Decoding Skincare Ingredients: Beyond the Hype — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Raise your hand if you are sick and tired of  skincare products that promise miracles only to
2. 0:06disappoint end up unused on your shelf because you  fell for the marketing hype. Well, you're in luck.
3. 0:13In today's video, I'm going to be breaking down  some really important things that you need to know
4. 0:18about when it comes to decoding skincare claims  and making sense of skincare ingredient lists.
5. 0:24Hopefully, by the end of this video, you'll be  better equipped to sort through the hype and make
6. 0:29better skincare purchases that you actually use  and finish. We're going to go through the truth
7. 0:35behind popular marketing buzzwords. I'm going  to highlight ingredients that are actually worth
8. 0:39paying attention to, and I'm going to give you  pointers on how to read skincare ingredient lists
9. 0:43without needing to have a full-on chemistry PhD.  First of all, let's sort through the skin care
10. 0:49lies or lies by omission, I suppose you might say,  depending on how you look at things. It seems like
11. 0:55every year there is a new miracle ingredient. The  more sciency, yeah, that's a word they can make
12. 1:00it sound, the more eye-catching. There's a lot of  pressure in the skincare industry to constantly
13. 1:05be innovating or to at least create the illusion  that you are innovating. You have to stand out
14. 1:09from your competitors and you have to keep people  coming back. Every year there's some new miracle
15. 1:14ingredient hyped up for skin regeneration,  anti-aging, even claiming to fade scars
16. 1:20overnight. Right now, I can think of many skincare  ingredients that are way overhyped, prematurely
17. 1:26overhyped, like interesting science when you're  looking at cells in a dish or animal models,
18. 1:30but really not quite there yet. PDRN, exosomes,  we should be very skeptical when it comes to
19. 1:37skincare products that have new and innovative  technology. Have they really done their diligence?
20. 1:41Is the science really there on the optimal  delivery system, the best concentration? And have
21. 1:46we clearly delineated what are potential offtarget  effects, especially as we are diving even deeper
22. 1:52into nextgen skincare? And if you want more  information on that, check out my recent video on
23. 1:58nextgen skincare. We talk all things crisper and  gene editing. Yeah, I know. Back to the future.
24. 2:03Move over. Exoomes, for example, are marketed  right now as these powerful skin rejuvenators.
25. 2:09While they show a lot of promise for a variety of  biomedical applications, the science is simply not
26. 2:14there to say that putting them into a cream or a  serum or a toner or whatever is actually going to
27. 2:20deliver these in any meaningful way to affect  any sort of true desired desired outcomes. We
28. 2:27just don't have the robust research on these yet  to substantiate the claims that brands are making
29. 2:32about them in skincare products. PDRN or poly  deoxy ribboucleotide really really really hyped
30. 2:39up the small fragments of DNA that are promoted  for collagen boosting effects and improving skin
31. 2:45regeneration in vitro cells in a dish or small  animal models there's a lot of interesting science
32. 2:51going on however you really really have to think  critically here delivering small DNA fragments to
33. 2:57a barrier let alone are they going to go where  they need to go is the timing the chronology
34. 3:02going to be correct these are really important  questions questions. And like I said, what are the
35. 3:06undesirable outcomes of doing this? Then there's  spicules. Spicules are micro needle-ike particles,
36. 3:12you might say, derived from sea sponges.  Allegedly, they enhance absorption, help with
37. 3:17ingredient penetration, and they also allegedly  exfoliate the skin. While in theory they can be a
38. 3:23great way to enhance delivery of things, they're  not the most precise and there are a lot of
39. 3:28potential concerns with regards to these spicules  and adverse skin reactions, irritation. We don't
40. 3:35need to be driving every single thing into our  skin deeply in order for it to benefit our skin.
