March 4, 2025 • 45 mins
If there is one thing that women in midlife women contend with it is our ageing skin. Today I am talking with skincare expert and the owner of Magnolia Skin Essentials Lisa Duffy. Lisa inspires women to embrace aging with confidence through well-tested, clean skincare. We explore the significance of combatting aging and maintaining beauty in midlife.
• Importance of aging gracefully while embracing beauty
• The journey of creating Magnolia Skin Essentials
• Understanding the benefits of magnolia bark extract
• The concept of clean versus natural skincare
• Nutritional aspects influencing skin health
• Lisa’s simple and effective skincare regimen
• Choosing the right products tailored to individual needs
• Empowering women to find peace with aging
• Highlighting personal beauty narratives and experiences
Check out Magnolia Skin Essentials for resources and a free skincare guide to help you understand the best products for mature skin.
To Find out More About Lisa and her skincare line click HERE
Get 50% off one product on your first order! Click HERE
I would love to hear from you! What did you think of the episode? Share it with me :)
Let's Be Friends
Hang out with Heather on IG @greenpalettekitchen or on FB HERE.
Let's Talk!
Whether you are looking for 1-1 nutrition coaching or kitchen coaching let's have a chat. Click HERE to reach out to Heather.
Did You Love This Episode?
"I love Heather and the Real Food Stories Podcast!" If this is you, please do not hesitate to leave a five-star review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everybody and welcome back to the Real Food
Stories podcast.
I am here today with Lisa Duffy, the founder, formulator and
researcher behind Magnolia SkinEssentials.
Lisa is a woman in midlife whohas spent years perfecting a
luxurious line of skincareproducts infused with a secret
ingredient, magnolia BarkExtract, which is a powerful,
(00:23):
time-honored ingredient withsuper antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory andantibacterial properties.
Lisa received her certificationin organic skin care from the
Center of Excellence in 2019 andhas continued her education at
Formula Botanica and from PerryRomanowski of the Society of
(00:44):
Cosmetic Chemists.
So hi, lisa, welcome to theshow.
Let's just jump right into thetopic of aging, first of all,
for women in midlife and so manywomen just in the menopause
transition, when we're facedwith so much with our health,
(01:05):
our weight, our energy, to namea few the fate of our skin is a
huge concern for so many women,I think, at this age.
So anytime that there's aproduct that promises beautiful
skin or the hope of lookingyounger is, I definitely perk up
at that.
You know, like if there'ssomething that, like I feel like
(01:26):
I maybe take a couple of yearsoff of my face, I'm guilty of it
.
I definitely, you know, this issomething that that concerns me
, especially because I probablyspent way too many years in the
sun when I was younger, notcaring, and now here I am caring
about it.
But I also think that there'sthis fine line between wanting
(01:54):
to look younger and age inreverse and all of those words
that are kind of buzzwords thatare coming up right now and just
simply embracing our age andbeing a woman in midlife and
being okay with that our age andbeing a woman in midlife and
being okay with that, which isso hard for some women.
So I wanted to just jump in andstart hearing about your story
(02:18):
and how you got inspired tocreate your skin line, which is
amazing and um, and how it'sinfluenced you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, um, thank you so much, first of all for the
opportunity to be on yourpodcast.
I feel very grateful and I loveyour podcast.
I think that you really touchon some incredibly important
issues that all of us are facing.
And you know to just give sortof a Reader's Digest version,
(02:47):
because I can talk and I getvery passionate about things.
I'm a Southern Californianative.
I was born and raised there 30years and I came from a
background that was veryholistic in the sense that my
mother and father had eightchildren and it was very
(03:10):
expensive to take care of them.
But my mother was also I mean,I would call her a little bit of
a pioneer on the whole foodsenvironment, that whole
landscape, because she was intowhole grains, whole foods, doing
(03:32):
her own.
You know, like we could havesweets, but she insisted on
making them because she wantedthem to be nutritious as well as
, you know, delightful.
So she had a real balance inher perspective on life and I
truly appreciated that.
She was also a verycompassionate person and taught
(03:52):
us how to be compassionatetoward others and I really feel
that that sort of all rolledinto my view of skincare, view
of skincare being beautiful, whywe want to feel beautiful and
how to heal ourselves, and Idon't mean sort of a renegade
(04:20):
path to healing, I just meanthat I think that you know
nature provides us with awonderful bounty of ways to heal
the smallest things as well, asyou know, big, big problems.
There's, you know, certainlydocumented proof that the foods
that we eat play a role in cellrepair, cell regeneration,
(04:42):
things like that, all thosethings that are really important
to the skin.
So I think that you know yourvalues and mine connect in that
way for sure, because it reallyis important.
As we age we want to feelbeautiful.
There's that's just sort ofinnate in our nature as women.
(05:05):
We nurture, we grow and we giftright, we create and we gift
and we do those things, and soit's beauty, it's a natural
truth that comes from being awoman, and so for a long time,
(05:26):
for about 20 something years, Iwas a divorce recovery author,
speaker and life coach and Iunfortunately went through my
own experience that was notwanted, something I wanted in
the early 1990s and I justreally, after my healing and
(05:49):
recovery internally, I wanted toshare that with others.
And then there came a pointwhere I hit the age 45.
We had chatted about thisearlier, that 45 was that magic
number for me.
I was actually going throughmenopause early, like 38, 39.
And it was a very long processand my weight changed, my hair
(06:15):
changed, my skin changed and Ijust was very unhappy with
myself.
My husband loved me no matterwhat, which was wonderful, but I
just wanted to do something.
So I sort of fell back on allthat you know foundation that my
(06:36):
mother gave me and I wanted tosee in the clean skincare arena
for obvious reasons, and so Istarted down that path of just
sort of homemade remedies whatcould I do?
Diy stuff like that?
(06:56):
And the further I got into it,the more interested I became in
the why.
Why do these things help?
And that's when I got intoorganic skincare and started my
education as a cosmeticformulator, which brings me to
today.
I think that, after a ton ofresearch, I really truly believe
(07:21):
in the significance, thesignificant impact that magnolia
bark extract can have on yourskin.
And it's not a new ingredientby any stretch.
It's been used for centuries inChinese medicine, and that's
one indication of an ingredientthat isn't just a marketing
(07:44):
ingredient.
Some you know that a story isbuilt around to make a consumer
feel great about buying it.
It really does have a longhistory of helping heal and
helping beautify.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So I want to definitely get into right the
specific ingredients and I thinkI'm'm intrigued with and I
think especially right when youhear something like magnolia
bark extract, like that's oneingredient that can really help.
So my you know radar kind ofgoes up too.
I'm curious about it.
But I want to just let's justbacktrack for a second.
I want to talk about just theoverall aging.
(08:22):
You said something, you know,that you went through menopause
when you were in your late 30swhich is young, you know and
then had all you know, all thesechanges and you want to hold on
to your beauty, right?
And I think that that is thecase for so many women, even
(08:44):
getting into your 40s.
I think that we're I mean,we're living longer, right, and
so when you're in your 40s andin your 50s and you're going
through menopause and like allthese changes, I know for me at
least I just feel like I'm tooyoung to like, feel like I have
to call myself like an olderwoman or it.
Just mentally I don't feel ityou know, but physically so,
(09:08):
like there's that, that there'sthis resisting aging or just
aging gracefully, or how do youfeel about that?
