Dr. Ewoma: The Skincare You’re Wasting Money On, What Really Defines Beauty, & Why She Left Traditional Medicine to Build a Cosmetic Empire

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Visit northwestregisteredagent.com slash HSR free and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent. Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com slash HSR free. What are the few things under $200 that people can do to improve their appearance and the way that they feel about themselves? This is tricky. Do I give the PR answer or do I give the actual answer? Actual answer. Obviously. This is why I'm having you on as a trained medical professional doctor. I remember finding on Craigslist this Russian nurse. I went and I got my top lip filled and it has never gone down and I'm now 34 years old and I still do not know what was put into my top lip. Bloody hell. What did she put in your lip? I started out helping people get better from their illnesses that as a doctor I was making $1,300 a year. So I moved into helping women feel more confident within themselves. Both you and I have done a full transformation. Love it. So let's get into beauty maxing. I aim for like 90% perfection and then 10% just a little bit because it's that imperfection. That makes the 90% look amazing. So I want to play a fun game of myth busting. Mouth taping. Pass. No. Retinol versus tretinoin. 100% tretinoin. Red light face masks. I don't think I've ever said this publicly but. Hi angels. Did you know that subscribing to our channel is free? It doesn't cost you anything and it is the simplest way for you to support HotSmartRich and help us grow so that we can bring you more of the conversations you love. Just hit the subscribe button below and thank you. In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So let's get into it. Dr. Iwoma, are you ready to get HotSmartRich? I'm so ready, Dolly. Thank you so much for doing this. For someone that's just clicked in, they don't know who you are. They don't have context to this conversation. What would you tell them? To get them to stay to what we're going to listen to today? Yeah, well, I'm a medical cosmetic doctor. I've been qualified now for 10 years. I have built an insane community of super engaged women of over 700,000, where I talk about everything from skincare, body glow, self-development, men even. I'm just a character, basically. But I guess they'll find that out today. How will my life be different if I listen to this conversation in full and apply it to my life? I think listeners are going to feel motivated and empowered. I often hear from my friends that they often feel that energy from me whenever they meet me. They're just ready to go. They're ready to pursue what they need to in life. So I'm convinced your listeners are going to feel that way. I would agree because I have known you parasocially for almost four years. Really long time. And we've both seen each other's journeys, transformation. And of course, there's the physical aspect of that, which we'll talk about today. But there is so much of the inner work that you do. And I think it's really important that you work the confidence. And so what I decided to start doing to my community was make a promise to the angels as to what I believe people are going to learn if they listen to the conversation in full. And I believe that people will understand the true ROI of betting on yourself. I think that they will save time by cutting through wellness, beauty bullshit, and they will know exactly what they are worth. Do you agree with that promise? A thousand percent. Okay. So let's go a little bit backwards. Tell me about your earliest context that we need to know to understand the current version of you. Oh, there's a lot. I feel like despite being on this earth for just a few decades, I've lived quite an eventful life. I've lived many lives. I feel like I'm on my second or third at the moment. But I think probably the most sort of pertinent part of my life would definitely be when I worked in the NHS, which is our national health service. By and large, especially sort of the human element, I absolutely loved it. But the day to day was quite interesting. To say the least. And it was funny, because we're not being funny, quite sad. But around the time junior doctors were striking, and it was the first time in like almost forever, and that they were striking with regards to pain, working conditions. So that was just sort of the general context of the time. And very quickly into my sort of hospital training, I just realised that this is not for me. And of course, as a doctor, you anticipate super hard work and working like a dog, that's fine. I feel like I have to be very delicate with this. But because what I want to say is that it just didn't feel safe. Basically, it didn't feel safe. You know, even when I looked at my seniors, and obviously, you know, you're seniors to a degree, you really aspire to be like them, right? But then when I looked over at them, I was like, Oh, I don't envy your life. Is this the end of the road for me? In like 10 years time? No, I had a really important conversation that I think was one of the things that really changed the trajectory of my life. For me at that time, I spoke to a mortgage broker. And he told me based on my salary, I was maybe making about 2200 at the time, which I was like, Oh my god, amazing. Ironically, the following year, as a doctor, I was making 1300 a year. That's how us doctors in the UK get paid. And he said to me, based on that, the banks at Maxima would be able to lend you 100,000 pounds for a house. I was like, what? And maybe that was an element of 23 year old naive, but I was like, wait, let me do the math. Let me map this out on a chart. Just because I am that way. I think very logically. And I was like, wait, so I'm probably going to be like 40. By the time I can afford a house by myself on this current sort of salary trajectory. I was like, yeah, that's not making sense. That that's not the kind of life I envision myself, you know, having. And yeah, I think I'm so curious, like, even back to childhood, you did you just love helping people? Or what was it like? What was it that initially drew you into becoming and pursuing a doctor knowing the hours were going to be brutal? A lot of not disrespect, but a lot of like, unthink to work. And the salary is not something that necessarily would draw people in after what you just said. So what actually drew you to help people? Initially, it started out very traditionally in terms of, you know, helping people get better from their illnesses and things in the hospital. And then when I moved into the sort of cosmetic field, it was helping people feel more confident within themselves. And then now it's all of those things, but also helping women feel sort of empowered, educating women about sort of issues that they're facing day to day. So fundamentally, I feel like that's my sort of calling, helping people solving their problems. It just sets me alight. It's really interesting. I just love it. Where are you at in life to be able to take the bet on yourself and completely leave what is the norm and even looking at your seniors and saying, I don't envy your life? Did you have role models that you were modeling your next steps after? Or how did you find the confidence back then to bet on yourself and to open up your own cosmetic clinic? That's an incredible question. And I think it summarizes my 20s so perfectly. You know, I was considering a career in finance, management consultancy. Those are kind of like the sexy careers that doctors moved into at the time. But I just thought, oh, Iwoma, this is going to be same