♪
JEN: Hm, contains Niacinamide,
Coenzyme Q10, Alpha-Lipoic Acid,
Hyaluronic Acid, baby foreskin cells...
You gotta be kidding me!
♪
From crazy creams to butt injections,
the beauty industry is a multi-billion-dollar behemoth
that gets people to do bizarre things to their bodies
in the quest for perfection.
♪
WOMAN: I'm like considering Botox,
and I just don't want to walk into some random place
and getting it done
because you're gonna be wearing that on your face.
WOMAN: And that's not what you want a discount with!
Like, I'm sorry, you're not discounting your face!
WOMAN: Face, yeah.
WOMAN: If you see it on Groupon, you know,
avoid it like the plague, right? [laughter]
WOMAN: Now the average age of people getting Botox
is in the early 20s. It used to be the 30s.
But I don't even know why people in those age groups
are getting Botox. They don't need it.
WOMAN: A lot of the younger girls are having it done
because it's portrayed to them as something as a preventative.
WOMAN: I think it's the Kardashian effect,
of needing to look perfect all the time because
selfies are happening all the time.
I gotta look my best.
WOMAN: There's an entire market on making us
feel bad about ourselves.
WOMAN: I don't want to look amazing for my age.
I want to look amazing, period.
WOMAN: I don't want to look like I'm 30.
WOMAN: I do. I do!
[laughter]
JEN: It's ugly at the core of the beauty industry,
and I'm not just talking about products.
Everything about beauty seems geared to make you feel
bad about yourself. If you're on Instagram,
you will know especially what I'm talking about.
There are apps to brighten your teeth, widen your eyes,
and clear blemishes.
Women are told our only currency is youth,
that we should fear the changes
that age brings to our faces and bodies.
That opens people up to predatory marketing,
often of untested, unproven,
and potentially risky products and procedures,
that at the best are gonna lighten your wallet.
Of course we need to start when we're in are teens.
I'm sorry, that's so messed up I don't even know where to begin!
Women shouldn't be worrying about crow's feet in their 20s.
Women shouldn't be worrying about crow's feet at all.
Celebrity and social media influencers seem to push
a different aesthetic or product almost daily.
We hear about junk like pink pills and hair gummies
and the lip challenge.
For your information, that's sucking on a shot glass
until you burst blood vessels and your lips go numb,
in a quest for beauty. That's messed up.
That's not feminism!
It's a weaponized patriarchy.
Patriarchy: a system of society or government
in which men hold the power
and women are largely excluded from it.
There are evidence-based ways to reduce wrinkles,
but how to sort the medicine from the magic?
Because there's supplements, washes, toners, injections,
fillers, creams, acids, peels, penis foreskin,
placental extract, and I don't know what.
Honestly, I think if someone put monkey poo in a jar
and a Kardashian endorsed it as a beauty product, it would sell.
I just want women to have the evidence.
So, let's take a look at some of the beauty industry's fads,
fears, and products.
JEN: Since the dawn of time,
women have tried to stop the clock
with some strange beauty routines.
TV: She makes her nails pretty too
by pushing the cuticle off the nail.
JEN: It's been said that Cleopatra--
yeah, I know, that's Elizabeth Taylor,
but you get the idea--
the actual Cleopatra kept 700 donkeys
just to bathe daily in their milk.
Didn't make a difference. She died at age 40.
But did she look good?
TV: Why, of course.
JEN: Apparently, the Greeks and Romans used a secret ingredient
in face masks to stay looking youthful.
The ingredient: crocodile dung.
TV: Once you've learned a good habit,
it will work for you all your life.
JEN: Mary Queen of Scots used to bathe in white wine.
Terrible waste of wine, if you ask me.
TV WOMAN: Pardon me, but are you listening?
TV MAN: What's that? Oh!
Oh, yes, yes, sorry.
I guess my mind was wandering.
JEN: But the award for the most terrifying beauty routine ever
goes to the 15th century's Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
She was accused of smothering herself
in the blood of virgins to retain their youth.
Yikes.
TV: There are still some who need my help.
JEN: But that belief that blood is some anti-ageing elixir
shockingly still exists today.
JEN: So, what is the modern beauty routine like?
There's a new kid on the block.
Nutricosmetics.
Think ingestible cosmetics,
a totally modern take on the old saying that beauty lies within.
These supplements claim to improve skin and hair
from the inside, and they're quickly becoming
a booming business,
thanks in large part to their widespread promotion
on Instagram and YouTube.
The Kardashian-Jenner clan have promoted gummies
which claim to support hair growth.
I'm sure having a team of stylists at your beck and call
has nothing to do with how good you look.
And then there's my friends at Goop.
They're selling powder to add to your morning shake.
Drink your way to glowing with a megadose
of skin-supporting ingredients--
all for just $75 a month.
And the list goes on and on.
There are beauty drinks; there's bars;
there's supplements, powders, cereal, and even a beer.
And some are even marketed to teens.
So, what's in this stuff?
The ingredients in nutricosmetics vary,
but they include vitamins, peptides,
biotin, primrose oil, collagen.
Some of the products have up to 30 ingredients.
None of them are regulated by government agencies
for quality or safety.
Do they even work?
With beauty, that's really the bottom line.
