The Bossticks - Healthy Habits & Practices To Improve Your Mental State & Skin Ft. Danielle Gronich & Kayleigh Christina Of Clearstem

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

#508: On today's episode we are joined for a second time by Danielle Gronich & Kayleigh Christina. Danielle and Kayleigh are the founders of CLEARSTEM, a leading skincare on the forefront of combating acne and creating healthier skin. On today's episode the duo joins the show again to discuss healthy habits and pactices to help improve your mental state and skin. To connect with Danielle Gronich click HERE To connect with Kayleigh Christina click HERE To connect with CLEARSTEM click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by  The Skinny Confidential. This episode is brought to you by CLEARSTEM CLEARSTEM has made a clean, clinical skincare line that is equally effective against acne AND aging! Use code SKINNY2 for 20% off first purchase at clearstemskincare.com Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to you by ClearSem. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. My skin looks so dull and like I age 10 years in the morning. It's like my eyes are dry. I look so inflamed. I get really inflamed from alcohol. Even one drink and I'm like blow up like a balloon the next day. And wine particularly has a lot of sulfites. It has tannins.

It's got a lot of crap added to it that they don't have to put on the label. Like look at all the stuff that's already in our food. Like a ton of added sugar. Like if you knew it was actually in wine, probably wouldn't drink it. All right, you guys. This episode is actually inspired by a previous episode. We had Danielle and Kaylee on the Skinny Confidential podcast a while. back and we talked all things acne. And because the response was so wild, I could not believe it.

And because you guys liked this episode so much, we had them back to talk even more things about acne, skin care, pigmentation, what to eat if you have acne, pimples, fine lines, wrinkles, blackheads, white heads, all the things. We had them on to just provide more education. They are the founders of Clearstem skincare. You may have heard about them through me because I'm a big fan of their mineral brush SPIA. And they have this non-toxic skincare line that really has premium ingredients to correct acne and acne scars. Out of everyone I've ever interviewed since I started the blog, these two girls know their shit when it comes to acne. This should not surprise you because Kaylee actually struggled with acne so she is a practitioner. And Danielle is known as the acne

guru. And she's the formulator and CEO of Clearstem skincare. Kaley is the holistic nutritionist. and she's the co-founder, and together, they are just the acne team. If you struggle with your skin, this episode is for you. I highly recommend if you like this episode with them to go back and listen to the first installment. They are incredible. We also have a code and a giveaway at the end for you. On that note, let's welcome Kaylee and Danielle back to the skinny confidential, him and her show.

This is the skinny confidential, him and her. We should just jump in because I think it's a good topic of conversation. especially for this show. We have so many people on talking about different trends, different supplements, wellness routines, skincare routines, all of these things. And what were you just calling it a second ago? Wellness madness. Yeah, wellness madness. So some of the feedback that we get and we're conscious of is that people are like, well, there's so much, especially we've done 500 of these episodes. So there's, yeah, it's obviously a lot of information. People are like, well, where do we begin? What do we, what should we actually do? Like, what's too much? What's too little? And it overwhelms

people, which we're obviously not trying to do. We're trying to get all of the information as best as we can to as many people as possible. But it's a lot of information. So anyway, to your point. No, that's exactly what we try to distill down for people is, because I'm the same way. I listen to all these podcasts. I make all these changes. But for some people that are already really anxious, it can stimulate them too much. And then they're fearful of everything in their house. They're fearful of eating out. And then they forget to live life. And it can quickly develop into depression and anxiety. So we want to be really careful about the education we give. It's okay that it's a slow start to things. And it's okay making one shift at a time to feel better. I have noticed that there has been a

surge of orthorexia. And that's where you become, and I'm probably flubbing this, so go Google it for the WebMD, but it's basically where you become so obsessed with eating healthy that it becomes a disorder. I was like that for a while. This was probably five or six years ago when I was at the height of discovering everything. It was such drastic changes that I wouldn't eat out. I would bring my own salad dressing everywhere. And I feel like I have a balance now because I still love all things health and wellness. But it was getting to such an extreme that I wasn't enjoying life and finding the balance in between. Yeah. And I think with content too, it's like when you're so overwhelmed, Michael's Googling it. Well, I just want to make sure. I'm listening fully to,

I was just saying, read it out of you had to get the web. I mean. I just want to make sure what is orthorexia. Orthorexia is an unhealthy focus on eating in a healthy way. Eating nutritious food is good. But if you have orthorexia, you obsess about it to a degree that can damage your overall well-being. Yeah. Speaking of content, there's a lot of people out there who have built an audience using information, but also fear, especially in the way they present information. And I just want to remind everyone that actual scientists, chemists, formulators,

people who actually have a scientific background qualify their information. They provide context. They provide situational context who it might apply to when it might not apply. And they give you a range of danger, if you will. Like this is something that could affect this type of population or something like that. So if you are consuming content from people and they don't qualify it or show you how to see if it's actually mattering for you, that's a red flag. Like Andrew Huberman does like the most insane job at that.

Like he's so good at qualifying information and making it really digestible and not fear-based. Same with Peter Atia. Yeah. Well, those two are like top of the class. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's the only people we really engage with. It's interesting that you say that about fear, though, because when you start paying attention to language and how certain influencers or moguls or whatever gurus talk, sometimes they will use words that are negative to make you fearful. And when you start seeing those negative words, you can't unsee it.

It's like a manipulation topic. Well, for sure. And that's why the news is so addictive because fear is the strongest human emotion. It's literally in our primal operating system. If something is scary or represents danger, your, like, reticular activating system flares up and you have to pay attention to it, even if you don't really want to. So fear is definitely the strongest human emotion, and that's why people leverage it that way. Also, I love that you said that because we're actually starting to shift some of our messaging.

It's always been anti-acne, anti-aging, non-toxic, because it's been the best way to describe it. But we're shifting to saying toxin-free, age and acne, skin care and skin health. I love that because I think anti is a negative word. And that's so interesting that you say that. I specifically did not include anti-aging in my brands because of that. We've never loved it. We've just struggled to find a way to communicate what we do without using that. But I feel like we've landed on a really good one.

This is like so random and kind of off tangent. But I talk to the skinny confidential team all the time about even when they send an email, you never start it with unfortunately. Literally no one in the fucking world wants to open. in an email that says, unfortunately. Never. You never say words like, don't, can't. I can't do that.

It's always solution-oriented. Yes. And once you start paying attention to it, it's wild. It can change the whole tone of an email and how it's received. Absolutely. Katelynena had a little realization recently where a lot of times people say the word but, but you can also say the word and. And it's more of a joining and a building rather than a negative or a detraction.

