Top Tips For Clear Glowy Skin - By Me & Experts
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This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. Hi, guys. Welcome back to the show. My name is Mari. I am your host, and today we are talking skin.

We are going to hear from some amazing experts today. I've had so many incredible skin experts on the show. We talk about acne, aging, ways to just like look your glowiest. I have personally been through my own crazy skin journey. I am so happy with where my skin's at now. I feel like I, for the

For the first time in my life, I'm not struggling with breakouts. I had 10 years of cystic acne. So as a teenager, I really like didn't have that much acne. My acne really picked up like end of college into adulthood and it just got gradually worse and worse. And I really couldn't figure out why I got so much testing done.

At first, it was because I had high testosterone. I was put on all these different antibiotics like doxycycline and, you know, the classic dermatologist cyclotoxin.

solutions and none of it worked for me. And it would just come and go, come and go. Tried spironolactone, that worked, but not amazing. I tried crazy diets. I did carnivore. I did keto. I cut everything out. It was actually such a crazy time for me. The only thing that ultimately worked was figuring out that I had a gut bacteria called H. pylori. I've talked about this many, many times. So you should go back and listen to some of my H. pylori episodes if you want to

more info, listen to my episode with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon as well. But ever since healing my acne, I feel like I've really gotten to focus on scarring, aging, kind of like the fun skin stuff, which has been so exciting, especially during IVF to have some like

self-care tools to focus on. It's been really fun. So I wanted to just give you guys like some suggestions I have, some products I've been loving, tools I've been loving. I also spoke to my esthetician Jackie from Vixen, which is where I get all my facials and got some suggestions from her of what to tell you guys with like products we've used on my face, treatments we've done, things like that. I actually do really want to get her on the podcast at some point, but TBD,

Right now, we've kind of put a pause on guest episodes, but coming back soon, I'm just trying to get through this IVF home stretch. So I want to talk to you guys about some of the things I do in my life that help with skin. Red light therapy, huge. I think red light therapy is amazing for face and body skin.

really good for scarring, inflammation, even like wound healing. I feel like when I'm consistent with my red light is when my skin looks the best. I love Boncharge, great red light therapy brand. I work with them, but I also just love the products. They have a red light face masks that you can do things while wearing. You just wear it 10 minutes a day. They also have panels, tons of different options. So red light therapy, I also feel like you can

meditate, you can cook, like so many things you can do while doing red light. I also love the sauna or steam. I think really good for sweating, detoxing, flushing out the skin, obviously wash your face right afterwards, but that has been like such a great tool for me. I think that sauna, steam, sweating, detoxing, I feel like my skin always looks so good afterwards. I

I just make sure that I wash my face really quickly so that the sweat isn't sitting on my face. You guys can also get like sprays that kill the bacteria. I really like the Hydranity Hyacinth Mist. It's an antimicrobial mist.

it remains stable and will kill any bacteria. So like I do that after riding my horse, after the gym, after the sauna, if you need a quick solution and you can't wash your face. Really, I mean, when my acne was really bad, I used acne safe products like hair,

You guys know I love ClearStem. They have acne-safe body lotion, hair care, lip balm. Like, I do break out around my mouth quite a lot, so I use acne-safe lip balm. I will say, now that my acne is gone, I do use, like, regular makeup products because I feel like my skin isn't breaking out from it anymore. So I kind of balance between acne-safe and, like...

Toxic is the wrong word, but like, you know, normal products. Just something to keep in mind if you're struggling with breakouts. I would say limited makeup. Like if I'm not on camera, if I don't have important meetings, I'm just wearing my Chlor-A-Science sunscreen, which is tinted and...

benefit lip tint, eyebrow gel, and I'm curling my lashes and that's it. Like I don't put makeup on my skin unless absolutely necessary. I also love ice rollers if you're struggling with inflammation. And as I just said, sunscreen daily. I also have been playing around with the Gua Sha. I have a stainless steel face gem Gua Sha that I'll do in the morning if I feel like I'm a little puffy. I've definitely been dealing with face puff more with IVF, like with all the hormones,

and what have you. So I've been enjoying that and just kind of like,

you know, doing those self-care moments. Some products I've been loving. Okay, these are kind of like fun additions. You guys have probably seen me doing these. My number one, I feel like I'm gonna have to order more of these. I don't want them to sell out. I fricking love them. Are my Jouer eye masks. They are like the gold eye masks. I'll wear them to like workout classes, walks. They are so moist and make you so dewy under the eyes.

And I just feel like they're so hydrating, but they are so cute. Like I've had a couple people ask me if I'm wearing Gucci eye masks, which is so crazy because they look, they kind of look like Gucci. I think I saw them on Hailey Bieber and researched them. I seriously, I'm obsessed. My drawer is full of them. So I'll just like go about my morning wearing these eye masks and people kind of don't care. Like they're like, oh my God, I love your eye mask. So cute. It kind of is a vibe. It like fits with the Pilates outfit.

Look, so I love, love, love my Jouer eye masks. J-O-U-E-R. So it's like French. I think Jouer means to play in French, which is interesting. Epicutus face masks. These are my holy grail hydration masks. It's like in a, it's a black...

packaging very chic very gorgeous comes in a box they are a little more expensive but these are like they hydrate my face so well i wear them for like 30 minutes before bed it is like the perfect thing to do after traveling even after the sauna like anything that's drying your face out like when i was in colorado i brought them with me really really good for that like glow and

Also, I posted this on TikTok today. I have seen all the TikTok girlies like Acquired Style and Bridget and all of them. Maybe her name is Bridget.

