Episode 129 - Aging Gracefully, Anti-Beauty Beauty, and The “Influencer” Paradox - A Candid Conversation With Beauty & Wellness Writer, Christine Morrison (Full Transcript)

This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 129.

Editor’s Note: Please know that this podcast transcript is automatically generated and may contain minor errors such as typos and word switches. For more information, be sure to listen to the podcast here.

Speaker A: Welcome to Nirvana Sisters podcast where we take the intimidation out of well being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state, your nirvana. We are sisters in law and your hosts. I'm Amy Sherman.

Speaker B: And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation.

Speaker A: Welcome to Nirvana, sisters. Nirvana Sisters family. Hope everyone is doing well. We have a special guest today. We are talking to Christine Morrison. And let me tell you a little bit about Christine and I'll also tell you how we met. But Christine is a seasoned freelance writer whose work centers around her achievements and passions often is seen through the lens of aging, the business of fashion, beauty and a devotion to wellness and fitness. Her writing has appeared in print and online vehicles including the Boston Globe, the Washington Post and The Quality Edit, as well as advertising campaigns for fashion and beauty brands. She was recently featured in an anthology and is currently writing a fashion essay collection, reflecting on the meaning behinds and the humor in what she wore while forming her identity, navigating her way to true love and discovering her authentic self. That sounds so fun. I can't wait to hear about that. So welcome to the show, Christine. So, funny story. We had posted something about a new trend called bedrotting. And I wrote on the Instagram post, I feel seen because it's like literally what I do every weekend and I always felt guilty about it. And then it was named and I was like, this is amazing. I feel seen like bedrotting. It's like a thing now. And then Christine and I started talking about all things beauty and really anti beauty beauty. So welcome to the show, Christine. We're so excited to have you and just have like a deeper conversation about beauty and what it means today.

Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. And yes, bedrotting. That was so funny. I had never heard the word before but I was so excited that that.

Speaker A: Was becoming A-I-I Katie and I talk all the time and to go, I'm going to be in my bed all morning bed rotting, so I'll talk to you later today.

Speaker C: I think my husband and little boys would be like, what's that? They would be freaked out by that word. But I feel like there is a time and a place for this. At this point, I looked it up because I wanted to know what the actual definition was because I'm not a TikTok person. But it said basically this is a new form of self care and it's spending all day or all weekend in bed and it said like doom scrolling. Now I can go without the doom scrolling but just the laying in bed, binging the show or reading a book. My whole thing would be reading a book. But after all the eras of the girl boss and the hustle culture and leaning in, I feel like aren't we kind of do a little bit of relaxation. I would say yes for sure right now.

Speaker B: I hate to break it to both of you, but I've been bedrotting for years. Me too.

Speaker A: Now it actually has a name.

Speaker C: But it is I had twins and I haven't been bedrotting candidly.

Speaker B: So yeah, for me bedrotting is a way of preventing my autoimmune from flaring up. So it's like prescription bedrotting which is.

Speaker C: I love that it's almost like gave you and then sad that you needed the word, but it gives you permission to take care of yourself and you don't need permission. I'm giving you permission today. I know exactly what you mean. We all live in we need it. Yeah. And that's why we've gotten too caught up in it. And I'm so glad more and more that whether you have to have a name for it or not, that wellness and taking care of yourself is not just a beauty ritual but a lifestyle and something you have to do for your well being.

Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree. And I also think that the idea around bedrouting which we need to change the routing. I don't want to make it feel like we got to think of another one. Maybe it's rooting, I don't know. But I do feel, and I've always done this too and again, it's funny to have a term around it, but just like having that time to yourself, whether it's like an hour or two in bed. To your point. Binging shows doom scrolling or laying with your animals like I do and my pets and whatever. Just that time to yourself and having that regroup whenever you can have it is so crucial because then you just feel revitalized afterwards. You feel rested, you feel good.

Speaker C: 100%.

