Latest / Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh / The Danger of Synthetic Skin Products

Transcript

The Danger of Synthetic Skin Products · Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh

• 0:04
  It is another episode of Chatting with the Experts where
• 0:07
  I speak with phenomenal women.
• 0:10
  These women are from Africa, from the Caribbean, and in the diaspora,
• 0:15
  and they share my mission, which is to educate women, to encourage
• 0:20
  women, and to empower women globally.
• 0:24
  I have a few men who join me, but for the most part it's women.
• 0:30
  Our episode today is called Healthy Skin At Every Age- A Physician's Guide to
• 0:37
  Natural Skincare, and my guest who will join me in a minute is a board certified
• 0:46
  physician specializing in Sports Medicine and Regenerative Aesthetic Medicine.
• 0:53
  She's also a health and wellness speaker, and she's the founder of Nature's Puree,
• 1:01
  a physician founded Natural Skincare line designed for the whole family.
• 1:09
  She explores natural skincare, healthy skincare at every age, and
• 1:14
  she's gonna share with us simple routines that women can use every day.
• 1:19
  And with that, I wanna welcome Dr. Christina Hector to the show.
• 1:30
  Welcome, Dr. Christina.
• 1:32
  Thank you.
• 1:32
  Thank you for having me.
• 1:34
  Absolutely.
• 1:36
  Absolutely.
• 1:36
  I know that I just gave a snippet of your bio.
• 1:40
  Maybe you can expand on anything that I may have omitted that
• 1:43
  you think is really relevant.
• 1:46
  It's up to you.
• 1:48
  I think you said it all.
• 1:49
  I'm a board certified physician.
• 1:51
  I specialize in non-surgical sports medicine, musculoskeletal injuries,
• 1:57
  and I do regenerative aesthetics for, you know, all skin types.
• 2:03
  I do like to focus on melanated skin types also and I started doing aesthetics
• 2:10
  because I felt like a lot of women they didn't know exactly what to do with some
• 2:16
  of the skin conditions that they have.
• 2:18
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:18
  So that's...
• 2:21
  That's really it.
• 2:24
  All right.
• 2:25
  Okay.
• 2:25
  Okay.
• 2:26
  Okay.
• 2:27
  So you said a lot of women did not know how to take care
• 2:32
  of the skin that they had.
• 2:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:35
  So, my journey started in medical school.
• 2:39
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:40
  At that time, I'll tell you the story.
• 2:42
  I had relaxed hair, so it was like chemically treated hair and you know,
• 2:47
  I was just, hair was falling out.
• 2:50
  It might have been, I was stressed from being in medical school and
• 2:53
  I went to hair justice after hair justice and nothing was changing.
• 2:58
  And I said, you know, maybe is the chemicals that I am using on my hair.
• 3:04
  So I decided to, stop using chemicals and go natural as they would say.
• 3:12
  And when I went natural, the next dilemma I had was I wanted to really go
• 3:18
  chemical free, but a lot of the haircare products had a lot of chemicals in them.
• 3:26
  And I searched and when I did find products that didn't have chemicals
• 3:31
  in them, they were really expensive for my medical school budget.
• 3:33
  So I really couldn't afford it at that time.
• 3:36
  And, you know, I might be aging myself, but back then it wasn't as many people
• 3:42
  making natural skincare products and now we're finding them in stores.
• 3:46
  But back then it was very few.
• 3:49
  So I was like, okay, you know, I'm in medical school, I'm smart,
• 3:52
  let me, you know, lemme see what I can whip up in the kitchen.
• 3:55
  So I started to make hair care products for myself and as I went through
• 4:01
  this journey of making hair care products and trying it and seeing like
• 4:04
  really good results with my hair, I said, you know, something, the same
• 4:11
  chemicals I'm trying to avoid using in my hair are inmy skincare products.
• 4:18
  Wow.
• 4:19
  You know, like when you pick up a bottle of skincare products and you
• 4:23
  look at the ingredients and you can't pronounce anything that's in them.
• 4:26
  So that's when I said, well, if I could make products for my hair, let's see
• 4:30
  if I can make products for my skin.
• 4:33
  You know, and the whole goal for me, was as I educated myself,
• 4:38
  I realized these products are dangerous for, you know, our health.
• 4:43
  So I started to make skincare products.
• 4:46
  Hmm.
• 4:47
  So you said being in medical school and being on a tight budget,
• 4:50
  you wanted to go natural with your hair, but that was smart.
