Episode 2: The Anti-Ageing Ingredient Everyone Should Be Using

Transcript: Beauty IQ Uncensored Episode 2 - Retinol, Retinal, Retinoate and Retinaldehyde with Medik8's Daniel Isaacs

 

- Hannah
Welcome everybody to Beauty IQ the podcast.

- Jo
I'm your host Joanna Fleming

- Hannah
and I am your co-host Hannah first. Hello everyone. We're back for Episode 2.

- Jo
I know we're already in sync Hannah. So tell us what we're going to be

- Hannah
Not just our periods

- Jo
Tell us what we're going to be talking about today.

- Hannah
So today we're going to be talking about feminine hygiene wash a very hot topic in the office at the moment.

- Jo
For you maybe

- Hannah
for me I have some questions about it that I wanted answered and I feel that this is the right for the forum.

And we're also going to be talking about retinol well vitamin A is really what we're gonna be talking about. We have a really special guest that we're really excited to talk to. And finally we're gonna talk about the products that we didn't know that we needed. Bedtime edition.

Let's get on to our first topic feminine hygiene wash.

- Jo
So in this week's cringy convo, Hannah this is something that you and I have discussed at length

- Hannah
at length

- Jo
because you like to use feminine wash.

- Hannah
So I use a brand called Femfresh. There's one called Vagisil.

- Jo
Yeah I mean Femfresh is a lot more

- Hannah
I feel Femfresh is so like a nice yeah. Femfresh. I just feel like. Not Vagisil. I don't want to go up to the counter. And buy Vagisil

So the reason that I revealed this to you was because I was telling you a story about how my parents were using my bathroom because their water pipes burst in their place and my mom called me later and she was like "so funny dad got out of the shower and was like she's got this just in half body wash but she's got this really weird wash called Femfresh." And he'd used it not knowing what it was. Which is great because like to me then it must be discreet.

- Jo
I think any woman knows what Femfresh is.

- Hannah
Yeah we what we do know but at least the guy doesn't know what Femfresh is. Yeah I'm sure he knows what Vagisil is.

- Jo
So you like to use Femfresh but I actually don't know. Tell us a bit more about why you actually feel you need to use it.

- Hannah
I have no problems. Just let's get clear about out of the way for my potential husband who's listening. I feel like I don't know why. So basically a friend of mine I had I've never used it before and a friend of mine was like you're not using Femfresh. And I was like oh no.

She was like it is the best thing ever. And I was like cause you can't use obviously can't use normal soap in your private areas. And so I don't know I just like feeling clean

- Jo
Can I just ask though is it fragranced?

- Hannah
No no I don't think it's fragrance it's got like some special pH level there's no irritation. It's never given me thrush. You only get I only get thrush if I take antibiotics.

- Jo
Yeah.

- Hannah
Can we cut that out? Anyway so I don't know why I bought it. I became addicted to it. And

- Jo
how long ago was it.

- Hannah
This was a few years ago maybe four years ago and now I always have one in my bathroom and I'll take it travel I get travelling with me. Yeah. I feel really lost without it.

I love Femfresh. I should be your you should sponsor me to be your spokeswoman.

- Jo
I say that about Cole. So

- Hannah
That's true you talk about that all the time.

- Jo
I know. So I don't think you need to use a feminine wash because your vagina cleans itself.

- Hannah
What if you just like to?

- Jo
I mean I don't see it as long as you're not having issues like you're getting thrush or you're getting UTI's or you've got a strange funky smell going on. I don't think it's doing any harm to you specifically. Yeah I think if you're experiencing those things you should not be using that and a doctor will tell you like you shouldn't use it if you're having those issues.

- Hannah
But I feel that this is the conversation we need to get expert opinion on this

- Jo
Dial a gynecologist.

- Hannah
We are going to dial a gynecologists I feel like you did that really naturally.

So I hope what she says is you can't not use it. There's no reason to use it.

It's just personal preference. Yeah that's what I hope.

- Jo
Okay. And what if she says throw it in the bin.

- Hannah
Can I be honest with you. I'll still use it.

- Jo
I know.

- Hannah
Yeah.

- Jo
I don't know why I asked that

- Hannah
Yeah I don't know why you asked that you know me so well

- Jo
I know you're such a risk taker.

