MENOMORPHOSIS
A podcast for busy midlifers ready to reclaim their energy, joy, and purpose.
Are you, like me, riding the rollercoaster of midlife and menopause, and eager to get back to living your best life? Are you tired of low energy, a short temper and endless self doubt?
Well, It’s time to stress less and shine more. It’s time ditch the worry, reclaim your mojo and unleash your inner brilliance.
It's never too late to transform, and you’re certainly not too old. And in my opinion, midlife and menopause provide the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Join me each week for uplifting stories and expert insights on how to feel as good as you can and create a joyful, purpose-driven life you truly love.
So when you’re ready, Let the beautiful menomorphosis begin!
MENOMORPHOSIS
#114 SKINCARE PART 2: "Make Love To Your Skin" with Dr Fernanda da Silva Tatley
"Your skin is your most precious asset," explains Dr. Fernanda da Silva-Tatley in this fascinating conversation. With a unique background as both a PhD scientist in molecular microbiology and a Reiki master, Dr. Fernanda offers a rare blend of scientific insight and holistic wisdom to help you understand what your changing skin truly needs.
In this episode, you'll discover:
🌟 The hidden dangers of mainstream skincare – including how common chemicals can accumulate in your body.
🌟 The power of a 'less is more' approach – simple, effective ways to care for your skin without overloading it with products.
🌟 Practical, science-backed skincare tips – from using just a tiny amount of product to applying it with gentle, upward movements to protect fragile capillaries.
🌟 How to turn your skincare routine into a moment of self-love.
If you're in the midst of midlife changes or simply seeking healthier alternatives to chemical-laden products, this conversation will leave you feeling informed, inspired, and ready to embrace your skin with love and care.
Tune in now to learn how to nourish your skin from the inside out – and feel amazing while doing it.
Instagram – azurlisskincare
Facebook – Azurlis Botanical Skin Care
Website – www.azurlis.co.nz - an interesting page is – Skincare IQ - https://azurlis.co.nz/blogs/articles
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernanda-da-silva-tatley-phd-mentr-08a09b4/
Discount Code:
Club_25_MPW ---- This entitles customers/visitors to the website to a 25% discount of the entire order between the 1th March and the 30th September 2025.
I’m providing this discount to offset the fact that there is a shipping charge for the UK, and of course there may be import duties that I’m not aware of. However, I’m not expecting that this is an appealing offer to those in the UK, and I’m happy if people ask me about potential equivalent brands that are available locally.
Also, as we briefly discussed, I’m more than happy for your listeners to get in touch with any questions regarding products and ingredients. My email – fernanda@azurlis.co.nz
To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to: https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace
Email me at: info@pollywarren.com
https://www.pollywarren.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/
Are you like me, riding the roller coaster of midlife and menopause and eager to get back to living your best life? Are you tired of low energy, a short temper and endless self-doubt? Well, it's time to stress less and shine more. It's time to ditch the worry, reclaim your mojo and unleash your inner brilliance. It's never too late to transform, and you're certainly not too old and, in my opinion, midlife and menopause provide the perfect opportunity to do just that. Join me each week for inspiring stories and expert insights on topics covering all things midlife, menopause and personal development. So when you're ready, let the beautiful menomorphosis begin. Hello, hello, and welcome back to Menomorphosis. I hope you are doing really well.
Speaker 1:This week's episode is a part two, really, of last week's episode. So last week I spoke to Dr Mandy Leonhart about healthy skin and hair and how our skin and hair changes as we go through midlife and through menopause, and she gives so many practical tips on the things that we can do to keep them healthy. So if you haven't had a listen to that episode, I really recommend going back and having a listen. Now. This week's episode is an extension of that. I speak to the absolutely brilliant Dr Fernanda da Silva-Tatley.
Speaker 1:Now Dr Fernanda is, by trade and by training, a scientist, but she describes herself as an artist at heart and a Reiki master in her soul. Fernanda, while doing a PhD in medical molecular microbiology, came up with the concept for her brand, azulis. Fernanda's mission was to create a natural skincare range that supports environmentally friendly practices and is rich on elements of nature that are beneficial to the body, the mind and to the soul. She has given so much attention to distilling information on harmful ingredients that are used in personal care products today, as well as on sustainable harvesting of beneficial ingredients, as well as the manufacturing processes that are least likely to harm the environment.
