EP165. Revolutionising the nail industry - the MANISAFE mission

The one point that my mother drilled into me from a young age was to always protect the skin on the backs of my hands. I have vivid recollections of her massaging sunscreen into her hands and reminding me to constantly take care of mine. And in an industry that's obsessed with preventing the process of aging, you'd think that message would come back when it comes to our hands. And you'd think that we'd see more beauty brands. Talk about protecting your hands. Now there are definitely products for your hands out there, but I don't tend to see big billboards or TV adverts telling me that my hands are going to age. So I think it's safe to say that hand care can be a bit of an afterthought. Now let's tie that to the huge booming nail care industry. Many women will get their nails done at least once a fortnight and will spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year on their nails. And it goes without saying that I think all of them would want to make sure that their hands are safe in the process. Well, it turns out that gel manicures, beautiful as they are, can pose risks as well. The lamps used to set the gel in your manicures emit UV rays, which can damage the skin on the backs of our hands. And various studies have started highlighting these risks. Luckily, one entrepreneur has picked up the mantle of ensuring that we can still have gel manicures and keep our hands safe at the same time. So today on the podcast, I'm joined by Candace Quinn, founder of Manisafe, who's going to drop lots of information that you need to know if you ever have gel manicures. Manicures. Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make or sell your green beauty formulations. In my weekly episodes, I explore the sustainability of the beauty industry and encourage you to join me in changing the beauty industry for the better. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmeyer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic foundation formulation school Formula Botanica. We have thousands and thousands of students in over 180 countries around the world who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you want to be the first person to know what's happening in green beauty, make sure you subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. So in today's episode, I'm joined By Candice Quinn, co founder of Manisafe, a multi award winning small business with a mission to make gel manicures kinder to the skin on our hands. So Manisafe offers a collection of stylish UV protective gel manicure gloves which I have as well. Designed to protect your hand skin from harmful UV light emitted by nail lamps to cure gel polish, manisafe gloves deliver UPF 50 rated protection and there are six stylish colors and prints to choose choose from. So they're a very effective SPF and fashion accessory all in one. Since launching in 2021, Manisafe has protected thousands of hands, is sold online in 17 countries and is stocked in London based boutique nail salons and aesthetic clinics. Hi Candice, how are you doing today?

I'm really well, thank you. How are you?

Yeah, good. I'm really looking forward to this conversation because I think you have an amazing story. So let's start at the top. What, what is Manisafe?

Yeah, I know. Thank you. Firstly, thank you for having me. So Manisafe is a brand I started in April 2021 on a mission to make gel manicures kinder to people's skin. So we offer a collection of multi award winning and stylish UV protective gel manicure gloves. So they, you slip them on during the gel mani process and it protects your hands while your hands in the lamp curing the gel polish. So the UV light that's used to cure the polish and make them chip free and durable for two weeks is great for that purpose. But it obviously can have negative effects on our skin which I can see you're wearing what.

This? Can't see this. But I've just put my mani safe gloves on so I might show them on social media when this episode drops because they're beautiful and you've got quite a few different ones, haven't you?

Yes, we have a collection of six colors and prints at the moment. They're all named after different areas of London. They help people express their personal style. They can match them to their gel polish, their outfits, their moods. So we have six different ones at the moment, but there's also two new solid colors coming out in May as well. So really excited to share those with everyone.

Yeah, the whole thing is really exciting. It's such a fascinating concept and we're going to get more into the science later in the interview. But tell me what triggered you to want to start Manisafe was the big thing that gave you the idea?

