Speaker 1: Now, Health matters with Daniel Martin.
Speaker 1: Welcome into Health Matters right here on CN A 938.
Speaker 1: I'm Daniel Martin. So good to have your company. Everybody.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this. Can you exercise your skin?
Speaker 1: My guest today says you can. And with topicals at that,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be learning a little bit more about the
Speaker 1: difference between uh topicals that could be of a cosmetic
Speaker 1: nature versus a cosmeceutical nature. And how this new
Speaker 1: entrant in the crowded skin care scene in Singapore could
Speaker 1: make a difference for you. Linda Jorgenson knows she's a
Speaker 1: professional skin therapist for almost three decades now. And founder
Speaker 1: and CEO of Nordic Formula. Linda, what a pleasure to
Speaker 1: have you in Singapore?
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, Daniel. So nice to meet you and
Speaker 2: be here in Singapore. I love it. Even though if
Speaker 2: it's a range
Speaker 2: in this season,
Speaker 1: this is nothing compared to your cold weather,
Speaker 2: right? No, you know, we are Viking. So we are
Speaker 2: used to go to 2025 minus degrees and still doing
Speaker 2: ice baiting. I
Speaker 1: love it. Let me ask you in terms of skin
Speaker 1: conditions around the world around the region in terms of
Speaker 1: your clients. What do you think right now in 2024
Speaker 1: are the most pressing skin concerns.
Speaker 2: Aging skin. Yeah. And when we talk about aging skin,
Speaker 2: you have the problems like pigmentation, uh wrinkles of course
Speaker 2: and saggy skin. But for me as a professional, my
Speaker 2: concern or biggest issue now is inflammation and also the
Speaker 2: sun exposure that damaged the skin and actually
Speaker 2: skin
Speaker 1: cancer. What causes inflammation of the skin,
Speaker 2: the stress, the sun hormones and also pigmentation. Yeah, causes
Speaker 2: inflammation in your skin.
Speaker 1: We're facing a lot of those issues in Singapore being
Speaker 1: on the equator with sun exposure. I think sun block
Speaker 1: usage is not very regular in Singapore, especially amongst the
Speaker 1: male population.
Speaker 1: What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes
Speaker 1: people make when it comes to their skin health,
Speaker 2: maybe not taking consciously choices, choosing their skin products and
Speaker 2: they might start a little bit too late because when
Speaker 2: you are in the twenties and early thirties, you don't
Speaker 2: have that much skin problems. If you don't have acne problems,
Speaker 2: then you don't go for the real aging skin products.
Speaker 2: You might choose more maintenance
Speaker 2: that hydration products. So I think we have to be
Speaker 2: better in taking better choices and maybe seek for professional
Speaker 2: help because educated skin therapist is educated to read your
Speaker 2: skin's past, treat your skins present and also guide you
Speaker 2: to a healthy skin future.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us are taken in by marketing.
Speaker 1: What looks good? The hot new brand, the hot new product,
Speaker 1: the social media influencer back
Speaker 1: one, we're not doing our homework.
Speaker 2: No, we don't and we get thrown or blown away
Speaker 2: with these booms that comes, you know, you have different
Speaker 2: kind of themes that coming up. But we really need
Speaker 2: to think in the bottom line. What is the skin function?
Speaker 2: What needs to give the skin in order to have
Speaker 2: a skin function and a good
Speaker 1: health? Please tell my listeners how it all began for
Speaker 1: you when it came to your skincare line. How did
Speaker 1: you decide from
Speaker 1: being, you know, all about skin therapy and treating clients
Speaker 1: of patients to starting the online, you
Speaker 2: know, being in the business for almost 30 years now,
Speaker 2: I've seen so much skin problems and skin concerns and
Speaker 2: working with the good brands. I didn't find the ingredients
Speaker 2: that really solved our problems. And as an ingredients nerd,
Speaker 2: I researched it a lot. And in 2014, when I
Speaker 2: started to read the research on my cream,
Speaker 2: I found some interesting ingredients. So launching my first product
Speaker 2: in 2017, I was one of the first using also Niaid.
Speaker 2: It's vitamin B three, which is
Speaker 1: a huge popular ingredient. Now, you were there before the
Speaker 1: curve took off. Actually tell my listeners what is the
Speaker 1: difference there between a cosmeceutical versus a cosmetic product.
