All Those Products

00:07 Julie Falls: We can start the episode just like this. 

00:09 Trina Renea: Welcome to Episode Three.

00:11 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Oh, we're starting? 

00:12 Trina Renea: Yeah. 

00:12 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I just wanted to talk about Barney's. I want to talk about lunch at Barney's again.

00:15 Trina Renea: Lunch at Barney's. I thought we were talking about Julie's pimple on her head. 

00:19 Julie Falls: I know. When I walked in, the first thing, I had to stalk Dr. Vicki and show her this pimple. Does anybody want to feel it?

00:26 Trina Renea: I didn't look at it. 

00:27 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: That's the problem with being a dermatologist, is like you literally see somebody and they'll show you something. 

00:30 Julie Falls: And I feel so bad. 

00:33 Trina Renea: It's a little guy. 

00:34 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: It's tiny. And it's not even red. It's pink.

00:36 Julie Falls: It's so painful.

00:37 Trina Renea: It's not like you can pick it. 

00:38 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: It might still have to run its course. It might not have peaked yet, just so you know. 

00:41 Julie Falls: Okay.

00:42 Trina Renea: Just ignore it. 

00:42 Julie Falls: I am seeing you soon so we can…

00:44 Trina Renea: Just ignore it. It will be gone by then. Put a hot pack on it. 

00:48 Julie Falls: Put a warm compress. 

00:50 Trina Renea: Right. Okay. So this is our third episode of Facially Conscious. I'm very excited.

00:57 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Same. 

00:59 Trina Renea: What Facially Conscious really is, is us talking about the truth behind all these different things that are out there, all the marketing, getting down to what is Botox, what is fillers, what are lasers, what are products, what are ingredients…

01:15 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: What is retinol.

01:16 Trina Renea: What is everything, but really talking about it and breaking it down, episode by episode. I think that's what we're here to do. 

I'm an esthetician. We have Dr. Vicki Rapaport, who's a dermatologist. And we have our overly educated consumer, who's going to ask us lots of questions in episode four. 

01:36 Julie Falls: Julie Falls, yes.

01:37 Trina Renea: Julie Falls. You beat me.

01:41 Julie Falls: I'm sorry. Sometimes you leave my name out when you're introducing us. 

01:44 Trina Renea: I do?

01:44 Julie Falls: I think so. I think I'm just the overly educated consumer with no name. 

01:50 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: But you do have a website, right?

01:52 Julie Falls: Yeah.

01:52 Trina Renea: You’re Juliedotcom.com. 

01:54 Julie Falls: I think when we launch, hopefully it'll be soon, then I can sort of…

01:59 Trina Renea: Jump off it. 

02:00 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: We're not going to give you a personal email. 

02:02 Trina Renea: Oh, and Patrick, if you have any questions for us, please let us know. 

02:06 Julie Falls: Yeah, we'll have a man's point of view. 

02:07 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: We will have an episode about men's beauty. 

02:09 Trina Renea: Yeah, and you can also throw things out if you want to twist us up a little bit and get upset with us. Go ahead. 

Also, if we talk about anything, can you write it down, please? 

02:20 Patrick: Talk about anything? 

02:20 Trina Renea: Yeah, like anything we talk about, if we're talking about a brand or something, or a picture or something, just write it down so that we can show our viewers, our subscribers, which, by the way, we have a YouTube channel. And we do this on video as well as on our podcast. 

So if you want to watch it on YouTube, you can. You can subscribe to our channel there and also ask us questions there that we would love to answer.

02:43 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Okay, and if Patrick doesn't want to write it down, because he looks really busy over there on his iPhone, I'm happy to write it down for you. 

02:49 Trina Renea: Yeah, pay attention.

02:50 Patrick: I got you.

02:52 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: All right. I'm going to write it down. I'm the designated note taker. 

02:54 Julie Falls: What are we talking about today?

02:56 Trina Renea: Yeah, Julie, what are we talking about today? First, let's take a quick break. We are Facially Conscious. You can find us at Facially Conscious everywhere.

03:10 Julie Falls: Faciallyconscious.com.

03:12 Trina Renea: We are here to talk today. What are we talking about today before we go to break? 

03:17 Julie Falls: I think we're talking about more fillers.

03:21 Trina Renea: We are in Episode Three. We're talking about all those crazy products and things out there. 

03:30 Julie Falls: Is that what we're talking about today?

03:31 Trina Renea: Yeah. 

03:32 Julie Falls: Okay. I guess that... 

03:35 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: We're going to go into your closet and look at all your products. 

03:36 Julie Falls: We're going into my closet. 

03:37 Trina Renea: Yeah.

03:38 Julie Falls: It really is never ending, I have to say. 

03:41 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I love products.

03:41 Julie Falls: Are we taking a break or should I talk about it?

03:42 Trina Renea: Yeah. No, we'll be right back. 

03:43 Julie Falls: Okay. 

03:44 Trina Renea: I have to get a sip of grape juice. 

