Having been a beauty editor for more than half my life, I’ve been lucky enough to sample a smorgasbord of skincare and treatments. As I hurtle through my forties, I’m constantly cherry-picking weapons for my skin arsenal and dialling in different experts to help me along the way. Here is my current treatment plan and my favourite products, in all their line-blitzing, dermal-plumping glory.
I’ve organised it the way I actually use it. Skincare first, because everything starts there. Then the in-clinic tweakments, the devices I use at home and the supplements and protocols I rely on to support that glow from the inside out.
The skincare: where everything begins
Obviously great skin begins with a great routine. I oscillate wildly between high-strength cosmeceuticals and deliciously sensorial natural products, depending on my mood and what my skin needs.
Cosmeceuticals are formulated with active, medical-grade ingredients that penetrate deep into the skin, targeting specific concerns like fine lines, wrinkles and hyperpigmentation. So I’m always making sure to use my ABCs. A vitamin A, a vitamin B or niacinamide, and a vitamin C, plus a sunscreen every single day.
Right now I’m testing different ranges to curate the best products for Beauticate Shop. I’m loving Saint Louve, a sleek Melbourne brand founded by aesthetician and Registered Nurse Elly Seymour. There’s a real rigour to the formulations, but the textures feel like a treat, which is my favourite combination. I’m currently working my way through their vitamin A, B and C serums, my ABCs in one considered range.
I go through stages with different cosmeceutical brands too. I also love Rationale, Ultraceuticals, Synergie Skin and IS Clinical, and I’m working on getting them into Beauticate Shop.
My morning skincare routine
I cleanse with either Mukti Cleansing Gel (all her products smell amazing) or Saint Louve Facial Cleansing Gel, to get rid of any sleeping masks or residue from the night before.
With my skin freshly cleansed, the first thing I reach for is my LED mask. I put it on and wear it through my twenty-minute morning meditation, so the light works on clean skin and those quiet minutes double as treatment time. More on the mask I use in the devices section below.
Once the mask comes off I press in a vitamin C, either my SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic or the Saint Louve vitamin C serum I’m testing, and I rotate my A, B and C serums through the week.
Then sunscreen, always. My hero SPF at the moment is mesoestetic. It’s a beautifully elegant, high-protection sunscreen that sits perfectly under makeup and never leaves that heavy white cast, which is why it’s become the one I reach for most. If I’m going to be out in the sun for a while I’ll use Ultra Violette Lean Screen SPF 50.
After my serums I press on a little BOOIE Beauty Bloody Delicious, comedian Celeste Barber’s hydrating tinted illuminator. It gives a dewy, lit-from-within glow without a scrap of makeup, and it sits happily over sunscreen. It isn’t strictly skincare, but I’m obsessed, and it’s the thing that makes my skin look like I’ve done something when I’ve barely done anything.
My nightly skincare routine at 44
Night is where I do the real work. I start with a double cleanse, beginning with the Saint Louve Facial Cleansing Oil to melt everything off, then my Saint Louve Cleansing Gel for the proper second cleanse.
After that I use a little Trinny London Find Your Balance BHA serum on my chin, and Finacea from the chemist to keep my hormonal spots at bay. Then comes the hero of my evening, my Saint Louve vitamin A serum. It’s my retinol step, and I love that it does the heavy lifting on fine lines without the irritation.
Then, a few nights a week, I seal everything in with the RAESO Lunar Veil Chrono-Active Sleep Mask. This is no ordinary night cream. It’s a New Zealand brand I’ve fallen hard for, botanical but seriously clever, and the mask works in three timed phases through the night to hydrate, gently resurface and repair while I sleep. I wake up smoother and clearer, and it looks beautiful on my benchtop too, which never hurts.
My favourite natural and organic skincare
As much as I love a clinical active, there are days when my skin wants comfort rather than correction. That’s when I turn to natural and organic formulas, and I’ve found a handful I’d never be without.
When my skin is super dry or sensitised, nothing calms it like Mukti Marigold Hydrating Cream. It’s rich and soothing without feeling heavy, and it takes the angry edge off skin that’s been pushed too hard by actives or weather.
My all-time favourite, though, is the Subtle Energies Facial Oil blend. It’s the product I recommend more than almost anything else. The aromatherapy alone is worth it, but it also leaves my skin soft, balanced and glowing. It’s the kind of thing that makes skincare feel like a ritual rather than a routine.
I’m also obsessed with La Mav, an Australian certified-organic brand that gets the balance between gentle and effective just right. Their AHA Exfoliant sloughs away dullness without any of the sting I associate with stronger acids, and I follow it with the La Mav mask when my skin needs a reset. Their Ayurvedic body oils are a whole other love affair, but more on those later.
The big guns: injectables, lasers and facials
For injectables you need to find someone you trust and who has your best interests at heart. I recently went to see Dr Nel at Belleage clinic for Botox. For years I’ve been seeing Dr Joseph Hkeik at All Saints Skin Clinic in Double Bay, though he’s been in London opening his new clinic. As skin whisperer to some of the country’s most illustrious personalities, he delivers a has-she-or-hasn’t-she level of work. For me, he has recommended the following treatment plan.
I believe in a less-is-more approach. When you’re in the right hands, little touches in the right places are often all that is needed. Most importantly, we need to preserve your authentic beauty and character.
Injectables
Joseph recommends the All Saints 3-point liquid facelift, which involves injecting a small amount of wrinkle-relaxing injections where needed, then a very fine wash of filler to help stimulate collagen and elastin and give a little volume to the cheeks, without creating that puffed-up look some fillers give.
