Why This Under $30 Skincare Keeps Going Viral, pH Matters & The Lore of Brandon Truaxe with Indeed Labs co-Founder Dimitra Davidson

25:23Yeah. And how much in the US? I believe they're$24.99 as well. Yeah. Less than 30 bucks. And there's a very infamous product out there that costs at least double, if not triple, the price. And it's just, it just makes sense. And one thing that I really love about the nano bronze bronzing drops is, to your point, there's no sparkle in it. And I actually saw a makeup artist yesterday on Instagram say she uses nano bronze pretty much exclusively on her male grooming clients before camera work. Wow. Because it gives that glow, but it doesn't look like they're wearing makeup. And to your point, it's skincare first.

25:58right versus what are the antioxidants it's got an antioxidant it's got hyaluronic acid it's got a pea extract in there and so it actually it can actually give you sort of that that self tan over a period of time if you use it consistently but for the most part it's very hydrating very moisturizing and also then it has that daily antioxidant so that's what you really need during the day but it's interesting because what i was going to say about that is men's grooming it's so funny because so many men ask me do you make products for men but we have so many makeup artists that use exclusively our products on their men clients like least recently we were tagged with patrick mahomes and during the film festival here in toronto was all the male actors that were using our nanoblur our nanobron so yeah yeah we have that makes sense between the two of them it really is that perfect like genderless no makeup makeup kind of idea

26:59grateful that hill house home is supporting our show this week hill house home they invented the viral nap dress you know the one it's really flattering fit it's got smocking for ultimate comfort i have one in my closet and i'm in good company because celebrities like taylor swift love hill house home as well as mindy kaling and one of my favorite things about hill house home dresses is that you can dress them up or down you can wear it to work with a blazer on top You can kind of dress it up for an evening holiday party. And I really appreciate that the dresses, they all start at$150. And right now I'm looking at their website and I'm obsessed with this one dress.

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28:20Again, that's code BEAUTY15 for 15 % off your order at hillhousehome.com. We'll link to this offer in our show notes and on our website. Today's episode is brought to you in part by Quip. I have a confession to make. My electronic toothbrush has been failing me. And lately, when I run my tongue across my teeth, they feel kind of fuzzy. I know that sounds gross. I don't know what's going on because I changed the head on it. I don't know. Like the universe is telling me I need a new toothbrush. So I do have a new one on root. It's called the Quip 360. It's an oscillating toothbrush. And I love that it's not overly complicated.

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30:42Now, I think on that note, though, we need to move on to another kind of sister brand, I guess, you launched last year, which maybe people don't know of as much. It's called FIN, but it's spelled P-H-I-N. So tell us about that because one of the things that popped out to me right away is you really see that PH. It's a small P, capital H. So we understand that it has something to do with PH and it treats acne. So I just have never seen that at the forefront so much where PH seems to be the kind of star ingredient, I guess, even though it's not an ingredient. But it's the hero kind of idea. So tell us about that.

31:30Yeah, definitely. So being a skincare brand, a skincare brand owner, obviously one of the biggest concerns that consumers have is acne, treating acne. I had my own personal story and journey with acne. When I was younger, I used a three-step system. I went to my dermatologist. I felt, and I was younger back then. We didn't know anything about skincare back then. I felt like my face was lighter than the rest of my body. I thought I was imagining it. It was actually bleaching my skin. benzoyl peroxide. I went to my dermatologist and he tried to sell me on a cleanser. And I said, well, I'm using the system.

32:04He said, how long you've been using for? I said, 18 months. He scared the living daylights out. He said, you should not be using this for extended periods of time. And of course, as a consumer and somebody who suffered with acne, I was too afraid to come off of it. So fast forward, I started to learn about our skin's microbiome, how our skin functions and how it works. And so I tasked our scientists to create, in theory, acne is triggered by a bunch of different things. Could be hormones, stress, genetics, but how it's formed is an overproduction of sebum. The acne strain of bacteria called C-acnes feeds off that excess sebum.

32:40It multiplies and then the excess bacteria, C-acnes, as well as the sebum gets stuck in the hair follicle. that's how acne is formed in theory then if we actually control our skin's microbiome which is made up of funguses virus and bacteria and we keep that bacteria intact without it being overgrown we should be your skin should be able to do what it's supposed to do itself to purge naturally and heal itself so we started to look at that and so what we realized is if you keep your skin in its optimal pH zone at all times for at a 4.5 to 5.7 pH zone, then it'll treat itself. And so we started to create products to keep your skin pH balanced and protect your skin's microbiome.

