Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Carolina Reis: Reverse Your Biological Age and Increase Your Longevity With These Pro-Aging Hacks! | Mental Health E228

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, app fam, what's going on? We've got a special episode for you guys today. We're talking to Carolina Heiss, the co-founder and CEO of One Skin, a biotechnology company looking for ways to fight against aging. In this episode, Carolina and I talk about the science behind aging and the problem with traditional anti-aging products. We also break down the relationship between skin health and certain age-related diseases like diabetes, and we talk about how we can reverse our biological age. This episode is absolutely fascinating and it's relevant to everyone. It's never too late to start taking proper care of your skin and the science behind this stuff is incredible. So let's dive in and I hope you enjoy my conversation with Carolina Heise. Carolina, welcome to Young Improfiting

Starting point is 00:00:59 podcast. Thank you so much, Hala. I'm so excited to be here today. Likewise. So yeah, bam, today we have Carolina Heise on the show. Carolina is a scientist as well as the co-founder and CEO of OneSkin, a biotechnology company working to fight humanity's oldest problem, which is aging. Fueled by their passion for science and love of life, Carolina and her three other women PhD scientists joined forces to create the pioneering skin care company OneSkin to forever transform the way humans experience aging. In this episode, we're going to learn about Carolina's mission in founding the company OneSkin and how our skin can impact our overall health. We'll also discuss how to reduce biological aging, why we need healthy skin habits to find success,

Starting point is 00:01:41 and we'll learn about Carolina's go-to skin care routine. Carolina, you grew up in a small town on the countryside of Brazil, and I read that since you were young, you've always been interested in the Code of Life, which is how our cells and tissues are part of a beautifully orchestrated system that creates an organism. So why does the Code of Life intrigue you so much? Yeah, I think when I realized that everything in our bodies

Starting point is 00:02:06 are basically a result of how our genes are controlled. And then if you can understand how that code works, we can basically manipulate that code to allow our tissues, ourselves and our bodies to basically work better and, you know, allow us to have like a better life. So it's so interesting how, you know, every single disease or disorder, it's basically a result of like the genes that are being activated

Starting point is 00:02:36 or suppressed. And if you understand that, you can manipulate in a way that you can make like amazing things. You know, you can reverse back the age of the tissue. You can delete a gene. You can create so many interventions that can cure diseases. So to me, this was so, like, fascinating. And I was so interested in using this to help people, you know, to live a better life. I love that. And yeah, bam, we always have entrepreneurs on the show. But one of my favorite types of conversations is to actually speak with scientists and researchers like Carolina. It is so much fun to learn about our body, our health, and really get the nuances of all of that. So let's talk about your journey into the field of science, how you ended up in Silicon Valley,

Starting point is 00:03:23 and how you ended up creating one skin. Tell us that journey. Yeah. So I was always passionate about the applied science, you know, science that I could see a translation in the end. So, So on my PhD, I studied stem cell biology and tissue engineering. So basically what I was doing, it was like recreating human tissues in the lab and simulating a disease and then coming up with different ways to treat that disease. And then I thought that we could start like using those models, those tissues and test like new drugs, new products that are out there in the market in order to replace animal testing. So that's how we started back in Brazil in 2014.

Starting point is 00:04:07 I joined with three other colleagues from my lab. And basically we were growing different types of human tissues like a small heart, mini brains, mini retinas. And then eventually we got into skin because there was a huge market opportunity in terms of companies needed alternatives methods to develop and test their products and not use animals, and then we decided to specialize in growing human skins in the lab. Eventually, this first endeavor didn't work out in Brazil, but it got us the opportunity to come to the U.S. So in 2016, I came to Silicon Valley to join a biotech accelerator called

Starting point is 00:04:54 Indibio. So what Indibio does, basically they help like scientists like myself and my co-founders to become entrepreneurs to build like scalable. and, you know, sustainable companies. And here at Indybio, we basically decided to start over with like a new approach of initially growing human skins to test the products that were in the market to validate if they actually work. One of the areas that we were most interested, and we see that it's a huge market, it's like anti-aging.

Starting point is 00:05:26 We know that there is so much out there, but unfortunately, there is a lot of, you know, pseudoscience, a lot of hype. and we thought that we could come up with a way to validate the efficacy of those products. So our approach was if we can grow those skins in the lab, if we can measure the age of that tissue, then we can test a given product or an ingredient, and then we can quantify if that tissue is actually promoting any age reversal effect. And it turns out that we can quantify this by reading the DNA of the skin. So there is this new concept that we are going to talk more about biological age

Starting point is 00:06:07 and how our DNA accumulates change over time that are associated with aging. And then we can measure that as a way to first determine what is the biological age. And then second, how a given intervention can change that biological age. So that's the beginning. And then eventually we pivoted a few times until we got to. what we are doing today, but maybe I can stop there and we can go from there. Yeah, this is so fascinating. So you guys would test existing products on your skin that you manufactured essentially and you would see if it would actually work. And then you decided to start a skincare company.

