The Making of Reale Actives

We're going to make it a time cup so we're having our first board meeting. It's that same. Yes, it is. We're going full. Taylor's a snow. This is how I'm going to start showering. I'm going to show you. So this is my first time going to any type of lab like this. Or we do the more realistic this feels. Yay! Like this is so cool. This is going to be a change in the way people think about acne. This is all real. No pun intended. I can't believe I can officially say this but I am a founder and I am so excited to show you guys the behind the scenes of this process. It's been happening. I mean since summer of 2023 when I graduated college and I just decided that I would videotape the behind the scenes process because someday when this was going to come out into the world I wanted to show you guys just everything that was going on behind the scenes. So welcome to the making of real active. We're heading over to the imaginary offices right now. So this is going to be our first day of meetings. First day of like in-person kicking it off with the team. Kind of like an overall meeting today. And then we're going to be talking about products. And then tomorrow we're going to be doing our first creative meeting. So I made a bunch of Pinterest boards on like colors I like, don't like. And then I did branding and products and packaging. So I'm very excited for this. Here we go. When thinking about starting something on my own because it's been something I've been passionate about I honestly was kind of thinking more of like the makeup beauty space at first just because a lot of my content is around like makeup and beauty products. When I was kind of just going back and forth and talking about what really motivates me and the story I want to tell and the emotional impact that I have with my audience at all kind of comes down to acne and skin care. This was my skin a year ago today. And this is what I was posting on Instagram that same exact it. As someone who comes from a history of skin like this. I was like no one will see that I have a pimple on my face. I was like so adamant about hiding it. I just got a snapchat memory. This was my skin one year ago today. I was so down bad I never thought I would recover from this. My skin versus now. If I can post that online for millions of people to see then you can leave your house. A big thing I want to get through with this brand is just making it in perfect skin normal. I mean at this time I think I was scared of my own shadow. Like I remember just sitting in these meetings being so petrified to talk. And I really just had to like go in and believe in myself and share what I wanted to do and just lead the vision. I remember just being scared at this time in my life because I wasn't exactly sure I'd never like done something like this before. And it was really just about me expressing what I wanted. What ingredients had been working for my skin. What products I would want to see. What I want the brand to feel like. And starting to just have those overall creative conversations of how I wanted this to come to life. I mean this is my skin care routine now. And it doesn't feel like a fun viral product. It doesn't feel girly having it on my shelf. And I think a lot of people who struggle with skin care like we can never kind of walk into I feel like a Sephora. And it's like okay let's just like try any brand here and all the fun brands. And I want it to make skin care a little bit more fun and a little less daunting especially for people who struggle with their skin. And normalize in perfect skin at the same time as helping it and treating it. My problem with even if the brands are efficacious and medical grade products and great. Something about sometimes when I see them if they look too pretty or cutesy or what not that I'm like ooh like probably not as good as like those ones are. So I want to kind of like find the perfect bridge of those two. Like I want this to be able to be fun and talked about the way that make up products are so fun for people to showcase and use and share and talk about and recommend friends. I think the more that we can make it like having something that's sexy is something that people want and something that people aspire to be. So I think the more that we can kind of like incorporate that while incorporating the raw real authenticity of it all I think would be important. I'm going to rewind for a second and tell you guys how this even got started. Because before the September 2024 footage there's a whole year before this and from the very beginning I had a very clear vision of what I wanted for real Actives actually didn't know that was going to be the name they first told me real can never be a name ever like you are never going to be able to trademark that. So I went through so many other names like oh my gosh I can read some I have it in my video entry of this. I can't even tell you guys how many names I thought I was coming up with. There's solution 333, calmside, army, naked, portrait, like flaw, zit girl, it girl, fruit. There were hundreds of Google docs names and we eventually somehow we got the name real active and landed on it and it is perfect. We're going to be walking around the lab seeing how they make everything, how they concoct all the products and how it all goes. So then we're going to sit down and do our first round of sample testing products and kind of just giving feedback from the chemist on what we like, what we don't like, how we could innovate certain products. I'm very very excited for this. This is my first time going to any type of lab like this. We're ready to get to work. So crazy seeing everything in like a powder form. Yeah, I'm not doing this job. I'd be spilling and it's going to be everything is so accurate right here. That looks nice. What was it? The shape butter. I want to take a bite of that. This is so cool. I love a good assembly line. I'll get stuck on those videos sometimes. It's like an antique talk where it's like, wow. It's crazy. Wow. So like you guys saw the 10 kilogram come on here. Yeah. Then we'll bring it down here. Then we have this, there's 250, so 50 in the corner, 100, a 300, a 500, a 1000 and a 3 2000. So they'll take it off that lab bench and they'll come out here and they'll pile it. Because you're scaling it up. Because everything that mixes on there and you get down on the bench, they've got to do the same thing out here and make sure they create that same structure. And then they'll scale it depending on what size. So how fast did these go? Like how many can you get done in the next one? This will do, the two fillers will do about 15,000 a shift, 20 to 20,000 a shift. It's crazy. The other lines will do more like between like 8,000 and 10,000 a shift. We just did it. So it's exciting for you to see this for the first time? Yes. Pretty cool, huh? So these are all the raw materials in here. I'm taking a sneak peek like this is like a big jar of aloe vera juice. It says, which is just so insane that all these ingredients are in these massive big jugs. But then I was thinking like, okay, if I packed this in my travel bag, it would just twist open. The travel thing is like the biggest thing for me and like caps that will easily come off because all my caps on the music. Yeah, all the caps on the products I'm using right now, they're all gone and everything is a mess in my bag. I would freeze a cucumber and like before going out for like 30 minutes, I would rub the cucumber on my face. So it would kind of be like ice, but also like whatever is in the cucumber, it would be like calming my skin. So something of a similar effect of like that. So it's like calming the redness so that it doesn't feel as much of a chore to like go and cover it up with all this makeup because your skin feels good. I definitely would want to see how it looks on the face because there isn't really any of that like glow or doing this to it. But I don't think again, I think especially people who struggle with acne, you don't want sometimes it to be too glowy because you don't want to bring more tension almost. But I think like a post facial type of like cleanliness glow, I think could have a little bit more of that. Hi! How are you? Good how are you? Good, good to see you. We're back with another visit with Dr. Mion. It's February, 2025 right now. I feel like