Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. I am so excited about this episode because we're going to be talking about body care in the most meaningful way today.

And I feel like a lot of body care right now, and I think a lot of you might have seen this, it's focused on kind of the same route that facial skin care was taking for a long time.

So there's not really a lot

of education and like, you know, clinically based, efficacious products out there that we can rely on

for our body, just like we do for our face. So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys

to the founder and CEO of Surface Deep, Dr. Alicia Zalka, which is a brand that is focused on body care,

especially in the deodorant space. So welcome Dr. Zalka. I'm so excited to host you.

Oh, it's a privilege to be here speaking with you. Thank you.

No, it's a wonderful opportunity for me because I get to learn from you and understand,

you know, what we should be kind of focusing on,

right, when it comes to, especially in the deodorant category and, you know, figuring out what actually works, what doesn't. So I want to kind of dive in, but first I'd love to talk about you and your background. You have over 30 years of experience in medical dermatology. I mean, that's amazing. So if you can walk us down

memory lane to tell us a little bit about your career and everything that led up to the creation

of your brand. Oh, yes. It's been quite the journey. Yes, I'm 30 years in clinical practice.

I was in a, I recently retired. So I'm actually not in my clinical practice right this moment, although I have my, I'm still working in dermatology. I do volunteer work through my affiliation with Yale. I volunteer and see patients at our local VA hospital, which brings me great joy. I teach residents. But for 30 years, I was in practice and I learned so much.

Medical school was training, but doing it face to face with patients was really the training.

And I had such a fantastic practice and I learned so much.

And one of the things that I learned is that, you know, people have questions. And one of the things I love so much about your

podcast is that you answer those questions in such a transparent, honest way. And it's about, you know,

science. It's about getting answers from people you trust. And this is what it's all about. So thank you for this platform.

But so what happened was I was in my practice for 30 years doing just

beautifully. I love, we had a great relationship with my patients. I did medical dermatology,

surgical dermatology, cosmetic. I did it all. And, um, and I'm both a dermatologist, but I'm also a

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