Skin Leaf Talks

Look at the back of your moisturizer. What's the first ingredient?If it's water — and it almost certainly is — you're paying for something your tap provides for free. Most skincare products are between 60 and 90 percent water. Which means most of what's in your routine is diluted before it even reaches your skin.Leila Haj Nassar, cosmetic chemist and founder of 100and1 Cosmetics, decided to remove it entirely — replacing water with pure Moroccan botanicals: argan oil, aloe vera, rose water, and actives that actually do something. Her co-founder Fatima Rosa, a licensed esthetician with over 15 years of hands-on client experience, brings what the lab alone can never know: what real skin needs, every day, in the treatment room.In this episode, two founders who built from opposite ends of the same belief sit down with Lia to talk about water-free formulation, Moroccan ingredient heritage, and what the chemist and esthetician dynamic that makes 100and1 different actually looks like from the inside. A conversation about what conscious beauty really means when the formula is the whole point — and why paying for what you actually get should be the standard, not the exception.About Leila Haj Nassar, Fatima Rosa & 100and1 Cosmetics100and1 Cosmetics is a water-free, sustainable skincare brand rooted in Moroccan botanical ingredients, built on one belief: you should pay for what you actually get. Founded by cosmetic chemist Leila Haj Nassar and co-founder Fatima Rosa, every formula replaces water with pure actives — no fillers, no compromise.🌐 Website: https://100and1cosmetics.com📸 Instagram: @100and1cosmetics🎵 TikTok: @100and1cosmetics💼 LinkedIn: @100and1cosmeticsAbout Your HostLia Cardoso is the Founder & CEO of Skin Leaf Cosmetics and host of Skin Leaf Talks — FeedSpot Top 50 Skincare Podcasts 2025. A cosmetics formulator and clean beauty advocate with over 15 years of experience, Lia built Skin Leaf on one belief: skincare is healthcare.🌐 skinleaf.co📸 @theskinleaf.co📧 press@skinleaf.co

Every cosmetic ingredient on the market was declared "safe" based on a test that never accounted for the other ingredients sitting next to it on your skin — or the thirty years you'll spend using it. In this episode, Lia Cardoso breaks down the real math behind toxic exposure in the beauty industry: the cocktail effect, where chemicals that are "safe" in isolation become active when combined, and time, which turns a negligible daily dose into decades of accumulation the body can't fully clear. Drawing on hormone-disruption research and recent studies linking chemical hair straighteners to uterine cancer and fertility issues, Lia unpacks what "safe at this concentration" actually means, and why it's the wrong question to be asking. Educational content, not medical advice — full sources in the show notes.

We obsess over our faces. We build routines around them, spend fortunes on them, and treat every new ingredient like a revelation. And then we completely ignore the rest of our bodies.Aïda Touré saw that gap and decided to build in it. Texture is the brand pioneering somatic skincare — intentional, zone-based care that starts where most beauty ends. The underarm. The bikini line. The inner thigh. The skin we cover, hide, and never think twice about.In this episode, Aïda joins Lia to talk about what somatic skincare actually means, why the underarm is one of the most chemically exposed zones on the body and the least cared for, and what happens to our confidence when we finally start paying attention to the skin we've been ignoring. A conversation about body awareness, barrier function, and building a brand in a category that barely has a name yet.Because your skin is always communicating. It's time we started listening.About Aïda Touré & TextureAïda Touré is the founder of Texture, a somatic skincare brand built around the connection between skin function, body awareness, and how we inhabit our bodies. Texture focuses on the zones traditional beauty has always overlooked — starting with the underarm — with products formulated to listen to the skin's signals rather than suppress them.🌐 Website: https://textureskin.com/📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/textureskincare/💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/texture-skincare/🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@textureskincareAbout Your HostLia Cardoso is the Founder & CEO of Skin Leaf Cosmetics and host of Skin Leaf Talks — FeedSpot Top 50 Skincare Podcasts 2025. A cosmetics formulator and clean beauty advocate with over 15 years of experience, Lia built Skin Leaf on one belief: skincare is healthcare.🌐 skinleaf.co📸 @theskinleaf.co📧 press@skinleaf.co

