Dr. Natalia Spierings, UK trained, GMC registered Consultant Dermatologist & fellowship-trained skin cancer surgeon, joins the podcast to talk about the fear mongering behind Petroleum Jelly. Jeanne and Dr. Spierings do a deep dive into the origins of petroleum jelly, the common myths surrounding it and answer the ultimate question: Is it safe to use?
Dr. Natalia Spierings, UK trained, GMC registered Consultant Dermatologist & fellowship-trained skin cancer surgeon, joins the podcast to talk about the fear mongering behind Petroleum Jelly. Jeanne and Dr. Spierings do a deep dive into the origins of petroleum jelly, the common myths surrounding it and answer the ultimate question: Is it safe to use?
Key Moments
00:00 Is petrolatum, Vaseline, petroleum jelly and mineral oil all the same?
04:30 How does petroleum jelly work? Why is it so good for the skin?
06:00 Scientific evidence supporting the benefits of petroleum jelly as a moisturizer.
07:27 Issues caused with the name, petroleum jelly, and why this scares us.
09:50 Why do we believe that we are actually putting pure crude oil on your skin?
10:37 Are we putting crude oil on our skin if we use petroleum jelly?
13:00 Safety regulations and precautions to ensure the safety of petroleum jelly.
15:15 The high likelihood that we are using petroleum jelly in some form through our skincare.
16:18 Why the replacement options to petroleum jelly are less effective and other issues associated with alternatives.
19:20 What is a carcinogen? Is petroleum jelly a carcinogen?
21:48 Does petroleum jelly cause breakouts and is it comedogenic?
26:00 What is Milia and does petroleum jelly cause it?
28:07 Is it safe to use petroleum jelly?
29:00 Dr. Spierings' book.
29:17 Conclusion
Episode Links
Dr. Natalia Spierings: Website | Book | Instagram
Dr. Jeanne Retief: Blog | Podcast | Instagram | FIGGI Beauty Shop
[00:00:00.000] - Jeanne
Good morning, FIGGI goddess, and welcome to another episode of the My FIGGI Life Podcast. You guys have been sending me so many questions about Vaseline, Petroleum, jelly, Petrolatum in skincare, and you see it in the ingredients and your skincare products. So today we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about all the myths related to petroleum jelly. We're going to talk about the pros and the cons, if there are. And we have a wonderful expert dermatologist on the show today, Dr. Natalia Spierings, that's going to take us through it with her expert guide on it. So stay tuned for this episode.
[00:00:39.310] - Intro
Welcome, goddess, to your sacred space. This is My FIGGI Life podcast, where we openly discuss life's wins and losses on our journeys to self-discovery. This is your best life. This is your FIGGI life. And now here is your host, Jeanne.
[00:00:59.500] - Jeanne
Welcome back, FIGGI Goddess. I am so excited to present our guest today, Dr. Natalia Spierings. She is a UK-trained consultant dermatologist and fellowship-trained MOH micrographic surgeon with practices in both London and Dubai. She has a Master's in esthetic medicine from Queen Mary University of London and is known by her patients for her pragmatic and evidence-based approach to esthetic procedures. She recently published her first book, Skin Intelligent, what you really need to know to get great skin to help people navigate the confusing world of skincare with facts, not fiction. Ding, ding, ding. That's everything we're all about. Drawing on a decade of work as a practicing consultant dermatologist helping thousands of people achieve great skin, Dr. Spierings will empower you with the knowledge to navigate the confusing world of skincare so you never get fooled into buying hundreds of pounds of disappointing skincare products ever again. She can currently be seen on series four of channel 5, Skin A&E, the specialist clinic where a team of top dermatologists treat a range of skincare conditions for patients who often haven't been able to get treatment on the NHS. Thank you so much for being here. We are so excited to welcome you.
[00:02:20.890] - Dr. Spierings
Thank you for having me.