So yeah, language is everything. Okay, so just to take a little spin on what you're saying about wellness overload, where are you seeing wellness overload in the acne community? Like, where are you seeing things that is like, okay, this is taking it too far, this is too overwhelming, they're going too far? We see that a lot in the acne space, dietary things and inflammatory things. And yes, it's all very, very important. But I am a hardcore acne specialist.

I own San Diego Acne Clinic, had that for over-eating. eight years. That's literally all I treat. I don't do eyebrows. I don't do lashes. We just fix hardcore acne. And most people come to my clinic after the normal dermatologist route has failed. They've tried every medication, including acutane. So when I'm going over everyone's, when we're doing our intake, it's like a 90-minute thing. We're going over everything they're using, everything they're eating, when they're eating it, what vitamins are they taking, which dosage. There are a few key things that really matter for most people. Like if you're over-supplementing with B-12, it can absolutely cause an acne flare up. If you're eating eggs more than like once a week,

it can absolutely contribute. So there's things that we've prioritized in our clinical experience. But when I see acne information online and on Instagram, it'll be stuff that I would never bother talking about. Like soy can be bad in high amounts, but like you don't need to avoid soy sauce. You know, I mean, if you're celiac, yeah. But people get so caught up on like little things that I feel don't matter. And then the pillowcase conversation is one of them. You see all these ads. for like antibacterial pillowcases. Normally what's getting on people's skin from their pillowcase is their hair conditioner. Just check your ingredients against that list that there's a bunch of lists out there.

But we made the one with the search function on our website. That's the main thing. You don't need to obsess over the fabric and the, you know, like if there's bacteria on it, like, yeah, you should change your pillowcase. But you can have a brand new one every night. It's your conditioner that's getting on it. Also, I have a hot take. I've been sleeping with a silk.

We are obsessed. Shower cap. Michael thinks I'm crazy. but like I'll put a hair mask on and sleep with that. And that covers my hair from even touching my face. Wait, I need a silk hair mask. Oh, for sure. Because we both sleep with silk pillow cases just because of the anti-aging slash aging preventative benefits of it because you don't, it doesn't tug and pull at your skin as much. And it doesn't tug and pull at your hair. So we love silk so much for sleeping. Yeah, I have this. I call it my creepy beauty pillow because it looks bizarre. But it's like, you can get it on

Amazon, I think it's like 50 bucks, but it doesn't smush your cheek. Because normally when the most people sleep on their right, just because blood flows to the left and your arm can fall asleep. So most people sleep on their right. And I see in my clinic, everyone's right side ages faster. They always have more wrinkles. And if you get filler in your cheeks, it can like displace it when you're like smushing your face at night. No, look at me right now, Lauren. I try to sleep rigamortis. I don't want to move. Like, I just want to be on my back without moving anything. Like I want my face to be completely out, not touching anything. Exactly. This pillow doesn't even touch your skin. It just touches like your bone and your jaw and that's right around here. It looks like an alien pillow and I swear by it.

That's an amazing tip. Okay. So I want to note that. This is why you always have me sit to your left? This has literally nothing to do with you. It's all about my face. We did an episode about acne and we got pretty deep into it and people were obsessed with it. Like it was so informative. But in this episode, I want to go even deeper and I want to go really deep when it comes to wellness. So I think the first thing that we'll start on, and we kind of talked about this off air, is vitamins. Because so many people are taking vitamins, but what I've realized is not only are some vitamins, like you said, be causing acne. But what about what the vitamins in, the capsule? Yeah, there's a lot of gross stuff in vitamins. It took me so long to get my boyfriend to start

taking supplements, and he finally has. I'm really excited. But to him, like most other people will say, they're like, well, I feel like it doesn't work. I just pee it all out, which so many of them do. And I know a lot of the supplements that you guys talk about and that do ads on here are amazing. We're huge supporters of all them as well. You have to be really careful about the supplement industry because you'll find gluten. You'll find eggshells.

You'll find all these really gross things in supplements. It's like not an area you want to skimp. People say like sometimes the cost of the good ones are, you know, expensive. But it's like you're better off just not taking the bad. Because you can cause more health damage. Like there's things that are in supplements that can wreck your gut because what's actually in it. So what you want to be careful of is knowing and really it's about trusting the brands that do it.

I feel like that's the best way to do it. But knowing what supplements you're taking, look at the other ingredients that's on the back of it and then also where the sourcing is from. So for instance, in our mind-body skin supplement, we use vitamin A and we'll never use a beta-carotene vitamin A because your body doesn't know what to do with it. So we're really careful about what type of supplements we have in our product as well. Do you design them all around Acme? We're big into the actual supplementation, like what you should be taking based on what you don't

get in your day-to-day diet. So we will be making more. But this particular one, we knew we needed to serve an alternative to toxic medication because everyone's on spyrinalactone or antibiotics or if you like acutane is their last resort. We knew we needed to provide something else for them. so this was specifically designed to be a replacement for that, or a healthy alternative, I should say. What antibiotics are you seeing that cause acne? Oh, people get put on antibiotics long term because of acne.

It's literally just the most common band-aid approach. And you could have, you know, when Zaza gets older, say she, you know, she's like 12 starting to get her first pimples. Generally, what a parent would do is take them to their, you know, pediatrician or dermatologist. Immediately they start trying to get them on birth control and put them on antibiotics with no end in sight. that is so crazy. That's the playbook. And it's not dermatologist's fault. It is our medical system.

We want to be very clear. We love doctors, love dermatologists. They mean the best. But our medical system for acne is a bit of an epic failure. I remember being on birth control. And I remember talking to Lindsay at Brow cheek who was doing my eyebrows. And I was like, I just don't want to get off birth control because I feel like it's just making my skin so good. I was like maybe I'll get on Sparolina.

Spear on her left town. Yeah. And she's like, Lauren, she's like, just get off of birth control and see. And I thought I was going to get acne everywhere. I didn't get any acne. That's a lie we've been fed. Well, you're not very acne prone. Remember, you are not. You are the exception. But why I did have a little bit of acne got on birth control and it did take it away. So I was worried that that would come back and it didn't. It's because most pills suppress testosterone. So it's going to suppress that excessive oil production that's going on. So, So it can't help with skin, but what can happen for a lot of people and why they're so, again, so fearful of getting off birth control, which breaks my heart. We get so many DMs of girls who are in their mid-20s and 30s, and they're just like, I really want to be off birth control. I want to feel good about it, but I'm terrified to break out because they hear all these horror stories. And I was one of those horror stories.