41. 3:42Trying to just amp things up, drive things in  really increases the likelihood that you're going
42. 3:47to have an adverse event. Always remain skeptical,  though. Are the results you're seeing from a given
43. 3:52product due to the actual hyped up ingredient in  that product or simply the result of the fact that
44. 3:58you are now moisturizing the skin consistently  because the product is in a moisturizing base?
45. 4:03Now, if you've been following me for a while, you  already know I am not a fan of the clean beauty
46. 4:08movement. I say that in air quotes because what  the heck is it? They can't make up their mind. It
47. 4:13varies from brand to brand what they deem clean.  If you're not aware, the marketing around clean
48. 4:18beauty, clean ingredients is not based in science  at all. It's just fear-mongering around perfectly
49. 4:26effective, safe skinare ingredients over others.  There's no standard definition. And when it comes
50. 4:32to a natural, not everything in nature is good  for our skin. Poison ivy comes from nature. Don't
51. 4:37want to be putting that into a serum. Natural is  not always the safest or most effective thing.
52. 4:41Not to mention clean beauty and natural. These  terms, they're not regulated as far as how they're
53. 4:47used. There isn't really any standard for what  constitutes natural or clean. So brands can just
54. 4:54say that without anything backing it up. Even  worse, many clean beauty brands forego really
55. 4:59effective preservative systems because they want  to make it seem as though those are not clean
56. 5:05or they're harmful despite ample research that  shows that they are not only safe and effective,
57. 5:11but they help cut down on the risk of adverse  events. And they are less likely in the case
58. 5:17of parabens to cause contact dermatitis compared  to other preservative systems. The preservative
59. 5:23systems that are replaced cuz you have to have  one are often not optimal. As a result, you have
60. 5:28products with a shorter shelf life that are more  vulnerable to degradation and contamination and a
61. 5:34greater risk of skin irritation. Here's another  one. This illusion of ingredient transparency.
62. 5:40Many brands hide behind various ingredient  descriptions. Instead of telling you exactly
63. 5:46how much of an active ingredient they have, they  just say the ingredient without any mention with
64. 5:51regards to percentages. That is often the case.  Like how much are we actually getting? That being
65. 5:56said, do we know how much we need to be getting  in order to yield results? Some people think
66. 6:01that having more of a given ingredient makes it a  better product, but that is not always the case.
67. 6:06more sometimes not only increases the likelihood  of irritation but in some cases it negates any
68. 6:12positive effect that the ingredient could have.  You need to have ingredients not just there but
69. 6:16there at an effective percentage but in many cases  either the effective percentage strength range has
70. 6:22not been determined or they're just not disclosing  what the percentage is. They're using very low
71. 6:28percentages that are not effective. Here's where  labels can get really really really sneaky. Many
72. 6:34times brands will hype up an ingredient that is  of interest to the consumer and they'll say that
73. 6:40the ingredient is there. But if you actually  read the label, they're using an alternative,
74. 6:45something similar. And if you look really  carefully at the type of language that they
75. 6:49use in marketing it, you see like wait a minute,  I was under the impression that this was this,
76. 6:54but it's really not. For example, retinol. Retinol  is a vitamin A derivative used in cosmetics has
77. 7:00good evidence to support its efficacy for  improving the look of aging skin. However,
78. 7:05a lot of brands will use retinyl esters, not the  same thing as retinol. Retinyl esters like retinyl
79. 7:11palmitate for example do not help to improve  collagen production, wrinkles, they don't work
80. 7:17like retinol. But a lot of times they will market  the product as having vitamin A for wrinkles and