[00:02:22.100] - Jeanne
Thank you. We're dropping you into the deep end with this really highly contested subject in the skincare world, but it's something that we need to talk about. And FIGGI goddess, as you know, I have dry and sensitive skin. The FIGGI beauty line was launched as an answer to my panic disorder and the symptoms that come with that. Because if you listen to the podcast, you know your skin is your biggest organ. If it's upset, you're upset. But I also do believe that skincare, like anything else you put inside your body or that you use on your skin, is a super personal choice. It's your choice what you put in your body or what you use. But for me personally, when I make those choices, I like to know that I'm basing it on fact, and I'm making informed decisions. So this is what this episode is about. We're just going to give you the facts so that you can make informed decisions about your personal choices and how you want to navigate your skincare routine. So Dr. Spierings, I think before we start with this entire conversation, during this episode, when we're talking about petroleum jelly or petrolatum or Vaseline or mineral oil, it's the same thing. We're referring to the same general theme of things.
[00:03:33.140] - Dr. Spierings
Pretty much. There's slight differences in what the words mean, like paraffin oil, paraffin wax, petroleum, jelly. Vaseline is obviously a brand name for a product, and that's not exactly... It's not... They say it's 100 % petroleum jelly, but it's not pure petroleum jelly, which we can probably talk about. It's really confusing because there's so many words for the same thing, like mineral oil. I would say that we can probably use all the words interchangeably. I think it's fine.
[00:03:57.940] - Jeanne
So let's just say for this episode, we're going to use them interchangeably, but there are technical... If you want to get into the technicalities of it, there are some technical difficulties, but we're trying to refer to petroleum jelly, petrolatum, the things that you basically see in your skincare products and that you see in Vaseline, we're going to talk about that. And for us to understand why this is such a debate, we first need to understand why do we care about it? Why is it so great for our skin? And why do we see it in so many skincare products? What does it do?
[00:04:29.670] - Jeanne
The fundamental idea is of a moisturizer. So what a moisturizer is, it traps water in the skin or prevents water loss, transepidermal water loss, which is basically water loss from your stratum corneum. And that maintains hydration in the skin. Hydration is literally water content. That's where this is relevant because petroleum jelly is considered the most occlusive agent that exists basically within skincare to apply to the skin to prevent transepidermal water loss. And that basically means it acts as a moisturizer. So moisturizers don't impart anything on the skin. Generally, they just prevent water loss. The more occlusive that barrier or the more thick and sticky it is, like Vaseline, the better it is at preventing water loss. And that's why it's important for skincare because it's a very fundamental issue. So what is a moisturizer? How does a moisturizer work? And where does Vaseline or petrolatum fit in that? And so to me, petrolatum is the the most effective moisturizer that is available on the market, which is why it's basically in every moisturizer in some shape or form.
[00:05:31.650] - Jeanne
And when we're talking about something being occlusive, we're really saying it's that seal that forms on the skin to prevent that beautiful water that we want inside our skin to stay inside the skin. And when you're saying that it's one for you, one of the best moisturizers there is, I've done so much research on this, and there is just so much scientific evidence, proven evidence of what a great occlusive this is. Is. Is that correct?
[00:06:00.840] - Dr. Spierings
Correct. It's the first ever moisturizer to exist. So it was 1872 that Vaseline was first made by a chemist. And that's where it all started. And it was in response to the use of a bar soap. So bar soap was invented in the 1850s, roughly to cleanse your skin. And that was a whole new concept in the Western world to cleanse your skin, to use soap. And soap is very drying. To combat the drying effect of soap, we needed to start using moisturizers. And that's the long story short of how moisturizers came to existence. And Vaseline is basically the first one that was marketed as that. And then that was in the 1870s, and then it just went from there.
[00:06:41.800] - Jeanne
So when we're talking about this, I think this is one of the ingredients that people just love to hate. And when I'm talking about people, I'm saying, and I'm including skin influencers, there are a lot of expert dermatologists out there that love a more natural and holistic approach that are also saying these things. That's what makes it so confusing because the social media conversation is just so broad and big, and everybody has their own opinions, which is obviously fine. But again, we have to always remember to base that on the facts and to help us make the informed decisions that we need to make. I think one of the reasons people love to hate it is, unfortunately, it has not been blessed with. A really good name.
[00:07:26.880] - Dr. Spierings
Yeah, I was going to say the name is just terrible. If we could have named it anything, they could have named it anything else, great. But the problem is that that is the actual scientific. It makes sense from a science point of view because Petrolatom is a refined crude oil. It does come from petrol. It's just an unfortunate name because people immediately freak out about that for a good reason. Because the problem with the name Petrolatom is that it's used as a very general term to refer to all forms of Petrolatom. Whether it's been refined or not, because within the FDA and the EU regulatory bodies, they don't distinguish the different levels of refinement. And so the Inkey list and the terminology, the word is the same everywhere, despite what it's used in, if that makes sense. I think it's like a... I'm not a chemist, but it's a very complicated area of semantics, like words. That if you're not a chemist, it's something that you're never going to understand what a polynuclear, aromatic compound is and why that's relevant to this conversation. I'm not a chemist either. I don't have a good grasp of chemistry at an A-level level, and I can understand it.