So testosterone is suppressed for so long and you're on it for 10, 15 plus years. And then you go through testosterone rebound, like talking too fast, testosterone rebound effect, where basically it was suppressed for so long that it's a rubber band and it comes back in full force and then it's causing a hormonal imbalance after you get off birth control because testosterone is surging which means it's causing an imbalance in progesterone and estrogen as well in messing with not only the way your brain communicates but also the way it's metabolized in the liver and in the gut well i think like to your earlier point about all of this like and as i compress all that or decompress all this. Like I think it's fair to say, like you said, you love all, we love doctors, but

like I think it's fair, especially after the last two years to say we love some doctors. Because here's the problem. People get a medical degree. You can, like, you can get a degree in all sorts of things. But it doesn't mean just because you have the degree that now all of a sudden you're this expert or you're going to be the person that's going to be able to treat a disease the rest of the way. Like my problem with a lot of the practices in the medical community, to your point is that there is a blanket approach to a lot of things that you can't take a blanket approach to, right? Like, sometimes you have to take an individual approach. And unfortunately, some doctors favor just taking a blanket approach over working with an individual and figure out,

like, what exactly the issue is that's going on in that individual. Couldn't agree more. There's also a terrible thing that goes on where if a doctor is perceived to be running labs that are preventative in nature, aka not necessary at the time, they can have their medical license come under review. and then they could lose funding from the insurance company, which means that's the kiss of death. Like, they literally can't do that. They have to walk that fine line between waiting for disease so that it can actually be covered by insurance.

They can't say, like, oh, I'm going to check these few things out and run a bunch of labs because they will literally get penalized. Well, the reason I say this is because I think people need to hear this more. It's like, you know, just because somebody has a law degree doesn't mean they're a good lawyer. Just because someone's a doctor degree doesn't mean they're a good doctor, right? Like, I could have a business degree. It doesn't mean I'm a good businessman. We just take these degrees that people get in these systems.

say, okay, they must be the person that I should listen to and trust all my entire life to, right? Because they have a degree from somewhere. It's like, no, you got to really kind of be your own advocate and do your own research and really, like, vet is this the right person. I don't care what degree you have. Like, you still have to be a sound, thoughtful, logical thinker. I agree. And that's why we love functional medicine doctors. They are a go-to, like Dr. Will Cole. We're obsessed with him. He's amazing. Because one of the huge problem is when people come to us with acne and it's very clear there is something really big going on. Like, gut health, liver-wise, there's something internal that products or these little shifts

aren't going to fix. We encourage them to go get blood work done. But we always recommend going to see a functional doctor because when you go to traditional, you know, Western medicine doctor and they get their labs done, let's say you just go to like Quest, for example. When you see, when the doctor evaluates what your levels are, it's actually being compared against everyone else that goes and gets their blood work done at Quest. And who mainly gets blood work done? People who are really struggling with health. So that's what you're being compared against instead of the functionality of your own body and what should be right for you, which is why people will have all these hormonal issues,

go get tests, and it'll show up they're completely fine. Well, it's also why you, especially in this country, like the law of averages is so terrible because the average person is completely unhealthy and out of shape and doesn't take care of themselves. I don't want to be compared to that. I can blanketly say that because the data, that is the data. People get mad about saying that's like, of course, I don't want my data being compared to somebody who's unhealthy and saying that is the healthy average. and then I have to adjust my health behavior based on unhealthy data.

Yeah, normal is a terrible benchmark in this country. I don't want to be normal. That's exactly what happened to me when I went and I got my hormones tested. I got all these results back and I said, I just got my blood done and they said it was fine. And she said, well, they didn't look at your T3 or T3. Yeah, the thyroid testing. Right. She's like, they didn't look under the bed.

They just looked at the bed. What if someone's listening, and I'm sure there is a lot of people that are listening, that are on birth control because of their skin and they want to get off? what are the tangible steps to do that? The first thing I always point people to is Dr. Jolene Brighton. I think she's the best resource for this. She's written a book. She's on a lot of podcasts too. So order on Amazon, listen to some podcasts while you're waiting a day or two for it to come in. Because birth control, the pill, suppresses a ton of vitamins. And it also wrecks your digestive system and gut health. So if you're still currently on birth control and either want to stay on it or working to get off of it, you have to support.

your body. You have to support all these depletions in your body. And then there's also a way to support it when you get off. So it's certain supplements. Selenium's one of them. A spore-based probiotic is one of them. There's quite a few different supplements that you want to take while you're transitioning off birth control. The second thing is while you're getting up birth control and it can cause a lot of hormonal fluctuations, you absolutely want to make sure all of your skin care and makeup is non-pourclogging because if you're causing a hormonal imbalance and you're going through testosterone rebound effect, your pores are going to get clogged really, really fast and faster than normal. And so if you're using something that has poor clogging ingredients, it's just like pouring gasoline on the fire.

How come certain people don't have to worry about that? Like I've never had to look at makeup products, and I have other issues. Like I have hyperpigmentation. I have like a brown mustache if I got in the sun for one second. I have like all the things. But I've never had to worry about that with acne. Why is that? Is it just different genetics? Totally different genetics. So there is a genetic predisposition in those who are acne prone. It's called retention hypercarotosis. So hyper means more. Caratosis is the keratin production process. Retention means it gets stuck in your pores. So basically those of us who have that gene, we produce a ton more keratin protein than other people who just don't have the gene. So our pores get clogged a lot more easily, a lot more easily naturally. And then you add products to the mix and it creates a whole like a plug inside the the pore. And then because our skin grows faster, the keratin protein just covers the plug and then boom, that's like cystic acne. So people that get really, really intense cystic acne, their keratin production, it can be like five plus times higher than their neighbor who just doesn't have that gene. Two things. If you have that gene, can you test for it ahead of time?

You can. You can. I think there's specific tests drawing a blank on the one that I would recommend now, but we can probably find it and put in the show notes. Genomic testing is actually like what everyone should be aiming for. Like there's nutrigenomic testing where you can see which vitamins you are naturally deficient and based on your pathways, which is huge for mental health too, like everything. So, yeah, thanks for bringing that up. So, okay, and then if you can do the testing or if you do find out that you have that gene or the things you can do to prevent before it sets in, or is it like it happens so young

that you can't figure that out? There wouldn't be anything you could really do. You could definitely know what to avoid. Like, if you are acne prone, you know it. You don't need a test for it. But you want to avoid any supplement that has biotin. which is ironic because it's in all the hair, skin, and nail vitamin. So a lot of people want it.

Yeah. Well, you think you're like, okay, I need help with my skin. So I'm going to get this skin vitamin. Well, it's actually backfiring in a massive, massive way. And it can actually lead to something called keratosis Polaris, where it's those little bumps on your arms and your legs. So if you have acne, you know it. Avoid anything with a large amount of biotin. Keep it under 100% of the RDV.