81. 7:24anti-aging. And you think you're getting a  retinol. Sometimes they'll even use retinol
82. 7:28like language. Not to mention buchialol which is  often promoted as a plant-based retinol despite
83. 7:35lack of evidence to support that it actually  works like retinol. The research that we have
84. 7:39on buchial suggests it's an antioxidant and that  it may help stabilize retinol. Sure, it may be
85. 7:45helpful for improving the appearance of the skin,  but people want certain ingredients because they
86. 7:50want certain confirmed outcomes. Buchial versus  retinol. The research comparing them is not really
87. 7:57there. Here's one that I recently came across and  it's using Jinseng extract and claiming PDRN. I
88. 8:06already touched on earlier in today's video how  PDRN in and of itself is an ingredient that is
89. 8:12just overhyped, unlikely doing anything. But some  brands take it a step further. They don't include
90. 8:17PDRN, which is derived in many cases from salmon  sperm DNA, but rather they use a plant-based PDRN,
91. 8:26aka ginsing extract, which it's unclear has ever  been shown to have any appreciable amount of PDRN,
92. 8:35let alone demonstrate efficacy. This was a real  eye openener for me because prior to PDRN becoming
93. 8:41trendy as an ingredient, ginsing extract was  not anything that you would think about as far
94. 8:49as having some active DNA molecule in it. No one  ever talked about it that way. It's simply the
95. 8:55fact that PDRN is trending. There's some evidence  that ginsing extract may be a source of PDRN,
96. 9:01but whether or not the ginsing extract that is  used actually has PDRN, that is a huge, huge,
97. 9:08huge unknown, but brands still will use it and  market it that way. Here's another one. Vitamin
98. 9:13C. Vitamin C serum is one of the most sought after  skin care products and a brand is almost obligated
99. 9:20to have a vitamin C serum. Ascorbic acid has been  shown to yield a variety of benefits for the skin
100. 9:27when formulated correctly. That's key. Meaning  the ascorbic acid is stable and can penetrate
101. 9:33the skin because of the overall formulation of  the product. Yes, it can improve sun damage,
102. 9:37hyperpigmentation, and improve collagen production  and reduce obviously then wrinkles as a result.
103. 9:43Great. All wonderful things due to challenges with  regards to formulating it. So, it can effectively
104. 9:48do that. There are alternative forms of vitamin C  out there like vitamin C esters that do not have
105. 9:55the evidence behind them that ascorbic acid does.  They have to get into the skin which it seems as
106. 10:00though they do but they have to be converted to  ascorbic acid and it does not appear as though
107. 10:04these reliably do that. So, a lot of people are  buying vitamin C serums which probably are not
108. 10:11delivering the results that they're actually  looking for either because it's ascorbic acid
109. 10:15that isn't well formulated or it is one of these  vitamin C derivatives that hasn't been shown to
110. 10:21actually improve collagen production. So, is  everything in skincare complete BS made up?
111. 10:26No. There are actually quite a few skincare  ingredients that have good evidence behind
112. 10:31them and can work. Recently, I did a video on the  top five skincare ingredients for anti-aging that
113. 10:37actually work. There are a variety of ingredients  as well that are well established to be very
114. 10:42effective for improving water content in the skin  for moisturizing the skin. There are a variety of
115. 10:47ingredients that help improve barrier function,  hydrate the skin aka moisturize the skin such as
116. 10:53camides, ura, hyaluronic acid, prolotum to reduce  water loss, dimethylone also to reduce water loss.
117. 11:01You have a variety of exfoliating acids,  alpha hydroxy acids, polyhydroxy acids,
118. 11:06salicylic acid with a good track record of  exfoliating the skin. You have nioinamide,
119. 11:11an antioxidant, which probably has some of the  most research as far as a cosmetic ingredient.
