This is the Art Beauty podcast, where we are always reaching for truth in beauty. Remember, the brands on the show are not paying to be here. So we get to ask them candid questions because you deserve to be informed so you can make the best choices for yourself. I am today. My fabulous co-host is Dr. Loretta Ciraldo She is a board certified dermatologist and practicing for over 40 years has an incredible background we're going to talk all about.
And she is also the founder of Dr. Loretta Skincare. It is such an honor to have you on today. I'm going to call you Dr. Loretta through this. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Amber. It's a pleasure to be here. So I have to say, when I was researching your background, I mean, you have such an incredible history in skincare. I saw that you were actually involved in the development of the Fitzpatrick scale. Is that correct? Yes, absolutely. That is insane.
And then you also opened one of the first and please correct if I'm wrong, cosmetic dermatology clinics. Yeah, well, that was a teaching clinic at University of Miami. We think maybe it was the first one in the whole country. So can you just give us a little bit of your background there? Yes, because I think that it really will give such a sort of like historical perspective on how short a time we really understand sun damage and external factors and all this.
So I was in medical school in New York in the 1970s, and after my first year of medical school in 1975, I got a summer research job at up at Harvard Medical School in the dermatology department. And like most of the very few women who were in medical school in the night in the early seventies, which I started in 74, most of us sort of entered medical school thinking that we would be pediatricians or obstetricians. But I was very interested and this research opportunity.
So I get to the dermatology department not understanding much about dermatology, and the head of the lab tells me that I'm going to be investigated the effects of the sun's UVA on human skin. So I was very interested in this.
And right before we were going to go to lunch at the cafeteria, he said, you know, we're at a by the way, I'd rather that you don't tell too many people what I'm doing, because many of the physicians in the cafeteria already or you like so sure that not enough UVA reaches the surface of the earth for it to have an effect on our skin.
Long story short, I think his analysis, the rest of history and when we study the effects of the sun's UVA on human skin that led to the development of what we call to this day, broad spectrum sunscreen, so that the FDA requires that all sunscreens now must protect not only from UVB, which is what they did in the 1970s, but also from UVA as well as UVB that started in the eighties. Once all the research got done. Amazing.
You know, and just here's something great that I've learned through my if that gets confusing to people, I like to think of this UVA A are the aging rays, right? So they're going to go a little bit deeper into the skin, affect the deeper layers of the skin where UVB are, they're actually curvier waves, so they go less deep into the skin. But those are the burning. UVA is aging, UVB burning well. So UVA only that research was really only being done since the eighties or in the eighties.
I know. Actually in the seventies and eighties. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It was very interesting, actually. It was really done for the treatment of psoriasis. So when I got to that lab there, we called the Photo Biology Labs at Harvard. They had already had Westinghouse make up UVA bulbs for the treatment of psoriasis. And then the question was, instead of doing intense UVA bulbs, could you actually go under the sun?
And actually, what we did to do the research was we gave people a pill to make them a little more sensitive to UVA so we could really study the impact. And yeah, I think that I think that actually that whole background and perspective, I think that leads into some of the things that are now on the forefront of sun protection, like it's been argued, you know, do we need the blue light protection or not? But I think as we go on, we might get to that discussion today too. Oh, I would love to.
So okay, so you clearly have done this. When did you decide to go into practice? Right. So basically what happened was, again, I sort of thought, well, what will I become? And as I went into my third year of medical school, I knew I actually was already dating one of my classmates who I was with for 47 years until, unfortunately, his recent sudden death. But now I was dating my classmate. I wanted to have kids. We went on to have four, got married and have four kids.
So when I got to obstetrics, I was, Oh, wow. You know, I don't think I'm going to have time to have a big family. When I got to pediatrics again, this was the 1970s and there still we didn't have good medicine for pediatric leukemias. And so that was sort of very depressing. And so I said to my husband, You know what? I am so fascinated with the field of dermatology, and it could really also afford me this amazing lifestyle, I think.
