January 27, 2022
From podcast: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/andy-hnilo-podcast/
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:02:05] Podcast Sponsors
[00:04:58] Guest Introduction
[00:08:14] How a horrific, disfiguring accident was the precursor to the Alitura products
[00:16:16] The importance of 6-hour colostrum from a grass-fed cow
[00:19:02] How the clay face mask was the first Alitura product
[00:22:48] Ben's Wacky Wednesday routine
[00:27:04] Podcast Sponsors
[00:29:39] The proper, manly way to use a scrub
[00:32:12] About the Alitura face Pearl cleanser
[00:37:06] A serum containing a copper peptide
[00:40:39] Differentiating between the night cream and the serum
[00:43:14] The most versatile beard oil on the market
[00:46:16] The fragrance Ben swears by
[00:50:25] Ben's response to men who resist the concept of beautifying themselves
[00:54:09] What's to come from Alitura in the next year or so
[00:55:05] Closing the Podcast
[00:57:02] Legal Disclaimer
Ben: On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.
Andy: A gentle exfoliant system rather than–because so many people are into the redness and the harsh, oh yeah, they're real scrub that's–
Ben: I'm like that. I'm like, “I feel like if it doesn't, it doesn't hurt. It must have been working.”
Maybe that's what I'll do today with this mask.
Andy: Yeah. And then, introducing those assets too.
Ben: Okay. So beautiful, we go play laser tag, crazy.
Andy: Working model and actor in Los Angeles representation. It was fun. It was great. That's how I was making my living.
Ben: You kind of need a face for that.
Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show.
Oh, well, hello. Should say good morning. It's about 4:00 am in the morning here in my office. Got up super early. I'm drinking a powerhouse here for my coffee. I got some organic coffee mixed with the kratom and a little bit of C60. Oh, geez, that'll get you pumped up for the day. Holy cow.
Alright. So, what do we got for you today? Well, geez, as I'm rubbing my eyes and getting them open here, I have a podcast with my friend, Andy Hnilo. And, this is kind of funny because I knew I was going to record this intro for you today and I'm doing a clay mask. I have a clay mask on now. If my lips sound kind of cracky, that's why because Andy is the guy who's taught me pretty much everything I know about men's beauty. He flew up to my house. He trained me and my sons a couple of weeks ago everything we need to know about doing our morning clay mask, and our scrubs, and our lotions, and our moisturizers, and our creams and our hair. You got to see this guy, totally reinvented his whole face. Well, listen to the podcast. He literally got his face scraped off by a truck. And now, he looks like a freaking male model. He is a male model. So anyways, you're going to love this one.
The podcast today is brought to you by Kion. And, I'm honestly shocked every time I see a bodybuilder or so-called fitness influence, or anyone really promoting these branched-chain amino acids aka BCAAs. Aside from the fact that they contain only three of the nine essential amino acids your body needs, BCAAs can cause all sorts of issues like messing with your serotonin levels and depleting B vitamins and deleteriously affecting your blood sugar, and a whole lot more. So, in other words, in my opinion, these things are just a huge waste of money but luckily after screaming it from the rooftops for the past few years, it's starting to catch on that essential amino acids or EAAs are what your body actually needs to start seeing real results fast. In fact, EAAs were one of the first supplements that my company Kion researched and added to our lineup. And, they've been our top seller ever since, for one simple reason, they freaking work. They're basically the swiss army knife of supplements. They work for fasting, for maintaining muscle, for building muscle. They're great for energy. People use it to help them sleep. It's good for cognitive performance based on a research study that came out just two months ago to stave off cognitive decline. I'm blown away by the number of people who approach me in airports or at conferences to tell me how much they've gained from Kion Aminos.
And, we have a really perfect ratio primed for recovery, for muscle maintenance, for muscle building, and for fasting particularly. It's called Kion Aminos. And, I'll tell you how you can get about 20% discount. Just go to getKION.com/BenGreenfield. That's getK-I-O-N.com/BenGreenfield.
This podcast is also brought to you by Organifi Red Juice because I can't talk about it without saying Organifi is so much of fun. So, after I've offended all the Italians out there, Organifi Red Juice is amazing. I use it as a meat rub, but it's 13 different superfoods in a berry superfood drink. I'm not kidding. It's in my cookbook as a meat rub because it's a bunch of high-quality freeze-dried berries, a 100% whole food beets, a bunch of adaptogens. And so, you can use them. I mean, when that 230 slump rolls around, you can drop a scoop in some cold water and stir it with a spoon and enjoy the antioxidant benefits for pennies on the dollar compared to what you'd spend at the average cold juice place. But it's got not just those freeze-dried berries and beets but blueberries, acai, pomegranate, raspberry, cordyceps, Siberian ginseng, rishi, rhodiola. It's a shotgun of energy. Organifi Red Juice. And, it's cheap. Not cheaply made but cheap. It's super inexpensive. And, it's even more inexpensive because you get 20% off. If you go to Organifi.com/Ben. That's Organifi with an I.com/Ben. Check it out.
Let's go talk to Andy. I'll give you the shownotes URL while I'm talking to Andy. But, you're going to want to go to the shownotes because we have all sorts of cool, we're even doing a video series for teen boys because he showed my sons, my 13-year-old sons what they should do when they wake up in the morning to not get acne, to smell better. So, it's a fun episode. And ladies, this one's for you too. Alright, let's do this.
Andy, right before we started recording, you were concerned about your nasal breathing into the mic, yet I'm even more concerned about the fact that I've got clay inside my nostrils right now. I've got clay all over my freaking headset. I got clay on the table. So, thank you for probably creating a massive argument between my wife and I tomorrow about who got clay all over the table. But, I'm pretty clayed out, man. So, thank you, I think.
Andy: Hey, when it dries, you'll be thanking me.
Ben: Yeah. Seriously, we were talking because we–so, for those of you listening in, Andy Hnilo runs this company called Alitura, and he's been on my podcast before three years ago. Yeah, you flew up here and we did this whole podcast on beauty and especially what guys can do that they don't do because a lot of us are kind of uncomfortable or don't know where to start, or maybe we didn't learn from our dads or our moms what to do for our face, or our skin, or even our smell, or our hair, or whatever.
So anyways, Andy came up and he shot this video in this podcast with me about three years ago. But since then, a lot has kind of changed in the whole beauty industry and I continue to try and vet and even be a guinea pig for some of Andy's products, which is why I'm sitting here with clay smeared all over my face right now.
Andy: Right.
Ben: And, a table, a kitchen table that's just scattered with all these crazy things that Andy brought that we're going to talk about today. So Andy, welcome back, baby.
Andy: Hey, Ben, thanks so much for having me. I'm grateful to be here.
Ben: Do you like it up here?
Andy: I do.
Ben: Have you spent a lot of time in the region?
Andy: I do. I mean, with the radio flyer–
Ben: Yeah, yeah, the big red wagon downtown.
Andy: I used to have one of those.
Ben: I'll take you down there today. We're going to go down and play laser tag today. We'll go play some laser tag, go out to Mizuno [PH 00:06:52], a good little farm-to-table restaurant down there and hope you get a chance to go to Coeur d'Alene, see the Great Lakes City.
Andy: Yeah, it's just pure up here.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Woke up, did the little cold plunge. I was doing my dishes–
Ben: Wait, which cold plunge did you do, like the cold, cold one?
Andy: Oh, the top.
Ben: Oh, you did the top in Morozko.
Andy: Absolutely.
Ben: Nice.
Andy: Yup, yeah. Dunk the head. Yeah, I mean that's gripping like–
Ben: I don't get in that thing much in the winter. Honestly, no, I don't even know if it's plugged in right now. It doesn't need to be. It stays so cold. Yeah.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah. And then, we did breathwork last night, we hit the sauna last night, got a little kettlebell flow in. So, yeah.
