I am delighted, humbled, and incredibly honored to be able to share my May Lindstrom interview!  Known as the skin chef, May Lindstrom has been creating her fresh, natural, and decadent skincare delights since 2011, though her informal experimentation as a formulator began as a young girl in the outdoors.  She is a beauty alchemist who uses pure, potent ingredients to create skin treats that offer both high-performance results and an incredible experience for the senses.

May Lindstrom is a true green beauty pioneer who has and continues to elevate the industry in terms of purity and luxury, to inspire countless individuals to examine their choices, and to set the bar for skincare rituals as self-care.  Anyone who thinks that natural skincare means giving up a degree of indulgence and pleasure has not tried May Lindstrom Skin.  Her skin treats are addictive, and they have a cult-like following for a reason!  May Lindstrom’s treasures restore natural balance to the skin and offer a decadent, sensual experience that invites the user to slow down, to notice, and to take self-care to new levels of tenderness and self-compassion.  Her line is truly one of a kind.  Moreover, May Lindstrom herself is a person who embodies the term “natural beauty,” inside and out.  Her graciousness is remarkable.  In fact, I can hardly think of May without “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron popping into my head.  See for yourself.

Without further ado, the May Lindstrom interview!

Photography Courtesy of May Lindstrom Skin, www.maylindstrom.com

May Lindstrom Interview:

A Candid Conversation on Sensitivity & Healing with Green Beauty’s Most Beloved Pioneer + Alchemist

The Beauty Librarian (BL): I read an interview in which you said, “My skin was a battleground from birth.”  This is very humanizing to hear, especially in light of your renowned physical beauty and successful modeling career.  How have skin challenges helped shape your approach to beauty?

May Lindstrom: It’s important to remember that we usually only see the highlight reel of people’s lives. In this time of highly filtered, sparkly social media accounts, it can be easy to lose perspective or forget that we are all human. While my skin has finally found its balance at thirty-four, it took me a lifetime to get here.

I have the kind of complexion that is so sensitive and reactive, that one application of the wrong product will leave me covered in blisters and rashes or a terrible breakout. My skin physically hurts when I do not treat it well. And the emotional toll of self-consciousness and shame that rears up far too easily – that’s no joke either.

Finding my voice and the strength to stand up and use it was quite the feat. I’m an introvert and a pleaser and that has a cost. Not having a voice to say No to the products used on me as a model was one of the big reasons I ultimately happily closed that career door. At the end of the day, I believe in making choices that resonate to my very core – and that certainly includes supporting the health and integrity of my skin and my whole self.

Photography Courtesy of May Lindstrom Skin, www.maylindstrom.com

BL:  What are the most important lessons you learned – as a formulator and human being– due to or through your experience with sensitive, reactive skin?

May Lindstrom: I believe in simplicity and know that this is what works for me on pretty much every level. While I have given an incredible amount of attention to designing products for this collection that create a feeling of decadence and celebration, my very core is as basic and grounded as it gets. Beauty truly does come from within and I know that without a healthy body and spirit, our skin suffers.

I also learned pretty early on that using even the simplest of common products (even basic soap or lotion) just wasn’t an option for my own personal body. In order to not have constant pain in my skin, I had to learn an entirely new language of care. Ultimately, this is what led to my becoming a formulator.

I believe our skin has the ability to heal itself if we let it. Sometimes our role is to get out of the way! It is our responsibility to provide abundant nutrition and hydration and to be gentle in our care. By limiting our exposure to harsh chemicals and extreme treatments, we open up to gentler methods. I build each of my products on the same philosophy and ingredients that have been treasured and shared by women all over the world since the beginning of time. I trust in earth’s bounty and the wisdom of those who came before me.

Photography Courtesy of May Lindstrom Skin, www.maylindstrom.com

BL: Which of your delicious products — in addition to heavenly Blue Cocoon– are particularly helpful for redness and inflammation and how so?   

May Lindstrom: The entire collection is formulated to work in synergy to restore balance, ultimately reviving the skin’s integrity and natural rhythm. This leads to lessened redness and inflammation no matter where your starting point was.

The Blue Cocoon is the obvious hero to address inflammatory conditions specifically, but since you prompted, I’ll share details on one more.

The Honey Mud is incredibly gentle and nourishing and helps bring relief to stressed skin. It is formulated to be true skin food.  On days you are using The Honey Mud as a cleanser, massage a plump pea-sized dollop into wet skin to emulsify into a gorgeous and silky cleansing milk. Rinse thoroughly, while massaging with the pads of your fingertips. Your skin will feel plump, hydrated and thoroughly fed.  As a deeply beneficial alternative, The Honey Mud makes the most nourishing raw enzyme treatment masque. Smooth thickly over clean and dry skin to give it a warm hug. The Honey Mud will maintain its pudding-like texture, rather than turning to a milky emulsion with the addition of water. Allow to penetrate and feed your skin for 10-60 minutes, as desired.  In periods of heightened dehydration or sensitivity, wear The Honey Mud into the shower to protect the delicate natural oils of your skin from evaporation in the heat and water, rinsing as your last step.