(music)

03:57 Julie Falls: So we are back, and today on Facially Conscious we're going to talk about products. Oh, my goodness, between the dermatologist and the plastic surgeon and the department store and the spa, there are just a myriad. And people are kind of overwhelmed about everything that you're able to access through the internet.

04:23 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Oh, my goodness. 

04:25 Julie Falls: And all the different…

04:26 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: From all the other countries. 

04:27 Julie Falls: Absolutely.

04:28 Trina Renea: I mean, there's thousands of product lines now.

04:30 Julie Falls: And there are spas online. Exactly. International. How are you to choose, really, what to buy? There's marketing and packaging. It's so good. We tend to buy things that— I mean, I don't know about you but I watch Violet Grey and they recommend things. And then that will lead me to Goop, and that will lead me to a video about this. Then you're on Instagram and, the next thing you know, you're spiraling into product heaven.

04:59 Trina Renea: So how do you choose what to buy?

05:00 Julie Falls: How do you choose?

05:01 Trina Renea: How do you choose?

05:03 Julie Falls: I definitely will talk to a doctor or talk to an esthetician. But I've sent you guys things before and you say, "Well, this is very commercial. They're trying to sell things," which is understandable. 

05:17 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Oh, you mean like that podcast? 

05:20 Julie Falls: Yeah. 

05:20 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yes, of course. Yeah, everything is mentioned because they want to sell it. 

05:23 Trina Renea: Everything is a story now. Yeah. It's like stories, packaging, where the owner went to the Amazon and there were people digging up dirt with their hands and then they found their hands were like perfect.

05:37 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: That was the sake one, ____ [05:38], like all these sake people were perfect hands when they worked in the sake factories and realized it was some extract from the wines. They put it into skincare. 

05:46 Trina Renea: Yeah, but they say that about everything. 

05:47 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yeah, it's a branding story. 

05:50 Trina Renea: So there's a lot of product lines out there right now. I believe it's because of the internet and the inter-webs that, once they came in, we used to get product lines from reps and there were like big companies. They would sell to you. But then the internet happened and it was so easy to buy things for cheap on the internet, which you did. 

You introduced that to me right when it happened, because I was selling a brand. It was going great. Everybody was buying just from me. There was no internet buying. Then Julie came in one day and I said, "Do you need products?" And she said, "No, I got it online for 20% off." 

I was like, "What? What are you talking about?" I was so mad.

06:36 Julie Falls: I was trying to be honest with you. 

06:38 Trina Renea: And I was like, "You know what? I have to give her 20% off, so she'll buy from me." And then I called the company that we're talking about. 

06:46 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Can we talk about that company?

06:48 Trina Renea: Can we? 

06:49 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yes, talk about it.

06:50 Trina Renea: It's Jan Marini, which is a product line I love, Jan Marini. And so I called them and I was like, “What do we do about this horrible thing that's happening?” 

And they are like, “We do not support the internet. We do not support internet sales. We have lawyers that are stopping people from selling, discounting.” I mean, this was in the beginning. 

07:08 Julie Falls: Right, because I was going to say these were a big deal, having websites where their stuff is promoted.

07:14 Trina Renea: Right. Now, it's all over, like you couldn't fight it. At that time, in that moment of whatever year that was, all of a sudden, private label and all this, we have to have our own brand because then they can't buy it online. So everybody started making their own brands. Estheticians, doctors, you had to find a way to make money and so that's how I got into the whole thing. 

But, now, there's thousands and thousands of product lines. Anybody can make them.

07:46 Julie Falls: Every doctor.

07:47 Trina Renea: You could make a product line. All you have to do is go to your lab and be like, “I want a product line…”

07:48 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Kylie Jenner, she decided to make…

07:52 Trina Renea: And they'll hook it all up for you. If you have money, they'll make a story for you. They'll make some pretty packaging. They'll put stuff in it and you'll have a story and you'll be selling a brand. That's what's happening now. It's really oversaturated. It's hard to decide what to buy.

08:06 Julie Falls: Yeah, it is. It is. I think, for me, if I know somebody or even if I see somebody I don't know and I think they have something great going on with their skin, I'll say, “What are you using?” 

And there are influencers online who obviously are getting paid to promote things, but sometimes they have kind of great skin and I'll notice that. 

Do you have a little friend visiting you in the form of a fly? 

08:35 Trina Renea: I do. It wants my grape juice. 

08:37 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: It wants your grape juice, yeah. 

08:39 Julie Falls: I mean, I'm an exception to the rule because I will try a lot of things, but I will weed them out. I'm pretty constant. I'll stay with…

08:48 Trina Renea: I have one thing to say about that, what you just said, though. Looking at someone's skin and being like, "What do you use?" Because your friends, a couple of your friends used, or one of them in particular, used to do that a lot. The two of you have completely different skin, 100% different. What I recommend to you, I don't recommend to her because it wouldn't work for her because she needed something else. 

So when you ask somebody like, "What products do you use? Your skin is great.” Or, “What do you do to make your skin look like this?” And they tell you…

I mean, I see this happen in my mom's group all the time, where people are like, “Oh, my God, this thing makes my skin look amazing. Look at my skin.” And then everybody sees the picture, it's like, “Oh, my God, I want that." “Me too, me too.” “Oh, me too. I'm going to buy that. Oh, my God.”

