Latest / Skin Anarchy / Hope Smith, Founder of MUTHA

Transcript

Hope Smith, Founder of MUTHA · Skin Anarchy

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys, welcome back to Skincare Anarchy.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is your host, Ekta, and today I have with me the founder of an awesome body care line that I've been loving um so, so, so much.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I have Hope Smith, who is the founder of Mother Skincare.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show, Hope.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that you could make it.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so happy to be here.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to get started because I want to talk about your background and what made you really want to um go into skincare and you know, just the whole journey in beauty that led you here.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: So um I guess 15, 16 years ago, I became an aesthetician.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I've always really, really loved skincare.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: I um have been obsessed with products and um so much so that when I was 21, I opened up a medical spa, which I had for about five years.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and in that we had everything from like non-surgical laser type facelifts to microderm abrasions, and we were doing chemical pills and laser hair removal.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've just always been obsessed with product and what it can do and different skin types, but I never thought I would have my own line.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Never.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, why?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, when did you make the decision like to just start your own?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: It actually happened a hundred percent organically.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was pregnant with my first child.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of stretch marks from puberty.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 5'10.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I had Oh my god, me too! That's crazy.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I gained weight super fast, and all of a sudden I had like a woman's body when I was 13.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I had these stretch marks that I wasn't seeing on other young girls, and they were like bright pink or purple, and they made me super insecure.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: I had them on my chest and places that you would like see them.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I still have mine like left over on my stomach.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know exactly what you mean.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like they showed up everywhere.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like because you're just growing at such speeds.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a huge, huge insecurity of mine, and everybody always said, Well, it's genetic, you can't do anything about it.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, every female in my family is covered in stretch marks from pregnancy, not necessarily puberty, um, but just like covered.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so to me, you know, by the time I was 30, I had embraced my stretch marks, sure.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, Do I really have to get more or how what can I do?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: At that point, I was looking for something clean.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't want to be putting on a bunch of mineral oils and things, and I started breaking down in products that were um at drugstores that would say like cocoa butter on the you know, the label.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Then I'd turn it around because as an aesthetician, I can read in you know, in inky.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it would be like the 13th ingredient or the seventh, and water would be first.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it always bothered me that water was first.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: So why do we have to have filler here?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then I turned to like I said, okay, well, if I can't find it at the drugstore, I'm surely gonna find it at Bergdorf Goodman or Neiman Marcus.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: You want you trust those, that you trust those brains.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought, you know, I'm gonna pay more, but I'm gonna get like an ingredient label that's way more impressive.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I um went there too, and I found nothing for stretch marks that was something that was clean enough that I wanted to use on my body.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can I can I just say this right now?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I feel like you and I've have had the same journey with this, especially the purity part.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to like highlight that because I've never spoken to someone else that's had this problem.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I remember like I went through the very similar thing, and I have always wondered why this gaping hole in this industry has existed because stretch marks are the most obvious first thing I would think, like skincare would be all over.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's a thing that affects so many women, pregnancy or not.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I love that you have brought this topic of puberty-related stretch marks out.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's something I think a lot more girls face than we, you know, than we know about.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And at that time, I think I don't even know if bio oil was out, but that was kind of like what they were telling everybody to use when you know, when I was pregnant six years ago, it was like really about using bio oil and things.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I called a makeup artist friend.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Her name's Joyce Spinelli, and at the time she was doing all the Kardashians and she was on tour with Nicki Minaj and working for Jennifer Lopez.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I said, how's so like lunch long?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, well, I'm I've been friends with her, it's you know, since we were young.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: She had a great career.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: She did it.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's really, really, you know, a great makeup artist and yeah, and a creative and kind of crazy and a great personality.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I called her, I said, How do all these beautiful women not have stretch marks?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what is what are they doing?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, some of them are buying the big tub of La Mer.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And this is this big tub of La Mer is 16 ounces and it's$2,500.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, you know.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And apparently that's what people were doing.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh my god, how do you do that for nine months?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And well, I heard they were doing that with Touch Us Cream too.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think like there was a rapper or a celebrity, and they were doing that with LaMaire, like J-Lo, I heard was had like a I don't know if this is a rumor, but like I heard that J Lo uses LaMaire like all over, and she has like so many tubs of her.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I know what you're talking about.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so I broke down that too, and I was like, well, you know, not only is it extremely expensive, but it's also not necessarily something I'm using all over my body when I'm pregnant.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so my journey began for myself.