The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Carolina Reis Ph.D. On Skin Age Reversal Techniques, Products To Avoid, & Free Things You Can Do For Your Skin

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

#621: Today, we're sitting down with Carolina Reis Oliveira, co-founder of OneSkin. Carolina holds her Ph.D. in Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering & in 2016, Carolina relocated to Silicon Valley from Latin America to co-found OneSkin and lead the development of the company’s disruptive skin age reversal technologies. Today, Carolina joins us to discuss skincare from a scientific perspective. We dive into all things aging and anti-aging, identify which "hot" products can actually damage your skin in the long run, and she reveals the top 5 free things you can do for your skin in terms of anti-aging. We also explore which products are best for achieving better skin, why the skin around your eyes ages differently than the rest of your body, and why the health of your skin serves as a direct indicator of your overall health.   To connect with OneSkin click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE To subscribe to our YouTube Page click 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 & OneSkin Visit www.oneskin.co and use code SKINNY15 for 15% off your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by Fable Pets Fable Pets designs gear that solves problems for you and your pet, so the two of you can enjoy exploring the world together. Go to fablepets.com/skinny for 20% off sitewide and up to 35% off sets. This episode is brought to you by JSHealth JSHealth Vitamins is a science-focused vitamin and wellness brand that provides targeted formulas to help you meet your personal health goals, created using the highest quality ingredients backed by research. Go to jshealthvitamins.com/skinny and use code SKINNY for 20% your order or first subscription. This episode is brought to you by Hiya Health Hiya Health fills in the most common gaps in modern children's diet to provide full-body nourishment our kids need with a yummy taste they love. Go to hiyahealth.com/skinny to receive 50% off your first order. This episode is brought to you by AG1 If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Go to drinkAG1.com/SKINNY to get a free 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by MOON MOON Oral Beauty is reimagining oral care by elevating the everyday oral care routine into an oral care beauty experience. Get 20% off your first device purchase by using code SKINNY at moonoralbeauty.com . This episode is brought to you by Momentous Visit livemomentous.com/skinny and use code SKINNY at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. Produced by Dear Media  

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. 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 along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her.

Aha! We know that UV exposure accounts for 90% of skin aging. And what happens when we are exposed to UV light is that it's going to cause DNA damage. And some of those cells that get too damaged or get a lot of damage, they stop dividing, they stop functioning well, and they enter this zombie-like state that they don't replicate, but they start spreading inflammatory factors. So basically, they spoil the healthy cells around to age faster. This is going to lead to collagen breakdown, and it's going to lead to a decrease in the synthesis of collagen. You know I am obsessed with all things skin and I really like to get to the root of it when it comes to skincare. So today we have someone on who's all about skin longevity. Carolina Reese

Oliveira. She holds her PhD in stem cell biology and tissue engineering. She's a smart cookie. And today, Carolina joins us to discuss skincare from a scientific perspective. So we're going to dive into all things aging, anti-aging. We're going to identify which hot products can actually damage your skin in the long run. She also reveals five free things that you can do to your skin in terms of anti-aging. You can also expect us to explore products that are best for achieving better skin, why the skin around your eye ages differently than the rest of your body. I was blown away about that. And how our skin scientifically ages. We found out all about stem cells. That's been a question that a lot of you guys have asked. I could not be more excited to have Carolina, the co-founder of One

Skin on the podcast today. She is going to give us all the scientific details on how to have skin longevity. Carolina, welcome to the show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. From the countryside to Brazil to Silicon Valley. Yeah. So first of all, thanks for having me, Lauren and Michael. So excited to be here today. My name is Carolina. I'm the CEO and co-founder of OneSkin. I was born in Brazil. I grew up in this small town that has around like 6,000 people. I left when I was 15 to pursue better education. And since then, I was like a girl of the world. I was trying to find my place. And since I was young, I knew that I liked science. I knew that I want to pursue that career because I was really fascinated about how things work from a biological standpoint.

So if you understand the machinery of our cells, we can definitely understand how we can fix when things are not working well. And I was really fascinated about that. So I knew that I needed to leave that small town because there is only one school in my town. I left when I was 15 and then I moved to different cities. I moved to the capital of the state. Then I did part of my master's in Portugal, part of my PhD in the US. And then years later, I came to San Francisco. But yeah, I never knew that I would come all the way from this small town to Silicon Valley. But here I am.

How does one at such a young age become interested in stem cell biology? I don't think I even knew what that was until about maybe five minutes ago. The only thing Michael knows about stem cells is that you can inject them into your penis when you're old to make your penis hard. That's what we've learned on the podcast about them. That's about the extent that we know. No, but I'm serious. At what age do you become fascinated with this topic?

Because this is, you know... Yeah, stem cells was when I was already in college because I loved science and I want to research something that I could see an application. And at that point, stem cells were really a hot topic because there were studies that, you know, showed that you can do stem cells therapy and you can help people in so many ways. But I only could work stem cells in my PhD.