Andy: That's right. I saw that rope hanging when I was doing my dishes and I had to go over there and climb it.
Ben: Did you climb it?
Andy: I did.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Did you set that up for the Spartan Race?
Ben: Well, right. That's the guest house. Yeah, there's two 30-foot ropes. I set it up back when I used to do a lot of Spartan Race training. Yeah, because I got this quarter-mile loop outside my house. And, one part of the quarter-mile loop, there's a hill, a steep hill. To the top of the steep hill and right there, you got two ropes just calling your name right there in your face. And so, I tell people who sometimes will go and do the course with me. I'm like, alright, so when you get to the top of this hill, you can either climb the rope or if you're doing a super hard workout, climb the rope, descend and then climb the next rope. Or, you can drop and do 30 burpees, your call. But basically, life's going to be a little bit hard at the top of this hill for a little while.
Andy: Yeah, yeah.
Ben: So, yeah.
So anyways, you have a really, really cool story, Andy. And, before we delve into, for example, this stuff I have smeared all over my face and some of your other products, I know that we really took a deep dive into your back story the last time that you were on the show; yet, for people who may not have time to go back and listen to that episode, for those who haven't seen Andy, he's got a great complexion, he has good skin. You probably are a male model. Do you do some male modeling? I mean, I–
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: I feel like you could or you should.
Andy: Thank you.
Ben: But, his skin wasn't always that way. You had a horrific accident, right?
Andy: Right.
Ben: So, give us the 40,000-foot overview what happened.
Andy: Oh, man. I was leaving dinner, March 20th, 2011. Looking down at my phone waiting for a lift that was going to pick me up and take me to my friend's house. And, looking down, I got hit by a westbound heading vehicle, lost consciousness, hit into the eastbound lane, and run over by it. Tundra, both cars pulled over.
Ben: Geez.
Andy: Yeah. First responders were called, cutting my clothes off, me in the middle of Melrose, woke up in an ICU bed in Cedars-Sinai hospital with a compound fracture of my jaw.
Ben: Oh, my goodness.
Andy: I mean, that was on a morphine drip.
Ben: That's literally the jaw snaps in half.
Andy: Right.
Ben: That's got to be freaking painful.
Andy: I mean, I was on the morphine drip and I didn't know what was going on. I had two friends in the room with me and I quickly found out the severity of this situation. I had a collapsed lung, seven broken ribs in a compound fracture maxillofacial fracture that the maxillofacial surgeon at Cedars-Sinai couldn't perform, so we had to stick around and wait for a specialist.
My mom was working at Lucile Packard Children's hospital in Stanford at that time. And luckily, she knew Dr. Shindel Gregory [PH 00:10:04]. He specializes in mandible fractures. And, his apprentice Dr. Joseph Brugerty [PH 00:10:11] put me back together. I had a titanium plate put up top, one on the bottom. But, the break was from the middle of my chin to just beneath my left ear right here. So, it was just particles. So, I mean, I was tucked and I'm in morphine.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: And, they're quickly telling me like, “No, no, no” because they want a piece of–
Ben: Yeah, because you can't feel anything is you're on a morphine drip.
Andy: Absolutely.
Ben: You're basically high with a broken face.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: And man, that was–yeah, it was tough. I was unrecognizable. I was unrecognizable and numb, sneezing, seven broken ribs–
Ben: I've seen some pictures. People could google your name and see before/after pictures. It's pretty nuts.
Andy: Yeah. I mean–
Ben: By the way, you guys, just so you know, his last name is H-N-I-L-O, Andy Hnilo, H-N-I-L-O.
Alright. So, you're basically pretty, pretty tore up.
Andy: Yeah, I was banged up. And, at that time, that's how I was making my living. I was working model and actor in Los Angeles representation, all of that. And, it was fun, it was great. That's how I was making my living.
Ben: And, you kind of need a face for that.
Andy: Yeah. Oh, man. But, at that point right there, not many people survive accidents like that. It was actually really beautiful. I had my whole family, my mom and dad, unfortunately, had to drive down rather. I can't imagine that drive. My sisters came down from Northern California, my brother as well. So, we were all together in my little 680 square foot studio, or whatever you want to call it, North Hollywood. For the first time, I mean, getting us all together regardless of the circumstances, seriously, it was kind of beautiful. I mean, we were just ordering pizza obviously, so I couldn't with my jaw wired shot.
Ben: Right.
Andy: But, man, that stands out. My two sisters just in my little back room where my lab for the clay mask actually turned out to be. Just on a little futon but sharing their futon in a little sleeping bag. It's so beautiful looking back, man.
Ben: Yeah, it's crazy how God can use tragedies like that. Or, as they say, draw straight with crooked lines. It's one of those situations in which and I know I'm preaching to the choir people listening to the show, but every cloud has its silver lining. And, it sounds like your tragedy actually helped to bring your family together in a way.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, that's cool.
Andy: It really was beautiful, man. And so, once they left though, I mean it was a little a day or two just to kind of adjust like, “Alright, what are we going to do now?” And, it's just one of those things where I had a giddy excitement just for being alive. I mean, I had perspective before the accident. Absolutely, it's very important, just mantras, speaking it into existence. I've been doing that since I was 11, 12 years old.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: That's another subject, but it's just, “Alright, how do we fix this?” There's a plethora of work to put into this and there's so many beautiful things out there. And, I couldn't afford the crimson serums to use to counteract my abrasions and scarring. So, I had a pre-existing clay mask that I hid. Well, I mean, I've been using it for years from roommates and people.
Ben: And, for you, just curious mentally because I'm just thinking about this. Basically, you just lost your money maker, your face got hit by a car, your face got run over. Is what's going through your head now basically more of a technical curious engineering like, “Ooh, how could I learn about how to fix these things?” Or, was it more of a desperate, “Dude, I'm out of a job, I got to make money. I'm going to be eating rice and beans for the next few months unless I freaking fix my face fast.” What's going through your head?
Andy: Purely out of necessity.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: I mean, when I had the pre-existing clay mask, just like Rhassoul clay, bentonite, I started adding a little kelp powder. It was just a total creative outlet but it worked. I would do it every Sunday night before my week of auditions just to look like my pictures and be nice–
Ben: Before your injury?
Andy: Yes.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: So, you're kind of already familiar with some of this stuff.
Andy: Yeah. But, I hit it though. As an ex-athlete guy, all that stuff which we'll touch on. But yeah, I remember kind of just running into my bathroom, mixing it up, putting it on. And, my roommates, they did see but I was just one of those things of a little kind of trying to hide because just to prep me for the week, bringing a lot of life to the skin and just looking like your pictures and especially in the entertainment industry and being able to, “Oh, it looks his picture.” That's the first thing they say.
Ben: Right.
Andy: Yeah, that was just part of my routine. So, I did have that. And, it did help me. But then, I started just ordering other ingredients, other superfoods doing a lot of research on spot treatments but also adding my own little creative twist with things that I was taking internally like the colostrum, like the pearl powder, American ginseng, spirulina which I actually ended up going kelp route, kelp powder route instead of spirulina. It was just one of those things. As you're looking and jaw wired shut, mixing up your little morning tonics, and oh, man. And, just to get through and feed your system from head to toe, I thought I was experimenting and I did a little capsule of dragon herbs, pearl powder, and a little colostrum as well, which is very expensive.
Ben: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you. I mean, I look at the label of this stuff I have on my face and it's basically you got a high potency vitamin C in the form of l-ascorbic acid. Freshwater pearl powder, not just colostrum but the first six-hour milking of a grass-fed colostrum. Meaning, literally I assume this is from the first time the mammal is born in the first six hours that it's milked from a grass-fed cow.
Andy: Yeah, it's four actually.
Ben: By a one-armed monk. That's crazy. Oh, it's four. I'm sorry. It says six on the label. I'm sorry.