Speaker 1:Skincare is now such a massive business, and it is more important than ever to have an awareness of what we are putting onto our skin, because our skin is an organ and whatever goes onto our skin is then absorbed into our bodies. So this episode is a must listen to really get a good understanding of that. So, without further ado, please welcome the absolutely brilliant Dr Fernanda da Silva-Tatley. Welcome to the podcast, fernanda. It's really lovely to have you here today, so thank you for joining me all the way from New Zealand.
Speaker 2:I'm in the South Island of New Zealand. It's south island of New Zealand. It's 10 past 11 here, but you know I have been so looking forward to this that it didn't matter if it was 2am I think I would still be buzzing. So thank you, polly, for having me on. So I'm a scientist by training, with my PhD in medical molecular microbiology, and I used to do a lot of work on the interface between the immune system and microorganisms that live on the surface of our skin, the microbiome as well as the microbial flora which then invades the body internally. And after some time, with a group which was run by a group in the UK, glaxo Welcome. They connected with a South African initiative which was Glaxo Welcome, action TB, and we, of course we investigated ways of studying TB to find weaknesses in the virulence patterns, so the drug company Glaxo could develop more drugs to be able to modulate the disease and help patients that fall prey to the disease or to develop ways of our immune system being stronger, not falling prey. And it was as a result of that that I ended up in New Zealand, but not working on TB, working on other pathogens. But the techniques you develop in one area get applied to another and that's how I sort of came out here.
Speaker 2:So I'm a scientist by training, but I'm an artist in my heart and I'm a Reiki master in my soul. And people often say to me how on earth can a scientist be a reiki master as well? One is so factual, so direct, and the other is so hocus pocus, it's all. Uh, I often get told it's so placebo and I take a deep breath. I literally take a deep breath because there are no rules in the world that say you just have to be one thing. So it's very important that people understand we are a mixture of things. You carry some of the genes from your family, but you are a personality on your own. You're exposed to an environment that is huge and quite diverse, and sometimes quite toxic, other times quite benevolent, and you assimilate all of that and that's who you are as a person. So in fact, for me it's a kind of a no brainer that why shouldn't I like or feel connected to esoteric thinking?
Speaker 2:Because my brain is not restricted just to a series of reactions. Yes, there are electrical reactions going in my brain, but we don't really understand our brains fully. And the other thing is that we know that our brains connect with our internal organs. I mean there's a, there's a triad, a very, very clever triad that is the brain, and and then you have your gut, um, through the vagus nerves, and then we have the adrenals on top of your kidneys and this leads to the fright reactions that we have. And equally the same thing.
Speaker 2:So if you're feeling the flip side, if you're feeling good, you release endorphins from your brain and these endorphins circulate all over your body and they relax your gut. So you relax. But if you're stressed, stressed, these kinds of molecules, the cortisol like molecules that get released in the adrenals, and the all the hormones from the hypothalamus, what do they do? They tense you up. So there are connections that are very well documented physically that we don't quite understand how they work fully. So I think I'm privileged to be a scientist and be interested in something that is a little bit more alternative. So I don't see myself like my colleagues used to say oh, you're kind of a failed scientist, that's why you've gone to other areas. Oh, what a limiting belief.
Speaker 1:Yes, do you know, it's so refreshing to meet someone who is a scientist but is also very open to that more kind of esoteric world. Because, yeah, I mean, I definitely have a foot in both camps as well. You know, I definitely love a bit of the old woo and I can, you know, I just you know. But actually I also love evidence, I love research, I love to know that things are backed in science, but we don't know everything.
Speaker 1:It's virtually impossible for us to know everything, and so if you are limiting yourself to just always going on the research that has been done, then you're limiting the possibilities because we don't know so much, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is, so you, the Second World War, you know classical and they're very protective, and they went through quite a bit. There were always threats the Germans might bomb us, the Germans might bomb us, and so they lived under those kinds of pressures. So when I was born, everything was contrived to have the best, best profession, to earn the most money, because you have to be above it all. And so my dad had this vision that I had to be either a medical doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, you know all these professions that we consider the successful professions. But I wanted to be an archaeologist. And no, no, no, no, no. That was just not on because archaeology is a hobby. And so, of course, this created a number of conflicts between my dad and myself, the good old age sort of teenage conflict, and we kind of navigated that um, I gave in, I caved in and I went into the science side. Um, look, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. And um, I'm good at what I did. Was it my passion? That's the funny thing as you older, you realize that there are things that you do and there's things you comply with and you think it's okay, but maybe you are limiting yourself. And so, looking back at my age, so I'm 67. I'm really right at the end of the scale. And I'm looking back and I'm thinking, oh my God, I've been scratching in the sand, digging in the sand all my life. The way I've done the research approach, how I've worked with people, how I've been involved with other things, I've always been digging and that's so.
