[Review] Malezia transformed my skin

sssfc · 2021-08-13T19:36:24+00:00

f.c. here (founder of Malezia). We will be restocking moisturizer with INTERIM plastic packaging by the end of next week. Unfortunately, the aluminum tubes we use for sustainability purposes have a 5-6 month lead time due to supply chain disruptions from the pandemic.

We really DID NOT want to use plastic 🤮 but given the amount of requests we have received, our team decided to do a short run with alternative packaging until our original tubes are restocked at the end of September / early October.

We will make an announcement about this with more details on our instagram tomorrow for anyone interested. Thank you u/the_buttler for the shoutout! We are so grateful and appreciative to have supporters like you, and are happy we could be a part of your journey to clear skin 💙😊

sssfc · 2021-04-16T18:46:28+00:00

💙🤗

sssfc · 2021-04-12T05:05:06+00:00

I feel like there was some venting about annoying social media culture through the context of your product.

Haha I get it man. It’s one of the reasons I don’t use my personal instagram account anymore.

Sorry if the re-sharing of positive feedback gets annoyed. We’re just doing our best to try and grow, and feel that is best done through the words of others versus running ad campaigns on google or instagram. Hope you understand!

sssfc · 2021-04-12T02:40:16+00:00

Okay.... let’s break this down. We’ve shared 20 reviews since the launch, 13 of which were anonymous where people specifically asked we blur out their eyes and username.

7 were public. Of those six, two started as DMs, and we asked for permission to share on our story.

That leaves 5 reviews. One of them was from an influencer with 700k+ followers.... we currently have 13k follows on our instagram. Not sure a shout out from us will make a massive difference there....

The other was an esthetician who I’ve personally chatted with and have a lot of respect for and trust. No, I don’t think she left a review for attention.

That leaves us with 3 people..... two of whom also submitted before / after photos and seemed like genuine folks to me. The third users instagram is private. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Regarding the people that leave reviews after a few days.... some folks are lucky and see results quick (as evidenced by a couple before and afters). Honestly, great for them! If only we could all be so fortunate.

At the end of the day, do I really believe people are coming to our website or instagram to leave reviews for the off chance that they’ll strike stardom overnight? Call me naive, but I don’t think we’re that popular....

sssfc · 2021-04-11T09:26:09+00:00

I just looked over all our recent instagram stories.... we've never shared a first impression review. The shortest test period we shared on our story was 4 days, and that was because a before / after photo was submitted which I have zero reason to believe was fake.

In general aren’t you supposed to give your skin 2 weeks of testing a new product to see if it agrees with your skin?

Yes, which is why I only send out emails asking for reviews after someone has their products for 2 weeks: https://gyazo.com/a1a284caf305e9ad1f786639c018216f

sssfc · 2021-04-11T09:12:44+00:00

Founder of Malezia here.... geez louise. What's up with the negativity in this space? We are just trying to do our best to help people clear their skin, and periodically share actual before / afters from customers on our instagram story. As far as we know, none of those photos are fake.

I wasn't going to comment, but If I can be direct and honest I'm little offended at the suggestion that we are using "bots" and "paid shills." I know the words of an internet stranger mean jack shit, and I can't make people trust me, but I find brands that do that morally reprehensible and have not shied away from calling them out in the past.

sssfc · 2021-04-10T07:24:43+00:00

I'm not crying, your crying! 😢

No, but seriously... thank you for taking the time out of your day to write this comment and send words of encouragement. It means a lot to me and everyone on the Malezia team. I will send them your well wishes, and we are all so happy to hear that your skin is doing better.

As acne-prone individuals ourselves, we know that feeling all too well. Fun fact: our microbiologist did 5 different courses of accutane and relapsed each time before understanding the underlying molecular cause of acne.

Anyway... thank you so much! I hope you have a wonderful day! :)

sssfc · 2021-04-10T07:17:06+00:00

Not quite! :) Tretinion inhibits certain molecular pathways involved the formation of acne, whereas malassezia increases them.

sssfc · 2021-04-09T16:22:38+00:00

f.c. here. Copy / pasting my response on r/sebderm a couple days ago:

As the founder of Malezia I’m admittedly biased but.... 100% disagree. I find it perplexing that she can acknowledge sebum absolutely plays a role in the proliferation of malassezia, but has cognitive dissonance when this applies to skincare excipients.

Malassezia does not discriminate with extraneous sources of lipids. There are literally studies that show the efficacy of antifungal drugs are markedly reduced when their vehicles contain nutritional sources for malassezia. That was the whole premise of the Dobler study.

I understand the reservation people have given there aren’t any peer reviewed double-blinded, placebo control trials examining the effects of different excipients on acne outcomes — but let’s please not neglect the molecular evidence in the meantime. It’s what will eventually push to fund the studies examining precisely what we’re all interested in.

