Episode 364: The GlowJob x Forever35 Cross Over Episode!
It’s an extra-special cross-over episode when the co-hosts of GlowJob, Julia Bellary and Sasa Li, join Doree and Elise to chat about all things beauty! They get into the realities of going to aesthetician school, the future of dupes and which ones to keep an eye on, and the importance of listening to your skin about which products feel right.
Plus, Doree returns from her vacation refreshed, and Elise shares an update on her biopsy experience.
Mentioned in this Episode
Emotional Highlights from Jesus Christ Superstar at Hollywood Bowl | TikTok
Elf
NYX
Tower28 Cream blush
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Transcript
This transcript is AI generated.
Doree Shafrir (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise Hu (00:17):
And I'm Elise Hu. And we are two friends who like to talk a lot about serums.
Doree Shafrir (00:22):
Welcome back to the show. We have a very special crossover episode with the GlowJob Podcast today.
Elise Hu (00:32):
Yeah, those ladies are rad. If y'all haven't tuned in or you haven't heard about GlowJob yet, you will later in the episode when you meet the two very glowy, very knowledgeable hosts of that show. But first Doree, welcome back. Doree's, been on summer vacation. Thank you so much on the East Coast. Tell us all about it.
Doree Shafrir (00:54):
Thank you. Yeah, it was really nice. I mean, it was a lot of driving, but it was all good. And I got to see a lot of family, which was really nice, and spend time with my parents, my brother, my sister, my nieces, my son, my husband. The list goes on. We were in Connecticut at my brother's house Monday and Tuesday. And on Tuesday my brother took Matt golfing because it was my birthday.
Elise Hu (01:37):
Oh, happy birthday to Matt.
Doree Shafrir (01:38):
Happy birthday. Matt and I hung out with my niece. My son stayed in Boston with my parents and I got to hang out with my 8-year-old niece and I don't have a girl, so it was fun to do girl stuff. I mean, stereotypically girl stuff. I'm sure Henry would enjoy a manicure and pedicure, but it's not so much that he's a boy, it's that I don't think he would've the patience, but I could try it. I was getting builder gel put on and it took a really long time. And so I kept adding things on to my, I was like, do you want a foot massage? Do you also want to chair massage? Just trying to get her to not be bored. And then we did some back to school shopping. She wanted to go to Walmart, so we headed to Walmart and she picked out some Hello Kitty stuff some, she's very into care Bears
Elise Hu (02:45):
Man. All the cool toys of our youth are back.
Doree Shafrir (02:50):
I know. Or I guess they never left. She really wanted checkered converse slip ins. They don't have name brand shoes at Walmart though, so she wasn't able to get those, but she did get a checkered backpack, so that was exciting.
Elise Hu (03:08):
Cute. Cute.
Doree Shafrir (03:10):
Yeah. So that was super fun. And it was nice to hang with my brother and yeah, it was good. And it was nice that he and Matt got to spend some quality time together.
Elise Hu (03:21):
I'm so glad. And then Matt and Henry are staying over a little longer too. Right. So you have the house to yourself?
Doree Shafrir (03:28):
I have the house myself, sort of my tennis, my next tennis tournament starts tomorrow, so I won't really be around the
Elise Hu (03:41):
House. Exciting for the next round of sectionals. The other sectionals, if you will.
Doree Shafrir (03:47):
Yes.
Elise Hu (03:48):
Great. Well, I don't have too much to report from here. I already told the Minneapolis listeners on Wednesday. The biopsy is complete. They needle me. They got some cells out. I'll find out what is in those cells within I think three to five business days. So we await that. It was not that painful. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to drive home, but it wasn't bad because they give you lidocaine and then it's just kind of pressure. But it is weird knowing that they're rooting around your boob in there. The radiologist was a really jolly guy and he meets everyone while they're out on their back with their boob out. So I was like, Hey, what's up doctor? Whatever your name is, sorry to be meeting you this way. And he's like, don't worry, this is how I meet everyone. I don't even know if he would recognize me if I were standing up because I was just like on my back with my boob out. Oh my God. So that happened. And then the girls have been in ice skating camp all week, but down at the facility where the LA Kings train in El Segundo, because it's hard to find ice rinks and ice time and they really like the camp, but it is between noon and five each day.
Doree Shafrir (05:12):
What an inconvenient amount of time and inconvenient start time.
Elise Hu (05:20):
And then I had asked Maddie their dad to help out and do some of these, and he did, I think two of them. And then he was like, I have reached my limit for impositions. I can't do this anymore. And I was like, I feel you. I feel you on that. And so I have one more day of that, and then school starts school. School is back.
Doree Shafrir (05:44):
School is back, baby.
Elise Hu (05:46):
Yeah. I cannot believe it.
Doree Shafrir (05:48):
I know. It was like I left LA and we were still in the throes of summer and now I'm back and it's like, oh, school's starting. And it was just a week. But it does feel like that week was sort of big.
Elise Hu (06:05):
Well, you were gone when we had our big cultural event of la, which was Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood
Doree Shafrir (06:11):
Bowl. I know. Oh my God, so many people I know. Were there. Did you go?