Speaker A: But I realized we forgot to do our weekly nirvana and we should take a step back and do that quickly because it's been a week. We're recording the week of all of the mideast crisis that's happening and we're not going to go deep into been I was thinking about this this morning been a really hard week for all of us and it's kind of hard to think about what a weekly nirvana could be or would be in this kind of dark time right now. But I can start. I actually had two this morning which I thought were really a nice end to my week. So someone in my other job texted me this morning and just said, hey, thinking of you, just wanted to share my support and love and it was like someone I didn't really know, someone that I work with but don't work with closely or know. And I just thought it was really sweet just that she reached out and said something was really touching because not that many people do that. So I thought that was really nice. And then the other nice thing that happened this morning was my older son is having a friend sleepover all weekend because his parents are away for the weekend and it's Homecoming weekend here, and it's all this stuff. And anyway, his friend's sleeping over, but the mom sent our family, like, this really beautiful bouquet of flowers and it was, like, such a good week to get it. First of all, it was so nice to do that and so unnecessary but it was just so sweet and nice. It was just nice to get some beautiful flowers into my home just because it's been such a kind of obviously depressing week. But what about you Katie?

Speaker B: Yeah, it has been an incredibly difficult week. I think last night on the train when I was coming back from the city where I think my headspace for where it's been this week, I found myself instead of just ripping by the train stations and not paying attention to my surroundings, I was watching people and their humanity and just seeing a father pick up a son and seeing a woman that looked like she had had a long day and heading home for the day and just kind of paying attention and thinking about we are all human. The world is going to be. I think I think that was mine. Instead of just like the usual just seeing people and not thinking anything.

Speaker A: When you see these rushing through.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: What about you Christine?

Speaker C: Well, it's funny that you say that about people, the humanity of people just showing up and stepping up in ways that you can't believe. I don't know these two women but I saw that they were having this beauty sale in New York City and I'm obviously not there anymore but they're having it on Saturday to support the Israeli Red Cross and Israel Aid. And I reached out and I said do you need more products? Because I don't know what they need or whatever. And she's like sure. And I was like, I don't know what you need. And she said oh sure, anything. And I reached out to a handful of brands and a lot of these brands are startups so they have very little still and they are still fighting for funding and everything. 99% of them were like, oh I'll ship whatever you need. And they shipped product and donations. And it was like people just are showing up for one another. And that does give you faith in people and humanity that while our country is not experiencing what they are just to witness people that don't know each other, that are getting obviously nothing out of it, that have very little, but know that they have so much in comparison to what is happening across the world. I just thought that was an incredible yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah. That's really nice. Puts things into perspective. Let's talk about anti beauty, beauty and what that means and kind of get your thoughts about that. Christine.

Speaker C: So one of the things when we were talking about it over Instagram. I was trying to find a way to sort of define it. Like, how does someone define it? Okay, so anti beauty beauty the way that people define it. And so funny to me is when people go online and write about brands that don't work. And it's really led by what's her name? The housewife. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker B: Bethany.

Speaker A: Oh, Bethany.

Speaker C: Bethany Frankel. Right. She and then she's got all these other people on TikTok and people are up in arms. And so that's what they say as, like, that's anti beauty beauty. And I'm constantly like, no, I think of it as beauty that doesn't require so much money or so many steps and more about how it's impacted by our health and our wellness and how that affects our aesthetic. And that's how I think about it because there's so much that you can do that's not like a moisturizer whatever. And that does impact what you look like, how you feel about what you look like. And that's especially as you age because there's only so many things that you want to do or should be doing because it's pushing water uphill at some point because gravity is setting in. I'm sorry.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: But that's how I think of it. I don't think of it as negating what products define themselves as or anything like that. I just think it's like stepping away from the need to have an incessant 17 step program or constantly be getting and no judgment. I'm all about taking care of your skin and injectables are fine or whatever you want to do. But when it kind of takes over your world or is something that is like it's almost like what's your intention when you're doing it? Is it to fight gravity or fight what you look like rather than be like a contentment or feeling good in your skin? Things like that? I think it just depends on how you're approaching it, in my opinion.

Speaker B: I agree with that. Are we doing it so that we feel confident and happy in our skin and we can know ourselves or are we doing it because we've had something to prove or we're fighting? Yeah. And there's a lot of truth to what we put in our bodies. Can really do volumes to external and a lot of people don't, I think. I really do believe that a lot of people don't know that.

Speaker C: Yes. And I don't understand why there's been so much and I don't know. Is it because they haven't seen the proof or something or they're not willing to try it? I don't know.

Speaker B: Right. Yeah.

