Unknown Speaker 0:05 Hey everyone, and welcome to our pilot episode in the podcast Beauty and the Brain with Melissa and Lauren. Unknown Speaker 0:13 We are so excited to share all of our tips, tricks and ideas for keeping up with the beauty industry. Hear me out. Every week we dive into a specific controversial beauty topic and unfold the mysteries behind why they exist. Unknown Speaker 0:29 That's right! Now, let's dive right into today's topic, shall we? Drumroll please. Today's topic is adult acne. Okay, in all seriousness, this is a very real dilemma that is literally costing people thousands of dollars. And on top of that a social stigma from society making those individuals feel less than beautiful. Did you know that about 5.6 million Canadians deal with acne? Unknown Speaker 0:58 Exactly, Lauren, and honestly, I can totally relate. I never had acne growing up, but after my first year in university, I started breaking out. I've tried all kinds of products out there, but recently I went to the doctor and got prescribed a medication called TacToe pump. Others may know it as epiduo. Let me tell you, Lauren, it's been a ride. The first week my face felt like it was in flames and drier than the Sahara Desert. Unknown Speaker 1:28 Alrighty, well, Melissa and I have the privilege of sitting down with Kayla Gladys, a 22 year old woman who recently graduated from the journalism program at Ryerson. Melissa found her on social media, where she is extremely vocal about her journey with acne on her Instagram stories. Unknown Speaker 1:45 Kayla is amazing and the journey she's been on is incredible. Here's a little bit about Kayla and what she likes to do for fun. Unknown Speaker 1:54 Currently, fun means job hunting, because it means that I'm going to feel less stress soon. Unknown Speaker 2:00 Well, hopefully she finds the job she's seeking for soon. Kayla elaborated on how low her confidence was because of her acne when she was growing up. Unknown Speaker 2:11 So when I was in grade seven or eight, so 12 or 13 years old, by that point, I was already wearing a full face of foundation to school every day. It just is what made me feel pretty and able to kind of feel confident despite the fact that my skin wasn't in its best space. My mom took me to Shoppers Drug Mart and she took me to like the little skincare space. And she wanted to ask the ladies who were working, if they had any suggestions for what sort of products might be helpful to my skin and maybe be better for me then whatever kind of Clean and Clear, Neutrogena that I was using at the time. And I remember sitting in the chair in my small town Shoppers Drug Mart, so anybody that I knew could have walked in at any moment. And the woman was taking my makeup off with a cotton ball and I swear that my tears were probably helping the makeup come off. I was crying so hard and I was so embarrassed that I was about to be like in a public place and not have a layer of foundation on it really felt like a security blanket for me during that time. Unknown Speaker 3:22 What a powerful story. Unknown Speaker 3:24 Yes, thank you, Kayla, for taking the time to talk to us. Now, we have the privilege of doing a phone interview with Natalie, a 24 year old woman who began struggling with acne not as a young person, but as a pregnant adult. Unknown Speaker 3:40 Hello. Unknown Speaker 3:40 Hi is this Natalie? Unknown Speaker 3:43 She shared with us the struggles she faced while being pregnant and having to deal with her new acne. Unknown Speaker 3:47 I worked as a restaurant. I worked at a Front St. restaurant and I was the lead host. So as you know, there was like a there's an expectation to how you carry yourself and that. A lot of expectation to do with like you know, having your makeup done kind of like looking like you're gonna go out and like putting makeup on my skin was like the thing that stressed me out because I'm just like so broken out. And like you have kind of a hard balance cuz when I go into work and I feel like I'm sorry like my skin is just like I'm tired and like I look tired and I'm like pregnant and like like my skin is just like not cooperating with like, having makeup on it. And like I was afraid to put makeup on because I didn't want to make anything worse. Like when I was younger like I went on birth control pretty young so I didn't experience like horrible acne at a young age. I mean the birth control pretty much like had it just had its effect but I was not expecting like after I had come off of it which was probably 20 or 21 when I came off of it. That I was going to experience anything like that again because I figured oh my gosh, I'm 20 I'm and adult I'm not not gonna have like acne problems. So like it's classified as like a teacher. major thing to have, you know you don't really, like I never really thought about having an as an adult you know. Unknown Speaker 5:05 Natalie said she's still experiencing breakouts on her forehead and cheeks two months after giving birth, but she feels it's