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
Skincare Q&A #2
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Our Heavenly Thotties are our skincare disciples, and whenever they ask us questions, we answer them with our holy skincare testament 🙂↕️ In this week’s episode of Divine Skintervention, we’re doing another round of Listener Q&A! Listen as Ramón and Angelo talk all things skincare, routines, procedures, and more!
*Thank you to Haruharu Wonder for sponsoring a portion of this episode, helping keep the podcast running and free of charge for our listeners ♡
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
Hi Angelo.
SPEAKER_02Hi Ramon. How are we, Diva? Fabulous. Never been better. Actually, when this airs, I don't know. Maybe I'll be buried in my work because I'm just.
SPEAKER_00But as of right now, we're doing great.
SPEAKER_02Fabulous.
SPEAKER_00Um, obviously, we know each other. We've known each other for a very long time. Part of doing this podcast was to, you know, be more connected to our followers, subscribers, viewers. Um, so we love sharing little tidbits about ourselves. I thought we would do a little Two Truths and a Lie, though, this episode.
SPEAKER_02I love it. Yeah, actually, yeah. In doing the podcast, I've actually learned a lot more about you. Um, and I think part of it was just like we live in the same city now, so we hang out. But yeah, girl, we kiki. We keep um But yes, okay. Do you want to start? Do you have your two truths and a lie? I didn't think about this, but yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Um I speak Arabic.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I'm a musician. I was born in Colorado.
SPEAKER_02Okay, this is hard because so am I.
SPEAKER_00That's also included in the questions. Am I hard? Who knows?
SPEAKER_02IPad. Um, okay, so I know that you speak English and Spanish and you took French. So a polyglot for sure. Um you did grow up all over the place, too. So like I associate you with Florida and Seattle, but I know you were a military brat. I why do they always say brat?
SPEAKER_00Like once a brat, always a brat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, and then Colorado so Colorado, I'm like, okay, maybe you could have been born in Colorado. And then musician. I've never heard you talk about playing an instrument. You speak Arabic. Mmm. Okay, can I interrogate some of these?
SPEAKER_00Can you get one question?
SPEAKER_02How good are you at speaking Arabic?
SPEAKER_00Um, like conversational. Like I speak it, but it's like I'm not like fluent by any means.
SPEAKER_02I think the lie is that you're a musician.
SPEAKER_00Final answer?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's that I speak Arabic. Fuck.
SPEAKER_02I took two quarters of it and the way you just lied to my fucking face. I gotta think twice about you from now on. She's an actress.
SPEAKER_00Um, no, I can uh any alphabet-based language I can read.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00But I don't know what I'm saying. So I can read Arabic.
unknownUh.
SPEAKER_00I can read Korean, I can read Cyrillic.
SPEAKER_02You could read Korean?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's alphabet.
SPEAKER_02W what do you mean alphabet?
SPEAKER_00Like So there's letters. So the basically Korean is built on an alphabet system. So if I see something written in Korean, I can well, I can try to sound it out. Jorge's always like, that's not how you say that. My husband actually does speak Korean. My Mexican husband. But um, yeah, uh, I had a weird like autistic phase as a kid where I would write in my diary in English, but I would use Cyrillic and Arabic letters to spell out the words.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00And then I'm a musician. I went to art school from middle and high school. I'm a classically and jazz trained saxophone and bass player, electric and upright.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Um also I used to post on my story. Uh my dream instrument was always oboe. When I was in London, I got an oboe, and I would like take lessons and stuff. I'd post on my story. I'd always mute the music because I suck.
SPEAKER_02But um Wow.
SPEAKER_00And then I was born in Colorado, military.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Arbor, Colorado.
SPEAKER_02So uh, do you know what that would have been my second choice? That that you know Arabic gorgeous language, gorgeous culture. I think it's conversational, like girl.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't Marhaba Anna Min Ramon, Anna Min Madinit, Seattle. I know Anna Ramon? I forget what min means, actually.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so clearly a lie.
SPEAKER_00That's my Arabic.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I gotta think about this. I used to raise horses. Raise or raise Raise. Raise, ride, etc.
SPEAKER_00Um That's the lie right there.
SPEAKER_02That's the lie. Uh I've been bungee jumping more than once, twice. And then I um worked on one of Beyoncé's music videos.
SPEAKER_00Bungie jumping is the lie.
SPEAKER_02Yes, damn. Oh fuck.
SPEAKER_00You've alluded something about Pennsylvania. You lived out in the country in Pennsylvania at one point. When I was a kid. You mentioned the horses.
SPEAKER_02So I knew that was a truth.
