0:00

You're listening to a Mama

0:03

Mia podcast. Mama Mia acknowledges

0:05

the traditional owners of land and waters

0:07

that this podcast is recorded on. And

0:10

she said, oh, you've had some lasers. And I

0:12

said, no, I actually haven't since last winter. And

0:15

she said, usually coming with a lot of pigmentation, but

0:17

you don't have any. And I

0:19

was like, I know why I have

0:21

nailed my skincare. Makeup

0:23

is my therapy. I'm

0:26

obsessed and I don't even feel guilty about

0:28

it. Hello

0:32

and welcome to Yee Beauty, the daily

0:34

podcast for your face. I'm Erin Doketty

0:36

and welcome to The Formula. Every

0:39

week I sit down with celebs and some

0:41

of the biggest names in beauty and take

0:43

a look into their skincare routines. And

0:46

if there's one thing us Yewbies can

0:48

all agree on, it's our collective obsession

0:50

with Zoe Foster Blake. Everyone

0:52

loves her, feels like they know her.

0:54

And if you're like me, you probably

0:56

used to read her helpful, witty and

0:58

easy to understand Cosmo beauty pages back

1:00

in the day. You might even

1:03

have a beaten up copy of her book,

1:05

Air Kisses on Your Bookshelf. And

1:07

look, there's a teeny bit in all of us

1:09

that kind of reckons we'd actually be great friends

1:11

with her. And look, I've

1:14

interviewed Zoe before and let me tell

1:16

you, you should never meet people you

1:18

admire. Unless of course, it's Zoe Foster

1:20

Blake. Because put simply,

1:22

she's great. As a

1:25

successful beauty expert and founder of

1:27

one of Australia's biggest skincare brands,

1:29

GoTo Skincare, she just knows a

1:31

lot of stuff, including what's good

1:33

to put on your face. So

1:36

it makes a lot of sense why GoTo

1:38

has such a cult following. From

1:40

its humble beginnings a decade ago, yes,

1:43

it's been 10 years since GoTo

1:45

hit the market, to becoming

1:47

a staple in bathroom cupboards

1:49

worldwide, Zoe's journey with her

1:51

iconic peachy coloured skincare brand

1:53

is pretty incredible. But

1:56

today, we're getting to the bottom

1:58

of Zoe's skin. More specifically... what

2:00

she does to it. We know she

2:02

loves to use her own brands on her

2:04

face because obviously, what about the

2:06

best ingredients for mature skin or the

2:09

safest way to exfoliate? Or

2:11

what skincare trends does she think are

2:13

really overrated? I have

2:15

precisely all the questions for us so

2:18

please make yourself comfy, grab a cup

2:20

of tea and listen to everything Zoe

2:22

Foster Blake puts on her

2:24

face. Yeah such beautiful skin

2:27

like how? Zoe

2:30

hello welcome we're so bloody

2:32

excited to have you here. I

2:35

want to start if you could break down

2:37

your skincare routine in three words what

2:39

would it be? Consistent and I

2:41

think a lot of people are looking for

2:43

you know the magic cure but like exercise

2:45

or diet it's just consistency. Like

2:47

don't make enough time or very little

2:49

time for treatments anymore unless I

2:51

have a really big event coming out for it's post summer and

2:53

I need to be clean out but what

2:56

I've honestly noticed is that with really good

2:58

daily use of keen ingredients

3:00

that stuff becomes less important. It's

3:02

nice to have. Simple I

3:04

don't want to be spending a lot of time doing

3:06

my skin. I see some

3:08

routines online and I'm dazzled by

3:11

them. There's devices, there's masks and

3:13

I'm like this is daily how

3:15

are you doing this? And

3:17

I think I speak for our customer when I'm

3:19

like I just don't have that time to give

3:22

me better shit in smaller packages and I can

3:24

use less steps. And then effective,

3:26

how to work? So I don't want to use

3:28

a super accent all of them have to deliver.

3:30

I mean the brand is called GoTo because

3:32

I was rebelling against my

3:34

beauty editing years of having so

3:37

many products and being

3:39

overwhelmed and just like wanting to keep that work.

3:41

I feel that on a whole other level just

3:44

talking about like trying so many things and

3:46

just forever on the hunt for that little

3:48

golden nugget that's going to change it all.

3:50

And there's lots out there. It's just you

3:53

can spend you know 45 minutes

3:55

every morning slapping everything on your face.

3:57

So I love the consistency, the simplicity.

3:59

I'm all here for it. Tell me

4:01

about what your skin is actually like

4:04

and what kind of concerns that you

4:06

deal with on the regular. So I

4:08

feel like a bit of a big

4:10

head because I've come hot off. I

4:12

had a facial before I did the

4:14

party and some press. This is my

4:16

facialist Natasha. I've been seeing over 20

4:19

years in Sydney. And

4:21

she's all cool, but she's fantastic. And she said,

4:23

oh, you had some leisas because I also see

4:25

Melanie Grant for some segmentation leisas and so on.