shit, different smell. I just knew it. I'm even lucky getting emotional now because day two period. Same. Really? Yes, I'm on day two. Oh my God, this is why I love this show because we get to talk about periods. I know. Hoping I don't bleed through this dress. Not on the Eli. No, not on the Eli, never. No. Got my granny knickers on. I love you. You know, I was getting emotional just with regards to just that time of life. It was just so incredibly emotional and difficult. And the fact that on reflection, I made fantastic decisions that didn't feel like fantastic decisions at the time is mind blowing to me. And I think what really sort of helped me to make such a big decision is a couple of things. I think, first of all, I've always been a very headstrong character. And then also going back to the context of the time, I was getting paid pennies. And again, I really want to stipulate here, obviously becoming a doctor in the UK, I wasn't expecting to become a millionaire. That wasn't the goal. That wasn't the focus. But I think at the very least, I expect you to have a comfortable life, right? So I fundamentally realized that a key problem was being in a job, being in the system. And maybe it just kind of speaks to my personal neurology, personality, etc. But even when I was in the NHS, the sort of part and parcel of working a job really perplexed my mind. And your leave confused me. So I was confused that I had to like ask a woman that I've never met doesn't know me is a pen pusher whether I can like go on holiday or not and she might say no I was like what I don't entertain this I was so confused so just even simple things like that I was like I don't think this is for me we have talked a lot on the show about the way that you show up to your job in terms of your appearance with clothes and styling and we've had a lot of guests that come on and said when I decided to invest in my wardrobe or invest into what I looked like I actually saw an increase and one of the things that I am so excited to talk about is how that actually is reflective in your appearance right like what you physically look like because I know that there are going to be people that are going to listen to this and be like this is dystopian this is actually harmful for body image and I think it is such an important conversation to have with someone who has been doing this for a long time and I think it is such an important conversation to have to helping people through cosmetics through aesthetics through what they actually look like so talk to me about how you made that decision going from working into that field from actually helping people whether it's just stay alive maybe for a little bit I had to sort of grapple with going from something very serious to something not so serious but again I think it was just a small price to pay really because what was on the other side of that was such opportunity and you know to my colleagues who at the time were kind of like oh this is beauty therapy well what I really want to say was sod off but I'll keep it PC for today but one of my colleagues who was a little bit apprehensive of me making this transition away from the NHS and you know he was like obviously like I have great surgical skills so you know if you need like someone to help you remove moles for your patients that kind of thing I can do that so even just sort of a takeaway for your listeners when you're making these transitions do not wait for people to congratulate you do not wait for people to encourage you even some of my family members are like what are you doing I don't think this is for you but I was like no guys I'm just going to stick through this one thing that I really ruminated on this was you know a phrase that I really ruminated on at the time and that is it is easier to change yourself than to change a system that doesn't want to change that's what I focused on I got goosebumps when I read that when you said that to my team in the research call I was like it is so hard to change a system but it's so easy to change yourself and I think that goes back to having an internal locus of control and knowing that like things are not happening to you they are happening for you and you are the maker of your destiny but it's hard when you're in that thick of like everything feels hard to take just one step forward so I want to ask about the first step that you took you decide I'm not doing this what was the first step to actually leaving what you had known and opening up a clinic you know what I think the most important first step for me was really working on my mindset and so whenever people come to me and they're like you know I want to change my career or I want to do this particular thing but I just can't something is stopping me I always say start with your mindset your output is because of the mindset right so you really need to master that and it's not an overnight thing despite what TikTok wants to tell you you know it's not pretty at times it's very traumatic may involve a lot of therapy sessions and fundamentally hitting rock bottom and that's what happened to me I don't think I've ever said this publicly but I was so burnt out in the NHS I basically became clinically depressed and had to take time off work due to the stress and everything and so I think by essentially hitting rock bottom it really just allows you to evaluate like why am I here how did I get here I was like I cannot be waking up every day wishing that I didn't wake up that's how much I hated work you know I felt like my soul was being chipped away at daily but going back to the mindset piece I think yeah you need to be very intentional about that as I said you can do things like therapy being very dedicated to that reading self-help books going on retreats whatever it may be take time and I will say working on your mindset can take years and really it's not something that stops it's something that I've continued to do over the time and it's something I take incredibly seriously I think that for me it's so similar like I think I've always believed so much in my potential and I think the worst thing to me was waking up one day and being like I didn't live up to my full potential like there would be nothing worse than that but it's hard when you're in that complete burnout complete unhappiness where on paper you shouldn't actually feel that way and I think that this is why having you on as a trained medical professional doctor to speak on the power of personal branding and to speak on the power of influence and to speak on the power of betting on yourself is such a powerful conversation to have because on paper you had what so many people strive for and it made you clinically depressed and burned out so I think that's a really good so I'm so curious to talk about how powerful a personal brand can really be at that time to tell everyone like I'm going to then open up a cosmetic clinic you were met with a lot of hesitation a lot of people saying things like oh well that's not really what being a doctor is supposed to feel like how did you approach what you knew you wanted to do when everyone in your life was actually telling you it was a horrible idea I'm the type of person that once I've made my mind up no one can really change my mind and because I'd hit such lows I was like the only way is up from here I mean can this get any worse I would much rather have no title or have the less glamorous job if my life is amazing you know that is what is important to me and and so that's why I think it was somewhat easy for me to make that transition so I came across this doctor who specialized in cosmetic dermatology and I was like wow this is incredible and it's just like