Lianna Albrizio, Assistant Editor 10.29.21
Anyone who has ever fallen victim to bouts of unattractive blushing punctuated with the occasional puss-filled bumps and visible blood vessels knows the vexation of rosacea.
The non-communicable skin condition is very common; more than 3 million cases are reported every year in the US. The condition carries many of the same insecurities and symptoms as acne vulgaris. In fact, the conditions can not only be mistaken for each other, they behave similarly, too. Flare-ups can last for weeks and may persist for months before any noticeable improvement before re-starting the vicious cycle down the road.
While the cause is unclear and there is no cure, rosacea tends to manifest in middle-aged Caucasian women, smokers and people who have had a family history of the skin condition. Prescription medication is the main course of treatment. But one skin care company wants to revolutionize the way people think about and treat rosacea. Gladskin Skincare has introduced Redness Relief, an over-the-counter solution that it says is proven to effectively eliminate rosacea symptoms.
Gladskin debuted in the US in 2020 following a successful European launch of its eczema cream. Now, Gladskin applies its patented Micreobalance ingredient to make skin care products free of steroids and antibiotics. The goal is to gently treat the condition while restoring the skin’s microbiome.
Gladskin’s US Global Brand President Skyler Stein likens the skin’s microbiome to that of a forest’s biodiversity. In lieu of burning down the entire rainforest, in this instance, stripping the skin of all its bacteria, including the good – a practice he says many skin care products do to relieve a specific skin condition – Gladskin products work to target and treat the condition while keeping the skin’s “rainforest” untouched. The brand’s very name, Gladskin, reflects its function: to restore harmony in “angry” skin. Skin conditions like rosacea are one example of a disrupted skin microbiome.
“The skin itself needs a healthy balance of bacteria to stay healthy,” said Stein.
What Dermatologists Say
According to Dr. Julie Russak, founder of Russak Dermatology in New York City and an associate professor at Mount Sinai Hospital, Redness Relief’s patented protein Micreobalance utilizes endolysin technology to mimic the body’s natural defensive proteins by suppressing bad bacteria and allowing the skin’s flora to repopulate and reduce inflammation in people with rosacea.
“Rosacea is really more of a manifestation of the internal inflammation through a lot of different courses,” explained Russak. “The second cause of rosacea is a disbalance of skin microbiome. We have a lot of bacteria called microbiome on our skin. It is similar to the gut microbiome except it’s a different population. There’s a lot of feedback between our gut microbiome and our skin microbiome. When your internal organs are inflamed, it does manifest on the skin causing a disbalance of skin microbiome. This disbalance allows for all the bad bacteria and suppression of the good bacteria that helps our skin to function as a protective barrier.”
Russak recommends using Redness Relief as a moisturizer twice daily. While results can vary from two weeks to as soon as two days, Russak says users should give the product at least a month before expecting to see improvement in their skin’s microbiome. According to the doctor, 75% of her patients who used Redness Relief reported a reduction in their symptoms and saw overall improvement in their skin in how it looks and feels.
“Most of my patients have no irritation, which is almost unheard of with patients with rosacea-prone skin,” she noted.
A ‘Revolution’ in Addressing Skin Concerns
Gladskin Skincare holds a special place in Stein’s heart. His story begins like many others who delve into the skin care profession: his own skin care woes. Four years before starting with Gladskin, Stein was starting his first semester of Harvard Business School when he grew extremely lethargic and learned shortly thereafter that his symptoms were attributed to Lyme disease.
After treating Lyme for six months with antibiotics, Stein damaged his gut microbiome, which ultimately resulted in collateral damage to his skin microbiome. The side effects from the long-term use of antibiotics, he said, were worse than Lyme itself. After ridding his body of the disease, he completed his education. While working in the private equity sector for an investment firm, his own trials of regaining his health stirred his curiosity and propelled him to undertake research at the J. Craig Venter Institute to better grasp the skin microbiome. Stein used this knowledge to dedicate the next chapter of his life toward commercializing microbiome science to improve human health. Specifically, he sought a sustainable alternative to antibiotic medication.
After serving as an advisory board member with Clarity Genomics, Inc.—developer of a platform that learns how human microbiome communities interact with the host through analysis of genetic, functional and metabolic data to facilitate therapeutic response evaluation for better healthcare— he was appointed the executive vice president of strategic development at Micreos, parent to the Gladskin brand. He was named president of Gladskin in 2018.
Gladskin Skincare prides itself on creating products without antibiotics, steroids, parasiticides or vasoconstrictors.
“Several of the most prescribed creams for this kind of redness use these ingredients,” explained Stein. “They can be effective, but have drawbacks. All require a prescription, which means the time and expense of a doctor visit. One known brand, which contains the now-notorious parasiticide, Ivermectin, is extremely expensive, along with containing that very strong ingredient. There are also two well-known vasoconstrictor products, but they can sometimes cause more redness during use or when one stops using them. These are also prescription remedies. Because Gladskin is both effective and gentle enough for either intermittent or continuous use, it is a great product to try before a prescription [medication].”
Its Scientific Advisory Board includes researchers and board-certified dermatologists from Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Seattle, The National Eczema Association, the Public Health Laboratory in the Netherlands and the Erasmus Medical Center.
Stein was instrumental in the US of launch Gladskin’s eczema cream last spring, and Redness Relief this past April. While the products are available for purchase on the Gladskin website, the brand is in talks with retailers to get products on store shelves, Stein said.
“I think this is a revolution in terms of how we’re starting to address a lot of skin concerns,” said Russak. “Not only patch the symptoms, but address the cause of that and our understanding of the microbiome.”