Trish
Hello, listeners. It’s just Trish Hammond here again from the Transforming Bodies podcast. And today, I’m joined with a brother and sister duo. So I joined Dr Belal Chami and Zena Chami. And they are both co founders of the Re-Dox Skin Lab, which is a brand I’m thinking of. It’s a brand new, clinical skincare brand, and it’s all based on something a little bit different to what I’ve seen before. So I heard Dr. Chami speak at a conference. And I was just like, oh my god, this needs to get out there because I really loved it, like I enjoyed listening to him for a start, but also about the skincare. So I wanna share that with you guys today. So welcome, guys.
Zena
Thank you. Thank you for having us on today.8
Belal
Thank you for having us.
Trish
Oh, pleasure. And thanks thanks for joining me. I love a family business because I’ve got a family business as well. So I think it’s always really good, you know. Providing you don’t fight.
But tell me, so first of all and I’m not sure who wants to ask this, but how did the thought for the Re-Dox skin lab aim?
Belal
I think Zena is probably the best person to answer that. It was her brain cell.
Trish
Yeah. It’s always the girls. It’s always the girls.
Zena
It’s always the girls in our problem. So it actually happened during COVID. Me and Belal as, you know, brother and sister. And at that time, we’re also neighbours. So we spent a lot of time together during COVID on my balcony and it was actually a skin concern that I had in pigmentation. After I got this to my daughter, I developed hormonal pigmentation. And I’ve been, between clinics, getting treatments done and using medical grade skin care that really wasn’t doing anything for my skin. So just over a conversation I was saying to Bilal about my skin concern and it showed him the products that I was actually using on my skin and he has a very creative mind and very innovative mind. And when he looked at the products that I was showing him, he thought he could actually develop something more innovative. We’re rarely able to do something to halt the pigmentation because it wasn’t being reduced. There was really nothing happening between the treatments and the receiving and product I was actually using. And also the price point of the product was very high as well. So if he I think he can take it from here, but he started ordering ingredients and playing around with doing some research and really dive into a lot of research back the ingredient to be able to develop a product that I can actually use where I actually seen a difference to my skin, not only myself, but my family, my friends, started asking what are you using on your skin? Your skin looks really great. And before we know it, we build up the brand.
Trish
That’s fantastic. And I know you guys are using the concept of like antioxidant synergy that works at that sales level. Can you kind of describe that concept to us and how your formulations represent that kind of next gen range of serums.
Belal
Yeah. That’s my background. I’m actually a Redox Biologist. And we are a niche group of researchers probably within the Australasia area. There’s around a hundred of us.
So we’re not, it’s a really unique part of science. We look at antioxidants and oxalates. And in the context of diseases, and so when I purchased this I wanted to approach it from an area of my expertise, which was antioxidants themselves. So antioxidants synergy refers to it’s like a 1+1=3. Where you have one antioxidant that’s probably pretty good. And then in the other, and when you combine them together, you get this synergistic effect because it’s gonna double up. And it’s actually how antioxidants present themselves in nature. Very rarely would you find an antioxidant in one for example, fruit or one plant. And they usually present in various combinations. And it’s actually to and naked, you know, I think naked science at this.
And those antioxidants have probably been selected probably through a series of evolutionary trials where certain combinations just give an enhanced effect. And we, my idea was that, approaching this concept and applying it into skin solutions in formulations. You get the best out of it. So it’s not just randomly picking antioxidants, picking them by modelling how they exist in nature.
Trish
Okay. And one of the things I loved about when I heard you speak and just checking out the range and now of course trying about myself as well, is the fact that it’s so simple. So how can you jam packed so much in a real simple, like, yeah, how does that work? It just seems so minimal, which is really appealing to me.
Zena
Probably I’ll answer this Trish, but what we also well, the way I felt about products that I was using, and this came very early on is that you know, as I’m a busy mum and a single mum and, having a multi step skincare routine is very time consuming. And also, in terms of money as well, a lot of money spent there on skincare. So my skincare routine was my cleanse, my serum, another moisturiser, a spot treatment, and my sunscreen. And we really wanted to eliminate the amount of products you actually use. So we wanted to give people time management for skin, but also be cost effective as well. So having to use maybe 2 products instead of using 3 to 4 products. So we’re very conscious of that, and it was really from my experience and really just my morning routine that was just doubled up on using so many products that I wasn’t seeing anything happening. We wanted to actually develop a brand where we can reduce the products that actually use, but also give you really good results. So just simplify the skincare routine with having your daily dose of vitamin C, but boosting that with key active ingredients to target any specific skin concern. Okay.