I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't it sounds kind of daft but like you know eight years ago Botox fillers skin treatments it wasn't a thing like it is now it was very much for like high net worth VIP people and that was it it wasn't in the mainstream whatsoever but I just felt like it was so perfect because it allowed me to work for myself and I'd concluded that I think that's the problem here I don't think you can you can be even when I was in the NHS the sort of part and parcel of of working a job really perplexed my mind I think that's the problem I think that's the problem I think that's the problem I think that's what I'm so excited to have you on for today because you've always pushed against the mold and you've always been early and I'm so I was so curious to ask you this question specifically now that you're a few years obviously out of making the decision and building this incredibly strong personal brand how would you actually describe your personal brand that led you to this moment to where you are now direct transparent no nonsense uh funny educational and just normal you know I think it's so funny with this personal brand thing and just seeing how it's evolved you know amongst doctors because you know again in this sort of personal brand realm social media realm in the beginning doctors were afraid of social media and to a degree that was normal that was sort of understandable because you know our sort of governing bodies were you know we were all sort of you know we were all sort of you know we were sort of like oh be careful on this you know you can't do this you can't do that so I understand the apprehension but when doctors did start to show up on social media it was very sort of straight-laced everyone was wearing lab coats no personality I've never sort of felt that pressure to lean into what is expected from a doctor people resonate with people and so bringing myself to the forefront has just been the easiest thing and I found actually the more that I bring myself to the forefront the more my community grows the more I'm able to bring myself to the forefront the more the opportunities abound well and I can even say to relate to you like I was never good at science ever but I've always been really fascinated with doctors because there's just like a level of sophistication discipline motivation the things that I really value in entrepreneurship that I believe you have to have as a medical professional but I think what really drew me to you specifically because I actually don't follow that many doctor profiles is it's that you carry yourself with that I was really drawn to I also think it's the hot takes and one of your hot takes that I'm obsessed with is that you don't necessarily agree with this viral glow up manifestation because it typically neglects the inner self-work and confidence that any sort of beauty maxing is actually layered on top of so I want to start there because I think that when you are going into a full transformation with both which both you and I have and I think we should probably insert some photos into the YouTube right now of the before and afters of both of us we're doing it doctor to be fair I've shown people so I'm not even embarrassed at this me either they've seen it all they've seen it all you actually have an amazing list of things to do as it relates to improving your self-esteem and self-worth before you actually start talking about all the beauty maxing stuff so can you just walk us through what some of those self-worth self-esteem checklists are to do before you start taking some of the things we're going to talk about with beauty maxing yeah incredibly important and really just to echo your point of course I'm a real proponent of self-worth so I'm going to talk of looking your best and being glamorous and love that shit but all of that is just fluff if everything underneath isn't making sense you know and so I always say to people start with the inner work by and large it's for free by and large you don't need to inject yourself with any sort of filler or anything like that and it's something that you can start today and do in many ways it's probably harder than the outward appearance stuff you might hit what bottom within that you might come to significant sort of earth-shattering realizations about your life especially if you do the work properly that is everything from you know addressing maybe unhealthy relationships within your life whether that be familial relationships friendships actual intimate relationships whatever it may be you know taking stock on your career are you happy genuinely and even on that point it's not even should I be happy I'm happy because everyone tells me I'm happy no are you happy your home is probably one of your biggest assets yet so many of us don't realize that we can actually tap into our home's value without refinancing our existing mortgage SoFi who's one of our sponsors offers a home equity loan that helps you access the cash you need often at a lower rate than many other borrowing options so whether you're planning a home renovation consolidating high interest debt or covering a large expense it's an option worth exploring with a SoFi home equity loan you can borrow up to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars or up to eighty-five percent of your home's equity while keeping your current mortgage interest rate exactly the same and because you get a fixed rate you'll always know what your monthly payment is there's also a zero dollar origination fee option and most loans don't require an in-home appraisal to get started all you have to do is answer a few questions online and then you'll be paired with a dedicated mortgage loan officer to help you explore your options and find the right loan before submitting your application so if you've built equity in your home and you want to put it to work check your rate with no impact to your credit score now at SoFi.com/hsrhome hot take incoming making more money as a creator doesn't actually require you to have more followers I see so many creators getting this wrong and this is part of the reason why I love what our show partner Stan is doing with their V2 of their funnels and order bumps because if someone is already buying from you that's a completely different moment than someone casually watching your content it means that they trust you they're paying attention they're already in checkout mode so instead of sending everyone to one link and hoping for the best Stan helps you create a smarter buying Journey and with order bumps someone can add something extra at checkout with one click if you are building a creator business this is the kind of thing you should be obsessed with like every brand founder is I'll let you in on one secret the top earners on Stan all do this sign up today to set up your funnels and order bumps and get started with a 30-day creator Pro trial at link.stan.store slash Maggie I love what you said you made a clip that was like here are the five things to stop doing to improve your self-worth and one really stuck with me specifically for my audience and it was underestimating your qualifications because women are actually less likely to apply for a role unless they meet a hundred percent of the qualifications men will apply for that role if they meet 60 percent and I think that's really important for my audience specifically because it's something I even did when I was starting my career like I was applying for senior director product marketing roles at Shopify when I was like 24 years old 25 years old obsessed it's just so audacious and I didn't even think that that was a problem but I often see this with my community is that