Starting point is 00:06:51 So I'm wondering, did you find that these products weren't really addressing the problems? Yeah, it was exactly that. So what we found is that most products out there, first of all, they were not developed to target aging itself. So the majority of anti-aging products, they are either just like a moisturizer, trying to improve, you know, the appearance of your skin, or they are like acids or retinoles that are inducing like a peeling effect.

Starting point is 00:07:19 So you're inducing your skin to grow a newer skin, not necessarily a younger skin. So what we saw that there was first no rationale behind the targeting age. on those products. And second, we also realize that a lot of those products, they were not doing anything or they were accelerating aging. So essentially, if a product is bad, it can, you know, cause more harm than good.

Starting point is 00:07:47 And then on the flip side, what we saw, because we were like following this science of longevity and aging research. And we now have a much better understand what's actually driving aging at the cellular level. And there were several companies in the longevity field starting out with this approach of targeting aging as their main like value proposition in order to treat or prevent age-related disease. So several companies were more focused on different types of diseases like Alzheimer's, osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease, and basically realize that we could use a very similar approach to target skin aging and bring this new innovation to consumers faster.

Starting point is 00:08:35 This is so cool and I love it. I am a huge skincare fan. I'm all about anti-aging. I have a brand called Young Improfiting. So I've got to always look young. And honestly, I look maybe, people are very surprised when they learn my age. I'm in my mid-30s and everybody thinks I'm like 25 or 26 and it's because I really, really try to take care of my skin. So this is very interesting. to me. So you're an expert in all things skin health, and you believe that creating healthy skin actually will help reverse the aging process. And an interesting fact is that our organ, the largest organ in our body, is skin. And a lot of people, when they think of skincare, they think of the superficial things, reducing their wrinkles, looking younger, looking

Starting point is 00:09:17 hotter. But there's a lot more to it. So talk to us about how treating our skin is actually treating the health of our entire body. Yeah. And maybe just to get there, I have one explain what we are actually targeting with our products. So what we realize is that one of the main drivers of aging was the accumulation of old cells, also called like senescent cells. So basically those cells are cells that are in the end of their life cycle. So they're already really damaged. They stop dividing. And this is good because if they continue to divide, they could become a cancer and, you know, would cause a lot of harm to our bodies. But on the flip side, those cells start secreting inflammatory signals that basically spoils the cells around to age

Starting point is 00:10:03 faster. So we usually compare like a senescent cells with a bad apple in a basket because one senescent cells basically spoils the good cells around and this accelerates aging. So what we found is that if we can decrease or if we can target only the aged cells, we reduce the amount of like old cells and then we can allow the healthy cells to proliferate and they start producing more collagen. They basically recover that healthy and youthful state of our skin. So when you think that your skin is an answer to your question now, when you think that your skin is your largest organ and as we age, our skin starts to deteriorate and start to accumulate those old cells and they start secreting inflammatory signals because of the

Starting point is 00:10:56 the sheer size of this organ, even lower level of inflammation that's coming from your skin can actually influence your body's levels of inflammation. So I think we all heard of like inflammation and how this is a risk factor for aging-related disease. And one of the main sources of like inflammation can be our skin because skin, again, is your largest organ and started to secrete those damage signals that affects our internal body. So treating, again, treating our skin is a way that we can help lower our systemic levels of inflammation, which can help us to prevent age-related disease.

Starting point is 00:11:43 And to me, when I kind of connected the dots, this was like, wow. So, you know, when you go to a doctor now and you have like a cardiovascular, problem. Instead of just like give you medication, maybe the doctor is going to give you like, hey, you should also treat your skin with this product because it's going to help lower your body's levels of inflammation, which is like very like paradigm change. Yeah, it is really eye opening because when you think about the skin, a lot of us are really focusing on our face, but your skin is your whole entire body. Your skin protects you from viruses and bacteria. And as age, if that gets weaker, that's a risk factor. And like you said, it also contributes to

Starting point is 00:12:27 inflammation. And you don't often think about that. When we think of aged related diseases, we're thinking Parkinson's disease, brain stuff, joint stuff, bone stuff. You're not really thinking of your skin. And it's time that we stopped ignoring our skin. So I really think this is important work that you're doing. Okay, so let's talk about the things that trigger skin aging. Can you walk us through the intrinsic and the extrinsic factors that affect our skin? Yeah, definitely. So as we know, sun damage is one of the main drivers of skin aging. So it accounts like 90% of the signs of aging.