Belal
I mean and from my point, I can probably answer from a formulation point of view. I think we had to be very deliberate. And so when you produce, when you have a product, it needs to be very clear what the product did and it needs to be very tailored to that. And so we were able to, I guess, forsake some ingredients that were maybe feel good ingredients things that give that luxurious feel, but that really they’re useful in the sense that they may give a nice spread effect, but they don’t really give any effect to the skin and to have that really delicate balancing act where we will focus mostly on active ingredients. And effectively, how many can we reasonably stack into a solution that will give you the best results. And so that you don’t have to apply as Zena said, you have 2 or 3 products where it’s likely unnecessary. She says, more cost effective is to have 1, and certainly we can formulate it this way. But the whole point was that he needed to be very deliberate and very. So this was a product for, for example, pigmentation, and this product here was useful for rosacea. And I guess that comes down to the simplicity.
From my point of view, I’m more than a very big user of skincare. I mean, now I am, but prior to this snow. And what in our initial research, which I think most other people would appreciate. Well, it wasn’t very clear what some products did, what a lot of products did. It’s a good deal of ambiguity. And that confused me, and I thought, oh, it’s confusing me. It’s probably confusing a lot of other people. And so let’s be very clear with what these products are designed for.
Trish
Yep. You know, when I heard you speaking, I found it very engaging and what I think just from a layperson who doesn’t have any trading medicine stuff like that. Apart from that, a lot of simplicity, you were talking in particular about one ingredient that is on the product side with the “name”. I can’t remember what it was, but you mentioned during your talk about the fact that people can take this and all that, but but it’s actually better absorbed in the skin. Can you tell us a little bit about the kind of the ingredients and why they work like they do?
Belal
Yeah. I think the product was just from memory, was it Trans-resveratrol?
Trish
Yeah. Let’s see. It starts with a name, one.
Belal
Yeah. So this is an ingredient. It’s found and you can find it in I don’t wanna promote the fact that you can find it in a way. You can find it. They said a very low amount. There are other places that you could, certain plants, for example, you can find much higher quantities. And it’s an antioxidant, but it doesn’t work as an antioxidant. This is a really important point. I think in the late stage, we think of antioxidants as all being the same. And there are a plethora of antioxidants, but they act very differently. And then it’s that neons way that they act gives different activities and different effects. Except for the purpose of Trans-resveratrol, it is an activator of proteins that are really important for DNA repair. And so DNA needs to repair as we age as we go along with time. We just attempt to accumulate DNA damage. And we can do a lot of things in our lifestyle to reduce the amount of DNA damage that we can make or that we accumulate. But ultimately, if you don’t have a good approach to repairing DNA, those eventual small increments of DNA damage accumulate, and they can cause lasting effects. At the cellular level, it means that the cells age. It’s the cornerstone of ageing DNA damage. So Trans-resveratrol is an interesting ingredient because it’s an activator. It’s actually a pretty poor antioxidant, but it’s a very good activator of a protein called Sirtuin, a group of proteins called Sirtuin-1, in particular Sirtuin-1. And when this protein is activated, it does kick start DNA repair mechanisms. And ultimately, it leads to cells becoming healthier because if you have a healthier DNA, then those that that cell’s gonna function in a more optimal way. Then if it’s still accumulating a lot of DNA damage and begins to slow down and resemble all the signs of ageing. And so one of our flagship products was to develop a topical serum that had not only the right kind of Trans-resveratrol, but to keep it in that state. And this is where we use things like stabilisers, like cyclodextrin, including complexes. They sound pretty nasty, but very safe sugar molecules, and they effectively trap the compound, theTrans-resveratrol, and they allow it to be preserved almost. And so that when he enters the skin, it’s in the right state. And coming to the point of whether it’s a topical or whether it’s systemic, I always favour topical for skin, not general health. And the reason simply is that you just can’t consume enough of it to be spread around the entire body at a high enough concentration that it will have a meaningful effect on your skin. And often, these are greens, they work best when they’re concentrated the most. And so if you want it on your skin to improve the appearance of more youthful cells it is useless to youthful skin. Then apply our topical is this the only way to go. And the research that we examine supports that.