Yeah, so. So my background. Firstly, it's probably helpful to share what my background is, which triggered my passion to start Manusafe. So my background's always been in healthcare medical devices. So when I was in Canada I was a physiotherapist. So I did bachelor's degree in exercise science and then my master's degree was in physiotherapy. So my whole university career and training was in pathology sciences and then practicing as a physiotherapist. It's all about evidence based treatments and medicine. When I moved over to the UK in 2012, I continued on that path of everything being evidence based because I moved into medical devices which is a very highly regulated industry. I was working with thought leaders in orthopedics, so all the surgeons on advising them how to use the products at the company that I was working for, which was a big global medical device company. And then by the end of my career with them, I was actually working with thought leaders in the field on developing surgical techniques using those products. So as you can imagine, everything science driven, evidence driven. But equally when I moved over to the uk, it's what planted the seeds of my entrepreneurial journey that made me leave my career in healthcare and medical devices was when I got my first gel manicure. I was not manicure lover before experiencing gel manicures because I worked in the health care settings and if I got a regular gel manicure, if I after I applied it within like two minutes of looking at it, even it would chip. So and you can't have chipped polish in health care settings because it can harbor bacteria. So when I moved over in 2012, one of my friends took me for my first gel manicure and as I say, it's like love at first loss. I was obsessed. I was like, I just thought it was such a game changer, the fact that I could have my nails look good and not have to worry about the chipping. And I pretty much had them. I do them ever since, at least every month, if not it'd be every two weeks. And for me it was just that's my go to beauty treatment, my self care piece. It didn't matter if I was in meetings at work or if I was waist deep in nappies when my kids were young, it made me feel really good. So started. So that was the seeds of entrepreneurial journey because I developed this passion. But it was about 2017 where a friend sent me a article that said that the lamps emit UV exposure to cure the polish. So at the time when I started getting gel manicures all the lamps in the nail salons where I went to used LED nail lamps. You don't see anything, nothing's written down saying uv, they don't talk to you about it. So I was shocked because knowing with my background, I know the effects of UV exposure on the skin. Like it's a group, it's a classified group. One carcinogen that can cause premature aging to our skin increases your risk of skin cancer. So I was absolutely shocked at that stage that I hadn't heard of it and also a bit surprised by myself that I hadn't put two and two together. That to think about what's actually curing my nails, like curing the polish onto my nails. But I think because you step into a nail salon and everything's there to pamper you and make you feel good, you just, you wouldn't think about that. So I immediately started using spf. So I tried my best always to apply. But being a busy mom with two kids, like getting a nail appointment as is was difficult. And getting there and often I get to the doors of the nail salon be like I didn't apply the sunscreen and you have to put it on 15 to 20 minutes in advance for it to be effective. And also obviously now in the post Covid era we sanitize and then most like higher end nail salons, they get you to wash your hands after you do the nail prep anyways. So it kind of futile, if you know what I mean. Like for me I came up like I had this kind of aha moment from my kids sun suits. So my, my daughter's son suits. I like both my kids, like I'm an SPF girl through and through. Three, six, five. I have SPF 50 on my face. My kids are like in the summer head to toe in like sun protection suits. But my daughter's suits are always so cute. And it was, you know, a little while later that I was like, oh, I can make gloves out of certified UPF 50 plus materials. Know that you're giving that highly effective protection, which is actually more effective than any spf and then be fun because I didn't want it. And so from there that's where it started to evolve. So as I went through my journey, I started to see there is in the US they were doing some sort of fingerless glove protection. But my products obviously take it to a little bit of a different level because it means that it's something that enhances the gel manicure experience as opposed to being something that you have to do for yourself. Like I didn't want it to feel like a medical product, even though it is ppe, it's personal protective equipment and that's how it's classified and that's how mine is tested. I have to do, I do third party testing for my products to make sure that they give the level of protection that they're supposed to. Supposed to. But yeah, that's kind of where the journey came from, was from my, my daughter's sun protection suits. But then when I took it a bit further, when I really knew that I was going to actually start the business was when I started really looking into the research. So it was one thing to know for me, like, okay, there's effect of uv, but like what, what does the literature say? And there's a number of case reports in the literature of women with long standing use of nail lamps who have developed skin cancer on the backs of their hands. There was one in 2009, but then more recently there's been a number of them, which isn't surprising because the nail lamps didn't become really popular and mainstream. Sorry, not the nail lamps, but gel, gel polish manicures didn't become Mainstream popular until 2010 when Shellac started their big marketing campaigns and it blew up. And it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger over the decade and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. But it makes sense that you're seeing now a big like more case reports coming out because it's, we're hitting that kind of 10, 11 year mark and it takes a long time for like skin damage to occur and then to present itself, whether that's in the form of premature aging or even worse. Obviously in these cases, for these women who develop skin cancer. Now obviously in these case reports don't necessarily mean that it caused it, but it shows that there's a correlation. And then there's more studies as well where they've looked at the amount of UV emitted from the lamps and then they do these mathematical models to determine. Now overall as a whole, the thoughts from those models are that the risk is low to moderate. I think a really important thing here for people to remember is that low risk is not no risk and that damage to our skin over time is cumulative.

