How to Build a Skincare Routine + Gut Health Tips for Glowing Skin

Stacey C: Welcome to another episode of U Grow Girl podcast. I'm your host, Stacey C. I hope that you all have enjoyed the last episode on lymphedema and the pelvic floor health. One of the topics I touched on briefly was becoming a healthy you. Also, I spoke on various ways to become healthy in season one, episode four, it's topic, be selfish and self-care. Because taking care of yourself is never selfish, it's necessary. Well, today we're taking that conversation even further. We're going to be talking some real practical ways that you can show up for yourself. And I'm not just talking about what you see on the outside. We're going all the way in because true health starts from within. Before we get into this, I want to give a quick disclaimer. am not a licensed dermatologist, esthetician, fitness trainer, or nutritionist. So some of the things I mentioned today will require you to consult your medical provider before getting started. Always listen to your body and doctor first. Now let's get into it because you deserve to grow, glow, and feel good from inside out. So what happens when you take a corporate executive who manages $25 million budgets and put her in front of a ring light? You get a master class in the attention economy. Today's guest is a certified attention architect. With nearly two decades of experience, she's evolved from a traditional media strategist and to a Web3 pioneer who doesn't just buy ads, she mints moments. In 2024, she launched Moments Media, a creative agency designed to treat mobile video as the world's most valuable currency. But she isn't just a consultant. She's her own best case study. Under her TikTok persona, SkiaBiaSkinIntelligia, she cracked the code of narrative storytelling to land in the top 5 % of all creators in just one year. She's the bridge between high level boardroom strategy and thumb stop in social commerce. Please welcome the woman who is redefining how brands talk to humans, Underwood. Welcome.

Askia: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to chat.

Stacey C: Thank you for being here. Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. So I want to get into skincare. And you and I were just chatting about that, about having skincare. I love skincare. And you know, your skin is your largest organ in your body. So why do you think that we underestimate skincare when it's literally our largest organ?

Askia: I'm ready. think what happens is you create rituals for yourself based on how you feel about yourself how you want to be perceived in the world. So there's two things, right? You have to have a little bit of confidence or little bit of wonder about how beautiful you can be. And then you have to thread that to the actions it takes to accomplish whatever that goal is. in your head, okay? Skincare is ritualistic. It sounds bougie. It sounds elitist. It sounds out of touch and out of reach. But it's really the most practical thing that you do for yourself without even thinking about it. I mean, for the large part, right? Most of us get up and wash our clothes and brush our teeth every day. Skincare is ritualistic. It sounds bougie. It sounds elitist. It sounds out of touch and out of reach. But it's really the most practical thing that you do for yourself without even thinking about it. Most of us get up and wash our face and wash our bodies every day. And so just the basis of how you live each day and the little things you do to be presentable in the world ⁓ starts with your skin.

Stacey C: Exactly.

Askia: I mean, I don't know how we disconnected. the natural things that we need to do just to not stink.

Stacey C: Right. Right.

Askia: and turned it into this big thing where people are actually afraid to really dive into how beautiful and happy and healthy their skin can be.

Stacey C: Right. When do you think skincare shifted from a basic wash and go to intentional care for you?

Askia: For me, I was 12. My father was an engineer. And if anybody's parents, I'm a Gen X slash Zennial. so back then your parents could have a little side gig at work. They could have to Avon, you know, a lot of the secretaries, which was, that's what they were called then, executive assistants of the world. They were called secretaries. The secretaries, their side hustle was selling Avon.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Hmm?

Askia: And my father bought Avon. He always bought my mom a perfume or a lipstick. He'd bring the catalog home. My mom would circle her things. He'd take it back. Well, there used to be a section for skincare. Different little three-step programs like a cleanser, a scrub, a mask, a cleanser, a moisturizer. And at that time, everybody was using Noxzema.

Stacey C: Right.

Askia: We had it in our house, but my mom didn't love it. So the jar we had was really old and I would put it on my hands and there was something about it that made my hand like matte in the areas where I would put it. And I would think, okay, I started going through puberty. started understanding what oil was. And so would put it on the areas where I saw oil coming from. And I was like, ⁓ it mattifies the skin. Okay. I went into my dad's Avon catalog that he got from my mom and I started circling things for acne.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: because I knew that acne and oil went hand in hand from just basic health class. And so I started asking my dad to buy me these little three step programs from the Avon catalog. I think it was called Clear Skin 2. And my friends would come over and that's what we would do. We would do skincare routines all the time. Peel off masks and mud masks and scrubs. And I was talking about how the pores would get smaller.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: And you wouldn't have the oil sticking up because we were all so afraid of breaking out at that time. In the 80s and 90s, having bad skin, you would be bullied for that. I mean, badly, badly. The way that people body shame now is what they would do for acne in the 90s. Like people wouldn't come to school. Right? And so we were like, we are not going to

Stacey C: Right. That is ⁓ I remember that.

Askia: We're gonna be fine. We're gonna wash our face. We're gonna make sure. And that's how I started literally 12 years old in the early 90s doing skincare from Avon catalogs.

Stacey C: Wow, I remember Avon, and I think my aunt sold it, but I never got like the skincare. ⁓ would get the Skin So Soft, and funny, know, so I'm Delaware and we have a lot of mosquitoes. ⁓ So we use ⁓ the Skin Soft, which smelled wonderful and you know, it was hydrating to your skin, ⁓ but we that to repel the mosquitoes. They didn't like the smell. So yes, from Avon. And I do remember the Noxzema. And you know, back then I didn't use like a specific facial wash. I was using soap that I also, you know, would use to cleanse my body, unfortunately. And then would use Noxzema to, you know, do away with, I didn't get acne or anything, you know, pimples here and there, but would do the Noxzema. So I remember that. Wow, you are throwing it back.

Askia: was a thing. That was a real thing. mean, a lot of us, most of the girls that I knew used noxzema and Skin So Soft or noxzema and witch hazel. That's it. None of us use skincare like the way we do now. know, none of us were using sunscreen.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: What? Why would we use sunscreen when we're black? Excuse me. Sunscreen came with me when God made me. That is what I was told as a child. You don't need sunscreen. Sunscreen is for white people. I was like, wrong, mom. Okay? Incorrect I mean, was, I...

Stacey C: Right. Yes. Yes. ⁓ Alright.

Askia: can even say I would abuse my skin. I would put Vaseline on, we had a pool, a really big pool in our backyard, and I would put Vaseline on my body and I would go outside and I would lay in the sun.

Stacey C: ⁓ my goodness.

Askia: wanted to be really deep, like deep. Like, you see how my skin is like kind of like you see a yellow undertone? In the summertime, I get really chocolate. I saw that one summer and I was like, I must have it ongoing. I would literally put Vaseline from here all over my body and I would lay down. In the summer, I'd fall asleep, I'd wake up, I'd put Vaseline on my back, I'd turn over, I'd do it again. the time, all through the summers. It wasn't until I got pregnant with my first son

Stacey C: ⁓ huh. ⁓ my god.

Askia: I tried to do that again and I got my first sunburn and I was like Pregnancy is ruining my skin. It was like no girl. No You're putting petroleum On your skin and laying out in the California Sun next to a pool Falling asleep in the Sun like my skin just started peeling everywhere everywhere and that's when I was like, okay, maybe

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: My mama was wrong. And my OB was like, if you don't use sunscreen, don't even waste your time going outside. You're going to get skin cancer. And I was like, he was like, why do you think you can't get skin cancer? I said, because I'm black. He said, that is a myth. Changed everything for me. He said, that's a myth. One, four.

Stacey C: Wow. Yes, it is, definitely. Skincare can include various pre-cleanses, face washes, serums, eye creams, eye serums, dark spot correctors, moisturizers, and sunblock. I want to talk about getting to understand the ingredients and understanding what's in these labels. So what does exactly does... niacinamide do and who should use it.

Askia: Okay, niacinamide is one of the most widely talked about skincare ingredients because it does so many things. Okay, it can work on moisture retention in the skin, which means it can help with dry skin. It works to clear out the gunk in the pores, literally dissolves oil in the pore. So it can be great for oily and combination skin. It's great at pore minimization, pore control, balancing the skin's tone and texture.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: When we say tone and texture as it relates to it essentially means not discoloration, even though they will say it. It can partner well with other ingredients that are designed to brighten the skin. But the texture of your skin, a lot of it is related to how light reflects and how deep the gunk is in your pores. So pitted, like orange skin, we call it sometimes. It can really help smooth that skin, which improves the tone, how it essentially reflects light. I think it... Also gets a bad rap because people expect for it to be the end all be all. They want it to correct dark spots. They want it to minimize pores. They want it to reduce acne. They want it to... And it can't do all of those things for you if you're not using formulas that partner it with the products or the ingredients rather that can do that thing. So niacinamide with salicylic acid. Yes, for acne control.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Yes, if you're using retinol, you want to use those two together, especially if you have combination oily skin. Niacinamide with tranexamic acid, clock that tea. Niacinamide with vitamin C, yes. But niacinamide on its own is really just a really great skincare ingredient for checking a lot of boxes when it comes to skincare claims.

Stacey C: Right. do you know which ingredients are safe to mix? Because you just talked about using niacinamide with other things. So how do you know which ones are safe to mix?