“It’s bespoke treatment that we modify to the individual,” says Joseph. “We increase or decrease the amount of product that we place in different areas of the face, depending on what each part needs. In some instances I might really create a higher cheekbone for some people. For others I manage to create a bigger apple of the cheek. I’m manipulating the face to change over the next three to six months into what I think is going to suit you best. For a guy I’ll do it differently. For an older woman I do it differently to a younger girl in her 20s.”
Another hugely popular tweakment Joseph recommends is Profhilo, which is being billed as the new Botox. Unlike wrinkle-relaxing or filler injections, it’s more of an injectable moisturiser that helps prompt your own collagen and elastin production. In doing so it smooths fine lines, plumps, hydrates and gives insane amounts of glow.
“Profhilo is a simple procedure,” says Joseph. “We put five points on your face and it hydrates your skin, creating a nice scaffold for the cells so they function better and can create collagen and elastin.”
Lasers
Creating a uniform skin tone is key when you’re addressing the signs of ageing. Joseph suggests a course of Picoway, a laser that uses short bursts of powerful light to target pigmentation, acne scars and fine lines, and even to remove tattoos. Clients may see a lightening of dark pigment patches and tend to like it because it’s quick, and not as hot or painful as some other lasers, particularly with the numbing cream and cool jet they use at All Saints. There’s also virtually no downtime, just a bit of a sunburnt effect.
Facials
Apart from the lovely relaxation aspect, a results-driven facial is great for thoroughly cleaning your skin. It gives a more effective exfoliation than you can achieve at home, and the facial massage can sculpt and refresh the muscles in the face beautifully. One of my favourites, the Hydrafacial, is a medical-grade treatment that combines cleansing, exfoliation, hydration and nourishment, all while delivering antioxidants, peptides and hyaluronic acid. The best part is seeing all the gunk that gets sucked out in the deep-cleansing process. I also recently tried a Hydropeptide facial at The Beauty Scene in Freshwater, which was so relaxing and left me beaming brighter than a YouTuber’s ring light.
Longevity
The treatment I’m most excited about right now is at Biogenix, where I’ve started a longevity protocol. I had Potenza, a radiofrequency microneedling treatment that uses tiny needles and controlled heat to switch on collagen far more powerfully than needling alone. They drew blood from my arm and spun it down, then microneedled my own plasma back into my skin along with exosomes. Exosomes are tiny messengers derived from stem cells that carry growth factors and peptides, and they tell your skin cells to repair, calm down and rebuild, so the collagen effect keeps building for months. I have a wonderfully freaky photo of me covered in needles to prove it. It was amazing, and yes, painful. I’m about to do a whole Biogenix longevity protocol, which I’ll be sharing soon, so stay tuned.
The devices: professional results at home
There are a whole host of amazing at-home devices now that can further the effects of professional treatments from the comfort of your couch.
In the mornings when I meditate I use an LED mask, and my current favourite is the San Lueur. I like it because it has both red and blue light settings, and a timer that runs up to twenty minutes, so I can wear it for the full length of my morning meditation. It’s comfortable, lightweight and flexible, but also seriously powerful. I’ve compared the different wavelengths against other masks on the market and this is the one I keep coming back to, which is exactly why we stock it in the shop.
I’ve also been trialling the 4D Pro Laser Light Therapy Face Mask from The Skincare Tools, a clinic-grade laser mask that uses focused red and near-infrared wavelengths in a quick ten-minute session, and so far I’m impressed. If you need to target breakouts you can use the Dr Dennis Gross SpectraLite FaceWare Pro for a couple of minutes, as it has a blue-light option that kills acne-causing bacteria. There’s also the NuFACE Trinity Microcurrent Device, which is great before any special event or shoot to tighten and tone the skin.
The ingestibles: beauty from the inside out
The final piece of the puzzle is an inside-out approach. I try to eat a nourishing diet, but I also supplement, and this is the part of my routine that’s grown the most.
Every morning I stir Innour collagen into my coffee. It’s become such an easy habit that I barely think about it, which is exactly how a supplement should work. Alongside that I take JS Health Hair + Energy for hair, skin and nails, and I add a good protein to keep me full and support everything else I’m doing. I also drink Avive electrolytes to stay properly hydrated, which does more for my skin than any cream on a hot day.
For a slightly more targeted approach I take Eir Women Reboot, and I’ve recently added creatine, which so many women my age are finally being told they should have been taking all along. It’s not strictly a beauty supplement, but strength, energy and muscle all show up in how you look and feel.
One of my favourite tricks is to swap a glass of wine for a probiotic drink like Imbibe Beauty Renewal. You combine it in a wine glass with water. It looks like rosé and tastes delicious.
And for the body
Skin doesn’t stop at the jaw. My current obsession is the La Mav Ayurvedic body oils. They sink in fast, smell divine and leave my skin looking lit-from-within, which is exactly what you want when there’s more of it on show. They’ve turned a boring step into the nicest two minutes of my evening.
The bit that ties it all together: my wellness protocols
If I’m honest, I think the real reason my skin is as good as it is has less to do with any single product and more to do with how I live. I’m deeply into my wellness protocols, and they’ve done more for my glow than almost anything in a bottle.
For me that means breath work, getting out in nature, long beach walks and catching morning sunlight on my skin and in my eyes first thing. And then there’s my sauna. My Nook sauna started as something for my back pain, my mood and my sleep, all of which it’s helped enormously. But I’m convinced it’s also part of why my skin looks so glowy and supple. I have a proper sweat every couple of days and drink plenty of water while I do it, so it doubles as a deep detox and a hydration ritual. Skin loves it.