Andy: I know.
Ben: It's four. American jinxing, Moroccan Rhassoul clay, French illite clay, calcium bentonite clay, Kaolin clay, and organic kelp powder.
Now, in the supplements industry, there's kind of this idea of fairy dusting. You put a whole bunch of expensive-looking shit on a label but really it's micrograms or small milligram doses of those actual compounds. Most the rest of it is, whatever, zinc or vitamin C, or something cheap, or whatever. So, you've got what looks like a pretty impressive ingredient label here. Oh, and you do give the tips on here about how to add essential oil drops on there. I didn't really realize that. For those of you listening, we just got done shooting a video on how to use this stuff which I'll also put in the shownotes at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Aliturapodcast.
But anyways, these ingredients, I mean for you as a poor model out of a job, former baseball player without what I understand is a high disposable income, what are you thinking when it comes to a six-hour milking of a grass-fed colostrum?
Andy: I mean, all of them. Well, it's very enzyme live rich. Colostrum has IGF-1 growth factors when combined with the different just active–considering it was collected–
Ben: No, I make giant smoothies, obviously. You feel like superman.
Andy: It's unbelievable. So, I felt when combined with vitamin C during that cell turnover process while creating all that circulation to the surface of the skin and then when it completely dries, it has an exfoliating factor to it as well. And, as we age, we're depleted of so many minerals that are vital to our skin's health. And, in clays, that's primarily what they're made of, a lot of silica, selenium, just to help build that epidermis during that collagen synthesis process especially when combined with things like the diet that you already have and then Joovv red light and photobiomodulation during that and staying consistent with that routine every other day.
Ben: How did you afford that though? Did you have to go into debt or get a loan from your parents or something like that when you're trying to fix yourself back in the day with these crazy ingredients?
Andy: No. I mean, I had a little bit of money, but I really did have a little bit of money at that time. The clays were affordable. The colostrum was expensive.
Ben: I know it is.
Andy: I mean, especially–
Ben: Because my company, we sell colostrum and it's hard for us to find good colostrum.
Andy: I know. Yeah, it's expensive but it was very important to me. I mean, this is purely out of necessity. I get such a thrill from the entertainment industry. And, I mean that was heartbreaking. It was definitely difficult to look in the mirror. First thing you see in the morning, your jaw is out, teeth are gone.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Especially, I'm a grateful human being. The looks part, I did my best to reframe it in my head and exciting. I know I'll be back.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Didn't have any joint health, my knees, ankles, elbows, shoulders. So, I was able to kind of walk and I would go down a chandler bike path and get circulation from head to toe every hour of every single day, had a purpose to my recovery.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: And, everything I put into my body, I mean, if I had $10, every cent of that $10 was going to go towards my recovery.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: I mean, I didn't have much money, but luckily I didn't have to ask anybody for.
Ben: Was this clay mask–because I know you're doing it now. I didn't realize this until you told me last night. But, four to five times a week, you're doing a clay mask, which makes me feel I need to up my game. Every Wednesday, I got one on right now just because we were shooting a video about how to do it. But, was that the staple product, the first thing that you were really messing around with a lot was clay?
Andy: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Rhassoul clay, illite. I mean, a lot of clays didn't–I don't know, the particle size. Getting it down like silk so it spreads evenly on the skin is very important. So, a lot of things didn't work, green tea powder, certain clays were a little more coarse but I found a reputable vendor that I mean it just all the different clays. But then again, it also served as an education to learn about other clays and kind of as a creative outlet, just fun.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Because the findings–
Ben: Like cooking.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: And, your clay, it's not that expensive, so you're able to kind of experiment and find certain things. And, that's how I got involved with Rhassoul, kaolin, illite, green desert clay. And then, Jason Eaton out of Nevada, he's like, “In my research”–I'm still in touch with him. I mean, we geek out on clays. That's his thing, clay.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: And, he has, I mean, a full-on booklet describing the properties and how to use–
Ben: Jason Elon is his name?
Andy: Eaton.
Ben: Eaton. That's where you live, yeah.
Andy: E-A-T-O-N.
Ben: You're in Henderson right now?
Andy: Yeah, I'm in Henderson, Nevada. Yeah.
Ben: Geez, I can live I guess. I mean, honestly, I understand you don't live on the strip, but I don't know if I could live down there.
Andy: You know what, it's not home.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: It's not home for me, but I mean, I'm making the best of it.
Ben: Get you over to Coeur d'Alene. You go check out that. You come move to Spokane, dude. We need a good beauty guy in Spokane. Although my buddy, Cameron Chestnut, he's been on the show before, he does a lot more plastic surgery and Botox treatments and stuff like that. You guys would get along well. I should see if he wants to go to dinner with us tonight.
Andy: Okay.
Ben: So anyways, you manufacture this in Malibu. So, it's made in the USA. So, we got the clay is kind of the flagship formula. And, would you say that for a busy person who's not necessarily someone running a beauty company, so this is your job, that once a week to do a clay mask for a guy for a beauty, anti-aging standpoint. Is that sufficient? Am I going to get results from do this once a week?
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Absolutely. Just for maintenance, just getting those stagnant capillaries circulated.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Reducing the puffiness, just looking and feeling more awake in the morning. That's why I do it so much. I mean, last night when we got here, it's just the stuff that we'll put our bodies through in order to reach optimal health and not performance and feeling good. We'll go to any length. By the way, your sons are studs. That was amazing. That was amazing. Ben frosted me last night.
Ben: So, yeah. So, Andy rolls in, we started off with kettlebell flow, and then which was basically we did an AMRAP for 40 minutes of double arm swings, single-arm swings, front planks, hardstyle push-ups, and chainsaws. And then, we came into the sauna and we messed around with this new app that I'm pretty much obsessed with called Othership that spits out these 15 to 20-minute breathwork sessions that my sons and I are doing every day now. We do it every day and we feel amazing. And then on the weekends, we do their 50 to 70-minute breathwork protocol. There, we did all that in the sauna. We went to the cold pool. Then I shoved you in the hyperbaric for an hour while we made dinner.
Andy: Oh, man.
Ben: So, yeah.
Andy: Beautiful.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: See, that's all in preparation. Just in a couple of hours right there. But, I mean you're levitating afterwards. How good do you feel? I mean, it's amazing. I had no idea that was Othership, by the way, Robbie Bent.
Ben: Yeah, that's Robbie Bent. Our buddy, Robbie–
Andy: Oh, dud. Such a good guy.
Ben: He's so cool. I got to get over there to Toronto and see his facility over there. Shout out to Robbie.
But anyway, so what we all did last night very similar to when I do the clay mask, Wednesdays, and I realize a whole bunch of people especially guys are going to be snickering as I say this. But Wednesdays, I get up, I do my stretching, I usually have some type of a tonic like a mushroom tonic or lion's mane or something that. And then, I will do some foam rolling. I'll do a Biocharger session. This is my whole self-care morning. And then, I do my clay mask. And, I do a coffee enema and an infrared sauna session, and then rinse all that off, and to take a warm shower. Because I get up 4:30 on Wednesday, so I have this all cranked out by 6:30 am. But, I just feel I'm on cloud nine.
Andy: On fire.
Ben: Like I've been to the spa for the whole day. And so, when you stack a lot of the stuff, it does really feel good. And, you like to do the derma roller before you do the mask, yeah.
Andy: I highly recommend using derma roller.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Now, micro-needling, I mean, you're seeing the vampire facials with the big, longer needles. Now, I use a 1-millimeter derma roller. It's titanium, microneedle, 600 needles that you can roll across your face to open up the skin, the epidermis. The outer layer of the skin for optimal absorption of the ingredients of the products you put on afterwards. So, you get more benefits from the products I believe. And also, it creates depending on the lengths that you get. The 0.25 is a little bit smaller.
Ben: 0.25 millimeter, that's how far the little pokey part sticks out.