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: This was not to launch a company, this was not to make money, this was to avoid getting more stretch marks, but I had to buy such bulk amounts of product while I was making different formulas that I um ended up having so much left over that I ended up sending it to the people like Joyce and to um friends that I had in Los Angeles, and they'd go through pregnancies, twin pregnancies, stretch marks from puberty, and they'd have zero from pregnancy.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody had that feedback.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, okay, maybe you can make a product, put no filler in it, no water, just um, you know, the ingredients that are known to be high in fatty acid or linolic acid or have be rich in vitamins, A, you know, and different things.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so maybe you can do this.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's kind of like you don't let somebody tell you that it's not possible because it kind of is possible.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when you just put in the good stuff, I mean Yeah.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and so I had such huge raw amounts of ingredients that eventually they'd call me and say, Look, and they'd tell me like a somebody's name, and they'd say, Nobody knows yet.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, press doesn't know, but she needs this butter because she heard I used it or whatever.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it became like this truly cult secret product.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And all the women that actually, one of the women that Joyce had told me used La Mer ended up using our product before it was ever a brand.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Just I would put it in little black plastic containers, and you know, I would just write on them with like a chalk marker jar of hope.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: My name's Hope, and I was like just like a sweet little like congratulations, your product.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's really cute.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Never did I think it would be a brand until it just kept going.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like the word kept getting out, and I would be gone, not home, on vacation, and I'd say it'd say, like, so and so.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'd find out people were pregnant that like nobody knew yet.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: She's the stork that like goes around looking, like and then I was stressed because I'm like, God, she's gonna get stretch marks if I don't get home, order my raw ingredients, send this butter.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, I have a question.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: I have a question.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: I have a question for you because I know I want to ask this now when you're talking about the ingredients, because your product is like when I put my hand in it, it's just pure heaven.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and you can tell there's no weird like change of texture, like while you're getting it.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: How did you do that?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because it stays solid, and then as soon as I put it on my skin, it turns this beautiful oil slash like moisturizer, like cream moisturizer.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you did, but it's like the phase transition is like mesmerizing.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I really would love it if you could tell us that about that.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I can tell you that I made it in my kitchen, and I don't exaggerate 400 times, and then I put it in a lab, and we still had to make it another 90 times to get the formula right.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was truly my lab had such dislike that they forgot they stopped taking my phone calls because every sample that they would make me would get there and I'd say, nope, too tough, or nope, not right, or go back to the formula before last.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: That was better.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now let's make a different change, let's add a bigger percentage of whatever well, you know, whatever we were trying to do with the formula, whether it was we were making it soft or we were making it um whatever it may be.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so I literally felt like they didn't want to hear from me and they wanted me to just give up.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um that's so disheartening to hear that.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're paying them for a business, like for for uh, you know, just something that you want.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's really sad.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: But don't you think that most people or a lot of people want you know it to automatically be easy?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes when you're making something and it's very specific, you have to keep pushing.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we pushed them so much that eventually they were like, you know what, this is really nice.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you kept pushing for these last like 19 rounds that when we thought it was perfect all along, because it the product really stands for itself, and it's you know, you can tell that it wasn't just made as an afterthought.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: There was actual like perfection in making this.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, it is, and I think like I literally remember like when I tried it for the first time, I was like, okay, it's gonna feel like any cocoa butter I've used or any shea butter I've used.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and I used it, and at first I was like really mesmerized, like I just explained, but then it's just soaked into my skin.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that is something I for me that's very unique because all of the other products I've tried, they sit on my skin.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been a huge reason why I kind of shy away from body care that is like the traditional, right?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, how did you like when it comes to that aspect of formulation?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: What causes something to sit on our skin versus like you know, sink in that you found when you were like, you know, working with the lab?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there can be a lot of things, but for natural products in general, um, there's normally some sort of thickener.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um and in that it could be something like they used a lot more wax in the product.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it could be sitting on the, you know, the skin.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: If it absorbs really well, they have a lower, um it's normally a lot thinner of a product.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: It can get light.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I like to think this gets really thin, like a serum would or an oil.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it actually goes deeper.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, oils can go so much deeper, and serums can than a lotion, for example.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it was really important that it would start like that and be able to.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then also you can formulate something and you can do it with shea butter that you just sourced, and it was, you know, a decent shea butter, or you can really look for where it goes this specific, and this is how crazy I was.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can look for the actual shea nut that is where does the where does that tree grow richest?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Is it East Africa?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Is it West Africa?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you so rose hip?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Where is the rose hip like the most pure?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the like ideal like environment to grow in.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the most orange, and that's Bulgaria for us.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, like I will only use rose hip in any of our formulas from Bulgaria because there's no better rose hip.