You know just that kind ofgiving into aging.
I mean, I know, yes, we want tohold on to our beauty and I
think that's important for women, but I mean just the concept of
aging gracefully.
How does it and how does thatgo along with your philosophy of
(09:32):
your skincare line?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Well, that's a great question.
We could spend a lot of timetalking about this, I think.
To get down to the heart of thematter, you know Beauty is very
personal.
The desire to be beautiful isalso personal, because I think
beauty can mean somethingdifferent to different people.
(09:55):
So I would just start withasking yourself what does
beautiful mean to me?
And in my personal answering ofthat question, beauty
oftentimes is far more visiblefrom the inside, like the kind
(10:18):
of person you are.
We all know people who aregorgeous on the outside and not
very much on the inside, andvice versa, and then there's all
different combinations of that.
So I think what's important aswe age is to become comfortable
with who you are.
(10:38):
A lot of that has to do withhow you lived your life, and it
doesn't mean when you say I've,I've lived my life Well.
It doesn't mean that you'reperfect.
It means that you did your bestright With with the
circumstances that you weregiven.
And that's so important becauseif you've done the best that
(11:00):
you could with what you weregiven meaning financial, life
circumstances, hereditary youknow you, you did your best, um,
that's a great thing and youshould feel good about that.
And when you feel good aboutyourself.
Obviously, it it comes out andit it's part of what makes you
(11:21):
beautiful, you know.
I think that, in addition tobeing comfortable with who you
are, I think it's important toyou've talked about this before
and it's a big thing but notreally go by the standards that
are set by social media or themedia at large.
(11:43):
Social media or the media atlarge, because I find some women
carry their wrinkles and theiryou know life on their face.
I just think it makes them morebeautiful.
I'm sure that they werebeautiful when they were younger
, but there's a richness thatcomes out in them that is very
(12:05):
beautiful.
And so when I sort of take thisidea of being beautiful to the
masses, if you will, with what Iam promoting my skincare line
with Magnolia Bark Extract Ithink it's an embrace your age.
(12:25):
Now, I mean, there are, I know,women who are in their mid to
late thirties and they'refreaking out because they're
like, oh my gosh, I'm going tobe 40 soon and I do remember
being there and it's like, wow,40 is staring me in the face.
It's like this big dead end,but it's really not.
(12:48):
My 50s were a great decade.
I am 61 and I'm looking forwardto even more great years Again.
(13:26):
You know, my theory or myperspective on beauty is embrace
your age and you know, let'shelp, you know, uncover more
beauty by focusing on your skin,by healing ailments or just
getting rid of all those layersof dead cells.
I mean, you know there's somany aspects to it, but just you
know, improving cellregeneration, there's so many
things.
So I, like you, heather, sortof had an invincible sort of
mindset when I was in my 20s and30s and out in the sun.
You know, california sun ispretty hot and relentless, so I
(13:51):
am not a saint in that at all.
But you know, as we get older,if you take care of your skin
and, you know, follow a gooddiet, that does play a role in
what that damage is going tolook like as we age.
So I hope that helped.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Oh, yeah, no, definitely yeah, I wanted to
just, yeah, circle back to youknow.
Just being comfortable with whoyou are is, you know, is
something that you've mentionedand one thing that I'm also
seeing, just besides socialmedia and stuff are like women
in their 20s and probably, youknow, like the young women
(14:28):
starting to get Botox andstarting to do things that, like
you, probably wouldn't haveeven considered until you're
like in your 50s now, to justget ahead of the aging game,
right, and that's justastounding to me.
I don't know where that comesfrom, I mean, but it's really
the opposite of embracing yourage, right, we're just, I think,
(14:51):
as women, constantly resistingjust that that getting older but
the bottom line is that we aregetting older.
There's absolutely nothing likenothing you can do about it.
It is out of our control,nothing you can do about it.
It is out of our control.
And and to do your best, likeyou said, and to and have make
(15:16):
some peace around it is really,I think, the best thing that we
can do, and you know so.
I mean, yeah, you can just seeit on on social media and stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I mean it is definitely it's a battle, for
sure.
Yeah, and I I like the way youput that you know, make peace
with it.
So often in life we have tomake peace with so many things,
you know, relationships or poorchoices, things like that.
And so making peace with whoyou are and where you are at is
(15:48):
not a bad thing, it's not aconcession.
I think you know that.
Just, I just reminded myself, Ithink 20s and 30s, when you have
, you know, the gift of youthand in beautiful skin and health
and things like that, you knowit hasn't, life hasn't really
(16:11):
hit you yet in what is possibleand it's easy to be to look
ahead at other people who areahead of us and just sort of
criticize or make a judgment.
And just sort of criticize ormake a judgment and I'm saying
this because I do remember whenI was younger and I would see
(16:33):
women who had had children andwere older, and I would say I
would just never do that.
I, like, I would never allowmyself to look less than what I
consider beautiful, you know,and it was such a, it was such a
(16:55):
revelation of my immaturity andit was such a revelation of how
inexperienced I was at life.
I think it's.
It's so important to realizethat aging is not just changing,
it's gaining the wisdom thatyou know you have when you get
(17:17):
older.
You can the retrospect there.
There's so many gifts that comewith aging that just are not
present when we're younger.
So why is it that way inhumanity?
I don't know, but that is theway it is.
And so you make that excellentpoint, and I think it's so
(17:38):
important to just not worry.
If you're young, make peacewith it.
You will age.
Enjoy it now, but then try andlive a good life and age
gracefullyfully, because thatdefinitely can happen yeah, I
think that that's a really goodpoint about what you said about
when you were younger.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I think that you know what I was thinking is that
there's so much fear of aging,women aging right, because women
, I think, historically, eitherhave the belief or it's, I think
, true that women become moreirrelevant.
You know, when we get older andI hope that this, like the
(18:19):
conversation, shifts and I andyou know you mentioned that
there's wisdom that comes withaging, there's great wisdom that
comes with our aging and that'sseems to have been diluted or
lost in the equation of gettingolder.
So hopefully that will come,you know, keep building and
(18:41):
coming back.
Absolutely, I hope so.
So I want to talk to you aboutyou know, you mentioned also
before that you wanted cleanskincare, right when you were
developing your products, and Iknow that you know that word
clean and natural.
And you know, I know in theworld of food, that the words
(19:01):
natural or clean eating orthey're sort of meaningless
terms, right, the word naturalis on, you see it on food labels
and all natural and 100%, allnatural it's really a marketing
buzz term.
It really doesn't have anydefinition to it, and
(19:21):
supplements are the same.
So what does that mean?
So you probably see that inskincare.
What do you mean by clean?
You wanted clean skincare whenyou were developing your
products.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Thank you for asking about that, because that is very
important.
A lot of these terms getoverused and I think that clean
easily means something differentfrom brand to brand.
Yeah, you can get in troublequite easily if you don't really
clarify.
(19:57):
So I just want to preface thatby saying you know the world of
synthetic cosmetic formulation.
Those people do not seeanything wrong with the
ingredients that they are using.
And there's this big debateabout is clean really good for
(20:23):
you?
Because you know, people tendto have this sort of farm to
table or farm to face sort ofidea about what natural is and
what clean is, and that you canjust go out into the field and
grab some flowers and smash themup and put them in your lotion
and that really doesn't doanything for anybody, except it
(20:45):
just doesn't work.
