Realfoodology - How to Stop Breakouts + Acne | Kayleigh Christina of Clearstem

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

139: This episode has been a long time coming!  This is a full breakdown about acne along with a holistic approach to dealing with it.  I speak with Kayleigh Christina, Founder of Clearstem which is a non toxic skin care line.  She is also a Certified Holistic Nutritionist. Topics Covered: Who is more susceptible to acne scarring  Hormone imbalance and acne  How does our diet play a role with acne? Egg whites and egg yolks, do they cause acne? Inflammatory foods and acne  Supplements that can cause acne breakouts  Biotin and acne  Ashwagandha and acne   Nuts and acne  What oils should you put on your skin? Acne safe oils. Who should use them? Where to find pore clogging ingredients in everyday products What sunscreen should you use? Where to start? Should you wash your face in the AM? Seed oils and acne  Check Out Kayleigh + Clearstem: Kayleigh's Instagram Clearstem Skincare - Code REALFOODOLOGY saves you $$$ Sponsored By: KION Save 20% on monthly deliveries and 10% on one-time purchases by going to getkion.com/realfoodology Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% Off Check Out Courtney: Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Further Listening: Eat To Glow | Celeste Thomas The Dr. Gundry Podcast

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast... The chemical-based sunscreens, you actually don't know when they're wearing off. Some of them are lasting only about 20-30 minutes. So you might be putting it on in the morning, and it's not even still active by the time that you leave the house. And because you're putting chemicals on your skin, and because of that, and because you're going... Maybe you really think you have sunscreen on, so you're going on a hike. You are laying out by the pool or at the beach. You're actually causing accelerated aging to the skin. Hi friends. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. As always,

I am your host, Courtney Swan, and I'm so grateful that you're here today. This episode has been a long time coming. I love to bring you guys episodes that are just like a full breakdown, 101, everything you need to know about a particular subject. And today's subject is all about acne and a holistic approach to dealing with acne. I speak with Kaylee Christina. She is the co-founder and also the COO of ClearStem, which is a non-toxic anti-aging and anti-acne skincare line.

She's also a certified holistic nutritionist. So she really speaks her language. She's also a certified holistic nutritionist. So she really speaks her language. She really gets it. She comes from a root cause preventative lens and has so much knowledge to share. So if you are dealing with and struggling with acne, or if you know someone that is, make sure you send them this episode because I found it so incredibly valuable and I really, really hope that it helps you. We dive into how she got into this in the first place. So she talks about her own personal journey with acne. And then we go into what are the natural causes of acne?

What causes it to trigger hormonal imbalances? We also talk a lot about different foods and supplements that may be causing your acne and you would have no idea. These are foods that are generally considered really healthy, but if you're acne prone, they may be causing your acne. And then at the end, we dive into what ClearStem products she recommends if you are dealing with acne. And if you want to try any of the products, you are going to save money if you use code realfoodology when you go to clearstemskincare.com. So that's clearstemskincare.com. Use code realfoodology and you are going to save money.

And with that, let's get into the episode. Thanks, guys. Hope you love it. We all want to feel and even look our absolute best. But the truth is most people find it challenging to make health a top priority. That's exactly why I created the Dr. Gundry podcast. Because if there's one thing I want everyone to know, it's that you do have the power to take control of your health and live the life you deserve. Check out the Dr. Gundry podcast today.

You probably know that the human body is mostly water. What you probably don't know is that everything else in your body is 50% amino acids. These building blocks of life are essential for health and fitness. And no matter how you like to move, whatever you do to stay fit, amino acids are essential. And this is why Keon Aminos is my fundamental supplement for fitness. I drink them every day for energy, muscle, and recovery. Keon Aminos is backed by over 20 years of clinical research, has the highest quality ingredients.

There's no fillers or junk. It undergoes rigorous quality testing, and it tastes amazing with all natural flavors. And if you're concerned about the natural flavors, please listen to the podcast episode with the founder of Kion and why you should not be concerned about their natural flavors.

So if you want to naturally boost energy, build lean muscle, and enhance athletic recovery, you need to get Keon Aminos. You can now save 20% on monthly deliveries and 10% on one-time purchases. Just go to getkeon.com slash realfoodology. That is G-E-T-K-I-O-N.com slash realfoodology to get my fundamental supplement for fitness key on aminos. I hope you enjoy Haley. I'm so excited to have you on. This has been a long time coming and I've been wanting to have you come on for a while because I want to talk all about skincare. You are so good at speaking about acne. You have your skincare company clear stem that actually, I think I told you this recently when I saw you, but I remember

you sent me the very first formulation that you guys ever had back in like, when was that? It was probably like 2018, like 17, 18. I love full circle moments when you remind me of that. I'm like, oh my gosh, I did. Like, so I love it. Like that's when we were back in the day when we were self-bottling, literally it's like self-labeling, self-bottling, sealing it, mailing it from a label maker plugged into my computer. Oh my God. Well, and you know, what's amazing is I moved fairly recently and I found that original

bottle and I'd only used like half of it. And we'll talk more about this later. Only because I don't really struggle with acne anymore. I did in the past, but so I didn't really have to use it. And we'll talk more about this later. Only because I don't really struggle with acne anymore. I did in the past, but so I didn't really have to use it. But that formulation, when I got that, I remember like anytime I would post about it, people are obsessed with it. It really works. It really works. Our very first serum, that's the one you got. That's our scar reversing serum. And the reason why we started off with that one, my co-founder Danielle owns San Diego Acne Clinic, and we'd be working with people to get people clear, but not everyone can

