The Sugar Show

Transforming Hair Removal with Nature's Own Prebiotics

• Shannon "The SugarMama" • Season 5 • Episode 87

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Discover the transformative power of prebiotics in your beauty regimen as Radeq from Radeq Labs and I, Shannon, unveil the secrets of sugaring and skin care that will redefine your approach to hair removal. My own educational evolution, fueled by an unquenchable curiosity for the science behind cosmetology, has led to this moment where traditional ingredients take a backseat to innovative skin-nurturing solutions. Embark on a journey that began in the simplicity of a home kitchen and has now expanded to the impressive scale of a fully operational factory, where quality and innovation reign supreme.

Sustainability isn't just a buzzword; it's a commitment. It's woven into the fabric of the beauty industry transformation we're discussing today. Dive into the fragrant world of rose water production, where eco-conscious methods like solar and wind energy are not only possible but celebrated. But the real star of the show? The skin's microbiome. Once an overlooked player, we now recognize its critical role in our overall health. Radeq's  insights into this delicate ecosystem and how it interacts with hair removal practices are nothing short of revolutionary.

The finale of our session is a revelation about the future of skincare, where prebiotics and postbiotics emerge as the heroes of the beauty world. Forget harsh treatments; this new wave of products, including a groundbreaking sugaring line, is all about harmony with our body's natural defenses. Imagine a hair removal experience that's less about the pain and more about the gain—healthier skin, a balanced microbiome, and an overall better outcome. Join us for a conversation that will not only enlighten but may just change the way you care for your skin forever.

If you’ve connected with or been inspired by this episode in any way, leave us a review and let us know your biggest takeaway - I’d love to hear how you embrace Sugaring For All!! And while you've got your phone out, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Love2Sugar.

If you are interested in learning more about Radeq Lab's Premium Prebiotic Sugar Line of products, you can find them at www.radeqlab.us.

Cheers to your Sweet Success!

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to this special episode of the Sugar Show. I'm your host, shannon, the Sugar Mama, and, as you know, I love to bring you each month podcasts that just either inspire me or make my heart feel better or make my business work stronger, or maybe even bring my technique to the next level, and I love to share all of my colleagues with all of you. And so this podcast is a game changer and it is my honor to introduce you to my colleague, roddick from Roddick Labs. I was introduced to Roddick from a very dear friend of mine, a dear colleague in our industry, and I did not realize how much I was going to learn in this last year. You haven't seen much of me on social media because I have actually been a student this whole year. I have learned more about not only the science of sugar and how it's made and how it works and the temperament and other things that can be used in sugar besides the ingredients that we're used to, but I've also learned about how things are done, maybe differently in different areas. I have learned how to change my skills up a little bit just to make sure that what I'm doing is the best for my clients. But the one thing that I had no idea that I would study up on was science and the microbiome, because, to be really honest, I really thought the microbiome was all in your gut, which is why this mama has been taking probiotics, prebiotics, tribiotics, postbiotics all the biotics. That's what I've been doing in these last few years to try to get my gut health right. I had no idea about skin microbiome. I had no idea what it meant, why we should worry about it with hair removal. In these last few trade shows that I've been to, I've listened to industry experts speak about the skin microbiome as it relates to acne and facial health, and I have been schooled on the skin microbiome as it relates to hair removal. So we have lots of amazing things in store for you. This next year is going to be a continuation of all of my learning, but honestly, it has become the beginning of a beautiful friendship, an international friendship that has really just changed my life and it is going to change yours. So it is my honor to introduce you, like I said, to Radak from Radak Labs, out of the Netherlands. He is a Polish man and I've learned so much about Europe I didn't even know where some of these countries were. But we have laughed and we have learned and we have spent a lot of really great time together and I am very excited to have you listen to this next episode, so spend some time with us.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to this sugar show. I'm Shannon O'Brien, body sugaring expert and licensed esthetician, who's taken my own skincare business from zero to multiple six figures and has helped over 3000 students learn how to do the same. Now let me tell you it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the time, budget and knowledge needed to grow my small business as a body sugaring pro. If we were to press rewind, you'd see the many failed attempts and lessons learned that have helped me build the profitable business that I have today, one that runs on its own and gives me the lifestyle and freedom that I only used to dream of. I created the sugar show to hand you my secrets and give you the simple, step by step strategies to help you do the same. So if you're a cosmetologist or esthetician or wax professional who's looking to fill your books, make more money in your business and enjoy greater balance between your work and home life, you are in the right place. Let's dive in. Welcome to the United States. Radhik, it is exciting to have you here.