And then you hear girls go like, “Oh, it didn't work for me.” “It didn't work for me either. Oh, so weird.”

And then, “Oh, it worked for me.” And I'm like, “Oh, my God,” because we all have different skin. 

The more important thing is, is to find out what ingredients are in that. You should know. I feel like I educate people but people should educate themselves on what ingredients are out there and what really works for them.

Do I have dry skin or oily skin? So do I need hyaluronic acid, because I'm lacking water in my skin? Or do I need squalane or some oil because I'm lacking oil? Or maybe I need a little of both because I'm dry and dehydrated? You know what I mean?

10:11 Julie Falls: Of course.

10:11 Trina Renea: And that’s why I have acne. I should be using some salicylic acid.

10:13 Julie Falls: I'm lucky that I have you to bounce things off of.

10:17 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Right. And a lot of people don't have dermatologists or estheticians. So they go to Sephora and the Sephora rep or the Sephora salesperson who just talked to the rep who came in and told them all about that new product line will recommend that product line, but I think part of the reason why I make my skincare birthday cake that I talked about last podcast is because it is so confusing with the ingredients out there.

And you're right about the lines, like there's so many lines out there. You literally don't even have to have a degree or be a chemist or know anything about ingredients to start a line. You just have to have the passion. But you're right, there's a lot of crap out there.

And what kills me and makes me literally laugh out loud, like you’ll find me laughing out loud in a Sephora aisle because the stuff is so expensive too, for crap. There's no reason why this stuff should be expensive. 

And patients will come in and bring their products and I'll always look to see, obviously, not only if it's good for them and their skin but I'll look to see if there's a price tag on it. Because, oftentimes, they'll still have it in the box. 

And this one man who wasn't particularly interested in skin but just had a skincare product from, I guess, a girlfriend or a friend, and it was like this tiny little sunscreen. It was $59. I just was floored because I feel like that's a lot of money for a little.

11:27 Trina Renea: For a half-ounce.

11:28 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Barely. It was practically like an ounce, but it was some fancy line. I can't even remember what it was. But I said, “You know, you really don't have to spend this kind of money to get something good. You can spend 30 bucks.” 

Don't go too, too low, because some of those cheap lines are cheap for a reason. They have crappy ingredients. I love that word, crap. I'm so sorry. It's such an ugly word.

11:46 Julie Falls: That really works.

11:47 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: But they do have cheap ingredients. You don't want to go too low but you also don't want to spend a fortune, like the podcast that you forwarded to us in the email.

11:53 Trina Renea: I was just going to bring that up with the $450 oil. 

11:56 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: $450 oil? How do they justify that? 

11:59 Trina Renea: Then they said there's like 36 different ingredients in there. Let me tell you something that's important to know. And that is you have to have a certain percentage of an ingredient in a product in order for it to do what it says it's going to do.

So when the people are selling that to the chemist, they're like, “You have to put at least 0.5 whatever milliliters into a product in order for it to do all these things we're claiming the ingredient can do. 

So you have to put those things. I mean, people can put a million ingredients in there. It doesn't mean that it's going to do anything, because it doesn't have enough of anything in it to actually make a difference.

I hate it when people claim to have like there's 36 amazing ingredients that do this, this, this, this. Yeah, sure. If there was enough of it in the bottle, but there's not, and they're charging $450.

12:51 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: What's your go-to product right now? Do you have a top three items that you love?

12:58 Julie Falls: You know, Trina probably isn't a fan. My constant is Jan Marini, and I really love Biologique Recherche. I've found that it's been so good for my skin, for my rosacea. 

I told you about the ____ [13:15] product, the SkinCeuticals. 

13:19 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: You did. I like that product.

13:21 Trina Renea: You sell that.

13:22 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: No, we don't actually sell, but I do like it.

13:24 Trina Renea: You don’t have SkinCeuticals anymore?

13:25 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Not anymore. No, we're done with them. 

13:27 Julie Falls: I love some of Trina's products. I have to say I'm a product junkie, but when something works, I'll stick with it. It'll become part of my regime. 

Of course, now, I'm a little obsessed with talking to you about starting Retin-A. I don't know if it's going to be right for me. 

13:44 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: My favorite subject. 

13:45 Julie Falls: I know. Because I know Suzanne has— her skin is like next level, and now she's been doing that. I'm like, “Oh, maybe that will be my next thing.” But I don't know if I can handle it. 

13:55 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Right. We'll see. How about you, Trina?

13:57 Trina Renea: Are you going to start her with a low dose? 

14:01 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I'm just going to sock it to her. 

14:02 Trina Renea: Hey, over there. 

14:04 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I'm going to hit her with a low dose. But usually, when we start people on Retin-A, we always go slow. 

14:08 Julie Falls: Did you try it?

14:09 Trina Renea: Me? With Retin-A? I don't know if I've ever used Retin-A. 

14:15 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: - Why not? 

14:16 Trina Renea: I don't know. 

14:16 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I'm so surprised. 

