EIS9 52: Beauty Decoded: Skincare Truths, Sunscreen Myths & Brand-Building Wisdom with Carmine Montalto
“You can’t be all things to all people, and a brand can’t be all things to all people. A brand can be as big as it gets with tons of money supporting it. But, there has to be a point of difference to stand out to consumers.” —Carmine Montalto
Most beauty founders drown in a saturated market, chasing viral trends while struggling to build brands that resonate. They sacrifice authenticity for algorithms, forgetting that true loyalty starts with a razor-sharp point of view—not pink packaging or empty promises.
Carmine Montalto is a NYC-based brand strategist with 25 years of beauty industry mastery, from Barneys’ cosmetics floors to judging global innovation awards. He’s named hundreds of products and built category-disrupting brands by marrying scientific rigor with soulful storytelling.
Tune in as Justine and Carmine dissect sunscreen myths, expose hyaluronic acid’s "plumping" deception, and reveal why SPF 30 outperforms SPF 50—then discover how to carve your niche in a market screaming for authenticity.
Connect with Carmine:
Carmine Montalto is a NYC-based copywriter, brand advisor, blogger and podcaster with 25 years doing what he loves to do - write. With extensive expertise in beauty across every category – skincare, hair care, body care, fragrance, makeup, men’s, and oral care – Carmine has helped build multiple consumer brands from the ground up. He’s named 100s of products, crafted packaging copy, written brand & product concepts, and created compelling digital campaigns.
Carmine uses his Skincarma blog and companion podcast to demystify perceptions about skincare. He leverages his extensive knowledge, experience and wit to deliver education on skincare products and ingredients, breaking down how to use them effectively to optimize your skin health. For the past three years, Carmine has been a judge in the annual Beauty Matter NEXT awards in the product innovation category.
Episode Highlights:
00:55 From Clearasil To Cosmetics: Carmine’s Accidental Beauty Career
08:07 Sunscreen Showdown: Mineral Vs. Chemical Filters Demystified
10:25 Why Loving Your Sunscreen Matters More Than Its Spf
22:44 Brand-Building 101: Brand Focus
24:27 Top Innovations: Peptides, Exosomes & The Rise Of "Skin Health"
27:42 Spf 30 Vs. SPF 50
29:06 Beauty Fads That Flopped (And Ones That Deserve A Comeback)
31:21 The Hyaluronic Acid Myth: Why "Plumping" Isn’t Hydrating
Tweets:
90% of skin damage comes from UV rays—not aging. Discover why 'anti-aging' is a marketing myth + the 1 skincare ingredient sabotaging your skin. Learn more with @justine.reichman and @skincarma Founder, Carmine Montalto. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #Season9 #SkinCarMa#SkincareTruths #BeautyMyths #BeautyTips #InformedBeauty #BrandStrategy #SunscreenScience #SkinHealth
Inspirational Quotes:
06:09 "You can either buy makeup or buy skincare." —Justine Reichman
06:15 “You don't have to mask all your imperfections and photo damage with makeup.” —Carmine Montalto
08:12 "If you find a sunscreen you love, use it. It doesn't matter whether it's chemical or mineral." —Carmine Montalto
08:49 "90% of visible changes to the skin are caused by UV rays. That’s why the best anti-aging product you have in your medicine cabinet is sunscreen." —Carmine Montalto
09:11 "Marketers created this category called anti-aging so they could sell you more expensive creams." —Carmine Montalto
21:19 "I honestly am so fortunate that I found what I loved at 22 and I have not stopped." —Carmine Montalto
21:16 "Sometimes people get stuck in their own way." —Justine Reichman
22:25 "Sometimes, people forget that they can develop something and then get somebody else to run it, because that's not their core competency." —Justine Reichman
23:25 "You have to have a point of difference that is so key. It has always been the key, and it always will be the key. No matter the competition." —Carmine Montalto
23:45 "If you're focused on skin barrier health, focus on skin barrier health, because there's a customer for that." —Carmine Montalto
24:01 “You can’t be all things to all people, and a brand can’t be all things to all people. A brand can be as big as it gets with tons of money supporting it. But, there has to be a point of difference to stand out to consumers.” —Carmine Montalto
