EPISODE #995: Skincare Hacks With Meteoric Results – Andy Hnilo

You're listening to the Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. Today's guest is the only guest on the show who has made every one of my female staff members and some of my male staff members like do a self conscious hair flip when they heard that he was going to be on the show. And he's been on the show several times before. His name is Andy Nilo. He's the founder of Alatura Skincare. Because I promised I was going to tell you guys exactly what you're going to get out of an episode. We're going to talk about actually taking care of your skin and especially focusing on acne. What to do when you have young skin and just at different phases in your life to have skin that looks amazing. Now, Andy here is uniquely qualified. He was a cover model for Oakley. Cover model is the right word, right, Andy?

Yeah, global campaign for Oakley.

Yeah, global campaign. Was there like a centerfold in that?

Well, there's. I mean, I was just on the E. Comm homepage for a little bit in store. It's big in Brazil. It's like a Nike in Brazil. But anyway, that really.

He's famous in Brazil, guys.

I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that. But yeah, I mean, it really. Actually that booking, that opened up a lot of opportunity to leave bartending after my accident and then focus in and lock in on the Altura clay mask up in Malibu. So now, thanks for having me, man. It's good to be here. It's good to see you.

And guys, I'm an advisor since the founding of Alatora and a shareholder and I'll just want to disclose that I've been working with Andy on helping his business grow and succeed. Although he does all the work, I just provide some good advice on occasion. And when you talk about your accident, a lot of listeners probably don't know this, but before you were with Oakley, you got in an accident that broke your jaw, basically kind of pulled off half of your face. And that's kind of bad when you're a model, right?

Yeah, I mean, well, just to touch a little bit on that accident. March 20, 2011, I was crossing the street, just left dinner, got hit by a westbound heading vehicle, lost consciousness, luckily hit in the eastbound lane and then run over by a tundra. Both cars pulled over. First responders were cutting my clothes off me in the middle of Melrose. I mean, but I mean, I'm grateful now. I mean, a lot of the audience knows that, but it led to so much purpose and just Find, I mean, I was 30 years old at that time. And you know, you have friends that have families and kids and they're starting their lives. And I'm like an up and coming actor putting, you know, cash from bartending in a, you know, in a little freezer bin to, Well, I mean, it's just where I kept my cash to pay my rent for the, you know, I was month to month, barely at that time. So, yeah, like I said, I mean, opening up that, that, that opportunity to quit bartending, focus in on Alura and the product that I ended up creating. And I want to make one point here. I would not be here if I, if without you.

Oh, thanks.

You're bulletproof. That I, I want to make that crystal clear. You gave me an opportunity that I will never forget. And my, my whole family, I'm, I, I, I just cannot tell you how much joy you brought to me, myself, my family. Oh, thanks. Having purpose and then it's just so, it's like a total full circle effect. Like I'm talking to people. I mean, I've shipped a clay mask to the Congo. Nice. Via helicopter. I mean, come on. Socrates Mojo, I think his name was. If you're out there, you're awesome. I just, I'm doing things now and I just have to thank you is not enough. But I mean, I just, I'm extremely grateful, Dave, for the opportunity that you gave me to live my dream.

It was cool, man. When you first came on the show, this is like, I don't know, six, seven years ago, eight years ago, however long it was, you weren't that far out of your accident, but you recovered fully in about six weeks. You started doing the bulletproof diet. You did all this stuff, you did all this research to see what you could do to make yourself heal. And you healed so fast that you could actually work again as a model. About six weeks after this accident, you have photos on the website that are pretty amazing, but you weren't selling, you weren't even thinking about selling what you made. You came on the show and you talked about how you made this mask with all these ingredients just to heal. And then people started saying, where can I get it? So I'm like, I'm going to hook you guys up with Andy. And I'm like, you should start a business, man. And you did. And it's so funny. Like some of the stories, the kiddie pool in the back of your house, like pouring all the ingredients, stirring them with a big paddle and making it. And now you've got full on a whole line of stuff, stuff I've used every day for, like, seven years. The gold serum. I write about it in my books. And you've learned a ton about skincare. And I just want to say straight up, okay, you're a model. You got to take care of your skin and all that. When I grew up, you probably have to be gay to take care of your skin. If you were a dude, you use the same soap they used to wash your butt, to wash your face, and, like, the soap forgets between those two things, so it's okay. So guys are known for not taking care of our skin. And I realized, you know, maybe I could do at least one thing. And so that's the gold serum. And I play around with other stuff now, and you can see a difference, right? And sometimes I'll use the mask, and sometimes I'll use this new meteorite scrub. I have the secret version of that that's not out yet, but I want you to teach people some stuff. So there's like men's skin and women's skin. What's the difference?

I mean, so I never thought that I would be so into skincare. And it started well before the accident. I mean, when I was 18, 19, I was growing into my body 168 lb. Freshman year, UC Berkeley. I had a BAS scholarship there. So I was playing, obviously, a red shirt in my freshman year. So I wanted to put on weight. And in that process of putting on 23 pounds, I was eating dorm food, creatine, getting all the supplements, just trying in an effort to, you know, put on weight, build muscle, and compete with PAC 10 athletes. And in that process, I developed, you know, dorm food, you know, grains, sugar. Terrible. A very bad case of back acne. And then I had cystic acne, which my skin was kind of clear, but cystic. It never comes to a point in infection where you can get rid of it.

It's like a subterranean pimple that hurts. Red.

