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00:00I'm so happy to be here at Essence Fest. This is amazing. Welcome to BeautyCon. My name is
00:09Nyamka Robert Smith. I'm a licensed esthetician based in Los Angeles, but I'm from New York,
00:14and my parents are Jamaican born, so I am a little bit of everything. I'm really excited
00:20to teach you kind of like the do's and don'ts of like how to treat your beautiful melanin-rich
00:26skin, how to keep it beautiful, how to keep it youthful and healthy as you go on today and go
00:34on for the rest of your life. So let's get started. Okay, first things first, we're going to start with
00:40the basics of a skincare routine. Honestly, at the bare minimum, when you're doing a skincare routine,
00:46you need three things. You need to cleanse your skin in the morning and night, you need a moisturizer
00:52at nighttime, and you do need to wear SPF in the morning. Now, I'm not going to spend my whole 20
00:59minutes lecturing you about SPF, but I might spend like seven minutes doing it. For people of color,
01:06especially black people with deeper toned skin, our skin has a natural SPF of about 13 to 18. So that
01:16means generally, day to day, we don't really have to be concerned with getting like sunburns and things
01:23like that. However, when we do change climates, oftentimes, like if you've ever gone on vacation,
01:28gotten a sunburn, you realize that some parts of the world, the sun is stronger than others,
01:34and SPF is going to be very important to wear, especially in those aspects. SPF is also very important
01:41to wear because the sun causes UV damage on the skin. So by causing UV damage, you're weakening your skin
01:52cells, you're drying out your skin, it makes it difficult for your skin cells to communicate with
01:58each other. And that makes your skin less healthy, and then you're more prone to hyperpigmentation.
02:04Another special consideration of deeper skin is that we have more active melanocytes. Fun fact, everyone
02:14has the same amount of melanocytes, no matter the pigment of your skin. So the lightest of the light,
02:21so the darkest of the dark, same amount of melanin cells. However, in deeper skin people, our skin cells
02:28are more active. That means when we get a cut, when we get a burn, when we get a bruise sometimes, we're more likely
02:36to hyperpigment, which is probably the most annoying possible thing that happens with deeper skin people in terms of
02:45hyperpigmentation. Any breakout, it's going to leave hyperpigmentation. So the sun, because the UV ray damage causes more
02:54hyperpigmentation, our melanin is there to protect us. So when we come in contact with extra UV rays,
03:01the sun, your skin is going to try and protect you. So it's going to try and get darker to protect your skin cells
03:09from damage, which is why I'm going to recommend wearing SPF while you're trying to treat any type of hyperpigmentation.
03:17The next reason is just general skin damage. It's true that black doesn't crack, but it does like wither sometimes.
03:27And you want to kind of safeguard your melanin. You want to make sure it's regulated. You want to make sure it's healthy,
03:35because our melanin protects us. And SPF is a great way to protect melanin. I hope you noticed that I actually didn't say skin cancer.
03:44It has been found in newer studies now that SPF doesn't necessarily help people of color prevent skin cancer.
03:52But I'm still going to recommend that you wear it for the other reasons that I listed before.
03:57The type of skin cancer that people of color are more likely to get is a type of skin cancer that is not related to UV exposure.
04:04So I just want you guys to know that so that you can keep that in mind.
04:09So those areas that tend to get this type of skin cancer, it's called acryl lentigous melanoma, which is actually the same type of skin cancer that Bob Marley got.
04:24He got it on his toe, and he thought it was just an injury from soccer.
04:28So acryl lentigous melanoma, oh my god I hate saying that word, tends to show up on like the palms of the hands, the bases of the feet.
04:38Areas that are not exposed to UV light in the groin area, those are the most common areas.
04:44So keep track of your moles, make sure you know when new moles pop up, make sure you're kind of watching them to see if they get itchy,
04:51or the shape tends to get irregular, or if they're growing or changing, that is a good sign that you need to go to the doctor and get that checked out.
05:02Because for acryl lentigous melanoma, unfortunately black people have a higher rate of death,
05:07because we don't really, it doesn't click to us that we might have skin cancer that we should get it checked out.
05:13So I think that's very important, and that is, no, it's not the end of my SPF rate.
