Beauty Buzz Spotlight: The Healthier Together Podcast (episode with Jessica DeFino)

Hello, everyone! We are taking a small break from normal content this week so I can share with you about a great new podcast (and one amazing episode) I just discovered last week. The podcast is "Healthier Together With Liz Moody". Liz Moody is a famous health writer and editor and cookbook author, well-known for her famous "Healthier Together Cookbook" that features a wide array of diverse and nutritious gluten-free and dairy-free recipes. Her podcast, in turn, talks of more than just healthy living from a food perspective and covers everything from exercise practices to dating, and relationships, parenthood, mental health (and the overall mind-body connection), basically everything about living and well-being . This also includes many episodes on skin health and skincare.

In the skincare-related episode I listened to that got me onto this podcast Liz speaks with prolific beauty journalist Jessica DeFino. I've read quite a lot of Jessica's articles in publications like Allure and Harper's BAZZAR over the years. But here, Jessica really talks about skin beauty and quality stemming not from products but from, in fact, just the opposite-- overall bodily health and its ability to take care of itself and to be left alone to do it's job. In effect, to Jessica, it is all about product minimalization. Topics such as the relationship between radiant skin appearance and the health of the gut microbiome and beneficial bacteria are discussed at length as well as which foods and lifestyle inclusions are beneficial for skin health and restoration and which may not be as effective or even possibly detrimental. Perhaps my favorite parts, though, were the questioning of long-held and commonly talked about skincare advice and rhetoric such as the negative consequences of exfoliation and why celebrated ingredients such as retinol and hyaluronic acid may not be the skin saviors we think they are and are perhaps a misleading answer to this thing we call "anti-aging" or "well aging" skincare. Speaking of which, there is a lot said about beauty industry marketing and language too that is brilliant food for thought as well as really insightful and somewhat unconventional tips for dealing with chief ongoing skin concerns like acne, chronic dehydration, and inflammation. In just the bit over an hour of hearing these women speak, I feel that my approach to treating and protecting my skin has been fortified and also will be undergoing some new revolutions.

If you love beauty, health, skincare, questioning norms, or just learning new perspectives, I highly recommend giving this episode of the Healthier Together podcast a listen.