Unknown: Well, hello. Hello, guys. You're listening to beauty

bites with Dr Kay secrets of a plastic surgeon, and today's

podcast is so super interesting. I want to talk all about

peptides and peptide science, and we're doing it with a

amazing expert. This is Patricia Boland. We call her Trish. She

leads color science as the Senior Vice President of R and D

and quality, and she has a huge experience in product innovation

and development, and I love how cosmosetically elegant all the

color science products are, and she's one of the people that's

responsible for the form, the final formulations of these

amazing, patented, award winning products, some of my favorite

sunscreens out there. But I think today's podcast is

particularly interesting because we're going to talk about the

role of vitamin D the skin barrier, and how your skin makes

its own vitamin D if you get the right exposures and the right

boosters. And she is a beautiful second generation Texan wife a

mother of two. She's a boss at color science, and she's also

even worked at Laura Mercier cosmetics as chief beauty

director, and I think she brings so much interest and interesting

innovation to what we're doing in cosmeceuticals. So welcome to

the podcast, Trish.

Thank you so much. It's great to be with you. I'm always honored

and excited to spend more time with you. So thank you.

Yeah, Trish is one of my favorite people at meetings to,

like, escape the meeting and go sit somewhere and just talk.

Likewise. Likewise. What are we doing for our lifestyle,

longevity and, like, great, latest and greatest supplements,

products and things that we're trying? So talk to us a little

bit. You Bet you've had this remarkable career going from

Laura Mercier to over to color science, and here at color

science really leading research and development and innovation

with brand new ingredients. And what are the ingredients that

are you're so excited about this year? Gosh,

there. There have been a few. You know, we're always meeting

with different ingredient suppliers. And, you know, we

have some that that we really lean into a lot, because they do

so much, so much clinical studying on their ingredients.

They look at them in different dosages. And you know, they know

that that is one of the prerequisites for using a an

ingredient in one of our formulas is that we need to know

that it has clinical evidence. We need to know at what dosage

does it provide, what benefit. And so, you know, a lot of times

we get access to them first. And are, you know, constantly

looking at the pipeline and looking at, where can we use

this? Where is it going to make the greatest impact? What is it

synergistic with? And so there have been some really cool

peptides we've seen in the last few years. There have been a lot

of great botanical extracts too. You know, I think we're seeing

this resurgence of botanicals. And, you know, some of these

fantastic properties that they can offer to our skin and our

skin processes. So that's, I think, what I'm most excited

about. And then the synergy, you know, of those together. And

then, of course, with sun care too.

I love that color science is definitely a leader in mineral

sunscreens. What are some of the biggest innovations that you've

seen in this space? Because you guys have recently come out with

a bunch of products that have gone viral and are just so

usable and so beautiful and great for skin.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. You

know, I think it's, it's just finding technology partners that

understand your mission. You know, our mission is to be sure

that we create ways that SPF becomes a daily habit. It

becomes, you know, as intuitive as brushing our teeth or taking

a shower, or, you know, getting dressed. And so we look for ways

that we can incorporate wearing sun protection in everyday life.

I always say the best product is something that you can live in,

and to me, that means that you don't really have to think about

it. It is very intuitive, and it's something that you like the

way it makes you feel, or you like the way it makes you look,

and if those things are true, you will continue to reach for

it. And so I think the biggest innovations have been these

unique zinc oxide dispersions, so that they go into different

formulas. And. A very cosmetically elegant way. You

don't have the white cast that used to be associated with

minerals. The texture is nice. It's not drying on the skin. It

doesn't feel heavy or occlusive. And then I think the the benefit

of being able to combine things like zinc oxide, you know,

mineral SPF active with things like iron oxides that are

delivering not only immediate color. So you have that cosmetic

benefit, cosmetic enhancement, but you also have the benefit of

the HEV protection. You know, we know that both zinc oxide but

also iron oxides help with protecting the skin against blue

light, and while we get the most of it from outdoor exposure, sun

exposure, it's the cumulative part that we also have to think

about. So, you know, a lot of times people will say, Well, I'm

inside all day. You know, I don't even have a commute. I

work from home, and so I don't really, you know, feel like I

need SPF every day, but we're trying to create products that

are doing more, you know, going beyond just the UV going into

HEV, going into into IR pollution protection. So there

have been a lot of really cool advancements in mineral

sunscreens in the last few years.

Love that. I think that is so critical. Do you Do you think

that sunscreens will evolve to allow full spectrum light to

come into the skin with while simultaneously protecting

against damage.

