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Clean and Sustainable Skincare Powered by Oxygen · The Science of Skin

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Skincare Confidential, the podcast supporting the Science of Skin Summit, which we are in right now.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: The Science of Skin Summit is occurring in Austin, Texas, right now, and I'm so excited to have our first live podcast at the Summit.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Dr.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Ted Lane.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a co-founder and co-director of the summit.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm also your host for today's podcast episode, and I am so excited to introduce AO2 Skin and a couple of people I really respect and admire and love, honestly.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I've got Rob Solomon here.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: He's the co-founder and CEO of AO2 Skin.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Rob, welcome.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Great to be here.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Congratulations, by the way.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: This is awesome.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Rob.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then I've got a really good friend, Dr.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Vivian Bukay.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Viv, thank you so much for being here.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for inviting me.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I it's just like SNL.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Do I get a jacket for five-time appearance now of uh seriously faculty?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: This is our fifth year, and Vivian has been on faculty all five years.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: So you've seen us grow and change.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: The Steve Martin of Yeah, there you go.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: We'll have to take that into consideration.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: We need the jackets.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: So let's start focusing on AO2 Skin, which is a local Austin-grown company.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, uh Rob is a neighbor of mine.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Stu, the other co-founder, is a neighbor of mine.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: And Viv lives in San Antonio and she's the chief medical officer.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it's all really local for me.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but Viv, I wanted to talk about your involvement with AO2 Skin.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, you you are such a busy cosmetic.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I always say you're a medical dermatologist, even though you don't really say it, but you are such a smart medical dermatologist.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: You could have worked with any company, honestly.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Why AO2 skin?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: What what what really reeled you in?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's got to be the science.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's always gonna be the science, but it's such a simple, simple concept, complex but simple at the same time.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got oxygen nanobubbles.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody disputes the benefits of oxygen for the skin.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of companies claim to deliver oxygen, whether it's gels, creams, foams, etc., but we know they're not really getting in there.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: AO2 skin, what they've managed to do with their nanobuble technology, it's really simple.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Distilled water with billions of oxygen nanobubbles, and they're stable and they're tiny.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: They're 60 to 120 microns, so they're much smaller.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: They're about a tenth of the size of the pore.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they can easily get through down the hair follicles into the skin to work their good.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when I first heard about this technology, it made me realize we don't really have anything like this.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I immediately started thinking about wound repair, right, with oxygen, because oxygenated wounds, as we know, in a in a hyper-oxygenated environment, wound healing occurs much more quickly.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: But then a lot of people, you know, started using this product on intact skin.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: And Rob, you were receiving comments online that were you were realizing you were changing people's lives.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's funny because one of you were one of the very first doctors that we actually um showed it to.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what you said three years ago is you went directly to wound care.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny that you just brought that up because just reminded me of it.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: But um, man, this has been a um a lesson in sort of unintended consequences, really.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um when we started it, we didn't really know where we were going, what you know, what it would do, and what what would oxygen really do?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And um how would how would um our how would our customers, your patients, really use it?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um and um it's you know we it's been uh just a succession of what we thought were false positives, uh you know, starting with um inflammation, but talking about wound fear, talking about um being a foundation for using other products, it was unintentional, all of it.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, really.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of unintentional, Rob, I think your involvement in the beauty industry may have been unintentional maybe 20 years ago.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I know you're a serial entrepreneur, you're well known in the Austin community to to run successful businesses.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Why the beauty industry?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: What what really drew you into this?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Again, unintended consequence.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um I sold my business um uh bulldog in 2020 and uh wasn't really looking for something next to do, um, but was looking for fun projects, things that take up time that um would be really fun and um um things that you know I'm uh I I like to think I'm a learner and I just knew things that I can learn.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I talked a lot with my um longtime friend uh Stuart Wallach, your neighbor, about doing something with Stuart.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um Stuart is um a really, really brilliant um uh consumer e-commerce guy.