Elise Hu (06:14):
I wasn't there, but I had dinner with Rob's bestie, Darren and his wife, miss C, and they were there and they said it was an out of body religious experience seeing that show and how good Adam Lambert and Cynthia were. The whole cast was great. I think
Doree Shafrir (06:30):
They
Elise Hu (06:30):
Didn't, so I think the night they went, Josh Gad was replaced at the last minute by John Stamos.
Doree Shafrir (06:36):
I think he had COVID.
Elise Hu (06:38):
Oh, and Josh Gad was apparently better, so they didn't get Josh Gad, but they just said overall they couldn't believe it, that this cast and crew came together and the amount of talent, like the stratospheric talent and that it was, they had rehearsed for three weeks, just for three nights.
Doree Shafrir (06:54):
That's crazy.
Elise Hu (06:55):
It was three nights. It was like a shooting star. It happened. Then it's over.
Doree Shafrir (06:59):
I saw a really cool TikTok from the woman who runs the cameras at the Hollywood Bowl. Oh, interesting. It was very cool. So she's like, okay, ready One telling them each shot they have to do in real time. I mean live tv, it's basically live tv. Yes. It was really cool. I guess she does a lot of those shows, so that was cool. You'll have
Elise Hu (07:25):
To link it. Yes,
Doree Shafrir (07:26):
Yes, I will. Well, I have to find it. I don't know if I can find it again, but I'll try to find it. And then, yeah, I saw a lot of comments being like Adam Lambert just rolled up in his regular Saturday night outfit Excuse was in a sea silver seat sequin blazer, and I guess he also very dramatically took his ear monitors out and was just singing.
Elise Hu (07:56):
Wow. Wow. Because he's such a diva. So good.
Doree Shafrir (08:00):
I mean, you got to love him.
Elise Hu (08:02):
Absolutely perfect for that role.
Doree Shafrir (08:04):
Yeah. I was sad to not be here for that, but
Elise Hu (08:10):
It's a big
Doree Shafrir (08:10):
Thing. Glad to have experienced it on social media.
Elise Hu (08:14):
There was a 24 hour window where that's all I saw. It was just Jesus Christ superstar at the Hollywood. Totally, totally. I'm glad. I'm glad it was such a cultural event. I feel like LA has needed it. It's been quite a year for la, so thank you to the artists making art out there. So those are kind of the big highlights from here. It's been pretty chill. It's been over overall pretty chill here. I haven't thrown any new parties or gotten any hair-brained schemes to throw any new parties. I know
Doree Shafrir (08:50):
It's been three weeks. You haven't thrown another party.
Elise Hu (08:53):
I know, but it was the altitude in Aspen. I'm still kind of recovering.
Doree Shafrir (08:58):
That messed me up. That's fair. That is fair.
Elise Hu (09:02):
Yeah. But we're back and yeah, excited to be podcasting again.
Doree Shafrir (09:08):
Yes. Should we introduce our guests?
Elise Hu (09:12):
So as Doree mentioned at the top of the show, we wanted to chat with the co-hosts of GlowJob. They are Julia Bellary and Sasa Li. They dive into the world of beauty, skin health, and the industry at large on their show. It explores how it intersects with business, pop culture and society. They come from two different kinds of backgrounds. Julia is a former tech executive who recently transitioned to the skincare industry, so that's what gives her some expertise in the industry itself. She leads strategic marketing at Lemu Cosmetics, a Los Angeles based skincare brand. She also has expertise in digital marketing, brand activations and customer experience. She's a uc, Berkeley art history grad and spent over a decade in San Francisco managing sales and partnerships for companies like Oracle and DocuSign outside of work. You can find her on the golf course. She's a golfer or experimenting with the latest in Korean beauty. They get into all their K beauty products, which is great.
Doree Shafrir (10:12):
Sasa is a former fashion designer, turned finance professional. She earned her BFA from Parson School of Design, and she has an MBA from New York University. I love that left brain right brains thing she has going.
Elise Hu (10:26):
A little lady,
Doree Shafrir (10:26):
She started her career as a costume designer for commercial projects. Her clients included people you may have heard of Kendrick Lamar and bd. She began her finance career at Goldman Sachs and she's now a private wealth advisor at Wells Fargo Private Bank in Beverly Hills. She manages assets for ultra high net worth entrepreneurs and executives, but she remains deeply connected with her art and design roots, and she serves on the board of trustees of the New School, which is her alma mater. Parsons is part of the new school. So yeah, they were both really interesting, really brilliant, gorgeous people. They were, as Elise alluded to earlier, they were literally glowing. So their podcast is aptly named.
Elise Hu (11:12):
Yes, yes.
Doree Shafrir (11:14):
And it was fun to talk to them. Just before we get to Julia and Sasa, just a reminder that you can visit our website Forever35podcast.com. We have links there to everything you mentioned on the show, including everything that Julian Sasa mentioned, and we are on Instagram at Forever35podcast. Our Patreon is at patreon.com/foreverthreefive. We do our weekly casual chats there, our monthly pop culture chats there, and it's just a good time. You also support the show. We also have ad-free episodes on our Patreon.
Elise Hu (11:47):
Sure
Doree Shafrir (11:48):
Do. You can check those out. Our favorite products are at shop my us slash Forever35. Our newsletter is at Forever five podcast do com slash newsletter. And if you want to reach us, please call or text us at (781) 591-0390 and email us at Forever35podcast@gmail.com and we will be right back.
