Andy Hnilo of Alitura and Brad Johnston of Functionalself- Instagram Live

Hey, what's up, everybody? I'm just about to lock in with Functional Self, our new distributor out of New Zealand and Australia as well as the uk. Just waiting for them to request to join. How's everybody going? Or how's it. How's your day going? Everybody, one thing at a time. What's going on? Holly, come on. Door. Hey, Functional Self. Here we go. Hopefully I didn't mess that up. What's up, Brad? How are you?

Good, Andy. How are you, my friend?

Hey, just.

I'm just trying to sit the camera.

Right on, man. How are you?

Yeah, good, brother. Good, good, good. It's a nice day. Early morning here in Waiheke. Sun's just coming up, so can't complain.

Where are you?

Waikiki? Yeah, Waiheke Island. So, you know, I literally am about 300 meters down the road from Warren now.

Really?

Yeah. Yeah.

No way. That's awesome, man. Thanks for setting us up. Fired up in care.

Yeah, thanks, bud. I know, obviously, it's exciting with. With Functional south now taking on Rosita and also Rosita Ali Chura into Australia and New Zealand as well. Expanding. Expanding the growth yet, right?

No, and I appreciate it. It's as you. As you well know, 2014. What.

What.

What month was that? So probably late May, getting ready. June 26, release Bulletproof. You were our first wholesale partner, period. And so when I'm making that out of my apartment and I get an email from you and Warren going, hey, love first two podcasts with Dave. We feel like this is a really good potential. Potential partnership, really get. It's his first Bulletproof skincare product. He put it on his site. You guys are fired up. I'm drinking cold brew coffee from Sarah. Joe started, but so I get an email going, you know, we really are excited to launch. We want to be your first partner in the uk. But I'm like, I had him like, you're my first wholesale partner, period. So you got 100 units. But at that time and every year, every order that would come in, obviously, it's still. To this day, it's awesome. Still exhilarating. But to get a hundred, then you guys wanted to order another 100 more. And I'm like, all right. I had to hire a friend, get a little assembly line system in a garage from a neighbor right below me, and I just. Because I was working for Oakley a lot at that time, and so I didn't have time to do. So I would just pay friends and pay them a product, and the little cash that I had at the time. But that was so exciting and you believed in me. I'll never forget that. And so this is like serendipity just feels right. So yeah, I'm excited and I really appreciate all the support you've given us throughout the year.

Really means a lot. Yeah, well, I mean when we first saw you and heard from you, we were just, we loved your story. We loved how authentic it was. You know, you didn't come from some mass big background where you were actually trying to just create a name and produce, you know, some amazing cosmetics. It was actually, hey, look, you would come from actually needing to get your skin care back in order after your accident etc, and, and that discovery, I think that's the most powerful and important part of any discovery is when it comes from a true need and a true drive. Because in your education, you know, is if you watch someone who, who's educated about something and they're talking about it, yeah, they come across as knowledgeable. But when you listening to someone who's passionate about that and they really start to actually dig deeper because they're not just looking for the knowledge, they're looking to understand the deeper nature of it. And that's, you know, that's what came across when Warren and myself were listening to you and, and consequently we've caught up, you know, and had our, had our chats where we were able to travel and come over to the US Etc. It was, yeah, it was always evident that you were very passionate and that you had that underlying drive to actually make something that was not only good but natural. And that was really what, what drove it for us.