33:27And we sent it through clinicals and we got back the clinical results. And we saw that the clinical results were just as strong as any other acne treatment in the market, except that this brand doesn't kill all bacteria, which is absolutely essential to your overall health. And the more we learned about our microbiome, the more we learned that our skin, our brain, our gut are connected. And so I got super excited. We put it through three rounds of clinicals as well as the third round under the advice of a board certified dermatologist, Dr. Noel Solish, with our scientists and the results were unparalleled.

34:04And then we sent it out for microbiome certification. yeah and so for me in terms of excitement like people ask me what products are you most excited about what opportunity can you give consumers for me fin is the best results we've ever gotten with something that is not that wow that's well that's really saying a lot because it's it is a lot of education and maybe a bit of a hard sell to get people to change their mindset where it's a gentle approach to acne. You don't actually have to obliterate it for it to be gone. It's a low and slow in a way, which some people might not understand. It's just so different than the paradigm that we've been living in for so long.

34:50Except that it does the same exact thing. It's just it's sustainable. So if you see other acne, if you read the back labels of acne treatments, they'll say after a month, you should see or speak to your dermatologist. You shouldn't be using them for extended periods of time. And we also know that breaking down our skin's barrier can result in other issues longer term. It can be linked to eczema. It can be linked to rosacea and all these other skin problems that people have. But the clinicals on the acne side are so strong. Over 92 % said that they saw visible reduction in acne, which is the same clinicals as acne treatments without any irritation.

35:30Right. For everyone listening, it's three products, right? Can you just explain? Yeah, there's a cleanser. It's a pH balancing, gentle pH balancing cleanser. So it cleanses without stripping. And then the second step, which is your moisture treatment. And that's the other thing. Because it's not doing anything harsh, it doesn't feel. You're not feeling any stinging. You're not feeling any irritation. You're not getting any dryness. So it's a moisturizer. But that's where the magic happens. That's where you're targeting the excess bacteria, the C acnes. And then, of course, we have our mask, which helps with any another byproduct of acne is scarring.

36:06And, you know, the scarring is actually really hard to treat. Yeah. And so that's what our third step is for. Okay, amazing. And what about Indeed Labs? Anything new coming down the pike that we should be excited about for 2025? Yes, absolutely. So we are launching four new products. Three of them are targeting a very specific consumer. and super excited. Can't give a lot of information about it just yet, but they will be launching early February. So very timely. Definitely, we've seen a movement in this industry bringing in younger consumers. I am a huge advocate of definitely creating healthy habits at a young age.

36:50I don't know if you guys know this. Well, you know this. We talked about my daughter earlier, but I have three daughters. Yeah. And I had a really hard time, even as a mom who has a skincare brand and knows so much about our skin and science of products, convincing them to have healthy habits. So in that vein, I'm excited that younger consumers are paying attention and self-love is important to them. I don't think we want to discourage them. I think we want to encourage it and we want to encourage it in a way that's safe. Yeah, absolutely. Well, it sounds like this is going to be perfectly in timing for the tweens at Sephora that we saw headlining 2024 really and offering you know better options that are more appropriate for their skin type I'm guessing is what it's all about because you know if they just reach for anything that's a bright and shiny color they might end up scorching their acid mantle yeah so and definitely a lot of thought went behind what is their very specific needs their skin needs but also what do moms need And so moms need convenience.

37:55Moms need wallet friendly. And moms need to be able to be reassured that whatever their children are doing is safe for them and not potentially harmful. And so that's where the challenge becomes because we have a responsibility to our consumers to do a lot of the work for them and take the guesswork out of it for them. They're busy. People are busy. So I'm really excited about this. Yeah, I'm excited too. Listen, I've got one teen and one tween. So I'll be happy to test it in my household. And I remember being there with my daughter where, just like you said, I have a closet full of skincare. And I really had to question, what can I use on 10-year-old skin that is going to be appropriate?

38:39They don't need a hell of a lot. Yeah, a heck of a lot. Exactly. But what they need is definitely proper cleansing. Yeah. You know, a little bit of, and also it's just that our skin, our industry is very tactile. It's that just that feeling that you're giving yourself self-love, just that feeling. So that's really important. To develop the habit. Yeah, for sure. It's like, it's like the Mickey Mouse toothbrush in a way. It's like, let's just give them a little enticement. Yeah. Okay. So Dimitri, looking back, like we said, 2025 is a big year for Indeed Labs. 15 years on the scene, which is amazing.