do traditional treatments for scar damage and pigmentation. So for example, anyone that has more melon in their skin, whether it's darker or olive skin tones, or an easy way to test is like, if you're outside for a whole day at the beach, like do you get tanned or do you get burnt? And if you tan, you have a lot more melon, which means you scar really easily. And you also can't do traditional scar treatments like lasers and peels because it'll actually hyperpigment your skin more. So we create a scar reversing serum to regenerate scars, which at the same time regenerates wrinkles too, because our whole line is for acne and aging. So the same things that regenerate scars also regenerate wrinkles because it's all collagen damage to the skin. Wow. That's so fascinating. You're such a wealth of knowledge

with all of this. So I'm excited to dive in. I have a lot of questions for you. So for our listeners, can you give them a little bit of your story and how you, you got into this world of acne? Yeah. So this was about, gosh, okay. So I was, I'm going to definitely should be sharing my age with this. So I was 24. This was seven years ago. I'm like doing the math in my head.

Seven, eight years ago. Um, I decided to get off birth control. I had been going down a path of getting really into wellness and holistic nutrition. It's something I've always been passionate about since I was younger, but it really catapulted after college, going into the corporate world and eating a lot of catered dinners and being under a lot of stress. I literally saw my body deteriorating from doing all these things. And again, from such a young age, I've always just put together like what you put in your body has such an effect on things beyond

weight, like an effect on your sleep, on your mood, on your stress levels, like how you react to stressful situations and just how you feel your energy levels every day. So I started to understand this more and more when deep down a rabbit hole into the world of wellness, which a lot of us have, and usually it's always sparked by something going on with your health. So I got off birth control because I really wanted to balance my hormones naturally and my body just completely freaked out. I was one of those cases where my body went through toxic shock in a way. And among a lot of other things, I rapidly lost a ton of weight. Everything I was eating was making me sick. It was just internally was a mess. But externally, I broke out with bright red

inflamed cystic acne covering my entire face. And I had never dealt with acne in this form before. Growing up, I very standard that with the teenage breakouts, went to the dermatologist, got put on a harsh cream, was using proactive, like what 90% of women out there were doing. Our only resources for like what skincare to use was in like Cosmopolitan magazine. And so, yeah, literally. So I knew, I knew nothing at this time. And so, um, again, it broke, my skin broke out with bright red inflamed cystic acne. And though I was going down this rabbit hole of wellness, I still wasn't as familiar with naturopathic medicine. I'm from the East coast originally, and just grew up in a very traditional household where something goes wrong, you go to your primary care doctor. So

go to the doctor and all this is happening. And my doctor was like, Oh, you have to go back on birth control. And I was like, okay, like, I don't, I don't want to. So what are my other options for this? He's like, well, that's the only way to balance your hormones. You have to go back on. And at this time, of course, I was diving into my own research and I was like, well, that's not really the case. And you know, I don't want my hormones synthetically controlled. I feel very passionate about this for my own body. I think birth control is a choice to anyone, but I think education is important around it. Um, so you're making the best decision for yourself at the time. And so I just told him, I was like, okay, that's,

that's not an option for me. And so what can I do? And what is causing this? He's like, well, I don't know what's causing it, but if you don't want to do birth control, here's a prescription for antibiotics. And I was like, what? What? Antibiotics. I mean, as you know, just wreck your immune system, your gut health. And so in my head, that didn't make sense. I'm like, well, how is this going to help my body heal acne if I'm wrecking my gut health and which is directly linked to my skin. And so I did not, yeah, I did not take that prescription to the pharmacy. I was like, all right, where else should I go? So I had to my dermatologist and actually had to go to multiple dermatologists because I kept getting the same

answer over and over again. I was getting really frustrated and I'd go and they were like, oh, well, it's really severe acne. So you have to go on Accutane. And I'd done a bunch of research at this time on Accutane. I was like, that's not the right fit for me. I don't want to do that. So what are my other options? Well, there's no other options. Okay. Well, I'm like, well, what's causing this? Like, what's like, something is wrong with me. Like, what is going on? And I was like, is it something I'm eating? Is it this or that? I don't know. These are the only options. Spironolactone or Accutane. So I left the dermatologist and I'm feeling so defeated at this point because this is months of different doctors, different dermatologists. And at the

same time, using myself as a guinea pig to try every skincare out there, every diet from AIP to cleanses to you name it. I was trying everything. Everything was making it worse. One less Google search, a pop San Diego acne clinic, which my co-founder Danielle owns. And I have been her last client of the day. Thank goodness because we spent about three hours together and my whole world was opened up into all these acne nuances that weren't told to me anywhere. I could nowhere online, no resources, no doctors. And it's really simple things like just to give you an example, I was taking a lot of supplements at the time and excess vitamin D, zinc and B12. Again, the keyword is excess in this. All three

trigger testosterone production. So if you are taking way more than your allotted RDV, and this is not taking into consideration blood work that tells you to take differently, but if you are overloading your body on it, it actually raises your testosterone levels, which is the main hormone that triggers acne. So it can actually cause really aggressive hormonal acne if people are over supplementing. So we found out in 12 different acne triggers going on from also using products with poor clogging ingredients. No dermatologist ever was like, hey, what foundation are you using? Which is crazy to me.

I know, like poor cloggers. It's like the easiest fix. Yeah. And it seems to be the most common sense one too, you know? Yeah. Because it's just like, hey, check your products for poor clogging ingredients because it's a huge aggressor of anyone who's acne prone. So we removed all 12 acne triggers, which are again, really simple ones, like the over-submentation, poor cloggers,

list of those. And then I got on a very proper skincare routine. Danielle was working with the chemist to formulate that very first serum I gave you. And so started using just four products, really simple, learned how to exfoliate. And my skin was completely clear, no scar damage in less than two months. And I had the aggressive acne that should have the ice pick deep rooted scars, but no scar damage. And I've never in my life broke out like that ever, ever again. That's such an amazing story. And I think so many people listening will be able to relate to this because I think many of us have similar stories, you know, varying degrees of it. Like for me, I never really had acne until I was like mid-20s at this point.

