The Beauty issue is about smart beauty.

Hi, I’m Julie Lardner, and this is my website. I’m a professional skin therapist and beauty writer interested in how we age inside and out while keeping a positive mindset. 

I’m done with all the hype. How about you?

The Beauty Issue is where I write about skincare, ageing, menopause and all the other womanly issues that affect us while finding the positive mindset needed to age optimistically without succumbing to the mind-blowingly saturated, hyped-up beauty industry, where all your fears are up for grabs. 

So while I’m writing about skincare, what’s good, what’s not, how much is enough, and what else you can do beyond that expensive serum you just bought. I also write about the worry and anxiety of ageing and how society messes with our heads, and the emotional well-being needed as we age. 

The beauty industry as it is today?

In my career, I’ve worked with inspiring skincare brands and products that delivered results.

Even so, with so many products emerging promising something new and exciting to change your skin’s appearance, it helps to look beyond the product itself.

It helps to look for the heart and passion of the company behind the brand. It’s where the truth lies. 

You might ponder?

• Who created the product?
  • Is it a cookie cut-out or a masterful cosmetic chemist?
• What was their driving motivation?
  • Every brand wants to make money, but if it’s loaded with hyped-up promises, it might give you a reason to pause before you buy. 
• How passionate are they about the skin?
  • A brand with a passionate mission wants you to see results.
• Should you buy into the next celebrity brand that’s here today, gone tomorrow? 
  • If I see one more celebrity brand, I think I’ll scream. I don’t care who they are. 
• Is the luxury brand better than the one you picked up in the supermarket?

• Should you really spend your entire shoe budget on your skincare? Probably not. 

It’s a fiercely competitive industry, and every brand vies for your attention. It’s challenging to decide between good and bad or just mediocre when so much is on offer. 

Where do you get the best advice when there’s so much going around?

How do you navigate and decipher information without getting swept away by all the marketing hype?  

The new world of beauty can be a confusing and frustrating landscape. 

It’s so tempting to believe something when you want it badly enough. But alas, all that glitters is not gold. This is especially true of skincare. 

If you’ve ever walked through a cosmetic department, visited an online beauty store or invested in numerous facials, hoping to be enlightened and finally get to the heart of your skincare woes, only to be disappointed, frustrated and confused. You’ve come to the right place. 

When it comes to the skin, I always rely on my training, knowledge and experience with a strong sense of intuition. I know, easy for me to say, with 30-plus years of experience.

But this is the very reason why I’d like to help you. 

Not all great skin comes from the promise held in a jar of cream.

Beautiful skin comes from many places. What we eat, exercise, not burning the candle at both ends, how we care for our skin at home, and when we venture into the great outdoors. 

And, of course, a youthful, positive attitude helps.  

A quiet place amongst all the noise and hype. 

I’ve been writing about all this for a decade, and while I will promote the things I like, I have resisted advertising as a way to make a living. 

I’ve created a quiet place where you can learn about your skin and jump off the spinning beauty carousel of trying product after product in the hope you’ve found the magic silver bullet to skin ageing.   

It might be time to question why you jumped on that carousel in the first place. 

Often, a skin condition is where it started, and perhaps it was acne or brown patches of pigment or the sudden onset of lines and wrinkles. 

You went looking for help only to find very little good advice, or you found too many opinions, which led to more frustration and mistrust. Confusion has reigned the day. 

When it comes to your skin, there is never one single solution, and the truth is, while it’s a great place to start, how you age goes beyond skincare, so let’s talk about it. 

Ageing with a positive mindset?

This is challenging. And the older I get, the more I understand the pressure society has always put upon women as we age. 

And we both know this pressure is very real. Anti ageing is out, and pro ageing is fast becoming the next marketing weapon to make you feel like you’re not quite doing it right. 

For me, actively seeking ways to slow down the inevitability of ageing allows time to make the mental adjustments needed to foster a positive mindset.

You don’t have to go quietly in a shroud of shame, nor do you need to live up to what you see on Instagram or TikTok. 

And while it may not always feel this way, you choose how you age and no one else. You can be passive about it or take a more active approach. 

You deserve to have the best skin possible. You deserve you own kind of beautiful and you deserve to age your way. 

I want to share what I know to be true, dispel the confusion and frustration and help you jump off the beauty carousel once and for all and start getting results. You deserve it, don’t you?

I write from experience after a long career as an industry educator and communicator, and my goal is to provide you with a balanced and honest perspective while offering genuine advice to help you make better choices in caring for your skin, body and mind and help you find the ways to take control of the way you age. 

If you want to know if your skincare is working or if you want to know if you’re making the right investments for your future skin, sign up below for my newsletter.  

I’ll give you the skinny on the best skincare ingredients, the latest technologies and a few home truths about diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices. And an approach to ageing positively that might change the health of your skin from the inside and out. 

Do a little or a lot. It’s totally up to you, and I hope I can help you find some answers. 

So let’s do this thing together. Sign up below, and you’ll get helpful information from my point of view directly in your inbox.

See you soon,