Speaker A: And just going back to Bethany quickly when she first came out in the game doing all of that stuff and a lot of people will call it like de influencing or whatever, but I actually appreciate it and still do appreciate her candor. And I think people trust her because she could buy anything she wants in the world, but she's practical. And so she's like, here are the expensive things that if you want to treat yourself great, here are the things that are crappy and here are the things in the drugstore that you can have and have a two step skincare routine and you're good to go. And I think people just really trust her because she is practical and she's trust. What's the word I'm looking for?

Speaker C: Well, she's really honest.

Speaker B: Yeah, she's giving it to you.

Speaker A: She's honest. She's relatable in the sense she's going to the TJ. Maxx and whatever and finding stuff, and she's doing the high end and she's doing the low end, and she mixes high and low, and she's just relatable in that way and very honest. And I think she's always been that way, which is why people trust her.

Speaker B: It kind of goes back to having nothing to prove. And I'm sure that there's a million people that would say, oh, Bethany Frankel always acts like she has something to prove because she speaks up on literally everything.

Speaker C: But I think that's a great point.

Speaker B: Yeah, but this specific piece, I think she doesn't have anything to prove in her beauty regimen. Like, she doesn't care about a 16 step process and if that makes her cool, et cetera. Right.

Speaker A: And it's funny because which we do at the end of every show is like our five minute flow, which is exactly that. It's like strip away everything. What are those core things that make you feel good? And we were talking about that before, around the intention behind it. And I think we always talk on the show about you're doing these things because they make you feel better, because they make you more confident. Yes, there are systemic reasons, but it's really like at the end of the day, so you feel good, whatever that.

Speaker C: May be, whatever it is.

Speaker A: You get a blowout, you get whatever. You have your bed rotting in the morning, and then you feel good the rest of the day and you feel confident, like you've had that time to yourself. So it's to your point, I totally agree. The intention behind it versus the opposite, where you see people and if you do want to do a 20 step skin care routine, great. But then you see the people doing that just to do it.

Speaker C: Because it's like up with people. Right.

Speaker A: Up with and that's what we don't love.

Speaker C: Exactly. I hate that. Exactly.

Speaker B: And also, it's not totally necessary. Let's call it what it is and.

Speaker C: In fact, achieve results. It's almost like setting you backward. I just did this incredible article on a brand that has proven this woman that's a former beauty writer and editor, her sister is the director of oh, gosh, I'm going to scare this up. It's like she's the director of the Human Microbiome Institute at Cedars Sinai, and together she was able to come up with a brand called Editrix, and I wrote this piece for the quality edit on it. And at the end of the day, all the things that we are doing is obviously damaging the microbiome. So their whole point is let your skin act the way it needs to act. And if you stop damaging it so much, it will actually repair itself. It will do things itself, it will act the way it's naturally supposed to act. The reason why you're having so much eczema sensitive skin issues along the way, aging so much faster, is because of all the retinols and everything that we're doing anyway, right. Less is always more.

Speaker B: And the inside out piece, what you're putting on is affecting you internally, which is then coming out externally, and it's kind of like this vicious cycle, right? So I'm going to put this topical on it, but it can ultimately, they're saying, hurt you internally, microbiome effects and everything. I would love to read that piece.

Speaker C: And I'll send it to you because you're right, because the microbiome is your skin health and there's a language between your gut health and your skin health, and it's through the microbiome language or something. Read the article. It was like taking science class. I met with her for hours and hours and hours.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker C: And I am not well versed in it at this very moment. It took a lot of me to do that because I really wanted to understand it. And I think, to your point, I don't think that people want to go that deep to find out when they find there's a quick fix if you use these five products, right?

Speaker A: Yeah, totally.

Speaker B: That's true.

Speaker A: Let's move to another topic, which is really around wellness and aging and normalizing it. And I think just the media and people on social media and podcasts are getting better at this. But I just can't stand when I listen to podcasts of people in our age bracket and they're like, oh, I can't talk about menopause, or oh, no, that's never going to happen to us. And I'm like, I find that so irritating and so unrelatable. I'm like, this is happening. Talk about it, right? Oprah did a really good job recently, or I think it was in the last year, she did some whole conference around menopause, and she got all these celebrities involved, and it brought a lot of awareness to it. But that drives me nuts when people just can't age gracefully and embrace their age versus trying to find that fountain of youth or, like, go backwards, seem.

Speaker B: Like they're shaming menopause, we can't talk, right? This is happening. It's inevitable without shame.

