Episode 25: Everything You Should Know About Hyaluronic Acid

Hannah Furst:
Today's cringy convo contains content of a sexual nature, including a discussion about vibrators. Listener discretion is advised.

Hannah Furst:
Welcome everybody to Beauty IQ, the podcast.

Joanna Flemming:
I'm your host, Joanna Fleming.

Hannah Furst:
And I am your co-host, Hannah Furst. So, [Jo 00:00:15], what's on today's episode?

Joanna Flemming:
So today you have a little co-host joining you today. [crosstalk 00:00:24].

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, you slept in today.

Joanna Flemming:
It's not me. Another expert in their field. You two are going to be talking about the Vush, which is our bestselling vibrator. So if you want to know more about that, keep listening. And we're also talking to another guest about hyaluronic acid, which is one of my favorite skincare ingredient and, of course, our products we didn't know we needed.

Hannah Furst:
So, I have a very special co-host this morning. Joanna's decided to sleep in and I have Dani here who is our guest cohost this morning. Dani is our Category Manager for skincare and our Adore You category. Any other categories I don't know about?

Danielle Chee:
No. I think we kind of throw it all together under wellness.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, and that also includes our sex category, which when did that launch?

Danielle Chee:
It launched at the beginning of December last year.

Hannah Furst:
Okay. God. It hasn't been very long has it?

Danielle Chee:
No, it's felt like ages because we've been talking about it for months.

Hannah Furst:
Do you remember... I don't know if you remember this. I was going to bring this up. It was you and I left in the office. Would have been like a year ago and we were thinking about the podcast and you were thinking about the sex category and you were like, "Hannah, I think we just need to do it."

Danielle Chee:
Yes. Both of us. We were post... I don't know, five o'clock and there was just maybe you and I in the office and I feel like we'd been toiling about it for a little while and kind of in passing talking about these really brave new things that we wanted to try.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
And I was like, "We've been talking about it for ages and we've got to do it now." And you're like, "Danny, you have to do it now. Do it now before everybody else does." So, yeah, I think there was a moment where you and I are both like, "Let's just jump in and do it."

Hannah Furst:
We weren't ready but we'll just try it and look, it both worked out.

Danielle Chee:
How awesome is that, right?

Hannah Furst:
So today we are talking about our best selling product in our sex category.

Danielle Chee:
Yes.

Hannah Furst:
So I wrote an article on our best selling product in our sex category. At that time it was our best selling product but as a result of that, what happened?

Danielle Chee:
It's basically catapulted that skew and that particular brand to number one by far in our category.

Hannah Furst:
It was also our number one product for the week.

Danielle Chee:
It was.

Hannah Furst:
Which is crazy.

Danielle Chee:
It really moved the needle for us as far as the category but also the sales that week. We were kind of monitoring things and that article launch, I had a feeling that it was going to be big.

Hannah Furst:
I didn't.

Danielle Chee:
Really?

Hannah Furst:
I had no idea.

Danielle Chee:
Oh my gosh. You wrote it so well and I think it was so relatable and I was like, "This is really going to turn the category on its head." Because we'd been doing a few things in the lead up. A few Instagram posts here and there. We had the PR, the Vogue article that went out and that was so exciting. Kate even mentioned it the other night.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, she won an award and she mentioned it. She was like, "Women..." Oh, what was her quote? Do you remember?

Danielle Chee:
"Women all deserve pleasure."

Hannah Furst:
Yes.

Danielle Chee:
It was so good.

Hannah Furst:
They sure do.

Danielle Chee:
That was a proud moment. So yeah, I think like when you wrote that article, I had this gut feeling that it was going to be really successful on top of the success that we'd already had since we launched in December, particularly of that particular product. But basically made it the number one skew for the week. That brand is now our number one brand, even though it's only got three products in it in that category, it's the number one brand over other brands that have been around in the market, especially in Australia for the last 18 months, 24 months, so yeah.

Hannah Furst:
It is, and I've got to say I wasn't just writing it for sales. I genuinely was on a mission. I was like... So some of the reviews, I just wanted to read out some of the reviews that I wrote. So I basically went through their website and they have 800 five star reviews.

Danielle Chee:
Wow.

Hannah Furst:
It's crazy, and if you read them, people are so... It's not like just a regular product where people like, "Yeah, dah dah dah." It's like people feel very strongly about it. So just a few of the reviews. "Best orgasm of my life. My life has forever changed. The suction technology is so different and literally ecstasy. This is the [Dyson 00:04:37] of female sex toys and this should be enough info for you to head over to checkout and buy it now, because I'm headed to the bedroom with mine right now."

Danielle Chee:
I love that.