Elise Hu (12:08):
We'll be right back with the GlowJob Gals.
Doree Shafrir (12:18):
We are so excited to be talking to the Women from the GlowJob podcast. Welcome to Forever35. So today we are just going to have a chat between the two shows, and I'm really excited to get into it. Julia and Sasa, can you tell us a little bit about where did this podcast come from? Why did you want to start this show?
Sasa Li (12:43):
So Julia and I met kind of serendipitously. We had both at that time, recently moved to la I moved from New York to la. Julia relocated from SF to LA, and we both enrolled in an esthetician program, mostly purely out of just interest. Yeah, yeah. We're definitely self-proclaimed beauty nerds. So esthetician School seemed like a way to learn practical beauty. And Julia, I saw her on the first day of class. Literally, we were in the very first class together. We were both waitlisted for this one in particular, and there were only two seats left and there were 20 people in the classroom fighting for two seats. And so it was kind of like, yeah, right. I know
Julia Bellary (13:32):
It was the wild, wild West wildly. It was the Hunger game, just competing for these last two seats. But luckily we both got in and then we had to sit in the back of the class. We hadn't signed up, but we were sitting in the back and became fast friends after that. The common theme was that we were always talking about beauty because that to us, it's just fun. We love sharing what's going on, the new launches, how it's relating to pop culture, what we're seeing on social media, the m and as that are happening in beauty. Exactly. I think Sasa's background in finance, and I come from a tech background. I think what was interesting with our conversations is that we were constantly kind of tying in not just the glitz and the glamor of beauty, but also kind of what goes on behind the scenes and understanding from a more business lens and just kind of chit-chatting about that. But even going to esthetician school, LA's a great place to be in the beauty industry. From there, we just realized let's start a podcast. And it was just really organic after that, and we officially launched in February of this year.
Elise Hu (14:37):
Wow. Well, you sound great. You sound great together. I have to know, are you both estheticians now? Did you get licensed?
Sasa Li (14:47):
No. The thing about esthetician school, and this is sort of our take, it's a great place to learn the basics and pretty early on you can determine whether or not you actually want to be an esthetician. And very early on, we both decided we do not want to be estheticians.
Julia Bellary (15:07):
And in reality, I think a lot of the program, yes, there are maybe 75% of the people want to go and become practicing aestheticians, whether it's Facialists or Waxers. And then the rest are just kind of salsa and I where it's a little bit more of a hobby. But the school we went to, it was also super modular. It wasn't like one of those nine to five, five days a week programs. You just kind of take a class as you go. So when we both signed up, we were just dipping our toes into the water. But yeah.
Doree Shafrir (15:35):
So what did you learn in esthetician school that really surprised you?
Sasa Li (15:41):
What was surprising to me was how basic the level of training is, because you have to realize esthetician programs are training you to pass the state board. It's almost like when you take an SAT class teaching to the test. Yeah, exactly. Got it. So it's like that is the end goal, and the state board is trying to make sure that you don't get sued, you don't get sued, you don't cut someone, you don't get someone infected with a bacterial infection. And those are all really important things.
Doree Shafrir (16:12):
I was just going to say, all sound important.
Julia Bellary (16:15):
Valid. They're definitely important, but I think that the biggest thing that you learn at Aesthetician School is how to take care of wounds, disinfection, sanitation, and referring people to doctors with a little bit of skincare sprinkled in between.
Elise Hu (16:28):
Okay, that's interesting. Okay, before we wrap up, then we will have you talk to us about wound care, just like quick wound care tips.
Julia Bellary (16:39):
We got you.
Elise Hu (16:40):
Honestly. Exactly. We don't have as interesting of an origin story. We were introduced by a shared editor, Doree and myself.
Sasa Li (16:50):
Oh, no way.
Elise Hu (16:50):
Both of us have written books. Doree's written too. She's written a novel and a memoir. And the freelance editor who helped Doree with her memoir also, I then hired several years later to help me with my book Flawless, which is about the rise of Korean beauty. And she was great. She spoke really glowingly of Doree, and I think Carrie introduced us so that I could get a copy of my book to Doree, who she, then she wrote a little nice quote about it, which is on the back of the book to this day, and we still hadn't met in person, but then, I don't know if y'all know Dr. Becky, this parenting guru, she's like a big parenting coach, and she has this brand called Good Inside, and her book, good Inside was coming out, and that's where Doree and I actually met. We met at a brunch for yet another book. So we sound like very literary people. I love it. Which we are not actually in real life, but we met there and Doree had been running Forever35 and hosting Forever35 with the co-founder Kate Spencer since gosh, what, 2018, right? Doree?
Doree Shafrir (18:00):
2018.
Elise Hu (18:02):
Yeah. So Forever35 has been around for a minute.
Doree Shafrir (18:05):
Kate was leaving, and I was faced with this question of do I keep the show going? Do we just stop? What do we do? Do I do it by myself? I don't know. And then Elise and I had lunch and I was like, Hmm, Elise seems great. And then I was like, this might sound crazy, but would you ever want to host the show with me? And she, as I now know Elise's game to try anything. So she was like, sure, that's what you need in a co-host.
