eats.
SPEAKER_00That's the thing is because we're like, oh, it's Uber Eats, that's normal for Uber Eats, they're always gonna raise the price. I'm like, that's not really a good excuse because that again, that just normalizes and excuses that when it doesn't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_01I just don't use it.
SPEAKER_00So is DoorDash cheaper?
SPEAKER_01I think the prices on DoorDash are like the actual price of the food, and then they charge you like a delivery fee or something. Versus on Uber Eats, I believe, I believe, I'm not sure if this is true, but allegedly the prices may be different. So, or like the surcharge on it might be higher or something. So like I uh was ordering pizza with somebody um a few weeks ago, and it was like, why is it $30 for a pie? And it was because it was Uber Eats.
SPEAKER_00But even in the context, like Uber Eats, it was the example where I'm just like, oh my God, like when I worked at McDonald's, and actually that that's the other thing is I live close to McDonald's where I live, and my first job was McDonald's back in 2012, 2013. Um, and then back in my day, you had a plethora of options that were 99 cents still in that era. Whereas nowadays, and I get we do live in New York, so things are more expensive. Now instead of a dollar menu, it's a $3 menu. And it's stuff where I'm like, why is a breakfast burrito or two bucks burritos $3? They were 50 cents each back in my day.
SPEAKER_01I mean, inflation, that's part of it. I think one of the things that's been encouraging is that some of the beauty brands are cutting their prices now because uh the whole tariff situation is over, so that's good. I saw maybe I think it was ELF that did a price cut recently. Yeah. So, I mean, at least that's encouraging, but this is good for sales overall, too, especially if you're a budget brand that people are looking for that. But it's like everything's more expensive. I see it now as a brand owner, it's not easy, yeah. So to make an actual margin on stuff, also like people are trained in a way, I think, to pay less for a lot of stuff. But so funny that you worked at McDonald's.
SPEAKER_00That's my first job.
SPEAKER_01You worked everywhere. I remember when I was uh younger, my older sister was in high school and I was in like middle school or something, and she works at a McDonald's, and I remember she would work every Friday night, and then she would bring home whatever like leftover chicken selects they had, and I would eat them cold in the morning for my breakfast.
SPEAKER_00I love that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, uh, that was unhealthy, but high protein. Here I am.
SPEAKER_00No, I love McDonald's. That's actually a really fun job, and I think it's really fun in the context of being 16. That's my first job, and I'm with the most random array of fellow co-workers, like a lot of where I was from in Washington State, it was a lot of Cambodian, Samoan, and Mexican, but they worked different day parts. So if you opened in the morning, those are the Mexicans. If you did lunch, the Cambodians, and then the Samoans worked the night shift. That's weird. I know because everyone, one person would get hired and then they would get all their friends hired.
SPEAKER_01Oh, to be on their same shift. Correct.
SPEAKER_00So it was a lot of fun. Learned a lot of bad words in Samoan.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so you were on the night shift.
SPEAKER_00I worked all of them. I I loved that job. And once I graduated high school, I was there for a minute, and then for a while, Starbucks and McDonald's overlapped, which wasn't supposed to be the case. But um, yeah, that was a really fun job.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Sounds like a good first job. I don't know. My first job was CVS. That does not sound like a fun job. I was a cashier, and then I became a photo lab technician. So I was developing people's photos, and then I became a beauty advisor, and every girl who worked in that store was jealous of me.
SPEAKER_00Wow, and look at you now. Still a beauty advisor.
SPEAKER_01Still, still.
SPEAKER_00Still. Did you get to see people's photos while you were developing them or not? Yep. Anything good?
SPEAKER_01Oh, there were times when people, this was back in the day where it was like you could get digitals developed. So we would get orders over online of people printing their digitals. And uh yeah, there were times when people tried to print pornographic photos, which I don't even think they had taken, but we had to like delete the order and tell them that we couldn't print that because that was weird, especially because my photo machine had a monitor that like I'm just behind the counter, so like other customers could see it. So I'm like, girl, what were you doing?
SPEAKER_00What were you thinking?
SPEAKER_01What were you thinking? Why would you do that?
SPEAKER_00So can I get my photos, please, or no?
SPEAKER_01I had to destroy them. Um, sorry. Yeah, I used to shred people's photos too. If they didn't pick them up. So you've always been vicious. Those were the rules. Them's the breaks. I don't make it up.
SPEAKER_00Allegedly.
SPEAKER_01This is a million years ago, too. And I got exposed to carcinogenic chemicals doing that. Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Don't say that. They're gonna take you seriously. They're gonna take that sound bite. They're gonna get you.
SPEAKER_00Who's they?
SPEAKER_01The the beef tallow people.
SPEAKER_00Big beef tallow.
SPEAKER_01Big beef.
SPEAKER_00Big belch.
SPEAKER_01Big girl.
SPEAKER_00And with that, thank you guys for listening.
SPEAKER_01Please let us know in the comments if you know what Huawei do.
SPEAKER_00Because what do Huawei do?
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SPEAKER_01Yeah. Review. Bye.
SPEAKER_00Bye. They're gonna break out into like a little song and dance number.