Beth Medina of Proof Skin Solutions: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry
Don’t act your age! My husband and I practice this everyday. Live the age you feel. We are both in our 50’s and still compete and win body building competitions. We are in the gym 2 hours a day. We mountain and road bike and we take life as an adventure every chance we can get.
As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years, I had the pleasure of interviewing Beth Medina.
Two years ago, at age 52, Beth began competing in women’s physique competitions. She won her professional status in her second amateur competition and was selected to represent the USA in Barcelona, Spain at the 2019 Arnold Classic Europe. She was one of the few natural athletes to participate and she placed 6th in the world! Beth is also the National Gym Association’s reigning 2019 Ms. Pro Universe for Women’s Pro Physique in the NGA Pro Universe Championships in Coral Springs, Florida.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Health and fitness are very important to me. My husband and I both compete in physique body building competitions. So, I have to strive to keep myself in tip top shape. Like my body, I have always taken exceptional care of my skin through exercise, diet and a great skincare regimen since I was an adolescent. The older I got, it seems the more expensive skincare became and store associates were pushing not just a cleanser, moisturizer and eye cream, but also a night cream, and several different varieties of serums. It became overwhelming. Store associates telling me I had to use 5 different products in order to achieve flawless skin, which is SO deceptive! I feel the majority of skincare companies have been taking advantage of women….and men, making them feel that if you don’t use 5 different products(and spend 100’s, 1,000’s of dollars, you would not be able to achieve beautiful complexion. I had spent thousands of dollars on over priced and over hyped skincare that did not work.For the past 25 years, I had been using a very well known Vitamin C, E Ferulic Serum on my skin. Its quite expensive at $166.00 per bottle. I couldn’t believe that I was paying so much money for 1 single product. My husband(who was retired at the time) had owned and sold several companies and encouraged me to start researching skincare ingredients, along with chemists and labs. My goal was to make a product that was similar to the Vitamin CE Ferulic serum…but at a much more affordable price that everyone could afford. Well, what happened was we formulated a product that blew away that leading serum! We created a youth restoring hybrid serum…it goes on like a lotion, but is lightweight and absorbs into the skin( you can actually feel the 4 peptides working) . It gives the skin a youthful, hydrated glow, without feeling oily or greasy. We decided to move forward with a skincare line made for all skin types, all ages and ethnisticites. I feel everyone should have access to excellent skincare, that’s why my goal was to create a line affordable for everyone, but still be effective and better than the most expensive luxury brand on the market. We named our company Proof Skin Solutions.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The answer to this begins prior to stepping down this career path. I knew certain products worked for me and after years of using them became obsessed in learning about their properties and WHY they worked. I learned that while some products worked as stated, others didn’t yet they had the same ingredients. Self-education combined with frustration of products not performing as advertised led to knowing I could combine the BEST ingredients, or even newest tested ingredients, into comprehensive beauty formulations.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
We’re new. We’re aggressive. We’ve seen success thus far through our trials and our trial subjects. We’ve listened, fine tuned and will continue to listen always to all of our customers. We can’t grow better without them. Our success will come, one product at a time, one repeating client at a time. That’s right, we will grow our base with repeat customers via outstanding product that delivers. My advice would be know your goals and how long you have to meet them or reevaluate. This may seem straight forward and simple, but it is very powerful. Skincare is a very competitive and saturated market. However, an outstanding product that cannot be found anywhere, can make ones acceptance much smoother in the industry. For me, concentrating on combining only the best highly concentrated ingredients into one powerhouse serum, has given me a path to follow. It empowers me to know that our company can provide multi-correctional, multi-tasking, highly effective products that not only save money, but save time and the end result is a beautiful, vibrant, hydrated complexion.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am very grateful for the wisdom my mother, Linda White gave me growing up. I can remember when I was a little girl, watching my mother wash her face with Irma Shorell and then applying her Ponds cold cream. She always took care of her skin and it showed…it still does. She taught me that if you look good, you feel good. Not always true, but I so appreciate everything she taught me.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?
