How Your Skincare Routine Affects Your Health

Participant: Have you done any research on diapers? 

Jenny Melick: I’m a very transparent person and I’m going to go ahead and say no I don’t have any insights on diapers. I’m not a mom yet! 

I can talk about tampons a bit and I would imagine it’s similar. Now, diapers because it’s on the outside and not inserted into the body, it may not have as much of an effect. But, it is still on your skin. With tampons, I have switched to organic and cotton. Personally, I’ve actually seen the effects of how it’s changed my body. I used to be in pain all the time from generic brands of tampons. I didn’t realize how many chemicals were being released into my body until I really thought about it. But, I was always in pain from it and I started doing a lot of research and it only made sense. 

I’ve now switched to all organic since it is something that you put into your body and it does touch your skin. So I would say that for diapers as well. 

Participant: Do you only use your company’s cosmetics? If you do use other brands of cosmetics which ones do you use and why? 

Jenny Melick: Because we just started March of last year we obviously don’t have everything. We have made a lot, including hair care, shampoo, and conditioner which is R&D right now. We’ve made our own makeup melt and things like that. I just haven’t found anything that hasn’t been that great for my skin, that doesn’t clog pores and things like that. We are not in the whole line of makeup yet, so I do use other people’s makeup. 

Right now I’m using RMS. It is one of the cleanest that I have found out there. I’ve tried a lot in the clean beauty stores and it just has not been up to my standard. Now my standard is super high because I pretty much am allergic or intolerant to 80% of what is out there, which also makes me a really good guinea pig. 

I can’t even have cocoa powder, which is very sad to be honest with you. Cocoa powder is not bad by any means, but I am so sensitive that I can’t even have that. 

Participant: What ingredient do you find you’re most sensitive to? 

Jenny Melick: This may just be me, I do find that other people may not be aware that they are slightly intolerant to sunflower seed oil. It’s in pretty much everything, including things that you eat. I can’t have snacks and stuff without reacting. I found that out the hard way. 

Unfortunately, now my allergies have grown to your nut-based allergies as well. So peanuts and all of that. But, that’s just me. I would say a lot of people are allergic or intolerant to gluten, so staying away from that is really important especially since women, in general, tend to have auto-immune issues and not a lot of us have been diagnosed yet. If you have a hormone imbalance, feeling very fatigued, things like that, a lot of that can be caused by thyroid issues or your adrenal gland isn’t actually working properly.

Those are all things I would look out for. Anything that really causes inflammation you want to stay away from. 

Crissy Fishbane: Jenny, I have a quick question. You had mentioned the word “natural” and how that doesn’t really mean anything. The word “organic” was mentioned a lot as well. If we see a product that is labeled as “organic” and certified by a third party is that a safe bet? 

Jenny Melick: Yeah, so we aren’t certified USDA yet because certification goes with where you make your products and not your brand. So right now we are inside our house manufacturing everything, so our private property right now would need to be certified USDA if we went after that. So not all your small, mom and pop’s will be certified USDA, however, look for words like “we use USDA Certified Organic” and you can always check with them.

For us, because I was an analytical chemist, every single product or ingredient that comes in I actually ask our suppliers for analysis, so GCMS and analytics. I check on the purity of everything. Making sure there is no formaldehyde or any traces of bad chemicals.

The problem with natural ingredients and not organic is that sometimes they’re actually processed by things like hexanes and formaldehyde and that actually gets passed down. So even your end product can actually have traces of formaldehyde, but it’s not an active ingredient so you don’t actually know if it’s in there or not, which is why I’m stressing that certified organic is really the way to go. 

A lot of those certifications that I listed do show that there are several that you can definitely trust. 

Participant: Do you have a hand soap you recommend? 

Jenny Melick: We actually make all our own soap products and of course recommend those. 

I think things like Dr. Bronner’s is actually really good, the only problem and the only reason I don’t use Dr. Bronners is that they actually have sunflower seed oil in pretty much all of your Castille soaps.

Every soap that we make internally is done with non-irritating oils and so we actually saponify every single one of our soaps that we use. I’ve tried using other people’s soaps and have actually contracted dermatitis and it irritates my skin. 

