Latest / The Science of Skin / Aesthetician & Skincare CEO: Renee Rouleau on her eponymous line

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Aesthetician & Skincare CEO: Renee Rouleau on her eponymous line · The Science of Skin

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Skincare Confidential, a podcast dedicated to giving you a 360-degree look into the skincare industry.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Dr.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ted Lane.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a board certified dermatologist and the co-host of Skincare Confidential, and I could not be more excited to have my guest today, Ms.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Renee Roulot.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Almost used your last name first, Renee.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Renee is a licensed aesthetician and an entrepreneur.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: She owns and runs her eponymous skincare line, Renee Roulot.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, she brings a wealth of experience.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: For all of those listening who are thinking about starting a skincare line or wondering how that's even done, Renee is going to give us the nitty-gritty and the insider's view.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for joining us.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Hi Ted, how are you today?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, doing great.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, Renee, it started in 1991.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just kind of let's go from there.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I became an aesthetician actually in 1989 when I graduated from high school.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, right out of the gate, I knew that I wanted to be in the beauty business, inspired by my grandmother, who was a hairstylist and who used to own the Powderpuff Beauty Shop back in the 70s.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so, unlike a lot of people when they got out of high school, when they're like, what do I want to be when I grew up when I grow up?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, I knew what I wanted to do and I got right to it.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: So at uh 1991, I opened up my first business, which was a skincare salon outside of Boston and with a coworker.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And she was 13 years older than me.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And she was my mentor.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: We worked together for two years together at my first job out of aesthetic school.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: She was my mentor and she wanted to open up a business and had two young children and didn't want to do it by herself.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So she asked me if I want to do it with her.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So at the age of 21, I, you know, was handling payroll, had employees, and doing had I was adulting very early, unlike all of my friends who were having a good old time in college, and that was not my life.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, no partying for Renee right back then, huh?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, not that at all.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, so I had that business um outside of Boston for five years, sold it to my partner in 1996.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was ready to, I just wanted to get out of the East Coast and kind of I was just ready for a change.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: I moved a lot, a lot, a lot growing up, and I get a little antsy when I stay in one place for too long.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so I sold my half of the business.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're still great friends to this day, and started Renee Ruleau skincare in Dallas in 1996 with a skincare spa, and then started a product line uh short uh soon after, and then launched e-commerce in 1999.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I your actual first product was developed very early on, right?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just soon after you started that that spa with your with your friend there in 1991.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, our number one bestseller has a funny story to it.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we have about like 52 products in the line, but our number one bestseller, we sell light years above and beyond number two.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like we sell so much of it.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the quick, short, and dirty story about it is when I worked at that first salon, um, it was a branded product and it was a great product.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I discovered it was supposed to be for acne, like you know, you know, regular acne, you put it on makes helps with acne go away.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: But people weren't really having success with making it go away.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so, but some people told me, they go, well, when I when I actually used it, what what it the type of acne it was helping with was when it's more cystic blemishes, the heart and more knots.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as we all know, even to this day, there's no real cure for that.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's either cortisone injections, do a thing of accutane, I mean, maybe a spirolactone or you know, whatever.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: But topically, nothing can really help for cystic breakouts.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I was getting this feedback from these clients that were like, it didn't help on my regular blemishes, but boy, did it help on this.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, really?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I started recommending it to people.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, you know, because they're like, I always get those big cystic blemishes that last forever.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, try using this.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I was continually getting feedback that it was working for this.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when Elizabeth and I opened up our first salon or our the first business I had together, we brought that one product over.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then from that one line, we sold a couple of things from other lines, but that was the one product that we loved from the salon we worked at that we brought over.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Then in 1996, when I started Rene Raleau, I started my own Rene Roleau line, but I had that one product from another brand.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then a couple years in, so I was always like, Oh, I have my own line, except this one product is from this other brand.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Then, and again, everybody's saying, Oh my gosh, it's working miracles for my cystic breakouts.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: So then the company, for whatever reason, decided to phase it out of their line.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, What?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, you can't phase it out of the line.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so I bought the formula from them.