Why Most Skincare Never Reaches Your Skin

But what is so beautiful is it really— you say you want your skin, you want skin to repair, but it actually remodels. It doesn't just repair. It goes in and it takes out the bad damaged skin cells, moves that around, but it also knows to not take too much. And it takes care of the disorganization and then brings in new collagen and elastin. So I love to think remodeling, not repair, because repair— This is Above Repair.

Welcome to the Peptides and Longevity Podcast. Each week, we'll dive into groundbreaking science, innovative therapies, and the future of health and longevity. Alongside visionary physicians and experts, we'll explore how peptides, cutting-edge medicine, and lifestyle strategies can redefine the way we age. Get ready to transform your health, optimize your vitality, and unlock the secrets to a longer, healthier life. Let's get started. Hey guys, my name is Michael McNeil and I'm your host for the Bioregulators and Peptides Summit. And we have with us today Debbie, who is the creator, founder, CEO, and just a badass woman, created this amazing skincare company called Vitaly. And so, Debbie, thank you so much for joining me today, and I look forward to hearing what is the magic behind copper peptides and what they can do to make us youthful and beautiful and just look amazing. So thank you so much for joining me.

Absolutely. It's so great to be here, and it's good to talk with you today. Well, copper peptides changed my life at 64 in many ways. It was— I had retired from a 37-year career in marketing and was taking some time with my grandchildren. And I was— my doctor, Dr. Suzanne Turner-Fourie, is, you know, specializes in regenerative medicine. She had helped me with Tesamorlin and all these wonderful peptides working on my overall health. And one day I just said, Okay, you got to tell me, what have you got for skin? And she goes, I'll tell you what I use. It was like this secret, you know, GHK-CU. I can get it from the compound pharmacy. And I'm like, sign me up. I want to try that. I have this crepey skin. I have, you know, all these things appearing, you know, my pores are not right. It's, you know, fine lines, puffy eyes, all that. And so I started using this foam. It wasn't a beautiful product. It was like a, you know, something from the compound pharmacy. I love compound pharmacies. I mean, I spent a lot of time there, but it was a foam and I used it. And after about 8 weeks, I thought, okay, there's something different. You know, I've spent a lot of money in department stores with the, you know, nicest products and not seeing the result and the way my skin felt healthier. So continue to use it. And then my husband, who has a really big entrepreneurial spirit said, you're paying too much for that foam. We need to figure this out. And we worked with an organic chemist, wonderful chemist, and dreamed of what this product could be, not foam, but like, what do we want to put with it? Hyaluronic acid, brown algae, you know, other ingredients. And we built the product and now we have 10 different— we started with 3, the serum, this beautiful blue, you know, copper peptide.

Yeah. Show us that. That is beautiful.

The blue.

There you go. Yeah, that's beautiful.

And feels so wonderful. And just the reason we wanted to do this is we asked people like our people I play tennis with, like, do you know about copper peptides? Do you know about GHK-CU? And they're like, no, I know about collagen peptides, but no one, you know, they were not into the peptides like we were. And so we thought we want people to know about this. You know, they're spending their money in department stores, not getting what I call the really good stuff that heals and, you know, makes a difference. And so that's, that's really how Vitaly was founded. And it's now 5 years later and we're still here. So I think that's a good sign.

That's definitely a good sign. That's awesome. I can't believe that you are— how old are you?

Don't say 69.

Oh, you're lying, baby. We need the license proof. Your skin is beautiful.

It's made a big difference. It has made the difference. And, uh, I mean, scars and fine lines, pores, it has worked. And, and that's why I feel so good about it. And I have, we're in about 20 countries now and people are, they, I mean, they, when they run out of it, they almost panic. Like, how can you ship this to me?

Oh my goodness. That's awesome. Very cool. I love the fact that a long time ago. A friend of mine had created a serum with some peptides in it. But I also feel like there has to be some form of delivery that's better than others. It's sort of like— felt like it just sat on my skin. It didn't really absorb into the skin. So is there like a difference in the delivery or the way that you prepare them that makes them transdermally absorbable?

Absolutely. And that's why we have really good chemists that do that. In fact, when we started with a 2%, a 1%, then a 2%, and then people want more, more, more. And so we went to 3% concentration and it changed the viscosity. So we did have to really work so that it would, you know, go into the skin. I mean, this stuff absorbs. It does not sit on the skin, which is what is so beautiful. And that— there's an art to that. There is a definite art to that. We spend a lot of time in the lab to make sure that happens.

See, I love to hear that because I feel like I've wasted like thousands of dollars. I can't even tell you because I'm a skincare junkie on just serums that don't work and skincare that doesn't work. And so I'm just excited to step into your realm and, and see what copper peptides could do for me. I'm 35. I've done plenty of aesthetic treatments like skin pen, microneedle.

Yes.

You know, all these types of things like that. Is this really good for post-healing? If there's any estheticians listening or, or even clients who like to get those services, do you recommend this like after a treatment?