So I knew and I was fascinated about the field since I was like 18, but I started to work with stem cells when I was 24. But since before I got into college, I remember, I don't know why I was studying a little bit of genetic engineering, basically how we can you know manipulate our dna so basically you can use enzymes and you can cut the dna and you can bind the dna together so you can manipulate our own dna to make it to work better for us can you give me an example of like what people would do to manipulate the enzymes in our dna like what like what would they try to accomplish yeah so. So for example, when we, the first like, you know,

application of this kind of tool was to produce insulin, for example. So you can insert a gene in a plasmid and then you can put this gene in bacterias or in yeast and that bacteria will produce a lot of that protein. So you purify that protein and then you can isolate and use them for people that need insulin. So this is just one application, but there are so many and it's so interesting. Again, you can put any gene and you can synthesize in the lab any kind of protein and use for, you know, the most diverse kind of applications. For someone who's listening, aka me, that doesn't know the definition of a stem cell, explain it to like a kindergartner. Yeah. So stem cells are these cells that have the potential to generate different types of

other cells. So there are cells from our skin, from our muscles. So there are cells that have a limited potential to generate those cells. And there are the cells that have the most potential to generate all kinds of cells. So when we are an embryo, we form like an embryonic stem cells. And those cells can generate cells from your brain, from your heart, from your skin. While when we are adult, we decrease that limit of differentiation. So for example, we still have stem cells in all of our body, in our adipose tissue, in our bone marrow.

But if you isolate those cells, they cannot differentiate. It's a little harder to differentiate in different cell types. So they are more limited. So that's why it's good. There are several sources that you can freeze down and store stem cells for later use in life. And the earlier that you can store those cells, the better because of their potential to then generate different types of cells. So for example, when our children are born, there's an option if you want to do like cord blood. Is that because you want to save stem cells that could potentially benefit the children or the family later in life?

Yeah. So there are two types of stem cells in the cord blood. One is the hematopoietic that can only generate cells from the blood. And for that type, you can only treat kids until they are like, I think 35 kilos or so. So the treatment or the potential is very limited. And then you have the mesenchymal stem cells. These are, you know, more complicated words, but basically these are the ones that you can use to grow, to multiply and generate different cell types. So, for example, if you freeze from your kids, you can later on, if they need some kind of, you know, stem cell injection, the mesenchymal stem cells are the best ones in terms of potential of treating different conditions. So that cord blood thing really is something that people should do, do you think?

I think if you can, you should. It's just, I would say, kind of a preventative measure. I think I'll do for my kids. I think I would have done even for myself. We can still do all of us. There are companies that do that nowadays. So you can freeze down and you can inject your own stem cells in yourself. And the main property of the stem cells is that they secrete anti-inflammatory factors.

So if you have like an injury and you inject the stem cells, decreasing the inflammation will help you or the person to heal faster. So that's why they are so beneficial. One of the main advantages of that. So you know, it's so funny. I had a friend that I was just with at dinner the other day. We went to dinner and after we ended dinner, he said, hey, you talk to all these people on the podcast. He's got a really bad knee that he's had from an injury when we were young.

He was a big snowboarder. And he is at the point now where he's done as many things he could do. And he's trying to explore stem cell therapy. So he asked me, he's like, hey, do you know anyone who does this? And I've had friends and people who've come on this show who have had therapies and done it. But I told him, I said, listen, I'm not an expert by any means on this. I don't even know where to point him. Why in the US is this something that is not readily available? Is there controversy behind it? Is it just not cleared? And I know like most of the people that I've talked to behind the scenes on this show have gone to other countries to get these kinds of therapies. Yeah, there are options in the US as well. FDA here is definitely more restricted in terms of validating the efficacy for a certain

condition. So that's why it's sometimes easier to get some treatments abroad and it's cheaper as well. But here in the US, I know a few companies that do that as well. So I think it will become more and more common. I think, unfortunately, with everything that's new, there is a lot of pseudoscience out there and people take advantage of that. So that's why it's more restricted here. But I think there are really good people in serious scientists offering this kind of treatment. And I think we'll have more access to it in the near future. So are you saying, in this case for the knee, what it potentially could do is lower a lot of the inflammation

and help the body heal faster? Is that what it does? Correct. Yeah. There is very few indications that the cells that you are injecting is actually generating like the cartilage or anything that you are deficient, it's more the secretion of the stem cells that help your body to heal by itself, which is really cool because we know how to do it.

But when there is inflammation, it basically impairs the whole process. So by reducing inflammation, we can definitely allow our body to work better. So it's not like regenerating a finger or a limb or the cells. It's really just helping your body heal in an efficient way. Yeah, you can regenerate by yourself. It's just not the stem cells that is regenerating. You mentioned pseudoscience. Can you get specific on what you mean by that?

What are some pseudoscience things that maybe people have heard that you would love to clear up? Wow, I don't know even where to start. But I think with anti-aging, for example, there is so much of like this reverses aging. So I think pseudoscience is where people use all of those buzzy words and they don't have like the data or the right studies to validate that that works and how it works and you can find pseudoscience in all kinds of you know industries but i think anti-age is just a great example that you can find so much of it one more question before we move on to i mean i'm going to stay on this a bit but before i move on i think a lot of people have the question is what where are the main sources of these stem cells coming from?

Where do people get it? Because I think a lot of people don't understand that as well. If you go maybe to another country or even some of these companies you mentioned here, where are they getting these stem cells? Yeah, there are many. As I said, we have stem cells in all of our tissues. Some are easier to be sourced. So the bone marrow is one that's very easy. You can go to a clinic, they can extract your bone marrow, they can inject in yourself in the same day. The adipose tissue is another great source and everyone like, okay, I would love to donate my stem cells, but it's a little bit more invasive. One that's very good for kids is from the teeth.

So when the kids are changing a tooth, then it's a great source. There is stem cells inside the tooth. Their baby teeth? Yeah, the baby teeth. Really? Yes. So save the baby teeth? We're going to be mining our children's teeth?