SPEAKER_00And then I imagine the Beyonce thing was a styling thing.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Okay, so the Beyonce thing is really interesting because um I helped them uh pull uh yeah, like um outfits for the best thing I never had video.
SPEAKER_00So you're responsible for that?
SPEAKER_02Well, no, her styling team was. I was just interning. Um, and I don't think we dressed her necessarily. It was for everybody else in the video. Um, but that's from four.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Um and her best album. My partner, before I knew him, actually uh worked on the video for OnePlus One. He he was part of the camera team for that, which he said was really cool because if if you watch it, it's based it's like one big French film reference, and he's from France and is a film nerd, so Gaggi. Gaggi. So yeah, before we knew each other, we worked on the same Beyonce rollout together.
SPEAKER_00One could kind of say Beyoncé brought four brought you together.
SPEAKER_02I mean Spiritually. Spiritually. What brought us together practically was the Teenage View Ninja Turtles movie he was working on, but that's a story for another day.
SPEAKER_00That is a story.
SPEAKER_02But anyway.
SPEAKER_00My favorite Beyoncé lore. I'm like five degrees of separation from her, it's like not even close. Um, one of my best friends' roommates in LA, because they were going to film school and doing all that. She basically spoiled what was going to be self-titled as like the visual album. Because she's like, Yeah, I had to do this like video shoot for Beyoncé. It was weird because we were in a parking garage and we couldn't hear the music, but I was she was like doing something with the crew. And that ended up being the video for Don't Hurt Yourself.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Yeah. Wait, no, that's not self-titled. That's Self-titled. No. No, wait, Lemonade!
SPEAKER_00You're right, Lemonade. But that was the visual album. I love that song.
SPEAKER_02Well, both of them were visual albums.
SPEAKER_00Wait, no. Oh, it was it was Lemonade because Yeah, it was Lemonade. Don't hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_02Don't hurt yourself. Don't hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_00Crazy though, right?
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, do you learn something new every day, even about each other?
SPEAKER_00Go stream Beyonce. So, enough asking questions of each other. We have both posted on our stories now, basically asking you guys as our followers, what questions you want to ask us for us to answer on the podcast. So today's gonna be a QA episode.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_00Thanks to you guys.
SPEAKER_02Do you want to start?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my friend actually DM'd me a really great question. And Angela, this is very specific to you.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So he says, if I get sculpture, is it really gonna be an issue when I inevitably want to get a facelift in 10 years regarding surgeons not wanting to operate on you due to things like granulomas and scar tissue?
SPEAKER_02Okay. So uh nobody has reached a consensus on this. However, the thought now is that uh the collagen that's produced by these biostimulators, so things like sculpture, radius, when they're uh injected in a hyperdilute fashion, meaning they're putting a lot of saline in with it and trying to not use it as much as a filler, even though there's still fillers, is that the collagen produced by them lasts two to three years. So uh I think the overall guidance that most practitioners are gonna be giving now is that no, don't do it if you're planning on getting a facelift in the next few years. If you want to be safe, maybe you could say five, but it's gonna depend on each person's individual situation. So, of course, talk to a provider who knows you.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Because a lot of people were fear-mongering and saying that, oh, like if you do sculpture at all, you're never gonna be able to get a facelift. I don't think if you get sculpture in your 40s and you're planning on getting a facelift in your 60s that it's really gonna matter.
unknownYeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh something is more of a me question. What kind of UVA PF, so like UVA protection level, could you anticipate with the new BEMT or Bematrizinol filter we approved in the US, Avobenzone, and zinc oxide. So those are all filters that get into the UVA part of the spectrum. BEMT is technically a broad spectrum UV filter. Again, we just got it approved in the US, but it's been used overseas for decades now. Um, it doesn't necessarily give you amazing UVA protection in that it doesn't get very high protection in the UVA 1 range, the part that's close to visible light, but you do get you do get very good UVA 2 protection. Um, that's one of the unique features of BEMT. You get a very specific bump that a lot of filters do not touch. So it's definitely gonna raise up the UVA PF that you can get, but fundamentally to me, Avobenzone is still gonna be the top notch because it does really well in the UVA 1 part of the range. And what's nice is BEMT stabilizes Avobenzone and really fortifies that UVA protection. Zinc oxide, I am the biggest hater of, I'll be so honest. I think to get really sizable UVA protection from zinc oxide, you need a very inelegant amount, so that 20 plus percent range. And fundamentally, you can still use that much zinc oxide and you're still gonna get a PA3 plus sunscreen because zinc oxide is just not a great broad spectrum filter either, as much as people I'm sorry, I'm the biggest hater. I will say that. If you really want to elevate the uh UVA PF with a zinc oxide sunscreen, you need to include iron oxides essentially to really bump up into that visible light part of the spectrum. That's my T on that. Epabenzone is still supreme. So, next question basically is asking I hate a morning routine. What's the simplest way to go about a comprehensive but quick, simple morning routine? Disclosure, this part of the podcast episode today is done in partnership with Haru Haru Wonder. Here's the deal. Angelo and I have talked about this before. You do not need a super intensive morning routine. You don't need a super intensive skincare routine, period. Your morning routine can be, you know, you don't even have to cleanse, but you can cleanse if you want to, or quick rinse, and then just your sun protection for the day. Today I'm using the Centellicom Cloud SPF from Haru Haru Wonder as the example. People always forget your sunscreen, if you get the one that's right for your skin type, can be your moisturizer and sunscreen in one. Case in point, I have very oily, acne-prone skin. Most times my skincare routine in the morning is something like antioxidant focus, sunscreen on top. Something lightweight, something I can slap on, it's gonna stink quick. I do not have to think about it. Obviously, having facial hair being a little bit more melanin rich, white cast is a concern. The Centelicom Cloud SPF, SPF 60 Plus, broad spectrum, chemical sunscreen, no white cast. This is really that sunscreen for the sunscreen hater. If you don't like feeling heavy, greasy, you don't like spending forever working it in, you don't like a white cast, this is a sunscreen for you. The SPF 60 Plus gives you really high daily protection. This is not water or sweat resistant, but if you are someone who you're wearing sunscreen to go to work or school, just go about your day, you don't need something that's heavy-duty, water and sweat resistant, great option. Plus, it preps really well for makeup. I have it underneath my foundation today. You can see it's giving skin, it's giving natural. The finish of this, because I always get asked about sunscreens, the finish of this is not matte by any means. I would say it's more satin to glowy. So if you love a glowier finish, great for you. If I want a bare skin date and I don't want to super shine, I will set with powder or on my T-zone. I'm good for the day. One thing also is your sunscreen can also have skincare active, so it's also taking care of some of the serum benefits you might want in a morning routine. The Centelicom Cloud SPF, as a name mentioned, features Sintella Asiatica. It also features ceramide, hyaluronic acid. So you're getting really nice hydration, barrier support, some soothing benefits. One thing about Howard Hurry Wenders a brand is they're very barrier first. So many of their products are really focused on let's moisturize, let's hydrate, let's soothe, let's really prioritize that barrier support, especially if you're more sensitive, skin-friendly. Great option. Plus, if you deal with some eye irritation, this could be a really good option. People know I can put sunscreen olive in my eye area and be good. This is one I think a lot of people talk about. It's really nice around their eye area. But as with all sunscreens, if you deal with eye irritation, set your sunscreen with a powder around your eye area after the sunscreen sets. That's gonna help greatly reduce the potential for it running into your eye and stinging. So especially if you struggle to incorporate sunscreen into your morning routine, you hate sunscreen or you hate a really intensive, long, complicated morning routine. Cleanse, it's an telecom cloud SPF, you're set for the day. And plus it's super easy to get, you can get it on Amazon. I want to hear no excuses about I hate sunscreen, especially I hate reapplying sunscreen. On this podcast, no ma'am.
SPEAKER_02What do you think about SPF sprays? For example, one from Garnier.
SPEAKER_00Oh, and you know this. In the EU they have the aerosol mists.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean there are different kinds of sprays. So there's aerosol, there's the pump bottles. I think for body, they can be fine, but you need to use a lot. Like a lot, a lot, and rub it in. Spread it. You can't just spray it on.
SPEAKER_00SPF sprays are a big point of contention. Eileen pro spray, but the caveat behind that is non-aerosol. For over makeup, because I think that's the context I get asked the most in, you need to drench your face. Because part of the issue is ensuring deposition of the sunscreen on your skin. And that's the issue with some sprays and mists, is that people are doing them outside and like the SPF is just wafting away in the wind.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so I'm not gonna say it's the most reliable option unless you're really going above and beyond in terms of application of it, and then at that point you're just like covered in SP SPF mist, and it's most likely gonna be greasy, it might rain in your eyes. Um, so that context is also important. But I agree with Angelo for body. I'm fine with the mist, but you have to be very generous in application and also ensure that you are rubbing it in.