going to get better eventually. Unknown Speaker 5:15 Wow, what an inspiring woman. Unknown Speaker 5:18 Get it girl. Just like Natalie, not everyone has the time or feels the need to go to the dermatologist to deal with their acne as an adult. Luckily, though, for all our listeners, going through acne as adults, Lauren and I got the chance to chat with a dermatologist. Unknown Speaker 5:34 That's right. We sat down with dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon Jennifer Salzberg based in Toronto, she gave us some details on why an adult might be dealing with acne and what the best options are. I think we can all learn a thing or two from Dr. Salzburg. Unknown Speaker 5:49 Hi, this is Bay Dermatologist Centre how may I help you? Unknown Speaker 5:51 I have a lot of patients who come in and see me in their 20s 30s 40s say I never had acne as a teenager! Why is this happening to me now. And the truth of the matter is there's a whole bunch of factors at play as to why somebody develops acne. And that's a combination of hormonal factors, as well as different things that are happening at the superficial layers of the skin. So you get a change in the way that skin cells are cycling and turning over and you can get plugging of that pile of sebaceous unit. And the skin cells are building up there you get a overproduction of sebum, or the oil that some of our skin cells produce and that combination of things can bring on some inflammation. And then you get this whole cascade of a small spot that can become larger and larger and become more of a nodular or deeper type spot as a result of that. Unknown Speaker 6:41 Fabulous. I bet Dr. Salsburg's decision to become a dermatologist wasn't a rash decision. Am I right? Unknown Speaker 6:48 Whoa, Lauren. Next, I had the chance to talk to Kyra Butterworth a 22 year old who is struggling with acne and how it's affected her daily life. Unknown Speaker 7:00 Well, I was in pain first of all, because like I had like cystic acne like those hard lumps and it hurts like crazy. But also then just like I felt like when I was at at it's worst, because it's been like getting better lately. Thank God. But yeah, it when it was getting worse, I was just like, oh my god, I feel like I have like a beard of zits and it does not feel great. It I can't imagine it looks great either and it was just it was mainly very self conscious. I just sometimes wouldn't want to leave my apartment, like I would because I had to, but I would not feel good about it. And yeah, and sometimes I wouldn't go out because I was just like, didn't want to be seen didn't feel good in my skin. So I didn't want other people to see me like that either. Unknown Speaker 7:51 Kyra wanted to let others like myself that don't deal with acne to be compassionate to those who do. So if you're one of those lucky ones, listen to this. Unknown Speaker 8:00 Obviously, I know how it feels to have acne, and it can suck and everything, but for people who have that perfect skin with barely any effort. Like Don't be judgmental and you know, don't be a dick about it. Because I've like heard people say, like, adults say stuff like just wash your face, just you know eat better just drink more water. And like that doesn't always help. Unknown Speaker 8:31 I remember Kayla, our first interviewee did mention a few things about the social stigma behind adult acne. She also touched on the power of social media. Unknown Speaker 8:42 It's really interesting to see the way that social media has allowed us to kind of break down some of the barriers and ideas about what is supposed to be quote unquote, attractive. I mean, there are Instagram accounts where people are sharing their acne stories and they're posting photos of themselves without makeup on and their skin is maybe really quite inflamed. And I look at those photos and I don't think that those people are unattractive. Mostly usually I'm noticing like their eyes or their awesome eyebrows or like they're really great hair or whatever it is Unknown Speaker 9:16 Amazing! I love how she brought up looking past what's on people's skin and noticing other features, as well as their lovely eyes. So great. I think everyone should aspire to take that view. Hey, Lauren, I have a question. Unknown Speaker 9:32 What's up. Unknown Speaker 9:33 Do you think you're going to follow any of the advice that dermatologists gave us? Unknown Speaker 9:38 Uh, no. Unknown Speaker 9:39 I think I got a pretty good routine going right now. water and soap. Unknown Speaker 9:44 What a phenomenal first episode. Lauren and I had the best time putting this together. And we can't wait for you to tune in to the next episode. Unknown Speaker 9:53 That's absolutely right. And you won't want to miss it because we'll be speaking on to Brazilian or not to Brazilian. Thank you guys for tuning in to this week's episode of Beauty and the Brain with Melissa and Lauren. I'm your host Lauren Davis. Unknown Speaker 10:06 And I'm your host, Melissa Salamo. Stay beautiful.