Askia: I studied, I also experimented on my own face a lot. So I've been reading the back of labels since I was 12, right? And so reading it, trying to understand, okay, what's on the front of it? What's on the back of it? What's in this and what did it do to my skin? Always trying to remember so could tell my friends. Like, girl, come over, I got a new mask, it does this thing, it made my skin lighter.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mmm.

Askia: or it made my skin look all firm and pretty and glowy. all I do is put on witch hazel and look at my skin, right? That was my brag moment. the ingredients, we had encyclopedias in our house and I go straight to them every time. I've known about niacinamide and salicylic acid since I was literally an adolescent girl. So I've never been afraid to combine those. And you will notice if you read the back of labels. that those things are often formulated together when it's designed for a specific skincare concern. So you start with your concern, go to any store. Just look at the formulas. You'll get, okay, I have acne prone skin. You're gonna see salicylic acid almost all the time. You're gonna see niacinamide almost all the time because niacinamide can dissolve the oil, which can clog the pore that will cause acne. So all of the formulas when it comes to skincare, depending on what it's designed to address,

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: use this kind of I call it circumvention, where it's like this ingredient works with this ingredient works with this ingredient, and you will see it consistently. Whether that skincare product is from Korea, America, Australia, you'll see those unique ingredients tied to specific skincare concerns the time. It really isn't, it's way simpler than they want us to know.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: because we don't read our skincare labels like we read our food labels.

Stacey C: That's true. Yes.

Askia: We should read your skin labels like you read your food labels With intention. I tell every single every black woman. Does your skincare have centella asiatica in it?

Stacey C: What does that do?

Askia: Our skin is hyper reactive and hypersensitive. I don't care if you're combination oily, acne prone, dry. skin is hyper reactive. You put something on that doesn't like you're gonna see it like that. It's not gonna take a week. It's not gonna take two weeks. It might take two days before you're like, ⁓ this isn't right. And all of that. ⁓

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Hmm. You are so right. I'm sitting here shocked thinking you're so right. Cause I've used, like you've said, I've tried things for me, you know, to try to see what works for my skin. I do know I have sensitive skin, but, I try things that are sensitive, you know, appropriate my skin. And I will notice that if some people can use certain things and I'll try it, you know, as a suggestion. And I'm like, I can't use this too harsh for my skin. And like you said, it's a quick turnaround with that. It doesn't take a week for me to notice it.

Askia: No, yeah, I think that black women specifically, okay, so whoever sees this that's not in the black community, it may apply to you, so.

Stacey C: It's like a couple of days.

Askia: Black women's skin is sensitive by nature. It just, it is. And our skin has gotten more sensitive over the last 25 years. My mother garden in the hot sun every day. My brother mowed our grass in the hot sun. Never complained about a sun issue or sun concern. They all use sunscreen now. So we need to be really mindful that

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Maybe the things that we got away with in the 80s and 90s, we got a different sun now. The sun is different now. Our skin is older, our skin requires more, and depending on how much sunscreen you use and how often you reapply your sunscreen, your skin has some very unique sensitivities related to that. Also, black people love to use hot water, burning hot water on their skin.

Stacey C: Right, definitely.

Askia: We don't feel clean, let's just almost boil it if you could take it. If we could boil ourselves, we would.

Stacey C: guilty.

Askia: That damages the skin barrier. That really hot water damages the skin barrier. So your skin, you're constantly putting lotion on because your skin is like, it's always looking dry, always looking ashy. No, your skin barrier is damaged because the temperature of the water is too high. And people notice when I tell them, I'm like, listen, just cool the water now. Go warm. Go warm on the shower. You're going to be clean, baby. You're going to be fine. OK? Go warm on your shower. Watch how little you rely on lotion. Watch how your skin changes on your legs. on your legs, an area that we cover up. You're up on the East Coast, you cover your legs six months out of the year. Your legs should never be ashy. They're not exposed to the sun. They're not exposed to the environment.

Stacey C: All right.

Askia: go warm on your shower. When I say that is a game changing, just one little note, change that water temperature, Look at that skin barrier because our skin is sensitive because of the heat and the environmental things that we're to it. Not necessarily because it's just true, like ⁓ sensitive ⁓ skin, like categorical sensitive I your skin is not as sensitive as you think is what I'm trying to say.

Stacey C: Mmm.

Askia: It's just very reactive. Your skin's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know if I like that.

Stacey C: Okay. Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: And that's okay, that's okay. Sometimes pushing through that is where you're like, you find your favorite skincare products, honestly. Honestly.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes. No. Okay. What's the difference between AHAs and BHAs?

Askia: AHAs are alpha hydroxy acids. ⁓ like your glycolic acid, your lactic acid. BHA, I think even mandelic acid is an AHA. BHA is essentially salicylic acid. It's a beta hydroxy acid. I personally them both. I make they're in my skincare routine now from head to toe because they work ⁓

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: exceptionally well at dissolving the dead skin cells on the surface of the skin. You need two things when it comes to exfoliation. You need a product to dissolve the bond between the dead skin cells like the glue, which is what AHAs do. BHAs go down deeper into the pores to dissolve the gunk under the surface of the skin. So you want those two together. But you also want a physical exfoliator. And if you can get

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: physical exfoliated with AHAs, that's tea because you really want to get that icky old skin off your body. Remember like you said in the beginning, your skin is our biggest organ. You want it to be as exfoliated and fresh as possible all the time. You want those cells turning over. You want to be really mindful about exfoliation because it helps with circulation of the body, the internal system.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: So all of these things that seem like just aesthetic driven, no, they're really practical for just the pureness of your body function.

Stacey C: Right. Right.

Askia: We love those two. I love them both. I want everybody to have both. But you must, you must use sunscreen.

Stacey C: Mmm, yes.

Askia: It's you if you're going to use an AHA product you have to use sunscreen You can't go I'm not gonna use my sunscreen today because when you go out in the Sun your skin is going to overheat Okay, it's going to get a sunburn and that could take three weeks or three months To repair just 20 minutes out in the Sun. You now have a skin concern for three weeks Or three months when you could have put a dollop of sunscreen on

Stacey C: Yes.

Askia: I say get the dollop. Get your AHAs for sure because so beautiful on the skin. You want glowy skin texture, smooth skin texture, glass skin? AHAs.

Stacey C: Okay. We all hear it. I hope the listeners hear that for glass scan, you need AHAs.

Askia: first floor. But also on the body. Like if you want, I call these the fleshy or mounds, like our breasts, our buttocks, put your AHA products on that skin. Put it on your arms, put it on your elbows. It's gonna help with smoothing out rough texture. It's gonna decrease your body's intensity to break out. You're gonna love the way your skin feels. You're gonna love, you're gonna wanna just touch your body, which is a natural way to self-soothe.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: and another way to really like kind of fall in love with yourself again. You've just become a little disconnected from your physical being.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes. you walk us through a simple but effective skincare routine?

Askia: Okay, simple skincare routine for acne prone skin. Number one is to double cleanse. I love a great cleansing oil. The K-Beauty brands have some phenomenal ones. I like Anua's cleansing oil. First of all, you want something that's gonna be able to lift your sunscreen off.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Lift your sunscreen, your skin tint if you're using that, if you're wearing any makeup, lash glue, bronzer, anything. You want all that stuff lifted away from the face, rinsed off, and then your cleanser can go onto the skin, your water-based cleanser, okay? Your water-based cleanser should be on your skin for 60 seconds. So not simple for a lot of people. You have to try to train yourself to spend 30 to 60 seconds on the first step of your double cleansing routine and then 60 full seconds on the second. So two minute double cleanse, that's number one. Number two, allow your skin to air dry. New discipline for people. If you're not gonna use individual cleansing towels that are disposable, do not put terry on your face. No.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Use individual disposable towels or give yourself the time to allow for your skin to air dry. Once the skin is air dried, assess the skin. Look at your skin. What does my skin need? Are my pores looking enlarged? I feel like my skin is completely clean? Should I wash it one more time? Really touch your face. Do you feel any congestion under the skin? Right? That is when you choose your next step, whether that's going to be a toner or a serum designed to address your skin. that day in that moment okay there is no one-size-fits-all approach to skincare using the same thing every single day for 30 years you weren't born in the 40s let that go that concept let that go look at your skin every day did you eat something is your your cycle coming did you have a night of bad sleep have you not been taking your supplements look at your skin it whatever you're doing to yourself will show up in your skin

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Every day. Okay, so we're double cleansing for two minutes We're using a toner or a serum designed to address our skincare concern. Let's say we're acne prone The toner should have to be a calming toner I like a skin calming toner something designed to reduce redness skin irritation Those work really well at helping decrease the height of acne. Just kind of like Softening the look of the acne then you want to use your BHA serum. You can also use a BHA toner

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: If you've used a ⁓ skin calming toner, your next toner can be like a gentle exfoliating toner, okay? So something that has BHA, you can put a serum that has salicylic acid, so BHA. Again, we're stacking those ingredients and then we're making sure that we're giving ourselves time in between each step so that the products can absorb, get into the skin, and then you can put your moisturizer on top if you want to, or if you have a moisturizing sunscreen, you can put that, or if you have a skin tint, that's a... mineral sunscreen, you can use that. That's the simplest. Double cleanse, tone or serum, then your moisturizer or moisturizing sunscreen.

Stacey C: Okay, what is the step that you think people skip the most?

Askia: exfoliation.

Stacey C: I was guessing sunscreen.

