Revealing The Secret Knowledge of Beauty as a Skill Set
Please Send No Eagles to Eat My Liver for Acting As Your Appearance Prometheus
Learning to care for your appearance can be an uncomfortable habit for many cultural traditions. Serious, frugal, and hard working people can’t be seen expending time and money on something so frivolous. If you are a woman, beauty is vanity. If you are a man, looking after yourself is undermined as fey.
Except appearances do matter. We are coy about passing on the secret knowledge of appearances for a reason. It is dangerous and (sometimes) rightly hidden knowledge. To believe you are above beauty is a luxury belief cultivated to hinder advantage. This goes doubly so for men, so please recall that this is a cosmetics blog that caters to men and women.
Acquiring Promethean secrets about the power of appearance in human life has traditionally required access, work, and worthiness. Institutions took pride in grooming standards & uniforms. Mothers passed onto their daughters veritable codexes of rituals that could be mistaken for witchcraft.
We hide these secrets precisely because appearance is so powerful a force in our world, that freeing this knowledge takes away significant advantages from those who once possessed it exclusively.
Now not all activities that cultivate beauty are frowned upon. Recent campaigns for body positivity aside, we don’t harbor biases against exercise, nutrition, and many other wellness modalities whose secondary benefit is an improved appearance.
We often hide our interest in beauty underneath wellness, and society doyennes sell beauty under the guise of wellness regularly. Martha Stewart, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Hailey Bieber all sell us a glow that comes from the inside out. We’ve generally accepted the benefits of a society filled with the hale and hearty (though not always), so wellness is a common type of beauty-washing
I believe it is time for us to embrace that beauty confers advantage and we should pass along the secret knowledge to all who wish to practice with it. Gutenberg freed the mysteries of the Word and it increased the number of those who sought knowledge of God without the intervention of priestly castes. I’m sure this was disappointing for the priests, but it was a good outcome for Christians.
Sephora took over the world by moving the makeup counter to the side so customers could experience cosmetics directly. If one believes in the value of beauty should you not seek to engage with it yourself?
It shouldn’t surprise you that a beauty shopping column written by me will be distinctly Protestant in tone. Predestination has never been an excuse to skirt the work. If one wished to be a Beauty Calvinist, you’d cultivate your knowledge through hard work, independent of the hand you are dealt.
What You Can Expect From Here
And so now we get to the fun bit. How will I handle the shopping recommendations and the hidden knowledge bits? It is my intention to write multiple longer form pieces each week that will contain individual product recommendations but also “guides for a specific kind of guy.” I’ll likely do them in classic good, better, best format and give you my reasoning for where and when to trade up or down.
For men, these will range from “a pareto optimal guide for mid thirties men finally willing to address aging” to “a ramen-life beauty ritual for broke guys, NEETS and Zoomer degenerates”.
For women I envision something similar say “a maximalist, but not Rococo about it, guide to caring for your face & neck & hands for the aging millennial woman” to “getting started on caring for your skin in your twenties without accelerating your way to Botox in your thirties”. I won’t put them under paywalls initially, but they will go there at some point, and similarly, I won’t start with affiliates as the default setting, but I will have them here and there and will disclose them.
Naturally, these recommendations will become fractal as we fill out archetypes and build out common guides for each “kind of guy” or “a situation such as mine” that are submitted by paying members but that will be built over time.
I will bring in special guests from time to time, as I have the most depth of knowledge in skincare and color cosmetics but not all specialities, for instance I do not do my nails. I use light Botox and peptides but haven’t gone further down the cosmeceuticals route but I know where we can. I might include the occasional stock I own and why as I’ve made a few dollars from being ahead on beauty. I might include interesting history and industry gossip. We will learn secrets from makeup, haircare, bodycare, nailcare and other specialties inside cosmetics.