Elise Hu (18:38):
Yeah.
Doree Shafrir (18:39):
Yes, exactly. Love
Elise Hu (18:40):
That. I also worked at Super Salad, so yes, I basically say yes to all jobs.
Julia Bellary (18:46):
Wait, that's amazing. Elise, had you done podcasting before or is this your first
Elise Hu (18:51):
You have
Julia Bellary (18:51):
Some experience?
Elise Hu (18:52):
No. Yeah, I've been a broadcast journalist my whole adult life. So I went to school for broadcast journalism. I went to Missouri, which is the world's oldest journalism school. They take a lot of pride in that. And then from there, I did a lot of TV news. So I was a TV news reporter standing outside a crime scene at the 11 o'clock news. And then most of my, I guess I would say the latter half of my twenties and my thirties, I was at NPR, so a lot of audio. And so now I like podcasts for a living basically. And it's so much fun
Doree Shafrir (19:28):
A couple months after we started because we were like, we'll do it as a trial, Elise, if you're not into it, we can just do it for the summer and then if you don't want to do it anymore, you don't have to. And I remember we had coffee and Elise was like, wait, so people like that we're just kind of talking about ourselves? And I was like, yes.
Elise Hu (19:49):
That was so surprising to me because as journalists, very Capital J, hard news journalists, you're always taught to leave yourself out of stuff. Nobody wants to know about what's going on with your dog, but that's the total opposite.
Doree Shafrir (20:03):
Yeah. We're getting questions we want to get to know Elise better, talk more about what she's into. And Elise was like, what?
Julia Bellary (20:12):
Oh, okay. Oh, I love that. No, it's so interesting just watching how Parasocial relationships form through podcasting because with your background in broadcast journalism and talking about how it's so different than just kind of the relaxed nature of podcasting, one of the things that we've discovered coming from seeing a lot of beauty content and just kind what's out there, the big difference is not that beauty content is stuffy, but most of it is short form content. So it's been our favorite thing to really get more than, I don't know, 30 seconds to talk about what's actually going on. Yes.
Sasa Li (20:50):
I'm really curious for your guys' background given sort of like you said, the literary background, the journalism background, hot takes on the rise of, and I see this, it's across the board, but a lot of traditional journalists who have now turned to podcasting and who are trying to inject more of their personality voice, I tend to see it a little bit more on the right than on the left. And it's just really interesting and I feel like it is probably going to get embraced across the board moving forward, just because podcasts are so much more popular now. I'm curious if that is something you guys see too.
Elise Hu (21:25):
Yeah, I mean, it's been a total transition to this creator economy, and so many big names in journalism are now just running their substack and making a lot of money directly because the models that paid us just have kind of fallen apart for various reasons, largely because of the rise of the social internet and things like that. What I worry about though, and I'm totally in favor of more voices being creators in all forms, I only worry that the kinds of journalism that's going to hold City Hall accountable or the kinds that are really boring and about climate change or something that people don't necessarily gravitate to or is just not going to be covered or there's not going to be a way to fund that kind of journalism as a result. Because if we're all creators, we're all incentivized to make engaging content and make the content that we know works really well with audiences. Then what about the content that doesn't work well for audiences, but is still really important?
Sasa Li (22:26):
I feel like we even see that in beauty too, right? It's like, what's the thing that's going to be most viral? Let's just try to chase the most viral topic, or whatever you want to call it, versus
Elise Hu (22:37):
Or emotional or whatever.
Doree Shafrir (22:39):
Yeah. What topics in beauty have you found to be especially controversial or hot topics lately?
Julia Bellary (22:48):
It's been really exciting because as a new podcast, we get to try a lot of different formats of episodes to see what our audience likes and really just learn about them. And so I think our first super viral episode was about the history of Estee Lauder. So we almost did it like an acquired style where it was quite lengthy and we really went through a hundred years of beauty. But then talking about the pop culture things, whether it be Love Island or the Maha Movement or Republican makeup trends, I think we tend to lean on the side where we just like to, we're not taking a side, but just have something a little spicier to say, I think is always been fun for us. Yeah, I think
Sasa Li (23:34):
It's a lot of, we like to have the kind of dialogue that you want to hear, but you're not hearing. So another episode we did was on the morals and ethics of ES and dupe culture, which beauty is the queen of dupes, right? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, nothing is binary. Totally. To us. There's a side, there's multiple sides to the story.
Elise Hu (23:56):
Where did y'all land on dup culture? We have just interviewed a guest who was like, I think Duke culture is on its way out. That is something that is not going to stand the test of time. But where did you land after batting it around?
Julia Bellary (24:11):
When we were first planning the episode, we literally did it like a speech and debate as we were doing prep where I was team K, anti dupe and saw so as Team Pro. And I think giving ourselves that assignment going into it really helped us to unpack both sides and where people are coming from. But I think overall, our consensus was Ds are okay, they're good. And I think depending on what people are dealing with from an economic background or the availability of petty cash for them to spend on a beauty product, we think that dupes are a great option for people to not spend outside of their means.