Askia: I know it's interesting. I spent a lot of time in TikTok product marketplace and I can see the tones that sell out and deeper spectrum is ⁓ very sold out for most brands. So it tells me whether we're using when purchasing more sunscreen products related to our skin tone. So

Stacey C: ⁓ huh. Hmm

Askia: That's not my concern, but exfoliation consistently, definitely is.

Stacey C: Okay. ⁓ Do you think that our expensive products really better or is it just marketing?

Askia: Definitely. That's a great question as a person who's a marketer. It depends. Okay. I'm going to say there are certain skincare ingredients that you should not pay over $20 for no matter the formulation, right? Those are going to be salicylic acid, niacinamide. You can buy them individually for like six bucks and out seven, seven, eight bucks and out. Um, where you see the brands cross over into that 30 or the range. it gets a little interesting, right? Because it's not necessarily that the product is more efficacious. It's that it's a glass bottle. Maybe it's the quantity versus giving you a one ounce bottle, they're giving you a four ounce. So it's like math, it's just multiplication. So you aren't necessarily losing anything in value, but it just feels more expensive. You're just paying for more upfront, essentially, right? So that's one thing people should pay attention to. Look at the ingredients, understand.

Stacey C: Right.

Askia: what they would cost individually. And the best way to do that is to look at the ordinary, the brand, because they sell things simple, unique ingredient. can eat your salicylic acid serum, you can get your alpha-ambutan serum, you can get your niacinamide serum, your hyaluronic acid, but you can get all of those in one product. And sometimes when you plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, it may be more than this part that's four ounces. So it's the math of your pocketbook and the math of

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: Ingredients. Now, there are prestige brands. Prestige brands are those like cemented in the department store. They're great with the gift with purchase. Those brands typically are over $50, okay? the unique thing that you'll notice about them is that they combine ⁓ actives, botanicals. That plant botanical piece outside of Centella Asiatica is where things get very tricky and very expensive. They're also typically using proprietary skincare technologies they've developed, like Clarins for example. They have award-winning skincare. Why? They're using organic reeds and plants and combining them to address even blue light effects on the skin. Other brands aren't doing that. Do you want to pay for that if you're in front of a computer?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Yes, do you want to make sure that the environmental factors you're not accounting for are being addressed in your skincare routine? Yes, does that cost more money? Yes Yes, it does. Now what I will say about the brands that are more efficacious is that you don't need to use them every day

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: You will see that you can use those products for a week straight. Look at your skin. If their claims around what will improve in your skin are showing up on your face, go every other day. I tell everybody, don't play with your money every other day because your skin is going to be like, yes, thank you. Yes, thank you. Do your normal routine, boost your skin. Normal routine, boost your skin. So it's really just a matter of how much money you have on that day. what you're working to address in the next two to three to four weeks, right? And if you can do skincare math based on ingredients.

Stacey C: Okay, I like that. you for the tip. ⁓ I want to get into Korean skincare. ⁓ is actually something that I actually love personally. I use Korean skincare products and I know on social media there are various posts about Korean skincare, especially on TikTok.

Askia: You're so funny.

Stacey C: ⁓ And I know their skincare, you know, it's really really good Especially, you know the ones that are coming straight from Korea and they usually target, you know various skin types Are there any brand specific brands that you ⁓ actually like first ⁓ skincare?

Askia: ⁓ my gosh, I am a K-Beauty stan. I love K-Beauty. And that's why I say, if you have a prestige brand that has created a product that you love, go every other day, because you gotta get your Korean skincare in. And you can actually, once you understand how to stack those ingredients, you could and use them in the same routine. K-Beauty though, that I love, I... got a bad rap. I left Anua alone. I think I'm the last person to start using Anua because I was looking at some of the before and afters that felt fake ⁓ me. Yeah. So I feel like they got a bad rep because they were, their skincare products ended up in the hands of people that were using their before and after pictures to monetize the brand without necessarily even telling the story or showing people them apply the product on the skin. And then people were buying these systems, right? And then they were breaking out and they blame it on the brand and say, the brand is not good. And I was like, can't just go from whatever you've been doing. Water.

Stacey C: right.

Askia: Or bar soap right straight into k-beauty like take your time. Just use the cleanser for the first week Let's use the cleanser See how your skin is doing add the toner Go another week add the next thing go another week. Don't mask cleanser You know what? mean, you can't do that with that brand I got the products last year at the end of last year and I was like people are crazy This is a phenomenal brand like people are nuts

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: I went to a master class that they had at TikTok I was invited to and I was sitting in the back skeptical. Like I heard you guys break people out and that you guys use fake influencers. And I asked them, they're like, we do not. They got our product and they posted like that. We believe that the results came from our product, but we have changed our formulations because remember we are Americans, okay? What we eat.

Stacey C: Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: lifestyles are very different than that of Koreans in Korea. Right? So us wanting to have this amazing glass skin after one skincare routine is a crazy work.

Stacey C: Right. Great.

Askia: You have to let your body, ⁓ we need to, Americans specifically, need to be really mindful that what putting in our body does affect how our skincare works on our body, right? How it reflects on the outside. So I love Inua. Down. Metacube has some cool products. I like Dr. Melaxin a lot. My favorite right now is Skin 1004.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: Skin 1004 is I all of their collections except the blue one which is all about dry skin because I don't have dry skin. ⁓ I have their acne one which has their tea tree product line.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: have their Pore-mizing collection, which is designed to minimize pores. I'm wearing it now. I have their brightening, tone brightening collection, literally the cleanser, the toner, the serum, right? The cleansing foam, me, the toner, the serum, and the moisturizer. I have their OG collection. What I love the most about this brand is that every single time I do, if I just single cleanse, no cleansing oil, my skin is

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Clean Clean Okay, not I don't have to do a double cleanse if I don't want to it's my option Very cleansing if it says it's gonna brighten the tone of your skin Does poor minimization I love that collection it has peptides in it as a new ingredient Himalayan salt and I love that they use centella from its purest form from Madagascar so it's botanicals from Africa

Stacey C: Right. well.

Askia: in that collection. When I say the brand eats, it's my tier one favorite. Now, does Anua have fantastic information? They do. They have some great toner pads that I like. I like their serums. They're very easy to wear on the skin. You can wear them under your sunscreen. I like the Anua Zero Cast sunscreen. I like Inua Dr. Melaxin.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes. ⁓

Askia: Skin 1004, these are not in any, I like April's skin.

Stacey C: I've never heard of them.

Askia: Okay, for hyperpigmentation, I love April Skins TXA line. Phenomenal, phenomenal. Especially if you're a person that has acne across the chest, dark spots in large areas on the face, the cheeks, the chin, the forehead, a TXA line from April Skin, attack it. Once your skin gets in balance, you use up all your products from them, go to skin 1004.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: stay its skin 1004. I don't wanna like stay like that. I just love that brand and each collection is only like 50 bucks for four pieces and everything is large so you can share it with your man or your partner. Everything is, it's not one ounces. So you can last, it's like 25 bucks a month kind of low key when you get it with coupons.

Stacey C: ⁓ Yes. Right.

Askia: If you're really intentional, you don't need more than that much of the cleanser. Everything is just so good. breakouts, why? Why would you be breaking out?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Why? Because the Centella is designed to not only inhibit tyrosinase, so even if you do break out, you shouldn't be getting massive dark spots because you're consistently treating that skin concern with just one ingredient from them. So that's my, those are my favorites. Those are my favorites. I'll stop there. I do have a few other like little nuanced things that I like from brands. I like Round Labs sunscreen. you know what? Mix soon.

Stacey C: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: Okay, mix soon has a PDR in collagen collection PDR in collagen peptide collection Okay, let's say you have a flight you better do that Mixsoon collection well first of all exfoliate your skin Do your mix soon collection take your skin 1004 travel set with you So you can use it there, but do your do your mix soon routine for the days leading up You will get off that flight and that skin is gonna look ridiculous. You're get something like you never traveled ⁓

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: Love mix soon mix soon has a ⁓ great beauty device Does not get talked about because everybody's on Medicube device and they spend their $200 and everybody wants to It's a great device. I have them all I have multiple colors. Yes. I love a k-beauty device devices because hey the device just one Part of the technology associated with those devices, which is called electroporation

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. ⁓

Askia: The fact they brought this to America for us?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Korean me every time. Electro-operation works to push your skincare ingredients down into that skin so that you're faster than your hands. 500 % faster than your hands can. 700 % faster in the larger device. That's 7x the results in terms of speed of getting the results you want. Seven times faster than using my hands? Give me the device. I don't have time. You know what I mean? I want my skin to be firmer, plumper, glowy.

Stacey C: Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. bright.

Askia: Lift it, firmer no matter what. Dark spots free, dark spots free, no dark spots, no dark spots, right? Or if I have one, I want it gone in a week. I want it gone in two weeks. I don't want to deal with dark spots for six months.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm. Right. I know that's right. That's too long.

Askia: So Play Beauty is great for that, especially from the device technology standpoint as well.

Stacey C: Yes, I also use Skin 1004, the Centella I use the serum. The brown one, I can't of exactly what it's called.

Askia: The probe you have it's a dark brown the pro biosika one. It's creamy or it's like a kind of watery Okay, it's the og one. That's excellent toner I Call it toner. It's a serum. It's so runny for me. I'm like

Stacey C: Kinda watery. And it's not toner, it's ⁓ a serum, so yeah, okay. Mm-mm.

