Dr. Christelle Oliver-Dussault, Dr. Harpreet Lotay, and Amanda Manholt bring a playful twist to skincare education with a quiz-style conversation exploring some of the most talked-about ingredients in modern skincare. As they challenge each other’s knowledge, they break down what ingredients like vitamin C, salicylic acid, retinol, and hyaluronic acid actually do for the skin and where marketing or misinformation can create confusion.

The conversation also broadens to the larger world of aesthetic care, touching on how social media and beauty trends influence expectations around aging and treatments. By connecting skincare ingredients with the science of facial anatomy and treatment planning, the hosts highlight the value of credible information, thoughtful product choices, and trusted providers when navigating skincare and aesthetics.

Key Takeaways

1. Ingredient knowledge helps cut through marketing claims and product hype.
2. Certain active ingredients can cause irritation if used incorrectly or combined improperly.
3. Medical-grade formulations often deliver more reliable results due to concentration and stability.
4. Social and cultural influences can shape expectations about beauty and aging.
5. Understanding treatment options—from skincare to injectables—supports more confident decisions.

Disclaimer: The Beauty Equation is for informational purposes only and not medical advice. This podcast does not create a doctor–patient relationship. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making medical or aesthetic decisions. Information may change as the field evolves.

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About the Hosts:

Dr. Harpreet Lotay is a family physician specializing in aesthetic medicine. She is the founder of Sona MD in Kamloops, BC, and serves as Chief Medical Officer at Bios Wellness Clinics. Known for her artistic approach and comprehensive non-surgical treatments, Dr. Lotay combines medical expertise with an eye for natural results. She is also an educator, a national trainer and holds academic appointments where she shares her knowledge in clinical dermatology and aesthetics. You can get in touch with her on Instagram @hlotaymd

Dr. Christelle Oliver-Dussault is a family physician specializing in aesthetic medicine, women’s health, and psycho-education. She brings a holistic, whole-person perspective to her clinical work, blending science with a deep understanding of the mind-body connection.

She is also the founder of Reclaim The Pink Within, a movement that empowers women to rediscover themselves during life’s most transformative stages. In addition, she is passionate about medical education and mentors the next generation of family physicians through her work with the department of Family Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

You can connect with her on Instagram @drchristellemd

Amanda Manholt is a clinic manager, patient consultant, and co-host of The Beauty Equation Podcast. With over 30 years of experience in beauty, aesthetics, and leadership, she has guided patients and teams alike toward confidence, growth, and empowerment. Known for her ability to connect with people and simplify the often-overwhelming world of aesthetics, Amanda brings a warm, practical, and relatable perspective to every conversation. You can find her on Instagram @crowsfeetandconfidence.

Websites

https://sonamd.ca/

https://www.getyourpinkbackproject.com/

Hydroquinone, oh my goodness, man, oh man, have

we seen some amazing results in terms of, you know, lightening

up pigmentation, particularly with those people that have that

stubborn, tricky melasma where we have to be so careful.

You beat it up too much and you just make it worse. Every, every

year I'm just blown away with some of the results that people get. But

it's about consistency, friends. Because I had quite a lot of melasma,

particularly around my eyes and my upper lip after my babies,

and kind of took it slow with it. Different, like the brightening ingredients, some of

which we've mentioned earlier today. But it is something that

requires a lot more. It's much more protocol-driven.

Definitely not something to do on your own and definitely something to do under

grids. And that's the reason why it's prescription as

well. Welcome to The Beauty Equation. I am

here today with my lovely co-host Amanda Manhold and

Dr. Hartfried Lotte. I'm Dr. Christelle Oliver Dussault,

and we thought we would keep things light and fun this

evening and do a skincare

ingredient pub quiz. So many of you probably

get bombarded with ads about different skincare ingredients

with the claims of what they do, and it can be a little bit

overwhelming to know how to choose. So we thought we'd go and quiz each

other on some common ingredients that come up and that we use on a daily

basis in the clinic. So who

would like— so pub quiz, did you do this when you were in Ireland? This

was like med school thing. You went to the pub and you'd have

to puff and drink. It's a good way to remember things.

It is a good way to remember things. Should we not be sitting here with

a glass of Guinness? Right. If you can see through it, it's crap.

Except I don't drink beer. So, and

I didn't do any homework, so I don't even have the sheet with me. So

I'm just going to be winging it. You'll

do fine. So I'll start out. Okay.

So ingredient number 1, I brighten skin and

reduce pigmentation, but if your acne is

inflamed, I may irritate it. I also hate

sunlight and air. Who am I? Vitamin C.