So there has to be some sort ofsynthesization of that natural
ingredient to turn it, you know,to extract a powder, to extract
an acid or fatty alcohol.
It has to be transformed and sothere is this debate going back
(21:08):
and forth about which is better, which is why it's so important
to really clarify what cleanmeans, because some brands
believe that clean means youknow, across the board, there is
absolutely not one syntheticingredient in here, and that's
(21:30):
okay.
But then you have problems likepreservation.
So what is important to me ishighlighting what, using the
(21:52):
best, most potent, like the bestingredients that will bring the
most results that are notsynthetic.
Um, they're so pretty mucheverything, with the exception
(22:15):
of the preservative.
Everything in my line is goingto be plant-based 100
plant-based.
It will be transformed in acertain way to be used, to be
usable in a formulation.
But botanicals and let's justtake magnolia bark extract, for
example they're super high inantioxidants and it's important
(22:39):
to.
I'm going to give you a greatexample that a doctor gave me
once a long time ago and it'salways stuck with me.
And he had a whiteboard and hedrew a picture of a burning
cigarette on it, like standingup, and smoke was going like
this, and he said this is ahuman being.
(22:59):
And he said when we're young,the very tip of the ash has been
lit and as we age, the ash getslonger and longer and longer
because we are carbon and weoxidize and so that's what
happens to your skin and it wasjust a very vivid picture.
(23:22):
And so antioxidants that's whythey're so important, because
they slow down that process ofoxidation.
The oxidation is something youcan't stop, but you can slow it
down, and so I look foringredients with high that are
rich and high in antioxidants,and so, you know, it's just
(23:46):
really important to have that asa concentration in, you know,
in your formulas.
Let's take another ingredient.
Let's say hyaluronic acid.
Hyaluronic acid is present inour bodies.
It's a naturally occurringsubstance, but, just like
everything else, when we age,the older we get, the less we
(24:08):
have.
And that's why hyaluronic acidis such a coveted ingredient,
because even topically, you know, um, it can make significant
improvements.
I mean, you can get HAinjections that will have a
similar effect to Botox, um, butit's it's much more natural
(24:31):
because it naturally occurs inyour body and Botox doesn't.
So, yeah, I think, natural tome and clean means using the
best that nature has to giveyour skin the most benefits and
the most chance to lookbeautiful and radiant.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
So knowing that you have to take an ingredient and
maybe manipulate it a little bitto put it into a skincare
product and so it's usable onyour skin, like you're saying,
like you know, just taking likepulling herbs out of your garden
and then like thinking thatthat's going to make a
(25:13):
significant change, is notrealistic.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
No, I mean you know you have.
You have all the differenttypes of ingredients.
You've got tinctures and you'vegot essential oils and you've
got just extracts.
And you know there aredifferent ways to make to
extract the nutrients the petalsof, let's say, calendula, which
(25:38):
is marigold, the petalsthemselves.
Crushing them up and rubbingthem in your formulation.
That's where it helps.
(25:59):
A lot of things need to have.
They need to be very, verysmall particles in order to
penetrate your skin.
And so there's another exampleof why just going into the
garden grabbing something,crushing it up or, you know,
blending it, putting it on yourskin, it's not really going to
(26:20):
do much because it can'tpenetrate the layers.
But when you do transform them,then the particles are smaller
and they can penetrate.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So it sounds holistic and natural and clean, but it's
not reasonable at all.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Right, right.
I mean you know if you'reeating, it sure I?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
mean it's great.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yes, but the skin is different.
You know, the skin has abarrier.
It's got so many layers beforeyou get down to you know where
the cells are growing andturning over.
And it's that way for a reasonbecause it protects us.
You know that's the purpose ofour skin is to protect us.
(27:04):
So we have to work with it, youknow.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yes.
So tell me okay I'm just nowwildly curious about Magnolia
Bark Extract, because I knowthat this is at the base of your
skincare products and tell mejust a little bit about that and
how you found it and why youthink it's so great.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So in the early days of learning formulation and I
just have to say, you know, Iwas never really a great student
when I was in school, but as I,you know, was in my fifties,
just for some reason the love oflearning about this stuff was
just like hit me like a ton ofbricks.
(27:48):
It was so interesting to findout how these things were
working and why they wereworking.
And so I was creating productsand I was using them and my
friends were using them, and itwas great.
But someone said to me once youknow what?
What?
What makes yours different?
I mean, anybody can make alotion, right, and she wasn't
(28:10):
wrong at all.
And so that really startedmaking me think about what does
make something different and whyshould someone pay attention to
what I'm producing?
You know, research is part offormulating and so it's.
You're really never done if youwant your products to be
(28:33):
relevant.
And so I just started thinkingabout different botanicals and I
wanted to sort of branch awayfrom what everybody was talking
about.
I live in the South, inCharleston, south Carolina.
I live in the South inCharleston, south Carolina, and
(28:56):
I just became interested in themagnolia flower, and that is
after understanding and learningabout roses and lavender and
calendula marigold, all thewell-known botanicals that you
know really have significantbenefits.
So I investigated and it ittook a long time because, you
(29:19):
know you, you need anecdotalresearch but you also need the
scientific based research, andso it it just takes a while.
So in that research what Ifound was that the studies that
had been done on magnolia barkextract were that it had two
(29:41):
main biocomponents, and they'rea mouthful is magnolol, the
other one is hanokyal, and thesetwo components or agents are
the key to the what I like tocall super antioxidant portion
of magnolia extract, or thepresence of that.
(30:03):
Um, they just have been usedand tested for so very long um
centuries not tested forcenturies, but used for
centuries and tested for decades.
That proved that it's not justgreat for slowing down the aging
process because of theantioxidant levels or cell
(30:27):
regeneration, things like that,but healing.
There is a.
They are powerful agents forhealing.
They have been tested forcancer research.
They've been tested fordifferent internal ailments,
heart disease, things like that.
Way back in the day it was alsoused for anxiety, to calm
(30:52):
anxiety because of the aromatic,you know, aspect of it.
It's been.
There's so many uses that peopleuse it for, but in skincare it
really is a powerfulanti-antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory andantibacterial.
(31:15):
You can look at some big brandstoday and look at their
ingredient list and you'll seeMagnolia listed on there under
its inky name, under its Latinname, and they're basically
using it as a preservative orpreservative booster, and so you
know it's something that's usedand I don't know why it's not
(31:39):
more focused on.
I'm kind of glad it's notbecause it helps me, but it's.
It's a powerful ingredient andI have noticed a lot of really
good results on my skin.
I've used it for five years andI have a cleanser that uses it.
(32:01):
That it's in.
Pretty much almost every productthat I have has magnolia bark
extract in it and it just itsmooths your skin.
It evens out skin tone.
I am a very freckly person.
Just since I was little I'vealways had a ton of freckles,
but they're not really verypresent, and that is something
(32:24):
that's taken place over the timeof my using my products, and so
it just it's very it soothesyour skin.
I just can't say enough aboutit.
There's so many good things.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Well, I especially love the fact that you said that
there's a lot of evidencebehind it.
I'm a big proponent ofevidence-based research rather
than just telling me, like youthink it does this or it's
hearsay, or testimonials, or youknow.
So I like evidence.
Now, as a woman, you know I'min my 50s and what would the,
(33:00):
what would your?
What does your skincare regimelook like?
What do you do every day tohelp your skin?