Starting point is 00:13:04 So this is an extrinsic factor, right? Sun damage, pollution, any type of infection. And there are a lot that we can do to protect our skin, although it's obviously really harder to prevent all the damage that we are exposed in a day to day, unless we live in a bubble and we don't do anything. But then there is also the intrinsic factors that are basically, you know, your cells dividing and the inflammation that is inside your body and things like diet.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Obviously, your habits will influence those intrinsic factors. So it is a combination of this two that will lead to, again, the accumulation of damage and the accumulation of those old cells. And there is several ways that we can prevent or counteract. to that. And obviously, you know, sunscreen is a very important one. It's kind of, you know, the number one rule. Obviously, there are also good and bad sunscreens there. So there is another topic that we can talk. But then eventually you always accumulate some kind of damage in your skin, even wearing sunscreen. So you need like products that help yourselves to be more effective

Starting point is 00:14:19 in repairing damage and, you know, in producing more collagen, basically, you know, counteracting those factors that are basically the default system, right? I think ageing is kind of the default and we need to do everything that we can to basically fight those factors that will lead eventually to tissue dysfunction. And in the case of the skin, obviously, all the signs of aging, we don't want to sing like wrinkles, sagging, sunspots, and so on. So I want to ask you about products on the market right now because there's lots of things that are being advertised to people

Starting point is 00:14:58 for sunscreen, for makeup, for skincare, anti-aging, wrinkle creams and whatever. What are some of the things that we need to look out for that we should not be putting on our skin? I think, and this is so hard for consumers, and I can't imagine, I mean, I imagine because before starting this company, I was, you know, basically lost and just following. some recommendations or trying to do my own research online, but there is only so much that you can find.

Starting point is 00:15:25 But my recommendation is always to look the ingredient list. And there are some ways that you can understand if those ingredients, if they are safe. So there are websites and none of them are perfect, but that help you like kind of make some assessment. One is like EWG that you can basically input a name of the product or an ingredient and you give like a risk factor. If it's safe, safe is usually green and red is usually not safe. And you'll be surprised how a lot of those products out there have ingredients that have potential risk of causing cancer and obviously, you know, hormone disruptors and things like that.

Starting point is 00:16:12 And then in our case, for example, the way that we can evaluate our safety, since we can grow skins in the lab, we can apply and test any product on those skins. And if the product is clean or safe, the skin will be fine and then a lot of times will be better. But if the product is full of toxic ingredients, the skin will start to degenerate. And it's really shocking how like some products cause this cause so much like, you know, toxicity into the skin. And we don't see that when we put on our face immediately. But with long term use, we usually is going to, we're going to start seeing some, either like some rashes or some like irritation. So for the consumers, I know that's a little tougher, but there are like sites like EWG or like skin safe, for example, is one that. we use to make sure that the third parties also validate the safety or products.

Starting point is 00:17:12 They basically evaluate all the concentrations of ingredients because this also matters a lot. It's not like which ingredients are there, but at what concentration. And then in the end, they give a score like is completely safe, even like for sensitive skin or no. And that's a way that the consumer can at least have, you know, a better understand if they don't have the capabilities that we have to test it in real human skins. Yeah. Well, you know what?

Starting point is 00:17:42 I really hope that there's like a revolution around this stuff in America because I feel like in Europe, they're much more stringent, they're much more safe. In America, people can basically just sell anything. And it's really dangerous. And I know, like I told you, I'm obsessed with skincare. Something that I never do is I never put fragrance on my face. And I feel like that really helps with anti-aging. But then you go to the store and all these.

Starting point is 00:18:05 really expensive products and they're there are a lot of money and they seem like they work. They have great packaging, great marketing. And then they're full of fragrance, which is like the worst thing that you could put on your skin. So I'd love to understand like, is there anything specifically ingredient-wise in sunscreen or skincare that we need to look out for or is it more just like, you know, tested on the websites? And that's the best way. Yeah. I mean, the list is endless. So it's hard for me to name all of them. But as you said, like, frequencies, usually a lot of petroleum-derived ingredients. If you see a lot of pegs that are also, you know, plastic-derived ingredients,

Starting point is 00:18:45 this is never like too good for you. So avoiding a lot of those ingredients is always better. And if you can have like organic, kind of more, I would say, natural ingredients. And also be careful with the word natural because it can be misleading as well. there are several websites that can help you like with a list of ingredients. Even obviously, Sephora is not the main experts, but they do have a good list of like this is clean by Sephora and then you should avoid those ingredients that are in their band the list.

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Starting point is 00:22:09 You say pro-aging. Why is that? Yeah, I think the word anti-aging comes with a lot of, I would say, fear in terms of like, aging is a bad thing. And I think aging is a process that we can embrace, we can enjoy, and we can be proud of it. But obviously, we don't want the drawbacks of aging. that's basically, you know, the health decay part.