27:51 “SPF 50 blocks, 98% of UV rays and SPF 30 blocks, 97% — it's negligible. It's one percent.” —Carmine Montalto
30:27 “Hyaluronic acid does not penetrate the skin barrier. It stays in the top surface layer of your skin but it doesn't draw water from the air when the air is dry, it draws water from deep down in your skin and pulls it forward to the surface where it evaporates out of your face. It's a fake sensorial experience. It makes your skin feel soft and plump, but they don't really do anything else to moderate aging or anything deeper.” —Carmine Montalto
Transcription:
Justine Reichman: Good morning and welcome to Essential Ingredients. So excited to sit down with our loyal listeners and anyone who is new and tuning in. Thanks for taking the time to tune in each week, whether you're new or just joining us for the first time, it means a lot to us, and we're so grateful. So this week's episode is one you're not going to want to miss. It features a gentleman named Carmine who is in the beauty space. He's super interesting, inspiring, and has lots to share. We're going to learn a lot about the future of beauty, so stay tuned. You're not going to want to miss this.
But if you could just maybe introduce yourself, Carmine, tell everybody who you are and a little bit about your blog.
Carmine Montalto: I am a Brooklyn based writer and copywriter, kind of brand guru, and a skincare lover. I've had a long career in beauty that dates back 30 years. I got my start behind on the sales floor as a cosmetic department manager. I was in beauty for quite a while in retail. I have an English degree, and I always intended to be a teacher. I had this side of me that was focused on language and writing. And I'm talking like I studied Latin in high school. I was that kid, and they converged my passion for beauty, for writing and language converged. And I became a copywriter, and then a brand expert, and then a blogger. I wasn't ever intending to become a blogger, but I started the Skincarma Blog in 2016, I believe. I was living in Jersey City, and took off from there. To be honest, it just happened. A lot of my career is organic, like these. Things just happen. I had no skincare routine growing up. I use Clearasil on my face. I never used sunscreen.
Justine Reichman: I haven't heard that name--
Carmine Montalto: I just aged myself.
Justine Reichman: So did I, apparently.
Carmine Montalto: I was talking to a founder on my podcast yesterday, and we were talking about the skincare habits of young people these days. And she had a very interesting point. And I know you know about all the rumblings going on in beauty, about how young people, 12 year old girls and boys even are using these really aggressive skincare products on their skin. And she said, you know, that bothers me. But at the same time, I have to think back to what I did to my face. And she said, I use Stridex. And I said, oh, my God. The same. It's like rubbing alcohol. Is it worse to use a Retinoid than it is to use rubbing alcohol? I don't know. It was such a good point, right?
Justine Reichman: Those products that we use, the Stridex, I could see the packaging, it always reminds me of nail polish remover.
Carmine Montalto: Absolutely. Acetone, same thing.
Justine Reichman: Things that we're putting on our face. So now, we fast forward, and here we are.
Carmine Montalto: We were doing that and not using sunscreen.
Justine Reichman: Using body oil.
Carmine Montalto: It was just the other day where I was talking to a friend and remembering Miss Shara. She was my 6th grade teacher. And every day at lunch, she would go outside with the third grade teacher. And in a lounge chair with that big foil wrapped over the cardboard and sun herself while we were racing around her on the playground. Can you imagine that happening today?
Justine Reichman: It's funny, because we're also sensitive to the sun. Skin cancer and wrinkles, aging and wrinkles, all sorts of things. And I know that everybody that you talk to, whether dermatologists are always like, make sure you use your sunscreen. Does your moisturizer have SPF? We might use like six or four. Yeah, right. But you thought, oh, we're not gonna get any tan.