Andy: Right. Little microneedles. You're not going to get that much activity. My mom uses the 0.25. The one sinks in a little bit further, so you're just getting that much more deep past the epidermis. And then, also the micro tears that signal to your body to repair and create a thicker collagen layer, that's–
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Yeah. So, the micro-needling is something I would recommend taking a couple days off in between. With my four or five times a week that I use the clay mask, I definitely do that.
Ben: So, you don't have to microneedle. What if you do–
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: And, this might be a good segue for us. Do you have it here? You have this new scrub?
Andy: Oh, man. Yeah.
Ben: Is it out here somewhere?
Andy: It's–
Ben: If it isn't, that's cool. You can just talk about it. But, I think you sent me a beta sample of it and it's a scrub. My wife, she does coffee scrub. I love it. I steal it when I'm in the shower, sometimes. It's literally ground coffee with some other stuff in it that, whatever, they put in there. It makes it smell good. So, I'll smear that in my face sometimes. You came out with the scrub, though. I don't even know if you're selling it yet on your website. But, what I wanted to ask you was on days where I'm too lazy to derma roll or I don't feel derma rolling, if I do a scrub first and just really scrub that skin really well and then go on and put the clay mask, will that scrub kind of open up the pores a little bit too?
Andy: Absolutely, yeah.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: It has a tri-level exfoliant system between small different particle sizing. We have poppy seed, bamboo stem cell extract is one of the little exfoliants, olive powder. So, we didn't use any walnut holes or pomegranate shells that have little angles and create these little, tiny micro-tears that really disrupt the skin when you're massaging it into rather than just kind of rolling it over with the derma roller. But this, it just creates irritation. Some companies, when you use these tiny plastic microbeads as an exfoliant which is just completely wrong. But anyway, what we do, it's a small, medium, large tri-level exfoliant system with mandelic acid just skin energizing acids, hyaluronic acid, fulvic acid just to help–
Ben: Oh, wow.
Andy: Yeah. So, not overly disrupting from a harsh scrubbing standpoint, which is much different from a lot of facial scrubs and exfoliants now, but using a system of acids that for long-term benefits of the collagen synthesis process, those acids when combined, it's more of a consistent gentle approach rather than the harsh walnut holes back in the day with the peach or the apricot scrubs. That's a big thing that I'm starting to pay more attention to, a gentle exfoliant system rather than–because so many people are into the redness and the harsh. Oh yeah, they're scrub that's–
Ben: I like that. I'm like, “I feel it if. If it doesn't, it doesn't hurt. It must have been working.”
Hey, I want to interrupt today's show to tell you about this stuff that comes from an island in the South Pacific, and it's a plant. It's been regarded for over 3,000 years as a safe natural non-addictive alternative to drugs and alcohol. It's called Kava. Connoisseurs of Kava describe it as giving you this calm enhanced state of natural sobriety. Can't talk about it, taking a little sip of my coffee. Should I put some kava in that?
It's even starting to become known as a sober psychedelic because it has a very gentle and theogenic or called psychedelic effects but it leaves your functionality impaired or unimpaired rather. It can create more creativity, more introspective thinking, very comparable to microdosing with psychedelics but easier to get your hands on, obviously, than psychedelics. And, the problem is most kava products that are on the market, they can damage your liver. They are contaminated with toxic plant parts with non-traditional extraction processes, low-quality strains. And, not only they don't give you the effect that you'd want to look for in kava–if you've tried kava, you're like, “Ha, Ben Greenfield is full of shit.” You probably haven't tried this stuff. It's called Tru Kava, T-R-U Kava. So, it's a stabilized full spectrum traditional kava. It's third-party lab tested for quality and safety. They use this proprietary solvent-free extraction method and the stuffer can work.
So, I interviewed the guy who actually makes this stuff, Cameron George. And so, he gave all my listeners a 10% discount which still works. Go to getTruKava.com. But, Tru doesn't have an E because they don't know how to spell over there. GetTru, T-R-U, getTruKava.com. G-E-T-T-R-U-K-A-V-A.com. And, use code BEN for 10% off.
This podcast is also brought to you by ButcherBox, which is giving new members free ground beef for life. Free ground beef for life. But, this isn't just any old ground beef, it's grass-fed beef. They also have free-range organic chicken, wild-caught seafood, lovely, lovely meals sent to your front door. Every box contains 8 to 14 pounds of meat depending on your box time. That's enough for about 24 meals or a few meals for you and your family, extremely inexpensive compared to going to the store to buy your meats, but it's just farm fresh. They take care of their farmers. They source holistically. They keep the farmer, the planet, the animal, and your family in mind. It's a high-quality product. When it shows up at my doorstep, I just start salivating. And now, you get free ground beef for life. That's a lot of hamburgers, free ground beef for life.
So, how you get the 2 pounds of ground beef free in every order for the lifetime of your membership, you just go to ButcherBox.com/Ben. That's ButcherBox.com/Ben. And, you've got this deal rocking and rolling.
Okay. So, scrubs, this is so fun because I think I mentioned in the introduction. And, obviously, women can do a lot of this stuff too. I just think that there's a lot of guys that should know about this stuff. My dad didn't teach. My dad didn't teach me how to shave. And, a lot of guys, their fathers didn't teach them about beauty. Most guys my age, his parents were maybe in the baby boomer generation that was silly, is what the women do. So, I'll keep asking you stupid questions. How do you even use a scrub? Because I'll find my wife's in the shower and I'm, “Oh, this feels good” and I'll scrub it on my face and feel it kind of opens up some pores and rinse it off. But, how are you actually supposed to use a scrub in terms of frequency and how long you leave it on?
Andy: Sure. So, I would put about a quarter-sized squeeze, a quarter-sized amount into the palms. Rub them together and then smooth in an upwards direction. If you're in the shower and your pores are open, that's ideal.
Ben: Upwards. The same thing with dry skin brushing. You're trying to go up, up, up.
Andy: Right, upwards.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Upwards, upwards, up, out. Up, out, so to get the blood flowing upwards. And then, you get a little lymphatic training drainage aspect too when you go out as well.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: And, also kind of decreases a little puffiness. I have a little jade roller that I keep in the freezer to kind of help with that too to prep it, to prep the skin.
Ben: You do that before the scrub?
Andy: After derma rolling.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Or, sometimes what I'll do is once I rinse it off and do the cold rinse, close the pores, I'll pull that out. And, just to kind of, yeah, close the pores and then roll it out–
Ben: Like the smooth stone thing.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah. My wife has some of those called Gua Sha, I think they're called. Yeah, like they're special shaped stones to help to smooth the face, almost like a self-massage for the face.
Andy: Right.
Ben: So, what you would do ideally is you would do the scrub and then let's say you were going to also do a clay mask that day, you'd do the derma roller, and then you do that smooth stone thing, and then you put the mask on?
Andy: So, ideally, what I do is I'll cleanse, derma roll, mix up the mask, and I do the scrub post-mask just to kind of help scrub the mask off.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: But a lot of estheticians, they recommend doing it before the clay mask just to kind of shed that initial layer.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: I mean, it's one of those things. Try out either way because I prefer it after yeah.
Ben: Yeah. It kind of seems if you're going to derma roll then do the mask, doing the scrub might be kind of redundant.
Andy: Right.
Ben: I like the idea of using the scrub to rub the mask off.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Maybe that's what I'll do today with this mask.
Andy: Yeah. And then, introducing those acids, too.
Ben: I'm going to be so beautiful when we go play laser tag too. It's going to be crazy.
Andy: I love it.
