Latest / Skin Anarchy / Amanda McIntosh, CEO of Take My Face Off

Transcript

Amanda McIntosh, CEO of Take My Face Off · Skin Anarchy

0:25
SPEAKER_00: Have to banner or visit this episode's page to learn more.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of Spanish for Anarchy.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: I have an awesome guest today that is here to share her brand vision about an amazing product.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Today I want to introduce you guys to Amanda McIntosh.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: She is the founder of Take My Face Off, which is an amazing product that is used to not only remove makeup, but a lot of things that we like to put on our face.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: And it's a reusable product where it's really, really minimizing our footprint in terms of just using products that are sustainable.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: So welcome, Amanda.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: We are so excited to have you on the show.
1:17
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to be here.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Um, just to give us an uh an idea.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh I I thought I was gonna be a musician for life.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: I thought I was gonna be a classical player.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: Uh that's what I started off doing.
1:36
SPEAKER_02: I always loved skincare stuff, partially because I'm from Texas, where they wear a lot of makeup and I had that skin for a long time.
1:43
SPEAKER_02: And so it was kind of convenient that, you know, I had skin problems, but I was in a state where wearing makeup at a younger age was acceptable.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: So I really got into it and I just loved it.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: And then I went off to music school where really, I gotta say, nobody wears makeup, nobody dresses up, nobody does their hair, nothing like that.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: So I was kind of an alien there.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: And um, I had to had to put aside my my interest in those things for a bit.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: And then I met my husband.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: We wound up living in Europe, we came back to the States.
2:10
SPEAKER_02: Crazy things, I wound up taking a consulting job for a long time, where I got an excuse to get dressed up again and do the hair and the stuff.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: And the skin problems had been on and off for years, and so I'd always been collecting more information about how to wash your face, how to care for it.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: Um always been super interested in you know, concealers and foundations for those reasons.
2:33
unknown: Right.
2:34
SPEAKER_02: And then um I was getting older and my skin took another turn.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: And I was I was driving home late from a concert one night, and my latest skincare enthusias enthusiasm at that point was an oil cleansing routine that kind of a super skin friend of mine had turned me on to.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:52
SPEAKER_02: And the problem with with oil cleansing, if you do it in kind of the the most basic form, is that you need a washcloth for every, you know, and it needs to be a clean one.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: Um, so I was driving home late, you know, kids, family, all the all these things in life that get in the way, and yet again, I had not done the laundry fast enough to have my clean stash ready for me.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'd gotten so attached to the routine, I was like, well, okay, I can't stand to use a cleanser at this point.
3:21
SPEAKER_02: I was just so loved that so much.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Well, how am I gonna wipe off all this oil?
3:24
SPEAKER_02: You you put oil on your face and you have to wipe it off with something soft.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: Well, paper towel that's terrible.
3:29
SPEAKER_02: Paper towels are basically fiberglass, that's ridiculous.
3:32
SPEAKER_02: Hot and false makes no sense.
3:34
SPEAKER_02: Do I do I like wash uh washcloth with soap and then rinse it and then use it?
3:38
SPEAKER_02: That just feels gross.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: And so at that moment, I said, okay, what's my problem?
3:43
SPEAKER_02: Why is this happening?
3:44
SPEAKER_02: Well, I keep looking for washcloths that are better than what I have because I need to increase my stash.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: And every time I go to look, I can't find anything more sophisticated than terry cloth, which I hate, but I'm using so I keep not buying more terry cloth because I don't like it.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: First thought was this is just really dumb.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: Why why can't a skincare fanatic find something more sophisticated than terry cloth?
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: So it's probably because it was late at night.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I said, all the best ideas come at that time.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: Your defenses are down, and you know, all all reason has left you.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: And so I said, I'm gonna be the person who's gonna reinvent the washcloth, and that's gonna be me.
4:24
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and but you know, the idea was still there the next morning because you know, hey, I was doing the the oil cleansing routine again, and yet again, I hated my washcloth.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: Right.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: So I was like, Well, what's the what's the primary problem?
