Latest / Skin Anarchy / Breathing Beauty: The Revolution of Oxygenetix with Co-Founder, Kort Pearson
Transcript
- 0:12SPEAKER_02: Hi guys, welcome back to Skin Kerry.
- 0:14SPEAKER_02: This is beautiful.
- 0:15SPEAKER_02: I'm very excited today because um, you know, we're kind of moving back into the beauty category.
- 0:21SPEAKER_02: Our beauty top picks are coming up just as an FYI.
- 0:24SPEAKER_02: Um, and this brand that we're interviewing today will definitely be there, so you'll see them.
- 0:28SPEAKER_02: But I'm excited because we don't talk about beauty enough.
- 0:31SPEAKER_02: And for us here at Skincare Earn, it's important because as you guys know, we're seeing a lot of skincare-infused makeup lately.
- 0:38SPEAKER_02: We're seeing a lot of skincare come up in the beauty scene, and I think this brand speaks such volumes about the potential of doing it correctly.
- 0:47SPEAKER_02: And so I'm not gonna rant too much, but I would love to introduce you guys um to Court Pearson, who is the co-founder and CEO of Oxygenetics.
- 0:55SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Court.
- 0:56SPEAKER_02: I'm so honored to host you.
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: Oh, my pleasure, and thank you for the invitation.
- 1:01SPEAKER_02: Yes, no, I I'm absolutely excited about this episode because I really believe in your brand.
- 1:07SPEAKER_02: Um, I have worked a lot, I don't, you know, just to let the audience know, I've worked a lot in um burn care and burn research and um the stuff that is, you know, relevant to this conversation here, you guys will see we know I'll tie it in at one point, but it's like really, really cool to see a brand taking on this approach.
- 1:24SPEAKER_02: But Court, I would love to get started with you and learning about you first and foremost and the company and how it began and the whole you know journey.
- 1:31SPEAKER_02: If you could walk us down memory lane.
- 1:34SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll try and give you the elevator pitch on it because it's it's a rather lengthy story.
- 1:39SPEAKER_01: Um myself, I come from a family that has been in the skincare industry for over 136 years.
- 1:47SPEAKER_01: Uh, the first company was started by my great-grandmother in 1886.
- 1:52SPEAKER_01: She was a stage actress and had brought, oddly enough, makeup across from Europe and started using it on stage.
- 1:59SPEAKER_01: And so she really was one of the first to produce makeup in the United States.
- 2:05SPEAKER_01: Um, fast forward to about 12 years ago, actually, maybe closer to 15 now, um, I met Barry Knapp, and Barry was involved with a company called Lycogel and Dermacea, and they were doing a breathable makeup that was designed for post-procedural use.
- 2:22SPEAKER_01: Uh, there were some issues uh within that organization, which caused him to decide to leave.
- 2:30SPEAKER_01: Uh, and we ended up bumping into each other, and I've got a lab up in LA and a genius formulator, and we decided to create something that delivered on all the promises and really had nothing in it that wasn't needed.
- 2:45SPEAKER_01: So it was really, let's figure out how to do it and then take away everything that doesn't create a benefit.
- 2:50SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 2:51SPEAKER_01: The purpose for it and the impetus for Barry was his mother having a laser procedure.
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: And when he saw the aftermath of the laser procedure, he was mortified.
- 3:01SPEAKER_01: Uh, he realized she would be hiding at home for the next two weeks.
- 3:05SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and it was really the social downtime that was affecting her.
- 3:10SPEAKER_01: And when people go in for uh aesthetics procedures, such as chemical derivations, uh laser procedures, ablate of peels, etc., generally it's not the pain, it's not even the cost that may cause them to think twice or not even do it.
- 3:27SPEAKER_01: It's a social downtime.
- 3:28SPEAKER_01: And oxygenetics solves that because we're able to conceal the procedure and at the same time promote the healing process.
- 3:36SPEAKER_01: And it cools the burn, which is a huge benefit because if you go in with something like uh aquifore, it kind of seals everything up and the sensation to the patient of burning increases.
- 3:50SPEAKER_02: Yes.
- 3:50SPEAKER_01: Whereas you put our product on and it dissipates it.
- 3:54SPEAKER_01: And uh, having started up in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, our clientele seemed to be you know rolled out as celebrities, and they started using it on stage and realizing that under the hot lights, the makeup didn't melt.
- 4:07SPEAKER_01: The makeup artists were realizing they weren't reapplying it all the time, the kids on MTV weren't breaking out in acne, and it looked amazing under HD.
- 4:16SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you've seen movies that are shot in 4K and you can see the makeup on the person's face.
- 4:22SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 4:23SPEAKER_01: So we've kind of evolved into a hybrid medical skincare luxury makeup now.
- 4:30SPEAKER_01: And certainly COVID accelerated that when all of the production stopped and all of the aesthetics procedures stopped due to regulations.
- 4:39SPEAKER_01: And so, really, in a nutshell, that's kind of the the uh the quick version of the evolution that brought us to where we are today.
- 4:47SPEAKER_02: I love that.
- 4:47SPEAKER_02: No, I really think that there's uh very much to be said, you know, about the line.
