The last few weeks have been different.
We have been in Geneva. Two events, two extraordinary conversations with a holistic nutritionist Andrea and a naturopath Rhea who approach skin from the inside out. What we learned is what this issue is about. But underneath all of it is something I keep coming back to: the community that made those rooms possible. More on that below.
The image is from our Geneva evening with our holistic nutritionist, Andrea. Each zone of your face corresponds to an internal organ system - a framework rooted in traditional Chinese medicine that, once you see it, is hard to unsee.
Forehead: digestion and liver heat. Under-eyes: kidneys and adrenals -- the hollowness and darkness many women attribute to sleep debt alone has a deeper dimension.
Mid-cheek: stomach and lung Qi, often showing as redness or sensitivity.
Jawline: hormonal, liver, and reproductive system. The pattern most women recognize -- but the liver piece matters. It processes excess estrogen and cortisol, and when it is overloaded, your face will show it first.
1. Eating your skincare
Andrea framed it simply: the ingredients we spend money on topically have dietary equivalents that build the same structures from within. You cannot out-serum a deficit in the raw materials your skin needs. Collagen precursors: bone broth (slow-simmered, twelve-plus hours), sardines with bones, hydrolyzed collagen peptides at 10g daily taken with vitamin C. Natural moisturizers: avocado, extra virgin olive oil, oily fish -- the fatty acids your barrier uses to stay intact. Antioxidant load: berries, pomegranate, green tea, dark leafy greens. And the thing that came up most: cellular dehydration. Not surface dryness. Two liters of plain water consistently before anything else.
2. The homeopathic view
One line from our practitioner that the room went quiet for: chronic skin inflammation is the body asking for attention in the only language it has left when everything else has been ignored.
Her practical advice: before adding anything to your routine, ask what you might take away. Overloaded skin needs reduction first.
3. One change to make this week
A tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil daily -- on food, not as a supplement. The Mediterranean data on skin aging is consistent and not replicated in capsule form. Start there.
How Skindays Can Help
On a personal note...
Skindays would not exist in the way it does without the people who have shown up for it, trusted us with their skin concerns, come to events, and asked the questions that make the whole room better, shared what we do with their friends and their mothers, and the women they love. That is not something I take for granted, ever. But lately I have been feeling it more acutely than usual.
Geneva reminded me of it in the best way. Walking into those rooms and finding the same energy we have built in London: the curiosity, the generosity, the willingness to sit with the messy intersection of science and self-care and real life, it stopped me. You do not always know what you have built until you see it somewhere new.
To everyone who has supported Skindays: as a customer, as a friend, as someone who has simply opened this email every Sunday and let us into your morning, thank you. Genuinely. It is the thing that keeps this going on the hard days, and the thing that makes the good days feel like more than just work.
The best anti-ageing is an honest smile. I have had a lot of those lately, and it is because of you.
xx,
Diana