Ben: Okay. So, we've got the scrub, we've got the mask. I'm just going to keep throwing these at you because you use the word that we hadn't yet talked about and that's cleanser. You have this thing called a Pearl cleanser. I love it. So, I get up in the morning and I also like that you're going to be spending the afternoon with my teen boys teaching them how to do all this stuff, which is great because I could teach them but I thought it would be cooler to actually have the guy who just knows the stuff inside and out to teach them about skincare. And, this cleanser is basically what I do when I first get up. I have my whole ayurvedic routine. I do some tongue scraping. I do some coconut oil pulling. I do some gargling, and then I put this cleanser into my hands I rub it into my face then rinse my face with warm water. Is that what I'm supposed to be doing?
Andy: Absolutely. And so–
Ben: And so, tell me about this cleanser. What's in it?
Andy: So, what I wanted to do differently is I wanted to remove the harsh surfactants that are so commonly located in cleansers. I mean, I grew up–I mean, I had big brands and then I always had some type of cystic acne or sore. And so, I just ultimately ended up with Dove soap which is very mild. In Pearl powder, tremella mushroom, colloidal silver is my antibacterial. I get not surfactant but that right there eats up any type of irritation from an antibacterial aspect. And then, I use an olive-based surfactant to cleanse the skin rather than harsh foaming agents like sodium lauryl sulfate or any just artificial cleansers, man-made cleansers that irritate the skin and don't serve it as well as something natural.
Ben: Well, they irritate the skin, they're also endocrine disruptive.
Andy: Absolutely.
Ben: So, they can alter your hormones. We were talking about this last night at dinner how my triathlon squad used to train out at the New York Giants Stadium in New Jersey. And, you'd walk into the locker room and it's a head-to-toe lineup of all these endocrine-disrupting shaving creams, and fragrances, and shampoos and conditioners. And, I'm like, “You spend how many millions of dollars per year on these players' contracts in a sport that arguably requires pretty elevated levels of testosterone, and yet in between every single practice and after every game, you're essentially smearing estrogen through the body's largest mouth, the skin. It's nuts.”
Andy: Yeah. It's disappointing. I mean, especially like you said with the budgets that they have.
Ben: Yeah, you think they know.
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: But, the thing is you're starting to see facilities adjust a little bit and lean into with something similar to what you have here, the Joovvs, the–
Ben: Yeah, all the biohacks, the recovery stuff. Yeah, it seems they're still in the dark ages though from neutral. And, it'll be that way as long as Gatorade is funding research and it's brought to you by the Greens Industry, and nutritionists still just don't care about vegetable oil and it's still very kind of good old boys network if it fits your macros, but the same could be applied, I think, to the beauty care industry side of professional sports.
Andy: Absolutely.
Ben: And, I realize it doesn't seem like it's something you should worry about but because your skin is a mouth, a lot of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals are something that can long-term affect performance and recovery and sleep, and especially when you consider the fact that when these guys' careers are over, yeah, maybe all the exercise you're doing can protect you to a certain extent. But, once you're done, you're still going to be washing your face and putting fragrance on, so you should probably set up these habits early in life. So, this cleanser, is this just once every day in the morning you'll do the cleanser?
Andy: And, at night before bed.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: Just kind of clear the skin–
Ben: You wash your face before night or before bed at night also. So, it's twice a day?
Andy: Yes.
Ben: Okay. Do you get concerned at all about this idea of you shouldn't shower too much because you don't want to wipe off the body's good bacteria and the microbiome? If you're washing your face that much, are you disrupting the microbiome of the face?
Andy: That's a good point. That's a good point. I'm not worried about it with that product at all. I mean, it's really clean, has kaolin clay, pearl powder–
Ben: Tremella mushroom.
Andy: Tremella mushroom which is a high source of hyaluronic acid.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: It's not as drying. And then also, the aromatherapy aspect with little jasmine. It's nice and relaxing, but at the same time not overly drying. And, it's just–
Ben: No. I mean, I'm looking over the ingredient label and if you're stuck in a desert island with just your toiletries bag, you could probably eat this stuff. I mean tremella mushroom, marshmallow root, ginseng, marine collagen, aloe vera. You could survive on a bottle of this stuff if you had to.
Andy: I'm not kidding, the clay mask for sure you could.
Ben: You probably could. Well, people use that as a detoxification agent.
Andy: I drink it, seriously.
Ben: You ever done that?
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: Really?
Andy: Mm-hmm.
Ben: Do you have just a giant shit afterwards or what?
Andy: No, not really. The only thing I was worried about was the Rhassoul and the kaolin clay. Everything else in that, I supplement with when you think about it. Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, that's crazy. Okay. Maybe, I'll try it next time I get food poisoning, I'll just drink some of your clay.
Okay. So, we got the cleanser, we got the mask, we've got the scrub which we talked about. The next one is this Gold Serum. This Gold Serum has one thing in it that we were talking to my son about earlier I thought that you told me ahead. It doesn't have a peptide or something in here?
Andy: Yeah. GHK, yeah. That's copper peptide–
Ben: Yeah, it's got a copper peptide. Because I did a podcast with Jay Campbell and his homie about this new hair growth formula that they created with C60 and GHK copper peptide. And, I think you told me after you heard I was using that product that your Gold Serum has some of those peptides in it too, yeah?
Andy: It does. So, get this. Years ago, I want to say 2017, I made a shaving serum because I want to counteract all the shaving creams and give men and, well, everyone a chance to shave cleaner because it's something we do daily. So, I made a shaving serum. It was incredible but there were so many women who reach out to me and go, “I'm stealing my husband's shaving serum.” And then, I sat down and met–what's her name? I think it was Bonnie out in Florida. I went through and met with a couple customers. They say, “Hey, on the East Coast, we'd love to meet you.” And, at a Whole Foods in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that's where I found out and kind of went back to the drawing board and started adding active ingredients, marine collagen, plant-derived vitamin A that we sourced organically from fruits.
Ben: You just went and bought this stuff from Whole Foods?
Andy: No, no, no. Well, I sourced, I pulled it back. It was a shaving serum and then I added active ingredients to it.
Ben: Oh, so you went and bought the shaving serum from whole foods and just started to engineer it?
Andy: No, no, no, I made a shaving serum. So, we actually had a product called the Alitura Shaving Serum.
Ben: I didn't know that.
Andy: Yeah. And, it was just purely for shaving, but it was so much more than a shaving serum, I mean, that's easily our most popular product. I mean, I went back to the drawing board. It took a little bit, but I added basically–
Ben: This Gold Serum is your most popular product?
Andy: Easily.
Ben: This one I'm holding right now?
Andy: Oh, yeah.
Ben: Can I use this for shaving?
Andy: Absolutely.
Ben: Really?
Andy: I do a little paste. I do pro cleanser. I know this a little much, but obviously, I have a lot of it. I do night cream pearl cleanser and then a little bit of that. And then, if I have a raw aloe vera leaf–I'm weird, man.
Ben: This would be an amped-up shaving because it's olive oil, rose water, rosehip oil, witch hazel, marine collagen, beeswax, B propolis, coenzyme Q10, astaxanthin. Once again, talking about like something you could eat, copper tripeptide, and then a bunch of essential oils like sandalwood, frankincense, carrot seed. It's so clean.
Andy: 95% organic, bottled in Miron glass. Just one more thing, it has a plant-derived vitamin A, which is a retinol alternative. Without the sensitivity and the harsh side effects from sun and just how irritating it can be during that, it is a special product–
Ben: It's pretty cool serum. And, it's got this yellowish color which I always also noticed that your night cream has. And, you're going to laugh about this. You have this night cream. I don't want to ask you about the difference between the serum because I'm a little bit confused about how I would use a night cream versus how I would use a serum. So, be prepared because I'm going to ask you that. But, this night cream, I have used it. I got hemorrhoids once. I use it for that and it actually worked. I use it on dry feet. My dad always would get dry cracked feet in the winter. So now, in the winter I always pull on socks but I put some kind of moisturizer cream. The one thing that keeps it the best is this night cream. It's probably super expensive to put on my feet but I do it anyways.