they think that they need 100 of everything to even go there so I'm so curious for you as someone who obviously chased those resume virtues at one point of like having a doctor having all of those qualifications why was that one the first one that you listed in terms of improving your self-worth and just stop underestimating yourself I would say to people that you need to have the audacity of a man a white man specifically especially for black and brown baby girls the audacious because you know over the years as I said like I wasn't always this confident it's been a journey for sure it's been a journey and I really realized within this journey that being meek being humble being very safe and you know you don't want to tell people that it gets you nowhere nowhere it's a waste of time and actually those that are the most confident the most audacious even if they don't know get the furthest that's what I realized and so I realized that wait like I've already got the qualifications yes I could probably get more but are you going to be at uni your whole life like come on you need to stop someday right as long as you sort of meet that competency threshold what else do you need the rest is low-key like a popularity contest when you're being interviewed right and I think for me what also really helped me in the early days of building my confidence is that I would always sort of see it as a game that was a role that I had to play like playing this more confident sort of elegant woman and I guess after a while it just became reality I have been saving this question since you came on which actually feeds into playing this role you said at the very beginning the character I'm a character and I am fascinated with that what did you mean by that one of my techniques in life has been to sort of almost detach myself from myself to sort of externalize my identity from myself what I mean is that identity one is who I actually am the actual being in essence of UOMA and then identity number two is effectively the UOMA that I should show on social media the UOMA that turns up at work you know it's not that I'm being manipulative it's not that I'm faking it it's still me but it's to a degree of performance I'm dialing up certain aspects of my personality because it's a job I'm performing right if you do ever receive sort of criticism or negative feedback or whatever have you it's almost like it's that other UOMA that's receiving the feedback it's not me and so I never really feel like my true self is being attacked very rarely I feel like part of playing a character is like again what you show up like right what you look like and so I'm very excited to get into this part of the conversation because in the last solo episode that I did this kind of got taken into wildfire in an amazing way and I talked about something called wardrobe rage which is basically when you are getting dressed in the morning you feel like you can't be your best self because you can't find something to wear and it actually will very negatively affect women more than it will actually affect men and there's about 117 or 119 days in a woman's life in her career that she will waste just on deciding what to wear and I found a very interesting stat for the same state of which women go into for how much time they spend a day on their looks and it's 39 minutes a day which is almost two full years over your lifetime and at this show we talk so much about ROI and the return on time so let's get into this topic of beauty maxing improving your appearance what is beauty maxing for someone that's hearing that for the first time essentially maximizing the way that you look maximizing the way that physically you show up in the world it's not about transforming yourself transforming your appearance into a whole other face that personally is not what I define as beauty maxing it's very much leaning into your natural features and just dialing them up quite a lot so that's what beauty maxing means to me how does someone know what their natural features are very good question we can use my face as an example like what are my natural features it's funny I often get asked this question of Iroma what would you do to my face what do I need look at me tell me tell me and I'm always like you're beautiful you're great you're perfect you don't need me and I'm not lying but it's just the fact that I take my job my role as a doctor incredibly seriously and I understand that as a medical professional our words have weight I can very easily put an insecurity into someone's head that was never there I would say my natural features are my cheeks which everyone asks me are they real yes they are never had filler there I would say my eyes are actually a knack they're huge so what I've noticed when I get even glam done is that when someone accentuates my eyes and my cheeks and then my lips it starts looking like a clown because you're now accentuating so much on your face so for someone that's listening to this like how do they identify what their natural features are that they should lean into like is it the biggest parts on their face is it the things they like the most like how do they start identifying this it's kind of a blend of everything and also another sort of tool in recognizing that is what do you get complimented on the most that's another sort of way to go about it so I for me I often get complimented on my shoulders kind of genetic kind of the gym and so because of that I dress in a certain way where if I want to look my best the shoulders are going to come out right I think also you need to take stock of maybe the parts of your body that are parts of your external appearance that you don't feel as confident in you know that you feel like objectively maybe need a little bit of work or an area of your body or whatever that you'd like to improve but we're not aiming for perfection because perfection doesn't exist and also perfection clinically in accordance with clinical studies is actually really ugly so my sort of beauty aesthetic is I aim for like 90 perfection and then just the just a little bit needs to be off just a bit just a bit imperfect because actually it's that imperfection that makes the 90% look normal and look amazing what is the difference between beauty maxing and looks maxing what I've learned because again I entered this space this sort of beauty maxing space just solely focusing on beauty maxing standard appearance etc but I've now come to realize that actually looks maxing is sort of birthed in sort of an incel culture and all of the nastiness that comes with that but just to clarify I'm not talking about that it's almost like we're reclaiming something that is somewhat negative and making it positive right and also fundamentally what people need to realize is that we've always been beauty maxing we've just given it a new name so I'm like why are people getting offended and then even next of all I'm like darlings you do understand that this is my specialty my specialty is aesthetics and I've been doing this talking about this injecting my face you for almost eight years why are you surprised I'm the first person that will tell you you don't need this the response from people has been interesting it's been very triggering and I think and again I can only speak about the content I put out there right um and with all the content that I've put out with regards to beauty maxing it's very much been about me my journey my body my face nowhere have I told people that you need this right and so I find it incredibly strange that people if we're being enraged by what I decide to do with my body I also think that there's a part of it that relates to the money of how much it