The Zest with Murphy Bishop from The Better Skin Co.

We caught up with Murphy Bishop, from The Better Skin Co., for this episode of The Zest. Check out the full transcript below. For any of the products referenced in the episode, please visit https://thebetterskinco.com/.

Teju: Hi, everyone and welcome back to The Zest! I’m Teju and I’m so thrilled about today’s episode. I have Murphy Bishop here from The Better Skin Co., and he’s going to talk about their amazing products. All their products are perfect for revamping your skin routine— they use clean, incredible, high-quality ingredients. So I’m going to turn it on over to Murphy. Murphy, thank you for being here.

Murphy: Thank you.

Teju: Would love for you to talk a bit about The Better Skin Co., how it got started, a little bit about your story as well, because we were chatting before the show, and it’s super interesting.

Murphy: Excellent. Well, thank you so much for having us. We’re so excited. You know, we’re bringing you clean beauty that’s multi-purpose, and we make beauty for all people. We don’t believe that a man has to have a different product from a woman. We believe that skin is skin, and your skin may be different from the person you’re sitting next to. So you just use the products that work for you and let’s get that skin glowing. So, yeah. And you had mentioned clean—all of our formulas are very clean.

We work with the nation’s largest retailer, and we follow their clean label list, which means there’s over 400 ingredients that we do not have in our products. So they are super clean. We’ve won several clean beauty awards. We’re super excited about that because we believe it’s what’s in the jar that counts, not how many jars you have.

Teju: I love that. I love that. You know what I love even more? The backstory and how it got started. So tell us a little bit about how the brand got started.

Murphy: Sure. Well, you know, as I mentioned earlier, I had been in the industry for many years, and I was having Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house. And while I was there, his mother was scooping up these giant scoops that looked like mashed potatoes into these tubs, and women would walk away with them. But the women would give her two $20 bills. And I thought, hmmm…that’s very interesting. So I thought she was selling mashed potatoes, which was, to me, super clever. But she said, no, that’s my cream. She said, I make it.

She had three giant vats of it cooling for her clients that were coming the next day because it was all natural. And so what I learned was that my business partner Natalia had been an esthetician in Uzbekistan. They were under communism. So she had to make all of our products. Fast forward 15 years later, she came to America, started her esthetician practice and started making her cream all over again. So I took it to a lab. We stabilized it. We added a French plant-based brightening active.

We added tighteners, and we kept all of her natural ingredients and then added a few more. So we really sort of took her cream and put it on steroids. And then we brought it to market and it just took off.

Teju: Talk to us about some of those your hottest sellers. There’s so many great products in the line—walk us through everyone’s favorites.

Murphy: Sure. So we have four key skews that are multi-purpose. You know, I grew up selling people a routine of seven or eight products. The reality is you don’t need all that. You need a few good products and you need to be consistent. So our number one seller is our Better Skin Miracle Cream, which is Natalia’s original product. It’s your day cream, your night cream, your eye cream and your primer. So you really can do a lot with this. You can keep it in your gym bag. It’s travel friendly. It’s your go to cream for everything.

You’ve always been told that the skin under your eye is different than the skin under your face. We have tested this cream intensely, and it’s even good for sensitive skin, so you can take it all the way up, use it everywhere. This French plant-based, brightening active—we do have clinicals. So over time, if you have any hyperpigmentation, you’re going to see that start to reduce. So this Miracle Creme is our number one seller by far—to men, to women, you name it, we can’t keep it in stock.

The second thing that is really big for us, which is one of my favorite products, is called Better Skin Lava Magic. So Lava Magic is made with French lava. And you say, “Why French lava?” Well, a little bit of trivia. There’s over 400 volcanoes in France. Now, they’re not active, but they’re there. And, you know, French women have beautiful skin, and they do all the things you’re told not to do. They eat carbs, they smoke, they don’t drink enough water, but they have glowing skin.

So Natalia and I said, what are you doing for your skin? And they said, Well, it’s is lava. They said, we literally just take it and use it as an exfoliant and take away the dead skin. And then they would put an oil on after it, and they would have glowing skin. So of course, we thought, hmmm… So, we took the French lava, we wrapped it in essential oils, and it can be a cleanser, a scrub, or a mask. You just adjust the amount of water. So that product is a huge seller for us. And I love it.