Sasa Li (24:50):
These brands who spend so much r and d and rightfully so, they're pissed off when a brand blatantly just rips off the branding, the back label, everything, all of that. And so there's definitely a fair argument there, and that's part of the moral quandary of a dupe. But I don't know, hot take, I don't think ES are going anywhere. If not, don't think so. If there's a demand and there's clearly a demand from the consumer that's it's never going to go away. Everyone always wants a cheaper option. And the platforms that we shop off of nowadays, they only incentivize that,
Julia Bellary (25:24):
Right? Let's get it
Sasa Li (25:25):
Cheaper,
Julia Bellary (25:25):
Faster. And I think the only difference is whether it's a dupe or whether it is an absolute fake of a product. And so for example, if you go on Alibaba, you can literally see road products, mediq products, any trendy product, they will sell it to you for 2 cents on the dollar, but it's not the same formula. It's literally only the packaging. So it's those kinds of dupes that we are not for, but whether it's like a Knick or an elf, I can't say anything bad about them really.
Doree Shafrir (25:56):
I think that's such an important distinction. Is it a fake, is it actually trying to say that it is this other more expensive product or is it an imitation of it? And I think sometimes those distinctions get blurred.
Sasa Li (26:11):
Oh, totally.
Doree Shafrir (26:12):
Yeah.
Sasa Li (26:12):
And perhaps it's kind of a little on purpose. Even some of the really great Es, as Julia was mentioning, like the Knicks and the elfs and the, what is that Australian brand? Is it mco that brand that's mco? I think their entire line is, I mean, their founder, as even said, our business strategy is to create es. That's how we grow. So it is a little bit in the DNA makeup of some of these brands is to try to emulate the higher end brand as much as possible. But you're right, just straight out counterfeits are dangerous and can really mess your skin. Yeah, pro tube anti counterfeit. Yeah, that's
Doree Shafrir (26:49):
Where we'll draw the line. There we go. Yeah.
Sasa Li (26:50):
Yeah, I like
Doree Shafrir (26:50):
That. Yeah, I like that. Yes,
Elise Hu (26:52):
I like that this conversation helped kind of put a finer point on it. That's great. And then my follow-up is of course, what are your favorite dupes? Your imitations, not counterfeit products? You mentioned Elf, you mentioned Nix, but as you have tried them out in your own lives, are there certain products that you like that kind of emulate another product that you think is close to the real thing or as great as the real thing? Or even better?
Sasa Li (27:21):
I'm trying to think of one off the top of my mind, but one product I think that gets duped so much is the Dior lip oil. And it's beautiful. It's aesthetic. It's got that pretty little cap. It's Dior and it looks nice on your vanity. Honestly, I'm trying to think of a few that I like, but a lot of brands have duped that product since, and quite frankly, they're all quite nice for a fraction of the cost. I love a la
Julia Bellary (27:47):
Toil, right? And for me, when I think about dupes, I like a makeup dupe, but I am way more skeptical when it comes to a skincare dupe. And it's only because when you have an understanding of formulation and the delivery of active ingredients, the likelihood of a company being able to dupe hard science is way lower than just duping something in the color cosmetic space. So I think that's another distinction to
Elise Hu (28:16):
Add except for this one essence that I need to just really ride hard
Julia Bellary (28:21):
For. Oh, let's hear it.
Elise Hu (28:22):
Okay. So SK two makes its really famous facial treatment essence that sells one bottle every three seconds or something around the world. It's $190 and it looks just like water. But about 10 years ago, I discovered that Isha, which is like a storefront Korean beauty brand, they make a dupe of it called First Treatment or something essence, and it's basically the same, and it's the best dupe that I know of out in the world,
Julia Bellary (28:53):
The Piera that SK two uses. It's really only a galacto mce ferment filtrate, and you can see that ingredient in so many toners, like the ordinary just released one. And so it's not the most expensive ingredient to formulate with. So I'm not surprised that Misha would crank out a good one.
Elise Hu (29:10):
I don't know what words you just said there when you were talking about all those ingredients, but I totally believe you.
Sasa Li (29:19):
I think that's part of the, okay, so this actually brings up a really interesting topic because some of these ingredients and skincare are words with a bunch of syllables that we are not familiar with. They make it sound as if it's spooky and mystical and like, Ooh, this is too complicated for you to understand, which is why it's almost $200. But when you boil it down, a lot of these ingredients are so cheap to when they buy them in bulk, buying these from ingredient suppliers. And so you were talking earlier, at least about your book, about K beauty. I think what K Beauty has done so well has been to formulate products using these kinds of ingredients and introducing 'em at price points that are sub $50 and way more accessible, and also doing a really good job of marketing or explaining why these ingredients are efficacious. I don't know. I think I feel like that kind of Eurocentric prestige skincare has kind of got a rival in K Beauty, which has made it a lot easier to just disseminate for
Elise Hu (30:23):
Sure. It is called the Misha Time Revolution, the first essence, this is the dupe and it's $19. Oh,
Doree Shafrir (30:31):
Yeah. This is a famous du of that essence,
Elise Hu (30:36):
10% of the cost of the original.
Sasa Li (30:40):
Crazy. That is wild. But that also kind of goes to show you the margins. The margins, and you can price one product at $190 and then another product at 1999, and yet I bet you they both are profitable companies doing quite well.
Elise Hu (30:57):
Yeah,
Sasa Li (30:58):
Wild. I know. Yeah. What are your guys' favorite dupes besides the Misha essence? Well,
Elise Hu (31:04):
That's mine. I feel like it's like I will ride hard for that product basically forever.