When you’ve been a consumer in the industry you have ventured into as a new developer/manufacturer, you can’t help but think you can do “it” better. The “It” being finding a better way to make products for the issue you’re attempting to successfully treat. For us, and using an industry staple as an example, let’s look at Vitamin C. Vitamin C has long been used as the standard for aiding skin’s natural regeneration process. While there are many types of Vitamin C, it seems that the most popular in use happens to be also the most unstable, L-ascorbic acid. L-ascorbic acid will oxidize & breakdown if exposed to air, heat or sunlight. We have opted to introduce 5 stable forms of Vitamin C into our serum along with other leading edge ingredients such as Glutathione and PGA or Polyglutamic Acid, the latter of which is 10 times more hydrating than hyaluronic acid. This makes it the first Vitamin C Serum that has a focus on stable Vitamin C forms AND combining it with other hydrating, repairing, restorative ingredients — We call it a “hybrid serum.” Everything you need in a skin care routine, in one step. The other piece of new beauty technology is the bottle — Most Vitamin C serum products come in a dropper exposing it to air and light. We’ve encased our face serums and eye cream in airless bottles for freshness and longer home shelf life. This made Proof Skin Solutions Hybrid Serum the first of its kind with regard to ingredient technology and airless bottle. The other neat aspect is efficiency and simplicity — it’s a one step serum that hydrates, brightens, tightens, reduces appearance of dark spots, evens skin tone, etc. and makes your skin so soft! It goes on like a lotion — and if you wanted to simplify your routine — you really only need this one serum.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Individuals who opt to treat or remedy what they view as a flaw know exactly what they want to attain from a treatment or procedure. They will have a number of options open to them. The route we provide is the least invasive, most affordable, and can be performed at home. Every ingredient we use has a study/studies behind it with proven results. In other words, we only use tested and approved ingredients. In pursuit of maintaining youth we are constantly improving not only our outward appearance through use of cosmetics, serums and eventually cosmetic surgeries, but have found ways to regain youthful movement by replacing joints within our bodies. We do this to be “accepted” within our societies when in reality I believe we do this to be acceptable to our own self. Sometimes we can lose perspective and go beyond what is deemed healthy and natural, that becomes unsafe or obsessive, going too far. In the end we are going to do what makes YOU feel & look better, we need to be open minded and heed the advice of the professionals we surround ourselves with, like minded or not!
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?
Options. Options. Options!
Whether you choose to use a serum, make a choice between which laser to use, inject a solution or go under the knife, the way we treat what we perceive to be our problem areas has become almost limitless. Every procedure or solution evolves eventually into something better, which is why we are now here.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
Watered down products. False claims. Inadequate training. Tainted/Unsanitary samples due to inadequate sample distribution in brick & mortar retail.
You asked for 3 but I couldn’t help but add one more peeve. The first, watered down products, comes from the experience of taking advantage of discounts offered by sellers of botox or similar products and come away with less than expected results due to diluted product: seller/provider trying to maximize profits. Tamper resistant delivery system from manufacturer may mitigate or even eliminate this problem. The second, false claims, costs consumers untold amounts and leaves them frustrated, feeling ripped-off. Every product offered should be able to provided study results and organization performing said study for claims made. Inadequate training leaves consumers bruised, scarred or damaged in some way, even if it may be temporary, and wary of ever seeking help again! Mentors need to be assigned and sign-offs attained for public display before treatments of any kind can be conducted involving touch/contact to face or skin. Follow-up by mentor or other reviewer should be performed. How many times have you used a product in a store where ANYONE can access and distribute that product?! When it comes to bottles or jars literally anything is used to access the product: Q-tip, tissue, cotton swab, fingers! No sampling of product should take place without proven or supervised procedure; i.e., no open easily accessed container!
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?
- Break a sweat! Get some exercise and move your beautiful body! You will not only feel beautiful, you will feel great! Get an endorphin high!
- Don’t act your age! My husband and I practice this everyday. Live the age you feel. We are both in our 50’s and still compete and win body building competitions. We are in the gym 2 hours a day. We mountain and road bike and we take life as an adventure every chance we can get.
- Make love…no explanation need.
- Get enough sleep. I know what lack of sleep does for my appearance, not to mention my mental health. For me, a good nights sleep is like a mini facelift.
- Express gratitude. Be grateful for everything and everyone you have. The few complaints you may have about your appearance, is nothing compared to the amount of blessings that surround you.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, it would be self love and living a healthy lifestyle. From having low self esteem to being ashamed of your body. If we can learn to love and appreciate ourselves for what we are and treat our body like the temple it is, I believe a lot of ones self doubt would dissipate.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Don’t let age change you, change the way you age”. This is very relevant to me….I am almost 54 years young and I really feel like I am just starting to live! I love adventure and travel. I love going to the gym everyday and living a healthy lifestyle. My husband and I just started competing as Pro bodybuilders less than 2 years ago….and we are winning. Age is a number. If you take care of yourself, lead a healthy lifestyle, everything else will fall in place.
How can our readers follow you online?
www.proofskinsolutions.com
Instagram: @bethwhitemedina @proofskinsolutions @mugshot_skin_care
Facebook: Beth White Medina
Facebook: Proof Skin Solutions
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Beth Medina of Proof Skin Solutions: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.