Kay Durairaj (00:15)
Well, hello, hello guys. You're listening to Beauty Bites with Dr. Kay, Secrets of a Plastic Surgeon, and today on the podcast, we are interviewing Nicole Chau She is CEO and founder of La Leur, and this is an amazing technology with LED red light, therapy, radio frequency, ultrasound, galvanic current. So interesting. We are fellow Trojans. So both went to USC, and this is gonna be a great talk about everything Nicole's gonna

Teach us about LED technology and being a female founder. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. So tell us a little bit about what happened and how you started a skincare launched a line with an LED device and a mask, and like you were one of Sephora's top new entrepreneurs. Tell us the whole story. Absolutely. So I was working a 12-hour job. My skin was

Flaring up, so I had acne, ⁓ pigmentation from the acne scarring, and also double-dry and hypersensitive skin. At the time, I did what anyone would do when they deal with skincare issues, and it's everything you can possibly do. So I tried topical skincare, in-office treatments, and then tried to replicate that at home with at-home tools. At the time, a lot of the tools at home were single functionality in that you had one.

Device for microcurrents, one device for LED light therapy, one tool for ultrasound, and one for radio frequency. There really wasn't something that integrated all of these technologies all in one. And I found the most results from in-office treatments, but there was a gap in the market where I would get these treatments once a month, but I wouldn't know what to do at home. And so I sought out to create a device that.

That

was easy to use, that integrated all of these technologies into one protocol, and that allowed you to really customize your treatments. So it helps with everything from acne and blemishes to fine lines and makeles to gell-dry and dehydrated skin. That's incredible. So did you bring a lot of your science background into what you did? Because you you actually have a degree in neuroscience from USC, so interesting. Yes.

I actually did, I think science really changes the way you think of things. And I was reading this book by Adam Grant, and he said the best way to think is to think like a scientist because you're always questioning your hypotheses, and that shaped a lot of Lelure because with our technology, I wanted the technologies to really target the root cause of the problem. So instead of simply bandaging it up, each

Modality in the tool, detox tone, lift, and infuse, is combined with a specific set of technologies that work to target the root cause of the problem. So detox, for example, has blue LED light therapy, ultrasound, as well as sonic pulsations, and it targets the root cause of acne, which is inflammation, excess oil production, as well as killing that acne-causing bacteria. That's very cool. I like that.

So you were recognized at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2019 and also selected for Sephora's Accelerate program that same year. So you kind of really pioneered in this category even way before these devices became mainstream. Like now everyone has some device at home, right? But mostly we're all buying our stuff off of Amazon. We have no idea what's good, what's bad. ⁓ you were kind of one of the early pioneers of that. How is that accelerate?

program was that amazing for your brand? The Accelerate program was incredible. We were able to work with veterans in the industry that we would otherwise not have the opportunity to do so. And Sephora Accelerate really also helped us get more visibility from the market and trust because in the beginning when you launch no one wants to try a new topical and this is a new device on your skin. And so

CES

launching at Sephora, getting our three patents granted, it gave us more credibility and it helped us build our clientele. ⁓ so good. How did you even get in front of Sephora? I applied, so I applied for Sephora's Accelerate program ⁓ in 2018. So end of 2018, we submitted a video and when showcasing at CES, someone from Sephora actually visited our booth.

I had no idea they were from Sephora and they were able to see the technology first hand and a few months later I was notified that I was accepted into Sephora's Accelerate program. Exciting. That's so cool. Really, it's just such a good stepping stone for you. for the consumers out there and listeners who are just discovering La Luer, can you talk a little bit about ⁓ what the brand does, like describe and what

What exactly is a LaLure device? Actually, you brought one with you. Yeah, so I brought one with me. La Luer's device integrates six clinical technologies. So we have red, blue, and green LED light therapy. We also have ultrasound, radio frequency, galvanic currents. That's the fun you're hearing. Yes, all in one. And what makes this device special is there are four modalities and

Each of these modalities target a specific skin concern that people typically deal with. So you're either dealing with acne and blemishes, fine lines and wrinkles, enlarged appearance of pores, or dull-dry, and dehydrated skin. We've integrated these six technologies into these four treatments. So we're targeting the root causes of these issues while keeping your skin barrier intact. Mmm, that's such a cute little device too. So I traveled.