Unfortunately, safety is sadly second.
A common ingredient is collagen, which is often sold as powder.
Collagen is about 75% of our skin,
and it provides a lot of that youthful appearance
we all crave.
We lose collagen as we age,
and sun exposure also makes it worse,
so the idea of a supplement sounds intriguing.
After all, probably many of you have heard
that our skin is waterproof,
and collagen's a really large molecule,
so it can't be absorbed.
That's actually why we inject it as a filler.
So, if a needle works, maybe taking it by mouth would work.
Collagen powder is supposed to provide the building blocks
that trick your skin into making more collagen.
But the data is really weak.
There are small studies; many are low quality
and most are funded by, you got it,
the beauty industry.
Then there's the common sense.
When we inject collagen directly into the skin,
we don't stimulate new collagen.
So, how could eating it have a magical effect?
That doesn't make any sense.
Another common ingredient in these products is biotin.
This is supposed to give you Rapunzel-like hair.
♪
Biotin is Vitamin B7,
and you can get it from foods like salmon and egg yolks
and sweet potato.
Actually, that sounds like a pretty good meal.
While biotin can help people
who have some very specific medical conditions,
this doesn't apply to most of us.
And many dermatologists report
that biotin can actually worsen acne.
So my advice is, don't get your information
on skincare from Instagram.
Turn to a dermatologist.
And, you know, that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
♪
JEN: We should maybe have a little glass of wine
and toast Mary Queen of Scots. SANDY: Sounds good.
JEN: And we're gonna do it the right way.
We're gonna drink the wine, not bathe in it.
Cheers to Mary!
What's the biggest myth about skincare?
SANDY: There's so many. So, there's-- there's multiples.
One of the biggest myths is that natural is better.
I mean, poison ivy is a plant.
Things can give you rashes.
Just because they're natural doesn't make them better.
JEN: What are some of the natural ingredients
that might cause an irritant or an allergic reaction?
I've heard that maybe tea tree oil might be one of them.
SANDY: Tea tree oil can be allergenic,
in rare-- in low cases, less than 3%.
Like cinnamon.
Cinnamon causes blood vessels to open.
It causes irritation.
Lavender, lavender can be an irritant.
Also can be a hormone disruptor.
There was a study that showed breast development of young boys
that used lavender and tea tree oil.
JEN: So, what are some of the wackiest skincare trends
that you've heard about recently?
SANDY: You know, there's that whole thing about
the baby foreskin.
There is a whole line of topical creams
that use what's called growth factors.
So they grow these foreskin cells,
and they're called fibroblasts, and then they grow them
in like huge quantities,
and then they use the products from those cells.
So, there's no foreskin in the creams, but you know,
the science for growth factors is not strong.
Like, there's not great-- they're mostly
industry-sponsored studies.
I'd argue there's more science with vitamin C topically.
JEN: Tell me about your crusade against soap.
SANDY: It's not a crusade.
Actually, it's interesting, I started to read
and get all the articles from back to 1960, actually,
and if you look at the graph of use of soap and detergent
and washing and indoor plumbing, it's the same graph as eczema,
asthma, and ATP, so kind of in parallel.
So, our skin is a barrier to the outside world.
It's like a brick wall, and when you use soap,
in particular high-pH soap, you damage the wall.
And things can come in, and water can come out.
And so have we actually caused skin disease
and allergy and asthma through over-cleaning
with soap and detergent?
JEN: I get asked a lot, you know, from girlfriends,
does going and getting a facial really make any difference
for your skin health?
What's the actual truth behind getting facials?
SANDY: You know the answer to that, yeah.
It just makes you feel good. [laughter]
JEN: So, if the number one thing somebody wanted to
spend their time and effort on to keep their skin healthy,
what would be the one thing that they could do?
SANDY: Well, anywhere you live, it's still sunscreen.
I mean, sunscreen is the cornerstone
of decreasing the ageing of the skin, and also health,
with respect to skin cancer.
There's a wonderful study double-blinded, randomized,
controlled, out of Australia that shows
a decrease in incidents in all forms of skin cancer.
So there's no argument against not using sunscreen.
JEN: We're all looking for the fountain of youth,
I think, in a lot of different ways.
So, if you want to do three things for your skin
right now today, what should we be doing?
SANDY: Don't overwash. Don't use soap, use cleansers.
With a micellar cleanser at night, which needs no water.
It's just a little liquid on a pad.
Number 2, avoid the sun if you live in areas where the sun is,
and don't use tanning beds.
They're like the cornerstone of ageing and skin cancer.
And if you have available to you to use some anti-aging products,
like Retinol, vitamin C, use them at night.
JEN: That seems pretty simple. SANDY: It is pretty simple.
JEN: I'm glad we had this talk today.
It's so important.
SANDY: Thank you for inviting me.
This was really fun.
So, what's the secret to younger looking skin?
Well, that's normally available for three easy payments
of $19.95, but it's free for you today!
I'm just kidding.
At the end of the day, you should do you.
If it makes you feel better to use a product
that's not doing any harm, then that's fine.
Just be careful about getting beauty advice from social media.
You never know who's making money, and you know,
it's hard to know what's in the ingredients.
If you have real questions about skincare,
the best person to check with is probably a dermatologist.
♪