Skin School Saturday with Celebrity Facialist Angela Caglia

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Skin School Saturday. This is my first Skin School Saturday, and I'm very excited to be here. I'm gonna wait a few more minutes for more to join. I wanted to do this because I have been doing so many more consults. I'm giving away complimentary virtual skincare consultations. And it's not only great for you guys, but it's great for me because I'm able to talk with you and understand the. The mentality of what's happening in the world. I mean, these are international calls, international skincare consultations. And I'm finding out a lot about your routines, what products you're using, and. Hi, all. Great. I'm very excited. A lot of people are joining today. This is gonna be a lot of fun. This is gonna be very informal school. Saturday school. This is the kind of Saturday school you want to attend. This is the kind of Saturday school I want to teach. I'm actually. A lot of people don't even know this, but I'm a certified California aesthetic instructor. When I was 29 years old, I loved this business then and now. But at that time, I had more time on my hands, and I was at a spa during the day, and I wanted to teach in the evening. So I was teaching giving back and teaching aesthetics in the evening, and that was very satisfying. I loved it. I felt the upcoming estheticians had a lot to learn about the real world in terms of becoming an esthetician. And I also enjoy teaching. Teaching about skincare. So I will be going over every Saturday, just kind of some of the basics, some of my philosophies, and giving you advice. And I will do this kind of interactively and very informal. So if you have a question to ask, you can go ahead and type it in. And if I'm quick enough, I'll be reading it and I can answer it. Otherwise, I will save all the questions. And next Saturday, I will be answering those questions. So, again, welcome to Skin School Saturday. This is going to be a lot of fun, very interactive, and I'm just going to talk with you about skincare because I think there's a lot of misinformation out there. And when I say that, I'm going to say it one more time because it's so, so evidence. There's a lot of misinformation out there. And. Great. Someone just asked about my favorite skin lightening ingredients. We'll talk about that. I'll be talking about melasma and hyperpigmentation, and I will talk about my Favorite skin lightening ingredients. Just so you know, a heads up, it takes a while. There is no overnight quick fix to skin lightening for conditions usually hormone imbalances. Melasma is usually on darker skin tones and usually in women. And it's usually hormonal. And there are a few things that I do recommend. One, I recommend seeing a dermatologist. I don't recommend any laser treatments. I've seen many women with darker skin come in for facials who went to like a laser center and they sold her a whole series of laser treatments when she wasn't even a good candidate. And what happens with that is her melasma and hyperpigmentation was even darker, much darker. So be very careful. It's something you, you want to go to a professional, but not just a typical laser center. And you're not going to find anything over the counter that's going to work fast. It took a while to get there. And the most important thing you can do for melasma or hyperpigmentation is sunscreen. Even if you are able to lighten it, it's prone to coming back and you need a proper sunscreen. And we'll talk about sunscreens today too. I do recommend the non chemical sunscreens with titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. Those are a great barrier and protector. One of my favorite sunscreens that I recommend is Suntegrity. Suntegrity is a clean sunscreen. They also have one with a light tint. It's better than a foundation. You're protected and it's not going to sensitize your skin or basically make it inflamed or prone to breakout, which a lot of sunscreens do. So again, my favorite sunscreen right now, until I come out with my own, which I'm working on, which takes a while, is Suntegrity, A very, very good sunscreen. And I've met with the founder. She has a lot of integrity and she has a good product. So Suntegrity, please check that out. If you're looking for a sunscreen that's non chemical, that's what I recommend. I also recommend the tinted version. It works with a lot of skin tones and it's very, very nice. Again, welcome to skin school Saturday. This is going to be a fun thing for me to be doing. I love to teach. I love to teach skin care. As I mentioned, I am a certified aesthetic instructor and I used to teach estheticians. So this 25 year life that I've had in aesthetics since I first got my license 25 years ago. It's been quite a journey. I have done so many things, and I've loved it so much that I actually gave back in teaching to estheticians. And I give back now and doing complimentary consults for a short time, so I'm able to give back. But when I give back, I learn, and I learn so much. I learn about you. I learn about your kind of habits. I learn about what you're thinking. I learn about what products you're using. I learned about the mindset I am reading. Thank you so much. Someone just said. Oh, Sarah just said, this is a great, true masterclass. Thank you. And someone just said they ordered my cleansing oil. Thank you. Make sure you do. There's two steps. It's a double process. You put it on, you massage, and then I want you to add water to your fingertips, emulsify it, and then remove it. It's an amazing product. All right, so let's talk. Let's get going. I see that more have joined, and I appreciate that. We're going to start off with the theme of kind of my philosophy, the theme of why I created my product line and tools. And it's pretty simple. They all go together. It's just one philosophy. Are you ready? This is my philosophy, and this is my secret. This is the secret to glowing skin. So it's not even. It's a philosophy, but this philosophy actually can help you. Once you understand the philosophy, you can look younger and you can have better skin, even if you don't now. Like, it's entirely possible. And you're gonna love this. And I'm gonna tell you the secret right now. I see that more skin care professionals are joining. I love that. Thank you. All right, are you ready for the philosophy? And also, by the way, I practice what I Preach. I'll be 49 years old this year. 49. I haven't done, like, Fraxel. I haven't done anything invasive to my skin, just good skin care. And we're gonna go to the philosophy of good skin care and how you can look younger, have less breakouts, and feel better. I'm reading right now. Thank you so much. So let's talk about my philosophy and what the secret is. The secret to looking younger. The secret to gorgeous skin. It's not what you think. Thank you, Sarah. It's not what you think. What I'm finding with my consults and I found when I give facials to new