Speaker 2:Archaeology has been the underlying thread. Would I love to have been an archaeologist? Of course I would have, but my life would have been completely different. Unfortunately, we don't have a time machine that goes back. You know you can't do anything, so you deal with it in the best possible way. But the reason why I'm telling you this is also because it's quite important that people realize when you make decisions early on in your 20s and even before your 20s that determine where you go, if they're not entirely aligned with who you are, the consequences are not just that you are unhappy because you're not going to be doing xyz, but they have physiological and mental consequences. And in my case, um, I'll tell you something that's quite interesting.
Speaker 2:I think the consequence of all this repressed feeling was, um, a number of gut issues which are only discovered much later, as ulcerative colitis, and the interesting thing for me was that I was put on a variety of therapies just because they were available and I was fortunate to experience them, except that I reacted to them and there was no ways of predicting that. It's just the way it goes. 80% of the people have no side effects. I was one of the ones who did and I said to my gastroenterologist no, no, no, look, I'm just going to manage this in a different way. And, like you were saying, you looked at what is it that is giving rise to all these symptoms that make you feel uncomfortable, that you don't know, that people don't talk about.
Speaker 2:I started scouring the literature, both the scientific literature and the more public, more sort of lax, more layman literature, for all sorts of things, and I did something which was a bit unusual I made my diet absolutely bland for a few weeks. Literally, I was just having a kind of a bland supplement that you'd give to cancer patients, you know, when they can't eat anything and they give them highly nutritious supplements. That's what I had eat anything and they give them highly nutritious supplements. That's what I had. And in having this, um, then I would test introducing food types to see how my gut reacted and that's how I identified the kinds of foods that exacerbated my colitis and the others that appear to calm it.
Speaker 2:And when I see my gastroenterologist every year, he tells me no, no, no, but you should go to these new therapies. And I said no, no, it's okay, it's okay, I'm quite happy not to. But he gets very uptight with me because, oh you know, one day you're going to relapse bad. And I say to him, michael, that's okay If Iapse bad. And I say to you, michael, that's okay if I relax bad. I've taken responsibility that it was my choice and I think there's a lot in that.
Speaker 1:Isn't there just no listening to your body, knowing your body, working out what works for you, rather than constantly outsourcing to somebody else who you think knows better? And often, sometimes, they do know better? Sometimes they do, yeah, but actually a lot of the time, you know, it's up to us to take that responsibility and to understand ourselves. That, just like you did, it's like testing what foods work for me, what don't. And if you feel like you've got some an issue under control and you're you're, you're managing to live your life to the fullest, then great, you don't need to have the treatment. So, fernanda, how did you get into skincare?
Speaker 2:how I came into skincare was kind of by a kind of a reaction in the 80s of thinking, oh my goodness, there's so many myths out there on what's good for you. You know, you have routines of using, you know five or six or ten products, okay, and then you have to buy these super expensive things, these technologically developed things that deliver all sorts of wonderful ingredients through these encapsulated forms that go through your skin. Well, I was thinking about it and thinking the skin is quite a complex structure and we don't really know if those things target where we want them to go. So it's kind of a bit of a misnomer. Number one. Number two we are spending so much money in all these things and making, um, making so many things in our environment unsustainable and we don't really understand why, why we need them. And so I I decided to to go against the grain and say no, no, no, we don't need all these things. We need a small group of products that are good for you. It doesn't matter if your skin is dry, it doesn't matter if your skin is oily. Your products can be used in different ways, but it's the same product. And do you know that?
Speaker 2:I had major backlash? No one believed me. People just didn't think that that was possible. No, no, no, no, my skin is dry. I can. I have no problem developing products.
Speaker 2:The problem is that when you develop products, you have major expenses in getting all the marketing ready, so your resources kind of thin out very quickly and at the end of the day it doesn't make any difference. So, coming back now, I've gone back to my original concept and in my website I'm changing things again. So there's a number of things in transition to say, look, we actually need two groups of products. Okay, so we need the ones that are the essential things for our skin and then, if you want to, if you are inclined, if you can afford, invest in those products that have more enriching qualities. So one group is the essentials, the zenithith. Those are the things you, you should have. Our skin is extremely important. It's not not better than the heart or the liver or the brain. They all have their functions. We can't live without any of those. We, we're a whole. We're all connected, as I was explaining, from the brain to the gut, to the skin.