Doree Shafrir (31:10):
I'm trying to think. I do use a Knicks concealer that I really like, and I don't know if it's a specific dupe of a specific concealer. It's the Knicks Can't Stop, won't stop. I assume it probably is. I just don't know which I'm Googling. I think it's really good. And it's of course eight bucks or something. I love that. Yeah, that's one of the drugstore products that I am pretty loyal to.
Julia Bellary (31:46):
But another thing that a lot of these makeup companies will do is they're not only duping the product, but they even will do colors. So famous shade, famous colors and famous shades, whether it's like the Nars orgasm blush, right? There are so many brands that will kind of come out with a color as similar as possible to that, but that's why people like 'em getting as close as possible to the original cult classic. Totally. Totally.
Elise Hu (32:12):
Okay, let's take a break and we will be right back.
Doree Shafrir (32:22):
Can I ask, your podcast is called GlowJob, and I will say you are both truly glowing. So could we get a little rundown of your skincare and makeup routines, please?
Sasa Li (32:37):
Yeah, I think we both follow the same mantra kiss, which is keep it simple stupid,
Elise Hu (32:43):
Because
Sasa Li (32:45):
Look, you could do a lot of damage to your skin by putting way too much shit on it. And I think sometimes people think, you know what I mean? Yeah. People think more is more. It's really not. Your skin will be so pissed off at you. I'm trying to think. Julia is the makeup girly. I come to Jules for makeup advice, so she is, oh, no. Julia actually taught me how to put on concealer properly. I did, because I used to not mess with concealer. I used to hate concealer. I was like, what is the point of this stuff? It's like goopy. It's so confusing.
Doree Shafrir (33:17):
I mean, also, maybe you didn't have anything to conceal, so very young.
Julia Bellary (33:24):
It's so nice that you say that. I mean, we're almost 35, we're closer to 35 than not. But let me see if I had to break it down. I think one of the challenging things is, and I'm sure you guys are in a similar position, but we get sent a lot of product,
(33:40)
More product than we will ever be able to use. And going to esthetician school, you know how fickle your skin barrier can be. So we are quite picky. So salsa and I, we do a full ingredient deep dive and check every single product we use before we put it on our faces. But some of my favorite brands, we've been doing a lot of exploration into K Beauty lately. We're calling it now, it's the summer of K Beauty. We're seeing so many launches at Sephora, at Ulta, right? All of Yang is coming out here. So we've been dabbling a lot with New K beauty products. And also for me, I've been switching my routine and incorporating more Korean makeup products. So like Misha, I really like Cleo for bass. The Viewy with those little jello pudding pots I think are really fun. But yeah, a new UK beauty,
Sasa Li (34:29):
I should say, a new Korean makeup brand that we discovered recently that I'm actually really enjoying and I think is coming to Ulta pretty soon is Unleash Alicia? Yes. I don't know it. It's so fun. Oh my God, you guys, it's so fun. So it's color cosmetics. They're known for their glitters and glitter shadows. I'm not usually a big glitter shadow person. It can get too. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Too glit sparkly. I'm not trying to go to a Taylor Swift concert right now. That's the kind of vibe I usually think of. But they do these really beautiful nude palettes with a really gorgeous range of colors. They also have these really fun lip products. They just have really, it's something different for I would say, from the kind of makeup I normally use, but the color quality is great.
Julia Bellary (35:22):
Yeah, I think the K beauty, everything that they do is just a little bit different nowadays. Anytime I feel like I go into Sephora, I feel like every brand is just kind of copying each other with every launch. Like, oh, we're releasing a powder blush now we're releasing a powder blush. Now we are releasing a powder blush, and maybe it's because we weren't as savvy to K Beauty. K Korean skincare. Yes. Korean beauty, not so much. So seeing, I agree, these newer products are more exciting, I
Doree Shafrir (35:47):
Think. I feel like we didn't get the specific skincare and makeup routines that you have. Oh,
Julia Bellary (35:54):
Okay. So you want a full breakdown?
Doree Shafrir (35:56):
Yeah, I can
Julia Bellary (35:57):
Do this. So my go-to cleanser these days, I use the one from one skin. It's fabulous. It's super, super gentle. I use a lot of products from Lemu. It is an aesthetician baseline, but they retail to everybody, so I use their toner. So one interesting fact about SSA and I is that we don't really use retinol products even though we are over 30, and it's just for personal preference. For me, I have super sensitive skin. I feel like retinol can be really intense. So I love anything with a growth factor. Lemu has great growth factors or exosomes. I use some from Medicaid or Medic eight. We were just debating how that brand is pronounced and what else do I love.
Elise Hu (36:37):
Doree loves Medicaid too.
Julia Bellary (36:39):
Yeah, I
Elise Hu (36:39):
Do love Medicaid.
Julia Bellary (36:40):
They're fabulous. So lots of fun products there. And then I've been using some mecu also and just incorporating some of, I had to try some of their viral jelly moisturizers because I was just so interested. And then they had that prime day sale, so I was just with ham. That's right. Yeah, so that's skincare. And then for makeup, I mentioned Cleo Cosmetics. I've been using their cushion foundation. Love it. I love say Beauty. Love Tower 28, it's cream product. They're great. I have
Elise Hu (37:09):
Their cream blush on right now.