[00:08:35.590] - Jeanne
But as a clinician, I don't really need to understand that much of it. But I think what happens is if you really don't know what you're looking at, then you will just read a sentence and not understand it, and you're a skincare influencer, and you just jump on the, Oh, my God, it's made of petrol. It's terrible for you.
[00:08:50.190] - Dr. Spierings
This can be said with many of the ingredients. And when we're talking about an inky list, it's that little ingredient list on the back of the product that you need to look at to see what's inside of the product, product and to understand what you are putting on your skin. So there are many ingredients like this that are getting a really bad rep because it's not understood. But there are certain rules and regulations as to how you are supposed to name these ingredients that are in your products. That is why it has this chemical name so that it can be defined correctly when you're submitting your product to understand whether it's safe for use or not and to trace where everything is coming from.
[00:09:29.320] - Jeanne
Take us through this process a little bit because it's not that you're putting crude oil on your face, right? There is a huge refinement process this needs to go through to be able to be a cosmetic-grade ingredient. Can you talk us through that and help us understand why it became so easy for people to just think, Okay, I'm putting crude oil on my face.
[00:09:52.650] - Dr. Spierings
Crude oil becomes petroleum through an extraction of what's called hydrocarbons, so liquid hydrocarbons. That happens as you need to refine-step. It's done in these giant petrol, auto, and refinery factories that are mainly based in Africa, actually. It just goes through this system of vacuum distillation, absorption, vacuum distillation followed by filtration of the residue through bone char with which then yields petroleum jelly, and then that goes through further refinement. I think of it like taking a block of wood and then chiseling it into a sculpture. You're taking your crude oil and you're just putting it through all these sieves and things in order to get down to the very basic or very refined product. That's what refinement basically means.
[00:10:36.150] - Dr. Spierings
It's a highly refined by-product of this, right? Yes. There are insane, crazy rules about understanding that it's safe, which we will get to. But what comparison I always use or like to use? It's obviously not at all the same thing. But just to try and explain that just because it comes from this certain source doesn't mean that's what you're putting on your skin. It's the same as water. Most of our drinking water come from still standing rivers, lakes, groundwater, filled with all sorts of viruses, bacteria, microorganisms. Just because that's where our water comes from doesn't mean that's the life giving pure water we put inside our bodies. It goes through coagulation, filtration, removing of all of these sediments, and some filtered water is used for something different. It's filtered even more to use for something different until it comes to the perfect space where we're able to consume it as human elements safely. I'd like to give that comparison just to understand that just because it comes from a certain space doesn't mean after it's gone through all of this refinement and processes is that's what's ending up on your skin.
[00:11:40.640] - Dr. Spierings
Exactly. No, that's a good one. You're not putting petrol on your skin or crude oil. There is a whole environmental issue here because oil is finite substance. Is it environmentally sound to be using refined petroleum in skincare products? There's all that side of it too, which I think also is very confusing. Oil is a fossil fuel. There's that as well. Then the whole process of refining, it also affects the environment through the carbon footprint. Companies like the company that makes Vaseline, Unilever and they've worked... I'm not a proponent of skincare companies that are trying to say that they're this great company, but they're trying very hard to find a way to keep their carbon footprint low and to make it more sustainable.
[00:12:20.710] - Jeanne
Actually, goddess, there is this amazing YouTube video I'm going to link for you in this episode description, which actually explains why it's not environmentally unfriendly. They take you through the entire process of where it's oiled in mind and why it's a byproduct and why it's not bad for the environment. I'm going to link that below. But that's an entirely different conversation because there's so much to say. Now that we understand why do we love petroleum jelly, what is it good for? It is a highly refined by-product. You're not putting crude or petroleum on your face. Let's talk a little bit about how consumers are kept safe because there is a lot to be said about that as well. If you are launching your beauty products in the EU, you have to go through the European cosmetic regulations. In the US, they have the FDA as a regulator. In the EU, especially they have the Committee for Consumer Safety, which is really an objective group of people put together to look at the ingredients and to then evaluate whether this is safe for human use or not at a cosmetic grade level. Even they have not found scientific evidence that it is harmful to your health as used in cosmetic products, but they went a step further and then said, Okay, listen, to appease everybody, you have to prove where this comes from, and you have to prove the entire refinement process, and you have to improve that this is the petroleum or petrolatum using in your products.
