“We talk a lot about anti-inflammatory approaches, calming inflammation. But what about preventing it in the first place? That’s a much smarter strategy.”— Lily Shapiro, PharmD — Well Done with Kat Vong
Covered in this episode
- The CALM framework for skin longevity
- VERISOL® bioactive collagen peptides vs. generic
- Collagen cofactors: vitamin C, zinc, selenium, silica
- Ceramosides™ vs. hyaluronic acid for hydration
- Niacinamide as a NAD+ precursor
- AstaReal® astaxanthin — lipophilic and hydrophilic
- Why oral glutathione is largely ineffective
- Polypodium leucotomos for internal UV defense
- Certificate of analysis and third-party testing
- Red flags: proprietary blends and underdosing
- Skin aging as oxidative stress, not cosmetic decline
- Realistic timelines: 2 weeks to 12 weeks
- VISIA scan: 9-point wrinkle improvement at 12 weeks
Well Done with Kat Vong explores the mind-skin connection, living in alignment, and what it actually means to live well and look your best. Kat Vong is a beauty industry insider, mom of twins, and someone who overcame severe eczema by addressing the root cause from within.
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Chapter 1: From Pharmacist to Wall Street to Founding ATIKA
Kat Tell us your story — going from pharmacist to Wall Street and eventually to the idea of ATIKA.
Lily I was born in the Soviet Union and came to the United States when I was 10. My family had an immigrant mindset: you needed a profession. I went to pharmacy school, worked a few years, realized it wasn’t a good personality fit, pivoted to Wharton, followed the path to Wall Street. Since 2010 I’ve been in finance — a year of investment banking, then markets. Up until last August, I was helping manage a machine learning hedge fund out of Silicon Valley.
Lily When I entered my 40s, I started seeing skin changes and wanted to understand what actually works. I dug into the clinical research — several hundred trials — to understand what has real human data and what is marketing. I came up with a cocktail that worked. The challenge: 20 pills in the morning that I could barely get through. I thought: why doesn’t something like AG1 exist but for skin? A powder, one scoop daily, all the right ingredients at all the right doses. I created it for myself. It was never supposed to be a business. But when I brought it to life, I thought: this is the future of dermatology. I left Wall Street in August 2025 to pursue this full time.
Chapter 2: Why One Ingredient Can’t Fix a System
Kat So many supplement brands focus on one hero ingredient. Why is that approach not the right way to think about skin longevity?
Lily Our bodies are extremely complex. There is no reason why pressing one lever is going to cause a dramatic systemic effect. If you’re looking for foundational support for your skin and the processes that drive aging — it’s a system, and you have to support it as a system. The framework I developed has the acronym CALM. C stands for Collagen integrity, A for Antioxidant balance, L for Lipid barrier, and M for Mitochondrial function.
Chapter 3: VERISOL® — Bioactive Collagen vs. Generic
Lily Most people focus on bovine versus marine collagen — that’s not the right question. Generic collagen is hydrolyzed protein — broken down into amino acid sequences your body can absorb as building blocks. That’s fine, but there’s no specific reason those peptides should travel to your skin and signal new collagen production.
Lily Bioactive collagen peptides are specific di- and tripeptides that have an affinity for fibroblasts in the dermis. When fibroblasts detect those specific sequences in the blood, they interpret it as: we lost collagen, we need to make more. VERISOL® — from a German company called Gelita — replicates that signal deliberately. I use it at 2.5 grams, not 20 grams, because that’s all you need of the specific signaling sequences.
Lily Collagen also requires cofactors. Vitamin C at 500 mg — the studied dose, and not in hot coffee where it degrades. Zinc as zinc choline — the most bioavailable form. Selenium for the enzymatic processes. Bamboo-derived silica as a structural building block. It’s all a system.
Chapter 4: Antioxidants — Why Glutathione Doesn’t Work and Multi-Pathway Does
Lily Antioxidants are incredible — there’s a lot of research across cognition, cardiovascular health, eyes, skin. But you really can’t get clinical doses from food. People talk about glutathione as the master antioxidant — and it’s critical. But you really can’t supplement it. Whether injectable or liposomal — you can’t actually absorb it into the cells where it works. Your body makes glutathione endogenously. The right strategy is to support the antioxidant system more broadly so your body can produce more of its own.