Yeah, it's sore and it stands out. And then you pick at it, becomes even bigger. And so I had that going for me every now and then. It's because of the product. Well, I did a little deductive reasoning on that and just kind of went, well, what am I eating here? And just ingredients were one thing. I went from pizza, hamburgers. I mean, seriously, I just thought it was protein, calories, and fat to put on weight at that time. And so then, you know, going back from proteins, I went from that. That's reading labels right there. So I was reading labels and you know, freshman year, 18, 19 years old. And so that you go down to ingredients, right? Protein, fat, calories. And then, well, what's in this? You know, you start to see, I mean, partially hydrogenated oils, I mean, terrible stuff that I wouldn't. You couldn't pay me to test what.

Was causing the acne.

I feel like just a disruption of my hormones, number one, growing into my body. And then also just. I feel like it was the products that I was using and then also what I was ingesting, what I was putting into and onto my body. I feel like this is all theory because it changed quickly after once I started correcting that. Once I went from Noxema Clear Cell, seriously, that's what I was using into Dove Soap. Dove Soap only had five ingredients. A lot of them were coconut derived. Coconut derived surfactants. And so I use that from Will not head the two. I think I was still using Pert plus or something like that. Yeah, you know, just the heavily marketed shampoo and conditioner all in one. And yes, smells great. But I mean, God, that close to your brain, that close to that just porous scalp going into your. I mean, I feel like that can potentially a lot of this is theory, but I think it makes sense. It could potentially mitigate and kind of like stunt the growth and then ultimately I think just, you know, destroy the cell of the. The bulb of the follicle. Long term. I'm starting to get into hair care as well and really focus in on that. But that's another story. But I mean, I was just like really focused in on what I was putting into and onto my body. And I. Once I start, step by step, I started to see results. I remember I was putting, I put on a little Dove night cream. The reason why I remember that is because they had CoQ10 and I put that in my night cream too. Just. I mean it's very good, you know, at the mitochondria level.

But that's in Gold serum, isn't it?

Yeah, it's in the. It's in the gold serum and our night cream. But I. It's. But I remember 19 years old and just putting on a little night cream there and just. Absolutely. I got so much flack for that. But. And I was obviously, you know, 19, 20 years old. You take everything everybody says to you and you believe it. Yeah, you believe it. You're so self conscious and insecure. But I just want. It just made sense. I'm like, I'm gonna now feel Like, I want. I don't want it. I'm already seeing crow's feet and things like that. You know, sun beating in on me, the whole. But the whole idea, it's health wellness. It's not only skincare, it's total body optimization pretty much. But year over year, it just got better. I mean, I went from that Dove soap and then realizing. And then completely correcting my skin and then completely correcting my back, too. Like, that was 100% only products, and also diet, too. And then probably hormonal had something to do with it as well, but once I cleaned it up, it just all went away.

I think there's two causes for teenagers and just young adults getting that deep acne. The first one is, clearly there's hormonal swings, and that's for men and women. But the biggest contributor is omega 6 fats, especially oxidized ones. So you and I are eating trans fats, and they've allegedly pulled these out of processed foods, but they haven't. As long as it's less than 1 gram, they can say there's none, even though it's still in there. So if you're eating canola, corn, soybean, those kinds of vegetable oils and healthy vegetable oils, there's no such thing, to be perfectly honest. Those are a major cause of inflammation, which is the cystic. That's inflammation of the layer under your skin. And the second thing would be eating large amounts of sugar, because sugar disrupts the gut microbiome, which is a major part of this. So if you're listening to this going, I have acne. Quit eating the shitty oils and cut back on the sugar. Even if you don't eliminate it. And you might find that the acne goes down a lot. And if it doesn't, the third asterisk is that if you're living in a place with a lot of toxins, to this day, I'll get subcutaneous kind of cystic acne if I'm around toxic mold in my environment, because it creates systemic inflammation, and it's just inflammation of a very deep layer of the skin. So that said, and if you're putting crap on your skin, that can cause it. But I don't think it's an externally generated thing. I think it's internally generated from bad gut bacteria and inflammatory stuff in the body. And I don't think it matters for men or women. But for women, there's certain times of the month when you get a big hormonal swing. I don't know what to do about that? You know, I would just say going on the pill is probably not the way to solve that because it causes so many long term dam or so much long term damage to women. So you know, probably eating right to regulate your cycle is a better move.

Absolutely, I agree, I agree with that.

So let's talk about some of the topical stuff that let's say our prototypical patient here is. Let's start with an 18 year old guy who's like, I don't want to have old skin and I don't want to have, at some point, I don't want to have acne. Now what would I mean, how many things lean on their bathroom counter? Okay, this is a dude.

I mean cleanse, moisturize, exfoliate, repair, right?

That's like four things.

Yeah, I know, but it's only four. Okay, so. But it's four steps, right? Every day, cleanse in the morning, but over time you're going to get excited. I want to make taking care of yourself cool. You know what I mean? Like I think if you got that in to like the early teenage years and be like, ah, self care. Making self care.

So. All right, Andy, I've seen you go into a bar and you just like look at a woman and you're like, come over here. She just like, it's like they're hypnotized. This is your skincare, this is your skincare routine that does it. Or is it your checkered pants? Which one is it?

No, the sweet checkered pants. One of one, by the way. No, I'm just kidding. They are.

But basically you're going to look different if you do this and it's very noticeable is what I'm saying.

