Personal Care For Professional Use

Posted: July 25, 2007

page 3 of 4

C&T: Talk about the five peptide products YG planned to launch in 2006.
Clarice: They not only planned it; they did it. • Peptide Firming Eye Cream • Lip Remodeling Cream • Firm & Repair Throat Cream and Neck Cream • Line Smoothing Filling Pen •  Restylin is an injection treatment from the derm doc who injects spheres of hyaluronic spheres that swell under the skin and push the wrinkle up from below. YG’s pen has the peptide technology in it but it also has liposomes containing dehydrated hyaluronic acid. The liposomes can get down into the intercellular layer and absorb the skin’s water and prevent its evaporation, and swell with that water to push up the wrinkle. The peptides are delivered into the skin using receptors on the peptide that are able to lock onto the cell and then enter into the cell.

C&T: Who do you train?
Clarice: I train spa owners and estheticians who are using YG products or are planning to use them. These are products for both back bar and retail. A lot of companies will tell you “You have to use every product in our line; you can’t use products from outside our line with our products because the outsiders won’t work.” First, I don’t think it’s true. A company named Janet Sarten, still out there I think; she’s department store only. She would say you can’t use other-line products with hers because they will counteract the effects of her products in her line; but that was really more of a marketing tool. If you use cleanser, tone and moisturizer all from one line, she said those products are all formulated to work on top of each other so one’s gonna strengthen the other. YG systems are created so you can use a YG product with products from any other line. Rebecca formulates for other companies, so she’s not gonna tell people the only products they can carry in their salon are her products because then she might be dissing somebody else she makes products for. She formulates her products so they enhance other products. When I’m in the treatment room, I don’t want to be limited to treating someone as either dry skin, oily skin or combination skin. Everybody’s skin is different. One person’s acne might be due to excessive oil; another might be due to bad food sensitivity; or another is hormone-induced; one might be genetic. The treatment differs from one person to the next. I can take a base cleanser; then I can add some astringents, or toners or serums (Power Plexes) into the cleanser to be able to treat the skin condition with keeping the skin tight in mind. Another reason for offering the classes is that spa people need to understand you can’t do a cookie-cutter facial. You can’t bring someone in and only have a choice of treating them as dry skin, oily skin or combination skin.

Clarice: What I’m seeing suggests that peptide technology is truly the next trend in the skin care industry. It’s less invasive. Even though it’s working in the dermis (or lower epidermis), it uses a more non-invasive procedure. AHAs, dermabrasion, they’re still invasive to the skin; they still cause inflammation and irritation. And we’re learning that inflammation is one of the fundamentals of aging. You may not see that inflammation. But when that inflammation cascade kicks into the skin, then all the enzymes that rip the skin apart go into action. How those enzymes go into action and what hormones are released to cause the inflammation all depend upon the genetic makeup of the person. I’m learning that peptides don’t cause inflammation, and they work to help build the collagen.

C&T: So customers come in to your salon. You don’t just treat them or pick a product for them. You also teach them about their skin. Clarice: We teach them about their skin, and that their skin can change on a daily basis.

C&T: What’s the biggest problem for you in your business?
Clarice: Biggest problem is I’m a small independent. I use what is technically a private label line so I don’t have the marketing behind me for the company. But I don’t want to use the products [from the big companies] because I want to be able to treat the person’s skin care needs. So I always go up against the companies that are out there doing the marketing promoting their product as better, and I’m going against the docs who people think have better products because the docs have the medical degrees. That’s why I pay for a lot of sampling. The customers need to try the products and find out that “Yes, she is indeed telling me the truth.” And then come back in. But marketing is hard to fight.