A New Chapter: Why I Bought a Skin Clinic (And Why It Makes Perfect Sense)

You know that moment when you catch your reflection and think, when did I start looking so tired? That question comes up again and again for women in perimenopause and menopause, and it’s rarely just about vanity. Dryness, dullness, fine lines, pigmentation and a changing jawline can show up fast, and it can feel like your face is telling a story you didn’t agree to.

I’m Susie Garden, naturopath and clinical nutritionist, and this week I’m sharing some personal news - I’ve bought a boutique advanced skin clinic called e-skin in Southport on the Gold Coast. It isn’t a hard pivot away from hormones, weight, sleep and gut health. It’s an expansion of the same mission: helping you feel like yourself again, from the inside and the outside, because the two are inseparable.

We unpack why skin changes so dramatically in your 40s and 50s, starting with oestrogen and the skin’s oestrogen receptors. We talk collagen (including the stat that women lose around 30% in the first five years after menopause - yikes!), why stress and cortisol can dull and weaken the skin barrier, and why your skincare products may suddenly stop working. I also share my philosophy on evidence-based skincare and treatments, plus how to make choices without getting trapped by pressure to look younger.

If you’re ready for a healthier, more confident approach to menopause skin, hit subscribe or follow, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review if you can. What part of your skin changes has surprised you most lately?

Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause or menopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -

1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@the.perimenopause.path or @eskin.goldcoast

3. Book your appt package at The Perimenopause Path Clinic here. Or if you'd like a single appt, book here.

Transcript

Welcome And The Mirror Moment

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Autumn Podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and ageing so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome Podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset, and outrageous confidence. Hit subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. I'm your host, Susie Garden, Perimenopause Naturopath, weight loss nutritionist, and founder of the Perimenopause Path Clinic. Today's episode is a little bit different because I have some exciting news to share with you. And it's something I've been working on behind the scenes for quite some time now. It feels like forever. And I'm really excited that I can finally talk about it. But before I tell you exactly what it is, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, when did I start looking so tired? I know I have. Not so much old, but maybe sometimes, uh, but just tired. You know, maybe your skin suddenly feels dry or tight, doesn't have the glow that it used to. Maybe you've started noticing fine lines that seem to appear almost overnight. And maybe your jawline doesn't look as defined. Maybe you've developed pigmentation that wasn't there a few years ago. And maybe, just maybe, you look in the mirror and think, I don't look how I feel. And I think that's something so many women experience during peri and post-menopause. And that's why today's conversation is about a lot more than just skincare. It's about confidence, it's about aging well or defying your age, if you want to put it like that. And ultimately, it's about recognizing yourself again. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you'll know that I spend a lot of time talking about hormones in relationship with weight, sleep, brain fog, energy, mood, all so many other things. And it's always about helping women feel like themselves again. That is my core goal. But over the years, something interesting has kept happening in clinic. And women, you know, they come to see me because they gain weight or they want help with their symptoms, um, such as being exhausted because I couldn't sleep. We'd work together, they do the glow protocol, their energy would improve, their inflammation would reduce, their confidence would start coming back. And many of them would say to me, My colleague says to me, My skin is glowing. And that is, in fact, why I called my program the GLOW Protocol. Because almost inevitably, women start talking about their skin. They say things like, you know, Susie, my skin has changed so much. I've never had dry skin before. I feel like I've aged 10 years into my skincare isn't working anymore. I just look so tired. And I realized something, and that is that weight wasn't the whole story. Hormones really weren't the whole story. The bigger picture was this. Women want to feel healthy, they want to feel vibrant, and they wanted the outside to reflect how much better they were beginning to feel on the inside. And you know, honestly, that makes complete sense. Because whether we like it or not, the face we see in the mirror every morning can affect how we feel, and not because we're vain, but because we're human. So I think it's time I let you in on what I've been working on.

The Big News Behind ESkin

SPEAKER_00 4:13

So a few months ago, an opportunity came along that I just simply couldn't ignore. I had the chance to purchase a beautiful boutique advanced skin clinic. And after a lot of thought and a lot of excitement, and yes, if I'm honest, a few sleepless nights, I decided to say yes. It's very scary. But today I'm incredibly excited to officially share with you that I'm now the proud owner of a beautiful boutique skin clinic called ESkin, and it's in Southport on the Gold Coast. And now, if you're thinking, like, what? Hang on, a skin clinic? You're not a beautician, and no, I'm not. Uh, so stay with me because I promise this isn't a complete change of direction. I'm not about to go and study beauty therapy, although I think it'd be quite fun. In fact, honestly, I think it's one of the most natural progressions my business could ever have taken. Because when I really stopped to think about why women come to see me and what they need, it was never just about losing weight. It wasn't even just about hormones, although these things are important and core to what I do. It's about confidence and it's about feeling comfortable in their skin, quite literally. And whether that's having the energy to play with your kids or your grandkids, whether it's feeling confident, wearing clothes they love, whether it's sleeping through the night or looking in the mirror and thinking, there I am. That's always been the mission. Helping women feel like themselves again. And buying e-skin doesn't change that mission. It expands it. And now I have the opportunity to help women from both directions, supporting health from the inside and that glow that women report when they do the glow protocol, but also supporting healthy skin from the outside. Because the truth is these two things are inseparable. So

