Why Swiss Skincare is Setting the Standard for Skin Health with Cellcosmet

0:00hey guys welcome back to another episode of skin anarchy i am really excited to introduce you guys to a new brand today that I have fallen in love with. You know, as you know, we're always looking for very science-backed solutions here at Skin Anarchy. Many of you chime in with wanting recommendations, wanting new options for your skin health, and I feel like the brand we're going to be talking about today is really kind of focusing right there, you know, in terms of the whole skin health component when we talk about skincare. So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to the chief scientific officer and the general manager in North America of SolCosmet.

0:41So without further ado, let me introduce Dr. Jeremy Sawyer and Jennifer Hassel. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having us. We're really excited to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to have you. So true for the invitation. Yeah, Dr. Sawyer, I'm excited to kind of pick your brain a little bit, you know, on the show, because I feel you have a background in cellular and molecular biology. And, you know, back when I was in college, all of my professors that were, you know, of similar background, it was like talking to the most intelligent people on the planet. So, you know, you're going to get a lot of questions from me, you know, about clarifications.

1:17But I'd love to get started. If we could talk about, Dr. Scherer, what made you want to get involved with this brand? And really, what is Cell Cosmos' vision when it comes to skin care? Yeah, absolutely. So once again, thank you for the invitation. I'm so happy to talk with you about the brand and science behind Cellcosmet. Cellcosmet's vision is driven by the belief that science is both a key driver of innovation and rigorous essential method to guarantee and prove the quality and efficacy of the product. And four years ago, when I talked with Tancred, our CEO, I immediately connected with the vision because I firmly believe that science, scientific method, is one of the best ways to address the current crisis of the trust, you know, everywhere in the society, in science, in beauty industry.

2:10Many brands promise impressive results without providing solid scientific proof. And finally, it is the sense of purpose of Cellcosmet who claim, behind each claim, we have a rigorous, robust, science-efficacy claim. You know, for example, we are claiming that our last generation of products are preserving skin microbiome. Several brains guarantee or claim microbial friendly and assume or support this claim with in vitro study, only in petrish dishes completely disconnected with the real time. In our situation, when we claim that we preserve and we strengthen skin microbial, we perform clinical studies.

3:02That means for each volunteer of the clinical study, we sequence each bacteria living on the skin of the people and before and after we measure the percentage of each bacteria and what we will be able to maintain and strengthen the right and good microbiome. It's just an example to explain why I may be the most lucky chief seance of Cosmetogram because I have an opportunity to spend a lot of money to prove the efficacy of a product. That's amazing. I love what you said because I think that that's one of the biggest misunderstandings that I've seen because the microbiome became a buzzword, you know, at some point, I think a few years ago in this industry.

3:53And exactly what you said, when you're looking in a petri dish at bacteria and the way they grow, the way they interact, it's incredibly different than the way they're going to act on actual human tissue. You know, that's a very, very different scenario. And so just from the get-go that you've mentioned, this is wonderful, you know, because very few brands talk about this very relevant piece of information. And, you know, if you're going to, if you're going to market something to say that this is a microbiome related product, you know what I mean? And it's meant for skin health and it's meant to actually fix the dysbiosis going on, you know, that's ruining your skin barrier.

4:33You have to actually try it on people, you know, you have to actually have studies. So I agree with you, but Jennifer, I would love for you to chime in because I know you have so much experience in this industry. I mean, what was it like for you to get involved with with the brand and you know um what they were doing i mean what are your thoughts on on this whole topic of the microbiome oh absolutely so um i actually when i met uh tankard as a ceo as well as the chairman um i actually knew this brand from my esthetician so when i used to go obviously same esthetician today almost um but i discovered cell cosmet a long time ago and was impressed by the product.

5:11So when I was introduced to the brand, I was really excited to get involved in a brand that really held the science at the forefront of the products that they produced and have been doing it for decades. So it wasn't about kind of jumping on a trend. It was really about the belief that we could care for the health of our skin in a much more positive aging process by constantly revitalizing, right? Constantly working at the cellular level to help us age gracefully, right? And so for me, that was what was really exciting. And then when the introduction with the process and the technology that they used with the ingredients for the microbiome and understanding that not only, yes, these are the ingredients.

6:00Yes, they are extremely kind of strong ingredients that will work to protect the microbiome. But we proved it out that as we age, right, it becomes more and more fragile. And the fact that the good bacteria that we're losing, we're actually proving that we're actually getting it back when these ingredients are applied to our skin. So I think every day I spend time with with Jeremy and I constantly learn about how we can improve from a scientific level and scientific testing of what ingredients are truly from a holistic standpoint in our formulas going to make a difference in our skin. That's wonderful.