Teju: That’s amazing. I always thought the French women had glowing skin because of,all of the cheese and wine.

Murphy: Now, we know it’s the lava!

Yeah, so that’s a great product. You can use it all over your body. Another product that we have that does really well is our Better Skin Epic C Serum. Now, there’s a ton of vitamin C serums out there on the market, and the world didn’t need another one. And I know that. But the world did need a serum that could do just more than brighten. So again, we have a French plant-based tightening active in this one. We also put our French plant-based brightening active to back up the vitamin C, which is sort of like Nature’s Miracle for skincare.

And we wrapped it in other natural ingredients that you’ll find in our other products. So when you put this on, you’re going to get an immediate little sort of lift. So along with these long term vitamin C benefits, you’re going to feel something immediate and it has a lovely citrus smell. So it’s really invigorating. And a little tip with this is what I like to do is at night, I take my miracle cream, put it in my hand. I put a few drops of the vitamin C, and I make a sleeping mask, and I go to sleep with a little thin layer on my skin.

This is 47 year old skin. You’re looking at 48 next year headed toward 50, and I’ve never had Botox. I’ve never had a filler. I’ve not done anything to my face, and I live by this routine. I mean, when I go to bed, I have three French Bulldogs and they look at me and they just kind of run away because they’re not sure what’s happening, but it’s my routine. So the vitamin C is very popular.

Teju: I love that—I’m stealing that routine.

Murphy: It’s so great. I mean, you really wake up. Most people wake up in the morning and they hydrate, hydrate, hydrate because their face is dehydrated from 8 hours of sleep. That’s the wrong way to do it. You should hydrate while you’re asleep because you’re not doing anything. So let the miracle do the magic, right?

And the other product that’s really popular is our Better Skin Zit no more. Now you might say I’m not 14—I don’t have zits. You know what? It works for hormonal acne just as well as prepubescent acne.

And it also works well for bug bites and ingrown hair. Yeah, because it has salicylic acid and tea tree oil. And as you know, tea tree oil opens the pores. So if you have an ingrown hair, it’s gonna open the pore, and get it out of there. If you have acne, you just roll it over. It’s clear so you can put it under makeup or over makeup. And it’s just a wonder product.

Teju: Interesting. Hormonal acne is something that we’ve heard a ton about. People don’t want to put harsh chemicals on their skin. So if you are suffering from hormonal acne, this is a great, clean, beautiful, well-done product that you can start using right away. Now. I love your packaging. It is beautiful. Tell us have been about the story behind the packaging.

Murphy: Sure. Well, as you’ll notice, with our packaging, it’s very minimalistic. We don’t use any outer cartons. We’re trying to be environmentally friendly. And our packaging has a beautiful Uzbek fabric pattern on it, because in Uzbekistan, they’re known for their textiles, and we wanted to give a nod to Natalia’s home country. And most beauty products when we launched, we’re very stark and white labels, black words on them. And we just thought that’s not us. That’s not who we are. So all of our packaging has our core Uzbek pattern on it, and then another color to go with it to sort of signify what category it falls into.

Teju: Awesome. Amazing. Now, tell us a bit more about some of the transformations. I mean, obviously your skin is glowing. You’re a testament to the product yourself. Walk us through some of the testimonials feedback that you guys receive on all of your products.

Murphy: Excellent. Well, the Miracle Cream with this brightening effect because a lot of creams promise a lot of things. And I’m going to tell you, if you want the brightening after four weeks, you’re going to get good results after eight weeks, you’re going to get great results. So as I said, let’s work on the consistency of it. You don’t have to add more products. Just be consistent with this one. We get so many testimonials from people who have reduced hyperpigmentation—they feel so good about it. And they’re also using it on their arms and on their hands. So that’s huge.

And we also have people that are so excited that we’ve said it’s okay to use one product. You don’t have to use ten. Use this. Be consistent. They love the honesty of that. And they love that we’re not trying to sell them more and more and more. So that’s a huge winner. The Zit No More product, we have heard from teenagers all the way up to grandmother’s. We have teenagers—like we’ve had a young girl who was camping with her grandmother and her grandmother got a mosquito bite and they didn’t have anything for it.

And the young girl was like, “Well try this, Grandma.” And the grandma put it on, and she couldn’t believe that her niece’s acne product cleared up her bug bite and took away the itch. So we hear all of these stories of how people use it. We hear about men who take it to the gym and put it on their ingrown hair. So there’s so many great things our customers tell us that we just can’t get enough of it because we really develop products for them. So that’s how we come up with our new products.

Teju: What I love is that less is more! So the Miracle Cream—yes, we’ve all been taught that you need multiple things. And I think about a time when I would go into my counter closet and there would be 100 products. But really, you can minimize your products then by having one quality product. And that Miracle Cream really is it.

Now, you’re going to lead us through a demonstration in a little bit. Walk us through what we’re about to see.

Murphy: Great. Well, if you said to me, Murphy, I love a routine. I got to have one that makes me feel good. This is what I would tell you. I would say, look, we’re going to start you off with the Lava Magic, and we’re going to tell you, “keep it in your shower.” Make it simple. Let’s assume you’re going to use it as a cleanser two little dabs on your finger while your face is wet, you’re going to gently cleanse the skin. That’s your first step.

When you get out of the shower, don’t completely dry your face. You know, pat it dry, but leave a little moisture there. And when you do skincare, you go from your lightest to your heaviest. So next we’re going to put on your vitamin C. You’re going to mix that in with a little bit of moisture that’s left. Make sure to cover your neck. Most people put their vitamin C on those in the center of their hands. Make sure after you’ve covered your face that you do the backs of your hand. Here in America, we don’t pay as much attention to the back of our hands as other countries do—they show your true age. So do that.

Teju: Oh, now…I’m like, “Uh Oh!”

Murphy: Exactly. So then you would follow that with your Miracle Cream. And then after that, before you leave the house, put on your sunscreen and you have a routine.

Teju: I love it so simple. And I mean that tip about the back of the hand. Gotta remember that.

Murphy: Got to remember it.

Teju: Because it’s true—it gets wrinkly and dry, especially we’re driving all the time sun, and it’s just really weathering for the back of your hand.

And it’s demo time! So Murphy, walk us through what we’ve got here and what we’re going to do for today’s demo.

Murphy: Sure. I’m going to show you three of our hottest multipurpose products. And we know every great skin care routine starts with a cleanser. So we have three for you to choose from. We have our lotion cleanse, which is for dryer skin, our gentle gel cleanse, which is really for all skin types. And the one that I’m going to show you today, which is our Lava Magic. This one is your cleanser, scrub, and mask—all in one.

As a cleanser, you would use a pea-sized amount on wet skin, usually in the shower, massage it across the face, rinse it off.

As a scrub, you would use about two fingers full on each side of the face, 30 to 60 seconds, rinse it off. And as a mask, a paper thin amount on moist skin. Leave it on three to six minutes. It is highly active. So you are going to have some redness, but that will go away over time.

Teju: Wow, so you actually don’t even need that much—no matter what you do. So a little bit of product goes a long way, which is awesome.

Murphy: Let me just show you how this feels, but before I do that, tell me what you think about the smell.

Teju: Ok, I’m excited! Oh, wow—it smells like beautiful citrus. Like just walking through an orange grove on a summer day. It’s just a beautiful smell.

Murphy: And you nailed it. That’s actual orange peel oil so filled with vitamins. We don’t use any synthetic fragrances. So along with the orange peel, we have several other essential oils in there. So if I put this on your hand, you will feel the sort of gritty exfoliation. But you’ll also feel the moisturization.

Teju: Cool—here we go! I was just joking about how how I have wrinkly hands. So, I need this!

I love that!

Murphy: So you can feel the exfoliation, a little bit of moisture.

Teju: And what I love is that you feel like it’s getting the job done and your skin is getting exfoliated. But it’s not too rough and abrasive. It is very gentle, which is cool.