And I got what you were talking about, the super deep cystic acne. And I had a similar experience as you where I bounced around to all these different doctors, dermatologists, and everyone was trying to put me on birth control or, you know, give me the cortisone shots and put all these heavy aggressive creams on it. And then they wanted to put me on antibiotics, like the whole, exactly the same thing, same story. And I was so frustrated at the time because similar to you, I was learning nutrition. I was learning about the connection of the gut to our overall health and the foods that we eat and how they affect our hormones. And no one was talking about how to take a holistic from the inside out approach.

And it wasn't until I saw a doctor who, for me personally, what ended up being the case was my progesterone was really low. And then also for me, I know this might be a little controversial, and we don't have to dive into it too far, but going vegetarian was completely whacked out my hormones. And I learned later when I was in school getting my master's that many women who go vegetarian, they end up with all these hormonal imbalances, which we can talk a little bit more about how hormonal imbalances also lead to acne. I very much agree with that. One of the, I guess, what's the right word for this? The amount of people that go into Danielle's clinic struggling with acne, a huge portion of them are vegan.

Wow. And again, I'm not, and I get it. Everyone's body, everyone's body thrives off of different things. And what I just, what I just want to say, and I know we both believe the same thing is bio-individuality. Some people thrive off of vegan. Other people, they're like fighting their bodies against it. Like they're people, they're like fighting their bodies against it. Like they're trying to be vegan, but their bodies are screaming for help and being like, this isn't a right fit for me. Like it's just really not. And, but some bodies it's amazing for. Um, but yeah, majority of people that come in where she sees a lot of issues, they're, they're vegan. And a lot of times it's, it's diet that fixes a lot of that.

Wow. Well, and I know this is something you speak about a lot and I wanted to go into this. So how does our diet play a role in acne? And are there certain foods that are triggering for everyone or maybe triggering for certain people? Like how does, how's that connection? I love to talk about this because there's so many nuances you can go like really, really deep into, especially if someone's struggling with SIBO, candida, Paris, like there's, there's special AIP things that people can go on, but there are very kind of top level ones that if someone is acne prone, these are surefire going to break them out. And I love to start people here because it can be really overwhelming. Are you have to eat all these foods and do all these things when the

simplest way to start if you're really struggling with acne is remove these very simple ones that are known to trigger acne and make it more aggressive in people. So the first one is dairy. That is the biggest aggressor of acne. And if you're someone who's not acne prone and you can eat all the dairy you want and not break out, that is amazing. You might have more enzymes in your body, again, back to the bio-individuality. But if you are someone that struggles with acne, whether it's consistent or period-related acne, and the reason why we might not, some people might not break out dairy the other weeks of the month, but the week before our period, testosterone levels are a lot higher and digestion shuts down more. So we're going to be a little more sensitive to these things. So maybe you don't want to cut out dairy all the time, but cutting it out the week before your period when it's more aggressive. So again, your choice with that. But dairy, because of the growth hormones in it, you're actually going to see a lot of breakouts in the androgen slash testosterone region. So right where you'd have a goatee and a beard,

that's going to be the dairy. Yeah. Because it's like, that's where all the deep hair follicles, it's the androgen part of your face. And so that's where you're going to get more of the aggressive acne and a little under your jawline as well. That's a big one. And then one I always like to call out that I didn't know about before I met Danielle and a lot of people don't is eggs, but specifically it's egg whites. So yolks, great. Egg whites have a protein in it called albumin protein,

which is really hard for our bodies to break down. And you'll see a lot of breakouts around the lymphatic pathways of our skin. So right through the cheeks and under the jawline, you'll get that from egg whites. So that's a big one. And of course, like when we were teenagers, it was like the liquid egg whites were a quote that yeah like the egg white omelets I go crazy anytime I go to restaurants pretty rare now that you see it on a menu but if I see an egg white omelet on the menu I'm like what is this the 90s like the 90s called they want their menu back literally that's how I feel every time I'm like what decade are you living in to still have an egg white omelet on the menu?

I know. Okay, so that's so interesting. And I want to point this out for people listening just to make it really clear. So you're talking about more specifically if you happen to be acne prone, right? It's not in general eggs are causing acne for people, right? It's just if you tend to be more prone. Correct. And I, yeah, I want to be careful when I, when I talk with bio-individuality, but with dairy and eggs, they tend to be more inflammatory naturally. So, and I'm not referring to raw dairy and like the best possible eggs you can, you can find. I'm referring to like general, what most people are eating and conventional dairy. It's obviously filled with a lot of other, it's very inflammatory. And so if you're not acne prone, it might not come up as acne in you, but it actually is linked to accelerated aging because anything inflammatory is going to age you faster. It's going to link to digestive stress, dysbiosis in your gut. So this,

it might not come out for you in acne, but it's going to come out in other areas of the body where your inflammation goes to. Some people, their inflammation isn't acne, it's sinus issues. So dairy and eggs are going to inflame the sinus issues. Some people it's joint pain, some people it's rashes. So it's really wherever your body screams for help with inflammation. Yeah, even it could be something as simple as like bloating or just like if you've noticed or like feel a little bit more puffy than normal, it could also just be that too, which is your body essentially being inflamed.

