How to Create Glowing, Vibrant, Youthful Skin!
me&my health up podcast episode #61 – Transcript
Anthony Hartcher 0:00
Welcome to another insightful episode of me&my health up with your host Anthony Hartcher. A healthy man according to my kids, aka clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist. The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your well being and today we’ll be chatting with skin specialist Darci Shoemaker on how to create glowing, vibrant, and youthful skin and it’s something we’re all striving for.
Darci Shoemaker is a brand ambassador for Rogen and Field Skincare, the number one skincare regime brand in Australia, and the number one premium skincare brand in North America for the last four years. With an engineering degree and a background in medical devices. Darci found Rogen and fields from an acquaintance on Facebook after struggling with her own skin.
After seeing some incredible before and after photos. Darci walked away from a successful career in engineering to be hands on mom with two lovely, beautiful, very active boys and to run her own skincare business from home. Darci takes great pride in simplifying skin care for our clients and watching them grow in confidence. So welcome, Darci, how are you today?
Darci Shoemaker 1:17
I’m great, how are you doing Anthony?
Anthony Hartcher 1:19
I’m doing fantastic and where are you from?
Darci Shoemaker 1:22
I live in the United States. I’m in Minnesota.
Anthony Hartcher 1:24
Yes, I could tell from the accent. We’re, we’re teleporting across the world, which is fantastic. So, Darci, this is the question I always ask my guests and it’s essentially how they’ve arrived at what they’re doing today and it really brings out the passion in what they’re doing today. So please share your passion for skincare and how you’ve arrived at what you’re doing.
Darci Shoemaker 1:49
Well, I’d actually struggled with my own skin for almost 20 years, I had something called melasma, which has dark spots across the face. It can be from hormones, from sun damage, I spent way too much time in the sun as a kid and I had dark spots all over my face that I really, really disliked. I had been to the dermatologist in my early 20s and that’s when I found out they were permanent. I tried some of the expensive prescription creams without much luck. I tried a lot of over-the-counter products over the years, and I just kind of gave up hope that I was going to find a solution.
About, again, about 20 years is how long I struggled and I saw these before and after photos on Facebook, I was super skeptical and I watched for about a month until one day the before and after the photo hit close to home, I wanted my skin to look like the picture in the after picture. It reminded me before skin reminded me of that before picture and I wanted that change and I saw that there was a 60 day money back guarantee and I’m of the thought process that you can’t complain about something if there’s a potential solution out there.
So I reached out and I assumed I’ll try these products, they likely won’t work and I’ll get to send them back and at least I’ll get a refund and I won’t have to put them in my product graveyard, the cabinet or the drawer that everybody has of the products they’ve spent money on that didn’t deliver the results they wanted. So I reached out and I, we started talking about the products and I realized I wanted more than just for that I was 37 years old at the time, I was getting the fine lines and wrinkles. I struggled, I had hormonal acne after having two kids and my skin was a mess. I needed a lot of products and on a stay-at-home mom budget at the time, I didn’t think I could afford them without considering the business.
So I consider I looked into the business and set it to jump in. I wanted the discount and I wanted to pay for my products. So I did and I couldn’t believe how quickly my skin started changing. My friends and family started asking me what are you doing with your skin, I want some of that and my business quickly grew from there. But it’s after coming from someone who has struggled with their skin I love helping others help their skin too because you don’t have to just deal with it and cover it up with makeup.
Anthony Hartcher 3:52
Yeah, and that’s really important because, at the end of the day, we’re looking for solutions externally, you know, for our skin and people are going and you know, looking for what’s on the shelf at the chemist or what other people have tried. So what is it important for people to look out for when they’re choosing their skin products because it really affects how their skin breathes, how it lives?
And you know, as a lot of us know, skin health is really important in terms of a detoxification pathway and so it needs to breathe, it needs to let our toxins and in some of these skincare products off the shelf can actually really act as a barrier and really inhibit the skin from breathing and living so what is it that the listeners should look out for when choosing you to know skincare products for themselves?
Darci Shoemaker 4:45
I would be careful about shopping at the drugstore, at the grocery store I would look at premium skincare products but whether those that you buy at the department store, those you buy through the direct selling channel. The termination of premium skincare really matters because that is the percentage of the active ingredients. So I know here in the United States, I’ve seen a lot of skincare commercials lately talking about hyaluronic acid, benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, and you’re not going to get the same percentage of those, those ingredients in just the over the counter drugstore products. If you go premium, you get what you pay for.