All the cute girly pops on TikTok are doing this face mask where it looks like they have like 3D shiny skin when they wake up. It's an overnight mask. I believe it's Korean. I'm not sure. It's called MediCube, okay? I get it on Amazon. I just ordered five more this morning. You wake up and you peel it off and it's like the most... I mean, you're like a lizard. Like you peel your whole face off and you're just so glowy and gorgeous underneath. I...

I'm obsessed. I'm like really weird with wearing stuff at night. Like if I do weird hair things or face things, I like feel it and I wake up a lot. So I'm a little bit tired today because I think I'm also just anxious. But this face mask makes you so glowy and gorgeous. So now I get why all the girls are using it. And I feel like so many of these products are from Asia. Like I feel like Asia really has their skincare figured out and we're just like catching on.

on, you know? So MediCube, it's like a little pink squeeze bottle, put it all over your face. Be careful of getting it in your hair. I definitely did that. And it looks like I have dandruff everywhere, but I really just have like the face mask in my hair. So that I've been loving. And then I mentioned to you guys the Gua Sha. I do like this part of my face, like upper cheek, jawline, down the neck. I don't do much more than that. I don't really know the technique, but it does feel good. And I feel like it's like flushing out the lymph nodes.

Okay, some notes from Jackie, my esthetician, of what we did in the treatment room. She wanted me to mention, if you have breakouts and acne, it's important that you find someone who specializes in acne. They should have good before and afters, testimonials, just not all talk. You want someone who's trained in face reality and DMK. And I think that's really important. I've...

tried a lot of different estheticians and Jackie's been amazing for me because she's so acne focused and she has like an acne boot camp here in Austin. Oh god I hope she doesn't get booked up either Jackie keep my appointments please. We do chemical peels, we do microneedling, I have microneedling booked with her this week for my scarring like she's really seen me through every stage of my acne. She's also really good because I'll text her like back when my acne was really bad and I'd like

freak out about a breakout. She would talk me off a ledge, help me stop picking, all the things. So she said, I had a combination of inflamed cystic and non-inflamed acne. We would do peels depending on what her skin could handle. They were Face Reality brand peels.

We did LED therapy to kill acne-causing bacteria and reduce inflammation. When we started working on my pigment, we used a brightening peel. That's what we use now, I think. Microneedling to address pigment and texture. Routine, we have me using a gentle cleanser from ClearStem.

We were icing the skin for inflammation. I do mandelic acid. I do beta gel, which is like a hydration. Vivid brightening, which is for scarring. I do acne med, which is benzoyl peroxide. Just a light amount on the face. We also used, back when my acne was bad, DMK Actrol powder. It's like a powder that like controls sebum production and you can kind of use it as a makeup, which is really cool.

So a lot of great tips here. And also guys, I used to get extractions way too frequently. Back in LA, these women would destroy my face. It was crazy. Jackie's very like selective with when she's extracting me.

Always keeps it light, but like extractions do help. You know, it depends on how much acne and what kind of acne, but like every other week or so consistent peels, someone who's just like very knowledgeable and helping you. So yeah, I wanted to give you guys a little look at what I do for my skin. I hope this was helpful. So now let's hop into this mashup of our best and most popular skin experts. Everyone is washing their face wrong. Yeah.

What? Am I washing my face? I mean, probably. Okay. This is one of my biggest, biggest things I like to talk about because think about the end of the day. We're done. We're exhausted. We're literally, I don't want to mess up my mic, but we're doing a five second like

cleanser to get our makeup off. If you took a white cotton round and put it on your skin, what would that look like after you wash your face? Yeah. No, you're right. And I've actually tested this out. And that's why I do multiple washes now, cleanses, because I was not doing it the right way. And no one is. I mean, we're just not thinking about it. So, Pow Girls, I challenge you. Put a timer on your phone for one minute.

And then cleanse your face, like facial massage. Get in there. Make sure you're hitting your upper lip, the bridge of your nose, all the way up to your hairline, your neck, like chin acne. I mean, are we even washing? The sebum, dirt, oil, indoor pollutants, outdoor pollutants, makeup. Like how is your skin supposed to breathe and absorb any of your products if it's not clean? I just use one cleanser.

just one gel-based gentle cleanser for my makeup. - Everyone's gonna wanna know. - I love two. I love the Honest Simple Gel Cleanser. It's like 15 bucks. Really good. And then the Clear Stem Cleanser is also incredible, a little bit more expensive, but it's very nice. - Okay, we love Clear Stem. - It's great. - That was my other question. With all of these recommendations, with diet, stress, et cetera, how important is the actual skincare we're using?

I think it's probably, it's so hard because everyone's different. It's like if your diet is 100, then it's 50%. But it depends where you are in your journey and what you're doing. I always like to say it's probably 25 to 30%.

Which is crazy because people think it's the thing that will fix their skin. Yeah. And it's not. It's like the added bonus. It's whoever you're talking to. If you're talking to an esthetician, they're going to say skincare is 95%. If you talk to a nutritionist, they're going to say diet is 95%. If you talk to a dermatologist, they're going to say, you know, it's genetics and medication is going to be the 95% and just put Aquaphor on your face.

So everyone, when you're listening to people online, just know your intuition and what you think is happening in your body is really what's happening. Sure, we have a lot of education to do if you're dealing with your skin and you're struggling, but...

You can't listen to everyone or everything you hear, especially if there's some sort of motive that involves you paying someone. Yeah, like the whole slugging trend. I'm going to pass on that one. Hard pass if you're acne prone. Hard pass. Like, love it for you guys. Not for me. No. A crazy occlusive barrier that's literally meant to clog your pores. They're using Vaseline, right? Yeah.