Right. I mean, as you. Well, I, I've just been really interested in ingredients ever since I had. Acne is late. You know, 18, 19, first year in college diet, you know, dorm food. It was brutal. I was starting to take supplements, creatine and my, I mean I was growing my body, right. Hormones and that didn't help. So I, I had the, this almost like sword that you couldn't pop, like wait to come to an infection then obviously. And so it just bugged me ever since then. I started doing a deep dive into the products that I was using. I was, you know, neutral Neutrogena Clearasol. I was trying everything, you know, all you know is what you see on TV or what you see in advertising and then like herbal store on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. I went to UC Berkeley and then I just went in there kind of was a sponge and asking way too many questions. But Clearly I was passionate about it and I was just trying to figure out a way to beat this skin condition that, you know, it's just like when you wake up and the first thing you see in the morning is a pimple or is that man, it sets your tone in a negative way. It sets the tone in a negative way for your day and then also the ripple effect for the energy you know, you know, have around everybody you meet personally and professionally. And so I made a ton of sense to me. So I'm like, all right, well let's try to beat this thing. So the products that I was using, I was, I didn't know that they were government recognized carcinogens, but I just, I was like, I couldn't pronounce anything Greek and I would do a little research on them and I'll be oh no, no, definitely not. It also was irritating that things like fragrance like sodium foaming agents, horse preservatives, fillers, unnecessary. I just, I, back then it just made to find something a little cleaner. And so I went from that to Dove. Dove actually had Dove soap just all over head to toe. I mean had like five ingredients and one of them was coconut derived and it was a little bit better. But year after year over year I just, I was becoming passionate about because the, my skin cleared up a little bit, started to eat a little bit year over year. It's just, it's one of those things. I mean I never would have thought that I'd own a skincare line but like I, I just, my skin was clearing up and it made me feel better. You know, you're not introducing his cart like the harsh, you know, endocrine disrupting ingredients. Your, you know, when everything you rub on your skin is going to be distributed into your bloodstream. I think it's 24 seconds. And so, I mean there, there are studies, you know, women leave the House 200 Government recognized carcinogens from the hair, you know, from hair products they're using. Hairspray, makeup, skincare products, perfumes. I mean, geez, that, that, that's scary, right? And so, so it's, it's my dude, it's our duty to just, I mean, it's easy too. I mean it's not easy, but it's, it's easy to like seek the best and find out, you know, just, just the, the diamonds in the rough all over the world and that, that other people aren't using. That's what I really love to do is just find, find something new, better, hopefully and a Lot cleaner and just. Just something that other people aren't, isn't overly marketed. And over the years that's like what I like.

Yeah.

Finding ingredients, man, sourcing is my favorite part, period. Because you get to, you. You get to meet a lot of cool people along the way too.

Yes.

People just from all over the world. Yeah. I mean, Morocco, Amazon, France, Southeast Asia. Yeah, it's great. So yeah, no, it's a lot of fun. And our only mission is just to bring something as close to food grade as possible to the table. Altura is Latin. Eating and nourishing. Your skin's your largest organ, so just treat it like another mouth. I mean but I mean a lot of the time, but everything that I for the most part is we try to make it as food great as possible.

Yeah.

And body responds better, I believe to. To ingredients as close to mother nature as possible. So. And even sides and are. Are active ingredients like plants. Red vitamin A that we source from France. That's organic alfalfa derived. I mean we really do our best to bring as clean and as effective products as possible to the market and to market. And so I feel like we've done a good job with that. Yeah, it's a lot of good. We have about. We have six products that are 60% done meter. I mean it's just, it's. I mean, because it's just, you know, it's a lot of work. But six new ones to put in the good old functional self store. So I'm excited for that.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's awesome that you say the food derived because I mean not many people would think of actually putting colostrum on their skin. They'd be thinking about ingesting it, but they wouldn't think about how it actually goes and helps plump up the skin as well. And I know when we first. Because there was a mask obviously that we first bought from you. I think Warren had said it was order number 98 that you'd had in your cycle so early on in the days and that that re flushing that was coming, like people weren't used to it. The, the I think was the resource clay that actually draws the blood to the surface, which has that really good antioxidant detoxifying effect. But I can remember when we first used it because obviously you. You've got the two options right. You can put it with water or you can put it with apple cider vinegar. And I'm always. And Warren was the same. We were like, well, if water is good, then apple cider vinegar must be better breaking down the fat. Let's try it. So we did it one morning before we had to go to work, not realizing the flushing effect, running around like zombies. And then, then it dries off and it starts to flake and you're like, okay, cool. It must be time to actually take this off. And you take it off and you're like, right, I'm glowing like a beetroot. And now I'm going to be going, how long does this last for? What's going to happen? I can remember Warren had to jump on the tube that morning and, and he actually, he was still flushed. Luckily I could drive to work.