A lot, and it's been one of the things that I'm able to throw in my travel bag. And then and then the airline stewardess says give me a look. Like, what is that girl doing? But it depups, it's really good for a lymphatic massage, and I love the red light. Now, and then with red light, I think people need to have some guidelines on what do you how do you know if you have a good red light device and what are warning signs about it? Maybe it's not good. Absolutely. So with red, Ellie.

LED light therapy, with any LED light therapy, you'll want to make sure it's the right wavelength to begin. So red LED light therapy is at 650 nanometers, and at this wavelength it's set to heal the skin because it's prompting or promoting ATP generation, and that's like the energy currency for your cells. And with enough energy, you're able to create collagen and less and all these things. ⁓

So

first thing you'll want to look for is the wavelength. The second is going to be the power and the density. So you'll want to make sure, like a flashlight, that it's powerful enough to say it's going to do what it's going to do. So if you only have five LED lights, that might not be strong enough to help with collagen synthesis and to energize your cells. ⁓ And then the third is density. So how how many LED lights do you have?

have and what milliwatts per centimeter square is that targeting in the skin. And so if you have all of these things, then your red LED light therapy tool device is going to then have the clinical benefits of collagen synthesis, ATP synthesis, increased cellular metabolism, decreased inflammation in the skin. Yeah, it's really all of those things. There are devices on the market that don't have any good

⁓

I think they're the wrong wavelength or their devices that are going to be extremely low level light that's not going to give you enough energy production in your skin. Absolutely. So I people can ex I think if you're going on Amazon and shopping for a device, you have to be really savvy and aware 'cause the inexpensive devices you might want to buy something under a hundred dollars, but literally don't you think there is no good technology under a hundred dollars? Sadly.

Sadly, just because the LED light diodes alone are very expensive and so when you engineer that into a tool, it would basically cost more than a hundred. Yeah. And you can see the density, the density of the LED lights is very important. So that's like how many light rays per centimeter squared. So you can see like on that device, quite a lot. It's quite dense and then it's power.

And also when you think of LED light tools, it's also based on how close you have it to your skin that gives you more power. And so this this is just basically touching your skin as you glide it. It's dense and then it's tested to be at the right wavelengths. ⁓ I've had patients who've left LED red lights on, like for example, on their neck, or they leave it on their face, they fall asleep and they get I've had one light again.

Yeah, hyperpigmentation and almost like a burn, a low level burn of her skin. Have you seen problems with LED red lights? Right. So LED light therapy, you have to use it within the protocol. And if you LED lights, it's not within the UV range, but it's still a light form, a light hitting your face. And if you overuse the tool, there could be risks of hyperpigmentation. Also, you have to be careful.

what type of LED light diodes are being used. So some that emit heat, ⁓ those are not not heat in the form of radio frequency, which is what our tool uses, but heat as in the LED light diodes themselves are emitting heat, that's very bad for the skin and can cause hyperpigmentation. Yeah, so true. So you have to kind of think a little more in depth than just ⁓ looking for something that's glowing red. Absolutely

⁓ well you are a female founder and you came into this with no business experience, right? Yes. What has your journey been like and what was kind of the hardest moments for you? I would say there's so many hard moments from but it's different because as you're building the product, your hard moments are going to be in the engineering of it and trying to fit all of these technologies in one.