6:39I love that. I love that you guys are really approaching the microbiome with this fresh perspective, I think, that we haven't really seen in the industry. Dr. Sawyer, I'd love for you to dive in deeper for us to understand the technologies that have been developed and that are being used in the products that CellCosmet has in its lineup. Can you tell us a little bit about the technology portion? So let's start by CellControlMetal, for example. So maybe before to deep dive on the more exclusive and owner proprietary technology, Let's explain some biochemistry information, the basic biochemistry of protein and peptides.

7:23Because you know, Cytopeb, the main innovative technology, is a huge cocktail of protein and peptides. But let's explain why the cell control method was and is still a disruptive method. You know peptides and proteins are made of small building blocks called amino acids. And it is this amino acid assembled with a huge and complex structure forming 3D shape which brings the activity. If you remove the water from the environment of protein and peptides, you completely lost the activity of protein and peptides. It's really clear, for example, if you put a growth factor EGF, it is able to activate some specific receptors.

8:21If you disrupt the structure of EGF, you completely lost the activity. Finally, the cell control method is a method which guarantees and preserves the 3D structure and the activity of protein and peptides during the industrial process. You know, it's really important to keep in mind that in cosmetic products, protein and peptide are often desirated, you know, to simplify manufacturing process, to extend the safe life. In our situation, our cytopapes, complex peptides and proteins, are still in water in the natural environment in order to keep the huge activity from the laboratory up to the final product you applied every day in the bath.

9:17Wow. Yeah, it's really a huge, huge technological and manufacturing challenge. Each day, my operation chief asks me if I can simplify the process, because it's a nightmare for the manufacturing. But to be sure to keep the best activity as possible, we developed this method. But behind these cell-controlled methods, there is another characteristic, because the protein and peptides come from cells. And you know, cellular environment is liquid and crowded. It's not an empty environment, there is sugar, protein, peptide, it's a crowded environment. And if you are not able to recreate the crowded environment, there is a huge risk to keep the structure of protein.

10:09So in cell control method, there were some secret ingredients that we had put in the specific step of the formulation to maintain, to mimic the natural corroded environment, once again to keep the 3D structure and to amplify the activity of protein. Wow, that's really, really fascinating. And I think that's something that it's never really talked about at all is this idea that there is a crowded, yeah, inside of every cell, it's very, very crowded. And everything has its place, you know, and everything's going where it's going for a reason. And that's very interesting when I look at that, you know, bringing that whole system out in, you know, in the way that we're now talking about putting it in a formula and then, you know, making it available.

11:04I mean, the bioavailability, for example, is a topic nobody speaks about, you know, but then with that also comes these components that you're talking about, which is that a peptide isn't always the same thing. A peptide, if it loses its functionality, like I said, if even one amino acid is messed up or lost, you've completely lost the ability to bind with the receptor and to work. So, I mean, these are very fundamental scientific topics that, unfortunately, I think a lot of consumers believe that all peptides are the same. And this is why it's so important. Yeah. Yeah, and let me take the link with our own technology, Cytopep.

11:47You know, Cytopep, just the name is Cytopep in Greek means cells. In last Greek, it means a pep for peptides. And finally, Cytopep is a huge complex cocktail of protein, peptide, amino acid, and enzyme. Much more, 5 ,000 different peptides and protein. This is why it's absolutely an evidence for me to keep in good environments because we have so huge different specificity with protein and peptides. In fact, why we choose to capitalize on the protein and peptides, you know, DNA is the code of life. Protein and peptides are the motor of life. That's why our technology capitalizes on the holistic activity of protein and peptides.

12:36And finally, the great diversity of the protein, once again much more than 5000, is the guarantee that you would address, you would activate several different pathways in the skin. Finally, for me, it's an evidence because aging is a multifactorial process. There is not only one pathway involved in aging. Between intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors, there is an imbalance of oxidative stress, some transcription factors are activated, and another one is under-regulated. that's why for me to have a huge diversity of protein and peptide is a guarantee to stimulate to have a better anti-aging activity yeah no that makes a lot of sense actually because at the end of the day i like i like what you said that you know aging is a multifactorial thing and especially when you look at it from the biology standpoint or physiology standpoint I think one of the biggest pitfalls for consumers is this idea that, you know, if I just buy something that, for example, look at growth factors, right?