Speaker 2:

It's very exciting for me. It's my first time in the United States, so yeah, I'm super excited to see a country in finally met you face by face.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we have only been doing this virtually, yeah yeah, and for months.

Speaker 1:

It's been really great to get to know you and to get to know your line, and I can't wait to go to the Netherlands myself personally to watch how it all goes down. But thank you so much for spending so much time with me in these last months to really help me to be a student and understand that there's so much more to sugaring than what we've just been teaching here. So I do want to back up. So, radhik, when I have the sugar show. We have a section of the sugar episodes of the sugar show called the sweet success stories, and you are like one of the ultimate sweet success stories so, and you have a different journey than many of us have been on. So I'd like to take it way back and start with how you actually got into beauty.

Speaker 2:

That was kind of coincident because I didn't know in which direction I would like to go with my education. So I tried to apply for psychology, but it was not very successful. So I decided to go for cosmetology, which is a bit higher level in Poland as schools for aestheticians, because in cosmetology you can learn a bit more about the beauty treatments and cosmetics. You can learn also about the beauty industry, how the formulators work, how the beauty industry work, more about the dermatology.

Speaker 1:

So in Europe you actually go to university for four years.

Speaker 2:

Not in every country. In Poland it exists. It's three years plus two years, so it depends on your choice. There are many ways to choose the schools, and the schools have different rules.

Speaker 1:

So you went to. You didn't just get 600 hours in cosmetology and decide to whip up some sugar in your kitchen. You really spent the time to understand the science and the industry as a whole for years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you know, from the beginning I tried to mix my own creams in the kitchen. So in the first year I already started to buying the raw materials and mixing my own creams for friends, myself.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, Because you took classes in raw materials and understanding the science behind how things work.

Speaker 2:

Yes, about the raw materials, about the formulation, chemistry. So yes, it was part of my education and during this education process I was invited for sugaring training, sugaring training with the sugar paste from North Africa. So it was kind of training with the old fashion sugaring technique.

Speaker 1:

Right. How is it different than what we do now?

Speaker 2:

It is much different because in the old, the old fashion sugaring technique you use very hard sugar paste and you need to prepare the sugar paste in your hand. So you need to smash the sugar for five, ten minutes in your hands to make it warmer, without gloves. And the sugar is changing the consistency, getting more golden, okay, yeah, and then you start to work by small pieces.

Speaker 1:

And they use their thumbs right, they push the paste with their, with their hands.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, some of them. Yes, I was also teaching it with normal just a finger. So I applied the sugar, similar as we are doing, but without gloves and with the right preparation, the sugar paste. So it was much different. Of course, we didn't use any powder and the gloves. Yeah, it was very traditional. You know, it was good to know it was very traditional. It's beautiful. The sugaring is very old and traditional methods of hair removal in Africa. So, yeah, it was good to see this.

Speaker 1:

At what point did you say I want to make sugar, I want to formulate sugar paste.

Speaker 2:

The first day on this training was not very successful. I was very irritated and mad on the sugar, why it's so sticky.

Speaker 1:

It's not working well and you know Sounds like all of my students and even me in the beginning, but next day I am stubborn.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I need to try it again and again and again. Then I found out I can do it better myself and I start to melting my own sugar, of course in small scale, in own kitchen. And it was not always successful. Sometimes the sugar was bad, sometimes good, but I was every few weeks coming back to it. You know very stubborn. And, yeah, I want to do it, do it better, sure.