can cost to actually look your best and so I actually wanted to start with what are the ways that people can beauty max that are actually very inexpensive some of us weren't taught hygiene darling very basic but very important and that's everything from actually showering once a day I know you're looking at me Maggie like baby people don't shower people don't shower on that note people don't lotion the body needs to be lotioned and moisturized every single day if you can you know getting manicures pedicures grooming your like brows you know getting a lash lift whatever it may be investing in your hair getting it cut trimmed those are some of the very easy things that you can do one of the biggest game changes for me that relatively costed not much money was having a one-on-one makeup class because it's all well and good kind of following youtube tutorials but it's really helpful having actual qualified makeup artists talk through with you okay how can we start maximizing those features that we were talking about you know without looking clowny well is this where you think that things like swan beauty will actually do really well because it's like ai one-to-one it's you looking in the mirror and it telling you what to actually do again there's frozen cons and dangers to that for sure but you could argue it's a relatively inexpensive way to get a bit of what you need really that was actually my latest investment that I've never talked about yet it's a company called thea ai and it's essentially a cosmo dermatology ai layer an app that essentially takes pictures of your face uses ai you talk to an ai and if so right now I'm suffering from perioral dermatitis it diagnosed it and eventually the next phase is like telemedicine where it can actually get you the primarial cream or whatever primavolos cream that I'm on but I think that's because this personalization is actually really necessary so I want to play a fun game actually of like rapid myth busting or like what's worth the splurge what's not okay let's start mouth taping pass no okay red light face masks spend salmon sperm facials spend yeah yeah skin cycling yeah spend snail moosen spend it shouldn't cost you too much okay it's just a great hydrator masseter botox on the right candidate a thousand percent worth the spend retinol versus tretinoin 100 yes much prefer tretinoin why it's strong it's prescriptive and so you get maximum results however there is a propensity to get a lot of side effects with it dry flaky skin so if your skin can tolerate it it's going to transform your skin and make it look young forever let's talk about something that I often see on tiktok and I actually fundamentally believe in as a highly ambitious woman that has a lot going on it feels impossible to do everything so this whole routine of high maintenance to be low maintenance I love because even for me I remember when I first got keratin or like a smoothing treatment in my hair having very frizzy hair it actually made a huge difference to how quickly I could get things done in the morning so for you what is your high maintenance to be low maintenance routine every two weeks we need to be doing a manicure annoyingly my nails grow that quickly so the nail spend is quite expensive so nails every two weeks I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know maybe more during summer because your nails grow quicker and so on facial every month that's a must within that facial I'll get like a light chemical peel microneedling and led deep extractions and I just find that that helps to just give the skin a nice mot every month I love a brazilian lymphatic massage shout out my girl Klevia hey um love it keeps snatched you know everything you want maybe a lash lift if I'm feeling funky but I just use lash serums from time to time I love massages massages isn't quite sort of you don't get that outward payback but I just find not only does it just provide a bit of lymphatic drainage it also just keeps me de-stressed and then injectable wise because I'm not going to pretend that all of this is due to um water and 10k steps a day I've actually kind of slowed down with the injectables over the years I've learned that it's a marathon not a race and so you need to be very measured with how often you use them and I've learned that you do these things so I now maybe do my Botox probably once a year max two um slow down with the filler and instead I'm skiing towards biostimulators so things like Sculptra and I actually tend to do that in Korea yep she goes all the way to Korea to get her skin treatments and injectables may or may not get sedated when I'm there very normal in Korea by the way um okay I think that's somewhat comprehensive but there's probably way more that I do I know it but I don't want to I think they're fascinating yeah what about the basics of things like sleep nutrition water like is that important so important and it's actually one of the things that I vet for in my skin consultations because more often than not all of those things is the very reason why they're coming to me with the skin problem and I think people really do overlook the sort of connection and the link between psychology mental well-being and your skin they're absolutely linked and you know more often than not I have women coming to me in their 20s in their 30s and some of these sort of exacerbators or even triggers for their acne stress work you know workplace stress and it's crazy because I've even had some situations where you know my patients have left relationships toxic relationships and also sleep if you're not sleeping it's going to show eventually and whether it be through dark under eye circles just because I'm not sleeping I'm not sleeping I'm not sleeping I'm not sleeping I'm not sleeping I'm not sleeping I'm not sleeping I'm not sleeping what else smoking ladies why why why are we trying to kill ourselves no don't do it I know it looks cheeky and cool but so you can really tell when someone's like a chronic smoker heavy smoker they get sort of gray black skin changes around the mouth on the lips and that's a permanent sort of pigmentation just the skin overall instead of having like a healthy you know flushed glow it just looks pale gray lifeless um and then also typically that's when you start to see other skin issues like very dry skin or even breakouts too I think that's one of the most interesting things for me too because I think that we talk so much about beauty maxing and all the things that are very expensive but there was actually something that I just did that was two hundred dollars I'm not saying it's nothing but it fascinated me I did a buccal uh fat massage and my massage therapist talked to me this muscle right here the scm right sternocleidomastoid she said to me Maggie if these are tight it is going to drag your face down because your muscles are literally pulling at your face and so every single day I started massaging this muscle right here the scm and I've actually seen my face lift and this is a free thing that I am now doing with myself every single day with a gua sha and there are free things that people can do to improve their appearance that we don't talk about enough one of my favorite things about massage is that you can massage your face my most viral threads that I just posted was about that like name something under two hundred dollars that's completely changed your appearance what if you had to single out just a few things that people can do that are affordable under two hundred dollars that are going to improve their appearance and therefore the way that they feel about themselves what would those be the first thing that comes to mind that is under two hundred