You can purchase a one on one session with me by becoming a founder member of the Substack. I will put together a personal routine for you including samples from my own library of travel size products or (if you are extra special) I shall autistically decant a month’s worth of product into a travel size jar to build your routine from scratch. We will then optimize based on your body’s response. I plan to cap those founding memberships at 50, those founders will be part of a group chat with me and the other founding members. Once those are gone I will move any individual consultations elsewhere and to a higher price. This is a gift I offer to friends, family and my founders and it turns out to be a universal source of joy and delight for both me and the recipient. I am happy to share references for this activity.
So Julie, What Is Your Routine?
Now, please join me for the very first routine of “Nice Packaging”, which is for “an aging elder millenial woman who hates paying retail but will have perfect adherence” otherwise known as “Julie Fredrickson’s 2025 80/20 routine of mixing high and low but never over-paying for goop in a jar” routine. Or, “a darn good routine for a professional class woman heading to her forties with dry skin and the first signs of wrinkles who doesn’t mind spending hundreds a month on getting great skin but would prefer to pay less out of principle”. I will also include a “good enough” version and a “best” version of this, as I am true to my Protestant ethos of being happy to provide bourgeoise value. Most of the luxury stuff can be acquired at more reasonable prices but some items are worth building a routine around.
You will notice many recommendations of Beauty Pie, which is a buyer’s club for cosmetics. I do have a referral link which will get you $20 off your order. I know the CEO Marcia from my time working in the industry, and used many of the same manufacturers as she does, so it has my full endorsement as the best value on the market for those who want to shop upper market products manufactured at the best factories, but sold middle of the road Sephora prices ($20-150)
The “Better” Routine for Dry Skinned Aging Millennial Professional Women
Morning
Splash water on my face
Spray Mario Badescu Rose Water onto my face ($8)
Apply pea size dot of Inky List Caffeine Eye Cream ($12)
Apply 3-4 drops BeautyPie Superdose C 15% ($29)
Apply small dollop of Youth to the People “Adaptogen Deep Moisture Cream” ($58). If my skin is particularly dry I will apply Dr. Jart’s Ceramide Creme ($50) instead.
If going outside apply sunscreen typically ROC Multi-Correxion SPF 30 ($24) or BeautyPie Traceless Mineral SPF30 ($22)
Evening
Wash face with water or Beauty Pie Japanfusion Pure Transforming Cleanser ($14)
On dry skin around eyes, apply small dot of Beauty Pie Super Retinol Anti Wrinkle Eye Cream ($17)
Across face, apply 1-2 pumps Beauty Pie Super Retinol Ceramide-boost Anti-aging Face Serum (3% Retinol Complex) ($29)
Apply 4-5 drops of Sunday Riley Luna Ritinoid Sleeping Night Oil ($105)
If I am feeling my skin is a bit clogged or congested, I might add in a Lactic Acid in the serum step like The Ordinary ($9) or, if I am feeling dry I will layer on top of the oil Beauty Pie’s Youthbomb Breakthrough Repair Cream ($59)
Now this all comes to a fairly eye-popping $296 (plus another $140 for the alternates), or about $25 a month if it lasts the year. Typically I’ll need to repurchase most of the produces once, so $600 a year.
You might be thinking “good grief woman this is the ‘better’ routine and not the best?” And I’d be like, yeah the actual best is tens of thousands of dollars, if we aren’t including facials, dermatology visits and cosmeceuticals. I frankly don’t think you are getting 100% better by upgrading this at even twice the price, though I will make some recommendations for a routine that is more intense and may even get you the extra 20% if your skin is very similar to mine, but the final 1% luxury is a whole other situation.
The “Good Enough” Routine for Dry Skinned Aging Millennial Professional Women
Morning
Splash water on my face
Apply pea size dot of Inky List Caffeine Eye Cream ($12)
ROC Revive and Glow Multi-Correxion Moisturizer and SPF 30 ($35)
Evening
Wash face with Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser ($14) or La Roche-Posay Hydrating Facial Cleanser With Niacinamide + Ceramides For Dry Skin To Normal Skin ($17)
Across face apply 1-2 pumps Beauty Pie Super Retinol Ceramide-boost Anti-aging Face Serum (3% Retinol Complex) ($29) and top with Beauty Pie Super Retinol + Vitamin C Night Renewal Moisturizer (1% Retinol Complex) ($29). Slowly transition into a retinol routine by rotating with a current moisturizer and always wear sun protection outside.