Speaker C: And the beauty is, you're right. So many people still think it's a little taboo. But thank God for Naomi Watts'company. The stripes. And sadly, another company just went, and my doctor's name is Dr. Taz. She just wrote a book and she did A-Q-A with Gwyneth Paltrow, who is obviously big about talking about taboo topics and getting the noise at a level where people are like, oh, wait, we should have pay attention to this. But you're absolutely right. We need to realize that it's going to happen. There's physical, mental, emotional, all of this health. We have to listen to what's happening because I'm 54 and I'm just at the tail end of menopause. And if I had had that Susan Dominus New York Times article that has, I swear, been spread to everybody I've ever met eight years ago, I think the headline was women have been Misled about Menopause. It's in the New York Times. If you haven't read it, please go and read it. It breaks down all of the things, all of the myths and misconceptions that have been going on all this time because of that one NIH study. All that women's health initiative. Yeah, exactly. And why women were scared to take hormones. And it's so wonderful and about what's now happening in the world of menopause and all the brands and all the people that are trying to get out there and try to talk about it. But we are just this is the tip of the iceberg, right?

Speaker B: For sure, we're scratching the surface.

Speaker C: Exactly.

Speaker A: Yeah. But it's good that it's starting the conversation. And I also find, too, women around our age just offline when you're talking to other moms or whomever, once you start talking about hormones and all these things, everyone bonds around it because everyone's going through the same thing. So now you're having deeper conversations about health and well being and how to take care of yourself and everyone's sharing things. And that's half the reason we have the show, right? To share and to talk about our experiences. And I just find it so nice when I meet people and we can just connect on something that we can all relate to and share those tips and tricks and learn from one another.

Speaker B: Interesting, this Women's Healthy Initiative affected generations of women that were not allowed to be given hormones and just went through the most brutal menopausal transition. I talked to my mom about it. Like, my mom is now, she's 70, and she's going to go talk to her doctor about starting hormones. There's nothing wrong with that. And so it is getting the conversation started, making it like saying menopause in a public restaurant out loud without being worrying that the table next to you is going to look at you like you're old crazy. And you're right. These celebrities have definitely helped bring up the noise level, which is fantastic. I mean, we've got to get all the stigma out.

Speaker C: All of it's got to unfortunately, one of the stigmas I just started to read about is in the workplace because there's a bit of an ageism issue. Anyway, you feel like you have to keep it hush hush, because then they're like, oh, she's so old, because it's still equated with being an old lady and hot flashes and all the things are like, oh, is she old and crazy? And in menopause it's like, oh my gosh, it's funny.

Speaker A: I just read something, it was like a little I think it was on I don't know if it was on LinkedIn or Instagram, but do you know Shelley Zallas?

Speaker C: No.

Speaker A: She's like she's the founder of something called let's see if I have this right, the Female Quotient. And it's all about yeah, yeah, I've met her before. She's incredible. And it's all about women's leadership and power in the workplace and speaking up and all of those things. And she had an antidote, I think it was, again on LinkedIn or something. And she was talking about how she was in a meeting years ago, like a big executive meeting and it was like her and actually a bunch of women around the table and in the middle of the meeting or whatever it was, she was going through a half less. So she fanned herself and then the other one were like, oh, thank God. And they all started fanning themselves. And it was such a moment of bonding, of like, oh my God, we don't have to be so corporate and buttoned up. We can all fan ourselves because we're going through the same thing. And she's like, it was such a funny experience just to be in sort of an uptight boardroom situation. But then all the women as soon as she did that were like, oh, that's really funny. So I just thought that was really funny.

Speaker C: The only other thing that does come out of both that article and everything that's been talked about is the medical community just doesn't have enough education in it. Like doctors, I guess it's something like something like 2 hours or something. In medical school you get trained on menopause versus fertility is obviously it's shocking, right?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: The OBGYNs, like the traditional, they don't talk about it. They're like, oh yeah, your menopause take this, there's no that's it. Unless you go to someone who knows what they're doing and is really versed or is more the and we might.

Speaker B: Have talked about this before, but it's good for our listeners to know. If you go to the North American National Menopause Society, there is a list of obgens in your area that are certified in menopausal training. And they will give you hormones and they will treat you like this is all normal, which it is.

