On Glowing: skin, devotion, and midlife.
On Glowing: skin, devotion, and midlife.
What I actually do for my skin at 41 / Adornment as Prayer ~ skin rituals as devotion
Beauty brings me back to myself ~ hello full Taurean North Node energy.
But the truth is, for many years I buried this part of me. I convinced myself that caring about beauty made me shallow and I felt shame for caring. The less you care and think about it, the better, I thought.
It is interesting how an overly sexualized culture swings the pendulum so far that if a woman does find joy in beauty and adornment she’s considered performative rather than inhabiting femininity.
Today I know this differently and in mid-life, adorning my nature brings me happiness. Beauty is essential to my nature.
Venusian beauty brings me home. In the way my body knows when something is aligned.
The way space feels aligned or unaligned, when something is touching my skin that isn’t right, when I’m moving too fast to receive and care for me.
For a long time I tucked this away into the unseen. In my younger years, beauty drew attention I wasn’t resourced to hold or understand and it shaped my relationship with being seen for a very long while. I told myself to not shine, that glowing wasn’t safe. Because yes, at one point it was not safe.
At 22, when I began my healing journey, I started to reorient myself to Venusian energy. Towards being okay with adornment.
I started to get back into my authentic relationship with beauty, design, and art. I realized I wasn’t less of a spiritual being for becoming embodied, actually the opposite.
I also began to consciously work with the energy of magnetism. I learned to stand in the face of what attracts, when you release the fear of being seen.
Venusian energy grounds me~ it is slow, sensual, oriented towards intention. Now in midlife, I find myself truly creating from this inhibited part of me.
Venus grounds me.
She anoints herself.
Now in mid-life, the spiritual life I live isn’t abstract. It isn’t about transcending or ascending. It is about inhabiting it. Staying close to what feels nourishing and steady. I care deeply about design and flow and creating beauty calms my nervous system and I soften.
This is why caring for my skin has always been fun and matters to me.
There's a version of mainstream anti-aging that's all about resisting aging. This pressure to correct and change.
I am interested in adornment and aging with care.
A reverence for what the body has carried and created. My loose tummy skin from carrying three pregnancies is currently my favorite part of my body. Just yesterday an ad popped up on my feed on how to tone and make that stretchy skin disappear. It’s interesting how we are always being sold and told what to care about. What I’ve come to know is just how important we anchor to ourselves. I just melt with love when I get a glimpse of the folds and creases it creates. All that to say, I find myself embracing change and witnessing it unfold while tending myself in ways that feel luminous, regulated, and deeply at home.
So for me, glowing isn’t about looking younger. It is about staying strong and nourished as I move forward.
I’m 41. A mother of three young children ~ six, almost 4, and sixteen months. My days are full. My attention is pulled in various directions. My nervous system is often asked to respond and hold.
So the way I care for my skin is simple and effective. The ritual is a small pocket of time that feels like a big payoff. And it is much deeper than the skin.
At some point in midlife, glowing becomes about being in right relationship. You realize that the emotional litter you’ve been holding is directly related to how you glow.
Different seasons call for different layers of self care.
As a Libra rising, I find myself in the middle ground on how graceful aging is interpreted. As a mom of three littles, I do feel their youth rub off on me. I want to be vibrant and radiant. I see myself in the Swiss Alps in 10 years just as active as I am now feeling at home in my skin.
I’m not a purest in the way of having no desire to tend to my sun spots and wrinkles. But I am deeply committed to aging with dignity and having fun with it without heavy intervention.
My Skin Rituals
(Tried and true!)
For this share I’m only including my tried and true that actually moves the needle. Full disclosure I am a YES kind of person and I do try various products but in an act to only share what I use on a daily basis and not overwhelm, these are what I love.
CLEANSING
I love cleansingbalms. The moisture surge feels deeply rejuvenating and like heavenly dew drops! I massage into my dry skin and follow with a hot wash cloth.
I tend to rotate between these two cleansing balms and love them both!
AM SERUMS
in order of application:
Barrier Restore Serum by Marie Veronique
Like an instant hydrofacial, this serum feels delicious and nourishing.Vitamin C&E by Marie Veronique
Absolutely essential for healthy skin. I noticed an even skin tone and less pigmentation as well support with oxidative stress.
This oil feels so clean and just melts into my skin. I find myself going back to this oil again and again.
PM SERUM:
Replenishing Balm by Furtuna Skin
A very potent and rich balm that deeply sinks in.
Multi-Retinol Night Emulsion - Marie Veronique
A very effective clean retinol that truly makes a noticeable difference:
Phyto-Retinol Clinical Serum by True Botanicals
I adore this serum. I’ll either rotate nightly or use this prior to the Retinol
EYE CARE:
Every morning, this is my ritual. A small token of replenishment instantly lifts my spirit as I drink my coffee in the surrounded by utter chaos that is young children.
WEEKLY TREATMENTS:
Night Use Exfoliating Skin Pads:
WEEKLY MASK:
Revitalizing Bathtime:
Other
Red Light Laser
This is my absolute bliss and nightly ritual that I do at least five days a week. I do this after the kids are asleep and it is my wind-down. I’m able to fully relax and spend time with my husband while also doing what relaxes my nervous system and feels like an elevated gift to me.
Silk Pillow Cases:
Movement:
Yoga ~ been really into hot yoga and sweating / lymph stimulation
On my list to try:
Truth is, I have done plenty of microneedling and microcurrent and absolutely love it - though I haven't made time for it since having kids!
Microneedling
Microcurrent
Space Ritual
Make sure you have a window open, this matters.
Smoke needs a place to travel and space needs a way to breathe.
I like to begin at the front door, or at any clear threshold or entryway.
From there, I move counterclockwise through the space first. This pass is for cleansing, loosening what has settled, stirring what has grown still. If I’m moving through my entire home, I pause briefly in each room and set a simple intention, allowing the smoke to reach corners, doorways, and places where energy tends to collect.
After completing the first round, I begin again, this time moving clockwise. This pass is about blessing and restoration. I offer gratitude. I invite love. I acknowledge the protective energies already present in the walls, the floor, the bones of the space.
If I sense something out of place, I stay with gentle language:
I see you. I hear you. It’s okay to move on. Thank you.
I don’t command. I witness it. I allow the field to reorganize itself.
I’ll link the moxa sticks I use below for those who prefer not to gather or prepare their own.
Personal Ritual
For personal clearing and blessing, I work slowly and simply.
I begin counterclockwise, moving from the feet upward.
I let the smoke pass gently around my body never forcing, never rushing. This is not about removing something “bad,” but about restoring coherence and warmth to my field.
I imagine the smoke gathering me back into myself.
Calling my energy home.
Sealing what feels porous.
Strengthening what has thinned.
When I finish, I take a breath and allow the warmth to settle before stepping back into my day.
This is the first smoke at the hearth.
A saining.
A consecration.
A calling back.
This is what it means to raise the hearth smoke.