14:17 Julie Falls: Because I think you and I both have sensitive skin. For me, I was afraid of my rosacea.

14:22 Trina Renea: I always use the same things and that worked for my skin and Retin-A was not in it. But then I started using retinol at one point.

14:31 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Have you noticed a difference? 

14:32 Trina Renea: I don't know. 

14:33 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: See, it's weak. 

14:35 Trina Renea: But she never changes it up, and I feel like, I think it's important, especially as you age, to change it up. 

14:39 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I do too. Okay, so can I ask you, Trina?

14:41 Trina Renea: I change it a little. 

14:42 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Can you tell me what your favorite products are right now?

14:46 Trina Renea: I don't like to talk about product lines in public.

14:48 Julie Falls: She doesn't change it up.

14:50 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Oh, you don't? That is so cute.

14:53 Trina Renea: I don't want to advertise to the public what I like. What I like to advertise and, you know, I teach also these little classes for women who are super confused, especially in my mom's group. There's a group called Wrinkles, Wrinkles, Wrinkles. And as a group of moms who are obsessed with products, and there's a lot of them…

15:19 Julie Falls: Can we come and watch?

15:20 Trina Renea: Well, it's a Facebook group. 

15:24 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Oh, so it's virtual.

15:25 Trina Renea: Yeah, virtual.

15:27 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I mean you like sit back in that room?

15:28 Trina Renea: No, no, no, but I do a class for them. Yes. So I put together these little classes because they all confuse each other a little bit. And it's all with love. They want to share with each other what is working for them and what they discovered and what they found and they share it. 

But then all of them end up buying a whole bunch of this stuff and then they get all confused because they discover, then they start posting pictures of all their products and they're like, “Which one do I use first? And like what order do I put it in?”

Then I get pulled in.

15:59 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I think you and I know too much about products and ingredients, and let them buy those…

16:03 Trina Renea: So the class that I kind of share is there is what I say is the basic five. These are the five things that you should use and then everything beyond that is kind of icing on the cake, depending. It's very person-specific.

16:21 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Correct. 

16:21 Trina Renea: Number one, cleanse your skin with cleanser. Okay. Number two, antioxidants. Antioxidants are super important because they fight free radical damage that causes your face to age more rapidly.

16:38 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: What’s your favorite free radical antioxidant? 

16:42 Trina Renea: Mine. 

16:43 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Okay, what's in it? 

16:45 Trina Renea: There's 18 different superfruits and antioxidants in it.

16:48 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Is that that one right there?

16:49 Trina Renea: Yeah. But we don't talk about that. What's important is that you do antioxidants. And the other important thing about antioxidants is that you use a blend of antioxidants because there's a lot. Like 12, I can't remember, 12 to 14 free radical families, not just one. 

17:05 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Oh, she's turning around to look at the product. 

17:07 Julie Falls: Oh, I’ve used it before.

17:09 Trina Renea: So there's several free radical families. Vitamin C works on some of them, it doesn't work on all of them. So you want a blend of different— they'll blend Vitamin C, E, A, ferulic acid, Idebenone, coffee berry bean, and resveratrol. There's different ones that if you do a blend, then it fights more of the free radical families. 

I just think it's important to use that, especially when you live in a town where you have sun and you have pollution and big cities. But even small towns, I think antioxidants are important. That's the second step. 

Third step is some kind of exfoliation to help get off the dead skin layers, to help regenerate that cell growth, to also help keep your pores clear so you don't get blackheads or pimples or whatever kind of acne you get. And that's step three. 

Step four is a moisturizer. And step five is a sunscreen. These are your basics. 

And so I feel like if everybody can look into their cabinet and say, “Do I have these five steps? Oh, I have like eight antioxidants, three cleansers.” But, you know, they have multiples of things that they buy. 

I think it's more important to be conscious of what ingredients are in the product you're buying that you're going, “Oh, my God, that sounds so amazing.” You're like, “What is it?” “Oh, it's a hyaluronic acid.” “I already have five of those. Do I really need that?” Probably not. “Let me use mine up and then I'll try that.” They start to get confused. 

18:50 Julie Falls: That's what I did.

18:51 Trina Renea: So I'm like, divide up your products. And then you can add peptides and growth factors and all these new ingredients that are going to change your skin underneath and your DNA.

19:02 Julie Falls: But get educated and know what you're using and know which order to use them. 

19:06 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yeah. And I also think it's a big deal if you finish the bottle. Like you really should finish the bottle. And if it “didn't do anything,” maybe try one more bottle because it does take a couple of times of buying a product to really have it “do anything” or do something. And of course if you didn't like the way it felt or low way it felt on your skin, then, okay, you can get to the next product, but finish your products up.

19:26 Trina Renea: I tell people that all the time.

19:28 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Stop hoarding products.

19:28 Julie Falls: I was very interested in the Biologique and I found the spa in New York and Philadelphia called Rescue, and they're wonderful because they'll do consultations. I sent her, one of their estheticians a whole… at that point, I think I was still struggling with the rosacea. I'm always looking for, and why not, what can help with something like rosacea? Let's see if there's something new out there.