4:28

But no, I actually haven't seen her last winter.

4:30

At the end of summer, she said, you usually come in with

4:32

a lot of presentation, but you don't have any. And I

4:35

was like, I know why. I have now my skincare. And

4:37

I finally, finally have. What it really has come down to is cycling. And I

4:39

know everyone's talking about cycling. It's not new, but I haven't really done it. And now

4:41

I am like devout. And the next night

4:43

is my vital name. And the next night is my glycolic. And the next night

4:45

is my gloic. And the next night is my gloic. And the next night is

4:47

my gloic. And the next night is my gloic. And now I am like devout. And

4:51

the next night is my vital name. And the next night is my gloic. And the next

4:53

night is my vital name. of it. And

4:55

then of course, vitamin C in the morning. They're

4:58

old school. Everyone knows them. They're

5:00

proven. But when you use them

5:02

in the correct way, and of course, you're using

5:04

a lot of SPF, I

5:09

really have seen tremendous, amazing

5:11

results. Obviously,

5:14

you have all of the experience in

5:16

the world. I

5:21

want to know what's the best skincare tip you've

5:24

learned along the way. Because

5:27

I remember interviewing you a couple of years back,

5:29

and you told me about the sponge technique, which was, you know, always

5:31

applying serums to damp skin. And

5:35

I was like, I'm going to do this. But

5:40

I know you come out with these golden nuggets.

5:42

Do you have a skincare tip that

5:44

you've kind of picked up and have been applying to your

5:48

own routine? Yeah, sure. I think one

5:51

of them is using new methods, particularly using

5:53

new skincare tips. I

5:56

think it's a really important part of the

5:58

process. hyaluronic

6:00

put a lid on it and

6:02

I think there's a lot of people who

6:04

are disappointed and disenchanted with their hyaluronic acids

6:06

because they feel like they might even be

6:08

drawing their skin out. So the first step is

6:11

to dampen the skin. The second step

6:13

is don't leave it hanging. Put something on

6:15

it. You know I see

6:17

my husband cleanse and stop and

6:19

it kills me because you've just taken

6:21

out the skin. You put stuff back in.

6:24

You take out, you put back in and again

6:26

a lot of my friends you know they have

6:28

tweens and teens and they're like oh she cleanses at

6:30

night. I'm like then what? She

6:32

cleanses. But they're like you've got

6:34

to moisturise. That's the way she's

6:36

using. Just put something on there

6:38

please. So it still comes down

6:40

to ab and in and I think it

6:42

gets more sophisticated when you're using you know

6:45

if you're constantly resurfacing with your AHAs

6:47

or your vitamin A's and you're not

6:49

protecting your barrier keeping that strong. Yeah so

6:51

I think it's an ab and in sort

6:53

of situation. Honey

6:56

what is your self care routine?

6:58

Give us a dirty deep

7:00

breath. Let's go into your

7:03

routine. I want you to talk me

7:05

through your AM and PM skincare routine.

7:07

So in the morning I don't have

7:09

oily skin so I don't need to

7:12

cleanse or tone in the morning. I

7:14

just rinse with water and

7:16

then I will go on with my much brighter

7:18

skin which is our vitamin C nice and

7:20

high beautiful brightening serum. Then I'll

7:23

go on with face hero. Push

7:25

that in all over for glow and

7:27

antioxidants and nourishment. Depending if my skin

7:29

is dry I might use very full

7:31

face cream next but normally I just go on

7:33

with nifty 50 which is our DIY striker. And

7:36

if you could just cleanse or

7:38

rinse me and see an SPF. You could do

7:40

two steps in the morning. I don't

7:42

think a morning is the time to be over complicating

7:45

particularly if you've got children you need to get up and join you've got

7:47

to get to work on those things. Why is vitamin

7:49

C such a staple for you in the

7:51

morning? Vitamin C is a very

7:53

very powerful antioxidant without getting

7:56

too boring about it. It's just really

7:58

useful if you use... any

8:01

kind of exfoliant because you're constantly

8:03

making your skin more susceptible to

8:05

sun damage. And when you've got

8:07

anti-episomes in your skin, they're going to help those

8:09

free radicals that are already assisting your skin to

8:11

be neutralized, which means they're not going to flare

8:13

up and you're going to get the melanin kicking

8:15

off. But also just love the

8:18

brightening. So with some of your type of pigmentation,

8:20

you're never going to get rid of it, but

8:22

you can certainly limit it and maintain and vitamin

8:24

C is going to be your best, best friend in that. So

8:26

I like the brightened skin. I really believe

8:29

that even skin tone is

8:31

more powerful as a youth

8:33

signifier, for whatever better term,

8:35

than no wrinkles. Is there

8:37

any other brands that you've kind of dipped your

8:39

toes in the waters of that you also

8:42

like to use or have tried and liked? Oh

8:45

God, yeah, heaps and heaps. For your

8:47

morning routine? No. Oh yeah, of course.