13:49People think if I buy a serum that is packed with growth factors, it's going to work on my skin. But what happens? Instead of working, it causes inflammation because none of those things are, you know, optimized. None of those proteins that you're working with are actually optimized to work with your skin's normal physiology. So what you end up doing is putting a lot of, you know, probably poorly manufactured, you know, bioproducts all over your skin and enliciting this immune reaction, right? So that's where I feel like it's very, very important for consumers to understand that there is a very specific science behind anything that is meant to interact with your skin or its receptors or any of the proteins or anything that's found on the surface.

14:38That's very specific and it's a very meticulous process to be able to understand that as well. I mean, everybody's microbiome is different. So we have to understand what species exist in what concentrations and then understand what do they need so based off that understanding can you talk to us a little bit about the microbiome and educate us you know about this so we understand what we should be expecting you know if we're looking for a support for a microbiome based product what should we be expecting yeah yeah absolutely yeah and yeah so regarding the microbium territory it's just an amazing revolution for me in medical and skin care because we just learned that finally in quantity in terms of number of bacteria living on the skin it's quite just below of the bacteria of the gut so that means it's in quantity and quality skin microbiome is absolutely important for us for the skin quality sorry do you want to add something no no but i just think i mean actually i'm learning right i mean i didn't realize that it actually had the same volume that your gut bacteria has so to me i mean i don't think people assimilate the two i'm sure maybe a lot of your listeners do but i think it's really important to understand that the impact of how being able to manage and help control and protect that microbiome on your skin really does impact how your skin reacts every single day.

16:13And what it is really interesting is because finally there is several links in the clinical study we performed 10 years ago aiming to decipher the impact of pollution. Finally we understood that pollution could modify directly skin quality for sure, but modify as well the skin bacteria. And finally, and you're absolutely right, Dr. Redka, each skin microbiome is unique and thanks to new technology, big data, AI, sequencing technology, we are able to follow, to quantify more and more different bacteria living on the skin and to predict some skin events. And what we learned and what we published two years ago is that there is a specific bacteria signature we could predict the appearance of skin disorders in polluted environment.

17:23And you know, for me, it's why I'm ready to be there because we are absolutely convinced that the next skincare generation as a personalized generation, the product, but before the product is to be able to offer the best skin diagnosis, holistic diagnosis. That means in the future I would like to be able to develop my product according to the skin macrobium sequencing, according exposure measurement, we are able to measure the pollutants which are exposed every day by just a sampling of several air fibers, we are able to predict and to measure the physiological edge with the epigenetic markers.

18:07And for me, it's really fantastic. It's so, so interesting period regarding the science and what we have in terms of opportunity to develop the product. Absolutely. Yeah, no, it's like the, you know, the sky's the limit, I think, with this topic, because there's so much that we don't know. And, you know, Jennifer, talking about, like, the gut and the skin that Dr. Sawyer mentioned, I agree with you. I feel like for consumers, it's a very big learning curve, right? Because, like, we don't really understand that the gut microbiome, like, you know, we think of the gut as, like, super populated, but everything kind of mimics that.

18:44I mean, when I first started learning about these products, I mean, microbiome came on the scene. it was almost as if like you know you're now trying to understand that bacteria play a much bigger role than just like what we know about with digestion and what there's this whole like gut skin axis and like gut brain axis and there's all these different things so I would love to get your perspective here because you have so much you know experience like you've seen so many brands and you've seen the industry evolve how do you think you know this is going to like with everything cell cosmetics doing and also what's being propagated in the industry like how do you think the microbiome really fits in to overall you know beauty and wellness yeah personally i've kind of gone down this journey so kind of both personally and professionally i started looking at the gut health so i actually was at viva meyer many years ago um and i really wanted to understand how stress, what I was eating, what was happening in my life, how my skin was reacting, how my hair was reacting, that I couldn't seem to get a handle on it until I kind of stepped away to figure out how truly all the interconnections of our body, and we know, right, we know our body is all interconnected, but I think we, as an average consumer, we don't think about that every day, And when we started to change what was going on in our diet, what was happening with how our body was processing.

20:12And, you know, I'm always open. I have a thyroid issue. It slows down. Well, when I spent the time to fix basically my gut health and my diet, my thyroid started working all by itself again. Right. And then my skin was brightening up and my hair was getting more stronger. And I started to see all of these correlations just as an individual. And then I look at the business that we're in and the fact that we need more education about the science of how we're going to take care of our skin health and I'll say our hair health and overall, obviously, our gut health so that we can make a difference in the microbiome are all interrelated.