[00:13:50.720] - Jeanne
Am I understanding this correctly? Are there all of these checks and balances in place? And can we trust them?
[00:13:56.660] - Dr. Spierings
Yes, they are in place, as far as I'm aware. And yes, you can trust them because the same is done for... The FDA also regulates medicines, so the same applies for medicines. So obviously, we would hope that they have a very high standard for that as well. You could say we can't trust anyone in the government, or whatever. But I think we have to trust somebody.
[00:14:17.410] - Jeanne
Also, the point is, right? Whether you're pro or against it, these are individuals that are expert chemists and experts in the skincare field. They are literally there to objectively evaluate these ingredients and to say whether it is yes or is not. In that sense, there are ingredients that have been scrapped and said, No, you cannot use this in a cosmetic product. It is not safe. All the years and all of the social media information that's gone by, there still hasn't been a SCCS opinion to state that petroleum jelly is harmful to your health.
[00:15:00.500] - Jeanne
What makes it really interesting to me, and also I think, very difficult is even if you don't like petroleum jelly or petrol autumn, I'm going to go out on the limb and say there's a 95 % chance you have something in your cupboard that does contain it in your cupboard?
[00:15:18.090] - Dr. Spierings
Yeah, and I get a lot of crap for this. Whenever I say this, I always get tons of DMs on social media. If I go and say, You're almost certainly using a product with petroleum jelly, whether you like it or not. And you just don't even realize because the words are so... There are so many words for the same ingredient because it just depends on exactly what the company has put in or what the skincare is putting. So paraffin oil, paraffin wax, these are all the same. They're all by-products of different forms of crude oil. All these words, mineral oil, like NIVEA products, for example, have paraffins in them, but most moisturizers do. Nivia is one of the most prolific moisturizers, aside from Vaseline, you can buy on the market. So whether you like it or not, you're almost certainly using something with Vaseline in it.
[00:16:02.200] - Jeanne
That's scary, maybe, for some, but it's because it's so effective and it's because it works. So okay, you can make the argument, Okay, but if I'm still scared to use it and I just don't want to take a chance, why can I not just replace it with a synthetic form of mineral oil or a more natural form? And as I understand it, there are reasons why we use it because it's so effective. The mineral synthetic mineral options are 50 % less effective than petroleum, and the natural options even less so. Then I think if you go into natural options, then you're really starting to also think about sustainability. Do you really want to be doing that to the environment? Natural isn't always better or safer. We have this argument going on. What would you say to a patient or people saying, Okay, can I just rather use an alternative? What would that alternative be?
[00:16:53.750] - Dr. Spierings
Yeah, I don't know what the alternative would be. Well, I mean, Lanolin, glycerein, propylene glycol. There's all these other things. I mean, Vaseline is pretty, I think, petroleum jelly is fairly natural. I mean, it comes from petrol. Sorry, from crude oil. Crude oil is one of the most natural products on the planet. I don't know what's more natural than that, but there aren't many alternatives. Because patients, people don't really realize that there are petrolatum compounds, if you will, in their normal moisturizers. I tend to not talk to patients in those terms. I just say if you don't like Vaseline, specifically, because some people think it smells like petrol, which I don't think it does, but whatever, people think it smells funny, they don't like the texture, so I'm like, Okay, we'll just use another ointment. Aquafor, Cerave ointment, and these are all.