SPEAKER_02I tested out for one of the pump sprays, I think it was like the Shiseido, um, the blue one a few years ago. Like if I wanted to get the half teaspoon on my face and neck, it was 20 pumps. Yeah. So uh maybe not the easiest option, and I was saturated. Like it was like I was wet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's the thing is And I am right now too, but with those sprays, they rely on usually a volatile vehicle. So volatile meaning if something evaporates out, and most of the time there's gonna be ethanol. So people's sensitive skin, not always the best option. But even still, once you're saturated and that evaporation happens, you still have especially for American sunscreens, you still have a good amount of a very oily substance on your face.
SPEAKER_02In what cases about skin care we shouldn't rely on AI. None.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02One interesting thing that I saw, I reshared this to my stories, and uh there's this tech reporter that she does like a lot of reporting on AI, and I think specifically um where it's like sourcing data from, and I didn't know about this. What I had always said is like AI can only tell you what has been said, it can't fact check. So basically, it's scouring the internet for information about whatever your question is and trying to produce an answer from what's out there. It's also trying to give you something that's satisfactory. So these large language models, they want to like close the loop. They don't want you to keep asking like different things about the question. They want to satisfy you. So they want to tell you what you want to hear, and they're only gonna tell you what's been said. Also, there have been cases of AI like basically making things up or hallucinating or coming up with sources that don't exist. A new fold to this that this reporter brought to my attention was that there are big sites that are big sources of information that have basically put safeguards so that AI can't pull from them because they don't want to be plagiarized. And a lot of them are very reputable sources. On the flip side of that, some of the uh sources that are being used a lot that actually, like I think it's um Reddit that has a deal with OpenAI for Chat GPT, where a lot of its recommendations are coming from Reddit, which is not fact-checked, it's just people talking. So that's why I say for product recommendations, especially since now a lot of companies are optimizing their content to be found by AI, it's not really reliable as far as giving you the best answers. It's giving you the answers that it thinks you want to see and the ones that are boosted up as far as its own SEO type of thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, for me, it's just I get asked a lot in terms of like formulation stuff. ChatGPT doesn't understand the intricacies of like ingredients and the different things that it can do. Also, to Angela's point, I have seen it where AI will just m completely fabricate a source. Like when you look up academic papers, a lot of times um they'll have a DOI number. Um, ChatGPT has completely fabricated a number. Like if you click that number, it doesn't exist, or it's a completely different paper in a different field entirely than the information that ChatGPT is trying to give you. It's just not I don't rely on AI for any capacity. I don't believe in AI. AI's biggest hater. How early can I do my nighttime routine? For example, after I work out or go to the gym.
SPEAKER_02I don't know you, so I can't talk to you specifically, but I always say there's no reason to do that PM routine necessarily like right before you go to bed. And for people that have a hard time making that happen, I often say, is there another like juncture in your evening that you could easily make it part of your like daily routine? So that could be depending on when you get in from work, right after work, if you want to wash off the day, put on that you know, night cream and like chill. If it's you know after you eat dinner for the evening and you know watching TV. You're watching TV.
SPEAKER_00LED mask on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I've also said to people, this is another hack of mine, like if you find it hard to do that night routine, you can make yourself a bedside kit with your skincare. So I've found also like I've had a lot of people in my audience who like suffer with like depression who have said that this was very helpful for them. Micellar water, reusable cotton rounds, and a moisturizer in a little kit that you keep by the side of your bed. Or um, I made one of those kits for my partner, and what he'll do is he'll like wash his face in the bathroom and then like come into our bedroom while we're watching TV, he makes me put all of his serums and creams on him.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, I like that idea a lot. And yeah, to Angela's point, there's people that have, you know, they're dealing with depression, they might have specific mobility or uh chronic issues where like doing a full skin routine is a process, and sometimes getting out of bed is a process and an ordeal. And therefore, a little two-step, really comprehensive routine, get chew that moisturizer that has the retinol or specific actives that might target a concern that you have, and wipe, wipe, cream, cream, you're done. This is a really good one. How can I get abs like dermangelo? Please share food and exercise tips.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. Okay, so I worked with a like a remote fitness coach for over a year. Um, shout out to Adam. But yeah, the uh thing about it is work out a lot and really pay attention to your diet.
SPEAKER_00Even I've asked you about this. Like, how disciplined are you with the actual diet portion?