I hope, I hope so. I think that that would be so cool. But, you

know, a lot of what what you see brands doing now, a lot of what

we do at color science is that total protection. So it may not

be with just one active but, you know, I think we've seen that

zinc oxide, for example, zinc oxide is really strong in the

UVA part of the spectrum, but it also has strong attenuation in

the UVB. That's why you see, you know, formulas that are using

only zinc oxide for the SPF protective benefit. But then you

also, like I was saying before, you can combine that with

different levels of the yellow and the red and the black iron

oxides, and that, combined with zinc oxide, is also giving you

HEV. And then we do know that some of those iron oxides do

have attenuation benefits out into the IR part of the

spectrum. So I think right now, not necessarily one ingredient

that does all of it, but I think that there are a good

combination of ingredients readily available today that we

can use in the right amounts, the right dosages to still get a

really nice, you know, complete broad spectrum attenuation, but

also have a Nice, you know, esthetic benefit, have textures

that you can wear and that you want to wear.

I love that. So there's been a lot of talk this year about skin

barrier and how important the skin barrier is to keep it

intact and replenished. Skin being your biggest organ. Can

you talk a little bit about skin barrier?

Yeah, I think, I think skin barrier is something. Skin

Barrier, I think, has become a little bit of a buzzword in the

last few years, but I think, you know, for those of us that are

in the industry, we think of skin barrier as making sure that

our skin is protected, making sure that it has really the

fundamentals. I think of it that way. We've got to be sure that

we're keeping the skin hydrated. We have to be sure that collagen

and elastin is still being produced, and that it's quality

collagen and elastin. We have to think about things like skin

cell turnover, and you know, that slows down as as we age. So

we want to be sure that we're paying attention to that, that

we're focusing on things that are regenerating skin, that are

helping it to heal and repair. So I think even though barrier

health skin barrier has become a term or a buzzword that we're

hearing a lot more in the last few years. I think it really

just comes down to fundamentally, what are the

things that we can do for our skin and I think it also a and

I'd be interested to know if you agree with agree with us. I

think it lends itself to such a wide range of skin types. You

know, it's, it's not something like hyperpigmentation or

redness rosacea, that's more targeted barrier health is

something that we all need. We all need to be focused on. And

it, it should be, I think, very much kind of table stakes for.

Or, you know, a skin care formulation.

Yeah, the more we learn about skin and in the longevity space,

the more important. I think that barrier is because this whole

idea of the skin being connected with the GI tract being

connected with the brain, like, there was a really interesting

study that showed patients in a nursing home when they just had

skin barrier repair, like, literally, something so simple

as putting a good lipid emollient on their extremities

every day that their dementia

improved and they had to control, wow, so crazy.

Like, is that the human interaction of massaging it in?

I think it's more than that. I literally think that this, you

know, the crate texture and the loss of trans epidermal water

and, like, the exposure to organisms and inflammatory

mediators that come in through your skin, like, right,

the immune defense piece of it, and then, yeah, that was

so super interesting. So I think there's such a big gut, brain

connection and connection to the skin, of course, and we've seen

this that when we improve the barrier, the symptom,

inflammatory symptoms, go down, right, like rosacea, right? Get

calming effect. And then we see the opposite to where our

patients do too much on their skin, like too much retinol, too

much Retin A, too much needling, lasering, like not giving the

barrier yes to regenerate. So I think that's super important as

well.

Yeah, I think so too, because I think our skin fatigues right

when we're doing so many things to it, and there you we have to

give it time to heal. We have to give it time to repair. And we,

you know, have to give it all of those things that it needs in

order to function as optimized as possible. And so I think

you're right. I think we've and it's got to be a in a the right

harmony, right the the kind of the right consistency of of it

all

Exactly. Now you guys have come out with a recent solution to

some barrier issues. Let's talk about that, because that's so

exciting. It has both barrier repair function as well as kind

of stimulating skin's production of vitamin D levels.

Yes, absolutely. So before I get into the brand new one, just to

sort of back up a little to how we came about this concept. And

this idea is, you know, to your point point barrier health,

we're talking a lot more about it and understanding that it is

a primary need, a fundamental need, for all of our skins. And

so about a year ago, maybe a little more than a year, we

launched our barrier pro platform of products, and so we

just launched with a cleanser and a moisturizer. But the the

moisturizer, especially, it's so much more than a moisturizer,

and we call it our essential moisturizer, and that's because

it has essentially a hydration, moisturization complex. It has a

microbiome complex. So we have a pre, a pro and a post biotic in

the formula. And then we also have ingredients that we refer

to as I know you've heard us say this adaptive response. And to

us, adaptive response means there are so many ingredients

that are able to help our skin respond better to certain, you

know, things. So the opsins in our skin that respond to light.