- 4:52SPEAKER_02: And I like I like that you kind of summed it up for us in the in terms of evolution, but I I think that for me, you know, um, I'm not gonna lie to you, you know, I know that the stars have noticed, you know, the immense benefits of your products.
- 5:04SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, I think I first saw it when Courtney Kardashian was uh, you know, I think it was for Vogue, but she was demonstrating it.
- 5:12SPEAKER_02: And I immediately, obviously, I and I love Courtney, but I was also very much interested in the concept, immediately as a scientist, because we learn all about, you know, the for those of us out there who have worked in wound anything, right?
- 5:24SPEAKER_02: Whether it's wound healing or burn wound healing, oxygen is one of the most powerful ways to bring a any tissue back to what we would refer to as close to homeostasis.
- 5:36SPEAKER_02: You, I mean, you can do wonders.
- 5:38SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously you can't do excessive, but I'm talking in that setting, right?
- 5:42SPEAKER_02: In a very clinical medical setting, you can utilize oxygen.
- 5:45SPEAKER_02: So when I saw it in this format, right, where we're doing dealing with an OTC, we're dealing with something that is meant for beauty.
- 5:53SPEAKER_02: It's meant for actually utilizing in your daily life, not just doing it at home and then, you know, not taking out to the world.
- 5:59SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was incredibly intrigued.
- 6:01SPEAKER_02: So it really, really, you know, intrigued me scientifically how you got that to work with something like makeup.
- 6:07SPEAKER_02: Because as we know, the composition of makeup, the chemistry of makeup is so different than skincare, you know, where we have so many delivery mechanisms involved, et cetera, et cetera.
- 6:16SPEAKER_02: So I really what I'm trying to get to is starting to talk about that science because with oxygen, I know there's immense potentials, and especially for post, you know, uh post, you know, op care or any kind of you know thing that you do for your skin, whether it's microneedling, lasers, you know, whatever procedure, post-procedure care that you, you know, need.
- 6:40SPEAKER_02: Oxygen, there's nothing better I can think of than oxygen.
- 6:43SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's literally like for us, the science is a no-brainer.
- 6:46SPEAKER_02: So I want to talk to you about the science.
- 6:48SPEAKER_02: How did you come up with getting oxygen in your products?
- 6:51SPEAKER_02: And where did that journey begin?
- 6:53SPEAKER_02: And how did you evolve it into an actual makeup formulation that's you know wearable on the daily?
- 7:00SPEAKER_01: Well, it really is a multifold approach.
- 7:04SPEAKER_01: Um, if you think about something like uh, you know, Gore-Tex versus vinyl or nylon, you know, Gore-Tex breathes.
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: It allows uh your skin to respirate when you're wearing a jacket or clothing made from Gore-Tex versus something that's occlusive.
- 7:22SPEAKER_01: So that was the starting point in creating a mesh that would hold the pigments but still allow the skin to breathe.
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: So it would be non-occlusive, you can sweat through it, and it allows that respiration factor to occur.
- 7:37SPEAKER_01: Uh, one of the reasons we thought that was important was again looking at products that are, you know, more akin to uh aquifore that really seal everything up.
- 7:46SPEAKER_01: And understandably, they want to protect the wound, but in protecting the wound, you're also isolating it from uh being able to breathe.
- 7:54SPEAKER_01: And then on top of that, we started researching Saccharomyceae's lysate, which is a yeast extract.
- 8:00SPEAKER_01: And if you go back in history, there's been many, many studies on its healing ability and its ability to generate oxygen.
- 8:10SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was originally discovered, as I recall, from a gentleman who was a brewer who was using yeast who had burned himself and burned himself pretty bad.
- 8:19SPEAKER_01: And the closest item he had was a drum of yeast.
- 8:23SPEAKER_01: He shoved his hand in there and it pretty much wiped out the burn.
- 8:26SPEAKER_01: And from there, Dr.
- 8:28SPEAKER_01: Spurdy and a variety of other researchers over the years started studying it.
- 8:32SPEAKER_01: And so we took some of that information and tried to combine it into a product.
- 8:36SPEAKER_01: And that's really where the the breathability uh came from.
- 8:41SPEAKER_01: And then when you look into putting a makeup product, my gosh, onto uh somebody who's had an ablative procedure or laser procedure, uh being a doctor, you'll understand.
- 8:52SPEAKER_01: Try and find somebody who's gone through school and been told over and over you never put makeup on an open wound.
- 8:59SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 9:00SPEAKER_01: And now we're saying, let's try some makeup on this, on this uh lasered skin.
- 9:04SPEAKER_01: And they're concerned, of course, about things like hyperpigmentation and so on.
- 9:09SPEAKER_01: And uh in the early days, we had a few doctors that decided to give it a try, and a few patients that would allow us, and the results were just beyond what we expected.
- 9:19SPEAKER_02: Extraordinary, yeah, yeah.
- 9:21SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, I I I can imagine because honestly, like we, you know, from a wound care perspective, whatever it might be, right?
- 9:28SPEAKER_02: You know, we talk a lot in skin health about, for example, micro traumas.
