Wednesdays - 20: Coming off the pill is making me breakout!! ‘Wednesdays’ skincare special

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

It’s Sophie and Melissa’s 'Roman Empire', and today’s episode is all about it: we’re talking skin.It’s something we all struggle with, and because of that, Sophie and Melissa have hit up a true skincare queen, Dr Anjali Mahto from SELF London, to help with all of your skincare dilemmas.Whether it’s questions about Roaccutane, getting to grips with retinol, deciding whether to start “baby botox”, coming off the pill, and so much more, Dr Anjali shares her top tips on how to tackle problems with your skin, and give it that glow.If you want to see anymore experts on ‘Wednesdays’, then drop the girls suggestions via email and socials.Instagram / TikTok / YouTube: @wednesdayspodcastEmail: [e-mail] Anjali Mahto: @anjalimahtoSELF London: https://selflondon.com/Credits:Producer: @ben_johnsEditor: @Kat MilsomExec: @jemimarathboneVideographer: @jamierg99Video editor: @jakeji.pSocial Media: @thechampagency Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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but I'm not I'm not a doctor either and we're not psychologists and we're not experts in anything in fact we just challenge all the shit

so and we love giving you guys advice but as we said we love giving you guys advice do not take what we're saying as gospel if you do feel like you need to speak to somebody please seek professional help We love giving you guys advice, but as we said... We love giving you guys advice. Do not take what we're saying as gospel.

If you do feel like you need to speak to somebody, please seek professional help. Hello and welcome back. I'm in a puffer jacket because our studio is 11 degrees. Yeah, it's horrific. Anyway, we've got a really exciting guest. It's horrific. Dr. Anjali, who is the skin queen but not just skin right like the more like the laser side of skins skincare she's also like trained in nutrition and stuff like that so it's like all aspects of well-being health skin she's written a book she is truly an expert and she's

gorgeous i mean i won't give away her age but I the proof is in the pudding you know when someone's like you're like okay I trust you because your skin is flawless yeah flawless yeah so natural and she's been through

her own journey with skin as well so she really knows very passionate yeah everything about it so we're very excited for you guys and some of you wrote in

your skin concerns as we all know it's such a big thing that we all have and worry about our skin so we asked for some of those questions so i hope you guys enjoy this episode yeah love you guys we're so excited guys because we have such a skincare expert with us and um we're gonna pick

your brains throughout this whole episode of like so many different we've got a million questions to ask you on it you can ask me everything so angie how did you first get into skin my own personal interest in skin and dermatology started because i had real problems with my own skin okay and i had very severe cystic acne as a 12 year old oh my gosh as a 12 year old how is that possible my father died actually around that age and a couple of months later my acne developed so I think it was probably a combination of stress yeah but in addition to that just that's the age where hormones start kicking in and acne often develop so 80% of teenagers will suffer with spots at some point in time. So for me, my entire teenage years were blighted

with just having what one would describe as bad skin. And I remember it just made me feel incredibly self-conscious. And we don't talk enough about the fact that bad skin can have issues on self-esteem, body image, you get bullied at school, people think you don't wash, they think you're dirty, all of these assumptions that come in as as a result of that so when I ended up going to medical school there was one specialty that clearly stuck out for me and it was skin because I got the patients and the one

thing that I got was just not the fact that they were worried about what their skin looked like it's how they felt about it as well so personally for me I think to be totally honest I've ended up doing what I do because of my own issues with my skin that's so amazing I also feel like that's the best way for it to happen because you can really like understand and you've been in those shoes you know when someone hasn't been there and they're like you just don't get it you don't get it I had bad skin and it was so awful it was just the worst thing thing ever. I mean, I think you guys would agree, but I think unless you've had problems with your skin, people just don't understand what it's like.