Hannah Furst:
Okay. Another one. "O... M... G," and there's five exclamations. "Whoa. This thing rocks. I'm not going to even sugar coat this review, so let me just say, anyone who can turn the dial up all the way has to be a demigod because I can't get it past four or five clicks because I'm ready to climb the walls in ecstacy."

Danielle Chee:
Wasn't there a conversation we had where we had to... It was so good for someone that they had to throw it off-

Hannah Furst:
Throw it off themselves. I think I said that on our last episode where we talked about it. I think I was like, "I have to throw it off myself." So, how does it work?

Danielle Chee:
Well-

Hannah Furst:
It's not like regular vibrators.

Danielle Chee:
No, it's not. I mean, obviously there's lots of different types of devices.

Hannah Furst:
So let's go through the different types of devices for the people listening.

Danielle Chee:
Okay. All right. Well, primarily you look at something that's phallic-like.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
I love that.

Hannah Furst:
What does phallic mean?

Danielle Chee:
That's a word.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, it is, it is.

Danielle Chee:
Phallic is a cylindrical shape that's obviously designed to mimic the penis.

Hannah Furst:
You can't tell you're a category manager.

Danielle Chee:
I can't believe I said phallic in my professional world. So, yes. So you have these internal stimulators that are kind of mainstream now. Everybody knows that a vibe is traditionally phallic-like for people who want internal pleasure and you can have different types. So there're dildos which don't have any sort of vibrating component to it. Then there's obviously the vibrators themselves, the ones that have a machine in them to have the vibrations and the different levels and so on. They usually require a charge, be it by battery-

Hannah Furst:
That's what I always think of vibrators as. This is why this was like a game changer.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. So then... Oh, maybe like ... they've been around for years, but maybe mainstream women have really cottoned onto this idea of an external stimulating device, of which Vush is, so it's really designed to be used only externally as you can see from particularly the Vush shape.

Hannah Furst:
It's like a little vacuum.

Danielle Chee:
Yes, that's right. So the biggest misconception around those sorts of devices is that they suck, which is what you referenced in one of their reviews. But actually it's air that's blown out.

Hannah Furst:
Really?

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. So it's like this-

Hannah Furst:
Oh, I thought it was like a vacuum.

Danielle Chee:
So the funny thing about the fact that they've referenced it as the Dyson is not actually... It's actually inaccurate.

Hannah Furst:
That's accurate to us.

Danielle Chee:
Which I love.

Hannah Furst:
Because the Dyson blows air.

Danielle Chee:
Exactly.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, okay.

Danielle Chee:
So this is like it takes the air and kind of ejects it in a way that basically is designed to mimic-

Hannah Furst:
Oral sex.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. I was going to use the word fellatio.

Hannah Furst:
That's okay. We can say oral sex.

Danielle Chee:
Cool, okay.

Hannah Furst:
Yes.

Danielle Chee:
The best oral sex of your life.

Hannah Furst:
Probably, I feel like, because it's a machine.

Danielle Chee:
Yes, that's right. So I think there was quite a few on the market, but the difference with this one is obviously when you look at its form and its color, it doesn't look like a traditional device.

Hannah Furst:
No, [inaudible 00:08:01]. It's really small and it's travel-friendly.

Danielle Chee:
Exactly.

Hannah Furst:
Does your [inaudible 00:08:05] notice?

Danielle Chee:
No, I'm just going to say me in this episode.

Hannah Furst:
Yes. Okay, good.

Danielle Chee:
I definitely took it traveling with me. To be honest, a lot of people have been asking me about it because I think that we spoke about it briefly on the first episode. I've actually had quite a few men ask me about it as well.

Hannah Furst:
Ah. Okay.

Danielle Chee:
I don't know if you recall, but there was one night where we went out. We had been working, it was a Friday.

Hannah Furst:
Oh my god. Let's tell this story. Is this the night that I'm thinking of?

Danielle Chee:
Yes.

Hannah Furst:
So we had had our sex workshop.

Danielle Chee:
Yes.

Hannah Furst:
So we'd had a workshop at a bar. I don't know. [inaudible 00:08:42].

Danielle Chee:
We really wanted to think outside of the box. So we went to this really cool bar, which we had to ourselves and then afterwards we all went and had a drink to celebrate and then there were four of us left.

Hannah Furst:
Unsurprising that it was you and I.

Danielle Chee:
I know.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
And we started talking to a couple of guys and we brought them back to our area and we had like boxes of vibrators everywhere.

Hannah Furst:
Yes we did.

Danielle Chee:
I think that how it started was they were like, "Why are you guy... What are you guys doing now? You've been here for six hours."

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. I think longer by that stage.

Danielle Chee:
We're like, "Actually, funny story. This is what we're doing. By the way, we need to do a bit of market research."

Hannah Furst:
Yes.

