How Dr. Rhonda Patrick Builds Her Skincare Routine

Okay, so the first question on my list here, I don't know if it necessarily was the top voted question. I do look at top voted questions as well, but the question was submitted by Lisa, and Lisa was asking a question regarding my skincare routine. I use a lot of Cellbone products. I don't have any affiliation with them. I just really like their products. And Lisa asked if there was a reason why I omit popular skincare ingredients like retinol, vitamin C or alpha-hydroxy acid, collagen, niacinamide, et cetera. So I should note that I haven't, you know, my general skincare routine, like the, I would say the template, something I do every single day is definitely what I've already mentioned, which is the neutralizer ingredient that I use as a sort of like a serum.

I put it on my skin and let it soak in, and for about 10 to 15 minutes you look like shiny happy people, but it soaks in and then your skin is very hydrated. Um, I also do use other products as well. So I do occasionally— there is a retinol product by Cellbone that I like, and I'll use— it's called, I think it's called Renewal, and it has retinol in it, and I'll use that sometimes once a week. Another thing that I've been using of recent, I would say the last definitely month, maybe just a little bit longer than a month, is salicylic acid. They have a salicylic acid sort of like peel and you put it on your skin and you let it sit for like anywhere between 1 to 3 minutes and then you rinse it off with cold water and then I put my neutralizer on and let it soak in.

And that really helps also with like sloughing off the dead skin. So it's sort of that rejuvenation effect where you're getting rid of old dead skin cells and allowing kind of space for the new ones to breathe. So the salicylic acid I find really helps with that and I've been using that even more than I've been doing the retinol. So I was sort of doing the retinol kind of once a week-ish, but I've sort of now really changed to the salicylic acid. Sometimes I'll mix in a little bit of the retinol as well. So I do use those. And the other thing is vitamin C. Sometimes I do use a vitamin C serum as well. But it's kind of one of those like, you know, when I'm feeling like a spa treatment for myself, I do that.

The reason I'm not as big on that is because a lot of the vitamin C in skincare products is in the, ascorbic-acid form, which oxidizes fairly quickly. And so it's a matter of perhaps it's doing something or perhaps it's not as effective as you would think it is because it's been quite oxidized. But there are other forms of vitamin C. There's like the ester form. There's like a palmitate form, which is a lipid-soluble form, which I also think is good. And again, I do have some products that I use occasionally with those as well. But for me, it's just a matter of what I'm going to do every single night. Like the main thing I do is the neutralizer. Susan's asking me to restate the company name. It's Cellbone, C-E-L-L-B-O-N-E.

And their products, I just find, are really— they're very to the point. Like, it's like they have good quality. It's just, it's not a bunch of like stuff you can't pronounce, stuff you've never heard of. I mean, there are a lot of plant-derived products or just high-quality things. And also, they don't charge— it's not like so outrageously priced, you know, where it's like some— I find like Some of these other skincare creams and stuff are just, I mean, they just charge like 5 times more than they really need to and you're really just paying for packaging and a good feeling, I guess. So Margaret's asking in the chat about the salicylic acid 15% versus 20%. I think that's kind of up to you. So like these can be, like it stings when you put it on your face.

It's sort of somewhat a peel to a degree. And so, you know, I think I have the 20%, but I'm not sure it's like a huge, huge difference. And again, it's like it's a dose and duration-dependent factor. So let's say you get a 15% salicylic acid and you leave it on your skin for 6 minutes versus 3 minutes of the 20%. So I mean, it's kind of like that sort of thing. But if you're very sensitive skin, I would go with the 15% because that would be a little bit less harsh as well.