Speaker 2:If you are fearful, you get goosebumps, um, and when you put something in your skin that doesn't agree with you, you might have a sort of need to go to the toilet, those kinds of things, because everything is cross-talking. So, but coming back to this, you need something to clean your face because if you do wear makeup, okay, a cleanse is good, right, but I'll leave that on the side. You need to have a moisturizer because, to protect your barrier, you need to ensure that you're not losing too much water. In fact, you will notice now, from now onwards, after menopause, what happens is that your skin gets infinitely more dry. Yes, and you can put as much oil as you want, and it gets absorbed. So, um, I'm I'm continuously saying to people look, don't forget about the legs, you'll'll notice the legs get very dry.
Speaker 1:Don't know why. So, in terms of putting stuff on your skin, whatever it might be, so do you recommend more an oil than a moisturizer to lock in the moisture?
Speaker 2:It depends. There are many people that don't like oils, but oils are good because they get absorbed quickly, but often they're not enough. So what you need is to have a product that is an emulsion, so it's a cream, so it's a kind of a mayonnaise. The mayonnaise is the classical emulsion. It's oily, so the oils go into your skin. But then you have the the more uh, which is effectively the cream side, the wax. It's their waxes. The waxes are big bulky molecules. They stay on the side, on the top of your skin, and they form the barrier that prevent the water from being lost. So having an oil is good, but then if you have an oil, you've got to apply it regularly. You can get away with having a good balm, which is a dense oil that feels like a cream, but it's actually an oil and you have a cream. But if you you have an oil, you've got to do it several times a day, which sometimes is not convenient in terms of products.
Speaker 1:so I know that you are a big advocate for natural products and natural ingredients, so I'd love to let you just to tell us all a little bit more about what you find in mainstream skincare products versus a natural, and how that is affecting our skin, our skin.
Speaker 2:Okay, sure, and the other thing is Polly. I can tell you something quite interesting. Because the need to sell is so great, because the competition is so fierce. Even natural companies are marketing the way in which mainstream companies market. So the big mainstream message was to have higher profits for the shareholders. And that means slap it on lots, you know. Slap it on, you know as much as you like. Why? Because something that lasts a month will last two weeks, so you have to buy some more. So the companies have a how can I say? A very well positioned revenue stream With natural ingredients, if they select it properly.
Speaker 2:Natural skincare you can get away with less, so less is more. And often you find people saying, oh, I put something on that feels too sticky. Oh yeah, you probably put too much. I have seen, to my horror and this is where I get quite upset things on social media and sometimes people ask me can they talk about my products on social media? And there's been one or two that I've seen they've literally picked up a spatula full of cream so it's as much as my, my top sort of phalange of my indicator finger with some cream and they spread it on. And I looked at that and I thought oh goodness, you haven't read the instructions, have you? You've just not understood the concept. So if you use natural ingredients because they tend to be denser, you need to use less. So less is more. It's often better to start with what I call an orange pip size amount, because you know a small amount for me is different for you and somebody else. So an orange pip more or less. People know what that looks like. Start with a little bit and massage it, always upwards, because gravity pulls everything down. And the other other thing I say and this will sound strange to you if you're not familiar please make love to your skin. And I don't mean to have sex with your skin, not at all, but be gentle, be kind. So your movements are upwards. I often put cream on my face and I go with the back of my hands and I go up Don't rub. Why is it important not to rub? So the minute you rub you are really pushing the little capillaries under your dermis, in the hypodermis, and they will feel kind of off. So you're inducing slight inflammatory reactions and bruising.
Speaker 2:Why Putting something on you? It's supposed to make you feel good With the lifestyle that we live. We get so bombarded, when we're so overwhelmed with everything and we're always at the bottom of the pile you notice that we need to do something for the family, or for the friends, or for work or for something else, or for the community or for some event, and you kind of forget about yourself and you end up having a cone of stuff. But everything is piling up. It's time for you to apply something to your body with gentleness, with care, to bring you up to the top. So for those minutes and literally it's three to five minutes you feel like a goddess and in feeling like a goddess you get all these endorphins being released and the products will absorb much better. So this is another thing that's very important. If you tense, if tense, your skin is tense, so things tend to stick on top. Further, very, very important If you're tense, if you don't look after your skin properly.