It's really hard to explain to people what it's like. And I think at that age, like you don't have the makeup. Firstly, makeup, like we said earlier, we said before we started recording, it doesn't cover it up. You just really feel so self-conscious but also there are a lot of people at that age who have flawless baby skin yeah and then you're

comparing yourself and it's just all it's really horrible thing to go through yeah that's the thing particularly with acne it's like you can hide the redness you can't hide the bumps you can't hide the texture it's the texture and then sometimes it can sometimes look worse like sometimes if I've got a red spot I mean I quite like it what people do they now are drawing on like a little freckle yeah which I'm like god that's just so smart and then it's like you don't even really look at it but I've had like this spot on my forehead recently that was like I guess it was hormonal because it was under the skin it never really got red but it was like almost looked like a clear mole under my skin. And I was like, crikey, I can't do anything about that.

And it just shines in the light and you just have to embrace it. What was your skin journey when you were younger from that cystic acne? So I think probably similar to what a lot of people do, when you first develop trouble with your skin, I think, I mean, back then, this was like the 90s. So I was straight reading every magazine I could get my hands on buying every bit of skincare I was able to with the pocket money that I had control from simple totally clear so that god awful yeah clean and clear toothpaste I used to put that on my skin

all of that all of that and then after a while you realize that's not working. And then after that, I think I eventually nagged my mother into taking me to a doctor. Right. Ended up seeing a GP, got given a lot of prescription creams. They didn't work either because the acne was far too deep. Then got given antibiotics. Again, I think this is a journey that a lot of people follow. Took antibiotics for a while. They kind of worked, but didn't really. And then after having pretty much tried everything out there,

ended up with a dermatologist. And the dermatologist put me on a medication called isotretinoin or Roaccutane. But I have such a clear recollection of this because I think I was probably about 14, 15 at the time. And he was a much older dermatologist. And for me, I was worried about the spots, but I was also worried about all the scarring that I had developed as well. And I remember saying to him, is there anything that you can give me that's going to fix the scars? And he just was like, no, you're just gonna have scars for the rest of your life. Here's your pills, off you go. And I just burst into tears. And I could see the look on this guy's face was just it's really inconvenient having a 14 year old girl crying in my clinic at the moment I just need to get her

out of here if you know what I mean yeah yeah and I think a lot of people have experiences like that don't they where you go and you try and speak to somebody about your skin and you're just dismissed I also think sometimes it's no offense to these maybe older generational like dermatologists I once had um some like random bumps on one side of my face do you remember I had like three months of these bumps it was almost like tiny acne but on one cheek it was really bizarre so I went to this dermatologist which is meant to be that Beckham's dermatologist or whatever yeah and um he was like yeah yeah it's acne it's full-on acne and he gave me antibiotics all these topical creams and i was just like what and i was like what's the cause of it he was like i don't

know it could have been trauma a year ago that happened to you now it's coming out your skin it was all this bizarre information and it was all just like off you go and i was like you can't just tell me i've got acne and give me a bite it's obviously not it's something like what they just went on to the next they want to give you something that's going to just clear it up quickly they don don't care, do they? Finding the root cause. You don't want a diagnosis just out of the blue like that either, particularly if it's like a couple of spots.

You don't want to be labelled with this. I know, yeah. And then not be told, what can I do? Is there stuff I can change for my skincare? Should I check my hormones? There's a whole load of other stuff that goes along with that. There's so much, yeah. But the Roacatink, I went on Roacatink too,

and for me it was like the best thing I ever did. But the Roacatink, I went on Roacatink too and it was, for me, it was like the best thing I ever did. But I know people have serious, it's very, like people have issues with it,

don't they? It's a strong medication and it's a powerful drug. It worked for me as well. Generally speaking, if you do a course of isotretinoin, a course is about

six months and the amount of drug that you have to take is calculated on your body weight. So there's a target magic number that you have to hit. Well that you have to take is calculated on your body weight. So there's a target magic number that you have to hit. Well, you have to get weighed and get your blood test done. And it's quite regimented like that.