clients, what a lot of them think, perhaps some of you, perhaps a lot of you, not because you're watching. And I love that you probably know a lot about skin, but for the ones that don't, they seem to think that more products the better. Goes back. I'm not a big fan of the Korean method of like 12 steps and 12 products, obviously, but a lot of people think more products you use on your skin, the more products that you use, perhaps the more anti aging products that you will look better and younger. But that goes against my philosophy, and we're gonna go back to what my philosophy is. A strong, well functioning lipid barrier is the secret to healthy, glowing and younger looking skin. I'll say it one more time. A strong, functioning, healthy lipid barrier is the secret to youthful looking skin. Less breakout, less fine lines and wrinkles, and looking younger. And it's pretty simple really. So it goes against everything that you've been told by perhaps wherever you go and buy your products, or perhaps you're esthetician, if they're trying to sell you a lot of products. The whole philosophy behind protecting your lipid barrier is very, very simple. Our skin is our largest organ and it's there to protect, to protect us from the environment. It also is a great barometer to show anything that's happening inside your body internally. If you're not feeling well, if you're eating too much sugar or whatever you're doing internally will show up on your skin. So your skin not only being the largest organ, it is there to protect you. And if you're using too many products. And let me just explain also what the lipid barrier is, a lot of people are like, well, what's the lipid barrier, Angela? Well, the lipid barrier is right above your stratum corneum, which is right here. Stratum corneum right here, the first layer. And with the lipid barrier, it's made up of natural fats and cells. So natural fats and cells called corneocytes are the cells and of course the natural fats, which are the lipids. So those two things are what make up your lipid barrier right there. And as we age, we do not get enough lipid production. So if you're knocking on 40, your lipid production is going to slow down. So this lipid barrier, which is made up of our lipid cells and natural fats, okay? And the cells which are the glue, when that's changing, as when we age, your skin will start to get drier, it'll be more sensitized, and it's not as youthful. What we need to do is Find lipid loving skin care products, Lipid loving skincare products, because we need to infuse it with more lipids that are almost bioidentical to what we produce, which is the sebum and the lipids. So the main ingredient of my skincare line, which is in every product, all the way down to the sheet mask, is meadow foam seed oil. And a lot of lot of you I launched two and a half years ago. At that time, no one even knew really what meadow foam seed oil was, was. And now it's in a lot more products, but not consistently. And the reason it's in every one of my products, including the sheet mask, is because meadow foam seed oil is very similar to our own lipids that we produce. So when that happens, you're infusing it and it actually is the same molecular structure, so it's able to penetrate deep into the skin, almost like a kiss of youth giving back those lipids. So you're nourishing and protecting your lipid barrier when you're using all of my products, because all of my products have this magic ingredient, every one of them, and it doesn't induce acne, it actually calms inflammation. So it's good for acne as well. So it's calming inflammation, it's giving back the lipids that you're depleted of, which can compromise your barrier. Alright, someone just said, I love meadow foam seed oil. Yes. And I discovered meadow foam seed oil eight years ago when I was looking for my lab. And my lab is in Oregon, my first lab, and that's where it's found. It's indigenous to Oregon and Washington and it's from the lanthus alba flower, which is a big white flower. And meadow foam, the name came from it. It looks like foam when the ocean rolls in. It's big white flower, but it's only found in this area. And when I found this lab eight years ago, which is one of the only clean beauty labs eight years ago in existence, I discovered meadow foam seed oil. The big deal back then was Argan oil. And when I was about to start my line, someone told me, oh, you need to use an exotic flower. You need to find some exotic ingredients and build it around. Well, this is not exotic meadow foam seed oil. It happens to just be an organ or backyard. And I didn't care about that because I knew how good it worked. And for me as a facialist, it's not about finding a fluffy ingredient and making it sound exotic or making up some proprietary science blend and throwing it in with A trademark, this being the blend and using just marketing to try and sell my product. I didn't care. I wanted something that worked because I'm a facialist and I actually use the products and I use it on clients all the time. So what I found using meadow foam seed oil is, is that it is similar in molecular structure to our own Sebum. So it is able to penetrate deep into the skin and give more lipid barrier and protection to our skin, in turn helping to plump up fine lines and wrinkles. Yay. And it's also one of the most stable oils in the world. So my formulations are stable longer in the black Marin glass jar, which also protects the formulations from the sun. So I built the whole product range around having this ingredient along with other incredible actives. But this was a staple I wanted in every product. Every product. And when I launched, like I said two and a half years ago, no one knew what this was. And I launched at Violet Gray and they were like, wow, what is this, Angela? What are you talking about? So they wrote this beautiful article on what meadow foam seed oil is Violet Gray, which is the queen of content. And a lot of magazines picked it up. And a lot more brands started using meadow foam seed oil, which is good. But I have a very amazing farm and source that I get it from and it's very pure and cold pressed and it is in all of my products. So you know that my products are made for sensitive skin to protect the lipid barrier. But I also chose USDA certified organic actives from all over the world. And I have a doctor who helps to formulate. He's actually a doctor of like phytotherapy and aromatherapy. So the blends of the essential oils and the nutrients work with your skin, meaning nature is powerful. There are a few brands out there that have, in my opinion, too many essential oils and that sensitizes your skin. You might turn red or get little bumps, which has happened to me with some of the popular brands that have far too many essential oils, in my opinion. I'm a facialist. I work with faces. I see the immediate reaction. I use a diopter lens and I look so I have this kind of a different background than most. When you're