It's intense. It's definitely alarming. We get emails from customers, you know, daily but just going, hey, just want to make sure it's, it's my face is just bright red right now. And I go and I'm telling you like clockwork, sometimes support won't get around to the email in like 30 minutes later. 30, 40 minutes later, like oh my God. Oh I'm so. Please disregard my, my email. Like my skin looks amazing. Never felt it feel this way. And I'm like, it's just. But we have like FAQ all up for that set up for that and we'd like to let people know just what they're expecting. I recommend doing it at night first. No, I mean I swear by it in the morning too before I shave. Just lifting up the little follicles just so they wipe right off when shave. It's just my little guy. It also relieves so much congestion around the eye area. Nasal. It just, I mean you're brighter, you're awake and you appear that way. Yeah. Like I said, every personal professional situation that you go into and also it just man something it does energetically. A friend of mine on the Mariner Seattle Mariners baseball team out here, he, he had some heart rate variability on device on while he was wearing the mask. But it wasn't just a one time thing. I mean every time that slowed down his heart rate a little bit, it allowed him to relax and just really relieved. I don't know if that, if there's something to that but that was years ago. I mean it's just nothing surprises me with, with the products anymore as far as just I mean pulling out, whether as an antiseptic, pulling out, helping with bug bites, mosquito bites, you name it. I mean and definitely just spot treating little infections. Acne scars really helping with acne scar. Yeah. Excuse me, scarring in general but just there's not, I'm not surprised with what we see here anymore. I mean, but I mean, considering what's inside of it and how evenly the ingredients are distributed, it makes sense. You have four different clays, you have 10% cloth ascorbic acid, which is a high potency form of vitamin C, non gmo, that really crosses the, the dermis, especially if you use a derma roller and really get in there to help during the cell turnover process. And just.

I was gonna ask you about that.

The level in the, the clays, the mineral density in the clay in the circulation, especially after using a derma roller, getting past that initial layer of skin just creates a. I mean if you do it a couple times a week, you're gonna, period, Sunday, Wednesday, whatever. I do it. I mean, I'm almost a daily guy, but it's just. Because obviously I have a lot of it. But I, I just, it's for. I wanna, I wanna, you know, I want to look and feel my best as often as possible. So. Yeah, you know, how often are you.

Using that derma roller? Because you were the one that actually got me onto derma rolling and then later on, I mean, the dermapen. But that can be quite invasive for a lot of people. So. So are you doing that before you're doing your mask every time or are you just doing it once a week or.

No, I do the. I use a derma roller one to four times a week now. That's me. A lot of people don't think that's the right way to go about it, disrupting the spell turnover process. I just have a lot of things I have to prepare for these days, so I want to be on point. I would recommend doing it taking a few days off in between. Mine's aggressive. You know, I like the way my skin feels and looks and. But so it's good for me. But I recommend taking a couple days off in between to let your skin recover, the whole cell turnover process occur and let that collagen synthesis not get disrupted like I'm kind of doing right now. I mean, I mean, it just, I love the feeling. It's almost like a little acupuncture back to the. And so I mean, yeah, I, I use it a little bit more than I should, but I mean, taking a couple, couple days off in between, it's gotta keep it honest, you know.

Yeah. Are you using the 0.5 where you're going up to the 1 mil?

Because I know I'm 1 mil. Yeah.

Okay.

You know, obviously longer and gets a little bit deeper into the dirt. So like it's obviously the ingredients are able to sink in a little bit further, therefore affecting a deeper layer of skin which is what point?

Yeah, it can be something like from 200 to 2000% increase from what I was reading around the, the derma rolling or dermapen through the nutrients actually being able to transfer through that dermis.

What, what article? I would love to include that.

Yeah, I'll dig it up for you.

Yeah.

After we spoke in the US and you had said at the time like to go and actually look at derma rolling. I think this was what about four years ago, five years ago. And we then I went obviously I sent you through some photos of quite a brutal looking face from Duma rolling. Like you. I love tuba.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that was intense. Yeah.

Well, like you, I like to check the extremities I suppose of it.

Yeah.

But, but finding a good numbing agent can be quite hard, especially in Europe or, or Australia, New Zealand, those sorts of things. So trying to work around that. So that's why I was asking about the 0.5 to 0.1 or to 1 because I'm sure the 0.5. I've done 0.5 without having to worry about the numbing agent. But I thought Maybe the, the 1 mil might need a bit more of a numbing agent to get that going. Were you doing it without any numbing cream? You just.