So there's an ingredient, a hydrolyzed pea protein, that is

helping with the DNA repair pathways and helping our skin to

better respond when we're exposed to light. So it helps to

our skin to defend itself more readily, more aptly. And so I

think you know this approach of having all of those together,

it's, again, so much more than a moisturizer, and I mentioned

that we did a cleanser as well. And so this next step was

launching a serum spray. And so we wanted something that could

be delivered in a slightly, you know, different delivery method.

So serums, you think of typically, you know, pumping in

your hand and massaging them into the skin. We wanted

something that you could spray on, but something that you could

use, not just for your face. You could use it for face, for neck,

for decollete. I mean, you could spray it on your shoulders,

really, anywhere. And our thought was, let's infuse it

with those same barrier repair, barrier health ingredients, the

hydration, the microbiome, piece, the adaptive response.

But can we take the adaptive response a step further? And so

being that we, you know, offer so many mineral SPF options,

what we hear a lot is, well, what about my vitamin D? What

about my vitamin. D, and we know that most of us are either

deficient or deficient and have insufficient vitamin D, meaning,

not only do we not have enough of it, but that that that we do

have isn't working as efficiently as possible, for,

you know, one reason or another. And so as we were looking at

different ingredients and looking at different

opportunities to address this, we came across a very unique

Chrono peptide ingredient that has great synergy with a plant

cell, nectar that comes from a succulent plant, and together,

these two have the ability to not only make vitamin D receptor

activation more consistent, but also to help increase the

synthesis of vitamin D in both our fibroblast and in our

keratinocytes. So actually being able to provide, you know,

vitamin D synthesis to the cells, and it was just such a

kind of aha moment for us, seeing these two ingredients,

learning about them again, looking at the dosages that the

ingredient suppliers had studied, but then also looking

at, how can they be really meaningful in a product that is

offer, also offering that hydrolyzed p protein that's

helping those light repair pathways. And so that's where

this concept was born, and the idea that you don't have to just

be outside in order to trigger the vitamin D receptor

activation and to start that process of synthesizing vitamin

D.

I think a lot of people are not aware that vitamin D that you

take as an oral supplement exists and goes down fully

different metabolic pathways than the vitamin D that your

skin, right internally, makes and produces. Can you talk a

little bit about that, like, what's Yeah,

so you know that was interesting for us also. So many of us are

taking some type of Vitamin D supplement, but that vitamin D

supplement that we're ingesting is, you know, processed through

our liver, and it's very different from the vitamin D

that is created in our skin. So I actually, as I was was digging

into this, I didn't realize how much of the vitamin D is

actually created by our skin and then used by our skin. So about

90% of the vitamin D, that is, you know, that we're we're using

that our body is using, is created in the skin. And so, to

your point earlier, our skin is our largest organ, when you

think about it, and you have those facts that really does

make sense, and it also makes sense, you know, maybe why so

many of us are vitamin D deficient, or have insufficiency

in our vitamin D production, and so when we are exposed, and so I

miss I mentioned UV because sunlight is A trigger. We hear

vitamin D called the sunshine. Vitamin sunlight is a trigger.

And so what happens is, the sunlight triggers, or activates

our vitamin D receptors in our skin cells, and then that kicks

off, you know, an entire process of activating those receptors,

those receptors then are able to act as vitamin D can then act

as, you know, co factors, and is created in our skin, and we can

see that it's both in our keratinocytes and our

fibroblast. There are even vitamin D receptors on our

melanocytes. And so

you don't realize that, I didn't realize that fibroblasts are

making vitamin D,

right? And so we, as we started looking at this and going, Well,

what kind of things, you know, I always think to myself, this,

that's so cool. But then, what does that mean? What does that

look like on the skin? Because, you know, there are lots of

things that that we could spray on or that we could massage on,

but at the end of the day, we're looking for some kind of sign of

of change or sign of improvement. And so as we

started studying this more and more, we saw things like

improved circulate, like micro circulation in the skin and

better oxygenation of the skin. And so what does that look like?

We saw things like redness start to improve, start to be reduced.

We saw things like areas of maybe poor micro circulation. So

you know. I automatically think about my dark circles around my

eyes and and things like that. We saw that start to improve. We

saw luminosity in the skin start to improve. We saw things like

Not, not necessarily, yet, because the initial study we

did, I should mention, was a four week study. It was a four

week in you study. We wanted to use it on subjects that were

either using, you know, maybe more novice and we're using very

straightforward skin care regimens. And then we also

wanted to use it on, you know, people like you and I that are,

that are have access to a lot of different treatments, and, you

know, are using a lot of different, maybe more advanced,

skin care options. And in both groups, we saw things like

improvement in skin what looked like skin tautness, one of the

studies called it skin tonicity. So not necessarily, necessarily

meaning color of the skin, but like, if you think of tone when

you exercise and your muscles get toned, you know, just the

kind of the overall quality of our skin. And so we saw

improvements in that where it's too early, you know, four weeks

is really too early to start seeing collagen start to build.