And I think you brought up a really great point about the conventional versus like the pasteurized organic. Granted, dairy in general, even if it's pasteurized organic raw, it's still going to have hormones in there because it is, if you think about it, it's literally like hormone juice for baby calves. Exactly. You know? So that's what I always tell people.

I'm like, you're still drinking like hormone stimulators. No matter what. So you have to be really, really careful. So that's why when I do consume dairy, because it doesn't bother me so much, but I still do it pretty rarely. I always make sure that it's organic pasture raised because the organic dairy is in, it's ensuring that they're not adding the RBST and all these other growth hormones, because that's also, so you're getting the hormones from the cow and then you're getting

these added synthetic hormones that are only going to imbalance your hormones even further and lead to more inflammation. Exactly. Yeah. So I'm not a huge fan of dairy for that reason. And I won't say that I never have dairy, but I view it as like a really special treat that I get to have every once in a while. And then I pick and choose my dairy and make sure it's like really worth it. Like a high, like really looking forward to like an amazing goat cheese or a piece of brie, like something like that, that I get excited about every once in a while. But there was a massive period of time where I 100% cut out dairy while I was working on my inflammation and acne. So my body could truly heal and it wasn't re-triggered over and over again. You and I are very similar. I do the same thing. So

what are some other other foods or vitamins that would normally be considered healthy, but people may not be making the connection that it's causing their acne? Yes. So as I mentioned earlier, I do want to reiterate the supplements because especially all of us in the health and wellness industry, we love supplements. We love experimenting with different things. So vitamin D, zinc, B12, all of them in excess trigger testosterone, which triggers hormonal acne. And what we've usually seen, because you turn over a supplement bottle and it has your RDV, your recommended daily value. And we've seen for those three, anywhere over, I'd say the safe range is between obviously

100% RDB and less than that too, but 100% to like 300%. And when you're starting to go over that, we've seen the acne come up and be aggravated. The other one is biotin, which is crazy because that's been touted for so long as the hair, skin, and nail supplement. But when I explain this, it's going to make so much sense to people who are listening. So people who are genetically prone to acne have what's called retention hyperkeratosis, which means your skin produces protein faster. Biotin is triggering that. So it's essentially like pouring gasoline on a fire. So if you think about it this way, obviously producing protein at a faster rate does make your hair and nails grow faster, but it also makes your skin grow faster. So why this causes acne is,

let's see, you have something on your face or just the oil and dirt that accumulate from the day, clog your pore. Your body has a natural exfoliation that it just does. You exfoliate every single day naturally. So normally that clog would be exfoliated out just from the skin shedding that you go through. But with pretension hyperkeratosis, your skin grows over it faster than it can shed, which means it's clogging the pore faster. So when you're taking biotin, you're basically asking your skin to quickly grow protein a lot faster, in turn, clogging the pore faster than your skin can naturally shed. So that's what causes more acne. So yeah, those are the supplements. And then the one other one that is a newer one is ashwagandha, which I do love for stress support. But in these cases, I'm talking excess. And in excess, it's actually linked to testosterone production. So if you're having like a ton in a bunch of different beverages throughout the day, and then having tea at night, and you're

just having an excessive amount, it can raise your testosterone levels. So that's where it comes into play. It's really in the excess of all of these. That's so interesting. I've never heard any of that before. And I think it's going to be really profound for people to hear that are struggling. And they're like, wait, but I feel like my diet's on lock. And I'm, you know, still struggling with this. So I think those are some great little avenues that people can go down to, you know, figure out what the deal is with their acne. Another one I've heard of our mutual friend, Celeste Thomas talks about this a lot is nuts. And this one really shocked me and also made me realize how many nuts I was eating on a day-to-day basis, especially now with this movement of grain-free, gluten-free, everyone's doing the nut milks and then the

crackers made out of nuts and the bread made out of nuts. And then you look back on the end of the day and you're like, I've eaten a lot of nuts today. Yeah, nuts is a big one. Peanut is probably the worst of the worst. I know peanut's not even a nut, but it's still thrown in that general category in people's heads. Peanuts are very inflammatory. So that's one of the biggest suggestions to people when they're struggling with inflamed acne is we have them take out peanuts and peanut butter from their diet. But yes, nuts in general, it's one, can cause hormonal imbalances, but two, can really clog up our digestive system and lymphatic system as well. And it's funny when you add up all the different nuts that you're eating because of

dairy alternatives. And you're like, oh shoot, I'm drinking almond milk and then have almond flour in this. And then I'm putting almond butter on something. And then I do a cashew cream cheese and you're like, Oh my God, 20,000 nuts today, ground up essentially, which is like, if you were eating like one by one, the nuts, like your body cannot process that many. So that's, that is a big one too. And I think a lot of people aren't making the connection until it's pointed out. And then you're like, Oh man, I need to like reel that in a little bit. So let's talk about oils. So I've always heard that putting oil on your skin is going to clog your pores and it's going

to make you even more prone to acne. Is that true? Or is that, how does that work? Yeah, this one, yes and no. So there's only a couple acne safe oils. A lot of them are not acne safe. And the reason is just really the molecular size. So there's some, most oils are pore clogging because they go into your pore and the molecules are just truly too big to absorb fully in and they just get stuck in your pore and then they have to be physically exfoliated out. So majority of oils, especially a lot of new ones coming up, like one of the new ones, chia seed oil is really aggressive for acne. They're always constantly coming up with new marketing oils to throw everything. But coconut oil, shea butter, chia oil, avocado, a lot of the edible ones you actually don't want to be putting on your skin. Even olive oil, it's a

little lower on the acne scale, but for someone who's acne prone, olive oil is still going to really trigger them. Jojoba is in the middle and that's a case by case. People who are severely acne prone can't use jojoba. People who are mild can use it. But rose hip is a safe one. Hemp is a safe one. Sunflower topically, if sourced correctly, is a good one. Try to think of like one more. There's literally only like four or five that are acne safe.

