5 MINUTES WITH… DR VANITA RATTAN

From five years in the lab to a global platform reaching millions, Dr Vanita Rattan shares how she made treating skin of colour her mission and why the industry still has a long way to go.

WHAT MOTIVATED YOUR FOCUS ON TREATING SKIN OF COLOUR?

“After medical school, I was about to start my job in the hospital, and I started to get early-onset melasma.

“I started researching because it was quite terrifying to me. I looked at the clinical papers that would help me. I realised there were hardly any papers and all the professional treatments were made for white skin. Even over-the-counter products could make my pigmentation worse.

“My mum had a cosmetics company, so I worked with her cosmetic formulator and learned how to formulate a treatment for my face. I thought it was going to be quick.

“It ended up taking five years of work in the lab.”

WHAT DID THE FORMULATION PROCESS TEACH YOU ABOUT SKIN OF COLOUR?

“It was difficult even down to what percentage and form of retinol should be used for skin of colour. We would do clinical trials, testing different percentages and slowly iterating until we found what worked.

“Then it was about what you could combine with it. At what point do you actually start to see results? We needed to get to 10 tyrosinase inhibitors combined at a safe percentage to get the results we wanted for stubborn melasma.

“From there we launched the world’s first clinic dedicated to pigmentation of skin of colour, the Hyperpigmentation Clinic. I had eight clinics around the world, from Harley Street and Birmingham to Manchester, Mauritius, South Africa and more.”

HOW DID YOUR CAREER EVOLVE FROM THE EARLY CLINIC DAYS?

“When COVID hit, we shut all the clinics. But because I’m a formulator, I had my own laboratory, so I chose to figure out how to educate the general public.

“We grew to 3.5 million followers. I formulate specifically for my followers. I’ll say, ‘Hey guys, so I’m in the lab today. What do you want me to make? What actives would you like to see?’ By the time I launch a product, millions of people have helped me formulate that product in the first place.”

WHAT ARE THE RISKS WHEN PRACTITIONERS DON’T UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SKIN TONES?

“I always say: one scratch, one bite or one burn and we pigment. You can do a lovely chemical peel on Caucasian skin, and the skin can come back beautifully. You do that on Black skin and you can leave with dark patches all over their face, which can take six months to a year to get rid of.

“The stakes are very high for people with skin of colour not to understand their skin. Education is empowerment. You can’t rely on a big brand to tell you what’s safe for your face. You need to be able to read and look at the ingredients and understand if a product is going to be good for you or not.”

HOW SHOULD THE CONSULTATION PROCESS DIFFER?

“You have to listen to the patient more than what you can see. On white skin, a damaged skin barrier is going to look flaky and red. On Black skin, it’s not obvious. You have to ask: ‘Is your skin feeling sensitive? If you put retinol on, how does it feel? If you put a moisturiser on, how does it feel?’

“You also need to ask whether they’ve previously used hydroquinone, whether they get keloid scarring, whether they have uncontrolled diabetes, whether they’re on blood thinners or have sickle cell anaemia, and what their current skincare routine is.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS STILL MISSING FROM PROFESSIONAL TRAINING?

“There was so much backlash from talking about skin of colour.

“The industry standard was never made for skin of colour. If you go to any dermatology book, very few images in the entire book are about skin of colour. Doctors are not trained on how to assess pigmentation and skin of colour.

“There isn’t any training. You can go and be a practitioner and have never learnt about Black skin or touched Black skin. Now a Black woman is coming into your clinic, and you don’t know what to do.

“I feel really bad for practitioners because they’re great people. You don’t become an aesthetic practitioner if you’re not trying to make people feel amazing and improve people’s lives and confidence. But we are failing our practitioners because we’re not giving them the tools to do the best work possible.

“We’re going in the right direction, but the clinical studies done on the majority of products have been done on white skin, which behaves very differently to skin of colour.”