Or what do you recommend forwomen, especially like over 40?
Yes, great.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Thank you for asking.
So I believe that simple isbetter, less is more.
I have come to realize that agreat portion of the people who
use my products are mature womenand they come to me and they
say look, I just used a Dove bar, you know, wash my face every
(33:33):
night or every morning andthat's it.
And then, maybe when I turned40, I started.
I just picked up, you know, amoisturizer at CVS and started
using that.
And they feel overwhelmed bychoices and that's, you know.
Fine, having choices is not abad thing, but understanding
(33:55):
what your face needs is reallywhere you need to start.
Your face needs is really whereyou need to start.
And so I believe that washingyour face once a day is a good
starting point.
And I say once a day becauseunless you have problem skin
like, unless you still have acne, which many, many adults do,
(34:16):
and it's not necessarilyhormonal, it's caused by
something else then if you don'thave problems, then just wash
your face once a day.
A lot of women don't wearmakeup and a lot of women do,
but I wash my face at nightbecause I just wash off the day.
You know, when I go to bed Iwant to feel just like I've, you
(34:39):
know, divested myself of my day, and so I wash my face at night
and I splash water on my facein the morning, or I just, you
know, get it wet when I'm takinga shower.
It's not necessary to repeatthe you know, removal and it
just helps.
You know, the natural oilsremain the sebum.
(35:00):
It's better for your, you know.
Here's another buzzwordmicrobiome.
And microbiome is just, youknow, a community of organisms
that live on your skin, and soyou just don't want to disturb
it too much.
And another reason why usingless products is better for your
skin because you're notdisturbing that microbiome.
(35:21):
I begin my day with splashingand then a moisturizer.
I have a lightweightmoisturizer.
That is great.
It's very good for your skin,it's got that hyaluronic acid,
and so that's how I start my dayjust water and a moisturizer.
At night is when I really focuson my skin.
(35:43):
I have more time, I'm not in arush, and so I wash my face, I
use a toner.
The toner is so very importantfor two reasons, and I'll try
not to be too long-winded.
Soap disturbs the pH balance onyour skin and it has to be that
way, because people have triedto lower.
(36:06):
Experts have tried to lower thepH of soap and it isn't soap
anymore.
It's going to up your pHbalance.
A toner is going to balance itout again, and so you know,
looking at putting a toner outthere for people to use, you can
easily strip your face of sebumand natural oils that you want
(36:27):
to keep there, and so my toneris going to be a moisturizing
toner.
It's got lots of amazingingredients in it that we can
chat about later.
It's also very good for yourface because it's going to
remove, it's going to wipe awaydebris.
It's going to sort of get outanything that might be left over
(36:49):
in your pores.
It's going to get rid of anyleftover soap residue if you
didn't rinse really well.
So those are some reallyimportant reasons to use a toner
.
Then, exfoliation is notsomething I do every day.
I just do it once a week.
Sometimes I just do it onceevery couple of weeks, and
(37:09):
that's only because I'm usingthat toner every night, and so
there is some exfoliating actiongoing on there.
But exfoliating is very, veryimportant because you've got
this layer of dead skin cellsthat are there and it's hard to
get your skin.
It's hard to get that glow thatyou want to see if you've got
(37:31):
that layer there.
A good exfoliator is not goingto scrape your skin or cause
micro tears, so you want toavoid something that's got
walnut husks or hummus Some ofthese really fine powders are
still will still cause microtears.
My exfoliator has jojoba beads,so it's a natural wax bead.
(37:55):
It's not bad for theenvironment, it's great for your
skin.
But that's what I do to reallyhelp my complexion.
And then I use a moisturizer anda serum at night and serums.
Depending on what you're using,serums can be a really
wonderful overnight treatment.
(38:15):
Think about it you have cleanskin.
You're going to go to sleep andjust give it time to regenerate
, and that's when a really goodserum or really like a lot of
women, really enjoy a heavymoisturizer for that reason,
because they feel like it's likeintensive on their skin.
(38:37):
It's not a bad thing.
So, yeah, so that's my routineand I have something called the
Radiance Restoring Bundle andit's just those five ingredients
you know, four daily, oneweekly, which is the exfoliator.
It's very simple.
It doesn't have to be difficultand it doesn't have to be time
(38:57):
consuming or expensive.
You just want to feel goodabout how you look right, so
simple is better.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Yes, definitely you said.
Something that stuck with me isthat a lot of women that you
work with maybe have only used,like a Dove bar soap and what I
mean.
That's definitely has been me.
I never really had a problemwith my skin, you know, growing
up, and I didn't really contendwith acne.
(39:28):
I was more concerned, I think,as a nutritionist, about what I
was putting inside my body toaffect my skin rather than what
I was putting on top of my skin.
But as I've gotten older, it'sreally confusing, you know.
I think when you're it justwasn't really a lot of my focus
until now.
And now I'm, you know, justutterly confused because there's
so many products and serums andand I know and I I am a big fan
(39:51):
of simple is better.
So and and I'm looking at yourskin.
We're on zoom right now and Iknow you've got beautiful skin
and so I know that your productsare working and I like your
routine that it's just a couplesteps nighttime simple.
So I understand that suddenlybeing overwhelmed by choices and
(40:15):
not really knowing I mean Icertainly have spent a lot of
money on products that I getthem and I'm like why am I using
this?
I have no idea why I'm usingcertain things, but I like that
you simplify it.
You know we need it in simplelanguage.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It's really important .
And you know, I think, thatwhen you start aging, not only
do you need simpler, but somethings just don't work anymore.
I know that.
You know, when you, as you age,your skin thins and it can
easily become cracked withoutyou knowing it.
And so a lot of times, you know, I've heard a lot of women say
(40:56):
that I used to use this all thetime and now it makes my face
stain, and that's not a greatexperience.
But it's not necessarily theproduct, it's your skin.
And then some people areallergic to things that other
people don't have an issue with.
(41:17):
So it is a very personal thingand I just want to reiterate
choices are not bad.
You know.
I'm just really grateful that I,that we have choices as far as
skincare goes, because of thatfact, because what may be right
for someone else isn't right forme.
Definitely, what's right for a20 year old is not right for me.
So you have to find what worksfor you and you have to start
(41:41):
somewhere.
So you know, find a goodcleanser.
Find a cleanser that doesn'tmake your face sting or that
doesn't dry.
You know you don't feel like,oh my gosh, I've got to get some
lotion on here right away.
Um, after you wash, find whatworks for you and um, stick with
it, don't you know?
If you find something good,just stay with it, because if
(42:03):
you like the results, there's noneed to change.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Well, that's the problem, I think too, is that
there's that shiny objectsyndrome.
Right Is that?
I mean, this is going okay andworking well for me, but is
there something better?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
But, I agree with you .
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Right?
If it's working, why mess withit with you, right?
If it's working, why mess withit?
And it sounds like yourproducts are really focused on
women over 40 or in just midlifeand you're really addressing
that issue, and I love that.
Your philosophy just comes froma angle of aging gracefully and
(42:36):
aging well, and I think that'sgreat.
Lisa, where can people find youand your skincare products?
Because I'm sure you are goingto find people very interested
in wanting to learn more Awesome.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Well, thank you for asking.
My website ismagnoliaskinessentialscom.
I also, if you don't mind, I'llgive you a link, but I also
have a free skincare guide thatwill help women with mature skin
.