So I went back to Harvard for my and my fourth year of medical school and did another big research project because that really then just sealed the deal for me that I was in love with dermatology. I love that too, because you were really a pioneer and you mentioned at the time there were not a lot of women entering the field. So thank you for sort of breaking through those barriers for us.
So so you have been practicing dermatology for over 40 years now, and I do want to talk about this because, you know, we're going to talk very much in detail about your skincare line, but your skincare line is all based on sort of this theory of like the aging theory of exosomes. So can you explain what Exosome theory is? Yes. And honestly, I think this is very important and it doesn't even have anything necessarily to do with my skin color. And although I picked up on it in formulating.
So what I'm going to explain to is, of course I went to do the research and all of the research I did during medical school had to do with the effects of the sun. But then very interestingly, you know, I got married to my husband during medical school and we decided to stay in New York. And I ended up doing my training up in the Bronx, New York. This started in my dermatology residency, started in 1979. And believe it or not, you know, women kind of come a very long way since the 1970s.
So I would say the vast majority of the patients that I saw in my residency, the women did not have driver's licenses, did not have any access to go to the beach or, you know, a pool. Forget it. And what we, of course, started to do that and do to this day is when people would come in to see us in the dermatology clinic, we would do total body exams to look for skin cancer.
And what struck me from the very, very beginning, the first week of my residency, is that when we saw older people so this would be, let's say, a woman in her seventies or eighties, and I'm talking to at first getting a little history. And I see she's very wrinkled and she's got a lot of age spots, all the unwanted changes of aging. When I then had a had her put on a gown, said I could check all of her skin for skin cancer.
I honestly was myself a little bit shocked to realize that even people who were elderly, who had really advanced aging changes on their face and their neck and all, when we got to examine the areas that were not exposed to the elements, gray areas that were chronically covered by clothing, they always looked decades younger.
Now I'm going to get back to what I said to you, though, that started to really percolate through dermatology, dermatology, literature, that it was only exposed skin that was really aging. And so in the 19 by the late seventies, especially early eighties, we started to use a term that I think is very popular, not just in dermatology literature, but in the literature, and it's called photo aging.
And basically what that meant was, okay, it's not really your chronological age that's causing all these unwanted changes, but that term photo, right, like photo biology labs, photons from the sun, what it meant was all of these unwanted changes were coming from the sun. But remember what I said to Amber. This was a very special population that I had of all these adorable little old ladies who, like maybe they had come over from Bali or God knows where they didn't have cars.
They stayed home ironing their husband's shirts and making the lunch for the kids. And these women hardly had any sun exposure yet they had all of these hallmarks of such a disparity between skin that I have to just say was exposed to the elements, to the external environment. So at that point I started to sort of Dell the little bit into, you know, what the heck is going on. Right. Of course, we know, you know, a single sunburn can cause a lot of skin damage and all of this.
But there must have been other factors. This was sort of what I started to believe, you know, many, many years ago and has time has gone on. There was more and more research that, for instance, looks at the effects of pollution.
Right now, what we now realize is that pollutants and you've probably heard about this and in fact, if you're listening in, if you haven't heard about this thing called particulate matter, all you really have to do, especially if you look up a state like Massachusetts or upstate New York, where we have really right now from Canadian fires, a lot of particulate matter that's causing very unhealthy air quality conditions.
Yeah. Or particulate matter or these little pollution particles that happen to be at least 20 times smaller than our skin pores. So this particles that matter gets right into our skin, enters the wearer pores, but doesn't just stay in our pores. And there is good research to show that particulate matter is a major cause of what we call age spots hyperpigmentation and collagen breakdown and lines and wrinkles.
So, you know, and then to add to this and this is not mentioned, all I'm going to sort of like suggest the what or expose the problem, but I'm going to suggest generically solutions. Okay. Okay. So the thing is that it may be a little scary. And one more scary fact to tell you is that the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, tells us that many pollutants or up to 1000 times more concentrated in their homes than they are outdoors, A good big factor is dust mites.