Speaker C: That is a fantastic resource. I'm so glad you mentioned it. And if I can mention, she just published her book. The book that she talked about with Gwyneth is Dr. Taz Bhatia wrote a book called The Hormonal Shift. And you can be in pre perimenopause, but it will start to give you the education of how do I know that I'm even starting this right? It'll step you step by step because there's so many. If you don't have women around you and you don't have a doctor that listens, it's hard to know what to even ask the doctor without what you don't know. Right.

Speaker B: And it's hard to know what's happening to you when it slowly starts.

Speaker C: When perimenopause symptoms scary.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So I was just thinking just a funny story or not story, but just thought when we were talking before about wellness and aging and aging gracefully. I don't know if anybody's watching the Golden Bachelor. I've only seen one episode. It's really good. I have to catch up. Okay, but point being, all these women are like in their late 60s, early 70s.

Speaker C: Fantastic.

Speaker A: They all look amazing. And you can tell they've aged gracefully. Right? I mean, of course there's some women that are a little overboard with the face, but most of them are like just natural beauties. They're all like gorgeous women but they've taken care of themselves so well. You can tell some of them are in their 70s. I'm like I mean they look incredible.

Speaker C: Awesome.

Speaker A: But they have wrinkles and they have this and they have that, but they just look incredible. So like the days of people being in their seventy s and looking like the golden girl, old and gray, that's just not the world we live. Not it anymore. People are like it's kind of like in the Barbie movie when she looks over I posted this the other day. That's why in the top of my head where she looks over at the old woman in the bus stop and she's like, you're so beautiful.

Speaker C: It's so true. And I love it when it's just.

Speaker A: Nice to see that. Yeah, I know. It's great. Anyway, I just thought of that because it's just that the world now is very different when it comes to aging. But yes, the conversations need to keep happening and the embracing of it and stop trying to beat the clock. Just embrace it. Age gracefully and enhance what you have to make you feel better and be.

Speaker B: Proud and be proud of the age experience and the stripes that we wear from all of our life experience. Absolutely. Say your age with shout it.

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Let's talk about I know we want to kind of talk about the pitfalls of beauty currently and sort of this disingenuous information that's out there and spreading false info which is everywhere. It's really scary and it's very hard to know who to trust. Love to get your thoughts on that.

Speaker C: Well, that's really funny. So that's another reason I had contacted you is so I have a substac and the most recent one that I wrote was called Coming Clean about the beauty industry. And it was saying, I'm putting a stake in the ground. I'm not writing any more beauty editorial because while I do a lot of research and interview founders and do as much as I can to get truth out there, the pitches and the desperation of both some brands and just the noise of TikTok and everything. And influencers. To me, I'm probably going to get canned for this. But influencers are like a four letter word in my opinion. Because especially when it comes to skincare, there's so many myths and so much misinformation that are leading women down the wrong road. And Sunscreen is just one good example of that. They don't know what they're saying and they're telling them brands to use. And then I have this one derm that I used for an article and she's like, do you know? And I'm like, I know I didn't write it. I don't know. It's really hard to know because there's more influencers than ever. They make like 4 billion or more in sales. Right. There's celeb brands and they use white label products a lot of times. So they just put their labels on it and then they look amazing. And then people want to look like that. I feel like it goes back to doing wellness and health types of things and then knowing who to trust. Trust people who have been schooled in these things. Trust your dermatologist, trust your surgeon that gives you the injections that might say, you know what? You should use this brand and only use these products. Don't fall into the trap of all the links and the sales and trying something new every month and all of the time that there's something that's a trend is not good for you or your skin.

Speaker B: Right, yeah. It doesn't even give you time to make traction. If you're doing you're constantly changing it.

Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. And then you might think it doesn't work because then you have had a reaction to it. Well, that could have been two times ago product, right?

Speaker A: Could be from something. Exactly.

Speaker C: So I always say stay away from influencers and TikTok trends and all of with. And if you are going to read stories, make sure these people are talking to legitimate sources. Sometimes even great like L or whoever, they might just be saying, here are brands that we like. But make sure that they've talked, not just editors, but make sure those editors have talked to people and all of that. It's always about someone that's been schooled in this and has done their homework. That's all.

Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. And I think it's really difficult. I can imagine for the younger generation and sussing out what's real and what's not. Katie has two daughters. As they get older, you can just get sucked in without knowing. I think when you're older you sort of can look around and try to figure out if it's legitimate and make your own choices. But all these kids with the filters and the this, it's really, really scary. So that's why I appreciate people like Bethany, actually. People like Alex Earl.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker A: She has bad skin and she shows it all the time and she talks about all. Her issues with her skin or this or that. And I think, yeah, look for those.

Speaker C: Exactly. There are people out there, they're few and far between, but those are the people to see what their journey is. Absolutely.

Speaker A: And I think that's why she's become so popular, because of that honesty. I also would say, when you were talking about the legitimate sources, I listen to the podcast a lot, breaking Beauty, you know that podcast? And they're two former beauty editors, so I trust everything that they say. Like, if I really want to learn about products, I'll listen to them because I know that they've interviewed the people. They're very reputable versus, like, somebody else is just recommending. I mean, Katie and I recommend products all the time, but it's just stuff we personally like. We're not saying that's very different. We're just saying this is fun. Check it out.

Speaker C: Because you used it and that's different. And you know what's fun about that is like, I've used it. You're not saying, here's a link. You have to try this to have a good life.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker C: That's what some of these influence are like. I feel that they're like, you know what? Look at me. Look at my great life. I wear this. How you achieve this is how you achieve it. Exactly. It goes back to intention. To what is their intention? Their intentions to make money. Right. Their intentions not to help you. They're not friends with you.

Speaker A: It's so true. It's so true. That all being said, I mean, we go talk about this for still have fun. How do we still have fun with Beauty? Because we all love it.

Speaker C: I love that question. I love it. Yeah, we still want to have fun. Okay, well, there's so many fun things. So the first thing is, everybody knows and loves Jenna Lyons because she's on Real Housewives. But before she was on Real Housewives, and she was an icon, saya icon because of J. Crew. And she started love scene eyelashes. Have you guys tried these?

Speaker A: I have not.

Speaker C: Okay. Fake eyelashes are so fun, and Love Scene is super easy to put on. And if you just want to like it's kind of like the bedriding idea. If you want, on a random Wednesday to go have lunch with a friend and you put on these love seeing eyelashes. Now they have some that know real severe, and then they have some. And I did that like Kim Kardashian.

Speaker A: I know exactly what you're saying.

Speaker C: Or some that just look like you had on a good, healthy coat of mascara. But it's so fun that's something you can play with doesn't harm anybody. You might love it. It's just playful fun. It's just like, I love it and I do it.

Speaker A: I am so glad you said that. I need to try it. So we did a whole episode. We did an episode, what was it? A couple of months ago called? The eye edition because I used to have extensions for a while, and then I started trying all the ones that you could do yourself. And I've become a master at all these different ones and how to use them and whatever. Are those just for the day, or do they last?

Speaker C: I think you need to take them off. I've worn them overnight, but you need to take them off. But you can reuse them. Okay, great.

Speaker A: I need to try those. And that's one of those things that kind of tying back to what we were talking about earlier, because I was wearing them for a while. When I put those on, I feel like a million dollars. I don't have to wear makeup. It brightens your face. You feel like it's the best.

Speaker C: Right? You can go to carpool, and you win. Carpool. I don't know. There's, like, about the way you I totally agree. Also, I'm all about a good lip oil because my hair is too short now to fall into my face. So the really fun thing that I got recently was St. Jane is a good skincare brand. It's very florally, so I don't wear a lot of it on my face necessarily, but I do like the brand. But they did a partnership with Favorite Daughter, and I think those girls are hilarious. And they did a lip oil one's called Calm, one's called Chaos. I don't know which sister is Calm and which is Chaos because they're both kind of both, and there are two different colors, and it's just a fun I don't know. I just thought it was fun. That's awesome.

Speaker A: Oh, I love that. Play with to try that.

Speaker C: And also, I'm a big fan of I don't need pink or blue hair or anything like that, but I cut my hair all the time, and I play around with, like, going a little darker, going a little lighter with biolu. I don't know. Just playing around with hair, because hair.

Speaker B: Grows, hair grows, color changes. I have true clients. Recently, she has, like, grayish blonde hair, but then she changes her roots to a fun, funky, great different color every few like, every other month.

Speaker A: Who does this?

Speaker B: One of my clients. She's great.

Speaker A: Oh, my God.