Exactly. And 60 to 70% of people that do one course of isotretinoin will never, ever get acne again. That's amazing. It is amazing. And that's pretty good numbers, actually, for any medical intervention. But then you've got another 20 to 30% that might need to do a second course. That could be in a year's time, that could be 20 years down the line. And then you've got about another 10% where it's a bit of a chronic issue. So you do clear with the drug, but it will come back. And then you'll take it again and you'll clear and then it will come back so for me i am in that 10 so i've had multiple courses of isotretinoin over the years it works for me i've had every other acne treatment going as well but i also know for me as an individual because i'm a chronic acne sufferer it'll come back again

in a few years i'll have to treat it again in a few years time you're kidding me and with with ractane for me i found and i have no idea but i want to get into this with you and i then got melasma and i don't know whether it was because i wasn't wearing like you have to be really careful with the sun cream you do if you are particularly fair skinned as well um so that's absolutely right so one of the side effects of isotretinoin so it's super high doses of vitamin A, but it can make you sensitive to the sun in the same way that if you were taking vitamin A in supplements, could do the same to you as well. So if you have got a predisposition to a condition like melasma or pigmentation,

hormones can also drive that separately as well. So if you take the combined oral contraceptive pill that contains estrogen, I think it was that for me. Must have been that. That can also be a driver too. So a lot of people go on the pill when they go on isotretinoin because one of the guidelines is you have to take contraception. So it happens at the same time.

And then it may not be the drug. It might make you a bit sun sensitive. But if you started the pill at the same time, that may have a contributive factor. They don't sort of warn you this can happen, do they? Or do they? No. And that's another thing that's really scary is when you get told you've got melasma and they're like

well there's nothing we can do about it i literally was like what yeah but there is there is there are treatments of melasma melasma a bit like for some people with acne it is a chronic condition yeah so for example if you came to see me for melasma i I'd be lying to you if I said to you, if you do all of this stuff, it will go away and it will never, ever come back again. That's not true, but I can certainly control it. So there are things that we can give you that will reduce the pigmentation and it will stay that way for a period of time with maintenance, but then it may come up again and then you have to do the treatments again. So there'll be periods that you're on treatment and periods that you're off treatment, but then it may come up again. And then you have to do the treatments again. So there'll be periods that you're on treatment

and periods that you're off treatment, but it can be controlled. Yeah, I went on just before my wedding in the winter months, I went on transamic acid. The tablet though. Yes. Yeah, so I did that in the winter or the summer, I think. And then winter we tried to do pre.

That worked amazingly. You've not had an ounce since. Yeah, it was amazing the tablet's very effective actually it is off label which means it's not licensed for the treatment of melasma but it does work for melasma because it interrupts the pigmentation pathway but combining it with like lasers or peels or topical creams as well as taking the pill on and off three months on three months off works very well we've got so many questions i could just sit and ask you everything should we just ask what your current skincare routine is yeah so heads up um i don't work for any of the brands i'm going to

recommend this is just stuff that i happen to use and buy so currently face wash wise i use the cera v hydrating cream to Cleanser morning and evening. And the reason I use that is because it's super gentle because it's a cream cleanser, but I am still a little bit oily combination, so it will foam up. So I know that my T-zone is still squeaky clean. It also removes makeup very well. That's important.

It's when people use cleansing and they have to use a makeup remover as well. No, that's too high-emissions for me. I just need it all in one. I agree. I don't love double cleansing. I's when people use cleansing, then they have to use a makeup remover as well. No, that's too high maintenance for me. I just need it all in one. I agree. I don't love double cleansing. I'd much rather use one product that you can get rid of everything. The only thing is you then have to make sure that you have massaged it in for a good 30 to 60 seconds before you rinse it off to make sure the makeup goes completely. And then I use an eye cream and a moisturizer. And I like the Murad Vitamin C. Everyone talks to me about that.

Vitamin C is so essential, isn't it? It is. Especially for like pigment, right? It helps even skin tone, all that stuff. It will help with pigment, but it also helps your sunscreen work better as well. Because vitamin C is an antioxidant. So it reduces damage from free radicals. So these harmful molecules that we get in sun and in pollution.