Carmine Montalto: I'm gonna use a four, and certainly not going to use it around your eyes. I have this conversation with people all the time. I had a friend come up from Florida. He moved down there after COVID, and he was talking about how he had, is it IPL where they remove dark spots in your complexion with lasers? And I'm like, could you just use sunscreen and prevent the dark spots from forming? I'm like, it's so hard to read. He's like, I had to go back twice to get certain ones. They were so deep and I said, you've got to start using sunscreen in your eye area. Everybody's worrying about burning their eyes, getting sunscreen in their eyes, and then they don't use any sunscreen. And that really bothers me because it's the most delicate skin on your face, and you're leaving the most delicate skin on your face exposed because you don't want it to burn your eyes. Like, come on. I've been using sunscreen around my eyes since I was 22.
Justine Reichman: Yeah. I'm not quite as diligent as you are now. I do have my sunscreen. It's from Dr. Dennis Gross, the yellow bottle. I use that one.
Carmine Montalto: I love that product.
"You can either buy makeup or buy skincare." —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: Yeah, it's a really good product, and it doesn't make your face all white. It doesn't do anything weird. And I like it because it's not just SPF, it's skin care. This is gonna sound weird, but you can either buy makeup or skincare. I buy skincare that makes your face look better.
Carmine Montalto: Don't have to mask all your imperfections and photo damage with makeup.
Justine Reichman: When you're talking about the eye thing, I have a problem with that too. Depending on makeup, I have to really be mindful of what's in it because my eyes get all red and runny.
Carmine Montalto: The trick is to use a stick. They don't market them for eyes. They market them as a sunscreen on the go in a stick form. And the reason they don't market it for eyes is because nobody wants to buy sunscreen for the eyes. So they market them for the whole face, but they have a really, really thick texture. They go on like a deodorant, and it stays put. Now, I don't wear eye makeup, so I don't know the nitty gritty details about how well these sticks layer, some of them are much more emollient. There's one from Glow Recipe that's super emollient that I love. I think it's called Watermelon Dewy Bomb or something? SPF 9000, and it glides around the eyes. I'm assuming that you can apply makeup over it because it's not drying. It's very emollient, but that's the trick. That's my hack.
“You don't have to mask all your imperfections and photo damage with makeup.” —Carmine Montalto
Justine Reichman: As we're coming into summer, it's nice here all year round where I am. I'm in Northern California, but the truth is the sun is out all the time. Whether it's 40 degrees or 80 degrees, it's still important to do this. I'm curious because there's been so many conversations around the ingredients in the products. They talk about the natural ingredients, and they talk about biotechnology. They talk about not getting some of the stuff, but it's not really going in your bloodstream. What are your thoughts on that?
Carmine Montalto: My first thought is always, if you find a sunscreen you love, use it. It doesn't matter. It's secondary, whether it's chemical or mineral. If it's mineral and you love it, that's terrific. And I have tons of mineral sunscreens that I love, that I've worked on branding, and packaging that I recommend all the time. But if you find a sunscreen you love, $10 Trader Joe's chemical sunscreen. I don't know, I don't even know if that exists, and you love it, go for it. Use it. 90% this is from the Skin Cancer Foundation. 90% of visible changes to the skin are caused by UV rays. I talk about how the best anti-aging product you have in your medicine cabinet is sunscreen. And just because brands don't market sunscreens as anti aging doesn't mean that they're not the best anti aging product. Marketers created this category called anti aging so they could sell you more expensive creams. And for most of the time, they don't really do anything but moisturize. So primarily, to me, is about finding a sunscreen you love.