- 9:32SPEAKER_02: You know, that concept comes up quite a bit, and especially in conversations around SPF or anything like that.
- 9:37SPEAKER_02: And I always think of microtraumas as obviously there, but we never consider them to be in a way, you know, the very similar to post-procedure damage that can be, you know, that needs to be healed, that needs to be taken care of.
- 9:50SPEAKER_02: So with your product, I mean, I can definitely see how it was has huge benefits in that kind of client that has had like a laser procedure or some sort of, you know, um any kind of ablate of procedure or whatever you want to call it.
- 10:03SPEAKER_02: But in an everyday consumer, I think I'm even more intrigued there because I find that, you know, I know post-procedure care has kind of blown up in the last year or so, you know, more and more people are demanding it.
- 10:15SPEAKER_02: But I what I find to be such a huge, you know, plus in this movement is the idea that when we start using that kind of care for our normal skin, we see great results, you know, because again, what you had mentioned, the breathability, you know, you don't want to be using makeup.
- 10:32SPEAKER_02: And you had mentioned aquifort, which is like Vaseline, is it's an occlusive, you know, it's gonna occlude any air moving in and out, like you mentioned, is gonna occlude, you know, and completely seal it in, which can really cause things like the persistence of infection.
- 10:46SPEAKER_02: It can cause so many things, right?
- 10:48SPEAKER_02: As we know.
- 10:49SPEAKER_02: But then we look at the general consumer and they might be thinking, well, you know, why do we need that?
- 10:53SPEAKER_02: We're fine, we don't have a wound, right?
- 10:55SPEAKER_02: But you do though.
- 10:56SPEAKER_02: Every time you go out to the sun, you're inducing some sort of microtrauma that needs to be healed in a very specific way to avoid things like hyperpigmentation, to avoid things like discoloration and you know, acne scarring and whatnot.
- 11:08SPEAKER_02: And so, as consumers, we're not as inclined to think that we need as much care as somebody who's in a post-procedure environment, right?
- 11:16SPEAKER_02: That's that's where I'm trying to get to with all of this.
- 11:18SPEAKER_02: So I think that when I look at you guys from that perspective as a consumer, I'm like, wow, you know what I mean?
- 11:24SPEAKER_02: This is this is awesome.
- 11:25SPEAKER_02: Like, we need this.
- 11:26SPEAKER_02: And with all I know there's a lot of makeup brands out there as well that are trying to like, you know, put more skincare friendly ingredients in there, which is I'm here for that.
- 11:33SPEAKER_02: I love that.
- 11:34SPEAKER_02: But this is next level.
- 11:35SPEAKER_02: I mean, you guys are doing something that I think is going to facilitate the normal physiology of the skin, you know what I mean, rather than just try to hope to God you're putting the right stuff back that's being taken out, you know.
- 11:46SPEAKER_02: So it's very, very intriguing.
- 11:49SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I completely agree.
- 11:50SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, we do a few things that I don't think anybody else has done.
- 11:55SPEAKER_01: I know they've tried and failed.
- 11:57SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's probably why we have a patent.
- 11:59SPEAKER_01: I don't know if there's any other patented makeup on the market.
- 12:03SPEAKER_01: Uh our base is cold-pressed organic aloe vera.
- 12:08SPEAKER_01: And everything else that's beneficial is on top of that.
- 12:12SPEAKER_01: So you're really starting with skincare that just happens to also provide an amazing, flawless-looking makeup.
- 12:18SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 12:19SPEAKER_01: And uh at the end of the day, you know, it's better than wearing nothing at all.
- 12:22SPEAKER_01: So many makeups damage your skin, they occlude your skin.
- 12:27SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, you can get into powdered makeups with the micas that can, you know, permeate, permeate into the pores, or oil-based makeups that can clog the pores.
- 12:36SPEAKER_01: This does none of that.
- 12:38SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 12:39SPEAKER_02: And especially with stuff like I don't want to interrupt you, but I know you guys also have concealers in the line.
- 12:43SPEAKER_02: And what I really love about your concealers, and I want everyone to really try this check out, is that if you're somebody like me and you have milia, or if you have like dark circles, the the technology that's being incorporated here with these products that Oxenetics has is that they're allowing again your skin to breathe, but also that like anti-inflammatory property of all of the things that are going into this is actually gonna help that milia a lot.
- 13:07SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna notice milia anymore.
- 13:08SPEAKER_02: Like I like when I started using the concealers and really incorporating this into my routine, I noticed that when I use normal makeup, I am prone to milia.
- 13:18SPEAKER_02: It I mean, it happens almost overnight for me with most makeup products.
- 13:22SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 13:22SPEAKER_02: Where it's like, I can tell my skin was it not able to breathe, it was occluded, it was not happy.
- 13:27SPEAKER_02: And now look, I'm in a position where now I have to go in with the right, you know, eye cream or whatever and try to get rid of it.
- 13:33SPEAKER_02: And so you guys are really, really like, I mean, the results speak for themselves, you know, it really does, especially for people out there that are using makeup every day.
- 13:41SPEAKER_02: You know, it's huge.
- 13:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I totally agree.