There was a really interesting article in The Daily Mail where a London based gynecologist actually mentioned that apart from the PH disruption issue she also felt like feminine hygiene washes were making women feel more self-conscious and anxious about any odor they might have an odor is completely normal. So she didn't like the fact that feminine hygiene wash companies were making women feel like they had to use something on that area because they don't.

- Hannah
It's a word of mouth it's a word of mouth thing that I just heard of and I was like oh I need that. Yes. Oh everyone else is washing their vagina. I need to wash my vagina too.

I just had another question.

- Jo
Yeah for me and for the gynecologist

- Hannah
Well we can ask the gynecologist and you and I were talking about anuses last... Does that an area that is also self-cleaning?

- Jo
No. I don't think the gynocolegist needs to answer that, I can tell you need to wash your own anus.

- Hannah
I do! With Femfresh. While you're down there.

- Jo
Hannah has a hairless and clean ...

- Jo
So we reached out to a gynecologist to actually specifically ask whether there was anything wrong with using a feminine hygiene wash. Hannah can you ...

- Hannah
And I had actually asked her a few questions because I was like oh she's surely going to say it's fine. And I have all these other questions. And the response I got back was our gynecologist do not recommend using female hygiene wash products as they can alter the P.H. levels of the area.

- Jo
Well there they go.

- Hannah
so there's my answer

- Jo
there's the professional advice that you ask for

- Hannah
I wonder if all gynecologists - I mean we have done a little bit of research I was going to say do all gynecologists feel that way.

- Jo
I think from what we can tell it's the general consensus that it's not required.

- Hannah
Our next segment is all about vitamin A. We get a lot of questions about vitamin A vitamin A is also known as retinol as one of the forms. Right? Yes. Oh my God she's nodding her head. Yeah. Daniel Isaacs is the chief product officer at Medik8.

- Jo
Actually if I had to pick a brand that were the experts in retinol out of all the brands that we have at Adore it would be Medik8. And that's a pretty big call.

- Hannah
And look we we've had some questions from our followers. We're going to get the expert to come in and talk all about it and answer all about retinol questions.

- Jo
Maybe we should put on a British accent.

- Daniel Isaacs
Please don't.

- Hannah
Hello. How are you today.

- Daniel Isaacs
You're really gonna throw me.

- Hannah
I really feel like as soon as these go on we start laughing a lot

- Jo
why don't you do Australian and we'll do...

- Daniel Isaacs
I'm not going to offend everyone.

- Hannah
How do you feel about Brexit. Just joking.

- Daniel Isaacs
Let's get stuck in right.

- Jo
This is actually a politics podcast.

- Hannah
We are actually here to speak about skincare not about politics

- Jo
I know let's get serious. He's here to talk about vitamin A. So why don't we start with the basics. Let's start with a basic knowledge for anyone who's listening who knows absolutely nothing about vitamin A. Can you tell us what it is and why would you use it.

- Daniel Isaacs
So vitamin A is a oil soluble sort of nutritional compound that you get from your diet mainly and it is an essential chemical for human health. It's used by the human body in lots of different ways for immune system function, your vision. And it basically keeps all of your organs healthy and especially your skin which is your biggest organ when it comes to your skin it plays so many different roles for keeping your skin healthy and that's why when you actually apply your retinol creams you vitamin A creams to your skin it has so much impact because it has so many different jobs for your skin; it can produce collagen which helps to minimize fine lines and wrinkles it manages the production of melanin and pigmentation so you get really even skin tone.

It also helps manage oil production and can help kind of exfoliate the skin so it sort of frees your skin from blemishes so it does all of these different jobs and there's not really another ingredient out there that does all of these benefits to your skin. And also nothing that really has all the data that retinol has behind it all these Vitamin A forms have. So it really is the gold standard and nothing comes close to vitamin A for your skin.

- Jo
So would you say it's the God of ingredients.

- Daniel Isaacs
It's a panacea. It's one stop shop. It does the whole package.

- Jo
I mean you made it sound amazing.

- Hannah
Oh my God. Do - well we're already sold. What age do you think you could start using it?

- Daniel Isaacs
You can start quite young. It's actually really safe. I know it's a little bit controversial sometimes because it's like it can be irritating if you're using too much of it for it's not been formulating the right way but you can use vitamin A to prevent your skin from aging as much as sort of like repairing your skin from ageing. And also it's really good at managing by your skin health so if you've got sort of breakouts it can sort of help manage those you know higher strength vitamin A's when you want to sort of reverse the signs of aging and sun damage and things like that that's going to be most beneficial to slightly older people but it's everyone's gonna get a big benefit from vitamin A even from like 20 plus for sure.