The other reason in general, even if it is acne safe and you're dealing with currently really trying to rid your skin of acne. So let's say your skin is not completely clear right now. You're struggling with acne. Oils are not the best to use while you're trying to heal your acne because it tricks your skin. With acne, you're trying to re-regulate your body's own oil production the same way like post birth control, we're trying to re-regulate your body's own oil production the same way like post-birth control, we're trying to re-regulate hormones. You don't want to be feeding your body with a ton of different hormones to confuse it even more. So oils will just confuse your skin as it's trying to re-regulate and heal the acne.

So it's something that you can incorporate in once your skin is a little more clear, if you just absolutely love rubbing an oil all over your skin. But it's just, it's not for the acne prone. I want to take a second to talk about some of my favorite Organifi products and why I love them. When I first started getting into health, I was an avid juicer. I was buying fresh veggies every couple of days and wearing out my juicer and also wearing out myself by trying to constantly juice vegetable juices. Because I wanted to flood my body with all of the nutrients, the phytonutrients that you get from green juices. But after a while, I was like, I cannot keep doing this every day and also maintain my job, maintain my social life and everything else.

But I really wanted to make sure that I had a good high quality green juice that was organic. And I knew that I could trust came from a good source. So when I discovered Organifi, I was so happy. They not only have a green juice, but they also have a red juice. And I really like to mix them together because it really helps with the flavor profile. And you're not only getting all of the green phytonutrients from the green juice, but you're also getting all the antioxidants from the red juice. So it's like a win-win situation.

I also really love their chocolate gold. It's their low sugar hot chocolate mix. And it's loaded with ingredients like lemon balm, turkey tail, magnesium chloride, and reishi. Oh, there's also turmeric in there as well. So it really helps to calm down your nervous system before bed. And it really makes me sleepy. It also helps the digestion because you have the turmeric in there, you have cinnamon, you have ginger, black pepper. So it's helping with digestion and inflammation. I'm a really big fan of this. You can also put it in your coffee in the morning and it kind of helps to balance out the jitters that you might get from your morning coffee. And then another product that I'm really loving and taking every single day is their liver reset.

Modern living is incredibly taxing on our liver. Like just existing is hard on our liver because we are constantly being inundated with pesticides, heavy metals, environmental toxins, not to mention if we drink alcohol, that's also going to put a strain on our liver. So I think it's incredibly important that we take something every single day to support our liver health. This product has triphala in it. It also has dandelion, milk thistle, and artichoke extract, which all have been scientifically backed and proven to provide protection for the liver. And then of course, the most important part about Organifi products is that they are all organic and they go a step further by guaranteeing that they are glyphosate

residue free. Glyphosate is a known herbicide that is sprayed on a lot of our crops these days. It's also sneaking into organic foods and it is a known carcinogen. So it's incredibly important to make sure that we limit our exposure as much as possible to glyphosate. If you guys want to try any of the Organifi products and get 20% off, go to Organifi.com slash Real Foodology. You're going to see all of my favorite products in that store. And you're also going to get 20% off. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I dot com slash real foodology. So I want to dive now a little bit into more of the skincare side of things. So I, for when I was first learning about nutrition, I was of the mind that acne was just fully your diet and everything that you're putting in your body and that connection between your gut and your

skin, because your skin is your, the reflection of what's going on internally. So I had that mindset for a really long time. And then, you know, after becoming friends with you and Celeste and hearing about like pore clogging things and the oils that you just said about that. Where is that kind of, like obviously skincare plays a huge role in this if you're acne prone, but where does that kind of lie? Because I know you come from a holistic side of things and then you created this amazing skincare line for acne prone people. How do you kind of find that like balance of that holistic approach? Yes, I love that you brought this up because we work with a lot of FNTPs, like functional nutritional therapy practitioners, other practitioners in general,

just in the health space, whether it's IHPs, naturopaths, people who have gut healing programs. And we work with them as a support because you can be doing all the right things internally to heal. But if you're still using products with pork clogging ingredients, you're not going to be able to fully get clear. It's going to be the one thing holding you back. So we work with a lot of people with resources to get their clients removing all pork clogging ingredients first. And then they can start all the programs because again, it's just going to make the program not work to its fullest extent that it can really work on all the internal. And so Danielle and I say, whenever... It's funny, whenever we get the question like, all right, what ClearSem products should people start with? We actually

start with what should you remove and check first? Because even if you do switch to ClearSem, but your foundation still has pore-clogging ingredients, ClearStem can only help so much. So we actually created this amazing pore-clogging ingredients checker on our website to help everyone. And so the biggest triggers, the biggest products you'll see with pore-clogging ingredient triggers will be really thick ones. So moisturizers are a big one. SPF, hair conditioner. If your hair conditioner is breaking you out, you'll see acne more aggressive on your sleep

side and on your neck and back from the water running down or from sweating and working out. And then fabric softener, actually, which on the non-toxic clean side of things, already not a fan of. But on the acne side of things, also really aggressive. So anything that's going to coat your clothes and your pillow and your sheets, like a fabric softener or any of the pods that have that... Adding softness to clothes, all of that stuff.

Very pork-logging. So you want to check that. And then foundation, bronzers, a lot of liquids. We'll also have a lot of pork cloggers. And again, there's a ton of Acme Safe brands out there, which is great. But you first want to address what are you currently using that's breaking you out? You can remove those, find alternatives, and then tackle all the inside. But at least you have the question of making sure that nothing you're putting on your skin is adding to the acne. That's so helpful. So let's say someone's listening and they're like, well, how do I know if my moisturizer or my foundation is clogging my pores? How would they figure that out?