Allowing yourself to communicate to your engineers what you want and attempting to get that in the form of device. And after you go over that hurdle of engineering, you're faced with marketing, bringing this to market, and selling the tool. So that's another hurdle you go through. But I think with entrepreneurship, you I'm a perfectionist, so I would always wait until everything is perfect, until I am perfect before life.

launching

but my parents are also entrepreneurs themselves and I credit my mom for this because she just pushed me, she said, you know, if you never try, you'll never get the experience. And the only way to get the experience is to do. So I just I just put myself out there, put one foot in front of another and the further you go, the more challenges you hit and the more hurdles you jump over, the more confident you become. And I would say, yeah.

that's even with no business experience you learn as you go and you get stronger as you go. It's true. Every day is like a little mini university. Yes. What's my problem for today and then how we get a fix. What fire to put out, right? Well you had to kind of educate in the in twenty eighteen and nineteen consumers I don't think were buying so many devices at home, right? So it was first educating about the class of product and

Bringing it into the house and teaching all of that now it feels very commonplace. Right. In the beginning it was difficult because technologies weren't that ⁓ they weren't that popular at the time and I credit a lot of our growth to our consumers. So we've grown solely by word of mouth and a lot of our consumers would share with their family and friends, and ⁓ we've just jump started that way and have been

been

growing with people like you and estheticians and I'm just so grateful for our community and all the mentors I've had. It makes a huge difference. You learn something from everybody on the journey. Yes you do. And would you have any advice for a person who's starting out with an idea or a skincare tool or a line or product? Absolutely I would say just go for it. Just go for it. Put your idea out

there and the most important thing is to execute. So if you have an idea to execute, to talk to more people, and continue to put one foot in front of the other until you have your product, you launch your product and then

You learn from your mistakes because everyone will make mistakes and I think it's the mistakes that are most valuable because you grow the most from those mistakes. That's very true. That's very true. Let's talk a little bit about ⁓ skin tightening and lymphatic massage. ⁓ I know that your device uses galvanic currents and people t tell me all the time they bring me questions about devices they've seen on the internet that tighten and lift and give muscle contractions. So can you

Explain a little bit about why that could be helpful for the face? Absolutely. So when we're younger, our face we have ample circulation and lymphatic drainage, it's just happening naturally because we're also actively moving around. As we get older, lymphatic drainage, it becomes a little more sluggish, and this leads to puffiness in the skin, it leads to inflammation, and so what beauty devices like ours does is it integrates technology.

Technologies like EMS, microcurrents, as well as ultrasound, and these technologies help with increasing circulation and increasing lymphatic drainage. When you increase circulation and lymphatic drainage, your skin, your face, then has a more sculpted appearance. So it won't change the actual structure of your face, but so much water is retained by the jawline that when you do use beauty technologies.

It's basically just draining everything out, which is why you see such a lift. And that's the initial that's the initial result. But as you use these technologies over time, you're training the muscles to really sculpt and you're also consistently doing this lymphatic drainage and circulation, which is great for skin health in the long run. I wish you guys could see if if you're listening on the podcast she has glowing skin. Nicole's skin is just flawless.

Goodness. ⁓ I've been trying to be really religious and regular with doing treatments at home and I fall off the wagon all the time. So your skin is incredible too. But I think like was is there a minimum required amount of lymphatic drainage that will help you get through your week, or do you have to really be five days a week kind of a person, seven days a week?

Kay Durairaj (16:53)
You can actually do two to three times a week for the first month, and that's how long it takes for you to see results. And so you don't have to be using the device every day, two to three times a week. It's just getting that circulation going for yourself. And on days when you don't use the device, when you apply your serums, your skincare, you can just gently massage your face.

⁓

And as long as there's some sort of stimulation, you're getting lymphatic drainage going. And in-office treatments are also incredible. So if you go in for an in-office treatment, you've really jumpstarted those results, and now once you've healed from the in-office treatment, you can continue making results at home using ⁓ and maintaining the results using an at-home tool. Have you guys noticed a big

Increase in interest given all of the longevity movement that's happening now and people paying more attention to skin health? Absolutely. We've gotten much well, the consumer is becoming more and more educated, and because of this, we've gotten so many more inquiries as well as ⁓ so many more customers looking into biohacking. And whether it's biohacking in the form of taking vitamins and peptides and doing in-office treatment.

Treatments to continuing those at home, we're seeing this movement towards wellness and longevity. Yeah, do you think AI is gonna come into skin evaluation as well as maybe even device settings and absolutely? we've met ⁓ through Perfect Corp and they have incredible skin analysis technology where they're able to tell you pores are the issue, fine lines are your

Or dark pigmentation underneath the eye area. I think AI will allow people to understand their skin a little more, and then devices that personalize treatments will allow people to then treat their skin without damaging their skin barrier, without trying all the TikTok trends and then coming in with really hypersensitive skin devices will allow you to maintain your skin barrier.

