Your Favorite Skincare Got Reformulated — Is It Still Worth It? | Dr. Shereene Idriss

Skincare is not static and neither is science, and nor should it be. As science evolves, ingredients get better, and we can make delivery systems work smarter for the money that you are spending. Who the hell am I? I'm Dr. Shereene Idriss. Welcome to Pillow Talk Derm, where we do this thing every Saturday morning at 10 AM. So today we're going to be talking about skincare reformulations because this tends to be a topic that either freaks people out because if it ain't broke, why you fix it? Or they have no idea what's going on behind the scenes and they're just like, why are people spending money on this shit? The concern is valid because when you love a product, you're like, please don't change it. But the reality is, as a dermatologist, I could tell you this, that a well-done reformulation is a huge sign of progress and improvement for you, and it shouldn't be seen as a problem. And I'm vouching for brands that do it from a place of good intention and not from a money-saving perspective. And that is key. So if a brand just got acquired and they reformulated a bunch of shit, it makes you wonder if it is from a money savings perspective. But if it's coming from a small brand, I'm telling you here and now, if a product is good, they probably would not risk reformulating it unless you're batshit crazy and you want to make things better. Today, as a small brand founder myself, I want to take you through some of the top iconic reformulations within the skincare industry and explain to you potentially what their thought process was, why they decided to do it, What was the outcome for you? And if you stick around towards the end of the video, you're going to learn something about my brand, Dr. Idriss, something very exciting coming in about a week or so. So please stay watching till the very end. We're going to start with our longest standing iconic formula, this guy right here, Paula's Choice C15 Super Booster. This is a vitamin C serum that hit the market in the early 2010s as a direct competitor to SkinCeuticals. Because SkinCeuticals are so out of reach for so many, this quickly became a cult favorite. It incorporated 15% ascorbic acid, which is the active form of vitamin C, with vitamin E and ferulic acid, and people fell in love. They lost their shit that they could afford this and they were seeing results. Then why was it reformulated if it was so good? Because it turns out it could be better. And in 2023-2024, Paula's Choice decided to do just that and make room for improvement so so that the formula itself could be more tolerable and more wearable. Because behind the scenes, people were saying things or whispering things that it caused irritation, which I'm not surprised with ascorbic acid. There's always going to be some level of irritation. There was increased sensitivity and it was difficult to layer this particular product into your skincare routine. Now, a lot of these things, like I said, I'm not surprised that, you know, vitamin C is not as tolerable. It increases sensitivities or it doesn't have the best cosmetic elegance when you're talking about utilizing it underneath skincare and makeup. But instead of changing the core actives, a.k.a. the ascorbic acid, they refined the formula around it. So this is what they did. They made the pH of the formula slightly higher, and that allowed to reduce the irritation potential that a lot of people were whispering about on the internet. Number 2, they incorporated a milder preservative system. Now, preservatives are really not sexy, but they can make all the difference, and that made it much more compatible with sensitive skin. They also added, and this, they spoke to my heart, ergothioneine, which is an antioxidant to help to support and stabilize the active form of vitamin C because this is an active form of vitamin C serum. And they also fixed the packaging so that it minimized leakage and it oxidized less. Because when you're buying the active form of vitamin C, that baby can oxidize and it oxidizes relatively fast. So unless you're really investing in packaging and you're really investing in the formulation, I do not see why we are spending over $180 on a dropper serum that is constantly exposed to the air and that can oxidize within a month. So notice that they did not take away the key actives and they just made it better for you. So that was a really inspiring story. Again, as a small brand founder myself, I own a brand called Dr. Idriss. I'm always looking towards the past because it's only by learning about history do not repeat other people's mistakes, but also you learn how to be better. The second example that, you know, also shocked the skin nerds out there was Tatcha's Indigo Calming Cream. So this product is a staple within the Tatcha brand. It is a moisturizer that is geared towards sensitive skin, designed for people who get irritated very easily or have irritated skin. I'm not talking emotionally, I'm talking physically, and have reactive skin. And it was rooted in Japanese indigo extract, which is traditionally used to calm and soothe your skin. So The Indigo Cream has been part of Tatcha's lineup for years, and it's been focused on supporting compromised skin. But they said in 2023, this needs a remix and we need to reformulate it. And honestly, good for them, because although the original formula was already designed to help calm and support skin, when they reformulated it, they made it much more targeted and barrier-supportive. And wearable in daily use. People were whispering online that it wasn't so wearable for everyday use. It was maybe a tiny bit heavy and it wasn't as calming as it could be. So what did they do? They added colloidal oatmeal, not at 1%, which would get them to the Drug Fact Label checkmark, but at 2% to further support irritated and compromised skin. And they updated the formula structure as well, allowing it to better support your skin barrier, making it much more comfortable and seamless to wear throughout throughout the day. Although this was kind of a different reformulation because not only did they add an extra, an extra active which is much more potent than what was in the original formula, they also tweaked it in terms of making it much more elegant and supportive for daily use. Because again, if you're not consistent with a product, you're never going to get to the results that you want. And once you reach the results that you want, it is only through consistent usage of that product or that routine that you can keep those results. I mean, it's