[00:17:40.270] - Dr. Spierings
All the same. It's also based on paraffin. I'm like, If you prefer the word paraffin, which is like candle, candlewax, then you go right ahead and use the paraffin product. I don't actually have this with patients because they think of it as like Vaseline literally versus any other moisturizer. They're more than happy to use Aquaphor, soothing skin balm, which is basically Vaseline, but it comes in a tube as opposed to in a jar, not yellow. So suddenly it's not as bad. Like you said at the beginning, the skincare is so personal and it's so subjective that if you don't like something, just don't use it. It doesn't make a huge difference because in the end, you're going to get hydration from whatever product to use. I would prefer my patients to use something as basic as possible, so I don't want them to use loads of products with tons and tons of ingredients in them. I like Vaseline because it's just one thing, and the risk of it being irritating, irritating or causing any reactions with anything else is extremely low. It's virtually impossible to have a reaction to Vaseline. It's literally one of the most nonreactive things on the planet when it comes to skincare.
[00:18:42.930] - Dr. Spierings
I prefer my patients to use as pure of a product as possible, and you can't get pure than Vaseline, literally. But if they don't like it, then I'm like, All right, well, just use something else you do like. And in the end, we're going to get to the same result.
[00:18:53.480] - Jeanne
I mean, I love it. I always have a little tub with me because I have really, really sensitive skin. And nothing saves my skin having a super flare-up like that. I love to slug with it because it just feels like it calms everything down, just makes everything a little bit better for me. Let's get into some of the major things. First and foremost, is it a known carcinogen? And what is a carcinogen?
[00:19:20.420] - Dr. Spierings
So a carcinogen is a compound or something, a substance that can cause cancer in humans, but humans. So it's based off animal studies usually. There is no evidence to date at all that petrolatum is carcinogenic. There is no evidence for that. So whether it's eaten, ingested, or applied to the skin. So because the studies were done with the original-.
[00:19:41.060] - Jeanne
Oh, wow. Even though it's eaten?
[00:19:42.490] - Dr. Spierings
Yeah, yeah. Even when eat when ingested. The guy who discovered or created Vaseline, Robert Teasborough, the English dude who was knighted by the Queen, apparently he used to eat a tablespoon of Vaseline a day and he died when he was 95 of natural causes. You lived in the 1800s, which is if you live till you're 85 from the 1800s, that means you're pretty darn healthy. Most people didn't live that long. The myth is that he would eat a tablespoon a day and he said it was good for his bowels. Where the whole concept or problem came from is that there were these studies done 40 years ago on a specific strain of rat where they fed them loads of petrolatom, basically. They stored it in their livers. It accumulated the livers and their bodies responded with an immune response. Because when you have a foreign body of any sort in your body, your immune system will respond to that, like a splinter or if you eat something that's not supposed to be there. It was carcinogenic in these rats. But then they found that when the rats were no longer fed petrolatom, they were able to get rid of it from their bodies naturally, and they just cleared it of their systems.
[00:20:44.210] - Dr. Spierings
Those animal feeding studies are where this whole problem came from, but animal feeding studies are way not relevant really to humans. Rats are not humans, and also the amount of stuff they fed them is massive compared to human. I mean, compared to the amount that you would ingest as a human, which is basically zero. The short answer is there is no evidence that petrolatum is in any way carcinogenic in humans at all.
[00:21:07.650] - Jeanne
And just to bring that home, I consider myself a really awesome researcher. It's my superpower. And I spent literally the last week just researching this. And I could not find one study saying that it is... All of the sources linking to it's dangerous, it's carcinogen, is a newspaper article, or somebody's YouTube channel, but there's no reference to an actual study or a report, or any medical basis for that.
[00:21:39.550] - Jeanne
The next thing is it's comedogenic, so it clogs your pores and it causes breakouts. No, it does not.
[00:21:49.250] - Dr. Spierings
It definitely does not do that. I wrote a bit about this in my book because the comedogenicity is again, extremely complicated topic. Then the original person who did the most research on this, including Vaseline, was Dr. Albert Kligman. Back then, he did those prisoner studies, which I know are very unethical. It's not ethical to test things on prisoners, even if it's a skin thing. That obviously is a problem. But we do have some very interesting information from that. He did all those tests. He used Vaseline on people who have acne prone skin. And he was able to show that Vaseline does not cause comadones. So it does not lead to breakouts. Again, with patients, it comes down to how you personally feel about it. Some patients swear to me that Vaseline or anything even remotely greasy will give them breakouts. I tell them that almost certainly not true. But if a patient feels like that, you can't get around that. So I'd have to just go with it and just say, fine, okay, don't use it.
[00:22:44.340] - Jeanne
Is it correct to understand that the molecules in Vaseline are just so big, they cannot possibly penetrate the pores and clog the pores?