And so, this stuff is it's not a thin creamy texture like the serum, it's more an actual cream. It's actually firm at room temperature. How would one differentiate between using a night cream at night versus using a serum? How do you use these two things?
Andy: So, the serum is more a concentrated moisturizer that targets at a cellular level with the active ingredients that we have inside of it. It's a more concentrated way to hydrate the skin while you have the anti-aging active ingredients in that. So, it's a moisturizer on steroids. It has a very, very good anti-aging aspect to it. So, you apply it throughout the day. And, at night, I actually stack both of them. I'll make a little paste of the Gold Serum and then with the Night Cream to seal it in because it's thicker. The Night Cream has two different plant-derived stem cells K-factor 60, manuka honey, CoQ10 colostrum. I don't mind that it's there when I wake up in the morning.
Ben: The night cream has honey in it, the manuka honey?
Andy: Mm-hmm.
Ben: That's really good for scars, isn't it?
Andy: Absolutely, yeah.
Ben: Interesting.
Andy: Yeah, that–
Ben: I should have put this on my thumb. See my thumb how it's all scarred because I just got the nerve repaired, my thumb. I almost cut off my thumb with a knife and I got the nerve repair that was successful. I've got all the feeling back in my thumb. And, I was trying to find things that would reduce the scar formation. This would have worked because it's got the manuka honey in it.
Andy: Yeah. That actually was made out of a cast-iron pan. I just did a lot of research on scar healing. Yeah. I bought beeswax, cacao butter, sea buckthorn oil, obviously the colostrum I had. And, I actually even ordered the plant-derived stem cells and tried to figure out chemically how I was going to be able to combine both of those into the product. It was just a paste. It was just a paste, it wasn't ever meant to be a product. I was trying to heal and hydrate my skin after using the clay mask. But, this was all way before Alitura was even a thing.
Ben: Wow.
Andy: Yeah. And, I still have that first one. It's nice and chunky, the fruit from–
Ben: So, this one I could like right before I go to bed, I could use your cleanser, cleanse my face and then play would be that I would then just smear a thin layer of this Night Cream on my face before I hit the sack?
Andy: Mm-hmm.
Ben: Okay, easy.
Andy: And, the Gold Serum if you want to turn, that's next level using both. But, if you just want to use one or the other, I would recommend the Night Cream.
Ben: I could use the Gold Serum and the Night Cream simultaneously. They're not redundant?
Andy: Mm-hmm.
Ben: Yeah, they are a totally different ingredient profile. Your products, I could just read the ingredients all day long. It's so cool.
Andy: Dude, imagine making them.
Ben: Oh, my gosh. I can only imagine.
Andy: I mean, it takes forever.
Ben: Okay. So, from the standpoint of things that you can put onto your skin, the only thing that we didn't talk about were these two. This one, I haven't even seen this before. Maybe you sent it to me but I wasn't aware of it, Santal Black. What is this?
Andy: Alright. So, years ago, I was going to partner with an athlete that had a beard and make a beard oil for him. And, I mean, smell that, put a cup, put a couple pumps in here. And, it has two different kinds.
Ben: You know I have a beard now. You've been holding out on me.
Andy: I know.
Ben: Okay.
Andy: It has two different kinds of sandalwood, bergamot–
Ben: My gosh, it smells amazing.
Andy: —black pepper, vanilla. So, what it is–
Ben: I wish people can smell this. We need that Japanese researcher who recently developed a lickable TV screen to partner with me on this podcast. People could smell this stuff. Oh, my goodness.
Andy: So, what I did is I didn't feel that it was just a beard oil. I mean, it's so much more. It's multifaceted to the point where it's a massage oil. I even put a couple dabs underneath my arm before I work out. It's just a deodorant type of feel, but I mean, it's a really good hair.
Ben: And, you're selling this one already on your site?
Andy: Yeah.
Ben: I didn't even know this existed. Also, it says “perfect for a sensual massage” because this is like a sex moisturizer as well?
Andy: You know what, I got a pH balance because I almost wanted to market it as a personal lubricant.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: A company has–
Ben: Set the lingo these days, personal lubricant. I'll use that. Use the PC words.
Andy: I mean, there's a sex oil by a company called Province Apothecary out of Canada and they cannot keep it in stock. I thought about it like focusing in on. I'll tell you, I almost switched it up and called it a midnight oil and then really marketed it towards it. I mean–
Ben: Yeah, I like it. I mean, I sneak up a bottle, put that on my wife's nightstand. Yeah, okay. So, that's good to know that that exists.
And then, this last one, the moisturizer, I always kind of got the impression this was just kind of the basic moisturizer product. It didn't seem quite as sexy as some of your others, but would this be more for the face and hands and stuff like that or?
Andy: Right.
Ben: I'm sorry, for the hands and body versus the face?
Andy: Well, face as well. When I was first starting off and it was post-clay mask and I didn't–everybody's asking about a moisturizer and what to use, so I kind of had to learn.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: But, at the same time very proud of that product. It took 22 weeks to make. I mean–
Ben: No, I like it. I mean, I've got to buy it. I use it for dry hands, honestly. Because my thought pattern is like, “Okay, so I'm going to use the moisturizer on the hands but then I could use the Gold Serum and the Night Cream and stuff like that on the face.” Alright, so–
Andy: I love the body lotion.
Ben: Oh, the body lotion. So, there is a difference between the body lotion and the moisturizer.
Andy: [00:46:00]_____ smell it.
Ben: Wow.
Andy: Brazilian—
Ben: Oh, I smelled this stuff.
Andy: —Acai butter, lemongrass. I mean, I used to put that in my hand at conferences and lick it and just like, “Look, it's edible.” How many lotions can you say that [00:46:12]_____ came a little cleaner.
Ben: Oh, my goodness. It all just smells so amazing.
But speaking of smelling so amazing, this is the one that you know I was so excited about this because I love fragrance. And, I was so disappointed when I started to look into the beauty industry's fragrance side of things and realize that my grandfather's cologne which I loved which reminded me of my grandfather, and it's the same fragrance my dad used, it's the same fragrance his father used, it's the same fragrance that my brother used, and that I got from my grandpa and then I realized holy cow, this is a chemical cocktail. This stuff's horrific. And so, I literally spent four years after I found that out just putting a few drops of sandalwood oil on or whatever like essential oil.
Andy: Right.
Ben: And then, you came out with this stuff called Presence. I was so excited about, we did a whole article about it on my website, which I'll link to. If you guys are listening, go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Aliturapodcast. I'll link to all this stuff A-L-I-T-U-R-A, Aliturapodcast. And, I'll put a big fat discount code for Andy's stuff on there too. But, this Presence, your fragrance, dude, I think you could probably get rid of all your other products and just have this and crush it because it's amazing. So, tell me about this Presence.
Andy: Thank you. And, I feel the same way. That's a standalone product.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Four years to make. I signed off on it three times total, so twice I went but no, no, no, it's a little too baby powder, there's something wrong with this manufacturer sample. Oh, man, they probably thought it was a little crazy. But, I just know exactly what I wanted with that.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: 75% organic.
Ben: Tell me about the ingredients of this. I gave a bottle to my sons last year, by the way.
Andy: Nice.
Ben: I told them if you're going to use cologne, use this stuff. They're probably upstairs. They can probably hear us talking right now, but they don't care too much about smelling all pretty. But someday, someday guys when you go on your first date, you guys can hear me up there, you'd want to be wearing some Presence, trust me. She'll love it.
Alright, go ahead. What's in this stuff?
Andy: So, I wanted a blend that was–I mean, like you, I want to be like my dad. I had a nice cabinet full of colognes. What was it? Acqua di Gio, Xenia, Calvin Klein Eternity Obsession. CK1 was my first fragrance, unisex. I mean, let the customer decide if they like it or not.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: So, I mean, it's a unisex plan. I mean we have a nice sandalwood–
Ben: So, women do use this as well?