I mean, we live in a pretty dirty, polluted, filthy city. So vitamin C or an antioxidant combined with your sunscreen will reduce the damage from that. And therefore it'll help your sunscreen work a little bit better as well. Genius. In terms of when you're choosing a good vitamin C, if you go for something that's got L-ascorbic acid on the ingredients list, that's probably the most potent, pure form of vitamin C that you can get. So if you go back to the clinical trial data, that's what a lot of the original studies were done on. So it's the most effective type that you can get. Vitamin C also works really well with other combined ingredients if you're looking for a serum. So combining vitamin C with vitamin E,

for example, or vitamin C and E with ferulic acid, you almost get like double the potency. So pure vitamin C is great, but you can combine. Okay. I don't know why whenever I use vitamin C, I get like almost like a rash. It looks like it's like a red, like red dots. They can be covered up. But do you remember I came in and I had it? Yeah. That's when I use vitamin C. It might be some people can be a little bit sensitive to vitamin c um it's a great ingredient but if your skin is a little bit sensitive it can cause a little bit of irritation the other ingredient that can do that is niacinamide a lot of people like using that for pigment and for oil control as well doesn't suit everybody or the formulations don't suit everybody so you might be better off going for

maybe a different variation of vitamin c than the one that you tried okay i would recommend as a general good routine cleanse moisturize sunscreen in the morning in the evening you cleanse you moisturize if you need to i don't usually moisturize at night because i don't need to my skin is oily and then i use a vitamin a or a retinoid product at night before i go to sleep i got told when you use a retinol product you should not even because when i i went through a stage of using i'm not at the moment it was very dry when i put it on but they were like you shouldn't put a moisturizer on top because it dilutes the product you've got to sort of and it was working i'd wake up and it was my skin was like so small pores no oil yeah so i just had to sit with that sort of tight because i like to be back with literally this thick moisturizer on my face on top of everything see little me too

okay so what i would say with vitamin a in general and that whole thing about diluting the effect it depends on the potency or the strength of the vitamin a or retinoid that you're using so retinoids are just an umbrella term for vitamin a creams in general then you've got prescription vitamin a creams so these are things like tretinoin or adapalene which somebody would prescribe you then you've got the stuff that you can buy in skincare so those are things like retinaldehyde and retinol retinaldehyde is stronger than retinol right so when you are starting a vitamin a you probably want to start with something you buy over the counter so something like a retinol okay and what you probably want to do with that is at night time so you've washed your face you've

got a clean base i would normally recommend you use a pea-sized blob of that retinol and you start using it once or twice a week initially. Do not use it on consecutive nights. Maybe do it on Monday and a Thursday. So your skin gets a recovery on the in-between nights, thin layer, full face, avoid the eye area. And I would suggest if your skin is sensitive maybe five ten minutes later go brush your teeth get ready for bed put a moisturizer on top yeah and that way you're not really diluting it down because you've allowed absorption of one and then absorption of the other just don't smack the layers on top of each other oh my god okay so it's allowing that because i do often think i'm like god it feels like it's absorbed by the

time i go to bed and i'm like you'll do your skincare sometimes like 5 p.m yeah i do it the minute i get it okay you can definitely moisturize before bed then because i'm like crispy and also like it's a bit dry around my nose yeah do i like yeah just put it yeah so that's really common actually most people do find they get a little bit of peeling around here and it's usually around the mouth area as well so that's often because product pools in those areas as well so it's almost having a slightly higher concentration of effect because it's kind of catching in the natural folds that it would catch those places not a good place to get crispy no it's not it, it's not. It's my, I hate your crispy nasal area.

What you need to do though is cotton bud tip, apply the moisturizer first to those areas. So you've created a barrier or a sealant and then put your retinol on top. Oh, can I ask this question? How much does what you're eating impact upon your skin? Because I feel like this is also something that people don't think about. And I listened to this clip and it was this woman who was a skincare expert. And she was like, you know, and often often people are like I eat so healthily though I wake up and I have an oat milk latte and she's like that already is where you're going wrong with

the oat milk and stuff like that it's actually affects it more than you think yes so there's a couple of things I'd say so the first thing is if you have a certain medical skin condition so you've got acne you've got rosacea you've rosacea, you've got eczema, you've got psoriasis. That's multifactorial. So some of that is just purely down to the way that your skin cells are programmed, the way that your genetics, your family history, your DNA are. And there's only so much you can do to change that. But there's absolutely no doubt that lifestyle factors, diet being one of them, can also have an impact in skin. So I also am not a fan of oat milk either. And it's one of the questions that I do ask patients when they come to clinic.