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's looking at each individual ingredient, deciding where you can sustainably source it, but where it's also like absolutely like the best nut.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's very different for climates, and that produces a different product.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how that's how far down, you know, in the research that I got, not only was it what's rich in certain natural vitamins or minerals and what's rich in zinc, or it didn't stop there.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually about like where it's grown in the soil, and I think it makes all the difference.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes a huge difference.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's like the entire concept of like, you know, I mean, I know a botany can like a botanist can probably talk way more on this, but like the natural, you know, place something is supposed to grow is where it will grow to its max, and it max in the sense that the nutrients will be the richest, you know.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that makes sense.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: If something's tropical and you're growing it in, like, I don't know, like you know, Nevada, like it's not gonna have nearly as you know what it would have normally.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's a beautiful concept.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, how did you work with the sustainability factor in that?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm sure that the places you're getting um these sources from, like, are they smaller areas, like smaller regions?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely smaller vendors, um, also a higher price point, but it's a just a completely different product.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when we're sourcing from Africa, I like to use places that um benefit like they'll different co-ops, it'll benefit women.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you can tell, like when you're working with vendors, you can ask those questions like who is harvesting and where does this money go?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And is this a woman-owned business?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, there's all of those questions.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: So each vendor is interviewed separately.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just let's source a product so that we can put something out there.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's very, very thought out, just like at the name, like we have the name Mother, which means isn't necessarily for mothers, even though we started in that space.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have body care, we have skin care even now, and even like our um vitamin C serum and our number one serum, all of it's sourced the exact same way with the highest, highest, highest um ingredients possible.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what I've that's what I wanted to actually bring up.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad that you said that because every single product that you have is phenomenal.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it shows that you've done research, not only like your research, I think, from what you just described for the body butter, it shows that it translates over into your other products.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like the the facial oil is beautiful, it sinks into my skin.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I don't for me, a lot of times, like my skin has transitioned with age um into more dry.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And with oils, uh, you know, something I always encounter is either if it soaks in, then my skin is still looking for something else.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's still asking for more, even after like a uh normal regimen.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: But with your facial oil, I don't have that problem.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that to me, as a consumer, shows that the research has been done.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: You've really tried this, and you know, everything you described, it it really fits in.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I I love that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I love your skincare, by the way.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: We love that base oil so so much.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a good one.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's you know, it's made for um people with oily skin.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is great for people that have acne-prone skin, this is great for the kalahari is great.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's so many things in it that um we get great feedback from people that have never used oils before that said, Oh, I love this oil.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it was definitely formulated with those kind of thoughts.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And again, um, we formulate that and we have um lots of ingredients in it, but zubaki is one of the big ones, um kalahari.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do those doing?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: What is zubaki what does zubaki do?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us like a little bit?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I discovered tsubaki when I was um in Japan and I kept seeing that it was like um there was lots of skin products with it, and I was like, what is this?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I bought some raw subaki um and played with it without um anything else, and found that I really, really liked it, but it was a little bit heavy, but it's supposed to help with pre-radical damage, help with signs of um aging, makes the skin really soft, um, less prone to fine lines, helps it retain moisture.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um it can it has it's very powerful antioxidant, and you'll see it in a lot of Japanese skincare too.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's from the Camilla flower.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's so cool.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if you were to pick like one ingredient as like maybe your hero ingredient, even though that's a term, but um, you know, like your favorite one or something, which ingredient is your favorite and across your line?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love two.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: I love the root uh the rose hip and I also love this subaki.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Bulgarian rose hip that you talked about.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that one and the subaki are both really, really beautiful.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then for um things that aren't oil and are just normal skincare, like our number one serum or eye cream, we created something called the mother load, and it's a core technology that we came up with with a chemist from MIT.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we wanted to have science-backed active ingredients that had clinicals behind them but were still natural.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so with that, um, it has like rice, catheter, it has rice peptides, catheterin, um, hyaluronic acid, four different levels of hyaluronic acid.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just a beautiful, beautiful product, and it's fermented.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll get a lot of this kind of fermentation in our skin line, which wasn't in our oil, but it is in our eye cream and our number one serum, and then the products that we have coming out.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because I just believe your skin can, you know, it's more compatible with your skin.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Your skin digests what you're putting on it.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: It, you know, yeah, you're not sure.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's a beautiful way to put it.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful way.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: What you said, it digests what you're putting on it and metabolizes.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that makes sense.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to actually ask, so you know, you just mentioned some products.