I'm making a time capsule. Oh, the fact that it's 2025 is still so rude. No, I know, it is. And like the fact we're gonna be doing this, 2026. When we talk about all these things, I'm like okay, so in forever. Obviously I've had my own experience with skincare and what's worked for me or not, but like I am not a specialist in this. You know, I don't know everything and I also don't know like the correct way to communicate it to you guys at times. I had a lot to learn and I wanted to make sure that we were creating products that were the best they could be for acne prone skin. So bringing on a dermatologist was a must for me. So that was also the next step. When we were looking for dermatologists, I was really looking for someone that I could get along with that I knew you guys would love as well. And that we could really create a partnership in this together so that they could come in with the ingredients and help me with the formulas. And just I would express what I wanted and they would be able to make it happen or just come up with different innovations for the products. And I ultimately wanted someone that I was gonna be able to create a close relationship with. That way we could come together, make content, present it to you guys. And I met with a few dermatologists and I met with Dr. Mia on first on Zoom and I think we had a few Zoom meetings and I just loved her vibe, she was so personal, she was also from a town close to me in New Jersey. So that was a plus. And she was just really invested in this brand I think for me because I've never done something like this before and built a company and hired a ton of people. I just was going off of who felt most invested in this story and this brand and this vision and who actually really believed in it. didn't it? It's much better. Yeah. This side is always worse. Always with everything on my skin. So they're actually little call me don'ts. Yeah. Tiny little call me don'ts. It's call me don'ts. We talked about last time clogged pores, right? So basically pores that get blocked with keratin or oils. So yeah, I think what happened probably is after the hydrophacial, your skin was very exfoliated, very open. So for now, we need to unlock those pores. But we need to do it in a gentle way so that it doesn't mess with your skin barrier. Our skin's job is to protect us, right? So if you use too many active and are too harsh with it, then it kind of freaks out the barrier gets disrupted. And I think that's what happened first after the hydrophacial when you broke out and those pictures that you sent me, it very much looked like in keratin contact dermatitis. Like where your skin barriers just like I need moisture, I need hydration, I need protection. I loved her to talk by the way where you were like having pores and texture is normal. Oh my gosh, they did me dirty with that lighting. They really did. I was like hey, can we not did it on purpose? No, but I was like the low angle with the side lighting is not doing me great. Thank you, Paige said. Did you see it before or no? No, I saw it and same time everyone else didn't. They were like what the fuck is wrong with her skin. And I was like hey, hey, look to her skin. Part of my secret special plan was obviously I was going to see Dr. Mion as my dermatologist, which she has been my dermatologist for the past two years to see my skin assess it, help me out. And then that would also help us with the line and formulating what would be really, really good to put out for acne prone skin. So I started a content series like coming with me to see my dermatologist in New York City so that you guys would be able to get familiar with Dr. Mion over these two years without me giving away anything or that I was starting my own skin care brand. Dr. Mion's role in real actives has been to really help with innovation when it comes to ingredients in the product. So I came into this knowing I wanted to create a mandalic acid serum. I had loved mandalic acid for my skin and I was like what can we add to make this different, make this better than the other mandalic acid serums that are out there and she'll help come up with different ingredient mixes that we can do like adding in synactinase which we weren't sure if it was going to end up working together just with the formulas but it is my favorite serum ever and it just has done wonders for my skin. And that's where having Dr. Mion on board is really, really helpful because she helps to innovate and just brainstorm ingredient stories beyond the ones I know that I already left. Outfit of the day for meetings in New York City. Basically I was supposed to have tights with this but I forgot them. So you know what? We ran a little crazy with going no tights. Alright, we're off. So it's April 30th right now, 2025. We're having our first board meeting. My first board meeting ever really sounds so big deal. We have our presentation that we're going to go over today and then we have some of the samples of our products. So we have like kind of mocks right now of what everything is going to look like. So we have our cleansing balm. This is our mandalic and this is our moisturizer, our cleanser. We're reworking right now so we don't have and then these are like the actual samples that we're using at home and we have some of the colorways over there. So we're basically meeting with the board today to go over everything and the brand how it's come together so far and our go-to-market. Yay! We didn't want to have the products be overbearing and as someone myself was obviously struggled with skin issues. I feel like at times you're just using so many active and breaking your skin barrier and actually not helping rebuild it. So still having gentle ingredients with our active in there and packaging that you want to have out on your counter. I think that was a really big part when we were designing the packaging. These were like the first renderings we got of shapes for our packaging so they would print out these sort of like prototypes of what the package could look like and what it could feel like in your hand before actually like creating it. So these were like shaved down things that they brought to us and that was cool to get to see the shapes for the first time because I was like I don't know what shapes I want these to be but I want them to feel like comfortable in your hands and I want them to look aesthetic and be cute on your counter. We had brand decks for hundreds and hundreds of pages of just different colors different ways we wanted to take the brand different sentiments for the brand different shapes different like a more clinical feel and more fun feel and then the color was just as we started to like delete slides like we would go from like 400 sides to 300 to 250 and as we started to get smaller and smaller I liked something in this like minty feeling. I just like the way that it felt like a fresh color but it also felt fun and I want to bring in more colors too with the brand I don't want it to be just this and I also love the way that this grain was with the metallic I just really liked the two of those together and that was ultimately the color we decided on but choosing a color was not easy. And then I think another big part of this brand is just being real and honest always and I think a lot of brands at times are afraid to say like don't use this if you're you know this age or whatnot and I think that's something that we need to be very honest about and I think can play into a lot of fun with the marketing in this brand and having younger siblings and just being honest like I wouldn't use this product on her she's too young and I think people could say like oh might hurt your sales and that whatever but I think people nowadays really respect that honesty from brands because social media and branding sometimes like a little bit of a negative spin on something I thought we're gonna be negative but I'm just saying like something like that would like catch someone's eyes rather than be like this is what I want to use like because anytime I see something that's like negative I'm like what is that I want to watch. I think this is like my sophomore junior year of college or something I was going out with my friend we were in an Uber and I was like I would love to like walk into a Sephora and just see like a campaign of someone with acne on their skin. I'm