SPEAKER_02I'm not like religious about it. It's the same thing with working out. Like, I cannot stress myself out over this stuff, and I am extremely busy. So, you know, I aim for five workouts a week. Do I get there all the time? Absolutely not. Um, I don't track my diet necessarily every day. I try to do most days of the week, but you know, if I know I'm gonna be out all day and like be eating at restaurants or like it's something fun that I'm doing that involves food, like I do not care. I don't uh deprive myself of those pleasures because like what is life about? At least that's the way that I see it, and I really love food. And yeah, but I think after a while of tracking your macros and like your caloric intake and things like that, you start to notice patterns or like certain things that you know for me used to be like all the time foods that became like, oh, as a treat food. Or I also think it became like it was more at the top of my mind to like consume like healthier things like fruits and vegetables in like higher quantities because you know they're lower cal, they're satiating, and also it's like they're foods I already love. Um that said, like, yeah, like there was cutting, there was caloric deficit, and I think that's the missing piece for a lot of people. It's like I've been working out and lifting weights for years, like in some way, shape, or form since I was 14. So uh I think the missing piece was diet and also consistency in the gym.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna ask, at what point did you really set out and be like, um, I'm gonna get abs? And how like from that moment to like actually like seeing the definition? Like, what was that time like?
SPEAKER_02It was so I started in February of 2025, really. It's a year and a half ago from when I recorded. My trainer, and then I really started to see them maybe like three, four months in.
SPEAKER_00Okay. But that's like consistency in the discipline of actually.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, like doing the diet and the exercise. Another thing that I think was tripping me up was I was using a really popular app for a few years that it was trying to give you a whole body workout and tracking like what muscles you worked out, but it would change up the workouts all the time. The key is have the same workouts and try to increase either the number of reps or the weight, like your overall volume that you're lifting from week to week incrementally. Like that's how you get stronger, that's how you improve. It's by like doing the same thing repeatedly, not to say that I never switch it up, I do sometimes, and I think switching up the workouts like every few months is good, but at the same time, it's like doing something different every single freaking time, like you're never going to progress at anything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Look at the glute maxing guy, he does basically the same rounds of workouts five, six days a week, and that glute is getting maxed.
SPEAKER_02You watching it grow every day?
unknownMaybe.
SPEAKER_02Do you work out a lot?
SPEAKER_00God, no, I'm so not disciplined with that. I got back into it recently just because I am very critical. But basically, just through like the travel that we do and like all these different things, I don't have the time, and also why I hate working out. I hate working out around other people. But I also hate people that bitch about something that can be remedied and they don't actively remedy it. So I'm like, if I want to look a certain way or want a specific effect, I need to just stop bitching about it and finally do it. So um, yeah, I do like little home workouts, even though I have a gym in my building that I have access to. Um, and then my husband loves to run. I hate cardio, but I'll run with him. I might tap out halfway through though.
SPEAKER_02I I don't get running. I don't get it. One thing, okay, your point about like all the travel that we do and stuff, I think it it has been hard for me, and it this is something that I overcame. Keeping up with my workouts when I'm traveling. Like, I was always the type of person that like I would pack workout clothes and then just not go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So like having to push myself when I'm like really, really busy, I think has been helpful, but for me, I also I'm not a morning person.
SPEAKER_00Not a fucking morning person. I will not work out in the morning. I love working out before bed. Um, my other thing though is going back to that I hate working out around other people. I hate being sweaty. I'm also really self-conscious. I mentioned this about like not smelling good. So when you're in a hotel, coming up, because I'm always on the like fucking top floor, the gym's always in the basement. I'm like, I have to get in the elevator with other people after I've been working out and sweaty and nasty. That's the last thing I want to do.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. I know.
SPEAKER_00It's like all this mental stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you just have to overcome it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00You want a fat ass, you gotta make sacrifices. Um, how many toners, essences, serums can I use before my skin can't absorb them?
SPEAKER_02I was asked this recently, and I think it's such an interesting question, just because Remember, your skin is not a sponge. It's a barrier. It's a barrier. However, girl, you'd love to- I'm gonna throw something at you one of these days. Um, there's a therapeutic window for basically every ingredient, and I did a video on this. I'm borrowing this from pharmacology, but basically, if you're delivering a dose of an ingredient, you need to get to a certain point to get an effect. But if you keep delivering and delivering and delivering and delivering, you're increasing your chances of having an adverse effect from it. And most of the time with these topicals, it's gonna be irritation. So I don't think that necessarily like using a ton of products and having duplicates of actives and things like that are necessarily going to help people get faster results, better results, or anything like that, and you're increasing your chances of having some sort of a negative outcome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think of like going back to the seven skin method or just really layering this like toner essence serum moment, those are going to be in usually humectant-rich vehicles, so you're just slapping on a lot of humectants, you're gonna be hydrated, but like realistically, you don't need all that to even get slightly hydrated to Angela's point. You reach a threshold of how hydrated can your skin get, and then in terms of other active- I think a good example of this is people being like, oh, I've been using 0.1% trut for so long. I'm not seeing any more benefits, let me level up. And it's like, well, no, maybe because that's realistically that that's how much benefit you can get from trut. No, and period.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think you do max out at a certain point. A question from my side. Somebody asked how they convince their husband not to use sunscreen as their PM lotion.