Absolutely. In fact, I'm glad you brought that up because that is one of the— it's, it's on steroids when there's a wound. I mean, this was discovered in the '70s, 1970, for wound healing. And so when you have that, and what's so beautiful, we'll show you one of the scar. You know, a before and after. But what is so beautiful is it really— you say you want your skin, you want skin to repair, but it actually remodels. It doesn't just repair. It goes in and it takes out the bad, damaged skin cells, moves that around, but it also knows to not take too much. And it takes care of the disorganization and then brings in new collagen and elastin. So I love to think remodeling, not repair, because repair This is above repair. Above repair. Wow.

Wow.

That's, that's how it works.

That's how repair.

So when you have, when you have a procedure like even microneedling or, you know, peels, laser, this is just perfect because, you know, it, you've had this damage on your skin and it goes to work organizing and remodeling your skin. So we have, oh yeah, we work, we're with a lot of medical spas. With our product.

Oh, I bet you would have to be. That would be incredible.

Absolutely.

I love that. I love that. So I— yeah, I've used injectable copper, BPC-157, TB4. There's a product called Glow. Yeah, that really works well. And I've noticed a lot with hair color because, you know, if you have those copper peptides back in, it keeps your hair color from going gray. Yeah. So it really has this like anti-aging effect on hair. So I'm just excited to add it into my whole skin regimen. Like a, you know, I have more skincare products than you can imagine because I love to test things out to see what works. And I'm sure you've had probably a lifetime of coming up with a full system. What, what is, uh, like, you have that beautiful serum. Is that like your flagship product?

And that is the flagship. It has the highest concentration. But then we have a moisturizer and we have an eye cream which has 3 other peptides, uh, Dipeptide-2 and Tetrapeptide-7 in one. And what is so beautiful about this combination on the eye cream, and And that's where you'll, you'll see one of the before and afters on eyes, the puffy eyes, the, the, the one of the peptides works just to help with the circulation and the lymphatic drainage. The copper peptides work on the fine lines. I mean, they go in and they go into the skin, they go into the dermis. And, you know, help, you know, like I said, remodel. I just love to say it that way because that's, that's what it does. Yeah. So there's 4 peptides in eye cream. And then we have a body cream, which is one of, I mean, it's, we ran out of it. We actually sold out of body cream earlier this year. It's a big large tub of GHK and it has rosemary oil and other natural and organic ingredients. Rosemary oil helps with circulation and helps with the appearance of cellulite. And there's, you know, that's a hard thing for women.

True. Yeah.

And so we have that and then we have an exfoliating cleanser with lactic acid and that helps remove the dead skin cells. This year we launched our resurfacing cream, which has a high percentage, 10%, lactic acid, which is fermentation. It's natural. I love the way you're not hurting your skin. It's a natural way to exfoliate, and it really makes the difference because you— it removes the dead skin layer, so then the copper peptides can go in and do their thing. We have two oils, and I love oils. I, before Uh, Vitaly, I was afraid to put oil on my skin because I was afraid it would clog my pores. And a lot of people worry about that. We have a Hydration Boost, which has squalane oil, which is most like— you probably are familiar— most like your own sebum. Very light. And I mean, it, you can just, your skin immediately just drinks it up. It feels wonderful. And because we believe in like, it's not instant. With Vitality, it's more, you know, rebuild slowly and repair more than repair, rebuild, you know, we have Bakuchiol oil versus retinol, which is a natural product.

Love Bakuchiol.

Yeah. And that's one of our beloved products also. It has vitamin E and squalene. So they're very, they're very easy to work. They work with each other. You can add them into other products that you're using. You know, they're easy. They're not hard to work with. You don't have to use all of them, but a lot A lot of people do. So those are lineup, man.

Let's go! I love that. I've been taking, uh, orally, I've been taking, uh, BPC-157, KPV together. KPV is known as the beauty peptide because it just gets rid of systemic inflammation. And I feel like a good synergy is, is basically from an inside out, which we're handling, but it's the outside in. It's, it's to build a healthy routine around your skincare. And I feel like a lot of guys even, they don't necessarily build routines, but is your, your line unisex? Like men or women can benefit from it?

Absolutely. I'm so glad. Okay.

Just making sure.

Okay. 37% of our customers are men and they, a lot of them use the body cream. I don't know if they're bodybuilders or, but they, I mean, we sell the body cream even to the guys, but 37% of our customers. And that's so exciting because it really works. You know, peptides go and work where they're needed. You know, so you really do not have to. It would probably be a cooler marketing thing to have a men's brand and a women's brand. And, you know, we've talked about that. But the truth is, this wonderful serum, this wonderful blue GHK-C, you know, peptide goes in and works where it's needed.

Okay, good. I'm so glad to hear that because I can't wait to get my shipment of Vitality in and get started on, you know, And it also helps with hair growth, you know, GHK. I was going to ask. Yeah, I was going to ask you.

Absolutely. It helps where there are follicles. It goes in and repairs the follicles and actually enhances hair growth. It's actually done that with my eyebrows. I mean, I did not have eyebrows. So a lot of men use it. My husband every day, like right into—

let's go. So, oh, I'm, I'm going to copy it.

A lot of women using it. Here too. It's not just men that use it for that.