like everything looks so like perfect and smeared over and I'm like I can't wait to bring that to life it's gonna be amazing. It's really bringing a topic acne imperfect skin like it's gonna come ramming up to the front it's something that almost everybody has been dealing with and like Alex says and what she had to deal with was you know you try to suppress it you try to pretend it didn't exist becomes a major point of insecurity but it's gonna come I believe it feels like it's gonna come like ramming up to the front and it's gonna all the sudden become this big uh-oh moment that everybody has this if you're being real with yourself you know we're all admitting that we have it at some level and you know just dealing with it and owning it and confronting it I do think like when you look at this imagery there is a lot of like power in some of the way these photos were shot and if you could picture like the top left as like you know somebody with like imperfect skin and like just how powerful that would be just because my skin's clear doesn't mean I'm never gonna have a pimple again or I'm never gonna have a problematic moment and just embracing that like that's okay and like these are still good products I'm using whether my skin's in a clear spot or in a not clear spot and here's what I do to take care of it. I'm so excited about this it's something I feel like I could talk about forever like it I never get tired of talking about it every time we bring it up I get like chills and my eyes water I just it feels so good and just want to thank everyone. The other crazy thing about this is I feel like we didn't really end up changing the products and what they are from when we first started like we knew we wanted to have a bare bones routine. For me I've always felt like skin care has been so complicated especially when putting together a routine I never understand it I hate having like 30 different products where I just don't know what to use I don't know in what order to use it's just it's a confusing area I think we will create new products down the line to add into the routine but I wanted to give a simple four step routine that everyone can use for their skin and it just makes sense from start to finish. I knew that I wanted to have a really really good makeup remover because I'm someone who wears makeup all the time and I also love waterproof mascara. I always loved cleansing bombs but my problem with them was that either felt like super super greasy and heavy or it would feel like I had like Vaseline on my skin or I would like go blinded by the cleansing bomb and I couldn't see because it was getting in my eyes so we created this cleansing bomb that's super light it is an oil-based cleanser obviously so like dissolves like so it's gonna get rid of the oil-based products on your skin and it just washes off all your makeup so beautifully that at the end of it you're left with just like a bare fresh face and it's the first step in our double cleansing routine. I knew that I wanted a cleanser that felt really soft and comfortable on the skin because as someone who's just struggled with acne my whole life I feel like every product tends to feel really really harsh or even exfoliating cleansers you feel those little like balls in them and I used to think like scrubbing my skin all was great but now I learned that being a little bit more gentle with my skin works a lot better than we have our Mandelic Acid Serum which is my favorite I love it I cannot live without this like I will notice such a difference in my skin if I use this or stop using it I love Mandelic Acid because it is a gentle exfoliant for your skin but it exploits the top layer of your skin and it's really really good for texture and it has helped me with my acne over the years and we wanted to innovate with this product because we don't just want to replicate something else that's already out there and package it different and put it there for you guys but we paired it with synactanecy and so the good and bad thing about this is good synactanecy is really really great for cleansing your skin clearing it going into the pores cleaning it out but it was really hard to formulate with the Mandelic Acid because the two just weren't mixing well together so this has never been done before and we honestly got through this process and we weren't we were gonna be able to put this product out because there were times where it was so sticky, it was a glue, our chemist and lab were able to somehow make it work, make it come to life, and it's the best formula together, and my skin loves it. It also leaves you with a nice glow. I love that from Assyram, and I just really, really love this product, and I'm so happy that we were able to make it work. So we went through many rounds of testing these products, me taking notes, everyone would send notes, I would have my friends try them. I really wanted a moisturizer that just left your skin feeling like you just left a facial. You have that like glow tier skin, you have that healthy look tier skin, and I always felt like that was something that was hard for me to find with acne prone skin because anything that like gave me a glow felt like there was pore clogging ingredients in there, and it just felt super heavy on my skin. So with this, we actually did so many rounds of going back and forth with the moisturizer. It was just so hard to get the texture exactly how I wanted it because it is a water-based moisturizer, but we wanted it to feel hydrating, but light at the same time, but also leave a shine, but not leave a greasy finish. So there was a lot of rounds of this where like I would put it on and just like keep rubbing my finger on my face just to see how it felt and like could my finger slide or like was it feeling waxy. Okay, new sample it is April 2025 right now, so I wanted them to make it later because I just felt like it felt a little waxy on my skin. It just smells like natural. Okay, already this is a lot, a lot like later than the last one we had. I already like this one so much better. Do you see like the nights glow? I would try this moisturizer so much that I forgot what moisturizer was supposed to feel like, so I would order from like Sephora, like 10 different moisturizers, and I would put them on different parts of my face and like just see how they looked, see how they felt, like wait, go to sleep, wake up with them. I mean, I was like a freak trying all these products, and now it's printed out on a bottle with our logo and our colors, and the shapes we designed, like that to me just felt surreal to see. I had to cancel due to my mental health. I said I need to put myself to bed, although now I'm like I need to go. Yeah, wait, what is that? Charlie X-X, what is that? So wait, are you kidding? I think I live under a rock. Charlie X-X, it's some like Charlie X-X, like sounds familiar. I don't even like know what's happening right now. Is it, um, is it first? Come on, you know Charlie X-X. I can't sing. Yes, you know. Brat? Brat? Oh, Brat Summer? Singer. Yes. Yeah. Who's a artist? Yeah. Got it. Okay. That was so bad with me. That's really scary. The little bumps have gone down since last time, which is good. The cystic acne, although I was just coming off my period started to pick up a little bit. I'm starting to get. Yeah, on your neck. Like on the neck, which is weird and down here. Yeah. It's definitely like the overall texture is a little better. And then how many times a day are you using the. And Della? At night, once. Okay, perfect. How are you liking it? I'm liking it. Um, I was feeling it was a little sticky, so we're going back to the thicker formula that I didn't test out, because that one never got to me, because then this thinner one came through. Mm-hmm. But it was like just a little sticky where I was like putting my hand like on my face, and I was like this is not like comfortable. It wasn't like I was like I'm sticking to my pillow right now, but it hasn't been as sticky as it was that night, so I think it was like in combination with something else. That was on my skin that made it extra sticky, but I just don't want us to have that tackiness ever. Yeah. So I am going to test out the thicker formula that's a little sticky, which we'll see. I got a facial yesterday, and my dermatologist was like please try not to wear makeup for the whole