Julia Bellary (37:11):
Me too. And then Anastacia Dip Brow. I hold that true and true since 2016. I am still repping that on a daily basis. Yeah,
Doree Shafrir (37:20):
I love
Julia Bellary (37:20):
That.
Sasa Li (37:21):
Yeah, I'm trying to think about my routine. So I do a double cleanse in the evenings. So I like Hans Skins. They have a PHA oil-based cleanser that I love. It's just honestly the texture. And it's really great at breaking down just oil and grime and makeup. Then my cleanser, I alternate. Right now I'm using a beauty stat cleanser that has, I'm trying to think. Yeah, I'm using the beauty stat cleanser right now. But Julie was saying before, I've been incorporating a little bit more K beauty recently. I've been really enjoying the mix soon. Ella Tica essence that they came out with. Oh, I've heard about
Elise Hu (37:59):
That.
Sasa Li (38:00):
It's lovely. Honestly, the texture is great. And the bean essence is good too. Yeah, the bean's good, but the Ella one is my favorite. And I sometimes deal with peral dermatitis around my mouth, and it's one of those inflammatory things that honestly, doctors have no idea what causes it, and there are just no ways to really treat it. The simplest way to treat Peral dermatitis is just to go kiss, keep it simple, stupid, and just use very minimal products. But this essence has been so calming, so I really enjoy it at night. I use, I'm trying to think what serum I'm used. Oh, right now I'm using the Saatchi skin try Alpha Pigmentation Corrector. Yes. I've been really enjoying that. They're a lovely London based brand and it's great for anyone with melasma and hyperpigmentation. I dunno if you can see on camera, but I have freckles for days, and they just never go away. They only get stronger and stronger, and it's cute sometimes, but you got to get them under control. And I also like to use the kuchi at night because I don't like using retinol products. So I have one by matter of fact that I really enjoy and yeah, I'm trying to think. I also use similar MU products, like their moisturizer and my go-to sunscreen right now is, I forgot my sunscreen. I know. How could you?
(39:23)
I'm appalled, but right now I'm using the ultraviolet. I have a mineral sunscreen that I really enjoy, and ultraviolet makes a great lip. SPF too. That is the hardest thing for me to find is a lip SPF that I actually want to reapply. I just got their spray. SPF. So here's my gripe about spray S pfs is the only way to formulate a spray SPF is that it has to be really high in alcohol content, and I don't like the smell of
Elise Hu (39:55):
Alcohol on your body. Yeah.
Sasa Li (39:57):
Yes. You know what I mean? When that spray comes out, I feel like I'm in a doctor's clinic and I feel like I'm about to vomit, and so I can't stomach that smell. But it is the only way to
Julia Bellary (40:07):
Stabilize a chemical spray sunscreen. It's the best one there is because I've tried a lot. Right now I'm doing this exercise of trying out every single Korean sunscreen I can get my hands on and just what fun. I know it's been like 10, right? So I've gone through a lot. I know it's been exciting, but also there's new ones dropping every single day, so it's really hard to keep up. It's like that stat you'll never eat at every restaurant in New York City, because more will open up before you ever finish. That's how I feel about this Korean sunscreen experiment.
Elise Hu (40:39):
Well, let me just recommend, if you haven't tried the domi na sunscreen.
Julia Bellary (40:44):
I have tried that one.
Elise Hu (40:45):
I like it. And there's a little bit of pigment to it, and I used it on vacation all of, I guess a couple of weeks ago. And it was pretty solid except thicker than I like.
Julia Bellary (40:57):
That's what I was going to say. It's a little bit thicker than your average Korean sunscreen, but it's supposed to be the most popular one amongst Korean golfers, and it's supposed to be a dark spot really focusing on it like hyperpigmentation.
Elise Hu (41:10):
That's what I was going to say. It just seemed its thicker than I like. Like something a little bit, not as creamy, but it ended up being very protective. So there's that. So did it. I think that's sounds
Elise Hu (41:21):
Like
Elise Hu (41:22):
Yes. Yeah. So if I'm going to go out hiking the Domina Korean sunscreen is very good. Before we wrap up and listeners, we will make sure that on our Forever35 show notes, everything that these ladies just talked about, we will include in our show notes, but also on our shop, my page in case that you want to try some of them. But is there anything that you want to leave us with any wound care tip perhaps that you learned in esthetician school?
Sasa Li (41:53):
Let's see. Well, the first sign of blood, you stop whatever you're doing. Always wear gloves. Yeah. No, no, no. Let's see. Honestly, and this really isn't wound care, and I think I've said it now three times. What I really want to emphasize less is more, especially with your skin. And I think what the, look, both of us, we love the beauty industry. It's fabulous. It's so much fun. Skincare and beauty is just like we could consume this stuff all day. But the beauty industry's incentive is also to get you to buy and try as many things as they possibly can. They are the ones pushing the 15 step agenda. They're behind that. So just be smart with what you are purchasing and putting on your skin. And also patch test. I know. So it sounds so boring and annoying because when you get a new product, you're like, I want to try it right now, but let's save our skin just one day.