I wouldn't use a numbing cream because I feel like you're introducing that numbing cream probably. You know, the ingredients are a little debatable. Right. And so that numbing cream, a little bit deeper like it's a little counterproductive too. But sure, the mask may help pull that out. But I mean if I, if I can't, I don't have to have toxins. I'm definitely not gonna kind of put that on. A little bit of it is. Yeah. I just feel like, you know, it does. I would work my way up if I, you know, we're trying it out for the first time for 0.25. 0.25 is so light and I don't, I'm not really. It does have an effect. Obviously it's better in using it than not if you're scared, if you don't have, you know, acne prone skin or any open. You don't want to reintroduce some of that, that bacteria right back skin obviously. But yeah, if, if you want to use a numbing crib that's completely Your choice. I mean, it, it's. I would, yeah, I would start off 0.25 or 0.5 and then just, you know, using light pressure, you can control your wrist, just how hard you go. Obviously you and I like to go a little bit more aggressive with it, but yeah, I love it. It's. It's an instrument. It's titanium, so you're getting a good clean introduction right there rather than plastic, which I can't believe some companies use. But yeah, it's, it's a very, It's a great instrument. We're gonna. I'm looking into other things too. I've never done any dermaplaning. Never done dermapen either. I don't think I've done that.

Yeah. So the reason I went for the dermapen was because for, I suppose over time, looking at the different type of scarring and stretch marks and those sorts of things people look at, turn to more the dermapen because it can actually get right down into the epidermis. So you can get up to 3 mils. So that's where you really do want to start thinking about having something to control the pain because it is going to go a bit deeper. But it's talking about really getting in and breaking up that collagen matrix that causes the scar tissue, especially around the stretch marks. So that's why I opted to actually look at the durapen and there's some cool ones on the market. We bought ours probably a few years ago because there's a lot of men, women out there who have struggled with stretch marks, who have gotten stretch marks over time, whether it's being from, you know, introduction of contraceptions when they were really young and putting on a lot of water retention and the skin not being able to cope with that sort of that rapid water retention or you know, just aging and bad diet at some points in time. Try the dermapine. Give it a go. See. See what you think. Interested to see.

Thank you. I'd love to check it out. 3 mil. That sounds nice, but I mean, no, we're okay.

You don't want to be going 3 mil on the, the bony sections.

Definitely. Yeah. Sounds painful too, but you know, yeah, a lot of exciting things. We're gonna be coming up with a lip plumper, a peptide derived lip plumper with the Manuka honey red raspberry oil. It's. It's gonna be awesome. And then tinted TC cream with several different shades. You know, we've. We like to listen to our customers and Just what you know. And then obviously it's sunscreen, hair and body wash, meteorite scrub, deodorant, travel pouch. For both, we're having three different options.

Turn this light off, so. Oh, my light has changed.

What's that?

I said my light has changed. Sorry about that. But it's just the sun is coming up, so I'm getting different lights going on, so carry on. Sorry. Lip plumper. You're going through the different shades.

Yeah, yeah. So we have a tinted CC cream. Several different shades on that. Deodorant, urine scrub, hair and body wash. Three different travel pouch options. That leather. Oh, my God, I can't wait. And then. Yeah, So a lot. Just putting a bow on those products. And it takes a while if you. I mean, because we're. You got it. You only get one chance to really get that first impression of just the unveiling. And so we really want to tighten up customer experience, too. I mean, taking fulfillment in house and really being much more, Much closer attention to our customer service and just overall presentation on how the orders arrived. I know I've been saying that for years. We're a little shorter staffed. I'm taking on a lot of different things, but because I love this and yeah, it's a lot of exciting things I look forward to in 2021, that's for sure.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that sunblock because myself and my fiance, Maggie, we're very much into the natural side, like you, obviously, with Functional South. I mean, it would be a bit contradictory if we were. But the sunblock can be such a challenge because you go for the natural ones and it can almost. It's. They opt for a zinc, which can be very heavy, and. And you basically are just looking like you're covered in. In a white paste, which, of course is going to stop the sun because it's reflecting off. So I'd be interested to see what's gonna. What's coming from the aleatura side of things. So huge.

And it's going to take. I mean, it's going to take a lot of revisions right now. It's because of that. You know, I don't. I definitely don't, but I know with the emulsion, I'm gonna have control over that. And so we're going with the non nano zinc and. Yeah. Oh, just wait till you see this ingredient.

That.

