Seven Secrets of Beauty & Wellbeing: Dr. Tiina Meder
We have met so many remarkable people in the beauty industry over our decades as journalists and we love bringing you the often surprising ‘secrets’ they reveal. Dr. Tiina Meder is no exception to this.
An Estonian-born medical doctor and dermatologist, Dr. Meder is a leading scientist specialising in aesthetic dermatology – how we can all look our best as the years go by. She launched her skincare line Meder Beauty in 2009 – the first professional range to target the skin microbiome. Meder is now a best seller in 30 countries, with an A-list following. (See our Prize Draw here with a tribute from Carey Mulligan for the transformative powers of the Meder Beauty Hydra-Fill facemask.)
Fascinatingly, she is passionate about formulating super-effective products with (mostly natural) ingredients that don’t cause trauma to the skin. It’s the first time we’ve heard about a compound called Teprenone, which she says has a similar effect to machine treatments that heat the skin.
She is a mother of two children whose special needs have proved to be a way in which she can switch off completely and become involved in their different worlds. She is, as one devotee doctor put it, ‘totally authentic’.
1. Start the day with a workout. You will feel better all day long, no matter what – I learnt that from my swimming training as a child. The downside is that you feel strange when, for some reason, you can’t workout in the morning for some reasons, but it’s a price worth paying! I work out for 30-40 minutes every morning with a Centr fitness app, which is never boring and always nicely challenging. I waited so impatiently for swimming pools to re-open but there was a silver lining to the longest absence from swimming in my life: my body partly forgot old patterns so I found a trainer and I’m working on my technique so I can get back to competing with other ‘oldies’.
2. Beauty starts with posture. I learn a lot from my patients and my best beauty tip came from a French lady of a certain age, who was always so elegant. Her neck skin was very beautiful and I asked her how she kept her neck in great condition. And she answered: “Oh my dear, when one enters the room, one must see the chandelier and not the parquet floor!”
3. Don’t walk on eggshells when you talk to people. I am Estonian-born and we are known to be very direct in communication, so I rate it a lot in people. I just feel so much easier to name things directly and I love people who can say ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it’. I have a lot of respect for someone being direct, honest and agreeable at the same time, that’s such a rare quality. The quality I rate most in myself is probably my resilience - I never give up. I think I inherited this from my father’s side, and I am very grateful for it.
4. My inspiration is nature. We live literally in Hampstead Heath park and I am never bored of walking there. For many years I have researched the traditional uses of plants and mushrooms and I have introduced many of them in Meder Beauty formulations. We use the fruits of Kigelia Africana, which are wellknown in African folk medicine, Centella Asiatica, used by healers in Madagascar for centuries, Wild Yam with a history in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Northern Truffle, which was used by Viking healers a thousand years ago. Most amazingly, all of them have been scientifically proven to be effective used topically. Today, we can name all the chemical compounds of these extracts, but our ancestors found them empirically and I find that mesmerising. New microbiome science shows how wrong we’ve been in thinking about ourselves as isolated human beings. We are living ecosystems, co-existing with the microbiomes in our skin and gut (and many other sites in our bodies) in the same way that our planet co-exists with us. I always try to keep this in mind when I’m working on formulations.
5. I switch off with my kids. Both my son and daughter are autistic and non-verbal so we have developed a system of communication with a lot of attention to gestures and mimicking, and it’s a totally involving experience. That may sound strange, but it’s always refreshing. When I’m reading, playing or singing with my daughter or listening to music with my son I just forget about all the rest for a moment every day. Even if it’s not very long, it’s a time apart from work thoughts. We all love the sun and summer holidays is always a great time to us all, when I try to work less and enjoy time with kids and sea.
6. I have three key cosmetics in my make-up bag. These give me the feeling ‘Oh I look well!’ when I apply them every morning. An eyebrow pencil by Chanel, Nars blush for my pale skin and a lipstick from Runway Rogue by Patricia Hartmann, one of my favorite 90’s top models. She is a Meder Beauty fan, and I am a fan of her brand! All her lipsticks are made with organic ingredients and rich pigments; they are long-lasting and also moisturising.
7. My hero product from my own brand is…. Difficult to say as I love them all but probably ….Vita-Long Oil. I spent seven years working on this anti-ageing facial oil. It’s a perfectly universal, multi-tasking product, which can be used any time of the year to protect all skin types – whether that’s from freezing Norwegian winters or with a sunscreen in Australian summers. The formula is a blend of olive squalane and nine organic oils to restore the skin’s lipid complex, which declines with age. It’s enriched with an ingredient called Teprenone, which has a similar effect to machine treatments (eg a laser) without the trauma, also Ephemer™ (an extract of wakame ephemeral cells) and Coenzyme Q10. Vita-Long won an Innovative Skincare Award in Marie-Claire Prix d’Excellence de Beauté last year. I am very proud of it.