• 4:54
  I mean, looking at the products of the skincare products and saying,
• 4:58
  Hmm, these are not healthy products.
• 5:00
  Being in medicine, you knew that it wasn't.
• 5:02
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:03
  And then you thought, what would be the benefits, right?
• 5:06
  Of natural skincare.
• 5:07
  We know what the, me, we know what the benefits are, but we be lay
• 5:11
  people, people who are not medicine sometimes don't know what the medical
• 5:15
  benefits of natural skincare are.
• 5:18
  Right, right.
• 5:20
  So tell me about that.
• 5:21
  You know, so when I say like natural skincare, you know, I, I tend to
• 5:26
  mean like using plant-based products.
• 5:30
  So a lot of these products are made in nature.
• 5:34
  So there'll be like the plant-based oils, avocado oil, olive oil, castor
• 5:40
  oil, the plant-based butters like the most common, the shea butters or coconut
• 5:44
  butters coconut oils, I should say.
• 5:47
  And so I'll give you an analogy.
• 5:50
  We eat vegetables, right?
• 5:52
  And we say the healthy part of eating vegetables, they have vitamins in
• 5:56
  them and they have antioxidants that fight against free radicals.
• 6:01
  And you know how rejuvenate ourselves, the same thing with the plant-based
• 6:06
  skincare products for our skin.
• 6:08
  They have vitamins that our skin can use.
• 6:11
  They're full of antioxidants that can help protect our skins from, you know, free
• 6:17
  radicals and from the sun, the UV light.
• 6:20
  So , if we think about eating vegetables and it's the same analogy of for our
• 6:26
  skin, all these benefits that we wanna take in are gonna benefit our skin.
• 6:35
  Makes sense.
• 6:36
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:36
  I recently had a guest who said, and she's a pharmacologist and she's also a
• 6:41
  trichologist, a certified psychologist.
• 6:43
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:44
  And she said, similar to you, if you can't eat it, don't put it on your head.
• 6:48
  You know?
• 6:49
  That's a good one.
• 6:51
  I thought that's interesting.
• 6:53
  Uh, yeah.
• 6:54
  And she is also, you know, pushing for, we need to look at the
• 6:58
  products, the plant-based products.
• 7:00
  And she uses a plant-based for the hair care products that she uses.
• 7:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:05
  It's plant-based.
• 7:06
  She's based in South Africa, but she's from Zimbabwe and South Africa
• 7:09
  and there's a product there, natural product that her people used way back.
• 7:14
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:15
  And she's like, that's what we need.
• 7:17
  And so that's how she created her own.
• 7:18
  So this is interesting because as you're saying, if all the natural... the
• 7:23
  minerals and the vitamins and everything that we get in food in plant-based food.
• 7:28
  We can use it for our skin because if we're ingesting it,
• 7:31
  then it could work for our skin.
• 7:32
  That's what I'm kind of hearing from you, right?
• 7:34
  Yes, definitely.
• 7:35
  Yes.
• 7:36
  The same nutritious parts of these plants for our inside our body is
• 7:42
  good for, because our skin is actually the biggest organ of our body.
• 7:47
  And I think, just really thinking about that, it does so much.
• 7:53
  It's the first line of defense against infection, microorganism.
• 8:00
  So, we really need to focus on, you know, what are we putting on our skin
• 8:04
  and what are we not putting on our skin?
• 8:09
  Oh, right.
• 8:09
  100%. You know, I think a lot of us are becoming more aware of that, that
• 8:13
  our skin is indeed the largest organ of our body because we didn't think
• 8:18
  about it in that way, it was just skin.
• 8:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 8:21
  You know, we'd be concerned about what we put in our mouth.
• 8:23
  Like what we put on our skin, what we put on our hair, and
• 8:27
  we looked at hair as just hair.
• 8:29
  You know what I mean?
• 8:30
  Right.
• 8:30
  It doesn't really matter because it's just your hair.
• 8:32
  You could cut it off, but it's more than that.
• 8:34
  Right?
• 8:35
  It comes from your skin.
• 8:36
  Yes.
• 8:37
  Yes,.
• 8:38
  Yes, yes, yes.
• 8:40
  So, we know that you started this skin skincare company and, now that you are
• 8:47
  really educating us, or we becoming more educated on, you know, what we
• 8:51
  need to do to be healthy overall?
• 8:53
  What would you say is like a good, simple, daily routine that we can do as women?