Not save. You need to, as soon as they lose the baby teeth, you need to send it to a company to extract right away. But it's a great source too, because they are very pluripotent, meaning that they have a high potential to generate different types of cells. So it's a great source of stem cells. So you're telling me if I got a little elbow injury here, I could wait to yank one of my kids' teeth out and fix my elbow with their teeth?

Is that what you're telling me? Well, ideally, you would use your own stem cells because even if you are related, there can be rejection. So ideally, it's better to do autologous. Do you know the company that does this with the teeth or do we have to look it up?

Is there like a good company? I don't know here in the US, but I'm sure there is. I know one in Brazil, but I can look it up and share with you. And also you can get from your hair follicle, which is like,

I saw a company recently that did that. So, wow, that's so, you know, smart because anyone can get, you know, a few hair follicles and isolate their stem cells. You mentioned that your body can reject the stem cell. What does that look like if it's rejecting the stem cell? Is it like pushing it out through the skin? Yeah, it's not. No, it's basically your immune system is attacking those cells because they recognize it as like a strange body. So they're going to kill those cells and then you're going to either have like an allergic reaction. You're not going to have the effect because those cells will be killed, cleared out. Okay. I would love to know what the best and worst practices are with

stem cells. Like when you see someone who does it a hundred percent right, and then when you see things and you're like, oh my God, that is not the way to do it. Just like to make it a little clear, like I'm not working specifically with stem cells right now. So I was working with that in Brazil and here in the US,S. I'm working more with aging and longevity but I'm basically associated with like other scientists that are doing this work so I would look like for credentials I would look like for the people that have done the clinical studies I always I always say ask for the data, show me the data. And it can't be only testimonials because obviously that you can fake.

So I can definitely share some names with you after I do this research, but it hasn't been my primary focus here in the US. Okay, so you're obviously a skin expert, a skin guru. What is the main driver that you've seen from a science perspective of skin aging? Yeah. So if you think in a modern way, or obviously we know that UV exposure accounts for 90% of skin aging. And what happens when we are exposed to UV light is that it's going to cause DNA damage. And some of those cells that get too damaged or get a lot of damage, they stop dividing, they stop functioning well, and they enter in this state called like senescence, this zombie-like state that they don't replicate, but they start spreading inflammatory factors. So basically they spoil the healthy cells around to age faster.

So when we are young, we also form those senescent cells because we are all in the sun and that's okay. Our immune system can clear those cells out of our bodies, our tissues. When we get old, our immune system starts to get deficient and those senescent cells, they build up in our skin. And once there is a lot of senescent cells, there is a lot of inflammation. This is going to lead to collagen breakdown and it's going to lead to a decrease in the synthesis of collagen. With less collagen, we're going to see that we're going to compromise our skin barrier. And then we are going to see all the signs of aging, such as sagging, wrinkles.

And it's also correlated with skin cancer. So basically from a molecular level or a cellular level, the accumulation of those zombie-like cells, it is one of the main drivers of skin aging. And it's happening in the, obviously it helps on the epidermis, it helps on the dermis, but it helps like on the inner layers of the skin, not necessarily at the surface. And that's why when we want to treat the skin

or promote this rejuvenation, we needed to go down there to make the treatment to work best. So here's the thing with the sun. I agree with you that the sun is so aging. I do everything I can to stay out of the sun. I wear driving gloves. I wear sunscreen.

I wear a hat. I wear everything. But at the same time, and you might feel free to pick holes in this, I look at the UV on my phone to see how high or low it is. And I take walks. You mean on the weather report? It's on my phone. I actually got it low it is. Yeah, yeah. And I take walks. You mean on the weather report?

It's on my phone. Like I actually got it on. It's on the weather. I got it on the home screen of my phone. So right now it's six because I like to look at it before I go outside if I'm going to take a long walk. So I like to walk my son every single morning when the UV is zero.

And we take a walk and I'll kind of like stand in the sun without sunscreen and like let us get that sunlight. Is that what you would recommend like in the morning when you're trying to get your circadian rhythm like working properly? Yeah, exactly. I think you should avoid when the UV index is very high. What's high? Just because I... Above three. Okay. Yeah. And even around three, I would say that you should limit your exposure. You shouldn't like stay hours. I think we all need a little bit of sun every day.

So early mornings, end of the day, it's the best. Using the UV index is the best way to be sure about it. Take like 10, 20 minutes. If you're going to stay longer, apply sunscreen. But I agree that sun exposure in the morning, end of the day, it's important to produce vitamin D and also to improve your mood and so on. I just got back from New York City. And of course, I brought my razor. I always bring a razor when I travel just in case for my underarms and my legs. And the one that I use is by Athena Club.

They have the cutest razor situation. First of all, it's white, it's sleek, it's silicone, and the quality of the shave is insane. I noticed that I was getting a rash really easily on my legs and I did a lot of things to fix that. And one of the things that I did was I switched my razor. I think it's because Athena has this five blade cartilage and that gives you this super smooth shave, which doesn't give you those pesky bumps. Trust me, I have tried every single razor possible. And a lot of them leave my legs really dry. And even I get like a dullness to the legs.