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then, and then um anyway, so fast forward all these years.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've been selling this product now, so 26 years at Renee Raleigh, and then all the years before at my first business, and then the two years at the air salon.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been selling this product for years, and I can absolutely say it works.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: What I can't say is how it works, because I've had so many chemists look at it like, how could this work for cystic acne?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like it doesn't really necessarily have anything miraculous in it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: So there's not like a hero ingredient in there that you would consider like a purified form of lactic acid, and you know, we don't really know lactic acid to really like I mean it's exfoliant, but how could that possibly help cystic acne?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a miracle.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how it works, but all I know is I have cured, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of cases of cystic acne and without people getting cortisone injections, and what can I say?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So and that's called anti, what's that called the anti-bump formula?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Anti-bump solution.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Anti bump solution.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: It used to be called I named it anti-cyst treatment, but that was back in the day that I didn't realize I wasn't totally in tune with like legally FDA-wise.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't realize that hey Renee, cyst is a medical, is a medical product with the word cyst.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So now we call it anti-bump solution.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, you can't you can't claim any kind of structure function uh improvement in your formula.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really smart.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this reminds me of my wife.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: She early on when she was a teenager, she found the Mario Badescu Sulfur Solution, uh, that pink solution.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And she to this day will buy it all the time because she believes it is the one thing that helps her acne.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I can imagine you have incredible uh recurrent purchasing because when you find a product that helps you, you hang on to it no matter what.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, right.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it becomes like a safety net, you know what I mean?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like even if they don't use it often, but boy, when they need it, like it's there.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So well, that's a great pearl.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially you've figured out from you listen to your clientele.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: They said, hey, it's not working for what it's meant to, but it works as kind of a zit zapper for cysts.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then you went with that and you were able to buy the formula that was brilliant.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of was the foundation of your line, it sounds like.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, absolutely.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the nice thing about being an aesthetician, is ultimately they're my focus group.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: You listen to your clientele and they kind of tell you what products they need, right?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So are you still a practicing aesthetician, Renee?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot to ask you that.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Ted, I am.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I take a handful of celebrity clients out in Los Angeles and sometimes in New York.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I uh lately I've been out there probably like twice a month lately.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then there's times I might not go, you know, to once a month or sometimes longer.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends on what about, you know, when they need me, what special events they have coming up, if they're having breakouts or what's going on.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a little hit or miss, but I have probably about about seven clients that I still maintain.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's I still enjoy having my hands on faces.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably really important for you as you kind of develop your skincare line as well and you continue to add products.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just to continue practicing.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, speaking of celebrities, uh it's been incredible to me lately.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, Brad Pitt came out with the line uh, you know, there's just so many different celebrities with their own skincare lines.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: How does Renee Roulot keep her line front and center when there's so much noise in the skincare space?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's such a great question.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the nice thing about skincare being so hot right now is everybody wants to jump on this bandwagon, right?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it creates a lot of awareness for skin, which is great.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And people are launching products in other categories.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of innovation going on with skincare because there's such a high demand.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the plus side, which is it's more awareness.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the downside of it is yeah, there's a lot more noise.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: It makes it a lot more confusing for the customer.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, should I use Brad's line?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Should I use Rene Raleigh's lines?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, who's who's is better?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel bad for the consumers because they're left to like make a lot of choices.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, you know, when you go to you know the drugstore to buy toothpaste and there's 90 different types.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you're like, do I want whitening?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Do I want extra whitening?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Do I need, you know, like I mean, do I want fresh mint or do I want, like, I mean, it's just so many choices, right?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's like, just tell me what I need to do.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think um the advantage that we have, and I think what skin experts have is we are that trusted source for telling people what to do, right?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, take away that confusion.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, you know, we have a skin type quiz that can guide people.