The Ultimate Guide to Perfect Skin: Sunscreen, Skin Types, and Personalized Routines | ALI ANDREEA

Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. I'm Andrea Lee for those of you who are new in here. And in today's video, I have a very special guest, Dr. Harry Arampatis. Welcome back to my channel because this is not the first time I have Harry here. Hi Andrea. Thank you so much for this invitation and I'm glad to be back. I would like to add a few things about the introduction. So I'm a doctor. I'm not a medical doctor and it's important to underline this because I see from the first interview some people believing I was a dermatologist. So I'm not a medical doctor. I'm a doctor in science. Actually, I'm a pharmacist with a PhD in skin pharmacology. So I understand very well pharmacology. I understand very well the physiology of the skin and part of my job is also to train plastic surgeons, dermatologists about how to use right the skincare ingredients. So basically if I understood right, you're a doctor of doctors. Like doctors need doctors as well. It's a community. It's a community and we work hand-to-hand together in order to get the best outcome for our patients. The reason why I wanted to do a second video was to clarify a lot of the things that we talked about in my previous video. If you have not watched that video, please pause this video. Watch it. I'm going to put a link there. I'm going to put the link. Please watch that video is about the 10 most crazy skincare mistakes that we're all doing. I promise that video was mind-blowing for a lot of people and that's why we had to come with a part 2 to just clarify a lot of the things that we found in the comments. So let's get in probably the most controversial thing that we talked about in my previous video and that was the moisturizer kills the moisture. Hari, can you please clarify a little bit what you meant by that? Because a lot of people said, okay, what do I do now? Do I still use moisturizer? So if I have normal skin or if I have oily skin, do I not use moisturizer? What's the deal with the moisturizer? Some people need moisturizer. It's a category of people having a dry and atopic skin and most of the people they don't need most of the products. They have a huge amount of emollients, but this giving this very smoothy aspect to the skin, but it has no impact in the moisture. To give you an example, kids, babies, they don't create sebum. Nevertheless, the skin looks great, feels great. It's very smooth. So it's not always about the oil. It's more about the hygiene you have in your life, the water you drink, what you eat, not get showers with too aggressive products, not to use too hot water, rather warm water is everything you can do around, but it will be the best impact to your skin rather to use an emollient moisturizer. So and even if you use too much in the end, you will make your skin lazy. And I saw there was some polemics about it. But in the end of the video, we'll put all the publications where we're bringing evidence about too much moisturizer and the impact on the skin. Do we completely skip moisturizer? When are the cases when we should use moisturizer? Okay. Sometimes you will need to use on the top of your serum. You should apply a cream, but it creates the occlusive effect to the serum. So likewise, the serum can penetrate better. Second rule is when you use ingredients in your skincare routine that might dry your skin. For example, retinol in a high content might dry the skin. Vitamin C might dry the skin. In such a case, yes, you will create dryness. It will be, let's say, the side effect of a beneficial active of your skin. So you need to manage it. And the third part is also not necessarily a moisturizer, but you can use also different creams that they can repair the skin barrier while they have an action. Like, for example, if you're using your night skincare routine, a retinol cream, or if you're using a niacinamide cream. If your skin is healthy, if your skin looks good, if you're not in an age where you really need a moisturizer because your skin starts to become dry, because by age, every skin becomes drier, you don't need a moisturizer. I've noticed that the majority of people have questions about sunscreen, and I have a few of them. And I'm going to start with someone that said, do I have to use sunscreen? Like, I already have sunscreen in my foundation. What is your take on this? Makeup with SPF, it's nice to have, but definitely it's not enough. Sunscreen should be an entire part of the skincare routine, and I can explain why. We have a UVA, the UVB, and the UVC. So the most important part is the UVA and the UVB. UVA, A, like aging. Okay. And UVB, B, like burn. So the UVB is what creates the sunburns, and the UVA is what creates the skin aging. Go much deeper to the skin and create an accelerated skin aging. Yes, it's true. The UVB are stronger in the summer, rather than in the winter, but the UVA that makes aging, they are all year long the same. No matter where you are, there is very little difference of the amount of the UVA you get. Yes, you need the sunscreen all year long, even if you spend outside like 30-40 minutes a day. Vitamin D. Is the sunscreen going to block the... Synthetization of vitamin D. So it might have a little impact, but all the studies showing us that regular use of sunscreen does not stop the synthetization of vitamin D we need. What would be the ideal sunscreen? The ideal sunscreen is if we're able, like some animals, to produce our own sunscreen for our skin. It's funny that, for example, hippopotamus, they do their own sunscreen. We always prefer to advise to use mineral sunscreens. So zinc oxide, titanium dioxide. There are a few things