They carry a tremendous amount of particulate matter, and the particulate matter can even come just from paint residue on our walls. When we turn on a gas stove, we release a lot of free radicals, damage, particulate matter, all of this. So that is the bad that that, you know, we need to be protecting ourselves not just from the sun and not just when we're outside from pollution, but 24 seven Now, clothing is a great way to protect ourselves, but what else can we do?
And high accidents. Yes, right. That is so important. So for everybody who's listening in and this isn't about buying a particular brand, this is about please just be sure. Go through what so many of us women have, which may be, you know, ten moisturizers or ten serums that you've got building up on your bathroom counter and medicine cabinet and see, have you got some vitamin C?
Have you got, you know, things like this and antioxidants, C is anything labeled antioxidant moisturizer, antioxidant serum, because antioxidants are really our best way to combat the free radical damage of pollution, but also the sun. So that's another thing. Many of the good sunscreens on the market today, including the ones that we make combined regular sunscreen actives with antioxidants to produce to really, really like just elevate the protection.
You know, I'm so glad you're putting that because years of working in beauty, I knew this. It comes off the tongue. Antioxidants are going to protect protect your skin from oxidation, from the free radicals. But but you never really think about, well, what does it actually mean? What's causing these free radicals? I mean, things just like you said, cooking in your house, right? If something starts to smoke, you're starting to release that. Do you suggest then?
You know, I think so many of us probably have some sort of an antioxidant for the face. But do you think it's important then to be slathering that all over the entire body? Well, so the point is this. Our clothing is a one protective shield. Okay? So therefore, we don't necessarily need that. And so we sort of started this conversation with what's called the X expose arm theory, right. The exposure of aging.
There's the skin exposed, which is pollution actually irritants, things that we're exposing ourselves to on areas that aren't covered. Okay. But like, for example, right now, I mean. Exactly. So, yes. So what I would say is in the summertime, it is a very good idea to use some products that are going to give you protection like a serum or a body lotion that would have antioxidants in it. Absolutely. Good to know.
And keep in mind, everybody with those vitamin C creams, once they start to go brown, they're not going to be as effective as we want them to be. But that is a story for another time. So, okay, so we've got this idea that exposure really is showing us or that you're seeing that that people who even weren't in the sun are having these signs of aging.
Do you happen to know we've had some people on the podcast before and these numbers kind of get thrown around, But I heard once that 90% of visible aging is from UV. But you're saying that that's not necessarily. Absolutely. That is not true. And I'll tell you that there is this study was actually done by a group that worked at Rock Pharmacy to called Juno RC. And what it did was it measured wrinkle index. Right? And they looked at people in different states.
And lo and behold, it turns out that New Yorkers have more wrinkled spent Floridians. And the idea there was that it's really secondary to pollution, not to the sun. So I think really where we need to sort of realign our thinking is for almost all of us, we have very little sun exposure every day, but we have pollution exposure 24/7. And so, you know, I think that, you know, besides skin care, I think having good air filters in our home is a very important thing.
If you're lucky enough to have central air conditioning, clean your air conditioning filters because they're collecting all of this particulate matter. And so really, you know, a lot of advice is depending on the filter, you get changing it every month or two. I'm literally like mentally thinking right after this, I'm buying a because I live in New York City right now. I'm thinking immediately, I'm buying an air purifier. I do clean air filters and my AC is. But yeah.
I'm trying to tell you for this recording I have my air purifier off because the fan is a little bit loud. But yes, absolutely. You know, this is something I really do. I actually want to backtrack for one minute because even let's say when we talk about some protection, I think that we mostly get marketed to to think about sunscreen. But we dermatologists say protection from Sun has got to be three pronged. Yes, the use of sunscreen for sure.
The other thing is use of sun protective clothing, especially when you think about areas like hair back and all sorts of areas where you can just miss the really even application of sunscreen. Sunscreen should be applied every 2 hours. I'm a grandmother and I can tell you that when I go to my grandkids birthday parties, if they have a pool party, all of the little children, 90% of them are now showing up with bathing suits that are long sleeved.