What else comes from, what else do those bumps on your arms? from. I know that a lot of different, they come from a lot of different things, right? Believe it or not, there's a huge correlation with gluten. It's just an inflammatory symptom. So if you're acne prone, anything that's inflaming you is going to show up as acne or some sort of acne-like conditions because it happens like in the pore and in the hair follicle itself. So it can come from topical things. Like say you're using a body wash that has a ton of coconut oil in it or any body lotion that has a bunch of shay butter in it, which is like all of them. Anything that's clogging your pores topically, if you're acne prone can give you little bumps pretty much anywhere, but then dietary

triggers will make it worse, like gluten or alcohol or dehydration. Dairy, for sure, way protein. I had bumps all over my legs for so long. I could not figure out what it was from. And I don't know if you've heard this. I'm sure you have, but it was from Tide with a pods. Yeah. If you owe my. God, every single time that my foot, I can smell it too. If my foot touches, I wore his pants the other day that had been washed and tied, bumps everywhere. And also DHA and spray tan. Is it DHA? I think it's DHA. Yeah. Okay. Those two things gave me bumps everywhere. You might just have a sensitivity to fragrance too, because both of those things are highly

fragranced. Fragrance can relate more to irritation and like a rash. That's what it was. Yeah. More so, especially on you. Lauren. it would be more of like a rash and like a contact dermatitis situation versus actual acne. I almost messaged you and then I was like, oh no, it's tied, but you're right, it is fragrance. You're like, oh, my God, you get this spray tan. I'm like, oh, I don't know what's going on again. I'm like, I'm like, I look great, but I feel like shit. I switched to branch basics. We love branch basics. And then I just got a spray tan without bronzer and that took it away. So something was in the bronzer.

Yeah, those accelerators and bronzers. It's just, I mean, all of them are just pure. chemical, but I mean, hey, straight off between that and actually aging your skin with the sun. And sometimes you just got to be tan. I'm wearing white into like pale for me right now. Love that. I'm kind of into it right now. Welcome to the club. Just join.

Come on over the left side. I feel like that could be the start of a trend, though, because people are, no one's going to go tan their skin if you do that. Like, you got other problems. But then the spray tan and like the self-tan are like there are a few really non-toxic ones that we do like. But I feel like it's gotten to the point where like pale should be celebrated. because it is clean and pure and it's not like doing anything bad to yourself.

I do like Savon's line, Luxon Filter. Yes, that's the one we like. That lotion is non-irritating. It's non-poor clogging. And it doesn't get all over the sheets really disgustingly like most deal. I like her line. It's a beautiful line. But I'm kind of into like that or just being pale right now.

I'm kind of into the pale. I like that. Do it. And you have two babies. Like your bandwidth is drained right now. Like you shouldn't have to focus on fucking self-tale. Selt channer. Like, you've got other things to focus on.

The salt tanner does lift my ass more, but I guess we're in the dark. So you're just going to have to get over it. It could be so light that it's blinding and then it won't matter either. Okay. Well, so do you see a lot of acne from spray tan? Not necessarily from spray tan. Those are, so the ones that like, I think there's eye tan everywhere. I tan, Hollywood tans.

Like the big chain ones are generally safe. I always check them before I go because I'm the most acne-prone person ever. So all the ones I've ever checked have been. fine. It's when you get into the custom airbrush tanning, those ones can have coconut oil and then that's the only time I've seen them be problematic. Okay. So another question. If someone is coming to you and they're using Tide or Downey or things like this, do you remove it from their situation? Absolutely. And no one should be using fabric softener. It is one of the worst things you can put in your system. I mean, if you're... Why are you looking at me? Because Michael grew up on fabric softener

windex and... Yeah, I got all sorts of resilience now. I'm fine. Yeah, I absorbed it. My body just deflex it all now. You look great. Thank you. So the fabric softeners, you remove. Yes. Okay. So that's unnecessary. It's unnecessary. Yeah. Just don't burn your, don't burn your laundry. You don't need to watch everything on the super highest heat setting. You know what I mean? That's what makes it dry and scratchy to begin with. So also, if you're sleeping for eight to nine hours in your bed on a pillowcase, breathing it in, your kit, like it's, if you really like spiral, like I, do. I'll spiral. I'll be like, oh my God. And then my baby's like laying against the shirt that I washed. Like I'll like really. Did we just start this podcast with wellness madness? Yeah. I'm wellness madness. When I got pregnant, it's like even worse. Like I'll be like my foot stepped off and touched the floor that was cleaned with the cleaning supply. I can't get in bed until I walk. Like I'll go. I'll go. I'll go. So I'm the worst with wellness madness. But you should think about it when you're putting your

face on a pillow. It's about thinking about it. And then be like, okay, this is how I'm going to modify this going forward. It's the thinking about it in a practical, non-emotional, unattached way, and then be like, okay, here's the change I'm going to make. Here's the next positive thing I can do. And then you move about your day. Talk to us about digestive enzymes. Oh, my gosh. So we love to talk about the root causes of acne, right? And sometimes it's topical, but a lot of times it's something internal. So when we've worked with a lot of functional functional medicine doctors and have patients that have as well, most of the time when they get blood work done, it comes back that they are deficient in enzymes and stomach acid, but specifically

enzymes that break down proteins and fat. So they're not breaking down things correctly. It's clogging their lymphatic system and it has to get out somehow and the skin is an exit organ. So that's how it's going to come out. So we are very pro digestive enzymes. It's why it's in our mind-body skin supplement. But it just helps people break down foods that are more difficult to break down. So it doesn't clog up the lymphatic system, but also it helps you not feel as bloated as well, because when you're not digesting food properly, you feel really bloated, you're grow, like you feel disgusting, you're not going the bathroom regularly, and all those toxins are building up in your body. So we want to keep things moving through our body, which is why digestive enzymes are

one of the best supplements to take that are really not going to have a downside to it. You know, for people that, like, some people take breaks off meat or try not to eat meat, and then they go back and they think they don't feel good because the meat. I think a lot of it is because they're not using or they don't have the right digestive enzymes to break down the meat protein. So when you stop eating certain things, you lose the enzymes to break it down, which is why gluten. I have celiac, so I steer very clear of gluten, but for other people that will yo-yo give it up and not, it causes so many issues for them because they give up gluten for a few weeks and they lose all the gluten digesting enzymes to break it down. And then they try to bring it back in and it makes them really, really sick. So it's totally a personal choice for someone that wants to give it up or not.

It is linked to inflammation. But that's what happens. When people give up very certain food groups, they lose all the specific enzymes to digest those foods. Yeah, and it's important because I think you might have a moral reason you don't eat meat. But if you're somebody that wants to eat meat and recognizes the vitamin and the benefits that you can get from it, and then you've taken a break and don't have those enzymes, you can't break it down. And then it makes you feel bad. You know, like, oh, meat doesn't work well in my system.

It's like, no, you just took too long off it and now your body can't break it down properly. Yeah, and when you do reintroduce it, just do softer. So softer proteins are going to be a lot easier for everyone to break down. That's why, like, if it's late at night, I'm never going to eat red meat. I would have, like, a scallop or some salmon. So if you're, I have a lot of clients who were vegan and they had to get off it because they just weren't, it wasn't working for them. Vegan is so situational. But for a lot of people, they find that it just doesn't work for them long term.