- 13:44SPEAKER_01: And if you do have a skin condition, uh, especially things like, you know, psoriasis, eczema, rosacea.
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: So many people with rosacea can't wear anything, and they can wear oxygenetics.
- 13:56SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 13:57SPEAKER_01: And I mean, some of the stories are are almost heartbreaking.
- 14:00SPEAKER_01: We had one lady, uh, who I can't really say who she is, but let's just say she can afford anything, but has rosacea.
- 14:08SPEAKER_01: And so she would get up in the morning, she could have her hair done, she could wear couture clothing, she could go out in the finest car, eat at the finest restaurant, couldn't put anything on her face.
- 14:17SPEAKER_01: And early on, one of our aestheticians who was helping out uh happened to be her private aesthetician, uh, went along with Barry, and they asked if she would try it.
- 14:26SPEAKER_01: And she's like, No, I I I just can't.
- 14:28SPEAKER_01: It'll sting, it'll hurt, it'll inflame my skin.
- 14:31SPEAKER_01: And eventually they put literally like a fingertip up on the cheek.
- 14:35SPEAKER_01: And over the period of about an hour, they finally just had the foundation on.
- 14:40SPEAKER_01: She got up, went to the mirror, and broke into tears.
- 14:43SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
- 14:45unknown: Wow.
- 14:45SPEAKER_01: She realized her life had just changed.
- 14:48SPEAKER_01: And the concealer is basically the same formula with just more pigment.
- 14:52SPEAKER_01: So we're we're not reinventing it, we're taking something and repurposing it.
- 14:56SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's the good thing about makeup.
- 14:58SPEAKER_02: I feel like, you know, you can really make so much, but that's such a touching story.
- 15:02SPEAKER_02: I love that.
- 15:03SPEAKER_02: I mean, that but that's so real though.
- 15:04SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 15:05SPEAKER_02: Like that is a problem, Corey.
- 15:07SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, or Corey, sorry, um, I will put that out.
- 15:09SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
- 15:10SPEAKER_02: Um, it's it's a huge problem.
- 15:12SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I think that the thing is people don't understand that it's a, you know, for people who actually have visible signs of like skin conditions, things like feeling confident and feeling sexy or feeling like you can tackle the world and take it on, those are things they deal with every day.
- 15:30SPEAKER_02: I deal with that every day.
- 15:31SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I have hyperpigmentation, not nearly, you know, like psoriasis or eczema and stuff, which is really, really hard to treat.
- 15:37SPEAKER_02: But I still, you know, it makes me feel like I don't feel as confident.
- 15:41SPEAKER_02: You know, I want a product that's gonna work for me, it's gonna work over time, it's gonna do the right things.
- 15:45SPEAKER_02: But then when I take it off, I don't have a new set of problems to deal with on top of that, you know.
- 15:50SPEAKER_02: So as a, you know, even as a doctor in my professional life, I can't walk into a patient room looking like a clown.
- 15:56SPEAKER_02: Let's be honest.
- 15:57SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 15:58SPEAKER_02: I can't do that.
- 15:58SPEAKER_02: I have to wear makeup that's going to look actual, natural looking makeup.
- 16:02SPEAKER_02: Okay, but it's still giving me confidence, it's doing all the good things I just said.
- 16:06SPEAKER_02: But that's what I love oxygenetics so much is that yes, the skincare benefits are definitely there.
- 16:12SPEAKER_02: But even as a makeup line, like you had rightfully brought up, it's phenomenal, the quality of it, you know?
- 16:18SPEAKER_02: And so my next question is really at that point, where you know, what was the process like when it came to actually formulating the makeup to look beautiful, to wear beautifully, um, to actually meet the standards of beauty that most beauty consumers are looking for?
- 16:33SPEAKER_01: It was a process, I'll tell you, because we understand ingredients and we know uh the pitfalls of so many ingredients.
- 16:43SPEAKER_01: And if your goal is to allow people that can't wear makeup to wear makeup or to use where use makeup, like after a laser procedure where you can't use it, there's a lot of roadblocks in front of you.
- 16:55SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of things you can't use.
- 16:57SPEAKER_01: And so we had to start at the basics.
- 16:59SPEAKER_01: It took us about, I would say, a year, once we identified the ingredients, to get them to play nice with each other.
- 17:06SPEAKER_01: They don't want to hold together, you know.
- 17:08SPEAKER_01: So we had to come up with processes and techniques to get everything to stabilize and be shelf stable and continue to work.
- 17:17SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, that is one of the reasons we were able to get a patent on it.
- 17:21SPEAKER_01: Um, but it would be real easy to say, oh, you know, we're gonna grab this ingredient that we know will be a great emulsifier, but it's gonna have these problems for this segment of society.
- 17:33SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 17:33SPEAKER_01: We just said no.
- 17:35SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just persisted, persisted, persisted.
- 17:38SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, you know, I've got a great chemist, and I come from you know a family of formulators.
- 17:44SPEAKER_01: And then Barry Knapp, who is my partner in all this, uh, he's you know done a lot of formulation.
- 17:50SPEAKER_01: He uh worked in the beauty industry.
