Field Notes
with
Susannah Taylor,
The Glow Gazette
4th August 2024 5 minutes
Field Notes
with Susannah Taylor,
The Glow Gazette
4th August 2024 5 minutes
We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Susannah Taylor of The Glow Gazette. With nearly 25 years of experience as a beauty and wellbeing editor at Glamour, Vogue, YOU magazine and Grazia, Susannah believes that true glow comes from within, combining the benefits of beauty products with the harmony of mind, body and spirit.
Through The Glow Gazette, she champions "Skin, Soul and Sanity," promoting inner and outer radiance through practices such as nature, creativity, beauty and more. Read our interview with Susannah below.
Can you tell us more about your journey as a beauty and wellbeing editor? What inspired you to enter this field nearly 25 years ago?
I slightly fell into it to be honest! Ever since I was little I desperately wanted to be a fashion writer, but it seems the universe had different plans for me.
I worked on a very trendy fashion magazine called Scene in my early twenties and they had just fired their beauty editor and asked if I wanted to do all the beauty. Obviously I said yes and went on from there to become beauty editor at Glamour before becoming beauty and health editor at Vogue and then starting getthegloss.com. In those early days I wrote mostly about beauty but in my thirties, when I really started to focus on my own wellbeing, I focused more on health and wellness.
Strangely when I look back at my final year project at St Martins School of Art I did a magazine on wellbeing that was based on the senses. It was like I came full circle as my newsletter The Glow Gazette has a section on the senses too.
We love your phrase ‘Skin, Soul, and Sanity’? Can you elaborate on how these three elements interplay to create a holistic approach to beauty and wellness?
With a background in wellness as well as beauty I know that in order to radiate from the outside, you have to radiate from the inside too (hence the name The Glow Gazette). You can’t just paper over the cracks. What we do on the inside is just as important (if not more so) as what we do on the outside, and I’m not just talking about our nutrition. How we think, what we consume, how we act, how we communicate are all part of glowing as brightly as possible.
The Glow Gazette is about all the elements that make us glow. Skin: the outside glow is a mirror of good health, Soul: what lights us up from within, and Sanity: how manage our emotional and mental health in this crazy world we live in today.
From your perspective, what are some of the most exciting trends in beauty and wellness right now, particularly in the realm of mindful skincare?
There is a lot of research about functional fragrance which I think is really fascinating too – fragrances that are proven to change how we feel and alter our emotional state.
I also think that we are returning to ancient rituals. More than ever we need to feel something and we (me included) are using our skincare regime as means of self care. Skincare for me is about connecting to myself and caring for myself, about taking time out rather than just about the quality of my skin (although I care about that too!)
How do you think connecting with nature influences our wellbeing and, consequently, our appearance? Do you have any personal practices or routines that involve nature to help you feel and look better?
I think Nature has an enormous effect on our wellbeing and sadly we have become quite divorced from it.. It’s not woo-woo, it is now scientifically proven to boost our physical and mental wellbeing. Phytocines from trees are now actually proven to boost our immunity against disease. We, as humans have evolved from nature and it makes complete sense to me that we need to spend more time in it and that it naturally has everything we need to support ourselves.
For me, there is nothing greater than exercising outside. I run outside and walk the dog when I can. In the mornings I also open the window and do some breathwork listening to the birds outside. I have also transformed a big gravel area outside out house into a courtyard garden – it is a very special place now with trees, plants birds and bees.
Can you tell us a little about any self care rituals that help maintain balance both inside and out? How do these rituals fit into your daily or weekly routine?
I have recently restarted meditating. I practice Vedic Meditation which I learnt years ago and fell off the bandwagon. I am now back on it. I try to do it when I wake up in the morning first thing and later in the day when I can (you are meant to do it twice a day).
I also exercise – I run, go to the gym and do yoga. I try to do all three in a week. I am also fascinated by the breath and am learning to be a breathwork practitioner. Breathwork has helped me a lot over the years and I want to be able to help others with it.
Something else I love to do which is a form of selfcare is painting and drawing.
Can you walk us through your daily skincare routine? How do botanical products fit into this routine?
Morning – I wash my face with water (it is quite dry so I don’t use a wash in the mornings), I then use a face spritz, and deep moisturiser, with SPF in the summer.
Evening – I use a cleansing balm or face wash and really massage my skin. I often apply oils at night – I love the aromatherapy scent which I inhale deeply and it takes me into ‘switch off mode’.
Once a week I use an exfoliator. I like to keep skincare quite simple as I feel you can overload your skin and it needs to be nurtured rather than attacked especially at midlife.
What does natural beauty mean to you?
Natural beauty for me is about letting your inner beauty shine through.
Finally, which are your favourite AMLY products and how do you include them in your everyday rituals?
I have recently really got into face mists– I think they can really boost hydration throughout the day and I love the AMLY Radiance Boost Face Mist which I apply under a face serum to lock in moisture and throughout the day when my skin needs a wake up.
I also love the Deep Reveal Nourishing Cleansing Balm and Face Mask. It’s heavenly at the end of the long day to massage slowly into the skin. It calms my mind and boosts my skin and takes off every last bit of makeup.
I also love the Sleep Tight Face Balm which is deeply nourishing, contains lots of incredible nourishing oils and smells like heaven. My skin feels nourished right through to the morning.