And a friend of mine was using the Biologique products and her skin was markedly different. 

20:04 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Because she was consistent too. That’s what I think.

20:05 Julie Falls: She was consistent, but I said to her, “This is what I already have and this is what I'm interested in.” She came up with some ideas. 

And then when I ordered a few of them, I came to Trina and I said, “Here's everything that I'd like to be using.” And she said, “Well, this will cancel this out. You don't need it. Finish this up first,” whatever. Then she put them in the proper order for me.

So I do try. And, as you say, I think finishing up what you have before you go on to something else is very important.

20:35 Trina Renea: Yeah, I agree. And you're right, finishing a bottle. Because it takes six to eight weeks to see a change in your skin, so you at least want to do a bottle. A bottle should last six to eight weeks, maybe.

And if you're feeling good about it and you're like, “I think it's doing something,” yeah, give it another chance. But I think people dabble in things for a couple, two, three days and they're like, “It's not really doing anything. I'm supposed to see a difference instantly.

21:01 Julie Falls: I'm going to say also, it doesn't really matter what you're using if you're not taking care of your skin with washing your face before you go to bed and sunscreen every day. And then you need to have some kind of exfoliation, whether it's micro. 

Mostly, I think like have regular facials, whether you're going to a dermatologist or an esthetician. That's when you're sloughing off the stuff and giving your skin a chance to regenerate then you're going to start seeing the results. Products or not products. I think that that's key. 

21:37 Trina Renea: Yeah. Do you agree, doctor? 

21:38 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I absolutely agree. And it's hard, because a lot of people, again, don't have access to that kind of thing. But if you want to do everything right, skincare is a small portion and percentage of what it takes to have really good skin. What we say in dermatology, skincare is like 10% of what you really can achieve.

21:54 Julie Falls: I'm just going to say, if you don't, instead of spending a lot of money in Sephora, treat yourself to a little microdermabrasion treatment.

22:02 Trina Renea: In esthetician world, what we tell people is, 90% is what you do at home. 

22:09 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Okay, in the esthetician world, meaning like there's only so much they can do, but remember in my world, we're dealing with tightening and wrinkles and relaxing muscles.

22:14 Trina Renea: Right. I mean, like we can get dead skin off and clear your pores and do some machines and things but, really, it's that whole month that you're at home, keeping up the product and washing your face and putting on sunscreen.

22:26 Julie Falls: You can't have one without the other. That's about it. 

22:28 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: It's interesting. What an interesting thing. 

22:29 Trina Renea: Isn't that funny? 

22:30 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Together, it's 100%. 

22:31 Trina Renea: Exactly. Yours is like 10% and I'm like 90%. 

Anyway, so we're going to break for a second. I need to…

22:41 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Take some more grape juice. 

22:42 Trina Renea: Yeah. So we'll be right back. 

22:44 Julie Falls: Yeah, we'll be right back. 

(music) 

22:56 Trina Renea: Yes, we're back. 

22:58 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: So, during break, Julie wanted to try a sample of that amazing oxygen serum and you said you don't sample. Can you tell me why? Because I'm curious. That's brilliant. 

23:09 Trina Renea: Yeah, because you need to use a product at least for six, eight weeks to see a difference in your skin. If somebody gives you a sample for a one try or a two or three-day try, all you’re really doing is touching and feeling a product. You cannot get any idea from that.

So I feel like sampling is a waste of time because then you'll potentially not get a sale because somebody's going to sample it and go, "Oh, I didn't notice anything." You’ll never notice anything.

23:37 Julie Falls: Well, there's different ways of sampling. I mean, a lot of places will give you a little tiny container of something, like eye cream. I have such high sensitivity. 

23:45 Trina Renea: Well, of course, that's a great way to make sure you're not allergic. 

23:47 Julie Falls: So they give you a little thing and you go home and just use it. I mean, you could have one of those in some of those little containers and have people take it home with them and use it for a while.

23:56 Trina Renea: Well, I do test with, I'll let people touch and feel it here, but I'm like anything that is going to make a difference in your skin has to be done day after day after day with repetition in order to see a difference in the skin. If you’re looking for a touch-feel-smell thing, we can test that right in there. 

24:16 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: That's right, but you also don't have a lot of testers out in your spa. 

24:19 Trina Renea: I do testers in the room. So, any of my clients who are on my table, everything I sell, I have in my room. So I'll be like, “Let me show you how that feels,” you know, in the room. 

I also have them under the counter at the front desk. So if somebody wants it, we can pull it out from under there. I don't put testers out on the table for people because people come in, strangers from the street, and they'll come in and they'll be like, "Oh, what's this?" And they'll be like in their armpits. 

24:48 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Ooh, baby. That’s gnarly. 

24:49 Trina Renea: Yes, it's really disgusting, so I don't put things out. I squirt things in people's hands, take a little bit of it on the hand.

24:55 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: That's good for somebody who's building a spa and building that kind of…

24:59 Trina Renea: Or if you're a storefront and stuff like that.

25:01 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Little tips for people. 

25:02 Julie Falls: Yeah, very true. 