Secondarily, there is some evidence coming to the fore that chemical sunscreens do seep into because the whole point of a chemical sunscreen is that it gets absorbed by the skin and it blocks UV rays that way. Physical sunscreens don't get absorbed. They sit on the very top surface of your skin. So anything you apply, it gets into your body. If there's chemical filters, and they're not good for you long term, then that's a problem. But to me, there's so many other things going on in my day that are not good for me long term. The last thing I'm worried about is chemical sunscreens. What I'm really starting to worry about is microplastics. Breathing all of that stuff. I go riding every morning for about 15 miles just for exercise. I didn't go today because for some ungodly reason, it was 29 degrees in New York in the middle of April. Like, where am I? The tundra? Like, wooly mammoths next? It bothers me that I'm riding out there with all of this pollution, the car pollution, and I'm breathing it in constantly. I'm a chronic migraine. I manage a migraine every morning. And sometimes, they erupt. And sometimes, they dissipate. Fortunately, today's dissipated. And who knows, that's probably exacerbating things for me. I'm sure I answered all about sunscreen ingredients.
"If you find a sunscreen you love, use it. It doesn't matter whether it's chemical or mineral." —Carmine Montalto
Justine Reichman: I do want to go back so that the folks that are tuning in, we can talk to them a little bit. And if they were to just ask you, you got into blogging. And originally, you started in housewares, is that correct?
Carmine Montalto: I did.
Justine Reichman: People really do make these leaps and make these jumps. They don't necessarily think like, I don't know how to do that. What was that journey like for you?
Carmine Montalto: Talk about imposter in your job. I went from Stridex Pads to Assistant Manager of cosmetics. That's a leap. So right after college, I moved back home. I went to college in Worcester, Massachusetts, and I moved back home to Connecticut for about eight months, I guess. And in that period, I started a part time job at a department store in Connecticut as the assistant manager of housewares. And I loved it. I loved straightening and filling in the cutlery sets and all that stuff. I remember these to compliment my cutlery wall, and then I knew that I wasn't staying there. My college roommate had moved to LA. And when I was growing up, I hated the cold. I still hate the cold. I'm 10 years old waiting at the bus stop in my two guys puffy coat shivering to death thinking, the second I can get out of here, I'm going to California. And I would just fantasize all the time. Either aliens were taking me, or I was moving to California. One of those had to happen, and I followed my college roommate out to LA. I actually went out there. It was the middle of February. It was 28 degrees in Connecticut, and I landed in LA. I came out of baggage claim at LAX onto the sidewalk, and you would have thought that I was in purgatory. I could not even believe it was heaven. I couldn't believe how warm it was. I hadn't felt warm like that in my life. I'd never been to the tropics. I hadn't been to California. I had gone to Europe on a high school trip, but it wasn't warm. It was like April. I got out there, and I had transferred my job to a department store in LA. A sister company of the department store that was here. I go to HR, and they're like, you're good. Everything is set, but we need a favor from you before we put you in housewares. The cosmetic department manager is brand new. She's young. Of course, I was 22 so she was 22 and a half. She was my age, and we just finished Mother's Day, and it was a disaster. It was really tough. This was a very high visibility flagship store for May Company. Do you remember May Company?
Justine Reichman: Yeah. That's where jobs right after college to get into fashion, merchandising or buying Pro.
Carmine Montalto: Totally. This was May Company at Wilshire and Fairfax, where the LACMA Museum is now, or the Motion Picture Academy Museum is now. In that corner with that big gold fragrance bottle, that gold thing on the corner was a replica of a fragrance bottle. And so I was like, you want me to go to cosmetics? I don't know anything about cosmetics. I had an Aramis fragrance. That classic Aramis fragrance that my mother bought me at G Fox at the department store I was working at when I was 16 years old. And the reason she bought it for me is because the girl behind the counter told her that it was an aphrodisiac. And that excited my mother. Oh, my God, maybe he's going to start having an interest in women. Aramis did not work. And so I was like, Yeah, I guess so. I had no choice. They had transferred me so I went down to the sales floor, and I was the assistant manager of cosmetics for two days before I went back upstairs to HR. I asked her if I could stay, and she was like, well, sure. I loved every second of that job. It was amazing. It was dynamic. There was always something amazing going on.