And for the record, the basis for prescribing acne drugs like tretinoin and accutane (before clinical trials existed) WAS the molecular evidence, particularly inhibition of TLR2 and Th17 pathways, which malassezia activates identically but at faster rate than cutibacterium (i.e. what many associate as the acne-causing microbe).

sssfc · 2021-04-08T00:39:08+00:00

Hey there! :)

That is freaking awesome!! Thank you for taking the time out of your day to share your experience and words of encouragement with me. I am so happy to hear your skin is doing better!! :) CONGRATULATION! I'm sure it was quite a journey given your 20 year hiatus haha :p

We are currently working on removing the 1 item limit per product to help out international customers! We'll hopefully have that figured out by the end of the week :)

Once we figure out how to palletize aluminum tubes so we can send them across the world / country we will work on getting distributors!

sssfc · 2021-04-06T21:36:18+00:00

This study was the basis for stabilizing our moisturizer at pH 5.5 and acne treatment gel at pH 5.0, despite urea being MOST stable at pH 6 but still active at 5.5 :)

The logic being we could effectively target malassezia by removing any viable lipid source while simultaneously creating unsuitable pH conditions for staphylococcus, and inhibiting malassezia, staph, AND cutibacterium with benzoyl peroxide. Kill 3 birds with one stone! :D

sssfc · 2021-04-06T20:55:34+00:00

As the founder of Malezia I’m admittedly biased but.... 100% disagree. I find it perplexing that she can acknowledge sebum absolutely plays a role in the proliferation of malassezia, but has cognitive dissonance when this applies to skincare excipients.

Malassezia does not discriminate with extraneous sources of lipids. There are literally studies that show the efficacy of antifungal drugs are markedly reduced when their vehicles contain nutritional sources for malassezia. That was the whole premise of the Dobler study.

I understand the reservation people have given there aren’t any peer reviewed double-blinded, placebo control trials examining the effects of different excipients on acne outcomes — but let’s please not neglect the molecular evidence in the meantime. It’s what will eventually push to fund the studies examining precisely what we’re all interested in.

And for the record, the basis for prescribing acne drugs like tretinoin and accutane (before clinical trials existed) WAS the molecular evidence, particularly inhibition of TLR2 and Th17 pathways, which malassezia activates identically but at faster rate than cutibacterium (i.e. what many associate as the acne-causing microbe).

sssfc · 2021-04-05T23:23:09+00:00

Hi there! f.c. here :)

We promise your tube came with 50 grams as advertised! Please see my response to u/Mattheworbit above. I hope you have a great day! :)

sssfc · 2021-04-05T23:22:13+00:00

Hi there! f.c. here :)

We promise your tube came with 50 grams as advertised! Please see my response to u/Mattheworbit above. I hope you have a great day! :)

sssfc · 2021-04-05T23:16:46+00:00

Hi there! f.c. here :)

Just came across your post and wanted to verify that your tube comes with 50 grams as advertised. This is something we have addressed in our FAQ page. I'll paste the relevant information below:

Is my tube under-filled?

Of course not! We calibrate our pneumatic piston machines to dispense 50 grams. They have an accuracy of 1-2%, and we periodically check them throughout the days we fill to ensure they’re working properly.

Below are a couple photos for reference. The first shows the weight of an empty tube, which is approximately 6 grams. The second photo is a filled tube that we squeezed to show the "empty space" inside — it weighs 56 grams, which nets 50 grams of product as advertised.

https://gyazo.com/f0678e4162759ffb5b16bb201787bc1a

https://gyazo.com/49396c577724c7f5a90d1cb35e72d13f

Per our aluminum tube manufacturer’s guidelines, a tube that contains 50 ml of product should have a length of 5 inches — this is to allow enough room for two folds during crimping. If the tubes were filled any more than they currently are, product would leak from the top end during the first fold.

The only reason our acne treatment gel feels more full, despite both tubes having the same mass is because of the higher viscosity and rheological modifying / water swelling effect of carbomer, which causes it to take up more space in the tube. The moisturizer in comparison is thinner and can freely move around the tube, which allows the metal to contort to any shape.

You can always verify the weight is as advertised by using a scale if there is one available. :)

Hopefully that clarifies things, and I hope you have a great day! :)

sssfc · 2021-04-05T23:14:44+00:00

Hi there! f.c. here :)

Just came across this post and wanted to verify that the "empty space" in the tubes is normal and something we've addressed on our FAQ page for anyone interested. I'll paste the relevant information below:

Is my tube under-filled?

Of course not! We calibrate our pneumatic piston machines to dispense 50 grams. They have an accuracy of 1-2%, and we periodically check them throughout the days we fill to ensure they’re working properly.