Andy: Oh, absolutely.
Ben: Oh, really? I didn't know that.
Andy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've always loved sandalwood. If you look at all of our products, I mean pretty much every one of them. It's so smoky yet smooth and sweet and sexy. Sandalwood to me, that's probably my favorite scent.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: And so, that right there, we combine it with a little sweetness of obviously the sandalwood, and vanilla has a light tobacco hit to it, cucumber. I mean, especially with scent, it's being so personal, I mean that definitely took over 100 it took years to make but just I mean especially with that fine line of knowing exactly what you want. It's tough to explain when I use little side notes like baby powdery or too sweet. I just–
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: During that, it's a total field thing. But, yeah, three ingredients, basically an oil blend, no phthalates, no parabens.
Ben: Wow, wow. Well, it smells absolutely stellar. Do you ever use it as a deodorant?
Andy: I do.
Ben: In a pinch. Because when I travel, I just try to grab as few things as possible. I've even used my toothpaste as a deodorant before and have never used the deodorant as a toothpaste, but yeah–
Andy: Baking soda.
Ben: I travel a lot, what can I say like a lightweight backpacker? But, I don't know. After this podcast, there might be a few extra things in my bag as we go. I mean, the lineup is fantastic and I think that this is one thing I want to touch on you with is as we're kind of getting close to the end here. And again, for all you guys listening, I'm going to put a link to all this stuff in the shownotes at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Alitura podcast.
I don't know about you, Andy, but part of it for me when I get pushback from guys who are like, “Well, why do you want to smell all foofy? Or, why do you want your face to look good? Or, why do you need your hair slicked back?” Whatever. Look, men have been doing this for a really long time. Knights of old would have lavender that they'd apply to themselves and big colorful feathers in their caps, almost peacocking to an extent. Human beings do that either look better or smell better, be more attractive to members of the opposite sex. But, for me, a big part of it is just confidence. I can literally be at home all by myself and have a day of riding. And, I'll do my moisturizer and I'll do my cleanser and I'll do my clay mask. And, I'll be going downstairs to the basement to be by myself for six hours and I'll spray on your Presence fragrance even though nobody's going to smell me except me because I just feel it puts me into this mental space like almost a slightly altered state of consciousness or this feeling as though I'm exuding confidence. You get that?
Andy: It's a part of my routine that's why I do it so often is I know what I'm getting every single time and I know how I'm going to feel when I leave the door and I approach the world.
Ben: Right.
Andy: It's a total ripple effect. Every person you meet and see personally and professionally, you're going to give your best energy just because I know what gets me in that zone before I leave.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: Before I leave the house and approach everyone. And, it's consistent, it's something I can control, it just makes me feel really good. And then, also walked me through such a dramatic point in my life. But, I was even doing it before. You know what I mean? There's something about what the clay mask does to me. I mean, just waking me up and going, I feel good. You look good. You feel good. You're going to create a better just energy in every situation that everyone you come across. I don't know. I mean, just from an athlete's standpoint, just preparation routines and it just leads to success as long as you stay consistent with it.
Ben: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And look, these are the type of things that I think, for example, and this is another reason I'm excited for this afternoon because you're filming a whole series of how-to videos with my sons; how to not get acne and eczema, how to smell better, how to at least not smell funky. What do you do when you first get up in the morning? How to clean your face in the morning like teen boy skincare tips for the evening? How a teen can do a clay mask? All these things that, I think, will really help adolescents who are heading to school in the morning. And, because we were joking about this last night when I would get zits on my face, my mom would be like, “Come on over, let me pop that.” It was almost a glorious and wonderful thing for me to get a zit because it meant mom got to have fun dropping my zits. But in reality, kids shouldn't have to deal with that stuff as much as they do if they knew about how to cleanse, how to moisturize, how to do a mask, how to derma roll.
So, I think that for any women listening in, obviously, you can use any of these products but I think even more importantly when it comes to just equipping and empowering the men in your life and the boys in your life with confidence, and with smell goodness, and with just feeling better about themselves, I think this is really good information to share with them as well. And, I mean, this is kind of Andy's wheelhouse. And again, I'm very careful with the products that I endorse but the fact that I probably could take this stuff to a desert island and be able to eat for a week and not die is saying something about his products.
And so, for those of you listening, I'm going to link to all this stuff at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Aliturapodcast. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com/A-L-I-T-U-R-A-podcast. The 20% discount code for Andy's stuff is BG20.
And Andy, one last question. Are you working on anything in your top-secret batman labs at Alitura that you can give us a preview of?
Andy: Yes. So, the Meteorite Scrub will be out in a couple. We're just fine tuning the tube right now.
Ben: That' the new scrub, the Meteorite.
Andy: Yeah. It's in sugarcane and I got to show you here, well, the folks did–
Ben: oh, you got a picture. Alright.
Andy: Yeah. So, that's coming out hopefully by the end of Q1. I have a eye-specific gel. I have a hair and body wash, sunscreen. Nobody's nailed sunscreen.
Ben: That's true.
Andy: Why not just be the first? And, a lip plumper, a peptide-derived plumper with a little bit of SPF, red raspberries, Kakadu plum–
Ben: I didn't know. I didn't know that was such a thing.
Andy: But–
Ben: Lip plumper.
Andy: Well–
Ben: I'll try anything once.
Andy: Yeah. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to call it that or just a lip protectant. It's one of those things that it's very popular with women specifically, but if full lips–
Ben: Yeah, jelly lips, jelly lips.
Well, I'm getting clay all over the table. I got to go wash this stuff off at some point. But anyways, so for those of you listening in, stay tuned because when this podcast comes out, we will also be on the cusp of a whole clip library of skincare tips for teen boys, so you get to see my sons kind of pimping some of Andy's products and showing you guys how to use them. And then, any questions or comments or feedback that you have about how to use any of this stuff that I forgot to ask Andy because I didn't technically have my cup of coffee this morning, you can go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Aliturapodcast and leave your questions over there and Andy and I will jump in. and, we just love to help people out with this kind of stuff.
So, now that my entire dining room smells like a giant spa, Andy, thank you. I think that's a wrap. What were you saying?
Andy: No. I want to say thank you to you and you're following a lot of reviews that we get. Many mention you and your podcast and how they found out about Alitura.
Ben: Oh, cool.
Andy: It's kind of a smaller operation. I love what I do, but I want to say thank you, Ben.
Ben: Yeah.
Andy: I mean, every time I come here–
Ben: You're welcome. Well, I mean I love to support you. I love your passion. I mean, you're not just some dude drinking Diet Coke in a corporate lobby room in a suit trying to figure out how to make money off skincare products and sourcing cheap shit from China or whatever. This is really good stuff, made in the USA, jam-packed with amazing ingredients. I use it anyways. And so, it's just a total blessing for me to be able to share it with other people. So, I'm stoked. It's a win-win, baby. I can smell good and my wife doesn't mind. So, keep up the good work and again, shownotes are at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Aliturapodcast.
Thanks for listening, everybody, and have an amazing week. Thanks, guys.
Ben: In compliance with the FTC guidelines, please assume the following about links and posts on this site. Most of the links going to products are often affiliate links of which I receive a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you and sometimes I even get to share a unique and somewhat significant discount with you.
In some cases, I might also be an investor in a company I mentioned. I'm the founder, for example, of Kion LLC, the makers of Kion-branded supplements and products which I talk about quite a bit. Regardless of that relationship, if I post or talk about an affiliate link to a product, it is indeed something I personally use, support, and with full authenticity and transparency recommend in good conscience. I personally vet each and every product that I talk about.
My first priority is providing valuable information and resources to you that help you positively optimize your mind, body, and spirit. And, I'll only ever link to products or resources, affiliate or otherwise that fit within this purpose. So, there's your fancy legal disclaimer.