Oh, let's go! And then, Debbie, I hear you have some amazing before and afters for us, and I've— I got a little preview of them. It's insane, the differences in these. So I'm gonna— I'm gonna cue them up for you if you want to talk about what we're going to look at as I cue it up. That would be amazing.

Yeah, it'd be great. The first two, uh, and I'm— I just want to thank the Wealth Prescott Medical Spa They, their owner, founder loved our product so much. And I loved her review. She said, I, people are always asking what I'm doing. She was so impressed with the product that, you know, she said, I'd love to use this with, you know, she uses it, sells it. But then she said, I'd love to see some examples. And I said, okay, let's try the 3%, the cleanser and the exfoliating resurfacing cream. Let's get, get some of your customers to use it and let's do some before and afters. So the first two came from her spa and they had no treatments. What's so great— and she was great to do that. Be hard to not want to do the treatments. But if you see this, this is Terry. This is a person who she took really good care of her skin, but she had a lot of this blood vessel, you know, the redness and blood vessels, if you can see, and her pores were actually enlarged. She used the serum, the resurfacing cream, and the cleanser for 3 months. And this is the before and after, no spa treatments. And she was very pleased. You can see the wrinkles around her mouth, how they've smoothed out, how it just, it's just smoother and brighter skin.

It's incredible. It's almost as comparable to a laser treatment. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. It's so powerful.

It's really smooth. It evened out. And, and one of the things, the blood vessels, one of the things GH, KCU, blah, blah, blah. I can't say it. It does help with the blood vessels. You know, it helps blood flow and that can go in and help smooth the skin and help with the blood, you know, the redness. Yeah.

Yeah. It's amazing to see even those broken capillaries get healed up. That is so wild.

It is. And this is incredible. And Angie's husband really noticed her skin, so she was so excited. But if you look, she had a lot of lines. Look at the lines across the top, you know, where we do our laugh lines, our expression lines, lines that show we live well.

Yeah, it looks like she got Botox.

It's crazy. No treatments. She used the serum, the lactic acid, and the cleanser for 3 months. And this is the before and after. And she was really pleased because even the lines around her nose, look at the hyperpigmentation. See how she was on the left? It's— there's more brown spots. And it's, it's just a brighter, smoother complexion. And I'm so proud. I mean, this is what we did this for. We did this because we want to help people feel more confident with their skin. So when I get to see these pictures, it makes me just try harder. Like, what are we going to do?

But it does. That's awesome. I love that. That's beautiful.

Okay.

This is gnarly. This one caught my attention. This is crazy.

This one is personal. This is my husband. This is Terry. And I wished I had now a year out because you can't even It's, I need to make the next picture. He had to have Mohs surgery, which is not fun to do anyway, where he had some cancer and on this thin area. I mean, one of the thinnest areas on your face is your forehead. The skin is so thin. So he had this huge gash, you know, surgery. And I thought, okay, I'm going to take it before. I don't know what we're going to get here. And he started using even before the stitches were out. Now everyone should ask their doctor, you know, how to use the products. But he started using the 3% serum and then he used the Bakuchiol oil because when you have a wound, you need to keep it hydrated. And so this— sometimes people use the retinol, but we wanted to go a little bit gentler. So he used the serum and then the Bakuchiol oil twice a day. And look at 6 weeks and then look after 3 months. And now I really need— I should bring him in here because it's totally— I mean, you can't even see that red place now.

Wow.

And so that's incredible. His hair is also thicker. I don't know if you can look.

That's what I was going to say. Oh, I hunt. I, of course, I notice.

Yeah, that's a side bonus. Absolutely. So it's, it loves— it's a wound healer. It really— if you're, if you're going to have a procedure, you're planning any kind of procedure, you really should have your copper peptides waiting to help minimize scarring. And it just heals, man.

I love that. I love that there's universal applications to it too. So it's not just the skin of the face. You could put some in your hair. You can rub it on your cellulite. It's got this universal—

absolutely. On—

that's wild.

Absolutely.

Gosh. Yeah. I can't— listen, Debbie, I'm gonna— I'll be your Instagram promo model. Trust me.

Okay. I love it.

Yeah. I will. I'll use it daily and I'll report back for sure.

All right. You need to, you need to use it daily.

Yeah, I definitely will. Well, cool. Well, Debbie, is there a place that they could find Vitaly, or is there any, uh, website or Instagram or anything that they can get a hold of you?

Vitalyskincare.com.

Vitalyskincare.com. Perfect. And we will put that in the show notes, and, uh, we'll put a little offer in there for you if you're interested in Vitaly. And Debbie, thank you so much for joining me today. This was an awesome interview.

Thank you. Yeah, you're— have a good trip. All right.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

Okay.

I know if, if people are wondering, I'm in the Omaha airport doing this podcast and usually I'm in my home studio, so a little bit of a different background, but this was fun. This was fun. This was fun.

Awesome.

Thank you, Debbie. Appreciate you. Yes, ma'am. Thanks for joining us on the Peptides and Longevity Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners passionate about optimizing their health. For more insights, resources, and updates, visit our website at www.holtorfmed.com. Together, let's embrace a future of health and vitality. Until next time, stay inspired and keep thriving.