It's a pretty. Pretty exciting man. But, yeah, I mean, we're right in the middle of the. I would say we're about. Yeah. 40 done with that. And about 60 with everything else. So it's just, it's just, it's an emulsion, the emotion right now that. And like you said, it's tough to get. But we'll get it. Yeah, we'll get it.

Yeah, I, I'm looking forward to it. And the reason I'm looking forward to it is not only just because of the fact that it's, it's something new that we can put on, but here in New Zealand, the sun is fierce. I mean, we had to relearn from my childhood. You know, I knew that if you went out in the sun, you got burnt. But living in Europe for a number of years, you go out in the sun, you know, you can almost spend all day out in full sun with no sunblock and walk back with a bit of a glow. Here the burn time is eight minutes. Like we walk outside if you haven't got anything on or you're not covered up or something along those lines, your skin, even, even strong skin. Like my, my partner Maggie, her skin is this amazing skin that I'm super jealous of. She just has to look at the sun and she starts to go tanned and she tames and keeps tanned for like months afterwards. So we've been on holiday and she's been wearing a bikini and then for months afterwards she's still got those marks of the bikini. I go red for a little bit, then maybe I'll go a little bit brown if I'm lucky. And my tan line, it's gone within about a week. But. And the reason I say that is because when we, when we came here and we were in New Zealand, we thought, oh, we'll go out and. And she was like, oh, no, no, I don't need any sunblock. I'm okay. And we both got really badly burned. So it was a new learning for both of us. And that was in like 20 minutes. So. Yeah. Sunblock. Looking forward to.

Yeah, no, it's, it's going to be great I, that, you know, that I've been going back and forth for so long on whether or not we were going to make one just because of, you know, the benefits of getting good sunlight on the skin on top of the skin. So my opinion. So, I mean, if you have any skin issues, skin cancer, obviously, issues, I would, you know, take that into account.

Yeah.

Just as far as just getting out, obviously the burn time is a little bit accelerated where you're at that, and keep it under 10 or 8 like you said. But I mean, I like 15 to 20 at least every day put on some type of screen if I'm gonna be out for hours. But yeah, I'm excited to get it going.

Well, that's one of the things, right. A lot of people think about sun and sun exposure as being a bad thing, but as you just touched on, it's actually really good nourishing for the skin. And there are a few studies out there that show that. And now we're using. And it comes from sort of the light therapy side that the more you expose yourself and it needs to be slowly, you know, maybe five minutes one day for. For about four or five days, then. Then bump it up to seven minutes and then slowly build up that exposure so your body has the chance to actually build its own defense. And so you're not oxidizing all of the actual sunrise that are coming. It's actually really nourishing for the skin. I think it's that overexposure that can really destroy.

Right. And it helps with nutrient absorption too. The metabolization of just everything that you're. All the other vitamins and just, you know, D is just like such a Vitamin D is such an important nutrient that a lot of us. So, I mean, I like whether it's supplementation, I get it subcutaneously injected once a week. And then your body just. I think it's like 30,000ius or something like that. Your body just distributes it out as needed. So, yeah, I would recommend. Yeah, looking into that. But vitamin D is so crucial for all of us for our health and many of us are conditioners. So I'd like to get just sunlight and supplementation.

That's. That's why we recommend something like the Rosetta cod liver oil because it has the natural vitamin D from the cod's liver. It hasn't been destroyed in the process, and it actually gets absorbed because it's very, very hard to get vitamin D, as you say, and finding from a food source. It's not necessarily natural. I know a lot of oils out there that claim that they've got a vitamin D in it comes from sheep's lanolin, which is actually the oil in the sheep. And. But it's natural, but it's not absorbed the same way that a liver oil is. So. So it's, yeah, really important having a look at that because that gets back to when we're talking about skin and you were growing up and having, you know, acne. I also, I think everyone almost has a. Has an issue with acne growing up while the hormones are changing, but it comes back to actually looking at what's going on internally as you say, just as much as what's going on extern. So that's, you know, your, your products being food grade and feeding and nourishing that, that dermis and epidermis whilst also, I mean because I know that you've got your supplement line as well which, which has more the ration mushrooms and I know you're very big into your, your medical mushrooms there. And there's that one from China that actually has the adaptogenic herb. That's much. I think it has something like 80 different cornoids in it is in your supplement. I'm trying to remember which one it is. No, no, it's not one of the, it's not one of the actual mushrooms. It's. It's like a leafy green. It comes from China.