25:03 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: But if Sephora didn't have testers, they would go out of business. 

25:07 Trina Renea: Right. I mean, people like to touch and feel things, and those things in Sephora are so dirty, all those testers. 

I took my daughter in there and she's like, “I want to put this on,” and I'm like, “Ah, don't touch that. Don't touch that dirty bottle.” It's like everything is…

25:21 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: The makeup is gnarly, but you could squirt some cream on you and put it on your hand.

25:24 Trina Renea: Yeah, but the stuff that…

25:27 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Dip your… like the tubs and the bottles and the jars.

25:28 Trina Renea: Yeah, and also the things where they're trying eyeliners. I mean, yes, you can file the eyeliner, but like the eye shadows? That's what she was getting into. And the lipsticks and stuff, I'm like, “Dirty. Don't touch that stuff.” Because people go like this and then they'll just put it back. How do they clean that? 

25:44 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Herpes! 

25:46 Trina Renea: How do they clean that?

25:47 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: They don’t.

25:48 Trina Renea: They don’t clean them.

25:49 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: No, they don’t. If you're a little OCD and a little germophobic, you're not doing that. But our bodies are…

25:54 Trina Renea: I went and took some of their cleaner and I cleaned off the lip thing and then I took a wand and wiped that off with a paper towel and then I let Ella try it.

26:03 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: That's awesome. 

26:04 Julie Falls: Ella's like, "I just want to try it." 

26:06 Trina Renea: I'm like, "Get out of that dirty, infested, germs." 

26:11 Julie Falls: We're going to get sued by Sephora now.

26:13 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: No.

26:14 Trina Renea: No. I mean, I hope they clean their stuff at the end of the night. Do they have a crew that goes around and cleans all the testers?

26:19 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: No.

26:20 Trina Renea: I doubt it.

26:21 Julie Falls: Forget the testers. The products in the back when you find something that you do like, and you go in the back to find your color or whatever, the box is crushed. It's missing.

26:31 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Because there's so much on display and people just don't care about those products. They're right there. They smush it. They rub that. Oh, no. 

26:41 Trina Renea: Yeah. I always recommend that people buy their products from estheticians or doctors, because we have smaller batches, smaller brands, not diluted as much as well. This is just a little lesson for all of you, but when you start with a lab, you're getting really expensive ingredients that you're putting in. The lab is working with you. You're making them in smaller batches. You don't have to make big batches.

But when you make that decision to crossover into Sephora style, like doctors, sometimes some doctor lines do and some estheticians do, you then have to create giant volume. And then you have to go, “Okay, these ingredients are really expensive.”

So we're going to go back to the lab and be like, “What do you have that's like this expensive ingredient that's not as expensive but feels and touches the same?”

27:39 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: But it doesn’t do anything.

27:41 Trina Renea: But even the filler ingredients and stuff like that, but it's a lower quality.

27:45 Julie Falls: Yeah, but you’re not going to make any money.

27:48 Trina Renea: But it's a lower quality. It's not as silky but it kind of feels silky. You don't really notice but they cheapen the ingredients. And no one's really going to notice except for the people who were buying that product before. What ends up happening is a product that was really popular and then got bought to go into Sephora then gets cheapened.

28:09 Julie Falls: Now you suddenly say it's not the same.

28:11 Trina Renea: But then, all of a sudden, all these people who've never bought that product see it there and they go, “Oh Dr. So-and-So product is in here,” and they buy it. They've never tried it before. They don't know what it's supposed to feel like. The only people who are going to notice that are the people who are using it before.

And then they notice, “Oh, it's different. I don't like it anymore,” and they switch. But this is what happens. 

So I always tell people if you want ingredients that are really going to work and do what they say they are in marketing, buy in smaller batches from dermatologists or from estheticians or people who are getting those really good ingredients still, and they're not having to upsell so far to be in Sephora.

28:50 Julie Falls: 15 middlemen.

28:51 Trina Renea: Yeah, because the lab sells it to you for this and then you have to sell it to the store for this and then they have to sell it to the public for this. It's like a four-times mark-up.

28:59 Julie Falls: And I’ve also been told not to buy skincare products from Amazon because they can sit on the shelf for a long time.

29:06 Trina Renea: Or they can be Made in China.

29:07 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Or they can be counterfeit.

29:09 Trina Renea: Lots of counterfeit.

29:09 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: And that's actually a big problem, I mean, the counterfeit market. Although I don't personally know of anybody who's purchased something counterfeit, but the lines weren't… because we sell a couple of lines in the office and they do not sell on the internet. And then when I do find them, of course the company is trying to shut them down. But one of the things that these companies often say is the boxes are perfectly done, the products are perfectly done, and they smell and feel…

29:32 Trina Renea: For sure. You don't know that they're counterfeit.

29:35 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: No, you don't know. So it's not the greatest thing to buy. I hate to say that because, look, they're buying all day long. This is where people are shopping, but it's not the best.

29:43 Trina Renea: Also, some of them are legit and some of them aren't. You don't know. 