dollars and very easy to get in the states crest whitening strips what are they like 30 bucks in target so good like I've been using them for almost 10 years and every time I go to the dentist like how do your teeth so white why are you here coming to me for more whitening I'm like it's crest whitening strips and definitely in the UK due to sort of the limitations on the amount of peroxide that they can use during whitening treatments there's actually more peroxide in those strips than what we use professionally in the UK uh FYI but please use remineralizing toothpaste at the same time because if not it's gonna make your teeth very sensitive just word of warning so crest whitening strips can absolutely improve your appearance and your appearance and your appearance and your that you transform your smile. On that note of just sort of muscles, and as you mentioned, sort of the, you know, Santa-Claude-in-My-Stone sort of putting down on your lower face, even a massage gun, like, loves it. You know, you can get even like a cheapy one on Amazon. And that's something that I do almost every day. I tend to do it sort of on my shoulders, this sort of area, the back, just to help loosen up all the muscles sort of just below the face to stop that sort of dragging. And just to improve sort of, or even free up that tension as well, which can actually show up in the face. A facial can make a hell of a difference. Even just getting extractions once a month, if you struggle with sort of breakouts, oily skin, transforms the skin. As I said, it's just like a really nice reset every month. Dermaplaning is pretty cheap. I did a bit of dermaplaning yesterday. And that just helps remove sort of the peach fuzz on the face and provides a little bit of exfoliation too. Brows for me are another thing that can really make a transformative difference to the face. So what's that? 20 bucks at most, maybe a little bit more. As a doctor, when you see someone start and they go through that physical transformation, actually looking their best, how do you qualify what that patient's journey is from where they're starting to where they end up in terms of how they feel? Very good question. I think it's all about, first of all, patient selection. And what I mean by that is, are they fit to undergo the treatment? And that's specifically mentally fit. You know, I think dysmorphias of varying degrees are very common within the cosmetic dermatology space. And to a degree, it's expected. I think my personal opinion on it is where sort of you're on that sort of lower end of dysmorphia, but you have incredible insight into that and you can sort of rationalize and you're within reality. That's when I'm like, OK, I'm comfortable. But where maybe people that are on the other side of the spectrum, severe dysmorphias, obviously, number one, I need to point you in the direction of psychiatric, psychological. Help for sure. And I don't mean that in a mean way. Just this is very much a safeguarding thing. Are you doing it for confidence, for self-empowerment or are you doing it to appeal better to your boyfriend? That is not a reason to do it. You know, and it's funny because actually let me not get into it. But yeah, I just have a very funny story about, yeah, about that time of I said to my patient, I was like, and again, this is one of my regular patients. Right. So we've developed that rapport or whatever. And I was like, babe, I think you're here to help me. Because you're bored. And she absolutely just burst out laughing. And she's like, how did you know? Yeah, I'm bored. I was like, but this is not these are not procedures that you do when you're bored. And I know it feels like that. I know it's just like a bit of lip filler. But baby, no. Unboard yourself somewhere else, not in my clinical chair. Sorry, honey. And then the next sort of stage that I really urge and sort of put my patients through and something I say to everyone is at the start of your injectable transformational journey, you need to be very clear in your mind, what is your ceiling of happiness? That's what I call it your ceiling of happiness, you need to be very clear that okay, if I do x, y, z, address that thing, that thing, okay, then I'll be happy. And that is so important to be clear in your mind for the beginning. Because to a degree, these dreams are quite addictive. You know, more is more is more is more is more. You know, when people start with toxins, you know, often say that toxins are a bit of a gateway drug, a metaphorical gateway drug, it tends to not work. It tends to not work. Just stop there. And so if you don't have a handle on these things from the beginning, I mean, the results can be disastrous. So my bottom lip is real, my top lip, I actually have an injection in obsessed. And I was always very self conscious that my lips were very different sizes. And when I was about like 19 or 20, no one had any cosmetic work done. And I remember finding on like Craigslist, this Russian nurse, like a part of Toronto that I did not live in. I went and I got my top lip. And it has never gone down. And I'm now 34 years old. And I still do not know what was put into my top lip. At least she was a great injector because it still looks good and natural. But to this day, I have no idea what was put into my top lip. Because I think back then, it was such a hush hush space. And that's why I'm so glad that there are people like you who are willing to have the conversation in a safe way. Because then when I moved to LA, and I remember wanting to start getting Botox, I only wanted Botox right here. And the injector, the doctor was like, Oh, no, sweetie, you need it all in your forehead, because it actually won't work unless you unless you do it all there. And I remember being like, well, then I don't want it. And I left her office. And I was like, this felt like a red flag. So for you, what are those green flags and red flags when someone walks into an injectors office or clinic, where you can very quickly tell like, this is not the place where you should be trusting this provider to inject something in your face, because it is very serious. Well, first of all, I'm sorry about that. Bloody hell, the fact that your upper lip hasn't recovered. I don't know. You can feel it after. I will, hun. Sorry. Red flag number one, do not go to unscrupulous places or via unscrupulous sort of databases or whatever have you, websites, etc. Number two, make sure that you go to someone who's actually qualified. In the UK, unfortunately, the regulation is very, yeah, and so technically, anyone can kind of inject. Your lash lady can technically inject. It's not illegal here, which is crazy. And so it's really important that you go to an actual medical professional, a nurse, a doctor, etc, a dentist, etc. And you need to be very careful of the people, especially on Instagram, who use very vague language of master injector. Whenever I see that, I'm like, baby, what does that mean? That is cosplay for, or even code word for, you are not a medical professional. You are a baby girl off the street who did a weekend course in filler and is now calling herself master injector. So medically qualified people only. The third red flag would be a doctor who doesn't know how to say no to you. You really need a doctor who will say no to you because, you know, as I said, this realm can be very addictive. You want this, you want that. But you need to have a very firm doctor who can say, darling, no, we're not doing this. I'm so sorry. This doesn't look natural. I don't think this is going to be in the best interest of your face or the aesthetic of what you're trying to achieve. Because if you find yourself in the opposite hands, a