Hello, hello, it's Fructivard and you're listening to the naked beauty podcast. I am signing on from Turkey. I am an Istanbul. Now I've been here for about four or five days.

I absolutely love this city. I've been starting my morning with epic Turkish breakfast. If you guys don't know Turkish breakfast, it's like a whole spread.

There is Cimit, which is like a bread. It's like a sesame bread. They have lots of white cheeses, fruits, jams, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers. It's how I start every single morning and then a nice big glass of tea. I absolutely love it here.

Today I'm going to the Istanbul Modern Museum to check out some modern art. So I'm just I'm excited to be on vacation. I'm actually taking the last bit of my maternity leave.

My company lets me split it up. So I took most of it when, of course, Mavi was born and now I'm taking the last month here in Istanbul. And it's just so lovely. Also to be with Umud's family and for them to meet Mavi, it's been an absolute blast.

You can follow along on my adventures at Bructivard. Also obviously follow at naked beauty planet. That's the beauty community for this podcast. Thank you guys so much for listening and for your support.

Today's episode is with Natasha and Dr. Love from Ustawi. I was really interested to talk to them because one, this is a skincare line that's formulated specifically for people with melanin.

And I just think that's really interesting. And it's also a skincare company, of course, founded with a dermatologist and a black dermatologist.

So I was really excited to speak to Natasha and Dr. Love about Ustawi and the mission behind it and how it's been formulated and just basic skincare concerns for people of color.

I also love that Natasha grew up in Africa and she has a very different perspective about beauty. She eventually became a model, but her looks were not always appreciated. So I loved hearing from her. All right, let's get into it.

This episode is created in partnership with the Ustawi brands and I'm very excited to be working with them. So without further ado, let's get into the episode.

I'm joined by Natasha Pogam, the founder of Ustawi and Dr. Elise Love, who is the brilliant dermatologist who also helps to formulate these wonderful products for melanin rich skin. So I'm so excited to talk to you guys. I talk to a lot of skincare founders brands, but I have yet to speak to women of color black women that are formulating skincare specifically for people of color specifically for melanin rich skin.

I've talked to Dr. Barbara Sturm, who's lovely and she has a whole line for darker skin tones, but she is a white German woman. So I'm excited to talk to you both. I know this line has been a long time in the making and I've gotten to have like a little behind the scenes sneak peek. So excited to dive into everything Ustawi.

Before we get into the product, though, I want to start by asking what was each of your relationship to skincare growing up and Natasha, I'll start with you. First, where did you grow up?

Well, I grew up in Congo, in Africa, Congo, Brazil. And you know, the relationship when it was a little girl in Africa, especially my mom, you know, for us, it's really, really important to take care of the skin.

We don't have many things, you know, we don't have the cream that my mom made, you know, just the own salt with natural ingredient. And for her, it's really important to take care for with the skin.

And we nourishing the skin with the seabird coconut oil in the body. It was a really, really important fact. She began to educate to educate us, you know, sorry for my English, to take care with the skin. She says she's saying it's really, really important.

So I love that. And I love that from an early age, you saw the beauty products could be made, right? That soap could be made that she better could be made. It wasn't about running to the store and just buying something off the shelf that these are natural ingredients that can be used.

So Dr. Love, you are a black dermatologist here in New York City, your practices and so how and you have been practicing for two years, but I know you've also gone to a lot of school. How much? How many years of schools you have to go to before you become a practicing dermatologist? It's a long time, right?

It's a long time. And so after college, I guess after high school, there's four years of college, four years of medical school, and then four years of dermatology specific training. So it is 12 years of training. And then you're constantly constantly learning even once you're demonstrating.

Well, you look 25. So I'm amazed that you've been in school for so long. I do want to hear that growing up. Did you know that skincare was something that you were like interested in doing just from a professional aspect? Like, did you care about skincare growing up?

Yeah, so my introduction to skincare and dermatology actually came when I was in high school because I developed severe, severe acne like the painful deep cystic acne that leaves hyperpigmentation behind.

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