So when they start to reintroduce meat, I always have them do like a little bit of tuna, a little bit of salmon and just like slowly build it back up because you do need to reintroduce it. You can't just like start eating steak immediately after not. The first time I went through postpartum with my first baby, I wasn't eating a lot of meat. And then I've interviewed, you know, so many different people on this podcast. And what I have gathered from that, what I've taken away is that meat is the benefits really are incredible. If you get grass fed amazing meat, like they're incredible. So I really introduced it this postpartum experience. And I can say, and this is my experience, that I do not have postpartum depression this time.

I had it horrible with Saza. There's other factors to that, but I am eating meat every single day. I feel like the weight is coming off quicker. There's multiple things that I've noticed and I'll do a whole podcast on it. But it's funny that you guys say this about digestive enzymes because the other day I was talking to a body worker and he said that I really need to make sure that I'm taking a digestive enzyme with the meat. Because if you don't chew it fully, which sometimes we don't, sometimes you just

swallow the meat hole, you know? Michael. Don't turn this into something weird. Just swallow a big chunk of meat. It's really good for the protein to digest with the enzyme. They said you get more protein out of it with the enzyme. Enzymes help you absorb more nutrients from what you're eating. And digestive enzymes are also very different than stomach acid.

So that's why before every single meal, especially when we go to a restaurant, Dania and I's very first order is just hot water with a bunch of lemons. We sit and drink that. You know, we get into the parasympathic state. We hang out. We chalk. We drink our warm lemon water. It builds up all those amazing stomach acids.

We take our digestive enzymes and we feel so good. I'm going to copy you on that. It's the best. So once you get into the routine, it's like hot water with lemon is the first thing out of your mouth when the waiter comes over. And then you do it the enzyme before you eat. You should always take it right before like at the start of a meal. But if you get home and you already had dinner, yeah, go ahead and take one. As long as it's in your stomach, it's going to be helpful.

And we always recommend that people, people, we get asked a lot, like which multivitamin should people take. And we say, skip the multivitamin, do digestive enzymes, get the nutrition from your actual food. And when you start breaking down your protein better, you get better skin, better hair, better glucose stabilization. There's just so many benefits. That's smart. Super smart. That's one of the best tips that I've heard on this podcast. And it's easy to do. So easy.

And there's no downside. Is there a certain brand that you guys like? Solar Ray is really good. Digest gold. Digest gold. It's one of my favorites. I take our mind-body skin supplement when I'm eating dinner, but if I'm taking it digestive enzymes with a breakfast or a lunch,

then typically digest gold. I love that one. Don't you have that? What does it look like? Is it blue? Blue and yellow on the front? Yeah. That's the one that you have.

I love that one. There's an extra strength version of it, too. Okay, so everyone needs to get on digestive enzymes. I'm going to be their PR for 223. We're literally going to go to Cooper's barbecue after this, and we're like packed with all the enzymes. We're ready for this. It's right here, right?

Yeah, it's like best barbecue. I would love to know, by the way, everyone who's listening, if you're in Austin, what the best barbecue is. Oh, you're going to start a whole thing. That's a whole other episode. I want to, I got to ask the audience that. Okay, Dim, I have been hearing about this first started with my Chinese herbalist in L.A. That's such. We love it.

What is, what is that? What is that account? Wellness, Madness. Does he know you're a shaman? Oh, my God, that was. Oh. I hate to tell you this. I want to like projectile all over myself.

Hey, I'm self-aware about it though, you know. My Chinese herbalist told me all about dim and she raved about it. I want to understand it more and I think a lot of people do. I've seen it on TikTok if you guys could explain more about it. Absolutely. So we at Clearstem in our formulas and our vitamins and our education, we take a very holistic approach that incorporates a ton of Eastern medicine because they actually focus on digestion, detoxification, liver, all the things that get completely ignored in a Western setting.

So that is where I first got turned on to it too from my acupuncture herbalist. So DIM is extremely helpful for, it's helpful for acne and for anti-aging because it helps to regulate the levels of estrogen and it helps your liver to, your liver is basically the quarterback of detoxification and how hormones present and get out in your body. So it helps the liver quarterback estrogen in a way where it gets rid of the toxic amounts, but it doesn't let it get too low. So it basically helps stabilize estrogen, which is going to stabilize hormonal acne. It also helps with PMS symptoms. It really helps with PCOS. It just helps with everything estrogen related, which if you're a woman, it's kind of your life. I'm going to ask you about cocktails.

Do it. Do cocktails, do we didn't get to get into this in the first episode. Do cocktails cause acne? You mean just alcohol in general? Wine. It's a lot of sugar, beer. Alcohol's terrible for your skin. Make it count. Yeah. So alcohol is going to inhibit the absorption of other vitamins. It basically hijacks your liver to get it out. It can inflame your lymph. It'll inflame your lymphatic system. Makes people puffy. The dehydration alone. is like the number one thing why you wouldn't. But then also, to your point, cocktails, if there's a bunch of sugar in it, it just,

it's pretty much one of the worst things you can do to your body. Like, there's a lot of studies that showed different toxicity levels of street drugs compared to alcohol, and alcohol is the worst. There's not been one person that's, that has any notoriety in the wellness space that's come on here and said alcohol is good for you in any kind of way.

It's bullshit. Like, oh, it might reduce stress. Okay, go walk outside for 10 minutes. Like, has just one for stress. And wine is a... There was that whole thing that make, it actually makes stress worse. Yeah, the next morning. Yeah. The next morning. Oh, my gosh. My skin looks so dull and like I age 10 years in the morning. It's like my eyes are dry. I look so inflamed. I get really inflamed from alcohol.

Even one drink and I'm like blow up like a balloon the next day. And wine particularly has a lot of sulfites. It has tannins. It's got a lot of crap added to it that they don't have to put on the label. Like, look at all the stuff that's already in our food like dies and. Just like all the preservatives that we know are terrible. And they have to list that. Imagine if they didn't have to list it. Like there's mega, what's it called mega purple, liquid smoke, all these stabilization aging. It's disgusting. What they sneak in wine. Yeah. And a ton of added sugar. Like if you knew it was actually in wine, probably wouldn't drink it. What would you tell someone who wants to still have a cocktail? Saki. Salky. Felted Sosk is amazing. Okay. Here me out. I know you're looking at me looking crazy. It's okay. I see you. So Saki is made from rice. It's easily digestible. It has the same alcohol percentage as wine. So you get the same like bang for your buck, if you will. I mean, no one drinks for the health. You drink to catch a buzz, right?