creating a skincare line, it's not about just getting a marketing scam and make up a proprietary blend, find some doctor, use his name and charge a lot of money and put it out. I go back to my roots, which are obviously working with natural ingredients. I grew up spending every weekend On a farm. My grandfather was a huge farmer, huge fruit farmer, which was a great way to grow up. But I didn't realize how much that made an impact into the way I formulate my own product. His product was fruit from Nature, mine's skincare with amazing ingredients from nature and developed by a scientist. So it is extremely efficacious. And we are, I'm very proud to say we are surpassing the efficacy of so many products out there. If you go back five or ten years, everyone thought, oh, a natural product that's in the corner at Whole Foods with really bad packaging and it doesn't work. That was the mindset. Well, when I became an esthetician 25 years ago, I worked for one of the leading and still one of the leading botanical skincare lines that launched 30 years ago in Paris and it's called Yonka Paris. And, and that was my background. So I knew from the get go at 23 years old, when I first became an esthetician, I worked with the training institute, Yonker Paris. I learned the effect that clean beauty had on skin. And one, the aromatherapy was beautiful but well formulated. But I saw the difference in skin and then I went on to work for other brands because then all the Dr. Brands came out. And over the course of 25 years I worked for other big leading spas and I worked with other brands and I did not see a great result like I did using Yonca Paris. And I didn't see my clients enjoy the facial, they didn't enjoy the experience. A lot of these, they smelled very chemical and they were sensitizing the lipid barrier. So we're going to go back to the whole kind of point of the line. One, the products, they are skin lipid loving and they infuse things that we lose as we age and they calm inflammation. I created the rose quartz tools again to calm inflammation. This is one of my newest launches. It's the Goddess roller Rose Quartz, Solid rose quartz. So in basically being a facialist, we use tools. We use tools because they work. I my philosophy as a facialist is to keep the lipid barrier intact. So I'm using my products which do that and give a beautiful glow, but I also want to calm inflammation. So the coldness of these stones, put aside the energy of the stone, it's a love energy, it's a self esteem boosting self love energy, which is a beautiful thing. Which goes back to being a facialist and seeing how your clients relax and enjoy and how much prettier or, or More handsome someone is when they're happy and relaxed. So you've got the love energy, but you have the coldness of the stone. The coldness of the stone calms inflammation. So do you understand that it's calming inflammation? We want to calm inflammation. Inflammation causes a lot of problems with your skin. So the products are calming inflammation and all the tools are calming inflammation, and you're getting a beautiful result. So also with calming inflammation, we're also helping to depuff to stimulate the blood flow with the dark circles, we're sculpting and lifting, we're doing all these great things, but we're also calming inflammation. And that goes back to everything. Calming inflammation and keeping your lipid barrier intact. Even my sheet mask has zero fragrance or zero essential oil. So it just calms inflammation while delivering peptides and vitamin C, meadow foam, seed oil, all these yummy ingredients into the skin. But it's calming inflammation. And when you calm inflammation, your skin is not sensitized, it's not red. Alright, so let's talk about having a compromised lipid barrier. All right, Compromised lipid barrier, you can have that. You're like, how do I know if I have a compromised lipid barrier? Well, I'll tell you how you know. If your skin is dry, if it's sensitized, if you feel like your skin is sensitive, if it's red, if it's peeling, if it's flaking, all of these things are a compromised lipid barrier. So let's talk about what you can do to stop that. Let's say you're using a soap. It might be too alkaline. Now, the proper pH for your skin is 5.5, slightly acidic. That's the acid mantle of the skin for it to be in a perfect state. If you're using a harsh soap or a bar of soap to make a bar of soap, it's extremely alkaline and that is too acidic. So it's going to strip your skin and compromise your barrier. And when you compromise your barrier, your skin is tight, red and sensitized. And that means when you go out in the environment with all the pollutants and the sun, you're going to damage your skin and your cells. But the more you nourish your lipid barrier and protect it, it's not going to be sensitized. And there was a moment, actually a few moments when I was, you know, working a lot more as a facialist before I developed my line and in some of the top spas in New York and Carmel Women would come in and the first thing they would say to me is, a new client. They would say, hi, Angela, so nice to meet you. I have sensitive skin. And they were so afraid, you know, new facialists, I have sensitive skin. Well, there became a point where I knew they did not have sensitive skin. It was just sensitized. Sensitized by the products they were using. And I found out a way to remedy that with my products. When I was working with Yonka, I was able to remedy it, but when I worked with other spa brands or lines, I wasn't able to remedy it. So it's all about what goes in the products to restore the lipid barrier and the stratum corneum, which is the outermost layer of skin, which is your protectant, because when it's compromised by products, and those products could be your foaming cleanser. I think Americans in general, or a lot of people in general, are just so into clean, and they don't think they're doing it if it's not a foaming cleanser. They're not getting their skin clean yet. They foam their counters and they foam their toilets. And if it's not getting clean like that on their face, it's not getting clean. Okay, that's a wrong philosophy because the foaming agent does nothing for your cleaning, by the way. It's just. It makes you think you're getting clean. But the scary part is what makes that foaming agent. These are chemicals and toxins, sulfates that compromise your lipid barrier. So if you have a cleanser that foams and your skin is tight after, feels tight, oh, you automatically think it's clean, but it's not. You've sensitized your barrier. If it's a little red or a little stingy or a little sensitized or dry, you've sensitized your barrier. So you think you just got clean and you did a great thing, but you didn't. You did something that now you have to try and fix with your other products, which most likely you're using too many products, which also can sensitize your lipid barrier. So we will go into that too. Products that sensitize your