doctor who says yes to everything, that's when your face will start looking like something else. Let's just say that. In terms of green flags, I would say a medical professional, an injector that you actually get on with. You know, I think we forget these soft skills. You know, you over the years, you will spend a lot of time with your injector, with your sort of practitioner. And so you need to like them. You know, don't think that just because they're a doctor or whatever, you have to tolerate them. No, like this is such an intimate space. And it's such a transformative space, not only just transformative for the face, but with my women, I have had such deep conversations about the baby girls have told me all sorts of things that obviously will remain very confidential. And so you need to be, or even find an injector who makes you feel safe. And then the second green flag, or this is a good one. Second green flag is, do you like the way that your injector looks? Very important. It's not always an absolute thing. I would definitely say that, you know, there's definitely some injectors who look a little bit less than natural, but are fantastic injectors. But it's just very important because if you like the way that your injector looks, by and large, you can assume that you share the same aesthetic. Commonality and aesthetic is very important with the person that you're getting injected by. You need to have to a degree, the same sort of ideal of beauty. If not, you're going to walk away incredibly unhappy. And then the third red flag would be, I would say reviews, reviews, recommendations. Has your girlfriend gone there? Has your mom gone there, et cetera? And have they all had good experiences? Especially if they're not an influencer, like just the person that's not being motivated to have a great experience. Exactly. Because even technically being an influencer, I do appreciate that a lot of establishments will give influencers better treatment. A few months ago, I come downstairs and Courtney is answering emails and chugging out of our olive oil bottle. I was intrigued, kind of disgusted, but very curious. So I started looking into the benefits. I found the most chic brand that fits into my hot, smart, rich life with olive oil shots from a rare Tunisian olive that's naturally really high in polyphenols, which are nature's best medicine that helps to naturally lower your inflammation in your body. 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It's wild to me that eight years later, multiple careers later, they are now a show sponsor. Their Undaria Algae Body Oil is one of their best products, clinically shown to instantly and visibly improve skin elasticity and deeply moisturize because it's made with Undaria seaweed, known to help skin feel firmer and more youthful. If you want to give this incredible oil a try, I have a special discount for my HSR Angels, 10% off with your first order with code HSR at OseaMalibu.com. That's code HSR at OseaMalibu.com. And let me know what you think. I was actually going to talk a little bit about skin products because I think that obviously there is so much on the market. It is so hard to know what is actually going to make the difference. But let's actually drill down to like ingredients. What are the ingredients that you think if it's in there, immediately skip, immediately skip? And are there ingredients that you like to see in very specific products that you will not use unless they have them in there? For me, I would say proceed with caution where there's sort of essential oils, fragrances. It's not an absolute thing. I would definitely say people are not necessarily aware that also the quality, of the essential oils and fragrances make a difference within formulations too. I can make a difference between whether they break you out or not. Also for me, anything that's like laden with oils, you know, plant oils, this oil, nut oils. I'm just like absolutely not because I have mildly oily skin. I struggle with acne in my teens, early 20s. So I generally do not use facial oil. I stay away from that. I'm also very mindful with sunscreens. Sunscreens are another common one that can really make people break out. So just be conscious of that. In terms of the whole mineral physical sunscreen debate, again, it's just kind of an element of trying and seeing what works for you. And then if you do sort of have any particular issues, trying to figure out if there's a particular filter within that sunscreen. In terms of the ingredients that I lean into and I'm like, give me more. Definitely any sort of retinoid. So retinoid is essentially the family of everything from retinol, retinal and tretinoin. I love a good acid. Some of my favorite acids include azelaic acid. Another great one for perioral dermatitis as well. I love hydrating products. So some of my favorite hydrating ingredients include, I don't know, hyaluronic acid, polycutamic acid, this Ebola, you name it. And that's why I particularly love K-beauty for that. And with all of this, like I think when I first started into really having to take care of my skin because I crazy hormonal acne was starting to get perioral dermatitis. It was so overwhelming. And so even thinking about like putting together a routine for you, like how can people really understand what is a routine? How do they even layer things? Like is it also personalized or what is like your go-to blanket when someone's like I'm just starting and I need a routine to look my mess of my skin? Yeah, very good question. So really the fundamental with any skincare routine is a cleanser, some sort of hydrating/moisturizing product and then last of all sunscreen. So that's kind of like the backbone, the skeleton of any skincare routine. And then in terms of what you layer on top of that, that essentially depends on your skin type or skin concerns and your skin goals. So you need to be very clear about all of those three things. And then that's when you start leaning into sort of certain products or certain actives that then address all of those things. And with that in mind, I find that the reason that people are so dissatisfied with their skincare routines or why they're not getting the results that they're hoping for is because they're not using the right ingredients for their skin concerns. They're using what's hot and trending right now on TikTok. And that is worth the spend if people are on a very tight budget to improve what they look like to therefore feel better on the inside. Okay, how much more money have we got to work with on a tight budget? Let's say we have $300 total. Well, beyond all the things I previously mentioned, that's when you could potentially, depending on where you're based, you could start foraying into the world of chemical peels maybe, foraying into the world of microneedling. I think it is the most unsexy, low-key boring treatment, but it's fantastic in terms of results. I swear by it. I love it. It's fantastic for sort of texture, addressing pore size, scarring, boosting collagen. It's just amazing. I feel like a really great place within your skincare routine to invest are definitely serums. Serums obviously are where you can get those sort of targeted treatments in. And so some of my favorite brands for that, that fall well within the $200 mark, include brands like Medicaid. I love Allies of Skin for their serums, so good. And SkinCeuticals. I would say those three brands are like the brands that fill up probably most of my serum shelf. It is alarming when you think about even the food industry of like what we are allowed to eat in the U.S. versus the U.K. Is it the same thing with beauty? For sure, in terms of cosmetics, we're a