Starting point is 00:22:35 We want to still, like, grow older, but keep doing whatever we love doing. And for that, we need our health, right? I think health is like the number one thing that allow us to do everything that we do. I think maybe the best word is pro longevity, because longevity means like aging at your best way and, you know, maintain your health and really harnessing your own biology to work for you in the most effective way. And that's what we are doing at One Skin and other longevity companies in terms of understanding aging biology, creating products that can help our bodies to perform better

Starting point is 00:23:17 and allow us to enjoy this beautiful process of our lives. Yeah. And I know that we're going to talk about diet later on. And there's so much progress that can be done in this area. Even if you just look now, there's so many like 40-year-old. 50-year-old people who look 20, 30, it's like we're already starting to look more younger because we are taking better care of our skin. We do understand sun damage now. But there's so much more that we could do. Imagine a world where like 60-year-old people look like they're 30 and

Starting point is 00:23:45 act like they're 30 and feel like they're 30. It would be so wonderful and really, really help the quality of life for so many people. So let's talk about this phrase, age is just a number. We always hear this and turns out through your research, it actually might be true. because we have two ages. We have our real age, which we were like the year that we were born, and then we have our biological age. So how would you define biological age? Yeah, basically biological age means like how healthy and functional is your tissue, whatever tissue or your whole body. We have our specific biological age. So for example, you can be 30-something and your skin can be either like 25 or it can be like 40 depending on your,

Starting point is 00:24:28 you know, your lifestyle, if you've been exposed to too much sun or if you smoke and things like that. So what we learned is that this biological age is actually malleable. It's reversible. We have done this in the lab in many ways. There is even this groundbreaking research that the first scientist that could turn an adult cell into embryonic stem cell. So completely like resetted the biological age, like from 30 years. to basically zero years. So this is possible. And then what like we are trying to do with our products and, you know,

Starting point is 00:25:08 in the longevity spaces to promote a rejuvenation, an age-reversal effect, that we don't want to go all the way, obviously, to an embryonic state, but we want to go to a younger state in which our cells are, you know, performing the best. So there are ways that we can do this with products. For example, at one skin, one of the experiments that we've done in the lab is that when we treated like aged skins with our peptide, we can see that we can reverse the age of the skin in 2.6 years over a course of five days, which is like, obviously a very... Sign me up.

Starting point is 00:25:45 I know. This is a very controlled condition in the lab. But now we are repeating this study with humans. So we have a clinical study is that the people are actually applying our product and then we're collecting a piece of your skin a biopsy. And then we can quantify the age of your skin before and after using our product. So this study is ongoing and is going to be a validation that it is possible to reverse the age of your skin with a topical treatment. I've been trying one skin. I love it so far. You mentioned that it's topical, right? So,

Starting point is 00:26:22 I'm pretty sure all your products are topical. Did you guys, like, think about whether or not you were going to do something oral or topical, and then why did you decide on the topical? Yeah, great question. So first, like, topical is a way that we can bring this product to consumers faster because it's a completely new peptide. Obviously, we have done all the safety studies. But basically, when you prove that safe, you applying topically, there is, I would say, lower risk

Starting point is 00:26:52 to your overall body in case that could have something unexpected. For like a neural product, you need to do a lot more studies. You need to do like studies with animals. It's basically kind of a new drug. So you need to go through FDA and so on. And that's why it takes much longer. We can come up with like a supplement that's based on natural ingredients that we know that also reduce the amount of senescent cells.

Starting point is 00:27:20 but our goal is really first to treat skin first and then go internally. But we can also show in our studies that the peptide is able to penetrate the deeper layers of the skin. So it does not get to the bloodstream, at least like in higher concentration, but it gets to the dermal layer, which is the layer that gives more firmness to the skin and is the layer that we actually want to fight, you know, those old cells and allow them. to produce, you know, the healthy cells to produce more collagen. So basically, it penetrates and works from the inside out.

Starting point is 00:27:58 So again, focusing on your largest organ first and then eventually expanding from there. I think one skin vision is go way beyond this skin. So talk to me about genetics in terms of biological age. How much does genetics really play a role in all of this? Another great question. It's interesting because a lot of people think, oh, you know, I don't have good. genetics, there is nothing that I can do about it. I don't know if you guys heard of like the centenarians, right? People that live over a hundred years old and they are usually, they have a

Starting point is 00:28:33 very good, you know, quality of life. And a lot of times you can find them concentrating some blue zones, but what really determines how well you're going to age is basically your lifestyle. So your lifestyle accounts for like 70. Some people say, to 90% of how you're going to age. And your genetic is only about 10 to 30%. So it doesn't matter if you have very good genes and if you have terrible habits, you are definitely going to age in a much worse way than someone that doesn't have like a good genetic.

Starting point is 00:29:10 But it's really doing everything that they can to maintain their bodies healthy. So that's the ratio. like around like 80, 20. So genetics account only for 20% of how you're going to age. Yeah, I mean, that's great news for all of us. It means that we actually have control over this and we're not just like helpless. So talk to us about these blue zones since you brought it up. What are these blue zones and what can we learn about from people who live there?

Starting point is 00:29:38 That's a very interesting scenario in which people are concentrated in those areas. basically they have a higher concentration of centenarians people that live over around 100 years old and they are usually very healthy and they don't develop many chronic diseases. So there are a few of them that have good genetics, but in January, it's their lifestyle that allowed them to have that long lifespan and health span as well. So basically their lifestyles are usually like a very, I would say a diet that's based on like natural foods, not much processed foods, more Mediterranean kind of diet. So more like fish, olive oils, nuts, not much like red meat or not too much of like carbs

Starting point is 00:30:32 as well, more like good oils and good fish and vegetables and so on. And also these people are usually, they are very connected to each other. So there are other things that are not only like exercise, but actually like bonding and living in a community that they help each other really impacts like how long we live. It's very interesting how those things also matter, right? So there are many things that we can learn from them. But I think in general, like lower levels of stress, which is not common for us here in the Western side.