8:49

No. Why would

8:51

you make vices if you don't want to use them? I

8:54

really am at a stage where I

8:56

have successfully created every product I want

8:58

to use and I don't need

9:00

to use any of the brands. If

9:02

I do, it's usually a brand that is

9:04

a bit of a weird clinical bar brand

9:07

that my specialist has given me to try.

9:10

One of them is Ginead and that's just a lovely

9:12

French bar brand. She might be

9:14

like, try this cleanser or this mask. Talk

9:17

me a little bit through your night routine. These

9:20

are double cleansed, particularly over the summer months

9:22

when I do a family apply SPF before

9:24

going out for a walk or something like

9:26

that. So I use fancy face on

9:28

dry skin and really mess up that and use

9:30

the cloth to remove that. And then I will

9:32

go in with Juicy Gel, which is our

9:34

hydrating cleanser, which is really softening

9:37

and... That was amazing, that one. It's

9:39

kind of like cucumber-y? Yeah. Yeah.

9:42

Yeah, for time. That one I just recommended to a

9:44

friend who, she's been in her late 40s, her daughter's 13,

9:47

her other daughter's 10, I'm like, you can always use this. This

9:49

is safe for everybody. Go ahead. And

9:52

then I use, depending

9:54

on the night, I'll either use our Glow Exfoliator,

9:56

which is the AHA. Let

9:58

that dry. I missed a little

10:01

bit and I go in with much

10:03

flumper skin which is a hyaluronic hydrolyne serum which

10:05

is plumping at times. So tell me

10:07

you missed in between because of the sponge technique?

10:09

Yeah, hyaluronic is just going to do a much

10:11

better job. It can penetrate better and do its

10:14

job better if you make the skin damp

10:16

first. You can even just put your hands in, but hands

10:18

doesn't have to be fancy mitts. Just on

10:20

the exfoliant, you've quickly just mentioned that.

10:22

Do you think everyone should use an

10:24

exfoliant because I know GoTo have three

10:27

different exfoliants in their range. Is

10:29

that something you would

10:31

say kind of no matter what your skin

10:33

type, you should be using some sort of exfoliant? I

10:36

do actually. We always formulate on the side

10:38

of gentle so that everyone can come in

10:40

and play. I don't think there's any

10:43

point making even a vitamin C or vitamin

10:45

A that most people can't

10:47

use without getting irritable skin. Whatever

10:49

product you choose is dependent on what kind

10:51

of skin concerns you want to

10:53

deal with whether it's congestion, dullness.

10:56

Yeah, and you've got to know the rules. If

10:58

you're going to play with AHA or BHA, there's

11:00

SBS coming. After that,

11:02

I do the hyaluronic serum, the

11:04

much flaunted skin. Then

11:07

I go with BHA, which is

11:09

our famous bacilli face oil, and

11:11

then very likely face cream at night to

11:14

just put a lid on all of

11:16

that. That's for the serumizer. It's super

11:18

nourishing and hydrating. It

11:20

makes me a nice glossy boyfriend. Tell

11:29

me a little bit about some of the once

11:32

a week treatments or once every now and then

11:34

treatments, whether they're face masks or

11:36

LED masks or going in for

11:39

facial treatments. What are some regular

11:41

things that you do? I bought

11:43

the current body LED mask

11:45

because everyone did. I

11:49

forget to use it all the time. Same. I

11:52

think that's really something to remember before you go. fork

12:00

out heaps of cash. Yeah, I just

12:02

have like a wardrobe full of scary

12:04

masks that don't get used. If

12:06

you have something really important to you and you want great skin

12:09

wetting usually is it, go and

12:11

get in clinic LED. You know,

12:13

the red light a couple of times with

12:15

a peel, muah, you said. Laser

12:18

Genesis I love, I was

12:20

using picot for my pigmentation. I know a lot

12:22

of people get that, you know, before their wedding

12:24

and I was actually going to get that and

12:26

then I was really scared about my freckles in

12:29

case it would like clear all my freckles away.