I mean you look good, you feel good. You're going to create better energy and create a ripple effect to everybody you meet personally and professionally. I believe I just, what I like to do is what I would Recommend for that 18, 19 year old teenager if you feel comfortable. I really started when I was 19 on the Aztec healing clay, like at a little 8 ounce jar. I think my sister got it. I don't know if I got it. I wish I could say that I got it, but it was in the COVID and I put it on and I was blown away at the polling act.

So you're like stealing your sister's makeup and stuff.

But she didn't even live there at the time. Maybe she bought it during a holiday. Like I don't, I don't know how that happened, but it was there and I Just fell in love with that Aztec healing clay. And then one by one over the years, I ditched. Well, I mean, it was so cheap to begin with, but I wanted to find another source. And then looking for that other source of bentonite, I found Russell, kaolin, pyrophyllite.

Iolite, all the stuff that you use in the, the mask. And I've got pictures of me online, you know, using the Alatora mask. And it kind of smells like seaweed. You just put it on and your skin really does noticeably look different.

It just has such good pulling around that T zone area. We have so much congestion, puffiness after a long night or maybe bad sleep or whatever, which. We had the fire alarm go off at 4 in the morning. And then if someone, I don't know if they played a joke on me, the alarm clock went off at six, so we had four, six. And I'm doing. But I feel good. You brought it out of me today. I'm feeling just fine. But yeah, I mean, sometimes you, you know, sleep can affect the way you wake up. The mask completely brings an influx of microcirculation to the surface of the skin, which especially if you want to do a derma roller before to optimize to really let the ingredients sink in further. I don't know.

What'd you do this morning in order to make your face look all good for this interview? Walk me through the Andy Nilo custom thing.

We have it on tape. So what I did, I rolled with the derma roller, put in like three drops of gold serum, little methylene blue, a little nad, mixed it up, applied, rolled again, mixed up the clay mask, a little blood orange oil, pink grapefruit, Clary sage, geranium. I forget the other one, lemongrass. And applied that in an upwards motion, let that dry. Kind of danced a little bit and in the room, but you danced a little bit.

Is that part of your skin?

Part of the routine? Twerking.

Is that twerking?

I mean, I, that's. I don't have enough back there to, to really make a noticeable twerk that. So no jump squats.

Yeah, there you go. I, I was noticing you were a little deficient in the squad. I was judging you there.

And being a baseball player, that's just not the, the reputation that you want to have. The guy, you know, the long back guy.

It's funny, our assistant filming today is Jack here, who's about to go off to school to play baseball, so.

Oh, no way.

Now you're discouraging him from doing squats. You're contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

That was. Man, that's just because my form was bad. I got to work on that. I need a trainer. Definitely do squats. Shortstop, pitcher. Okay, ready? Nice. That's awesome, man. It's not easy to make it to the next level. Best of luck.

So we talked about basically Jack, you know, what should he do for his skin? And you're like four stabs. Tell me those again because I don't remember them. That's too many stabs.

Cleanse, cleanse.

Okay, so what do you cleanse with?

Well, I use a pearl cleanser. A gentle cleanser at that age is.

Let's talk about like you can feel free to talk about the allotor stuff. So guys, remember I'm an owner of the company, right? And I've supported Andy on his journey. So it's cool if you support him. But talk to me also about like ingredients. So people are like, look, I don't want to do altour. I want to just. I want the knowledge. You got to teach us. But it's fine to say, here's why you do what you do in the product.

Absolutely.

So cleanser with pearl. But tell me about pearl. Tell me about cleanser and what should you avoid?

So the good thing about the pearl cleanser is it's very gentle. It has a high concentration of pearl powder, which I mean you can put in your hands and just add a little water put on your face and it just mitigates the irritation. You stay just pearl, pearl and water. So it's very calming to the skin. And then we have colloidal silver in there to eat up bacteria. A little tremella mushroom as well as marshmallow root and a giant kelp extract to really calm the skin as well. We have an olive based surfactant which we're not using any harsh foaming agents, any synthetic.

So foaming is bad in general. Why is foaming bad?

Sodium lauryl sulfate is usually the culprit of a foaming agent. It's a government recognized carcinogen. So they have a. It's one of the. The most that fragrance the different dyes used in colors. Sodium benzoate, phenoxyethanol. I mean potassium sorbate. I mean, I just like to stay away from the harsh toxins or any synthetic ingredients that I can and make it as close to nature as possible. But those foaming agents, I think, you know, just. It just always has irritated my skin. That combined with fragrance and preservatives and unorganic glycerin and just the myriad of alcohols and different preservatives combined. I mean, they just killed the formula. Butylene glycol. Propylene glycol. I mean, like, it's just. Yeah, it's loading.

So non. Foaming is a real important thing to do. If you're getting like super foamy stuff on your face, you're getting stuff that disrupts the cell membranes in your skin.

It's not that common to find a natural foaming. Like I'm working on a foaming cleanser right now and we can get it. We can get it. So I wouldn't say it's a foaming thing.

Usually if it's foamy, it's from chemicals.

But a chemical, usually it's from sodium lauryl sulfate.

Okay.

And. Which is a government recognized carcinogenic.

I mean, daily fragrance and colors. You just don't want to put that stuff on your body. It absorbs into your blood through your skin.

Right? Absolutely. There's a, there's a study that on average, women leave the house with over 200 government recognized carcinogens every day. Can you believe, I mean, between hairspray, lipstick, makeup, deodorant, I mean, it makes sense. I mean, you're doing the math. But seriously, that does make sense. I mean, every day when you're. And then who knows what type of shampoo they're wearing. That, that needs to be like known. That's ridiculous. It definitely shortens longevity.

