Chapter 1: Who is Sarah Jossel and what is her background in beauty journalism?
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For full terms, visit the QVC website. Hello and welcome to The Midpoint. My guest today is someone who is much loved and trusted in the beauty industry. Sarah Jostle has been a must read in the Sunday Times style section for over a decade. A straight talking woman on This Morning and she has thrived on social media where she gives absolutely brilliant advice.
A go-to for so many women and men when it comes to product and treatment recommendations. Her book The Diary of a Beauty Editor is out very soon and So it seems like a perfect time to tap into her expertise. And you have been sending in the most brilliant questions. Let's go meet Sarah. Sarah Jossel, welcome to The Midpoint. Thank you for having me.
Very exciting day I meet you on because today is Book Day. The Diary of a Beauty Editor is officially out today. So I've only seen it in PDF form.
I am mortified that you haven't actually had a copy, so I'm going to send you a copy straight after this. But yes, I've had a typical me day where I was so excited I went off to the bookshops. I haven't been able to see it yet. Do you know it's that Instagram versus reality moment where it all looks so glossy, but the book hasn't arrived in any of the bookshops.
So we'll get there, though. But congratulations, because I know you say this in the foreword, I think it is, that it's taken a while to get off the ground, this book. Only five years. Yes, yes. And it prompted a few questions when I was reading the first few chapters. You're quite kind of almost apologetic, first of all, about the you say, look, being a beauty editor is really important.
It's not apologetic. That's the wrong word. You're kind of explaining why beauty is important. And I think that's important to establish now as well. How big an industry beauty is. It's not fickle. It's not shallow. It's worth a lot of money to this country. Of course.
So beauty is a business. We talk a lot about the incredible work that the British Beauty Council do. You know, they are campaigning at Number 10 all the time about whether it is looking at the cosmetic treatments world and how we can be far more careful with what's going on there. It's the high street, you know, how we contribute to the high street. There is just so much business in beauty.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Sarah Jossel share about the importance of the beauty industry?
Because people will, whether they do it subliminally or they do it very overtly, they will decide something about you the minute they look at you. And whether it's because they've seen your fingernails are well kept, they might decide that you look after yourself. They might decide that you've got dirty fingernails, therefore you don't care about yourself. Absolutely. It says so much about you.
Yeah, and it's tiny micro things that we're all taking in all the time. Exactly. Right, and I think we need to get on with the questions because, Sarah Jostle, I have never had a response.
Gabby, I love how you say my name. I've just been telling Gabby I love your voice so much. You need to present Desert Islanders. That is the show for you with that voice.
Okay, the campaign starts here. Lauren, you're wonderful, but you do need a break at some point in your life, and when you are, I'll be ready. You've had an incredible response from our listeners. They love you and they've sent in a wide range of questions. So I really need to get on with them. Okay. I think you'll be able to answer many of these. So I'm turning into an agony aunt for you today.
And I've spoken to a couple of makeup artists in the build-up to speaking to you who you know and you've contacted over the years regarding products. And they all say what they love about your recommendations is that it's not just you on your own at home going, oh, I like this mascara. Yeah.
you contact other people within the industry and you want to know how it's working for them and how long they've been using it. And so, you know, your opinions are incredibly well-researched. So here we go. Here we go. There's a wide range of stuff. Showtime. And a lot of it does pertain to this period of life, obviously. We haven't got too many teenagers. Funny that for the midpoint, yes.
So I could give the weird Instagram handles, but I don't think I will, actually. But Lelwise44 says... Well, I think you just did. We have called her out. Let's see. What are the best treatments for pigmentation, which is caused by hormones? Pigmentation actually often occurs to women first time during pregnancy, doesn't it?
That's when they sometimes get those weird brown kind of marks that start to appear.
Yes, so that would often be melasma, which most... famously will come up on your upper lip or on your forehead, basically areas also that capture the sun. So I really I'm going to we've started on a hard one, Gabby, because pigmentation is one of those subjects that I could tell you everything that you could do. And ultimately, it's still going to come back.
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Chapter 3: How do confidence and self-image relate to beauty in midlife?
Well, I think products, it sounds like something you can buy off the shelf. Fine. Okay. So I'll quickly just say, because if you're saying I don't want Botox or fillers, but I'm interested in something, skin boosters is the world to look into if you're in clinic.
Is that... Okay.
Skin boosters... No. No. So skin boosters are injectables, but they are not going to plump your face or freeze your face. They are working on the collagen underneath your skin to help with the texture of your skin and what it looks like. So...