While I’m here, you should know about The Jasmine Garden as well – this is our gorgeously ethereal botanical mist. This formula adds just a touch of light moisture, and also provides refreshing cleansing action throughout the day with the powerfully soothing combination of witch hazel and colloidal silver. This is particularly wonderful to bring calm and relief to acne and irritation prone skin, as well as to work as a penetration enhancer for The Youth Dew and The Blue Cocoon. The Jasmine Garden infuses skin with antioxidant protection, restoring elasticity and freeing delicate complexions of redness and inflammation.

The romantic aromatic experience of The Jasmine Garden is truly a dream. Soft, sweet, fresh – like a garden of lush flowers in the tropics, somewhere near a field of cocoa beans drenched in rain. This is beautiful after cleansing and before oils, again after oils, to set makeup, and to spritz throughout the day to refresh, cool, calm and heal. I even love to mist lightly on my pillow before sleep, grounding me for perfect rest.

Photography Courtesy of May Lindstrom Skin, www.maylindstrom.com

BL:  How would you advise someone who is in a bout of self-criticism over “skin issues” to get in touch with and celebrate her/his individual beauty?

May Lindstrom:  With my collection, I make a very conscious effort to always draw attention to how amazing we already are, and how deserving we are of self-love and truly beautiful care that feeds both our skin and soul. I cringe at mainstream marketing and the stories it tells us, and mourn for the women who hear and believe these falsities about themselves.

You are not broken. You are whole, heard, and treasured. And you deserve care and touch, your own primarily.

We’ve been taught that self-care Is self-ish, and that is one of the most unfortunate messages we could be proliferating. I want every woman to know that she matters, that this time is hers, and that love that starts from the romance within and ripples out into the world, offering transformation far beyond ourselves.

My brand is an invitation for you to create the time and space for the personal connection you deserve with yourself. This action alone will transform you. What I want to is to get this message out there, to start a shift in how we care for ourselves, starting with the most basic and intimate of rituals  – how we cleanse.

Photography Courtesy of May Lindstrom Skin, www.maylindstrom.com

BL:  You have two adorable children and a lovely family. How has your conception of beauty been informed by motherhood?  How has motherhood informed your work as a beauty alchemist?

May Lindstrom:  The birth of my children reaffirmed a lot of my core beliefs, philosophies and dreams – alongside my enhanced desire to bring ritual and connection to our skin back to the lives of women (and equally deserving men!). It also resurged my hope for a cleaner, happier planet for us all to live on together. This has always been a concern for me, but bringing new life onto this Earth shines a very acute personal spotlight on the urgency of this matter. I will always operate both my business and my personal life in a way that honors and celebrates our earth mama.

Photography Courtesy of May Lindstrom Skin, www.maylindstrom.com

The post May Lindstrom Interview Spectacular! appeared first on The Beauty Librarian.

Rebecca Fine is the National Director of Education and Training for Ageless Esthetics, a US distributor of best-in-class skin care products from around the world, including Medik8, an award-winning global skin-care brand known as the first green cosmeceutical line.  Ms. Fine has over 13 years of experience as a medical aesthetician and brings to her work specialized training in both oncology care and integrative nutrition.  She graciously agreed to share some of her skin care expertise in an exclusive interview.

How would you advise individuals with inflammatory disorders to adapt/tailor general skin care approaches?

Rebecca Fine (RF): After nearing 11,000 hours in practice, I can tell you that less is more for almost every skin type. My general recommendation is fewer steps with better products.  This is something that most people need to subscribe to, particularly if there is chronic inflammation, but good advice for almost anyone.  When inflammation is an issue, it’s helpful to look at exercise, hydration, and diet and aim for a healthy balance at each, avoiding anything that is too hot (e.g., hot yoga, hot water), because high levels of heat impair the skin barrier, causing further inflammation.

Can you explain your understanding the importance of finding a balance with exfoliation and not overdoing it, particularly for individuals with chronic inflammation?  In general, what would you advise in terms of the best approach(es) and frequency for exfoliation for people prone to inflammation?

RF: Before I got into this field, I had very sensitive skin and ended up with acne in my mid-twenties, having never struggled with it before.  When it comes to exfoliation, we have a tendency to want to scrub, particularly if there is acne. The truth is, healthy skin does a fairly decent job at sloughing itself off, and we really don’t need to go crazy with it.  For anyone dealing with chronic inflammation—whether an inflammatory disorder or an inflammatory process like acne—I would suggest gentle chemical exfoliation only.  Even this can be overdone. Generally, I would suggest a combination of AHA and BHA in mild doses such as you will find in Medik8 beta Cleanse, poreCleanse Gel; however, with skin that is actively inflamed, you typically want to go with a gentler ingredient like lactic or mandelic acid.  You can find the latter in a gentle formula with Medik8 creamCleanse. The only manual exfoliation I would suggest is either Medik8 White Balance Cleanse, which contains a very fine grain in combination with soothing ingredients or the Cashmere Brush Head by Clarisonic.