Starting point is 00:31:06 But yeah, I think a good like, you know, work-life balance in terms of sleep, diet, exercise. But again, this community style also definitely is a great trait of those areas. Okay, so let's talk about why skin care is healthcare. I learned when I was going through your website and your blog that you call skin longevity skin Span. So I'd love to understand what is skin span and how can we increase it, I guess? Yeah. So we all know about like lifespan. That's basically, you know, how long we're going to live. We all know about health span. That's basically how many years of good health we're going to live. So and the goal for us is to basically make health span really close to lifespan. So we have a very short period of our lives that we are, you know, in some kind of. disability or suffering from a specific disease. And then skin span is basically how long your skin is healthy and functional. Because we are young, so a lot of times we don't think about that.

Starting point is 00:32:19 But as you get old, obviously your skin will start to get like deteriorated. And then the skin will get thinner. So it can like bruise much easier. It can start flaking, itching. So that's not a healthy skin anymore and this is impacting your quality of life. So our goal is really, again, to extend the skin span, do everything that we can to keep our skin useful, functional and healthy as long as possible. So basically, again, fighting those old cells and protecting our skin of excessive damage and allowing our skin to do its work at its best. and, you know, continue to protect our body as it should. Yeah, and like you said, skin is a serious organ.

Starting point is 00:33:11 I can speak from my own experience. My father passed away from COVID in 2020, but prior to that, he was diabetic and he had like ulcers on his feet and he had to get a toe amputated. And it was all because his skin couldn't fight an infection. Yeah. As you get older, like, this becomes a serious problem if your skin is not healthy.

Starting point is 00:33:30 Yeah. And what we also need to learn is that it's not. something that we should like treat only you have that problem is it's we need to shift our mindset to a more preventative mindset so building a strong skin and you know a resilient skin is something that starts right now you know like you should take care of your heart you should take care of your lungs so treating your skin well paying attention to that again not only from the aesthetic point of view. And that's what I usually say, hey, our product's not only for women. It's for guys too. You know, you guys also need to have like a strong and a healthy skin. Yeah, I think there's a lot of like

Starting point is 00:34:12 stereotypes that can be broken down in this whole industry. First of all, your skin is not just your face. Your skin is your whole body. Your skin is your biggest organ. It's not just about looks. It's about health. It's not just for girls. It's for everyone. Right. And I like how your branding is really unisex because I think that's going to really help with everything that you do. So speaking of how it's not your face or just your body, your products are not just for your face. It's also for your body as well. Is that right? Yeah, that's correct. So because we want to improve your skin health as a whole, our second product, immediately we thought, okay, we needed to treat your whole body as well.

Starting point is 00:34:46 And this turned out to be a great bet in terms of, like, consumers are starting to worry or to pay attention more on your body. Like there's so much treatment for your face, but how about the rest of your body. And it's even impressive, like, how it can help people that are going through some issues in terms of some skin conditions that can be ameliorated by using the product because the product helps repair the skin barrier. And with that addresses a lot of the conditions that are associated with, like, a weakened skin barrier and so on. So, yeah, Our approach is really holistic in terms of treating skin as a whole. And again, we want to protect our skin from those inflammatory secreting cells.

Starting point is 00:35:35 So our body is super important in that concept. Yeah. So let's get really nerdy now. You talked about it a little bit, but I really want to understand sentient cells and how they drive the aging process. So like what's the difference between a sentient cell and a healthy cell? Maybe that's where we can start. Yeah, basically senescent cells are old cells. So these are cells that have replicated around like 50 times. They reach this limit. They are very damaged already. And then basically stop dividing. And they function like a zombie cells. They start like they don't do anything good anymore. They just sit there and they start secreting some bad vibes around on the cells around. And that's okay.

Starting point is 00:36:24 when we are young because our bodies can actually, our immune system can actually identify those cells and clear those cells up. What it happens when we age is that our immune system gets deficient in doing its work well and those cells start to build up in our tissues. And it turns out that the accumulation of senescent cells in different tissues is associated with most chronic diseases that we know today. So they are associated with cardiovascular cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, osteoarthritis, diabetes. And then that's when scientists thought, okay, if those cells are driving inflammation and diseases, can we fight those cells?

Starting point is 00:37:07 Can we find a way to attack only the bad cells? And that's one skin also realized, okay, those cells also accumulate in our skin. You know, UV damage is a great way to induce senescent cells, how we can fight those aged cells that are driving skin aging. That's when we started to search for new molecules, specifically peptides, that had this impact on these old cells that are the bad cells in our tissues. And so one skin has this patented peptide OS1. And this is something you guys discovered.