Several years ago, Andy Hnilo of the skin care and beauty company Alitura first joined me in the podcast “Deer Placenta Smoothies, Smearing Colostrum On Your Face, How To Use A Clay Mask & Much More.“
But Andy's been up to quite a bit since we last connected, including some very cool new formulations, an epic fragrance that I wrote about here, new face scrubs, and plenty more.
Andy Hnilo is a former athlete, model, and actor who had his life turned upside down. On March 20th, 2011, he was struck by a series of large vehicles while crossing a busy street, a trauma that resulted in seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and an extreme compound fracture.
Determined to come back even stronger, Andy was able to be back on the runway in less than 3 months. He was able to heal his skin by immersing himself in a diligent skincare routine that included a mineral-rich blend of four clays, organic superfoods, and nutrient-dense ingredients: a process that healed his body.
Andy is now the founder and CEO of Alitura, a company that makes life-changing skincare products with organic superfoods.
In this episode, you'll discover:
-How a horrific, disfiguring accident was the precursor to the Alitura products…08:15
- Alitura Clay Mask (use code BG20 to save 20%)
- The accident was a blessing in disguise in that it reunited his family
- The products were created purely out of necessity
-The importance of 6-hour colostrum from a grass-fed cow…16:11
- Colostrum has IGF-1 growth factors
- Kion Colostrum
- Joovv red light (Use code BEN to save $50 off your first purchase)
- Alitura Derma Roller (use code BG20 to save 20%)
-How the clay face mask was the first Alitura product…19:07
- Experimenting with different combos
- Upon a Clay Tablet by Jason R. Eaton
- Podcast with Cameron Chesnut:
- Once a week is sufficient for a guy for maintenance
- Othership app
- Robbie Bent
-Ben's Wacky Wednesday routine…22:47
- Coffee enema
- Stretching
- Mushroom or Lion's Mane tonic
- Foam rolling
- Biocharger
- Infrared sauna (use code BEN for a discount and free shipping)
- Derma Roller (use code BG20 to save 20%)
- Clay mask (use code BG20 to save 20%)
–The proper, manly way to use a scrub…29:43
- Opens up pores prior to the clay mask
- The scrub is a small/medium/large tri-level exfoliant system with
- Mandelic acid
- Hyaluronic Acid
- Fulvic acid
- Pearl powder
- Squeeze a quarter-sized amount on to the palms; smoothen in an upward/out direction
- Jade roller after Derma rolling (use code BG20 to save 20%)
- Gua Sha stone
- Andy's routine:
- Cleanse
- Derma roll
- Mix up the clay mask
- Scrub
-About the Alitura face Pearl cleanser…32:15
- Alitura Pearl Cleanser (use code BG20 to save 20%)
- Ben's ayurvedic morning routine includes
- Tongue scraping
- Coconut oil pulling
- Gargling
- Apply Cleanser on the face and rinse with warm water
- Remove harsh surfactants found in most cleansers
- Pearl Cleanser ingredients include:
- Pearl powder
- Tremella mushrooms
- Colloidal silver
- Olivoyl surfactant
- Many shave creams and cleansers contain endocrine disruptors
- Use the cleanser in the morning and at night
- Not worried about disrupting the microbiome
-A serum containing a copper peptide…37:11
- Gold Serum with GHK-Cu
- Podcast with Jay Campbell and Nick Andrews:
- Gold Serum can be used for shaving (Alitura's most popular product)
- Bottled in 100% miron glass
- 95% organic ingredients
- Plant-derived Vitamin A (alfalfa extract)
-Differentiating between the night cream and the serum…40:42
- The Gold Serum is a concentrated moisturizer that targets at a cellular level
- The Night Cream is a “moisturizer on steroids”; has Manuka honey
- Manuka honey is good for scars
-The most versatile beard oil on the market…43:18
- Santal Black (use code BG20 to save 20%)
- Can be used as a massage oil
- Use as a “personal lubricant”
- Province Apothecary sex oil
- Alitura Moisturizer (use code BG20 to save 20%)
-The fragrance Ben swears by…46:11
- Alitura Presence (use code BG20 to save 20%)
- BGF Article on the Alitura Presence:
- Used by men and women
- All natural ingredients
- Sandalwood
- Vanilla
- Tobacco
-Ben's response to men who resist the concept of beautifying themselves…50:37
- Confidence booster
-What's to come from Alitura in the next year or so…54:02
- Meteorite Scrub is coming out!
- Eye-specific gel
- Hair and body wash
- Sunscreen
- Peptide-derived Lip plumper/protectant
- Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/aliturapodcast
-And much more…
Upcoming Events:
- FreeDiving Summit (February 1 – 3, 2022)
- Six Senses Retreat Portugal (March 7 – 11, 2022)
- Keep up on Ben's LIVE appearances by following bengreenfieldfitness.com/calendar
Resources mentioned in this episode:
– Andy Hnilo:
- Alitura (use code BG20 to save 20%)
- Deer Placenta Smoothies, Smearing Colostrum On Your Face, How To Use A Clay Mask & Much More.
– Books:
- Upon a Clay Tablet by Jason R. Eaton
– BGF Podcasts and Articles:
- The Big Beauty Podcast: Anti-Aging, Hair Growth, Gray Hair, Baldness, Beauty Myths & Beauty Truths, Dermarolling vs. Microneedling, Scars & Stretch Marks, Testosterone, DHT & Much More With Dr. Cameron Chesnut.
- The 2 Most Potent Hair Growth & Hair Loss Reversal Molecules Known To Humankind: C60 & GHK-Cu – A Big Hair Podcast With Auxano’s Jay Campbell & Nick Andrews.
- Deadly Scents: How To Keep Your Fragrance From Slowly Killing You (& The Only Cologne Ben Greenfield Uses).
– Other Resources:
- Kion Colostrum
- JOOVV (Use code BEN to save $50 off your first purchase)
- Kion Coffee
- Foursigmatic Lion's Mane Mix
- Foam Roller
- Biocharger
- Clearlight Infrared Sauna (use code BEN for a discount and free shipping)
- Jade Roller
- Gua Sha Stone
- Tongue Scraper
- Oil Pulling Mouthwash
- Province Apothecary Sex Oil
- Othership App
- Robbie Bent
- Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1): A Growth Hormone
- “Honey” Can Prevent Epidural Fibrosis Development After Laminectomy: An Experimental Study
Episode sponsors:
–Kion Aminos: Building blocks for muscle recovery, reduced cravings, better cognition, immunity, and more.
–Organifi Red Juice: Enjoy all the benefits of the 11 superfoods and their micronutrients that help increase resting metabolism, support cardiovascular health, and remove toxins to turn back the hands of time! Receive a 20% discount on your entire order when you use discount code BEN.
–Tru Kava: Kava is a powerful plant-based stress relieving, Nootropic drink from islands in the South Pacific that has been highly regarded for 3000 years as a safe, natural, non-addictive alternative to drugs and alcohol. Use code BEN for 10% off.
–Butcher Box: Delivers healthy 100% grass-fed and finished beef, free-range organic chicken, and heritage breed pork directly to your door on a monthly basis. All their products are humanely raised and NEVER given antibiotics or hormones.
Sex hookups are a typical choice in grown-up dating applications. Some of them (Pure, POF, Tinder) are explicitly intended for this reason. Not many of their clients might be shocked by phrases in profile depictions like ONS (“casual hookup”) or FWB (“companions with benefits”). Insights say that men know better how to track down hookups, yet sweethearts on comparable sex hookups are great at it. This is normal since today, everybody can do what he needs. An ever increasing number of ladies transparently concede their sexual longings effectively meet accomplices for ONS. Today, numerous ladies straightforwardly share their best sexual encounters, reflection, and skank disgracing on hookup stages.