like we go to the gym, right? We don't get an an 8-pack overnight, and we don't quit the gym expecting that 8-pack to stay with us forever. At least some delusional folks do, but the reality of it is it doesn't happen that way. And last but certainly not least is, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, Dr. Idriss. And we're going to talk today about the Major Fade Active Seal Moisturizer. This was a, you know, it was a work of love, a work of passion that took me many years to come to fruition and to create. But I officially launched Major Fade Active Seal in 2022 as third step of a 3-step routine targeting your dark spots, your sunspots, your discoloration. And it is a brightening moisturizer. It's meant to hydrate and brighten your skin. I put a lot of powerful ingredients in it, a type of vitamin C also known as tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate. So it's an ester form of vitamin C. Unlike Paula's Choice, it's not active so that you can use it 24 hours a day, morning and night, throughout the course of the day to continuously get the benefits of vitamin C. Additionally, we put an ingredient called 4-butylresorcinol, which is a really good ingredient at reducing the appearance of dark spots and uneven skin tone. Hexapeptide-2 specifically, because that also helps reduce the severe appearance of discoloration. And then there are a couple of ingredients that you've never heard of, like dipotassium glycerizate and brassica extract, which helps to visibly calm the skin, minimizing any sort of inflammation that can turn into any dark or brown spots. So think like when you have a breakout, you have a red dot after your breakout, that red spot becomes a brown spot that can linger for months. And to top it all, we put it in a base, right? A lipid complex made up of ceramides, cholesterol, phytosphingosine, and squalane in order to make sure that your skin can be resilient. And honestly, it was a moisturizer that worked harder for you and smarter for you. But I saw whisperings. I saw whisperings online And the science continuously continued to evolve despite the fact that I had already created this. And I said, no, we're not just going to continue with a product without making it better because we must continuously improve. So one of the whisperings that we heard about online was that the Active Seal could pill when you applied it on top of other serums because it has actives in it. The second reason why I really wanted to work on this product was because glutathione was an antioxidant that I had wished I had incorporated early on into the formulation. And so we added glutathione. For those of you who do not know, it is a really, really strong antioxidant that when you team it up with vitamin C, not only does it help to neutralize oxidative stress and the free radicals because it's an antioxidant— what is a free radical? A free radical is when your skin cells goes nuts from environmental damage, causing havoc in your environment and breaking down your collagen faster. So glutathione calms that shit down and seals it and puts it away. But glutathione helps to regenerate vitamin C esters back into their active form much more efficiently. So vitamin C has an active form like ascorbic acid, but it has the inactive form known as a vitamin C ester. That doesn't mean it's useless. The inactive form of vitamin C gets converted into its active form in your skin. Glutathione basically regenerates it faster, almost like fertilizer, amping up that shit so it works better and smarter for you, making the entire stack of actives in the Major Fade Active Seal better and work harder. So that is why I'm super excited. I'll show you guys the texture in a second because we also changed the emulsion system. Gel cream texture. And I'm going to show you guys right here. It is still a lightweight gel cream that gets easily absorbed into your skin and delivers a better hydration over the course of the day. So this is a gel cream that is not only going to hydrate and moisturize your skin, giving you this dewy, glowy effect— zero highlighter on my face— but it is also going to deliver better hydration and allow the actives to work better for you. Improving overall the sensorial experience. I can vouch for everyone here that when you marry the Major Fade Active Seal to our hero, the Hyper Serum, there is no pilling anymore with this experience. So the whole experience is noticeably better, noticeably more hydrating, delivering a better brightening and hydrating experience for you. But I do want you guys to understand one thing. We did not change the original actives. We did not lower their percentage. We we did not bring them down. We added an active to this and we did not increase the cost of this reform for you. That was very important for me. I know times are tough. I know the economy is hitting a lot of people hard, and I wanted to make sure that people got a smarter, better product in their vanity or on their vanity or in their pockets if you want to carry this in your pocket. And I wanted you guys to get better results without compromising or breaking the bank. So I am I'm so excited for all of you guys to receive this formula and to start hearing feedback. Quick refresh if you have no idea anything about my brand, it fits into a 2-step discoloration duo. There's really a third, which is an exfoliation step, but the ones that I use every single day are these two. The Major Fade Hyper Serum is the powerhouse serum. This is the correction step that's going to help to fade the dark spots and instantly illuminate your skin, and that is what I have on my face. And this guy right here, the Active Seal is your consistency step that continues to brighten your skin while really hydrating you. And together, it's a match made in heaven. And we're going to be launching these two, and I'll show you guys a sneak peek, in minis together as a duo coming very soon. So I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I don't want you guys to be afraid of any reformulation, my own included. And I hear this not just in skincare, I hear this also in the makeup world, that people are always scared of things that get reformulated, but it's really about progress and trying to make things better for you as a consumer, for your skin, for your whole experience, and for the outcomes that you get. So don't panic. Your favorite formula just got reformulated. Meet Major Fade Active Seal 2.0. I hope you guys have a beautiful Saturday, and I cannot wait to see all of your comments and to hear all of your feedback. I will see you guys next week.