If you have dry 55-year-old skin, 60-year-old skin that you've never had a breakout, go off. Slug yourself. Enjoy. I'm not going to put the byproduct of oil manufacturing on my face personally, but there's lots of things you could slug with. I love that.

I've been super into my hair and skincare lately, and I wish I knew that satin is so bad for you, but Belissi Silk is an incredible game changer. It has made such a difference with my hair and skin. It's so much better than satin, which is made from synthetics, rough on hair and skin, and cheap for a reason. But it's so much better than satin, which is made from synthetics, rough on hair and skin, and cheap for a reason.

Silk has anti-aging properties, reduces fine lines and wrinkles over time. It also helps eliminate frizz and preserve hairstyles and protects color treated hair. It's dermatologist tested and recommended, clinically proven to not clog pores, which is really, really helpful.

It's also antibacterial and hypoallergenic. I feel like all of us girls are trying to maintain our blowouts, keep things looking cute for many days in a row, and silk can help us do that. I am so obsessed with my Blissy pillowcase. It's like the one that I grab for every single night. I'm absolutely obsessed.

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Your content is amazing. The Eat to Glow recipes are my fave. What would you say are your key principles when it comes to skin and like what actually works? Yeah, I mean, there's so many things. So it's like, okay, we'll get into it. Some things I feel like no matter what is happening with your own personal gut or hormones, like this can be helpful and beneficial for you. The number one thing that I would see when I did private coaching, stress,

is huge when it comes to skin and people often overlook that. So what I always recommend is having some stress management practices and it might sound silly and woo-woo, but just having those first 15 to 30 minutes of your day being phone-free, caffeine-free, and taking a moment, whether it's legitimately petting Arnold for 10 minutes and just getting a serotonin boost or

or it's going on a silent walk or it's stretching, like whatever feels good to you, that moment of decompressing and starting your day on a more mellow note is going to be really helpful for your hormones and your skin. Yeah. As a mom, do you wake up before OD in order to get that time? I wake up at five. In order to like have your own moment? Yeah. Okay. I like that. I want to give tips to any moms listening because I know I have a bunch. Yes. I mean, all you mamas out there, first of all,

you're doing it no matter what you're doing, you're incredible because it is truly the hardest job and the hardest job to balance having your own time to take care of yourself. But I will say myself included, we spend way too much time on our phones. So if you had half of that time back, you could probably do all the wellness things that you wanted. Okay. So stress, one. Two is diet. And as Mari and I both experienced recently with cheese breakouts...

Not the cheese. Not me ordering pizza at my house. I think it's the Gemini. I got it for the boys. What is wrong with us? Like every weekend, I'm like, I could probably eat cheese now. No, still can't. Like what? No, bitch, you can't. Because I have so many guests on the show who talk about the benefits of raw dairy. And I'm like, let me dabble. But every time I break out. And we're all so bio-individual. So Mari and I are sensitive girlies. Super sensitive in every meaning of the word. Yeah.

We can't do anything fun. No, we can't, but there are consequences. Including cheese. I love when we both show up at Pilates with breakouts and we're like, I ate cheese. Damn you. It's just so good. It's so good. I know. I will say, cheese hack, Parmesan cheese is...

aged good Parmesan cheese. Most of the lactose, which is potential to break you out, is metabolized by bacteria. So you can get away with Parmesan. I can get away with Parmesan cheese. Yep. I had it actually last weekend and I think my breakouts are just from microneedling right now. So I think you're right. So cheese hack. Cheese hack. But diet is so, so huge. Literally your skin is a reflection of what's happening inside your body. And

The amount of inflammatory foods that we're eating, unbeknownst to us, for the most part, we're crazy with labels after however many years of, you know, like stress and struggle. But the average pal girly may not realize how much sugar is in her food, how much inflammatory oils are in her food, what the dairy, the gums, the additives, preservatives. I mean, I cook like 95% of my food.

That's how I keep my skin clear.

And I know it's in it. How do we know if a product is actually non-pore clogging versus it's just marketing itself as clean? This is something I've been getting into recently too. Like this is very eye-opening for me. They're completely different things. I mean, the hard thing is, is that there's no real certification for clean skincare like there is for organic. We don't know. It's a greenwashing marketing term. It's really about knowing the ingredients and what their potential is.

high usage result is. So is it endocrine disrupting? Is it causing cancer? Is it irritating your skin? And it is very, very challenging to distinguish product from product. Plus, what no one really knows is say we figure out, okay, phthalates are bad.

Companies will then reformulate a chemical component and rename pretty much the same thing, a different jargony term, once consumers have found out what phthalates are. They'll come up with a new jargony name. So like it's really impossible for you to know what's clean.

Find your trusted sources, environmental working group, think dirty, brands like Credo. And that's your first line of defense. Yeah. And the second line of defense, if you're an acne prone girly, is to find either an influencer you trust or...

to shop their recommendations. Me, Emily, Mari and what she uses. Brands that you trust, maybe it's Clear Stem, maybe it's Coco Kind, like those brands that don't use pork logging ingredients, even though Coco Kind does have some

So it really, it takes a little bit of research or you can just find your people and know that they're doing the research for you. You went through different stages of trying spironolactone, Accutane. I didn't try Accutane. That was one thing. My dermatologist wanted me to do it.

as a last-ditch resort. But I knew I wanted to be a mother and just the potential infertility and the liver issues, I was not willing to deal with any of those side effects. Being a nurse, I actually read the information about the side effects. And that was the one thing I didn't. So same, I never took Accutane. What would you say are the craziest side effects of Accutane? I need to look