Danielle Chee:
"Hey, what do you guys think about these?" And there was a guy that was talking to us, he was such a lovely guy and he was like, "Honestly..." And I'd say he's probably like a generation younger than me. I felt like that.

Hannah Furst:
You were going to say us, you can say us. We're the same age.

Danielle Chee:
Then, us.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
And it was really interesting. We asked him whether or not he would find it confronting if like his girlfriend got a vibrator and brought that into their bedroom or? And he was like, "Actually no, not at all." He's like, "I've used them with my previous partners, with my current girlfriend. I'm not scared of them."

Hannah Furst:
Oh, I just love that. Isn't that great?

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. He was like, "In my mind it's about pleasure. Full stop. Like if I can give my girlfriend pleasure either which way. This idea of pleasure is part of the relationship, that's really important."

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
"However, which way I get there is not up to me. It's not a problem for me. It's really about prioritizing her."

Hannah Furst:
We were born in the wrong decade.

Danielle Chee:
Seriously.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. I've brought it up maybe once with a guy that I've been dating and the reaction wasn't quite what I was expecting. It was like, "Ah, I don't know about that."

Danielle Chee:
Oh.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
Okay.

Hannah Furst:
But maybe every guy's different.

Danielle Chee:
I mean, to be very honest, I've not had the moment or I have not had an opportunity to feel comfortable enough to like approach it with someone that I'm dating.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
But like I've talked to lots of guys that I've dated about the fact that I look after this category and they always find it really interesting.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. What do they ask?

Danielle Chee:
Oh, they're kind of like, "How did you get to that? Like, how did you guys decide that this was a thing was important to a beauty retailer?" And I was like, "Well, I mean it transcends that. Especially if you look at all the things that we're doing. We feel like we can use our platform to talk about lots of different things that women are interested in and sex and pleasure is one of those things that I think under the surface everybody's interested in or a lot of people are interested in and they want to talk about it. It's the stuff that you would talk about with your girlfriends on a Friday night over a few wines." And that's, I was saying to the guys that I've dated, like why not do that and be able to offer them those products-

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. Totally.

Danielle Chee:
In a really safe space where they can choose to show that to their girlfriend sitting next to them in the office cubicle or not.

Hannah Furst:
Or not. Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
Look, I think that, maybe it's a language that we need to continue to be open to discussing with our partners.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
Male or female or otherwise. I think the idea around it is if we start talking about pleasure or if we continue to start talking about pleasure, then it normalizes the conversation and it really becomes this concept of just seeking pleasure and obtaining pleasure regardless of how you do that.

Hannah Furst:
Anyway. So if you're interested in our sex category, if you go to adorebeauty.com.au, and you click on 'Adore You', and then you'll see on the left hand side is our sex category and go check it out.

Danielle Chee:
Yes. And have fun shopping.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. Thanks so much for joining us, Danny.

Hannah Furst:
Hey Jo, we have news, don't we?

Joanna Flemming:
Yes, we do. Tell us?

Hannah Furst:
If you love this podcast, you'll probably also love our new YouTube channel.

Joanna Flemming:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). We get more in depth on skin care ingredients like a retinol.

Hannah Furst:
And I also take you through the ultimate haircare routine to tame Hagrid hair if you're anything like me.

Joanna Flemming:
Just search for 'Adore Beauty' on YouTube and subscribe so you never miss a video.

Hannah Furst:
Very excited for our next guest, Hannah English.

Hannah English:
Hi.

Hannah Furst:
Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hannah English:
So I studied drug development and I worked in pharmaceutical trials and drug development for a couple of years and now I'm just like consulting, freelance influencing.

Hannah Furst:
So would we consider you a skinfluencer? Yeah, I probably would.

Hannah English:
I wouldn't put it in my own bio. But, yeah.

Hannah Furst:
You are.

Hannah English:
It's because I love a good expensive product, but I also love to break down how it works and I think that that's a gap because a lot of science people will be like, "Well, you don't need to spend that much."

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. Right. Okay.

Hannah English:
And then other people will be like, "I love this [La Mer 00:13:38]." I'm like, good. La Mer is nice. Okay. Just buy it if you want it."

Hannah Furst:
So are you a scientist? Is that?

Hannah English:
Yeah. So, it was-

Hannah Furst:
What did you study?

Hannah English:
It was Bachelor of Biomed and then they changed the name of it and then it was Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Hannah Furst:
Okay.

Hannah English:
And then I did an honors thesis on metastatic melanoma treatments.

Hannah Furst:
Oh wow.

Hannah English:
That was a lot.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
Really interesting.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. So you love ingredients?

Hannah English:
Yes.