Askia: It just literally runs down my face. I love it on my hands. Have you tried it on your body? Okay, let's talk about that. All of your K-Beauty products, especially Skin 101, if you have the toner, put that toner on your body after your shower. Take that serum, run it across your chest. Just leave it. Come back and touch your skin. You're gonna be like, stop.

Stacey C: Yeah. Mm-hmm. No, I have it. Mm-hmm.

Askia: What happens on your face versus how products perform on your body is very different, but you will see how much you love a product based on how it wears on your body.

Stacey C: ⁓ huh.

Askia: You're going to be like, why are we not putting toner? Why are we not using toner on the body? you're like, wait a minute. I just shaved my legs. Why am I not using toner? Why I put lotion on my body? And then I wonder why I have KP.

Stacey C: Okay, I'm try it. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Toners on the body little serum on the knees on the elbows on the chest watch You're gonna write me and be like girl. Why did we not know this watch? Aha, why is no one talking about this if you have a skin firming toner put it under your arms right here

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Well, I'm gonna try it. I'm definitely gonna try it. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Put it right here, the crepey parts of the skin. This little patch right here that people don't like, put your toner right there. That skin tone will change so fast. You won't be like, never using, whatever I've been using, I'm never using it again. Watch. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love it.

Stacey C: Wow. Okay, I'm definitely gonna try that. Yeah, I'll try it. I also use the Beauty of Joseon products. I've used their moisturizer and their toner, their milky toner. ⁓ I use ⁓ as well, ⁓ toner. I actually introduced my daughter to that and my best friend. ⁓ And I use Cor-Zex. I think that's how you pronounce it.

Askia: Yes! Yes. Yes. Yes. Cosrx ⁓

Stacey C: Yes, Cosrx I use their serum, the Snail Mucin Serum. I love that one. ⁓ And I also use Innisfree ⁓ for their sunblock. And I noticed too that when said to the stuff to absorb in your skin, I press it into my face and into my neck. don't rub it So I just, to hold it against my face and things so ⁓ it can more.

Askia: Yeah. Yes!

Stacey C: So that's what I do as well.

Askia: I Innis has a new thing that I just got. What I do, so you know my method, when I test brands, I get one thing. And if I like that one thing, then I'll try one other thing. And if I like those two things, then I'll maybe get a third or fourth and a fifth. That's how it works. But you got one chance. And hopefully I choose the right one thing. They have a green ceramide toner. I'm wearing it on my skin now. It's a milky toner.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: They need put it in a big bottle. They need to put it in a big bottle. the bottle's like this big and I was like, this feels beautiful on the skin. Not sticky, not gummy, because sometimes your products can be a little sticky depending, right, depending on the ingredients. Beautiful. I do like Innisfree. Beauty and the has, they drove me crazy. They upset me because my tone in their mineral sunscreen has ⁓ been available.

Stacey C: I'm gonna have to find it.

Askia: Can't get it at Sephora, can't get it anywhere, can never get it. And so they irritated me. But them was my folks. Okay, I love them, but when I get mad, I get mad. Okay, it's not, I'm not perfect. They have a mask that I really like. It's called the Glow Mask. They have an Alpha Arbutin Serum that I really like. Their serum discovery set made me buy all four of their serums. They have one that has Propolis, I love them.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: I love their serum collection. it just, I don't wanna say what's better than, their serums are great and they're phenomenal on the body. One use, you'll be like, oh, let me stop, okay? Cosrx, my favorite from them. I do love their alpha arbutin serum. The skin discoloration one, I like their niacinamide serum. I like those two together. Those two work really great together. They're brightening the skin.

Stacey C: Yeah. huh.

Askia: I also love their patches, their under-eye patches. Very good. The new ones, the orange container with the PDRN, the frightening ones, I love those. I love those, very good. I love, they're all in my refrigerator. Their mucin product, popular product, sold in airports. the girls love that product. Put it on.

Stacey C: yes, yes, I've seen those. Very popular. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. You Mmm.

Askia: your body.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: and come back and let me know. You're gonna be like, why am I putting this on my face? I'm putting it on my, you will not wear lotion.

Stacey C: Okay, I'm definitely gonna try it.

Askia: Put your milky toners, especially when it starts to get warmer. Like I would never wear, if I lived in a humid climate, I would never wear lotion. skin wouldn't be able to take it. Like I'm too thick, I'm too, you know, I'd be sweating. I couldn't, I could never wear cream, but I would absolutely wear toners. Milky toners? Use that Beauty of Joseon on milky toner. Double it on your legs. They're gonna like blazed donut.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. huh.

Askia: Put it on once, let it dry, put it on again. You're be like, what am I wearing lotion for? It'll change your concept of like creamyness being on or the necessity of it. And then put your mucin. You're be like, stop. What is going on? Do it across your chest. You'll see, you're gonna be like, stop. That is a great product on the body. It's phenomenal. And especially after shaving.

Stacey C: Okay. Mm-hmm.

Askia: or after like laser hair removal.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: telling you. Plum, glowy, soft, toned, like even, beautiful skin. Everything you just said, just like that. I'll get the sunscreen and come back and let you know.

Stacey C: Yes, I'll definitely will try that. I will. And it's a couple of other things I've been starting, I started to use. I did use MediCube. heard you mentioned that. So I started using their that have like ⁓ beads in it. have the pink, I got a marshmallow. A couple of them I got from the TikTok shop, but one I got from Ulta. So have the one with the pink beads and the one that's brown that has the like lemon It really smells fresh and it has the yellow beads. And then I have the other one.

Askia: uh-huh, I've been seeing... Yeah. collection the deep by the sea collection right that's my collection from them

Stacey C: I'm sorry. Yes. Yes. So yeah, so I purchase all of them and I really do enjoy their moisturizers. And I also use, because I have some hyperpigmentation. So I use Dr. Althea, but use her gentle serum for the hyperpigmentation. And it's definitely been working. I can definitely say that. Yes.

Askia: Thanks. I haven't tried Dr. Althea Metacubes ⁓ brightening collection the deep vital C collection T it's my favorite collection of theirs by a landslide I know they have some like anti acne products with systemic acid too strong for my skin based on all the other things that I use I Think they're probably great for some people

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: depending your skin concern, how much you exfoliate, what else you're using. But Deep Ritice collection, if you have the Glutathione toner.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: that on that body telling you what shake it it's a dual face toner shake it really good it's yellow it's creamy it's milky your skin you're gonna be like I'm about to be on somebody's island I didn't know my skin look like this I didn't know that my cellulite can look like this I didn't know like it changes how you feel about every piece of your body

Stacey C: Great, wow. Mmm.

Askia: Period like I'm telling you, please do it If there's no other takeaway, please your k-beauty products ⁓ that body

Stacey C: Okay, listeners heard it first, use it on your body. And I'm gonna be one of the first people to use it on my body. I am definitely gonna start doing that and let my daughter and my best friend know. And my aunt actually, I had suggested K-Beauty products to her and she wanted to know which ones I were using. can't recall which one she uses, she went and purchased them from

Askia: on clean rice. Do that.

Stacey C: TJ Maxx and Marshall's, because they also carry K-Beauty in there as well. Which you can get it a little bit cheaper instead of going, because I know Ulta carries it now and I think Sephora may have it as well. And I heard that ⁓ is supposed to be, it has partnership with Olive Young, where you can, when you go to Korea, you go to Olive Young's everywhere and that's where you can buy a lot of. K-Beauty skin products. So they're supposed to be doing a partnership America with ⁓ Young. But just want to say that ⁓ these can be found at TJ Maxx and Marshalls. So my aunt, she purchases her ⁓ products from there and then she loved it so much and her skin, she loved the results of her skin. And then my uncle asked her about it and she got him wearing it and then her son. This has my influence, I guess, on the K-Beauty Skin products has, you know, gone a little bit farther. So I definitely, that's why one of the reasons I wanted to have you on here is to, you know, definitely talk about that and why, you know, it's so popular, but yet it does work for, you know, our skin as well.

Askia: It does work really well on African American skin. Like it just does. I mean, I've heard the girls, the different ethnic group influencers talk about it. Everybody seems to love it. But for us, because it organically, they organically think and prioritize hyperpigmentation, which is every single black and brown person's concern because no matter what happens to our skin, we're going to get a dark spot. because it works so beautifully to minimize our pores. And you see that like glow above your brow, that just like natural glow from skin because it does such a beautiful job illuminating that. We gon' ride for it. just are, we just are. But I'm telling you, the body.

Stacey C: Yes, definitely. Yes, so now I have to share that with them. Well, they'll be watching this anyway, so.

Askia: ⁓ The body that glutathione toner on the body is gorgeous It's beautiful two layers make sure that you are never skin flooding it was talked about all last year's game funding funding Just using multiple layers of your toner use it two times You'll be like what is going on and put some shorts Let me just see and then you can use all of those great myths with your newer innovations for the brands

Stacey C: Yes. Yes, we definitely will try this. Hahaha!

Askia: your skin as it gets warm just like keep refreshing your skin keep reminding your body that like it's cool we're calm don't erupt so okay don't break out we're happy we're hydrated like just keep using those they're great all of them are great spray on your legs the calves and tell it I wish I could like take a plane and just fly all over like dear black girl

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: Exfoliate that body and put that toner on those legs. Thank me later. I will put lotion out of business honestly

Stacey C: Yes. Yes.