SPEAKER_00Here's the deal. This isn't bad.
SPEAKER_02It probably doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's not like the worst thing in the world. And if it's not a expensive sunscreen, whatever. It's sunscreen is generally a moisturizer with UV filters dispersed in the vehicle. And we've talked about if you want to be really simple and really lazy with your routine, you can use that sunscreen in the morning for protection and that sunscreen at night for moisturization. It's not a huge deal. Um I hope he understands what sunscreen is actually supposed to do. So that he understands at least like it's protecting from the sun. But it's not bad to use at night, honestly.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, um, I'm like, if it keeps you moisturizing, why not?
SPEAKER_00I have one for you. Spironal lactone versus birth control is for hormonal acne, or both together.
SPEAKER_02Depends. Depends on the birth control. Um, not all of them provide uh like a significant effect against acne. Um, they work in different ways, so it really depends. Could be both, could be either. Um, you know, in my practice, I'm not regularly prescribing people birth control, even though like it can't be used for acne, but I do feel like I go more towards antiandrogens like spironolactone because I feel it's more effective, and also because, you know, it's like I'm not screwing with people's reproductive health, uh, because you know, usually I'm like, that's for primary care or gynecology or whatever it may be. Um, but yeah, both can have benefits. Also, one thing that people don't realize one thing that people don't realize is that a lot of the standard acne treatments are going to be treatments for hormonal acne too. All acne has some sort of a hormonal component. So, you know, it's not just, oh, I have hormonal pattern acne. I need to get on spyro. It's like, are you on a retinoid?
SPEAKER_00I used to love playing spyro. Remember that video game with those? Yes! The little dragon.
SPEAKER_02Love spirit. Little purple dragon, love her.
SPEAKER_00Um, this question comes from actually a friend of mine, Remo. He's the guy who designed our little cherubs. Hi, Remo. Hi, Remo. He says, Some of us are getting old here. What recos do you have for our necks in eye bags? Retinoid. Retinoid to help with some of the fine lines and wrinkles, help with firmness, uh, also some protection to prevent any worsening of those.
SPEAKER_02Eye bags? Yes. Okay. I've been meaning to talk about this. Some of y'all are saying you have dark circles when you don't. I think everybody thinks they have under-eye issues. Not everybody does.
SPEAKER_01Not me.
SPEAKER_02Look in the mirror. Also, eye bags versus dark circles are different, and I think that sometimes people have a hard time discerning between a tear trough, which is like an actual depression there, um, a bag, which is quite often like fat bulging out, or sometimes puffiness, or pigmentation, or what I call visible subcutus. So actually seeing kind of a grayish coloring because you're seeing through the skin. It's so thin that you're seeing the structures underneath, and depending on how deep the structures are, they're gonna be different colors.
SPEAKER_00So the more you know, oh my god.
SPEAKER_02First, having an evaluation with a derm, I think, is helpful to see what is actually going on. Cosmetic derm, hopefully. Um, but yeah, for a lot of the uh concerns that we're gonna see under the eye, whether it's collagen loss, wrinkling, discoloration, or retinoid is gonna be helpful in all of those cases.
SPEAKER_00What are your thoughts on like dedicated neck creams? Marketing.
SPEAKER_02I mean, yeah, it's like if you have a different concern for your neck than the rest of your face, but I always say for me, my face goes to my nipples. So this is all one thing.
SPEAKER_00Everything is stuff on everywhere for me, so. The neck thing, I will say retinoids, obviously. I've also, just because I mentioned this before, due to the influx or products that we get, I have so many peptide-focused products, so I just layer a bunch of those. I remember Charlotte Parler talking about Palermino, talking about um peptide flooding. Correct, and I'm like, because I got the products, I'm gonna try it. So I'll be using like Costorex Copper Peptide, the dew deliverance, freeze frame from educated mess, the oh, I can't mention that product anymore. Um yeah, especially if you have like affordable options that show good clinicals, you have to use peptides as well as your retinoids, antioxidants in the daytime as well. Huge proponent for antioxidants for um preventing filing diminishes.
SPEAKER_02PSA to apps. Stop making it so that when you exit the app and come back in, that you're not where you were before. Hate that. Hate it. Why are you so beautiful?
SPEAKER_00Well, my parents are Puerto Rican. Um I wear sunscreen every day. I would say mind my business, but I do not mind my business.
