In this episode, we’re talking about clean skincare secrets that everyone should know. If it’s been a while since you’ve looked at the labels of your personal care products, you’ll want to do so after reading this or listening to the episode.

The impetus for starting a clean skincare company.

For Brandy, her ongoing skin problems from adolescence were the reason for years of research and trial and error in the search for products that would nourish her skin. With the creation of her own skincare products she now has amazingly clear and beautiful skin.

But it wasn’t until she decided to stop waging war on her own skin that she was able to achieve that long-desired result.

“I vowed to start treating my skin like a part of my body instead of apart from my body.”

Brandy Searcy

This is one of my favorite quotes from this episode because it highlights that we are one entity, we don’t have separate parts that click together every morning. What you do on the inside, shows up on the outside. In many other cultures (Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, even my rudimentary Russian self-care education) it is a known and established fact that the health of your insides is reflected in your skin.

Your skin can heal and protect itself.

Aging is a product of DNA damage over a prolonged period of time. This happens all day, every day from the air we breathe to the foods we eat and drink, to the smells we surround ourselves with. The midstep in the process of detoxification is the creation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as your body tries to detoxify the chemicals you take in. A good skincare system may mitigate some of the DNA damage.

If you’re a busy person the last thing you want is a skincare system that takes an hour to complete. This is why Brandy promotes a three-step process involving cleansing, toning, and moisturizing. That’s it!

Another contributing factor to the damage is endocrine disruptors, chemicals that bind to receptors and block them from receiving the hormones that are supposed to be there instead.

This process creates imbalances and disrupted communication between cells and organ systems within your body. One way to combat these processes is to consume antioxidants and foods that can be adaptogens.

Adaptogens are foods, herbs, or spices that upregulate or downregulate genes to control for inflammation, oxidative stress from ROS, and DNA damage. These adaptogens help keep you healthy and slow the process of aging.

Brandy’s three part system to nourishing your skin.

Cleansing is necessary to exfoliate dirt and dead skin cells. Toning brings the pH of your skin back to its natural state so it doesn’t feel tight. And moisturizing helps with dry skin and protects it from the outside world.

“The toning step brings/readjusts the pH of the skin back closer to its native state and also helps remove any residual cleanser, without your body having to do so much work.”

Brandy Searcy

Your body has a set and tightly held pH to every part so that it works at its optimal level. Too alkaline isn’t good nor is too acidic. Brandy suggests the optimal pH for skincare products is about a pH of 6.

Consider using natural and non-toxic ingredients.

One thing that drew me into this conversation was hearing about all the chemicals Brandy doesn’t use in her formulations.

I am a strong advocate for using products that are non-toxic to your body. It’s less work your body has to do detoxifying all those chemicals which can be endocrine disruptors at best and not be detoxified at worst. Sometimes your body just doesn’t know what to do with certain chemicals so they linger… and build up… and so do their toxic effects.

We also talked about the arduous process of becoming certified organic, vegan, cruelty-free, and “clean”.

But my favorite part of the conversation was centered around the microbiome.

Clean skincare is good for your ten trillion closest friends and for you.

Your gut microbiome is made up of a trillion microbes that confer health to you. But besides your gut, you have several other microbiomes. You have a respiratory microbiome, a skin microbiome, and a reproductive microbiome.

The products you use on your skin directly affect the health and well-being of that microbiome. This is one reason why the FDA has banned certain chemicals from being used in skincare products. One of those chemicals is triclosan, previously used in liquid soaps and hand sanitizer. Triclosan is known to kill both good and bad microbes hindering your ability to fight off infections. So it was banned.

Ideally, you want products that kill off bad bacteria while not harming the good ones. Even better would be products that actually nourish the good bacteria.

Here are some of my favorite moments from this episode:

• 1:50 Brandy’s cancer connection.
• 4:13 The story behind Rain Organica.
• 6:52 What is an endocrine disruptor?
• 10:53 What are reactive oxygen species (ROS)?
• 13:10 Adaptogens and how they can help you combat ROS.
• 14:30 How antioxidants relate to skincare and Brandy’s preferred antioxidants to use in Rain Organica products.
• 21:13 Three steps to nourish your skin.
• 28:20 The best pH for skincare products.
• 32:33 Skincare for a new adventure.
• 35:06 The importance of using natural products and ingredients Brandy won’t use in her formulations.
• 40:13 Certified as vegan and cruelty free.
• 42:07 Who should use Rain Organica?
• 44:12 Clean skincare and your microbiome.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Rain Organica
• Rain Organica on Instagram
• Rain Organica on Pinterest
• The Alchemy of Things Podcast
• Whole Health Living Guide

A new episode is released every second and fourth Thursday of each month.

Brandy Searcy is a pharmaceutical formulation development scientist and self-proclaimed health geek who loves hiking, gardening, bird-watching, and bodyboarding.

A personal struggle with acne during her teens and 20s opened her eyes to a holistic and healthy approach to skincare, and she finally recognized skin as an organ to be loved and cared for rather than a canvas to wage war on.

Since 2008, she’s been developing all-in-one products for a simple skincare routine and launched Rain Organica in 2020 with a mission to help you take the overwhelm out of skincare.  She currently lives in San Diego county with her husband and two rescues.

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