Okay. Organostema ashwagandha.

Yeah.

Organostema's amazing.

Yeah.

Big fan. Huge fan. Yeah, yeah. Take probably the equivalent of. I mean this is gonna sound probably like 10 of those revitalized. But just me just. I swear. I mean adaptogens are so powerful for just, just building your blood and just getting the circulate, getting the good cleansing your blood, building up those good red blood cells and throughout your body. I mean Japanese. And we have a superfood element in there with spirulina Hoshi Woo Shizondra. And leucine is a vital amino acid. I mean that's our flowing agent or an amino acid that I take. Yeah. Pretty excited about. Well the, that was my morning tonic encapsulated. Yeah, yeah, that just when I had my jaw wired shut and I had a little straw in the back and I'd make these little shakes and yeah, that's how I got my nutrients and how I build my back from the inside out, you know. And then I had too. So. Yeah, I just, I mean that, that accident really just. It catapulted me into. Not only into my purpose but just. I mean something I'm. I can't imagine living without just health and wellness and obviously skin care, but just so passionate about it, you know. So I mean I would change the thing, you know.

Yeah. And you, you put a lot of essential oils in a lot of the actual moisturizers, etc. I can see that there's a question that's come up that's asking about essential oils in the ma for scarring. So is there any extra you would add to that mask or would you say that actually do the mask with the derma rolling to help break up that scar tissue and then maybe nourish it with something like your gold serum.

Absolutely. Yeah. I would definitely follow up with the gold serum and then seal it in with the night cream at night. But as far as essential oils after the mask. But as far as essential oils, frankincense, the mask is really going to be the number one thing with that for scarring. Also a derma, just to help get past, just help break up some of that scar tissue. And like you said, the collagen matrix during that collagen process and cell turnover as well is gonna over time as you foliate off all the dead skin and the new fresh skin develops during that process. It's going to take a little bit of time, but if you're consistent with it, I mean, we've seen some dramatic scar transformation.

Yeah. What's your thoughts around the, the red light? So they've got the, the Baton Rouge here that, you know, does it either the pulsing for the pain or I think it's a solid, which is actually for helping. Oh, sorry. Pulsing is for getting in and healing. The solid is for the, the pain side of things. How. What do you think about adding that to the routine? Would you have you added red light to help get that electron transfer?

I can't believe I don't have it on right now. I mean, I, I, well, obviously I know why, but I, Yeah. And I start my day off with it just to help regulate my circadian rhythm. And then also at night, just, you know, it's kind of like that sunrise and sunset just. But also just. I mean there are PubMed Truth and Aging studies as far as what red light does for college when combined. I mean, yeah, I need to put that on. I think it is on the site, but that rolling in now what I do is especially with Joe right here. So what I would do is I'd put on a thin layer of the gold serum and roll that in with a derma roller. Now the problem is I would only recommend using that one. So it's gonna be a little expensive. But I mean it just how bad you want. Because you're rolling, you put it on, then you roll it that deeper rather than rolling it into the skin, rather than putting it on after rolling. I just really, really good results with that. I'd like Juve's red light personally and then. But we're actually considering bringing something to market, a little device ourselves.

Oh, really?

I don't even know if I've told Warren that it's gonna be object. But I'm working with on that project. I can't speak but like would be effective and I wouldn't if it wasn't obviously.

Fantastic. I love red lights. I've got the. The Baton Rouge here. What you can see in the back here is another one.

Okay.

Was looking at. I've got. If I pull these things up, I've got half stack here from red light rising.

There you go.

So yeah, I've got a few of them going on. It's a. I think it's important for that energizing side of things and that electronic change it just what I mean.

The red light energy energizes the mitochondria of your cells. So during this alternative process, I mean especially I like to have it on while I have the mask on personally. And then I mean it's. I pop it on when I take it off too. I mean it's on for hours collectively throughout the day. But I mean I just. I love how it makes me feel it. There's some activity that I just feel a lot better and a lot different. And then have it on when I'm. When I jump them. When I jump.

Yeah.

That's why those little juve goes are good for the road. Not an affiliate of Juves. I just love everything they do. And the founder Scott, he's a great dude.