- Jo
So when you're looking for a vitamin A and you're looking on the back of an ingredients label can you talk us through some of the key derivatives of vitamin A that people would recognize on an ingredients label?

- Daniel Isaacs
So while the most common one is probably retinol so that's the alcohol version of vitamin A that's like a really good derivative because it is really effective and it's not too irritating. So that's why especially now it's become really really popular in a lot of brands. You also get the ester version of vitamin A which come in the form of like Retinyl palmitate. That's a quite a common one as well. You've also got retinoic acid and that is the prescription version of vitamin A that is probably the most active well it is the most active version but it's also the one that brings the most irritation.

- Hannah
I was going to say that we will have a little story.

- Jo
That's what we were leading into is we were getting a lot of questions around the difference between prescription and non-prescription vitamin A's

- Hannah
and I used retin... Remember I bought it in Thailand over the counter.

- Jo
Judge her please.

- Hannah
This is before I worked in the beauty industry. I was a chemist or pharmacy where you can buy everything

- Jo
she's such a risk taker. I don't know how to manage her sometimes

- Hannah
I'm beauty risk taker. And yes there was Retin A and I was like I recognize that. So I bought it and it burnt my face off like but I was using it every single day. And I broke out everywhere like.

- Jo
Can you tell us why that's the case?

- Daniel Isaacs
Yeah well that's retinoic acid that is the one in Rein A that is basically - it's the most powerful form of vitamin A because it's the form of vitamin A that your skin instantly kind of deals with - it instantly recognizes it and instantly sort of impacts the changes to your skin and your cellular function and things like that. But the big downside is that sometimes your skin just can't handle it is so active that your skin does doesn't have a chance to process it. And that's why the problem with the irritation from Vitamin A is when too much is being activated at once.

- Hannah
So don't do what I did. Don't use it every single day.

- Hannah
If you're using a prescription...

- Daniel Isaacs
Well that's the thing I mean it's obviously really effective. So it's useful for a specific treatment and often Retin A is prescribed for acne but I would never recommend it for a long term like you know skin care you know routine. Yeah because it's so irritating and people just don't after like six months it just becomes way too much. But the good news is that there has been so much research in vitamin A and there's more derivatives that are available now. One especially called Retinaldehyde which is kind of a in between retinoic acid and retinol in terms of its power and in some of the studies shown is actually shown to have almost the same level of power as your prescription strength retinoic acid but it's got the same irritation as retinol which is really really great.

Really convenient. And now with the sort of formulation technology that's coming out now you can sort of keep that really stable in your formula and really get the best you can get the results of prescription-great.

But like the skin kind and tolerance-ness that you would with a normal retinol.

- Jo
Yep so Retinaldehyde is in the $389 ...

- Hannah
How did you pronounce that? Is that the first time you've tried to pronounce that?

- Jo
Retinaldehyde? No.

- Hannah
She did F-up today actually. She did say something today like I don't know if that's how I.

- Jo
I said Tocopherol today and I don't know if that's how you say it. Is that right? I

- Hannah
Lucky. She makes fun of me. Cause I don't say the words right.

- Jo
So Retinaldehyde is in r-Retinoate Intense which is something that we wrote an article about and it's sold out and people lost their shit and we want to know why that product is worth a $389 dollar price tag because a lot of people were comparing it to you know script vitamin A and they're like why wouldn't I just go and get a twenty dollar vitamin A from my doctor. Why not?

- Daniel Isaacs
Well it is it's the most powerful anti aging product that we've ever made at Medik8. And it's the most powerful non-prescription retinoid retinol product vitamin A product that you can get because it contains the two most powerful nonprescription forms of vitamin A and that is Retinaldehyde which you pronounce correctly of course and also retinyl retinoate which is an exclusive form of vitamin A exclusive to medicate and that is that form of vitamin A is made by actually combining retinol with retinoic acid so you get this amazing hybrid molecule combined for the first time ever with Retinaldehyde and you just get the these crazy results that you've seen in all the trials and all the feedback and it's the first time ever that those two things have been combined.