[00:22:53.790] - Dr. Spierings
Partially so. But comedogenicity is more complicated than just particles sitting in pores because it has to with the way the hair follicle functions. You can have irritants that also can clog pores, but they don't really clog pores. It's about the lining of the hair follicle not shedding properly. And that is usually a dysfunction of the hair follicle, which is you, not you, but it's the patient. So it's nothing you put on your face. It's how your hair follicles function. So it's much more than just something sitting on your skin because makeup doesn't cause acne. Like, makeup is not comedogenic at all. And nothing really does that. So there are some chemicals that do, but those are used as control substances when you're testing communogenicity. So we have isopropylmyr estate is a known communogenic agent, things like whole tarn. Vaseline is used as a negative control. If you look at studies where skincare companies are trying to test whether their product, because it's the end product that's being tested, their end product causes comedones, they usually put it on someone's back and they'll use a known comedogenic substance as a positive control. They'll use a negative control like Vaseline to show that it does not clog pores because you have to have a control either way and then you put your product on there and then you compare on the same skin sample or whatever it is.
[00:24:08.710] - Dr. Spierings
So Vaseline is used in that sense, in that way. It's pretty much been shown over and over and over again to not cause comedones or clog pores. True acne vulgaris, so true acne breakouts are not due to anything you're putting on your skin. And it also doesn't really usually get better with anything you put on your skin, which is another way to look at it. So topical treatments for acne are generally ineffective for most people, especially if you have bad acne. So acne is a hair follicle dysfunction. So it's a dysfunction of the pylosebaceous unit, so the hair follicle and the oil gland. And so I think it needs to be viewed like that. And it's not you, but not the patient's fault. You have not done anything. It's not the sunscreen you used last week. It's not the fact you're going to go to bed with your makeup on. It's not because you go to the gym every day and lie on a mat with your face. It's none of that. However, you can get an acne form eruption that is due to irritation, but that does not look like true acne. So I see acne form eruptions that are not acne that are due to irritants, like for example, not washing your face and then putting a lot of products on and so on, then you can get irritation of the hair follicle.
[00:25:06.710] - Dr. Spierings
And that's a different problem. And that looks different. But it would look the same to an untrained eye. I can tell the difference between acne and a follicular irritation and a perioral dermatitis and a rosacea. But that's because I'm trained, that's my job. But I wouldn't expect anyone else that's not trained to do that to be able to differentiate that. True acne bulgars or true breakouts are due to a pilot of dysfunction and not anything that you have done.
[00:25:32.750] - Jeanne
So again, FIGGI goddess like I'm always telling you, please talk to your dermatologist. They are the experts in skincare. Don't listen to skinfluencers. If you really have a problem, go to your medical expert and ask them for, yes, proper advice and diagnosis. So the last one that I hear a lot and I get a lot of questions about is you cannot use Vaseline because it causes mylia. Oh, yeah. Can you explain to us what is milia and why it does or does not cause it?
[00:26:03.040] - Jeanne
Milia are inclusion cysts. They are keratin cysts in the skin, which we don't know why they form. I don't know why people get milia. I can come up with some interesting theories, but it's almost certainly not accurate. Whether or not occlusive agents like Vaseline would cause milia, I can't tell you that. I don't know, actually. Some patients come and to me say they swear that it's the cream they're using. I'm like, Okay, well, then just don't use it if you think it's causing milia.
[00:26:34.280] - Jeanne
Milia, it's those small white spots you see underneath your eyes, right? And it's hard. They're hard.
[00:26:39.950] - Dr. Spierings
They can be anywhere on your face, really. But they generally occur around the eyes. I see them in children, and actually, they're very common in children. Why they occur in children? I have no idea. It's not because they use Vaseline around their eyes, obviously not. I had an eight-year-old yesterday with milia, and I was like, Well, the mother said, What can I do? I was like, Nothing. They will go on their own. It's not something I'm going to treat. I don't treat them in adults either. If you have one of them and it's big, yes, okay, I'll take out for you. It can be quite difficult to remove them anyway. You have to get the keratin cyst out. They can be quite difficult. There are disorders of what are called eruptive milia disorders. Why does that happen to people? I don't know. I've seen that only once. It was an older lady, and for 20 years, she had an entire plaque milia, basically, on her forehead. It was just something I'd never seen anything like that before. It's a recognized condition, but it's extremely rare. We don't know why this happens to people. It's probably a dysfunction of the hair follicle, just like acne, but why?