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I and we have an in-house aesthetician that works in our Austin office that does virtual consultations.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I think where experts have the advantage is they are trusted sources.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so when people are just like, I am so confused, I'm using one cleanser from this line, a serum from that line, I don't really know what I'm doing.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's you know, always playing up the fact that we have expertise and we can guide them and make it a little bit less confusing for them, that will make us stand out versus Brad Pitt, right?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, what does everyone know about skincare?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: How do you use social media?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because there are so many so-called skincare experts on social media who essentially, in my view, are people that like skincare, uh, you know, and then they brand themselves, which is so easy to do.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: But how do you use social media to really kind of highlight the fact that look, I'm a licensed aesthetician, I've been doing this for 30 years.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I started my own skincare line, I develop all the products myself.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like all of that kind of just should should be something where it really highlights your expertise.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you do that?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we have um for social media, I have my own, like case in point for Instagram, I have my own personal account, and then I have the company account.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think when um when the name of your product line is the name on your birth certificate, there's a responsibility that comes with that, but there's also a curiosity from consumers, right?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: People are like, okay, Renee Raleau, who is she?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: What is this?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so there is a kind of an expectation that you, as the founder, have to have a voice and be a thought leader, and you know, because people want to know who's behind it.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, like for example, like, you know, there's a skincare line called Sunday Riley.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people didn't realize that Sunday Riley is actually a person.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: They thought it was just kind of some name.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And for many, many years, she was nowhere, you know, she wasn't anywhere on social media.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So she was didn't want to be front and center, I suppose, and no one knew it was her.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, she came out of hiding, so to speak.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm not saying she's hiding from anywhere, but she came out from behind the scenes and started having a presence.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that what makes, you know, lines that have founders behind them is people invest in the founder and their story and who they are.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And ultimately, people just want to trust somebody.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, I'm gonna spend my hardworking money giving it to someone or some brand.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I want to feel good about where I'm spending my money.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because the reality is, Ted, I'm not, you know, of course, anti-bump is very unique and nobody has anything like that.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, you know, no one's making anything that is so revolutionary that someone's not, right?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, case in point, acne, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: If, you know, whether it's my products for acne, whether it's yours, anybody else's, at the end of the day, there's still no cure for acne, right?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's there's just not.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like if there was a cure, one size fits all, we'd all know about it.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: No one would ever break out again.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not the case because acne is just very complicated.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: But people are gonna buy acne products, so where are they gonna buy it from?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: What you know, what makes someone different?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's, you know, we use social as a way both for people to know me and understand who I am and get behind the scenes of who I am.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then of the course the company page is more for you know, sharing our expertise and content.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I think, you know, people really, I mean, I have more followers on my Instagram than the company does, and it's because people are people are curious to see who Renee Lowe is.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And and I've been very, you know, I went through a traumatic life event four years ago when my husband passed away and we were together for 22 years.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm so sorry.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: He was also, thank you.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: He had a short six-month battle with cancer, and I shared much of that and the stories of um the dying experience um with my followers.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it struck a chord with a lot of people.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: He was also the COO of my company, so that was a major loss.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: We lost a leader in my company, so you know, that was a traumatic time.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, at the end of his life, he said, you know, he said three things.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Did my life matter?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, did I make a difference?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And will I be remembered?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And part of me just, you know, sharing the story um of his, you know, uh, of his life and and and ending of his life was because he wanted to know that his life made a difference.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me to be vulnerable that way, it, you know, not a lot of people are talking about death.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And and I spoke a lot about that and it resonated with a lot of people.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And but I felt like I was carrying the torch of what his wishes were.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I had, I mean, not to get too deep here, but I had two separate people that reached out to me on have reached out to me on social media to tell me that they did not take their life.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: They were suicidal and were thinking of ending their life, but they felt so inspired by Florian's journey and his and his wishes and that whole experience.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that gave them a renewed sense of life.