See, you know the the bestingredients for their skin.
(43:09):
But yeah,magnoliaskinessentialscom.
And if they register, they canget an instant $10 credit on
whatever they purchase.
Can get an instant $10 crediton whatever they purchase.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Okay, that's fantastic.
Well, I will put that link inmy show notes so everyone can
get that.
And thank you so much forcoming on today and talking
about our skin and all theaspects that go into it just
taking care of our skin and ourwanting to just keep our skin
(43:41):
healthy and beautiful and aging.
You know and what that means.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
I definitely look up to you forfood advice.
That's so wonderful what you do, and thanks for giving me the
opportunity to share.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Have a great day.
Thank you, you too.
Hi everybody and welcome back to the Real Food
Stories podcast.
I am here today with Lisa Duffy, the founder, formulator and
researcher behind Magnolia SkinEssentials.
Lisa is a woman in midlife whohas spent years perfecting a
luxurious line of skincareproducts infused with a secret
ingredient, magnolia BarkExtract, which is a powerful,
(00:23):
time-honored ingredient withsuper antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory andantibacterial properties.
Lisa received her certificationin organic skin care from the
Center of Excellence in 2019 andhas continued her education at
Formula Botanica and from PerryRomanowski of the Society of
(00:44):
Cosmetic Chemists.
So hi, lisa, welcome to theshow.
Let's just jump right into thetopic of aging, first of all,
for women in midlife and so manywomen just in the menopause
transition, when we're facedwith so much with our health,
(01:05):
our weight, our energy, to namea few the fate of our skin is a
huge concern for so many women,I think, at this age.
So anytime that there's aproduct that promises beautiful
skin or the hope of lookingyounger is, I definitely perk up
at that.
You know, like if there'ssomething that, like I feel like
(01:26):
I maybe take a couple of yearsoff of my face, I'm guilty of it
.
I definitely, you know, this issomething that that concerns me
, especially because I probablyspent way too many years in the
sun when I was younger, notcaring, and now here I am caring
about it.
But I also think that there'sthis fine line between wanting
(01:54):
to look younger and age inreverse and all of those words
that are kind of buzzwords thatare coming up right now and just
simply embracing our age andbeing a woman in midlife and
being okay with that our age andbeing a woman in midlife and
being okay with that, which isso hard for some women.
So I wanted to just jump in andstart hearing about your story
(02:18):
and how you got inspired tocreate your skin line, which is
amazing and um, and how it'sinfluenced you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, um, thank you so much, first of all for the
opportunity to be on yourpodcast.
I feel very grateful and I loveyour podcast.
I think that you really touchon some incredibly important
issues that all of us are facing.
And you know to just give sortof a Reader's Digest version,
(02:47):
because I can talk and I getvery passionate about things.
I'm a Southern Californianative.
I was born and raised there 30years and I came from a
background that was veryholistic in the sense that my
mother and father had eightchildren and it was very
(03:10):
expensive to take care of them.
But my mother was also I mean,I would call her a little bit of
a pioneer on the whole foodsenvironment, that whole
landscape, because she was intowhole grains, whole foods, doing
(03:32):
her own.
You know, like we could havesweets, but she insisted on
making them because she wantedthem to be nutritious as well as
, you know, delightful.
So she had a real balance inher perspective on life and I
truly appreciated that.
She was also a verycompassionate person and taught
(03:52):
us how to be compassionatetoward others and I really feel
that that sort of all rolledinto my view of skincare, view
of skincare being beautiful, whywe want to feel beautiful and
how to heal ourselves, and Idon't mean sort of a renegade
(04:20):
path to healing, I just meanthat I think that you know
nature provides us with awonderful bounty of ways to heal
the smallest things as well, asyou know, big, big problems.
There's, you know, certainlydocumented proof that the foods
that we eat play a role in cellrepair, cell regeneration,
(04:42):
things like that, all thosethings that are really important
to the skin.
So I think that you know yourvalues and mine connect in that
way for sure, because it reallyis important.
As we age we want to feelbeautiful.
There's that's just sort ofinnate in our nature as women.
(05:05):
We nurture, we grow and we giftright, we create and we gift
and we do those things, and soit's beauty, it's a natural
truth that comes from being awoman, and so for a long time,
(05:26):
for about 20 something years, Iwas a divorce recovery author,
speaker and life coach and Iunfortunately went through my
own experience that was notwanted, something I wanted in
the early 1990s and I justreally, after my healing and
(05:49):
recovery internally, I wanted toshare that with others.
And then there came a pointwhere I hit the age 45.
We had chatted about thisearlier, that 45 was that magic
number for me.
I was actually going throughmenopause early, like 38, 39.
And it was a very long processand my weight changed, my hair
(06:15):
changed, my skin changed and Ijust was very unhappy with
myself.
My husband loved me no matterwhat, which was wonderful, but I
just wanted to do something.
So I sort of fell back on allthat you know foundation that my
(06:36):
mother gave me and I wanted tosee in the clean skincare arena
for obvious reasons, and so Istarted down that path of just
sort of homemade remedies whatcould I do?
Diy stuff like that?
(06:56):
And the further I got into it,the more interested I became in
the why.
Why do these things help?
And that's when I got intoorganic skincare and started my
education as a cosmeticformulator, which brings me to
today.
I think that, after a ton ofresearch, I really truly believe
(07:21):
in the significance, thesignificant impact that magnolia
bark extract can have on yourskin.
And it's not a new ingredientby any stretch.
It's been used for centuries inChinese medicine, and that's
one indication of an ingredientthat isn't just a marketing
(07:44):
ingredient.
Some you know that a story isbuilt around to make a consumer
feel great about buying it.
It really does have a longhistory of helping heal and
helping beautify.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So I want to definitely get into right the
specific ingredients and I thinkI'm'm intrigued with and I
think especially right when youhear something like magnolia
bark extract, like that's oneingredient that can really help.
So my you know radar kind ofgoes up too.
I'm curious about it.
But I want to just let's justbacktrack for a second.
I want to talk about just theoverall aging.
(08:22):
You said something, you know,that you went through menopause
when you were in your late 30swhich is young, you know and
then had all you know, all thesechanges and you want to hold on
to your beauty, right?
And I think that that is thecase for so many women, even
(08:44):
getting into your 40s.
I think that we're I mean,we're living longer, right, and
so when you're in your 40s andin your 50s and you're going
through menopause and like allthese changes, I know for me at
least I just feel like I'm tooyoung to like, feel like I have
to call myself like an olderwoman or it.
Just mentally I don't feel ityou know, but physically so,
(09:08):
like there's that, that there'sthis resisting aging or just
aging gracefully, or how do youfeel about that?
You know just that kind ofgiving into aging.
I mean, I know, yes, we want tohold on to our beauty and I
think that's important for women, but I mean just the concept of
aging gracefully.
How does it and how does thatgo along with your philosophy of
(09:32):
your skincare line?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Well, that's a great question.
We could spend a lot of timetalking about this, I think.
To get down to the heart of thematter, you know Beauty is very
personal.
The desire to be beautiful isalso personal, because I think
beauty can mean somethingdifferent to different people.
(09:55):
So I would just start withasking yourself what does
beautiful mean to me?
And in my personal answering ofthat question, beauty
oftentimes is far more visiblefrom the inside, like the kind
(10:18):
of person you are.