Starting point is 00:37:44 Can you walk us through how you discovered this peptide? Yeah, that was a long process. So we actually spent four years testing, first like growing skins and replicating the skin aging process in the lab. And then we developed the clock that we could measure the age of the skin. And then finally we needed like molecules that could promote the skin age reversal. So we tested over around a thousand different peptides. These are novel peptides. And until we landed to this one that we call it.

Starting point is 00:38:19 OS1, and OS1 has this great ability of decreasing the amount of senescent cells up to 50%. And with that, it allows, again, the healthy cells to proliferate. So there is an increased production of collagen, hyluronic acid, elastin. And then when we tested this and then we formulated our peptide in a topical product and we did like clinical studies, we can validate that this leads to a better looking skin. So it's very interesting the concept in which if I'm attacking the root cause of aging, the consequences that your skin will be healthier and look younger because, you know, healthy skin is usually, you know, a younger skin, a better functional skin.

Starting point is 00:39:09 Yeah. I love it how you guys are actually concerned about driving results with your product and not just the marketing and the hype behind your product. So let's talk about elasticity. Why is elasticity important to pro-aging or anti-aging? So basically, when your skin starts to get old and there is a lower production of collagen, elastine, hyluronic acid, basically these are, we call like a matrix, extracellular matrix, that holds up our cells and our tissues.

Starting point is 00:39:43 So it gives like the foundation of our skin. So the skin is more supple if you have like a lot of those proteins. And then when you have, you know, the aging process, obviously this get like compromised. And then when you can fight, you know, this aging process, you can basically recover elasticity, firmness and allow yourself to produce again those proteins that are really important to maintain that useful appearance. But pay attention that what we are doing is not like adding ingredients that will give elasticity to our skin. It's basically our peptide allows our cells to start producing elastin again. So it's basically again using our own cells, your own biology, to do its work instead of just adding something that would be temporary, but wouldn't, you know, work for the long term.

Starting point is 00:40:44 That's a very interesting difference from how our products works and how, you know, some other companies want to deliver some, just some like immediate results, but that doesn't really sustain. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Young and profitors. I know there's so many people tuning in right now that end their workday wondering why certain tasks take forever, why they're procrastinating certain things, why they don't feel confident in their work, why they feel drained and frustrated and unfulfilled. But here's the thing you need to know.

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Starting point is 00:42:28 friction, helps you collaborate better, understand why people are the way that they are. It's helped me restructure my team, put people in the spots that they're going to really excel, and it's also helped me in hiring. Working Genius is absolutely amazing. I'm obsessed with this model. So if you guys want to take the Working Genius assessment and get 20% off. You can use code profiting. Go to WorkingGenius.com. Again, that's workinggenius.com. Stop guessing. Start working in your genius. What's up, Yap, gang? If you're a serious entrepreneur like me, you know your website is one of the first touch points every single cold customer has with your brand. Think about that for a second. When people are searching on Google, everybody who interacts with your brand first is seeing your dot

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Starting point is 00:45:37 descriptions and edit photos. Plus, marketing is built in so you can create email and social easily. And as you grow, Shopify can scale right along with your business. In 2026, stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com slash profiting. Go to Shopify.com slash profiting. That's Shopify.com slash profiting. Yeah, fam, hear your first. This new year with Shopify by your side. This has been so awesome. I want to move to close out the interview while talking about mental health and entrepreneurship because it turns out skin can actually impact our mental health.

Starting point is 00:46:22 So let's talk about the connection between skin and our brain. How we think and feel can actually show up in our skin. Can you talk to us about that? Yeah. I mean, obviously we are talking about, you know, health and the impact of our skin in our overall health. and there are many ways that this happens. And obviously, one of those ways is how we see ourselves and how good we feel about ourselves, right?

Starting point is 00:46:47 So obviously, you know, having, I would say, you know, a clean skin or a healthy skin does help in terms of increasing our confidence, increase our self-esteem, increasing our social ability, even like people that, oh, I was not wearing like, you know, short sleeves anymore because I was. ashamed of, you know, my arms or, you know, or my legs. And so these are all things that impact our lives. And it really matters. I mean, people that have suffered from, you know, some skin conditions, they can attest for this. So I think this is one way that, you know, having a healthy

Starting point is 00:47:27 skin can give you what I call like peace of mind, you know, I feel good about myself and I feel, you know, confident. And that's something that changed so much with like the pandemic, right? Because people were looking at, you know, Zoom and webcams like for so long and they were starting pay attention on their skin and how they're seeing themselves. So that's why also the skincare, you know, space grew a lot in the past like few years. So that's one way that I think we can definitely impact like mental health, which is super important. as well. In terms of who these products are good for, I know we said it's neither male nor female, it's gender neutral one skin products. But is there a certain age that's appropriate? Like can teenagers

Starting point is 00:48:16 use one skin? Or is it more for people above a certain age? Our product is definitely safe for whatever age. We usually recommend around like your 20s or so when you are starting to really, you know, if you're putting a moisturizer or, you know, even people in a very early age, they are already worried about anti-aging. So I'm super pro-like preventative measurements. And I think what we offer is actually a way that we are going to prevent and maintain your skin, you know, youthful and healthy for as long as possible. So it is totally suitable for young people as well. And obviously, we are here to help people that are going through this aging process that already feel like the aging pain in some ways.