20:56And, you know, I always defer back to the scientists is how can you help us better understand how we can make an impact when we ran the test for our postbiotic complex, right? The three marine ferments of our product. And the fact that we didn't even know about PCR tests until COVID, right? We, as a consumer, didn't. And when we ran the PCR tests, I didn't realize that we were losing all of our good bacteria as we were aging. We just knew that we had lots of different bacteria in our skin. But there are good forces at work, and we need to make sure that we're protecting them as we age and make sure that we're increasing them, if at all possible, between protecting against the exposomes as well as what we're actually putting into our bodies.

21:45So it really is this holistic story that I think we all have to get stronger at telling. And very specifically, when we're talking about skincare, how do we help our consumers, our family, our friends actually make those decisions to protect the health of their skin? Because in the end, right, it's all about the longevity of the health of our skin, no matter how we choose to care for ourselves. Right. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. No, I completely agree. And I think that that's very, it's very, very important, because I think especially with, you know, this whole anti aging conversation, that's the most relevant piece is that we are changing when we age.

22:28I mean, the biggest part about it. I mean, I think people have this terrible way of like kind of portraying anti aging in the industry where they're always talking about like things like wrinkles and sagging and all this, but no one's really discussing what you brought up just now. You know, it's like your body is changing that your the bacteria on your skin are, you know, the different concentrations of things are changing. I mean, all of these things have to be accounted for just to have a healthier life. So, yeah, I I agree. And I think that's a very strong pillar, you know, that I would love to see more amplified in our industry is this idea of like health before anything else.

23:03You know, I agree with you. And, you know, one of the I think when you asked in the beginning about, you know, why did I join Cell Cosmet? and it was fascinating to me is when I started using the products I came I came back from Switzerland and two weeks later maybe two or three weeks later people started complimenting on me on my skin now I've been using beautiful products right most of my my career at least and people just would cut your skin looks great it looks it's glowing it looks healthy like I I made all of these kind of contacts to someone that's in an industry. And then when I would share this experience with other people, I said, just wait, don't say anything.

23:48Use the products, use them regularly. People will comment on the vibrancy and the health of your skin, and you may not even see it yet. And so to me, that was just such a turning point that if we can produce beautiful scientific-based products where people can see a visible difference in their skin, sometimes unbeknownst to them. they're taking good care of their skin you know that was very compelling when when um i started so i kind of wanted to put that introduction i love that no i love that i think that's really cool and i know that um you know one more question i do have to follow with that i know that swiss based skincare is always like i always associate it with like the best the best like i just have very deep admiration for swiss products and i would love to get um your insight down from this Because I feel like, you know, what is going on that we don't do here in America or anywhere else?

24:40Because, I mean, the technology seems to just be much more advanced, you know, in the products that come out of that part of the world. So anything you can share with us? Well, I know Jeremy can share some of the deep science and technology behind it. But there is a true source of pride and integrity on safety being always tantamount to anything that's being produced in Switzerland, but very specifically by Cellcosmet. But the precision in all of the development and the technology in every step of the way of the development process, everything is checked, triple checked. Everything from triple filtration systems for our water that's going into our products to air evacuations to having ISO certifications.

25:31We have four ISO certifications. Jeremy loves this topic. But for me, it's about every point in the process, we are making sure that we are at the highest standards to protect the end consumer. Bottom line. We want to deliver the best quality products and we want to protect them in every process. It doesn't mean that every person's skin is indifferent, but we've taken all the safeguards to deliver the highest quality products. And CellCosmet is 100 % Swiss made. So when we look at from our footprint and the impact we make, we make sure that 100 % Swiss made and that every step in the process complies with all the EU standards, which are very important.

26:18I think the difference is that we are really demanding. During each step, we would like to make sure we make the best quality, the best safety. An example, once again, is a link with microbial. We would like to protect, to preserve or microbe. But you know, when you are putting cosmetic products on the market, in European authority, you have to prove that you are very low level in terms of contamination. And for every normal cosmetic product, you can reach 1 ,000 colony forming units, CFU. CFU is a measurement, a unit to measure the level of bacteria there is inside of our product. Once again, the authority guidelines allow you to reach 1 ,000 CFU.