What is your diet like? Is it inclusive? Are you vegan? Are you vegetarian? Is there anything you eat or don't we? Do you have dairy? And the reason why I'm not a fan of oat milk is because of all of the plant milks that are out there, it's got the highest glycemic index. So what that means is when you have the oat milk, it really causes a spike in your blood sugar levels. A spike in your blood sugar levels lead to a spike in another hormone called insulin, which then leads to another spike in another hormone called IGF-1. And IGF-1, further downstream, has got similar effects to to testosterone and even women have testosterone. And what testosterone does to our oil glands is it makes them a bit big and plump and juicy.

Oh my God, you're kidding me. Essentially, high glycemic index foods have been linked to particularly female adult acne so i always say to people if you're going to go for a plant-based milk you're better off going for either unsweetened soy or almond milk over something like oat milk i mean people love oat milk because it tastes great and it tastes great because it's full of sugar yeah so that's that's one example of people cutting out for example dairy switching to oat milk and actually probably the dairy the full fat dairy is better for your skin than the oat milk is. So that's one good example. The other issue that I think I see a lot of is just generally with this kind of drive for various reasons for plant-based diets or vegan or vegetarian diets is just a lot of nutritional

deficiencies that occur off the back of that. So I often see people that are low in B12, folic acid, for example, iron as well. And one of the biggest knock-on effects of that is hair loss and hair shedding. Your body will cling on to everything it sees as important. It sees your hair as an accessory. So your nutrients don't end up going to your hair. So that's one of the most common reasons, for example, particularly in women women I would say age between about 20 and 40 that come to my clinic and say I'm noticing my hair is shedding often you can trace it back to nutritional deficiencies being a primary cause for it so that's another example where diet is quite important if you've got inflammatory skin conditions having high levels omega-3 in your diet can help so two to three portions of oily fish a week. So wild farmed salmon, mackerel, sardines. Now, if you can't do that, some people don't like fish.

Some people won't eat fish for whatever reason. And if that's the case, you can take a supplement, but it is always better from your diet than from a supplement. So sometimes it's also about thinking about what you can incorporate rather than what you can take away. 100% sure your taxes are 100% accurate and you get your most money back guaranteed. Now this is taxes. Intuit TurboTax. File now at TurboTax.ca. See guarantee details at TurboTax.ca slash guarantees. Must file by April 30th, 2025. Excludes TurboTax full service and desktop. FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots. Guaranteed to hit by 11 p.m. with your chance at the number one

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Research and supply. See full terms at canada.casino.fandu.com. Please play responsibly. You know, there are so many skin, like this is the thing to do and TikTok trends and memes and all these things. Are there any skin fads out there at the moment that you're like, this just isn't working? It's actually damaging skin or it's just a load of nonsense. Or treatments or even things like that. Yeah, I mean, it's an absolute minefield, isn't it? Absolute minefield.

The biggest one that I've seen recently, actually, that's hit the press quite a lot as well is teenage skincare and brands marketing colourful products, telling teenagers that they need to be using lots and lots of active ingredients. And the knock-on effect of that is, number one, kids wrecking their skin barrier because they don't need to be using complex, expensive products. Number two, the pressure it's putting on parents in keeping up with the Joneses

to buy their kids these expensive products that they don't need. But the third thing is we're essentially telling teenage girls that if they don't do all of these things, they're going to age. Oh, my God, how awful is that? So we're also at risk of giving a group of individuals that already have a high rate of mental health issues, more issues about self-esteem and body image because they're petrified of looking and getting older. Not that long ago, I saw a 14-year-old who was worried about her crow's feet. And I think that's really sad.

Aging is a blessing. I think it's just so sad. 14-year-old who was worried about her crow's feet. And I think that's really sad. Aging is a blessing. No. I think it's just so sad. 14-year-old. That is so sad. God, I didn't think about anything like that until maybe the last few years where I actually started to get full-on lines in my forehead and I'm like, shit. Yeah. Aging is a blessing.