Askia: you your only reason why you would ever use a lotion is to get ⁓ AHA or BHA in your routine Right like those those lotions are fantastic But if your motion doesn't have retinol if your motion doesn't have an AHA or BHA in it. We don't need it We're doing body serums and toners For beauty once a beautiful skin that you want to touch that you don't mind that somebody touch that you never look good when you are in your ⁓

Stacey C: Right. Mmm. Right.

Askia: Gimpiest nakedness of yourself Which also boosts your confidence? Right and that's my whole thing like babe. I don't give a damn about no cellulite I don't care about that don't care about your body fat. I care about your cellulite. I got all that stretch marks who cares these men don't care about that Make that skin is glowy and beautiful from head to toe. You are gonna want to go outside Somebody gonna have to see it

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. It does. Mm-hmm. right. ⁓

Askia: That hair gonna be up in a ponytail. You're gonna be outside people gonna be like hey because your aura How you carry yourself when your self reflects light is different Okay, yeah, that's right exactly the life you want for yourself from the outside in that's what it is

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right. Since you was talking about, you know, taking care of your body, you know, like, you know, putting the toner on your body, for instance, ⁓ I to get into ⁓ shower talk, tok because I know, you know, it was, guess it was last summer. It was a big thing with Black girls shower tok And why do think shower care has become self care?

Askia: So. think shower care has always been self care. And I think that brands have known that, but they haven't spoken to consumers like that, right? I don't know if you remember the Caress body wash.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: Well, was one of the first brands to really like step out and tell women to luxuriate in the shower. Take your time, caress before you dress. And it was like this whole dramatization of like getting ready. Right? And I grew up in the Caress Before You Dress era. I grew up with the Oprah on television and they sponsored her show. It was like an ad a day.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: So we had caress in our house because my mom was ultra feminine woman from the South. So she was going to caress before she dressed. Her daughters were going to caress before they dressed, right? Now, take my mama out of it and take our experience out of it. There are people who didn't have that experience. Maybe they weren't home after school. Maybe they went to an after school program. didn't see TV. They didn't get that ad nonstop.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: They didn't have that ingrained in their mind that your shower experience is luxury. Right? And they learned it later. I think there's something unique that happens when you're an adult, when you start becoming intimate or craving intimacy from a partner, where you want to be as clean as possible.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: for that experience. And I'm just going to say that for black people because we just found out that some people weren't washing their legs.

Stacey C: Yes, we did. And you know, I don't want to say what my profession is because I don't tell people, but I just found out that not everybody bathed every day too, which I, my eyes are probably big on here because I did not know that ⁓ that they excited because

Askia: Okay. Okay.

Stacey C: that day was their bath day. And I'm like, what, what do you mean that day was your bath day? You just was, you know, as black people say, you was out here ripping and running and you were sweating. And what you mean, like you don't, you didn't take a shower yesterday. You was ripping and running yesterday and you were sweating. So what do you mean? And it was like very excited about that. And I'm just confused cause I thought people take, took a bath every day, sometimes twice a day, you know, depending on who you are.

Askia: I could cry. If you have a humid climate, how do you not? You know what I'm saying? How does your body feel sticky? It's not just me being from another, no, that sweat down the back of that neck messes with your psyche up here. That's what dripping down the front, down the side of the body in between the thighs, back of the leg, that messes with your head. You feel sticky like things are sticking to you in your body. If you are used to the ritual of cleanliness.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. right.

Askia: You're gonna wash up in a sink if you have to. Right? But there is a real phenomenon around people engaging daily cleansing habits. And I think that's how Shower Tok was born. Because we're like, what you mean?

Stacey C: Right. Yes. Yes, yes. right.

Askia: You weren't washing your legs. We been at work with y'all. You know what I mean? What you mean the shampoo comes off your hair and that is what you, that's how your bottom gets washed. What do you mean y'all are not opening crevices and y'all are what? Right?

Stacey C: Right. Right. Yes.

Askia: That's how that piece of black culture got amplified because all of us were aligned in our what? What you mean? You're not taking this. You're not doing that. You're not doing right. That's what happened to us, right? We all were shocked. Now I think that I've seen and people have commented on my post. They're very, you know, open about being like, Hey, I love talking about, I learned about.

Stacey C: Yes. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Black girl shower tok and you know black girl shower routine I've been doing my black girl shower routine and my body is so soft and I got an African net sponge in my body is and it's like It's like what's wild that's it's a wild concept that maybe you just learned how to shower in 2023 or 2024 and you're like 60 You've been out here in the world Bringing up people's groceries baking paints owning businesses

Stacey C: Right. Right. You

Askia: Passive, you know what saying? you have not been clean. Okay? For us though, that of omits significant odor.

Stacey C: Bye.

Askia: we don't wash our hair every day so they can pretend because they wash their hair every day that they're clean But as people who don't wash our hair every day, we are very locked in on getting that water on the body You know and that ⁓ not stinking ⁓ important to our community and Those two things go hand in hand Which is why we are massive fragrance consumers

Stacey C: right. Right. Mm-hmm Right.

Askia: Which is why we look at body wash from a completely different lens, which is why Caress started putting black women in their ads. Because we are the ones who were purchasing Caress. We do want that perfumed body wash, luxuriated experience. We do want to take that time for ourselves. Sometimes as single parents, which a lot of us were, that's the only time we had for ourselves was that shower.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm Yes. Yes.

Askia: You know, that's all I got is my bath time, my bath, right? And so it's easy for me to draw a straight line to how we ended up with a humongous United community around Black Girl Shower Tok or Black Girl Shower Routines because we are all aligned on that front. Needed, required, we'll have it even if they're not doing the bird bath, we gonna do it. The birds gotta go, we gonna put some fresh water in there.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: And we're going to use that, we're going to turn that birdbath into a sink. Right? And so that is the major difference us, for other cultures. And it's almost an unspoken thing. know, feel like all of us have like a grandparent or aunt or a person that's older who's like, go wash yo. Not, ⁓ go take a shower, go wash your.

Stacey C: Exactly. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Askia: You know y'all stink you smell like puppies go Right and so for us ⁓ so tethered and ingrained in our very culture to send them kids to get clean before they go to bed Ain't nobody going to bed dirty and stinking you're not coming in this house from outside and frolicking on my furniture stank

Stacey C: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes, that is so true.

Askia: Right? You'll brush them teeth. Go wash. I don't want to see crust on your face.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Askia: can go wash your face go brush those teeth wash under your arm and we're very direct about the habits that allow us to be Accepted and acceptable not only amongst our own community but amongst the world we He stinks and that person stinks again on it the next day on a regular basis never not a black person He might have stunk in that moment. But once somebody told him with a

Stacey C: Yeah.

Askia: With authority, you stink. They said, I will not think again. You caught me slipping, but you won't touch me again. Right? And I think that there's an important aspect of us consistently making our kids carry that throughout our, our lives. Our kids need to hear, wash them. Open the crevices, do the things. Our kids need to know.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: the same way we were taught. So that it never dies. So that we never adopt that strategy of, maybe another day, maybe we'll skip the legs.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Because music will assimilate to that, right? When it's propagated, they were like, yeah. And that's the other concept with the lady who just got in trouble for putting her panties in the coffee maker.

Stacey C: Right. yeah.

Askia: The

Stacey C: Yeah.

Askia: That level of nasty is something that we don't associate ourselves with. You know what I mean? So that's Black Girl Shower routine is top tier content because we're gonna take that time. It might be the only time we have. And we are for certain not gonna allow for our cleanliness to be what disallows us to participate.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Getting into some exfoliation in showers, I know one of the things I want to talk about is the African exfoliating net, which you mentioned before. Why do people swear by it?

Askia: I don't know, I don't like them.

Stacey C: Really?

Askia: I don't talk about them on my account. don't.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: a bit of a germaphobe. Most people who love cleanliness are, right? And the same way you wouldn't use your washcloth.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: The same one every day is the same way you shouldn't use a loofah and the same way you shouldn't use an African neck sponge on your body every single day, right? And I understand it's antimicrobial. I understand it's antibacterial. I get it.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: But you don't know what bacteria I had on my body today.

Stacey C: Right.

Askia: And don't know a bacteria that might have my body tomorrow. And it's not bleach. It ain't made of bleach fibers. So you can't kill everything, right? Which means nine times out of 10 bacteria from today is going to be on my body tomorrow.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: And so I don't subscribe to that notion. Like that's not, that's not for me. There are also people who have been scrubbing the mess out of their skin and that's wonderful for them, but they have not worked to improve anybody's KP that I've seen.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Okay, so it's not necessarily exfoliating the way that I would want to be exfoliated. It's not using chemical exfoliators. It's just a little bit of a more abrasive way. It makes you feel more clean. I get it. I get it. But I have not seen three things that I would cite as evidence that they are phenomenal. One, people not ever needing lotion again. Because for what? You're exfoliating daily. number one. Number two, no KP.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: doesn't exist for you. And number three, ever going back to their old method.

Stacey C: Mmm.