It's almost like the government shouldn't be responsible for your health because they're not responsible for your health because they brought you the food pyramid. And even all the stuff that we spray on crops, they only test it for safety. On honeybees, they do zero testing for anything that lives in soil. So we're like sterilizing the planet because of these clowns who should not be making the decisions they're making, including about what you put on your body. So you have to make those decisions. That's why I want to have you on just to talk about that. Is it true that I shouldn't do a glyphosate facial directly?

Ah, that's infuriating. I mean, no, definitely, glyphosate is the biggest culprit. I mean, especially, you know, bee products specifically. I mean, we, I mean, that's the products, right?

Yeah.

I mean, propolis, pollen, beeswax, obviously, honey, royal jelly. I mean, it is so molecularly complex in the beautiful base. I mean, we have. Our manufacturer is a small family Owned business in Haleiwa, Hawaii, that creates holistically raised hive products. An emulsion that is so healing and just so rich in enzymes that I'm just lucky I found them and very grateful that I found them. And then combining that, like the best nature, the best from nature, and like cutting edge organic botanicals with skin science and clean skin science ingredients that, I mean, I'm actually having, like, people reach out because Alatur is getting that, that reputation, which I love. But, you know, I just, I want to get that. That increase in just knowledge of what we're putting into an outer body is not what they think it is. I just saw, I don't want to say the name, but I mean, it's gone down even to this popular scrub that I grew up using. And they have this little badge, top right, made with 100% natural in small little letters. Exfoliants.

What does that even mean, natural? Like, isn't oil natural because it comes out of the ground?

Yeah, natural. I mean, I don't even. Exactly. I don't like using the word natural. I want to use the word beyond organic. You can get better performing ingredients. It's more expensive, takes time to create. But it's just, you're finding out and navigating different manufacturers in the industry that aren't used to the detail and the non negotiable ingredient decks that I approach them with. And then they come with revisions and I go, okay, let me just see that ingredient deck. And then they come back with, I mean, now it's another revision. I mean, it's, it's all staying on top of just non negotiable mission as a part of our mission with ingredients and how we formulate our products.

It takes a little bit of obsessive compulsiveness around that. Back when I was involved with Bulletproof and the stuff that they made, I would go to the natural flavor things. And natural flavors are not good or bad. You just don't know where they're from. And some of them are beaver anus and petroleum. Gross. So I would actually torture them and be like, okay, you got to tell me, where did this come from? And was the feedstock GMO or non gmo? They're like, that's proprietary. I'm like, I'm not buying it. And eventually they'd say, okay, fine, that was made from something fermented from genetically modified corn. I'm like, I don't want it. I don't want to contribute to degradation of the soil, so I'm not going to do it. And I don't know what standards because I'm not at all involved with bulletproofing. I have no idea what they're doing right now. But it's that level of care that you also have for Alatura where you're saying like, every little thing matters. And when people decide to support a small company like yours or like my new Danger coffee or anything like that, you're supporting that attention to detail so that you don't have to go out and do all the research yourself and figure out every little thing and then try and make it. Because that's what you did with the original scrub, right? You're like, I can't buy this. I gotta go make it. And everything I do is like, I can't buy it. I guess I'll make it.

Absolutely.

But one thing that drives me crazy as an advisor, Myra and glass. These are like the most expensive glass containers. They block light perfectly and they're the highest end. So why do you package all of your stuff in like, really? It has a few dollars in the cost of the bottle.

Oh, it does. And man, thank you for bringing that up. I want my customers and following and people listening to understand that nobody uses. Not. Not many people use that glass because of cost. It blocks out all artificial light and only lets in the good UV light effectively. Like brightening and enlivening the. Just the bioactivity of the ingredients and keeping them is just. It's hard to explain. They have different studies between tomato paste and like a glass and that the miron glass bottle. And it just. What it does enhances the life and the bioavailability of the products. I mean it's just their whole motto is preserved by the bottle, not by toxins. And so we use that. We're not even using a preservative in our moisturizer meteorite in our gold serum. I mean, because these are pumped body lotion. I mean it's just. These are raw, real live ingredients that were on hives. I mean it's a bee product base. But I mean some of the active ingredients obviously not on the hive, but I mean it is clean and just. It's like making an album. That's the best way I can. I can describe it. I mean there's a lot of stuff, a lot of revisions that got left on the cutting floor that I mean, I mean with the present or presents, our first fragrance working on another one, women champaka based, but only female focused. But that right. That product right there. I mean I signed off on it three times total. I signed off on it twice and went, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Sue. It's just. It's a little too baby powdery or a little too, you know, floral or sweet. But, I mean, that's how. I mean, you have to be obsessed, of course. You know, I mean, that's what drew me to you. And bulletproof, when John Baker brought it up. I mean, just like the level of obsession that you have to. In detail and also knowledge. Gotta know of being able to ask those questions. Is it proprietary, then? Ah, we all know what that means, you know, and it's just getting on the same page with your manufacturers, which is very impressive that you're able to do that because. And I learned that from you for sure. Sometimes you have to go there in person. You know, lab coats. I'm in a, you know, American Apparel Henley. I'm going, that's not the pearl powder going over there. They think I'm psych. I'm tasting the pearl powder. That's not Jing herbs. You know, it's Ali Baba for a fraction of the cost. I mean, see, really, unless you're there. And the manufacturers, while they're, you know, you know, office, a room or plant, while they're doing it, man, that's the thing that really keeps me on edge, is because I hope I. It's all in writing. They signed my contract, but I hope they're doing the right thing with my ingredients. And so far they are. But you really have to have that personal relationship with. You gotta watch it. I have six different manufacturers for all my different products, which is a lot because you can't be great at everything.