Again, because like right off the top of my head. But I know that it can really damage your liver. I know if you get pregnant, you can severely deform your fetus. I know it can sometimes...

kind of bring up autoimmune issues, skin issues as far as like really dry, irritated red skin, skin that ages more prematurely because you have no oils. I mean, there's a laundry list of things that can potentially happen. And as we know from TikTok, Alex Earl four times on Accutane, it's not a solution that people claim that it is. Getting to the root cause of what's happening in your body is

and really being consistent about your health is what clears your skin it's wild seeing the popularity of Accutane now because influencers are posting about it and it's tough to watch from our perspective because we've kind of been through the actual healing process and you have to be so patient and willing to put in the hard work and I feel like watching these young girls

take the Accutane and drink on the Accutane and continuously do it. It's kind of watching like a car crash happen in slow motion. You know what I mean? And the sad thing is, is that there's not access to resources to help people heal their skin.

Actually, like the dermatologists out there that your insurance pays for are going to prescribe you like they did with me and probably you topical antibiotics, oral antibiotics, spironolactone, then to Accutane. And you can't blame the young girls because that's all they have access to. I saw on TikTok something about mold and I was like, oh my gosh, that's what my skin looks like. Like these are my symptoms. And yeah, so then I asked my doctor to take a test and-

And it was positive for ocrotoxin A. That's exactly what I had. Yeah. Exactly. And it sounds so terrifying and it really is terrifying. Dude. Yeah. I feel like a zombie. I know. Mold is such a weird thing too because it can keep popping up. Like we were just talking about before, you can do a cleanse and eat a certain way and it will go away. Yeah. But then you can be in a new environment or...

something will happen and it comes back. Like your immune system gets like triggered or something. For example, like I went to Costa Rica and out of nowhere my skin got so bad again. All my symptoms came back like the candida was like roaring. Wow. So you had candida too? Yeah. Okay. I did as well. So wild. Do you know what's weird? I have a theory. What is it? And guys, this is not like a scientific theory. Like I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I just noticed a lot of girls with our coloring get this type of acne. And I've literally asked an expert, like, is it a fair skinned type of thing? Yeah. And apparently not. But I just do think that's interesting. This might be able to give you some more insight. I also got a genetic test and I have...

like, what do you, oh my God, I'm blanking on the word. What? Genetic testing. A gene. I have, okay, it's a gene. I have a gene where my body has a hard time detoxing. Oh, what's it called? It begins with an M. Yeah, it's something. It looks like the word motherfucker, but it's not. Do you know what I'm saying? Sounds about

- Yeah, rightfully so. - It's the motherfucker gene, okay? I think I have that as well where you can't detox. - Yeah, and so my theory is that when I went into Costa Rica, there was a lot of pollutants in the air and just things my body wasn't used to. And same with when I moved to Nashville, the same thing happened to me. My body just freaked out 'cause it's like, whoa, like I'm from Northern California where it's dry and it's not humid.

And so I think, you know, when it's humid, all that bacteria and pollutants can float in the air a lot easier. And so that's what I think happened. And now I'm thinking when I moved to Austin, it's way more humid in Austin than LA. Yeah. Perhaps that did the same thing to me. It's possible. I really appreciate you being transparent with even just showing your skin without makeup. Like for someone like me, that's really, really powerful.

Like I even have a hard time going on camera without makeup on. It's so hard. Yeah. It's really hard. I can't even really... I couldn't even go to the gym. I was like, I'm so embarrassed right now. Same. And when you live such a healthy lifestyle and your skin doesn't represent that. Oh my gosh. It made me feel like a fraud online too because I like talk about all this health, but then here I am with like...

all these issues. And I'm just like, yep. Trying to figure it out. Yeah. And you know, comments really don't bother me. I very rarely care, but I occasionally will see a comment on my podcast videos where my skin was bad, where they'll like point it out and be like, who is this girl talking about health with acne? That person, like a healed, happy person doesn't do that. Like it just really shows how upset they are about themselves. Because I feel like

At least what I noticed with myself, when I'm happy, I only have good things to say to people. I only have encouraging, uplifting words. But when I'm like a little upset, I definitely have some thoughts going through my head that I'm like, okay, like that's on me. Yeah. But acne really is, I think one of the biggest tests I've ever been through in my life because you need to start figuring out what you love about yourself outside of the way you look, which is such a reality check. Yeah.

It teaches you where you place your value too. I didn't realize how much I placed it in my looks. I'm not saying it got taken away from me, but when I was really insecure about it, it made me realize, oh wow,

I do think about it that much. Like maybe I do need to take a step back and not be so vain and focus on the other areas. Like it got so bad to where I'd be at the grocery store and I couldn't even look the cashier in the face. I couldn't even give him a smile. I'm like, it's starting to affect how I treat other people.

Yeah. And that's when I was like, whoa, this maybe this is a problem I need to work on. And maybe my acne will go away when I can fix that. Like, who knows? Maybe it's like spiritual like that. Maybe the second you accept it is when you begin to heal. People have told me that. I'm still it's always a battle with me. Like some days I feel good about it. Some days I don't.

But I've been there where I can't even look people in the eye. I feel like it's all they see. Living in LA for me was really hard. I mean, for a lot of it, I was on spironolactone. Did you ever take that?

you know i took it like for a little bit and it messed up with my periods and it made me i think lose my period then have it twice in a month and so like when i did that i was like whoa good for you and so i stopped after like a month and then i even tried the topical still made my periods weird i'm so sensitive wow yeah i mean honestly a blessing because it's become so normalized

But you can't, to me, if it's something you can't be on while you're pregnant, why would you take it? Yes, exactly. You know? How is it safe for me? Right. It's not. And people are just taking it like it's casual. And then there's a whole Accutane craze right now on TikTok. Yeah.