While treating your skin concern. Yeah. Do you think ⁓ more mature skin or menopausal skin has a different requirement, or are we all gonna benefit equally from these technologies? Absolutely. So menopausal skin, people with menopausal skin will actually benefit more from using the device just because your your skin has this natural thermostat, and so your skin's able to produce its own.

collagen it's able to keep moisture in it's able to create oil to lubricate however as we go through changes and as ⁓ our hormonal as hormonal changes happen our skin changes and during menopause skin is typically drier you see more redness more inflammation and more puffiness as well so the device will really help restore balance in your skin and allow it

It to do what it's supposed to do. So, radial frequency, for example, helps with collagen and elastin synthesis, which, as we go through menopause, as we go through life, it slows. And so being able to incorporate radial frequency into your skincare routine is really going to help you maintain that plumpness in your skin. Galvanic currents, for example, help with hydration, with locking in that hydration. And with menopause, your skin is a little drier.

So you might need a little bit of that boost to lock in that hydration. You have a really nice mask that you've developed. Can you talk a little bit about that and why it's useful for the skin, for drier skin? Absolutely. So it's a thermoactivated serum gel mask. The mask, what makes it so special is 100% of this mask is made of the serum itself. And when you apply it to your skin, not only does it naturally cool your skin.

But it also locks in that hydration. We also have ingredients like trimolecular weight hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, centella alzeatica, and so all of these ingredients used at its clinically effective percentages, it's able to cool, calm, and deeply hydrate skin. And when your skin is cool, calmed, and deeply hydrated, your skin barrier is stronger, and with a stronger skin barrier, you're able

To reap the benefits of products that you then apply because ⁓ first it's a strong skin barrier, then you want to hydrate the skin, and then you're able to apply all of these anti-aging protocols to it because your skin is able to take all those ingredients and do something with it now. Yeah, I think that is so helpful. ⁓ I'm a huge fan of masks. Are you using any of the newer Korean beauty technology? Like, have you tried PDF?

Or salmon sperm type treatments? Yes, my mom is such a fan of salmon sperm treatments. So she has gone to Korea multiple times to do the PERN salmon sperm injections and she's seen great results from it. You just get a natural glow and

The best part is it's natural in that you're not like injecting different things into the skin, but you're actually injecting things that help your skin regenerate. So Yeah, the polynucleotides. Yes. So DNA repair molecules. So I think that ⁓ Kay beauty has brought a lot of trends to the US. What do what do you kind of see as trends coming up for skincare devices? I see for skincare devices ⁓ incorporating

Multi-modalities into one tool. I also see a lot of ⁓ devices focusing on product penetration and on calming the skin because a lot of people are dealing with sensitive skin these days. And so those are the innovations that I'm seeing coming into the market. Yeah, well it's a really saturated market, skincare and devices in general. So how do you plan to always

Stay at the forefront or try to differentiate. That's something we all have to think about in our business branding. Absolutely. Thankfully, for our device, we have three patents for being the first tool to integrate all six technologies in one. But I believe a lot of the innovation is going to be now marketing it to people and helping consumers understand this because sometimes you could have great technology.

great products but a lot of it too is being able to increase distribution and to reach more people with these technologies and so a lot of the innovation I think will come from ⁓

reaching more people and in education as well. It's true. I think ⁓ the consumer is so overwhelmed by every time they open their phone, they're bombarded with so many messages. So it's really important to like give them a clear, consistent messaging with what's you know what don't follow trends but follow what really works. Absolutely and there's so much on the market which is a good thing and also a bad thing because if you try everything like what

I did in the past, you end up with a very compromised skin barrier. So a lot of it is learning how to listen to your own skin, trust professionals like you. And that is so true. I think people do too too many things to their skin. Yes. And skin kind of likes consistency. And like your skin has a microbiome and organisms that live on it that need like a steady state weather. Right? So

I really feel like bringing simplicity into people's lives is important too. Absolutely. Your skin is built to heal itself, your body is built to heal itself. So you want to give it just enough stimulation, but not too much so it goes overboard. That's so true. Yeah. Well, has your definition of beauty changed from the beginning of your journey till now? Absolutely. In the beginning, ⁓ I had a set vision of what beauty was.