Speaker 2:

So after several tests and trials I finally make the sugar which was more softer, and I recognized I can still do it even quicker and don't use so much power in your hand. So then I was so motivated that I should go further with this process and I show the sugar paste which I made to my teacher in the school. She was like, also excited, and I started doing more and more. Some of my colleagues which are doing sugaring also was buying the sugar from me, and later on I decided I should create a serious business with this. And this is how it goes, you know. Later on was long journey to create finally proper factory. But that was the decision that I should create from this serious business, because maybe it's my future.

Speaker 1:

Sure, so now you have an entire factory. How many formulation versions of sugar have you created that are actual? True, not just the mess ups, but how many formulations would you say that you've created over time?

Speaker 2:

So first of all, I should say that, from the story which I just explained, it's already 15 years, so during this 15 years I start manufacturing the sugar paste not only for my brand, but also for other brands. It's the way. In total, we have between 30, 40 recipes of sugar paste. I should count it exactly, but we are still creating new sugaring recipes and sorry.

Speaker 1:

No, it's good, it's so cute because Sugaring recipes.

Speaker 2:

No recipes. Recipes.

Speaker 1:

I love it because that.

Speaker 2:

No, don't use it.

Speaker 1:

No, it's good. It's good Because you know, I mean, I don't speak. How many languages do you speak?

Speaker 2:

Three, three, three, four, three languages.

Speaker 1:

I speak one A little Spanish if I need to get by on the taxi or something, but that's it. So the fact that you speak such a beautiful English is amazing, and the fact that you say recipe different just actually makes my heart happy.

Speaker 2:

So Okay, okay.

Speaker 1:

If I can teach you a few things along the way.

Speaker 2:

It's all good, thank you, okay.

Speaker 1:

See, that's the educator part of me. I have to teach you how to say things right. It's all good, and so you've done 30 to 50 different styles. You have grown from just manufacturing a small amount of pace to an entire factory. It's exciting.

Speaker 2:

It was my goal, you know, to do it proper, in proper way. I didn't want to be just, you know, kind of garage a guy who's just cooking a sugar on some small scale. I spent a lot of years for sugaring. All my adult life I spent for sugaring, to promote the sugaring. So my goal was to do it this proper, proper way.

Speaker 1:

And you know so much about the chemistry and how, because you studied it extensively in school, so you understand how to create these products and how they work together and to try new things instead of just the same way that we all do it. You really have stepped up and just brought new things to the mix, which I think is going to be really fun for me to continue to learn about, and it's not just oh, let's add some aromatherapy to the blend, you know you really have.

Speaker 1:

It's really thoughtful, and we're going to cover that in just a little minute. So your success throughout Europe is mind blowing, actually, how quickly it's happened. How many countries? I have two questions how many countries are you in throughout Europe, and which of those countries is like the best at sugar? Like they? Just that's, all they do is sugar. So how many countries would you say?

Speaker 2:

We are active in almost all European countries in different scale. In some countries we have just few clients which are ordering through our web shop. In some countries we have our own distributors. In some countries we have private label partners which are very strong. So we are active in most of the European countries. But in Europe is one country which is very special about sugar and it is Finland. Finland, Amazing, amazing. The small country in North Europe is number one in sugaring in European Union.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 2:

Definitely.

Speaker 1:

And you were telling me they teach it in schools, like they have bought on sugar in Finland.

Speaker 2:

Everyone sugars. Yes, a long ago I just came back from Finland and during the training the girls told me you will have now difficulties to find somebody who is doing waxing in Helsinki. Helsinki is capital city of Finland, so I was really surprised how far, how quick the sugaring spread in Finland and most of the schools in Finland for estheticians are teaching the sugaring, which is not very common in Europe. We still need to promote it as manufacturers, brand owners, the sugaring to the estheticians. It's not very common to teach the sugaring automatically in the school program.