- 17:52SPEAKER_01: Uh, he understands makeup, he understands that aspect of it.
- 17:57SPEAKER_01: So he was able to come up with the shades and the applications, and he knew if it felt good or not.
- 18:02SPEAKER_01: Um and he's kind of funny.
- 18:05SPEAKER_01: When as we were testing it, you know, how people, some companies test on animals, which we don't, I'll put that out there.
- 18:12SPEAKER_01: But Dre's testing is where you'll put a drop of something in a bunny's eye.
- 18:15SPEAKER_01: We would never do that, so we put it in Barry's eye.
- 18:20SPEAKER_01: He literally Barry was the bunny.
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: He volunteered.
- 18:23SPEAKER_01: So if we put something together and we go, you know what, we think we got this, yeah.
- 18:27SPEAKER_01: He would pick up a dropper and just squirt it in his eye to see if it stung or not.
- 18:30SPEAKER_01: I mean, he was that dedicated to making sure that when the consumer got it, they weren't going to have any any negative adverse reactions.
- 18:39SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's awesome though.
- 18:41SPEAKER_02: I love that.
- 18:41SPEAKER_02: I mean, that that means that you believe in what you're doing.
- 18:43SPEAKER_02: And huge shout out, you know, for doing that, Barry.
- 18:46SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, you know, for taking that for all of us.
- 18:49SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's really about, I think, you know, what's interesting to me is that you guys are you feel like almost like a family brand.
- 18:56SPEAKER_02: I I if I could say that, you know, I really mean it in such an amazing way because I feel like you've made these products that are like everyone can use.
- 19:05SPEAKER_02: I will pass this on to like, you know, my friend, my cousin, you know, like it's like you share it, like it's not something you have, and then you're like, okay, no, no, no, I'm just gonna put that away, switch it out with another foundation.
- 19:16SPEAKER_02: That feeling doesn't come across with oxygenetics.
- 19:18SPEAKER_02: I feel like my concealer is in my bag.
- 19:21SPEAKER_02: That is the concealer I'm using.
- 19:23SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna pass it on to whoever is looking for a great concealer.
- 19:26SPEAKER_02: And that's why I asked you that because the quality is amazing, you know, it wears beautifully, especially I know a lot of people out there, myself included, we have more what you would, you know, conventional media causes, you know, calls us aged skin.
- 19:39SPEAKER_02: You know, you have wrinkles, you have fine lines, you have a lot of these problems going on that you want to cover up, but the formula is very, very well made because it I don't feel like it's creasing, I don't feel like it's settling into my pores.
- 19:51SPEAKER_02: You know, that's I mean, it's truly fascinating that you were able to do that because obviously I think the first thing that comes to everyone's mind when you hear about a line that's you know really working with oxygen, right?
- 20:02SPEAKER_02: I mean, is oxidative uh change in a foundation color.
- 20:05SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 20:06SPEAKER_02: Like oxidation of a foundation.
- 20:07SPEAKER_02: So that's really one of my big questions for you is that what was that process like?
- 20:11SPEAKER_02: I mean, what is, I mean, I'm sure you guys understand it better than anyone else.
- 20:14SPEAKER_02: Like, what is oxidation when a foundation is oxidated and what prevents that?
- 20:18SPEAKER_02: Because yours obviously does not do that.
- 20:21SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, normally oxidation would be caused from exposure to oxygen.
- 20:26SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 20:26SPEAKER_01: Uh, some things like say vitamin C are highly reactive to oxidization and can go from white to orange, you know, in a matter of hours, if not minutes, depending on what it's exposed to.
- 20:38SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 20:38SPEAKER_01: Um, we don't have that issue with our product, but one of the things we do is we want the product to come out of the package as fresh as possible.
- 20:48SPEAKER_01: And so we only use airless pumps.
- 20:51SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people don't completely understand airless pumps.
- 20:54SPEAKER_01: We've even had customers call us going, there's no dip tube on my pump, and we're like, My gosh, you opened it, you're not supposed to open it.
- 21:01SPEAKER_01: Because what you're doing is you're using a package that never has ambient air introduced to it.
- 21:07SPEAKER_01: In a normal pump container, when you pump something out, whatever you pump out, that volume is replaced by the air that's around you.
- 21:14SPEAKER_01: It goes back into the container.
- 21:16SPEAKER_01: Our containers have a piston in it.
- 21:18SPEAKER_01: That piston follows the product up inside the bottle.
- 21:23SPEAKER_01: And all that you're doing is moving product from the inside of a closed environment to the environment you're going to use it in, outside.
- 21:30SPEAKER_01: And so it keeps it very, very fresh and it avoids any sort of oxidization.
- 21:35SPEAKER_01: Now, some people can have high pH skin, they may use other products.
- 21:40SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've seen this happen where you know people are, I won't name products, but they'll they'll use different different uh products before they put their makeup on, and then they'll see a color shift.
- 21:50SPEAKER_01: And that's because they've now introduced something into the product it's not meant to have.
- 21:54SPEAKER_01: And there's really no reason to use anything before it.
- 21:58SPEAKER_01: Um, if you do, you could use Hydromatrix, which is a similar product, but there's no color in it.