Speaker B: He has one. Having fun with beauty.

Speaker C: And for women that want to go gray, go for it.

Speaker B: Go for it.

Speaker C: The grow out is hard. I know. But you know what? Do it. I had to break up with my colorist about seven years ago. I was super blonde, and he's like, what are you doing? And I go, I need to stop pretending I'm 40. And that's fine if you want to be super blunt. He's like, but you with high gray. I'm like, I don't have any gray. I want to be a brunette, like, the way God intended me to be. And it's been fun. And then I cut all my Sarah Jessica Parker curls up I have the shortest bob in the world, right? Like, you can play. And again, it's all for me. It has nothing to do with anybody.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: So stuff like that. Right?

Speaker A: That's so true. I actually just cut my hair shorter recently. Never. My hair was always long forever. And then over the last few years, I've grown it, cut it short, grown it, cut it short and played around with it. But I was just saying to Katie, when I got my hair highlighted a couple of weeks ago, I changed it to be more textured because I found that it was too blonde. And I was like I said to my colorist, who I love, I was like, I had, like, a whole briefing with her for a half an hour. I'm like, let me show you pictures. This is what I mean. I just don't want my highlights to make my hair all look blonde. I want, like, texture. I want it to be, like, dark in places. And she's like, yeah, same thing. But I hide your gray. I'm like, I don't have that much gray. And I don't care. I just don't want it to feel like not I don't know.

Speaker C: I just wanted to goes back to intent. I didn't want to act like I was trying to look younger. And I was like I just also.

Speaker A: Felt like it was like washing me.

Speaker C: Out because my skin and my eyebrows and everything. And I did MICROBLADE my eyebrows so that they would be nice old and thick because they were getting a little sparse. And I'm like, that is part of my face, and it's important. And then the last thing was glasses. I obviously have to wear readers now, and so you can play around with this is like a Tom Ford.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Those are so cool.

Speaker C: Reader. And these are lookup. Oh, I have.

Speaker B: Lookup.

Speaker A: Tea.

Speaker C: I love them. They're really light. I can wear them all day, and I don't feel like I have, like, an indentation on my face. But just being able to play around because it's inevitable people are going to get readers and just being able to play with glasses and stuff. I don't know.

Speaker B: Super fun tips of things that we can do that I believe are helping age gracefully and keeping it fun and light and yeah, I love it.

Speaker C: Totally.

Speaker B: All right, we need to dive.

Speaker A: We only have a few minutes.

Speaker B: Let's dive into our wrap session stat, because I'm really excited to hear Christine's answers to these questions. So, Christine, what is your favorite wellness or beauty hack?

Speaker C: Okay, this is going to be very hard to narrow this down. I will be honest. I have a lot. But one of my all time favorites is have you ever used the higher dose sauna blanket?

Speaker B: No.

Speaker C: Okay. I did write a piece about this, and so I'm going to send you links to some of these articles.

Speaker A: But please yeah, we'll post because I'm.

Speaker C: A big fan of listening to I mean, you have to have like, a notebook in 2 hours and a pen. Maybe you bedrot during it. I don't know. Huberman's lab podcast.

Speaker A: Oh, I love it.

Speaker C: Oh, my God. It's a college education, but he did some things. We have a sauna in our house, but because of menopause, I cannot sit in that thing. So I found the higher dose sauna blanket. And you get inside and you don't get all of the same benefits as you would sitting in a sauna because you don't get the same temperature. But hey, the menopause thing, I couldn't sit in a temperature like that. But in this sauna blanket, my head is out. You don't go as high in the temps, but you detoxify the body. You burn about 400 calories, which is like a light job. And it is the most relaxing thing. At the end of the day, you sleep like a baby. But I CrossFit, and so I ache a lot often, so I get out of it. I feel like my muscles are soothed. It is a great way to end my day. I only get to do it a couple of times a week.

Speaker A: How long do you do it for?

Speaker C: Well, it'll click off and I'm trying to find out. I don't know. I stay in it like 2030 minutes sometimes. It is just sounds so good in the winter, too, when you're like, cold.

Speaker B: Sounds really nice.

Speaker C: And I put it up to eight, which is like the highest as it goes. But that's one of my favorite favorite things. But I have to tell you one other the other one, I hate every single green juice. I have a low tolerance for ****, like, even quality good I cannot taste. But the sakara, I think it's called greens and protein and greens superpower.

