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Often associated with adolescence, acne isn’t always left behind on the school bus. In fact, as the most common skin disorder in the world, and the eighth most common disease, acne can be experienced from early childhood well into adulthood.
Despite this, it remains an expensive nuisance to treat. Just ask anyone who has bleached three sets of pillows in a row with benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid heavy products.
Acne’s prevalence, and its shortage of pillow-safe treatment options, is why Anna Lahey, founder of Australian marine collagen brand Vida Glow dedicated herself to finding a stomach-first solution.
Lahey launched Vida Glow well before ingestible beauty supplements was one of the beauty industry’s fastest-growing segments.
“In 2014, ingestible beauty was not a buzzword,” Lahey tells POPSUGAR Australia. She only stumbled across the benefits of collagen while travelling in Japan, where bone broth soup had been popular for centuries, and struggling with hair loss. Within three weeks she had noticed a difference, in not just her hair, but her skin and nails. After examining promising clinical data, she launched Vida Glow, the supplement range now available in the UK, US and Europe.
We chatted to her about the launch of Vida Glow, Clear Advanced Repair, and why she wants to make treating acne a little less dry.
The Purpose Behind Clear Capsules
Vida Glow doesn’t launch new products frequently — indeed they only sold marine collagen only for the first seven years in business. Lahey says she feels, as a deeply personal category, skincare products should be held to an exceptionally high standard of efficacy. Admirable, but it does slow down the roll out of new products.
“We are very considered about what we launch — a lot of the time, like in the case of Clear Advanced Repair, we’re the first people doing it,” she says. This means that Vida Glow products can take years of development, and many don’t make it to market. “We’ve had instances where we’ve done early internal trials and weren’t satisfied with results, so we binned the project.”
However, acne with its many consumer pain points was a strong lure for Lahey.
“We know acne concerns can be emotional and disheartening to manage,” says Lahey. Following rounds of consumer research helped Lahey identify key frustrations,” the outcomes were that topicals can be harsh and drying, and prescription medication just isn’t for everyone.”
Lahey decided to create a convenient ingestible solution that could be tolerated by oily and dry skin types.
How Vida Glow Clear Capsules Work
Causes of acne are multifactorial. Lahey says stress, genetics, hormonal changes, medical conditions, lifestyle and diet can all play a role. What is clear she tells POPSUGAR Australia, is that while acne is a surface problem, “it starts deep within the skin and body.”
The interaction between gut health and acne, particularly in adults, has been garnering a lot of interest in recent years, as has the role prebiotics have in correcting gut, and skin, imbalances.
“Our gut microbiome maintains homeostasis throughout the body,” Lahey explains, “it helps keep our bodies systems stable and functioning. If it becomes imbalanced, we’ll start to experience inflammation, poor digestion and a leaky gut. Often our skin is the first thing to reflect this.”
This dialogue between the gut and skin is what Lahey refers to as the “gut-skin axis”.
With this in mind, Lahey set about developing AcuSolve™, Clear Advanced Repair’s probiotic hero ingredient. “It’s a probiotic strain that helps nourish beneficial gut flora, which we know is linked to calm, clarified skin.” Indeed, Lahey tells us AcuSolve™is one of the most extensively studied probiotic strains available. In clinical trials for Clear Capsules, the AcuSolve™strain alone improved acne severity by 32% after 12 weeks, with 80% of participants experiencing an improvement in symptoms.
Related: Acne Excoriée: The Skin-Picking Disorder Explained
Skincare As Stomach Care
The actives in Clear Advanced Repair don’t stop at patented probiotics, there are a host of players with ingredients skincare aficionados will be familiar with.
“To support the formula, we have included ingestible retinol (Vitamin A) to help regulate oil production and support skin cell turnover.”
This is accompanied by a therapeutic dose of zinc, which topically has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. “Zinc helps to reduce the symptoms of acne-like pimples and blackheads and stimulates a healthy immune response in the skin against acne-causing bacteria.” Then, vegan omega-threes were added, to internally hydrate and block inflammatory molecules involved in inflammatory acne.
While these ingredients are all-star players, they’re not necessarily team players. “If combined in one capsule, they don’t coexist,” says Lahey. This is why Clear uses “cap-in-cap” technology that separates the actives and maintains their efficacy so consumers can reap the full benefits.
In clinical trials, improvements in acne symptoms were seen from as early as one month be seen from as early as one month. And in clinical trials of the ingredients, participants reported a reduction in symptoms of acne by 50% after just three months of daily supplementation.
The Clinical Trials
New ingestible brands are popping up everywhere and Lahey says that while all supplements are regulated for safety by the TGA, not all of them are clinically trialled for efficacy. Alongside a panel of independent expert dermatologists and scientists, Vida Glow is one of the few “beauty” supplement brands to invest heavily in clinical trials. “It’s above and beyond what the TGA require for sale, we are committed to leading with science and providing ourselves and consumers with confidence that the product works.”
Lahey says that ultimately, “a product needs to help treat beauty concerns and have a positive impact on people’s lives. So if it doesn’t tick that first box, I’m not interested in bringing it to market.”
Vida Glow Clear Advanced Repair FAQ
Lahey says when exploring the world of supplements it’s important to use them only as directed, as that is how they are assessed for safety, and of course, if you’re experiencing severe acne, seek medical advice. “Clear is formulated to treat mild to moderate symptoms of acne,” she says, “if you’re experiencing very severe acne, it is always best to speak to your healthcare professional and find the best course of treatment.”
From today, you can find Vida Glow Clear Capsules ($85) at Vida Glow, and will launch in Sephora on December 6th and in stores 18th of Jan.