• 8:59
  Because most of us are putting stuff on our skin because
• 9:02
  it's advertised that is good.
• 9:05
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:05
  And we have our beauty, whether we wash our faces, well, most of us,
• 9:08
  we wash our faces at night before we go to bed and we wake up in the
• 9:10
  morning, we wash our faces again.
• 9:14
  And we, of course we shower.
• 9:16
  So what's a simple routine?
• 9:18
  So first I would start with, getting into the mindset of looking at the ingredients
• 9:23
  of the products that you're using, you know, and one, look for products that
• 9:29
  have more plant-based ingredients in them, or the non-harmful ingredients.
• 9:37
  There are some, you know, synthetic ingredients that are made.
• 9:40
  Based on their knowledge of plants that are not harmful.
• 9:44
  So that's the first thing because as we, as women, we age, you know, sometimes
• 9:51
  our skin gets a little bit thinner and we absorb more of what we put on our skin.
• 9:57
  So if you are putting something on your skin that has a lot of harmful
• 10:02
  synthetic products in it you're absorbing more of those harmful products.
• 10:07
  So the first step is let's really dive into you know, and be conscious.
• 10:13
  Just like we look at the food ingredients, look at the ingredients
• 10:16
  on our skincare products.
• 10:18
  I'm a simple person.
• 10:20
  I, you know, it's really, you gonna cleanse the skin.
• 10:25
  And I recommend a natural, gentle cleanser for the skin and cleansing
• 10:31
  the skin twice a day in the morning and of course, in the evening.
• 10:34
  'cause during the day, we're out and about and, you know, putting
• 10:37
  makeup on the breeze on our face.
• 10:39
  So you definitely wanna cleanse twice a day.
• 10:41
  You don't want the cleanser to be too harsh for the face.
• 10:44
  But definitely cleansing the face, moisturizing the face.
• 10:49
  So you want a good moisturizer for the face and then protection.
• 10:54
  Okay, now the sun is really bright.
• 10:57
  It doesn't matter if it's winter, if it's summer, you know, you do want to add
• 11:02
  a protection to the face, a sunscreen, minimal based sunscreen I would recommend
• 11:07
  as opposed to a chemical based sunscreen, because like I said, we're trying to stay
• 11:11
  away from harmful chemicals on the face.
• 11:14
  So that's really the basic every day routine.
• 11:20
  Now you wanna add, a little bit extra.
• 11:23
  Vitamin C is really good for the face.
• 11:26
  It has antioxidants in it, so that can help with brightening the face
• 11:31
  and help you know, repair the cells.
• 11:33
  So that is something that we can add to the face.
• 11:37
  And then some people use, like a retinol, which is vitamin A based.
• 11:43
  That can lighten some of the dark marks on the face.
• 11:47
  You know?
• 11:47
  So those are like the simple routine I would recommend.
• 11:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:52
  And another thing I recommend too is if someone feels like I am trying a lot
• 11:57
  of things and I feel like I'm having difficulties with whatever it may be.
• 12:01
  It could be adult acne.
• 12:02
  It could be rosacea.
• 12:04
  It could be hyperpigmentation of the face.
• 12:08
  You may wanna go to an aesthetician, a professional, you know, and have
• 12:12
  them do you know, a deep cleanse, deep exfoliation, and then really discuss
• 12:20
  with you what products you are using, and come out with a product plan that
• 12:26
  works for you in terms of the face.
• 12:29
  Now, for the body, it's the same thing.
• 12:30
  We wanna cleanse it, we wanna moisturize it.
• 12:33
  We wanna really pay attention to the ingredients, especially
• 12:37
  the soap that we're using.
• 12:39
  A lot of people, you know, we focus a lot on the moisturizer.
• 12:43
  But if you are using a soap that's full of synthetic ingredients and
• 12:50
  harmful ingredients, sometimes that can cross the itchy skin, the dry
• 12:53
  skin, the irritated skin and even the moisturizer that you using, it's
• 12:58
  just not healing the skin enough.
• 13:01
  So it just becomes this repetitive cycle.
• 13:03
  So, you know, definitely wanna cleanse with a plant based or,
• 13:08
  you know, soap moisturized um, you know, , and protect the skin.
• 13:16
  I'm gonna ask you this question.
• 13:18
  I noticed you emphasized plant-based, and I know I said I had a guest
• 13:22
  on the show who, for the hair, she uses plant-based products that was
• 13:26
  naturally occurring in South Africa and Zimbabwe, I think she said.