SPEAKER_02So she doesn't. I'm busy. Zerf, leave it or worth it. I only bring that up because I think Ramon could come in and get a Zerf with me. I think he should. To test it out because people are asking about it so much.
SPEAKER_00No kidding. Um, I mean, you love Zerf, and I feel like you mentioned it, and people were up in the comments hating on Zerf.
SPEAKER_02Every which way.
SPEAKER_00People talking about the clinicals being performed on animals, and people saying, like, oh, the benefits, it's like a scam.
SPEAKER_02Well, okay, so they did animal studies. Well, it was like on pig skin, they did ex vivo on it. Okay. That does not make it a scam because it is a technology that's been around for decades. That's the deal. It's like uh I'm not putting uh, you know, my my clinical opinion behind it just because of the the pig skin studies. It's the fact that it's a technology that's been used over many, many devices, and I have other RF devices that I use in my practice too, not just the Zerf. Zerf happens to be popular right now.
SPEAKER_00And I feel like people were like, oh, you're just saying that because that's what you were taught, or you were sold, what you were sold. And it's like, no, you have other options. That's the one that you choose to go to because I think what you see the most benefits out of it, you see the most results.
SPEAKER_02I think that sometimes there is a little bit of a bias towards something that is popular just because I could see the results in my patients, because there are people who come and ask me for that specific device. And if they're a good candidate, I will say, yeah. People saying, like, is it worth it? It depends. Are you a good candidate? That's part of the question. Um, because with Zerf or any other of these like minimally invasive RF devices, it's not like surgery level results. So you need to have good expectations. I think that sometimes people are being sold these things, especially by less experienced practitioners who don't know what a good candidate is or will just sell people whatever. And I think that's a lot of the issue. There you go. Come correct. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00How to maintain healthy hair and skin when swimming often in a pool for exercise.
SPEAKER_02In a pool?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, but for me, skin-wise, it's like dryness most likely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Irritation.
SPEAKER_02Moisturize well.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Gentle cleansing.
SPEAKER_00I know like the hair part actually is like a very prevalent thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Cap, if you can.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02When you get in. Um, it's just drying. It is. Well, like, it's not even just chlorinated water. Water itself is an irritant. So moisturize. Your opinion on the cognitive dissonance re-science deniers slash maha people who also get Botox. People pick and choose what they want to believe in. So I think that especially when it comes to science, when people see some sort of benefit to themselves, they will suspend their beliefs in order to go with that thing. And I think you cannot divorce science and modern medicine from something like Botox or uh aesthetic treatment. You can't. It all came out of the same community, the same vocation. Yeah. You can't have it both ways. Also, these science deniers who want to distrust the medical community, when they have a medical emergency, where are they going? And that's that's a lot of the issue that I take with this. It's like, if you're gonna talk the talk, walk the walk. When you have that heart attack, are you not gonna go to the emergency room? Tell me. You will. And in the end, we have to take care of everyone, basically. So I when people come in, I don't ask them what their belief system is. I gotta take care of them the same way.
SPEAKER_00I say your goal is the care.
SPEAKER_02The care, so.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. People are gonna believe what they want to believe, and that's the thing is the people that talk about, you know, the chemicals and the clean and the toxic, you know, they're also eating Chick-fil-A every day or something. That large size Dr. Pepper is not clean.
SPEAKER_02Continue tret at the beach or pause for extra safety. There is no good reliable evidence showing that topical retinoids cause photosensitivity. However, theoretically, there is. What I do say to people is, you know, don't stop retinoids in the summer, just protect your skin from the sun.
SPEAKER_00Which you should be doing anyways.
SPEAKER_02Which you should be doing anyway. So I know like some people have said, oh, my derm told me to stop tretinoin in the summertime. What the hell were they smoking? Because that makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00What's the worst experience you know about someone that did a procedure? And then in parentheses they write, uh cheese me, which means gossip.
SPEAKER_02Worst experience? Um I cared for somebody who had botched liposuction done by a family member who was not qualified to do lipo.
SPEAKER_00How was it performed?
