Founder profile · Independent
Dr Ryan Shelton: The Formulator Behind South Beach Skin Lab
Background and credentials
Dr Ryan Shelton is a naturopathic physician (ND) who has spent the past two decades formulating skincare and wellness products with a focus on age-related skin and metabolic concerns. He is a founding contributor to several practitioner-led brands and is most publicly associated with South Beach Skin Lab's flagship cream and the broader Zenith Labs catalogue.
His clinical interest has consistently focused on mechanism-driven formulation — choosing actives where the biology of how the ingredient works on skin is well-documented in peer-reviewed literature, rather than ingredients that are simply trending.
His formulation philosophy
Peptide-led formulation
Dr Shelton's formulation philosophy centres on peptide signalling rather than acids or retinoids — chosen specifically for tolerability on mature and sensitive skin.
Naturopathic background
A naturopathic physician by training, his approach blends evidence-based dermatological actives with botanicals for barrier support — squalane, shea butter, aloe.
Public-facing educator
Frequent contributor to skincare education content, podcasts, and brand-led explainer videos describing the mechanism of action behind each ingredient.
What this means for the product
The fingerprints of Dr Shelton's philosophy are visible across Repair & Release Cream's ingredient list:
- Five peptides, no retinoids. A deliberate choice to deliver collagen-stimulating and expression-line softening effects without the irritation, peeling, and photo-sensitivity that retinoids cause in mature skin.
- Squalane and shea butter as anchors. Both are well-tolerated emollients that restore barrier function — addressing the moisture-retention collapse that follows the menopausal drop in estrogen.
- Fragrance-free. A standing principle in his formulations — fragrance is one of the most common irritants in cosmetic chemistry, and dispensable.
- Modern preservation. Phenoxyethanol and ethylhexylglycerin rather than parabens. Safer, broadly accepted, and dermatologically inert at the concentrations used.
An independent assessment
Founder-led skincare brands often live or die on the credibility of their formulator. Our independent take, based on the published ingredient list and 60-day in-house trial, is that Dr Shelton's formulation choices are coherent and evidence-aligned. The product reflects what someone who actually understands peptide chemistry would build — not a marketing department's interpretation of what a peptide cream "should" look like.
That doesn't mean it's the right product for every reader (see our full review for the cases where it isn't), but the formulation deserves the credit it gets.