So you’re going to spend a little more, but you’re going to get much better quality of products, they’re not throwing ingredients in the jar just to make a profit. They’re putting in ingredients that truly serve a purpose and they only put ingredients that that matter, they’re not going to put in those fillers. So I think the biggest thing is premium skincare really matters and then knowing what are the harmful ingredients and trying to avoid them. Because there are plenty of harmful things out there and you don’t want to be putting those on your skin. It’s the largest organ of your body. You want to take care of that.
Anthony Hartcher 5:46
Yeah, there are lots of those petrochemicals that are in as either fillers or emulsifiers and, you know, they’re cheap, because they’re byproducts of petroleum. So it’s, it’s something that you certainly want to avoid. Are there any particular ones that people should avoid? That, you know, they should be looking out for?
Darci Shoemaker 6:08
Oxy benzene is a big one that’s in about I think it’s like 80 to 85% of sunscreens, that’s a hormone disruptor. Other ones are parabens, there, those are the biggies I can think of off the top of my head, you really want to it’s pretty easy to do some research and figure out what are the ingredients you want to avoid and then check those in the skincare you’re using.
Anthony Hartcher 6:29
Absolutely makes a big difference and so just as important in terms of what we put on our skin, to enable it to live as, while it’s our largest organ, our skin is our largest organ. So we need to look after it. So you know, be mindful of what we put on it. We also need to make sure we do things well from the inside, to make sure we nourish our skin and our lining, our barrier. So you know our skin is one of our immune defense barriers, so really important that we nourish it. So what are your recommendations, you know, from an internal perspective, in terms of what listeners should do for their skin?
Darci Shoemaker 7:08
Hydrated, hydration is big drinking plenty of water. I know that’s been around for a long time, people should always drink more water keep a big jug next to their spot. But hydration from the inside makes a big difference. You can put hydration on your skin but really coming from the inside that’s going to make a big difference in hydrating your skin.
Sugar’s another big one that can flare up acne, especially in managing stress. Eating healthy fried foods is good for our skin, there are a lot of foods that we’re putting in our body that are just not good for our skin. So taking care of gut health is another biggie. I know with some of those sensitive skin issues, eczema, psoriasis, some of those autoimmune issues, those are all gut health and so taking care of what you’re putting in your body will make your skin look a lot better. So the skincare will just work with that too.
Anthony Hartcher 7:53
Yes, so those vitamins, those vitamins A and C and E, Zinc is a big one for the skin. So making sure you know that the foods that we’re going to get vitamin A in, vitamin C, you know, pretty much a fruit and vegetables. So, you know your beta carotene, from you know those with the carrots and the sweet potato, so the orange looking vegetables, and then your zinc will come from your nuts and seeds in terms of plants, legumes, grains as well, for meat lovers, then there’s plenty of zinc in meat as well.
So certainly, you know, I think it’s exactly what you said Darci it’s it is making sure you’re eating clean because all those foods I just mentioned are very clean foods. It’s not eating that takeaway food, you know that fast, deep fried food or heavy, heavily processed foods and heavily processed foods have a lot of sugar and for the same reason, as we talked about before, is sugars cheap, as well as it’s very tasty and then people have lots of it so.
So certainly I agree with you eating clean and getting plenty of lean animal sources and plenty of plant based sources such as your nuts, seeds, legumes, fruit, and vegetables into your diet and I think what I really liked was that you mentioned that hydration because it’s often overlooked, isn’t it? The hydration side of things so yeah, so certainly getting making sure you’re getting those eight cups of water a day. You know if you’re I don’t know what it is in the in America and into what we talked about in milliliters and liters. But yeah, certainly we’re aiming for that two plus liters of water a day and I know you’re talking in that imperial system.
Darci Shoemaker 9:59
Half the body weight in ounces.
Anthony Hartcher 10:01
Half the body weight, is it? Yeah. Okay in ounces, yep, that’s a good one. So what are the factors that are really important for skin health? So, you know, I was talking to speak a bit about, you know, in terms of what we eat, what we consume, what we put on our skin but what are the other influencing factors that help our skin?
Darci Shoemaker 10:21
So first of all, washing your face, that’s a very basic thing but people should be washing their face in the morning, they should be washing their face to wake themselves up, get their skin ready for the day and then at night washing if any specks of dirt and oils makeup residue left behind. Getting into developing a routine is really important too but washing their face, not just using the bar soap in the shower actually using something that’s made for your face.
Another thing is sunscreen, I would say sunscreen would be my number one skincare tip 80% of aging is due to sun damage and you can get sun damage through car windows, office windows. So whether it’s sunny, cloudy, raining, you’re inside, sunscreen should be an essential part of someone’s skincare routine every single day. What else was I gonna say and then give it time? So some people buy a product and they use it a few times and then like, Well, that didn’t work and then they try another product and they just keep cycling through.