Okay. So remember, the three pronged approach for the sun protection is sunscreen, SPF clothing, which is called UPF. But the third thing, which I think is also so important, is just try not to be under the direct sun between the peak hours of UV radiation from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And so that's going to be sort of the same thing when we talk about pollution, right? So indoor pollution is bad, right? I'm going to give you a few tips. You know, get the air filter.
The other big thing is, you know, dust mites are awful. And sun the one thing I'm allergic to. Yeah, sorry, I know. That. So I went to hide. They collect also on our pillowcase and stuff and the best detergent to actually get rid of the most dust mites possible is the all-bran and all. Yeah. And it's a liquid called all three clear. And it's even much better. Great that we used. Yay! Okay, excellent. Right. And try to wash your pillow case every two or three days so that you're not rub.
You know, a lot of times we think about, okay, before we go to sleep at night, let's put on our products. But then if we do that and then we rub air, pillowcase our face into our pillowcase and we haven't changed it or washed it for a week and we're just rubbing in those dust mites, you know, that's one. So it's a very we got to have a holistic approach. I'm glad that this is a video, too, because I can tell you I have done very little to my face.
I myself have injected myself with filler here, but I've never had laser or any kind of surgery. And I'm 70 years old. I was going to say, you look amazing thing. Yeah. But, you know, following this advice, you know, as they say, I don't just talk the talk. I absolutely walk the walk.
And I think that it's a good thing to try to heed some advice from a 70 year old who has stayed useful, because I know for a fact that if we protect ourselves, even sort of taking that holistic approach, protect yourself from the sun, a three pronged approach from pollution with the right laundry detergent, the air filters, all this kind of thing, and then antioxidants. I mean, this is phenomenal advice. And I mean, you are looking at you. You're convincing me, like I said, air filter.
I also have dust mite pillowcases. So those are something that you can look into. And if you've got a mattress, you can get dust mites. If you have real severe asthma. You're right. Yes. Yes. And in fact, I think you mentioned that you're allergic to dust mites and allergies are very big on that. And yeah, I think that's very good advice. And then, you know, those Swiffer makes those little dust things. Those things are great.
I go over them, my house, like every every year, and I'm going to say two or three days when you start to see the dust settle, literally. But it's a great way to pick stuff up. And I love that you gave us all all free and clear. I feel like offering clear is just great for so many reasons because you don't as much as it's nice to have the clothes that smell great and all those extra unneeded fragrances and chemicals in your body. Not the best. Thank you. Yes, because that's another thing.
Okay. Artificial fragrance is another thing that, you know, artificial fragrance, very common to get sensitive to, not even to say allergic to, but to get sensitive to. Once you sensitize your skin, believe it or not, you get a little bit of what we always call subclinical inflammation. It's not like you're really going to look red or feel it, but much or most artificial fragrance at some level is going to just inflame everybody in a not very obvious way.
And believe it or not, that kind of inflammation sets off enzymes that break down collagen. So also exposure to things. And so sometimes it's very sort of like innocent exposure. We sure, like you're saying, with detergents, that kind of fragrance. But also and this is also I want all of your listeners to think about too many of I know my own patients will come in to me and they or irritating their skin because they really believe in that whole sort of, you know, no guts, no glory.
So, okay, I'm going to use the strongest retinoic acid I can find and I'm going to I'm going to want to turn red and peel. Please don't do that, because once you've done that, you're deaf, innately activating enzymes that are going to break down your collagen and everything. Yeah. You know, I have a love hate with retinol. I used to be able to tolerate it. And now that I'm in my forties, my body just doesn't as much. So lower version sometimes.
But you know, I used to use a .05 percent and I just it's not working. And there's so many other great exfoliators on the market that I found because I know retinol is really it is a gold standard, it is a phenomenal product. But, you know, it's just not for. Everyone, not for not for everyone. And also not at the same times. You know, sometimes I think as your hormones are shifting like something that might have worked for you then, might not now, and who knows, it might again someday.