Hannah Furst:
Yes. I follow you on Instagram and I'm always like, I just love it all. Yeah. There's so much breaking down the ingredients, particularly retinol. I see you do it-

Hannah English:
Love retinol.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. You love retinol. We could probably get you to do your own series on ingredients. But today we're specifically talking about hyaluronic acid.

Hannah English:
Right.

Hannah Furst:
However, I do just want to touch on sunscreen because you are really passionate about SPF and sun protection. Can you tell us a couple of your favorite sunscreens just to start with and then we'll jump into hyaluronic acid?

Hannah English:
Yeah. At the moment, I'm really loving the Ultra Violette Supreme Screen.

Hannah Furst:
Same.

Hannah English:
Yeah, I think it's better for Summer on the [inaudible 00:14:46] it's a little bit dewier. So, when it's cold and you need that extra dew, that's fantastic. I love the SkinCeuticals one.

Hannah Furst:
Oh yeah, the Ultra Defense.

Hannah English:
Yeah. It's so good. And I'm going to try some [L'Oreal Rosy 00:14:58]. So that's exciting. Yeah, because I L'Oreal have their own special patented UV filters.

Hannah Furst:
Okay.

Hannah English:
And no other brands except L'Oreal Group can use them at the moment.

Hannah Furst:
Oh.

Hannah English:
So, they're like a little bit extra [crosstalk 00:15:14].

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. I did not know that.

Hannah Furst:
I didn't know that either. That's interesting.

Hannah English:
That's really cool.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
The SkinCeuticals one has like... It has a lot of UV filters in it, like a combination of different ones. So I really love that because then you get like a dynamic sun protection, I guess.

Hannah Furst:
Interesting. And you do... Just back on, just really quick. You do that 'Today SPF'?

Hannah English:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hannah Furst:
Can you tell us a bit about that?

Hannah English:
Oh yeah. Okay. So my friend and I, he's based in the US, so I guess we get like a cross season thing going, but we just get people to share what sunscreen they're using every day and tag us and then we can share that. So I guess the point of it was A, to remind people, and B, to just share like what people are using every day in case you haven't found your fave yet.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. Now away from SPF, can you tell us what is hyaluronic acid?

Hannah English:
Okay. It's like a chain of sugars stuck to each other and it can be quite a big molecule, but it uniquely traps a lot of water and it's an integral part of the extracellular matrix. So it kind of sits between all our skin cells and joints as well and eyeballs, randomly, and just like holds water, contributes to the structure and the shape and also has a little bit of a immune activity.

Hannah English:
I guess our body makes a lot of it on its own too, so it makes it and puts it in between the cells. Over half of our body's hyaluronic acid is in our skin.

Hannah Furst:
Oh, interesting.

Hannah English:
I thought that was fun fact.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. So in the skincare form... So it is naturally occurring in our bodies and in our skin?

Hannah English:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hannah Furst:
When it is created in skincare, how does that differ? So it's synthetically formulated to perform on our skin?

Hannah English:
Yeah. So depending on the size of it, because you can get like a few different molecular weights, they call it, a few different sizes and the smaller ones will go further into your skin and the bigger ones will sit on top, which is still a good thing because they kind of trap the water. And yeah, it can just sort of make it fill out, so it's a bit more like plump looking.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, that's exactly what it does.

Hannah English:
Yeah. Especially... There are some really good ones and there are some like not so great ones in skincare products I find. But yeah, when you get a good one you're like, "Oh wow, I look five years younger now."

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
"I'll just keep putting that on."

Hannah Furst:
So for anyone who is listening and is thinking, "Well hyaluronic acid has the word acid in it, but so does glycolic acid and salicylic acid." How can you explain the difference between those kind of acids? Because hyaluronic acid isn't something that resurfaces the skin like those ingredients can. So is that the only key difference?

Hannah English:
Yeah. It gives back to the skin more than taking from it. That was my key takeaway. It doesn't exfoliate compared to your hydroxy acids and it doesn't increase UV sensitivity as well. So it's a lot more of a soothing molecule.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
So with hydroxy acids, I wouldn't use them every day. Whereas with hyaluronic, I love using it like twice a day, and you won't have any issues at all.

Hannah Furst:
So hyaluronic acid, how does it improve the function of healthy skin? Because I find that it's probably the number one ingredient I'd recommend to someone who is wanting to help support their skin barrier.

Hannah English:
Definitely because it is basically the key thing that's in between your skin cells. Yeah, you want to replenish it. It only lasts like a day in the skin as well. So your body is constantly making it and turning it over, but as we age we have less in like that upper part of our skin and the same amount in the lower layers. But I guess like our whole bodies, it just needs water to function, it's being held in there. I think that's it really, is just that your barrier is the most important thing.

Hannah English:
Barrier health is correlated with acne severity as well. So you it can do a lot of things.