I know. Everyone's like, have you tried Accutane? I'm like, babe. Same. And I'm like, it's not going to happen. Okay. Literally never. It's the one thing I've never done. Yeah. I will do just about anything for my acne and not Accutane. Like I'm currently taking kidney. Like I swallow chunks of kidney every day. Of like beef kidney or something. Oh my God. I did that with liver. I know you did. How was that? I mean, it's fine. I take it with like orange juice. You still do it? I mean, not really because I don't like cutting it up. I know.

I have Greg do it for me. Yeah, Michael doesn't care enough to do it. Like not about me taking it. Sorry, that's kind of so wrong. But he used to take it too. But he like doesn't think there's enough of a benefit to continue taking it. Yeah. And so I think that he doesn't want to cut it up. Got it. Yeah. That was my thought too with the liver. But I also think...

So here was a theory that I heard. I have completely cut out dairy and gluten from my skin. Yeah. But I've also, in doing that, I'm not getting enough vitamin A. And I think organs are really high in vitamin A. Yeah, interesting. So I feel like, and that's what makes up Accutane is synthetic vitamin A. Right. Kidneys are really disgusting. Like it's bright red. Oh gosh. I know. How do you eat it? I just do the same thing as you. I have a chunk. I freeze it. Yeah. It's basically like taking a pill. You freeze it? Does it not like...

No, freezing is way better. Really? Because I feel like if it's like slimy, it can just go down. I know. I know. No, no, no, no, no. That honestly makes me want to throw up. If it's hard, it's like a capsule to me. Really? How small do you cut that? But I do think it gets a little bit stuck. Yeah, exactly. Are you continuing? No. I know I stopped for a while, but I'm back.

Do you notice a difference? I've only been doing it for three days. Okay. TVT. Did you bring it here? I was like, should I bring it in my little lunchbox? Like I do travel in the lunchbox, but it's just too disgusting. Like, you know, but when I get home, I also do, I mean, I've done just about everything at this point for my skin. I do glutathione shots in my butt every week.

That's been helpful. Shots, like an actual shot. An actual injection because glutathione is best absorbed through an injection. I take that in like the powder, but it's in like a capsule from my doctor. Injections are good too. I know. No, it's insane. My whole life revolves around my skin. There's also these peptides. I don't know much about peptides. So just my personal experience. I'm

i'm taking ll37 which is actually for mold no yeah and it helps your body detox and i i don't know if it's helped really like my symptoms have gotten better i haven't taken another test to see like what it's done

but ll 37 i've done bpc 157 that one really like my knees sometimes i'll have like knee aches from working out and i take that and the next day literally gone like it's fine wow yeah insane that one's a big difference people love bpc 157 epithalon is good for fertility apparently are you taking it i did for a little bit

I'm on so much stuff. It's crazy. I take so many supplements. I know. I feel like I do too. Yeah. I show it sometimes online and people are like, are you- No, I think I saw one of yours. It was dying? Like, are you good? I'm like, I'm just trying to heal my skin. How do you handle makeup? Like, do you use certain clean makeup? Honestly, I don't really even wear that makeup, much makeup day to day unless I'm like filming. But I just use the Luminous Silk and-

Like, I think, I don't know if it breaks me out, to be honest, because I used to wear it when I had no breakouts and I was like, fine. But I heard, I actually heard on your podcast that they changed the formula to it. And so I was wondering, like, oh, maybe that's why. Oh, not you remembering a fact that I didn't even know from my podcast. Yeah. Wow. I was like studying that. I had like my, my browser up. The ClearStem one? Yeah. Yeah. Those girls are great. Yeah. Really good. Yeah. Really, really good. I use, um,

Illuminaire. I get it on Amazon and it's like the non-pore clogging. I use all non-pore clogging makeup. Right. Still not working, but anyways. Right, because I've used like Ilia or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, aren't they supposed to be clean and like not pore clogging? Apparently not anymore. Makes me break out really bad. Same. Yeah. Same. Which is a bummer because it has like the zinc sunscreen. I know. That's like better for you. None of us are safe. Like what the hell?

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You guys know that fitness and well-being, nutrition are all such important parts of my life, but I really think there's a way to do it and keep it fun. I think eating and socializing should be enjoyable. We should be able to eat chips. And so many of them are made with seed oils, artificial flavors, and preservatives, but masa chips are made with

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I want to talk about pore clogging ingredients. I feel like this topic is really popping off right now in skincare, in makeup. We're kind of all realizing as a society, and you guys knew this already, but clean doesn't always mean clean.

actually clean. It's like a marketing term, right? So talk to us about what pore clogging ingredients are and where should we be like looking out for them? I love this question. So we're the ones making this topic pop up. We don't shut up about it. We don't shut up about it. You're like, we're the reason. We heard it here first.

So I love that you're mentioning this. Clean does not mean acne safe. It just flat out does not mean acne safe. And people get duped by this all the time because, you know, in our head we think clean and yeah, that should mean free of pore cloggers, but it doesn't. It means free of like endocrine disruptors and toxins and things like that.

that are also very important to eliminate, but it doesn't have anything to do with acne. You can have the cleanest routine ever and be using things that have like organic shea butter and shaman blessed coconut oil. It's still gonna break you out because it is thicker than our natural oil. And that's as simple as we need to be thinking about it. So pore clogging ingredients. So acne is both internal and external.