But to really see the results of products, it takes time, it takes four to eight weeks of a new routine to really see the changes, just like with any habit. So just be patient, if you’re trying something really give it a try versus just a couple of uses and they say that it doesn’t work. So those would be my biggest and then eyes, the eye area is the first place to show signs of aging.
So anybody over the age of 25 to 30 should be using a good eye cream to really help prevent wrinkles, preventing the wrinkle prevent. The best wrinkle is the one you never get. So it’s much easier to prevent wrinkles than it is to treat wrinkles once you get them. So starting young to really start preventing those wrinkles is key.
Anthony Hartcher 11:57
Yeah, and we spoke earlier, just before we went live, I was on the sleep and the stress side of things you’re talking to me about in terms of important factors, what would you like to share in terms of the sleep and stress management, self care?
Darci Shoemaker 12:12
Sure. So sleep is super important. That is when your skin is restoring itself so if you’re not getting enough sleep, you’re not giving your skin time to heal and restore itself. So seven to nine hours is always ideal. If you’re getting up really early, just make sure you’re getting a bed soon enough and then managing stress.
I can’t tell you how many people are struggling with acne, and they’re getting it under control, and then boom, they have a stressful week at work, and then they’re getting a breakout. So really managing that stress, finding healthy ways to manage it, whether it’s exercise, any sort of stress reducing things will make a big difference in their skin because if there’s stress, their skin is going to show it.
Anthony Hartcher 12:46
Yeah, absolutely. Because you’re under stress, we’re certainly detoxification is affected, our body’s doing other things to keep us alive. So I know, you know, liver function is downregulated with stress because our blood is elsewhere, it’s you know, to our muscles, you know where it needs to be to keep us running away from that fear or that danger and it’s not to say that the liver hasn’t got the normal circulation of blood and it struggles with the detoxification and when it struggles with the detoxification, then the body is looking to remove toxins elsewhere, and it will topple over into the skin.
As you know another way to detox is because there’s less detoxification happening through the liver. So certainly the I totally agree with that, that stress management and you know, we see so much of that in our lives today in terms of our demands from work and just the busy, hectic lifestyle that we live. So you know that self care is certainly, we need more of it and more holidays, more and more self love.
Darci Shoemaker 13:53
Definitely.
Anthony Hartcher 13:54
Yeah, and sleep sleeps one of these things that I think is like we put into that nice to have and we and we generally it always gets sacrificed, you know, because there’s something you don’t want to miss out on and I think you know, just as we’re going to get into your skin regime shortly, but I think that nightly routine, which you mentioned, having, you know, a morning skin routine and an evening skin routine, and that can tie nicely with a nightly sleep hygienic routine because I think you know at night if you’re nourishing your skin or you’re doing something for yourself, you feel good about doing something for yourself and that enables those stress hormones to dissipate and to leave just before sleep time.
So certainly I thinking yeah, having a nice nourishing skin routine in the evening will help you wind down and you know a good one in the morning helps you wake up and you’re doing something for yourself again, so you feel better about yourself and I certainly know when my clients are feeling better about themselves they generally make healthier eating decisions. So it just flows on, doesn’t it in terms of doing that self care? So yeah, let’s get into your skin regime, what do you do to look after your skin?
Darci Shoemaker 15:13
So our company has a philosophy called multi med therapy, it’s the right ingredients in the right formulations in the right order. There’s no one magic bottle or cream, that’s going to solve all your skin concerns. So it’s a multi-step approach. So the regimen that I use, it’s a cleanser, it’s a toner, and then it’s a treatment step and then it always ends up with the sunscreen, and then at night, there’s a night cream. So I’ve used a variety of our regimens over the years since I have them all at my house.
But that’s been really helpful for my skin is just to have that consistency and that is really what’s helped fade those dark spots, it’s helped with the hormonal acne, the fine lines, and wrinkles, it’s helped with all of that. So just, I do it morning and night and the one thing I like to tell ladies especially is to wash your face earlier in the evening, don’t wait until you’re ready to go to bed. I tell them to wash their face right after dinner, right when they get their kids to bed early in the night.
That makes the big difference between washing your face being a spa like relaxing experience, a stress relieving experience, or more like a chore. If they wait until they’re so tired, and they just want to go to bed, it’s going to feel much more like a chore. So the earlier in the night people do it, the more relaxing and more fun it is for them. So that’s my biggest thing is just having that habit and doing it early in the night.
Anthony Hartcher 16:27
I agree because the earlier we start that wind down, the more chance we have in terms of having a restful, rejuvenating night’s sleep because we’re essentially down-regulating those stress hormones from the day and were nourishing ourselves to put us in the best state to go to sleep and I like having something like a routine like you just suggested because it switches the mindsets from okay I’m not in work mode anymore.