So I think a lot of people would listen to this because I wanted to talk about the science. I'm glad, I'm glad you started talking about that because I think a lot of people would listen and think I haven't got my hands under these lamps for very long. Surely I'm not exposed that much. What are the studies saying about that?

Yeah, so there's two key studies that I think really help us understand that. The one study was done in 2014 by Ship and all, and they found that an average of 12 gel manicures, you are getting enough UV exposure to your hands to start causing DNA damage to the skin cells. So for anyone who gets their nails done regularly, you are doing that in six months. Obviously that then over time, how that plays out for each person biologically is different. Right. Because we. There's so many factors that play into. Okay, DNA damage obviously means that that could translate into the development of skin cancer. It doesn't necessarily mean it will, but you're increasing your risk. Because the key thing here is not just that in itself is profound. Then adding on to that was a study that was done just this year in 2023, which was the first ever study to actually irradiate cells. So they actually took cells, skin cells, human skin cells, and expose them to UV and watched what the biological changes were. And not only did it echo what that study proposed would happen in 2014, but it actually took it further and found that, well, not only does it cause DNA damage to the skin cells, it can cause cell death. I won't go into the numbers of that study because I think it's quite scary when you hear the numbers, what they are. But the point of it is that obviously in vitro studies aren't completely real world because it's looking at the cells directly where we would have other layers of skin. But what it did do was establish that those thoughts of what could happen through those mathematical models is true. And, and it also established that cumulatively, that damage, the more you do it, the more damage it causes, because that's within the model, the study, the method of the study. That's what they did. They radiated the cells, exposed it to UV for a certain amount of time, for one day, then they left them, then they came back to them and exposed them again. And then they exposed them again for a third day. The damage went up exponentially. What a lot of people will say, because this is a common myth, is, oh, but I use an LED nail lamp and it doesn't emit uv, which is absolutely not true. LED nail lamps do emit uv. It has to, because the gel formulation requires they have something in them called photo initiators. And it requires UV light to activate that curing process that hardens the and seals the polish onto your nail. And that's why gel polish Bottles are in opaque bottles to stop sunlight from activating the formula within the bottle. But it makes complete sense that people get confused because obviously we have LED lights all around us and we're told that they're completely safe. So you're like, well, obviously an LED nail lamp is going to be the exact same. It's safe. And we have LED face masks that we use to beautify us and improve the looks of our skin. But the key difference with LED nail lamps is that they're trying to achieve something completely different. So they are, number one job is to cure the gel polish. So these LED bulbs, it's not a form of light. LED is not a form of light. It is a bulb. And that bulb can be designed to emit a wavelength of light depending on what the job of that bulb is. And so with LED nail lamps, it's curing. So it is designed to emit high intensity UVA rays to cure the polish. So, and there's a study done in 2021 that confirms that. So it took an old traditional nail lamp that used a type of bulb called a CFL bulb, and then it took seven LED nail lamps and they compared it, which is great that they did this study, because before we didn't have the scientific study there. You had the theory, but you didn't have the study where it measured and compared. And so some of those. Firstly, the amount of UV that comes out of these lamps varies wildly. And that's because there's no regulation on these lamps, really. And as a, as the beauty industry as a whole, so there's not a lot of regulation. So what they found was that some of the lamps kind of emitted around the same amount of UV as the traditional nail lamps, but a number of them emitted 1.67 to 3 times the amount of UV as these traditional lamps where they're thought to be safer.