4:34
SPEAKER_02: And it started this whole process of okay, well, it's ugly, it's thick, it's clumpy, you know, playing with fabrics.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, Well, if I'm gonna do this right, I need to learn about the beauty industry.
4:44
SPEAKER_02: And so I started researching, and then something else came up, which is that the primary competition here would be in addition to washcloths, would be cotton balls and wipes.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh yeah, yeah, it's like what are people using to wash their faces?
4:57
SPEAKER_02: And because I'm I'm kind of a purist, and also because wipes make my eyes burn and um my skin break out.
5:03
SPEAKER_02: They just they don't like me.
5:05
SPEAKER_02: Mine too.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: No, mine too.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: I know exactly what you mean.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: You know, my dermatologist says her favorite thing, if somebody comes in and says, My face just started breaking out, the first thing she says is, Did you just start using wipes?
5:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, great question.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and she said it often just like cuts to the chase right there.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: She doesn't have to do anything else.
5:23
SPEAKER_02: But so I had not been a wipes user because they did not agree with me, so I had not realized how prevalent they were.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: And the more I looked at them, uh, the more I kind of freaked out.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: It's like this is this is a straight up environmental environmental disaster.
5:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, at least cotton balls aren't so bad.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: And then I started looking closer at cheap cotton production, and you know, not to get depressing and go into all that, but cheap cotton production is actually possibly worse.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: And so I was like, okay, this is no longer just a cool fun thing, this is a need, but it's also an opportunity to if I can create something that is really efficient, really effective, and fun and cute, I could not just divert people from a clumpy terry cloth square, I could actually maybe keep them from using these single-use disposables that are such a big problem.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: So it gave serious fire to it.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: And it I'm trying to combine all the things I like, which is I want it to be fun and cute and effective and better, but I really want it to be so good because I want to be able to convert more people away from the stuff that's really doing harm without having to kill them.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and that's amazing.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: And you know, you're so right about like uh finding something to take your face off at the end of the night.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: Because I see, for me, I stopped using everything altogether.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even gonna lie to you, because I realized that all that tugging and the pulling my skin, I was just not a fan of it with the the different cloths, you know what I mean?
6:49
SPEAKER_01: So I completely agree with you.
6:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, actually, what what's your favorite way to clean your face at night?
6:56
SPEAKER_01: So I literally only do okay, so I do the double cleanse thing if I'm wearing makeup, which by the way, I also don't wear makeup because in the medical community in med school, no one wore makeup.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so it was like when I did wear my makeup, it was the same story um as you're describing.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: And most of the time at night, I would just use that, you know, oil cleanser and then I'd wash it with another like water-based cleanser.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: But I never um I used to try the whole washcloth thing, but you know, like you said, it just it just wasn't, it's not convenient, you know, if the laundry's not done or if you know you're behind on something, there's nothing there.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, same, very, very similar story.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that's really interesting.
7:35
SPEAKER_02: And I I agree with you, the the tugging is also a big issue.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: I I actually so my skin is weird, but it's not sensitive.
7:43
SPEAKER_02: And this oil cleansing thing was great, except that you know, terracloth is really rough and I'm I'm pushing 50 now, and I didn't want to be making it harder for the elastin to do its job than I had to.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: So like one of the other big things that I got into while I was doing this is like, what would be what would be the ideal fabric to deliver skincare liquids to skin?
8:02
SPEAKER_02: What would be the fabric that would let that skincare stuff kind of move around and get into the fabric without getting just soaked up like a cotton ball or terry cloth does?
8:12
SPEAKER_02: Right.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: And what would let it kind of move over skin without tugging the skin or braiding the skin?
8:17
SPEAKER_02: And that's been a super interesting thing for me.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: And kind of one of my my hobbies is like, what is like the perfect level of clean?