Hannah Furst:
In terms of like the different consistencies of hyaluronic acid, and we've touched on this briefly maybe in our first episode, where the NIOD hyaluronic acid is like kind of watery compared to hyaluronic acid I use, like I've used like CosMedix, what's it called? CosMedix-

Hannah English:
Surge.

Hannah Furst:
Surge. Does the consistency matter, in like the delivery of the ingredient?

Hannah English:
I think if it's more gel it's... Hyaluronic acid loves to turn into a gel. So like even if you add a tiny bit of water, it'll just turn the whole thing into a gel. So I think like a varying molecular weights in the formula, giving it a more watery texture just means it's going to act at different layers.

Hannah Furst:
Okay.

Hannah English:
Whereas as a more gel like one might be [inaudible 00:19:50] on the top.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, okay.

Hannah English:
Which is still a good thing, but it depends how really into it you want the hyaluronic acid to get.

Hannah Furst:
I sometimes layer two hyaluronic acids.

Danielle Chee:
Do you? Naughty.

Hannah Furst:
I sometime use the [Medik8 00:20:02] Hydrate Intense, I think it's called.

Hannah English:
Yeah, the purple.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. And then I put the SkinCeuticals HA Intensifier over the top.

Danielle Chee:
Really? Interesting. Bougie.

Hannah Furst:
Because I'm bougie AF.

Danielle Chee:
Very.

Hannah Furst:
[crosstalk 00:20:14]. Serums that I put on top of each other.

Danielle Chee:
I know NIOD is more about like the longterm health of the skin.

Hannah Furst:
Yes.

Danielle Chee:
So that would make sense that-

Hannah Furst:
It's was a brand philosophy.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. So it would be a thinner consistency because it's penetrating deeper into the layers of the skin.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, I think it would depend on the brand. They might've done research into sort of where it sits in the skin once it's applied.

Hannah English:
I read this really interesting article that was like 'Where does this Skincare go?' Something like that, in the New York Times. And it was the most fascinating-

Hannah Furst:
Where does it go?

Hannah English:
... Science. Most of it just sits on your skin or in between your skin cells and stuff, and then some of it gets absorbed into your bloodstream, not as much and like not to worry, but yeah. Otherwise, it just comes off when you wash your face.

Hannah Furst:
Or on your pillow.

Danielle Chee:
Especially if you're not sleeping on silk.

Hannah Furst:
Yes. We both sleep on silk. So the reason for sleeping on a silk pillow case is because silk doesn't absorb as much as cotton. So if you're putting your face onto your pillow once you've put your-

Danielle Chee:
$500 worth of serums on your face.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. Not as much of it is coming off onto your cotton pillowcase if you're using silk. So what kind of skin types is hyaluronic acid suitable for? Can everybody use it?

Hannah English:
Yes. Anyone can use it. They actually... You know how fillers that people inject into their faces are mostly made out of hyaluronic acids that have been like stabilized to stay in that shape and they'd chose it for that because it has a really low potential for reaction.

Hannah Furst:
Right.

Hannah English:
So good for sensitive skin, probably won't react, good for acne prone skin because it's lightweight, it's not going to clog you but you still need water. And then for dry skin you just probably need moisturizer over top and it kind of will like push it in and hold the water in more instead of it escaping into the atmosphere.

Danielle Chee:
It's probably the one ingredient that's actually suitable for everyone pretty much. Right?

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, I'd say [inaudible 00:22:02], you might as well.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. But definitely I always tell people, you need to HA for sure. What forms does hyaluronic acid come in and how can we find it on an ingredients label? What are the other names for it that way might see?

Hannah English:
I wrote a list because I wanted to make sure that I [crosstalk 00:22:19] the right thing. Mostly I see sodium hyaluronic, so that one is a salt form and it's just stabilized so that it absorbs better and you can get it at the right size to do what it needs it to do.

Hannah English:
There's a new one called sodium [butaroyl 00:22:40] hyaluronate and that one is designed to better penetrate through like oils so it can get further into skin and it can pull water through as well.

Hannah English:
You might see sodium hyaluronic crosspolymer. So, that one is structured to sit more on top of this skin so that it sort of moisturizers better. You'll see hydrolyzed sodium hyaluronic. So that's a really small one that can help repair damage and act as an antioxidant as well. And that gets in further because it's smaller. And then you might just see hyaluronic acid. But yeah, that one will turn into a gel real easily. So I guess it's a bit harder to formulate and you don't see it as often. And I found another one called sodium acetylated hyaluronate. And that one's been modified to just improve moisture retention so that you have longer lasting surface hydration. So that will maybe help stop, if your skin like eats your makeup or you get flaky or anything like that.

Hannah Furst:
Now probably the best question of this interview, what are your favorite HA serums? Please tell us?