Aging is a blessing. It's a privilege. I also think people get more attractive as they get older, weirdly. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I look at myself as a teenager. My face is way, I guess you just have more of a plump face i feel like i look better now than i did when i was a teenager i think that's also a confidence thing as well maybe you just grow into yourself and you

just feel better about yourself mentally yeah that is so sad and you're so right like can you imagine being like mum we have to get these ingredients and my my mum would be like, no. And then I'd be like, well, my skin's not as nice as everyone else's. Like the pressure when you're that age anyway. It's crazy. It's like Penelope Kardashian did that whole TikTok beauty regime. She's like sick.

Stop this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where it started from. I think she was using like all these vitamin C and all these serums. She put it on TikTok and then all these kids obviously are like, she's seven, I've not done any of this.

How old was I when I first started using skincare? I mean, I must have been like 12, something like that, 12, 13. But my mum was a beauty therapist. So she was quite good at making sure it was just like, I just had like a cleanser to wash my face at night with and I moisturized. It wasn't like this insane. And then I think when I was 15, 16, I started using that Dermalogica clean start range which was for teenagers I actually think it was quite simple I think it was like cleanse tone moisturize

but they did market that to teenagers yeah and it was for teens and blah blah blah it didn't damage my skin thank god it was all right but yeah like it was essentially that for teenagers we know that probably one of the most common issues they're going to have is probably oily blemish prone skin so cleansing once or twice a day using a light oil-free water-based moisturizer and using a sunscreen like i think that's a good routine for a teenager i think the problem arises when you're tying it into this idea of youth and yeah being hallmark for beauty, essentially, right? You know, it's bad enough, I think, for women where we already have issues with, like,

being told we have to be a certain body weight or that we have to look a certain way. And now it's like skin as well and kids worrying about it from six years old. You know, what kind of world are we living in where that's what we're allowing to happen? It's crazy. Like, you can't really tell how old half of all

this i know i find it i look at some people and i'm like you could be 20 but you also could be 30 i can't put my finger on what or you could be 60 or you could be 12 but i think that a lot of that comes from treatments of course it does yeah which is obviously an amazing with that part of it is incredible that like we can like reverse not aging. Would you say reverse aging? So I think it's a combination of certain things that you do will bank collagen. So you're not reversing the aging process because we're still all getting older. Sure. But you can hang on to what you've got for a little bit longer. Yeah, prolong the usefulness.

Exactly. And then some of it is just replacing what's been lost temporarily. So it's not going to fix soap fillers for example you can use them to lift yeah they're not going to like slow down the aging process but they will lift for long enough that it looks like you've slowed down the aging process so there's the perception of it rather than it actively doing something versus say a laser treatment which may boost collagen in your skin and that will bank on and help you hang on to what you have. People are getting more awareness now. Like it's more about getting the skin treatments rather than like pumping your face full of...

Talking about collagen, what... Would you recommend supplements? I know there's so many sachets. There's all these... You put collagen in your coffee. What sort of ones would you think are the best? And how do they work? And what should we be on then? So, I i don't take collagen supplements i'll start by saying that

and what i will say is that collagen is a protein like taking a protein supplement after the gym like having a piece of steak if you eat meat and if you look at most of the clinical trial data we currently have at this stage most collagen supplements are broken down when you take them in through your mouth into smaller bits called peptides and amino acids. Okay. And then those amino acids travel off to build protein and bits of the body where you need it. And there isn't really any good data that shows that if you take oral collagen, it will build collagen in your body. Right. Now, the reason for that is partly because there are over 30 different types of collagen in your body. Type one and type three are the main collagen types in your skin. So when those bits

of collagen are broken down, there is no way these tiny bits floating around in your gut know, all right, okay, I have to go and make type one collagen. I'm going to travel off to like the dermis, one of the layers and the skin in someone's face. It just doesn't have the ability to do that. Most of the collagen supplement studies that we have are very, very small clinical trials. So they are not done on a large number of patients. They are often done by the companies that produce them right so there is a little bit of a conflict of interest and thirdly as a general rule if you are the kind of person personality wise that cares about collagen you probably already care about your skin so you're probably already following a really good skincare routine you're probably already using vitamin a you're probably already