Yes. And also

rosacea-prone skin, I would say too. Yeah.

Doesn't love it either. I have rosacea-prone skin and Too much

vitamin C. Yeah, it can be

irritating for sure. And then it does oxidize

fast. That's why when you're buying something, you want to make sure it's in

a— if it's a serum or liquid, that it's in an

opaque container or something that doesn't let sunlight in because

it, it oxidizes very fast and it doesn't

play nicely with a lot of other ingredients. It gets denatured

very quickly. So you know, those are some

things to think about. There's now new formulations where you can make

the vitamin C without water or an anhydrous

formulation. But this is where you want to go with a brand

that's a little bit more elevated so that, you know, you're getting the most out

of your vitamin C, I would say. And not just nice, nice smelling serum that's

not really doing anything at all. Exactly.

Exactly. Except smelling nice. Yeah. And it's awfully close to your

nose. So. All right,

Christelle, what have you got? So,

okay. Do you want me to do all of round 1 or? You may as

well do round 1. I'll do round 2. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Question number 2. I unclog pores, reduce oil,

and help calm inflammation. I am oil

soluble and can travel deep into sebaceous

follicles. I want to answer all the questions. Okay, answer all the

questions. Sorry, I jumped. Sorry, I got excited. No, it's over.

We need a buzzer. Oh, we do.

Salicylic acid. I like to explain to people that it's like liquid

plumber for the pores. Yeah, because it'll get

down in that follicle and clean out all that sticky

sebum. Right. Yeah. Really good

if you have larger pores. It's also really good if you've

got those bumps on the back of your arms. And

really help with, with those. Although

there's another ingredient that might come up later that's a little bit better for that.

And there's different formulations for it too. It can come in a body wash and

comes in creams and serums with different concentrations. So

it's quite readily available, but it is— it's—

it can be strong. So sometimes will cause some irritation in some people. But

if you're someone who's oily with large pores, This is your friend.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All righty. Number 3. Dermatologists love me for

acne and aging. I increase cell turnover and

stimulate collagen, but I can make skin dry and sun

sensitive. Who am I? Retinol.

Not retinol. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. One of our

favorites, right? Yeah. Yeah. There's not a lot of people

who can't use retinol. Just if you're pregnant, you don't want to use

it. But it is a great

ingredient and one of our more studied ingredients as far

as anti-aging collagen induction.

And, you know, our skin grows in layers.

I like to think of it as a brick wall where you have like the

bottom layer, that's kind of where your cells, your skin,

your epidermal cells are made, and they sort of are

created and then migrate up to the top layers of the skin and then slough

off. And that cell renewal

cycle happens a little bit more quickly when

we're younger and it slows down as we get older. And retinol does

increase the speed of that, which is really nice. And it

helps stimulate collagen. It's a great ingredient, but it

can be a bear to get acclimatized to. So

people complain of their skin being dry and irritated. Irritated. Do

you guys have some tips and tricks for people? Yeah, I think

a lot of it depends on the formulation and the strength. So you have

what's readily available over the counter, which are

usually like retinol, retinols,

retinols. They're a little bit gentler. And,

you know, you could start by using it maybe 2 to 3 times a week

and gradually build your tolerance. Or if you want to power through, usually

that flare will be around week 2 and 3 and that'll ease off and you'll

start to have, you know, as opposed to saying it actually makes your skin more

sensitive and thinner, it eventually will. Thicken your skin and

make it stronger. Mm-hmm. Acne, the formulations

that we have, the prescription strength are like your tretinoin,

your adap— like adapalene, all of those, they're much, much stronger.

And so you expect a much stronger reactions. And

there's different ones that will cause more redness

and flakiness and others that are more tolerable. And they're not types of ones

that you would be using in anti-aging. You'd use them more in acne until you

get your acne into remission and then maybe wean off. Because they are

that much harsher. And there is

sometimes the sandwich method can help. So putting a bit of

moisturizer underneath your prescription

medication, that over and after, and then another layer on top.

But really with your anti-aging retinols, you shouldn't really need to do much of

that. And usually you'll be able to power through

or just space it out a few times a week. I like

to think of it like a, a gym for your skin, right?

Mm-hmm. So I say, you know, if, if you don't ever run

and you decide that tomorrow you're gonna run a marathon, it's probably not gonna go

real well. Right. And so another way is to, you know,

gradually introduce these things in small doses. And then

as your skin gets a bit more acclimatized, you can, you

can go a little harder if you want. I think that's the way most people

like to do it. I think so too. And I like

it when people can get to the point where they're tolerating whatever they're on on

a daily basis. And with respect to the sun

sensitivity, a lot of people will go off of their

retinol in the summertime. And I do not recommend that.