Yeah. Have you ever tried the Nova Thor which is like a. Literally like this massive big bed and. And it's. I think it's got something like 2000 red light LEDs in it. And it's just you. You go in there and you. You go in there naked because you want to get the light everywhere. And after about 20 minutes you come out and you're glowing and it's because you quite literally are glowing because the amount of light that your body has absorbed is now admitting light.

Wow. Wait, what's that? What's the. Can you check or can you tell me? The bed. You know the one that upgrades labs in Santa Monica.

But I haven't been there for a while because of obviously the traveling. But it was called Anova Thor. I know Dr. Hessham, who's the. Some of the guys that we work with here. He's an amazing dentist and he's got his own product line that we carry which is all about trying to get the oral biome back to health. You know, looking at that internal side. He does a lot of the laser therapy here. He's one of the first dentists to start using laser to actually start to get rid of the bacteria in the mouth. And he's got a Nova Thor there. So you can come in, you go into the waiting room, you can jump in a red light and then, then jump in the chair. So yeah, Nova Thor is the thought of that. Yeah, getting holistic, holistic health care, you know, and this is a great holistic dentist here in New Zealand that we're lucky enough to a be affiliated with. And also I went and had a whole lot of work done recently and Jesse Dunn, you know, speaking about different parts of health, not just the skin care, I had to have braces as a, as a young man because I used to suck my thumb which gave me, it sort of pushed my front teeth forward and my parents, you know, paid four, six thousand dollars and I had to wear these things for two and a half years through puberty, which was, you know, those who have had to wear braces understand the amount of teasing you can get in that period of time only to now find that they shouldn't have extracted the teeth that they did because what they've done is they've narrowed my jaw in, which has lifted my palate, which then pushes on your nasal passages, which means that you can't draw in as much oxygen when you're training. So now I've got to go and get my, my jaw widened again to actually allow that color to drop a little bit. So it's, you know, we, we're here and I know people are asking, may ask, why are you talking about teeth in the oral capacity or cavity? But it's, it's just that, you know, we're talking skin here and we're talking health and health of your skin isn't just from the stuff you're putting on. You've got to make sure that you're doing all of these other things as well. But the stuff you're putting on is equally as important. You've got to make sure that you are putting that natural, as you say food based stuff on it. So.

Absolutely.

So a bit of a tangent.

No, no, it's interesting you say that. I mean I'm going through a whole mouth reconstruction right now too. I mean my teeth were down to like 60 of what they were down 60, both uppers because I grind so much and I'm not going to put in health guard plastic. I just don't, I don't think that's healthy and so, but nice for it. Like I would add dentures by the time I'm 50 series. So I had to, I've Been going through since. Yeah, December. Eight mil. Cut it short. But yeah, we're going through a whole mouth. I mean, whole whole mouth reconstruction. And I'm talking. It moves my jaw like everything. Like you said, I had braces, I had headgear. Turns out that was a lot like you said. Large reason why my jaw was off. My bite, obviously, after the. That that's the reason why I'm getting the reconstructions because my bite was. But yeah, it's, it's. It's interesting. But I'm going through that right now, so. And I get it. And it's really cool that my dentist is using cold lasers holistic products for my gums. And they have thing on that kind of calms me down when I'm going through it. Yeah, it's really cool. It really feels different. I mean, my. When I chew. Oh, my God. I'm very. Just very grateful.

Right. Right now, you know, you, you because. Because of grinding braxism and. And the. The mastoids that come down can be. Get really, really tight. I know Maggie suffers from this, so she's stressed, like to a point where she even at one point tried Botox to actually stop the grinding because the pressure was coming in so much. If you've looked at your way that your nervous system works, it can actually lead to something along the lines of your jaw using the support. So we clench our jaw to actually allow ourselves to become physically stable in space. So I don't know if you noticed, but when you're at the gym, do you find that you're actually clenching your jaw when you're under exertion? Yeah. So what that might be is you've actually got a nerve pattern that leads your jaw to actually lock down so it can give itself stability. So maybe go and see someone. Like, someone does a muscle activation therapy because they can actually look at doing the activation work to get different parts of your body to get back into flow. It's like trying to turn on a light switch, but it's turned all the way down the dimmers, all the way down. So just. It can't fire that muscle correctly. So getting in and actually having massaging down through here, which is something I need to do far more regularly than I. You know, it's one thing to talk about, the other thing is to actually action it. But yeah, that might actually help to release a bit of that braxism as well.