So it really is sort of the best that we offer in terms of anti aging the best in terms of vitamin A sort of activity but it's not irritating completely not irritating so it's suitable for all skin types suitable for sensitive skin you can give it as a gift without having to worry about you know training someone how to use it it's like it really is the best of both. You have to phase it in.

So you can't go straight to daily use.

- Hannah
So it's like any other retinal phase it in.

- Daniel Isaacs
Yes. But the reason you have to do that is because it's got the Retinaldehyde in there that you do have to phase it. So you use it sort of twice a week for the first two weeks then every other night for the second two weeks and then you can go to nightly use is fine

- Jo
and correct me if I'm wrong but it also contains some other really nice ingredients in that product which prescription wouldn't contain?

- Daniel Isaacs
Exactly yes. So it's kind of a holistic approach. To all of your nighttime kind of like rejuvenation needs so you've got ceramides in there as well which are really great like repairing your skin barrier function keeping that healthy as well as the latest in copper peptides so that just gives the anti aging a boost

Yeah really good peptide technology in there and also so obviously there's a lot of like power and sort of anti aging or serum technology going on in there but you're also getting re nourishing ingredients like squaline - vegan squaline we've got in there and hyaluronic acid. So you're effectively getting the jobs of all of your treatment products in the evening as well as like a proper night cream. Well so you can effectively just use that one product after you cleanse. You're really getting a lot of different jobs in the product.

- Jo
Yes. Well that really clearly explains what the differences between prescription verses the r-Retinoate Intense for example.

- Hannah
I really wanted to know. I thought you weren't allowed to use or you weren't meant to use retinol around your eyes. My eyes are like my biggest concern and - all the time. I'm trying everything and I just started r-Retinoate eye cream as of last night it's eight times stronger than retinol. So why can I use that one around your eyes?

- Daniel Isaacs
And this is really powerful. So we kind of entered it into it sort of thinking you know is this going to be too much for the eye area. But what's great about the former vitamin A in the r-Retinoate Day and Night eye serum is that it's really really well tolerated. So in all the trials that we've done in all of the papers all the research is just like no irritation whatsoever. So are sort of goal was to try and get the right strength for the eye area and make it into a really kind of friendly cream so that it's really well tolerated and you can actually really change the sort of the collagen and the lines and the wrinkles around your eyes without any irritation so it's no strings attached.

- Hannah
How long until my wrinkles around my eyes are gone.

- Daniel Isaacs
Yeah well you should see like a difference pretty quickly.

- Hannah
Even when I smile will it freeze my face?

- Daniel Isaacs
Yeah yeah.

- Hannah
I want to know .. Will... Okay you right here... They told me I look older than J Lo ad

- Jo
she thought it was offensive that we said she looked older than J Lo.

- Daniel Isaacs
I'm not gonna comment on this. It's dangerous territory. I'm not saying anything.

- Hannah
I'm 30 and the fact that she's 50 and looks younger than me is what

- Jo
we're making Daniel uncomfortable.

- Daniel Isaacs
We covered Brexit....

- Jo
I've learnt a lot.

- Hannah
I actually learnt so much

- Jo
I feel renewed. You don't look a day over 25. So. Can you please share. You say you've worked at Medik8 for 8 years, you look like a child. Okay so give us your routine, morning and night.

- Daniel Isaacs
So I use all of this is from Medik8 by the way.

You can say the Medik8 name because we stock the range.

- Daniel Isaacs
So I'm going to say the full Medik8 routine. So I'd start every morning with a foaming cleanser which I really love called Micellar mousse. That's a really kind..

- Jo
We were trying that the other day, taking that overseas with me , a little travel size

- Daniel Isaacs
Yeah they're really useful. So that's what I start my day with and then I apply a vitamin C Serum called C-Tetra +Intense. So this is our... probably my favorite Vitamin C product and we have quite a lot in the range. That one's my favorite because it's like a really really sort of skin friendly Vitamin C Serum is still quite concentrated but it's really well tolerated and that's just like a good start to your kind of skin care in the morning with some vitamin C antioxidant protection. And then I followed that with our ADVANCED DAY TOTAL PROTECT which is an SPF 30 broad spectrum sunscreen quite high UVA protection as well.

And it's also got lots of other protection effects like pollution and blue light and infrared. So that's like a good for your skin protection and that loss throughout the day and I don't really do much to my face during the apply a bit of extra sunscreen if needed you know as always

- Jo
Not that you get much sun in the UK.