lipid barrier, cleansers with foaming agents, products with perfume or fragrance. Back in the day, the legacy brands, which are now having to change to clean, which is very expensive, expensive for them, they have built these whole brands and it's the clean beauty movement, and now they have to change all their formulations. Very expensive to do. It's going to take a Little time, like a year or two more for. For these big brands, but they're all feverishly working away to change their DNA to be more clean. But a lot of these products sensitize skin, and a lot of them have fragrance and fragrance. And the thing with fragrance is in the US there's no regulation on the word fragrance. So back in the day, when Coco Chanel was creating her perfumes, she could write fragrance because she didn't want to divulge the formula because that's proprietary. Well, we've never changed it for this many years. So that means you can put the word fragrance in your product. Fragrance. And you don't have to disclose what's in it. A lot of times there are parabens in it. There are toxic ingredients in the fragrance, and it's very skin sensitizing and will destroy your lipid barrier, damage it. So again, they would try and put fragrance in the legacy brands. So you would pick it up, smell it. Mmm, that smells good. I'll buy it. Well, you're not buying a perfume. You're buying skin care. And fragrance is one of the most toxic things you can put on your skin. And in the natural arena, too many essential oils that are not properly formulated can sensitize your skin and get it out of whack. And you've seen that. I know you've tried some products that are clean, that came onto the scene, that have too many essential oils for your skin. It may smell amazing. It may smell like a bouquet of some, like, amazing fragrance, but it's not. It's not a fragrance. Again, nature is powerful, and all of those essential oils together combined may not work together. They may smell good, but they may be very, very sensitizing to your lipid barrier. So you have to be very careful. And, you know, it's not as complicated as it seems. I don't want to scare anyone with it, but I just want you to know if you're having issues with your skin, it has a lot to do with this. And it's pretty simple. It's a simple philosophy. So don't overdo it with products. It's only going to make your skin worse. You want to balance your skin's pH, not strip it. And your skin talks with you. I mean, you can see what's going on if I try a different product, because I'm really curious. Oh, my God. I see. Right away. I tried a product. I was giving a class at Neiman Marcus about a year ago, and there was a lovely woman who worked a counter There of a popular brand. It was a doctor brand. It was very, very extreme and there was like this cult following. So I ended up buying some and trying it and my God, I mean it was embarrassing. The next day my skin was so stripped and I had to go give a facial at my spa just from trying this product line. It was just a cleanser, but it was so strong with acids in it. My skin was red with bumps. It was embarrassing. It completely destroyed the lipid barrier. And this is a doctor brand and popular and expensive. So just read the ingredients, which is the most important thing for you to do is read ingredients. And, and if you want to protect your lipid barrier, work with it. Look for more natural products, not the ones that sensitize. You want lipid loving skincare, Lipid loving skin care. You don't want to compromise your lipid barrier. It's your moisture barrier. You want to keep it intact so everything will work together and it won't be sensitive, irritated or you won't break out. That also has a lot to do with breakouts. Is the lipid barrier being thrown, thrown out of whack? There's so many products that like with have benzoyl peroxide or these sulfur lotions that have mainly alcohol and you put them on your skin. If you're prone to breakout or you're using a cleanser that's foaming that dries. You throw your skin so out of whack that it's not only breaking out, it's red and it's tight and it's dry and it's flaking and you're probably going to get more breakouts. So there's a lot of repair that you have to do when you use these aggressive products. Someone just asked what are the top, the worst ingredients to find in skincare? That's a great question. Sulfates, which cause the foaming. That's not good. Dimethicone, which is a man made silicone or any, if you see any cone at the end, there's many different forms of silicones. Anything with cone at the end. Dimethicone is just one that is a man made silicone which will trap your skin. Can't breathe. Basically. It has a beautiful light texture which feels really silky. It's in a lot of eye creams, serums, even sheet masks, moisturizers. I saw it in a vitamin C serum which is like a $300 vitamin C serum and it was like the second ingredient because it felt lovely and light. It's a man made silicone and it traps the skin. So your skin can't breathe. So it does a protective barrier, but it doesn't work because your skin can't breathe and it can trap in the dirt and the bacteria so you can break out from it and you can have clogged pores. And it's not a healthy way to treat your skin. A man made silicone versus something like one of the oils, you know, something in any of my products which have the meadow foam seed oil, it's able to penetrate deep into the skin skin and deliver antioxidants and deliver essential fatty acids which protect your skin. So it's helping the lipid barrier, it's bringing it back and it's also delivering nutrients. Why on earth would anyone want a man made silicone? It's inexpensive, that's for sure. And it's light and silky, that's why. So someone asked, how often should you exfoliate? That's a good question. A lot of people overexplain. A lot of people overdo a lot of things. When you over exfoliate, you can sensitize your lipid barrier. I recommend only exfoliating one, maybe two times a week. That's it. One to two times a week. Someone just asked, how do you feel about needling? What do you think? I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of needling. I'm more of a fan of led. Basically, you want. The whole point of needling is to trick your skin into thinking it's been wounded so it will rebuild collagen. I prefer to do it with NASA technology, which is a healing red light, which goes so deep down and it is healing, but it also tricks your skin into thinking it's been wounded. And you rebuild collagen. You have the two. No thanks. I'm not going to be rolling a needle all over my face. That's just my philosophy and it's not easy to do if you go and get it done. If you have a really thick skin and you go to get it done with a facialist, at least she can balance it and see it. It's really hard, even for me as a facialist. I did try the needling when it first came out a couple years ago and it was really hard to get in all the crevices and do the right pressure. Not