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placing your order to automatically add a body scrub to your shipment. Trust me, you won't look back. Happy shaving. I have realized that most of us are deficient in magnesium. So I do a very, very specific magnesium that's designed to support muscle relaxation, recovery, energy production, and nervous system function. And the one that I use is by JS Health Vitamins. I interviewed her on the podcast and just fell in love with the way she formulated products. Everything is made in Australia. She's an expert nutritionist, and she just really tries to find the highest quality ingredients that are backed by science and research. So after trying a bunch of her products, the magnesium just like really stood out to me. It contains all the good forms of magnesium that you want. It's an advanced magnesium, which is great. And everything is targeted to just help the pillars that I want to support,

recovery, energy, and nervous system. So like I said, I will take my magnesium at night. It gives me a beautiful, relaxing night's sleep where I don't wake up unless my son wakes up. And I've recommended it to a lot of my friends. While you're on their site, they also have a marine collagen that everyone raves about. So you can check that out too. It supports skin hydration. She has all the things on her site. So go to jshealthvitamins.com slash skinny and use code skinny for 20% off your order or first subscription order. That's code skinny. So go to jshealthvitamins.com slash skinny and use code skinny for 20% off your order or first subscription order. That's code Skinny. Let's take a quick break for the parents out there. Typical children's vitamins are basically

candy in disguise filled with two teaspoons of sugar, unhealthy chemicals, and other gummy junk growing kids should never eat. That's why Haya was created. The pediatrician approved superpower chewable vitamin. Lauren and I give Zaza and Townes these every single morning. Zaza looks forward to it every single day to pick out either a pink, yellow, or green. It's become a habit in the household. While most children's vitamins are filled with five grams of sugar, like I said earlier, and contribute to a variety of health issues, Haya is made with zero sugar and zero gummy junk, yet it tastes great and it's perfect for picky eaters. Haya fills the most common gaps in modern children's diets

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more. It's non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free, and everything else you can imagine. And like always, we've worked out a special deal with Haya for their best-selling children's vitamin. Receive 50% off your first order. To claim this deal, you must go to Hiahealth.com slash skinny. This deal is not available on their regular website. Go to H-I-Y-A-H-E-A-L-T-H.com slash skinny and get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults. That's Hiahealth.com slash skinny. This may be maybe a less informed question. I was going to use the word stupid, but I'm going to say less informed. How bad, if bad at all,

is UV exposure from phones and computer screens and like the lights? Is that significant at all or not? These lights in the studio are not doing us any favors for our fine lines and wrinkles, Michael Bostic. But they're doing us favors for the video that's going to go up. But I'm serious because I think a lot of people are talking a lot about staying out of the sun.

Like how bad are DMV lights? No, no, no. But really, how bad are phone and computer screens? I think people are staring at these things all day long. Yeah, definitely there is the blue light also generates free radicals, right? So this is part of what causes oxidative stress in our cells. And it's important that we counteract those free radicals with antioxidants, some mineral sunscreens, and they can protect as well.

So there are several ingredients in products that can help. So there are not like very clear studies in terms of, I would say that they contribute to aging. But as I said, 90% of the aging process is accounted by UV exposure. Yeah, UVA and UVB. When it comes to products, what ingredients do you love and what ingredients do you hate? And you would never touch with a 10-foot pole. Well, again, that's a tough question because, but okay, let's go. Let's start with ingredients that I hate and we always try, we don't add that all at our products. Perfume, so fragrance, skincare, obviously the parabens, the alates, I usually don't like petroleum derived ingredients,

essential oils, because they can cause sensitization, they can cause irritation. Then we can go to the other ones that are, they can be good and bad, that can cause irritation like retinol or acids, but can also bring some benefits. So we can talk about that later. So ingredients that I love, I love peptides. I love ingredients such as hyaluronic acid that will hydrate your skin. There are different sizes. There are low molecular weight that can penetrate into your skin and actually help your skin to produce more hyaluronic acid. There are high molecular weights that sit on top of your skin and form like a barrier, so prevent like water loss. There are a lot of oils that have a lot of antioxidant and inflammatory properties.

Antioxidants, so there are some forms of vitamin C that are great, that are stable. Some are not so great because they are very unstable and then you need to have a lot of other preservatives. And then in the end, you have a formula that's not as gentle because you're trying to preserve the vitamin C. So that's a very important one. I think you need to look for the form that is stable, that's not going to cause like irritation.

Let me see. Michael uses hyaluronic acid and so do I. Yeah. I'm proud of us. And you use vitamin C. Yeah. I use the right source of vitamin C. Thank God you met me.

Oh my gosh. You'd be using like- So I'm familiar with peptides. Old spice on your face. And we've taken peptides for like a health factor. Like for example, I've taken peptides for like a health factor like for example i've taken peptides for muscle growth or you take peptides for you know cognition or whatever and it's usually shout out to conover wellness yeah we get our but i've never i don't think i've ever had peptides

for the skin and i know you you have this so how do maybe talk about that a little bit and how did you discover to use peptides in skincare products yeah so there are a lot of peptides out there in different skincare products. I think there are several. And for those who doesn't know, like a peptide is a small piece of a protein. It's a sequence of amino acids that can enter in the cells and signal your cells to act in some ways. So they can induce collagen production. They can do a variety of things.

The main challenge with a lot of peptides out there is that sometimes they don't penetrate the skin. So if they are, you know, at a certain size, our skin forms a barrier, forms a physical barrier, and it prevents most ingredients to penetrate in the skin. So we needed to know if the peptide is actually penetrating. We need to know if it's able to get delivered in the right concentration because you can have an amazing peptide and a lot of times you need to have a specific concentration for it to be active. You need to know if it's not causing any toxicity. So there are a lot of boxes that you need to check when you want to deliver a peptide into the skin.