8:23
SPEAKER_02: What's not um, you know, not too harsh, not too little, so that you get just the right, right amount.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: And so I I love all these things, and I love I love thinking about cleansers and the fabrics and the waste aspect for me.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: This this whole company is kind of like the perfect convergence convergence of all my my favorite serious and frivolous hobbies all at one time.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: That's the best kind of business, honestly.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we we want to do something we love and make, you know, make something that makes that creates an impact.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: And I think you're definitely accomplishing that with this.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've walked into like, you know, one of my girlfriends' place, and you know, um, we're all whatever, you know, doing makeup or using skincare, and then that all of a sudden there's like 15 wipes in the in the trash bin.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: It's like this is a ridiculous amount of waste that's being created.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I I completely hear you on that.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh and you know, one of the crazy things about wipes, so one time I perched one of my one of my favorite skincare companies at a trade show, and I said, Hey, I'm just curious, why do you guys not offer a wipe?
9:28
SPEAKER_02: You're super trendy, you're super science forward, but you're also very, you know, it was kind of like you know, clean science.
9:34
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's a really great company.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: And they kind of gave me a funny look and they said, Okay, off the record, so I'm not telling you their name.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: They said, here's the deal uh wipes use an incredible amount of cleanser.
9:47
SPEAKER_02: For us, we cannot afford to put our quality of cleanser onto that pile of wet fabric.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: It would it's incredibly cost ineffective.
9:56
SPEAKER_02: We would either have to reduce the quality of our cleanser, like basically put a cheaper liquid in there, or we'd have to charge people so much that they would never be able to afford our wipes.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: Also, there's a freshness issue.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: It's really hard to keep a pile of wet fiber from going off.
10:13
SPEAKER_02: So we we looked into it, but we just we cannot keep the integrity of our cleanser in that delivery format.
10:20
SPEAKER_02: So it just works better with when it's in a bottle.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, it's just like wipes are kind of all the bad.
10:26
SPEAKER_02: You've got a buffering agent that makes it feel softer, but it doesn't do anything good for your skin.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: You get a ton of preservatives.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, even if it's a clean brand, again, you cannot have a pile of wet fiber without a lot of preservatives to keep it from going off.
10:39
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: And you have the single-use plastic container, you have the single-use plastic wipe itself.
10:44
SPEAKER_02: Even if they say compostable, almost them are actually compostable.
10:48
SPEAKER_02: They're only compostable in commercial facilities.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow, I did not know that.
10:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if well, you know, I feel like I mean advances are being made all the time, which is a wonderful thing.
11:00
SPEAKER_02: But last time I did one of my deep dives, almost none of them were compostable in a home compost pile.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: It's basically a plastic that when you apply certain um chemicals to it in a in an industrial compost pile, then it will.
11:15
SPEAKER_02: But how many people actually participate in municipal composting?
11:19
SPEAKER_02: You know?
11:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a very good point.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's crazy.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people don't know this information.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
11:26
SPEAKER_01: Like people don't, I think a lot of times, you know, women especially will go out.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, we want to do something that's, you know, it's sustainable, it's something that's good for the environment.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: But if this information isn't being uh put out by companies, it's very, very hard for the uh the average consumer to make those decisions, right?
11:44
SPEAKER_01: And it's like you can't just like you have to be able to sit down, like you said, and do the research and understand this.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: So I love that you basically have done that for us, you know, in a way.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: Um you said a good word earlier.
11:58
SPEAKER_02: You said footprint.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: And it's like one of the one of the weird things we all have to remember is the more times we have to replace it, the larger the footprint.
12:08
SPEAKER_02: So you'd be better off buying a larger bottle of something, so that ultimately you're buying fewer bottles, which is less plastic, fewer pump parts, fewer, less transportation to bring it to you.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: So whatever you can buy that lasts you longer, whether it's a larger container of it or just something that lasts longer.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: So like if you think about like a 10-step skincare routine, is not only potentially confusing for your skin, that's also you know, 10 bottles more or less for every single um skincare routine.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's an explosion of plastic and glass and fuel and waste and all that stuff.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: So basically, the fewer number of times you have to go to a store for something, the greener it's gonna be.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: So people always say, What's wrong with cotton?
12:51
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to be a downer and get into all the things, but it's like, well, if you're replacing it every single use, a new cotton ball every single time you're using it, yeah.