Oh, my goodness. The science is basically saying, look, there's a risk here. You can go for 12 manicures and you are already putting your skin at risk. It sounds like it's pretty conclusive in terms of the fact that there is obviously a risk, which is obviously why you've created many safe. But now that these studies have come out, how has the beauty industry responded to that? Have they taken action in response to these studies coming out?

So. So the reaction has been interesting. I think there's a lot of fear. I think people are. There's a lot of people in the industry that are worried there. It's their livelihoods. There's a lot of Confusion, because I would say the nail lamp industry, there's a portion of that industry that is completely denying that there is an issue in saying that the lamps are completely safe, which obviously isn't true. We're having a building amount of evidence to show that the lamps do one emit UV and to can have an effect on our skin. And it's not only the one area that they do agree on, which is. Is the fact that they emits premature. Sorry, it causes premature aging of the skin. So at least there's common ground there. That. But obviously premature aging of the skin when it comes to the nail lens is a form of skin damage. It's. It's photo damage. Right. So. And who. We're going to get our nails to make our hands look good. So you don't want to accelerate the aging of your hands in the process.

But it seems rather, it's conflicting with the mainstream beauty industry's message, actually, because they're trying to make us younger everywhere else. But you're effectively saying that they know that you cause premature aging of the skin on your hands and they're willing to accept that.

Yeah, it's. It's a bit of an odd one, but yeah. So there's been a lot of. It's a controversial topic. It just. It absolutely is. Where for me, with many safe I'm. I don't want to create controversy. The whole mission behind many safe was to help educate people so they could make an informed choice for their skin. You know, so there might be some people say, you know what, I'm okay with taking the risk, but they need to have the knowledge so they can make that choice. And that's the most important part. And that was the driver for me to start Manisafe is because when I did market research of over 300 British women with an interest in nail care, 65% of the women either had no idea that the lamps emitted UV or they hadn't made the connection that it was the same UV light that's emitted from the sun that can cause this damage to the skin. And that was the driving force for me to start mani say, because I was like, there's evidence here that no one's seeing. And then you have people putting their hands in lamps with getting no information. And. And then. So then obviously, secondly, I wanted to create a highly effective but beautiful product for people to use so that they could almost enhance the gel manicure experience so they can have their cake and eat it too. This is actually the hugest silver lining outside of this research is. Okay, There is a risk to our skin, right? Like, there is a genuine problem here. It takes decades to prove that something causes skin cancer. So we don't have the full proof yet, but the evidence is tracking in one direction, right? So I think we need to be proactive about protecting ourselves. And we do know that premature aging is a thing that people aren't going to want to sign up for to encourage. Like, I'm all for pro aging, obviously, in aging gracefully, but I don't want to accelerate the process unnecessarily. Right. And actually, it's quite funny. There's this comparison. One of the professors, Professor Brian Diffie, who I consulted with when I was launching Manisave, and where I said to him, well, it's cumulative exposure. Like, surely if we just. Like, this is why I want people to protect themselves, because then that those changes won't happen. He's like, exactly. He's like, of course. Why wouldn't you protect your skin with your gloves? Because then you can stop these things. He's like, look at. If you took an elderly person, you look at their hands, and they'll have, you know, they'll be wrinkled and thin, crappy skin with. With. And they'll have age spots, as they're often called. If he pulled that elderly person's trousers down and looked at their bottom.

He'S.