that really bother me as a scientist. Few of the chemical sunscreens, when you apply to your skin, they are absorbing, and then we find them in the urine, we find them in the blood. There is a big polemic, even in the scientific community. Is it really dangerous? How much is accumulated? For me, we are exposed to many chemicals. And if we have one chemical less, but it enters in our body, it's always good. In our field, where we do treatments to the skin, we use only mineral because the skin is sensitized, it's sensitive skin. So we cannot use chemical because chemicals, they are more irritated than mineral. One more reason to go mineral, because minerals are reflecting the UVA and the UVB very, very well. And in the chemical filter, the only chemical filter that we are really focused on, is really good on UVA, is the Avobenzone. And Avobenzone is one of the filters that really penetrates into the body. Blood pressure protection, this is very important. And if the company you're buying is communicating about the UVA protection, it's even better. Choosing a waterproof sunscreen is always good. And the other part of the mineral waterproof sunscreens is they have Zinc. And Zinc is very good for oily skin. Zinc Oxide has also other adaptives for the skin. It's anti-inflammatory, a sebum regulator. Are there any ingredients that we should avoid from the sunscreen list? Always look for Zinc Oxide. It has to be the first ingredient on the list, which means this cream has majority of Zinc Oxide. There is a lot of companies. They want to reduce the quantity of Zinc Oxide because it's giving all these difficulties on the texture of a product. And they have chemical filters, but we are not considering chemical filters. Butyl Octyl Salicylate. So this is not considered as a chemical filter, but it's an SPF booster. When you look at mineral sunscreen that has Butyl Octyl Salicylate inside, it's not a real mineral. We will write it down. If you want to buy mineral tinted sunscreens, that's great. Tinted sunscreens look for the iron oxides inside, but they have a benefit that they can also block infrared, the blue light. The softer is the ingredient list, the best it is. Like in food. The message I want to give is that it's better to use a sunscreen than no sunscreen. So if you like a chemical sunscreen and you apply it just to your face, if you are not a kid, if you're not pregnant, chemical is also good. How important is reapplying the sunscreen? Having to reapply sunscreen, it's really a pain. And I don't know any other product that you can really build and build and build on top of makeup every two hours that won't look, you know, greasy. Or if you're going to use a spray at the end of the day, like if you're going to use that spray every two hours, your makeup will eventually melt. But if you're going to apply powder, it's going to be different. The powder from Universkin is really the most efficient powder that I've personally tried. Not only that you have so much product inside, it comes with a brush. So that's very practical. The sunscreen powder depends on the applicator. It's very important to apply enough quantity. And we always advise it as a secondary sunscreen. What means secondary sunscreen? It's a sunscreen to renew, not a sunscreen to apply as your own unique product. Exactly. You said something very interesting, at least for me. You've mentioned that retinol and vitamin C, these are not ingredients for everyone. What would you suggest as a replacement? Every skin type is different. And if you would like, it's the next point. We can go deep inside how to create, how we design a personalized skincare routine for every person. Skincare routine? Okay, I'm into this. So how are we going to categorize them? I'm very curious. We agree that skincare routine cannot be the same for every individual. I mean, I give you guys my skincare routine, but I always mention like, this is what's working for me. It might not work for you. Since I have Harry here, he's going to give us the ideal, or what you would call the ideal, the ideal skincare routine for each skin type. Aging is nothing else but the chronic inflammatory process. We age and we create inflammation. And this inflammation will destroy the collagen, the elastin, will destabilize all the skin cells like the fibroblasts, the keratinocytes. The idea of having a great anti-aging strategy is to have a great anti-inflammatory strategy to apply your skin, but also everything you do, everything you eat, the way you behave, the way you feel, all this part is an aspect of an anti-aging strategy. Everything that is increasing the inflammatory process, bad food, for example, diabetes, accelerates aging for the skin as well. Okay, so we are not aging the same, obviously. How do you personalize a skincare routine? First of all, you need to understand every different skin type. We have to define the hormonal profile and the sex. Second is the skin color, it's the phototype. So then we should go for the phototype 1, the white milky skin, to very deep dark skin tones, which is the phototype 6. Then we have the ethnic background and also we have other factors like sensitivity, skin thickness, and age. So this is the first thing you need to check in your skin in order to define your skin type and the way you're going to age because the way you're going to age will define your prevention strategy. Caucasian is what we call it white skin, phototype 2. Very light skin. Yeah, they have blonde hair, blue eyes. What is interesting is that this skin type is not genetically designed to be exposed to the sun. So they have a very thin skin, they have a very small melanosome, so their ability to make melanin to get down actually is very weak