Trish
I do like the fact that oh, actually, I love just hearing that as well. The fact that we can change is not just about what you know, what you eat. It’s about what you put on the outside as well. So I like that because it’s kind of like flipping something that you can eat as well. But so I’m gonna ask you, what does actually tell us about your products because it’s not a massive range, but there’s a lot within each range if that makes any sense. Yeah. Is that right? Have I understood it right?
Zena
That’s correct. So we take a very simplified approach. So we have what looks like very few products, but we cover a lot of skin indications. So we’ll cover things like pigmentation, acne, rosacea, skin barrier concerns, ageing skin, and each product has 2 added boosters that go inside. So you’ll get your daily dose of vitamin C. But if you’re someone that has skin barrier concerns, we’ll boost that with a cellulite complex with squaring inside that, so you’re able to get your daily dose of vitamin C, but also target that specific skin concern. So really taking a really easy approach when it comes to skincare, just covering indications really. And label it very clear, not confusing any consumers. So it would be labelled as pigmentation or acne as Dr Chami did say that people are often confused by labels, so you’ll see a product, and you don’t know what it actually does until you read the back. And we wanted to really make it easier for people. And know what product to actually pick.
Trish
So what does your skincare regime look like? I actually yeah. I’ll set this on something. So as someone who says, right, I wanna start trying this stuff. Like, I know you have to have it through a clinic because, obviously, you’ve got a lot of questions to answer and you don’t wanna prescribe the wrong thing. But what does an average day skincare look like in your work?
Zena
So for me now, it’s very easy. I cleanse in the morning. I apply my vitamin C. I still use my vitamin C that has the added boosters inside there for pigmentation, so I’m able to treat that. See both Alpha Arbutin & Kojic acid in there, which is the code as an Alpha Arbutin, just to manage that pigmentation, followed by a moisturiser and my sunscreen. Unless I can skip that moisturiser if I’m using the cream based sunscreen. So that’s what it looks like in the morning. Just very easy, just a 2 majority of the time, just a 2 to freeze it.
Trish
Okay. So cleanse, vitamin c. What was the third thing?
Zena
My sunscreen?
Trish
Okay. I’ll just cleanse- vitamin C- sunscreen. Oh, easy peasy. Okay.
Zena
And by evening, it’s the same thing. So I’ll if I’m not exfoliating, I would cleanse, and then I would put my I actually use for my night serum our skin barrier, Niacinamide hydrating gel. Sometimes I might layer that on top with our regenerating serums, which are targeted for ageing. But I could also skip that as well because I’m getting exactly what I need in that one product to target my skin concern.
Trish
Okay. So basically, in the whole range is how many products?
Zena
There are four products, but seventeen indications.
Trish
Got it. Okay. Cool. So if I present, saying, oh, you know, like, this I’ll be prescribed the right combination of that so that I’ve got the daytime and the nighttime if that’s randomly for.
Zena
Absolutely. So if you’re at a clinic, that’s you’re receiving our product that will consult you because they are very potent active ingredients. That’s so they’ll ask you the appropriate questions, like, have you used active ingredients? Do you have any allergies to certain ingredients? As soon as they understand what your skin concerns are, they’ll be able to recommend the appropriate product and the appropriate boosting range she needs.
Trish
Okay. Okay. So basically, the indications can be things like pigments. It can be ageing. Even if your skin was feeling a bit rough or, you know
Zena
We actually have a lot of business groups. Very easy. So we’ve got indications that cover the word roughness, dullness, pigmentation, acne, skin barrier, rosacea, ageing, so I’ve mentioned ageing. So everything is just very clear. There’s no there’s no nothing that’s really fancy around our nose just so we can actually make it easy for people to read and identify what they actually need.
Trish
Okay. And how do they look, because I noticed that everything’s mineral oil free, sulphate free, paraben free, animal testing, no heavy metals and sustainable. Like, how do you do that with such a potent product? Like, is it that in the processing or like it seems like it’s pretty close to I don’t know if close to nature is the right word, but can you tell me about that?
Belal
Yeah. Sure. I might jump in here. So I think a lot of those ingredients, what we call them, like feel good ingredients. So and those are things that I have, I think it comes down to the ethos of the brand. It is that effectiveness. We treat the skin for an indication rather than for a luxurious feel good approach. And both of that and I guess the answer to our approach was, let us take a more clinical route And that’s that reflects my background as well and focus on things that will make your active ingredient focus. And so we’ve had a sacrifice so you know, things like fragrances, things like silicones that spread nicely, and they all have their part. But ultimately it didn’t add any effect on the skin itself apart from the luxurious feel. So it actually wasn’t too hard to formulate without those additives if you took that approach. I think that ultimately is where you’re positioning your products. What problem are you solving? And from our point of view, the problem that we were solving is problematic skin.