Alternatively The Ordinary Retinal 2% Emulsion High-Strength Retinoid Nighttime Treatment ($15) starting at once or twice a week to tolerance topped with The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + Hyaluronic Acid Daily Moisturizer ($14) nightly is a cheaper option.
This rounds to $122 for the set if you go for Beauty Pie for the evening routine or $93 if you go with The Ordinary, so somewhere between $12 and $7 a month, which is honestly a score, even if you need to repurchase every 6 months (and thereby double the cost).
Most users over do it with product application, so be sparring, as gobs of product won’t make it more effective. Honestly, it can often make it worse. If you have questions about how to edit this for your own skin type this is where you might want to leave a comment or upgrade to founding member, and I’ll prepare and ship you a routine complete with products to test.
The “Best, But By No Means Luxury” Routine for Dry Skinned Aging Millennial Professional Women
Morning
Splash water on my face
Spray Mario Badescu Rose Water onto face ($8)
Apply pea size dot of Beauty Pie Super Healthy Skin Über Youth Eye Energy Cream ($22)
Apply 3-4 drops Beauty Pie’s Youthbomb 360° Radiance Concentrate Serum ($49)
Apply Beauty Pie Youthbomb Breakthrough Repair Cream ($59)
Finish with BeautyPie Traceless Mineral SPF30 ($22)
Alternative merchandising option: pick up basically the whole expert skin care routine with upgraded retinols from my basics Super Retinol routine for the evening ($194)
Evening
Wash face with water or Beauty Pie Japanfusion Pure Transforming Cleanser ($14)
On dry skin around eyes, apply small dots of Youthbomb
360° Multi Action Eye Repair Night Serum (1% Retinol Complex) ($39)
Apply one pump of the Youthbomb Extreme Retinal Triple Renewal Serum ($46), introduced slowly
Apply 4-5 drops of Sunday Riley Luna Ritinoid Sleeping Night Oil ($105) on top of serum
Apply Beauty Pie Youthbomb Breakthrough Repair Cream ($59) to finish it off
Another merchandising option is the Beauty Pie’s Youthbomb Extreme Breakthrough Trio ($167) which has the morning C +B serum and evening retinal serum plus the repair cream.
This comes to $423 for it all and if you upgrade the Lactic Acid to the classic Sunday Riley Good Genes ($122), you’re going up to about $620 for the set.
Depending on use, you could rotate this into a year but like the other routines, it will most likely need a repurchase after six months, so figure it will run you about $1240 per year (or $103 per month). That ought to fit into anyone’s idea of best in class, but thankfully not fully into the realm of an Augustinus Bader ($305) or Noble Panacea realm, whose serum starts at $440. Yes, I know, and I too think it is funny that a luxury skincare line called itself “Noble Panacea”.
So, What’s Next & When?
As you can see this is quite long and I’d prefer to keep things longer to provide a better value. I’ll base the next piece on whichever comes out on top in the polling (which I’ve also run on Twitter). I’m thinking twice a week but I may do more.
In addition I’ll be doing reviews of new products that have come into my life (I purchased them with my own money from Sephora) that range from holiday season gifting choices, some color cosmetics, and a new line from a 90s direct selling icon.
In the next few months, I will also give a full report of a peptide routine I received (aka I did not pay for it as it is still be tested by the supplier), from a startup that many of my friends use and trust. If you are interested in peptides I am happy to share my experiences (and 10% off w code ALMOSTMEDIA). Naturally lots of caveats on that one when it happens, since no medical advice and such and such.