Now you keep sending me these prototypes of meteorite scrub. Now, meteorites sound kind of expensive. Why would you put a meteorite in a scrub?

It's cosmic. Cosmic.

Cosmic.

Oh, yeah.

Studied cosmic.

What do they mean? It's just a very spiritual out there guy. Nobody does that. It's a mild exfoliant. 15k for a half kilo or whatever it was. I mean, that's. I didn't do it for the cost, but it is, it is. It's just I want people to have a connection to the product because I definitely do.

You know, instead of those plastic microbeads which are totally clogging up oceans, getting your cell membranes and all, like any. Any exfoliation thing with micro whatever, those are kind of ruining the planet right now. So meteorites probably aren't ruining the planet unless they're really big and moving really fast. We have an issue.

Yeah, it's so with the meteor. So proud of this product, by the way. I mean, when I was in New York, what, 2018, on like a little press tour, I saw. Was it Cosmo, Cosmopolitan, or wait, no, no, no, no. Vogue. And Vintner's daughter had an article written up on her as the best skincare product ever made for her serum. I met her, Angela. It's legit. I want to have something. When I saw that, I don't know if they paid for it or whatever, but I really believe this will be talked about. That's why I wanted to have something special. I mean, they're out. My supplier, they ran out. Somebody got the last. So you want to talk limited edition? I mean, I'm sure. I'm actually going to go to the Tucson Gem show next year and get a. A meteorite Pulverize it. Micro filter.

You're going to use subpar meteorites? Is that what I'm hearing?

No, no. Something better. No, it's. It's. I mean, it's. It's going to be difficult to find on the next round. But I did it because just to be different. And it's all. It's part of several different.

It also makes like a certain fragment size that. That works differently than sand or something, right?

Yeah, but they polish the particles so they're. They're rounded. They're not like. Yeah, that's another thing, though. Like with walnut holes, they have little angles. And actually that's how a company got in trouble recently. So we want to make them rounded, nice, smooth, gentle exfoliants, which. It's like a tri level exfoliant system. So we have lava rock, pulverized lava rock, California poppy seed, a little meteorite scrub, Fulvic acid, hyaluronic acid, mandelic acid, and lactic acid. Really? Mandelic acid is a very potent enzyme. I mean, it just really helps. Just resurface the skin. I would say hyaluronic is in there mostly for hydration, but this is for long term. Like letting your skin thicken itself naturally at a cellular level rather than harshly using, you know, people when they. When they scrub. I want it to be a combination of like good deep redness with like the niacinamide, but also like one to three times. One to three times a week tops. But you want to take a couple days off in between. But letting the acids, once that tri level, like small, medium, large exfoliant system exfoliates dead skin cells. I want the acids kind of come through and then like invigorate at a cellular level. It's all, I mean I just, it, I know what it does and I know what it's been explained to me with my chemist and it's, it's hard to explain what it does beyond that. No, I mean as far as like invigorating at a cellular level, once exfoliated, I'm trying to break it down. Does that make any sense?

Yeah, it makes sense, but the combination.

Of the acids along with the bamboo stem cell extract, pearl powder, I mean we have Montana U Tip powder and Montana U tip oil from Bozeman. From a small family that I met out at the Natural Products West Expo. I mean, so just seeking and sourcing ingredients that people haven't used or heard of before for reasons not just woo woo with the meteorites. I mean it has been used before. I wish I was, you know, the first. But it's. Yeah, it's a mild exfoliant which brings a cosmic aspect which is all about, which is me. I mean, I'm just a real, very spiritual. I'm fascinated by what's out there.

I actually think it's okay to say, you know, that your intention is in a product. And so we have this, this kind of spiritual aspect to it. So I like the energy of meteors. There's actually nothing unscientific about that. It's. I like it, I want it to be in there and I put my intent, you know, the new danger coffee. I want you to feel dangerously good and like there's something you do and all the best branding people and product creation people. There's something that a founder does when they really give a shit. Right. And I can't tell you what it is, but I know that I'm doing it and I know that you're doing it too. And I think it's, it just shows how people feel when they use it. It's like the experience in total. So I'm down with the spiritual aspect of that. Some people listening may say that's all bullshit and that's okay, try it. It still works whether you think it's all bullshit or not. So there you go.

It's not. Thank you. That makes so much sense. And yeah, you explained it a lot better than I could. It's. Yeah, it's a field thing. I mean this project, all of these are one by one, they take years. This one, like I said, five. Once we finally wrap up it. Wrap it up. I see the tube and we're just designing the tube. But it'll be out by the time this is released. Very excited for that. And then it's on to the next one. Putting a bow on deodorant. We have a full hair care line coming out. Sunscreen, but it's going to be. And then a Alatura blue product. So we got cleanse, Cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize and repair.

Cleanse, exfoliate, then you moisturize. Okay. And is the gold serum actually moisturizing or should I be using.

Absolutely.

I have the night cream. I use that sometimes. But like, what do you put on a moisturizer during the day or is that the gold serum?

The gold serum or the moisturizer? Some people stack. I'll go two and two and kind of rub it in my hands and then apply.