39:15What advice would you have for other skincare startups right now? Because there just are so many. There's so many more than when you all started in 2010. So what's the number one thing you think that a brand needs to win today? I mean, is it getting an Instagram account finally? Not necessarily. It's not necessarily about the numbers, really. So, okay. So here's my advice. If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete. Okay, that's not just personally my advice. That's been advice that's been out there for a long time. But it is so true in our industry that if you don't bring a product to market, if it already exists.

39:53And that's frustrating right now because there's a lot of copycat brands that are coming out. We're seeing that, I don't know what the name of that company is, that's knocking off brands. Really crazy packaging. But who knows about the formulas, right? You know, I've been doing this for a long time, so I don't know how they're able to do that. But yeah, so if you don't, I think if you don't have something different, it's going to be very difficult. You can't, we've seen it. You can't just start off with a great following on social. It doesn't always work. You can't start off that you have a really anchored celebrity status.

40:30It doesn't always work. You have to have a good product. You have to have a point of difference. You have to have a consumer that has that need for your products. And if you don't, then it's probably not a good idea because it's not going to be successful. Yeah. The straight talk. Appreciate that. And our final question for you, you mentioned you're a mom of three daughters. Daughter mom, what's the best beauty advice that you've shared with them? Definitely prevention. I would say that we hear so much about prevention these days. Skincare is prevention. Yeah. Skincare products are prevention.

41:08I think that once you see something, it's too late. In my early career, somebody said to me, what you do in your 20s, you will see in your 30s. And every 10 years, I think that that's the advice I've always given my children. And that, you know, prevention is key. I think if you don't really have a proper routine that you stick to and also listen to your skin, then you're going to see what you're doing wrong 10 years from now. It's going to be too late. Right. Yeah. Thank you so much for your time today. You know what? The time flew by. It flew by. This is well overdue. I have like a million questions for you guys.

41:42Go ahead. Mics are rolling. B-side, B-side. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. When you guys made the transition onto this side of the world, you must have been nervous at the time, right? Yeah. I mean, I just don't think we thought it would be like a job. I don't think we thought that we'd be doing it full time. Yeah. Me anyway. Yeah, no, I think we thought it would be a gig, like part of the freelance, you know, juggle. Yeah, toolkit or something. I have to ask because you guys have behind the scenes with everybody. What is the what was what's the most shocking thing that, you know, consumers don't know? Ooh, I think it's been interesting to me to see how certain brand founders, how deep they roll.

42:26I mean, in terms of an entourage, it's like the new celebrity in certain cases. And there are big influencers that have big brands and they are like an A, they are, their teams treat them like an A-lister, which was pretty shocking to me, I would have to say. No names will be named. I'm going to aspire to that. You guys see me throwing chairs over my head, picking the colors for the people ask me and I go, oh, I do everything from A to Z around. I mean, of course, I have an unbelievable team. You guys have met them. They're great. But you were literally chasing someone down on the street before we came in here today to get what you needed to do.

43:01And telling them that men have skin too. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think that some founders we've spoken to or not spoken to, I think what's interesting is sometimes if there's been like, we used to always say that we would talk to founders about their foils and fist pump moments. So knowing that there's going to be ups and downs in the process of being an entrepreneur, because we really have interviewed a lot of founders in the beauty business and the founders who just don't want to talk about the low points. That's been interesting, I think. Like there have been some founders where prior to getting on the mic, they've said, I don't want to talk about this or that.

43:47And we've said, well, then we can't move forward because, you know, just part of the story. It's part of the story. And in the spirit of transparency, it's important. So, yeah, that's been that's another kind of behind the scenes, I would say, that, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of surprising to us just because we're having real conversations is what podcasts are all about. Oh, yeah. Well, I think, you know, I often say like one day I'll have to write a book or something. I've just seen so much in this business. Absolutely. But yeah, as I said earlier, I wasn't comfortable sharing it. It wasn't because that story didn't exist.

44:25It wasn't because there's anything to hide. It was because I hadn't at the time reconciled, like I said, in my mind what it meant to me. You go through so many different emotions, like from fear to anger to, you know, sadness. I remember being really sad when I got the news of Brandon's passing. And yet I used to run into him across the street at the coffee shop the odd time and he was doing his thing and I was doing my thing. You know, and then all of a sudden, right? So it was, yeah. But even just trying to reconcile, like, why did this all happen? What does it mean? Anyway, but I can see that.

44:59I can see that there's a lot of smoke in my ear. Yeah, exactly. I'm brutally honest to the part where I have to remind myself not everybody likes the honest truth just leave them in their own little worlds they don't need to know all this stuff yeah that's so funny well I'll be very interested to see and it's on IMDB so I'll say it when this documentary about Brandon comes out I think there's a few of them so I'm curious to see what's been shared who's sharing and I think people he is just an enigmatic figure that left such a lasting impression. And I think a lot of people have been probably processing and thinking.

