The clean beauty movement is transforming the beauty industry by emphasizing the importance of safe, non-toxic ingredients. Consumers are increasingly concerned about what they put on their skin, leading to a demand for transparency and high standards in beauty products. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Helen M. Torok.
Helen M. Torok, MD, is the Medical Director of the Trillium Creek Dermatology Center. Dr. Torok, a nationally noted, board-certified dermatologist, has been practicing medicine for over 40 years. She is considered an expert both in medical and cosmetic dermatology, earning an excellent reputation in her specialty: diagnosing and treating disorders of the skin, hair, and nails. She is also known for her expertise in fillers, especially lip enhancement, providing full-face volume replacement. Dr. Torok earned her doctorate at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed her residency in dermatology at Case Western Reserve University. She has authored numerous publications on skin disorders in many respected medical journals and also serves on the Advisory Editorial Board of Dermatology Times.
Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
Iwas born in Germany two years after the war ended and lived in displaced people camps for the first 10 years of my life. We came to this country in 1957 after waiting for five years to get approval. I was very fortunate to be accepted to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on a scholarship after only being in the USA for eight years. Ohio State medical school accepted me in 1970 in a three-year pilot medical school program. This was an innovative medical school experience that included self-study and computer programs. I returned to Case Western Reserve University in a dermatology residency program and graduated in 1978. Currently, I am in practice for the last 47 years in Ohio and oversee six offices. We offer general dermatology, Cosmetic Dermatology, Mohs surgery, Pediatric dermatology, Laser surgery and anti-aging procedures.
I have been married for 50 years to my husband who is an orthopedic surgeon and have three wonderful children and six grandchildren.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
When I first started my career in Dermatology, I decided to open an office in a small rural town of Medina with a population of 10,000. My peers were to say the least quite amused and predicted that I would be a veterinary dermatologist and would treat the livestock! And predicted I would never succeed. Undaunted, I proceeded to follow my dreams and goals. Yes, for the first 10 years my husband, the orthopedic surgeon, supported me 100%. But I never gave up, worked hard, promoted, and marketed my practice, gave excellent care, established a caring reputation, and grew. I learned to follow my dreams, never give up, perseverance, believe in yourself and patients will beat a path to your door.
I now have 150 employees and six offices!
My peers in the last 10 years have opened dermatology practices in Medina!
You are a successful individual. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Success takes time and makes you endure obstacles and long days to achieve your goal.
PERSEVERANCE and persistence are one of the main character traits that I believe has helped me to succeed. It took 10 years to finally start paying my bills, my staff and myself. I no longer depended on my husband to support my practice.
And from this meager start, I now have a thriving and busy practice.
The second character trait that is important to succeed is SELF DISCIPLINE. You are focused on your goal and you are working hard towards that goal. It takes all your strength, all your focus, commitment and energy to achieve that goal. Despite all naysayers, you forge ahead like a laser beam.
In 2003, I expanded my practice by building a 30,000 square-foot office in Medina. This was a huge undertaking and required a huge financial investment. To satisfy this investment, self-discipline was necessary, which meant that a small staff and I worked six days a week from 7 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday and 8 to 12 PM on Saturdays and this went on for years.
We had special events in the evenings after work for patients. Golf, parties, vacations, and days off were skipped and put off to satisfy the debts that were incurred. We knew that this short-term self-discipline would pay off in the long term. And it has.
PASSION is a trait that shows that you care a lot about what you are doing and who you are interacting with. I love my practice and my patients even after 47 years. My passion drives me to add more practices, to build, to create and to add new technologies. And this is to offer the latest and best treatments to our patients so that they get healthy and clear skin whether it is cancers, psoriasis, eczema, or wrinkles!
We have purchased lasers for tattoos that cost $150,000. Accure lasers for acne that we are the only practice in northeast Ohio to offer it. We offer Mohs surgery in our practice for skin cancers which is not offered in many practices.
But above all be grateful!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that might help people?
I am working on expanding our Healthy + Happy Essentials™ brand to include clean haircare products. These fragrance-free, clean hair formulas will allow all my patients, even those struggling with chronic inflammatory hair conditions like psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis, acne, and hair loss. Most over-the-counter and salon haircare brands contain heavy conditioning agents, fragrance, and parabens that all disrupt the scalp microbiome and exacerbate these chronic conditions. I also frequently see acne breakouts along the hairline that is a direct result from using scented shampoos and conditioners that contain synthetic fragrance, dyes, colorants, and parabens. Since I am severely allergic to scent and see the hormonal disruption, it causes for all these conditions, I was inspired to create a clean, fragrance-free haircare line for all ages, all skin types and all chronic hair conditions that keeps the scalp microbiome in perfect balance, stimulates hair growth, calms, and soothes scalp conditions and prevents irritation, dryness, and acne.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview. What inspired your brand to focus on clean beauty, and how do you define ‘clean’ in the context of your products?
Having extremely sensitive skin and being allergic to fragrance, inspired me to create a clean beauty brand, as I have experienced firsthand the havoc fragrance, dyes, chemical preservatives, and toxins have on the skin. I also suffer from rosacea which is an inflammatory skin condition that can be exacerbated from using beauty products that are not clean. Having a chronic inflammatory skin condition and being highly allergic to fragrance, dyes and colorants allow me to empathize with my patients who also suffer from chronic inflammatory skin conditions and struggle finding beauty products that do not irritate their skin.
Our Clean & Cruelty-Free Commitment ensures all products are free from harmful ingredients such as parabens, allergens, hormones, toxic chemicals, sulfates, and are never tested on animals.
+ CLEAN products are free of:
Artificial Fragrance
Formaldehyde
1–4 Dioxane
Hexelyne Glycol
Decelyne Glycol
Parabens
Imidazolidinyl Urea
Petrolatum
Propylene Glycol
Cocamide DEA
Hormones
Sulfates
Artificial Dyes
Methylchloroisothiazolinone
Prop 65
How do you ensure the ingredients in your products meet clean beauty standards, and what criteria do you use to select them?
We only partner with manufacturing and fulfillment facilities that use ethically sourced natural ingredients and are GMP certified.
What steps do you take to educate consumers about the importance of clean ingredients and how they can make informed choices when purchasing beauty products?
We believe in 100% transparency when educating consumers on the importance of using clean ingredients. We clearly list all the ingredients in our products on the packaging and on our website. This allows them to make an informed decision. We also offer patch testing on every chemical irritant and provide them with a detailed list of ingredients to avoid so they can have those on hand when reading beauty labels.
What innovative or unconventional ingredients are you most excited about in the clean beauty space, and why?
I think the natural preservatives that are currently being used are some of the most innovative multi-tasking ingredients. Natural preservatives like Citric Acid (Vitamin C) provide skin benefits and naturally preserve the formula. Citric Acid has been used for decades in skincare formulas. However, now it is being commonly used and recognized as a natural preservative. Another innovative natural preservative that is regularly used in clean beauty products is phenoxyethanol. Phenoxyethanol is an organic compound that protects skincare and beauty products from bacterial, fungal and mold contamination while minimizing the risk of skin irritation. It remains safe and effective over time. Incorporating these preservatives into our clean beauty brand ensures that all our consumers with even the most sensitive skin can use a brand without irritation. I know they are currently researching additional organic compounds that will be used as natural preservatives and this is very exciting as the most used chemical preservatives all register under 500 Daltons and therefore penetrate the skin barrier easily, so it is imperative to avoid using chemical preservatives, fragrance, and additives to preserve formulas and mask the smell from natural ingredients. These irritants disrupt the skin barrier and cause chronic redness, inflammation, dryness, itching and acne and exacerbate inflammatory skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, keratosis pilaris and more.
Can you share a story where switching to clean beauty ingredients led to a significant and unexpected benefit for your customers?
Image having a patient coming in all broken out in hives and completely perplexed on how this happened. As a dermatologist, it is my job to ask leading questions on what they have changed in their beauty routine to determine the cause of the irritation. Once we determine the change, whether it be a new makeup product, haircare product, skincare product or change in laundry detergent, then we can educate them on what ingredients to avoid in all products with the biggest being fragrance, dyes, and parabens. I commonly see patients who travel on vacation and use the haircare products, soap and towels at their hotels and come back with rashes, hives, acne, and irritation due to the detergent used on the towels, the chemical irritants in the soap and haircare products.
One of my older patients who suffered with rosacea and especially fragile skin, started using our Healthy + Happy Essentials™ brand and noticed right away that her redness, irritation, and dryness cleared up. She was using an over-the-counter moisturizer and cleanser that contained chemical preservatives that was stripping its skin of its natural moisture and exacerbating her rosacea. She was thrilled to have a solution that left her skin calm, soft and hydrated as was relieved when she was educated on the benefits of using clean ingredients and given a list of ingredients to avoid. This allowed her to always have this list on hand when she was reading labels.
Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Things You Need to Create a Successful Clean Beauty Brand”?
1. 100% Transparency
Clean Beauty Brands need to have 100% transparency. This requires listing all ingredients on the brand’s website, packaging, and labels. For example, some beauty brands only list main ingredients or active ingredients on their packaging, labels, and website and the common chemical irritants remain hidden from the consumer’s view.
2. Efficacy + Quality
Clean Beauty brands need to ensure their formulas meet good manufacturing practices (GMP) and are efficacious. The chemist that we partner with for our Healthy + Happy Essentials™ brand follows the 500 Dalton Rule to ensure the production of quality skincare products. This rule states that the weight of active ingredients must be under 500 to penetrate the skin. Anything above it will mostly just sit on the surface and have no effect. This is one of the primary reasons most beauty brands fail — they do not follow this rule and the delivery mechanism is wrong. Despite such importance, only a handful of cosmetic manufacturers follow this rule and the majority use extracts in their products that weigh between 2,000 and 2,000,000 Daltons which is way too high to penetrate the skin. To ensure high performance of a product, we run small production tests. These tests help us discover flaws, if any, and determine if an item meets the expected standards. If a product is not up to the mark, then we will stop its production right away and make the necessary tweaks. Typically, these tweaks include:
- Removing incompatible ingredients
- Getting rid of fungus or bacteria
- Creating the desired color, consistency, and feel
Our brand chemists also have patented an extraction method to ensure the actives from the plant material is extracted successfully so the formulas are effective. They partner this extraction technique with pH balanced formulas that work within the normal pH range of healthy skin to keep the microbiome in perfect harmony. A healthy skin barrier consists of “friendly” bacteria that keep the skin barrier intact.
3. Responsibly Sourced Natural Ingredients
Sourcing ingredients from natural material is an important step for a clean beauty brand. We are focused on increasing the amount of naturally derived skincare ingredients within our product formulas and carefully evaluate their skincare performance as well as their environmental impact.
4. Brand Values
Establishing clear brand values is essential for clean beauty brands. Brand values allow a brand to communicate what values are important to them and what the consumer can expect from their brand. For example, we clearly state our brand values for our Healthy + Happy Essentials™ brand. We are passionate about offering clean, efficacious dermatologist developed solutions to all our consumers. All of our brand values are listed on our website and include the following below:
- Dermatologist Developed, Tested and Approved
- Cruelty-Free
- pH balanced
- Fragrance-Free
- Plant Powered
5. Clean Commitment
Since there is no regulatory standard for what defines “clean” beauty, it is important for clean beauty brands to clearly state what clean means for their brand. This includes 100% transparency on their labels, packaging and website and including what common chemical irritants they exclude from their formulas. Our Clean Commitment for our Healthy + Happy Essentials™ brand is clearly stated on our website.
How do you foresee the clean beauty movement evolving in the next decade, and what role do you see your brand playing in that future?
The clean beauty movement is going to continue to gain momentum as consumers become more educated on the importance of using clean beauty regimens. They will have access to more published articles and clinical research in this area that clearly demonstrates the importance of avoiding synthetic fragrance, dyes, colorants, and parabens. HH Science™ and Trillium Creek Dermatology will continue to develop clean, efficacious beauty products that provide solutions to common and chronic skin, hair and beauty conditions and concerns.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
You can find my work, articles and blogs online at www.hhscience.com and www.tcohio.com. I am the brand dermatologist for HH Science and owner of Trillium Creek Dermatology.
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com.