At OneSkin, how we found this peptide? So we were studying skin aging for a few years in the lab and we knew that the accumulation of senescent cells was a very important driver in terms of skin aging. So we thought if we can find a peptide that can reduce the amount of senescent cells, those zombie cells in the skin, what's going to happen? We're going to make room for the healthy cells to proliferate. And again, we are reducing the inflammation because the senescent cells are secreting inflammation. So if you have fewer senescent cells, you're going to have less inflammation in the skin. And then the healthy cells proliferate, they produce more collagen, they produce more

hyaluronic acid, and they are going to basically rejuvenate the skin naturally. So we start testing peptides in the lab. So we have a team of scientists in San Francisco that we were testing nearly a thousand different peptides. And we're basically treating skin cells that were already aged. And then we put the peptide in contact with those cells and we were measuring how many senescent cells we had after the treatment. And we did this for a few years until we got to this OS1 peptide that could reduce almost

50% the amount of senescent cells in this skin. So when we saw that we had a peptide that had this effect, we saw that it would also decrease what we call the markers of aging. So some genes that are related to aging, that are related to inflammation, that are related with proteins that degrade collagen. And then we saw that we were also stimulating, again, collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. So what we did once we found this peptide, we were able to treat aged skins in the lab because it is part of our research.

We can grow skins in the lab and we can replicate the skin aging and we can treat like an aged skin and then we can measure if the skin is getting younger by treating with that peptide, by removing or decreasing the amount of senescent cells. What mistakes are you seeing as a scientist that people make when it comes to their skin and aging? I think people are over activating or adding too much on their skin. I think in the past we thought like, you know,

the more active that we can put on our skin, the better. Or if we over exfoliate, our skin is better. I think retinol became something that was overly used. And a lot of times we can get some benefits in the short term, but we are compromising our skin in the long term. I think we are not aware that if you over exfoliate your skin or if you're using a lot of acids and you are peeling all the time, you are basically removing your skin barrier. And when you have, you don't have like a strong skin barrier, your skin gets more exposed, it gets more sensitive to sunlight. So that's why when you use a lot of retinol, your skin gets more sensitive. So I think making sure that your skin is stronger instead of, you know, over exhausting your skin with like too many actives. I think

that's a very important piece that we should all be aware because in the end, our skin is an organ. It needs to function to protect us. If we don't have our skin barrier, we're basically compromising our overall health because our skin is exposed. I have a bone to pick with retinol. And you know what? Like, let's go off on tretinoin, too. I don't even know if that's how you pronounce it. This is the thing about retinol that I've noticed because everyone got on the retinol

train and the tretinoin or however you say it. It does make you look completely clear, like your skin looks clear, but there's a waxy look to it. And here's the problem with it. You can tell how old someone is when their skin gets waxier and waxier and waxier. So when I'm looking at someone that's used retinol for a long time, my brain subconsciously can put them in a category of 40 or 50 because there's a look to the retinol on the skin and the tretinoin. While their skin looks beautiful and glowy and almost wax-like, I can pinpoint how old they are because I can tell how long they've used retinol and tretinoin. And I couldn't understand why I was having this pushback to retinol. Like something inside me was like, I don't want to try that.

There's something about it I didn't like. And that's what it is, that the longer you use it, the waxier your skin gets. Because to me, it's stripping layers and layers and layers and layers off till you have like this almost like exposed skin. And what it actually ends up doing, in my opinion, is you look older instead of younger because you can tell how long you've used the retinol and the tretinoin. Is that weird? Yeah, I mean, I totally agree with you. I think you look you don't look very natural anymore because so what happens right now is a

molecule is a derivative of vitamin A. It penetrates in your skin and binds some receptors and it's going to stimulate cell renewal. So you're basically stripping off the upper layers of your skin. And it does induce collagen production, but it also induces a lot of inflammation and redness and irritation. So when we were testing peptides in the lab, we added retinol as a positive control because it's the gold standard for anti-aging products.

And when we look at the data and we saw a lot of those genes related to aging and inflammation going up, we're like, wow, that's surprising, but at the same time understandable because we know that induces inflammation. So what happens if you continue to use or, you know, over long periods or overuse retinol is that you're going to exhaust your skin because every time that you are renewed, you need to use your stem cells that is on the base of, you know, the epidermal layer to replace those cells that you are stripping off. And at some point, you're going to exhaust your skin.

So you don't have more stem cells. So your skin is, you know, it can get a little thinner. So that's why you see that look of a waxy because it's just like it's not full of the stem cells and the tissue that would like be protecting the skin anymore. So I am not like against, completely against retinol. I think it's, there is like a moderation way that you can use the retinol, you know, two, three times a week. But it's so true that we should be more careful and I think we went way too wild with retinol that now UK is already banning retinol above 0.3 percent and here in the US it's like the more the better you know the highest concentration the better and I think we lost like that sense of like

okay let's go back to what what our skin is doing for us, how retinol works and just like balance out with other treatments. But to me, if I can find something that can do the work that retinol is doing, that's collagen production without causing the side effects, I will opt for that option. Can we talk about collagen production for a second? Because I think, so this is a tangent, but I'm reading this book by David Grant, or I was reading it called The Wager about these guys that went out to sea in the 1740s and they got scurvy. Okay. And they later found out with years and understanding the science that scurvy is caused by a deficiency in vitamin C, which is why they call a lot of sailors limeys because they figured out as soon as they, if they carried limes and