Speaker 1:

And what I have come to understand by spending time with you and doing a little research is the quality of the products that and the ingredients that you use. In the Netherlands is very strict and you're very particular about the ingredients that you use, which is probably why Finland loves your products so much and why we're going to love your products so much. But talk about the quality of those products and how you know you're not just throwing some sugar in a pot and eating it up, but really the thought that goes behind the strictness of your.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you know, in general the European rules are quite strict comparing to the rest of the world and, yeah, we need to keep the rules and I'm happy to do it because it protects my quality of the products. And there are also other small factors which which really protect the quality, like that you keep the same supplier of the sugar. You know the sugar from different suppliers can have different sugar particles. It can be more tick sugar, a more fine one, and that really can change the final product. It depends which sugar you use. We decide to cooperate with our nearby company which produces its own sugar. It's made in the Netherlands, so we really take care to don't use the raw materials which are made in China or in Asia. So far it's nothing bad to use Chinese products, but I mean the aspect of the transportation and the safety for the delivery in all time, because we work with original local suppliers. It really protects our quality and delivers time to the customers.

Speaker 1:

You have one product in particular that I want to touch on for a moment. On that note, we're going to talk about it a little more in advance later, but the rose water. Talk about how you make the rose water, without giving up your recipes, of course, but talk about the rose water because you've shared that with me and we've been spending some time understanding this product.

Speaker 2:

The rose water is a very special product and not all manufacturers produce the rose water as we do. Because rose water can be produced also from dried rose petals, we decide to use only fresh ones. But, honestly, netherlands are not located in the best climate to grow their rose, which gives them a lot of essential oils and the nutrition substances. There are a few regions in Europe, in South Europe, which are doing this the best and I travel myself to a few distillery companies which produce rose oil and I choose the best one and we work with them as a subcontractor and they do. Once a year, when their roses are ready, they take their petals and directly fresh petals they cooked and produce for us the rose water. Then the rose water comes to our factory and is mixed with the prebiotics and postbiotics.

Speaker 1:

And we're going to get to that what all that means in just a minute.

Speaker 2:

But the most important fact is that we are manufacturing, that our rose water is manufactured from fresh rose petals, because you can find a lot of rose waters which are made from dried rose petals.

Speaker 1:

Or even synthetic fragrance.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, or just there is a few percent of rose water in the rest of normal filtrated water. Of course here is. We are not adding at all extra water, so here is just the rose water plus the rest of the active ingredients.

Speaker 1:

All of your products you create, you make at your manufacturing facility.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, yes, and I developed them myself.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk, share with the audience about your manufacturing facility, because I think it will make people love you even more than they're already starting to do. Talk about your manufacturing facility as it relates to being environmentally friendly, because it's not just some building that you threw some machines in. You've really taken care even down to the building that you create these products in. Talk about your building.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's very important, Especially in the Netherlands, because we really take care to protect environment and reduce usage of the electricity and we are doing this. We are doing this because we are using the solar panels in our factory, so all the roof is with the solar panels and we have a contract with the energy supplier which deliver us 100% electrical energy from wind, so it's green energy. And the fact the process it's made from the green energy they're melting process of the sugar paste that's super important for us.

Speaker 1:

So your ingredients inside the bottles are beautiful and green and organic and special, and even the building that they're made in is special as well. I just think it's been fun to really learn about not only you but your company and how strong you all do your work. Let's get down to talking about the products, because when I was introduced to your company, I thought, oh great, some guy from the Netherlands making a paste wants to come to the United States. Then you sent me a sample box of all of your products and my mind was blown. In fact, I brought my other employees into the room and I said look at this, it gets all the hairs. The products are amazing. I mean I couldn't stop talking about it. And that's when we started to spend time together and you really educated me on what else is available with sugaring, because I have been teaching sugar now since 2010. And our online school has been here since 2014.

Speaker 1:

And in all of that time there was so many ingredients I had no idea would be of benefit to be in paste and pre and post products that, like I said, I kind of put down my teacher hat and picked up my pen and started to take notes and be a student and it's really, really been fascinating. So I talked about in the introduction to you about the microbiome and I really thought it was just taking a probiotic to make your gut healthy. I had no idea that it would have anything to do with hair removal and just hearing you explain it and explain why we should be just really concerned about it is something that I'm really excited to share with the audience. But let's go back to how you, when you were formulating these products, what made you think about keeping the microbiome happy? Like, how did that come about? When you were creating all this, you could have just made a regular sugar and produced it. What made you want to do more research?