weekend, because you really need to like let your skin heal, because I just I always like do things or treatments for my skin, and then I like pound makeup on, because I'm just like going to a million things. So I was planning to go out tonight with like no makeup on my face, if you've ever struggled with really really bad acne before, it was just taking me back to like high school when I was like in my basement, and like my friends were about to come over, and I like kids with all my plans, and I was like oh I don't want to go out, like I'm just not feeling it anymore, but it was because my skin, I hate that it controls your mental health so much. There is no need for it too, because like my skin's like not even that bad right now, like yes there's red bumps and marks everywhere, but like this is like good clean skin. We're doing the no face makeup tonight, and honestly I don't know why I was freaking out yesterday. We are feeling good. I don't know the last time I've like gotten ready, and have not put face makeup on, now we need to go up even more, I make us super late. Right when we started to test out products and stuff, it was sort of at the perfect time, it didn't feel perfect, in the moment, but I was having another flare up with my skin, where it just wasn't looking good, it was acting up, and this was the time to put the products to the test, like okay is my skin going to be able to clear up from these products, or am I going to just keep struggling with acne, and this whole thing is a waste of time. But over the next few months I use these products, and by the time even me, my skin was, this is like month later, my skin looked so much better, like significantly better, so that was just shocking for me, and over the summer, over the next few months, my skin continued to clear up until we got all the way to August, my skin was looking great, like the best my skin has ever looked in my entire life, and that for me was crazy to see. It's like do we want a secret stunt, do we want a not secret stunt? Yeah, I like the idea of a secret stunt, just because like I feel like I don't really see that done often. No you don't. How do we make sure that this becomes like a social phenomenon, like everyone on TikTok's like in real time updating this, like why are they gonna care? You know, besides like if I show this video or whatever, but like how do we actually make it something where everyone's like we need to figure this out. But we make it so confusing, but also so painfully obvious at the same time, like I'm at this point using products, everyone's like she's launching a skincare brand. Taking off my makeup that was put on at 7am, and it's 11pm. Gotta get this makeup off, because I started getting my makeup done at 6am this morning. I'm getting ready with me from Dancing with the Stars week 5, and I do some life updates and just get you guys up on everything. It was a little bit of like straight dilution coming off of yesterday. Got my extensions out today, and to my surprise, I have a lot more hair on my head than I thought. I'm staying at a house with all my best friends right now. I have never felt like I needed to do my skincare shower for my entire life. We're going full tailored so smell, right? Yeah, I know. So at this point in August 2025, this was a really exciting day for me because we got to do a big brainstorm session in person, and we had our CEO there, we had our head marketing, and we got to talk about launch, and how we were gonna bring the relatives to life, and bring it to you guys, and start to tease everything out there. The thing I love about this team is they allow me to also have my crazy ideas, because I'll have ideas in my head, and I'm like, this definitely like can't even come to life, and I think the thing about us is like, we'll all push each other and be like, oh, we can definitely make this happen. So this was really fun to get to storyboard everything out for the launch, and how we were gonna create this puzzle piece vision, and how people were gonna find the puzzle pieces, and how we were gonna get these puzzle pieces delivered, and then start teasing the brand, and then announce the brand with a video, and we started even mapping out like one of the brand videos we wanted to make. It is crazy to look back and see how we were able to bring this all to life. I also, at this time, was really stressed, though, because I was going to LA, I was gonna do dancing with the stores. I knew I had to be in makeup every day, dancing, sweating. I was really unsure if my skin was gonna be able to hold up, because throughout the course of my entire life, my skin has never held up with anything ever, so I was really nervous going into this experience, like, okay, if my skin breaks out and it just is a whole disaster, then like maybe we can't launch, and I don't know what we're gonna do then. And that was the craziest, most shocking thing, and I feel like just such a true testament to these products is my skin held up great during dancing with the stores, and I was doing an unget ready with me after every show using all the products to show you guys, and like sort of try to hint the routine, but I was able to maintain my clear skin. I mean, my skin's never gonna be like 110% perfect, like even now I'll have a blemish here there, like, bumps, whatever it is, but that's just, you know, the reality of things, and I've learned to just embrace my real skin. And this is like to test how to exactly to put it together, how to stream [BLANK_AUDIO] line it, what we need to do to improve packaging assembly, all of that. And then send down the assembly line to be boxed up. It just doesn't sound like real. I know. It gets happening. I know. Alex, we're making the bottle like a bottle inside a bottle, so this one's broken open. But essentially what will happen is when it's inside here, this whole bag collapses, so you can get all the product out from the inside. I'm obsessed with packaging products. I know. Me too. It looks amazing. And I actually, the functionality is so cool with the locking mechanism and the fact that you'll get so much of the product out of it. Me too. No problem. Have a good day of dancing with the stars. Thank you. Bye. Bye. There were a lot of moments that it got really hectic during the fall with continuing to build this brand and really get it ready for launch while also having like the busiest schedule dancing ever. So there were times where our CEO would be at the lab and she would FaceTime me and show me like the updates and the process of everything. But I was simultaneously getting everything here and just still testing and seeing everything. This one has a little bit of movement to it. I swear this one's stable. If this just came down a little more, slightly more ergonomic. This I guess is the question. Like when it gets low to like turn it, I guess you have to like manhandle it from up top. And preparing our campaign shoot or launch videos like all of that was going to start the second that I ended dancing. So it was a lot to balance both during the time, but it's also what I've been doing always. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Looking forward to this. Me too. So if you ever need to just lay down. Perfect. Let's just put you in there. We have some. We have some. Oh, good to see you. Nothing like a little stomach virus or food poisoning. I think it might have been food poisoning. But I don't know if I've ever had food poisoning. And my sister was like, you're being dramatic. You're being dramatic. And I was like, can you just please bring me like a trash can? Yeah. I'm like, I'm sweating. I don't feel good like to the bed. She brought it to the bed. And like it was just not from that point on. Like I reached over and like ran to the bathroom and it was like, I don't stop. Everything in my body was coming out. I'm so glad you were able to get an IV. And then I farted in my pants. Shut the fuck up. In her bed. I was like, I can't keep anything down. She was like, you have to try it. And then I was like, trying to sleep. And it just peed out. It's another thing on her bed. It was a disaster all the way. But I was like sitting there shaking. I almost got an IV at like two, 30 in the morning. Because you're like, I'm dehydrated. I was like, I have to get up at 5.30 for this. And I was just panicking because I'm like, this like