Starting point is 00:49:09 So obviously, you know, it starts to see some lines here and there or some, you know, discoloration of your skin and things like that that really starts like to affect your day to day. So that's when one skin can really help. But we have customers that are, you know, on their 60s, 70s, 80s, and they still see amazing results. So I would say that it's basically for everyone. It's everyone that's worried about their skin health and that want to be proactive about putting something that's scientifically validated and that's going to bring benefits to your skin. Okay, so I have a personal question, and I just got Botox for the first time a few months ago.

Starting point is 00:49:54 And just curious on your perspective of, do you think Botox is a good idea since you're a skincare expert? I love this question because it's something that comes to us a lot of times. I think when you already have like some signs of wrinkles or fine lines, it is a good idea because you can help your skin basically to not go further to deepen those wrinkles and fine lines. I think when you don't have those signs of aging, you shouldn't use yet because you are basically making your tissue lazy in a way that you are not using your tissue, right? So if you're doing that, the one thing that I always recommend, like use a product that's still stimulating your skin

Starting point is 00:50:41 cells to be working for you. So to be producing more collagen and, you know, some, obviously, our peptide is a great product for that, but I'm not saying only our peptide. And then there are other ways that you can also stimulate your cells, like, for example, doing some micro, needling, things like that, that cause like small injuries in a way that stimulates yourselves to produce more collagen again. And the other thing about Botox is just like obviously careful to not overdue. And that happens a lot because it tends to get less effective over time. And if you overdue, again, you are just letting your tissue really, I would say,

Starting point is 00:51:25 lazy in a way that is going to be more sagging and sagging. because so that's the balance. You know, I think if you know how to do it, and obviously, you know, professionals here are super important. There is a way that you can, you know, harness the benefits of Botox. But make sure to complement with other things that continue to stimulate your own cells. What you're saying is so, so important. I align to this too.

Starting point is 00:51:50 So I always do like radio frequency, microneedling, especially after I did book talks because I was always very hesitant about it. because like you're saying, you're basically making your muscle dead. And we know with like the worst thing you should do with your muscles if you want to look young is paralyze them, right? So it's so counterintuitive. And I see people who do Botox for 10, 20 years, and they sort of look terrible, right? So I would say as less as you can and think of alternative methods like one skin, like

Starting point is 00:52:20 microneedaling, like radio frequency that actually help your collagen and your skin perform at its best rather than paralyzing it and making it lazy. So I think it's sort of like a short-term fix, but not a long-term fix. Let's talk about your entrepreneurship journey really quick before we close out the interview. So I found out that you started this company with three other scientists. All four of you guys have PhDs and all women. So like what a unique team. I'm sure like getting funding is like really exciting for you guys because you are such like a female diverse team, very qualified. But I don't know, I want to understand in terms of other people out there who don't have a business background. What would your advice be to them if they wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Starting point is 00:53:05 Like what, what has your journey been like without a formal business background becoming an entrepreneur? Yeah. And just commenting a little bit, like, is it still hard? Even heavy, you know, for women is a diverse team. Everyone says that they want to support that. But in the end, it's still very, little amount of funding go to women's entrepreneurs. So it is still, there is still a long way to go, although I think it is getting better. I think in the end, what it matters is, you know, your results, you know, you need to show progress, you need to show that, you know, what you're doing, because people won't support you just because you're women if you don't have obviously a good business, right? But yeah, I think coming from a technical background, obviously,

Starting point is 00:53:54 everything's a little more challenging in a way that you needed to learn. Either you learn yourself, you need to be very hungry to learn and develop those skills yourself. So, for example, going through programs like I did like accelerators and, you know, being part of other entrepreneurs communities that you can exchange learnings and having mentors that can help you develop those skills, super, super important. But more than that, try to surround yourself with people that complement yourself. Because obviously, you are not going to be an expert on everything. And to us, one is keen, are still like, we are product-led company and our products are science. So this is still like a representation of who we are. And obviously, we need to develop

Starting point is 00:54:46 the business side of things. But we do very well what we know best. That's, you know, creating an amazing product. So once you have that, which I think that's the main differentiation that any company needs to have like a very good product. And then the business is not that easy, but there's a lot of people that can help you to do the business, help you to do the marketing. Now, what is very unique from you,

Starting point is 00:55:13 that's, you know, your unique insight of how to solve, to tackle a specific problem. this is much harder to find. And I totally agree. It's like if you have a really good product, it's going to sell itself by word of mouth. People are going to tell their friends, if it works. And so for you guys,

Starting point is 00:55:33 because you focused on your product and not just everything else, first of all, it's really a good thing that you're doing for society in terms of like actually putting out a safe product that's going to reverse aging, that's for your whole body and addresses like the real things

Starting point is 00:55:49 that are impacting our skin. And I think it will sell itself. So I totally agree. When you have a good product, it sells itself. Yeah, it's not as simple like that, but I think it's the first thing. Once you have like a good product and then you can figure out everything else. The first year for us was not an easy year for sure.