12:32

I don't know if we can do that. I just

12:35

kind of go back to old school and I

12:37

really put that down. The power of my

12:39

at home products. I think consistency

12:41

is key whether you're going to go the

12:44

at home route or do, you know, the

12:46

in clinic route. We talk about it nearly

12:48

every episode of the formula, you

12:50

know, LED at home masks and I'm like,

12:52

it does work when you actually do use it

12:54

properly. It's a time investment. If you have

12:57

it, go for it. I also have a

12:59

thing that I call just like my shit

13:01

skin fix, which is if

13:03

I've been flying, if I'm not

13:05

sleeping, I would double cleanse. If

13:07

I have time, I'll do a say mask

13:09

and hour pair mask and then face care

13:11

and very useful and oh my

13:13

lord. And I would do it a lot in lockdown. I would

13:15

just go off and mask for 20 minutes

13:17

and feel like a whole new person.

13:19

Yeah. You have that glow and you

13:21

invest because Sunday masking is a cool

13:24

thing for me and even my husband when

13:26

I remember, but it makes a really

13:28

big difference. Masking once a week. You

13:30

always feel like a better version of yourself after

13:32

a mask and your skin's going to be great

13:34

for a few days. Yeah. Let's tug in the

13:36

morning. Hitts,

13:38

you've made one of the greatest discoveries of

13:41

all time. Oh, miss. Never again.

13:43

Never. So

13:45

we're going to move on to my favorite

13:47

part of the show. Your hits

13:50

and misses. I want to know what

13:52

kind of skin care technique or ingredient

13:54

you can't live without and one

13:57

you don't bother with. I'm

14:00

going to talk about that because I didn't

14:03

know about retinol until we

14:05

started using it. I dabbled with retinol. I had

14:07

a very low strength. I would use a couple

14:09

of times a week and get very little payback

14:12

from. I didn't really think it was doing much.

14:14

Since using retinol, I am a true

14:17

convert to vitamin A. And it's

14:19

funny because everyone uses vitamin A

14:21

now, retinol. But when I

14:23

was a beauty-ed, it was sort of like, oh, wait

14:25

till you've heard your babies. You know, save that

14:28

for later. Put that in your retinol for

14:30

later. And it's interesting

14:32

to me that it's such a young

14:34

person's thing now. And I do worry

14:36

about the barrier and I worry about skin sensitivity

14:39

when people are using high strengths and

14:41

active and that's a lot all

14:43

the time. Because if you

14:45

don't have any 20s, what you got less than your

14:47

60s? So I think less is

14:49

still more, really. So be considered with what

14:52

you're using. And so for me, it's right now.

14:54

The thing that I've never really found works.

14:56

Or if there's any particular trend or something

14:59

you've seen online that you're like, oh, I'm

15:01

so sick of people doing that. Well, I

15:03

think it's the devices. I'm not sick of

15:05

anyone doing anything. But for me, it's like

15:07

I keep getting sucked in. And

15:09

I see them and I'm like, I want

15:11

that jawline. I want the cheekbones. I want

15:14

to be the person who does

15:16

that. A facial method. I

15:18

can't see how many videos I've saved. I'm

15:20

going, I'll do that. And then I'll

15:22

have an event and I'll all coffee in the morning or

15:24

press or something. And then I've come find them and I'm

15:27

panicking and I'm overdoing it and I'm getting

15:29

wet skin. So look, probably I think facial

15:31

methods I would love to be better at.

15:33

I always want to be that person, but

15:35

I just never am. I want to be

15:37

the eye-stroller person, but I'm like, oh, I

15:40

want to be. I've been in my phrases

15:42

for about a year. But it is

15:44

good when I do use it. I

15:46

think you've got to create a

15:49

frictionless routine. Like

15:51

you start putting friction in, like walking to

15:53

another room, plugging something in, manually

15:55

having to do something. That's when my brain

15:57

goes, no, no, no, no, no. I

16:02

actually also wanted to ask if you had

16:04

to choose your favourite go-to product

16:06

after 10 years, what would be your

16:09

favourite product? It's Face

16:11

Hero. It's always Face Hero. I

16:13

was a devout rosehip oil user prior to that.

16:15

If you go back to my early blog,

16:18

2007, Rosehip Oil, Rosehip Oil, Rosehip Oil. And

16:22

so Rosehip Oil plus 9 other

16:24

oils, then you get Face Hero.

16:26

It's a formidable, beautiful, nourishing, gorgeous

16:29

oil and we sell like one a minute. That's

16:32

the one. Thank you so much Zoe

16:34

for stopping by today and having a

16:36

chat with us and giving us a

16:38

peek into your skincare cabinet. It

16:40

was very nosy and it was very good

16:42

and we learnt so much and it was

16:44

as always so fun having a chat with

16:46

you. Thanks for having me guys. I

16:49

love beauty and I love chatting with you

16:51

about it and thank you for your help. For

16:54

newbies, if you want more tips

16:56

and articles conveniently dropped direct to you

16:58

in your inbox, sign up to our

17:00

beauty newsletter for free. There's a link in

17:02

the episode description. Tune in tomorrow

17:04

for beauty besties. Bye.