Speaker 2:

And we were doing this for years. We started doing very traditional sugar paste, so water lemon sugar. We were doing this years, for years, and I know that the market of sugaring is growing and I know that I should find something very special, something which is not looking good just on the label like marketing goal, something which will really improve the sugaring process, which will improve for clients and also for sugaries to use less energy in your hand muscles to make it process easier. And I was testing, I was making a lot of tests. You know I was trying to make the sugar paste more effective, more gentle to the skin, so I was melting, melting, melting and melting the sugar.

Speaker 2:

Many of this test was not very successful, so you know it was waste of the product. But this is how it is. You know. You search, you search and finally I tried to combine prebiotics, which is inulin, and inulin behave kind of similar to the sugar in the process, but it's not a sugar. And I also was working on to reduce the irritation risk of the lemon or the citric acid in sugar paste and that's how I find out the gluconolactone and inulin and chakry extract.

Speaker 2:

I was working on how to combine of these ingredients, how to make the sugar paste in the lower temperature to protect the ingredients. And that's how came our premium prebiotic sugaring line. We started testing it. I sent it also to my best clients for tests and we find out that the sugar behaves really different. It's less sticky but in the same way it's catching the hairs very good. Some clients are calling me that the skin reaction is different, that the customers do not have any more the histamine reaction, that the redness is much lower on the skin. So I was so excited and I was really working hard to make these consistencies, improve them and make them perfect.

Speaker 2:

And it takes a few years, and now we are launching the line here with you. It's exciting.

Speaker 1:

OK, so we need to go back a little bit as well and get a little more basic. What is the microbiome on the skin? Explain in easy terms how to maybe think about it.

Speaker 2:

You can explain it in many ways. You can use analogy to imagine, but the goal for it is to make sure that the ingredients are is to understand that our skin will be never fully free of the bacteria. It's super important. We cannot be fully sanitary, you know, disinfected. The skin is alive and we need to cooperate our body cooperate with bacteria. You just need to accept it.

Speaker 1:

Of course. I think when people realize we have bacteria on our skin, it kind of freaks them out a little bit and then we realize that it's actually good for us Some are not good and most are good.

Speaker 2:

Of course.

Speaker 1:

And we all have them.

Speaker 2:

Of course, and this is how it's science go. You know that we start to accept the, how it is. We accept the microbe in our stomachs, in our belly, so now we need to accept that the bacteria are alive and helping our skin to keep it healthy. Yes, not only in many ways, I should say, because the microbiome cooperate with our immune system. This is not science fiction, this is the fact, proven fact.

Speaker 2:

The microbiome, healthy microbiome, protect against infection. So the liar of the friendly bacteria which are everywhere are creating kind of film on our skin. So when the aggressive bacteria are coming in our skin, the friends are neutralizing the bad bacteria. So this is very important protections for our body, because the skin is the biggest organ of our body. So the skin microbiome is also super important for us. And it's important to understand that all of us have very unique type combination of those bacteria which create the microbiome. So you have different type of microbiome, I have different type of microbiome and that's okay. The most important that there is a balance. If there is. If there is any problem with the balance, then the skin condition can go worse. And it's also important to understand that the microbiome is completely different in few body parts, like intimate area fits our hands and armpits.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

That's interesting what I will say now. Do you know? Sweating process is very natural for our body. All of us are sweating, huh. Sure, when we sweat, after first minutes there is no usually there is no any unpleasant odor Because normally our sweat is kind of neutral. Okay, depends what we eat, of course, but in general, later on the bacteria are start to eating this, what produced our bodies on the sweat and this start to produce. These bacteria start to produce this odor. So a healthy back microbiome and modification of the microbiome can also change the body odor. So there is a lot of functions. Some of bacteria are producing some nutrition substances on our skin. So when you modify the microbiome you can improve hydration of the skin. We still don't know everything Now. It's plenty of research and science are digging deeper and deeper into skin microbiome and checking what it's doing to our body and how we can manipulate to being better health in general.

Speaker 1:

Sure. So I would venture to guess that aggressive hair removal techniques that have been used in the past to pilotares, waxing things like that Not so great for the microbiome. Of course, every aggression is what makes it happy when done properly.