• 13:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 13:31
  But you talk now you mentioned plant based.
• 13:36
  I'm wondering why plant based and not... can we get like some animal based stuff?
• 13:43
  I know now people are into rightfully so, animal rights, you know?
• 13:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 13:48
  And not wanting to to use like oils from animal skins, but I'm just
• 13:55
  curious as to emphasis on plant-based.
• 13:59
  I think I focus more, my products are more plant-based.
• 14:02
  I am not, you know, I tell you when they really started to make
• 14:06
  soap, it wasn't necessarily, it was natural, but it wasn't plant-based.
• 14:11
  It was made with lard and tallow.
• 14:14
  And tallow is from a cow, and the lard is from the fat of the pig and the cow.
• 14:19
  And they use it in a chemical based formula and it turns into soap.
• 14:24
  And I think now people are starting to, you know, some soaps
• 14:26
  are based on tallow and lard and it's still considered natural.
• 14:32
  It's not a chemical base.
• 14:34
  But my products are plant-based, so I think that's why I say more plant-based
• 14:38
  'cause that's what I'm familiar with.
• 14:40
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:40
  But I feel like now we're seeing more tallow come back into the market and
• 14:48
  people are using tallow a little bit more, or, you're seeing it more on
• 14:51
  social media, the use of tallow, but use of tallow and lard has been here
• 14:55
  for years in terms of making soap.
• 14:58
  So.
• 15:00
  I think it's gonna be the preference of the person.
• 15:04
  Okay.
• 15:04
  Okay.
• 15:05
  But I think yes.
• 15:07
  Thanks for clearing that up.
• 15:08
  'cause that's something I was thinking about like, I know long ago or many
• 15:12
  years ago however long ago that was.
• 15:15
  Yes.
• 15:15
  They use animal fat, you know?
• 15:17
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:19
  So as a base for some of these soaps.
• 15:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:22
  That we used.
• 15:23
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:24
  That's so true.
• 15:25
  Yeah.
• 15:26
  I've been meaning to at least try a formula with a tallow.
• 15:29
  I haven't gotten to it yet, but I've been trying just to test it
• 15:31
  out and see, you know, how it works.
• 15:34
  Yeah.
• 15:35
  I love if you do, if you actually do that, let us know so that we probably can bring
• 15:40
  you on so you can now talk about, yeah.
• 15:43
  Aha.
• 15:43
  I did find out something, that the tallow works.
• 15:47
  Probably not better, but it's equally, you know.
• 15:49
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:49
  Does similar things to what you have right now.
• 15:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:54
  Which is so interesting.
• 15:56
  I know you also had, you talked about the skincare and natural skincare playbook.
• 16:04
  Yes.
• 16:05
  You wrote that, that's your book, right?
• 16:06
  That is my book.
• 16:08
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:08
  And I wrote it because, when I would go to vending events and
• 16:13
  talk about natural skincare.
• 16:16
  Sometimes people say, well, why should I pay this money for this?
• 16:20
  You know, why is I could get skincare from the store?
• 16:23
  Why is it important to even consider it?
• 16:26
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:26
  So I wanted to write a book, um, want to talk about.
• 16:31
  The journey of natural skincare, it's almost like a comeback.
• 16:34
  'cause skincare was natural, it was made at home.
• 16:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:38
  By family members and recipes were passed down and it was made to be very
• 16:43
  protective from the elements and the sun and, you know the bacterias and viruses.
• 16:48
  So that's really where skincare started.
• 16:52
  And then it became really commercialized and went to like mass production and
• 16:57
  then it went to making synthetic products to be able to do mass production.
• 17:02
  And then now when we are realizing that the synthetic ingredients are
• 17:08
  harmful in the sense that they can affect your reproductive system, they
• 17:11
  can affect your endocrine system.
• 17:15
  So now we're having that turned back to a natural form of, and
• 17:19
  very low, use of chemicals.
• 17:21
  So I wanted to really talk about, and explain to people the history and also
• 17:27
  talk about the science, you know, behind.
• 17:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 17:30
  The skin, the signs of skin, and how important our skin is to our survival
• 17:37
  and the science behind plants.
• 17:39
  And how the two together, work, you know.
• 17:43
  So, and a little bit about my journey, you know, from, you know.
• 17:48
  Starting an, you know, a natural skincare product, which I didn't plan to start.