Askia: Like I haven't seen anybody, but I'm never going back They're like, my God. And I'm like, yeah, I get it. It's a phenomenon for you, but we've been using Loofah since the nineties. Black people have been using Loofah since the nineties. Like I remember when Montel I'm not sure who uses it. Montel Williams did an episode of like cleanliness and

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: They did the blue light to see bacteria on the loofah. they were like, the scientist was like, you cannot use this every day. Like there was so much bacteria on it. Okay. And I was like, that stayed in my brain, shook me. And I was like, I was using the hell out of a loofah. A loofah? In me? I was not gonna use a washbub. I'm bougie. I want a loofah.

Stacey C: Mm. ⁓ huh. ⁓ huh.

Askia: I'm loofing my body for years at that time when I saw that loop. He said you have to put it in microwave or boil it to actually kill the bacteria. Who's microwaving their African net sponge? Who's microwaving their loofahs? Nobody. We're not doing that every day. So those for me are absolute ⁓ hockey sticks, no. thank you. And I don't want to damage my skin barrier. I'd rather be just more strategic and mindful and use chemicals to dissolve those dead, icky, skin cells.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm.

Askia: and I'll use a physical scrub to scrub my body. That's what I'll do. And I'll have my husband do my back. And it means that I get a shower with my husband sometimes, we get to have that moment together sometimes, which is healthy and happy for us. Right? And I think all of those things are the reason why. No, thank you. But to each your own. You do?

Stacey C: ⁓ huh. Mm-hmm. Well, I do personally use it. ⁓ okay. Yes. And when I first used it, I can say that I'm saved. ⁓ I can say ⁓ I first used it, told my aunt and I told my cousin, said, I mean my best friend, ⁓ said, I felt like I away my sins and I'm saved. It was exfoliating for me. ⁓ Now I say I do.

Askia: What was that?

Stacey C: like shower normally with soap and things before I use it. And I use it with the African Net with the ⁓ Naturium wash. So I use it with that. ⁓ I weekly, I disinfect it with baking soda and vinegar and a hot ⁓ water So that's what I do, but I do use it. So I get what you're saying, you know, cause I was hesitant about it. It took me a while to buy it, but I did.

Askia: Ooh, yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah, but you gotta, you love it. If you love it for your body, you don't think that it's doing anything to it's gonna do it. It won't be me, but listen, I'm glad to hear that you disinfected, that you're mindful and you're boiling it. And you're also cleansing your body before you use it.

Stacey C: Yes, so I do. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Askia: You think everybody's doing that?

Stacey C: I don't know. Right. No, I don't use it as that. How often should we exfoliate our skin without damaging our skin barrier?

Askia: They're using it like a wash, you know, so. Yeah. I what happens is it depends on the type of exfoliation you're using and everything you did to your skin before, right? So a lot of times people will exfoliate on the same day every single week like I used to do that. But because I did that it was helpful for me to remember, okay girl you can't go out in the sun because you're exfoliating tomorrow and you can't go out that day because you're exfoliating tomorrow. So I love that concept of picking one day and using that as your deep exfoliation day for the face, okay? There should be at least one deep exfoliation day and then one general exfoliation day, preferably a physical exfoliating day. Because even if you're using exfoliating toners two to three times a week, you're just dissolving, right? We need to remove. And sometimes I try to use the of like, dried food on your counter. Like you've cooked, you wiped it down, but that food is still there. So like your toner,

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Yeah, maybe if you spray it with some cleaner, it'll eventually dissolve it and break it up, but it may not make it disappear. So you still have to go through and wipe it. That's how I treat exfoliation. So one to two times a week, one deep, one just general physical exfoliation for the face. On the body, I love exfoliation two to three times a week. Sometimes four, depends on the time of year. Okay. If I know that I'm going to be outside, we're exfoliating pretty regularly.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Hmm. Right.

Askia: I want for my skin to look very even. I want it to be soft. I don't want it to be sweaty. I don't want it to be patchy. And I want to just use toners and no lotion, right? And so you want the skin to be as exfoliated as possible to allow the toners to get down into the skin to plump it. Make those knees look more smooth. Make that elbow look more smooth. Make that fat on the back of the arm look more smooth than tone. Those inner thighs that got that little cellulite drip, no.

Stacey C: Yes.

Askia: We're going to work on that with the toner, like the aesthetic of it. So three to four times a week, typically in the warmer months.

Stacey C: Okay. Should we, the last question about your body, should we be pre-cleansing our body like we do our face?

Askia: my goodness, that is an excellent question. Yes, depends, right? So I mentioned to you, I've been 24 hours, no skincare. The first thing I did when I came home was drench my whole body head to toe in cleansing oil. because I just wanted to like, I gotta start over. I just felt like I need a reset. Okay, things are, it was a mess. So full head to toe. If you're using sunscreen on the body, should be, no matter what, if you're using sunscreen, like if I was going out, I'd have sunscreen on from here to here, right? And I would use cleansing oil from here to here because you have to get that sunscreen off. You have to pull those chemicals off the skin. Yes, you can wash the skin and it may look clean.

Stacey C: Right. Right.

Askia: Use your cleansing oil to really lift sunscreen off the body. Okay? So yes, on the body, especially if you're using sunscreen, if you sweat a ton and your skin is sticky, use a cleansing oil. one of my favorites, there's the body wash version of this, right? You said Naturium One my favorite body washes on earth is their Glow Getter Multi Oil Body Wash. You can double cleanse with that. It tells you on the bottle.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Put it on your dry skin. Like get it all over. Let it sit for two to three minutes. I mean, don't do the bottom of your feet because obviously you'll slip and fall, but like do it all over your body. Let it sit for two to Just massage it. Get in your shower. Rinse your skin. You touch your skin. Just touch it. You're gonna be like, That's how you know what a body wash actually does for the skin, by the way. Don't put it on wet skin. Put your body care products on dry skin. If you don't have a cleansing oil for the body, do the dry wet method. Use your body wash, whatever you use. Put it on dry skin. Take your clothes off, put it on your dry skin, get in the shower, rinse. Watch the dirt run down the drain. Be shooken by the amount of dirt that was on your body, sweat, gunk, or whatever, and then wash again. Same body wash. That is how you know how your body is actually being cleansed from the body wash. Put it on dry skin. Sunscreen or not, I don't care what you did. You just, you you might run a daycare. Dry skin.

Stacey C: Right. right.

Askia: You'll know, you'll also know if it's drying for your skin, if it's actually the actives are in there, there's enough that's actually doing something to your skin, cause you'll feel it. You'll know if your skin is softer, you'll know if your skin feels more hydrated, you'll know if your skin feels greasy, if you put on dry skin first.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Okay, that's a great tip.

Askia: You will love it. It changes everything. Double cleansing the body makes you go, well, let me see what else I can do with the body. What else can I do with my skincare? Let me see. Because that's how you learn, just by doing little tiny experiments. How's this on my dry skin? Test it on your hand.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Look at it. Do you see a change in the texture? Okay. something on this hand.

Stacey C: Right.

Askia: Really see okay. Yeah, I did work to improve the texture. I could feel it in this spot right here ⁓ that's interesting now. I could put it on my elbows now I can put it on my knees right that toner that serum that thing but when it comes to body wash I Love a double cleanse, especially if you work in the public

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: If you have kids in sports, if you're around children, juvenile germs, that double cleanse is a... You don't even want to desire it and chase it down.

Stacey C: you healthy huh ⁓

Askia: ⁓ But also gives you little bit just a few more minutes with yourself and That is so important that just if you don't need all day, but you do need a few more minutes sometimes Just be with yourself and if it gives you that take it That's excuse you need do it

Stacey C: Right. Yes. Yep. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Okay. I want to get into now the, talked about the outside of your body. So talking about the inside of your body. So I know that nutrients for your body are very, is very important in having a balanced diet. But besides those things, there are a few things that I wanted to talk about today. And one of them is gut health. And I've seen a lot of talk about your gut health and improving your gut health. especially with So people are about how they're getting their fiber with, I know one of the ways is ⁓ chia seeds and ⁓ flax seeds. is gut health connected to the skin?

Askia: There is a gut-brain-skin axis. What happens in art, there's also a gut, vagina, gut, brain. Your gut is the center of your immunity. It's HQ for immunity. It signals everything to your brain. This person is sick, they have this thing, do this thing. This is happening, that thing is happening, do this thing. Now, what our skin serves as is a mechanism to see how well we are. So you will notice...

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: When you, if you've ever known somebody who had a lot of acne, they're very constipated. If you notice, especially acne down here in the chin, girls that have PCOS typically are constipated. So your hormonal health and wellness and how your brain treats your body is related to the amount of ick in your gut. Okay. And everybody goes water, water, water. Well, water is essentially the mechanism to help move things through the gut.

Stacey C: ⁓ huh. Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: You drink water, it hydrates your skin. Well, not that simply, it doesn't, right? It has to still go through all of the mechanisms that every other thing that we take does, right? And so, supplementation is critical, especially if you're not eating your five veggies and fruits a day, okay? And most of us aren't. We don't have the time, okay?

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Vegetables are different today than they were ten years ago than they were 20 years ago right, and I think that habits of gut health has always been ingrained in us like One thing that I know that we've done a lot of people don't do is like castor oil our kids I don't do I don't castor oil my I was a castor oiled kid my mama go You'll feel good castor oil

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: get that gut cleaned out. Let's start there before we see what else the next thing is. And typically after castor oil, nothing was wrong.

Stacey C: wow.