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so, so I share this, Ted, only because, again, going back to your question about social media, yes, in the in the skincare space, I have, you know, I have other thoughts on that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: But just at the end of the day, we use social media to share the DNA behind our company.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we're and we're a small company.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: We only have a team of 16 people.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: I own 100% of the company.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: And some people really love that.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Some people want to, you know, spend their money with a company.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, two years ago, Austin Business Journal gave us um recognition as a best place to work in Austin.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, some people love that, right?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Where some people, you know, you know, they love bigger companies and they want to support that.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just whatever however people just, you know, choose to spend their money.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's so easy to to kind of highlight the the negative aspects of social media, right?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of us just are so frustrated by it, um, especially if if we're trying to find our own voice on social media and and use it for for certain purposes that we consider good for both our patients and for our own brand.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: But there is such a you know an altruistic aspect to social media where you can help people you don't even realize that you're helping.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I I love that story.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, horrible, horrible about your husband, and I'm so sorry, but the fact that the fact that his legacy helped two other people and essentially save their lives is just absolutely incredible.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, we throw something out to the world and you just never know what sticks, and and but I mean I have I've had thousands of DMs of all sorts of stories of you know that it was helping with their grief, and because let's face it, like we're all dealing with this, right?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody we don't get out of this life, you know, this life will kill us.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we're all dying.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and you know, people weren't talking about that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so I feel, you know, I it's it's a honor for me to to fulfill his wishes, which is did his life matter and will he be remembered?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so when people are like, oh, you know, when they want to talk to me about it, they're like, Oh, I mean, I don't want to upset you, I don't want to bring it up.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: I said, No, this is my job, is I I I I share, I love any opportunity to share his story because that's what he wanted, and that's my job is to carry on his legacy that way.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's kind of refocus now on your skincare brand, and now I understand the whole history behind it and kind of what's your impetus for continued growth and success.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, when as you think about developing new products, for example, just um thinking about people that are listening and and they're wanting to develop new products.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have, do you do you have like a contract manufacturer?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have an internal formulator?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: How do how do you go about, you know, with these new ideas and bringing them to the market?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great question.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we do work with contract manufacturers.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've worked with a lot of these chemists, I have very close personal relationships with these chemists, and I've worked with them for a long time.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we all, you know, so a lot of them have been with me since I began.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm a loyal person, so I'm loyal to a lot of these people because when you're a small business, like in my line is based on nine skin types, and I have so many products, like there's minimums to those custom formulations, right?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of these, a couple of my labs, they took a chance on me and lowered the minimums, and knowing that someday, you know, that my minimums will will be higher and it paid off.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so, so yeah, so we work with um contract manufacturers and ultimately, you know, developing there's no shortage of ideas because I'm just my brain is always thinking, but when I create products, you know, being an aesthetician for 35 years, as I'm uh, you know, as we talked about, but also with my clients, that's my focus group.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I've I'm always thinking about problems and solutions because having been, you know, four inches away from looking down people's pores and into their souls, we've had a million conversations, I've heard it all, I've seen it all.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I am very in tune with what people's problems and solutions are.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm less of a practicing aesthetician these days, so I use there's many avenues for hearing the skincare conversation, and social media is one of those.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: All you have to do is look in the comments of anything.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: What are people asking for?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: What are what are people complaining about?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that sort of thing.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, so when I develop a product, um, I'm always looking at does it really solve the problem or does it create confusion or conflict with anything that's in my value system for skin?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: So my line's based on nine skin types, and you know, I'm always just saying everything in my company, my team knows, what whether it's products or anything else, I always say, what problem are we trying to solve?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you got, you know, because at the end of the day, people are looking for solutions to their problems, and that's always where it begins.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: It begins.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I love the fact that you just mentioned you looking at their pores, looking at their souls.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you really develop a relationship with your client.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that there's a relationship the user has with their skincare as well, right?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a the trust they have that it's going to improve their skin is one thing, but then the experience of applying it and how it feels and how it's part of their ritual and it may help them reduce the stress at the end of the day or get them ready for the day at the beginning and make them feel good about themselves.