- 22:03SPEAKER_01: So you could take the Hydromatrix and turn it into a BB cream.
- 22:06SPEAKER_01: You can use it as a makeup primer.
- 22:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 22:09SPEAKER_01: It's amazing after a sunburn.
- 22:11SPEAKER_01: My grandson came home the other day.
- 22:14SPEAKER_01: I looked at his back.
- 22:14SPEAKER_01: I thought he was going to have blisters within a couple hours.
- 22:17SPEAKER_01: He's laying on his stomach, coated the Hydromatrix on his back, and I'd say, and I mean, this was like painted it on.
- 22:25SPEAKER_01: And within about 15 minutes, it was all absorbed.
- 22:28SPEAKER_01: Within an hour, you couldn't see a sunburn.
- 22:30SPEAKER_01: Wow.
- 22:31SPEAKER_01: It was really kind of blew my mind.
- 22:34SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, even being around it so long when you get to use it actively and remember why we started and where we started, it's a nice refresher.
- 22:44SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, yeah.
- 22:45SPEAKER_02: And I actually I I want to even add to your story.
- 22:47SPEAKER_02: I have one of my own.
- 22:48SPEAKER_02: I actually the other day, I never get breakouts, right?
- 22:51SPEAKER_02: I mean, I really am at that age now, court, where I don't really have breakouts anymore, thankfully.
- 22:55SPEAKER_02: But I had definitely suffered with them, you know, in my adolescent years, as a lot of us did.
- 22:59SPEAKER_02: I had a breakout the other like week, just they I never happens, literally, you know, um, around my mouth area, and I was like getting a little annoyed.
- 23:08SPEAKER_02: There were tiny breakouts.
- 23:09SPEAKER_02: There wasn't something I couldn't cover up with, you know, makeup, but it was irritating me because obviously we don't like that texture right on our skin.
- 23:16SPEAKER_02: I used that exact product that you just talked about, and it literally the next day it was gone.
- 23:20SPEAKER_02: I was really shocked.
- 23:22SPEAKER_02: I was like, wow, and I didn't even treat use a treatment product, I didn't use one of those, like you know what I mean, like the the pimple serums and creams and stuff.
- 23:30SPEAKER_02: Nothing, nothing.
- 23:31SPEAKER_02: I would just wash my face, used your product, it was gone the next day.
- 23:35SPEAKER_02: Like, and my felt my skin literally healed itself.
- 23:38SPEAKER_02: I mean, inflammation from an acne breakout is inflammation that's damaging your skin.
- 23:42SPEAKER_02: It's like your skin is healing, you know what I mean, from this.
- 23:44SPEAKER_02: And so it's, I mean, it's remarkable.
- 23:46SPEAKER_02: That product is really remarkable, and I think it's across the board.
- 23:49SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, everything feels so like elevated, if I could use that word, you know, really to describe it, because it's makeup that's done very well, but it's not going to cause any problems for you.
- 24:02SPEAKER_02: If anything, it's gonna heal, it's gonna help heal, you know.
- 24:05SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the first things we realized as the makeup started evolving from the procedure room out into the runways, if you will, in the studios, yeah, was adult onset acne was going away.
- 24:19SPEAKER_01: Now, we couldn't make any acne claims because we didn't have salicylic acid in it or or any other uh monographed ingredients.
- 24:25SPEAKER_01: So we now do have the same product, the salicylic acid, so we can market it for treating acne and concealing acne.
- 24:32SPEAKER_01: But even without that, people have seen benefits.
- 24:35SPEAKER_01: I know that uh MTV early on was using it because their kids would break out and then they had to use CG or they'd have to stop shooting and things like that.
- 24:43SPEAKER_01: So uh for letting the skin heal and breathe and conceal all at the same time, you're right on.
- 24:48SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what it does.
- 24:50SPEAKER_01: And from the kind of the advocate or fan standpoint, you know, we have people that once they use it, they literally will not go back to anything else.
- 25:02SPEAKER_01: They become just, you know, fanatics is the wrong word, but they become obsessed with it.
- 25:07SPEAKER_01: And I've heard people tell me they're obsessed with the brand.
- 25:10SPEAKER_01: We've had uh celebrities at LAX getting ready to take off, you know, who knows where, call us saying, I'm about to run out.
- 25:18SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 25:19SPEAKER_01: We'll have somebody run over there and deliver it, and we don't give it away.
- 25:22SPEAKER_01: Um, we've had studios call uh usually in October when they begin shooting and go, Hey, I've got so-and-so on set.
- 25:30SPEAKER_01: They won't let us put anything else on their face.
- 25:33SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 25:33SPEAKER_01: Because they've experienced the difference.
- 25:36SPEAKER_01: And the other benefit in that world, and and really in everyday life, is you don't have to reapply it.
- 25:42SPEAKER_01: It's kind of a set it and forget it thing.
- 25:44SPEAKER_01: You can swim in it, you can go to the gym, you can sweat through it, you're not always reapplying it.
- 25:50SPEAKER_01: And so it really does last as long, if not longer, than a normal bottle of makeup, but you're not constantly messing with your face and reapplying it.