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what is coming up next?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like in terms of like just the line, like what's your vision with the like is there an end goal in mind or like a bigger goal in mind, or is it just see where the line goes for now?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm definitely a planner, but I refuse to make a product if I can buy somebody else's and I'm like satisfied enough to reorder it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's really about what's missing in my vanity or my mom's vanity, or like, you know, it happens through conversation and normally happens with a problem, like we're all having a problem with.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: For example, let's talk about the number one serum.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that one came because I would buy vitamin C and I would use it.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know why people said it helped with hyperpigmentation because I never saw like the results with myself, like it wasn't like wow.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, why does every brand say it brightens?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I was formulating it in the lab.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: I got it, you know, one to two days after it was so it's completely fresh compared to like skincare you'd buy at Sephora or on a drugstore shelf, or you know, something that has sat on a shelf just isn't as pure active, etc.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we were formulating with like asorbic acid and that type of vitamin C.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, when I started using it, my skin was reacting like crazy.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was like bright red.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was I didn't know it was sensitive to it.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what happens to me with vitamin C.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: But wait, I didn't know though, because I went to vanity and I said, wait, I'm using vitamin C serums that have this ingredient.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: How is that possible?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Let me change this vitamin C.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see what happens.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, I bet what's on your vanity has oxidized.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just not as effective, it's not as powerful, right?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not as fresh.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you're probably not reacting like the red chemical-pilled looking face.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um, she sent me something with a different type of vitamin C, no reaction.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I said, How is that possible?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Stable?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: All of this vitamin C.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: So she sent me staple vitamin C.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, tetradexyl assorbate, which is what we formulate, and that's the type of vitamin C we use.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's because it's proven, clinically proven, to go 50 times deeper than traditional vitamin C.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you're less reactive to it.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you probably can use THG without reaction if you react to the other one.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Have you tried that?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, I've never tried it, but I'm just curious what the chemical structure is.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like looking it up right now as we're speaking.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because like I I wonder what stabilizes it.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: But no, that's interesting.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you were able to use it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: You're able to actually not have an airtight container with it.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas normally with forasorbic, it's oxidizing right away, it turns a little bit of color, and you have to have like that airtight container.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm still able to use glass, which I love to use glass over plastic.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't like plastic at all.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, you're still able to put it in dropper form, and you know what?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: My pigmentation's gone.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing for my mom, same thing for people that use it on their hands.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, it's like the I didn't know I was allergic to vitamin C because I was buying it from a drugstore and it had oxidized enough that I was, you know, it wasn't actually so so active anymore, which tells us you really need a stable vitamin C because you're spending so much money on this product.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what I never understood, Hope.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, like I felt like there's so many companies out there that are like luxury brands or like, you know, they have a huge price point, very high price points.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like if I'm buying your product and it's the vitamin C serum is turning yellow on me within like three days of opening it, like, where did all of my money go?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, branded bottom yacht with my money.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like seriously.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a passion project, and you don't have to charge that.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Our serum I still consider to be very expensive.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it lasts forever, and it's but you're doing research, like you have research behind this.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a lot.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: A chemist from MIT, a core technology put into it, lots of clinicals on the ingredients that we use.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Just uh, you know, it's it's different, it's a lot of work, and you know, or I know what I'm using on myself because I I convert fully.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I I will never tell somebody to use a product that is not doesn't have my heart and like actual guts behind because if I if you can't put your name on it, you know, yeah, yeah.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: I never let something go out into the world that felt sloppy or like I was trying to just scam somebody over where these ingredients I'm actually really proud of and can talk about and love to talk about, you know, and and I stopped buying other vitamin C's because this one works.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: So well, see, that's the thing.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I think all of us are looking for that as consumers in the skincare industry.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's be real.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have, you know, like three products on your side table that you use every night?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: For me, your body butter is one of them, you know, and I can honestly say that like it's been like that since I tried it.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna remain like that because that's the body product that I like to use and I know it works.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if we just like as consumers, like just look at, you know what I mean, just your surroundings.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you keep around you at all times that'll tell you everything you need to know?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, it's just yeah, yeah.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And what are you putting on your body?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: I call that body butter my sleep mask because if I use it at night, it's like you're sleeping in this like body mask.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's and then if I use it in the day, like right after you shower, if you put it on, I can honestly shower two to three more times without moisturizing because I'm that hydrating, like it's really goes so, so deep.