Speaker 2: Cosmetic products are more for the mass market
Speaker 2: and they are safe to use. Even though if cosmeceutical
Speaker 2: products are also safe to use, you might need a
Speaker 2: better guidance.
Speaker 2: And I would say that cosmeceutical products are a step
Speaker 2: up from cosmetic products because it's more concentrated, more efficient
Speaker 2: and it penetrates deeper to the skin. It really makes
Speaker 2: a difference and has a action on the skin because
Speaker 2: you know, our skin is fresh produced. So you really
Speaker 2: need to exercise it and challenge it every day. Like
Speaker 2: you need to exercise your body,
Speaker 1: you say, and a big mantra of yours is that
Speaker 1: you can exercise your,
Speaker 1: what do you mean
Speaker 2: how I mean by having cosmeceutical products, which has the
Speaker 2: lower ph that increase the bacterias, the se production, lighten
Speaker 2: up the skin because the skin cells actually disappear from
Speaker 2: the skin earlier than it does by natural. So then
Speaker 2: you also have a reaction in your skin. So the
Speaker 2: dermis starts to work and the epidermis starts to do
Speaker 2: the job. And both of them together
Speaker 2: will have a younger look on your skin when they
Speaker 2: actually working. You've
Speaker 1: brought the range now into Singapore. It's available at the
Speaker 1: Origa Spa at Capella in Singapore. Why does your range
Speaker 1: only have three products right now? It is the day cream,
Speaker 1: night cream and a serum, isn't it?
Speaker 2: That's correct. And it might be a little bit the
Speaker 2: Nordic way, ah, easy going and clean and efficient
Speaker 2: and also having too many products on your skin is
Speaker 2: not going to work. If you think that cream is
Speaker 2: like doing a drink, uh Nordic formula is like a
Speaker 2: shot because in a drink, you have amount of alcohol,
Speaker 2: some essence or herbs and you fill it up with
Speaker 2: tonic water. My opinion, if you layer with too many products,
Speaker 2: you have too much tonic on your, on your skin.
Speaker 2: So by reducing the tonic and have a more efficient ingredients,
Speaker 2: you
Speaker 2: have a better skin function
Speaker 1: and you've been able to encapsulate sun protection into the
Speaker 1: day cream as well. So no need for an external
Speaker 1: SPF no,
Speaker 2: but the most common wrong we do is that we
Speaker 2: don't reapply the SPF and that's a very important thing
Speaker 2: to do because SPF in the morning time does not
Speaker 2: last on your skin for protection the whole day. So
Speaker 2: I would say about four hours if you don't sunbathing
Speaker 2: or sweat or take it away on your skin. So
Speaker 2: reapply reapply nine o'clock, 12 o'clock, three o'clock.
Speaker 1: Ok. I can remember that. 9, 12 and three. Yes.
Speaker 1: Any unique ingredients or properties. I remember there was something
Speaker 1: that was quite nordic in nature, a little berry or
Speaker 1: something along those lines.
Speaker 2: That's right. We have the sea back thorn and the
Speaker 2: c back thorn contains a lot of C vitamins and
Speaker 2: in no,
Speaker 2: it's growing wild by the coastline. And you could say
Speaker 2: if you eat one berry, it's the same as you
Speaker 2: eat six oranges. So the concentration of vitamin C is
Speaker 2: quite high and we have that in our serum and
Speaker 2: in our day cream and we have a 3% of
Speaker 2: the sea back thorn in the serum. And also with
Speaker 2: a ph of 3.8
Speaker 2: which is really good. If you have acne or pimples,
Speaker 2: the lower ph will reduce that and control of the
Speaker 2: S production. And we will have a skin
Speaker 1: renew the secret ingredient. That's the magic
Speaker 2: secret ingredients because usually the C vitamin products has to
Speaker 2: be stabilized and the PH is much higher about six
Speaker 2: or seven.
Speaker 2: So it's quite unique that we have a formula with
Speaker 2: a low PHS 3.8. And
Speaker 1: don't, you usually have to refrigerate if it's a vitamin
Speaker 1: C
Speaker 2: inside. No, when we use the Cosme, you have stabilization
Speaker 2: and conservation, but they can have a shorter
Speaker 2: time. Has
Speaker 1: there been any tweaks to the formula for the Asian
Speaker 1: skin market?