Participant: What does your skincare routine look like and are there specific steps we should absolutely be doing? 

Jenny Melick: For me, my biggest thing is face care. I try not to do a whole lot only because sometimes less is more. If you do too much you can actually strip your own good oils away, which is the opposite of what you actually want. 

For me, I use our Face Glow kit which is on our website. I use a konjac sponge, it’s 100% natural. Ours is heart-shaped because I like pretty things. Basically it’s a biodegradable 100% natural exfoliator. If you have dry skin I would not use it every day. I would maybe use it about twice a week. You’ll know once you start testing it. I have severely dry skin, to the point I have some eczema from my autoimmune disease, but I use the konjac sponge and then I use our honey gentle cleanser and just wash my face every day. 

I use our makeup melt if I have makeup, but to be honest with you I don’t really wear makeup a whole lot anymore. It’s just one thing I’m avoiding just because it’s been bad for my skin. I try not to wear it unless it’s a big occasion. 

The Rosewater toner hydrates and rebalances your skin. Always use a toner after your cleanser. Look for cleansers that have aloe vera or something that is a little more soothing, nothing too harsh because that will actually strip your skin. Even if you have oily or acne-prone skin, that’s actually not what you want to do. You want a gentle cleanser. 

After the Rosewater Toner, you do the moisturizer. For me, I actually do an extra step before our beauty cream, which is our moisturizer. I use a concoction we’ve made with oats, it’s really good for eczema. Oats are a perfect ingredient that you’d want to use if you have dry skin or eczema. 

For anybody that doesn’t have dry skin, our face serum is amazing. It’s 15 organic ingredients all combined into one. Basically, it’s superfoods that are good for reducing redness, minimizing pores. It actually acts as a makeup primer, it’s super absorbent and seals in all that moisture from the previous steps. It has some natural SPF in it. Everything a woman would want! 

For those of us with drier skin definitely do something a little bit more hydrating. Our beauty cream is basically the face serum, but it has aloe vera gel that we make. 

That’s pretty much my routine. I’m very minimal with it. I’m that modern woman that wants to cut it all down because I have too many things on my plate.

Participant: I have a question about Retin A. It worked great for me, but I stopped due to pregnancy and breastfeeding. What are your thoughts on that? 

Jenny Melick: I’m not as familiar with Retin A. For me, I recommend things like Vitamin C. This is actually a question my husband would have much more insight on because he does a lot of the research with manufacturing. 

Cindi Michaelson: Retin A is primarily for anti-aging. The products you were mentioning in your kit, are they anti-aging as well?

Jenny Melick: Yes! Anti-wrinkle. Anti-inflammatory. All the superfoods that you would want to help nourish your skin and also calm it down.  If you have cases where you’re super oily or acne-prone skin, it basically helps calm all of that function down. We use Jojoba oil, that’s something you want to look at with your face oils or face serums – it actually mimics your skin so it’s a really good ingredient to have. 

Cindi Michaelson: Can we trust the EWG when we are researching the toxicity of products? 

Jenny Melick: Yes, some of the screenshots I shared are actually from the EWG website. Other places I may not say so. I would just make sure to double-check the back of ingredients. One thing that is interesting to me is I’ve actually found several companies that list different ingredients from what’s online to what’s actually in the store when you pick it up. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on there, but the ones in the store are pretty toxic and the ones listed online are not. 

Cindi Michaelson: Another question, I’ve been on the hunt for so long for fragrance, a perfume, something to wear. Yes, we can use essential oil but I’m just not a fan of smelling like essential oil so much. I know you’re very sensitive so you probably go fragrance-free. Do you have any recommendations?  

Jenny Melick: No, unfortunately with the perfume world I steer very clear from it. It uses very harsh ingredients. There’s definitely some independent companies that I think would be a little better than others, however, fragrances are one of those things I would caution people to steer clear from.

I don’t know if you’re using different dilutions for your essential oils or maybe not the ones you actually like. I would say give essential oils a little bit more of a try. 