Dr. Laura, you are, first of all, so amazing. I could talk to you all day. It is clear that you live and love skincare. I mean, you went. You chose the right field, Mom, I got to tell you. So I do want you to address your skincare line, because one of the things I was really impressed, you know, we're hearing this trend as a beauty editor. I feel like I've got a thousand products and I don't mind having, you know, the occasion all night where I'm going to do a 12 step routine.
But but mostly it's like wash my face, throw on a serum moisturizer, get to bed or an SPF in the day. And I really was drawn to your line because there's this new trend towards skin embolism. Right. Which is skin care minimalism. And I feel like your your line really kind of embraces that theory. Can you tell us a little bit about that and why you went that way. To do so?
Because after it's actually now 41 years that I'm a board certified dermatologist, and when I'm having new patients come in, we do ask them, please bring in the products you're using right now. And it always amaze me, almost without fail, that a new patient will bring in a shopping bag full of stuff. Yeah. And, you know, most of the time I start to lay it out and say, well, you guys, this one is counteracting this one. And do you turn red and purely? Oh, yes, I do.
And so one of my goals in creating my line was to really make products that would multi task. So I'll walk you through sort of like a few of our products that are just almost like a baseline. Okay. And how they get back to protection from those external aggressors, the exposition theory. Okay. So our gentle hydrating cleanser, super hydrating and gentle are beautiful and yes, and remember I said, I want to really protect you from pollution. So that's God in it.
A brown algae that actually absorbs pollution particles from the surface of their skin before they get into the living layers. You wash with it, you leave it on for about 2 minutes. So brush your teeth while you got on, wash it off and you've got great anti-pollution protection. I'm a big believer in doing it morning and night. Why? There's a lot been written recently. Oh, you don't have to wash in the morning, are you kidding me?
After you slept all night with all of that exposure to the dust mites, it's super important to walk in the morning. So that's a morning and night. And so you're supposed to wait. You're supposed to also leave it on for 2 minutes. I've never heard that because I was using it and I would wash, you know, rub it in. And I will say it's nice because the beautiful gel, but it foams it has a nice light foam, so it gives you that kind of foaming, I'm cleaning my face, I am guilty. I do not wash my face.
And then when I rinse it. But I guess with water. But I guess now I need to soap. Okay. Yes. Well, that especially because a regular cleanser isn't necessarily good. And get rid of the dust mites. God, I think we put that in there because it gets rid of the PM that particulate matter I was telling you that gets carried by the dust mites. So please do that and usually get rid of your eye makeup with that.
So I want you to put on your eyelids because I want you to have that good protection After that. I do have to tell you, we're very proud that we won the award for Best of Beauty with our eye gel as the best anti pop product. And that is a product where I'm introducing, which we have a number of the price of our sunscreen there, too, an antioxidant called lipo chromium. And what I'm going to tell you about why people comment on one assay for strength, it's the strongest antioxidant that exists.
It is synthetic. It was made originally for medical use for cancer patients. It's still used in some regimens for cancer patients, but it's the only antioxidant that will not only get rid of oxygen free radicals, which, you know, they destroy the lipid layer, the top layer of our skin, but it gets rid of carbon and nitrogen free radicals which destroy our college and our elastin and our high ironic content of our skin. So I think it's very important to look for that light, grow them in.
And it's a big featured product, an ingredient that we have in our stuff. I want to talk to you about our serums, and I'm not sure which one you got there. So I have the intense repair and I get to try the the eye cream, but it also has a deep thing as well. Yes. Which is. Great. Okay. So now can. You use it? Can you use it above and below it? Yes. It's amazing. Grease around. It's called the tightening gel. Now, the intense replenishing. That's our serum that's got that light but chrome.
And again, the only antioxidant that's going to protect your college in your elastin, your high, your onyx, all of that from free radical damage. None of the other antioxidants do it. And you can see it gives you this immediate glow. Yeah, it really is. But it feels so lightweight and beautiful on the skin. I mean. Yes, I love it. You know, at 70, you can imagine that I live.