And there were all of these people like, if I'm up in housewares, I'm on the floor by myself usually, but I'm here. There were all these incredible women who were very senior, you know, most of them were in their 60s or 70s. They were counter managers on Elizabeth Arden and Germaine Monteil and Ultima 2. And they'd been there for 20, 30, 40 years in this department store. They kind of took this kid, this 22 year old kid who knew nothing about beauty, cosmetics or skincare under their wing, and they all taught me everything they knew. That's how I started in beauty. Learning from all of these incredibly experienced, intelligent and passionate women. They loved what they did, and they made me love what I did. And so I was literally on that sales floor as the assistant manager of cosmetics for nine months before I got promoted to my own store. They were opening a brand new store in Northridge, and that was my baby. I was the cosmetics manager in this brand new store, and it was amazing. I had Charles of the Ritz custom powders. It was the first time a brand had custom powders. You could come up to the counter and we would customize your face powder. It was so cool. And so I did that for, I think it was four or five years at May Company. And then I realized that I really want to stay in this. I love being in this industry. And there was one glaring problem, and it was that May Company did not have the big three. They didn't have Clinique, they didn't have Lancome, and they didn't have Estee Lauder. I knew that's where it was at, and I needed that. And so I jumped ship, and I went to Bullocks in Century City where I was the cosmetics manager, and I had Lauder, Lancome and Clinique.
Justine Reichman: And then how'd you end up in blogging?
Carmine Montalto: Yeah. So from there, I ended up at Barney's. I was the cosmetics manager at Barneys, Beverly Hills.
Justine Reichman: I gotta say, my heart was with the one on 17th street. That's where I grew up. My mom would go shopping, and I'd go shopping with her.
Carmine Montalto: And then I'm sure that was magical. So Kiehl's was my number one brand. I never heard of Kiehl's in my life. I came from the Lauder, Lancome and Clinique world, remember? And so we had Kiehl's. And the day the store opened, Mr. Morse had flown in with his daughter, Jamie, and they came into the store in their leather bomber jackets. I was so enthralled by that. I was like, you people are wild. I fell in love with Kiehl's. And it wasn't soon after that they had created a position as a copywriter in New York. In their New York offices, they'd never had a copywriter. I flew back here to interview for the job, and I got it on the spot. They were like, how soon can you start? How soon could I start? I live in LA. They gave me 10 days. L'Oreal gave me 10 days to move to New York, and I did it. I sold my car in those 10 days, packed up the house, said goodbye to all my friends, and drove to New York in a U haul. I was at Kiehl's in house for seven years or so before I branched out to do my own thing, and that was in 2008, I think. And while I was doing my own thing, starting my own agency, part of one where I've worked on probably 100 brands at this point, helping them refine their brand identity, or create their brand identity from scratch and work on product, naming and packaging, then I started to look at blogging. And it actually happened.
One day, I was scrolling my Instagram feed, and I saw this one post. It was a shelfie back in the day when shelfies were hot. It was a shelfie, and this person's products were all pink. It was a pink shelfie. All the products were pink, whatever brand it was. If it was a pink product in a pink jar and a pink lid, whatever she had in her cabinet. And I was looking at the comments, and everybody was so enthralled with this. And it horrified me that anybody would think that a pink bottle meant that the product inside was any good. And I thought, my voice needs to be in this because I have all of this experience. I've worked in-house on a brand, and I've worked on the sales floor. I know this industry inside and out. I know how to make a skincare product, what drives a skincare product, and what drives efficacy, and I just started a blog. It was a Saturday morning. I remember that I was texting a friend of mine, and we came up with the name Skincarma. I don't really remember, she might have done it. The creative juices were flowing, and it was like Skincarma. I went over and created a new account on Instagram called Skincarma, and that's how it started. And I haven't stopped.
Justine Reichman: That's so fun. And I think that it's interesting. As you're telling me this story, I'm remembering when I started my company. I went home and made a website. Somebody asked me if I did something, and it all exploded after that. And I think we have a lot of founders that tune in and watch this podcast. Everybody always expects that you put together a business plan. It was really thought out. And I'm not saying that that doesn't occur. But I'm saying as much as that occurs, this occurs. I think it's really important to tell people that. Because I think sometimes, they get stuck in their own way.