Skin boosters are things like Tulane, polynucleotides, and they're a really, really interesting time for them because what they're not doing is they're not changing your face. They're helping the texture and essentially what your skin looks like rather than distorting your face shape in any way. So skin boosters are really interesting.
It's what a lot of news presenters and celebrities are doing because no one would know. You just look fresher. Okay. And I do think we're in that. Is this the one that sometimes is called salmon sperm? Yes, that's polynucleotide. So it sounds worse than it is in that sense. In terms of products, retinoids. So you will probably have heard of them as retinol. Like, you know, you should use retinol.
And I was like, how or what? But that would be the number one step proven effective. Any consultant dermatologist who I talk a lot about in the book, they are the fairy godmothers of the skincare world. They have studied the science of skin for decades. They will tell you after SPF, retinoids is the number one step for improving your texture, fine lines, pigmentation, acne prone, etc.
And for that... The number one you could ever use if you want to look at toleration is a prescription retinoid called tretinoin. So I'm going to say that as your number one.
So you have to get a prescription.
So that is if you're going for like... I want this to be the most hardworking level of it. But if you're like, I'm not going to go and get a prescription now, then I would look at a brand like Medicaid, M-E-D-I-K, they're the number eight. They have a range called Crystal Retinol, and it starts at number one, that is the gentlest, and you can work your way up, I think, to number 10 now.
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Chapter 4: What are the best treatments for pigmentation caused by hormones?
Because skin is skin. And yes, this also affects the eye area. People always say about eye creams, do you really need an eye cream? Yes, the skin on the neck and the skin around the eyes are slightly different. But if you are time poor, if you are on a budget, if you are thinking, I want to, you know, just get the best products in the right areas, it's also the same to the back of your hands.
Use all the same products. So that would be a cleanser, that would be a serum, and that would be an SPF and a moisturiser if needed. Those four steps, you're doing it on your face anyway, just do it on the neck.
Amazing neck, Sarah Jostle. Wow.
Thank you. I'm turning 40 in two weeks.
So you're getting ready for the big day. I'm getting ready. Yeah. Well, you're looking great. So we've got the neck covered. We've got teenage.
Yes, I would say just very quickly on the neck in terms of treatments, because people always ask me about this. You can do great things with tightening with lasers around the neck area. So I would say radio frequency, lasers. Some people can do Botox to do... Yeah, almost like the vertical lines that people might have Botox in it, in the neck. But again... It goes back to where it was.
So unless you're going to be able to do it regularly, it's quite an expensive route to start if you're going to need to stop. What you could do is say it's before a big birthday or something like that. You could do it as a one off, but just know treatments like Botox, they're not helping what's going on behind the scenes. It's just almost like a mask and the mask will drop.
Sorry, that sounds quite depressing.
So Claudia Mahoney said... Claudia, we love you. Claudia and I worked together at Glamour magazine. You certainly did. And she loves you. And she sent about three different messages for you. But this is the one I've picked out. She said, as we head to our 50s, am I right to use hourglass or should I be looking at heavier foundation coverage?
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Chapter 5: How can one maintain youthful skin without fillers or Botox?
I love Revolution, which is in Superdrug. Again, you would just never, ever know that price point. Rimmel eyeliners, probably some of the best out there. Lipsticks, again, really hard, I think, because...
longevity is hard when when you're looking at high street lipsticks they tend to look great but then they tend to start gathering around the sides except kiko k-i-k-o it's the smart fusion range is the one i always rave about so if you love neutral nudes smart fusion have the most brilliant lipsticks do you still use or would you use lip coat to keep a lipstick on
I mean, I don't use it because I think lipsticks in today's market last exceptionally well. But India Knight, who also writes for Sunday Times Style, we did a talk the other night and somebody asked, you know, where's lip coat? Lip coat's still there. And it's still doing its thing and people still love it. It's my mum and my mummy's tea. Yeah, no, people still absolutely love it.
But now with technology today, there's just... Lipsticks last. Amen. Hallelujah.
They don't all end up on your glass.
Yeah, exactly.
People talk about night creams. HFK82 says, what is the best night cream? What is a night cream?
So this is something I upset a lot of brands with, especially in the book, because I don't use a night cream. You can use the same moisturizer in the morning and the evening. As long as it hasn't got SPF, they should be absolutely fine to use day and night. The only thing that separates a night cream from other creams is it definitely won't have SPF in it because you're going to sleep in it.
And the only other thing you might consider is if your night cream is very rich... you might find it doesn't sit that well under makeup and you might want to use something lighter. But otherwise, you do not need a separate day and night cream. It's quite an old-fashioned marketing concept that brands still have because people still want a night cream, but you don't need it.
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