Yes. So on our website under resources, it says pore clogging ingredients checker. You go to that and basically you... So let's say you have a foundation. You Google your foundation, find the website with the ingredient deck, copy and paste the full ingredient deck into this search bar we have on our pork clogging ingredients checker. Click check it. And then if any of the ingredients are a pork clogging ingredient, it'll come up in red. And then if it's clean of any pork cloggers, it'll be like, you're good to go. And then we also have the full list down below. If you just want to scan through and become loosely familiar, some of them are a ton of words that are difficult to pronounce because some are on the clean and non-toxic side, easy ones like algae,

shea butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, but some are like isopropyl myristate and isopropyl malate. You don't need to remember all of those. So we have them on the list for you. Is there an issue with putting on sunscreen on your face? Is there a link with that and acne? And should people be buying specific sunscreens to not be so acne prone? Yes. So the ones we always recommend are zinc. Zinc is a mineral slash physical-based sunscreen. Those words are used interchangeably. So zinc or titanium are good for acne and also they are blockers and shield you from the sun rather than the chemical-based sunscreens, which I feel all some type of ways about the chemical-based sunscreen. Me too. I literally just did a post about it today on Instagram. I saw that and I was so excited that you did because there was this craze of all of

these chemical-based sunscreens because they would make you glowy and make your skin look a certain type of way. But multiple reasons. One, all these studies are coming out where they're finding all these chemicals in people's bloodstreams weeks after using the product. A couple of them actually become toxic when there's a chemical reaction with the sunscreen and chlorine, which a lot of people are putting it on and going in a pool. So the fact it has a toxic chemical reaction. And the most important thing as it regards to the aging, so not even in relation to the toxic, non-toxic side of things, in relation to your skin and the reason why you're using a sunscreen, like you're using it to not have

as much DNA damage and not accelerate aging. The chemical-based sunscreens, you actually don't know when they're wearing off. So mineral-based ones last about two hours. Chemical ones actually don't. And you have no idea because they get absorbed versus physical sits on top of your skin and physically blocks out the sun. The chemical ones, because they're that really thin, oily consistency, get absorbed into your pore. Some of them are lasting only about 20, 30 minutes. So you might be putting it on in the morning and it's not even still active by the time that you leave the house. And because you're putting chemicals on your skin and because of that,

and because you're going, maybe you really think you have sunscreen on, so you're going on a hike, you are laying out by the pool or at the beach, you're actually causing accelerated aging to the skin. Oh my God. I've never heard that before. And that's wild. Well, then you also think about too, that I believe the ingredients oxybenzoate, one of the ones that they're finding in the bloodstream, it's basically causing endocrine disruption. And we know that when we're disrupting our endocrine system, it's causing hormonal imbalances. Then that could lead to acne and another, you know, like it's so crazy. It's just like a straight no to the chemical based ones. If we haven't listed off a bunch of reasons at this point, like just a straight no, just ditch them.

Yes, absolutely. So if someone is first starting out, I know you kind of sort of addressed this, but I want to talk about this more from like a clear stem lens. If someone listening is really struggling with their acne right now, what would be kind of the first steps that they would do? So we talked about diet, address that and your supplements and everything. What are maybe a couple of skincare products that you recommend for people to start out with, or what's your recommendations? Yes. So first three steps, removing pork clogging ingredients from any of the products from skincare, hair care, mainly hair conditioner and makeup, and then making sure you're not using the fabric softener. So step one, removing pork clogging ingredients. Step two, removing those like big acne triggers in the diet. Step three, getting skincare dialed in. So you can go on our website and take our skin quiz. It's not only going to give you product recommendations for what you're looking for, but also resources on some of the things that we're talking about right now with

pork loggers, with the diet. I highly recommend though, if you are struggling with acne to start with the clear skin kit, that's really going to give you the most change in the quickest amount of time. Because as humans, we like to see quick results, right? Like that it's, it's like our brain recognizes it as it's working. I'm going to keep doing this. And so really getting the clear skin kit, it's four products is going to create the most change. The biggest two products in there that create the most change with acne is our two exfoliating

products. Contrary to maybe what we've heard in the past with contradicting information around exfoliation, it's really because there was... Back in the day, there was harsh exfoliators that would just tear apart your skin. So yes, in that case, not good for acne to just rip apart your skin. But gentle, healthy, and correct exfoliation is the best thing externally for acne. You have to exfoliate the dead skin cells off. You have to get those pores open physically. So we use a really soft bamboo mesh in our vitamin scrub.

So you're going to use that. Gently exfoliate. It's going to really, again, clean out the pores, get them open to receive the serums, to get in there to do its work. So the change maker with acne, active acne is our Clarity serum. It's the yellow one. We like to use mandelic acid. So you have salicylic, mandelic, and glycolic. Salicylic, we're not huge fans of. It just dries... I mean, you guys know back in spot treatment, it just dries out the skin. Actually, it doesn't really do much besides just dry the crap out of your skin yeah you just get flaky skin and red doesn't actually

create change and then glycolic i do like but more in the treatment room glycolic peels are amazing but for everyday use like some of those glycolic peel pads it's making you really sun sensitive over and over again every day so i don't recommend it as a daily thing, but can be used in a longer form skin cycling. So not necessarily on a weekly basis, but maybe on a monthly, bi-weekly, you can use a glycolic. But mandelic is really the everyday one you can use. It'll create a lot of change. So mandelic acid, we nicknamed it our