Trish
Okay. Okay. And just so I can explain the variety of people. So your products are the day serum? Which comes in two different types of different skin types. Is that right?
Belal
Yeah. That’s an interesting point. So we first developed the one day serum. And the day serum that we developed is a potent 15% L-Ascorbic acid solution that contained other antioxidants like Quercetin and Vanillic acid and also contained effectively a natural form of vitamin E, tocopheryl. And while that’s very useful, some skin just cannot tolerate the topical vitamin E because they probably have usually overactive sebaceous glands. They produce a lot of oil and then layering it with another natural oil can create a breeding ground for some fun acne causing fungi or bacteria. It’s only some individuals, and those individuals pretty well know pretty well that they had this. And so then we had to develop another serum that didn’t have the tocopheryl in it that had another active that was similar. And that birthed the new product that is specifically for oily skin. And then they had the hydrating niacinamide light gel, which is a five percent niacinamide solution again, coupled with other antioxidants that they just really work very well together. And then finally, it’s the regenerating serum. And I guess there’s the 4 base serums if you like, and then we have I think the list was about 17 active ingredients that we can add in combinations then to target a specific skin indication. So as Zena mentioned, like, if you have pigmentation, then the options are Alpha Arbutin & Kojic acid or Salicylic acid or Tranexamic acid. And we can put those in various combinations to treat that concern. So ultimately, the active ingredients become the hero, not necessarily the product, although the product is very well formulated, but it’s really catered towards active ingredients. So, you know, 4 base serums, 17 variants that are targeting those concerns.
Trish
So when I don’t know if it’s right. So if someone goes in and they need this, this, and this, is it made there on the spot or it’s already in there?
Belal
No. No. It’s already there. So there the clinic would purchase the variance.
So we’ll and then we’ll talk about this. But effectively, we engage and get an understanding of what the demographics are like. And it just so happens that if you’re in your neck of the woods up to up north Brisbane, Gold Coast with a sun shine of a bright. Depreciation seems to be a concern. And so our clients in Queensland prefer to order a lot of serums that target that concern, pigmentation. And then there are other areas as well. I said acne is another one. There’s another. I think Zena probably can comment more, but acne pigmentation seems to be very too large seeing concerns. And, of course, there are others as well.
Trish
Yep. Yep. And you mentioned the sun, which is this: do you have sunscreen yet or not quite yet?
Belal
No. In development.
Trish
Great. Yeah. Because you’re right because I’m up north, and that’s my first priority – sunscreen.
Zena
So sunscreen is actually in development. And when I’m with clinic owners, I would ask some specific questions. Just so they can make the right order appropriate for their clinic. And those questions will be around what’s a demographic that comes into the clinic, and they’ll be able to highlight that. And I will suggest the product actually used. So I get some clinics that will probably just order pigmentation and ageing skin. I’ve got many that would order ageing skin and skin barrier concerns. So it really comes down to the demographic, but we’re there to support them. We’re making their purchase by asking them the appropriate questions.
Trish
Okay. And if someone has got a clinic and they wanna find out more about this, like, where can they find you? Because to me, at the moment, you’re well kept, you’re a secret at the moment. I mean, you’re just getting out there kind of thing because when I thought, oh, this is gonna be out there. So where can we find you now?
Zena
So in terms of clinics, we’ve got a few clinics that we partner with in Sydney. And in WA at the moment as well, in New Zealand as well, but we are growing as of brand. So, I mean, anyone who’s been in touch with us, our Instagram, our LinkedIn, Facebook, our website as well, has a lot of information. Otherwise, they can contact us directly.
Trish
Yeah, great. So if someone’s listening to this, they get a clinic out there, they want to think, oh, I want to find out more about this. They’ll just get in touch with you.
Zena
And they said how we apply. There’s a submission form to become a clinic partner. We’ll be able to take as long as they complete that form, we’ll be in touch with them.
Trish
Great. And do you do any training for people that are stocking the skincare? Like, how does that look?
Zena
We do have a clinical trainer on board, and she does training either in-clinic or through Zoom. If it comes into more ingredient questions or they’re unsure about anything Dr Chami is also very open to consuming chats and taking them through some products as well.