couldn't be the worst virus. And a photoshoot. Do anything. I'm like, this I need to use my brain. I need to be awake. I'm no sleep. And at least now I'm mobile. Last night I was like, curled up in a ball and couldn't move. Leave it to me. To one, have the idea to do this like completely nude photoshoot. And two, for me to get food poisoning literally two days before. And the first time I'm ever going to be doing any press about this brand. Talking about the brand. I can't explain to you guys the fear that I felt in this moment. I'm nervous to talk about this. The brand of launching is called Real Actives. And it is an acne first skin care line. It was really important to me that I wasn't just starting a company or another celebrity-led beauty line just to do so. And that there was actual meaning and purpose behind it. And at the end of the day, all I kept going back to was acne. And that story and wanting to solve this white space here where I felt like there was no fun in the acne space. Or nothing that felt sexy in the acne space. I just think it's an emotional journey for people at times. So this was really, really special to me. I've been sitting on this for a while. So I'm excited that I can finally talk about it. But it feels wrong to talk about it because I feel like I've been keeping a secret for so long. It's still a great job when you think about the stars. Thank you. Did you watch? Yes. I'm a big, like, dance show fan. You can dance at the stars when watching for years. No way. It was really fun. I heard it's like a great stage for everyone who's gone on the show. It's like changing. It really is. But thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I'm not worried. Well, or I need a coffee. Even if I shit my pants, I need a coffee. That was your first time ever talking about the product. I know. I got so shy. I said, whoa. I was holding it and I was like, oh my god. I know. This feels illegal right now. My first beauty memory is probably when I did dance when I was younger. And full of cut, like, skills. I was trying to learn how to, you know, apply a smokey eye and being in middle school. I think from also that age as well. I started struggling with acne. That was a big thing where my mom would help me, like, cover up my skin to go to school and middle school. But I went to a Catholic school, so we weren't supposed to make up. And I always gotten in trouble. So I started to dabble in beauty earlier than maybe some of the other kids' age. I could never find the right solution, whether it was medicine or skincare. And I just felt like throughout high school, especially. I was constantly comparing myself to the other girls. You know, girls I was friends with, like, why does their skin not look the way that mine does? Or do I need to switch my birth control? Like, is that gonna help me? And I went through so many different things and so many different doctors and processes and products. And I was going into college and I just went through a spell where I had acne worse than ever. It was cystic acne all over my face, all over my neck. And I just felt so insecure. The doctor had suggested acutane, and that was my first time experimenting with it. But it was also something scary because it's also a very, like, serious medication. And can have a lot of side effects and I wasn't sure how I was going to react. So that was the first time I went on it. I went off of it six months later, it came back, so I did another round. And then I think that round ended up getting messed up with something. I didn't feel the prescription on time. It took a test every month. It was the most mentally exhausting process trying to just get to that routine. That process I started to vlog and talk about because I just felt so beaten down. At that point that I had to do it again. And I didn't understand what was wrong with me. So I started posting about it. And then that is what kick started my career online. It's something that I personally wish existed when I was growing up. And I'm really excited to put that out there. I think my biggest thing is to be patient with yourself and with your skin. Because they're just points where it's not going to be perfect. And it's not going to be perfect overnight even using the best products that you can. So you have to just be patient with your skin and learn to love your real skin. And real you is perfect you. It's kind of our mantra. And that means that you're having some imperfections or friendness or textures or pores. It's a beautiful thing. The moment that you can accept those imperfections is actually when I personally start to see imperfections. I love that. Hey, Phil. Hello, Rosie. I think now I've decided it might have been the sugarfish. Yeah, so sad. I have to blast Jake's song, you know it. Sugarfish, you made me sick the worst part is you know that. Sure, but she's on a shit list right now. It's alright, yes. One more. One more. Beautiful. When did real actives start feeling real to me? I think the first time probably that we got this packaging in person. Like I was able to see the name real actives printed out on packaging holding it in my hand. Like that to me, I was like, oh, like this just started as like a little note in my notes app on my phone. Like real, I like this name. I want to, you know, build a company with the name real. And I was printed out on a bottle with our logo and our colors and the shapes we designed. Like that to me just felt surreal to see. I like keep wondering what you guys are thinking while you were like sitting there. I was like this. And I was just like giving a heating pad that was like it's just so cold outside. That was so good. Or it might speed on your face. It's some pepped up ismol. I don't know. You literally can't even tell. It's hard to make a vlog this morning and I go because I was like perfect having puked in two hours. Like we're back and I'm like we're shooting our launch campaign for real this week. It's December 2025 right now. Like, da da da da da. And then I started approaching my teeth and I almost vomited. I mean you can see here. I'm like so ghostly pale. And we are doing the whole launch for real activists this week. So a press day, two photoshoot days, website videos. Oh no. Oh my god. And then the fact that you were like grasping the phone to stop the video. I was like, oh god. So you've talked for the last like four and a half hours to people about this brand. It's actually very easy. It's really easy for me to talk about. I feel like it's a tease for you though. Okay, well I've got to start dropping some more hints because these people out here. You've reached into that cleansing balm. You've got recently. I reached in the tube and I said someone asked about it. Okay. I'll just shove it in your face. I'm going to pull up the green tubes. next. week. I'm like so ANZ. Also just think that you haven't talked about this and it's been you like literally have in your phone since 2023 where it's like you really talk about everything so it's like I know I'm a fan of you. Why are you like how do you do all this stuff and it's like oh man I don't know you have no idea. Everyone's like why are you so busy I'm like why are you so busy I don't know like I can't tell you actually I'm so like excited to tell them I was lying to them for so long. You use this product every single day. Yeah I don't use all this stuff. What are you using every single day that you're asking us this question? I mean I was like wait so you use this? No no no I know sometimes when people make products or they don't necessarily use all of them or yeah this is the only thing I've been using on my skin. All of us. Literally I'm sorry the whole entirety actually any person who can get their hands on it has been using it. What was that experience like building a brand from scratch? It was one and really big learning process for me because as I'm trying to build and create something I'm also trying to learn how to do that kind of taking it step by step having a startup it's been so rewarding and just seeing even looking back to the summer we had different pillars for things we had different shapes for other things and just seeing how things have changed and evolved over the past few years has been really really amazing and I think it's also about having a great team on board and looking to create the best product the best