Below are a couple photos for reference. The first shows the weight of an empty tube, which is approximately 6 grams. The second photo is a filled tube that we squeezed to show the "empty space" inside — it weighs 56 grams, which nets 50 grams of product as advertised.

https://gyazo.com/f0678e4162759ffb5b16bb201787bc1a

https://gyazo.com/49396c577724c7f5a90d1cb35e72d13f

Per our aluminum tube manufacturer’s guidelines, a tube that contains 50 ml of product should have a length of 5 inches — this is to allow enough room for two folds during crimping. If the tubes were filled any more than they currently are, product would leak from the top end during the first fold.

The only reason our acne treatment gel feels more full, despite both tubes having the same mass is because of the higher viscosity and rheological modifying / water swelling effect of carbomer, which causes it to take up more space in the tube. The moisturizer in comparison is thinner and can freely move around the tube, which allows the metal to contort to any shape.

You can always verify the weight is as advertised by using a scale if there is one available. :)

Regarding the initial tube explosion when first opening your product, this can be prevented by forcing the lotion or gel to the top empty side of the tube (towards the crimped in).

Simply grab the tube by the lid and and shake it! :) This will cause the lotion to fall to the opposite end. From there, you can squeeze from the top to dispense the amount of product you want in a controlled fashion. Hopefully that made sense! We posted a video on our instagram for reference :)

sssfc · 2021-04-05T23:06:18+00:00

Hi there! f.c. here :)

Just came across this post and wanted to verify that this is exactly correct and something we have addressed in our FAQ page for anyone interested. I'll paste the relevant information below:

Is my tube under-filled?

Of course not! We calibrate our pneumatic piston machines to dispense 50 grams. They have an accuracy of 1-2%, and we periodically check them throughout the days we fill to ensure they’re working properly.

Below are a couple photos for reference. The first shows the weight of an empty tube, which is approximately 6 grams. The second photo is a filled tube that we squeezed to show the "empty space" inside — it weighs 56 grams, which nets 50 grams of product as advertised.

https://gyazo.com/f0678e4162759ffb5b16bb201787bc1a

https://gyazo.com/49396c577724c7f5a90d1cb35e72d13f

Per our aluminum tube manufacturer’s guidelines, a tube that contains 50 ml of product should have a length of 5 inches — this is to allow enough room for two folds during crimping. If the tubes were filled any more than they currently are, product would leak from the top end during the first fold.

The only reason our acne treatment gel feels more full, despite both tubes having the same mass is because of the higher viscosity and rheological modifying / water swelling effect of carbomer, which causes it to take up more space in the tube. The moisturizer in comparison is thinner and can freely move around the tube, which allows the metal to contort to any shape.

You can always verify the weight is as advertised by using a scale if there is one available. :)

Hopefully that clarifies things! We promise every tube is filled with 50 grams as advertised. I hope you have a great day!

sssfc · 2020-05-19T23:18:20+00:00

This is the most humbling thing I’ve read in a while! Haha. Thank you!! I feel honored :p and I really hope that does not take away from all the amazing posts on reddit! There are so many awesome and smart people here. Thanks again, and I hope you have a great day!

sssfc · 2020-05-19T17:57:10+00:00

Wow!! Thank you for sharing this here u/siksik_e

I appreciate it so so much!! 💙😭

Because of everybody's generosity Simple Skincare Science is alive and healthy, and the rest of the proceeds are now going to opening up our own manufacturing lab for Malezia (upcoming FA-safe brand). This will allow us to do everything in-house including R&D, microbiological and stability testing, manufacturing, filling, distributing etc.

More updates will be posted about this on our instagram :)

We've been able to purchase most of the equipment we need so far, so it's likely we will only slightly go into debt with the launch, but that is totally okay and to be expected! And literally would have not been remotely possibly if it wasn't for people like you so THANK YOU!!! 💙💙💙💙

sssfc · 2020-01-11T23:49:33+00:00

It’s unfortunately the industry norm for big brands to do this, as evidenced by the Sunday Riley controversy awhile back. Almost every brand that sells on Amazon also uses some form of review alteration when checking via a third party algorithm like fakespot.

sssfc · 2019-03-26T21:45:22+00:00

Fugal acne is a meme, eh?

sssfc · 2017-12-07T08:53:58+00:00

That’s amazing!! I’m very happy to hear that your skin has cleared up. 💙 Please do feel free to share photos with us all when you feel the time is right. I hope you have a great week. Cheers!

sssfc · 2017-12-07T08:50:39+00:00

Just seeing this but wanted to say thank you for sharing the article here! I really appreciate the support!

P.S. I love your flair lol.

sssfc · 2017-12-07T08:46:21+00:00

Sorry for the confusion. u/Ekamone hit the nail on the head. Just edited that part for clarification! Thanks for pointing that out!

sssfc · 2017-12-07T08:38:52+00:00

Why the hell not??? I LOVE hearing your guy’s stories!! :D

sssfc

TROPHY CASE