MOJEH: What led to the creation of LYMA?
Lucy Goff: After I had my daughter in 2012, I caught septicaemia and I was in intensive care for weeks where they battled to save my life. I couldn’t function afterwards because my body was completely finished and, while I was in the clinic, I got speaking to one of the world’s leading longevity professors, Professor Paul Clayton. He introduced me to these supplements – a pharmaceutical equivalent of a supplement – which were really powerful anti-inflammatories like nootropics and adaptogens. Once I returned home from Geneva he sent me seven of them in the post and after taking them for only four weeks I felt like myself again. That was when we had the idea to start LYMA as a supplement brand in 2018.
What was the process behind creating the LYMA Laser?
When Professor Paul Clayton was in Germany he was observing a man that had been using a cold laser to regenerate the cartilage inside one of his knees and, despite him being 62, the skin on the treated knee looked about 20 years younger than the skin on his other knee. And Professor Clayton thought, well, if we can re-engineer this hospital machine into a little handheld portable device at the same power, then this technology could change the shape of the cosmetic industry. For the first time we would have a cold laser light source that harnessed the power of a clinic, but you could take it in your bag and use it at home.
What is the difference between LED and a cold laser, and how does the LYMA Laser differ to other devices or regenerative treatments on the market?
The entire light-device industry is based upon LED. LED is basically just the bulb that’s in the ceiling. It’s got no biological penetration and so will work fine if it is treating the very top layer of your skin; the top layer is dead skin. Regeneration takes part in the base layer – the dermis – and LED can’t penetrate into the dermis with any sort of biological power. The LYMA Laser is a completely different technology to everything else that’s out there.
The LYMA Laser is completely safe and regenerates the skin from the base layer up without damaging anything. In the beauty industry, whether it’s radio frequency, micro-needling or ultrasound, they all provide some kind of damage in order to stimulate collagen production. However, our research has shown that when you damage the skin in order to stimulate collagen production, the body prioritises the speed of healing over the quality of the collagen fibres. Your body doesn’t know the difference between healing for medical reasons and cosmetic reasons, so scars can form. In healthy, youthful skin, the collagen ratio is about 70 per cent type 1 collagen and about 30 per cent type 3 collagen, but scar tissue doesn’t have the same ration blend. With the LYMA Laser, however, you get the same blend of collagen fibres; it works epigenetically within your skin to where the genes that should be down-regulated are down-regulated and the genes that should be up-regulated are up-regulated. It makes your skin behave like it did when you were young and that’s why it is so revolutionary.
Is the LYMA Laser suitable for all ages or only for more mature skin?
It is suitable for every age. It is even used in hospitals for babies that are born with a cleft palate; it is used to heal the scar when the baby is as young as one month old. As for adults, when plastic surgeons are doing facelifts and operations they are bundling in the laser with part of the surgery package to ensure you heal properly without a scar.
The LYMA Laser was made for at-home use. Aside from the results, what was most important for you when you created the laser?
Most beauty tech is registered either for a clinic or over-the-counter. Nobody’s doing something that is registered for a clinic and at home, and I wanted LYMA to be entirely inclusive so that if it was introduced to you in a clinic you could carry on the treatment at home. I also included retina protective technology inside the lens because I didn’t want users to have to wear goggles. They’re so annoying! You can’t see what you are doing and it takes the enjoyment out of the experience.
It was also important that the technology was inclusive for all skin tones. There are so many lasers on the market that can’t be used on darker skin tones, which is not only ridiculous but not safe, either, as friends could lend the laser to one another and end up causing damage. If you’re bringing something to market, it should be available for everyone.
When you created the supplement in 2018, was it designed to specifically aid sleep?
The supplement has three pillars. It’s sleep, skin and stress. Because if you can’t sleep, you’re stressed. If you’re stressed, you can’t sleep. If you can’t sleep, your skin’s never going to be good. So, it looks at those three pillars as one symbiotic solution. There are 11 patented, peer-reviewed ingredients in the supplement and they’re all dosed at their proper levels. It is a unique blend of nootropics, adaptogens, anti-inflammatories and ingredients that support the endocannabinoid system. It’s all about feeling better, but there’s no sedatives and no stimulants; it is not going to keep you awake or make you drowsy. Over a four-week period – the time it takes for your body to adapt to new ingredients – you will have better-quality sleep, feel more balanced and regain the clarity that a lot of women lose in midlife.
There are so many supplements on the market offering false promises. How do you make sure LYMA stands out amongst the noise?
It’s very difficult because there’s no regulation in the supplement market and so you can basically say the same thing. If you’ve got an ashwaganda that you’ve brought to maket, how would the consumer know what form of ashwaganda to take? They wouldn’t. They can say the same things that we say, except we have a patented form of ashwaganda that is dosed at effective levels. A lot of our customers have tried other supplements and finally find what they are looking for when they try LYMA. For example, there are plenty of supplements with turmeric in them, however what they use to make it water soluble means that the carrier system accounts for 90 per cent of what they are taking, with only 10 per cent of actives. With LYMA, we have a medicinal form of turmeric where the carrier system only accounts for 10 per cent and therefore you have 90 per cent of the actives – the highest amount your body can get.
Some people are hesitant to try supplements because they aren’t sure if it is really essential, or something that they only need later in life. Do you feel there’s an age at which you need to start taking supplements?
If you eat a good diet you don’t need supplements at a young age. When you hit perimenopause around 40, the hormonal changes your body goes through has a lot of knock-on effects and something like HRT is not the full solution. The majority of our customers are perimenopausal and menopausal women who need help tackling the rise of stress and inflammation. They don’t want to take sleeping pills or antidepressants and prefer a natural solution. LYMA’s ingredients are patented, peer-reviewed and have gone through the same process that a pharmaceutical drug has gone through to get to market.
Through social media, younger generations are being exposed to wellness and skincare trends. What do you think about young people having access to skincare advice that could be damaging?
Your skin shouldn’t have anything on it until your mid-twenties. Teenage skin doesn’t need it because the ageing process hasn’t even kicked in. Teenagers get spots so, as a teenager, I think the only thing you should be putting on your skin is spot cream or a moisturiser at most.
What was your biggest skincare sin?
Going into the sun with factor zero on. My mother used to put baby oil on us as children and we would fry in the sun. I still go in the sun, but I wear factor fifty now and it petrifies me when my children don’t wear sunscreen.
What’s next for LYMA?
We will soon be relaunching our skincare. It’s an incredible formulation. We are launching a hydrating serum that penetrates into the dermis and have also reformulated our current serum and cream into one product. We will also be bringing out a new ingestible. Shop now