Hannah English:
They're all on Adore Beauty.

Danielle Chee:
We did not tell her-

Hannah Furst:
No, we didn't tell her to say that. You're actually allowed to choose other products from other ranges.

Danielle Chee:
You can say other things.

Hannah English:
So the first one, NIOD, the MMHC2, because it is quite a watery so you don't find it... Yeah, it gets tacky, so if tacky's not your vibe, the Medik8 Hydrate B5 Intense, so in a purple bottle, because that's got a number of other things in it as well to help with the barrier. So, amino acids, I think there was like ceramides as well.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, I think so.

Hannah English:
So it's just really good at helping repair that barrier, and it's quite lightweight as well. And then Alpha-H Hyaluronic 8. I love that one because it's got like anti-pollution in it as well. So they have this ingredient which is called [pollushield 00:24:35], and it's a strong antioxidant and they've got some other tech that like sort of traps particles from the atmosphere and especially with things the way they are with the air quality, I am thinking more and more about anti-pollution. So I like that one for just like in morning serum.

Hannah Furst:
And that's an affordable option as well. I'm pretty sure that's only about $70-

Danielle Chee:
I was going to say 60.

Hannah Furst:
So, for us stingy bitches... Why is it 60?

Danielle Chee:
So, we lost touch though. Is that actually expensive?

Hannah Furst:
For a high quality hyaluronic acid, that's affordable in my humble opinion.

Danielle Chee:
Do you use it twice a day? Do you as well? Or four times a day for you?

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. I probably, ah, I definitely use-

Danielle Chee:
Oh, she does double.

Hannah Furst:
Because I'm doing double. I use a morning serum. I'm using an Estee Lauder serum at the moment in the morning, which is their brightening treatment.

Danielle Chee:
That's it. Just one serum in the morning?

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. And then my sunscreen.

Danielle Chee:
Oh my god.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. I'm very low key in the mornings.

Danielle Chee:
So low key.

Hannah Furst:
Way more extra at night. But I'm low key in the morning. But I'm pretty sure that has hyaluronic acid.

Danielle Chee:
Hyaluronic acid is the only thing that I regularly... Like I use twice a day. I don't think I use anything else. Like, sometimes I skip my vitamin C, like I'm just not regular like I am with hyaluronic acid.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. I love my HA.

Danielle Chee:
Just because it's smooths and plumps, I just love it.

Hannah Furst:
It really does just bring your skin to life.

Danielle Chee:
It does.

Hannah Furst:
I find if I'm looking dead in the morning and I put that on, it just really gives me a lift, enough that I can go to work and look alive.

Hannah English:
Yeah. And like you can use it after treatments as well. So even if I can't use anything, I can still use hyaluronic acid.

Hannah Furst:
I know they always say don't use any other [actives 00:26:07] but you can use hyaluronic acid.

Danielle Chee:
It an active, right?

Hannah Furst:
Well, it is an active ingredient. Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
I wouldn't call it an active, I guess I put things into two camps, like it's giving back to your skin or it's taking away. So-

Danielle Chee:
Oh, I like that.

Hannah English:
... It's a giving back one. Well, it makes it really easy to go, "Oh, what can I take? What can my skin take today?"

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
"Nothing? Okay. Hyaluronic."

Hannah Furst:
What other ingredients sit in your giving back to the skin category?

Hannah English:
Ceramides, basically just like an inert moisturizer, a [inaudible 00:26:39], cholesterol, you get that [inaudible 00:26:43] that helps with the barrier as well, amino acids. Anything that your skin makes as part of the barrier anyway. And then I guess just like cleansers so don't drip.

Hannah Furst:
What's your skincare routine at the moment?

Hannah English:
I do like a double cleanse in the evening. So I really like The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser.

Hannah Furst:
I like that too.

Hannah English:
I have the Mesoestetic, the milk cleanser.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
That's a nice second cleanse, although the SkinCeuticals gentle cleanser as well because it's like hotter and greasier.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
So I kind of want to gel and then I'll do acid night, retanol night, and then like probably two nights off, or if I'm feeling game I'll do retinol night twice in a row and then two nights off.

Hannah Furst:
Oh. Ah. So you do acid, retinol two nights off or retinal two nights then two nights off?

Hannah English:
Yeah. So long as it's two nights off because the retinol takes like a couple of days to [inaudible 00:27:39] your skin out. Right?

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
So I can't just the next day and then think I'll be fine or else my face will fall off like later in the week.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Hannah English:
We've all been there.

Hannah Furst:
Yes, we have.

Hannah English:
Yes. I don't know what else at night. I don't really like having cream at night this time of year, but going into winter I like to add oil to my moisturizer.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, same. Well thank you so much for joining us, Hannah, to just talk about hyaluronic acid. Where can people find you if they want to stalk you on Instagram?