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's launched a lot of brands really successfully, and and he's a great guy to boot.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um looking for something to do with him, and um, you know, the opportunity arose when um uh another mutual friend, a person you both have met and know, um, Dr.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Zvey Yanyuk, um, Dr.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh Zvee is a 79-year-old um nanophysicist and maybe one of the smartest people I've ever met.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's also a diabetic and um was suffering from diabetic neuropathy.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: His feet were hit were burning all the time on pins and needles, and he's um a really curious guy, really smart guy, and he hated being on drugs, he hated gablopentin.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And his working thesis was that his nerves were choking to death, and if he could somehow get oxygen into his feet, they wouldn't hurt so bad.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um he did what he did.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: He closed his door and went to work, and a year and a half later developed a treatment that he that he also um um received several patents for to deliver oxygen nanobubbles suspended in a hydrogel into his feet.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Great product.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he asked me if I would help him commercialize it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I invited Stu.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Stu, let's take a peek.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we spent a lot of time um um learning about more about Svee, learning more about his company Parafex and um and NoxyPure the product.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um, great product, but we're digital marketing guys.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, people with diabetic neuropathy are not the most digital.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're 70 and 80 and 90 years old, um, for the most part, not all of them, but they're it's an older population.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but along the way we kept hearing from people like you, exactly including you, that wow, the the promise of delivering oxygen into the skin is really fascinating and a really big opportunity.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that really was the um, you know, you hear that enough times you you start kicking indoors.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um we did we we worked with Parapex to negotiate um some licenses to go develop some other uh use cases.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: We had no idea what it was gonna do, and um uh that's enter Valerie Hemp, Dr.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Valerie Hemp, um, who um uh was um leaving her practice at Westlake Dermatology and um she um really guided the way towards focusing on um inflammatory conditions.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: She helped us make the product simpler and dumb it down from a hydrogel to distilled water and oxygen, um and um helped us launch it and um bring it to market.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And at every step along the way, I promised I thought the wheels would come off the bus and the bus would burst into fire.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, um and at every step along the way I thought we were getting false positives.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: But even our our earliest, crudest versions of it, people that used it loved it and um told us that they loved it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um that was really the genesis to lean in and start a company.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, listen, I remember from the early days, right?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: We you introduced me the technology, you know, we were having some calls about this technology, and I thought, oh, interesting, but these guys don't know what they're doing in the BD industry.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see what we can do, right, Bib.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: So we we we tried to help, and and um, you know, you were showing us your numbers and and we were you were showing us some of the patient experience uh uh reports that you were getting.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we kind of our eyebrows started raising, you know, quarter after quarter, you were showing growth in something that had never been seen before in terms of the use of oxygen like this in the skin.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: But you've expanded beyond that, Rob, right?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's now AO2 skin is now more of a platform company to encompass multiple products.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to, maybe, Viv, you can talk about it as well.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: What are the different products that are being launched?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's really interesting.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about what different products are being launched or not.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: See, uh Well, we're about to launch one that you certainly can't talk about.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: I there is one that I'm obsessed with, and by the way, I need some.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um it it contains uh glycerin, which is just a wonderful way to hydrate the skin, moisturize it.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's vegetable derived, so it's clean and it's it's mixed in.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's the delivery system again that we know and love with the nanobubbles.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I I apply it, I use it daily, morning and evening, and just dab it on my face with a sponge, it absorbs, but I feel hydrated as well.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we're almost going from oxygen being delivered to do quote unquote wound healing, which we know are pretty much the same pathways as rejuvenation, if you will, of the skin.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: I just like to think of it as skin wellness.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're gonna add a little extra something to it, which is the hydrating component, just in case.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I find it more appealing to use um in my type of skin, which is now the post-menopausal skin.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so, oh by the way, thanks for that topic for this year.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and so I feel like it's now, but it's just the beginning.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so there there is more, definitely more coming down the pipeline, perhaps for wound healing, that type of thing.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to mention one quick thing how I got involved, because I find that ironic here.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sitting doing a podcast, I'm not a social media person as you all know, but I have a dear friend, Dr.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Ellen Gandler, a mutual friend, colleague, and I saw her post one time about, you know, she was just posting about AO2 Clear and showing how to use it, et cetera.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I just have to introduce you.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then you and I met.