But I think the combination of the improved microcirculation

and oxygenation and hydration that's also happening as as a

result of vitamin D synthesis and all of this started almost

mimicking, if I could use that, that kind of word, started

mimicking the look of stronger, firmer skin, just the overall

quality, smoothness, pore size was improved. So it was we've

got more studies that we're starting right now, but that was

a real, you know, eye opener for for us to to see all of the

things, all of the ways that vitamin D can impact the look

and the quality of our skin.

So for me, that implies that I will put this spray on in the

mornings, first layer, but I'm still going to be putting

sunscreen on top of that, like, what is that going to impact the

sun exposure and the magnification of the vitamin D

production, because some UVB is necessary to make vitamin D.

It's not so, yeah. So I'm so glad you mentioned this. So the

way that we recommend using it is, as you said, you know, after

so morning and evening, after we cleanse our skin, this is going

to be one of the first things you put on, put on. So if you're

putting on a toner or something that requires, you know, you to

wipe something on, then you would do that first. But this

would come next, and you want to give it a moment to absorb into

the skin. But then you do, you know, the rest of your skin care

regimen, absolutely, we're going to want to do SPF. But then if

you do go out and you're exposed to to UV, and we're worried,

right? You're you mentioned, well, the SPF is sort of, it's

it's shielding, it's protecting from that UV. So how is the

vitamin D being synthesized? And so that's where this unique

chronoppeptide. This peptide ingredient is really unique and

differentiated, because it has the ability to keep that vitamin

D receptor activated even if you're not exposed to UV so that

means that at night, when we're sleeping, we're not exposed to

UV or even you don't have to be sleeping. You're just the sun

has gone down, and you know, there is no UV exposure. There

is still a vitamin D receptor activation happening, which

means that you can, you have the ability to continue synthesizing

the vitamin D that then combined with this plant cell nectar that

I mentioned, comes from a succulent plant. And this plant

has the ability to regulate its its its water capacity, its

water content. It has the ability to protect itself

against UV but most importantly, we saw at different dosages, it

has the ability to increase vitamin D synthesis, and it was

studied in both keratinocytes and fibroblasts. It also has the

ability, I mentioned the hydration piece to increase the

tissue water index, so we have more hydration in our skin as

well. And so when you have those two together, and it was studied

with an SPF 50 cream, which I thought was so brilliant and so

unique. Being that, you know we're, we're really trying to

make daily SPF a habit as I, as I shared now, you have this

really unique ability that you don't need UV to trigger that

vitamin D, vitamin D receptor activation. You don't need that

to happen, because you've got this unique chronoptide, and

then you have this plant cell nectar that is helping with your

reserves of vitamin D and helping to hydrate the skin

through that tissue, you know, water index measurements. And so

we can see that that is happening, and then it's leading

to all of these great benefits that you can see in terms of

your your barrier health and your skin quality.

That's so fascinating that we went to the desert to find a

plant that, probably through millions of years of evolution,

developed this characteristic because it has to avoid getting

scorched and like, right retain water, and so this peptide kind

of fits like a lock and key right into that human vitamin D,

you know, trigger and whatever receptor is prompting the

production of vitamin D. That's so interesting. Do you see blood

levels change of vitamin D? Or we haven't gone that far yet.

We haven't gone that far. We are heading into that next so we are

just now kicking off. I should, I shouldn't say just now kicking

off. We've actually been working on the protocol for quite some

time, but we are about to start. We are starting with the subject

enrollment. We're using a third a third party lab, and our

starting subject enrollment, and we will look at, not only blood

serum levels for the vitamin D piece, but we're also looking at

different microbiome benefits that this this ingredient,

because it still has that pre Pro and post biotic. And we know

that the the synergy between our barrier, our microbiome, you

know, vitamin D, synthesis, all of those things work to work

together. It's important to have, you know, a healthy,

balanced microbiome, so that you know, as we're creating vitamin

D in the skin that all of these processes are optimized. So part

of the study will be not only the serum levels, not only the

microbiome piece, but then also looking at some instrumentation

data, looking at hydration levels in the skin, looking at

any changes in for example, redness, skin tone, elasticity,

firmness, those kinds of things. So I'm really excited for that

to kick off. It's going to be a longer study. This one is a 12

week study across, you know, many subjects, I think it's 30

subjects that we're going with, and so that, you know, we'll be

excited to share that data once we get it.