a good thing for me personally and I don't recommend it. You can sensitize your lipid barrier. Why not just use an LED light? Thank you for asking questions. I do want us to ask. I want you guys to Ask me questions. We're going to talk. I did print out some of the questions. Questions that you did send me earlier. All right, so someone just asked, was it hard starting a skincare line? Do you need to be great in chemistry? Well, I. Good question. I started a skincare line because I saw a need for it. I saw a white space because I didn't like what was happening. I didn't like what I was being told to sell my clients. When you have a. You work at a top and you have amazing. I have a lot of female clients. When you have amazing women that come in every month that you adore, I mean, they become your friends, you adore them, and you have a manager or boss telling you you need to sell at least $200 worth of product every time they come in. Angela. Oh, say it's natural. Your boss doesn't really have that connection that you do with your friends or clients. I didn't like it. I didn't like what I was having to sell them. I didn't like having to lie. They didn't need all the things I was told to sell them, and the things I was told to sell them didn't even really work that great. And they were overpriced. And it was a fragrance, it wasn't natural, and it was colored with a dye. So I started my skincare line because I wanted to give these amazing women and people little bit of my knowledge on what really helps your skin and not take advantage of you. And so that's why I started the line. I didn't know a lot about chemistry, but I knew a lot about the way skin reacted to ingredients. So having always questioned them what they were using, and always researching the ingredients of the products they happen to be using, and then my using so many different product lines over the years, you get a lot of trainings and you learn about ingredients. I mean, there was a point. I'll never forget this. This was not very long ago. About five years ago, when I was working for a top spa. There was a salesperson that came in. We were going to carry some other. I think it was a lash serum. We were going to carry this lash serum, and this salesperson came in and we all had to sit there. It was about 20 of us, the top spa in LA, and the salesperson was lying. And I don't know if that salesperson was lied to by their boss. But I started. I knew so much about ingredients, and the salesperson said that this was a natural product for your lashes, and you need to Sell it this way. It's $95. This is a natural serum for lashes to help them grow and stay strong. Well, I turned it around, I looked at the box and I said, well what about this, this and this and this ingredient which most people didn't even know what it was or you couldn't understand because it was a natural ingredient. It was obviously man made and toxic. And they basically just lied to me and said oh no, this is natural, blah, blah. So it's the greenwashing out there is incredible. And there's another brand who says they're 100% natural. They're far from 100% natural. The only thing that's going to be 100% natural. Oh, and it's not Tata Harper by the way. I love her brand. She is 100% natural by the way. But there's another competing brand who had a lot of like silicones, retinol, palmitate, vino, all these things that weren't natural. You could say your natural natural brand but when you say you're 100% natural, that's all. You better be 100% natural. So there's a lot of greenwashing that goes on out there, which is sad. But I'm a big fan of Tata Harper and her products. When she says 100% natural, she is 100% natural. And she made a point to be. She wasn't always. When she first came on the scene, she changed some of her formulations to become 100% natural. But again she was one of the pioneers in clean beauty and luxury beauty. So of course I have a lot of respect for her. She actually sells my La Vie en Rose quartz roller mine. She buys it for me and sells, sells it on her site in home spa on her website. All right, so let's go back to ingredients. I'm getting some questions now. I wonder, associating them with a retinoid. Ah, now we're bringing up retinoids for anti aging. Would that be okay or counterproductive? That's a hot subject and a topic we're going to talk about. Retinoids, retinoid, retinol, retinol palmitate. These are man made. And the big buzz with retinol started where? I'll tell you where it started. It started from a pharmaceutical company. When you go to your dermatologist and they prescribe retinol, which they've been doing for years, do you know how much they charge? They charge like $216.44 as the average cost of retinol. All right, so they have been prescribing it for years, the pharmaceutical companies. This is kind of a capitalist like funky story of what could be happening. Like a conspiracy theory. But it's interesting to note and to think about. Could be partially true or not true, I don't know. It's kind of a capitalist conspiracy theory. But the pharmaceutical companies, they sell retinol and they make $3 million a year. In 2016, it was noted they did a whole data study. The average is $216. The pharmaceutical companies make a lot of money, the doctors make a lot of money. Kickbacks from that. So retinol to me equals skin sensitivity. It's not something that I want. I've tried it. It's not for me. I prefer a clean retinol. That's why I came out with my daily botanical serum. The clean retinol preserves the lipid barrier but also delivers so many amazing actives with it. It's a high form of clean vitamin A, which is filled with vitamin C too, the rosehip oil. So for me personally, retinol, retinoids, it's not something that I recommend. I prefer clean retinol and that's preserving the lipid barrier. But if you're just madly obsessed with your over the counter, Your whatever it is, 2%, the tretinoin, you can use it, but use my products to balance out because your skin sensitivity is going to be through the roof and you want to restore your lipid barrier. Alright? So yeah, that's my philosophy on retinol and I'm glad you asked. Those are really good questions and I'm very excited. We have a good turnout today and I want to answer some of your questions I'm gonna go through. I've written down some of them as I take a sip of water. Hydrate and thank you for joining my skin school Saturday. This is gonna be every Saturday and very informal and hopefully we'll come up with topics that really help you. Someone just asked, what exfoliant do you like? That's a great question. I'm not a fan of granular exfoliants because I think sometimes we press too hard and I know my clients, they get in there and then when they're home and they press too hard. And they could have capillary fragility here, which most people do right in this area. And you can cause micro tears, especially things like apricot seeds, those are not perfectly spherical. If it's not a perfect