Now, Health matters with Daniel Martin. Welcome into Health Matters right here on CN A 938. I'm Daniel Martin. So good to have your company. Everybody. Let me ask you this. Can you exercise your skin? My guest today says you can. And with topicals at that, we're gonna be learning a little bit more about the difference between uh topicals that could be of a cosmetic nature versus a cosmeceutical nature. And how this new entrant in the crowded skin care scene in Singapore could
make a difference for you. Linda Jorgenson knows she's a professional skin therapist for almost three decades now. And founder and CEO of Nordic Formula. Linda, what a pleasure to have you in Singapore?
Oh, thank you, Daniel. So nice to meet you and be here in Singapore. I love it. Even though if it's a range in this season,
this is nothing compared to your cold weather,
right? No, you know, we are Viking. So we are used to go to 2025 minus degrees and still doing ice baiting. I
love it. Let me ask you in terms of skin conditions around the world around the region in terms of your clients. What do you think right now in 2024 are the most pressing skin concerns.
Aging skin. Yeah. And when we talk about aging skin, you have the problems like pigmentation, uh wrinkles of course and saggy skin. But for me as a professional, my concern or biggest issue now is inflammation and also the sun exposure that damaged the skin and actually skin
cancer. What causes inflammation of the skin,
the stress, the sun hormones and also pigmentation. Yeah, causes inflammation in your skin.
We're facing a lot of those issues in Singapore being on the equator with sun exposure. I think sun block usage is not very regular in Singapore, especially amongst the male population. What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to their skin health,
maybe not taking consciously choices, choosing their skin products and they might start a little bit too late because when you are in the twenties and early thirties, you don't have that much skin problems. If you don't have acne problems, then you don't go for the real aging skin products. You might choose more maintenance
that hydration products. So I think we have to be better in taking better choices and maybe seek for professional help because educated skin therapist is educated to read your skin's past, treat your skins present and also guide you to a healthy skin future.
I think a lot of us are taken in by marketing. What looks good? The hot new brand, the hot new product, the social media influencer back one, we're not doing our homework.
No, we don't and we get thrown or blown away with these booms that comes, you know, you have different kind of themes that coming up. But we really need to think in the bottom line. What is the skin function? What needs to give the skin in order to have a skin function and a good
health? Please tell my listeners how it all began for you when it came to your skincare line. How did you decide from being, you know, all about skin therapy and treating clients of patients to starting the online, you
know, being in the business for almost 30 years now, I've seen so much skin problems and skin concerns and working with the good brands. I didn't find the ingredients that really solved our problems. And as an ingredients nerd, I researched it a lot. And in 2014, when I started to read the research on my cream, I found some interesting ingredients. So launching my first product in 2017, I was one of the first using also Niaid. It's vitamin B three, which is
a huge popular ingredient. Now, you were there before the curve took off. Actually tell my listeners what is the difference there between a cosmeceutical versus a cosmetic product.
Cosmetic products are more for the mass market and they are safe to use. Even though if cosmeceutical products are also safe to use, you might need a better guidance. And I would say that cosmeceutical products are a step up from cosmetic products because it's more concentrated, more efficient and it penetrates deeper to the skin. It really makes a difference and has a action on the skin because you know, our skin is fresh produced. So you really
need to exercise it and challenge it every day. Like you need to exercise your body,
you say, and a big mantra of yours is that you can exercise your, what do you mean
how I mean by having cosmeceutical products, which has the lower ph that increase the bacterias, the se production, lighten up the skin because the skin cells actually disappear from the skin earlier than it does by natural. So then you also have a reaction in your skin. So the dermis starts to work and the epidermis starts to do the job. And both of them together will have a younger look on your skin when they actually working. You've
brought the range now into Singapore. It's available at the Origa Spa at Capella in Singapore. Why does your range only have three products right now? It is the day cream, night cream and a serum, isn't it?
That's correct. And it might be a little bit the Nordic way, ah, easy going and clean and efficient and also having too many products on your skin is not going to work. If you think that cream is like doing a drink, uh Nordic formula is like a shot because in a drink, you have amount of alcohol, some essence or herbs and you fill it up with tonic water. My opinion, if you layer with too many products, you have too much tonic on your, on your skin.