using sunscreen on a fairly daily basis and you may well already be doing other treatments as well. The question then becomes how much of it is the supplement that you're taking versus all of the other things that you're doing. Now, I'm going to caveat some of that by saying there is some new data that's coming out that seems to suggest that marine collagen is superior to other collagen types. I am willing at some point in the future to change my mind on collagen supplements when the data is there. Yeah. But right now, I think there are better ways that you can spend your money.

Okay, so we've got some questions from the listeners. We're going to quick-father them at you because we've kept you for so long and chewed your ear off. Okay, should we just go? Yeah. Do I have to double cleanse? I wash my face every every night but i worry i'm drying my skin out if you have got naturally dry skin you don't need to double cleanse unless you wear a lot of makeup and sunscreen otherwise it may not come off or go for a product that can take everything off

like for example cerebri hydrating cream to foam cleanser is baby botox a real thing i'm 25 and considering starting botox come back some wrinkles but i don't want to spend loads of money if there are products which could work. What age would you recommend people starting to use Botox? The right time to stop Botox isn't age dependent. It's more to do with when lines are developing. So somebody who's got naturally very fair skin, who's had a lot of sun exposure will develop lines much sooner than somebody who's got dark skin who hasn't been out in the sun much right so really it's more about what the skin looks like rather than a physical age of oh my god i've turned 25 i've got to go get botox should

you use retinol in your mid-20s i've had different opinions on when you should start using it so if you have fair skin lots of sun exposure mid-20s is probably about right great i'm in the process of coming off the pill and i've started experiencing really bad breakouts. Help. This is incredibly common because the pill is a treatment for acne and it's been suppressing it. So really making sure skincare is spot on, using ingredients like salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide can help. Failing that, you may need prescription creams like retinoids, which can help acne. Failing that, there are certain laser treatments and peinoids which can help acne failing that there

are certain laser treatments and peels which can help okay i have the biggest pores ever they look like potholes on my face how do i get rid of them so pore size first of all is uh genetically inherited so partly the way your skin is programmed partly related to sun exposure and partly if you've got oily or acne prone skin your pore size is going to be more prominent right so those are the people it tends to affect you cannot physically change your pore size but what you can do is you can reduce the appearance of them the way that we can do that is either by using prescription vitamin a creams like retinoids regular chemical peels or laser treatments there's very little one can do at home that's probably going to make a big difference. Fascinating.

Oh my gosh. We are so grateful. Thank you so much. I feel like we didn't have you for long enough. I know. We need to have you back up. We're really quickly. I know it is.

Thank you so, so much for coming. You're so welcome. And to all of you listeners who want to go check out, what is your Instagram handle? Anjali Marto and South London. Amazing. And we'll leave all of the link. The link and where the clinic is and everything like that. Oh, yeah, and your book.

That's a beautiful book. Wow, I love the colour. It's very pink, isn't it? That is so cool. Also, guys, coffee table book. Just stunning for a bit of life. That's amazing. I wrote a book a few years ago.

The Skincare Bible. We're both buying that. We're going to buy it. It's going to sit there on our table as well. Thank you so much. Thank you so, so much. Thank you. For coming in and we will see you soon.

That was amazing. So informative. It went far too quickly. There's so many questions about so many small things that add up to the bigger picture of skincare, I feel like many anyway i hope you guys enjoyed the episode love you guys bye guys wealth simples big winter bundle is our best match offer yet get a two percent match when We'll see you a 1% match. Minimum $15,000 transfer. Register by March 15th. Additional terms apply. Learn more at wealthsimple.com slash match. Hey, you're a Canadian podcast listener,

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Yeah, I'd really love a follow-up to some of those dilemmas. I want to know what happens. Well then, tinies, we have got some news for you. We have launched a premium version of Wednesdays. Now listen, subscribers get access to the podcast ad-free with bonus episodes. It's pretty amazing.

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