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Speak to how that uh influences your your product formulation, just that experiential aspect of skincare.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a checklist of what creates like a rock star product experience, right?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like what or what or what's what makes a product a rock star?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't have those notes in front of me, but it's always like it's skincare's fun, right?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great experience.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, it's common now that brands want to have fragrance-free products, right?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: You're a dermatologist, you understand that because we do know people, not everyone can handle, you know, having a scent in a product.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: It irritates the skin, obviously, depending on percentages, if it's natural versus essential oils, et cetera, et cetera.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: But a scent does add to the experience, right?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: And now the experience, good or bad, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody's sensitive and they have a reaction, that's a negative experience.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: But as we know, you know, less than 10% of the people of the population is affected by fragrance, right?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: But there's that 90% that that adds to that experience.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the decision, some of our products have, you know, a natural scent in it.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it could be essential oils, it could be a natural fragrance, but many of them don't.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because if it's more for sensitive skin and people that are more rosacea prone or that sort of thing, it doesn't.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: But but at the end of the day, when you use a product, you want to try to tap into all the senses.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, you know, they they're reading it, they read what it does.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: It has a name, it has a description that makes them feel something.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they look at it, it has a cool texture, it looks neat, it's it feels nice, it has a you know um a texture that they like, you know, like cleansers, some people like cleansing lotions, some like like waxy balm, some people like gels, like there's different people gravitate.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, it's all just washing your face, but people have different experiences with different textures, um, and then certainly scent.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when you I mean, when you really boil it down, when someone says, Oh my gosh, this is my my favorite product ever, majority of the times it's because they love the way it smells.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And they're just like, Oh, every time I put it on, and a lot of times it's the scent, and that adds to making skincare fun and and and that creates a motivation for people to use it because they have a good time and they enjoy how they feel when they use it.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that you've that you said, look, less than 10% of people really have a problem with fragrances, which means over 90% of people actually like the fragrances in dermatology.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: All we think about is those 10%, right?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because we we have to be we are so careful about fragrances and sensitive skin and what does sensitive skin mean?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: And huge, huge uh impact on our patients right now.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, when we when when I travel to Europe and I use products, you know, if you go to a uh a pharmacy in France, it's like skincare bazaar, right?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and they all almost all of them have these, you know, strong free what I consider strong fragrances, right?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because America has a certain aesthetic in terms of what our what what our you know consumer likes, and the European consumer just is used to a stronger fragrance.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'll bring products across and I'll you know, test them and I'll give them to my wife, and we're all like, wow, these the scent is so strong.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: How do they deal with this?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: But you're exactly right.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's all part of the experience, you know, and it it's just so interesting.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's also, you know, it's just it becomes about enjoyment because at the end of the day, I always tell people this, which uh, you know, I always say this like when you put a moisturizer on, right?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's not giving you a facelift, right?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: You put it on, and it's you know, the goal is you create good skincare habits, but it's not so like whether it's you know a moisturizer for my line or you know, a La Mer price range, it doesn't matter.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: None of us are getting a facelift out of this deal, right?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're getting out of cream, we look in the mirror afterwards, our skin looks a little glowy, it feels nice, it's less dry, but that's about it, right?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can throw in all the peptides you want, and trust me, I use peptides, but like it's not a facelift, right?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: You're not putting a moisturizer on and all of a sudden going, oh my gosh, it's you know, now the the idea is that you maintain it long term and that can help certain things and prevent and all the things.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: But at that point, like it's just about what do you like to use and what you know, what what do you what what satisfies that enjoyment, you know?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, look, we we only have a few minutes left, and so I really wanted to get your ideas on skincare trends.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's what do you see as the big skincare trends right now?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe three to five years from now, what you see as kind of the future of skincare as well.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I will always go back to any, you know, I don't typically follow trends because that's not my brand.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're not knocking out products super fast that are not thoughtful just to hop on the slugging bandwagon or whatever.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I think, but now we know there will be trends, and I think it's really sad because it's like it's it just feels so fake and phony to me.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's the fast fashion of skincare, right?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's sad to me.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think that I but I you know at the end of the day, again, as I said, people look for solutions to their problems.