Julia Bellary (42:54):
Yeah, you'll appreciate your patch test when it actually
Sasa Li (42:56):
Reacts. But also here is my hot take, which is your skin is also your largest living organ, so maybe we don't need to push it. Maybe that is your sign of. And part of the reason why I stopped using Tretinoin, which is the prescription form of Fentanyl, my skin was saying, I don't think I'm enjoying this anymore. I remember I had a year and a half of great results with Tretinoin, and then by year two, my skin was like it. It's kind of doing
Julia Bellary (43:26):
Really intense hit or Barry's bootcamp. Let's say that, let's say your TRE is Barry's bootcamp. Yes. It's a great workout and it's really good for you, but do you have to do it to get your dream body? No, have not. That's how I would frame it. Yeah. Yeah.
Sasa Li (43:45):
Love that. Pick and juice. What works for you. Awesome. If you're a Pilates girl, do Pilates. You're a hit girl. Do hit.
Julia Bellary (43:50):
I like long walks, so I
Elise Hu (43:53):
Love that for Julia, Sasa, thank you so much! Yeah, y'all were awesome. It was a delight to get to chat with you.
Sasa Li (43:59):
Thank you so much. It was so much
Doree Shafrir (44:01):
Fun. Whenever I talk to people like Julian and Sasa, I'm like, oh, I wish I had a vision like that when I was 30 or however old. They,
Elise Hu (44:17):
I'm really excited about all of the K beauty products that they're very hip to, because I feel like I get really into one certain ones that I really are my MVPs. But there's so many new sunscreens that are, there's so much sunscreen innovation in K Beauty, so I'm excited about all the ones that they talked about.
Doree Shafrir (44:36):
Totally. Well, last week, my intention was to enjoy my time with family. And I'm going to say that I did that. I didn't even talk at the top of the show about the time I spent with my sister. I played tennis.
Elise Hu (44:51):
Sorry. Yeah, sorry. We didn't mention
Doree Shafrir (44:53):
That at the top of the show. Sorry, Sharon. I saw my nieces Henry got to see his cousins, and also my brother and his daughter came up to my sister's house in the Berkshires. So all of us were together for one night, which was really fun also. So I think I fulfilled that intention with flying colors. Now this weekend, as discussed, I have another sectionals tournament. I was very stressed. I realized about the last one and had put a lot of pressure on myself, and I think that made me enjoy it less. And this time I'm just sort of like, I'm just going to enjoy the moment and be happy that I'm there. So that's what I'm doing. What about you?
Elise Hu (45:46):
My intention matched yours. I also wanted to enjoy time with family because I think I had been away and I missed my kids. And they had been away. They had sleepaway camp and I did. I think that it's been really fun. We haven't done anything huge. We did a lot of get togethers with other kids over the weekend, but I stayed around. So it was like the parents and the kids were all together and we went swimming. We went to dinner, we went to puppy yoga.
(46:21)
Yeah, it's yoga class with puppies, a litter of puppies, and they just crawl around and on top of you and lick your face and it's like a real dopamine or serotonin, whichever one it is. It's like a real high to be with the puppies and do yoga at the same time. So I've gotten to do some activities and things with the girls and just chill. And Luna's having a good time, as she always does, taking packaging if we get something delivered and there's excess wrap and styrofoam pieces and she plays with it. She makes various art installations out of it. So it's just been fun kind of being around and not really doing much in particular. So I did it. And then this weekend, there's a really fun tennis tournament going on right now. Not sectionals though. Sectionals is going to be
Doree Shafrir (47:18):
Fun for you. Sectional is very important. Yes.
Elise Hu (47:22):
There's also, I think it's the Canadian Open that's happening where Ben Shelton is a first time finalist in an a p 1000 tennis match. And I'm really excited because Ben Shelton is one of my favorite tennis players. I always feel kind of creepy about it, like 20, and I'm like, he's not that young. No, he's not that young. Is it inappropriate that I'm such a super fan of Ben, but, so my intention will be he's 22. He's 22 still. Yeah. I do feel odd about it, but he's the same age as Alcaraz or something and we all root for him.
Doree Shafrir (48:01):
And Sinner is, I think Sinner's 23, so
Elise Hu (48:05):
They, they're all born after I graduated from high school. So I am really excited for that. So my intention is just going to be to watch and enjoy some tennis. My intention will not be to play tennis, but just to watch it because keeping the expectations low.
Doree Shafrir (48:24):
Can I ask a question about this? Yeah. Do you have the tennis channel? Do you pay for the tennis? I
Elise Hu (48:30):
Do. I sure do you find it working well that way I can watch on my phone too. Yeah, I can watch it on my phone when I'm at airports because I'm in route to things a lot. And so it's fun just to sit around and watch tennis.
Doree Shafrir (48:42):
Yeah. Interesting.
Elise Hu (48:44):
I think it's a worthy investment.
Doree Shafrir (48:46):
Yeah, I've been thinking about it. So. Alright. It's good to hear that you like it. All right, everybody, thanks so much for listening. Thanks for bearing with us while I was on vacation. And just a reminder that Forever35 is hosted and produced by me, do Freer and Elise Hugh, and produced and edited by Samo. Sammy Reed is our project manager and our network partner is a cast. Talk soon. Bye.