13:00
SPEAKER_02: Just think about that and multiply it towards a gazillion times.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: And then without having to go into all the details, you can be like, oh, right.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: And also it's just like, you know, um, in terms of just the product, uh, the products that are like buy a new bottle every time.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: I love that some skincare companies are now coming out with that refillable option.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: And I really, really like that because I think it's better than, you know, every time you buy a product, you get a brand new plastic bottle or you get a brand new glass bottle or whatever it is.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
13:31
SPEAKER_01: It's it's like a it's you're able to refill it.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: I I think I would like to see that much more in the industry, to be honest, because how many times do you really need the same bottle?
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Right?
13:42
SPEAKER_01: It's like once it's on your vanity, it's there.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: I absolutely agree.
13:47
SPEAKER_02: I think that is so cool.
13:48
SPEAKER_02: I get really excited about like um there's a store near me that does refills of all kinds of things, and they're constantly upgrading their selection of like really fancy lotions that come in these massive tubs.
13:59
SPEAKER_02: And so you fill the bottle you have.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: I also love the concept of all of the waterless stuff out there, you know.
14:05
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: From those like tablets that you put in a bottle of water for your hand soap or like shampoo bars.
14:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm I'm actually in January, I'm just gonna like try all of the shampoo bars and find my my favorite one.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: Um, you're gonna have to tell me which one you like because I want to try them too.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: Okay, happily, happily, yeah.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: Anything that like takes out takes out if you can take out a plastic component or just like the liquid part, because liquid weighs so much and it takes up so much volume.
14:32
SPEAKER_02: So, like, think about it.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: If you took instead of a bottle of shampoo, you have a shampoo bar.
14:37
SPEAKER_02: Well, you're removing the plastic bottle, uh maybe a tiny wrapper instead of a big thing, you're removing tons of the volume, the space, the weight, which is fuel transportation, which is probably an additional savings in the the manufacturing output because it was probably more complicated to make that big liquid bottle full of stuff.
14:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's so many things you're just able to entirely get rid of.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: So that I get really happy about that stuff.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: So tell me more about tell me more about your product.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, tell me about what went behind you creating it, and then um, you know, just the whole journey.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: Like I really want to know um how you approach this.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, well, when I first started saying it that that first lightning bolt hit me, which was that wait a second, washcloths are terrible.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Um, and they're a staple.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: Almost everybody has them.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: Not everybody uses them, but almost everybody has them.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: And if they don't use them, it's because they don't like them.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: There's usually some situation in life where you're gonna wind up needing it, which is why it's in your linen closet.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: And so I first realized this was like business wise, this seems kind of golden.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: Like there's there's no brand competition.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: There's no like there's no nobody has a stake in that marketplace.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: So just business wise, I was like, this seems like something.
15:49
SPEAKER_02: And then I started looking at it from the product standpoint, and I was like, wow, where to start?
15:53
SPEAKER_02: It's like universally terrible.
15:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is ugly, it is clumsy, it is too thick, it's inefficient at its job, it's harsh on skin.
16:01
SPEAKER_02: And at that moment, I mean, I I walked into my bathroom that night, I drove home late from that concert.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: I walk into my bathroom and I look at this line of damp washcloths lined up on my towel bar.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: They have to they have to dry out before you can stick them in the laundry or they get gross in the hamper, you know?
16:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: So my bathroom was also looking like really ugly and dumpy and embarrassing because I just needed to dry out these thick things that took forever for the water to evaporate.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: So I was like, so let's start thinking of the things you hate here and and what are you gonna fix?
16:33
SPEAKER_02: And I came up with a big wish list, and then you know, I didn't actually know how to sew.
16:37
SPEAKER_02: I didn't I didn't know where you'd go and source fabric, I had no idea.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: So I just started off by like, I wound up at fabric.com and um I was just ordering like little swatches.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: You can order testers of fabric, and I would just order all these things, and then I would get them wet, and then I would like, well, what does it feel like when it's wet?
16:57
SPEAKER_02: And then I went to, you know, face soap or or foaming gel or oil.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: I would try a couple things.
17:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what happens when you do this?
17:03
SPEAKER_02: What happens when you do that?
17:04
SPEAKER_02: And one of my sisters uses Proactive that has benzol peroxide, and she's always staining towels.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: So then I grabbed a bottle of that.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay, while we're at it, let's find something that doesn't get bleached.