[00:27:37.800] - Dr. Spierings
I don't know. So I would say that because we don't know what causes them, I can't tell you that Vaseline is a culprit. But if you think that it's causing your milia, then just stop using that product.
[00:27:49.630] - Dr. Spierings
Go with what works for you, see what your body responds to, and make the best decisions you can for yourself.
[00:27:56.930] - Jeanne
To just round everything up, is it safe to use Vaseline? Is it safe to use Petroleum jelly?
[00:28:05.910] - Dr. Spierings
Yes, it is. And if you like it, great. If you don't like it, that's fine, because any other product you're using is almost certainly going to have it in there anyway. So I don't really mind, because when it comes down to moisturizer, you just use what you like to use, what you can afford. If you like spending money on skincare, go ahead. Skincare generally is I consider a luxury item. It's not something that anyone needs. So if you want to spend money on a certain product, then you go right ahead. People don't tell me how to spend my money. I'm not going to tell you how to spend yours. If you have a skin problem, then I'm going to be a little more specific about what I'd like you to use. But in the end, it does come down to personal choice and what you like. I think Vaseline is by far the best moisturizer available. I think what you're saying, it's very not reactive. It can really soothe irritated skin. It's well established as a treatment for eczema, things like that. But again, if you don't like it, don't use it. But it's very safe.
[00:28:53.580] - Dr. Spierings
So don't use it because you think it's unsafe. Don't use it because you don't like it. That's different.
[00:28:57.590] - Jeanne
There you have it from the skin-telling-.
[00:28:59.860] - Dr. Spierings
Yeah, if you don't like it, don't use it. But otherwise, you should probably use it. It's cheap and cheerful and it's very effective for what it does. You can use it all over your body. Use lips, eyes, in your nose, whatever.
[00:29:16.080] - Jeanne
In staying with true fashion with the FIGGI Life where we say life always happens, there is no secrets to happiness, what is one thing you do on the daily to live your best life?
[00:29:25.990] - Dr. Spierings
I try to get enough rest. Sleep is one way to rest, but also just having a mental break from everything. Phones and I have two phones: WhatsApp, email, phone, Instagram. I think for me personally, prioritizing my own rest and, of course, sleep, but just having a break and scheduling in that rest time is really important to me. I think that that's really been a game-changer for my general wellbeing and my ability to do my job well and function at the high level that I want to function at. I say now, we will say to me like, What's the number one thing you tell people to do for their health? I'd say just rest enough because you're no good to anyone if you're tired.
[00:30:07.960] - Jeanne
Dr. Spierings, where can our audience find you? Where do they go to follow you on socials, your website, your email? And most importantly, where can they buy you your book? You have to read this book. If you are a FIGGI goddess and you love what we do, you are going to love this book. You have to read it.
[00:30:23.730] - Dr. Spierings
Thank you. Yes, you can buy the book on Amazon. It's available on Kindle, and Amazon is a very inexpensive book. So it's all the Amazon. So that's always easy to get. It's a paperback, so it's quite easy to carry around. I'm on Instagram.
[00:30:35.720] - Jeanne
Give us the name again. Give us the full name of.
[00:30:37.900] - Dr. Spierings
The book. Yes, Skintelligent, which you really need to know to get gray skin. I mainly do Instagram myself. So my Instagram handle is @doctornatalyasperings. Com. And my website is also Dr. Natalia Spierings. com. It's just my name.
[00:30:51.080] - Jeanne
Wonderful. And if you're driving, as always, know that all of the links will be in this episode notes and the show notes. And I will also put a link to the book for you in the notes so that you can easily find it. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for clearing this up.
[00:31:05.700] - Dr. Spierings
For us. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Have a great day, everyone.
[00:31:09.270] - Jeanne
So there you have it, FIGGI Goddess. And remember, as always, everyone deserves to celebrate the goddess within. Until next time, bye. Enjoying the conversation? Please consider following and subscribing to the My FIGGI Life Podcast. Share our episodes so we can grow our community. Go to FIGGILife. Com and subscribe to our newsletters so you're aware of all the latest podcast, episodes, blog posts, and FIGGI news. Remember, everyone deserves to celebrate the goddess within.