We all know people who aregorgeous on the outside and not
very much on the inside, andvice versa, and then there's all
different combinations of that.
So I think what's important aswe age is to become comfortable
with who you are.
(10:38):
A lot of that has to do withhow you lived your life, and it
doesn't mean when you say I've,I've lived my life Well.
It doesn't mean that you'reperfect.
It means that you did your bestright With with the
circumstances that you weregiven.
And that's so important becauseif you've done the best that
(11:00):
you could with what you weregiven meaning financial, life
circumstances, hereditary youknow you, you did your best, um,
that's a great thing and youshould feel good about that.
And when you feel good aboutyourself.
Obviously, it it comes out andit it's part of what makes you
(11:21):
beautiful, you know.
I think that, in addition tobeing comfortable with who you
are, I think it's important toyou've talked about this before
and it's a big thing but notreally go by the standards that
are set by social media or themedia at large.
(11:43):
Social media or the media atlarge, because I find some women
carry their wrinkles and theiryou know life on their face.
I just think it makes them morebeautiful.
I'm sure that they werebeautiful when they were younger
, but there's a richness thatcomes out in them that is very
(12:05):
beautiful.
And so when I sort of take thisidea of being beautiful to the
masses, if you will, with what Iam promoting my skincare line
with Magnolia Bark Extract Ithink it's an embrace your age.
(12:25):
Now, I mean, there are, I know,women who are in their mid to
late thirties and they'refreaking out because they're
like, oh my gosh, I'm going tobe 40 soon and I do remember
being there and it's like, wow,40 is staring me in the face.
It's like this big dead end,but it's really not.
(12:48):
My 50s were a great decade.
I am 61 and I'm looking forwardto even more great years Again.
(13:26):
You know, my theory or myperspective on beauty is embrace
your age and you know, let'shelp, you know, uncover more
beauty by focusing on your skin,by healing ailments or just
getting rid of all those layersof dead cells.
I mean, you know there's somany aspects to it, but just you
know, improving cellregeneration, there's so many
things.
So I, like you, heather, sortof had an invincible sort of
mindset when I was in my 20s and30s and out in the sun.
You know, california sun ispretty hot and relentless, so I
(13:51):
am not a saint in that at all.
But you know, as we get older,if you take care of your skin
and, you know, follow a gooddiet, that does play a role in
what that damage is going tolook like as we age.
So I hope that helped.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Oh, yeah, no, definitely yeah, I wanted to
just, yeah, circle back to youknow.
Just being comfortable with whoyou are is, you know, is
something that you've mentionedand one thing that I'm also
seeing, just besides socialmedia and stuff are like women
in their 20s and probably, youknow, like the young women
(14:28):
starting to get Botox andstarting to do things that, like
you, probably wouldn't haveeven considered until you're
like in your 50s now, to justget ahead of the aging game,
right, and that's justastounding to me.
I don't know where that comesfrom, I mean, but it's really
the opposite of embracing yourage, right, we're just, I think,
(14:51):
as women, constantly resistingjust that that getting older but
the bottom line is that we aregetting older.
There's absolutely nothing likenothing you can do about it.
It is out of our control,nothing you can do about it.
It is out of our control.
And and to do your best, likeyou said, and to and have make
(15:16):
some peace around it is really,I think, the best thing that we
can do, and you know so.
I mean, yeah, you can just seeit on on social media and stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I mean it is definitely it's a battle, for
sure.
Yeah, and I I like the way youput that you know, make peace
with it.
So often in life we have tomake peace with so many things,
you know, relationships or poorchoices, things like that.
And so making peace with whoyou are and where you are at is
(15:48):
not a bad thing, it's not aconcession.
I think you know that.
Just, I just reminded myself, Ithink 20s and 30s, when you have
, you know, the gift of youthand in beautiful skin and health
and things like that, you knowit hasn't, life hasn't really
(16:11):
hit you yet in what is possibleand it's easy to be to look
ahead at other people who areahead of us and just sort of
criticize or make a judgment.
And just sort of criticize ormake a judgment and I'm saying
this because I do remember whenI was younger and I would see
(16:33):
women who had had children andwere older, and I would say I
would just never do that.
I, like, I would never allowmyself to look less than what I
consider beautiful, you know,and it was such a, it was such a
(16:55):
revelation of my immaturity andit was such a revelation of how
inexperienced I was at life.
I think it's.
It's so important to realizethat aging is not just changing,
it's gaining the wisdom thatyou know you have when you get
(17:17):
older.
You can the retrospect there.
There's so many gifts that comewith aging that just are not
present when we're younger.
So why is it that way inhumanity?
I don't know, but that is theway it is.
And so you make that excellentpoint, and I think it's so
(17:38):
important to just not worry.
If you're young, make peacewith it.
You will age.
Enjoy it now, but then try andlive a good life and age
gracefullyfully, because thatdefinitely can happen yeah, I
think that that's a really goodpoint about what you said about
when you were younger.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I think that you know what I was thinking is that
there's so much fear of aging,women aging right, because women
, I think, historically, eitherhave the belief or it's, I think
, true that women become moreirrelevant.
You know, when we get older andI hope that this, like the
(18:19):
conversation, shifts and I andyou know you mentioned that
there's wisdom that comes withaging, there's great wisdom that
comes with our aging and that'sseems to have been diluted or
lost in the equation of gettingolder.
So hopefully that will come,you know, keep building and
(18:41):
coming back.
Absolutely, I hope so.
So I want to talk to you aboutyou know, you mentioned also
before that you wanted cleanskincare, right when you were
developing your products, and Iknow that you know that word
clean and natural.
And you know, I know in theworld of food, that the words
(19:01):
natural or clean eating orthey're sort of meaningless
terms, right, the word naturalis on, you see it on food labels
and all natural and 100%, allnatural it's really a marketing
buzz term.
It really doesn't have anydefinition to it, and
(19:21):
supplements are the same.
So what does that mean?
So you probably see that inskincare.
What do you mean by clean?
You wanted clean skincare whenyou were developing your
products.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Thank you for asking about that, because that is very
important.
A lot of these terms getoverused and I think that clean
easily means something differentfrom brand to brand.
Yeah, you can get in troublequite easily if you don't really
clarify.
(19:57):
So I just want to preface thatby saying you know the world of
synthetic cosmetic formulation.
Those people do not seeanything wrong with the
ingredients that they are using.
And there's this big debateabout is clean really good for
(20:23):
you?
Because you know, people tendto have this sort of farm to
table or farm to face sort ofidea about what natural is and
what clean is, and that you canjust go out into the field and
grab some flowers and smash themup and put them in your lotion
and that really doesn't doanything for anybody, except it
(20:45):
just doesn't work.
So there has to be some sort ofsynthesization of that natural
ingredient to turn it, you know,to extract a powder, to extract
an acid or fatty alcohol.
It has to be transformed and sothere is this debate going back
(21:08):
and forth about which is better, which is why it's so important
to really clarify what cleanmeans, because some brands
believe that clean means youknow, across the board, there is
absolutely not one syntheticingredient in here, and that's
(21:30):
okay.
But then you have problems likepreservation.
So what is important to me ishighlighting what, using the
(21:52):
best, most potent, like the bestingredients that will bring the
most results that are notsynthetic.
Um, they're so pretty mucheverything, with the exception
(22:15):
of the preservative.
Everything in my line is goingto be plant-based 100
plant-based.