29:46 Julie Falls: Somebody told me to look for like Amazon-backed or something. Like, I bought Nutrafol for my hair and it said it's an Amazon…

29:56 Trina Renea: But those Amazon, so whatever that thing is.

29:59 Julie Falls: Supported, yeah. 

30:01 Trina Renea: Supported Amazon, you're paying a higher percentage to them to be in that.

30:03 Julie Falls: No, because I compared prices for the Nutrafol and it was the best price on Amazon.

30:11 Trina Renea: No, what I'm saying is…

30:13 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Nutrafol, you can just buy them at almost any specialty pharmacy. Why are you buying that online?

30:17 Julie Falls: No, I couldn't find them anywhere.

30:19 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Beverly Hills Apothecary underneath me, they sell.

30:20 Julie Falls: They do have it?

30:21 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yeah. It's probably the same price too.

30:22 Trina Renea: What I mean is when you say bestseller on Amazon or best something on Amazon, when you see that little thing, you are buying that from Amazon. I'm getting ready to sell on Amazon. You have different levels. If you want to be seen by more people and have that thing, you get higher up on the list. So if somebody's typing in ‘hyaluronic acid’, the best on Amazon's are going to come up first.

30:45 Julie Falls: No, that's not what it is. It's something else.

30:46 Trina Renea: That’s not what you mean?

30:48 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: You're saying it's like a label, like a certified organic label or certified Amazon. 

30:54 Julie Falls: Yeah. It's like their sponsor or their something.

30:55 Trina Renea: Like they tested it. Made sure it's not from…

30:58 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: They can legitimize it that it's real.

30:59 Julie Falls: I’ll show it to you, yeah. Exactly. 

31:01 Trina Renea: I'll have to look into that. 

31:04 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Cool. That's great. I mean, that's important. 

31:06 Julie Falls: But if they have it there I'd like to get that.

31:08 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yeah, and if you probably show them that there's a cheaper price online, I'm sure that they will give you that online price, because they're a great business people.

31:15 Julie Falls: They are great, yeah.

31:16 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I'm just talking about the specialty pharmacy underneath my building. I love small pharmacies. We can talk about that next time. 

31:20 Julie Falls: I do too. No, I do too. 

31:24 Trina Renea: When did they open? 

31:26 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: A couple years now. Three years? 

31:27 Trina Renea: Oh, I don't know it. Do you do your... What's it called, when you mix things? Can you do that?

31:34 Julie Falls: Compound. 

31:35 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Compound? No, they don’t compound. So we have our lab that does that. 

31:40 Trina Renea: Okay. So tell us like a new thing… you used to not be able to buy products at doctor's offices. Doctors would always give you a prescription and send you to a pharmacy to buy products. But, now, doctors have caught on in the last 10 years that they could actually have a product line and sell a product line. 

And people actually trust a doctor more, so they're more likely to buy in a doctor's office than they are an esthetician's office or a Sephora. I found working in both arenas at the same time, when I worked in your office and sold the same products as I did in my office or spa, I could sell to your patients like that (snaps fingers). 

32:23 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Easier.

32:25 Trina Renea: Where at the spa, I would have to convince them that it was good for them to buy this. At the doctor's office, I'd be like, “You need to use this and this and this,” and they're like, “Okay,” and they just buy it. 

32:36 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Interesting.

32:37 Julie Falls: Because you’re in a doctor’s office.

32:39 Trina Renea: It's psychological because you're in a doctor's office. And when the doctor prescribes something, you buy it. So it's a much easier sell. It really is.

32:47 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I mean, it's not like it's… I know what you're saying, and I would say that doctors have had private label lines for a long, long time. It's just exploded now. 

32:55 Trina Renea: A few. It's exploded, yeah. 

32:58 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: And I think that it's not only derms that have it. It's rheumatologists. My rheumatologist friend sells like CBD cream and she sells all these supplements. Doctors are getting into that arena. 

Unfortunately, because they get $60 to see you as a patient. Really? You're going to do $150 facial, we're going to get $60 to be a patient. So sad. So they have to support their…

33:18 Trina Renea: Because of the insurance.

33:19 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yeah, they need to support their walls and their lights and their staff by selling stuff. But that's not what we do. My dad has sold products in his office for almost 20 years. He was one of the first. 

33:32 Julie Falls: But not with his name on it. 

33:33 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Yes, with his name on it. But if he had any sort of business sense, he would have been like out there, like a Baji and…

33:44 Trina Renea: Yeah, and Perricone, Murad.

33:45 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Perricone, for sure. Murad, I'm thinking of Murad. Brilliant. Murad jumped on the bandwagon when salicylic acid and glycolic acid came and he just exploded. He was so smart. 

But I would say dermatologists, and you're absolutely right, it's exploded now. Now, everybody's doing it. But there were derms who always did, and you can do it. You can have a lab do your own formula or you can private label. When I say private label, I mean basically just slap your label on another product. 

But I think if you're a smart person, you have your own formula, because also, I think these customers are really smart. They know the packaging. Now, they're not going to six different dermatologists, but if their friend goes to a dermatologist and they have the same cream with like this doctor's name on the front but it's the same exact bottle and the same exact ingredients, hello. That’s pretty lame, right? Like, you can't do that.