Saki will give you a buzz, you know, a couple, couple little steps in. And it doesn't have the sulfites in it, which for me at least is huge. Solfites are a big histamine trigger. So that's why people get puffy. They get a headache. Saki's awesome. Socky, yep. Unfiltered though.

It's not the hot crap that they serve at like sushi Tuesday. It's like there's actually a really, really, it's almost like wine quality. where it's like there's high-end ones. And then I like the Nigori, the unfiltered. It's pretty awesome. Okay, I need to check that out. Let's do like... Embrace my culture, Lauren.

Yeah, great. Get us some sake. I want the cups. I want the whole thing. If you're looking at me confused, I'm quarter Japanese. That's why I was like, people don't know that. Stop. Are you really?

Yeah. Konigua. My grandma's a full Japanese. That's why. Okay. I always got a disclaimer that because people look at me. They're like, what are you saying? This white guy.

So sake you'll do so well for you because your body will recognize it. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, you know, my ancestors and stuff. I love it. Another thing that I think people don't realize is seed oils. Talk to me about seed oils, inflammation, and acne. So seed oils are a huge epidemic right now. And I'm actually so disappointed because some of my favorite brands I've been seeing are shifting from avocado and coconut oil to now sunflower oil, safflower oil, soy oil, peanut oil.

It's like these brands. Oh, my gosh. They got to drive their cost. That's the thing. And it's like I have such an understanding of that, you know, us running a skincare company and people who are dealing with investors that are like, hey, you have to switch this or we're not giving you more money. So I'm not blaming the brands because I understand they can get backed into a corner and they don't always want to switch. But for people that are really concerned about acne and inflammation, seed oils are now snuck in everything. Even things that

you would never expect an oil to be in, there's all of a sudden safflower oil, soybean oil, and these are immediate inflammation to your body, and it's what's completely wrecking our digestive system and gut. It's causing complete gut dysbiosis, and so it actually causes hormonal imbalances because hormones are processed in both the liver and the gut. For instance, the thyroid hormone is 80% in the liver, 20% in the gut. So if our gut is a mess, we're actually not processing hormones correctly in the body. So seed oil is not only lead to inflammation, but can also cause hormonal imbalances.

Canola is the new C-word. They're all bad ones. So canola. Canola and vegetable oil. But now there's a lot of ones that are being disguised like safflower and sunflower are just as bad as canola oil. Sunflower is a sneaky motherfucker. So sneaky.

Because here's why. When you hear the word sunflower, you're like, oh, it's natural. It's a sunflower. You know? And then you really look into it and it's gross. I mean, I was looking, I can't remember, and I'm going to fuck this up, but I was looking at some actual. data points out of day. It was showing like the rise in seed oils in food in our foods

correlated to the rise in disease in this country. And it was like there's a direct correlation of all these problems with the rise of these diseases. They root in inflammation. And we're doing all these other things to inflame our body. Some purposely some not. But you know, want to have a cocktail every once in a while. I want to have this, want to have that. I want to personally choose my inflammation. Like if I want a cocktail, I know it's going to inflame me, but I'm choosing I want it. I don't want all these seed oils. oil snuck in everything where it's not my choice to inflame my body in that moment. There should be a brand that comes out that's like kind of like a primal kitchen vibe and that has

just like it's one oil. The problem is it's not just in the brands though. It's in the restaurants. A lot of the restaurants cook with these oils and you have no idea. You just order you think you're at a good restaurant and they're cooking with seed oils back there. You can order the healthiest meal. You could say olive oil.

Sure. But it's like you have, I mean, think of how paranoid you have to be now all the time. You've got to go these restaurants. Nobody knows, right? They're just doing these things that they think are, you know, good practices. Yeah. Especially when you get a sandwich to at Subway, I literally checked this. It's not even olive oil. They're putting on. It's like canola oil. Not that anyone eats at Subway anymore, but like, it's just an example. You're like, oh, yeah, healthy oil. Put it on my vegetable. No, it was literally.

When they drizzle oil, it's canola oil. Isn't the tuna fish not tuna? Yeah, I remember reading that. It was like something so disgusting. It's so crazy how we have to be such advocates for everything we're putting on and in our body. I know. Well, you always kind of had to be. It's just that we've embraced a culture of comfort, right? And inconvenience. And like, this is the first, you know, it's not always been this way. You always had to think about what kind of food you were going to put in your system. Right. And now it's just we've gotten so used to convenience and comfort that everyone's like, yeah, whatever, I'll just take it. I'll go to postmates. I'll show up at the door. I'll go to that fast food. I'll just go out at restaurant. You're just

shoving shit. You have no idea where it came from in your mouth. It's true. And then you're wondering like, wow, what the fuck happened to me? It's like, well, you've just been eating a bunch of shit that you don't know what it is. Yeah. It's, it's pretty early. If someone is sitting at home and they literally have not one dollar to spend on their skin, but they have acne everywhere, what are some tangible tips that you would tell them? Love that question. So number one, they can ice pack. That's the number, the number one, easiest immediate benefit, no possible harm thing is to ice pack your skin, especially if it's cystic, cold compress is it? Like if it's cystic, do not put heat on it. It's just going to

inflame it worse. So not direct ice, that can be too harsh for the skin, but just an ice pack or like a water bottle that you keep in the freezer. Or Lauren's ice roller. I got an ice roll. But you said not one, you said not one. If they have the ice roll. It's perfect because one, you can roll it for lymphatic, but you can hold it on the area too. Holding it on is so important. Ice. Okay. I love your ice roller better than ice, though. I like, I would absolutely recommend that over direct ice. And you can hold it. You can do, you can do like a lymphatic. massage with it. Like ice rolling is by far the number one thing anyone can do that doesn't cost them anything and won't backfire. And cold shower? Does that work too? That's different. I wouldn't say

cold shower. No one's really going to do that. Don't burn your skin with hot water, but it doesn't need to be cold necessarily, especially if you're cleansing. You do need a little bit of warmth, not super hot, just warmth. Otherwise, the oils in your skin and your makeup and your sunscreen. They won't really like wash away if it's with cold water. Same thing if you're trying to wash like a greasy pan with cold water. It doesn't really work. Does need to a little bit of heat. Now, what the cold showers are going to help with, though, is the inflammation of your whole body. Yeah. It's good for the lymphatic system. Yeah, the holding it to your face with an ice pack or an ice roller is going to help that topical inflammation. And then if you're in the mood

for a cold shower, I thrive off cold. Like not being in the cold 24-7, but like, you know, cryotherapy. I'm so obsessed. That will reduce the systemic inflammation throughout your body. What else can they do if they don't have any money and they want to heal their acne? They can absolutely check their vitamins, whatever they're taking. make sure that there's not a overly high level of B12, zinc, overly high level of vitamin D, and make sure there's no biotin in anything. So eliminating triggers is just as important, if not more important, than adding things or going out and spending money on a new thing.

