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