We have things like Urgent Rescue, blends for thyroid support, blends for Uplift and Positive. Those are all just essential oil blends to actually help the body, but people have been using them as fragrances. 

I challenge current consumers to use fragrances or scents in a way where it’s actually helping your body less than it just being a scent. Now I think there are scents that you are just going to love and be attracted to. Ylang Ylang is one of those really fragrant, great scents and it’s still really good for the body. I think playing around with some might get you somewhere. 

Crissy Fishbane: I have a question kind of circling back to something we talked about before. What is the purpose of a toner? I’ve never known in my whole adult life why I’m putting that on. 

Jenny Melick: My parents have a background in medicine. My mom’s a nurse and my dad’s a doctor. They were always saying “toner, toner, toner” and I always had that same reaction. “Who cares about toner, it’s just another step.” 

I learned after creating Roses and Azalea that toners are actually super important. When you cleanse your face you’re using soap and surfactants that actually make the pH of your skin higher than it needs to be. Because your skin is a little more acidic, towards a 4, a little lower than a 5, your soaps are usually higher, an 8+, water is a 7 – you need to balance your pH down where it’s less harsh for your skin. It’s actually protecting and rehydrating your skin. That’s why the word balance is used a lot for toner because it’s balancing the pH of your skin. 

Participant: What about natural deodorant? I’ve gotten a bad rash and blisters from some of them.

Jenny Melick: I would need to look up the ingredient list to each one individually. I’m guessing it would have had baking soda. Most of your deodorants that people are saying they have bad rashes or reactions to are because a lot of your natural deodorants use baking soda, even milk of magnesium hydroxide. 

Basically they are using pH to kill off the odor-causing bacteria on your pits. Baking soda is actually pretty irritating to your skin. Every swipe you put on will start wearing away the top layer of your skin. 

Is everyone affected by it? No. Some people will also not be affected by it for months or years when first used. So it really depends on the person. 

When you’re switching from a conventional deodorant to a natural one you have to give your body time to detox. For most people it will take at least four to six weeks. 

Once you stop conventional deodorant for the first week you might be like – gosh natural deodorants are awesome. No, what’s actually happening is that the aluminum is still plugged into your pores. That’s how much it plugs your pores up. They don’t crash until a few days up to a week or so later. That’s when people start saying natural deodorants don’t work. You have to give it time. Summer is probably the worst time to transition, as you can imagine. 

I personally would wait to transition in fall or winter. You may need to give your body even up to a few months to transition. It’s worth it though, deodorants are one of the most toxic things you can put on your body. 

Participant: Which natural deodorant brands work?

Jenny Melick: I’m going to be honest with you, deodorant is kind of like medicine and treatment. Everybody is going to react differently to every deodorant. So I can’t actually recommend any deodorant to you unless I know your body a little more. For men it’s actually a little easier, they don’t have the hormone imbalances that we have. Men transitioning can be a little easier. For women it can depend on the time of the month, autoimmune issues, the microbiome of your skin, what’s going on in your body. 

Because we’ve used conventional deodorants for so long it’s actually messed up the makeup of our skin, the different bacteria living on our skin. ON top of that it also really depends on genetics. Fortunately for me, I’m actually from southeast Asia and we actually have genes that make the same odor-causing bacteria as others. 

Sometimes limiting alcohol and things like that can also help with odors. Diet, healthy lifestyle, just do a little bit at a time. 

Cindi Michaelson: Is that why sometimes natural deodorants stop working?

Jenny Melick: Yes, our body is always changing. I find it’s similar with shampoos. I’ll use the same formulation for two months and then all of a sudden feel like it’s not working anymore. Diet, stress, amount of sleep all play a role. Your body will react differently to products based on what is happening internally. 

You can detox your pits and help regulate that smell. Having muddy clay, we also offer a product for this purpose. Having something like a charcoal detox mask can pull the aluminum out of your pits and get rid of that odor-causing bacteria much sooner. 

Crissy Fishbane: Thank you so much, Jenny! You are certainly a wealth of knowledge. 

Cindi Michaelson: This has been fun! Talking about stress and pits!