Starting point is 00:56:09 But eventually, if you continue to do your work really well and, you know, connect with people that are aligned with you with your vision, eventually people will recognize you as, you know, an authority as a disruptive company or technology in the field. So it's still as simple, but I agree. Totally. Okay. So I end my interview with two questions that I ask all my guests. The first one is what is one actionable thing our young improfitors can do today to become more profitable tomorrow?

Starting point is 00:56:43 Well, I would say that don't be. afraid of starting today, even if you don't have like a brilliant idea. For example, with us, like, I knew that my mission was like to translate our science and I didn't know where to start, but I said, we got to start somewhere. So we started and eventually our idea, you know, pivoted like three times and we landed into this beautiful mission of like reversing aging, but that's now how it started. So don't be afraid of like, taking the first step because things will change in the future. And if you keep waiting for the right moment, for the right idea, you want to make progress. And you are just going to learn so much

Starting point is 00:57:30 when you start actually doing things. That's great advice. I love that advice. And what is your secret to profiting in life? And this could be beyond financial. I think my secret is actually aligning my purpose in this world with my work. And for me, because I love so much, you know, enjoying life every single moment. And I can't imagine that there will be a time in my life that I won't be able to do that. So I want to dedicate my life to help myself, not being like selfish, but like help everyone to actually be able to continue to enjoy and have like an amazing life at whatever age. And I think when you find that overlapping point in which you are so passionate about what you do and there is a very clear, you know, purpose for you in terms of,

Starting point is 00:58:33 you know, benefiting, you know, society, I think that's when profit, we come no matter what because you are so dedicated, you are so passionate, and you are also generating value for people out there. So try to find what is that thing for you. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Carolina. This is such a wonderful interview. Where can our listeners learn more about you and OneSkin? Thank you so much, Halla. This is so, it was so fun. Well, obviously, you know, on our website, Ononskin.com, on our website, On Our Skin.com. social media, also on skin.com, LinkedIn. I also really recommend everyone to subscribe to our newsletters because we put out so much

Starting point is 00:59:21 good content, so much educative content that's beyond just skincare. But a lot of, you know, the science that we do in the lab, you know, how we test our products and the data that we find in longevity in general, like things that you can start doing today that will impact your lives tomorrow. Awesome. Thank you so much. We're going to put all those things in the show notes. Carolina, it was such a pleasure.

Starting point is 00:59:46 Thank you so much for coming on Young and Profiting Podcast. Thank you, Hela. This is awesome. Talking to Carolina was so fascinating. I had no idea that our skin has such a huge impact on our overall health. By prioritizing our skin health, we can actually lower our inflammation levels and fight off age-related diseases because inflamed, cells put us at higher risk for heart disease, cancer, and even Alzheimer's. And one skin can help

Starting point is 01:00:17 with that. They actually found a way to lower your biological age through topical treatments. I really hope this method of treatment becomes more mainstream because it could help so many people lower their risk of age-related diseases. But you have to be careful when trying new skincare products. Before buying a new product, research the ingredients to make sure it doesn't contain cancer-causing chemicals, hormone disruptors, or ingredients derived from petroleum. And Keep in mind, though we have incredible products like OneSkin available to reverse the aging process, we must maintain a healthy lifestyle first and foremost. This means a nutritious diet, so not a lot of carbs, processed foods, or red meat. And of course, you need to establish a workout

Starting point is 01:00:57 routine and wear sunscreen. To recap, using science-backed skincare products like OneSkin and maintaining a healthy lifestyle will reverse your biological age and you're listening to Young and Profiting, so you probably want to look and feel young forever. I know I sure do. One skin is the real deal. I can't recommend them enough. I love skin care products. I'm a skincare junkie. I'm super piggy with my products and I love using one skin. And if you go to young and profiting.com slash one skin. That's O-N-E-Sk-I-N. And use code profiting. You'll get 15% off your order. Again, that's young and profiting.com slash one skin. And I'll stick the link in the show notes to make it super easy for you guys. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcasts. If you listened, learned, and profited, be sure to share this episode with your friends and family and drop us a five-star review on Apple or your favorite podcast platform. If you like watching your podcast videos, you can find us on YouTube.

Starting point is 01:01:54 You can also find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn. Just search for my name. It's Hala Taha. Big shout out to my amazing Yap production team. You guys are so talented. I appreciate everything you guys do behind the scenes. And also shout out to you guys listening to the show. Day in and day out.

Starting point is 01:02:12 Way to level up your life by listening to a podcast like Yap. This is your host, Halitaha, aka the podcast princess, signing off.

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Carolina Reis: Reverse Your Biological Age and Increase Your Longevity With These Pro-Aging Hacks! | Mental Health E228

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