How can an impaired skin barrier worsen inflammation, and what tips do you have for maintaining optimal barrier function?

RF: Optimal barrier function is even more essential for skin that is inflamed.  Start with cleansing that does not strip natural oils; if your skin feels particularly tight and dry afterward, you have overdone it.  Be sure, if you use toner, to use a non-alcoholic toner; toners can be useful to bring the skin back to a more optimal pH after cleansing.  Protect the skin from unnecessary or overly harsh chemicals.  Avoid anything too hot.  Find a balance between a hyaluronic moisturizer (which absorbs water) and an oil-based moisturizer (which holds the moisture in). Also, try to avoid the sun and UV rays, which are a killer for the lipid barrier. In terms of products, Medik8 Red Alert Serum is a soothing anti-aging product that also repairs the lipid barrier.

Similarly, how can individuals prone to acne find a healthy balance between adequate exfoliation and maintaining barrier function?  Are there any misconceptions about this balance that you see causing people problems?

RF: As I mentioned, there’s a tendency to want to scrub when you have acne.  If you have cystic acne, scrubbing will not help, and if you have pustules, scrubbing will actually spread bacteria while also creating micro-tears in the skin—exactly what you want to avoid.  If you cannot resist using a manual exfoliant, be sure to use very gentle pressure and only do so once a week.

In general, you want to approach things gently: gentle cleansing, gentle balancing and hydration.  Oil within the skin is a positive thing, as you want blemishes to come to the surface and be pushed out so they can resolve. Therefore, balancing oil over stripping oil is the key here. When it comes to hydration, I recommend acne patients use a hyaluronic-based moisturizer to tackle dehydration, such as Medik8 Hydrate B5 Serum or beta AOX.  Then follow with an oil-free SPF.

What are your personal favorite actives for anti-aging, and why?

RF: Vitamin C is definitely one of my favorites.  It needs to be bioavailable.  Medik8 offers C Tetra, CE Tetra, and CE Thione, which are not only bioavailable, but also chirally correct (please follow link for explanation), so you get more bang for your buck with these (or any of our products). Also, a little-known bonus of the ingredient is that Vitamin C does not wash off of the skin for 2-3 days, so if cost is an issue, you can use a Vitamin C product every other day and still get benefits.  In addition to stimulating collagen production, Vitamin C also gives you a little photoprotection. SPF and Vitamin C are like weights and cardio; they are good alone, but together they offer tremendous benefits.

Niacinamide is another wonderful anti-aging active with lots of benefits; it gives glow, calms irritation as an anti-inflammatory, balances sebum and is also antibacterial.

Finally, last but not least, there is retinol, the gold standard for anti-aging. When inflammation or sensitivity is an issue, you will want to start low and allow the benefits to build slowly.  Retinol is truly a 401K for your face; the results are not immediate (as they might be with an ingredient like, say, Vitamin C), but there are significant benefits over time.  Retinol is the 10-year difference you notice in people at your high school reunion! Medik8 offers r-Retinoate, a truly innovative serum that uses a special next-generation form of retinol to deliver 8x the anti-aging benefits of typical retinol with far less irritation.

What are your favorite things about Medik8?

RF: As an esthetician, I worked with well over 50 lines, and Medik8 was by far my favorite in terms of product quality and performance.  I loved the line so much that I actually reached out and asked about my current position, Director of Training.  There are so many things I love about this line.  Medik8 is chemically superior, chirally correct, and highly bioavailable—unlike so many other lines.  I love that every product is carefully designed in the correct chemical form to make a significant change, and yet all Medik8 products are accessible to sensitive skin.  The line is made in small batches and is more efficacious, luxurious, and fresher than other lines I have worked with.  Yet despite all this, the line is kept affordable, simple and priced very competitively.

Medik8 products are chirally correct.  Can you explain what this means and what benefits it confers?  How unsual are chirally correct products?                                                  

RF:  The topic of ‘chirality’ is concerned with getting the most from your actives and limiting unnecessary irritation. A chiral molecule has a mirror-image form, a left and a right and is very important in the field of serious cosmeceutical product formulation. Amino acids, for example, can be either right- or left-handed mirror images of each other. However, they are always left-handed when produced by living organisms. This is important, because chirality can affect how a molecule behaves in the chemical reactions crucial for life.

There are two reasons why correct chirality is important: firstly, if the ingredient is irritating, for example with Lactic Acid, there is little point in adding double the percentage of the mixed DL ingredient to achieve the same result as half the correct L-isomer. Secondly, it is remarkably common for the wrong isomer to actually damage the body rather than simply be inactive. Medik8 understands the importance of chirality and always uses the correct form of an ingredient, wherever possible. Chirally correct purification makes the cost of the active 10 times greater or more. When Medik8 uses an ingredient, the chirally correct form is always used where appropriate to ensure maximum efficacy and minimum irritation.

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