05:18One more thing, if you hate SPF because it tends to leave a dark cast, look for SPFs that don't have titanium oxide in them.
05:27So that means titanium oxide or zinc oxide, that is what's going to give you that gray, purple, blue pastiness
05:36that's going to make you look like a growth sister, that's not what you want.
05:39Chemical SPFs are fine, they're healthy.
05:42There's a lot of fear-mongering around chemical SPFs, but they're great and very important to use.
05:48Another consideration of really melanin-rich skin is that we tend to have less ceramides in the upper layers of the skin.
05:57What are ceramides? Ceramides help keep in skin's moisture.
06:01It's a lipid that helps our skin retain moisture.
06:06Therefore, this is why we tend to get ashy, because we have less hydration in our skin,
06:12which is why it's going to be very important to moisturize all the time.
06:15I don't need to tell you how to moisturize.
06:16You're at Essence Fest, you're at Buticon, everybody looks glowy and beautiful.
06:20But know that moisturization is incredibly important for us, and it's good to use a moisturizer on your face as well every single day.
06:28Another consideration with melanin-rich skin is that our skin can also be prone to inflammation and hyperpigmentation because of any injury,
06:43because our melanin is always trying to protect us.
06:45So I'm also going to recommend treating your scrubs and anything abrasive that you're using on your skin for gentle chemical exfoliants,
06:54which really just help dissolve the glue in between your skin cells and gently help your skin exfoliate.
07:01Chemical exfoliants like mandelic acid and lactic acid are phenomenal for skin of color for both hyperpigmentation and for acne.
07:09So mandelic and lactic should be your two most favorite chemical exfoliants that ever existed.
07:17Mandelic is my number one. I absolutely love it.
07:20And there are a lot of brands that make very affordable mandelics,
07:23and the science is coming out more and more as they're testing more and more, finally, on people of color,
07:29that we need mandelic acid a lot more than other ethnic groups do.
07:37So look for mandelic acid as one of my favorite ingredients.
07:44Okay, we talked about SPF. We talked about moisture.
07:49The third, really it's the first step, but I decided to go backwards, is cleansing.
07:55If you guys know me, you know that my 60-second rule has gone viral many, many times over in the US, in Korea, on Twitter, on literally everywhere.
08:06And the 60-second rule is simply washing your face with your fingers for 60 seconds.
08:12What that does, it allows the warmth of your fingers to kind of cleanse your pores, to warm up the skin, kind of soften any congestion.
08:21You're going to be able to actually get into the skin in specific areas, like the areas around your forehead, where we use the swoop the baby hairs.
08:32The word is leaving me.
08:33Edge control.
08:34And underneath the chin, next to the nose, these are areas where we tend to neglect when we're cleansing, especially if we're only cleansing for like 15-20 seconds in and out.
08:45It also gives you a moment to kind of take care of your skin and really honor the fact that you are taking care of yourself and cleansing yourself and making sure that your skin is healthy.
08:59SPF and makeup are actually much harder to remove than it seems.
09:04I've had tons of clients, and oftentimes when I'm doing extractions, I can see the makeup in their pores that they thought they got off but didn't really.
09:13Especially with foundations that are our skin color, it's going to look like it's off, but it's not really.
09:19So make sure you're doing two cleanses if you're trying to remove makeup.
09:22One cleanse for 60 seconds with your fingers.
09:26Fingers is also important because we don't need scrub brushes.
09:29We don't need anything extra than our fingers.
09:32It's completely fine.
09:33The skin is delicate.
09:35We want to be very kind and caring to our skin.
09:39We don't want to increase any inflammation because that can cause hyperpigmentation.
09:42So that is also going to be extremely vital and important.
09:47Okay, let's say you have all the skin basics down, right?
09:52You cleanse for 60 seconds, you use a moisturizer at night, you use SPF in the morning, but you're still having issues with your skin.
10:00This is where a treatment step comes in.
10:03So the treatment step comes after cleansing but before moisturizer and before SPF because SPF is always going to be the last step.
10:11If you are trying to treat your skin, maybe you're trying to treat acne or hyperpigmentation,
10:16you always want to start slow.
10:18Start once a week trying to treat that specific concern.
10:22It's more important that you're treating your skin concern versus your skin type because a moisturizer is going to be helpful in all aspects.