sphere, it's jagged. So imagine all these crushed apricot seeds and these are in cleansers. These are in very expensive cleansers by the way, still. And these, these are in scrubs. So they're causing little micro tears which in turn. What do they do? They disrupt your lipid barrier, Sensitize your lipid barrier. We want to keep your lipid barrier intact. So I prefer acids. That's a beautiful exfoliant. It's even. And you're not going to sensitize if it's a good formulation. Your lipid barrier I am launching. I'm very excited and well now it's put off just a little bit but this year I'm launching a rose glycolic peel and I just used it this morning actually because I knew I was doing a live and I wanted to have this bright glow with my skin and it's gentle and it's something you can do once or twice a week and exfoliation is important but you don't want to over exfoliate because then you're going to sensitize and strip your lipid barrier. Yeah. And it smells like roses. You're going to love it. Just working on the packaging right now. Let's see. I will answer more questions. I'm recognizing names, joining. Hi, Carly Farris. I see Claire Barnes is here. Hi. Why don't you go ahead and type in the city where you are. I'd love to see where you are. Oh good. We're getting some more talk about. Yeah, you just want to use skin loving, lipid loving products on your skin. Not disrupting the lipid barrier, not using too many products and products work together. They're synergistic. I recommend sticking to one skincare line. One skin care line, they're synergistic, created by the same chemist person behind it to work together synergistically to create optimal skin. Oh great. I'm reading where you're from. We've got London, we've got Delray Beach, Florida. We've got Boulder, Colorado. I love it. I love that you're everywhere and thank you for watching. All right, so let's get to some of the questions. Oh wow. Nottingham, England. Wow. We are shipping internationally now. So if you're in love with my self care kit or my goddess kit which are discounted on my site, we're shipping internationally. We've got someone from Woodhaven, Michigan. I love it. Alright, so someone just asked about vitamin C. Thank you for asking that. I've also formulated and I'm waiting for the launch. I have the most beautiful vitamin C and I Did put that on this morning as well for that beautiful glow. Vitamin C is important because it's so interesting really I love being an esthetician still, you know, because when you create products this knowledge is really, really important. When I work with clients that are new or these complementary skin consults that I'm doing, I ask about their vitamin C regime because not all vitamin Cs are made the same. Also I go in and visit stores, stores that carry my products. They also carry a lot of other products and some of the other products have vitamin Cs and they've launched new vitamin C serums. Oh good, someone from Thailand. Bangkok. Yay. I love Bangkok and I love Phuket. Alright, so back to. I have to focus back to vitamin C. When you are acne prone you need to be quite careful with vitamin C. If you are breaking out and acne prone I don't want you using vitamin C. At least some forms of vitamin C, L, ascorbic acid, vitamin C which is very popular out there along with vitamin E, they usually pair it together will break you up. So there are serums that say vitamin C serum and can you may be acne prone or maybe you're not acne prone, maybe you're not at all. And you kind of went through that stage that vitamin C serum can break you out. And I've seen it. It's amazing what the wrong vitamin C can do for your skin especially if you are prone to acne. So please be very careful. You want to use the one that I'm coming out with is oil soluble. So that's important because one it's going to deliver your D down on your lipid barrier. It's not just water soluble. It's really hard to get in when you're water and your skin is made up of sebum and oils so it kind of rests there. So you want one that's oil soluble which will deliver but you want one that's stable and that's not going to go haywire. One that doesn't turn brown. So there's a new form of vitamin C that is very popular that is in this new serum that I'll be launching and it also has other ingredients that help to protect your lipid barrier. Oh, someone just asked when I'm coming out with the vitamin C. Ah, well that's in debate hopefully for sure. Fall, fall. And it's going to be more than a vitamin C. I'm not even going to call it vitamin C even though it's one of the highest forms, it's 20%, but it also has other ingredients. So it's an anti aging barrier protection, barrier repair serum. I mean, it's insane. When I put that on it, not only it's brightening, but it's really hydrating. And I'll put it on my husband, who tends to be dry, very fair skin. And if I put that on, I'll touch his face like a little bit later and it's still really moist. So this vitamin C serum, even though it's not gonna be called vitamin C serum, is really remarkable. And I worked with my chemist on this for over a year. I tried all the, all the vitamin C serums out there and I listened to my clients. I listen to people I know when I go into my research. Retail stores say that these vitamin C serums are breaking them out. A lot of them have dimethicone, A lot of them are unstable and have too much vitamin E and they can throw your skin out of whack. So either they're really good or they're really bad for your skin. So there needs to be a lot of education on different forms of vitamin C and some are actually misleading. They're like a mixture of vitamin C and glycerin and it was formulated in a lab. They're calling it vitamin C or there's citric acid at the very end of it and they're calling it vitamin C. Well, if it's at the end ingredient, there's very little citric acid and they're just calling it vitamin C. So you have to be very careful. Like I said, there's not a lot of regulation. So you have to work with a company that you trust. Someone just asked about the line. Marie Veronique. I trust her. And if you are using hers, I think that I would be okay with that. Yeah, someone just said another brand burn their skin. Yeah, you have to be careful. I really want to educate people about vitamin C. So the minute that launches, there'll be a lot of education on that. So let's talk about. There's so many things. If you use too many products, it's going to lead to skin irritation. I'm doing these consults and I'm talking with women that are using and it blows my mind, but it shouldn't because that's what they're being told and sold. Basically they're using, well, Angela, when should I use my pads with glycolic? When should I use my vitamin C? When should I use my retinol? When should I use my whatever their Acid cleanser. And I'm just like, whoa. Like they're just buying everything they think is going to work and using it all at one time. And I guarantee it's not from the same brand. Or