they could eat it and they didn't have the deficiency. But what was interesting to me and why I promise this is not such a random tangent, when they got the scurvy, it's this, their collagen production completely depletes and their skin literally starts falling off their body and their teeth start falling out. And it's because they don't have it. And I was reading like, oh, this is why everyone's telling me that you need vitamin C with skin for collagen production. But outside of that, we have a lot of health experts that come on the show and talk about the importance of collagen. From a skin perspective, what have you seen to be some of the most effective ways people can boost their collagen? Is it a collagen supplement? Is it a food source? Obviously,

some of the products we're using, but how can people get better collagen production? Because it sounds like that is a huge part of just skincare. Yeah. I think it's a huge part and it's basically, we are trying to get to the collagen products to look plumper, but we're not going to the cause of the problem. What's causing the decrease in collagen production? Yes. So that's why we usually go back to the senescent cells and the aging, the mechanisms that are driving aging. But in terms of like collagen supplementation, there is not a lot of strong evidence that collagen supplementation will help your skin to produce more collagen. What you are doing is basically you are ingesting collagen and you are ingesting the right amount of amino acids or building blocks that you need to build collagen again. But basically you are breaking down collagen

and you hope that that collagen eventually you get your bloodstream, you get your skin and your skin will start like using those amino acids and produce more collagen again so it's kind of a long you're saying it's a long route to yeah exactly so ideally you are going to apply ingredients in your skin that will help your own cells to produce more collagen so is the ingestion calling is that more for like your joints and your or your it's a great source of protein and amino acids. But you're saying it's maybe... Yeah, if you need to produce, you know, cartilage or anything, even muscles, that will help. And it will help for your skin as well, but it's not that you can guarantee that that collagen...

It may not make its way all the way to the skin. Yeah. Okay, okay. So to get it to the skin, your suggestion is? So to stimulate your own cells to produce collagen, you need to understand why your skin

stopped producing collagen and kind of fix that. So there are ways that you can, you know, some peptides can already activate collagen production.

Some can basically remove what's preventing collagen production. In our case, our peptide does the second. It's basically attacking what's preventing collagen production and increasing collagen degradation. And then your own skin cells can do it again. From a dietary standpoint, are there things that we're ingesting that are diminishing our collagen production? A lot of things that can generate free radicals that can cause oxidation. So processed food, sugars, anything that's causing oxidation is going to definitely

interfere with that. So in general, like a healthy lifestyle will help, you know, your cells to work best. I would say that the sugar is a very important one because when you have a lot of sugar, what happens is that you are going to cause glycation on the proteins in the lipids in your skin. And then you're going to form the AGEs, that's advanced glycation End Products. And what it does, it basically causes cross-link on the collagen. So your skin, it doesn't, it gets a little more stiff in some ways. So you lose that elasticity, you lose that plumpness.

So I would say that sugar is a great one. Anything that I would say drive inflammation is important to avoid. If you were to wave a magic wand and have people do five things when it comes to reversing aging, what are the five things? And you mean reversing aging overall or focused on your skin? Focused on the skin on the face or the hands or the arms or the knees. The skin. But just, yeah, the skin in general. Like what are those things that you would want everyone to do?

And you can get very detailed. I would start with the basics. And that's important to remember that obviously our skin is our largest organ. So whatever we eat, our sleep, exercise affects our skin. So I think sleep and diet are great ones to start. And then protecting your skin. I think avoiding too much of sun exposure is one of the third ones. Hydration.

And this is hydration, both like, you know, water intake, but also hydrating your skin. Yeah. And on the diet side, as I said, the controlled sugar intake and then using products that are not causing more damage than good to your skin, because unfortunately there are so many products out there that can cause more damage to your skin. And you need to make sure that you are using clean and safe products and products that are helping your skin to work better and basically to recover that ability to produce collagen and function well again.

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you're meditating, while you're taking a walk, whatever you got to do. Get 20% off your first device purchase at moonoralbeauty.com with code SKINNY at checkout. Again, that's code SKINNY for 20% off your first device order on moonoralbeauty.com. Code's code skinny for 20% off your first device order on moonoralbeauty.com. Code skinny for 20% off your first device order on moonoralbeauty.com. This is a question that I have been asked on Instagram story almost more than any other question, and that is what creatine do I take? I have implemented creatine into my workout routine for the past year. Michael is actually the one that told me to get on board with it. He said it's really good for building muscle. I looked into it. I did my research and I found that it's amazing. The

benefits for muscle building are amazing, but also it's really good for your brain. And the one that I use is by Momentous. So I make like a water with amino acids. Sometimes I add my deep bloating drops and then I always add a scoop of Momentous' creatine. They're the best. They're third-party tested and you can trust what's in the label is in the bottle, which is really important. They're very meticulous. Everything is the best of the best. It's backed by research and leading experts. If you're going to grab something else on their site, I would grab the sleep pack. Huberman is a huge fan of the sleep pack. He is the one that told me about it.

It's like a crafted blend of three natural ingredients. And this is really insane if you want to improve sleep quality and enhance your sleep depth. So I would go with their creatine and their sleep pack if you're going to pick two products. Visit livemomentous.com slash skinny and use code skinny at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. That's livemomentous.com slash skinny. Use code skinny. You get 15 percent off your first order. I have never asked this question on the podcast, but I would love for you to really dive into it. Can you explain from a science level all the differences between the sunscreens, the chemical, the mineral, the physical? What do we get? What should we be looking for? What are the pros and cons of each? Yeah. Okay. So let's start with the chemicals. These are the sunscreen. The chemical ones are forms of like substances that will basically penetrate the skin. So this is the downside.