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, like that is one of my holy grail products.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one thing I want to say though is like, yeah, that's obviously there, and that's like the skincare part of it.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: But like, you know, medically, what's for me extremely, extremely, you know, impressive is that you're actually your product is able to alter or benefit, you know, somehow benefit uh molecularly the the design of how a stretch mark forms in the body, and it's working with that, and it's working with your normal physiology to help your body go through a like you know, a transition which women go through, which is pregnancy.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: That is huge as a scientist.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: I like I'm that's what I'm impressed by.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: That through all of this, your need for perfection, you have created something that is scientifically working, and now I just I'm waiting for everybody else to catch up.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody needs to somebody listening out there, please write a paper.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's you know, let's get something out.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it's that's my point.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is like actually undergoing clinicals as we speak, so hopefully papers on it very soon.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, simplify it like that, and it's like, oh, it just works, it just works.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've you know, it was a rabbit hole.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Each ingredient, what I had an Excel spreadsheet on like what it was supposed to naturally contain.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, what does this and then how do you prevent a stretch mark?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you build it out, right?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like what's the stretch mark and what can you do to like block those things from happening?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's a very simple thing, but the fact that I went through both of my pregnancies with no additional stretch marks and everybody else has, I mean, it is something that is, you know, you couldn't have planned it.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can work for it, but you couldn't have actually planned that that would happen, you know?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's you know, that's really the beauty of formulation because you know, we don't know like 90% of things in science yet.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: So through experimentation, you know, you may you might have just discovered something that's altering a pathway that's gonna lead to amazing research.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the that's why I have this podcast because it should, you know, hopefully somewhere, some someone somewhere is inspired scientifically and it's gonna be like, wait a minute, you know, I'm working on a research project for my PhD.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I can, you know, think so yeah, the it matters, it matters a lot.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think yeah, yeah.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: If it makes somebody feel more confident in their skin, whether it's it helps their eczema or it improved the look of a existing purple stretch mark, or it prevented new ones, like you know, there's just something about being comfortable and like proud of your skin, and like learning to accept flaws, but knowing like you're still taking care of yourself along the way.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And honestly, like that's the best thing.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because as soon as my friends would get pregnant, all my life before I had kids, that's what they talked about.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm sure they were worried about having like a healthy baby, but they were like, Am I gonna get stretch marks?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna use?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: For some reason, that was cemented into my head that that's the concern of every woman when she becomes pregnant.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I had heard it.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just the friends that I was no, no, I was gonna say, like, it's not just you, that is for me too.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I for and it goes back to what you were originally saying about like stretch marks related to puberty.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because for me, um, you know, I went through this in one journey, it was very scary, you know, emotionally.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was something I was always, you know, I didn't like about my body.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I had, you know, a little bit of body issues around it, and yeah, you don't want to amplify something like that or bring up memories or even deal with that.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it's I think a lot of women feel that way.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely think so.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: But thank you so much.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this has been amazing, and I've loved learning about, you know, just how incredible your vision is.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you know, everyone out there, if you're listening, you have got to try her line.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's spelled M-U-T-H-A-Mother, and it's an amazing, beautiful line.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Every product is amazing.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the research Hope has done really genuinely shows.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that wholeheartedly.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you guys check it out.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know what you think in the podcast art, the comment section.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: We love hearing from you.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and hope I hope you come back for uh another episode.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: I hope so too.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for having me.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, so I hope you love that episode.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Please make sure to hit subscribe if you're tuning in to us on any podcast platform.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: We are available on so many different platforms.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: So wherever it is that you're tuning in, just go hit subscribe.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: You will be immediately notified when we publish new episodes.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: This way, you're able to tune in to amazing insights from experts, brand founders, industry leaders, authors, all the wonderful people that we host.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's very important for me because I love to hear from you guys and really understand what you love and what you want to hear more of.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Also, make sure to give us a follow on all of our social media outlets.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: We are available on Instagram, TikTok, X, you name it, we're there.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: We also have a blog on Medium.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a reader and you love Medium blogs, check us out on Medium.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: We publish some really great articles on there that do deeper dives than just what's available on the podcast.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really a great place for all of you science geeks out there that want to learn a little bit more.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: We go above and beyond with our research and making sure we're bringing you information that you usually probably won't hear about in other outlets.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: So check us out, leave us a comment, leave us a review, and we'll be back next time with another episode.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.