lot more sort of stringent in Europe compared to the States, unfortunately. And even, you know, speaking to the stringentness or even in many ways, dare I say, lack of innovation in the cosmetic space within the States. Just recently, you know, a new filter in like what, 20, 30, something like that, years, was just approved. And that's a shame. It's a real shame. Dr. Irwama, I feel like we've had such a comprehensive way to like really understand how to improve our life based on feeling good on the inside but also looking good on the outside. Is there anything else that you feel like we haven't talked about that you would want a woman to hear based on the conversation of improving their life and really achieving what they want? Super random, but I love listening to like the OGs of like self-development. Because I don't know about you, I find that like the self-development gurus of today are basically recycling all of the knowledge from the greats. But I feel like you hear at the core from these like old men. It's reminded me, or even a message that I heard through that, that I think would bode quite well with your community would be, yes, it's all well and good, sort of manifesting, praying for, working towards that hot, smart, rich life, but also pray, manifest, call in, work on the attributes, the tools, the mindset, the physicality, the grit that is going to get you there. Dr. Irwama, let's do some fun rapid fire. Let's do it. What is the last thing you put on your credit card? What I put? Probably Amazon. Super random. Love that. Is it same day delivery in the UK? No, we're so behind. What's the delivery time? Next day. Oh, that's fine. Okay. We're suffering here. What is the last most expensive thing you've purchased on your credit card? A little cheeky watch. What watch? The AP. You put that on the credit card recently. Well, technically my debit, but yeah. I'm obsessed. It was a dream watch actually that I put on my vision board. When did you get it? Couple of months ago. So I've wanted this watch for probably like two years now. And rose gold. I probably shouldn't flash it. No, I love it. I like being Demille with these things. I'm like, it's fake. One product you'd never leave home without? Lip balm, crusty, dusty, peely lips. Ew, no. Okay. Very off brand. What is the most overhyped skincare ingredient right now? I think what annoys me in the skincare space now is just like the faddiness of some launches. I'm like, you people are just launching stuff for the sake of it. Like, it's what I call TikTok skincare. It's like, we've got this already. We've had this before. But now there's glitter and different colors in it. Why are we doing this? What is a product to get rid of tech neck? Ooh, peptides, lots of peptides. Like injectables? Well, not those kind of peptides, guys. Okay. But peptides in terms of topical peptides. So again, Medicaid have a ton of different products for that. But any sort of peptide treatment, very anti-aging and help to sort of boost collagen, all that good stuff. Also retinoid. That's going to be great. And also just hydrating the neck too. A lot of the lines in the neck, not all, but a lot of the lines in the neck are just due to dehydration, really. Okay. What is the biggest skincare meth you wish would die? I think the first myth that comes to mind is black don't crack. Baby, it cracks. Ooh, some of the baby girls are looking way beyond their years. They're wearing the struggle on their face. Black can absolutely crack. Yes, genetics is very much on our side. But it is not an excuse for not looking after your skin. You can only pick one for the rest of your life. Body care or Botox and injectables for your face. This is tricky because I'm going to tell you about something after. So I'm like, do I give the PR answer or do I give the actual answer? Actual answer. Obviously, Botox. I just, I need it. Okay. What is one step people skip that they should absolutely not in their skincare routine? Sunscreen. It's very unsexy, very boring. If you haven't found the right sunscreen for you, it's kind of greasy. So hence, I absolutely advocate for using a sunscreen that you actually love. Like, we don't want to age beyond our years and sunscreen is the way to prevent that. Okay. So the last two. If you had to tell yourself an HSR love note for the rest of your life, what would it be? I'm really proud of you, Emma. That's what I'd say. Love that. And if you had to title the season of your life, what would it be called? First thing that comes to mind is the bitch is back. I love you. Dr. Iwama, if people want to follow you, what would it be? follow want to find you where can they find you and how can hsr help you well in terms of where to find me on instagram it's dr iwoma yukilege very long but just type in dr iwoma and you'll find me on tiktok it's skin doctor without the i i also have a youtube there are a couple of scammers impersonating me but if you put my full name you will find me um where else can they find me i have a sub stack called dear doctor what else what else what else also they can book a skin consultation with me and even a girl chat with me as i said i love to solve people's problems if you have a man that's stressing you out we can talk about it my availability is very limited but you know those are some of the ways that you can reach me love it and how can hsr help you i mean well maggie you know we're friends now i'm just saying yeah obviously i'm kind of forcing myself on you obviously we have for four years parasocially so now it's just in person i'm kind of fine girlie but i'm trying to play cool girls same that's why i love having this podcast now because it's like i get to meet people in real life whereas tiktok was just like by myself how can you help me i don't know i'm working on a great project are you fundraising soon to be okay i am i am very excited i think i'm ready to move into the next iteration of iwoma um i love the social media stuff but me being me i get bored really easily and you know it's funny um one of my influencer friends he basically calls you know promoting products on social media uh the equivalent of being a qbc lady and yeah i think i think i've done a fair bit of that and i'm like i think it's time to do it for myself and uh so that's what i'm working on addressing a white space within beauty it's very on brand for me love it we've got the skin out that's all i'll say love it there's a reason why skin always looks buttered up if any woman has very deep pockets out there and likes the idea of me after today come and invest in me baby i love it our first pitch live dr iwoma we love you thank you so much for coming on and i'm so happy that we had this chat likewise if you're starting a business there are certain things that are so fun to think about y'all know i love a mood board so everything that relates to the creative the name the brand the website the vision board but then there are the things that make you pause and ask am i even doing this correctly or do i even want to be doing this like forming your business getting the right documents keeping your personal information private this is where our sponsor northwest registered agent is so helpful they're a one-stop shop for founders who want to launch and legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral they help you form an llc or a corporation act as your registered agent and give you tools like a professional email and free guides they also have real corporate guides who know your local laws visit northwestregisteredagent.com hsr free and start using free resources to build something amazing get more with northwest registered agent at northwestregisteredagent.com hsr free