• 17:52
  I just planned to pretty much, you know, help myself in terms
• 17:56
  of decreasing the amount of chemicals I'm putting on my skin.
• 18:00
  But then I realized I can help, you know, more people.
• 18:02
  So I did write a book, the Natural Skincare Playbook, Everything You
• 18:06
  Need to Know about Plant-based Beauty.
• 18:08
  It is on my website and it is on Amazon.
• 18:13
  And this book is for anybody who's one interested in changing their
• 18:19
  skincare products to more natural base.
• 18:22
  Someone maybe they're interested in making it to sell and they just want
• 18:27
  to get some feedback or just to learn about the history could give to anybody.
• 18:32
  Aunties, young people in general, I think they need to see this.
• 18:35
  'cause they, you know, a lot of advertising is going towards the
• 18:39
  young girls on skincare products and they're using products that,
• 18:44
  you know, starting now, it's going to damage their skin as they age.
• 18:49
  So even if you have a young, you know, teen or pre-teen, you know, for them
• 18:54
  to really understand, how to look for better skincare products and why.
• 18:59
  I think that that's the biggest thing.
• 19:00
  Why?
• 19:01
  And the science behind the why.
• 19:03
  There's been research done and I added into the book of, research done on
• 19:08
  these plant-based products and the benefits down to the, the cell level.
• 19:14
  So it's a good read.
• 19:16
  I'm sure it is.
• 19:18
  I'm sure it is.
• 19:19
  So, you've told us where we can find the book is that, it's
• 19:23
  on your website and on Amazon.
• 19:25
  So someone listening into this before we have the active or the
• 19:30
  guests who have joined the show...
• 19:31
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:31
  Before we have them ask questions.
• 19:33
  For someone who's listening to this post recording and wants to find out more
• 19:38
  about you get to, um, well, you've told us where we can get your playbook, but
• 19:43
  if you wanna find out more about you or connect with you, how can they find you?
• 19:48
  Well, you can connect with me on my website.
• 19:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:54
  My website is www.onyxaasm.com.
• 20:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:04
  And my skincare store is located on www.naturespuree.com.
• 20:13
  Okay.
• 20:14
  Are you on Instagram?
• 20:15
  Because a lot of the young people.
• 20:17
  Oh, of course.
• 20:18
  Are on Instagram.
• 20:19
  So on Instagram Nature's Puree, on Instagram, N-A-T-U-R-E-S-P-U-R-E-E.
• 20:29
  And Dr. Christina Hector spelled out on Instagram and Facebook.
• 20:35
  And Facebook too.
• 20:36
  Okay.
• 20:36
  And Facebook, do you, you have both the nature
• 20:39
  Nature's puree?
• 20:40
  Yes.
• 20:40
  Puree
• 20:41
  yes.
• 20:41
  Nature is puree and, and, yes.
• 20:44
  Gotcha.
• 20:45
  Oh, this is great.
• 20:46
  This is great.
• 20:47
  Well.
• 20:48
  Who hasn't learned from this, I've learned so much from Dr. Christina.
• 20:52
  And, what I would like to see to those of you listening in or viewing
• 20:56
  this on YouTube, if you'd like to be a guest, just like Dr. Christina has
• 21:00
  been, reach out to me on my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts.com.
• 21:05
  I'm also on LinkedIn, my business page there just look for Chatting
• 21:11
  with the Experts business page, or you can go to my profile.
• 21:14
  My business page and my profile there, Paula Okonneh.
• 21:18
  I'm also on Instagram and my handle there is at chat_experts_podcast, I am on
• 21:24
  Facebook, Paula Okonneh, and the business page, which is Chatting with the Experts.
• 21:33
  And please, please, please subscribe to my YouTube channel where you find
• 21:37
  all the videos, these amazing women who educate, empower, and encourage
• 21:43
  women globally through their expertise, whether it's on a product or whether
• 21:48
  it's just or on a business tip.
• 21:51
  So many things they educate and empower and encourage women to do in their lives.
• 21:59
  Thank you so much, Dr. Christina Hector.
• 22:01
  Thank you for having me, Paula.
• 22:03
  It was great.
• 22:04
  Absolutely.
• 22:05
  And now let's open up the floor to those who joined us so that they can ask you.
• 22:09
  I always say the questions I haven't asked, I couldn't think of asking you.
• 22:13
  They will ask you for sure.
• 22:15
  Thanks.
• 22:16
  Thank you.