Anyone who tells you differently does not know what they are talking about. So internal we touched on and we really dove into it on episode one, but external is where people really need to have that crucial attention to detail. And we made that simple for them. So when you are using a product topically and it has any filler agent that is thicker than your natural oil, it can clog your pore and you will break out relentlessly forever, even if you're doing everything else right. So eliminating these is the crucial step one.

You copy and paste the ingredients into the ingredient checker that we designed on our website. Hit enter. It'll tell you in red if there's a pore clogger. This is the number one thing you do before you change anything else. Before you change your diet or go eliminating anything, check your makeup, your hair care, your all skin care for pore cloggers because you will find culprits in there. And that's the first thing to eliminate and replace. And

everyone listening I know this feels like a task and it is a task but it is so worth doing like sitting there and putting everything in I probably should go back and do mine again because I didn't use your guys's the first time I think I used more of a vague one and I think I need to go back and really check but I always use clear stem and I love and trust your guys's brand I my uh husband's mom uses it now which I absolutely love she was like what is that orange bottle you're always using and I'm like oh my god it's

clear stem cleanser, obviously. But anyway, I really think it's super important. What does...

What do pore clogging ingredients do other than give us acne? They create dullness in the skin and they prevent the skin from being able to, quote, breathe. So even if you don't have acne and you just want to age well, because ClearStem is equally anti-aging and anti-acne, that's why we talk about this so much. Because even if your concern is just primarily anti-aging, if you're using things that are kind of weighing in your pores and like taking up too much space and interfering with

sweating and interfering with other nutrient absorption from your other skincare, it's going to have a negative impact on how you age. So letting your skin, you know, keep it as breathable as possible. Just think of it that way. And eliminating things like coconut oil, for example. It's extremely thick. It's a wax at room temperature. It doesn't go in your pores. For some people, it's their holy grail for like maybe like 10, 15% of the population. For the rest of us, it's just not the best thing, right? So...

eliminating those can help your skin do its own natural processes better and allow for better absorption of everything else you're using like anti-aging ingredients such as peptides right you want those to have full access to your skin and be able to penetrate as much as possible so removing the things that are too thick will help for better penetration of the good stuff what i love about

your guys's brand. What I love about ClearStem is the fact that you have both struggled with acne. And I always say this, but I don't trust anyone's advice if they haven't had acne. Oh, yeah. If you haven't gone through, I won't even hire anyone at the clinic who hasn't gone through it. Wow. Hard, hard stop. So I went and got this facial and it was, I was just going for more lymphatic work, buccal massage, all of those things. And I

you know i was trying to be cool and relaxed and not like hyper check every single product she was using my face i asked her ahead of time there anything with pork clogging ingredients i listed off something she's like no no no like okay and normally i grab the bottle and i look and i'm like i'm just i'm gonna be a cool girl today i'm gonna it's

It's like you're talking about like eating the RX bars and you're like, I'm just going to relax. I'm a normal girl. I'm a normal girl today. So it's just being chill, relaxed. I ended up breaking out so bad from that facial. Come to find out the exfoliating mask she used had shea butter in it. So like my skin's being exfoliated and cleaned out and then shea butter driven so deep into my pore because exfoliation, something, another topical cream. She had shea butter and I'm like, oh. So I end up having...

like five cystic ones. This was like three weeks ago around my cheeks. And I was like, I haven't dealt with that in a while because I am so hyper aware of everything causing acne. But I just go right. I went right back into the mindset. I'm like, all right, instead of getting really down about this, I'm going to put myself on a protocol. And that was more external because this one wasn't caused from internal. So I

I did our exfoliating mask. We have a little diamond buff tool. I like buffed around it. And then I did our sulfur spot mask, which I hadn't got because we just launched our sulfur spot mask a few months ago. So I hadn't gotten to try it on my skin while I was actively breaking out. I tried it when I didn't have acne. And oh my gosh, Danielle. Danielle whipped this up in the lab. It's insane. It's insane.

I was showing this on stories and I'm like, I know I'm biased and like we created this product, but like, oh my God, I'm like shocked by my own product that we have. Because I got, so I have really fair skin and so I can have pigmentation leftover from acne for weeks and weeks and weeks. Me too. And I use the sulfur spot mask two or three days in a row. And then so many pumps of cell renew because cell renew can help a lot with the pigmentation. And I got my cyst to flatten in two days and

and all the pigmentation was gone within a week. Wow. I was like, what? Okay, so that's the hack. That's the hack. And so it's like you have your internal and your external protocol. We talked about the internal one. It's like, all right, got to whip it into shape for a few days for a week. Let me get everything back in shape. And then same with

external. Like if you break out from poor quality ingredients, you have your little protocol. And I was like, I'm not going to get down about this. I'm just going to get right to the protocol. I'm going to zap these and we're going to be done. So it felt good having the confidence of knowledge in that of like, like this sucks. I don't want to have to deal with these, but I'm going to, I'm going to get rid of these. Do you sleep in the sulfur treatment? You can. So it's a spot and mask and you can use it a lot of different ways.