Carmine Montalto: For sure. I honestly am so fortunate that I found what I loved at 22, and I have not stopped. I have continued to do that. And I think this all the time, when I'm in the cafe, or I'm at the movie theater, or the post office, or wherever, you come across someone who's being paid to do what they do in front of you, right? I always think to myself, do they love it? Do they love doing it? You can usually tell that they don't love doing what they're doing. And anytime I've gotten myself to a place, it's happened mostly when I get elevated to a management role that I realized that this isn't what I love doing. What I love doing is writing and being creative, like coming up with cool ideas and refining brand identities. I don't want to manage anything.
Justine Reichman: Well, it's interesting what you just said. You can create the brand, and you don't need to own it and run it on a day to day basis. And I think that sometimes, people forget that they can develop something and then get somebody else to run it, because that's not their core competency. If you have a great idea, there's no reason you could say, I'm going to sell it. Or I'm going to be on the board of directors, and you can still do what you love or help other brands, right?
Carmine Montalto: Yeah, absolutely. That's my expertise.
Justine Reichman: If you had one of our founders calling in or asking you, I want to build a new brand, I'm interested in launching a new brand. What are some of the things that they should consider before they take the leap?
Carmine Montalto: They should ask themselves if they really want this. I talk to founders a lot on my podcast, and it's grueling. It is very challenging. You wear a lot of hats. It's not just about all the sexy stuff, the packaging and the product naming, and trying 500 versions of this serum with peptides in it. That's the cool stuff. And if that sustains you, great. But you have to have a point of difference that is so key. It has always been the key, and it always will be the key no matter the competition. You have to stand out. And if you have a point of difference and a point of view on beauty, skin, all of that. If you're focused on skin barrier health, great and focus on skin barrier health because there's a customer for that. If you're focused on eczema and helping people with super dry, sensitive skin, that's your niche. You can't be all things to all people. A brand can't be all things to all people. Certainly it can be, as it gets big and there's tons of money supporting it.
"You have to have a point of difference that is so key. It has always been the key, and it always will be the key. No matter the competition." —Carmine Montalto
Justine Reichman: I agree. And innovation is so big these days. They're trying to do things with better, free products, and then they're trying biotech. So I'm curious, with all of that in mind, you just judged the Beauty Matters Awards, what were the top three innovative things that you're seeing?
Carmine Montalto: Last summer when I reviewed, I think it was 200 products, there were a lot of sunscreen innovations, which I love. A lot of peptide innovations and then adjacent activities like growth factors. There was a lot of that. And, you know, I think you know that we're seeing exosomes come to the fore this year. The hot ingredient of the year is exosomes. I will probably be inundated with exosome serums. Who knows? I don't know. That's the cool part of it. I have no idea. I see what I see, what I have visibility to, but I don't have visibility on everything. I don't collaborate with every skincare brand. There's a lot of stuff going on out there so I think what's really cool, and I see this escalating and becoming clearer, and that is skin health. I know that sounds so vague, but it's not because skin health really requires a few elements. And first and foremost is sunscreen. And the number one reason people give for not using sunscreen is they hate how it feels on their face. They're completely willing to risk all the sun damage and skin cancer because they can't stand how sunscreens feel. So when I see brands innovating with sun care products that are pleasurable and that make you want to use them.
One just came across my desk a week ago, and I'm really obsessed with this. I thought this morning, I have probably 20 facial sunscreens that I can reach for in the morning. And I was like, oh, my God. I want to use this one. I really love the texture. I love the whole experience of it, and that's not easy to achieve with sunscreen. Sunscreen development can take two, three years. I was talking to, I don't know if you listen to Mark Curry, the founder of The Inkey List on my podcast last week, and he was talking about how long it's taken for them to develop a mineral sunscreen. To your point earlier that is pleasurable, and that is an SPF 50. Which means it has a high concentration of zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, or combination of the two. That means it's going to have a white cast. And so they're really, really, really toiling to develop a mineral sunscreen with a high SPF that is also - they're really masters at product innovation. And the fact that they're not struggling, but they're really, really working hard, and it's taking a while tells you everything about that one particular product, the most important product in your arsenal.