Belal
Actually, to be honest, I actually quite enjoy those. We do have these informal Zooms, and chat with clinics. And, obviously, the teams in the entire team are their main opportunity for me to do a bit of training on active ingredients. But I learned a lot more, I think, than they learned from me. I get an understanding of how they use it, who their clients are, what their complaints are, and it’s just a fun experience for me to kind of be in the clinic with that being in the clinic. And so yeah. I did jump in on those Zoom training sessions even just as a little fly on the wall.
Trish
Yeah. And, you know, they say teaching is learning. So, of course, you’re gonna love it. And the other thing I wanna ask you is, so as a consumer here thinks, oh, wow, I wanna start using this product. Can they find a list of stockers on your website or not quite yet or like, how can they know exactly where to go?
Belal
Yeah. Just in the process of redeveloping our website.
So I think in the coming few months, we’ll have that option to see where the stockists. So all in development at this point.
Trish
Yeah. Cool. So basically, you just Google redoxskinlab.com and you’re even on Instagram as well? Correct. Awesome. So where to next year for you guys? Like, well, in the next coming 12 months, where do you see yourself growing because obviously the business is growing even though it’s a baby business. Oh, not baby, but, you know, I mean, it’s started since COVID.
Belal
There’s much of our infancy. Look, one of the things that we do that I haven’t actually mentioned is that we run our own. I think in order to be innovative, you have to do research and that’s my background. So we have our own research lab here and we create new products and we think of new solutions. Where we are going now, we are producing new products for professional use.
So that’s micro needling serums, specifically designed for that. And again targeting skin indications and then expanding our range. We’re also releasing a new product, which is a procedural cre. So we’re dealing effectively. It was probably one of the little talks I gave earlier. And then really it is just to listen to how things are responding in the market and effectively try to do this if we can’t provide the value to the clinics. Through training, through me, it’s through more education. I’m a bit camera shy. So I’m working towards putting myself out there on social media and producing interesting videos hopefully. Usually around active ingredients or something about biology that will be useful to either people in the clinic or end users. Someone who’s actually using the serum. So for me, it’s more education and Zena, what is it for yourself?
Zena
So for me, it’s more about understanding what the clinics want. So again, this is very much a learning curve for us. Sometimes I understand. So, initially, with that brand, we want to focus and be known for having really potent active serums. But until I listened to clinic owners, what I understood was people love a moisturiser. And when we get this feedback from multiple clinics, we say we’re a kind of moisturiser. So really understanding what they want you know, what skin concerns are coming, what products they’re using most in clinics and developing products around that. So as Belal mentioned, we are developing more products. There’s a few more there in the pipeline as well that will be launched this year. Our moisturiser is one that’s gonna launch this year. Our exfoliating cleanser as well. And our sunscreen is in development.
Trish
Fantastic. Well, I gotta say, I’m so excited to be watching this space because I wish you guys really well. I I love your story. I love how it happened and I and I and more importantly, I’m really enjoying using the product. Like, actually, the one that I’ve got is vitamin C.
So I’ve just got vitamin C, which is the day serum. The day serum vitamin C, and I am loving that, so I can’t wait to get the rest of them. And I can look forward to all your additions as well.
I will ask you one more question. So, like, I just wanna talk about the economy of it because it’s like I’ve seen, what’s out there and what doesn’t solve it. But you guys are priced yourself really well in the market. Is that I guess that’s part of your plan to make it reachable to all people?
Belal
Yeah. Yeah. I think it was intentional to do that because we wanted to be as open to as many people as possible while still being economically viable. It is an expensive task to produce products with a bucket load of active ingredients. At the same time, if it’s only available to a certain number of people, it’s not that we’re not really solving a problem to the masses. So we wanted to make sure that we were accessible.
Trish
Yep. And sorry. Before I finish up, I just wanna make it clear to people. So say, for example, if you’ve got rosacea and someone’s gonna prescribe you a clinic’s gonna prescribe the Re-Dox range for you, so you probably get a hydrating night gel specifically for rosacea. And the same thing for pores or for dryness. So although there’s any for products in the range, they are actually products within those products. So I just wanted to stress that a little bit. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, guys. So if we wanna follow you on Instagram, you’re on Facebook, and you’re on the web on the net as well. And for those guys that can’t that can’t remember, just drop me a DM on here or through my Instagram and I’ll put you in touch. Thank you guys so much for joining me.
Belal & Zena
Thank you so much for having us.
Trish
Have a great day.
Belal & Zena
Thanks, you too.