So you can treat, I love to tell people, you can treat different areas of your face wildly differently. Like your forehead's the most perfect patch of skin I've ever seen, right? Thanks, babe. But you have your hot zone is what I call it, right? So you can, if you're chilling at home, you can just leave that on, that zone, all day and then have a moisturizing mask on your forehead.

head or an eye patch mask on. Like your different zones of your face should be treated accordingly. So you can leave the mask on proactively for like, say like 30 minutes. Think of it like a clay mask on steroids, right? So you can do that for 30 minutes and then rinse it off and then continue with your normal routine. Or you can leave it just on spots, layer your makeup on.

over it or you can leave it on overnight like a lot of people just break out right on their jawline you can do your whole skincare routine and then just leave the spot mask on your entire jaw overnight okay and that's awesome so play around with it we want everyone to become their own personal esthetician and test things out and really learn like oh i can do two layers of this and my skin loves it or i should do my clarity every other night that's my perfect you know my perfect

regimen. So yeah, there's different ways to use everything. And the mask is extremely versatile. Okay, I love that. I'm definitely going to do that because I am such a like hair down type of person. A lot of people are. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That makes me feel better. So I asked the girls if they had questions for you. And I saw a couple things keep popping up. Retinoid. I feel like it's a huge topic on TikTok. What's the view on retinoids? They're all different. I mean, if you get like a really low strength

you know, let's call it a vitamin A appropriate, like a more, you know, gentle one. And it's in a formula that is, you know, also has some calming ingredients. It might make you purge a little bit, but you might like the benefits, right?

pretty much all retinols are going to make you purge, by the way. Is purging good? It depends. So when we're purging in a detox, like an internal detox scenario, yeah, it's coming out one way or another and we're forcing it out. And if you're acne prone, it's going to come out through your skin versus like, say you were purging, you were doing a cleanse protocol, but you were really prone to anxiety. It would show up as anxiety, right? So in that context, yes, it is part of a means to an end. Purging in skincare is sometimes necessary, sometimes not.

so back to the the types of retinol so if you're using one that's gentle and it's appropriate for your skin you might get a little bit of a purge and it might go away for you if you're not that acne prone great you're one of the lucky ones if you go and use one of the prescription ones the prescription retin-a or prescription tretinoin those are known to create nasty purges and there's two different kinds of it one's a gel one's a cream the cream white one usually has a

ingredient called isopropyl myristate which is like one of the worst pore clogging fillers that exists. So what I have seen in my 10 years of doing this and my own personal experience right when people start using that one they get a nasty purge. Their skin is very red and irritated and the purge never stops because their pores are getting refilled with the filler agent that that thing is made of. Gives me so much anxiety it's crazy. It's interesting when we talk about it and we post on Instagram and there's reels about it

you have a we have a lot of people in the comments that are like thank you so much for saying this I like I couldn't use any types of retinols I couldn't use a prescription version I didn't know what was wrong with me because my best friend could use it but I couldn't and I tried to stick it out through the purge but it just it crushed me I get crushed my mental health and it just did not work for me I thought something was was wrong with me thank you for saying this like this changed my life and then there's a whole other grouping of people that are honestly kind of nasty in the comments like

If I'm being honest- - Retinoid warriors. - They are literally retinol warriors and they are so mean, so nasty in the comments that we are simply educating about both sides of the story. It's like, there are people that cannot use it the same way. Like there's some people who are highly allergic to vitamin C. There's some people that are like, there's very specific ingredients that some people just cannot use for their skin and that's back to bio-individuality. But when you're talking about pore cloggers,

Like the acne community is not going to be able to use those products that contain it. But it's just been interesting to see how activated and angry people get when we speak out against prescription retinols. In reality, we're just speaking to the people that want to feel heard.

Yeah. That are like, I've tried this and it destroyed my skin. It destroyed my mental health. I never stopped purging. We don't want them to feel alone and we don't want them to feel bullied into, oh no, you just didn't use it right. Or you didn't use it for long enough. It's like, no, it didn't work for their skin. They didn't like it. It just, it destroyed their skin. And so we want to make those people feel seen and heard in their own experience. Yeah. And a lot of, you know, we, it's not like us versus the dermatologist, right? Like we don't want to be positioned that way, but yeah,

Dermatologists have a very specific set of playbooks and a very limited set of tools that they're able to use. Antibiotics, birth control, spironolactone, topical retinols.

There's some other stuff mixed in, but those are the big ones, right? And then Accutane when all of those fail. So those are the people that vehemently defend the status quo because those are the only tools they have. They literally can't go over your products with you. They don't have time in the appointment. They're not trained on nutrition for acne. The average MD gets about 19 hours of nutritional education every

in their entire career. And it's all about contraindications for prescriptions, like don't have grapefruit if you're on statins, like that kind of thing. It's not anti-inflammatory eating. It's not egg white sensitivity for a certain part of the population affecting their lymphatic zone. None of that gets talked about. So there's just a lot of people get so activated because the information is pretty siloed depending on what angle you're coming at this from. Totally. And we just like to explain to people why they might be having a certain experience.

So important. And I think when these trends pick up on TikTok, it spreads like wildfire and you almost feel like, oh, I haven't tried that. Like, is that something I need to try? And as an acne prone gal, I see these things and get tempted. But most of the time I don't react well. So I appreciate you guys speaking to that.

On the topic of purging, something that I've found that makes me purge really bad that I wanted to pick your guys' brain about is microneedling. And I know it's so beneficial.

is it worth doing if it's making me break out this bad? You're not supposed to do micro... So I love that question and I'm sorry you're having the experience. I actually just got microneedled two days ago and I pushed the appointment because I was having a little bit of breakout from a makeup that I got done during a photo shoot. It was breaking me out a little bit. So I actually pushed the appointment. If you are past...

the breaking out stage or you're in a stage where you're not really breaking out, then microneedling is fantastic. If you're still in the throes of a breakout cycle, hold off. I've microneedled people for years and what I'll do is because I'm an acne specialist, right? Almost everyone's having some sort of issue with acne. What I'll do is I can go around the area and I'll just treat that area with a little bit of peel. Okay.

