Cystic Acne, PDRN, Red Light, Collagen Myths & Microneedling | Madalaina Conti | Ep. 60

What if almost nothing you're putting on your face is actually getting in?This week, I sat down with Madalaina Conti, the New York esthetician behind Synergistic Skincare and the first practitioner to bring Qi Beauty to NYC. She's the one I fly across the country to see. But the skin you see now? That took over a decade. Madalaina spent her teens and twenties in deeply cystic, nodular acne that sat right on her jawbone and gave her toothaches. She almost didn't go to esthetics school at all, because she figured nobody would trust a girl who couldn't fix her own face.Here's what blew my mind. She told me you're only absorbing around 4% of what you apply topically unless you're doing something to drive it deeper. Four percent. Now go look at your shelf.Then she dropped a bomb on half the trends on your feed. Collagen masks — your skin can't decode and use it. LED masks — the wavelengths matter enormously, and some of those lights are the same tech used to hatch eggs. At-home microneedling — you can trigger an immune response that has to be surgically removed.And then we went somewhere I didn't expect at all: sound healing, cranial work, dating in New York, and why getting older might be the most exciting thing happening to us.After this one, you'll never look at your skincare shelf the same way.What we talk about:- Why her cystic acne caused toothaches — and what was actually behind it- Androgen sensitivity vs. "hormonal acne," and why your labs come back normal- Why sound healing and cranial decompression belong in a facial- The zinc "butt cream" trend and what she'd do instead- LED masks, red light, and the wavelengths that actually build collagen- PDRN, salmon DNA, and whether the topical version does anything- Slugging without wrecking your skin — plus the products to skip- Why acne scars and pigment need time, not another serumCheck out the full episode on all platforms: Hydrate With Tracy DuhsEpisode Links & Resources:Website: ⁠https://madalainaconti.comInstagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/madalainaconti/Connect with Tracy:Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://tracyduhs.com/⁠⁠⁠Hydration Shop: ⁠⁠⁠https://sanctuarysd.com/⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/tracyduhs/⁠Flow FAM Community: ⁠⁠⁠https://tracyduhs.com/join-flow-fam/⁠