It will be transformed in acertain way to be used, to be
usable in a formulation.
But botanicals and let's justtake magnolia bark extract, for
example they're super high inantioxidants and it's important
(22:39):
to.
I'm going to give you a greatexample that a doctor gave me
once a long time ago and it'salways stuck with me.
And he had a whiteboard and hedrew a picture of a burning
cigarette on it, like standingup, and smoke was going like
this, and he said this is ahuman being.
(22:59):
And he said when we're young,the very tip of the ash has been
lit and as we age, the ash getslonger and longer and longer
because we are carbon and weoxidize and so that's what
happens to your skin and it wasjust a very vivid picture.
(23:22):
And so antioxidants that's whythey're so important, because
they slow down that process ofoxidation.
The oxidation is something youcan't stop, but you can slow it
down, and so I look foringredients with high that are
rich and high in antioxidants,and so, you know, it's just
(23:46):
really important to have that asa concentration in, you know,
in your formulas.
Let's take another ingredient.
Let's say hyaluronic acid.
Hyaluronic acid is present inour bodies.
It's a naturally occurringsubstance, but, just like
everything else, when we age,the older we get, the less we
(24:08):
have.
And that's why hyaluronic acidis such a coveted ingredient,
because even topically, you know, um, it can make significant
improvements.
I mean, you can get HAinjections that will have a
similar effect to Botox, um, butit's it's much more natural
(24:31):
because it naturally occurs inyour body and Botox doesn't.
So, yeah, I think, natural tome and clean means using the
best that nature has to giveyour skin the most benefits and
the most chance to lookbeautiful and radiant.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
So knowing that you have to take an ingredient and
maybe manipulate it a little bitto put it into a skincare
product and so it's usable onyour skin, like you're saying,
like you know, just taking likepulling herbs out of your garden
and then like thinking thatthat's going to make a
(25:13):
significant change, is notrealistic.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
No, I mean you know you have.
You have all the differenttypes of ingredients.
You've got tinctures and you'vegot essential oils and you've
got just extracts.
And you know there aredifferent ways to make to
extract the nutrients the petalsof, let's say, calendula, which
(25:38):
is marigold, the petalsthemselves.
Crushing them up and rubbingthem in your formulation.
That's where it helps.
(25:59):
A lot of things need to have.
They need to be very, verysmall particles in order to
penetrate your skin.
And so there's another exampleof why just going into the
garden grabbing something,crushing it up or, you know,
blending it, putting it on yourskin, it's not really going to
(26:20):
do much because it can'tpenetrate the layers.
But when you do transform them,then the particles are smaller
and they can penetrate.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So it sounds holistic and natural and clean, but it's
not reasonable at all.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Right, right.
I mean you know if you'reeating, it sure I?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
mean it's great.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yes, but the skin is different.
You know, the skin has abarrier.
It's got so many layers beforeyou get down to you know where
the cells are growing andturning over.
And it's that way for a reasonbecause it protects us.
You know that's the purpose ofour skin is to protect us.
(27:04):
So we have to work with it, youknow.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yes.
So tell me okay I'm just nowwildly curious about Magnolia
Bark Extract, because I knowthat this is at the base of your
skincare products and tell mejust a little bit about that and
how you found it and why youthink it's so great.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So in the early days of learning formulation and I
just have to say, you know, Iwas never really a great student
when I was in school, but as I,you know, was in my fifties,
just for some reason the love oflearning about this stuff was
just like hit me like a ton ofbricks.
(27:48):
It was so interesting to findout how these things were
working and why they wereworking.
And so I was creating productsand I was using them and my
friends were using them, and itwas great.
But someone said to me once youknow what?
What?
What makes yours different?
I mean, anybody can make alotion, right, and she wasn't
(28:10):
wrong at all.
And so that really startedmaking me think about what does
make something different and whyshould someone pay attention to
what I'm producing?
You know, research is part offormulating and so it's.
You're really never done if youwant your products to be
(28:33):
relevant.
And so I just started thinkingabout different botanicals and I
wanted to sort of branch awayfrom what everybody was talking
about.
I live in the South, inCharleston, south Carolina.
I live in the South inCharleston, south Carolina, and
(28:56):
I just became interested in themagnolia flower, and that is
after understanding and learningabout roses and lavender and
calendula marigold, all thewell-known botanicals that you
know really have significantbenefits.
So I investigated and it ittook a long time because, you
(29:19):
know you, you need anecdotalresearch but you also need the
scientific based research, andso it it just takes a while.
So in that research what Ifound was that the studies that
had been done on magnolia barkextract were that it had two
(29:41):
main biocomponents, and they'rea mouthful is magnolol, the
other one is hanokyal, and thesetwo components or agents are
the key to the what I like tocall super antioxidant portion
of magnolia extract, or thepresence of that.
(30:03):
Um, they just have been usedand tested for so very long um
centuries not tested forcenturies, but used for
centuries and tested for decades.
That proved that it's not justgreat for slowing down the aging
process because of theantioxidant levels or cell
(30:27):
regeneration, things like that,but healing.
There is a.
They are powerful agents forhealing.
They have been tested forcancer research.
They've been tested fordifferent internal ailments,
heart disease, things like that.
Way back in the day it was alsoused for anxiety, to calm
(30:52):
anxiety because of the aromatic,you know, aspect of it.
It's been.
There's so many uses that peopleuse it for, but in skincare it
really is a powerfulanti-antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory andantibacterial.
(31:15):
You can look at some big brandstoday and look at their
ingredient list and you'll seeMagnolia listed on there under
its inky name, under its Latinname, and they're basically
using it as a preservative orpreservative booster, and so you
know it's something that's usedand I don't know why it's not
(31:39):
more focused on.
I'm kind of glad it's notbecause it helps me, but it's.
It's a powerful ingredient andI have noticed a lot of really
good results on my skin.
I've used it for five years andI have a cleanser that uses it.
(32:01):
That it's in.
Pretty much almost every productthat I have has magnolia bark
extract in it and it just itsmooths your skin.
It evens out skin tone.
I am a very freckly person.
Just since I was little I'vealways had a ton of freckles,
but they're not really verypresent, and that is something
(32:24):
that's taken place over the timeof my using my products, and so
it just it's very it soothesyour skin.
I just can't say enough aboutit.
There's so many good things.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Well, I especially love the fact that you said that
there's a lot of evidencebehind it.
I'm a big proponent ofevidence-based research rather
than just telling me, like youthink it does this or it's
hearsay, or testimonials, or youknow.
So I like evidence.
Now, as a woman, you know I'min my 50s and what would the,
(33:00):
what would your?
What does your skincare regimelook like?
What do you do every day tohelp your skin?
Or what do you recommend forwomen, especially like over 40?
Yes, great.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Thank you for asking.
So I believe that simple isbetter, less is more.
I have come to realize that agreat portion of the people who
use my products are mature womenand they come to me and they
say look, I just used a Dove bar, you know, wash my face every
(33:33):
night or every morning andthat's it.
And then, maybe when I turned40, I started.
I just picked up, you know, amoisturizer at CVS and started
using that.
And they feel overwhelmed bychoices and that's, you know.
Fine, having choices is not abad thing, but understanding
(33:55):
what your face needs is reallywhere you need to start.
Your face needs is really whereyou need to start.
And so I believe that washingyour face once a day is a good
starting point.