I just like shave and take the gold serum. But I put a drop of methyl.

Throw it in the hair too.

I'm telling you.

Yeah, yeah.

It's not gonna get kind of oily.

No, it's. Seriously, it's light enough. I'll do it right now.

I'm gonna have to take the methylene blue out, otherwise I'm gonna look kind of blue haired.

I did that this morning too. It's crazy. I mean, I'm a weirdo man, but I mean. Yeah, it's so for. With the gold serum. It, you know, we made that after. And I learned more. I mean that was a couple years after the moisturizer. The moisturizer is an amazing product that. Right. I mean a lot of people prefer that over the gold serum, but the gold serum has concentrated active ingredients.

That stuff is really.

Thank you. Thank you. I mean I really, I feel like that's the best serum on the planet. I want somebody else. I mean, we won best serum 2018, best runner up, second place 2019. And then we just got. What was it we won? Think dirt. Yeah. For the night cream as well in 2021.

So I mean, they're super high end products. Okay.

Yeah.

And they last a long time too. I don't know how long a bottle is supposed to last, but it lasts me a while.

It's. Yeah. I mean we have. That's 18 months once open for the, the gold serum night cream. A little bit shorter shelf life.

But it's like in terms of usage, if you use it every day, it's going to last for like a couple months, right?

At least a month. Yeah.

So you spend like a buck a day on your facial care kind of thing.

Yeah. I mean you're getting, I mean, what it does has like a mild brightening effect to it which is just accidental. With the Coq 10 has a little orange tint and jojoba. It just provides like this little glow and glimmer, like a glint, almost like a tinted moisturizer. But not meant to be that way. It just happened that way with.

All right, we've got, you cleanse, you exfoliate, you moisturize. And what are the really bad things people should avoid in a moisturizer?

Glycerin. Why is glycerin bad? It's just, it's a, it's just, it's an emulsifier. It's just, it's just there to provide a feeling of moisturization. But it doesn't do anything. Yeah, no, it's, it's a total, it's a filler. It's always a part of, often a part of the first five ingredients. I mean, I saw. Yeah, it's just you want to make.

Something, it's not functional. You're saying so that you're buying a bottle that's half glycerin and doesn't do anything.

Yeah. Water, glycerin, alcohol. I mean I remember going to a manufacturer and having a guy go, that's like baking a cake, right? You got your water, glycerin, alcohol. You can, you have, you have your choice of, you know, kind of, you know, it's all marketing, right? Like. No, no. And I disagree with all. It's not like baking a cake. Find a way to get that emulsion. Get like a base point, you know, benchmark of an emulsion that you want. Give that to a reputable chemist. And then the creative fun part, just designing that. I mean, just beautiful ingredients. Coconut butter, beeswax, aloe vera, ylang ylang sea buckthorn, cupuacu, acai butter, inderoba, buriti, prakashi. I mean you could keep, I mean things that people haven't even heard of that have government recognized car or I mean, studies on PubMed for, you know, scar reversal. I mean they're, they're out there. But I mean, you know, big companies are probably doing the best to mitigate that information.

Is, is alcohol bad for your skin?

It depends. Ingesting. I feel like, you know, consuming a.

Lot of alcohol, drinking alcohol always mess up your skin.

Right. But as far as it's a tough one. I mean if you're not using organic gluten free alcohol and formulas. Yeah. I would prefer you use organic witch.

Hazel that uses alcohol in it anyway. Right.

Yeah. I mean but it's small. I mean, it's a little bit more.

I don't think ethanol alcohol is particularly bad for your skin. Rubbing alcohol is pretty bad, but that's isopropyl. So a little bit of alcohol when necessary to drive ingredients in. Or, like, I don't know, a little bit. Like, I've seen it in lots of healthy products, like witch hazel. Like, it's got some alcohol in it, but I wouldn't want to be putting any isopropyl unless it was, like, a wound or something. And for a little bit of ethanol when necessary. I don't know that I have a deal with it, but I wouldn't want to soak my face in ethanol either.

That's interesting. We're making a toner.

Yeah.

And it does have organic alcohol and witch hazel, but that's before the whole point. That's it. I'd never thought of it that way, though, as far as driving in the ingredients and opening up maybe pathways for more absorption of that ingredient afterward or of the product.

It also sterilizes your skin. So, like, after you shave. You know, I've even played. And you should play around with this with putting caffeine in. Like, topical caffeine does great stuff for your skin. So. By the way, see, there's my caffeine molecule.

Nice.

This actually leads me to totally different directions. Yeah, topical caffeine is great. Do you actually put all the. On your biceps or, like, do you exfoliate your biceps?

Well, I mean, on my body. Oh, God, here we go.

What are you at 7% body fat now?

I mean, I haven't got them measured. I'm.

By the way, guys, for body fat, Andy's probably too low. For longevity and for your biology, it may work very well. But Generally speaking, under 9, 10% tends to be harder to maintain, and it maybe is biologically stressful. But you've always been pretty lean, so I think that's just your genetics.

Yeah, I've been very lean, but, like, that does make sense. I want to put on a little bit more just fat. I mean, saturated fat is what your brain's made of. I mean, just really, I gotta. But I consume a ton of fats.

It's probably. You need some more carbs. You've been pretty low carb for a long time. So, yeah, just every now and then, have a marshmallow. You'll be fine.

Or sweet potato beets, probably.

Sweet potato.

Brussels sprouts. Cauliflower.