because they're not designed to be on the sun. They have a tendency to be dry. So when they are young, everything is okay, but with age, they will become red. So they will have redness like cuprosis and also will make a lot of sun damages. This skin type, unfortunately, will make a lot of loosening because if the skin is thin and they don't have enough collagen, the loosening of the lower part of the face will be much more visible than other skin types. So what would be the aging strategy? We really need to use SPF. This is the category that needs to use a lot of antioxidants, but not always tolerate the vitamin C. So there are other categories of antioxidants like superoxidized mutas, which is a very good antioxidant for the skin. It's human identical, but it's also anti-inflammatory but might be more adapted for the skin type. Also for the night skincare routine, this is the skin type that retinol sometimes might irritate them. They can use retinol, but the best is to combine it with anti-inflammatory acne. Sometimes the hair is so sensitive to skin where retinol is not even tolerated. So then they should go for actives like madecassoside. It's an extract, it's a skin booster, but used for root healing. But what is good for root healing is also very good aside the aging because it stimulates the collagen and the skin repair. Good moisturizers because this category with age will create a very, very dry skin. They cannot use too much glycolic. They cannot clean the face with too much exfoliants because all this will irritate the skin Okay, so let's move on with the next skincare routine for the next skin type. What is this skin type? They make a lot of stratum corneum, a lot of keratinocytes. When they are young, they have more tendency to make acne. This population has to be very careful about to treat how oily is the skin to prevent acne formation. Due to the phototype of the head, they do post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which means they make pigmentation after acne. And also they make more scars. So the prevention of the scars when they are young is also very important. I don't say that everybody will make acne, but it's the most risky category to develop complex acne. In other words, they stay younger, they stay more firm. The skin is better protected. Sometimes we also develop eye contour pigmentation. So how we treat this? We treat it with different kinds of antioxidants. These people, they can tolerate vitamin C, even in high content. We can use retinol in high content also, but attention, if we irritate them, they will make post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. So always we're going to use retinol. We combine it again with niacinamide, even higher dosage of niacinamide to this population. Sunscreen is also necessary. Don't forget, it's not because they have a better phototype that makes them more protective of sun, but we don't need sunscreen because they make pigmentation. Nevertheless, it's the famous UVA. We need to work more with exfoliant products, pigment regulators, because this skin type, the inflammatory process is more expressed by pigmentation rather by losing. There's something I've noticed. I don't know if other people have the same impression, but I cannot ever put an age to an Asian person. I feel like they're ageless. Like they never, they just never go old. What is the mystery behind it? I feel like their skin is always so beautiful. They don't have the jowls, like what? Genetically, the skin is different, but believe me, it's the same thing for the Asian, which try to give us an age. They have a lot of difficulty because they don't look at the loosening to give an age. So the skin color, the skin homogeneity, they give the age. Okay. They have different criteria that they define. They understand age in a different way. They have a lot of melanin. They have a very good sort of protection. Actually, they tan very well, but for them tanning is a disaster. So they don't want to tan. They have all the time, you know, little umbrellas. You know that sunscreen is religious in Korea. So really, they are very, very aware about the damages of the sun. They have the most compacted collagen you will find in any human skin type. Very thick skin and highly preserved elasticity. That wasn't fair when they created skin types. So you can say this, but nevertheless, how the aging skin type will evolve. We'll do a lot of pigmentation, a lot of de-pigmentation, and also the best skincare routine about the aging skin type, it will be, at the same time, prevention. So niacinamide, which is a hero of the inflammatory actives, again, madecassoside. And these skin types, of course, they can use vitamin C. They can use glycolic acid. They are strong skins. They are thick skins. They're really resistant. The only thing they need to be careful is that they don't do too much and they don't create inflammation of the skin. The inflammation of this skin type will go a little bit deeper to where you have melanocytes and they will make pigmentation. So the balanced skincare routine for this skin type is doing strong, consistent, but if you do too much, pigmentation arises. Okay, and we got to the final skin type. So this is for deep, dark, and dark skin tone. Yes, Q is a phototype 5, 6. They're super lucky because they have more melanin. They have a very high photo protection and they have a very thick stratum corneum, but the way it's working, a little bit like a natural sunscreen. This very thick stratum corneum creates what we call dexamethasone, which means if they don't have enough water, they will have the skin crack. These phototypes, they will age very well. They have, again, compacted collagen. They have preserved