10:32Every single skin type from oily, normal, dry needs a moisturizer.
10:36Actually, funny enough, the more you use a moisturizer if your skin is oily, your skin will actually get less oily
10:43because your skin is nice and hydrated and balanced and it's not going to overreact and feel like it needs to produce more oil.
10:50What's also very important is that when you're treating your skin, you're using ingredients that are a little bit multitasking and not using too many products.
11:01You don't want to start off with five, six different products trying to treat all these steps.
11:06It's much easier to just start with one.
11:09Let's see how your skin feels.
11:11It often takes up to six weeks to really see significant changes in the skin.
11:16So it's very important to just be patient, which can be very difficult, especially when we have a dark mark that we just want gone,
11:24when we have acne that's driving us nuts, not paying rent all on your forehead.
11:28I understand, but try your best to just leave it alone and give your skincare time to take care of itself.
11:37Towards the end, I'm going to go over some ingredients for specific concerns that I think you should look out for
11:43that are really, really beneficial for melanated skin specifically.
11:48But let's see.
11:50Okay.
11:52Now, if you have hyperpigmentation, these are the ingredients and products that you want to look out for.
12:07Mandelic acid, like I said earlier, it's an exfoliant.
12:10Lactic acid, it's also an exfoliant, but it's an exfoliant that brings in hydration.
12:15Retinol is another phenomenal ingredient for skin of color because it aids in cell turnover, so it can help both acne and hyperpigmentation.
12:24Generally, especially in my clinic when I treat my clients, I love doing treatments that will treat both acne and hyperpigmentation if you have it,
12:32because they always come together, right?
12:34And if you're trying to treat the hyperpigmentation before you treat the acne, you're just going to be running around in a hamster circle.
12:41So you have to do the acne first, but you can do the acne in a way that will help also treat the hyperpigmentation that's going to come with it.
12:49Another important note on that note, do not pick your face.
12:54I know it's tempting. I know. I don't listen to my own advice sometimes and I pick my skin all the time because I think,
13:02oh, I'm an esthetician. I can do this. I have all the tools. Don't. Don't do it. Do as I say, not as I do.
13:09Your skin needs time to heal. Your skin knows how to heal itself.
13:14Sometimes it just needs the better ingredients to really kind of like aid that process along.
13:19So retinol, mandelic acid, lactic acid are going to be very, very helpful for your skin.
13:25Transexamic acid, kojic acid, licorice root are three other ingredients that usually are supplemental in the treatment of hyperpigmentation.
13:36And then there's also peptides and niacinamide. So I gave you a lot of ingredients, right?
13:41What I would recommend is to find products with multiple of these ingredients in them, especially when you're trying to treat hyperpigmentation.
13:49The way I think about hyperpigmentation is that it's almost like an octopus. It has lots of arms.
13:55And it has, if you've ever seen like a melanocyte, the cell that creates melanin, it's a dot with lots of different arms sticking out of it, right?
14:04Melanin is created through a lot of different pathways. And I'm not going to get into like the nitty gritty science of it.
14:11But it's good to treat hyperpigmentation from also from other different pathways.
14:16That way you're treating the source of it. You're treating the inflammation. You're treating the hyperpigmentation that's already in the skin.
14:23And you're treating the hyperpigmentation that might soon form.
14:26So always look for products that have these ingredients, like multiple of these ingredients, at least three of them, four, five, even better.
14:36But I prefer that to single ingredient products.
14:39Next, acne. Retinol, mandelic acid, salicylic acid, and benzoyl peroxide are my favorites for acne.
14:48There's a few different types of acne.
14:50There is no type of acne that people of color get any more or less than anyone else.
14:57You have cystic acne, which can be very like deep and painful bumps underneath the skin.
15:05Often happens around your cycle, usually on the chin and jawline area.
15:10For that type of acne, mandelic acid and retinol are going to be your best bets.
15:15If you have pustular acne, like they're very red, they're very inflamed, you can see the pus, you can pop them, but you're not going to pop them.
15:24You could pop them, but you're not going to.
15:27Salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide are the best ingredients in that instance.
15:32Salicylic acid is going to be able to clean inside of the pore.
15:36And benzoyl peroxide is more or less an antibiotic for the skin.