looking product. Yes she eats mmm this is a good sign. Yeah it's really so you're feeling better. I think I'm feeling better. After one nine hours of speaking to people today about this brand it's the first time you've gotten to do that any new forms of excitement or yes I actually feel like very very excited for this because I think this proved I can just talk and ramble for hours about this. I think it was like a little scary for me at first because I haven't really talked about it to other people or like shown the products and just even calling the products by like their names isn't something I've been doing so I think that in the beginning I was like whoa this is all real. No pun intended. It got me really really excited about the brand and I think just like seen even the like genuine excitement from other people hearing about it and I think hearing the message and feeling excited to try it out for themselves makes me really excited. It definitely feels like it's happening. It feels real and now we get to shoot the campaign which is also crazy so I have to go home and fix my stomach issues for tomorrow and I'm excited to get in that big pool that we built for this and dance in the rain. We've got to get you into glam yes because you're doing set in an hour and we've got a lot to get done. Yes. It's giving mermaid a little bit of a pull. Yeah we can start there if it's too crazy we'll cut a tiny hole and then you can actually I'm very excited. I'm like nervous because I feel like this has been very long-awaited but it honestly looks better than I could have ever imagined down there. The set's insane and this concept I came up with a while ago and I was like I feel like we should just be in water build a human shower and our slogans kind of like show your real skin and let show some skin so we're going to show some skin today but first we're starting just coming back from a night out. This is crazy. It's sick. And then what happens if I need powder? Is the water cold? No I'll be here. How cool. Are you worried about that? It's a little but I'll be freezing. What? Oh okay. Are you okay? Let's do some off. Well that one great. What's this on in a skirt shower? Yeah. And then just have the head tilt it up slightly. Yeah. Yeah. Action and bring on. Yeah that's fine. It's going also to sell product. How are you feeling with everything? I love it. It's just so cold. I think the back sounds like brighter and more behind the forehand. The body is righty. Yeah that's nice. That's great. A little jelly. I got the blow dryer. Yeah that's coming from my jaw. And you said a beauty is pain. No it's Tyler. With how the shoe is going and all the images and everything that you've seen so far and then you're original creative. Do you think they're nailing it? It's like exactly what I had in my head plus even better actually. I think the shots that are yet to come will be of my favorite. I probably was telling me there's like a story and like progression of everything with how we're shooting it. So like that's basically like I came back from the night out which is kind of when I had the dresses on. Denny shower. These next shots are going to be more like dancing in the rain. Having fun in the shower with my skincare. I just was trying to have fun right there and I think it wasn't working because I was freezing. So we're going to redo the having fun in the shower. Just want to make sure we get everything we believe. And then then the tall one, then the silver then. And I'll start to prop up your upper body out a little bit before. I don't know if we're going to go on our way there. So then once she starts moving them you can't probably can't go. Good. Pull out of it. This is your moment of truth. Three, two, one, go. Let's do another one. There's a few more splashing from the water. What do you think you want to go? So we set the hair, go. Okay, slap her a lot now. Like big waves of water, big huge waves. I've flown down. Yeah. How are you feeling? I'm feeling great. Maybe like more water and then you see her in the back. Everyone, that's a wrap for Tywin and Glenn. We're going to go for the strike. First you've done. That's a wrap. I'm so excited. Oh, cold. Oh my gosh. Did those curves? Everyone's going to say how did she get all those products? Hello. One of my biggest things for this campaign and any campaigns that Reluctive is going to do is no retouching photoshopping on the skin. Like it needs, yeah, I want to see pores. I want to see the hairs on the side of my face. I want to see acne. Like I do not want to do any retouching on the skin. So that was a non-negotiable for me with this. So we did some like light eye makeup. We might have done like a tiny bit of like concealer under my eye for this and then for the most parts. Like we just had my real skin out and about. I love the idea of these completely bold sexy pictures and then you can look and be like, oh, but maybe the skin's not perfect when I really look there. But like that's the last thing I would notice and I want that to be the same sentiment with this brand. It's like your skin shouldn't be the first thing on your mind and what is scaring you from going out into the world and living your life. And I feel like we did a really, really great job at making that come to life with this campaign. Like when have you seen an acne brand? You know what I mean? I'm just like, this is so cool. I like this look at this. Great for it. She's calm, cool, collected. I'm like, don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes. Oh, they're close already. Open in three, two. She knows. She knows. Right. Open. No. I really like this. Yeah. I like that you can see like the texture on the skin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When thinking of how I wanted to bring relatives into this world and launch and just set a vibe with it, I was very, very persistent on like we needed to have something sexy and just out of the ordinary for an acne skin care brand. Like I didn't want anything that felt like the cheesy like in the bathroom photos and videos, which are great, but I want this brand to be something that changes the way people feel about the imperfections on their skin and can resonate acne with confidence and sexiness. And so I thought like what is more confident than being nude? And I loved the play on just showing your real skin and obviously you know, you're showing skin when you are a little bit more nude. So I just, I loved it and I knew maybe like people wouldn't get it or people would be like, what is this or why is this something she's doing for like an acne brand, but I also wanted that to be the point. Like I want it to be and feel so different from anything you've seen from a skin care brand before. So I really wanted to like push the boundaries there. And so then I'm when I started. pulling mood boards of like photography and different things. I love the idea of dancing in the rain because you're making something beautiful out of maybe a shitty situation. So that's how this like rain waterfall concept came to be. I was like you know what of it's me like not even and it also could play as like a shower whatever but like you're there just embracing your real skin dancing in the rain being happy feeling sexy and like yeah there's a few pimples on my face and like who cares. Just relaxing. I'm trying to deep-low a little and get ready. How are you? I'm so excited. Thanks for having me. You relax. You let me know when you're ready to take a test but we'll probably be ready about five to ten minutes. Cool. So yeah let's try this. We wrapped it a little bit more. We wrapped it. Is there any difference in today like wrapping for today than like yesterday? Honestly I'm hungry and I can't thank right now. Yeah I mean I don't have to prepare to swim today or like walk into that good. Today I think it's just more of the focus to just really be on the face and the skin and springing that to life with me and I'm excited we have other models too just to like make the brand come to life. More like I left yesterday feeling so excited and it was just so surreal seeing like the products just in real life being photographed. It just like made them feel more realistic to me like I just kept feeling like they were like print out of like what we had created and put on all these power points and everything so inside it to see