We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bexi (Rebecca) Lobo, PhD a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Bexi (Rebecca), so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Creativity is a requisite for surviving and thriving with the invisible and dynamic disabilities caused by Sjogren’s (SHOW-grins) and dysautonomia. Every day I am forced to be creative in how I work with my body and its ever-changing limitations to meet the demands of running my skin care business, Bexi’s Bespoke Revitalisation, writing for my local newspaper, the Davis Enterprise, raising awareness of and advocating for Sjogren’s and dysautonomia, and living.
Creativity also is essential to how I run Bexi’s Bespoke Revitalisation and serve my clients. Bespoke revitalisation means that I work one-on-one with each client to personally formulate skin care solutions to revitalise their skin. And if an existing formula doesn’t work for them, I create a new one. My skincare products are multipurpose and multifunctional and can be used in different ways, which allows my client and me to get creative in how we use my products to meet my client’s needs and wants.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
For most of my life I had painfully dry, sensitive skin and eczema. I was limited by what my skin could tolerate. I never knew what would cause the hives, welts, rashes, and unbearable itching that caused me to rip my skin to shreds, leaving it weeping and crusted over, stuck to the bandages my dad wrapped round my limbs to try to stop me from scratching at night, and stuck to whatever clothes I wore during the day.
Drugs provided temporary relief. Science-backed skincare products from Christian Dior worked fabulously but temporarily and were unaffordable given how much and how often I had to use them to find relief. Drugstore brands such as Aveeno, Neutrogena, Clinique, Mary Kay, and Alba Botanica provided minimal and temporary relief. Aquaphor, Vaseline, and Eucerin made my skin oily, sticky, and itchy, and worse, caused breakouts. Natural solutions such as oatmeal and saltwater baths and butter scrubs, were mildly effective. None of my existing skin care options provided a simple and sustainable method for caring for my painfully dry, sensitive skin.
Desperate for a solution and frustrated with the skincare products on the market, I chose to create my own solutions using whole foods, such as goat’s milk, honey, turmeric, and ginger, which historically have been used for skin care. I chose to use whole foods rather than synthetic, isolated nutrients, such as retinol, glycerin, and niacinamide, because of what I learned in graduate school. I studied the effects of the B vitamin folate, and it’s synthetic, oxidized counterpart, folic acid, on epigenetic regulation and gene expression in breast cancer progression.
I finished my PhD knowing that the most effective and efficient way to provide your body with the building blocks it needs for growth and repair is through high quality, nutrient dense, whole foods. In comparison, synthetic vitamins and processed foods are poor substitutes and often have dire consequences for the growth, repair, and overall health of your body.
I used my personal experiences and my graduate research to develop an innovative method of revitalising my skin, imparting life and vigor to it by feeding it from the outside in and within, and allowing my body’s innate ability to self-heal and self-correct to occur with minimal intervention and maximum attention.
To feed means to “give food to” and that’s exactly what I did and do; I make skincare products from whole food from researched and trusted sources, local whenever possible: goat’s milk (from a single heirloom goat, Lafawnduh), raw honey, beeswax, organic ginger, fresh limes, and a variety of extra virgin, cold-pressed nut and seed oils. Within 3-4 months of using my skincare products formulated from whole foods my skin had visibly improved to such a degree that my family and friends asked me to make products for them.
Concurrently, I was getting sicker. Despite reassurances from my doctors that all my blood tests were normal and, therefore, there was nothing they could do for me, I was so fatigued that I could not work a 9-5 job and keep up with life. Searching for a way to earn a living, have autonomy over my schedule, and use my PhD to impact people directly, I founded Bexi’s Bespoke Revitalisation to share my approach to skin care and the skincare products I had developed. I wasn’t sure exactly who I was going to help at that point, I just knew that there had to be other people whose skin hurt the way mine had and who reacted to almost everything and, therefore, would need bespoke products, formulated and made just for them.
Two years into founding Bexi’s Bespoke Revitalisation I got so sick that my blood tests finally showed something was terribly wrong. I was diagnosed with Sjögren’s, a common but rarely diagnosed systemic autoimmune disease. Left untreated, Sjogren’s is severely debilitating and can be fatal. My dry, sensitive skin was one of my most visible symptoms of Sjogren’s. Yet it took me 10 years of actively pursuing a diagnosis and doing my own extensive research to piece together the seemingly disparate symptoms to diagnose myself. My doctors were not educated about Sjogren’s and were focused on a microscopic view of whatever my current symptoms happened to be, rather than taking a holistic, macroscopic approach affording a more accurate diagnosis.
Since then I have come to realize that the people I uniquely am suited to help are those who, like me, have Sjogren’s. We are the canaries in the coal mine, missing mucus linings and protective barriers all over our bodies, making us sensitive in all kinds of ways. And, given that Bexi’s is appropriate for people with such dysfunctional skin, Bexi’s is also appropriate for anyone with skin.
My goal is to facilitate the revitalisation of your skin just like I did mine, imparting new life and fresh vigor to it through the skincare products I make and the ways we find for you to use them. The end result is a healthier, more connected you and a simple and sustainable way of caring for your skin that supports your health and your wallet.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My passion for nutrition and chemistry, my innate abilities to innovate and create and play with food and flavors, and my rigorous education and training as a scientist have had the most impact on my journey.
My advice to folks is to find a way to use your skills and talents to do what you love.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am interested in partnering and collaborating with anyone who’d like to amplify my message of bucking the beauty “ideal” of looking young and flawless, and to empower people to reconnect with themselves and others. I’d love to hear from anyone interested in disrupting the beauty and skincare industries, maintaining human connections in business, and/or raising awareness of Sjogren’s and autoimmune disease.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bexiphd.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bexiphd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bexiphd
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccalobo/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bexiphd
- Other: Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/bexiphd