So you can add a bunch of great things, but if the root cause triggers are still there, still going to break out. So being a detective is the free thing you can do that will give you the most benefit. So checking your vitamins and then also checking everything you're using, for poor clogging ingredients. Just go on your, it's easier on a laptop, but copy and paste the ingredient deck to whatever you're using. Put it in the little search function that we've got in our website. It will tell you if there's a poor clogger. So at least you can eliminate the problems before you change anything else. And we always tell people that's the number one step to do.

When you see all of these people coming in with acne, there's got to be, they got to have, you know, problems maybe with self-esteem, I can imagine. Because it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's probably very hard. What advice do you give someone who's dealing with self-esteem issues because of the acne? The first thing I would say is you're not alone and some of it can completely feel out of your control. So acne is inflammation. And when you are inflamed, your brain's inflamed and that is directly linked to depression and anxiety. So your whole body is connected when there's inflammation going on. There's typically depression, anxiety, and mental health struggles going on. So the first thing is you are not alone. People go through this. The second thing is we like to do a lot of self-work.

And so whether that's listening to podcasts that build you up that don't make you feel so alone, like you're hanging out with friends, whether that's starting to meditate, whether that's going on walks throughout the day, finding that one thing a day that really builds you up in any way possible. When you can find that, you can use it as a building block. Because sometimes it can feel so incredibly debilitating when you feel like you're just spiraling. But if you can just link to that one thing that you know that makes you happy, maybe it's calling a friend or family member. Again, listening to a podcast, listening to fun podcasts always build me up. If I'm in my head too much, I throw on a podcast, I know I'm going to feel really good to and go for a walk.

And you'd be surprised how fast we can actually shift our mindset in a given moment. So finding that one thing that works for you. Tapping, I know you guys recently had Gala Darling, love her tapping. but everyone's so different. Someone might not like manifestation or tapping or this, just finding what works and what gets you excited. Have you guys seen some incredible transformations when people start getting rid of the acne? It's like getting rid of energy. Yes, absolutely. Every day we get before and after is like sent to us in these just long messages of gratitude. And it's daily, if not like several times a day at this point, like even on our personal ones too. And like it's, what that transformation for people lights us up so much.

much like that's why we exist. Yeah, what you guys are doing for for people with acne is really incredible. I mean, I got messages from the first podcast from people saying how much it helped. So I can only imagine. Yeah. And we want to give a shout out to your audience. We have been flooded with nothing but positivity, like positive energy, gratitude, just thanking us for providing some of that information. And everyone that we've met like our events who heard about us from that last episode, they've all been the most dynamic, charged, just beautiful. full souls and just like your audience is amazing. That's very, very nice. Did you guys hear that? You let them know if there's any bad apples and I won't get. We'll kick them out. We're not allowed

to be. They're a bad apple. It means they just need a hug. We'll give them a hug. Turn them around. There's good ones out there. Okay. You wrote a book on apple cider vinegar. Now, one of my girlfriends, who's really into health, told me I should be taking a shot of it before I eat a meal with my digestion of enzyme. What do you think? Every time? So, yeah, that's what she said. Yes. So it's a very similar effect to lemons. So if you don't have apple cider vinegar with you, lemons are a great alternative. But the key thing with apple cider vinegar, it is very, very acidic. So you have to dilute it with water. So I would never take an apple cider vinegar shot just by itself. It'll burn the enamel of your teeth. It'll erode your throat and it'll just cause an imbalance of acid. So always

dilute it in water. And then it's amazing. Then it has all the benefits to it. But just remember a little bit in water. So ideal, if you travel with like a little thing of apple cider vinegar, which I sometimes will, I'll empty out one of those like immune shots that have like turmeric and stuff in it and I'll pour apple cider vinegar and I'll travel with that. And when we get hot water with lemon at a restaurant, I'll just put like a little splash in. It doesn't have to be a ton. It just aids in working up those stomach acids. It also is shown to reduce the glucose spikes, which is huge. Huge. Okay. I'm so extreme that I was like taking the whole. bottle and like chugging it.

Wrong, Lauren, wrong. I mean, I just get so extreme. Yeah, I used to do that too before. Why can I just do a little spot? But you know, I think about all these things like extremes. Like, I feel like you didn't, like you don't have to do extreme anything. Like I mean that like honestly. Like people like they take this to working out.

They take this to diet. Like you just be moderate in all these things and just consistent. And I feel like it's a much better strategy than like going so always. That is very Buddhist of you and so true. People just take it too fucking far. You know, you get people like my wife. from here like chugging the bottle of apple cider vinegar. I get two.

But look how gorgeous she is. She's telling me, she's like, you better drink this apple cider vinegar to make my enamels off my teeth. I know. Sorry about it. Okay, so what are the benefits, though, of it? The biggest thing is, like Danielle said, it's helping stabilize your glucose levels and building up stomach acids.

So those are like the two biggest, biggest things. It can also has a lot of medicinal benefits. Like you have gut health benefits in it, especially when you get apple cider vinegar that has the quote mother in it, that stuff that's, going to help build up the good probiotics in your gut, but also help balance, because we need good and bad gut bacteria. So it's going to help balance the two, build up stomach acid. Our stomach acids starts depleting very quickly after the age of 25. And that's why as people get older, not only in general is, you know, the American diet pretty harsh on our digestive

process, but it also just declines as we get older and as we age. So we want to keep those stomach acids really flourishing. And so that's a really good way to do that is apple cider vinegar and water once a day. Should I sneak some in Zazza's hydroflask? Yes. Really? Just a little, a little squirt. A little squirt, a little tincture. She's got fun. She's two years old. A few drops would be just fine. Okay. Gut health when it comes to acne. What do you guys see with that? It is directly connected. So it's the gut, brain, skin access and all three are so. connected. So like I mentioned before, the brain is what talks to our hormones. So the ones that we talk about the most about is progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, thyroid and cortisol are also

really, really important and big ones talked about. Your brain talks to your hormones and tells it what to do. Then your hormones metabolize or convert into different things through both the liver and the gut. So a lot of times a hormonal imbalance is being caused because of a gut imbalance. So maybe it's converting in the liver, but not the gut. Or like most of us, a lot of us have a sluggish liver because we're overloading our bodies and that's what detoxifies our body. So our liver is a little sluggish and then it's all going to the gut. And if our gut is also imbalance, then or hormones don't know what to do and they're just kind of going whack. And that's what can lead to estrogen dominance, too high of cortisol at not the right time. And basically everything's

just confused with communicating. So that's why gut health is so important. because then the gut health is directly connected to our skin as an exit organ. So if things are confused in a mess in our body, it's just going to come out through our skin. Is the hormone that you see with acne testosterone the most? That is the most, like, easy culprit to point your finger out for an acne flare-up. That's why people get more flare-ups during PMS time because your estrogen's a little bit lower right before your period and your testosterone's a little bit higher. And if you start taking things that spike your testosterone, like those vitamins I mentioned,

excess, then you will absolutely see hormonal acne. Everyone thinks their acne is hormonal because it ebbs and flows. And yes, hormones play a huge role. But a lot of the things we're doing in our day-to-day life are distorting those hormones. You don't need to go get on spyrinal lactone. You just need to like check your vitamins to see what you're doing that's spiking your testosterone often. Because it could be actually low levels of estrogen and progesterone, progesterine that are causing the spike in testosterone. So again, they all talk and communicate to each other. So if you have a dominant in one. It could be because you're really low or too dominant in another one. What about Butney? I dated this one guy that had pimples on his ass. This is like a TBD. This is like a throwback.