17:15
SPEAKER_02: And then, and so I just kept testing these things, and then I started, I could not sew yet.
17:20
SPEAKER_02: I took, I got a sewing machine, I started sewing ugly little, like clumpy shapes and handing them out my favorites out to friends and say, test this.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: That is the point at which some of my friends quit calling me back because so impressive for me.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: They're like them like a literal square.
17:41
SPEAKER_02: A lumpy round thing.
17:43
SPEAKER_02: Because some of my favorite fabrics, they wouldn't they wouldn't stay on your hand, they were kind of thinner, and thin was good because then it gave me more maneuverability around the face and I could really get into the edges and you know the corners and around the nose.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: So thin wound up really being really good for the function part, but thin would not attach to my fingers.
18:01
SPEAKER_02: So I quickly realized that some kind of mitt was going to be called for because it had to have an edge so that as my hand moved, the product needed to move.
18:09
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: So that's where I had to like kind of come up with some kind of sewing skill.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: And I was trying to tell my friends, no, no, no, don't look at it yet.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: I'll figure out the appearance later.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: I'm just asking you to tell me which fabric you prefer for your face washing.
18:23
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:24
SPEAKER_02: Like they would sit me down and say, Mandy, you can't possibly market this.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: This is just this is horrible.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: It's like, I know, I know.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: Development phase, come on.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: So we eventually got past that.
18:34
SPEAKER_02: And I my brother said a really cool thing to me um at one point.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: He said, This is really weird, and I don't care about scam.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: He's like, I do know something about consumer goods though.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: You want your product to be so recognizable that if a friend walks into her girlfriend's you know bathroom and sees your product on a countertop, they should instantly know that it was yours.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: Something about have a visual hallmark.
18:58
SPEAKER_02: So this was around the time when I was starting to think that this is, you know, I do need to look to look better.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: So I was playing around in the end, I wound up with the concept of a droplet shape.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
19:10
SPEAKER_02: Traditional mitts weren't really working.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: They were just so ugly and clumpy and different people have different hand sizes.
19:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:16
SPEAKER_02: But long story short, when I eliminated a thumb hole and quit and quit worrying about it going over the whole hand and said, what if it just went on some fingers or four fingers or one finger?
19:27
SPEAKER_02: I wound up with this thing that it could fit anybody's hand.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: You sized it yourself based on how many fingers you put in.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: And then by having a pointy tip, I call it the detailer.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: You can really get into the lash line.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: And then the rounded side of the droplet is just kind of for full face.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: And so we have some products that are tiny droplets, you know, more like cotton ball replacements.
19:46
SPEAKER_02: And then some products that are larger droplets.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: Um, some of them even do actually I did find a way to put it over the entire hand eventually without being a problem.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: But it's a super soft, um, it's it's basically a fancy, an incredibly expensive baby blanket fabric that I found that's from Korea that lasts forever.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: It's bleach resistant.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: If I compare the fibers under a microscope to like cotton or other plushes, it's the fibers are much smoother, they're much more cylinder-like instead of tree branch-like.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: Oh, really?
20:19
SPEAKER_02: That's very interesting.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: Um, I didn't know that for a long time.
20:23
SPEAKER_02: I just knew that this fabric was was lasting longer, taking more of a beating, functioning better than anything else I found.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: And it and it cost more.
20:30
SPEAKER_02: And it was a lot harder to sew.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: But um when I looked at it under a microscope, I was like, oh, it's because these it makes sense.
20:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: And it shows the cleanser and the wash, and it doesn't tug the skin and it doesn't get tangled.
20:43
SPEAKER_02: The texture stays stays the same through many washings.
20:45
SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay, it all makes sense now.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Right.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I just want to say that I'm so glad that you figured out the design of it.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: But honestly, I'm getting to the point in my in my skincare journey where I feel like if there's a product that really works, like I do not care as much anymore about the packaging.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
21:03
SPEAKER_01: Like it's like I would rather have a great product that is going to do the job that I want it to do, and then be able to, you know, say this is what I use.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: This is the one thing in this category that I know works, and I can recommend this to literally everybody.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
21:19
SPEAKER_01: So it's like, I'm so glad that you figured out the the design and the and the packaging.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: That's really awesome.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: But just even thinking about your early phases, like I feel like just knowing that you're you're looking at all these fabrics and looking at all the details, like that's enough to convince me personally as a consumer that yeah, there there's a lot of research and development that went behind this, you know?
