Lily Shapiro, PharmD — How To Actually Slow Skin Aging

Chapter 1: The Problem with More

Galina What do you think is the most misunderstood thing about skincare today?

Lily As a society, we’re conditioned to do more — more products, more steps, more intensity. But your skin is an organ and you have to nourish it. There is such a thing as too much. I’m not a fan of the 10-step skincare routine. We don’t know how all these products are interacting with each other on a biochemical level. Topical vitamin C, for example, needs a certain pH to work. When you put it on, you have to give it 10 to 20 minutes before applying anything else on top. How many people actually know that?

Chapter 2: The CALM Framework — Core Drivers of Skin Aging

Lily The drivers of skin aging are oxidative stress, hormones, environmental exposure, and metabolic processes. My framework — which excludes hormones as that requires specialist expertise — uses the acronym CALM. C is Collagen integrity — the scaffolding. A is Antioxidant balance — nuanced and complex, with a real impact on aging. L is Lipid barrier — what it actually means to have hydrated skin, and how a lot of popular advice actively damages it. M is Mitochondrial function — cellular energy. Every single process, including collagen synthesis, requires energy. You have to think about the whole picture.

Lily Skin is a low-priority organ. If your body is deficient in nutrients or sleep or energy, it’s not going to concern itself with keeping your skin glowing. All the resources get pulled to where they’re needed most: the brain, the vital organs. Those deficits tend to show up on the skin first.

Chapter 3: Biotin, Glutathione, and What the Science Actually Says

Galina When you jumped into research, was there any study that broke your thinking open?

Lily I went through several hundred studies to understand what actually has scientific backing. Biotin is a perfect example. It’s known as a beauty supplement — but there is zero evidence that it does anything unless you’re deficient. People are taking it, it’s included in countless formulations, and there’s literally no clinical backing. That was my journey: what has real human data behind it, and at what dose? Dosing is almost as important as the ingredients themselves. If you run a marathon and I offer you one sip of water at the finish line — it’s water, but is one sip going to do anything? You need the right amount.

Galina Is there something in the spotlight right now that might turn out to be similarly overhyped?

Lily Glutathione. People supplement with it because it’s the master antioxidant — they take the liposomal form because it absorbs better. But even when you take it, your blood levels of the compound rise, and there is no mechanism for your body to bring it into your cells where it actually works. You’re taking it, but you’re not really taking it. Glutathione is produced endogenously — your body makes it. You can’t supplement it directly. But you can protect the antioxidant system and encourage your body to make more of its own. That’s a much more effective approach.

Chapter 4: The Multi-Antioxidant Case

Lily Different antioxidants work in different ways. Some work on the fatty layer of the cell, some on the aqueous interior. It has to be a multi-pathway approach. If you mega-dose a single antioxidant, it can backfire — blunting the signaling your body relies on. More is not better. What I’ve done is combine 10 different antioxidants: the first true multi-antioxidant on the market. Some are fat-soluble carotenoids, some are water-soluble polyphenols. All working together as a network at appropriate doses. Maqui berry — which most people haven’t heard of — has roughly 18 times more antioxidant activity than blueberries. They all matter and they all work in different ways.

Chapter 5: VERISOL® — Why Generic Collagen Doesn’t Work

Lily Not all collagen is created equal — and the marine versus bovine conversation is irrelevant. The right question is: generic collagen or bioactive collagen peptides? Generic collagen is an incomplete protein — amino acids — and you’re hoping some of it becomes new collagen. There’s no mechanism for that. Bioactive collagen peptides are specific di- and tripeptides that signal to fibroblasts in your skin to produce more collagen. The bioactive peptides with the most clinical data come from a German company called Gelita. The skin-specific product is VERISOL® — at least seven human clinical trials for skin. I use it at 2.5 grams — not 20 grams — because that’s all you need of the specific signaling sequences.

Chapter 6: Ceramides vs. Hyaluronic Acid for Real Hydration

Lily Hydration fundamentally comes down to your skin’s ability to hold onto moisture. The stratum corneum is like bricks and mortar: dead cells held together by mortar that is essentially fatty acids — about 50% ceramides. When that mortar has cracks, water escapes. Dry skin is your skin failing to hold onto moisture. Hyaluronic acid is a humectant — it pulls water from deeper layers of your skin and from the environment. It’s like throwing water on a brick wall. It’ll be wet for a while, then it dries out. Ceramides are like sealing the cracks in the mortar so moisture stays in. Mechanistically, completely different.

Lily Oral hyaluronic acid is problematic for most people — it’s too large a molecule to absorb without specific conditions, you need a lot of it, and it still only acts as a humectant rather than addressing the structure. I chose Ceramosides™ — a trademarked ceramide from France with strong clinical data — to target the root cause. People are reporting much improved hydration within two to three weeks.

Chapter 7: Sunscreen, Internal UV Defense, and a Simplified Routine

Lily The data on sunscreen is very clear — it’s worth using. UV exposure, especially midday, drives about 80% of visible skin aging. Personally I prefer mineral. Internal photoprotection is also a real category. Polypodium leucotomos is a fern extract with decades of dermatology research showing it meaningfully increases the time you can be under the sun before getting redness and UV-induced DNA damage. I include it at 480 mg — the higher end of the studied range. I also include Red Orange Complex® from Sicily — a trademarked blend of blood orange varieties with compelling data on internal UV protection, elasticity, and skin tone.

Galina What does your ideal skincare day look like?

Lily Pitiful by industry standards. Morning: water, then a moisturizer. I use vitamin C topically but inconsistently — it’s high maintenance because of the pH wait time. Most days it’s just water and a nice oil or moisturizer. Then I take ATIKA — one scoop, 18 active ingredients working as a network. That is genuinely the core of my routine. At night: oil cleanser to remove makeup, trying to be more consistent with retinoids, then a moisturizer. And sunblock, religiously, even on cloudy days. When I drive I wear UV-blocking sleeves and a hat. I’m 46 and my VISIA scan came back at 36. Something is working.

Chapter 8: Managing Expectations — What to Expect and When

Lily It depends on what you’re tracking. Hydration — from the ceramides repairing the lipid barrier — within two to four weeks. Rosacea clearing — a few people have told me it cleared up within weeks. Mechanistically that makes sense: 10 antioxidants targeting oxidative stress, reducing the inflammation that causes redness. Wrinkle improvement: for me, 12 weeks to see a nine-point improvement in periorbital wrinkles on VISIA. I guide people to 90 days. That’s when the inflection point becomes visible. Consistency over intensity. When you’re targeting biological processes at a cellular level, it takes time. It works — you just have to be patient and realistic.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.