They can get your bloodstream. So you don't want to put that on your kids? You don't want to put that on your kids. And I would avoid that myself if you can. They can also cause more irritation. So basically, the chemical sunscreens, they absorb the light and then the light doesn't damage your skin cells. The mineral ones, we have two main ones. The titanium dioxide that protects mostly against UVB. And you have the zinc oxide that protects against UVA and UVB. So that's what we call like broad spectrum. And you should always choose for

broad spectrum. And they form like a physical barrier, meaning that this sunlight reflects, it doesn't get absorbed. So it's the best option in terms of safety, not only for ourselves, but also for the planet. They don't cause any damage to the reef corals, but also they don't cause as much irritation or sensitization and they don't get your bloodstream. The main challenge with most sunscreens, the mineral ones, is that they can form a white cast. So the zinc oxide, it's a little better.

And right now we could work in different ways to improve the texture and you can have really nice texture. But when mineral sunscreens started like a long time ago, you could completely see that white cast and that's why people didn't love them. But now you can have really nice formulas that blend into your skin and can offer that great protection without compromising the texture, the experience. Always opt for a mineral one and zinc oxide is the best one. That's why if you guys watch my Instagram story, I always talk about mineral tinted sunscreen because the tint, in my opinion, like it takes out that white cast and it lays so nicely under makeup.

Michael's like, what the fuck are you guys talking about? It lays so nice under makeup. You should check your sunscreen. It's probably chemical. But I love a mineral tinted sunscreen. Those are the words to look for. Now it sounds like we need to be looking for broad spectrum. Why do we have to look for a broad spectrum?

Because if it protects only against UVB, so basically UVB are the UV rays that are going to cause sunburn. They are more dangerous and can cause skin cancer. So obviously we need to avoid them. The UVA rays are the ones that are associated with aging. So they can penetrate in your skin and they can cause, you know, aging over time. So we should protect against both. There is one, so the SPF factor, you know, means that you're going to protect against

UVB. And then you have this PA plus factor that you can check the protection against UVA. So you can check for the sunscreen that you use if they have this PA plus score that basically validated that protects against uva as well so you the the quick i would say tip is like uvb cause some burn uva cause aging and we want to protect against both the eye skin is different than the face on the skin i'm going to have you manipulate my husband in front of me because he's just learning this. Why is it so different? Because it's thinner, right?

Yeah, that's it. Oh, wow. Look at you. Well, I mean, it's kind of- I'm sure there's more to it than that. I just felt around him. So it's definitely, it's five times thinner. It accumulates more senescent cells because we are moving all the time.

It's more exposed. And a lot of people, myself included, I forget to apply sunscreen on my eyelids. And most reasons like, okay, I should apply sunscreen on my eyelids as well. But there are studies and we found in our studies that the biological age of your skin around your eyes, just under or above your skin can be 20 to 30 years older than the skin around your cheeks. Oh my God. Is that because you're moving it so much?

You're moving, it's more exposed to damage. For sure, that's my case. My eyes are old as hell. You need to use this eye cream. Yeah. Immediately. What I imagine now with how much we're looking at screens and computers, again, all these things, you're moving them even more now. I'm obsessed with how much we're looking at screens and computers, again, all these things are moving even more now.

Okay, I'm obsessed with this really weird thing. So I'm obsessed with what causes milia, the white dots underneath the eyes, because I noticed that on a lot of people, they have little white dots, including myself. I've gotten it too. Is it the products that we're using? Are those clogged pores? Can you explain what that is and how to avoid that? I'll be honest with you. We have not studied milia specifically in the lab. In the lab, what we can do is basically to simulate, well, we can get like eyelid skins in the lab. So we can

test how a certain product or our products or a peptide can basically promote the skin age reversal from a molecular standpoint. Michael's volunteering for that study. I'll send him to San Francisco. Send me the lab address. Yeah, go ahead. He's volunteering himself. But yeah, so I would say that what's probably happening is that you are losing your melanocytes. Some of the melanocytes that produce melanin are dying. And this is related, again, to sun damage.

And it could be, I would say, aggravated by some products. I would say that probably the primary cause is sun damage. One of the main areas that I see the most damage on is the hands and the chest. Why do you think that people are not taking the same care and what can we do to be really cognizant of our neck and our hands? Because I think obviously everyone pays attention on your face first. So that's like where you get the most attention and that's where you start treating first. And then next is going to be, you know, hands and later in life, you're going to, oh, my hands and my neck and my chest, I forgot about them. So obviously you need to treat them as you treat your face because these are areas that are more exposed to sun. these are areas that are more exposed

to sun. So any area that's more exposed is going to age faster. But I would go even further and think about the, you know, the 97% of your body, that's your whole skin, the skin of your body, right? Obviously, we all now have, you know, very firm and elastic skin. But as we get old and the skin gets fragile, this is going to compromise our quality of life if we don't start taking care of the skin of our body right now. So I love when Peter Thiel was here and like, we think about the health optimization, but we need to think about longevity optimization, right? When we are like in our 60s or 70s, how the skin of our bodies will be if we're not taking care, if we're just taking care of our face.