blackhead dissolver because it gets in the pore and physically dissolves the clog. At the same time, mandelic acid does stimulate collagen production. So it's also going to help smooth out wrinkles and break apart any melasma or pigmentation on the skin. We've also coupled it with vitamin C and a lot of different calming ingredients. One of them is turmeric. And because the mandelic acid drives deep into your pore, we kind of use it as a rocket ship to pair other ingredients too. So the vitamin C is getting deep enough to do the brightening work. So if vitamin C is too top level on the skin, it's not going to do much for you. And then to also drive those calming ingredients really deep into the pore to calm the hair follicle and the aggressive acne

down. So that's going to be... And that's a chemical exfoliation. That's mandelic acid. It's derived from almonds, but no nuts... It's so far removed from it that no nut sensitivity is an issue with mandelic acid. So those are going to be the big change makers. And then you have our Cell Renew Serum, which helps with scars and hormonal acne. It has a lot of really calming ingredients that get into the hair follicle that help regulate the hormonal production in the hair follicle. And then you have our non-pore clogging moisturizer, Hydroflow, and that has Bacuchiol in it. It's all the benefits you want of a retinol without any of the toxic sun sensitive and irritation of the retinol.

But basically it trains your skin to look younger, trains your skin on collagen production and giving you that really like full building up elastin collagen look you want in your skin without being poor clogging because 90% of moisturizers are four clogging. So got to of course remove that. Okay. Well I need all of these products. I'm going to go on your website. I'm like, wow, I'm sold. I have another question for you that I've, I've never really understood. Yeah. Which is better. So I have read that you shouldn't wash your face in the morning because you don't want to overwash your face. Like obviously we're washing our face at night before bed and doing our skincare routine to get all of our makeup off, et cetera. But I've also read

sometimes that you should wash your face in the morning. So what is it? And maybe it's bio individual for people. Yes, exactly. So it is a little bio individual. What you want to do, you don't have to aggressively wash your skin in the morning. You just want to get off. If any products get on your skin from sleeping, you do sweat a little bit in the middle of the night. So you don't want to go into your day without that. What I recommend is splashing your... So if you're someone that gets up and works out earlier in the morning, either splashing your face with water or just doing a little white pad of like a micellar water, something just really calming, chill on your face

that's not going to exfoliate it first thing or anything like that. And then go into working out. And then your pores will open up while you work out. So you definitely want, as soon as you work out, wash your face, do your whole skincare routine. But the big thing with washing your face in the morning is you do want something that balances your pH. So water is more acidic than the pH of your skin. Water is about like a five and your skin is about like a seven. So just water sometimes will throw it off. So water, so that's why like a tiny bit of face wash will be good, but just not overly doing it.

Like splash your face, do a little face wash, like five seconds. It's not anything aggressive. Don't spend a lot of time. Don't like stick your face in the shower for like 30 seconds on your face. Just make sure you're quicker with it. But if your skin's on the oilier

side, just making sure you're just getting that excess oil and sweating from sleeping. Awesome. Thank you. That's so helpful. I was wondering that for a while. Yeah. And it really is like bio-individual. If your skin is amazing and thriving without washing your face in the morning and you don't really have any clogged pores or dealing with any issues, then no need to really switch it up if it works for you. But if you're like convinced, like, oh, I'm not supposed to wash my face in the water, but you're still struggling with things, then try the opposite. Okay. Yeah. That's really good advice. I don't wash my face in the morning and it's been working for me. And so I'm probably going to stick to that. But yeah, I think it's a good reminder for people to really just check in with themselves and see what works best,

you know, for their skin and take note of that. I'm curious if there's anything either related to clear stem or just acne or diet or really anything that we haven't covered that you think is really important for people to know. One of the internal triggers that we didn't cover as much is seed oils. Yes. Yes. This is my favorite thing to talk about. So let's go. Perfect. So it's a newer one in people's brains connecting to acne because, gosh, now more than ever, we're seeing seed oils in things that we've never seen it in before. I just remember years ago, we didn't see canola oil, vegetable

oil, sunflower in all of these products at all. And now you have to recheck some of your favorite brands to make sure they didn't reformulate it differently. So it's sad to see, but the seed oils are causing so much inflammation in our body. And again, acne is an inflammatory condition. So anything we're doing that's going to inflame our bodies even more is not going to allow our acne to heal. So not only could go on a huge rant about how destructive they are to your entire body, but one more thing to just really keep an eye on whenever you are struggling with acne is being super conscious about checking ingredient labels and even things that like, again, you've been using forever because companies reformulate all the time.

You have to look every single time. I mean, it's happened to me so many times that I knew something was really safe with ingredients. I just blindly buy it. And then all of a sudden, I'm home and I happen to look at it. I'm like, are you kidding me? So rechecking. And it's so sneaky too. Oils exist in things you'd never expect. Why would I ever expect a beverage I'm drinking to have vegetable oil in it? Oh my god. Like oat milk. Yes. You would never think that that's an ingredient. So you really have to check in things that you wouldn't even expect. And it's the same with all the acne triggering supplements

too, because you wouldn't expect vitamin D and zinc to be in a ton of beverages and on-the-go bars and all these things. But really, for marketing purposes, it's being thrown in a really low-quality form too, just to put like... B12 is thrown in an exuberant amount of things just to throw energy on the front of something. Or vitamin D and zinc, if you put that in your ingredient label, you can all of a sudden claim it's immune boosting and helps with the immune system. So a lot of brands are putting this just to claim certain marketing things. But if you think about mass production, you know, that's not a high quality form of vitamin D and zinc that if you were taking one off, uh, would be really different. Well, and too, you have to think about the cumulative effect of it. So this happened to