Lily I combined 10 different antioxidants — the first true multi-antioxidant on the market. Some are fat-soluble carotenoids, some are water-soluble polyphenols. They all work through different pathways at appropriate doses. You don’t want to mega-dose a single one — that can blunt important signaling in your body.
Chapter 5: Ceramides vs. Hyaluronic Acid — What Hydration Actually Means
Lily Hydration is when the outer layer of your skin — the stratum corneum — is able to hold onto water. That outer layer is like bricks and mortar: dead cells held together by fat — about 50% ceramides, 25% cholesterol, 25% other fatty acids. When that mortar is intact, skin holds moisture. When it has cracks, water escapes and you get dry skin.
Lily Hyaluronic acid is a humectant — it pulls water from deeper layers of your skin, giving you temporary plumpness. It’s like throwing water on a brick wall. It’ll be wet for a while, then it dries out. Ceramides are like fixing the mortar — sealing the cracks so moisture stays in. I use Ceramosides™ — a trademarked ceramide from France — with strong clinical data for both skin and hair. People are reporting much improved hydration within two to three weeks.
Chapter 6: Mitochondrial Function, Niacinamide, and Astaxanthin
Lily Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. Collagen formation requires energy. Any tissue remodeling requires energy. I include niacinamide at 500 mg — a double benefit: it converts to NAD+ inside the cell, and niacinamide itself has decades of clinical data for skin health and elasticity, independent of the NAD+ pathway. For most people through their 20s to 60s, oral niacinamide is more than sufficient — no injections needed.
Lily Astaxanthin is one of the most versatile antioxidants I know of. It’s derived from algae and has a unique molecular structure: it’s both lipophilic and hydrophilic — most compounds are one or the other. That means it can work in different layers of the cell simultaneously, which is why it has benefits across skin, photoprotection, eyes, cognition, and cardiovascular health. I use AstaReal® — natural, the most clinically studied — at four milligrams, the studied dose.
Chapter 7: Supplement Red Flags — How to Shop Smarter
Kat What are the immediate red flags when shopping for a supplement?
Lily Proprietary blends — if a company won’t tell you how much of each ingredient is included, I’m not taking it. Format matters: gummies can only carry about 10% of their weight in actives. Dosing is the most important factor. A lot of products list impressive ingredients but include them at amounts far below what’s been studied. My analogy: one sip of water after a marathon is technically water, but it’s not enough.
Lily Contamination is the other piece. Many protein powders contain arsenic, cadmium, and lead. Before I put anything in my body, I check third-party testing. The site I’ve used since pharmacy school is ConsumerLab.com — no affiliation — about $60 to $70 a year. They test what’s actually in the product versus what the label claims, and they test for contaminants. I provide a certificate of analysis for ATIKA — fully transparent about what’s in it and at what dose. I make my product in the United States. What’s on the label is what’s in the bottle.
Chapter 8: Results, Skin Span, and What to Expect
Lily It depends on what you’re tracking. Hydration — from the ceramides repairing the lipid barrier — within two to three weeks. Wrinkle improvement: for me, a nine-point improvement in periorbital wrinkles after 12 weeks of consistent use, confirmed by VISIA before-and-after scans on my website. Hyperpigmentation and sunspots take longer — months. Building up antioxidant and photoprotection levels in your tissues takes a few weeks of consistent use.
Lily I guide people to 90 days. That’s when the inflection point becomes visible. And to be clear: this isn’t anti-aging. What does anti-aging even mean? Skin longevity is about keeping the function you have as you move through the decades — the elasticity, the plumpness, the resilience. That’s attainable. Looking 20 years younger from a cream is not. We’re primarily available at atikawellness.com, with some medical spas. On Instagram: @atika.wellness. I also publish journal articles weekly on the science behind everything we’ve covered here.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.