And it turns out that the skin is going to get thin, is going to get more susceptible to tear, to bruise. So really treating your whole body and obviously the areas that are more exposed need more attention but I think it's important and it's really a concept that One Skin wants to bring because the skin aging process can actually influence our overall health because it's our largest organ because the skin degenerates and starts to create inflammation the inflammation that comes from our skin can elevate our body levels of inflammation. So if we can maintain our skin healthy, we can help lower the levels of inflammation in our blood just by treating the skin. And I think this should be one step that everyone needs to add to their routine if you want to have our best health and age well. So I would say that

obviously give a lot of care to your hands and neck and decollete, but don't forget the rest of your body as well. You know, our facialist tells Michael and I, Michael, I hope that you're listening. She says your face is from your forehead to your tits. That's your face. It's when you put your skincare on. Yeah. And she takes it a step further and shout out to Stacey Christie. And she says, take your extra product that you have and put it on the tops of your hands. When you're doing your like face routine. Yeah. And so now whenever I do my skincare, I'm like, okay, my face is also my chest and my boobs. A lot of people go and just put it in the sink and wash it off, right?

But you can just put it here. You know, it's funny. I had these young guys and they were in the studio. Shout out to the Meat Mafia guys. And they were interviewing me and they said, oh, like Lauren makes funny. You have this big extensive skincare routine. I said, well, I've had so many experts and scientists and doctors like yourself come on the show and explain to me how important the skin and the organ of the skin is for

overall health. And I think as soon as I looked at it that way, like, of course, like, it's nice to have the vanity part of it. But when I realized that there was a health perspective to it, now it's just the same. It's as natural as brushing your teeth. But also like when you look at someone and they walk into a room and they have glowing, pretty skin. To me, that's an indicator of radiant health from the inside out. Like good skin shows that you're eating right. You're working out. You're moving your body. You've got your blood circulation going. Like I really think it is something that you lead with. Everyone's so concerned about their resume. Your face is your resume too. That's my opinion. Okay. So why, it sounds to me that the reason that you

decided to create One Skin is because you're so passionate about bringing the right ingredients to help slower reverse aging. That's to me after this episode, what it sounds like. Why did you decide to create One Skin? Well, I was always passionate about health. I was never passionate about skincare or beauty. And when I started to study aging and I realized that aging is the main driver of most of the disease that we develop as we grow older in life, if I can do something about aging itself and if I can help people to live better without diseases, I would be fulfilled in terms of my mission here. And when we started studying about longevity and the anti-aging space, we saw two main gaps. One is that most products out there, they are just targeting the surface of the skin. They are not going to

the root cause of the problem. They are not really addressing aging itself. And looking from the longevity side, we saw that a lot of companies are trying to address longevity in different organs, but no one was looking at your skin. So we want to fill that gap and really connect longevity with skin health and help people to age at their best, but treating your skin as a very important piece of this practice. We started like studying aging and we started like researching these peptides and we saw that we could make a huge contribution in people's lives by bringing something that would not only help them to look better and to maintain their skin healthy and functional, but also would aid to their overall health and longevity. If I were you guys, I would start with the mineral tinted sunscreen. I think that's the move. I mean,

I like how that lays under makeup. I think it's really pretty. I got the opportunity to put it on my skin and play with it. It's absolutely stunning. And I think that it just it takes all of the heavy lifting for the consumer out because they don't need to worry about chemical or physical mineral tinted sunsc the way to go and i would also start with the eye cream i think that you make a beautiful eye cream you can check out the whole line where can everyone find question real quick do you put the eye cream on before the sunscreen or the other way yeah the eye cream first okay i'm learning i'm learning yeah why would hold on why would you put the eye cream on after sunscreen i don't know i want you to actually

i don't know that through let's put the sunscreen on and then let's put the eye cream on after the sunscreen? I don't know. I want you to actually think that through. Let's put the sunscreen on and then let's put the eye cream on top of the sunscreen. Some of us aren't as advanced as others. Have I not taught you anything? How is this my husband? No, I would have, if you would have said, hey, you have to, you know, live or die,

you got to make a guess here. I would have guessed that, but I wanted to confirm it. What I do is I like to get the guests in the seat and then I get the exact information. Because, my wife's gonna chirp in my ear but actually that's a great point because and and the important piece is that you wanted the peptide to penetrate the best so and the eye cream has the highest concentration of the peptide the clinical studies are the strongest one that we have got so far. It's really beautiful. So it will penetrate better if you apply first.

And the sunscreen also has the peptide, but because it forms a barrier, a mineral barrier, it won't penetrate as well as the eye cream. So penetration of the peptide is really important. That's why you apply the eye cream first. Not that kind of penetration, Michael. Next time I see you, my eyes are not going to be 70-year-old eyes. They're going to be like 30-year-old eyes.

Michael's eyes are going to be looking better. Thank God we figured that out that you do not put on eye cream after the mineral sunscreen. Where can everyone find you and OneSkin? You can find us on our website, oneskin.co. Also follow us on Instagram website oneskin.co also follow us on instagram at oneskin.co and we have a code we have a code skinny15 at checkout off your first purchase again go get that mineral sunscreen it's tinted skinny15 at checkout for 15% off ones oneskin.co. And can we do a giveaway for like all your products? Yeah, let's do that. Yeah, that'd be awesome. All you guys have to do is tell your favorite

takeaway on my latest post at Lauren Bostic. There are so many scientific takeaways that I just learned. That was so incredible. I love getting into the nitty gritty of the science of it. And then follow at oneskin on Instagram. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. Thanks for having me. We asked OneSkin for a code. They gave you guys code skinny15 for 15% off your first purchase at OneSkin.co. If I were to recommend two products, it would be the tinted SPF and the eye cream. The eye cream, you can't go wrong. Apply it with your index finger. Like she said, it's so important to pay attention to the skin around your eyes. And this is a really good one. It also doesn't cause milia. I've been using it.

On that note, go to oneskin.co and use code SKINNY15 for 15% off your first purchase.