Have you done any cranial facial work?

I used to a back in there.

It's kind of painful, but, man, it unlocks A lot of.

Yeah. Is this someone who's gone orally and actually put gloves on and goes in and actually releases the mastoid right through the oral palate?

Yeah. Yeah. It was intense but definitely unlocked some. Some something. I mean it was just, it was, it was really like from a clarity. Like a mental clarity aspect. Yeah. They're really cranial facial. It's. Yeah. It's a fascinating little. Yeah. Therapy. But yeah, I would recommend that if you have any practice. Yeah. For your.

Just hard to find. Hard to find someone that actually does that really, really well because then obviously it opens your palate up but it drops. Gets into the nasal side of things. But it also helps release some pressure around the brain so the brain can actually start to concentrate. But yeah, we're starting to go well afield from. But I think this is the point though, right. Is when, when people are passionate about health. It's. It's that whole. And we're getting more to a point of it's holistic. Like health is not just one thing, it's multiple things which leads to, you know, why we lead the lives that we do. And obviously both you and I are passionate about health and probably some of our friends or family are overhearing about the health benefits that they could get from doing some things. But I suppose we're continuing on our part and that's. That's exactly why you know us at Functional south we really did want to support you and bring your products out and why we're now pushing to get them into the Australian market and also the New Zealand market to really help get everyone else out there who wants to get these types of products, get them into their hands. So because that's, you know, it's an exciting partnership.

I wouldn't. Yeah.

I would.

Wouldn't rather be with anybody else and I just fiercely loyalty too. So I appreciate support from literally Dave, literally day one. So I mean that's, that's why this is fun for me.

Yeah, absolutely brother. I'm just, I'm looking at the time and I think we've been sitting on here for 40 minutes and we could probably sit on here for another 40 minutes. So I will run off shortly. But yeah, I'm going to jump on the ferries. They're going to. Because obviously living on an island we now have to get a ferry, put the car on it so that we can actually drive down to Hamilton where my. My nephew was actually just born at the start of the. The week. So. Yeah. Thank you. My, my brother and sister in law are very excited. It's their second so. And she's a big fan of Ali Churro. She. She uses all of them actually. My mum like we had some gold serum that came in because I had some stuff shipped back from Germany when we relocated here and I had some gold serum there for her because I know she absolutely loves it. So I made sure that I put some extra ones in there and I just delivered it to her last weekend and she was, she was very thankful.

That's awesome. Send me your address. We'll give her a little care pack.

Yeah, we'll do, we'll do the meteorite scrub too.

We have, we have a couple samples of that. So yeah, send me, send me an address. I'll get something out to her as a little congratulatory care package.

Awesome. Done, brother. Yeah, she looks after. Chrissy is the one who's had the bump. She's. She actually looked after our customer service and our marketing side of things. So she's actually been. We're doing a lot of the campaigns for Ali Tura so you guys should love it.

Oh man, so cool. That's so cool. Just Catura shirt. Well, I mean these are. They're a little expensive to make so I'm gonna. I mean this is Calvin Klein like with this fresh cotton. So it's like you know, with the, with the stitching in it's like a thirty or forty dollar shirt. But I mean I, if you guys are open to paying that for the shirt I can put those in the store or I can find a little cheaper. I just like wearing these around. I get, I get them made for, for me. But yeah, maybe Cat, we can get some made for you.

Yeah, love it, brother.

Right on. This has been a pleasure. It's an honor to work with you and Warren. Like I said, it's just serendipitous. But my first wholesale partner is now large distributor in the areas that you spoke of. I'm excited to introduce is, you know, get the word out and spreading the Alura, you know, products around the world and yeah man, I really appreciate you guys supporting the brand.

The honor is ours, brother. You're the one that's making this happen so honor is ours.

Well, thanks so much. Love you guys so much and let me know, shoot me that address and then if you could send me those articles that you're talking about, I'd like to look.

Yeah, I'm going to go dig them up. It was a little while ago that I actually was looking at the derma rolling so I will find it. I'm sure that I've. I've got some links there, so I'll get those to you, brother. So much love, everyone. So.

All right, guys. Well, thanks, everybody who stopped by. Cat, you're awesome. And, yeah, we'll be in touch.

See you, brother.