maybe it is. A lot of it's not though. It's just from different brands and they. That's not very synergistic. But someone just said. Oh, Sarah just said. Do you agree with the skincare routine of having vitamin C in the morning and an anti aging serum at night? Yeah. Vitamin C can be used morning or night. And retinols, clean retinol, which is my botanical serum, being it's clean, you can use it morning or night. I use it both morning and night. It makes me really dewy before I put makeup on. And, and it's just delivering so much and protecting my skin. Just because it's a clean retinol, it's not a man made retinol. So I'm not going to be sensitized out in the sun, which is great. The rose hood, that's not going to sensitize my skin so I can use it morning and night. Oh, thank you. Someone just said thank you for doing this. Does that mean you want me to go? No, I'm kidding. All right, so let's talk about. I had some other questions. Okay. Let's talk about food, you know, not pizza. Let's talk about food internally. What you digest, how it affects your skin. This is really important. A lot of people don't realize this, but when I have, of course, I think people who really start to get it are people that are breaking out because they're so desperate. They're like, why am I breaking out? Why do I have all these pimples in my 30s? You know, there's just things happening, hormones, pollution. Your skin microbiome is messed up from the pollution, the bacteria. You're stripping it. There's so many answers. But what you digest is reflected in your skin as well. What I'm finding is a lot of women in their 30s are starting to break out. And like I said, I've been a facialist 25 years. This is a new phenomenon. This was not happening 10 years ago. Maybe in the past seven to eight years is when it's really come to the surface. No pun intended. But there's more women in their 30s breaking out, which is why I created the detox serum for that. But we'll talk about that later. But why this is happening one, I mean, I don't want to get too into pollution out there. On the earth, but that's a part of it that does put your skin out of whack. Usually there's studies that they found more people living in cities. Women in their 30s are breaking out. That has a lot to do with the pollution in the earth. But also a lot of people are still drinking or having dairy and milk. They put a lot of estrogen in these cows, so that can really cause a little bumps and breakouts and redness. I have helped so many clients, women who were just desperate in their 30s breaking out. Why is this happening? When I had them eliminate dairy, their skin was really easy to clear along with the right ingredients of the products they're using. Also, when you're breaking out in your 30s, this is one of the questions to adult breakouts. When you are breaking out in your 30s, you need to look at a lot of things. You need to look at your diet, you need to eat things that are good for your skin. You need to drink a lot of water, you need to look at the bacteria levels on your skin. That means when you're using products that you think are great for your skin because you're told they're great for your skin, meaning those if you're oily and you're breaking out, you use the foaming agents, which has the sulfates, which will sensitize your skin and your lipid barrier and throw your skin out of whack. And like I said, the serums, that's why I came out with my serum for breakouts. Because these ones that you shake that are pink with a sulfur. Sulfur is good for your skin, but they put alcohol in it and majority of it is alcohol. And that could really send and dry your skin. The same with benzoyl peroxide. So it's really important to not over strip your skin when you are breaking out. You need to eat a better diet because that does affect even all the sugars in the chocolate. The whole thing about, oh, chocolate leads to breakouts. It's the sugar in it that can throw your hormones out of whack. Stress contributes to breakouts. So these are all these questions. When I have a new client, I ask a lot of these things. I'll ask on a scale of 1 to 10, what's your stress level and hormones? Another thing, when I have women in their 30s who are breaking out now, I can just spot it. I feel like a little psychic behind them doing that facial on a new client. Because I'll just say, have you stopped your birth control? You're doing something different with Birth control, like, oh yeah, I just stopped three weeks ago. That's why hormones, their skin is out of whack. So a lot of it is hormone related. That also has to do with melasma hormones. They call it the pregnancy mask. When you get dark pigmentation, it's usually women and it's usually women who have a darker skin tone that are prone to melasma. And that takes a lot to treat and it's really hard on the self esteem. And the sun is the worst culprit of melasma. I have one client, she's a model, absolutely beautiful. She's Italian with a darker olive skin. She's also a surfer, so she spent years surfing and she has melasma from being exposed so much without sunscreen, in the sun, in the water, which is reflective. So when you have a darker skin tone, you are prone to more melasma or hyperpigmentation and it's really hard to get rid of. So please always wear sunscreen whether you're fair or have a darker skin tone. But you also need to be aware of lasers. You can't use a laser when you have a darker skin tone because it will go darker. It works with light. So when you have fair skin like me and hyperpigmentation, it'll bounce off the light skin with the dark pigment and they can help remove it, like ipl. It'll help remove the dark spots. But if I had a darker skin tone, I wouldn't be a good candidate for ipl. So you have to be careful with that as well. Let's see, what can we talk about here? Let's talk about diet. What you can eat that's healthy. I should have brought it out. I have blueberries in my refrigerator. It's a great snack. Blueberries are very, very high in antioxidants, which protect your skin from free radicals. And you'll notice when you eat cleaner, you feel healthier and your skin looks brighter. Salmon has a lot of omegas, which are very, very good for anti aging from fine lines and wrinkles and stimulating collagen. I mean, who knew all these healthy things you could eat? You're gonna feel better and you're gonna look better. So remember, your skin is a reflection of what's going on inside. Also, exercise is great for your skin, but if you're exercising, you have to be careful of hot yoga if you're acne prone. I've had clients come in where I figured out like they do hot yoga. I can almost spot it. They're beautiful. They're really thin, they have a yoga body. And I'll say, do you do hot yoga by chance? Like, yes. So I recommend they hate it, but I try not the hot yoga. Do the. Just the normal yoga because they're prone to sweating and it's too much sweating and they're getting too much bacteria and you