Speaker 2:There's very interesting reviews on New Scientist. I get the New Scientist every week and love reading this more sort of you know, less scientific, more summaries for people like myself that are not in direct science anymore. But they're so well documented and the evidence, which goes back to the original articles, is showing now clear association of healthy skin. Healthy body, just like healthy oral cavity. A healthy body, yes, and on the other hand, you mustn't over cleanse and okay. So just I'm going to to say this because people they need to hear this, I hear of they cleanse in the morning, cleanse in the evening and they cleanse during the day because they want to cleanse their skin, to remove all the dead cells that are on their skin and all the dust. And I just take a deep breath. Now there is scientific evidence to prove that if you take your microbial flora to the point that you are disinfected, you are limiting the way in which your sebaceous glands work. So they don't work by themselves, they get stimulated by the flora on the top of the skin.
Speaker 1:Okay, so does that mean, in terms of exfoliation, that you really shouldn't exfoliate very often?
Speaker 2:of exfoliation that you really shouldn't exfoliate very often. Look, if you have extremely dry skin, that is, you know, when it gets very crusty, and you know that it's not rosacea. Because if it is rosacea, stop. Now you need to go to your doctor and there's a certain medication that I I won't disclose because it's the gps or the dermatologists that need to prescribe it. It's a scheduled medication. You need that Within a few days that gets resolved. But if it's just dry skin, because the squamous cells on the skin are still partly attached, and they're attached because you are dehydrated, so the best thing when that happens is to put an oil or balm to soften it, okay, drink lots of water, and unfortunately it has to be water that is from within, so it's the water from underneath your skin that comes to the surface and allows those enzymes to work, because they're in the cells in your epidermis.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay that's what happens and I know that, like if you like me, I drink. I need to go to the toilet and sometimes I think, oh my goodness, I wish I had a catheter so I don't have to it's interesting that all these lifestyle things that we do really impact our skin.
Speaker 1:It's an inside out job OK, we can put on really lovely creams, but actually what we also do, as you said, you know the stress that we feel, it's all reflected outwards.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, you want the skin to be plump. You remember, like when we were teenagers, you didn't want to be plump because it was a bad thing, you know? Yeah, yeah, you need to be thin. No, no, no, your skin needs to be plump. And as we get older, we tend to lose fat on our skin. It's, on average, about 10% of our fat gets lost. Percent of our fat gets lost. Um, if people are more, um, you know, fuller people, actually it's to the advantage. They look younger, longer. Thin people tend to show their age faster because we lose the fat faster and it you know. So don't, don't try and lose too much weight, because it will it will show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've really, I've really noticed that actually, that when I have a little bit more weight on, I'm just it's particularly around my jowly bits. It doesn't it's not quite so pronounced as it is when I'm um, you know, I'm naturally quite slim and so it's. Yeah, I have to watch it. I think if I get too, too slim, I can look, yeah, I, you can see it in my face straight away.
Speaker 2:It does completely so, and it's interesting that it's all related to how gravity impacts on us. So when we're young, to have a little bit less weight on works fine for us because we've got a high percentage of fat under our skin. But but as we age, that does disappear, and it disappears, ironically, in very funny places. Like I'm going to say this and hopefully I don't offend anyone I'm one of these people that when God was giving out voluptuousness, I was at the back of the queue, so I got very little. I was at the back of the queue, so I got very little. So, um, so when it comes to having a bosom, if I lose weight, where do I lose it first?
Speaker 1:I'd love to know a little bit more, fernanda, about chemicals and the effect that they have on our skin. So if you were to get everyday products which you buy, you know you can buy cheaply in the supermarket. If we use those on our skin, is there any harm which it's doing without?
Speaker 2:alarming anybody. Yeah, okay, the the issue is, you see, this is the interesting thing. The issue is is that the harm is not so much on your skin, but it's in your organs, inside your body, and the reason why is the skin is a barrier, but it's called a semi-permeable barrier. So things get taken up and you lose water, you dehydrate. So what happens when we put products that are intensively formulated with the so-called hazardous chemicals? And why are they hazardous? They're hazardous because there is evidence that when they deposit in our body, they deposit in organs that tend to be the reproductive organs, the mammary glands and the liver, which is our detoxifying organ, big detox as well as the kidneys. So if we're going to continuously accumulate such molecules over 20, 30 years, after a while our detoxifying organs don't function as efficiently and so they're not clearing stuff from the bloodstream because they effectively they're big filters. It's like having a big strainer holding things back, but if you put too much on the strainers, things start going through. That shouldn't go through, and the danger is that when you have so much excessive exposure to products that are hazardous, semi-noxious, they don't get excreted, they accumulate in the body, they circulate in the body and if your immune system is debilitated for some reason.