it in the real life. This is a little bit more realistic than me like sitting under a waterfall for my everyday life so I'm excited to see it in that world. I want to make sure I have an eye on everything and to say on everything and even we just went over the lighting and I'm like the more that I feel like usually photographers and everything it's like the more that you know glowy and smooth everything can look but I'm like I would rather be able to see the real skin and the texture and the pores because that's the purpose of this so I just want to make sure that that shows throughout this I wanted to be cool girl but still like fun confident and bold so it's a fine line but keep an eye out. Oh this this angle Alex yeah wait I love that eyes at me. Holy moly yeah yeah yeah this is the angles. I love I love that lighting the texture on the sides and everything I love because that's just like a part of my skin and I feel like you don't see that often in photo. I like that is I think it's so tough. Do you want to mark some favorites? Oh yeah my skin feels so weird I don't happen you look you look cute. Do I get it? Before we do the more like realistic this feel is that it's happening and I'm just like oh my god I like that one a lot. I think God my skin broke out this week. I just don't want to do too many smiley where it's like too cheesy. That's like what I don't want. Like more cool. Not like there is like we're like taking off the strap with it too or something cheeky just uh everyone's like dipping into it. Eyes at me hold it close yeah yeah yeah okay now we have four power. The more that you guys just be your natural selves and cool and fun with it I feel like all of these are great references so I'm very excited. I think I just like perfect. Your facial expressions I'm like okay so that's what I was trying to do and I can't do. Anything that feels natural to you of what you would do having fun with the girls feeling like your most hot self. I just want people to feel like they see these like hot beautiful sexy photos and they see real skin and they're like okay I relate to that and like I shouldn't be ashamed. That's so insane. So I would just want to change the way people think about imperfections on the skin and I want it to be like something that you're like not afraid to do. Yeah even coming into this when I was told like what I was setting photos in my skin I was like this is so vulnerable for me but it's good for me you know because it's like why should I feel so? No but I was tearing up just like looking at all of our photos and I'm just like it's gonna just mean so much to everyone because like I know when I was younger or even now like that would mean so much for me to see so I'm just so excited. Yeah it's very exciting yeah definitely one of the girls on set said to me that she was shocked she was able to get a job right now because of her skin and the way it was breaking out like that to me just meant the world that we were able to do this and I think like hearing from the girls that we were shooting with that like this was really cool for them to do. Just made me have chills right now and speaking about it but like it's just so cool to get to bring this to life and to hopefully just make a change. How about post like way upside down on the chair with like I just really want to rotate it or if your head's coming off so like you're fever. But it's just like the more like candidly like fun I think reads really well. You want to try that? Yeah okay. I'm just having you guys a part of this is so special. Thank you so much for having me like my baby and just going to the world and I'm so excited. Second for one food. Do we like this straight on too? I feel like I like it but they feel up doing it. I don't like the way I look at that but I will work on it. I just want to find what looks like not to grow best sitting talking to my bathroom. I like the texture. I like that one too. Yeah that's nice. I feel more candid. Yeah. I love the chin down. It's great. Hold that energy. You're so right. Thank you very much everyone. Cheers to everyone who was a part of this acid. Thank you to everyone. You kept us all in line and you kept your cool even when we were running a little behind. He said just five minutes left and you kept the ship running and truly everyone. You just want to be possible without you and I'm just so happy and so lucky that I get to work with such amazing people and this is just the beginning just just great one to the beginning. I'm thinking about this all day. I literally DC what I did. I literally walked into all the content. I'm like they all takes are going to be me. So shoots are done. Oh it is chocolate. Well who said you can't have two croissants when it's your big day? How do you feel both shoots are over. I'm so excited. Like it's such a big weight. What did I off my chest? It's so well I think. I hope absolutely. I hope people like it. And you have one more thing this week or multiple. It's just a meeting tomorrow or what? We have our board meeting tomorrow. Basically we have a big presentation and we'll go update everyone on what's been the latest and I'm very excited. So we get to put on like business girl mode tomorrow and share all the good news and photos. Do you want to see your guys? Thanks. So good to see you. Good to see you. There's been a lot of changes since last time and I feel like the best why we finally got our team together and started going. And I think for me the biggest thing is keeping my skin intact during dancing with the stars was like a true testament because I actually was very scared about that with like dancing, sweating every day, wearing makeup and everyone was always asking me like how did your skin stay intact and stay clear. And it was truly just these products. It's all I've been using and I keep having these moments of realization where I'm like well shit these are my products and like this is happening and we had a great week with our shoots. A really cool moment was because of course I've like gifted and you know sent the products to all my friends but I went to Miami with them last weekend and I went in the bathroom and the real products were there and I was like did I like unpack my stuff? Yeah and they were like oh no like this is our stuff we brought which just makes me so happy that they're you know not using it and trying it but they're traveling with it you know so they can be traveling with something that means you really like it. So I'm just really really happy and excited and we've got nothing but great reviews. This is going to be a change in the way people think about acne and skincare in general. So I feel like it's going to take a lot of storytelling and us just continuing to put that out there and hopefully can kind of be the force of a new change in the way people think about it. It's been a really fun lens to like hold up everything that we do and be like is this fun enough. You know we've done it a ton of different times where like does this feel too sleepy does this feel too sad does this feel too like one want I want to go crying the corner and it's been a really interesting nugget for the brand to constantly think about how much fun we're having with imagery with coffee with all of that because I mean the products are amazing but the major point of difference in this brand is like celebrating the real skin and and giving everyone permission to just like go live your best life with your real scan. The community building of this brand is going to be really really fun and really important for us as well because I think it's going to be something that so many you know young girls lean on to for that sense of confidence so I'm really excited to get out and activate and just talk to girls in real life and meet them because I think that's been a really special part of my personal brand so far and it always just makes me really happy to be able to have those face-to-face interaction so I'm really excited to create that community. Hey Tyler! Hey how are you? Happy birthday! Thank you! So we are shooting our brand video today which this is more of like our storytelling launch video that this was actually what came to me first when like coming up with this brand and wanting to launch I was so excited about creating this video because this one's a little bit more emotional I think the other video we shot just more like high end editorial products but this is going to be more of a storytelling so I'm gonna be doing a voiceover throughout it and it's kind of a reflection of my journey with skincare so we also have someone else in the video who's playing a younger version of me and I'm excited this one's like gonna be the tear jerker probably gonna cry this one I cry of just thinking about it. I don't know where I'm going to freeze today. Are they both to freeze? No, we're good. Perfect to the next and action. Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Change into the next one else. Hard day at work. My journey with acne started with shame. It feels like the right emotion too for it. Yeah I don't think it's like my journey with acne you know started with shame. Like the first meeting we ever had for this was we were like pinning up things storyboarding it on a wall and like we were just getting so excited going back and forth with different ideas of how we could put this together so then we had to like really hone in on it and then we got ascribed and then I kind of went through and like change things to how I feel like I would speak a little bit more but I mean even right now I might change things a little bit so I see. So it's gonna start a little down in the dump so then it's gonna come up positive because we're here to save the day. So I started being kinder to myself, softer with my skin, I stopped expecting perfection, I learned what actually worked for me, the ingredients that made a real difference and I started to love my real skin. Because real skin is beautiful, real skin is sexy and real you is perfect you. Let's show some skin. I feel like we definitely got it in the first clip and I feel that like I think there was like a good amount of attitude at the end. That kind of felt like okay, like vibe like vibe shift. So I feel good with both of those. I kind of think I'm leaning towards I like it with the rubbing in the product and then leaving but could just because then otherwise I'm like what's the skin? Like besides this but you know but either way I feel like we got it. Yeah that's a wrap on Alex. Thank you. Thank you. How do you feel? Third wrap on the final scoop? That's it for then our launch. Oh for our launch content. I feel really good. Now I'm excited to see it all together and create a continuous story and introduce the world of Reluctive to everyone. So I just am hoping it all comes together but I feel really really good with everything I've seen from every shoot so far just all coming together into one world and I'm excited for it. So now we have two months until launch and then you can actually have it in all your content. Yeah. It's scary. Let's go time. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to your Alex. We decided it's not COVID anymore and you could put on all of our content. Yeah. That was like a crazy realization for me to be turning 25 and had just shot my own brand video on campaign. One thing I would tell myself at the beginning of this journey that I know now is to just trust my gut a lot more like I think I doubted myself at times of like do I know what I'm doing so I feel like I don't know what I'm doing but at the end of the day everything that came to be was just off of a gut instinct. I think that I had and I wish I felt more sure of myself in those moments but ultimately I did follow my gut and follow my decisions. I think it just was like a little bit scarier for me to do that so I think just what I've learned over the past few years is believing in myself and having confidence in myself that I do know what I'm doing and I do know what I want. Hi! Hi! See where I decided. It's so good in here. You look amazing. You owe it to your dog right now. Oh I'm freaking out. You Aisha look it you got a doggy bed in here. Aisha what? Do you have a new collar? This isn't an upgrade. I wanted to find office space in LA because being in person with everyone was something that was really important to me. I just feel like you're able to get a lot more done and you're able to be a lot more creative when you're in person with people. So we started the hiring process of finding our core team who would be living in LA and would be able to come into the office every week and we would be able to just brainstorm and bring dump together. So I was also going from like dance practice to interviewing people and then probably back to more dance practice. But we build out a small but mighty team so far and everyone is just super amazing and I was really just looking for people who saw and understood the brand vision and felt excited by it and wanted to push the boundaries. That's a really big thing I want to do with real octaves is push us to innovate and do things differently and just think outside of the box and I'm so happy with the team that we've built and the office is that we found in LA. Not leading and not being involved in every step of the way was not an option for me. That's not how I want to be as a founder. That's not how I want to show up and just getting to have a place in person where I get to work and get to be with everyone is really really important for me and I'm really excited that we got our first office. This team crushed this office. This is literally every. All I did was get furniture in and I just walked every day in the family's furniture and all that and walked away and every time I've been here ever since it's been yeah it's on the mirror to it. Yeah can you see the mirror in the front? No. Or I should just speak here and I'm freaking out. I got a custom like case in our dream. Oh my gosh did we? I have been trying to I ordered like five cases on Amazon over the break and they all came and just were not even remotely close. So we had a plan for how we could change the pump engine out. So you need your pumps. I just want to see if you're interested in that. Yeah. Because I usually do for war pumps for every use. Yeah. Just to get like the right amount just to wash my face which honestly isn't too much. So if it could be one or two I think. Yeah so then the update would make it two pumps for you like one and a half for me. Because I'm using about three. Okay. And then question. On my one sample I don't know which sample it came from. I've 45 over in my nose. The text started to like peel off a little bit. Is it? So I didn't know if that was something that we think would be an issue in the gel cleanser. It's interesting. I haven't had it happen yet but it could be other products you're using that I'm not using. It could be. I mean it's been the one that's been traveling with me in my shower and different things but to like text started to peel off. Like what I've done in the past is establish something like me which are moisturizers. That's a key product that we also test that on every package that we make. Because I'm thinking about your hands being on different stuff. You apply it to face? Yeah. That's so interesting. I go like one, two, three. Which this is the favorite step of my routine. Okay. Okay. I want to know how much I use. I love this. I know. We know that's going to be the highlight. I still really can't believe that this is actually going out and happening. It makes me a little nauseous to think about. But I'm very excited but I'm also like this has been like a secret part of my life that like no one besides my close friends and family has known about. I'm just using real active. I can't believe that there are products in real life that are actually working for my skin that were just like a thought in my head a few years ago and it still like doesn't feel real to me but it's real real active. Feeling like I'm gonna puke when I actually think about people seeing this for the first time and then like holding the products. I can't envision myself like scrolling on text. I've been seeing someone like trying the product like that. is going to send me into full blown smile. I mean, I have to like lock myself down because I'm going to be, that's the only thing I'm going to be watching. So I just, I can't envision people like actually getting these products in their hands. Hey! Good morning! How do you feel? Feeling good? I'm really excited. So now March 31st, 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Reluctives can be yours. You can try it out for the first time. I love you guys. Bye!