Askia: Right? And so I did not like that experience. I hate the way it tastes. I've never done that to my kids. However, I am really mindful about making sure they get fatty fish and omegas in. Okay, we're very mindful about making sure they get asparagus in. I didn't eat asparagus as a kid. My mama didn't eat that. But my kids eat asparagus. We spinach all the time. Okay, when I was a kid, all the time. My kids don't eat a lot of spinach. My kids eat a ton of broccoli rabe

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: There was no broccoli rabe when I was little. Didn't exist in my mind, right? But those the things that I do to be mindful, but I can sure they're getting something green in their diet. Eating green things, putting phytonutrients in the body, specifically in the gut, gives this prebiotic, probiotic thing, kind of feeds the good bacteria so that things can move. When things are moving, going in and going out, your skin will reflect it.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: Your skin will reflect it. Your skin will go, ooh, thank you. Thank you for the oranges. Thank you for the apples. Thank you for the this, right? And you'll notice if you're drinking a lot of soda, actually let me say this correctly, there are people, this is a big disclaimer, with fantastic skin that drink Dr. Pepper all day. Haven't had water in two years.

Stacey C: Mmm. Wow.

Askia: There's people who live there who would not drink water unless it was in an IV drip Okay, right and their skin is not their skin is not bad. However Their liver is this big and them kidneys is shot Right and and they might have ED There's there's always gonna be a balance so

Stacey C: Right.

Askia: Skin health and gut health are directly correlated constipation. You'll see acne appear on the skin and on the body. You might even see eczema Which can also be correlated to gut wellness and gut health, right?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. did. You mentioned prebiotic and probiotics. And I know for me personally, I do some drinks such as Ollie Pop and Poppi But do you think that those drinks actually help?

Askia: don't know, to be honest. I think that... People love poppi Okay. And that's enough testimony for me. I just haven't really go. I don't love carbonated drinks like that. I love a kombucha kombucha me down to the most But when comes to like carbonated drinks, I wouldn't drink them. I'd rather just take the probiotic or like get a gummy version. But if you feel like you have less bloat and less backup and things are moving smooth, then it's working.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: It's really into the individual. You know what saying? I do believe it. They say they got probiotics in there. Maybe they got it in there. And if people's guts are happy and thriving, I believe you. Like I had a girl tell me, I don't want kombucha. It doesn't make me go to the bathroom. said, I don't believe you. I don't know. You should go see a doctor. Because why? How's that possible? Right? Like you literally see the bacteria at the bottom. You see that you drink it all the way down to the bottom.

Stacey C: Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. right.

Askia: You drank the whole, you know, I'm like, how, right? And I think that's fair for anything that people take. Sometimes people are gonna really feel it and be excited about it, but you know better, because you take it. You have your before and after. So it could work phenomenally for you and maybe not necessarily for me. I just haven't dove into them, but I believe whatever they say it is, it is. Until someone tells me, you know, with, ⁓ I can believe, use it correctly.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Hahaha

Askia: that didn't work for them, have no reason to believe that those things don't work. I think the girls love them.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, I've tried kombucha as well. No.

Askia: Cause they're not cheap. They're not, they're not, you're spending the money and investing in them, they must be doing something. Right? Like they're not cheap. You said about, what did you say about kombucha?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Yes. said, I'm sorry, I said that I have tried it before as well. Yeah. Yes, I do. Mm-hmm. ⁓

Askia: Do you like kombucha? I love a kombucha honey, give it to me every time. think they're great. ⁓ like the way they taste. I like that little ginger-y snappy thing that some of them have. I like that they don't make me feel bloated and gassy. So I love a kombucha, but that's not my probiotic choice, especially when it comes to skin health. That would not be it.

Stacey C: Yeah. So speaking of choice, which one is better, supplements or food?

Askia: Yeah. supplements.

Stacey C: Why?

Askia: With supplements, single person that takes that supplement's getting the consistent experience. ⁓ it comes to food, we all have different dietary things. So what can you really attribute? Is pescatarian more ⁓ vegetables than person who's a carnivore? Not necessarily. Is a vegan?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right?

Askia: getting more macronutrients and micronutrients in a person who's carnivore? Not necessarily. might perceive that, but if that vegan only eats pasta and red sauce every day. What are they doing to supplement their skin health? Right? Like we think, ⁓ it's a vegan person, so we just imagine piles of vegetables and legumes and rice. But if they're not eating raw, getting all their nuts in, huge part of that diet, by the way, nuts and beans in, then I might be eating better than a vegan.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. right.

Askia: Right? And so I'm going to always say supplement because our diets are different and then how we live each dietary lifestyle can be different. I think if you're, if you're, if you are super disciplined and you are eating five vegetables, a nut a day, no palm oils, no hydrogenated oils, right? Sure. There's a possibility, but if you still work the same construction site, is that man over there?

Stacey C: Right.

Askia: who's eating bacon, eggs and spinach every day, that person might be healthier than you.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Since you brought up supplements, I'm going to say this, a disclaimer again, do your research and definitely discuss with your provider which one's best for you. ⁓ are various types of supplements. There's multivitamins, B12 for energy, PCOS vitamins, iron vitamins, cod liver oil, black seed oil, fish oil, magnesium to name a few.

Askia: Excellent.

Stacey C: It's multivitamins. Do you think that that's necessary or overrated?

Askia: Gosh, that's a loaded question. So I think the concept of the multivitamin can be overrated. I think there are ways you can build your own unique supplement stack that is designed to serve your needs, right? The problem mostly in my opinion, And this is all opinion. I'm not a doctor none of these statements Okay, have been evaluated by the FDA's let me give my disclaimer, right? Nothing I say is designed to cure treat prevent or diagnose anything but hear me. A multivitamin makes believe that they're getting everything they need in that one supplement. Which is a little bit of trickery. People I have a multivitamin. So I'm taking everything I need and it's like, who said that? Well how do know what you need? Did you go to the doctor and get your blood drawn to see if you are iron deficient, vitamin D deficient? How do you know, right? And so, multivitamin to me can be tricky and I think that people should A, have their blood drawn and really understand what their body needs right now in the present. Like, people need to stop saying, I know I'm anemic because I be cold. Everybody else has them cold. It's like, that doesn't mean you're anemic, right?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: I want for people to... understand what their body needs and do what their body needs consistently. Because for me, taking a supplement is one of the steps in an action plan towards longevity. A person who takes supplements is a person who has a plan for their future, who wants a certain outcome. And that outcome is typically keep me here as long as possible as well as I can possibly be.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Askia: right, for as long as possible. we use supplements to give us what our diets can't. And right now, the way prices are, supplements can be more affordable than the groceries that it might be required for you to get all of the things that you need that you can be deficient in. So multivitamin as a term, I do not like. I do not like. I think it tricks people. And... I believe that every single person should be personalizing their supplement stack. husband can't take what I take. He don't need a vaginal probiotic. Does he need a probiotic? Yes. But he only the one that has the bacteria that goes down into my vagina. Right? And so being really intentional and not just throwing things into your household and be like, we just take this. We just take cod liver oil. Well, ⁓ are you taking cod liver oil? And where's it derived from?

Stacey C: Right. Right. Right. Right.

Askia: Where are those cod from?

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Right? So those types of things are the nuances that I think can significantly change how a supplement performs and whether a person will consistently take it.

Stacey C: Right. Right.

Askia: Because if you don't feel it, I'm not paying for it. If you don't feel better, we have to have a noticeable difference. And there are a few supplements that I've noticed in my that I stand 10 toes down on and feel like every single person should have. And when I talked to my OBGYN about it, she was like, ⁓ I take that, I take that, I take that. I'm like.

Stacey C: That's so true. Mm-hmm.

Askia: Your personal things that you're doing is what I want you to write down for me. Don't write down nothing else. Not what the book, like, ⁓ so you know this information, but you're not telling me about it. I'm telling you about it. Right? Because it's not a prescriptive.

Stacey C: Right? Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: So those types of things, know, when doctors say things to you like, get more exercise. And we're all like, yeah, okay, right. Let's talk for exercise. What your doctor should probably say in a more complete statement would be, you should be lifting some weights occasionally because your body is gonna start declining this specific thing called NAD. And NAD can greatly affect your hormonal health, man or woman. It is what we call an anti-aging.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Hormone if you will and it trigger your body to start to decline Because its levels are decreasing but lifting weights two times a week can keep your brain thinking that you are younger than you are and continuously producing NAD for you, which will help you more younger and feel more younger rather than exercise regularly No, I need bone density

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. bright.

Askia: As a woman, tell me I need bone density. I need to lift weights because I need to increase my bone density because at some point my fall risk is going to increase. Right? And don't tell me to have a healthy weight. Tell me how. Right? Tell me to flatten this tummy without going to get the lipo. Don't just give me an injection and say, go, go, go. You know, you'll be fine. No.

Stacey C: Right. right. right.

Askia: I want you to tell me explicitly, girl, you need to get on that treadmill for 31 minutes on this day, 47 minutes on this day, you need to do this. You need to measure this and come back. That to me is quality, functional health and wellness. And why I built my supplement stack to be the way it is because of what the doctors don't tell me.

Stacey C: Right. Right. right.

Askia: That's just my way. Not everyone's going to be that way. Some people are going to live and die by what their doctor says and that's fine. But for me, as a girl who loves a margarita, who will have a glass of champagne, a girl who loves to celebrate, who lives a big life, who coaches, who's a mom and a wife and a person, multi-decade career person, I'm going to have NAD in my supplement stack no matter what.