Justine Reichman: So for our friends that are tuning in and people in the industry, or people that are just curious about how to approach sunscreen this summer, is there anything that you think besides that it feels good and they're going to use it that they should look for in their sunscreens?
Carmine Montalto: Honestly, I think SPF is overplayed. I think an SPF 30 is fine. I can't remember the exact numbers. SPF 50 blocks 98%, I guess, I do remember 98% of UV rays. And SPF 30 blocks 97% it's negligible. So if you find an SPF 30 that you love and it's a mineral sunscreen, you can find pleasurable mineral sunscreens at SPF 30. It's SPF 50, that's the real issue. That's key. And pair it with a sun stick like we talked about earlier that you can use in your immediate eye area, I'm talking about here, right up to the eyelashes like this, all needs to be protected. And that's the reason why we show age on our face, around our eyes first, because that's the thinnest skin, and it's exposed for the longest and it breaks down.
Justine Reichman: Before we wrap things up, we have people that are innovating in this space that are listening and tuning in. I always try to think of the questions that they're coming up with, right? So one thing that came up for me was, are there any beauty fads that you think died out before it's time?
Carmine Montalto: I thought there was something to skin cycling, but that petered out. Do you remember that it was like two years ago where it was really about using really potent activities on specific nights of the week, and then giving your skin time to rest the night after. And I liked that. It made sense. I felt like it was easy for people to follow because people are, of course, confused about their skincare routines and what their skin needs. I thought that was cool. I feel like slugging should have stayed around a little bit longer. I'm a big fan of petrolatum, Vaseline, and La Mer. Number two ingredient is petrolatum, aka Vaseline. And probably those two trends, I'm trying to think like, what other trends disappeared, and I had just written about this in my blog a few weeks ago. I'm glad that the peptide trend is not a trend. It seems to be enduring, and people are incorporating peptides into their skincare routines regularly. I think that's a big deal. I do think that there are ingredient trends that need to go away. The hyaluronic acid thing is crazy to me. When you look at the science, hyaluronic acid does not penetrate the skin barrier. It stays in the top surface layer of your skin and is supposed to draw water from the air. But it doesn't draw water from the air. When the air is dry in New York City, it draws water from deep down in your skin and pulls it forward to the surface where it evaporates out of your face.
Justine Reichman: Does it matter what percentage it's at?
Carmine Montalto: It should be at 0%. I don't use hyaluronic acid at all. I don't think it's good for your skin health. I think it's like a fake sensorial experience. It makes your skin feel soft and plump. All these high priced anti aging products, that's what they do. They make the surface of your skin feel soft and plump, but they don't really do anything else to moderate aging or or anything deeper than that. They're skin deep.
Justine Reichman: They're skin deep. Thank you so much for joining me today. Our listeners, our followers, it is a great conversation we learned. I learned so much, and I am going to stay tuned for those recommendations.
Carmine Montalto: Okay. They're coming your way, I promise. I'm going to email them to you right now.
Justine Reichman: In the meantime, for those folks that want to tune into your podcast, where could they go find that?
Carmine Montalto: You can find me on Apple podcasts and Spotify at Skincarma, S-K-I-N-C-A-R-M-A, or my blog@skinkarma.com, and on substack.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Thanks so much.
Carmine Montalto: Thanks, Justine, this is awesome.
Justine Reichman: Thanks for tuning in today, whether you watched it on video at YouTube, or you downloaded our podcast at Essential Ingredients, we're so happy that you tuned in. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at justine.reichman@ssential.ingredients. Stay tuned as we have a new episode every week that goes live on Tuesday.