Speaker 2:If you have a predisposition for something, if the environmental changes around you are such that you become more debilitated in one way or another, you become sometimes just nondescript ill and you feel tired, you feel weak at the good end of the scale. That's the good end. The bad end is that you can develop highly inflammatory conditions, which, because an inflammatory condition, is about cells proliferating, cells changing, turning over fast to be able to heal whatever is wrong. When something is reproducing so fast, duplicating so fast, the genome makes mistakes and so you can have mutations and it could lead to cancer. And that is why those noxious molecules should not be used in personal care or in our diet, because they accumulate in the body.
Speaker 2:If they easily got read through the urine and through the feces, different story, but they don't, they accumulate. And so examples of such products are well discussed are the parabens, the petrochemically derived, and there's a whole range of petrochemical silicons. I know one of the things that I find quite incredible there's so many mainstream products that still have the products that make that give your products good slip, you know, so they glide very easily on your skin. Yes, they effectively are of the same family as the antifreezes that we use in the car.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness. Honestly, it's amazing that they're allowed to be made, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I mean, it's amazing that governments don't put bans on these products well, for so many years, and I think the only only in the last 30, 40 years, this has become realized. So there's been a great push in the natural industry to develop products that mimic the function of these synthetic molecules that have noxious effect but are actually they're called um, nature like, so and nature like, and they're quite a few that have been developed out of corn. So they take the corn, the actual sort of starch from the corn, and they modify this into a variety of molecules, both liquid and non-liquid, that become very similar to what these antifreeze are, because that's why it's an antifreeze. So the water doesn't freeze, so the system in the car is oiled or watered or it's gliding properly. It's doing exactly the same thing on your skin.
Speaker 1:So why is it that they are putting these products? Is it because they're?
Speaker 2:cheaper. So many years ago, companies were trying to satisfy more of what the market wanted. Companies were trying to satisfy more of what the market wanted, and the market always wants products that feel like velvet or feel like an incredible experience, and so the more slip that the product has, the more the market will buy. If you have a product that takes a bit longer to spread on the skin immediately, people say oh, you know, it's so hard to put on, I only have a few minutes every day, and so you get caught up in this instant reward. It's a form of instant reward. It has to be quick, quick, quick, and the very case in point that was quite significantly noxious in the US was, during the 50s, the company Copritone. Do you remember Copritone as the sunscreen? Yes, I do, which is probably I think you might just have been born at the time when it was coming out.
Speaker 2:I remember when I was a kid, you know, people used it a lot on the beach and they started developing these sunscreens that weren't cream, they were oils, because they were gliding so well and they're supposed to have sunscreen properties. So they're the octal type groups. They have a sort of similarity to benzene rings, they're sort of benzene derivatives. And what was happening is that, because they're oils and they glide so well, they also get absorbed into your skin so well. And what do they do? They float in the system and they get accumulated in your organs, the very organs we've been talking about, and some of them were definitely associated with the onset of malignancies.
Speaker 2:But worse than that, because you are, you are absorbing your oils you know these sunscreen oils into your skin. You are now not having anything on your skin. So guess what? Skin cancer rates went up. Huge, huge, huge problem. To so much so that's. The fda actually put out um big, big sort of paper saying you know, no, those types of sunscreens are not allowed. So copic, on being at the top of the pile, was responsible for a lot of damage.
Speaker 1:Not so much, but all around so we should be looking for, when we're looking to buy skin cream, just the most natural ingredients that we possibly can, the pure ingredients that we can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But sometimes you know this is the few ingredients. That's true. Look the way we have to describe the ingredients in a product. We have to put what is called the inky name, which is the International Nomenclature, chemical Designation, and they sound very chemical and sometimes they're not so bad, but they do sound horrible, like, for instance, one of the waxes that I was talking about. That is really important to keep the skin barrier protected so you don't lose so much.