It wasn't you. We're going for it. You have a great ass. There's no pimples. So with men sometimes. I don't even know what to say. Like we're all stunned. It's common. It's guys too. A lot of it has to do body acne, especially for men. I see it all the time. It's their protein shakes. It's way protein. And yeah, have you gotten rid of your way waffles? I don't have the way waffles. Sometimes I'll do way protein, but I'll switch between that one and the symbiotic of plant-based one, depending on how I'm doing. Amazing. Amazing. We love cycling for things. I never got rid of my eggs, though. I up the eggs. I upped them a lot. That's what, well, eggs are a huge. But you're not acne-prone. Yeah. Eggs are like, of course, if they're, I know you guys do, but they're pasteurates from a

good source. Eggs are an amazing nutrients for people that aren't acne-prone. It's just one of those things that people who are acne-prone, they have no idea. It can be the eggs. So some of the butney is from protein powder. It can be from way protein will just make you break out everywhere. And then there's other things like your body wash, your body lotion, like things like that. It's also a lot of times friction on the skin will exacerbate the skin barrier. And then bacteria can just grow wild unchecked.

So that's something we see a lot of the time with like harsh fabrics. A lot of fabrics are irritating to people. A lot of trainers are they're in like spandexam. and stuff like that all day. And it's just like abrasive on their skin. And it just disrupts the skin barrier. So it could be any of those things. But we always cover a lot of ground with you guys.

That was all different kinds of things. I would love to have you guys back on eventually to talk about your entrepreneur journey. Maybe if you could just give us a little sneak peek at that. Because I know we were talking off air about it. Just give us a little tease. Yeah. I mean, everyone is so interested. in the behind the scenes and what Kaylee and I do to grow the company.

And the best little tease, we've talked about it before, is we actually have our own co-founder therapist. And we've had him for about two years now, and he's been instrumental. And we brought him in as a resource for the entire team as we're growing. Because our team is growing a lot. I feel like we're hiring someone like every month. So it's just communication, having a safe space to grow, and fostering emotional intelligence as individuals and as a group.

That's been instrumental. in keeping the joy and the journey and feeling like you're making progress as a person and in your role at the company every single day because everyone wants both. They want to grow as a person and thrive and master in their role. And if you don't have a coach or a strategic initiative from the company to help with emotional intelligence, that can be really difficult. So we've made that a priority. I did get a lot of questions because you guys are both so young. You're beautiful and you're building this massive company. A lot of people were asking me about that area of it. So I think that that would make a really fun episode.

It's been life-changing for us, truly, because you think about it, like, Danielle and I have two very different brains, but one common goal. And if we can get, if we can get too transactional about what we're doing and kind of lose each other, he always brings us back to acknowledgement. So I could have no idea that Danielle is dealing with all this stuff with the department she handles and she's so overwhelmed that one thing I say triggers that and vice versa. I'm doing all these other things. Danielle doesn't quite know about. And she says one thing it triggers me. So we've learned to acknowledge each other and we give each other acknowledgments like all the time. Like we like, hey, I see you for what you're doing. I recognize you for this. And thank you so much for supporting our company in this way. And we do

acknowledgments a ton. And it is game changing to be able to recognize each of our own skill sets and how they're so different but complimentary at the same time and removing, because obviously being so go-go-go, we can be very transactional and bringing more emotion and humanity into the day-to-day transactional of running a business has been key. Sounds like parenting. Everyone just to do that. I mean, it's like, it's like a marriage except no one's having sex to make up after a fight. You know what I mean? Like you got to really, really put a lot of intention behind this relationship. Have you guys tried incorporating the sex? Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.

We've got to have something to look forward to you. Don't even way before you have sex because you don't want pimples on your ass. If I were to start with one product by you guys, and I've said this on the show, it's the sunscreen. It's like a mineral sunscreen and it's a brush. And why I like this is because I'm wearing makeup right now, but I'm not going to apply white sunscreen on top of this makeup. So what I do is I'll carry this little brush around. and I can just brush it on top of my makeup. Even if I'm shiny sometimes, this is the one.

It's the mineral sunscreen brush. And that one is the best because most sun damage happens in the afternoon. Everyone puts on their sunscreen in the morning, but a general rule of thumb is it all sunscreen. Consider it gone after two hours, especially the chemical-based ones because they just metabolize out and they're just non-existent after a couple hours. Physical and mineral sunscreen, those are the same things, by the way.

Physical and mineral sunscreens are zinc or titanium-based. and they stay physically on your skin a little bit longer and give you that shield. That said, though, they're not going to last all day. We sweat it off, it oxidizes, blows off, et cetera, et cetera. So most people, the UV damage happens when they're out sitting outside at lunch at noon, four hours plus since they put on their sunscreen, or they're walking the dog, or they're running to get the kids, or they're, you know, going for a sunset stroll or something like that.

Like, that's when the sun will get you. So reapplying it with something like that is the key to. you protecting all the other work that you're doing on your skin. I also like using this brush on my hands. Yes. You heard that? Yeah. We love doing that while I'm driving. Yep. Yep. Anyway, can we do a giveaway? Yes. Okay, let's do a giveaway of a bunch of products that is for someone who has acne. So if you have acne or you know someone that has acne, can we do that? Absolutely. Okay, all you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostick and then follow at Clearstem. Clearstem skin skin. on Instagram.

And then where can they find you if they have questions? So I am Danielle, the acne guru. And I am Kaylee. dot Christina. And of course you can find all of our stuff on our website, clearstem skincare.com. But anyone who's in the Austin area, we just launched in Neighborhood Goods right on South Congress.

So if you're like, I need to go have it right now, you can just go down to Neighborhood Goods. Do we have a code for the audience that they want to shop? We do Skinny 2. And that'll give you 20% off your first order. Skinny 2. I would start with the Mineral Sunscreen Brush. You guys, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you. You guys are always great. And go listen to the first part of this episode because that's a good one too. Yeah, we'll link everything out too. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

This episode is brought to you by ClearSem.