me recently where, uh, I got some blood work done and my doctor was like, whoa, your vitamin D is so high right now. Are you supplementing? And I was like, not really. I wasn't taking exorbitant amounts. Well, it turns out it was also in a drink that I was drinking pretty regularly. And once I stopped doing that, my vitamin D went back down to a more normal level. And that's a perfect example. I'm so glad that you brought this up. It's why we constantly have to be on it, checking ingredients, looking at the label, even if it's stuff perfect example. I'm so glad that you brought this up. It's why we constantly have to be on it, checking ingredients, looking at the label, even if it's stuff we've been buying for years. This also happened to me with my deodorant recently. I was so bummed. I've been using the

same natural deodorant for like six years and I love it. I don't want to name names because I don't want to like put them on blast because I love this company. But I will say that I posted about them recently and then someone wrote me a message on Instagram and they were like, why are you promoting this? It has sunflower oil in it. And I was like, wait, what? I had no idea. I was like, wait, I didn't wait. What? And so then I went and looked back and of course they added it in later. You would never think your deodorant would have sunflower oil in it. I was like, I was so bummed. I know you got to keep checking. It's just unfortunate reality that we live in.

So I want to ask you a question that I ask all my guests before we go, which is what are your personal health non-negotiables? So these are things that you do to prioritize your health every day, no matter how busy you are. A more recent one I'd say in the last year is my bandwidth and energy output. Me too. I'm the type of person that would say yes to absolutely everything and then completely burn out my energy and say yes to like every dinner, everything, this, like calls with everyone.

And I started to become so resentful because I noticed that I'd be like on my way to a dinner or something and I'd be so exhausted. And really the only person to blame was me because I'm the on my way to a dinner or something. And I'd be so exhausted. And really, the only person to blame was me because I'm the one that committed to it. So I'd be like, why are they doing this on this day? And I'm like, wait, wait, wait. This is not anyone else's fault. I'm on said yes to this. So one, what I do do if I ever feel that way of something I committed to, I'm like, no, I committed to this. So I'm going to show up as my best self. But there has

been a lot of times in the last year where I am just at my bandwidth and really not my best self. And I like to be in great spirits with other people, especially I'm going out to dinner. I want to be able to engage and talk to people and hold a great conversation and connect with people. And if I feel that I'm really not in that state, I've gotten comfortable with canceling or being like, I'm not available for this for a few weeks, or I can't book anything out in the next week. And I am really grateful that I have a lot of friends that have been also setting boundaries too for their own bandwidth. So they get it and they understand and you start to realize that you collect more of the people that get that and are really

understanding of it and you the people that are guilt tripping and don't understand it just fall off naturally and it just it gets you in a more collective but i've gotten in really good practice of managing my own energy levels, bandwidth and emotional, emotional bandwidth. I love that so much. I've been on a similar journey and I've had the same experience. And what you just said was, um, yeah, it's pretty profound because I started realizing that too, with, as I started setting boundaries and just being like, no, I'm not available for this anymore. Like, yeah, some friends try to guilt trip you. They make you feel bad or they kind of, I've had a couple of friends kind of come at me a little bit. And I was just like, you know what?

I can't, you have to become comfortable with being a little uncomfortable in those kinds of situations, knowing that you got your back and you're protecting your energy and your peace. Because I started realizing the same thing. I didn't want to show up resentful, burnt out, so tired that I couldn't even like really function and be myself. That's really important. So snaps to you for doing that, babe. Thank you. You too. Thank you. Because it's also really hard. It's really hard. It's really hard. It's uncomfortable, especially for, you know, as the person that wants to give and

wants like, like my, I want to be there, but my body and emotional capacity cannot. Yes. Yes. I very much relate. Well, thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it. And for the listeners, please share where they can find you and where they can find ClearStem. Yes. Thank you so much. This was a blast. You can find me on Instagram, kaylee.christina, and then ClearStem on all social channels, ClearStem Skincare, and then our website, clearstemskincare.com. Yay. Thank you so much for coming on, Kaylee. I loved this. Thank you. Me too. Appreciate you. Thank you. Appreciate you too. Bye guys. We'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. If you liked the episode, please leave a review in

your podcast app to let me know. This is a resonant media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie. Georgie is spelled with a J. For more amazing podcasts produced by my team, go to resonantmediagroup.com. I love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Do you suffer from IBS or other digestive issues? Are you looking for a new podcast to listen to?

From the producer of the Real Foodology podcast comes the all new health and nutrition podcast Digest This, hosted by Bethany Ugarte. You may know Bethany as the face of the popular Instagram page Lil Sipper, or you may have even read her book. Now you can find her wherever you get your podcasts. On Digest This, Bethany examines topics such as gut health, nutrition, the food industry, and highlights specific ingredients that can be beneficial or harmful to your gut health. She also explores non-toxic options in beauty, home, and cooking essentials. If it has to do with your health, Digest This is talking about it. Each episode features an interview with health experts, doctors, and wellness advocates,

and delivers you information that is, well, easy to digest. Bethany also delivers a weekly segment every episode called Bite of Knowledge, where she highlights an ingredient commonly used in food, skin care, household cleaning, you name it, and gives you the lowdown on the benefits or dangers that ingredient might have in food, skincare, household cleaning, you name it, and gives you the lowdown on the benefits or dangers that ingredient might have in your everyday life. From Botox, potassium, olive oil, and magnesium, all the way to those ingredients you can barely pronounce on the back of your cereal boxes,

Bethany has you covered. There's a reason why it debuted at number two on Apple Podcast Nutrition Charts. Check out Digest This on your favorite podcast app. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday, produced by Drake Peterson and Resonant Media.