Brussels sprouts. Cauliflower aren't gonna do it, but you might actually need a little bit more starch in the evenings. That'll help you put on a little bit more.

Okay.

Probably raise testosterone, too. Do you use testosterone?

No, I don't.

No. Okay.

No.

Peptides.

Sarm peptides, yes.

Okay, definitely. Which peptides do you like?

Copper peptide, NAD, thymosin alpha 1, thymusin beta 4. BPC157.

Okay, cool. So then you inject them and. Yeah, okay, good deal. Yep. I have used all those as well. So you're taking good care of yourself and all that stuff because you've got, like, the pro athlete and like, you have to. To be, you know, looking good because of the model background. Just. Oh, no, you have a skincare company. If you walk around looking all janky, people are going to say your stuff doesn't work, right?

Well, yeah. And also it just feels good. I mean, ever since, you know, just recovering from the accident, you know, I mean, I would work out, but I became obsessed because that was part of, you know, just getting back to where I was before. And I did. I got back pretty quickly. So I just wanted to maintain that, you know, attention to what I put into my body. And it's accelerated over time, but, I mean, that's. It's never been as to the point where it is right now. But the accident was a catalyst to that for sure. Just taking care of myself and from a supplement level. And then also it just leaned into peptides. Man, that is probably the biggest game changer, I would say, is NAD.

I've been doing NAD IVs and talking about them on the show since I think the first NAD IVs have been around really first, like drug and alcohol addiction. But I've done probably 25 IVs, and I take all the precursors, and I'm a fan, so NAD is great.

What are some of your favorites?

That's a pretty good list. I also like Epitalin for aging.

Oh, yes.

I do that once a year, 10.

Days in a row.

Probably every six months would be good or lower dose more frequently.

Works really?

For telomere extension, there's MSH or Melanotan 2. That stuff's amazing because it lets you get a tan in 20 minutes. You inject it, you go out in the sun for 20 minutes for three days, and you've got a dark tan. And lower doses of that can be anti aging. But if you're already pretty dark, you probably don't want to use it because you get a lot darker. But if you don't want to put On a lot of sunscreen. Having a tan is naturally protective, so it's good to do that. And you probably still want some sunscreen, like on your face and whatever. And you take really good care of yourself. And that's, that's part of why I want to teach people what's going on with skincare and all. We talked about kind of those four steps, do they change if you're like 30 or 40 or if you're a man versus a woman? Or is this like the standard thing that works for everybody?

I feel like it's a standard thing that works, I mean, create that, you know, that circulation through. I mean, creating circulation to the surface of the skin, I mean, brightens. Get stagnant capillaries moving around your face. Like, I'm trying to do my best to break this down at a scientific level. And then say exfoliating dead skin. Skin cells, revealing the fresh skin cells underneath. Right? And then hydrating that area that you just exfoliated after say, you know, bringing. I mean, and then, and then cleansing that every day. I mean, that's the process, cleansing that with really rich ingredients. Hydrating and healing that area that you just exfoliated after bringing blood flow and circulation to the surface of the skin. I mean, I just know it's a. That's the recipe.

Okay.

I mean, that doesn't. That just sounds. I mean, that's what I do. That's what the whole recipe is. But that's how it works. I mean, I believe universally for men.

And women, it works. And so those make a lot of sense. I don't really like carrying a lot of crap with me when I travel.

Four things, maybe even three if you want to. Just.

So I always have the gold serum. I mean, I've been troubled without that in years. Right. Cleansers. Sometimes I bring a cleanser. I like the pro cleanser. And sometimes I'm like, you know, I just have this like bar of soap. But it's not like the cheap crappy soap. It's like, you know, high end soap made out of like coconuts and whatever. And if I just use a little bit of that on my face and then I put gold serum on, am I gonna, am I gonna die?

No, no, that's actually, I mean, it's fine. Hey, each routine, everyone's teach their own. I mean, I have friends. I mean, my friend Limone Archie, actor. I asked him if you want to try some of my products. He's like, man, honestly, I just do Jurgen's baby lotion ever. He has the best skin I've ever seen, dude.

And like, that's genetic because that's not the best lotion.

I mean, yeah, it'll be like 70 still looking like that. So, I mean, teach their own. I know people that just splash water on their face. Some people have that, you know, genetic gift to be able to. To do that. I just, I want to. Who knows, maybe you or I would be like that. I want to optimize, you know, I want to optimize what I can. Who knows? I mean, if they would. You know, I'm thinking, I'm trying to think of an example of someone. I know that, but they, you know, it's just. What if you added a gold serum? What if you encouraged, you know, the life of a lot of the staging capillaries. What if you started using one? How good would your skin be down there? You know, it's just. I know it's a process, but it's tough to talk to me about. It's like asking. I don't know, I'm not comparing myself to Michael Jordan, but, like, how do you know it's talking to him about, like, free throws or something like that. Like, skincare is. I mean, you saw it today, John. Like, it's a big part of my life. Just naturally, now that I'm thinking about it, it's a process. It's always around. I work from home, always have the red light on. So it's like that combined with the gold serum always applying, and it feels good. Look good, feel good. You're gonna create that ripple effect personally, professionally, wherever you go.

We've got Alatura at Upgrade Labs here. Actually, we're recording this at the Beverly Hilton, which is my favorite hotel here in la. We hold the biohacking conference here some of the time. And we've got Alotra products down there. People put them on before they use our red charger and our red bed and all that stuff. And yeah, it makes a difference. So why do you put collagen in the products themselves? Does that work?