Speaker 2:

True. In general, any aggression on the skin, especially with high temperature, can affect negatively our skin microbiome. So when you use waxing with a high temperature synthetic raisins, it's definitely damage our skin microbiome. When you use sugaring, we need to be very honest and clear. Probably sugaring is also a bit negatively affect on the skin microbiome Of course less than waxing because here is much lower temperature and the sugar is not killing the bacteria by itself, but still it is kind of exfoliation and the strong exfoliation can negatively affect the microbiome. In our case, using in the formula inulin, we are nutritioning the skin microbiome and helping to restore the film after sugaring.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's stop there, Because inalyn is a prebiotic. Yes, so let's talk about what a prebiotic is before you start diving into the science-y stuff. What is a prebiotic in its most simple explanation?

Speaker 2:

Prebiotic, the substances which are feeding the microbiome.

Speaker 1:

So we feed the skin with the prebiotic ingredients? Yes, probiotics are.

Speaker 2:

The bacteria which build the microbiome.

Speaker 1:

So good bacteria that we're adding into the skin to just build that microbiome so that it's strong and healthy. So we nourish it, we protect it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, yes, exactly. But the probiotics are not very common used in cosmetics now, because the probiotics should be alive. So, like you have in yogurt in the food market, so the yogurt is kept in the free in lower temperature. When you add the existing bacteria to the cream, let's say your serum, it will start to ferment after a few days or weeks. So you cannot do it, especially that we, as manufacturers, we need to prove that cosmetics are free from the aggressive bacteria like Echoli and that the cosmetics have a low level of general bacteria.

Speaker 1:

Okay, how do you keep the good bacteria stable in these products? So the product contains Because we don't keep them in the fridge.

Speaker 2:

No, no, but we are not using probiotics, we are using prebiotics, and that's very important because often you can get misunderstanding between the prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics. So we are using prebiotics, so the substances which are feeding the microbiome and protecting the skin microbiome. So the prebiotic is feeding the probiotics which are alive and are existing on our skin. And we are using also postbiotics which are deactivated bacteria which are also very nutritious for our skin microbiome and it's proven that postbiotics can modify the skin microbiome to be more healthy and protect our skin.

Speaker 1:

So for those of you whose heads are spinning right now because you're prebiotics, postbiotics if you are a sugar pro, that's been doing this for a really long time. The ingredients are fascinating. We're going to go over each product, but what I want you to know in the audience is that Roddick has put together a line that is nourishing the skin. It is not causing damage to the skin, especially when done the right way, and these products are going to nourish the skin. You'll slide the hair out of healthy skin so you'll get better results every time, and you're going to finish the treatment with products that will continue to nourish the skin for a long time to come. They come in for maintenance, they get their skin nourished and then everything is happier face, bikini, arms, legs, eyebrows, whatever it is.

Speaker 1:

It's the idea of using these prebiotics to nourish the skin and provide just a really happy hair removal experience that I didn't even realize we needed to have. I just thought we'd put sugar on lemon sugar and water. It was natural, yay us. It was better than wax, and now I realize that there is just so much more to it.

Speaker 1:

So what I'd like to do is go over the products.

Speaker 2:

I would add something Shannon here important because it's important to understand that the inulin, which is prebiotic and is feeding our microbiome, have much more functions than only prebiotic. We find out and we are first company in the world which use inulin in the sugar paste. It's not only to protect and feed our microbiome, the inulin authentic and effectively improve the consistency of sugar paste.

Speaker 1:

Okay so let's talk, paste chemistry, let's do it, I love this part this is the good science stuff, paste chemistry. So you don't just put prebiotics into the product just to make it healthy and happy for the skin. You also do it to improve the paste, which I'm happy about as a practitioner, that my hands feel better, my results are better, but the paste actually just really does work better for me in my hands. So inulin that you keep referring to is actually derived from what From chicory.

Speaker 2:

roots From chicory roots.

Speaker 1:

Yes, okay, from chicory root and then there's also chicory, so there's two different things from chicory. Explain that a little bit.