You want. Yes. All of a sudden it funny somebody came on once and they were like, you know, in your twenties and maybe early thirties, you want it all. Matt, Matt, Matt, because your skin is hydrated and plumping, glowy. And then when you start to get into your forties plus you're like, Oh my God, give me all the glow back because my skin is not. Yeah, so I'm with you. I'm with you on that one. Yeah, it's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you.
And then our sunscreen and so our sunscreens got that again, the light chromium. But I am also and I've got to put a plug in for this I'm a 1,000,000% believer in a sunscreen needing to protect us from that HIV visible blue light. I'm glad we. Okay, we're coming full circle to this because I was going to ask you what you think on that. Yes. So, you know, let me just say this to you.
Ophthalmologists will tell you and they've said this for decades, that HIV blue light, high intensity, visible light wrecks our retina. So anybody who's wearing contacts or prescription lenses has a filter for blue light. I, I really take issue with people on social media saying, oh, blue light can hurt the skin. If it hurts your retina, trust me, it can hurt your skin. And the point is that we really do need that protection.
Okay. So this is just an extra thing that we have thrown into our sunscreens. We actually make two sunscreens, but they both have that similar tint and they have the white bow chrome and they have great firming peptides, great moisturizers. I think you can see your skin almost really looks. Nice like it does, and it has like a little bit of coverage too, because you don't see the blue in my in my veins as much. Yes it is. Side is really. Automatically look nicer we. Think beautiful.
It is a view I mean this is the one that I was like, oh my gosh, this is a beautiful it has just that right amount of glow. And then you also have an enzyme polish. So again, was there like a total of six total products. So there's like one or two choices for each except for the Ikiru. Am I right? Actually, we have I think now we are definitely up to 12 products because just like you said, we've got two different cleansers. We also have an exfoliating cleanser.
We have two different sunscreens, mineral only and one that's called the hybrid with the zinc and chemicals in it. We have three different serums because we know that it's not necessarily one size fits all, but my whole ethos, I protecting you from all the environmental aggressors, it's in every formula we make. But and I don't expect you to be using 12 products.
Well, you know, and forgive me what I'm saying, but I think it's like a very minimal like it's six total steps, not products that we've gotten. So when you go to shop your site, it's very, very easy because it's like here's you know, choose a cleanser, choose your exfoliator whether it's a pad or this, choose your sunscreen, choose your serum, eye cream. SPF Yes, and we really try to be educational on this site.
Yeah. I invite all the listeners go to it to really learn more because, you know, our skin, we are the owners of our skin. And it's so important for us to educate ourselves. And my message is you can stay self-confident or become self-confident about your appearance at any age. And I feel I'm living proof of that after seven decades of life. I mean, you are gorgeous inside and out.
I absolutely love having you on here. And Dr. Lauretta, I have to say to everybody listening, take a look at some of the she's got great before and after is of real people skin from their face to their lower back. So we're talking about this. If you're not quite convinced yet about how exposure and exosome aging works, definitely check that out.
Dr. Lauretta If people want to know more about your products, if they want to learn more about you, see you and your beautiful daughters, where should they go? Yeah, so and I do do this line with my two wonderful daughters, so go right to drloretta dot com. Dr. Loretta dot com and also on social we're on at Dr. Loretta. Thank you. And I have one at Dr. Loretta Derm but I do a lot of social reals on ADD. Dr. Loretta We're here to educate you and share and the joy of feeling good about ourselves.
And how you know, before I let you go, where where are you practicing? Where's your where are your offices? And right outside? Well, as in part of Miami, I'm in Miami, Florida. Can't wait to move there. It's not in it for me. It's just a one. I want to thank you so much for being with us today. And of course, everybody listening at home. If you have questions, you want to pass on to me or ask me about the products I've tried, you can always email me at hello at art beauty podcast dot com.
You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube at art beauty podcast. Thank you so much. Dr. Loretta really loved having you. And to everybody else, we will see you next Tuesday, hopefully a little bit more protected finally. Thank you. Bye bye. All right.