But now I really think beauty is confidence. It's having ⁓ confidence in your own skin no matter what age you're at. And beauty is also balance. So it's just finding the right balance in your skin and understanding your skin. And when you do that, when you understand yourself, you also come across as being more beautiful. That's so true. There's so much talk these days about skin being, or obviously or

Largest organ, also skin showing your inner problems, you know, outwardly reflected. Absolutely. And senescence, which is like kind of the development of these zombie cells and skin that's slowly deteriorating. So I think that these devices can next level what we do with skin longevity. Absolutely. So with senescence, you you have these zombie cells in your skin, there's free radical damage, your skin is constantly.

Being bombarded by all these things. What skin technology does is it utilizes technologies that fight free radical damage, but it also gives your cells that stimulation to then rejuvenate. Red LED, for example, not only are we decreasing inflammation, but as cellular metabolism slows, red LED is able to give your cells that boost of energy to really kind of like jump.

Start it and give it the energy to do what it's meant to do because your skin, your body knows what to do, but sometimes the mechanisms and the functionality of things slow and it shows up in the form of dullness, dryness, ⁓ inflammation. But if you're able to utilize technologies to jumpstart that to target things that are beneath the skin, then you're really able to maintain really healthy looking skin. Yeah, I think that's so true. I think

We

should develop these regimens for patients, like maybe for the future when I see patients. I not only tell them one or two products that will help their skin, but I'm gonna also recommend some devices or you know, things they could do at home. Like you said, it's the things you do every day, the next level, it's not just seeing me three times a year, you know. Yeah, and seeing you three times a year is absolutely important because you need that guidance from a trusted professional, and then you take that guidance and

you continue it at home just like exercise you'll go to a personal trainer who knows and teaches you what to do and then you continue the treatments at home you continue the exercises at home to maintain your body exactly yeah well where can people find you to try your amazing Little War device? Absolutely you can find us online at Lillaloore.com we're also sold at plastic surgery offices esthetician offices and spawn

Throughout the US and internationally. That is incredible. Well, I congratulate you on your success, and I think ⁓ starting at USC is always a great background. Absolutely. I I have so much ⁓ pride when it comes to USC, and just the people I've met through USC are incredible. The Trojan family is really real and it's real, yes. Southern California. If you're in Southern California,

California then you know. And what's your Instagram handle and it's also La Luer and your personal one is the same? Yes, so ⁓ the device is La Luer and our Instagram handle is La Luer Official. My personal Instagram handle is Nicole W Chau and yeah.

That's where you can find me. There for all you female founders that are working on things and you need advice, you can reach out. Absolutely, I'd love to help. Well, congrats again. And ⁓ we use Lillure in the office, and I think this is not a big infomercial. I'm really only talking about devices that I really think can change patient outcomes, and so we're happy to have it here. Thank you. That's it for now, guys. Don't forget to find me on my Instagram. It's beauty by doctor.

D-R-K-A-Y doing amazing things with people's faces, and our website is the same, it's bdbitefterk.com. That's where you can find my brand new skin longevity line. It's a peptide-based skincare with glutathione, GHK copper, my own tripeptide collagen elastin complex, and ⁓ just the next level ingredients. You can't just stop at the basics of moisturizer, retin A, vitamin C. We're all doing that. We've got our house.

ironic but we none of you guys have things that boost the internal health at the cellular level to change how your mitochondria function improve your ATP production and do the things you need be doing so for skin longevity learn all about it here I have a podcast every every we do one twice a week so Tuesdays and then Fridays we have a five minute Friday definitely subscribe and like and refer our podcast to a friend and we'd love to have you come in to visit if you

You're ever in LA. That's it for now, guys. Stay beautiful.