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And but I was completely, I mean, I really was floored by by the science, but the simplicity of it.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And patients have just really taken to it.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I hate to say they've taken to it like water, but they have.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: No pun intended, right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: No but pun totally intended.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, there you go.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I think the addition of glycerin makes a lot of sense, right?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: You're applying uh humectant to the skin, it's gonna draw in the hydration with the nanobubble oxygenated distilled water.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, a lot of that makes a ton of sense for especially those with dry to very dry skin.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like you said, you're going to see a difference in the feel and the hydration of the skin.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: For those with uh, you know, postmenopausal, we know the skin dries out, there's less estrogen.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: So all of that scientifically makes a lot of sense.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I know there's a pipeline of products too, Rob.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would say first off, um, I I it's a there's a pipeline, and I I I wanna um uh we're not a product company.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, I think what we've built is a platform company, and the magic is delivery, and um it's it's um how we deliver actives, whether they're gases or not.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um that's that's a story about nanobubbles.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh nanobubbles, um, you know, there's three characteristics that make them the perfect delivery.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um as Vivian said, the first is their size.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're measured in in um, these are nanobubbles and they're measured in nanometers, so they're microscopic, they're they're tiny.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: The second is concentration, and we're talking about massive concentration of oxygen nanobubbles.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about in a in a milliliter 10 to the eight, um, uh, you know, some factor of 10 to the eight.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last I talk about is stability, they're unbelievably stable.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and um and of course, all all of these facts I'm giving you, they're they're we measure them um every day.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um but they're but these three factors make it an unbelievable delivery mechanism.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the platform is using nanobubbles to deliver actives.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: The very first product, the active, was oxygen, using oxygen, which is anti-inflammatory and antibacterial.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: The second product, we're talking about glycerin, which is um um uh you know all about hydration.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really clean humectant.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the opportunities seem endless.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what else we could deliver with nanobose?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I think that we're working on we're working on uh a bunch with with uh Dr.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yan Ivan and of course with Dr.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Bukai, we're working on a bunch of IP to um deliver point solutions.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So these are really targeted solutions to you know to very, very specific conditions.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Today they're skin, but maybe one day they'll be general health conditions, delivering it with uh nanobuble technology.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: So interesting, yeah.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, so what I'm hearing is we're utilizing the oxygen concentration gradient to deliver more of the oxygen, maybe a different product eventually.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: But also the idea that we're moving away from the nanovesicle, right, Viv, we know that the exosome nanovesicle and and some of the problems associated with the nanovesicle, although it does penetrate as you know, like begets like the phospholipid bilayer gets through the cornified envelope.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: But the issue is sometimes that phospholipid bilayer is inflammatory.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so if we can deliver something without needing that phospholipid bilayer, we may negate or mitigate the effects of the inflammation associated with the actual delivery technology.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: I find that fascinating, though.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I find it equally fascinating.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we have research also, you know, people are and not you and I like we we're taught to question absolutely everything.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: So study underway just to actually show oxygenation is happening.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll actually be doing a biopsy study.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we're not just talking, oh, we're increasing oxygen, and you know, presumably, you know, this is all theoretical.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: We will have proof as well.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you're they're putting the money where the mouth is a ridiculously comprehensive patient study.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, guys, this is so exciting.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this is what this conference is all about highlighting what's new and what's next.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the future of skincare is involved in new technologies like this.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, Rob, congratulations.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Vivian, congratulations on on becoming chief medical officer of this amazing company.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I'm excited to see what's next, honestly.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Me too, and I want to thank both of you.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to say that um um there's no way um we'd be doing this without both of you.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: You've been so helpful to us all along this journey, and I can't tell you how appreciative Stuart and I are.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, wonderful.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this this conference has been amazing.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: So this is uh Dr.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Ted Lane.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to present the skin care confidential as part of the Science of Skin Summit.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you like this episode, please give us a like, recommend us to all your friends, and subscribe as well.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh thank you.