Hannah English:
My Instagram is at @ms_hannah_e. I'm trying to catalog the content onto my website now, but it looks a little bit embarrassing at the moment, so.

Hannah Furst:
So if I want to say skin content, head to Insta.

Hannah English:
Yeah, we'll update from there if we need to.

Hannah Furst:
Great. Thanks for coming.

Hannah Furst:
So, onto the products we didn't know we needed. What's yours today?

Danielle Chee:
Yes. So I've gone for a shampoo, which I think I've talked about a shampoo before. I was raving about [Iles 00:28:40] formula, which I still love, but I did get my hair lightened a lot more. So I am much blonder at the moment. And Jaye Edwards from Edwards and Co, recommended the Virtue Recovery Shampoo to help repair my hair. So, my hair takes color really well, I don't often find that I have breakage or anything like that, but this one is a sulfate free shampoo, it's designed for damaged, stressed, dehydrated hair. It has a thing called Alpha Keratin in it. Have you heard this story?

Hannah Furst:
No.

Danielle Chee:
Oh. So when we first launched it I like did this like deep dive into the brand because I was so fascinated by it. So, basically a retired army Colonel-

Hannah Furst:
How well do you know this?

Danielle Chee:
I don't.

Hannah Furst:
Did you do training?

Danielle Chee:
I was like... No, no, no. I just got deep into Wikipedia. Not Wikipedia. I got deep into like the Google and just like researching this brand. And I only had to do one Instagram post, but somehow learnt so much about the brand. So anyway, he was leading this medicine lab in America and they were working on how to heal injuries from the battlefield, like wound healing using keratin. And so in that process they found a way to extract human keratin in its purest form, which is what Virtue uses, which is Alpha Keratin 60ku. That human keratin has the power to heal burn wounds and regrow tissue, and by chance they found that it also repairs the hair. So the Alpha Keratin 60ku is extracted from ethically sourced human hair. The reason they do that is because our bodies recognize it and treat it as our own keratin.

Hannah Furst:
Right. Look at [crosstalk 00:30:25].

Danielle Chee:
I know. And so it basically binds to the areas of damage and fills them in.

Hannah Furst:
Well, that makes a lot of sense.

Danielle Chee:
It's such an interesting brand with such an interesting history.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, because I think that ingredient's in like all their products, isn't it?

Danielle Chee:
Yeah, the Alpha Keratin. So yeah, it's meant to help to repair the hair cuticle. So if you've got really damaged hair, this ingredient is great for that. I think it might be patented to Virtue.

Hannah Furst:
It is. Yeah, it is.

Danielle Chee:
So it has some really nice nourishing, repairing ingredients. The thing I love most about it is it smells amazing.

Hannah Furst:
Oh, I love their stuff, yeah.

Danielle Chee:
It smells like... I can't describe, it's kind of like almost a vanilla caramel.

Hannah Furst:
And also the packaging's really nice.

Danielle Chee:
Also, the packaging's nice. It is relatively expensive. It's kind of in that professional haircare kind of price range, but I really love it. I usually do a double shampoo with that and my Ills formula. So, that is my product I didn't know I needed. Hannah, and what's yours?

Hannah Furst:
So, we actually spoke about this earlier. I wasn't expecting us to talk about [inaudible 00:31:23]. Yeah, sorry. Mine is Aspect Extreme B 17, which we spoke about earlier on the episode. So basically why I've chosen this was, I'm just getting back to basics because I actually was... Remember I was like getting ready for the wedding and I started breaking out?

Danielle Chee:
Yeah.

Hannah Furst:
Do you think it was stress related?

Danielle Chee:
Probably.

Hannah Furst:
You actually said to me you were like, "Why don't you use [inaudible 00:31:45]?" And I just like, I use it, but I didn't really think about using it to prevent breakouts. So I started using it like every night in the lead up to the wedding and it worked a treat.

Danielle Chee:
You're welcome.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. But can you tell me a bit more about what [inaudible 00:32:02] does? I know who've spoken about it before because you had said to me, "Drop all of your other actives in the lead up to the wedding.", Because I was going a bit hardcore on my Power Peel in a few weeks before and so my skin probably freaked out a bit and so I literally pared it back and I did hyaluronic acid and this Aspect B 17.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. So, it's vitamin B3, so it helps to support the skin's barrier. It can help to prevent fine lines and wrinkles. It helps to prevent breakouts. It's just an all round like supportive ingredient. One of those ingredients, as Hannah said, gives back to the skin as opposed to taking away from it.

Hannah Furst:
Not me, Hannah, the other Hannah.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah, the other Hannah.

Hannah Furst:
I was like, "When did I say?"