Speaker 2:Water is a wax that sounds terrible, but it's not Because it's got the alcohol name into it. It's one of the alcohols. Why? Because, chemically, the backbone of the molecule is an alcohol structure, but it doesn't mean to say that you have alcohol in the wax. It's a wax. It has to be molten. So, with data as a science background, if you look at a label, you'll be horrified and you think, oh, all these chemicals? But they're not. It's more that you have to watch out. Make sure it doesn't talk about parabens.
Speaker 2:Another common preservative is phenoxyethanol. Common preservative is phenoxyethanol. Now, phenoxyethanol is not one of my favorites because it is a benzene ring with an ethanol tail on top. Now, benzene rings are what we call teratogenic, so they induce tumors. Why the heck do we use them?
Speaker 2:And I've spoken a lot to pharmaceutical companies, to pharmaceutical, cosmetic chemists, and I've said but why do you use? Oh, because it's so cheap and so good so to and so easy to use, has no scent, so it doesn't change your product in terms of scent. Often natural ingredients have quite a heady nose, nutty nose, doesn't smell so good. But, um, just forget about the smell, just use it. But you see, they're using things that are easier to use and they say well, well, the evidence is controversial, and it is true, because so much of the evidence is dependent on how the study is designed. And if the studies aren't designed properly, you may or may not find the association. And if you find the association, then there's a big company that has enough resources to take someone to court and say you know nonsense, you know that doesn't happen.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, just be aware of what's in our, what's in the products that we're using on our skin, but but also, as we mentioned before, just to really think about the other lifestyle things that you're doing in order to look after your skin. What would you, what do you do, fernanda, other than your skincare? What do you do to help? I'll tell you.
Speaker 2:I work so hard I tend to have 16 hour days, which is not a good idea. So I'm the epitome of someone who is trying to tell the world change your lifestyle. But I'm working so hard on my soapbox that I myself often don't have time to follow. But I do have a habit of having some time, even if it's two or three minutes every now and then, and I have quiet times, quiet times that enable me to use my Reiki or just to have a quiet space, because that is important and I've learned over the years just to be a bit more mindful and I'll say to people no, you know, it just can't be done. You know, as I said, I'm a vegetarian, but, um, I, you know it's, it's full principle. I don't like to kill animals to eat. I don't like to kill animals to have products on my skin, so only plants. Now there's a there's an ethical issue there as well, because there are all sorts of scientific studies showing that plants may feel when they get cut, but they don't have a nervous system. So that's where sort of. For me, you know, it stopped. But having a good diet, being well hydrated, trying to have at least eight hours of sleep, as I said, it doesn't always happen in my case and the thing is I'm so excited sometimes, like from talking to yourself now it's quite late, I'm still going to be buzzing for some time, so I can't fall asleep that easily. But try and have a few hours sleep.
Speaker 2:Exercise, even if you don't have an implemented routine exercise. For goodness sake, walk, walk, but walk outside, enjoy the environment. I regularly have one of these Fitbit things. I only use it for steps because I couldn't be connected to all the other stuff, couldn't be bothered and, um, I don't have to worry about doing enough steps because on average, I do 14 000 steps doing what I do and um, so just make sure that you have walking. If you have time to do some activities that are more dedicated to getting your cardio up, that's great.
Speaker 2:I've now taken up to doing yoga only once a week. I only get myself the privilege of once a week, but I love it because it really calms the sense. It takes about five, ten minutes to forget about this and I haven't done that and I haven't done the other and this, but it really helps so to create that mental space and to create the mindset you're not going to go and be here forever, but you need to live as healthy for as long as you can. This is actually a very selfish reason. Why are we doing this? Because if you want to live as healthy for as long as you can, this is actually a very selfish reason. Why are we doing this? Because if you want to help the family, we have to help ourselves first, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, you have to help yourself first and, as we said before, it's reflected on your skin, it's reflected in how you feel you know in your energy levels and, yes, absolutely, it reflects in how you feel you know in your energy levels and, yes, absolutely, it's just. It's just all those little small steps that you take every day to look after yourself. And what I did love was when you were saying about when you actually moisturize your skin, when you put your moisturizer on. You know that's like a such a gorgeous way to implement a little bit of self love and a little bit of mindfulness into your day, just to really be really present with that and and to give yourself that time to just really, yeah, love, love your skin and and get quiet. I love that.
Speaker 2:that's such an easy, simple way it is and you know, I can see it in your eyes. Your eyes are changing as you're describing that. And that's exactly that can't be written on a piece of paper. People need to witness that. You look in the mirror and you'll think, oh, that's not so bad, I don't.