Oestrogen And Sudden Skin Shifts

SPEAKER_00 6:21

let's talk about why so many women suddenly notice dramatic changes in their skin during their 40s and 50s. And if you've ever thought it happened overnight, you're not imagining it. One of the biggest reasons is estrogen. Many of us think of estrogen as a reproductive hormone. But estrogen is incredibly important for healthy skin. In fact, our skin has estrogen receptors throughout it, and this estrogen helps maintain our collagen, our elastin, our hydration, our skin thickness, our wound healing, our oil production, even blood flow to the skin. So when estrogen begins fluctuating during perimenopause, your skin starts behaving differently. It can become drier, less plump, more fragile, less resilient. And perhaps the most confronting change of all is it simply doesn't bounce back the way it used to. You know, you might notice that after a busy week or a poor night's sleep or a stressful month, your face can reflect this. And that's because your skin is one of the first places hormonal changes become visible. And you would have experienced that throughout your life with your cycle, right? For many women, they get breakouts in very specific places that we know indicate their hormonal breakouts. Um, so we know this. Your skin is one of the first places hormonal changes become visible. And I think that's why these changes can feel so emotional, because they're literally staring back at us every morning when we look in the mirror. So let's talk about collagen because oh my gosh, collagen is so hot. It's been hot probably for a couple of years now and it's continuing to be. And when people think about skin aging, the first thing they usually think about is collagen. And collagen is incredibly important. It's the proteins that give our skin structure, firmness, and strength. You can think of it as the scaffolding that holds everything up. And as we get older, that scaffolding naturally starts to weaken. In fact, women lose around 30% of their skin's collagen in the first five years after menopause. I'm just gonna say that again because this is a big deal. Women lose around 30% of their skin's collagen in the first five years after menopause. And then it's followed by about 2% per year after that. And when I first learned that statistic, and I have talked about this on the podcast before, um, I remember thinking, well, you know, no wonder we feel like we've aged overnight when this is happening so rapidly. Because from the outside, it can feel exactly like that. That one, you know, one year your skin feels relatively normal, and the next it's just a little thinner, particularly around the temple area, you might notice it, around the brow area. Um, skin can feel drier, it can feel less elastic, those little smile lines that only used to appear when you smiled suddenly decide to stay. But, you know, here's what's really interesting. We we hear a lot about collagen, but collagen is only one piece of the puzzle. Healthy skin depends on so many things working together. So, like your hormones, your nutrition, absolutely, your gut health, your inflammation levels, your stress, your sleep, your circulation, your muscle mass, your bone density, even your blood sugar. And that's one of the reasons I've become so passionate about looking at skin through a much broader lens.

Skin Reflects Sleep Stress And Gut

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Because while creams absolutely have their place, beautiful healthy skin isn't created in a bottle. It is built every single day by what's happening inside your body. Your skin is a reflection of your health. And one of the things I love about skin is that it's incredibly honest. I'm sure we've all experienced this. It's incredibly honest. Your skin can't hide. When you run down, it often shows. When you're dehydrated, absolutely it shows. When you've been surviving on coffee and toast because life's been busy, your skin will usually let you know. If you have a few days or a week of poor sleep, you will often see it in your face before you even feel it. And chronic stress has an enormous impact on our skin too. And when cortisol remains elevated, as it does when we have stress over periods of time, it can impair the skin barrier. It can increase inflammation and slow down collagen production. And maybe you've even noticed that during particularly stressful times, your skin can suddenly look dull, tired, irritated. You know, that's not your imagination. Your skin and your nervous system and your gut, which is part of this kind of nervous system, are constantly talking to one another. Which is exactly why I don't believe we can separate skin health from overall health. And when someone comes into clinic, into my clinic, wanting better skin, my brain doesn't immediately jump to what skincare products are you using, right? I'm thinking, how are they sleeping? What's their nutrition like? Are they eating enough? How stressed are they? What's their gut health like? What's their inflammation levels like? Could they be deficient in nutrients that support healthy skin? What's happening with your hormones? Because we've ignored, if we ignore everything happening under the surface, we're often only treating part of the problem. So let's talk about why your old skincare may not be working anymore. And this is something I hear all the time. It's like, Susie, I've been using the same moisturizer for 10 years and suddenly it's doing nothing. Or my skin has become so dry and I haven't changed anything. If you're experiencing that or have experienced that, you're certainly not alone. As oestrogen declines, your skin produces less oil. The skin barrier becomes weaker, hydration is lost more easily, cell turnover slows down, collagen production decreases. So depressing, right? So, you know, products that worked beautifully when you were 35 simply may not be enough when you're 50 or even 45. And that doesn't mean that we're bad products. It just means that your skin has different needs now. So think about it this way: you would not expect the nutritional needs of a growing teenager to be exactly the same as as those of a woman in her 40s or 50s. Our skin evolves too, and our skincare needs to evolve with it. And sometimes that means introducing ingredients like vitamin C, peptides, or vitamin A. Sometimes it means changing to richer moisturizers or oils, even. I use argan oil most of the time as a moisturizer at night, and they better support the skin barrier. And sometimes it means simplifying your routine rather than adding 10 different products. Instagram has a lot to answer for when it comes to these complicated routines. You really don't need anything super complicated. And sometimes, you know, you gotta perhaps recognize that skincare alone can only do so much. And this brings me something to something that I'm incredibly passionate about.