21:41
SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's funny because I felt like until I I did that and started looking around and Googling lots of things and reading about other stuff, I'm like, has nobody ever really looked at fabric and said, What's what's a better fabric for delivering skincare?
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: Since then, I've kind of come up with a couple other fabrics that I kind of like.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: And I've got a new product we're launching soon that involves another fabric.
22:04
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I feel like there's a lot of room for this.
22:06
SPEAKER_02: I feel like, you know, I I love the one I came up with.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: I did a lot of looking, but I didn't like have a massive lab at my disposal.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure there's tons more improvement that could be done.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure further advancements could be made.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh I just feel like, wow, it's kind of crazy that nobody else was really, really trying.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: So I'm excited if more I'm seeing actually a couple companies that have come kind of imitated me, which is a bummer.
22:31
SPEAKER_02: But on the other hand, it's also good because if we can other people can keep working on this too, we can come up with lots of things and get lots more people away from wipes and cotton balls.
22:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: And I actually, you know, I'm not gonna uh name any names, but I know there's a very um very famous influencer that came out with a, you know, a similar, I think, product, um, but it's for makeup application.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: And I think this kind of product makes more sense in a skincare realm because, like you said, taking off the makeup or taking off the makeup is like, you know, really where you need that washcloth and you need that component that's going to really help you get in all the little corners and and you know, just when you wipe when you wipe your face, I feel like you should have nothing coming off.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
23:16
SPEAKER_01: When you wipe it with a towel, like a white towel, you should not have anything left behind.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: So that really is a problem.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: And I know that a lot of people advocate for hey, you know, oil cleansers, um, you know, they'll do the job and whatnot, but that's just not true.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: Like you need something to literally wipe your face with.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: Like you can't just depend on the the oil cleanser or the other water water-based cleanser.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: So I yeah.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: If you do have something, you're you're right.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: If you do have something to kind of help you, you don't have to go through as many steps.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: So I've never had a lab test this one.
23:49
SPEAKER_02: I just do a lot of testing on myself and you know, some other people, but we can do one round with a MIDI and get off as much as as two steps with with other products.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: And so you're saving a lot of money, you're saving a lot of pain in the neck and time in a time of day when you're tired.
24:05
SPEAKER_02: One of the things I've gotten really interested in lately is because you know, I wind up talking to thousands and thousands of people.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: Ask people, you know, what do you what do you do at night to to clean your face?
24:15
SPEAKER_02: And I can't tell you how many people tell me, well, if I'm not wearing makeup, I don't wash my face.
24:20
unknown: Right.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: What?
24:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, well, if you know, if I'm not wearing makeup, I don't need it.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: So many people do not understand that this is about skin health.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: The dermatologists two number one things that that doesn't make sense.
24:33
SPEAKER_02: Two big things for skin health, and it's wear sunscreen and wash your face before you go to bed.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: And it's not if you wore makeup, it's wash the grime, the pollution, the stuff before you put that face on a pillow overnight.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: Yep, yeah, exactly.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: One of the things I get really excited about is this is so much easier and faster.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: Like I don't even have to tie my hair back to use a MIDI.
24:55
SPEAKER_02: I can get around the hairline, there's no splashing, the tap's not running the whole time.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: I'm using I'm using less of everything and it's quicker and it's more thorough.
25:02
SPEAKER_02: And for a person who just wants to go to bed, it's a godsend.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: I've got an who laughs about how when she's in a play and she's getting home super late, she has this routine where she'll take some micellar water and a MIDI and leave it on her bedside table.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: She crashes into bed, then she's like, Oh, wait, the makeup.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, micellar water and a MIDI, and she gets it out of her face, she dumps the MIDI on the floor.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: The next morning she picks it up and sticks it in the laundry.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I would say she probably should do a little bit more, but she could do it literally in bed, and yeah, that's basically fine.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: That is amazing.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Like, and I feel like I can say a lot of women and men can relate to that because you know, a lot of jobs, like I know, and for example, I can tell you, you know, in the healthcare field, you don't know when you're coming home and there's weird hours, and you know, yeah, you you want to be able to wash your face and not think about because you know, I feel like there's like this um ritualistic aspect to skincare too, right?