Speaker 2:You know, I feel great and you know it's such a privilege to be able to do that. Look, you know, just to veer off on a slightly, a very sad angle, we are so privileged having the lives we have. Think of what's happening in the Ukraine and Gaza and it makes my heart break. Imagine having giving birth to a kid when there are bombs all over the place. It's just insane, insane. And so we should be so grateful for what we have. And you know, yes, you haven't won the lotto and you haven't got the jewels and you haven't got this car. Do you know, in the end it doesn't matter, it does not.
Speaker 2:You know, enjoy the precious things. I always say the skin is your, your most precious asset. But I'm just joking because I want to sort of get people into the, into laughing, because if you laugh you do feel better, just like. Um, I'll, uh, I'll say you know often, people, I see people and they're looking kind of down and I can see they worn out and and then the first thing I'll say to them is hello, I haven't seen you for ages. You look fantastic. People get startled and you know what. They laugh and they smile and they relax and it's so nice, I love you know. Just just be positive. Even if someone looks terrible, don't tell them you're not going to help them by saying hi, polly, you look so tired today. How good are you going to feel? If you're feeling tired, you're going to feel worse. Wow, what an achievement. What a stupid thing to do.
Speaker 1:It's so true. Maybe, just to finish, you could tell everybody where, if they're interested in your skincare range, maybe just tell them a little bit about it, where they can get it, if they're interested in getting it, um, and how they can find more about you and your skincare okay, look, um, my website is azuli.
Speaker 2:I'll link it, and the thing that I'm very wary of is that sending products from New Zealand to England it seems a little bit inefficient. I'm quite happy to provide you with a discount code if people want to do, because you may pay some import tax when products arrive and so the discount would offset some shipping as well. But I would prefer maybe it's more. I'm I'm not helping myself in selling stuff because it's just the way I wear. I I don't sell your skin key, I care for your skin. That's one of my motors.
Speaker 2:You probably find just as fantastic products like ours in the UK without having to contend with dislocation and chipping et cetera. But I would be most welcome for people to email me at fernandaazuliconz and ask me how do I know this product, that I've taken a photo with my camera, if these ingredients are kinds of ingredients that I should be wary of, or are they safe and I can send them, I can translate for them and say look, that's safe. That's where it is. Um, it's, it's having a particular chemical name, like we're talking about this wax. It's for a reason, but it's absolutely acceptable, so I'm very happy to do that. Thank you. That would be amazing because I think it's more efficient rather than people buying from the uk.
Speaker 2:I also have a page on the website called skincare iq, which is articles I tend to publish every two weeks. Just ask me questions, be informed. If what I can offer you is the opportunity to ask questions, to learn to not to be scared to ask someone like myself, is this something that I should be concerned? I'll be so proud that I've helped someone, regardless of not making sales I know it's. It's a horrible sales pitch oh well, thank you.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate that and I'm sure the listeners will really appreciate that as well. Thank you so so much for staying up, for chatting with me today and for sharing so much gold, so much wisdom. I really really appreciated it, and we could talk for hours. Oh no, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And Polly, if you want to have another podcast some other times to talk on all sorts of topics, just email me and you know, because it's I really believe people need to need to hear the message yes, um, look after your skin. The. The environment is very important. The environment you live is very important in maintaining your health. In fact, science is showing that our health uh, we are who we are because of about 25 percent of how we expose and how we react to the environment, rather than because of the genes so you can modify your.
Speaker 2:Not so modify your genes, but modify your heritage. You can, you can change. Maybe we'll save that for another podcast that's a whole big, big raft of stuff. Oh, thank you so much oh, fernanda, you're a peach.
Speaker 1:It was such a joy talking to you, so many fantastic stories. We could have chatted all day. I really, really did enjoy our conversation and please, if you've enjoyed this, please, please take Fernanda up on her offer and contact her to find out about your skincare products, to find out if, how they are on your skin, if they are harmful, if they're not harmful, because because this stuff is very, very important to know, and I know Fernanda's on a real mission to help us all understand it a little bit better. So, thank you for listening. I really do hope you've enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1:If you have, please do feel free to share with a friend, feel free to like to like, subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast, and also you can come follow me on instagram at polly warren coaching. I always, always love to hear your comments, so please feel free to write a review or send me a message. I do love to see them. Have a fantastic rest of the week and really look after yourself. Take some time out to put your skin cream on, take lots of care and I look forward to speaking to you next time. Lots of love, bye.