That's how Sarina Pilaroscia's father described living with psoriasis — 45 years of twice-daily steroids and a condition his doctors called lifelong and inevitable. Sarina didn't accept that. She spent two years educating herself, opened her own R&D lab, and led one of the first Health Canada clinical trials for CBD in cosmetics — all to build Phoilex, a steroid-free, barrier-supportive skincare brand for eczema, psoriasis, and hypersensitive skin. In this episode, Sarina shares the story of what it took to get her father completely steroid-free for the first time since his teenage years — and what millions of people living with topical steroid withdrawal still don't know. This one will stay with you.To learn more about Phoilex, please visit: phoilex.com | @phoilex.releaf

Season 7 is here — and before we dive into everything coming this season, Lia sits down alone to catch you up on everything that happened while you were waiting.First: Skin Leaf Cosmetics stepped onto the floor of the Be+Well Show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida — our first major trade show in the United States. Five years after starting a brand in a kitchen in Portugal, we showed up. In person. With a booth, with products, and with everything we've built. That moment deserved to be named out loud.Second: if you've come across a brand called Leaf Cosmetics at leaf-cosmetics.com — there is something you need to know. Lia addresses it directly, briefly, and clearly. That brand is not us. There is an active legal process. And Skin Leaf is not going anywhere.And third: a preview of the season that's coming. From a daughter who watched her father live with psoriasis for 45 years and decided steroids weren't the only answer — to a founder who built a skincare brand from a hospital bed because her daughter's eczema had no solution on the market — to the chemist who removed water from her entire product line and replaced it with Moroccan botanicals. Season 7 is full of founders who built something real from a real place. And it starts right now.New episodes every Wednesday. Welcome back.

Sunscreen fraud. Lab samples sold as luxury. Celebrity brands collapsing. Children on retinol. The skincare industry is going through it — and most brands are staying silent. Not us. In this solo episode, Lia breaks down the four biggest scandals shaking the beauty world right now, separates fact from fear, and gives you practical tools to protect yourself as a consumer. Because transparency isn't a trend. It's the foundation.🌿 Get the free Skin Science eBook at www.skinleaf.co 📲 Follow us @theskinleaf.co

Most people don't have a skincare problem. They have a consistency problem.In this episode of Skin Leaf Talks, host Lia Cardoso sits down with Marlee Bruno — PA-C, aesthetic injector, and founder of Mind Body & Soul Medical in Pensacola, FL — for a conversation that cuts through the noise of trend-driven beauty culture.Together they unpack why 10-step routines are sabotaging your skin, what over-layering actually does to your barrier, the most dangerous habits Marlee sees in her clinic daily, and the short list of ingredients that genuinely deliver — including what Skin Leaf's Antioxidant Facial Oil, Sensitive Facial Oil, and Anti-Aging Moisturizer were formulated to do.No trends. No filler. Just the skincare truth you've been missing.🎙 Find Marlee: @theinjector_coach | mindbodysoulmedical.com 🌿 Find Skin Leaf: @theskinleaf.co | skinleafcosmetics.com

Have you ever wondered why your makeup looks completely different when a professional does it? The secret isn't in the products they use — it's in what happens before the first brush stroke.In this episode of Skin Leaf Talks, founder Lia Cardoso sits down with Heather Spadaro, a professional makeup artist and founder of two beauty companies — The Makeup Hair Co and The Beauty Circle — to have an honest, expert conversation about the one step most people skip: skin prep.Heather shares what she sees the moment a client sits in her chair, the most common prep mistakes she corrects every single day, and her go-to routine for creating a base that makes makeup look truly effortless. Whether you're getting ready for a big event or just your everyday look, this episode will completely change how you think about your skincare routine — and why it matters more than any foundation ever could.In this episode:Why hydrated skin and moisturized skin are not the same thingThe skin prep sequence a pro artist swears byFacial oils before makeup — friend or foe?How to layer SPF without ruining your baseWhat "ready skin" actually looks and feels likeFollow Heather: Instagram: @themakeuphairco & @thebeautycircleExclusive listener gift 🎁 Grab your FREE copy of our Skin Science eBook — your complete guide to understanding your skin from the inside out. Available now at Skin Science - EBook | Skin Leaf Cosmetics