26:01
SPEAKER_01: It's like people have to think about like, okay, well, I need 15 minutes to do this, but I really like that your product is something that regardless of if you have the time or not, it's something you can count on, it's something that you can use every day.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, it doesn't matter, you know, how little time you have.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: I that's a really, really, really great um component and aspect to all of this, in my opinion.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
26:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm really glad that if if people do like turn it into a ritual, and that's wonderful.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: And you know, self-care, it's it's wonderful to have routines.
26:32
SPEAKER_02: But if you don't have that time, it's still really important that people keep this step in, kind of like brushing your teeth.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: Even if you're tired, you kind of need to brush your teeth.
26:40
SPEAKER_02: People need to understand you kind of need to wash your face, you know?
26:43
SPEAKER_02: It's not really optional.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: Also, for all the people out there that don't think you have to wash your face, even if you don't wear makeup, yes, you do.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: You do because morning is not the same thing, it's it's a nighttime thing.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: It's it's about literally getting the grime off from the day.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: There's yucky stuff in the air.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: Some people have theories about your pores open up at night and you take it in more.
27:02
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about that.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: I just know that no matter how the dermatologists have sliced this information, they've come to the same conclusion, which is wash your face before bed.
27:11
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: And and that's I feel like that should be.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: See, this is so interesting because I was literally talking to um a doctor and and we were talking our dermatologists and I was which are doctors, but um, I was we were talking about this whole idea of um, you know, just becoming more aware that your skin is an organ and it's something that you have to take care of, and it's something that you have to treat in a in a way that you would treat, you know, some other part of your body that requires attention, right?
27:43
SPEAKER_01: So hygiene um is a big component in terms of skin health.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: And if we don't wash our face and if we don't use um products and and things that are not already used, and then they have bacteria sitting on them, that is all gonna contribute to things like acne and irritation and you know, all that stuff, like the redness and stuff.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: So that's a really, really important point.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: And I think that everybody should be a little bit more aware of that.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, dermatology is I feel like it's I I'm not a medical professional, but it to me it seems like one of the fastest changing areas of medicine.
28:17
SPEAKER_02: And having a person with uh such bad skin for so long, I've been paying close attention for a long time and I've I've watched the trends come and go in terms of what dermatologists say, aestheticians say, and I feel like they're just getting they're making such quick changes and discoveries that just as a consumer who's paying attention, I'm like the stuff that they say now makes so much more sense to me than the stuff they used to tell me when I was a teenager.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, it works better, it makes more logical sense.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: And I so many of the people I talk to seem to be functioning kind of with like the type of stuff that I was told when I was a teenager, very outmoded advice or marketing messages.
28:57
SPEAKER_02: Lots of them were like basically walking around thinking that things they heard from a Claricel commercial in the 1980s are true.
29:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a lot of stuff has come out since then, and um, you know, don't just believe the old commercial.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: There's there's a lot of stuff going on, so um, yeah, there's there's news flash.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: We need to really know about skin health these days, right?
29:17
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, and you know, it's but here's the thing, you know, people I know are are very, very stuck in their ways, and I know that there's like you know, it goes back to that ritualistic aspect, right?
29:26
SPEAKER_01: It's like, you know, you watched your mom or your grandmother do these things, and then you kind of you know pick up on that.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: And I know there's a lot of people out there that they say, Well, I was taught how to take care of my skin by my mom, and then your mom was born in what, you know, like that, like you have to think about the time frame.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a huge disconnect right now, I think, because you know, dermatologists are finally kind of coming out, and I know, especially on social media, you know, there's so much information now available to consumers and just anybody.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: And so we're finally learning about all these things, but um, you know, back in the day they didn't have those resources, so that's definitely something to consider.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: I agree.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you know, something I've I feel like I'm asking you here is I feel like dermatologists almost used to feel like the aesthetics part, if they were not a cosmetic surgeon, it almost used to feel like the aesthetic aesthetics part was like kind of not what they were supposed to focus on.