Stacey C: Hmm. Hmm.

Askia: I'm also gonna take my tail back to the gym all the time now and never have another seven month lapse because I'm closer to 50 and I don't wanna fall and have a fall change the trajectory of my life. I don't wanna be on a cane. So like past skin, right, which NAD worked to support the skin health, brain health, gut health, right, literally your entire system. need supplements for my life.

Stacey C: right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: to live and exist in the skin that I have, right? And so supplements for me is a non-negotiable.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: Supplements for me are preventative for me. I take them with a preventative Mindset because I don't want for things to happen related to just Certain levels of a specific amino or or acid in my body declining Like what I still feel sexy I still feel fine, but what if I'm not And I don't want to wait until I feel bad

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Right.

Askia: to find out the worst thing. everything for me is about preventing, preventing. And if aesthetic or vanity is your motivator to keep your tummy flatter, to make sure that you're pooping, right? To make sure that you don't have pimples, then so be it. Go to laser focus and laser center your supplements that on gut health. But I do recommend getting that blood work because just in case your vitamin D is low.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: That good health stuff ain't gonna do that.

Stacey C: Right, right. And I agree, you should have your supplements tailored for you. And I take supplements as well. And like you said, take them for preventative things as measures as well. ⁓ I noticed that one the things I take is fish oil, well not fish oil, it's omega-3, because I'm not able to take fish oil, but it's a version of fish oil. And I noticed when I did not take it, I think I missed it for a day.

Askia: Yeah.

Stacey C: I could feel it like in my bones, it helps. like you said, yes, being in your late forties and I'm also close to 52, you definitely want to take supplements that are helping you with bone density and things. And also, I'm grateful for my doctor because when you were talking about giving a specific plan that my doctor did explain that like, at the age you are, you should be lifting weights, especially because

Askia: and how to conjoin ⁓

Stacey C: perimenopause is knocking on the door as well. So you wanna be incorporating weight training in your everyday exercise, just to be able to keep that strength going as well. So you are absolutely correct.

Askia: It's hard to build strength. It's really hard to build strength, especially if you've never done it before. I'm fortunate that I've always kind of been fitness minded or like fitness adjacent. I know always how far I've been off of something. So I'll like, okay, let me dive in. I'll really hard for two years. And I'm grateful for those stints where I'm a maniac for two years because I have great muscle memory. But for people who have never considered their bone health, cause they didn't know.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Right? Or people who have never been around seniors are unwell. So that you understand the body degenerates. Right? Like it just shifts and that all little things that you do now matter in those years. I think would change a lot of things for a lot of people. Just the outlook and how we perceive the prioritization of supplements. Like

Stacey C: Right.

Askia: We got, we don't have a doctor like you. You're very fortunate to have a doctor who's like, no, get in that gym. Not just one regular exercise. No, I need you to direct me sometimes. I'm human, right? I came here for a cold. You're talking about my perimenopause, which a word we just found out about five years ago.

Stacey C: Right. Right.

Askia: We just found out about perimenopause five years ago. We've had children. Nobody said, by the way, there's going to be this thing that creeps up. You're going to feel like a psychopath. Your body's going to change. You're not going to like yourself. You may not like your partner. More women end up in this, like when you look back and think about your friends whose parents failed in their marriage, it happened during their time. Their mama was in perimenopause.

Stacey C: Yes. bright. Mm-hmm.

Askia: But their mama didn't know they were in perimenopause. Because she just found out that she was in perimenopause because her 44-year-old daughter told her, Mom, I'm in perimenopause. And I did the math. And back when you and Dad were having that time, you were probably in perimenopause.

Stacey C: right. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Askia: You know, so like taking adaptogens and nootropics and just the concept of learning about those things and making sure that they're included in your body's well-being, your entirety of your well-being, I think is super important up here. Because it's draining your brain that this person is not trying to go nowhere, okay? So let me lock in. tried get with the perimenopause trick, but it didn't work.

Stacey C: Yes. Yes.

Askia: She started taking supplements, okay, so, right? that's terrifying that five years ago, again, I'm almost 50, I just found out about perimenopause after I was already in it.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. bright.

Askia: From the internet?

Stacey C: right.

Askia: Not my OBGYN.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: That person didn't tell me, but when I went and told her how crazy I was and everything I was taking, she said, ⁓ yeah, I take all that. And I'm like, you should, I felt offended. And I was upset and betrayed because like, if you knew this was happening, why didn't you prepare me? But they don't, they're not trained to prepare us. Preparedness means we won't go see them.

Stacey C: Right. Mm-hmm.

Askia: when the things go wrong, right? So I'm not mad at doctors, you know, but do better.

Stacey C: Right. Yeah. All right. How has caring for your body changed your confidence?

Askia: Wow. Caring for my body is the only reason why I have confidence sometimes. because I've taken the time to do the thing for me. I prioritize myself. I'm never allowing for my cup, my little cup invisible cup to be emptied. That doesn't happen for me. Even on days that are rough, I'm still gonna have that shower, baby. We're still exfoliating. We're still putting our toner on. We're still, right? Because an

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: The term self-care is I don't love it. It feels a little pretentious, but I feel like if my skin is good, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. My kids are Check. Kids are happy. Check. I don't have the best day. Check. But this skin tonight, this routine's going to eat down. And that's how I can wake up every day and I can look forward to

Stacey C: Mm-hmm. Right.

Askia: Whatever I did in my skin last night, let me go look at my face. okay. Okay, I'm gonna do that again tonight. And that just gives you a fresh start, something to look forward to. So yeah, confidence, in skincare for me. Honestly, like 24 hours without skincare, to God, felt like I had to go see a probation officer. Like I had left a jail.

Stacey C: Yes. No.

Askia: I felt defeated, broken. I was imagining all the different skincare I was gonna use, like driving home, I was like, okay, I'm gonna do that, and then I'm gonna do that, like a maniac. Just trying to get back to my ritual that just brings me back to feeling like me. Just standing on my little square, just feeling like myself. I was way above it, looking down at it. But just to be feeling like myself again.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: is what it means for me to be confident anyway.

Stacey C: Right. ⁓ What is one habit or health habit that you had to unlearn?

Askia: Ooh. It's one health habit that I had to unlearn. I like chicken that much. so, you know, having to have my husband just came here, having to have a little chicken sometimes and not have steak is probably, I love a steak. I love red meat. I love carne asada. I love a Mexican meal, beans, rice, meat. Bring me the food. Bring me a margarita.

Stacey C: Mm-hmm.

Askia: Well, just being a little bit more disciplined in like celebratory things has been important.

Stacey C: Yes, that is important. Hey, that's so funny. You love steak. I love chicken.

Askia: Yeah. I feel like a lot of my husband loves me chicken person. He loves chicken. I'm like Steak me steak me me give me a plate of vegetables. I'd rather have a bunch of vegetables then to have chicken. ⁓ just ride

Stacey C: Yeah. Mmm. E?

Askia: See that's the other thing. It's just having the discipline about okay, I'll have the grilled chicken. I'll have the thing that's not my first choice thing. Is it important? Yeah, it's big shift. You have to be really locked in to do that. Like okay, maybe I won't have the french fry.

Stacey C: right. Right. You've given a lot of information and advice today. If someone who's listening to this, if they're feeling overwhelmed, where should they start first?

Askia: ⁓ wow, I would start with taking stock of what you currently have, throwing away what's expired. That's first thing, right? And if it's expired, don't buy that thing again. Try some things that are new and really be intentional with your purchases. Even if you start small and you want to spend $30 to start over, start with skincare products that are designed for your skin type and your skin concerns, not what your homegirl has. Unless you're lucky and you and your homegirl have the same skin type and the same skin concern, right? Be really intentional spend 30 bucks buy serums that make sense Hyaluronic acid is not for everybody if you're over 25 get retinol in your skincare routine once a week make sure you're double cleansing at minimum and air dry your skin If you just do those little will start to notice the canvas that you work on being different. You'll approach that canvas differently. You'll prioritize that canvas differently. And do not neglect your body. Your body circulation system needs to be touched. Use your skin care ⁓ your body. Massage your body. Fall in love with your body. Touch your body every day. And then come back after a week and let me know how you do. Like always, I'm always like, come back and tell me friends. we can optimize That's what it is. Our life is all about optimizing. So come back and tell me.

Stacey C: Ha Yes. So you all heard it here first, touch your body so that you fall in love with your body. So falling in love with your body helps to build confidence in you. you enjoyed this episode of season three of U Grow Girl, please share with a person, because it doesn't just have to be a woman ⁓ who needs hear it. I would like thank our guest, Askia ⁓ Again, for being on the show, can you please let my listeners know where they can find you?

Askia: Yes, thank you so much for having me. I am Skinteligencia everywhere. So on TikTok, on Instagram, I'm just now getting on YouTube a little bit. I'm on Facebook as Skinteligencia so you can find me anywhere.

Stacey C: Okay, and we'll have her information in the notes. hope that you have all enjoyed episode four of season three. And if this episode ⁓ again you, please share it with a ⁓ woman, ⁓ teenager, you know, lot of teens are into skincare. ⁓ Who to hear it? ⁓ I your host, Stacey C. Please do not forget to subscribe, share, like, and comment, and make time to see you glow girl.

Askia: You get home.