Speaker 2:

So we are using inulin which is, as we say, produced from chicory roots, but also we are using chicory extract, which is extracted a bit different way than inulin and it has also very effective prebiotic function. It's chicory extract is more used in our formula for typical active ingredients as active ingredients, nutritional ingredients, and inulin also is very effective and important prebiotic, but it's also used to improve the consistency and the structure of the sugar paste.

Speaker 1:

So what does without giving away your recipes? What does inulin actually do to the paste to make it that much better?

Speaker 2:

It's making the paste a bit less sticky so you can apply, you can work with the even more soft sugar paste without having any problems with removing the paste from the skin. You know the problem. Sometimes you would like to use the most soft sugar paste as possible because then you use less energy in your muscles. You're doing this quickly, so the treatment is very effective. But if you choose too soft sugar paste there is a risk that you will stuck on the skin especially for beginners and you will not be able to remove the sugar paste. With the inulin we really improve the behavior of the sugar paste on the skin. So even the sugar paste is very soft. You can smoothly and effective work on the skin.

Speaker 1:

I really noticed a difference. I noticed that you can use that paste so soft and so much thinner and it doesn't fall apart. It stays in the hand, it slides out and takes all of the hairs out. That was the first thing that I noticed about your paste was I didn't need much. A little goes a long way. I can do a whole Brazilian with a small I don't know ping pong ball size of sugar, but what is it doing? That's different, that ingredient that's making the paste actually get all the hairs out in the first pass. That was the biggest shock that I had is after the mold, when we do our light flick, even with the softest paste. First of all, my clients weren't upset because it hurt. It didn't hurt going on, it didn't hurt going coming off, but all of the hairs were gone. That's what blew my mind. I didn't have to go over the area more than once. How did you make that magic happen?

Speaker 2:

Oh, you know, I need to be careful to don't tell too much.

Speaker 2:

But in general there is other factor. Normally, doing traditional sugar paste, you are using citric acid or lemon juice. Lemon juice contains a lot of citric acid, so in the fact both ways are very similar. So citric acid or lemon juice is the same function. Citric acid or lemon juice is used in sugaring manufacturing process to break the connection in sucrose molecule into glucose and fructose molecule. So again, the sugar molecule contains two different molecules, fructose and glucose, and so build one molecule of the sugar sucrose. You can break the connection with a lower pH. So that's the way it's added lemon juice or citric acid and high temperature. That's the way the sugar paste is not crystallizing and has so flexible consistency.

Speaker 2:

We find out we can do it in different way. We decide to use, for this reason, gluconolactone, which is natural antioxidant and is used in skin care, even for very sensitive skin with allergy reactions, and is really soothing the skin. We find out the gluconolactone is effective and amazing substituted to that citric acid and we combine it together and after several tests we get a very stable, effective sugar paste without adding the lemon juice, which is nothing wrong. You know we also manufacture years with the lemon based sugar paste. It's okay. We're just searching new solutions to go a bit further, to go higher, high level with the skincare. And that's the way we combine all of this ingredients with the gluconolactyl.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So one of my colleagues in the industry is very wise with oncology aesthetics and using the best products on the skin for medically sensitive skin, and when I told her about the ingredients that are in your products she says, ah, it's going to be so much more gentle for those folks that have sensitive skin, which I always thought that sugar was just best on everyone with sensitive skin and medically sensitive skin. But this takes that to the next level because the gentle component of the gluconolactone which I had it took a while for me to learn how to say that, so I feel for you on the recipe thing, but in order that product is actually more, even more, gentle and just takes it to the next level. So even clients that have really sensitive skin maybe consistently get histamine reactions or redness, even with sugar. This will soften it for them, and so my oncology estheticians are very happy that you have come out with this product because it really takes things to the next level for those that even can't.

Speaker 2:

I'm happy to hear this. I'm happy to hear this. Yes, they're very happy.

Speaker 1:

So there is a little picture in all of your marketing on top of gluconolactone with a little corn cob. Talk about corn. This is not corn.