So we use marine collagen, which is a red snapper form of collagen that it's liquid. However, if I were using, like, I actually tried it with your bulletproof collagen powder. For some reason, it wasn't sinking in the powdered particles. I just, I feel like the liquid does cross the epidermis. This is, it's. It's. It's an active ingredient that's in the gold serum that we're using. Okay, but. And in the Pro cleanser as well. But it's it that's specifically in there for not, not like not only emulsion but also for anti aging skin benefits. So there's something there like I don't know if it's the form of the liquid or the gelatinous. I think it's from the cheeks right there. But they got it to a point where it does cross that epidermis.

Well, there's like whole collagen molecules and then there's. If you break collagen down with enzymes you can get these things called tripeptides and copper tripeptide is one of them. But there's other tripeptides in it that probably do have a signaling effect on the skin versus taking whole collagen like the stuff I used to make at Bulletproof. I'm not sure what is in it. What's in it now because I don't have access to the ingredient decks or anything. But if it's whole collagen it's unlikely to be able to absorb. If it's topical it probably could as long as it's fully broken down. So that's cool. You found a source from Red Snapper which is.

No, it's a good question though because I did think about, you know, because the, the collagen it does dissolve pretty well into water depending on the source and it is that. But the particle size does. They don't break down. It doesn't dissolve completely with, with the clays like I, I was thinking about adding that in and I still may. But I need a. I need to have a reason. I need it to be effective and I don't want. I mean we just basically talked about. I wanted. It's got to be different. It's got to be probably like a, at a tri peptide level.

I think we have a massive problem with plastic microbeads. But do you pay attention to that when you're sourcing stuff for alot?

Absolutely. I mean we would have had the meteorite scrub released probably three years ago if I wasn't non negotiable about the sugarcane tube on my packaging. I mean we were close 2020. And then my sales rep for the sugarcane tube got fired and then they wouldn't keep me to the minimums it. So I had to source that tube again. Found it a year and a half later and now we're going back down. But that's purely. I just want to let the audience know that. Yeah, that's purely why that product hasn't been released. Formula's been done Forever, which obviously is. I'm just chomping at the bit. I want to release that product, but I got to get my tube. I mean, you have one chance to release something that you. I've worked on this for too long. I don't care how long it takes. I want it to be perfect. I want it to be perfect on the first time. And so that's the only reason. So, yeah, the sugar cane tubes more environmental, environmentally friendly than, you know, plastic. I just, I. I don't understand why you wouldn't go glass on anything. In this case with a scrub. I think at night I want to have a tube too, you know, just to die. You know, make the. The lineup look a little diverse in pictures and things like that. And it. Tubes more conducive for facial scrubs and body scrubs.

You want to drop glass in the shower? That's kind of annoying.

No, no, but no, thanks for asking. I mean, that's. That's a big. So important to me. I mean, mirror on glass. Anybody who uses mirror on glass, recyclable, for sure. But I can't believe people would want to throw that away. Keep those bottles. Use them. You know what I mean? I can't wait to get direct on the bottle. Metallic oil, like ceramic ink, printed, like, no labels, nothing. So that's another way to cut down on packaging. We use 95% post recyclable box now rather than just the bubble wrap. And I just.

It's that attention to detail. Like, you're. You're absolutely obsessive about it. And I like to buy my stuff from obsessive people. And so part of the reason that you support small companies and all is you want someone who's just like, I care a lot about this one thing.

That's a really good point. I mean, I come alive watching people describe their passions and what. Whatever. I mean, see how their eyebrows. I mean, they like just the passion that they have talking about. I mean, you're absolutely right. I would definitely. That makes you want to pull the trigger even more. I mean, and you can tell if they're, you know, being authentic and truthful about that. I mean, I just. Yeah, I mean, I look for people like yourself and I mean, I know how I feel about that. And I just try to try to see if other people mirror that and just are passionate about what they're sharing with the world. But yeah, it's. But anyway, just people passionately talking about what they love obviously leads to just thinking that they've spent a lot of Time and research into what they're bringing to the market. And I know I have. I just. I'm agreeing with you.

Nice. Now you know the deal. You come on the show, you got to support listeners with the discount code.

Oh, absolutely.

So it's alatura.com, but what's the code?

Alatura.com. a L I T R A dot com. And the code? Human upgrade.

Human upgrade.

All right, 20% off.

Thanks, man.

Entire store. No, but really, I mean that. Like, the reason why I'm here and doing all that is because you gave me an opportunity, Dave. Seriously, I just. I want to thank you.

You're welcome.

Andy, from the bottom of my heart.

It'S hard work to be an entrepreneur. You've learned a lot. And it's kind of funny, I still remember that conversation. Like, man, it's taken me a long time to mix all of these because you're mixing one at a time, like with a chopstick. Because you weren't going to start a business. Just people wanted the stuff that made your face better. And it was kind of cool just to see how listeners responded. And they were all real supportive as you were getting going. And you scaled it up, and now you're running a sizable business with. With multiple awards for the quality and effectiveness of the things you make. So you've earned it. And it's hard work being an entrepreneur. So nice work, Andy.

Thank you, Dave.

Alatura.com, code human upgrade. Save 20% and support guys like Andy who just make stuff that is obsessive. That means you don't have to do the thinking. And that's my job, too. I'm gonna curate the world's best experts and all the stuff I'm interested in and introduce you guys. So now you know Andy, if you didn't know him already.