Wellness Meets Evidence Based Treatments

SPEAKER_00 14:22

For years, the wellness industry and the aesthetics industry have almost behaved like they're on opposite teams. On one side, you have people saying you don't need skincare, you don't need treatments, just eat well. And on the other side, you have people saying you don't need to change your eating, you don't need to change your lifestyle, just have this treatment, just use this cream. Personally, I don't think either approach tells the whole story. Because imagine, you know, you're building a beautiful house. You wouldn't spend all your money decorating the walls if the foundations were unstable. But equally, you wouldn't pour, I don't know, a beautiful concrete slab and then decide never to paint the walls. You need both. Healthy skin works exactly the same way. Nutrition creates the building blocks. Protein provides the amino acids your body uses to make collagen. Vitamin C is essential for collagen synthesis. Healthy fats help support the skin barrier. Adequate hydration allows skin cells to function properly and helps with detox. And good sleep is when much of your body's repair work takes place. Strength training supports muscle mass, bone health, circulation, and healthy aging throughout the body. Managing stress helps reduce chronic inflammation. All of those things strengthen the foundations. These are your lifestyle activities that support this. And then professional skincare and evidence-based treatments can enhance those foundations. They can stimulate collagen, they can improve skin texture, reduce pigmentation, support hydration, improve skin quality. Now, notice I didn't say make you look 25 again, because that's never been my philosophy. My goal is not to erase every line from someone's face. My goal is to help women look like the healthiest, most vibrant version of themselves. And there's a big difference. My goal is not for women to stop looking like themselves. I would love for women to look in the mirror and smile because the woman staring back at them looks rested, looks healthy, looks confident, like she feels alive again. And I think that's a way more empowering goal than chasing perfection. So if healthy skin is about so much more than expensive creams, and if aging isn't actually something we need to fear, what does healthy aging really look like? And perhaps even more importantly, how do we make decisions about skin treatments without getting caught up in the pressure to look younger? And that's what I want to talk about next. Let's just have an honest conversation for a minute. I think women are in a really difficult position when it comes to aging. On the one hand, we're told we should simply embrace every wrinkle and never care about how we look. And on the other hand, social media bombards us with messages telling us we need to erase every sign of aging before anyone notices. And I see this. I follow a lot of uh women who are aging naturally, they look absolutely beautiful and they get hammered with criticism, even though they look incredible. They just get criticism after criticism, mainly from men, to be honest. Um, but also women saying, you know, you've let yourself go. You shouldn't be, you know, letting your hair go gray, for example. That's the one that I hear a lot on these accounts. And this is exhausting. If I'm honest, I don't actually agree with either extreme. I don't think caring about your appearance makes you vain. And I don't think choosing to have skin treatments means you're trying to deny your age. Those are two completely different things. And I often think about this, you know, as if someone colors their gray hair, nobody bats an eyelid if they whiten their teeth, no one judges them if they wear makeup. Most people see this as completely normal. So why is there sometimes shame attached to wanting healthier skin? Why do women feel like they have to apologize for wanting to look more refreshed? Personally, I don't think they should. I think people should just do whatever they want to do, you know? I think every woman deserves to feel confident when she looks in the mirror. And not because her worth depends on her appearance, far from it. Your worth has absolutely nothing to do with your skin. But for many women, confidence matters. Feeling good matters, looking in the mirror and loving what you're seeing matters. And if there are safe, evidence-based ways to help you feel more confident, I think that everyone should do what they want to do. And I think it's something worth celebrating, not criticizing. So people in my circle have already started asking me, so Susie, does this mean you're becoming an aesthetics clinic? And no, not exactly, because I don't think e-skin is really in the business of aesthetics. I think we're in the business of confidence. And that might sound like a small distinction, but I actually think it's a really important one. I'm not interested in making women look like someone else. I'm not interested in chasing trends. And I certainly don't want women feeling pressured to freeze every expression or erase every line that tells the story of a life well lived. What I am interested in is helping women look like the healthiest, happiest version of themselves. And sometimes that means improving skin quality. Sometimes it's restoring hydration. Sometimes it's reducing pigmentation that developed during pregnancy or menopause. And sometimes it's stimulating collagen so the skin looks stronger and healthier or maybe a little lifted. Sometimes it's simply helping someone feel comfortable leaving the house without foundation for the first time in years. Those moments are about so much more than skin. They're about confidence, they're about freedom, they're about recognizing yourself again. And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you'll probably realize that's exactly what we've been talking about. Helping women feel like themselves again. And now I'm just simply able to offer another way of doing that, which I'm just so excited about. So, what can you expect to change? Not really, actually. Like the Ageless and Awesome podcast isn't suddenly becoming a skincare podcast. We're