Speaker 2:

No, we are using the symbols to show our clients and partners what is the origin of the raw materials. So the gluconolactone it's the natural antioxidant made from corn and the gluconolactone is used in food industry and it's complete natural. So the raw materials most of the older raw materials are eatable. You can still taste the sugar paste and nothing wrong with this. It's important to explain the gluconolactone it's made from corn, but it's not mean the sugar paste contain corn. It's the same analogy when you are adding sugar to your coffee, you're not saying I drink coffee with beetroot.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Are you adding to your coffee syrup, let's say fructose glucose syrup? It sometimes happens in the drinks, in coke, in other soft drinks. It's not mean that the drink contain corn because it's just produced using the raw materials, which is here corn.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so sucrose is actually beetroot.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, kind of. It's not the same what we eat, but that's beetroot, okay, gluconolactone it's made from corn Inulin and chicory extract is made from chicory root. Yes, that's all. Water is filtrated by our osmosis advanced filtration system.

Speaker 1:

Ruddick, I am again honored to have you here. It's been an absolute joy for me to be a student of yours, mostly because I didn't have any idea that what I didn't know, and even more than that, just I didn't. It's just so nice to be a student and to understand what else is out there and to you know, I've been the teacher for so long. To put that hat down and grab a pencil and start to learn myself has been this phenomenal, and to put the paste in my hand and see a better result. I've been shivering for a really long time, ruddick, and to get me to be impressed is it takes a lot. So thank you for, first of all, your wisdom and obviously now our friendship, but also thank you for coming to the United States and really taking kind of that big leap across the water, so to speak, to bring all of this to my students and the audience and the Sugar Tribe that's here, because we have a lot of really amazing sugaring practitioners that will just their minds will be blown when they try it. So I am really thankful.

Speaker 1:

What made you finally say yes to the US? This is a big market. This is, this is big. This is a big thing for your sweet success story. You know you started in college and making this paste and that led you to this beautiful manufacturing facility in the Netherlands. You moved from Poland to the Netherlands to have this beautiful space. You've hired people. You've really changed lives for people there in the Netherlands. Like I'm sure that some of your friends are like you're crazy to go to the United States. What made you say that this was the good next choice?

Speaker 2:

Honestly, shannon, we didn't thought about going to the US with our products. You know it was not on our list of the goals. But we start to receive a lot of requests from clients. A lot of clients from US start to order in the sample sets. We get very good reviews from them, feedback. So it's in the fact push us that we need to somehow be active on this market. Then we meet together each other and when you show me your training system, I was also very impressed how you can do it. That's the way the option of cooperation, together with your teaching system, it's bringing us level higher and I believe together we can really help people to scale them sugaring to the different level.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you've actually kind of asked us to step it up a notch too, and that's been really fun. So we're completely overhauling our training program to include information about the microbiome and the ingredients, and we're really working hard to do that, which is why we came here to New York of all the places Crazy. I know. It's been so fun your first time in the US and you came to.

Speaker 1:

New York and I get to fly out to New York and spend some time here. It's been really fun spending time with you and I can't wait to go to the Netherlands and see it for myself, I'm really excited, but really it's about taking things to the next level and with the online courses, we can promise consistent education. We will be hopefully translating this into other languages, which will be so exciting.

Speaker 1:

We will do it and, as well, we will really be able to educate. We're going to work on educating the educators, because this is a new concept for all of us educators here in the US. So we're going to be putting together an educator program so that educators can take their skills up to the next level and we can really start to provide here an even better experience for our clients and everyone that I've put this paste in their hands. All the sugar pros are asking me when are we going to get started on this? So it's happening now and I could not be happier with you and your team as our partners. So thank you for being here.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, shannon. You're very warm Welcome Treat me here, so I'm very happy to be here with you and many more times to come. Yes, we will do.

Speaker 1:

Because there is so much to learn, and thank you so, sugar Tribe. This is what it's all about is making sure that you continue to be a student of your craft and meet people who are amazing that you never ever thought you would meet, and really just this is what it's all about is spreading the knowledge. So I look forward to seeing you on the next episode, and we will be doing many more with this wizard of a man. So have a great day and keep it sweet.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.