can't wipe it every second when you're in a hot room. So I recommend when you are working out, like on a treadmill or your peloton if you're home, to wipe your skin as you start to sweat, to get it off, to have a clean little towel and wipe as you're sweating. All right, let's see, what else can we talk about? So avocados are really great for your skin too. I have an avocado tree, which is like the biggest blessing ever. It's this huge old avocado tree and we actually pick the avocados. And very, very good for your skin as well. And also for if you don't have too much of it. It's good for the omegas and it's also good for weight loss. My daughter is 5 years old and she just. Oh, she just saw you and said, mommy, she's beautiful. Oh, my God. Thank you, Sarah. That's so sweet. I'm sure your daughter is beautiful. That's so great. If you have any more skincare questions, please ask and we will talk about them on the fly. I want this to be interactive. Otherwise I'm going to grab the list here of the questions that I was asked ahead of time, which is very nice too. And I do want you to go ahead and DM questions for next Saturday. But let's go back as I take a sip. See, I'm talking so much I need to hydrate. So let's go back to the philosophy of skincare, my philosophy of skin care. Having been a facialist for 25 years. One calm a lipid barrier, keep it intact, use lipid loving skin care, not ones that strip the skin or deliver ingredients that are inexpensive for the manufacturer but are toxic and sensitize your lipid barrier. You'd be shocked at how many products out there actually are not good for your skin. And they're marketed and sold as they are. What's your take on water like hot water versus soft water? That's a great question. You know, the whole micellular water. The French women came out with that after the war because the water was so hard and pale. Paris. And they would attach the micelles and it's very Soft. So I do love that to remove makeup if needed. But in terms of hard water, it's not good for your skin. It's very alkalizing. It will disrupt your lipid barrier. So it's not a good thing. Let's see. So let's talk about. Yeah, so there's good bacteria. Good bacteria. The. The microme on your skin. And when you strip it with all these products, you are leaving it compromised. And that's when it will be more prone to breakout and stress and tightness and premature aging. All right, we've got someone from Santa Barbara. I love that you're saying where you're from. I love Santa Barbara. Montecito is one of my favorite cities ever. All right, so let's talk about. Let's answer some of the questions. Here we go. We talked about that. Clearing up adult acne. Someone wants a Gua Sha tutorial. I will do a gua Sha tutorial, but it'll be this week. This is skin school, so not so much tutorials. I want to just talk with you and. Oh, wow. We've got Jamie from Dubai. Amazing. We are launching in the Middle East. I'll get with the Altair group, just so you know. But I'll get more information on that. Let's see. So how to get rid of melasma. We answered that already. How do you treat sun damaged skin? I mean, we can talk about that. That's a good question. How do you treat sun damaged skin? I love the LED light for that. That does repair sun damaged skin. I love vitamin Cs. I had a dark spot here. My vitamin C serum that I've yet to launch helped lighten that. Oh, someone wants a sculpting tutorial too this week. Okay, great. We'll definitely do that. One of my favorite things is to sculpt. To sculpt our faces, to look younger, to lift, to tighten. And it's easier than you think. You can do it with your hands. You can do it with gua sha. You can do it with my sonic vibrating roller. Fast. That's the fast way. And you can do it with my rose bud rose quartz eye treatment set. Here we go. Here. This just feels so good. The quartz is just cold naturally. And I love to. When I really want to calm inflammation and sculpt, I, I love to. In the mornings, whatever rose quartz tool that I'm using, I will put it in a little ice water. I'll put ice with water and I'll let it sit in the ice for a few minutes. So it's extra cold and then you have this real wonderful capability to sculpt and lift. But also the coldness of the stone, even colder than regularly will calm inflammation and just kind of brighten and give this kind of a big wake up to your skin. And we want to calm inflammation. That's the whole point, to calm inflammation. Someone just said, if you have, if you have to buy any one tool, what would you recommend? I know it's so tough. I have so many tools and I have on my website now I did the whole tool collection, the ultimate skin tools collection and I did a little price break on that. But it's hard because that's like, which kid do you like the best? It's like what you're asking me. I mean, there are days when I just can't live without this school. This Gua Sha. We're selling so many of these. This is becoming so popular in all of my tools. So this is one of my top selling tools right now. But it's so hard. Like I love to use both of these to massage. The sculpting roller also is one of my most popular items as well. Yeah, I will save this on igtv. Thank you for asking guys. I definitely will sell this. So the answer, my favorite tool, I can't answer because each time I have a different favorite tool. Someone said, what's your take on coconut oil? If it's a main ingredient, not good if you're acne prone. So coconut oil is not good for acne prone faces on your body. It's fine. So if you're prone to acne prone or having sensitivity, you can't use it, especially if it's a main ingredient. I try and stay away from that. There are some foundations that have it which can really kind of break people out if there's too much. So be careful of that if you are acne prone. Guys, this was fun. My first skin school Saturday. I really appreciate you joining and I did have a bell right here and I totally forgot to ring it. I was gonna ring the bell. Look, I'll do it now. That was my starting school bell, but I'm doing it at the end because I got so excited to do this. I didn't even ring the bell to start. But thank you for joining me. We are going to do skin school Saturday every Saturday. And this is really fun for me. I love to teach. Like I said, I'm a certified aesthetic instructor. I used to spend my evenings after working all day at the spa teaching women, mainly women to become estheticians. So I love teaching about skincare. So I will be doing this with you as much as I can. So every Saturday at 11. Let's do it. 11 Pacific Standard Time, please. DM Any questions you have, and I look forward to seeing you soon. As you know, this week I'm going to have a lot of lives, as I always do. Wednesday we'll have the meditation live. Thursday I'll do my virtual facial live. And now Saturday, Saturday, skin school. So thank you for joining. This has been really fun. I appreciate it. And I hope you all have a wonderful day and take.