I do not recommend that because you're—

yeah, because the sun sensitivity should actually return to

baseline at about 8 weeks, long shot at about

like, 3 months maybe. So, you know, you've spent all

this time and effort getting used to using the retinol. You're finally using

it every day. And then what, you're going to quit in the summertime? Not a

good idea. But what's a better idea? It's like,

yeah, yeah. Use your sunscreen. They work really well.

You know, use, use a mineral sunscreen, SPF 30+.

Stay out of the sun. It's not good for you all the time anyway.

And, and we're not saying don't go out in the sun and don't do

your life. Right. Of course not. No, but just be smart,

wear a hat and don't like lay there with your face in the

radiation at noon. Yeah. There's balance to

everything, right? So sunshine, we know that sunshine and vitamin

D is good for our health, but we don't, we don't want to be excessive

about it for sure. All right. Number 4,

I am extremely hydrating and can hold up to 1,000

times my weight in water. I am naturally found in your

skin, but decrease with age. Who am I?

Hyaluronic acid. Come on, I don't even need a cheat sheet for this.

Yeah, you're a star. It was in front of me. I just printed my, my

section of the quiz.

Hyaluronic acid is an interesting one. I feel like it comes

in and comes out and comes in and comes out. So

in terms of skincare, you know, you'll find that it's heavily marketed

and then it kind of gets quiet and then it's back again. But it's interesting

because there's different molecular weights. Yeah.

And we naturally have hyaluronic acid, right?

Yeah, it feels really good. I don't know how much of

it gets into your skin. And, you

know, when you look at skin ingredients, the size of the molecule

matters. So only ingredients in

molecule sizes under 50 kilodaltons, I believe that's

the unit of measure, will get into your skin.

There are new formulations where,

where they can take large molecules and pack them into

these little nanospheres that are under that size and to deliver

them into your skin. So in with these larger

molecules, the delivery system matters a lot.

And I would venture to guess that most of the skincare out there

that has hyaluronic acid, which is a big molecule, even when

it's small, most of them, it's not getting

into your skin, but it feels nice and

it acts like a barrier almost. That's how

I've found it to be useful. But

it's not doing much for your skin functionally. When you look

at the data behind retinol and vitamin C, we know vitamin

C will brighten and pigment. We know retinol will help with anti-aging.

Salicylic acid has been proven in acne. There's a lot of data

behind those ingredients. Hyaluronic acid, not so much.

You know, we inject it, fillers, that works because you're injecting it.

But in your skincare, it's not clear to me how helpful that's going to be.

And I feel like, you know, using things that

stimulate your own production of hyaluronic acid are

always a good idea, right?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Moving on to

round 2. Ooh. Okay.

I reduce redness, I strengthen the skin

barrier, I can help with pigmentation,

and many people tolerate me better than vitamin C.

Who am I? It's a

trickier one. It is

niacinamide. Yes. Oh.

Okay. That's not what I was gonna say, so I'm glad I didn't open my

mouth. I mean, it's, it was a very broad question.

It's gotten a lot of popularity in the last

couple years. Yeah. And it is used in many

different scenarios. And mm-hmm. Yes, it is much more

tolerable than vitamin C. I don't know if I would've put it

in the same category as vitamin C though, cuz it works quite differently.

Mm-hmm. And, It's much more of a, it's more of like a calming agent

and you see it. It's an anti-inflammatory. Yeah. You

see it in a lot of some skincare and some face creams.

What's the thing about the flushing? Isn't there some medication that causes a

flush? Niacin taken orally.

Yeah. Orally. Yeah. Yeah.

Huh. Yeah. Interesting. All right. It's a good ingredient. How is it for

pregnant women?

There's more data, usually more on breastfeeding, and

LactMed is a really good database where you can find out and they'll give you

information on the amount that's actually secreted in the breast milk. So you can

sometimes extrapolate from that. But

anyways, niacinamide overall good in your face wash to

calm your skin, used in a lot of moisturizers or

creams really to reduce that inflammation and calm the skin and orally for

skin cancer. Reducing the risk of recurrence of skin

cancer. So moving on,

next question. I gently exfoliate the skin and

improve texture. I'm water soluble

and I work more on the surface rather than inside the pores.

We're talking about alpha hydroxy acids. It is,

I believe. Yeah, that's my favorite thing in

the whole wide world. I just love— yeah, glycolic

acid, right? Or glycolic. Yeah. I just love the—

it just makes your skin feel like silk. But initially some

people are— they find it a bit irritating, right?

