Aging Gracefully with Skincare Guru Kristina Holey
Plus, What to Eat/Cook/Drink/Read This Week
Well hello, friend. I am trying a new format here. I am front-loading a longer post with a quick round-up of what I am eating, drinking, cooking, and reading right now (and yes, possibly pandering to the lowest common denominator of attention spans). Let me know if you want more of this going forward in the comments below.
COOK: Bread Cheese
Bread cheese is a dense, buttery cheese that originated in Scandinavia and I just discovered it at my local Whole Foods. The cheese gets its name from its charred crust, which resembles toasted bread. I sear it in a hot cast iron pan until it starts to soften at the edges and eat it on its own, or in soup, salad…it’s taking the place of paneer in my house, and that’s big news.
EAT: The Soup at Azizam
This new casual Persian spot on Sunset in Silver Lake serves up really complex food. I fell for this deep green, hearty vegetarian stew called ash-e-jo, made with barley, tons of puréed greens, and finished with whey. Don’t worry, I am developing my own version for my friends over at SIMPLi to share so you can make it at home, but check out this restaurant if you are in Los Angeles.
DRINK: 60/40
Our house drink is what we call a “60/40.” It’s an interpretation of my favorite cocktail, the 50/50, at my favorite restaurant, Cervo’s in NYC’s Dimes Square. Traditionally, a 50/50 is half gin and half white vermouth. Cervo’s execution hinges on a particular Spanish Vermouth called Manuel Acha Vino. This is a major upgrade to your common Dolin vermouth, with heavier floral notes and a pleasant bitterness. Add 3 ounces gin and 1 ounce vermouth to a cocktail shaker filled with ice and give it a good rumble-tumble. Pour into chilled martini glasses and finish with a Castelvetrano olive.
READ: On All Fours
I am devouring Miranda July’s new book, On All Fours. After spending time with her in Milan while reviewing her solo exhibition at The Prada Foundation, the novel reads like an extension of a dinner conversation with the artist. I am finding her protagonist incredibly relatable.
Parents walking around with their babies always seemed to really have them — completely encircling them with their arms or clasping one dear little hand while crossing the street. This, clearly, was a full meal of love and intimacy. If you were willing to pay the price, you would get a total love not possible with anyone else.
Yes and no. The problem began right at the start, with one of us inside the other, a state that seemed close but was fundamentally distant. I couldn’t even press my ear up against my own pregnant belly to hear them, only other people could. And the born baby was so soft and smooth and cute it was frustrating…I was often trying to put different parts of them in my mouth, as they did with me, but there was no way to consummate the love of your child.
— Miranda July, On All Fours
WEAR: North Face
No longer the proprietary uniform of Prep School Gangsters, I love what North Face is doing right now. I have been wearing their exercise clothes, and recently bought a pair of their fashionable FutureLight hiking boots for summer adventures. I think they are rather chic!
Now, on to the topic du jour, beauty, aging, and my friend, Kristina Holey.
I am no beauty expert, not by a long shot. I spent my formative years as a rashy kid and that played an outsized role in the development of my psyche. When I was six, I acquired a notable skin disease called mucha-habermann that could only be diagnosed by a specialist at Yale (do not google skin diseases -- it never ends well). As a teen, I pulled a beanie down to cover my acne-ridden forehead. It was a stealth solution, however, seasonal. I eventually submitted to a nuclear dose of Accutane, and was confronted daily with its catastrophic potential by the parade of crossed-out, naked pregnant ladies on the back of the blister pack. (Truth be told, I had nothing to worry about — the beanie/acne made becoming pregnant with anybody’s fetal cone head an impossibility).
In my twenties, I kept my skincare routine as vanilla as possible, aside from the occasional homemade honey-avocado mask. When I turned 30, I remember a friend walking me through her nightly beauty regime. The way I saw it, she had squandered untold sums and irretrievable hours of her life in the bathroom, metering out drops of capitalist snake oil. I chided her for buying-in to the false promises of an anti-feminist conspiracy, and I soldiered on with Dr. Bronner’s and a floppy hat.
Vanity is easy to judge from the collagen-rich side of the fence/face. I’m all for valorizing the Iris Apfel’s of the world, vowing to let our hair go gray and invest in kooky glasses in lieu of botox. But let’s be real, it takes effort to age “effortlessly,” especially if we want to feel good while doing it. As I stare down the hill on the other side of 40, the question remains, what actually makes me feel good? I know what doesn’t make me feel good -- fear, spending time and money chasing impossible beauty standards, and comparing myself to others. As my friend Mia Locks so eloquently puts it, “we spent our 20s feeling insecure about our bodies, and we were hot. I’m not going to waste any more time on that.” If only it were so easy for the rest of us.
INTERMISSION: Enjoy this durational video of my stunning Nana massaging her face with cream for a video installation I made in 2011.
I am fundamentally proactive by nature, but that means I have to be extra wary of the temptation to try and control the uncontrollable. No amount of potions or lotions, or self-flagellating “good behavior” can turn back time, but what about figuring out what makes me happy? Vampire facials? No. Facial acupuncture? Yes. Could something so simple be the goal?
I needed a doula, a trusted source for information in the vast world of products, treatments, and fads that were suddenly being thrown at me everywhere from the Dermatologist's office to Instagram.
Enter Kristina Holey, Director of Skin Health at Marie Veronique. Kristina learned about facial massage/sculpting (demo below) from renowned Parisian expert, Joelle Ciocco. It was there where she became an expert at treating symptomatic skin and developed her own holistic approach that relies on diet, lifestyle, and support of the microbiome. She is a voice of reason in a world with unreasonable beauty standards, and in actuality, she spends most of her day helping people with chronic skin issues. (I no longer bother with the dermatologist, I just text Kristina pictures of my kids’ staph infections. Not sure how she feels about that, but I feel great!)
Kristina’s approach to “beauty” mirrors my approach to food, albeit far more scientific. We share the belief that oftentimes, less is more, and that one should always start with the best ingredients when putting anything in or on your body (she once cured a rash of mine by telling me to dip a green tea bag in apple cider vinegar and dab it on the affected area). Because of her, I take great pleasure in caring for my skin every night, not because I expect to rouse from sleep looking ten years younger, but because it makes me feel like my bestest self. And if I decide that botox makes me feel great at some point, I reserve the right to do that too!
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