Like, there would be no age spots. You wouldn't have severe wrinkles. He's like, yes, there'd be some laxity. He's like, because their bottoms aren't being exposed to UV light and getting that damage. He's like, it's not aging. It's sun damage or UV damage. It's occurring. Which I had to say, like, he was like, the lovelies. He's retired now. So, like, at the time, he was probably in his, like, late 60s. It was not the analogy I was expecting to come out of his mouth. And it stuck. No, I can imagine ever since. Because it's like, actually makes so much sense, right? So for me, it was that. That's the thing. It's not about like, okay, we know we have this risk, but we don't need to be scared of it because we don't stop going outside. We know that the sun emits uv. We don't stop going outside. We apply our spf. We wear our upf, like some protective clothing. And the same goes for gel manicures that just protect your skin and you can carry on. And so that's the biggest message that I'm trying to get across to people is that you don't need to be scared. It's just about being aware that this is there that you do. There is an element of risk for your skin and if you're proactive and protect yourself, you can carry on. Because there's so many wonderful benefits about getting your nails done. There's the emotional well being, there's the connection that you have with the manicurist. It's taking time out for yourself. Like for me, you know, I have two kids, a puppy, a business to run, a husband. There is no time. Like, there's literally no time. So, like when I make the time to go sit down in that chair with my lovely manicurist and I actually get to pause for a minute and just let her take care of me, there's so much in that and the confidence of having your nails done. So there's so many benefits that I think this indirect side effect of the lamp can mitigate that risk and have. It's a complete win. Win.

Yeah. And you can do so in a very stylish way because your gloves are absolutely beautiful. I'm wearing a pair that Candice very kindly gifted to me. So who has embraced your, your beautiful bunny safe gloves, if not necessarily yet the mainstream nail care industry, But I know you've got quite a few people on board. So who's running with many safe.

I am very, very fortunate to have amazing cosmetic dermatologists, esthetic doctors, plastic surgeons, general dermatologists, GPs that absolutely love the gloves. They buy them themselves. You know, some of them I collaborate with, but quite a few of them buy them for themselves so that they continue on their journey. So that's been absolutely amazing. Quite a few. So Mary Claire, they do skin awards. I won best skin innovation for body in the Mary Claire skin Awards in 2021 with a panel of beauty, you know, influencers, doctors, dermatologists as well. So to win that accolade like such so early on, and I won in categories with all big global beauty brands. Like, I won that award. I accepted it after Rihanna's Fenty Skin won an award. And like that was literally the caliber of the other winners. And it was just me, me running Manny safe, like they're accepting the award. And so that really gave me the confidence early on. It's one thing when you know something yourself, what you're doing is going to make a difference and you're passionate about something, but when other people say absolutely what you're doing, the right thing, keep going, like it means so much and I think when you run a small business on your own it takes its toll. And you, you have your like lonely moments and you have your second guessing moments. And so it's things like this that have really helped because giving me the confidence to continue on because you do get negative feedback like from the industry and people saying you're, you're fear mongering. It's not, that's not real. But thankfully for me, because my background is all about evidence based, I can say, hang on a minute, here's the breadth of the literature. You can't read one article, you have to look at all of the literature. And because of that I think it's helped set me up for, to weather some of that negative feedback to be able to help open people's eyes up to these issues. And you know, I'm now literally this week going to be partnering with a gel polish brand at a beauty event I'm just so pleased about. They have a wonderful ethos. It's just showing that the industry is starting to listen and I think things take time. It takes time for the evidence to hit. It takes time for people to process it. It takes time for people to get over the fear. And I think, you know, there's, there's still going to be a lot of fear and there's still going to be a lot of. No, that's not true because look, the Sunbed association still says that now that sunbeds are completely safe.

It's interesting. You know, on one hand the mainstream beauty industry always talks about how they their science back. There's a lot of I make scientific skin care rather than natural skin care. I hear that a lot. And then here is the science and a lot of them still have their fingers in their ears because they don't want to hear it. But thankfully you have the dermatologists on board, you have the medical community on board and that means ultimately the cosmetics industry will need to follow suit. So you've been going for two years now. How are things going? How's business going on?