- Daniel Isaacs
Yeah it's not. Not really. Yes. So in the evening then I Yeah again I just cleansed Micellar Mousse every sort of once or twice a week I exfoliate with our pore refining scrub and then I follow normally with just R-Retinoate Intense because I can obviously just make some in a lab and just have some. Yeah but if not I would I would probably yeah I'd always be some kind of retinal or also a Retinaldehyde called Crystal Retinal. They're a really great serum. If I'm applying a simple serum of vitamin A one of our retinols or retinals then I'll follow with like a nice night cream.

- Jo
So you look 25. How old actually are you?

- Hannah
I don't know that you're allowed to ask people Joanna. You don't have to answer that question but we'd really like to know.

- Daniel Isaacs
I am 31.

- Hannah
Well you look really ... when you said eight years.

- Jo
You look great for 31.

- Hannah
You're a walking billboard for R Retinoate.

- Jo
I know you are - you really are. I need to get back on that.

- Daniel Isaacs
You know what we say about our anti aging strategy CSA right. So if you apply a bit of vitamin C in the morning followed by sunscreen and vitamin A at night. You start this at 30. You can look 40 when you're 50.

- Hannah
Can you look 30 when you're 50 like J Lo. That's the question I have. Can I reverse my age now.

- Daniel Isaacs
Get on the r-Retinoate Intense.

- Hannah
I think I'm going to. Thanks so much for coming to Australia just to see us.

- Jo
I know. We know you came just for the podcast. That's how much this podcast is going off is that people flying from the UK.

- Hannah
Yeah. Guys it's a big deal. Big deal.

- Daniel Isaacs
Thank you for asking me to come and speak.

- Hannah
So this is the product. I didn't know we needed and we've both chosen products. We didn't even mean to do this but these are products that you go to bed with.

- Jo
Yes. Yes. So mine is a toothbrush which seems like a very basic hygiene product. But this particular toothbrush is Foreo's ISSA toothbrush which is a silicone toothbrush like their other products that are made from silicone. So it's like an antibacterial kind of vibe going on. For the head that I use has silicone and synthetic bristles but it's so gentle in your mouth like it takes a bit of getting used to it feels really weird.

- Hannah
I am going to second that - I am not used... I've tried it a couple of times. I just it's going to take me a little...

- Jo
It feels really weird in your mouth and it's quite big compared to like a regular toothbrush head.

- Hannah
I feel that you need... if you're going to commit to it you've got to commit to it.

- Jo
Yeah. I've commited. I'm a convert. Now that I'm a few months in, I find it's really good for sensitive gums and just sensitive teeth in general. If you've been to the dentist and they're like you've got gum recession. This is the tooth brush you should be using.

- Hannah
My products that I've chosen is the SHH silk. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. But it is a silk pillow case. What I love about it is it has a zip at the top. I did have silk pillow cases before I got them for my birthday. They went straight in the cupboard. Never used them again. This one because it like it goes tight on your pillows and it doesn't slip around it doesn't annoy you.

- Jo
The zip is the best part

- Hannah
The best part. I feel like there's no other... I haven't seen any others that have the zip at the top. I am obsessed with it. It is that product that you literally ... as soon as you get it. It's like a dream like you just didn't know what you were. Why did you sleep on that for so long.

- Jo
Yeah there is actually ... apart from being incredibly soft to sleep on there is actually benefits for your hair and skin.

- Hannah
Well I now feel like because I'm using so many expensive products on my face that I'm like why would I then wipe it all off on my cotton pillowcase.

- Jo
cotton absorbs products a lot more than silk does.

- Hannah
It's just honestly I don't want to travel without it.

- Jo
You won't know the difference until you try it.

- Hannah
And to be honest it is bougie it's like 80 bucks or something.

- Jo
I don't know. I never know price.

- Hannah
It's like you don't care about money. And it's actually the opposite. I'm the one that doesn't care about money and you're the one that's always saving.

I don't know if I had anything else to say about it except that I oh I did also invest in one of those the memory foam I got a memory foam pillow.

That coupled with this pillow case is like sleeping on clouds. Seriously the nicest thing I've ever.

- Jo
Yeah. I do want to say if anyone has specific questions they want us to answer on the podcast please do hit us up on social because we are very open to your suggestions and we do really want to make this a family; a community.

So please join us - please join our community.

- Hannah
Thanks everyone for joining us today.

- Jo
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