- 26:01SPEAKER_02: I love that.
- 26:02SPEAKER_02: And I and I love that, yeah, because I haven't really had a lot of uh budging problems either with the makeup.
- 26:07SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, a lot of people are very set on their setting sprays and controlling, you know, aspects like powder or whatnot.
- 26:12SPEAKER_02: I haven't had any problems.
- 26:13SPEAKER_02: And I don't know if it's uh for oil or skin, you guys have to do that no matter what foundation you use.
- 26:18SPEAKER_02: But for me, once once I put it on, it's good, you know, it's good for the day.
- 26:21SPEAKER_02: I don't have any problems, and that's exciting to hear that you guys have a lot of celebrities behind you, which is great because I feel like celebrities usually endorse things that I mean.
- 26:30SPEAKER_02: I when I look for recommendations, I'm not I'm guilty of it.
- 26:33SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
- 26:34SPEAKER_02: Like I will look at a celebrity and I'll be like, okay, yeah, that might be something I want to use, you know, because I I feel like I you can trust them, they try so much stuff.
- 26:41SPEAKER_02: So I at the end of the day, I was really, really excited when I saw one of my favorite people, like Courtney.
- 26:47SPEAKER_02: I love her recommendations, and she was using it, and I was like, oh my gosh, I need immediately need to get my hands on this.
- 26:53SPEAKER_02: And so I, you know, I've been really happy ever since.
- 26:56SPEAKER_02: I like for me, I think a lot of people can relate to me because for skincare, you know, quote unquote junkies or I guess enthusiasts, we're not very big makeup people.
- 27:04SPEAKER_02: I've noticed.
- 27:05SPEAKER_02: We're just not, you know, we love makeup, we do our own thing with it, but we're not the full face, everyday glam kind of people, even though you can be, nothing wrong with that.
- 27:14SPEAKER_02: But like I've noticed as a trend, we like to have that good concealer, a good foundation, cover up what you need to cover up.
- 27:20SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, I think your brand is just perfect, you know, for such a huge audience.
- 27:24SPEAKER_02: Like, I just think it's really well done.
- 27:26SPEAKER_02: And I actually want to ask you, you know, um, in terms of the science of it all, right?
- 27:31SPEAKER_02: I mean, it has like how long was the journey of creating these products?
- 27:35SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, in terms of the research and all the you know, homework you got you had to do to come up with everything.
- 27:41SPEAKER_01: Well, Barry had come up with a lot of the groundwork, if you will.
- 27:44SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 27:45SPEAKER_01: And even with all of that, it still took us, I'd say a good year and a half, um, probably a half a year just eliminating ingredients and selecting the types of ingredients we wanted to work with, and then a year at least to figure out how to get them to work together.
- 28:03SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, so it it was some time and uh certainly some trials and tribulations, if you will, but it's it's certainly been worth it.
- 28:11SPEAKER_01: And for the, you know, like you mentioned celebrities, a lot of people ask us, wow, how much do you pay these people?
- 28:17SPEAKER_01: Honestly, we don't pay any of them.
- 28:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 28:20SPEAKER_01: So this is purely organic.
- 28:22SPEAKER_01: I love this product, I use this product, and here's why.
- 28:24SPEAKER_01: And one of the reasons is that one, you can get a no-makeup look.
- 28:29SPEAKER_01: So if you're somebody who doesn't want to look all glammed out and look like you're not wearing makeup, but still have a nice flawless finish, this will work.
- 28:37SPEAKER_01: Now, if you do want to get glammed out, you know, we do London Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, and a bunch of other stuff, and you can go that route as well.
- 28:44SPEAKER_01: But it really suits a lot of different skin types and a lot of different uh desires of the consumer as to what finish they're looking for.
- 28:53SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know it's a really, really great product.
- 28:55SPEAKER_02: The foundation is very buildable, you know, for everyone listening.
- 28:58SPEAKER_02: Like I planned mine with you know a brush, or you could use a beauty, but you can use anything, any tool, but it looks amazing.
- 29:04SPEAKER_02: You guys have a really nice brush too, by the way.
- 29:06SPEAKER_01: I love that brush.
- 29:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this will blow your mind.
- 29:09SPEAKER_01: That took, I think, close to a year of testing and developing until our team would sign off on a brush.
- 29:16SPEAKER_02: I love that freaking brush.
- 29:18SPEAKER_02: That is the most like you know how people say things are ergonomic.
- 29:21SPEAKER_02: I feel like that is the most genius brush.
- 29:23SPEAKER_02: It's like it comes to a point for everyone listening.
- 29:26SPEAKER_02: It's so cool.
- 29:26SPEAKER_02: Like, I just love it how it feels in my hand.
- 29:28SPEAKER_02: I love the way it works.
- 29:29SPEAKER_02: The bristles are perfect for foundation.
- 29:32SPEAKER_02: You know, I had a makeup artist not too long ago, you know, Court.
- 29:35SPEAKER_02: This was so interesting to me because she came on my show just talking about applying foundation with a brush.
- 29:40SPEAKER_02: And she was like, Ecta, you know that you're supposed to use a brand new brush pretty much every time.