I mean, you know, self care, self love mode and that are calming to the mind and you know, things that you could do as sort of adjunct to that skin routine could be playing some nice music that you enjoy and really making a, I guess a, an inviting routine. So you’ve got the nice music, you’re taking care of your skin, you’ve got some nice warm water on your face, you know, you dim the lights, you have candles going to reduce the lighting to allow the melatonin production to kick in. Because we know that, you know, the more we’re looking at blue screens, it’s inhibiting the melatonin production and we need melatonin to let the body know it’s time to sleep.
So yeah, I think what you suggested is a great way to start that wind down and start early so that you don’t, you know, fast track it and take shortcuts and sometimes yeah, and not do it. So it’s really valuable. Are there any other tips you’d like to share around skincare that we haven’t touched on?
Darci Shoemaker 18:06
Yeah, acne, acne is one thing I like to talk about because so many people are affected. 85% of teens deal with that at some point in their life and adults too many adults deal with acne and it’s a difference between spot treating the acne and preventing the acne. It’s a 28 day cycle so by the time you see that pimple popping up, it’s been working under the skin for 28 days.
So it’s really important for people that suffer from acne to get in a regimen where they’re using some of the acne fighting products, the benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid sulfur, and consistently using that to prevent the pimples rather than spot treating them once they pop up. They’re going to see much much better results that way. So that’s the biggest nice, I touched on that stress and the sugar also can affect acne.
So really combining all of that together and it really should get under control and then just some of the really important ingredients that people should be looking for, especially for anti-aging products, hyaluronic acid, I think I mentioned early earlier, niacinamide is another good one and there’s a newer one called bakuchiol and that has the benefits of retinol but it’s really good for sensitive skin.
So Retinol is good for so many things, dark spots, wrinkles, acne, but it’s very, very harsh on the skin and a lot of people with sensitive skin haven’t been able to tolerate it. So this is a newer ingredient that is still healthy, it’s a good ingredient to use, but it’s much better for those sensitive skin people and then for acne prone skin to look for things that are noncomedogenic.
That means it’s not going to clog their pores. So many times women especially if they’re struggling with acne, try to cover it up with makeup, but they’re using makeup that’s clogging their pores and it’s just getting them in a tough cycle. They’ve clogged their pores that’s causing more breakouts and then they just have this whole acne cycle. So using products that aren’t going to clog those pores while they’re treating their acne is going to make it get under control much much faster.
Anthony Hartcher 19:53
Yeah because as I touched on earlier, it’s a living organism you know, we need to allow the skin to breathe and to protect us, ultimately, it’s our first line of defense against infection. So really important that we, you know, we look after it in that sense and not block the pores and allow detoxification, if it needs to go through the skin because it will inevitably do, you know, partial detoxification through the skin.
So yeah, and I really like those, those tips Darci, you know, really, I think you’ve shared a lot with the listeners as to, you know, it really takes a holistic approach to look after your skin, you know, looking at the insides from, you know, cutting out the junk food, the processed food, eating really clean, lean, lots of fruit and vegetables, making sure you’re getting the vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, seeing from your clean eating
You know, looking after your gut health, as you mentioned before, and that’s very much making sure you know, we eating a lot of fiber in our diet, which is, again, Whole Foods, clean foods, and not processed and that holistic approach around what we do to our skin, in terms of what we put on it, as well as how we get our sleep, making sure we get a good night’s sleep and manage our stress. Anything I’ve missed in that summary?
Darci Shoemaker 21:21
No, I think you covered it, and really, I mean, if people aren’t happy with what they see in the mirror, don’t settle. There are solutions out there. I had kind of settled for almost 20 years and when you look in the mirror and you don’t like what you see it affects everything. It affects your confidence, it affects going after that big promotion, or going out on a date or going out with your friends and truly enjoying yourself if you don’t like what you see in the mirror.
Makeup should be used to enhance people’s lives not cover things up. So I just encourage your listeners that if you’re struggling with your skin, somebody can help you, reach out and get solutions. There are solutions out there for you, you can love your skin, everybody should love their skin.
Anthony Hartcher 21:56
And how can listeners best connect with you, Darci?
Darci Shoemaker 21:59
They can find me through email, through social media platforms. I’m on Facebook as Darci Nolting Shoemaker. I’m also on Instagram @Darcishoe, but definitely, I’m happy to answer any questions that your listeners have.
Anthony Hartcher 22:12
Fantastic awesome. I’ll include those contact details for Darci in the show notes and thanks again everyone for listening in. I really appreciate your support and please like and share the episode leave a review so that we get more people learning about their health and how they can look after their skin in particular and stay tuned for more insightful episodes of me and my health up.
Darci Shoemaker 22:37
Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai