Meet the skin experts: what your skin barrier really needs

The skin barrier gets talked about a lot. But how many of us truly understand what it does, what it looks like when it needs additional support - and what it needs to stay strong?

Ahead of the launch True Skin Alchemy, our skin support supplement designed to support skin from within, we brought together four leading voices - Dr Jenna Macciochi, our own immunologist and Director of Science & Innovation; Dr Christine Hall, GP and Aesthetic Physician; Dija Ayodele, award-winning Aesthetician and Skincare Expert; and Sam Chapman, Makeup Artist and Beauty Expert - for an honest conversation about the role of the skin barrier, modern skin stresses, and why supporting skin from within is the step most of us are missing.

Each expert also shared their views on True Skin Alchemy’s carefully selected ingredients and how this innovative formula works in synergy with your skincare to provide skin with the raw materials it needs to feel strong, healthy and resilient at every stage of life.

Watch the interviews below or on our YouTube channel.

Dr Jenna Macciochi on how she formulated True Skin Alchemy for barrier support 

Dr Jenna Macciochi is an immunologist with a lifelong passion for skin science. She leads the research and innovation behind True Skin Alchemy - and the science of inside-out skin health.

As an Immunologist, Jenna Macciochi views the skin as the body’s most important barrier and something we should all protect.

"It's easy to think of the skin as just an aesthetic surface - but it's actually the largest organ in the body. As immunologists, we consider it an immune organ: a vital barrier between us and the outside world."

Every day, your skin performs thousands of invisible tasks. It protects, communicates, regulates and adapts. Far more than a surface, it's a living, intelligent barrier working around the clock on your behalf

Skin as your health biomarker

"Skin is the easiest biomarker we have for our health. We can very quickly tell if we're dehydrated or haven't slept well, because it shows up in our skin. That dullness. Dark circles. The skin feels sensitised - little things seem to trigger it. And that's because the skin barrier is under pressure."

Why we built True Skin Alchemy

"When I was creating True Skin Alchemy, as an immunologist, I was very aware that our skin is our biggest immune barrier to the outside world. We go through so many changes - so many different life stages, things we're exposed to. It's really important that the barrier has all the nourishment it needs to stay strong."

"One of the reasons we created True Skin Alchemy was really to look after the function of the skin - not as an aesthetic surface, but as this functional, living barrier that protects us throughout our life. And one of the great side effects of protecting the skin barrier is that your skin looks and feels good."

For the full science behind the formula - the ingredients, the evidence, and how they work together - read Jenna's complete origin story here.

Dr Christine Hall on how ingestible skincare may support a compromised barrier

Named one of Tatler's Medics of the Moment 2024, Dr Christine Hall bridges Western medical rigour with cutting-edge Korean skincare innovation. She is widely credited with introducing the Korean "glass skin" philosophy to London.

Here she reviews the ingredients in True Skin Alchemy and shares her thoughts on how they may support healthy skin from within.

Dr Hall's K-beauty expertise gives her a distinct lens on what healthy skin actually means - and it starts from within. "In Korea there's a concept called Sok Gwang - it translates as 'lit from within'. The idea is that you cannot have truly healthy skin unless you're doing things internally that will make you glow on the outside. Sleep, diet, supplements, being well."

That philosophy underpins how she thinks about the skin barrier: not as something to fix when it fails, but something to actively nourish. "Supporting hydration internally is just as important as topical moisturisers. I would almost argue it's more important."

When the barrier is struggling - whether that's redness, tightness, or skin that stings when you apply products - Dr Hall sees it as a sign the skin needs more than surface care. "Most skincare ingredients just sit on the skin surface. What's equally, if not more, important is what we are doing from within."

What excites her about True Skin Alchemy

For Dr Hall, the formula brings together ingredients she's long used topically, now working from the inside. "Hyaluronic acid draws moisture into the skin - you'll see that plumpness and radiance. Grape seed extract mops up the free radicals that break down your collagen and elastin. And ceramides - the cells are your bricks, the mortar surrounding them is made up of a huge proportion of ceramides. It's about replenishing your body with what the skin barrier needs."

Dija Ayodele on protecting menopausal skin from modern pressures

A bestselling author and Vogue Business Top 100 Beauty Innovator 2024, Dija Ayodele has spent nearly two decades helping people understand - and truly know their skin.

For Dija Ayodele, skin health isn't about perfection. It's about resilience.

"Good skin health looks like skin that is resilient, that has a natural radiance to it. But it also feels like something - comfortable. You feel good in it. It doesn't feel fragile."

The modern pressures on your barrier

Dija sees the damage show up in two distinct ways. For younger clients, it's over-complication, too many actives layered onto skin that isn't ready. For those in their 40s and beyond, it's more often hormonal. "They've sleepwalked into perimenopause without realising. The skin has become drier, but they're still using the same products from five, ten years ago. That can leave the skin needing a different kind of support than it did previously.”

Why consistent barrier support is everything

"If you are training for a boxing match, you do the coaching, you follow your trainer - so that when you get in the ring, that first punch doesn't knock you out. When you have a poor skin barrier, when your barrier is well supported, it’s better equipped to adapt to the inevitable stresses and changes that life brings.”

Why True Skin Alchemy excites her

"The thing that's most exciting is the combination of ingredients - vitamin C that makes the skin look lit from within, ceramides, which are the essential fats that keep the barrier strong and resilient. It's like a complete support system for the skin."

"I always say ingredients are queen - clever, synergistic, multitasking. We're all multitasking in our lives, so why can't our products do the same?"

Sam Chapman on how radiance starts from within

One half of the pioneering Pixiwoo, Sam Chapman has 1.2 million Instagram followers and over two decades of professional artistry. She discovered Ancient + Brave through her own community - and hasn't looked back.

No one sees the skin barrier's effect more clearly than a makeup artist. "When you've got healthy skin, the makeup lays flatter, it glows, it lasts longer. You can get away with wearing very, very little. When the skin is irritated, the opposite happens - people wear more makeup, which often looks worse. It exaggerates dryness, flakiness. The makeup just isn't going to sit right."

Inside-out: the missing piece

Sam came to ingestible skincare as a sceptic - converted by her own community. "I asked them what collagen they'd recommend and Ancient + Brave was the number one answer. All these people were just raving about it. I was immediately like - I'm in."

"I just don't understand why you wouldn't take something that improves your skin from the inside. We do so much work and spend so much money on skincare outwardly."

On True Skin Alchemy specifically: "This is like nutrition for your skin barrier - protecting it externally and from the other side, internally.”

Four experts. One truth: your skin barrier needs support from within 

A scientist, a clinician, an aesthetician, a makeup artist. Four very different vantage points. One shared truth: your skin barrier works hard for you every single day

Skin faces daily pressure - from environmental exposure to changing hormones and the pace of modern life, it adapts to more than we often realise.

True Skin Alchemy is built around exactly that - ceramides, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, polypodium leucotomos, grape seed extract, and silica, working together to hydrate, protect, and defend from the inside out.

Approved by experts and tried and tested by our Inner Circle community of customers, this formula took two years to craft using carefully selected ingredients that truly deliver. 

Your skin barrier does more for you than you realise.
Make True Skin Alchemy part of your daily ritual and hydrate, protect and defend your skin barrier from within.