elasticity, but with age, they are not oily. They will become super dry. The texture of the skin will be grayish, dyspigmented between a dark brown and a little bit gray skin color, which is governed by a very thick stratum corneum, which is not hydrated enough, what we call dexamethasone, and dyspigmentation. We can use a lot of exfoliants with a lot of actives to keep hydration. Vitamin B5, D-panthenol, like lactic acid. They need to exfoliate while they keep their stratum corneum well hydrated. Of course, they can tolerate vitamin C in the day. They can tolerate retinol overnight. They can tolerate very exfoliant actives. Under the condition, again, what we don't do too much, and because we don't do too much, we trigger hyperpigmentation. They still need sunscreen. Of course. UVA is always part of aging, but also, if there's people that don't use sunscreen, with age, they will have dyspigmentation. And also, this is the sign of inflammatory process on their skin type. Now, of course, I have a personal question. Okay, so genetically, we have like four or five skin types, right? Would you consider, because I, of course, I'm Caucasian, but I don't feel like I don't get red very easily. Anca, right here, her is why. She's Caucasian, has a lighter, slightly lighter skin tone than mine, and I know that she has very high sensitivity to the sun. Would you say I would have to do a different skin regimen than someone with lighter skin than me? Totally, you're not the same skin type. You have a mix of Caucasian with somewhere Middle East, somewhere in the background of your family. That's true. This is why I say phototype and ethnicity is important. So you have a thick skin, a strong skin. It's very resistant. Most probably, when you're younger, you suffer from acne, like the Middle Eastern phototypes, like oily skin, thick skin, hyperkeratinization. You do post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and you're not really a sensitive skin type, except if you do too much. Anca skin type, she has thin skin. This is really the phototype one, too. I was talking about Anca because, okay, first of all, no makeup, no makeup, we're the same age, we're different skin types. But also what I wanted to say, sometimes, you know, it's not about just the skin and the quality of the skin, but it's this bone structure. Thank you. And the worst skin type to age, no? Yeah. The worst, I mean. The worst skin type to sun? She has no loosening. Yeah, because she has a very consistent skin keratin. Anca, she has a phototype, too, of a Slavic background, so the bone structure is very, very high. So, at the end of the day, it's not just your skin, right? It's also your base, your bones. What do you think about all this new approach to skin care, such as LED light therapy, such as lasers? For example, CO2 laser, or Morpheus, or microneedling with the radio frequency. All these microcurrent devices, are all these new technology helping our skin, or is it more damaging in time? If you want to combine skin care with medical approaches in order to delay and slow down aging, they are not anymore just two things, like fillers and toxins. It's the combination of the methods that helps to create new collagen. So, skin care plus what we call treatments that we can do more frequently over the year in order to delay aging. But what do you think about, because, for example, I read that microneedling with radio frequency, like the famous Morpheus, might actually melt the fat under the skin, and it eventually can make you look older? If you do the microneedling with radio frequency, the brown dimensions with Morpheus, with the right doctor, on the right depth, this cannot happen. It's not only the device you choose, but also who is using this device. So, for example, the CO2 lasers, they will make very controlled burns inside the skin with laser beams, and this will create new collagen, because the skin needs to heal, and it will make your skin look much younger. Then, today, the approach is really holistic. It's using devices with good background, but people that are really well-educated how to use them, how to combine them. Don't do too much. Choose them well, and do it in a consistent way. Now, just to wrap this up, what are the golden rules for skin care? Number one, treat inflammation always first. Number two, choose right what you do in the day when you do the night. In the day, you will always choose ingredients that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties, and ideally, they repair the skin barrier. And some, in the night, is the moment to use your skin boosters. All the actives that will boost your collagen, retinol, sedelasiatica, glycolic acid, fetic acid, all the exfoliant actives that are skin boosters, is the night. Retinol is the night. So the night, you treat. The night, you treat the pigment. The night, you will use actives like arbutin, like kojic acid, like tranexamic acid. So the day you protect, the night you treat. Number three, if it is to use strong actives, then always combine them with an anti-inflammatory active. An active that is very known as being anti-inflammatory is niacinamide. So if you want to use retinol, 1%, if you want to use glycolic, 14%, if you want to keep the strong actives in your skincare routine, safety belt, niacinamide. This was a very complete image about skincare and the routine. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to come on my YouTube channel again. Thank you guys for watching. If you are interested, you can follow Universe Skin on Instagram. And as usual, everything that we mentioned with more details in the description down below. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you guys in my next one. Bye. Bye-bye.