Okay. So, but I won't touch the area that's actively breaking out. Like you could do your forehead and your cheeks and be totally fine. I highly doubt you'd purge there, but if it's in your hot zone, you're going to purge. Okay. I did it when I wasn't breaking out. Really? Yeah. What did they put on after you? After it, sorry. What did they put on? Cause I, the balm that they give me, I throw it away. It was called, it had some scientific name, not isotope. It was like

Do you want to, for your audience, let's look up the ingredients to that balm and see if that's what was actually causing it? It was like a liquidy. She said it was great for healing. I mean, potentially you're right. Do you recommend doing nothing after? So we use our Selvernu serum. Our Selvernu serum is actually so gentle that it can be used as a microneedling solution. Wow. So I just use a ton of that. And then that, and I do with PRP and the good places will send you home with a little to-go vial of your PRP.

So the first two nights, I'm just doing Cell Renew and the PRP. And then after that, I'm just doing our hydrating products. If you need a balm, which, you know, you should have that if you're like doing like a laser treatment or your skin's really compromised.

is actually okay for very acute situations and it won't break you out. Okay. PRP is blood. It's where they take your blood, they spin it and they get the platelet rich fibrin or platelet rich plasma. There's PRF and PRP. But yeah, it's basically from your own blood. Okay. Cause I've never been given PRP. Oh,

Oh, I think you would like that. Yeah, that's my I now won't do microneedling unless it's PRP because with how pricey it is, you get more of a benefit from PRP than you do just an average hyaluronic acid solution. Yeah, it kickstarts the healing response that you're ultimately banking on. You know, all of these treatments, you're doing a controlled inflammation technique.

to get the healing response. Like you inflame yourself at a four, you heal at an eight, you net the four. Does that make sense? Right? So a lot of times where these go wrong is you're not amplifying the healing process directly after. And the 48 hours post any procedure is crucial.

Crucial, right? So having a practitioner who really understands your skin and can help make sure that that window is optimized right after the treatment, that's the fun thing to really dial in. And PRP is a big part of that. Okay. So next time I go, I will get the PRP.

Yes. And SPF is so, so important in all the day. I mean, always. It's important every day, but especially in those following days after PRP. And if they send you microneedling, if they send you home with one, make sure that you are quadruple checking those ingredients because 99% of the time SPFs are going to have pork loggers in them. So, I mean, we have our UR Sunshine, we have our Sunny Side. You can use those, but any non-pork logging SPF is fine. That is a...

not a chemical-based sunscreen. So you want to be looking for zinc, no pork loggers, and that's going to be your safety sunscreen for after. You're pretty much not going to find that anywhere but us. Just get You Are Sunshine. It's the best sunscreen ever made. I use You Are Sunshine every single day. It's the best. I made it to be the best. I don't leave the house without it on. I also use it when I'm going to an early morning workout because it has a little bit of a tint and it just makes me feel like a little cuter than me.

Yeah. Oh, you know what you can do too? Mix a little bit of your makeup in there. I use loose powder and I have some liquids. You can mix both in there and make your own little custom CC cream. Boom. Done. It's the best. It really is the best. It's like one of my top three products from you guys. I love that. The Lips and Cutes, the Gentle Cleanser, and the You Are Sunshine. Ugh.

All so healing, so restoring for the skin. Obsessed. Do you guys have any makeup brands that you would recommend that are non-pore clogging? Yes. Our OG from the very beginning is Priya. Okay. I just placed a very large Priya order. Good. You're the color warm beige. Oh, that's good.

Oh, I think I got one bit. It's going to look perfect on you. It's going to look so, maybe a little bit of caramel sprinkled in there for like if you have self-tanner on to help balance it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. We are obsessed. And that's spelled P-R-I-I-A. Yes. And you can't, she's a small women-owned business, but she's an acne specialist who follows the exact same ethos. Oh my God.

God, I love that. Yeah, so she's not going to reformulate with nasty stuff because that's what happens all the time. I'll recommend a brand, it's fine, and then it's not fine anymore. Armani Luminous Silk used to be...

and there's an ingredient in it that's called hexalaurate and it's popping up more and more on poor clogging lists and if you're super acne prone like I am it does clog me up a little bit most other people are fine with it so there's always a scale it's never 100% yes or 100% no most of the time but Priya is 100% safe

Yes. I've also... We found two others that are more in the liquid form that I've been trying out. I've tried Euphoria. Youthphoria. I just ordered that too. Yeah, I've been trying Youthphoria, which is a great liquid. And then one I've really been loving, it's by the company called Make Beauty. And it's very specifically their Dew Skin Tint. Again...

what Priya every single thing she sells is always acne safe a lot of these other brands we're talking about we have to pick and choose what products and they could potentially reformulate one day so oh

always triple check. But I've been loving the Make Beauty one and that's the one I've actually been mixing into my You Are Sunshine to create this like glowy, seamless foundation that I've been absolutely loving. And then, but Priya, it's, I know we're like talking about it so much, but they have these calming ingredients in it and your skin just radiates truly when you wear it. Yeah, you can go to bed with a full face of Priya makeup and wake up better the next day. ♪

Thank you for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player. You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites at marieloellan.com. It will be linked in the show notes.

This podcast is a Pursuit Network production brought to you by Michaela Phillips, Joel Contartese, Davielle Waldner, Jen Lauren, and Mackenzie Mizell. You can also watch the full video of each episode on our YouTube channel at Pursuit of Wellness Podcast. Love you, Power Girls and Power Boys. I will see you next time.

The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.