15:42It kills the specific type of bacteria that causes acne.
15:47Another honorable mention is sulfur.
15:49Sulfur is an extremely gentle ingredient.
15:52It's in a lot of different clay masks for oily skin.
15:55And sulfur also does a really good job at treating acne, especially if you have sensitive skin.
16:01Because if you have sensitive skin, you'll know that if you treat it too aggressively, you're going to get more breakouts.
16:07It's going to be even more irritating.
16:09And you don't want to do that because you want to take care of your melanin.
16:12You want to make sure that it doesn't get inflamed.
16:14And you want to make sure that you're not causing more hyperpigmentation.
16:18Lastly, even though black doesn't crack, it might wither a little bit.
16:23Sometimes we still have concerns about fine lines, wrinkles, maybe texture issues as well.
16:29My favorite is also going to be retinol.
16:32You see a pattern here.
16:33Retinol is a fantastic ingredient.
16:35Also peptides.
16:37Peptides are little amino acid chains.
16:39They help your skin communicate with itself better.
16:42They can help hydrate.
16:44They are the building blocks of protein.
16:48So they help build your skin.
16:50Also love hydrating with serums.
16:52Oftentimes, because our skin has less ceramide content, our skin can get dry.
16:58And it's called transepidermal water loss.
17:01Very fancy name for your skin getting dehydrated.
17:04It's just water leaving the skin.
17:06So you want to bring water back into the skin.
17:09Hydrating the skin really helps reduce inflammation.
17:12It also is going to help regulate hyperpigmentation.
17:15I can't say that hydrating the skin will treat hyperpigmentation, but it does help allow your skin cells to function better and allow your skin cells to communicate with each other better.
17:30So you want to hydrate and moisturize.
17:34Two different things.
17:35Hydration is just water.
17:37Think of like the, if you look at the word hydra, hydro, water.
17:42Hydration is water.
17:43Toners, serums, anything wet, liquidy, toners, hydration.
17:48Hydration.
17:49One section.
17:50Then you also have moisturizers.
17:52Moisturizers have a little bit of water in them.
17:55They also have emollients, ingredients that kind of like soften the skin.
17:58Ingredients that make your skin look luxurious.
18:04What's the word I'm looking for?
18:05Like glowy.
18:06That make the skin softer.
18:08They help bind the skin cells together.
18:10And that's what prevents like the ashy gray look that we can get when our skin is really dry.
18:15Emollients that I love are like beta-glucan, ceramides.
18:20Niacinamide is an antioxidant that helps keep, help the skin retain moisture.
18:24There's a lot of beautiful oils that we can use.
18:27Argan oil is one of my favorites.
18:29All those oils, water, moisture.
18:32Shea butter is another one.
18:34Cocoa butter.
18:35They're all going to help the skin retain moisture, which is super important.
18:39And lastly, I want to make sure that everyone is very nice and kind and gentle to their skin.
18:48Your skin loves you.
18:49It's part of the excretory system.
18:51It's part of your protectant.
18:52It's like the screen wrap so your body doesn't get infected.
18:56And understand that your skin can heal itself really well.
18:59And sometimes it just needs a little bit of help.
19:02So to recap, make sure you're wearing SPF.
19:04Make sure you're checking your moles.
19:07Make sure that in your skin care routine, you're cleansing, moisturizing, and using SPF every single day.
19:14And last but not least, I just want to mention that if you're doing professional treatments like getting laser hair removal or chemical peels or even tattoo removal, they're all safe for deeper skin.
19:25But you want to make sure that your practitioner is very knowledgeable in skin of color and that they're not just trying to sell you on something.
19:33So ask a lot of questions.
19:35Ask for before and afters to prove that they actually know how to treat melanated skin because it takes a little bit more knowledge in order to do so.
19:44And if a practitioner doesn't like that you're asking them a lot of questions, they're the wrong one for you because anyone safe will absolutely love and welcome your questions.
19:55Okay guys, I'm out of time.
19:57It was so nice to meet you all.
19:58My name is Nyamka Robert Smith.
20:00You can find me on all socials as LA Beautyologist, B-E-A-U-T-Y-L-O-G-I-S-T.
20:07Thank you so much Beautycon.
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