SPEAKER_02Their family member was a doctor in another specialty who took a weekend course on how to do liposuction. Um I took care of somebody who once who had, I believe, like an abdominoplasty, a tummy tuck, that after years, like they were getting lumps under their skin, and we found that they had uh been closed, like in their lower layers, in their muscle layer, with non-absorbable sutures. You have two kinds of sutures in the way that some are absorbable, some are non-absorbable. Absorbable ones will break down, they'll get broken down by your body and dissolve. Um, the other kind that are non-absorbable, we typically use on the surface of the skin, and then you have to remove them. This person had been closed on the inside with the non-absorbable ones, so they had foreign bodies that developed like granulomas. Um countless patients who got um silicone injections that were like done in somebody's basement or something, that then end up with granulomas, uh hardening of like the tissue, uh infections, including like really like gnarly uh like mycobacterial infections. So those are bacteria that are related to tuberculosis, um, yeah, all kinds of stuff. I mean, heard of people going blind from filler. There was that story of that one person, she shared her story of uh she traveled to Korea and got injected with under-eye filler and went blind in one eye, and they didn't do anything to take care of her because there are like, you know, emergency measures that you could take to try to get somebody's vision back. Like, the list goes on. There are a lot of bad things that can happen. With these procedures, I always say that the practitioner should, even before they know how to do the procedure, know how to take care of the complications. Smart. Also because if you do the procedure, you should take care of the complication, even though many people have come to me with their complications from other providers, and I've had to take care of them.
SPEAKER_00So Oh my gosh. I have no answer for that one. Do you agree with Abby Young's rec of everyday usage of bond treatments for hair?
SPEAKER_02People have been asking me to look into the Abby Young method. For y'all who don't know, she's like a very popular content creator, and I think she's certified in tricology, even though there's not really a certification for that. Like it's I always say it's not real because it's not standardized. She has a method that she came up with. I've not looked into it yet, but everyday bond builders. I think you're you're you're gonna reach like a threshold of benefit. Um one of the these bond building treatments, they came about like I feel like Olaplex was the first popular one. It protects disulfide bonds, so these are bonds in the hair between two sulfurs. Fun fact uh they're very involved in like creating curls and curl patterns. So curlier hair tends to have more of these disulfide bonds. The way that it does this is that Olaplex molecule that they've patented holds on to the two sulfurs basically and helps them stay together. What I don't understand, and what I've not been convinced about, is using that outside of a treatment that you're doing on the hair. So when I used to bleach my own hair, I got my hands on the in salon Olaplex treatment, and I felt like it made a big difference because you mix it into the bleach or the color process or whatever it is that you're doing, and that molecule is present to hold those sulfurs together during the process that might break them apart, and then it's all washed away. Why are we doing that every single day when we're not doing processes like that? Is it, you know, during heat styling that we think it's helpful? Um, is it during shampooing? Like what are the processes that we think are breaking these disulfide bonds? And I think that's an unanswered question for me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and big fans of Abby Young over here in my household. Um, I was not aware of this, so I don't even know the full context of if she's recommending it every day all the time or every day contextually. I don't understand necessarily where that frame is. But yeah, like you're just gonna reach a threshold at some point. So especially if you're using Olaplex, which costs a lot of money, might not recommend necessarily.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, not sure.
SPEAKER_00Why do you why why what is a need to build those bonds so aggressively? How do you know that they're broken?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, also I think probably a lot of these bomb builders are gonna work via different uh mechanisms too.
SPEAKER_00So should I use my LED mask every day? Yes.
SPEAKER_02I think people should use it as often as is advised, depending on the um the device.
SPEAKER_00No. I'm going off of the current body one that I use, and one of those things is like the consistency, compliance with the device to actually see the results you want is necessary.
SPEAKER_02It's going to depend from device to device, depending on like how much energy they're delivering. So I would say follow the package instructions.
SPEAKER_00Read the instructions. This is an Angelo question. How long after starting adapoline can I introduce continuum?
SPEAKER_02I don't know you, so I have to speak um in general, but like using the two together, uh, there's no contraindication. But I would say everybody should talk to their own prescriber.
SPEAKER_00And then last question: what's your favorite color?
SPEAKER_02I always say I don't have one, but I'll tell my friends like if you're ever asked in any sort of trivia setting what my favorite color is, I will say charcoal. And if you know to say that, you're a real one. Okay, deep. And now all of you know.
SPEAKER_00Mine is like a really rich emerald green, like an emerald foresty green.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, okay, I've seen you wear that before.
SPEAKER_00To me, it's just like very uh rich. It's very opulent, it feels very lush.
SPEAKER_02And we are rich bitches, so. No, no, definitely not. We're not, we're not. I just lied. And with that.
SPEAKER_00Thank you guys for listening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, thanks for listening to the entire episode if you've got this far. Please make sure you're subscribed wherever you get your podcasts. Five-star reviews, hype us up on YouTube, thumbs up, whatever the hell it is, wherever you are, we see you.
SPEAKER_00Honestly, leave us more questions for the following QA in this comment section as well, just because we love answering your guys' questions. You guys leave really good ones.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, these were fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks, guys.
unknownBye.