Speaker A: I haven't tried that one.

Speaker C: It has a hint of vanilla that I swear takes away the disgusting flavor.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's good.

Speaker C: It's so good because now I'm able to use I just put it with malk, which is almonds and water and after CrossFit. And I'm like, oh, good. I want to get those nutrients, but I could never get them in it's. My two favorite things.

Speaker A: I love those. Those are great recommendations. I've seen the higher dose online, but I just have never tried it. And it looks like such a good detox. You must feel, like, so refreshed afterwards.

Speaker C: Yeah, you have to wear clothes inside because socks, pants. But I'm getting ready to buy the insert so that you can be, as my kids say, nay nay. Okay. Go inside without anything on, which is how you really want a sauna. Okay.

Speaker A: Five minute flow. You just got out of the shower. Dried off. Uber just alerted you. They're five minutes away. What's your quick beauty routine? What do you put on? What are your Holy Grails to get out the door and get in that car on time.

Speaker C: Okay. I've washed my face in the shower. Ideally, I did. About how to cleanse your face. Don't put your face right up in the shower because you've broken capillaries if you have that, like, pounding water on your face. I learned that Kylie Kavako rec from Knockout Beauty, but I put on usually like Vitner's daughter and a good lulu, which is lula, which is a moisturizer I love. Or the editrix. I'm trying that still. And then an SPF. And then I am very minimal. I love the merit makeup stuff. I mean, I don't know if you guys use the minimalist. Yeah. Love flush bomb. Love. Or this one, the Jones Road in the Miracle in this color.

Speaker A: Oh, I'm dying to try this.

Speaker C: I got it in the Jones road.

Speaker A: Send us some, please.

Speaker C: This is in the pink. This is sort of a pinkish color, but in the summer, I was using more of the bronzy, but I use on the cheeks.

Speaker A: Just like, rub it all over on.

Speaker C: The cheeks and on my lips. And then I'm doing my one last article for beauty I'm doing is for Vegan for Vegan Day. But I found this, and I keep this in my car, so if it's Uber, I wouldn't. But this is on the way to carpool. It's called axiology. It's a teeny little crayon. And I keep it in my pocket sometimes if I go to an event or whatever, and it's the same idea.

Speaker B: Oh, nice. Yeah.

Speaker C: Cheeks. And you could probably put it on.

Speaker B: Your eyelids eyelash, but yeah, I was.

Speaker C: Thinking that, and that is it.

Speaker A: I never heard of that brand.

Speaker C: And then there's a teen skincare brand called Ryle R-I-L-E that I did. I love these teen skincare brands that just came out because I have these boys that are 14. They needed their own skin products. They have a lip balm that they don't like because it's too spicy. I love it. It's a spice chai.

Speaker B: Oh, yum.

Speaker C: Put that on my lips because I don't wear a lot of lipstick, except for I've used that lip oil recently.

Speaker B: Nice. Asking me for skincare products. Madeline, my ten year old, she's all in.

Speaker C: Send you that article. There are several. And you know what they're doing? These brands are doing such a good job of trying to say it's simple so you'll do it. It's not filled with all the harsh chemicals, like clean and clear that we grew up with, and so it's not getting their skin already on that kick of over producing oil and everything. It's great.

Speaker B: That's great. All right, last one before we head out. How do you maintain your daily nirvana?

Speaker C: Oh, gosh, well, I get so much quality sleep. Number one thing. Yeah, I learned the hard way, I have to have good sleep. And I think the higher dose bag in a combination with some calm magnesium before I go to bed really makes for a good sleep. And then I CrossFit several days a week, and that really helps.

Speaker A: Amazing sleep.

Speaker C: And then just make me feel good. And then my family.

Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Speaker C: Thank you so much to have you back.

Speaker A: I feel like there's so many more conversations we can have about this, but it's so nice to meet you. I'm so glad we got to connect. We'll continue to talk. We'll be DMing and talking on Instagram.

Speaker B: We'll be in touch.

Speaker A: Yeah. Thanks for listening to Nirvana Sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes. Please subscribe and leave us a review. Also, find us on Instagram at Nirvana Sisters. If you loved what you just listened to or know someone that would, please share it and tag us. Tune in next week for a fresh new episode of Nirvana Sisters. We'll continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to. Bye.