30:19
SPEAKER_02: They were they were very like, no, I I only deal with skin health, skin cancer, things like that.
30:23
SPEAKER_02: Wrinkles, that's not my concern.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: Whereas now lots of people have gone into dermatology who, you know, for their own purposes or for their clients' purposes, are interested in this.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: And so I feel like just like the dermatologists themselves have become much more varied in terms of their interests and the type of information they like to spread.
30:40
SPEAKER_02: And that's really helping everything.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: I completely agree.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: I completely agree.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a it's really a um a service they're providing to everybody because you know, I'm not gonna lie, in in the medical profession, regardless of what track you enter, you're kind of taught um, you know, to think that, you know, your job is to treat a disorder or a pathology, and you have to focus on that, and you know, all the other stuff is fluffed.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: So I I can see where that must have translated as well into the dermatology um specialty.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, you know, skin health is just so unique, right?
31:14
SPEAKER_01: It's like it's so much different than like, for example, heart health or you know, gut health or anything like that.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a very, very different organ in terms of how we have to approach it from a medical standpoint.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: So I love that they're getting on board with all these new, you know, ways and methods to kind of, you know, just do what's best for our skin.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's really, you're right, it's a budding field in a lot of ways.
31:36
SPEAKER_02: So and I would much rather get my information from a dermatologist.
31:39
SPEAKER_02: But you know, back in the past, when my dermatologist said, Yeah, treat your acne by by using antibacterial hand soap, and that didn't work for me.
31:47
SPEAKER_02: It's like like what do you do after that?
31:49
SPEAKER_02: You go and you experiment, which isn't, which isn't the best.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: So I'm really excited that I feel like it's it's changing a lot and it's it's wonderful for everyone because skin is such a personal and self-image related field, you know?
32:02
SPEAKER_01: It is, it is, it really is.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: And and and there's a huge, you know, there's a huge component in terms of you have to be able to um relate to the average consumer, you know, and uh as much as we can sit here and say we love dermatologists and we love the real information, there's a lot of people out there that um they don't have the interest or maybe the time to look into it.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: So to have a brand like yours where you've done the research, you've really, you know, put in the time and the understanding, um, and you're delivering that to the the common consumer and the population that's buying skincare.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think that in itself is a huge help to dermatologists and this whole um you know industry, because you don't have to put all of that um responsibility in the consumer's hand anymore.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Like it's not like, oh well, go figure it out.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, you don't have to figure it out.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: There's somebody who's figured it out for you, and you know, just as long as you follow the steps, right?
32:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, thanks.
33:00
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's it's a it's a lot of fun because obviously not a doctor, but I mean you got skin, and you know, I want it to be healthy, so it's a lot of fun to look at.
33:10
SPEAKER_02: Again, it's a combination of all of my favorite serious and non-serious topics.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much, Amanda, for telling us about your product.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: This is truly, truly awesome.
33:21
SPEAKER_01: And I and I am going to tell everybody I know about it because I know there's a lot of people um in my friends list that trust me, they have the same problem that we just talked about with using cotton balls or using um, you know, just wipes and whatnot.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: So I think this could be really something to benefit everybody.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: So I hope so.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, hopefully it'll keep them from having to go to the store as much.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: You wind up using less of your skincare liquid because so, like, whereas cotton is kind of super thirsty, yeah.
33:50
SPEAKER_02: A lot of the stuff, this is intentionally not thirsty, and it distributes the liquid kind of back to your skin, which again makes the whole process smoother, softer, and then you're just wasting less.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: So, again, less trash.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's always a good thing.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, awesome.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you liked any of our episodes, including this one, please rate us on Spotify, iTunes, or um Google Podcasts.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we need your feedback, we need the ratings, so we would appreciate any feedback we can get.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions for myself or Amanda, please leave a comment in our um on our concept art on Instagram, and I will definitely pass along those questions to you, Amanda, if I get any.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, and just stay tuned for another episode.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
34:46
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34:49
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35:54
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