Or stinging. Yeah, it's an acid for sure. Yeah. They'll be like, oh, it stings.

Oh, it burns. And then sadly, I'm so beyond anything stinging or

burning. I'm like, come on, burn. It doesn't anymore because again, I

think I'm just used to it. Yeah, it's the ingredient we use

in, in higher concentrations in chemical peels. So if you

go for regular chemical peels, it's likely that you're getting

either a combination of salicylic acid and glycolic

acid that they put on in a higher concentration. But it's also

in various skincare creams, or,

uh, you know, in the ZO Skincare line, there it's in their Complexion

Renewal pads. It can be in cleansers. And, uh,

you know, you, Amanda, talk the salicylic

acid going into the pores and flushing it out. Do you have something for

glycolic acid? I feel like you do. Yeah, of course I do.

It's like a lint roller for your face, people.

It's— well, that's— there you go. It just takes off the crap that shouldn't be

there anymore. Because here's the thing, if your skin— so often people will say,

oh, my skin is rough and dry. And you know, there's rough and dry like

my husband's feet, and then there's rough and dry like when the

skin just looks kind of dull. And, and it's usually because this,

you know, our cellular turnover has gotten slower and slower and slower

and we're not exfoliating regularly. And oh my goodness, just

swipe some of that on there and I love it. A day or

two. Yeah, yeah. You start to get that glow

back, that vitality, that look to the skin.

Yeah, yeah. Love it. Yeah, it's a good one. Yeah.

Okay. Next one. I help

fade pigmentation by interrupting melanin

production, but I can irritate sensitive skin

and I'm sometimes used in prescription

formulations. Who am I?

Hydroquinone. I can't help myself. That's good.

I love this. This is a great idea.

Nerding out with like ingredients. And it's funny because I didn't think I was

like an ingredient person. I'm definitely interested. You're totally an ingredient

person. Yeah, I think it's from a different lens usually.

Um, but yeah, well, hydroquinone, oh my goodness,

man, oh man, we've seen some amazing results

in terms of, you know, lightening up pigmentation,

particularly with those people that have that stubborn, tricky

melasma where we have to be so careful. You know, you,

you beat it up too much and you just make it worse. So you, you

know, um, you every, every year I'm

just blown away with some of the results that people get. But it's about

consistency, friends.

I am having said quinone course, I think was telling you guys that I— Yeah,

your skin looks amazing. And because I had quite a lot of melasma,

particularly around my eyes and my upper lip after my babies

and kind of took it slow with the different, like the brightening ingredients, some of

which we've mentioned earlier today. But it is something that

requires a lot more. It's much more protocol driven.

And like I put— if you're someone who's gone on this before

or you're thinking about it, I've actually put in the steps. It's one of those

that does have a lot of steps on my mirror for morning and evening.

And it is something that you do for good.

I'm doing mine for 3 months and 3 months, but you can do it a

little bit longer. It's important to wean off. And we've

always seen at some of our dermatology conferences that we go to, when you

overuse it, how it can have the opposite effect

and you can end up— opposite and worse. Yeah.

So it's very, it's something definitely not something to do on your own and

definitely something to do under grids. And that's the reason

why it's prescription as well. So in, in many countries

you can get hydroquinone over the counter and, and

in higher percentages. And because it works so, so

well, people get a little addicted to it. Yeah. And

it does globally fade the skin. And in some countries where

lighter pigmentation is valued, you have people

using it for years and then you get something called

onychronosis, which is this

almost like a tattooing of the skin in terms of pigmentation.

And it's blue. So it's not terrible. It's not a good look.

So we love the ingredient. And it's got its place.

And many of our patients who do have melasma might use

it once a year or every other year or something like that. But short

courses, uh, weaning on, weaning off, super important

under medical supervision, like you said, for sure. We don't let people just

come in and buy it off our shelf. They have to have a consultation. They

have to have a follow-up appointment. We have a very strict plan for them and

they get amazing results. Amazing.

I am a lipid, which is a type of fat naturally present

in the skin barrier. When levels drop,

skin becomes dry and irritated. Many

moisturizers include me alongside cholesterol and

fatty acids. Who am I?

You're gonna know this, Amanda. I know it, but it's

ceramides. Yeah. Okay, fine. I knew that.

You did know that. The way I like to think of it is ceramide 3,

ceramide 6, which one?

Hmm. I think when we talk about one thing, just to mention, and I always

like to talk to people about active ingredients is,

you know, people are like, well, what if I've got the 1% or the

0.5% or the this or the that? And I'm— and so

percentage of an active ingredient does matter,

but Equally, I think important is the type of

active ingredient and the formulation, as we

touched on before. So you can have like if we're talking

about our golden, you know, the gold standard for anti-aging, if we're talking about

retinol, you can have a 0.25, a 0.5, a 1%, what have you.

