Trust your skin to know what is best.
What inspired you to become a cosmetic physician and create your own product line?
I was immediately drawn to this field in my early days and quickly learned that I had a knack for it. However, it wasn’t until I birthed Osmosis that I realised it was my true calling to bring awareness and innovation to the beauty industry.
What are the most important aspects of any skincare range?
Understanding their purpose. Some companies are all about being sustainable, some are about being organic, but you can tell their approach to the skin best by looking at their top products. If they do not have a compelling method for correcting skin damage then your money is best spent elsewhere. Look for before and after pictures that validate their approach. It is hard for consumers to see through the marketing, but just know that most products have very little activity on the skin.
What are your non-negotiables when it comes to health and wellness?
You cannot continue to harm your skin and think its health will improve. Only invest in skincare that actually improves your skin health month after month, most don’t. Wellness must be targeted, meaning just taking random probiotics or antioxidants without knowing if your body really needs them is wasteful. Take supplements that directly improve an aspect of your life.
What are your best skincare habit recommendations to nurture and practise throughout life?
Trust your skin to know what is best. Nurture your skin barrier, do not tear it down, because it will improve hydration and sun protection. Get adequate low intensity sun everyday for all its health benefits but try to never be overexposed (sunburn).
Are there any exciting new products on the horizon in cosmetic dermatology that we should know about? Do you have any new products in formulation that we can look forward to?
I’m excited about my upcoming skin lipid replacement supplement. This will have several benefits; it will rebuild our thinning fat pads that age the face, it is a powerful prebiotic, it will treat cellulite, it will sooth digestive issues, help prevent acne and improve skin moisture. I am excited about a new lightening serum that will come out soon as well that uses a new method to fade brown spots.
Of course, our readers will also want to know, what is the most perfect regime to use in the Osmosis range for anti-ageing?
Osmosis has four revolutionary age-reversing serums. Each of them work on a different ‘bottle-neck’ that would otherwise prevent the repair of damage. Our retinal serums (Correct, Renew) have eight collagen stimulators but it is very well tolerated, do not compromise the barrier or DNA and increase the food supply to the skin, while activating collagen. Our DNA repair serum, Catalyst AC-11 is remarkable at healing old wounds, including your damaged skin DNA, by feeding the skin critical building blocks. Our stem cell growth factor serum StemFactor, replaces over six hundred lost growth factors and skin proteins. Finally, our patented oxidation repair serum, Rescue, triggers repair of the DEJ which directly clears age spots and restores texture. Ideally most people aged over 40 can use all four everyday.
What is your top product for sun damage on mature skin?
This is a hard question because we identify the different types of sun damage and use targeted serums for each aspect. For wrinkles the answer is Renew. For age spots the answer is Rescue. For old wounds the answer is Catalyst AC-11.
You are passionate about getting sunshine during the day, but not getting burnt. Can you tell us about why sun exposure is important and which daily products best protect from sun damage?
The research is very strong that 20-30 minutes a day of unfiltered sunshine will prolong life and reduce the risk of illness and disease dramatically. Skin cancer is poorly understood and evidence suggests that the main cause of skin cancer is a toxic immune system as opposed the sun alone. Our UV Defense is clinically proven to reduce damage from the sun by as much as 500%, but because it has a unique method of action it still allows for the vitamin D and other benefits of being outside.
We are becoming more aware of the skin on our neck too, to not allow it to fall behind the skin on the face. What is your best product to use on the neck and why?
The neck is less responsive to skincare so you actually need the big guns mentioned above to get a result. The neck does not need more than any other area but it has the same needs as the face. The key is addressing the bottle-necks of age reversal in the products you select.
You contribute stress to be the biggest ager of the skin. Can you tell us more about this?
The studies show that stress worsens most health outcomes and survival rates so every doctor is aware of the problem. What is also clear is that we do not give it enough attention. I believe that all disease has an emotional imbalance behind it and therefore treating the source of our skin and health problems requires looking within as well as topically. I will continue to try and connect specific emotions to skin concerns to further help people figure out what they need to work on.
You mentioned sugar is bad for our skin, why and how does it affect us? Do you have any products to help regulate or detox sugar from the body?
Refined/bleached/fermented sugar and even excess raw sugar are highly inflammatory. The maintenance of youth is an arduous process for your immune system. Everything that contributes to inflammation will slow the body’s ability to fix itself. We do not realise how compromising sugar and alcohol are. Osmosis has a product called Sugar Detox that helps with the damage but it is not a panacea so avoidance is ideal.
We talk about the importance of gut health, and with this comes efficient digestion. Your skin map signals pimples around the mouth to suggest constipation. Tell us more about your skin mapping strategies and how do you link pimples around the mouth to constipation?
Osmosis Skin Mapping is an accurate reflection of the organ connections between the skin and its brethren. It can be very useful in identifying what is happening internally and that makes finding a resolution much easier. After 20 years of medical analysis in this industry I have found that the mouth reflects what is happening near the anus. Breakouts and peri-oral dermatitis in that zone are related to constipation. People do not realise that even with one bowel movement a day they may be discarding a meal from 48 hours ago. Constipation is a growing problem and Osmosis has multiple strategies to restore gut regularity.
Mucus is a sign we are having trouble digesting dairy? Why does this present as a blackhead and how does that affect us?
Dairy is inflammatory and mucus-promoting. I think it comes from the destruction of the nutrients in pasteurisation. Other foods like fried food also cause mucus. As it turns out, mucus is the source of blackheads on the face. Mucus can also cause constipation, weight gain, and bloating. Osmosis’s Skin Clarifier is the only mucus cleanse available and it is a powerful tool in restoring skin and gut health.
Is it true that food allergies cause mucus? If so why, and how can we help remove this mucus from our bodies?
This is a newer discovery for me. I think food allergies are the result of changes to our microbiome and an increased burden on our immune system. Testing for foods is worthwhile in some cases as the reactions are severe. However, my goal is to offer a powerful prebiotic and other gut wellness to restore gut health and minimise food allergies.