27:10in your situation or threshold. If you visit a manufacturing lab, every people have a mask to protect the... we have the best protection level to protect the product. And at the end, to make sure that the product works, you know, the efficacy, we perform one clinical test for each product, not only hero products, for example with gentle cream cleanser, just a cleanser. We perform clinical tests to make sure that you preserve the hydrolipidic fields that we hydrate, they are gentle, they are not aggressive, and finally for each product we make the best quality, make the best standard as possible.

28:00Wow, 10 is very very low, I was going to say that's sterile so yeah no but for sure 10 cfu is equivalent to the pharmaceutical standard yeah that's amazing i mean i've gotten some products i mean no i'm not you know talking bad about any other brand but like sometimes i've gotten pr where i'm looking at the bottom i'm like i think something is growing in this this is not good you know so definitely not good yeah so there's a huge difference actually i mean just keeping that in mind between like some of the products I've seen you know is that don't go through that regulatory you know rigorous check at every level that's that's a huge huge thing I think for anyone consumers out there I think that should be for us at this point now that we've seen that there is clinical grade actual clinical grade skincare there should be an absolute understanding in the consumer base that like we demand that you know what I mean it there shouldn't be a compromise with that because especially if you're buying something that's supposed to really help you with things like acne or anything, you know, that's like a pathology, you have to be very careful that there have been regulatory things that have been, you know, implemented in the production of those, those, you know, products that you're using.

29:15So I encourage that for all of our listeners. But Dr. Sawyer, I want to talk to you about postbiotics. I would love for you to talk about this topic as a general understanding so our listeners can understand, like, what are postbiotics and also how are you guys approaching them differently? That's a good question. You know, What postbiotic defines as a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and all their components or byproducts of good bacteria having a good effect on the health of the host. It was published in Nature in 2021. Finally, because in cosmetic products it's forbidden to put living bacteria, So we decided to capitalize on the good byproducts, some metabolites named postbiotics.

30:06And finally, we created our own blend of three postbiotics coming from marine bacteria living in a very stressful situation. Because these bacteria, the postbiotics coming from these bacteria, are living in a very stressful situation, that means they are able to stay alive in stressful conditions and capable to product some specific postbiotics. And finally, this unique complex is made of one coming from the origin, but one is rich in protein and exopolysaccharides to improve the skin barrier, to create a film form of technology. Another one comes from the bacillus family, which is rich in lipids, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

30:57And it protects again blue light. And finally, another postbiotic, coming from another bacillus batch, is rich in phospholipids, proteins and vitamins to energize the skin. You are right, we were probably one of the first brands in introducing postbiotic technology in the cosmetic products. That's very fascinating to me, especially with extremophiles, what they produce. That's really cool. I think postbiotics have been very misunderstood for a long time. I think many times consumers don't really understand where they fit in. you know, yeah. That's true, between probiotic, I mean, prebiotic, food for bacteria, and postbiotics, the byproduct, metabolites coming from bacteria.

31:54You are right, it's quite difficult. That means we need to explain a bit here. So, you know, I would love to understand, you know, in terms of, like, trying to kind of stay ahead of the curve, I mean, what do you think is the biggest hurdle right now with with this category of cosmetics i mean i know that the microbiome is a very complex topic you know so maybe maybe you can kind of tell us a little bit about what what do you think some of the hurdles right now for the industry are in terms of bringing products obviously saw cosmet is wonderful the brand is you know it's a great brand but i'm sure that when you look forward into the future what do you imagine is going to happen with the microbiome as it pertains to OTC products?

32:40And where should we be going with this, from the science? We can imagine as the first essay in For the Gut, a graft of LC microbium, you know. We can imagine in the future to have a kind of mask made of good good living bacteria, but a blend, capable to mimic the complex microbiota of people with really nice skin care or healthy people and so on. And I'm sure in the next few years, we'll see applications with maybe encapsulated living bacteria or masks with biomaterial, because in the past I worked a bit on biomaterial and bioprinting, and I'm sure and I know some companies are working on it to develop biomaterial capable to apply and to mimic and modify skin microbiome.

33:44Today in Europe it's forbidden to claim that we modify, we improve, modulate skin microbiota. That's why we only claim that we protect, but in reality we are already able to modify, to strengthen skin bacteria. In our clinical study, we observed that 28 days after application of UltraVital, one of our iconic products, we improved the percentage, the quantity of nice bacteria, Qtbacterium bacteria, which is now to decrease with aging. We are able with our product to maintain and increase a bit this well-known good bacteria. For me, one part in terms of technology, once again, coming soon, and some brands are proposing something now, but I'm not sure we reached the best way, it's to measure, to identify the unique skin microbiota signature for everyone.