But if they're different brands or they're formulated different, sometimes

that 0.5% can knock your socks off compared to the

1% and be quite surprising because of the way it's delivered into

the skin. Right. And I think, too, when we talk about types

of ingredients, you know, vitamin C, for example, there's

certain types of vitamin C that your skin is

more— can recognize more readily

and use, like L-ascorbic acid would be one type of vitamin. Like, there's

many different versions or formulations of vitamin C. So

it's easy to sort of get pulled down the

marketing path that's out there.

And, you know, you do all the reading and try the right things and then

sort of maybe be disappointed because maybe it wasn't the right type formula

or percentage. One thing I often think about,

um, you know, things that are sold en masse in terms

of active ingredients, it's important to remember that

typically they, I feel like those products are often a little bit

damped down in terms of the intensity that they provide. Because

remember, we talk about there is no change without a reaction

in the skin often. And if someone

goes to the pharmacy and buys a cream and they take it home and they

get really red, it's not uncommon for people to think

that they have— oh, they have an allergy, they have a reaction, they're going to

return that product. So I always feel like oftentimes those products are going to be

quite mild in terms of formulation, which is fine, but I don't—

you don't typically get the outcomes right. Whereas medical-grade skincare,

where you're guided, we can, we can talk you off a

ledge and say, it's okay, you're going to be fine, take this, it'll get you

through the hump. But we actually see meaningful change in the

skin. So that's why I love medical-grade skincare. I love the products

we work with. I think it also like depends

what you're trying to achieve, right? Like, so with the retinol is definitely the reaction.

Ceramides I see a lot more in when I'm doing work like with my

eczema patients or those who are very, very sensitive. And a lot of the products

will have that. We'll use it a lot in our moisturizers as well that we

use in the anti-age. But like, I wouldn't really consider

ceramide like a potent active. It's more just something that we do have in

our skin and it's like that glue that helps restore that barrier

that's often broken in skin conditions like eczema, atopic

dermatitis. And you can use it seasonally, right? So there are

certain times of the year when your skin is— and

the atmosphere is drier. So for us in the interior of British Columbia,

we have— it's quite dry in the wintertime. So

sometimes we will add a ceramide-containing moisturizer

that you'll use just for that season. And then during

the rest of the year, your skin is fine. So it's not

something that you need to use on a consistent everyday basis, but

it's good to have that little rescue when you're a bit drier, for sure.

Yeah. Okay. I have one more on my list for tonight.

Okay. I brighten skin. I help reduce

pigmentation, but unlike

hydroquinone, I am gentler

and I am also safe in pregnancy. Ooh. Are

we talking about kojic acid? That

can be used too, but I think that would be, that could be used too.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, good. So they're both— actually, there you go, both two answers for

this question. Uh, azelaic acid, my

favorite ingredients, just because it has so many applications. I feel like it's a

bit of an unsung hero, um, because you can use it,

you can use it acne, it's safe in pregnancy, it's really pretty well

tolerated. You can also use it in a condition called periorificial

dermatitis, which is those little red like bump pustules you get around the nose, mouth,

something times around the eyes, uh, which people often think is

acne, um, or they think it's a, like, a dermatitis

rash, and they'll use a steroid, which makes it worse. So yeah, I'm a big

fan of azelaic acid. Yeah, very, very— it's great in pregnancy because

oftentimes that's when melasma first comes up. So it's— its effect

on pigmentation is very nice for that. Oftentimes people are

coming off, you know, they're off their birth control pill and, and their hormones

are changing throughout pregnancy, and they have more acneic skin. They don't

have a lot of options, you know, but Azelaic

acid is perfect for that. So, you know, even,

um, it's a great, great ingredient for pregnant women, I would think. Or those little

bumps that some people get, that pustular rosacea. Yeah.

Yeah. The perioral dermatitis and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent.

That was fun. Glad you liked it. Excellent. I'm giving myself a

gold star. Yeah. Gold stars all around. If those of

you who are listening enjoyed this format and would like us to do more

pub quiz formats every once in a while, um,

do send us an email at

[email protected], or if there's any particular topics that you want to, to

cover, reach out to us. And next time

we will probably be digging into a little bit more of those

bioregenerative type treatments that we've been

teasing you all about. So stay tuned and make sure to subscribe so

that you will be notified when the next episode is released. Until

next time. Bye for now. Bye-bye.