So by reducing the tonic and have a more efficient ingredients, you have a better skin function
and you've been able to encapsulate sun protection into the day cream as well. So no need for an external SPF no,
but the most common wrong we do is that we don't reapply the SPF and that's a very important thing to do because SPF in the morning time does not last on your skin for protection the whole day. So I would say about four hours if you don't sunbathing or sweat or take it away on your skin. So reapply reapply nine o'clock, 12 o'clock, three o'clock.
Ok. I can remember that. 9, 12 and three. Yes. Any unique ingredients or properties. I remember there was something that was quite nordic in nature, a little berry or something along those lines.
That's right. We have the sea back thorn and the c back thorn contains a lot of C vitamins and in no, it's growing wild by the coastline. And you could say if you eat one berry, it's the same as you eat six oranges. So the concentration of vitamin C is quite high and we have that in our serum and in our day cream and we have a 3% of the sea back thorn in the serum. And also with a ph of 3.8 which is really good. If you have acne or pimples, the lower ph will reduce that and control of the
S production. And we will have a skin
renew the secret ingredient. That's the magic
secret ingredients because usually the C vitamin products has to be stabilized and the PH is much higher about six or seven. So it's quite unique that we have a formula with a low PHS 3.8. And
don't, you usually have to refrigerate if it's a vitamin C
inside. No, when we use the Cosme, you have stabilization and conservation, but they can have a shorter time. Has
there been any tweaks to the formula for the Asian skin market?
No, actually because the Asian skin cells are actually the same as a European skin cell. But it's the environment that actually makes the differences in the skin condition. So we have used a beauty panel test in Singapore and they used all three products for three weeks and they feed back to us that they felt improvement of firmness. The even skin tone less dry, smoother is working in the Asian skin environment. So we are good to go because
I think so many of my listeners might be used to trying to find what suits your skin type or do I need to worry that this is for sensitive skin? Is this for oily skin? Is this for dry skin? But we don't need that
with this. No, you need to go cautions if you are sensitive because your skin needs to recognize the new ingredients. So what I recommend always is if you haven't used retinols, you should start to use it maybe one or twice a week before you step up and you can also blend them together, then you buffer the cream or the efficient. So you, your skin gets too used to the ingredients and the formula and then you can apply layer by layer
after a week or two. So we don't have retinols, but we do have an acting retinol in the day cream. It takes time to develop good products and there are no cutting corners for my choices. So the day cream I sent back to the laboratory 12 times before I was happy with it. Now, we're good to go. So it's important for me as a professional skin therapist also to stand behind the ingredients and stand behind the products. And even if it's a good cream on the paper, it's important for me to also see
the results on the human skin. So that's why it takes time to do clinical studies and see the results. And we've done that with each of the products and the age kit together as well, but you
formulated something quite special for the Singapore market and the Singapore audience at Origa Spa. You've developed the Northern Lights Facial again, exclusive for the or spa as well. Why do this? And what is it? And does it use your formulations?
Yes. You know, Ariga Spa, they want to be a bit different and no formula is a bit different too because it's going against the stream. Now, it's only three products. So I wanted to create a treatment that had visible signs of results in just one hour. And for me, I took the Nordic philosophy by using the heat and the coldness that we have in the
climate in Norway and bringing that into the treatment. And what happens when you use cold and hot, you start to have a circulation in your skin and you reduce inflammation with the eucalyptus and the B three and you moist the skin and also applying so much C vitamin boost. During the treatment. You will actually, after one treatment, we done clinical studies see a lightning effect in one treatment.
The naming of this is very intriguing. The northern light signature facial. Does it take a lot of the inspiration from the ao borealis or northern lights? Yes,
it does because we have some techniques using in the treatment that you might experience. You experience the rain shower, you experience a little bit of northern light by having some special techniques and you will feel the coldness and the warmness from our weather, also the climate in Norway. So a combination,
it works on this one formulation, which is again only available at the bar that Capella and that's where your products are also available. And it's been such a pleasure. I hope you've enjoyed your time in Singapore. And I think you've helped my listeners to perhaps become a bit more invested in learning about their skin health care. So, thank you so much for your time. Thank
you so much for having
me, Linda Igen and there who is a professional skin therapist founder and CEO of Nordic Formula. Can you exercise your skin with? Topical? Sounds like you can. I'm Daniel Martin for health matters. Before making any decisions based on the information in our program, please consult a medical professional.