And I say once a day becauseunless you have problem skin
like, unless you still have acne, which many, many adults do,
(34:16):
and it's not necessarilyhormonal, it's caused by
something else then if you don'thave problems, then just wash
your face once a day.
A lot of women don't wearmakeup and a lot of women do,
but I wash my face at nightbecause I just wash off the day.
You know, when I go to bed Iwant to feel just like I've, you
(34:39):
know, divested myself of my day, and so I wash my face at night
and I splash water on my facein the morning, or I just, you
know, get it wet when I'm takinga shower.
It's not necessary to repeatthe you know, removal and it
just helps.
You know, the natural oilsremain the sebum.
(35:00):
It's better for your, you know.
Here's another buzzwordmicrobiome.
And microbiome is just, youknow, a community of organisms
that live on your skin, and soyou just don't want to disturb
it too much.
And another reason why usingless products is better for your
skin because you're notdisturbing that microbiome.
(35:21):
I begin my day with splashingand then a moisturizer.
I have a lightweightmoisturizer.
That is great.
It's very good for your skin,it's got that hyaluronic acid,
and so that's how I start my dayjust water and a moisturizer.
At night is when I really focuson my skin.
(35:43):
I have more time, I'm not in arush, and so I wash my face, I
use a toner.
The toner is so very importantfor two reasons, and I'll try
not to be too long-winded.
Soap disturbs the pH balance onyour skin and it has to be that
way, because people have triedto lower.
(36:06):
Experts have tried to lower thepH of soap and it isn't soap
anymore.
It's going to up your pHbalance.
A toner is going to balance itout again, and so you know,
looking at putting a toner outthere for people to use, you can
easily strip your face of sebumand natural oils that you want
(36:27):
to keep there, and so my toneris going to be a moisturizing
toner.
It's got lots of amazingingredients in it that we can
chat about later.
It's also very good for yourface because it's going to
remove, it's going to wipe awaydebris.
It's going to sort of get outanything that might be left over
(36:49):
in your pores.
It's going to get rid of anyleftover soap residue if you
didn't rinse really well.
So those are some reallyimportant reasons to use a toner
.
Then, exfoliation is notsomething I do every day.
I just do it once a week.
Sometimes I just do it onceevery couple of weeks, and
(37:09):
that's only because I'm usingthat toner every night, and so
there is some exfoliating actiongoing on there.
But exfoliating is very, veryimportant because you've got
this layer of dead skin cellsthat are there and it's hard to
get your skin.
It's hard to get that glow thatyou want to see if you've got
(37:31):
that layer there.
A good exfoliator is not goingto scrape your skin or cause
micro tears, so you want toavoid something that's got
walnut husks or hummus Some ofthese really fine powders are
still will still cause microtears.
My exfoliator has jojoba beads,so it's a natural wax bead.
(37:55):
It's not bad for theenvironment, it's great for your
skin.
But that's what I do to reallyhelp my complexion.
And then I use a moisturizer anda serum at night and serums.
Depending on what you're using,serums can be a really
wonderful overnight treatment.
(38:15):
Think about it you have cleanskin.
You're going to go to sleep andjust give it time to regenerate
, and that's when a really goodserum or really like a lot of
women, really enjoy a heavymoisturizer for that reason,
because they feel like it's likeintensive on their skin.
(38:37):
It's not a bad thing.
So, yeah, so that's my routineand I have something called the
Radiance Restoring Bundle andit's just those five ingredients
you know, four daily, oneweekly, which is the exfoliator.
It's very simple.
It doesn't have to be difficultand it doesn't have to be time
(38:57):
consuming or expensive.
You just want to feel goodabout how you look right, so
simple is better.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Yes, definitely you said.
Something that stuck with me isthat a lot of women that you
work with maybe have only used,like a Dove bar soap and what I
mean.
That's definitely has been me.
I never really had a problemwith my skin, you know, growing
up, and I didn't really contendwith acne.
(39:28):
I was more concerned, I think,as a nutritionist, about what I
was putting inside my body toaffect my skin rather than what
I was putting on top of my skin.
But as I've gotten older, it'sreally confusing, you know.
I think when you're it justwasn't really a lot of my focus
until now.
And now I'm, you know, justutterly confused because there's
so many products and serums andand I know and I I am a big fan
(39:51):
of simple is better.
So and and I'm looking at yourskin.
We're on zoom right now and Iknow you've got beautiful skin
and so I know that your productsare working and I like your
routine that it's just a couplesteps nighttime simple.
So I understand that suddenlybeing overwhelmed by choices and
(40:15):
not really knowing I mean Icertainly have spent a lot of
money on products that I getthem and I'm like why am I using
this?
I have no idea why I'm usingcertain things, but I like that
you simplify it.
You know we need it in simplelanguage.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It's really important .
And you know, I think, thatwhen you start aging, not only
do you need simpler, but somethings just don't work anymore.
I know that.
You know, when you, as you age,your skin thins and it can
easily become cracked withoutyou knowing it.
And so a lot of times, you know, I've heard a lot of women say
(40:56):
that I used to use this all thetime and now it makes my face
stain, and that's not a greatexperience.
But it's not necessarily theproduct, it's your skin.
And then some people areallergic to things that other
people don't have an issue with.
(41:17):
So it is a very personal thingand I just want to reiterate
choices are not bad.
You know.
I'm just really grateful that I,that we have choices as far as
skincare goes, because of thatfact, because what may be right
for someone else isn't right forme.
Definitely, what's right for a20 year old is not right for me.
So you have to find what worksfor you and you have to start
(41:41):
somewhere.
So you know, find a goodcleanser.
Find a cleanser that doesn'tmake your face sting or that
doesn't dry.
You know you don't feel like,oh my gosh, I've got to get some
lotion on here right away.
Um, after you wash, find whatworks for you and um, stick with
it, don't you know?
If you find something good,just stay with it, because if
(42:03):
you like the results, there's noneed to change.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Well, that's the problem, I think too, is that
there's that shiny objectsyndrome.
Right Is that?
I mean, this is going okay andworking well for me, but is
there something better?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
But, I agree with you .
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Right?
If it's working, why mess withit with you, right?
If it's working, why mess withit?
And it sounds like yourproducts are really focused on
women over 40 or in just midlifeand you're really addressing
that issue, and I love that.
Your philosophy just comes froma angle of aging gracefully and
(42:36):
aging well, and I think that'sgreat.
Lisa, where can people find youand your skincare products?
Because I'm sure you are goingto find people very interested
in wanting to learn more Awesome.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Well, thank you for asking.
My website ismagnoliaskinessentialscom.
I also, if you don't mind, I'llgive you a link, but I also
have a free skincare guide thatwill help women with mature skin
.
See, you know the the bestingredients for their skin.
(43:09):
But yeah,magnoliaskinessentialscom.
And if they register, they canget an instant $10 credit on
whatever they purchase.
Can get an instant $10 crediton whatever they purchase.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Okay, that's fantastic.
Well, I will put that link inmy show notes so everyone can
get that.
And thank you so much forcoming on today and talking
about our skin and all theaspects that go into it just
taking care of our skin and ourwanting to just keep our skin
(43:41):
healthy and beautiful and aging.
You know and what that means.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
I definitely look up to you forfood advice.
That's so wonderful what you do, and thanks for giving me the
opportunity to share.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Have a great day.
Thank you, you too.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.