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: So any product that is focused on a solution and can actually drive results, um, where people get visuals and before and afters that are not fake and you know, that sort of thing, like that will always win above and beyond any trend.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think, you know, I think we are understanding kind of more about, you know, uh customization and how you know circadian rhythm, how our body responds to things.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot more science aspect into our own DNA.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I so I think the trend will continue to go into that customization and how something may be right for me, may not be right for someone else, regardless of a problem we're trying to solve.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: But like as far as like preventative care, if you can target, you know, things on a cellular level that are unique to your cells, I think is that's always being explored.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think that, you know, there's so much.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: I was having this conversation last night with someone, which is like the 70-year-olds of today, women are not gonna be the 70-year-olds, you know, 30 years from now.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Meaning like people aren't gonna have sun damage the way that you know our parents did, and certainly we did, or whatever, because we now know that tanning is not good for the skin.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: We know that um, you know, it's all about prevention.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I think like, you know, the trend will be that everyone's in a preventative mode.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're all about longevity, you know, we're exercising, eating better, taking better care of our skin.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think any product that can you know focus around longevity is always gonna do really well.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, I really think you hit the nail on the head there.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I I I see just in medicine overall, there's so much focus right now on anti-aging because it seems like we're on the cusp of really unlocking the aging process.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: We used to think aging was related to you know, a accumulation of DNA damage, of shortening of telomeres, and that led to cellular death essentially.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And now what we understand, and this just came out recently, Renee, is is that really aging is an issue with it's a problem with information and communication, because there's the epigenome, which are these proteins that overlie the DNA, and they kind of tell gene which genes turn on and turn off.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because remember, every cell in our body has the same DNA, yet they're all so different.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why does that happen?
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the epigenome, which is telling the genes to turn on and turn off, and and aging seems to be a problem with that communication between the epigenome and the DNA.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can figure out how to keep the epigenome communicating like we do, like it does in a young person, that's really interesting.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we are going to be able to, at a cellular level reduce slow, stop the aging process, then we have to keep the skin there as well.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I think you just the longevity issue is going to be huge for skincare.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the uh circadian rhythm has been talked about now for a few years now, and and the ingredients, the the type of ingredients, the formulations, the application, whether it's morning or night, is going to make a huge difference for the skin, and more and more information is coming out there, also.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: So love that, Renee.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: You really hit on two really exciting trends right now in skincare and quite frankly in medicine.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um I think the circadian, um, talking about the circadian rhythm.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: I really think that, you know, we used to think that the the skin started to repair itself when you go to bed, and now we know it's when the sun goes down, right?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's something that we didn't know a long time ago.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so your your reparative system start, you know, I mean, it has to do with the sun, and that's the whole circadian rhythm concept.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of applying, you know, skincare right before you go to bed, it may be better right before dinner.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're starting to have those kinds of conversations as well.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's what I tell people about that.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: I always tell people do your nighttime routine, you know, after dinner because people fall asleep.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you know, people think I need to do my routine right before my head hits the pillow, but then you get tired and then you don't wash your face.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: So if you do your routine earlier after the sun goes down, then you're you know, you're ensuring you get your routine done, and then you're in sync with that reparative system that's going on.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Renee, thank you so much.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: We just your honesty, your insight has been so refreshing.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Really appreciate your time as well.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Ted.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate the opportunity, and it was a pleasure to meet you here in Austin.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's been great.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Local Austin company, Renee Releau Skincare.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is the founder, uh, Renee Rileau.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: She's she's just wonderful.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I have been on your website, I've done the uh the skin typing.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I went through those.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: It weren't many questions.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was super easy to do, and yeah, and the algorithm really generates a nice skincare regimen to use for different skin types.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: She's got nine different skin types that she's working with.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I highly recommend people to check that out.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I thought the price points were really fair.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think the formulations look interesting.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, all the best to you.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a fan.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Ted.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: You keep up the great work on your end as well.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right, this is Skincare Confidential, guys.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.