Murphy: It is very gentle. Now we’re going to leave this hand a little bit wet—just a little tiny bit of water, because the next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to do is to add our vitamin C serum. And this particular vitamin C, our Epic C Serum—it also has the majestum, which is your tightening. So it’s a plant-based tightener. And our brightening agent, which backs up your vitamin C, which is already a brightening agent. So it’s really a power-packed serum. It keeps you from having to have three different serums.

Teju: I can’t stop touching my hand!

Murphy: Does it feel great? Well, this hand is going to be younger. It’s going to get carded. All right, then we’re going to follow it with our vitamin C, and, you know. You’re going to put your vitamin C.

Teju: How gentle!? All the products feel so gentle, light, and luxurious.

Murphy: So this one has lemon peel oil. So another oil that is just filled with vitamins. And it’s also just a great pick me up. So once again, no synthetic fragrance.

Teju: I feel like a fun bowl of citrus.

Murphy: And then last, but not least, this is our Miracle Cream. So this is your aloe, your algae, your shea butter, our brightener, which is called Wonder Light. It’s all in here. So day cream, night cream, eye cream. We send a lot of this out to the studios to use this primers because the hyaluronic acid just brings the moisture to the top of the skin, which plumps it up so you can have just a more smooth makeup application. So it’s all in here.

Teju: This is the this is like the mighty cream. This does everything—the Miracle Cream!

Murphy: And this particular product is scent free. If you smell anything, it’s from the natural ingredients. We know that people like to have their face cream with no scent.

Teju: Oh! It’s buttery. So light—like whipped—and it just feels luxury.

Murphy: And it’s going to dry down very quickly, once you put it on. Now a couple of tips, you’re putting this on your face. You now have cream on your hands. Do not run and wash your hands. I can’t stand to see people do that. What you now need to do is you need to go over the back of your hands. And after you do the back, then you need to give yourself a little lift and make sure you get the neck in there. So think about it this way. So face first—it’s on your hands, back of your hands and give yourself a little lift. And then you have cream everywhere cream should be.

Teju: Oh, my goodness. I love what a simple and powerful routine. And I love these little applicators that you guys have—these just make the application so easy. They even have, like, a little dip so that, you know, you’re getting a little scoop of the right amount, which is amazing.

Murphy: And they’re also travel friendly. These are two ounce products. You can take them anywhere on the go. They’re great for your gym bag because we live in an active society, and oftentimes people do their routine in the morning, and then go work out, and then rush off to work. Well, if you’ve washed it off, you’ve got to do it again. So keep it with you. And another little tip is one of the things that we tell people is if you have this in your bag, it’s the middle of the day in the office, you’re headed to a meeting.

If you just put a little bit on your cheeks—you can put it over your blush. It’s literally going to perk up your face because you’re going to get that burst of moisture and it’s just going to wake you up before your next meeting.

Teju: Right, now that’s the way to beat that afternoon slump without coffee.

Murphy: Exactly.

Teju: I love it! My skin—I think my skin is going to get carded. It is so soft and radiant, and it really feels like ages have just left this part of my hand. Whereas, the other hand is looking…ugh.

Murphy: I know you put that one behind you.

Teju: So, Murphy, you’ve got some other products here, if you wouldn’t mind, just kind of walking us through some of the other things that you have over here.

Murphy: Absolutely. Well, first, what you see here is our acne products. So the first thing we have is our Zit No More Acne Roller Ball. Now, this is clear so you can use it under makeup or over makeup. It’s tea tree oil and salicylic acid. So a little tip with this product only get it on the bump. It smells like tea tree, and some people love tea tree and they want to put it all over. Don’t do that. Just put it on the bump. You can also roll it over bug bites if you happen to have a bug bite. Or, if you have an ingrown hair—when I shave, I get ingrown hairs. I roll it over—by the afternoon, completely cleared up. You can keep this in your purse. It’s completely portable, so definitely a superstar. So just keep it on hand for any sort of little emergencies.

If you do have acne or oily skin. We have our Zip No More Cleanse. So this particular cleanser also has tea tree, salicylic and kombucha. So it’s going to take away the oil and also treat the acne. All three of these products have an FDA drug panel on the back because they are FDA regulated because they do treat acne, so you can feel really good about using them and knowing that you’re getting the proper active amount of salicylic acid.

Teju: Very, very cool.