A New Direction Without The Pressure

SPEAKER_00 23:35

still going to be talking about all the things you love, like hormones and how to help, nutrition, weight, brain frogs, brain frog, I say that a lot, brain fog, sleep, gut health, healthy aging, all of the things that you've come here for. But from time to time, we're also going to explore skin health. And honestly, when I've done skin, Health episodes in the past, I always are the most popular ones. That and belly fat. They're my most popular topics. Because skin is health. And I think there is so much misinformation out there, such as should you take collagen or is it a waste of time? Do expensive serums actually work? What treatments are backed by evidence? Is red light therapy worth the investment? What about microneedling? LED, laser, injectables. How do you know what's right for you? We're really going to have some fun conversations over the coming weeks. And my promise is exactly the same as it's always been. I'll never recommend something simply because it's popular. I'll recommend what the evidence tells us. And if it's something isn't worth your money, I'll tell you that too. So as I was thinking about today's episode, I kept coming back to one thought, which is what if we changed the conversation around healthy aging? And instead of asking, how do I stop getting older? I hate that question. We start, what if we started asking how do I age as well as I possibly can? Because aging itself isn't the problem. In fact, growing older is the goal, right? It's a privilege. Not everyone gets to do it. The goal is not to look 25 forever. I don't want to look 25. I just want to look like me. The goal is to feel vibrant, to stay strong, to stay curious, to nourish your body, to protect your brain, to support your hormones, absolutely, to look after your skin, to build muscle, to move every day, to laugh often, to sleep well, to keep learning, keep traveling, keep saying yes to adventures, to create a life that feels good on the inside. My motto. Because when you do all of those things, something amazing happens. You begin to glow, not because of a cream, not because of a treatment, not because someone guessed you were 10 years younger. You glow because you're healthy, you're confident, you're content and deeply connected to yourself. That's the kind of aging I'm passionate about. And I hope it's the kind of aging that we can all aspire to together. Now, before we finish today, I just wanted to say thank you, thank you for being part of this community. Many of you have been listening to this podcast since the very beginning, when it was the wellness glow. The very beginning. And you've trusted me with your health, your questions, and your stories. And it honestly means the world to me. And I'm incredibly excited about this next chapter, not because I bought another business, but because it allows me to support women in an even more complete way. Healthy aging, aging well has never been about choosing between wellness and aesthetics. It's about bringing them together thoughtfully, ethically, and with your long-term health at the center of every decision. So if you've ever looked in the mirror and thought, I just don't look like me anymore, or I don't like what I'm seeing, please know that you're not alone. And more importantly, you have options. And whether that starts with improving your nutrition, supporting your hormones, looking after your skin, or simply learning more about what's happening to your body, there is so much you can do. Now, if you'd like to learn more about the Globe Protocol or the Perimenopause Path Clinic or eSkin, you'll find links

Links Special Offer And Closing

SPEAKER_00 27:36

in the show notes. If you want to follow eSkin on Instagram, the handle is e-skin. Sorry, okay, let me start again. I don't even this is very new. It's eSkin.goldcoast. All right, at eskin.goldcoast. And we've got a little special running at the moment. So uh I'll let you find that on uh Instagram. Or if you want to know more, please just email me hello at susegarden.com. And if this episode resonated with you, I would love you to share it with a friend. Because I've have a feeling that there are a lot of women who need to hear this message. So until next time, take care of yourself, be kind to your body, embrace this incredible season of life, and remember healthy skin isn't about looking younger. It's about looking like the healthiest, most confident version of you. I hope you enjoyed this podcast and I look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday when I uh release my next episode. Thank you. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. If you would like this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at the Perimetopause Park. I would love to connect with you.