Danielle Chee:
So, it's great for people that have like an impaired barrier and are looking to restore that strength back to it.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, that's exactly what it did. And I had no pimples on the wedding, which was-

Danielle Chee:
Yeah.

Hannah Furst:
I was like really freaking out.

Danielle Chee:
I was almost expecting you to get like a big whopper on your chin or something because I just felt like that was something that would happen to you.

Hannah Furst:
I know. I was expecting it too-

Danielle Chee:
And then you'd be like calling me and crying [crosstalk 00:00:33:03].

Hannah Furst:
Well, because usually I'm a little bit reckless with the [crosstalk 00:33:06] and I wouldn't really like think twice, but I really stopped in the week leading up and I just did [crosstalk 00:33:12] and hyaluronic acid, and really worked.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah.

Hannah Furst:
Because it also brightens the skin, doesn't it?

Danielle Chee:
Yes.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. So, it's kind of like, it was like a wonder serum for me in the lead up to an event [crosstalk 00:33:22].

Danielle Chee:
It's a wonder ingredient. I love [inaudible 00:33:24], I think it's underrated.

Danielle Chee:
So to finish off this episode, we want to share some of the results of a survey we recently did. What was the survey?

Hannah Furst:
So it was, which host are you more like?

Danielle Chee:
Yes.

Hannah Furst:
70% of people got me.

Danielle Chee:
Of course, they did.

Hannah Furst:
Which I think they tried to rig, they were like, "Yeah, I [inaudible 00:33:40]."

Danielle Chee:
No, I reckon because their listeners of the podcast.

Hannah Furst:
True. They've learned-

Danielle Chee:
They've probably learned a lot.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
And they probably... I mean, I'm more like you now. If I did the survey now, I'd be more like you.

Hannah Furst:
You reckon?

Danielle Chee:
Yeah, I reckon.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
We had over a thousand people, which is like quite statistically significant.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
Can I share my favorite?

Hannah Furst:
Yes, absolutely.

Danielle Chee:
So, my favorite... We basically asked people a whole bunch of questions to see which host they were most like. And there was some really interesting insights.

Danielle Chee:
The most interesting for me was that almost 13% of people surveyed wear a pantyliner every day.

Hannah Furst:
So if you're one of those people, you're not alone.

Danielle Chee:
What the hell?

Hannah Furst:
So if you remember that from our... I think that was our first episode. Was it?

Danielle Chee:
No. It was second or third.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. That's really interesting. You were like, "No one. You're a freak. No one would wear them."

Danielle Chee:
No, I said maybe I'm the one that's not-

Hannah Furst:
Yeah. You said, "Am I who the psycho doesn't wear a pantyliner every day?"

Danielle Chee:
And maybe I am still.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
Another interesting thing that came out of the survey was that 45.7% of you have completely overhauled your skincare routines since listening to the podcast, which is amazing. Good for you guys.

Hannah Furst:
Good work guys.

Danielle Chee:
Please don't blame us for sending you broke. We are not responsible. 9.8% of you get your medical advice from Grey's Anatomy like me. That's quite a lot of paper.

Hannah Furst:
It is.

Danielle Chee:
I don't know if they were joking or not.

Hannah Furst:
I don't think so.

Danielle Chee:
68.4% of you also consider hyaluronic acid one of your favorite ingredients. Hannah, do you have another one?

Hannah Furst:
I really liked this one, was that almost 47% had never bothered with SPF before the podcast.

Danielle Chee:
Yes.

Hannah Furst:
But now almost 44% of you are more vigilant about their SPF, which is such a great start [crosstalk 00:35:27].

Danielle Chee:
Nearly 70% feel more confident not wearing makeup day to day, which I'm really proud of.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah, me too.

Danielle Chee:
I think that's a really awesome feat, that people are feeling confident to just be in their own skin. And also 46.5% of you are more confident ask for the anus add-on at your laser appointment, which is probably the biggest achievement in this whole podcast.

Danielle Chee:
If you're a laser therapist in like a skin clinic and you find that people are referencing the podcast, please DM us?

Hannah Furst:
I'd really like to know, actually.

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. I just want to see people actually go [crosstalk 00:36:03].

Hannah Furst:
Are people actually using the word anus add-on?

Danielle Chee:
Yeah. Like not just awkwardly like, "Are you going to do my behind?" So yeah, that was some of the really interesting takeaways that we got from that survey. So thank you to those of you who participated. I hope you're happy with the host that you got.

Hannah Furst:
Yeah.

Danielle Chee:
Thanks everyone for joining us today.

Hannah Furst:
Don't forget to subscribe and tell your friends. It helps other people to discover us. And also we really want to know what you thought about this podcast. So can you leave us a review? That would be much appreciated.