34:33 Trina Renea: It happens all the time.

34:34 Julie Falls: It does happen all the time. It happened to me recently. I went to a doctor's office and I was like, I'm suspicious here.

34:41 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: But it's like they do curate their… if there's a line that's in a doctor's office, they're going to curate what they're going to have. They're going to have like their favorite 5 or 10 products. They're not going to have, I'm going to use the word again, crappy products in their office. They're going to choose the best ones to offer their patients. 

34:58 Trina Renea: Yeah. 

35:00 Julie Falls: And a lot of these patients are as educated as we are.

35:03 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: That's right. 

35:03 Julie Falls: So they're at this doctor and they're like, “Oh, wow, now I know what to get. They told me what to get.”

35:06 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: They want to be told what to use. 

35:07 Julie Falls: Exactly. 

35:09 Trina Renea: Right. I just want to finish up this episode by saying there are a few labs, big labs, that make most of the product lines out there. And the chemists come up with a formulation that is kind of a baseline ingredient list. Like, I use flour, water, and sugar. This is my baseline. And it crosses through all his line. 

But he may have 20 different cleansers and 20 different exfoliators and 50 different moisturizers. So you may choose from what he's already created. You pick and choose your texture, your smells, your things like that, and then private label those. You might not have the exact same line as the next doctor's or esthetician or person out there selling their line, but you're buying from the same lab and they are all very similar or the same.

And to actually formulate your very own product, and I've explained this to many people that I've helped create product lines for, is that it costs you $100,000 minimum for one product to get it FDA approved, to get your formulation.

36:24 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Very expensive, yes.

36:27 Trina Renea: You have to make 1,000 minimum of these, and that's the smaller labs. The bigger labs, you have to do like 50,000 per item. 

And if you're not selling 1,000 of these in a year, then it's all going to go into the trash after that. So I always recommend starting with private label to doctors and estheticians, because then you can find… And you don't have to buy all from the same lab either. You can buy five products from this lab and two of your other ones from this lab. You can pick and choose and have your own line, and it is kind of custom but it's not like you formulated it as the chemist. Somebody else formulated it. You don't own the ingredient list but you own the product and nobody’s going to take that from you. 

But until you're selling 1,000 a year, you shouldn't even go down that road. That's just like my two cents. But that's what's going on out there. 

37:22 Julie Falls: Okay. Sounds good.

37:22 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: A little thing for the public to know. 

37:24 Trina Renea: All right. Well, I think this is enough for today. I will also come back and do these little mini-episodes where I talk about what cleansers would be right for your skin or what hyaluronic acid is. I'll do like specific ingredient, like 10-, 15-minute mini-episodes in between some of these so that people can understand about that.

37:42 Julie Falls: That’s great. That’s the kind of stuff you get around.

37:45 Trina Renea: All right. Well, we're good for today.

37:47 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I'm going to go home and use my priming oil from Epionce. 

37:50 Julie Falls: There you go. And I'm excited about my new... 

37:51 Trina Renea: Priming oil. What that?

37:53 Julie Falls: I'm excited about my new oxygen.

37:54 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Oh, you got the new Spa Lé La oxygen serum.

37:55 Julie Falls: Yeah, I’ll have to report on that.

37:57 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Mama Mia?

37:58 Trina Renea: Mama Lé. Mama's miracle. 

38:01 Julie Falls: I like Mama Mia. 

38:01 Trina Renea: Mama Lé. 

38:04 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Perfect for the Jewish holiday. 

38:07 Trina Renea: I'm just going to say this really quick. I have two product lines. My spa is called Spa Lé La. Mama Lé, Baby La. Those are my product lines. So Mama Lé, Baby La. 

My daughter says to me the other day, she's like, "I think you did the wrong marketing for those." She's eight. 

I was like, "What are you talking about?" 

And she's like, “Well, Mama La sounds better and Baby Lé. They rhyme better like that. I think it should have been Mama La and Baby Lé.”

38:34 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: You can always change it. People love change apparently. 

38:36 Trina Renea: I was like, “You know, that’s smart, Ella.” I was like, “That's kind of cute.”

She's like, “See.”

38:42 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: I like it. Who’s the owner now?

38:43 Julie Falls: I think she might be right. Oh, boy.

38:47 Trina Renea: I know. Like, shoot. Now, do I have to change my product lines? 

38:48 Julie Falls: Your company will be in good hands when she inherits it.

38:52 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Exactly.

38:52 Julie Falls: All right. Well, we'll see you next time. 

38:53 Trina Renea: Yeah, thanks for joining us on Facially Conscious. If you want to see us on YouTube, please subscribe to our channel. And if you have questions for us, you can ask us there. 

Also, our podcast, Facially Conscious, in case you didn't know that. In our next video, we're going to be about fillers. It should be fun.

39:18 Julie Falls: We're going to be talking about that.

39:19 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: We're going to break that up. 

39:19 Trina Renea: Okay. All right. Nice to see you guys. 

39:22 Dr. Vicki Rapaport: Bye