That's exciting. I think it's so important in this industry

that's really filled with a lot of marketing hype, that brands

like color science, you guys are very good at investing in

clinical studies and actual data to kind of build trust with

physicians and consumers.

I think you have to, I mean, I really think that clinical

studies today are their table stakes. You You have to be able

to really demonstrate what your product is doing, and sometimes

also what it's not doing. And I think that we at color science

are in a in a unique situation, because we sell, as you know,

direct to to the consumer, but we also sell directly to you as

the you know physician, as the skin health professional. And so

we have to make sure that when we're creating a new product,

that we've looked at the science, not just of the

ingredients, but what is that biological process that the

ingredient or that the complex or the product itself is

targeting, and then, how do we prove it to you? How do we prove

it to you as the professional? And are we able to, you know,

speak that same language and to properly articulate what what

the product benefit is, but also being able to distill that a bit

and explain to the consumer why this is a meaningful addition to

to their daily routine and what those benefits are. So I think

again, clinicals, we really pride ourselves not only on

studying the products that we're bringing to market, but studying

them in unique ways so that we can articulate the benefit and

how that fits into someone's routine.

This product is going to be amazing. I love the thinking

that's gone in. To it like just the concept of putting a

prebiotic and a postbiotic and a probiotic, all of that in one

bottle. And yeah, love that. It uses peptides, which are some of

the strongest communicating molecules in our body. I

think they're the best, yeah. I mean, yeah, they're the best.

And there are so many peptides, you know, we're seeing so many

of them, so making sure that the delivery is there and that we're

able to deliver them where we need them. But yeah, we we love

peptides. We turn to peptides a lot. And you know, most peptides

work in the dermis, but we have another peptide that we use and

some of our other products, it's actually in our barrier Pro,

essential moisturizer that works specifically in the epidermis.

So I think we'll continue to see a lot of innovation in, you

know, various peptides and combinations of peptides. So

very exciting.

That's the year of the peptide. Yeah, I love it. Well,

dermascope Magazine said that you were a beauty architect.

What do you think is one of the most important kind of blueprint

for, you know, taking care of your skin? Like, if you had to

recommend a single most important piece of advice for

protection, for the blueprint for beauty?

Yeah, I think it's SPF. I think we say a lot at color science

that sun care is the first step to skin care, and that, you

know, really SPF is skin care. I'll tell you, I was not good to

my skin. You know, as as a young woman, I loved being in the sun.

We had a house near the beach, and spent every weekend there.

And, you know, back then it that's, if you used SPF, you

would use it if you're, you know, on the beach all day or

something like that. And, and I just, I grew up in the in the

time of tanning beds, and, you know, the the more tan you were,

the more fit you looked. I mean crazy things that when I say

them now, they just sound ludicrous, because they are, but

I can tell you, just in the last 13 years, even of you know,

being part of color science and leading this innovation team

wearing an SPF 50 every day has so dramatically changed my skin.

And, you know, I've done other things too, right, but the way

that it has transformed. And so I would, I would just say, you

know, starting with an SPF, I tell my daughter, you know, my

son, the number one thing is to wear an SPF every day. And then,

of course, you want to be sure that you're, you know, hydrating

your skin, that you're focusing on barrier health. Antioxidants

are great. I sort of think of that as barrier health too. But

I think finding a great, you know, barrier product that you

love, but also just making sure you have an SPF that you'll

apply every day, having something that you can reapply

is great as well. But just for sure, sun protection,

that's right, 90% of aging is from the lovely sun. Well, this

has been so fascinating. I hope everybody listening got an

insider's peek into the ideas of vitamin D production coming from

your skin, intrinsically and being so important, I think, for

overall skin glow. Thank you. Trish, where can people find you

if they want to reach out?

Yeah, thank you. So I am on LinkedIn. You can find me

Patricia McGill Boland. You can also find me at our Instagram.

So you can, you can go to the color science, or you can find

me at color science,

Trish. I love it. Well, guys, you heard it here first. It's

all about vitamin D in the skin. This is, this is new. We only

thought of vitamin A in the past, and now we're going to

have all these conversations about vitamin D, and I'm here

for it. That's it for now. Guys, don't forget to find me on my

instagram. It's Beauty by Doctor k, d, r, k, a, y, and our

website is the same. It's Beauty by Doctor kay.com and that's

where you can learn more and more about skin longevity and

all the things we're doing for health, beauty and wellness.

Love you guys and stay beautiful. You