120. 11:17Not only for acting as an antioxidant to ward  off oxidative stress and help with inflammation,
121. 11:22but to help with hyperpigmentation, to help with  redness, to help with moisture barrier integrity,
122. 11:27and to reduce glycation that would lead  to skin yellowing. Cosmetic retinol and
123. 11:33cosmetic retinaldahhide are active forms of  topical vitamin A with a good track record of
124. 11:38improving the visible signs of skin aging and have  been shown to work to improve collagen production
125. 11:44ultimately reducing wrinkle depth. Then of course  there's sunscreen without a doubt one of the most
126. 11:50effective evidence-based things you can include in  your skincare routine for protecting your skin and
127. 11:55keeping it healthy long term. There are a variety  of different sunscreen types. There's chemical,
128. 12:02aka organic, meaning it has organic carbon  compounds as the active sunscreen ingredients,
129. 12:07the active sun protection ingredients. Or you  have inorganic sheets of metal oxides, namely zinc
130. 12:14or titanium dioxide. And then you have hybrid,  which includes both inorganic and organic active
131. 12:19sunscreen ingredients. The organic aka chemical  sunscreens, they can burn and stain depending on
132. 12:25how the product is formulated, but they offer  very effective broadspectctrum sunscreen and
133. 12:29importantly they don't leave any white cast. The  inorganic mineral sunscreens tend to leave a white
134. 12:34cast, especially on deeper skin tones. Inorganic  sunscreens also can be a little bit more difficult
135. 12:40to spread on the surface of the skin, making it  more likely that perhaps you get uneven coverage,
136. 12:46and they tend to be a lot thicker, less  breathable. So, not the most comfortable
137. 12:50thing to wear in hot, humid conditions, but  they're a great option for sensitive skin and
138. 12:56some people just prefer them. Hybrid sunscreens  are always somewhere in the middle with the
139. 13:00pluses and minuses as far as spread, feel, cast,  but they're an effective broadspectctrum option
140. 13:06as well. What about the ingredient list? Let's  talk about some things to know about looking at a
141. 13:11skincare ingredient list. So, a lot of people get  hung up on the order of appearance of ingredients.
142. 13:17They assume that if an ingredient is not high up  like the first, second, or third ingredient on
143. 13:23the list, it must not be effective. But getting  back to the point I made earlier in the video,
144. 13:28higher percentages, higher strengths, more of an  ingredient does not necessarily mean it is more
145. 13:33effective. And having an ingredient lower down on  the list does not mean that the product is subpar
146. 13:39compared to another product that has got it higher  on the ingredient list because overall formulation
147. 13:45influences how effective that ingredient is at  getting into the skin and working, how stable
148. 13:51it is. You can have a very high percentage of an  ingredient in a product, but the product delivery
149. 13:56system is not that great. you don't actually end  up with that much of the ingredient getting to
150. 14:02access your skin. It's helpful to read ingredient  labels to know what ingredients are in it in case
151. 14:08you're allergic to something, in case you find  that a particular ingredient is irritating.
152. 14:12And it's also important to read ingredient  list to know what else is in there that you
153. 14:17are getting so that you don't end up seeking that  ingredient out in another product. In other words,
154. 14:22reading your skincare ingredient lists and knowing  what is in your products can help you buy fewer
155. 14:27products because you're like, "Oh, wait. That  sunscreen I'm using has nyioinomide. I don't need
156. 14:32to buy a nyioinomide serum for my morning skincare  routine. I'm already using it. My moisturizer also
157. 14:38has nyioinomide. Wow. I don't really need to be  buying anything else with nioinomide. Granted,
158. 14:44it is in a lot of things, so you might still  do that, but you get what I'm where I'm
159. 14:48going here." are that knowing what's in your  products that's not advertised on the front,
160. 14:52that's not the call out ingredient as part of the  ingredient story, if you will, in the marketing,
161. 14:57it can be a game changer. And so, if you are  not aware of the ingredients in your products,
162. 15:02you might just assume that it's only one thing  when in reality it offers various other things.
163. 15:08What ingredients should you look for to avoid  though to avoid skin problems? Are there any
164. 15:14ingredients that are a no no? Well, if you are  allergic to any ingredient, absolutely you have to
165. 15:19avoid that ingredient. Not just in skincare, but  in everything else, personal care products outside
166. 15:24of skincare, but you also have to be aware of if  it's present in household cleaning products and in
167. 15:30uh fabrics. I mean, certain ingredients can  pop up in a lot of sneaky places. Fragrance is
168. 15:35a common allergen. Fragrance is like a bucket  of a variety of different ingredients. People
169. 15:40often maybe develop allergy to that. It's like  one of the most common allergens in skincare.