- 29:44SPEAKER_02: As in, like, you know, very clean, the bristles are really nice and dry and stuff.
- 29:48SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Really?
- 29:49SPEAKER_02: And I didn't know I was just doing it wrong, you know, the whole time.
- 29:53SPEAKER_02: So with your brush, I feel like no matter what I do, it always looks really nice.
- 29:57SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I can see why you guys spent a long time on that brush because it's a really good tool.
- 30:02SPEAKER_02: It's a really, really good tool.
- 30:03SPEAKER_01: Well, and there's two of them.
- 30:04SPEAKER_01: We actually designed one for the concealer and one for the foundation because they're the application's a little bit different.
- 30:10SPEAKER_01: So we wanted them to be bespoke to the product.
- 30:13SPEAKER_02: I love that.
- 30:13SPEAKER_02: No, I love it.
- 30:14SPEAKER_02: That's like, yeah, no, they're really great tools.
- 30:16SPEAKER_02: And I think that, you know, again, everything in that line is just so well thought out.
- 30:20SPEAKER_02: Like it's just, you know, you can tell the quality of a brand, I feel like, when things are thought out, like for the consumer.
- 30:26SPEAKER_02: Um, I was having this conversation with a friend of mine where we were like ranting about it, how it's like, you know, brands, you either they either do the homework for you or you're just kind of like, eh, I'll figure it out.
- 30:36SPEAKER_02: And I just love when a brand goes out of their way, you know what I mean, and just does all that homework and gives you products that you are just ready to go.
- 30:42SPEAKER_02: Like, you know what I mean?
- 30:43SPEAKER_02: You can travel with it, you can work with it, you can whatever you need to do.
- 30:47SPEAKER_02: And that's another thing I wanted to actually ask you was this idea of I love the sizes that you created because they're just enough because the actual product for this for every real listing, it's very, very buildable, but it's actually has a great punch, even use a little bit.
- 31:01SPEAKER_02: Like, if you use a little bit, it's gonna cover everything up, and you're gonna feel like, oh my god, I needed like three drops of the product, but you can build it up.
- 31:08SPEAKER_02: And so I wanted to ask you when you were creating the sizes, were you thinking of like traveling?
- 31:13SPEAKER_02: Like, did you keep that in mind?
- 31:14SPEAKER_02: Because it's really travel friendly, I feel like.
- 31:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we did want it to be uh easy to carry, be discreet, but we wanted enough product where you you'd get you know a couple months use out of it and didn't want something where you'd be going through a certainly security at the airport and suddenly have your favorite product you know taken away.
- 31:34SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like thrown out.
- 31:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which is no fun.
- 31:39SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I I I think that that's a major, major problem.
- 31:42SPEAKER_02: So I'm laughing.
- 31:43SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I can't think of enough.
- 31:44SPEAKER_02: I I mean I can't even count how many foundations I've had thrown out at the airport.
- 31:48SPEAKER_02: So it's definitely a problem.
- 31:50SPEAKER_02: I mean, I love it though, uh, your product.
- 31:52SPEAKER_02: Like I it's really, really easy to carry and I travel a lot, so I always appreciate a good travel product.
- 31:57SPEAKER_02: You know, it's really nice to see that.
- 31:58SPEAKER_02: But yeah, no, I love the I whole I love the whole brand.
- 32:01SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not gonna lie to you, you know, you guys out there listening.
- 32:04SPEAKER_02: Like, I genuinely love the whole brand.
- 32:06SPEAKER_02: And, you know, if you were to come and look at my vanity and look at my makeup bag, you would see oxygenetics right in there with everything else.
- 32:14SPEAKER_02: I love, you know, my makeup, I'm very, very picky with it.
- 32:17SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of us out there are, especially us women of color.
- 32:21SPEAKER_02: We're very picky because when something works, it works.
- 32:23SPEAKER_02: And I really, really love this foundation um and concealer combo because for me, once it works, like I can I can do it, I can use it, and it's going to do the job the whole day.
- 32:34SPEAKER_02: So I urge you guys check it out, make sure that you guys really give the brand a shot.
- 32:40SPEAKER_02: You know, you have to, I always say start with one product, build up from there.
- 32:44SPEAKER_02: So if you're gonna start with anything, try the foundation.
- 32:47SPEAKER_02: Definitely get the brush because you're gonna use that brush, I promise.
- 32:50SPEAKER_02: And then take it from there and reach out to us, let us know what you think.
- 32:54SPEAKER_02: But Court, thank you so much.
- 32:55SPEAKER_02: It has been a true honor to host you.
- 32:57SPEAKER_01: Oh, my pleasure.
- 32:58SPEAKER_01: And uh thanks so much so much for the time, and it's been a joy chatting with you.
- 33:02SPEAKER_02: Likewise, thank you so much.
- 33:04SPEAKER_02: And for everyone listening, I will be back next time.
- 33:06SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
- 33:07SPEAKER_02: All right, hey guys, so I hope you love that episode.
- 33:12SPEAKER_02: Please make sure to hit subscribe if you're tuning in to us on any podcast platform.
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- 34:16SPEAKER_02: Thank you.