Murphy: And last, but not least, we have our Better Skin Clarify. This is your moisturizer if you have acne on your skin. It’s sort of like a gel cream very late or in today’s terminology, we call it a water cream. And it again has the salicylic, the tea tree, and the kombucha. It’s going to dry up the oil and treat the acne as well. If you are a very dry person, it’s probably not the moisturizer for you or you could just use it where you have the breakout.

So as a system or as individual products, it’s just a phenomenal way to take care of acne. Also, adult acne all sorts of things. So I’m obsessed with these and I don’t have a lot of acne, but I have enough that I use them on the regular.

Last, but not least is our Amaze Balm. So Amaze Balm is the new Beauty Award Winner for Best Face Balm. So we just won this award.

Teju: Congrats, by the way!

Murphy: Thank you! This is shea butter beeswax. It’s very different than the Miracle Cream. It’s much thicker. This product is not vegan; whereas, The Miracle Cream is vegan. So if vegan is important to you, this is not vegan. It’s definitely very rich.

Teju: Yeah, you can feel the difference.

Murphy: You can feel the difference. It’s like a delicious cake batter.

Teju: Oh, who doesn’t like cake batter?

Murphy: And so for our dryer skin friends. Or if you’re just a nighttime person who likes a lot of moisture, this could be for you. And sort of one of the tips and tricks we were talking about earlier. Either one of these creams you can take before you go to bed and mix it with your vitamin C. You’re going to take a little bit in your hand, you’re going to mix it, and you’re going to mix it up, and you’re going to create a creamy little paste, and you’re gonna take this pace and you’re going to start with the top of your skin and go all the way down and you’re gonna leave a thin little layer and go to bed.

When you wake up in the morning, your skin is already going to be hydrated and plump, as opposed to you trying to hydrate it and get out the door. So just a great way while you’re sleeping at night, let the products do the work.

Teju: Get your glow on while you’re resting, so you wake up ready to go. I know, I drink a ton of water in the morning because I do feel parched and dry. So now I know what to do, which is great. Awesome. You mentioned vegan, and all these products are just made with such amazing ingredients. Walk us through some of the ingredients and also the values related to the ingredients.

Murphy: Absolutely. So as we talked about before, my business partner to Natalia is from Uzbekistan, where they could only make their products from natural ingredients. So we thought it was very important to continue that because natural ingredients can be very effective. We use a lot of shade butter for moisturization. We use a lot of tea tree oil because tea tree is sort of like nature’s gift to us because it does so many things. We, of course, have your vitamin C, which we all know is brightening and tightening.

And then in our cleansers, you will see things like the French lava, the charcoals, so that you can detox and slough away. You’ll see things like shea butter in our lotion—in our cleansing lotion, which will also be in our cream because we believe that as you’re cleansing, you can still moisturize. And many natural ingredients are antibacterial as well as moisturizing. So you will see a common thread. We use sea buckthorn and a lot of things. Sea buckthorn has great antibacterial properties, great anti-aging properties So it’s all in there.

And then we try to complement them with other natural items like French plant-based actives. Our Wonder Light is made from a root, and that’s our brightening ingredient. We actually have clinicals on that that show that it works. Natural ingredients are sort of the core of who we are. And then we compliment them with other things to really give them a boost.

Teju: And what is powerful is that you know what you’re getting in each and every bottle and it works and they’re easy and multi-purpose, which I love. So again, you don’t need more than one thing. You can buy a whole series of these products, but really, each product on itself holds a lot of weight and works so well.

Murphy: Amazing. And another little tip. When you get the products oftentimes on the front, it will tell you what the key ingredients are. But if it’s one of our jars, you’ll notice it’s a little smaller and you might say, Well, gosh, I don’t see the ingredients. You can simply peel back the label because they’re under the label. And then if you want to learn more about the ingredient and go to our website and it will tell you if it’s plant, animal or safe synthetic, because I know oftentimes people will see a form of alcohol which actually comes from a plant, but they don’t equate it to that.

And we want people to know this is a very safe alcohol. It is from a plant. So we do have all of that information available.

Teju: Great. Well, thank you so much for the demo. We’ll link up all the products in all the notes in the episode.