6Th April is two years. I can't believe it. Yeah, it's going really well. So thousands of pairs, we've protected thousands of hands so far, which makes me so happy because and that's the thing too, that the gloves are UPF 50 rated which is the highest level of UV protection that you can get for garment and sun protective clothing is way more effective than SPF for protecting because it doesn't wash off where it's covering. You are always guaranteed to get that protection. So they're not just for gel manicures, they're good for sun protection as well. So when you're driving, when you're out for moms pushing prams or their hands are up on the, you know, handles if you're going for a bike ride. So it's not just about protecting your skin and the nail lamps. It's overall getting better at protecting our hands because we're so hot on protecting our face. What about the hands? So the fact that I've sold thousands of gloves so far means that that's more people that are conscious about protecting all of their skin rather than just their face. We're selling online in 17 different countries, also in bespoke, in boutique nail salons and also in aesthetic clinics. And that's an actually really exciting one because there's a few aesthetic clinics in London that do hand rejuvenation treatments. So for people who have quite a bit of sun damage on their hands and they want to do something about it, they can do these different treatments on their hands. And manise has been written into the aftercare protocols because sun protection again is so important after they've had these treatments. So anyone who goes and invests in these sorts of procedures are then advised to get manisafe gloves. So it's going really well. I'm really excited for everything that's come. Have a really exciting collaboration with a gyne cancer charity coming up in May. I can't talk about it yet, but that's really close to my heart because six months after launching many safe right after I won the Mary Claire Skin Awards and I was just so excited, everything was like tracking in the right direction. I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Thankfully, it was caught really early on and I was able to avoid any chemotherapy or anything like that was managed through surgeries. And I have a clean bill of health now and, you know, the outlook is bright, but to be able to partner with these, this charity in May to raise awareness for that is really exciting for me. Like the fact that I now have a platform from a business I built out of passion to help people with their skin health, is now able to help raise awareness for a condition that, you know, I was affected by is really exciting. So, yeah, it's going really well. Thank you.

Good. It's incredible what you've created. It's unique. There is nothing really like it on the market. I'm certainly very excited. I love my manisafe gloves. Where would you like to take the business in the future? What's your big bold vision?

Yeah, for me is 100% that I want people, when anyone thinks about getting a gel manicure, that they think about Manisafe, that they. It's a non negotiable. So that manisafe is in every salon. If you're a diy, you know, gel manicurist doing it at home, that the manisafe gloves are sold with the lamps, you know, so that for me is a really big thing. And then also as a whole, just keep continuing to raise awareness about hand care in general and just helping with that, that overall sun protection strategy for the hands because hands are much different to the face. We can set and forget on our face with spf, but with hands we're you sanitizing hand washing and then you're driving, you're interacting with your phones and that greasy residue kind of stops people from protecting themselves or even if they're diligent with protecting first thing in the morning. That's the, the, it's gone by first hand wash. Right. So. So just changing the way that people take care of their hands is a big mission of mine.

I love it and I'm sure in years to come Manisafe will be a household name and you'll be with your massive team selling globally. I can't wait to see it. Candice, it's been such a privilege interviewing you today. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Where can our listeners come and buy their Manisafe gloves?

Yeah, they can buy them directly from our website, manisafe.com and always give us a follow over on Instagram as well. And our handle is manisafelondon. So thank you.

Love it. And those links will be with the show Notes. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. It's been really interesting.

Thank you for having me.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Do you have gel manicures? Are you concerned about the lamps? Have you ever talked to your nail technicians about this? Tell me what you think and come and leave us a comment on our social channels. As both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. Thank you for joining Candace and I for this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, please do leave us a five star review so that other people can enjoy these conversations too. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast app is and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica at Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter or LinkedIn and come and give me a Follow Lorraine Dharmeyer on Instagram. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today. Sam.