170. 15:45And it also can be irritating for a lot of  people, can precipitate a flush of redness,
171. 15:50for example, due to certain compounds in the  fragrance mix that is used. Essential oils are
172. 15:55another one. Remember what I said, not all that  is natural is necessarily good. Essential oils,
173. 16:00however, do have in many cases a variety of  beneficial compounds in them. But regardless,
174. 16:05they are kind of a mixed bag of things and  allergy to them is relatively common uh as well
175. 16:10as irritation. A big reason though for irritation  to skinincare products is actually just using too
176. 16:17many of them. So having these over-the-top  skin flooding routines, multi-step routines,
177. 16:21that actually just increases the likelihood of  irritation. You start to get diminishing returns
178. 16:25from your skin care products when you start piling  on serum after serum after serum. Another reason
179. 16:31for irritation to products is not necessarily  an ingredient itself, but rather perhaps you
180. 16:37are using the product incorrectly. For example,  if you are putting your glycolic acid serum on
181. 16:43your eyelids and then wondering why you have dry  eyelids and little wrinkles around the eyes. Well,
182. 16:47eyelid skin is pretty delicate and probably  don't want to do that. Also, are you getting dry,
183. 16:52cracked lips? Are the corners of your mouth  sore and raw? Well, maybe you are getting that
184. 16:58glycolic acid on your lips as well. There's not  the stratum corneium on the lips to be targeted
185. 17:02by the glycolic acid. It ends up being very  irritating there. So stick with what your skin
186. 17:07needs and take a less is more approach. At the end  of the day, the skincare routine that I recommend
187. 17:13to anyone really is cleanser, moisturizer, and  sunscreen. And even those three products for a
188. 17:19lot of people are unnecessary to use all three.  For example, sunscreens, they're moisturizers.
189. 17:25Some people just don't really find that they  necessarily need a moisturizer. They've never
190. 17:29used one. They don't find that they have dryness  or sensitivity. They're like, "What what exactly
191. 17:33is this doing for me? I see no difference. I feel  no difference. In which case then don't you you
192. 17:38don't need to use a moisturizer. You know what  I mean? Or a lot of people feel like they have
193. 17:42the cleanser so they must wash their face twice a  day when in reality some people only need to wash
194. 17:46their face once a day at the end of the day and  that makes the cleanser last that much longer not
195. 17:51using it twice a day. Sunscreen on the daily is a  must though. I do recommend that unless you live
196. 17:57somewhere where it's dark outside during the day  for stretches of the year in which case you don't
197. 18:02need it. But again, it is a moisturizer. Another  reason to wear sunscreen on a daily basis is not
198. 18:07only because the studies show that people who  wear it on a daily basis get the best results
199. 18:11from it as opposed to people who just put it on  intermittently when they feel like they have to,
200. 18:16but because it reinforces the habit and you don't  really end up thinking about it and it's just
201. 18:21something you end up doing on the regular because  it's just part of your daily routine. All right,
202. 18:25guys. So, those are the key points I wanted  to highlight in today's video with regards to
203. 18:29marketing claims, skincare ingredient lists, how  to sort through some of the noise. Uh, I really
204. 18:35hope you guys found this video informative and  educational. On the end slate, I'm going to put
205. 18:39my recent video all about the future of anti-aging  skin care. So, watch that one next cuz there's a
206. 18:46lot of buzz coming. All right, guys. If you like  this one, give it a thumbs up, share it with your
207. 18:50friends, and as always, don't forget sunscreen and  subscribe. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Bye.
208. 19:02[Music]
209. 19:10Heat. [Music]