45:38And I'll be curious to see it on Compto Light. Were you approached? Yes. Are you part of, are you taking part? I am part of one of them. And again, I didn't really, I didn't think that it was necessary. I didn't think that I played that big a role in his world, to be honest. But when I realized that they didn't, that was a very important missing piece of the story that nobody had. Yes. nobody knew where he came from right nobody knew like at some point he kind of like started decium and then the ordinary yeah and there was you know a lot of talk about what happened in that world but nothing in my world yeah and so we had been under strict lock and my obviously my board said like no i wouldn't talk about this stuff if i were you and i was like well it's it's happened yeah yeah exactly so they could also listen to our podcast which is still in our archives he does talk about it.

46:27Yeah, he talked about very candidly. And I mean, I think everything with Brandon was probably a bit of a grain of salt. Yes. But he talked about, you know, parting ways with Indeed. Indeed, yeah. And he did it in a dramatic fashion. Or no, he was on his way to a meeting. I think he was at the airport. Yeah. And he was going to maybe go to a meeting for Indeed Labs and then decided to take a flight somewhere else instead. And then he went somewhere else. And that was that. That's what he did. Yeah. And nobody knew why. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where I say there's like anger, sadness, mad, you know, like now what?

47:00He just did his own thing. I had just raised funds through my connections and we've established a board and now I had responsibility to this funding. And that's, you know, that's a big, you know, people might say, well, I feel really bad, like you were stressed. And that's not really the bigger part of the story. The bigger part of the story is that you have a responsibility. and this is someone else funding your business based on what you've told them you're going to deliver. Right. Which is why I took it so seriously. Yeah, yeah. Obviously. Yeah, of course. And to this day. And so, yeah, I stayed.

47:34I was the one who stayed with three children. Yeah. I was the one who had a lot at risk. So there are times where, yes, I was very angry about, well, why I'm the one who should have left. I didn't have the luxury at the time. My kids were little. Right. You're the one who wanted to do this. I should have gotten off a plane on a plane to go take a vacation. I'm exhausted. But that was the honest truth that I never told anybody. Because that's what mothers do. We make ourselves feel guilty. And do we know the reason that he? I believe that probably what happened is when you raise funds from a very formal financial investor, there's formalities and you have to answer to them.

48:19And Brandon was not used to that. That's right. And now all of a sudden you had to answer for what you were doing and why and put business plans in place. And that was that's my background. I was very comfortable with that. Right. But Brandon wasn't and wasn't going to answer to anybody. So for me, then what does that mean? Was it an ego thing? Was it a lack of knowledge, experience, understanding, accountability? Like, what was it? I don't really know. There wasn't a conversation. So there wasn't a whole lot of I think I'm going to walk. This is not right. There was a little bit of friction for maybe a day between not even myself, Brandon, our other partners.

48:55And then a note saying I'm out. Right. And that was the end of that. So the bridge was burned. The bridge was burned. Wow. And all the better for it in the end, but definitely a lot of hiccup along the way. So yeah, like keeping quiet was a hard thing to do. But again, my kids were little. I had a job to do. That's right. I didn't just, you know, plop it. I had had a career prior to that. I knew responsibility. I knew what it meant to have, you know, your reputation to honor somebody else's and whatever. Anyway, that's what I mean. If you were going to continue with this brand, then you had to keep it clean and above board and not burn, you know, not, you know, throw a bomb behind you.

49:37You've got to, you know, you've got to start on the right foot, a positive note. So good for you for doing that. Guys, I really honestly really appreciate you guys being here today because I've known for the past, I don't know how many years, eight years, that if I was going to talk to anybody, it's going to be you guys. I didn't even give this much to the interview that I had. I appreciate it. We really appreciate your time. I feel like the stars have aligned and the timing was right to sit down and have a gab session and just keep it real. And we really appreciate it. Thanks for listening. You can find details on every product mentioned in today's episode, along with our exclusive promo codes on our blog at breakingbeautypodcast.com.

50:16While you're there, be sure to sign up for our newsletter. Every episode will be delivered directly to your inbox so you won't miss a single thing. And get social with us. Let us know what you think of the episode. You can follow us on Instagram at Breaking Beauty Podcast. And did you know we also have a private Facebook group? Just search Breaking Beauty Podcast chat room. You can even leave us a voicemail at any time with questions or feedback at 1-844-227-0302. And don't forget to subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts fixed. Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts, where you can show us some love by writing a review.

50:53See you next Wednesday.

51:11Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.