Speaker 2: No, actually because the Asian skin cells are actually the
Speaker 2: same as a European skin cell. But it's the environment
Speaker 2: that actually makes the differences in the skin condition.
Speaker 2: So we have used a beauty panel test in Singapore
Speaker 2: and they used all three products for three weeks and
Speaker 2: they feed back to us that they felt improvement of firmness.
Speaker 2: The even skin tone less dry,
Speaker 2: smoother is working in the Asian skin environment. So we
Speaker 2: are good to go because
Speaker 1: I think so many of my listeners might be used
Speaker 1: to trying to find what suits your skin type or
Speaker 1: do I need to worry that this is for sensitive skin?
Speaker 1: Is this for oily skin? Is this for dry skin?
Speaker 1: But we don't need that
Speaker 2: with this. No, you need to go cautions if you
Speaker 2: are sensitive because your skin needs to recognize the new ingredients.
Speaker 2: So what I recommend always is if you haven't used retinols,
Speaker 2: you should start to use it maybe one or twice
Speaker 2: a week before you step up and you can also
Speaker 2: blend them together, then you buffer the cream or the efficient.
Speaker 2: So
Speaker 2: you, your skin gets too used to the ingredients and
Speaker 2: the formula and then you can apply layer by layer
Speaker 2: after a week or two. So we don't have retinols,
Speaker 2: but we do have an acting retinol in the day cream.
Speaker 2: It takes time to develop good products and there are
Speaker 2: no cutting corners for my choices. So the day cream
Speaker 2: I sent back to the laboratory 12 times before I
Speaker 2: was happy with it. Now, we're good
Speaker 2: to go. So it's important for me as a professional
Speaker 2: skin therapist also to stand behind the ingredients and stand
Speaker 2: behind the products. And even if it's a good cream
Speaker 2: on the paper, it's important for me to also see
Speaker 2: the results on the human skin. So that's why it
Speaker 2: takes time to do clinical studies and see the results.
Speaker 2: And we've done that with each of the products and
Speaker 2: the age kit together as well, but you
Speaker 1: formulated
Speaker 1: something quite special for the Singapore market and the Singapore
Speaker 1: audience at Origa Spa. You've developed the Northern Lights Facial again,
Speaker 1: exclusive for the or spa as well. Why do this?
Speaker 1: And what is it? And does it use your formulations?
Speaker 2: Yes. You know, Ariga Spa, they want to be a
Speaker 2: bit different and no formula is a bit different too
Speaker 2: because it's going against the stream. Now, it's
Speaker 2: only three products. So I wanted to create a treatment
Speaker 2: that had visible signs of results in just one hour.
Speaker 2: And for me, I took the Nordic philosophy by using
Speaker 2: the heat and the coldness that we have in the
Speaker 2: climate in Norway and bringing that into the treatment. And
Speaker 2: what happens when you use cold and hot, you
Speaker 2: start to have a circulation in your skin and you
Speaker 2: reduce inflammation with the eucalyptus and the B three and
Speaker 2: you moist the skin and also applying so much C
Speaker 2: vitamin boost. During the treatment. You will actually, after one treatment,
Speaker 2: we done clinical studies see a lightning effect in one treatment.
Speaker 1: The naming of this is very intriguing. The northern light
Speaker 1: signature facial. Does it take a lot of the inspiration
Speaker 1: from the ao borealis or northern lights? Yes,
Speaker 2: it does because we have some techniques using in the
Speaker 2: treatment that you might experience. You experience the rain shower,
Speaker 2: you experience a little bit of northern light by having
Speaker 2: some special techniques and you will feel the coldness and
Speaker 2: the warmness from our weather, also the climate in Norway.
Speaker 2: So a combination,
Speaker 1: it works on this one formulation, which is again only
Speaker 1: available at the bar that Capella and that's where your
Speaker 1: products are also available. And it's been such a pleasure.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed your time in Singapore. And I
Speaker 1: think you've helped my listeners to perhaps become a bit
Speaker 1: more invested in learning about their skin health care. So,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for having
Speaker 1: me, Linda Igen and there who is a professional skin
Speaker 1: therapist founder and CEO of Nordic Formula. Can you exercise
Speaker 1: your skin with? Topical? Sounds like you can. I'm Daniel
Speaker 1: Martin for health matters.
Speaker 1: Before making any decisions based on the information in our program,
Speaker 1: please consult a medical professional.