What Your Skincare Is Really Doing to Your Hormones with Nicky Hughes l EP44

Episode Title

What Your Skincare Is Really Doing to Your Hormones (with Nicky Hughes, Intrinsic Skincare)

Episode Description

Did you know that the average woman absorbs hundreds of synthetic chemicals through her skin every single day — many of which are known hormone disruptors? In midlife, when our hormones are already in flux, this matters more than ever.

In this episode of The Midlife Awakening, host Odilia sits down with Nicky Hughes — founder of Intrinsic Skincare and a student doctor of naturopathy — for a conversation that will change the way you look at everything in your bathroom cabinet.

Nicky shares her own extraordinary story: how a desperate search to heal her son's chronic acne scarring during lockdown led her to formulate her own natural skincare, how that grew into a 30-product clean skincare range now sold across the UK, USA and South Africa, and how she eventually used the same principles to reverse her own menopausal weight gain and exhaustion — coming off HRT and losing 10kg through diet and clean skincare alone.

You'll Learn

•       Why ingredients labelled “fragrance” or “parfum” are a legal loophole that lets brands hide hormone-disrupting chemicals

•       How chemical sunscreen ingredient oxybenzone has been shown to remain in the bloodstream for 21 days and affect testosterone production

•       Why your body becomes far less “forgiving” of processed food and toxins after menopause

•       The truth about magnesium — which type to take, and why it's linked to over 400 functions in the body

•       Why Nicky reverses thyroid issues with Brazil nuts instead of medication (and the real story behind it)

•       The collagen mistake almost everyone makes, and the cheap trick to make it actually absorb

•       Her simple “would you eat it?” test for deciding what's safe to put on your skin

This is an honest, practical, and genuinely eye-opening conversation — exactly the kind of information every midlife woman needs and deserves to hear.

Guest Links

Website: www.intrinsicshop.co.uk

Instagram: instagram.com/intrinsicskincareuk

Facebook: facebook.com/Intrinsicskincareuk

YouTube: youtube.com/@IntrinsicSkincare

Use code NEWSITE10 for 10% off at intrinsicshop.co.uk (valid until end of June, excludes promotional items). Nicky also offers free 30-minute skincare consultations — email her directly via her website to book 

Transcript

Odilia|The Midlife Awakening (00:01)
Welcome to the Midlife Awakening podcast. I'm your host, Odilia. This is a podcast about transformation for women who are waking up to who they really are while navigating everything that comes with midlife. And I want you to know I'm on this journey right alongside you.

This is the show where we explore everything from the spiritual tools that can help us in our daily practices to healing modalities that we can use to heal what we've been carrying for so long to the everyday midlife topics that a midlife woman faces like perimenopause, finances, career changes, and so much more. Each week we go deeper into what it means to heal, to awaken, and to finally become the most authentic version of yourself. I'm so glad that you found your way here.

The Midlife Awakening (00:49)
Welcome back to the Midlife Awakening with Odelia. This is a podcast about transformation for women who are waking up to who they really are while navigating everything that comes with midlife. I'm your host Odelia and today we are talking about something that affects every single one of us every single day. And yet most of us have absolutely no idea just how much damage it could be doing. We are talking about what we put on our skin. My guest today is Nikki Hughes, the founder of Intrinsic Skincare.

And a student doctor of naturopathy, who made one of the most extraordinary pivots I have come across. At fifty-two, she walked away from a career in construction and threw herself into the study of natural medicine. And the catalyst, her own body, her own hormones, and her own search for answers that conventional medicine simply wasn't giving her,

What started as a mission to help her teenage son heal persistent acne during the COVID lockdown, using nothing but essential oils and carrier oils she blended herself, that grew into intrinsic skincare, a range of over 30 clean, natural products now reaching women across the UK, the USA, and South Africa. Her guiding principle is beautifully simple. Every product must be 100% harmless, gentle, and deliver real results, because skincare should heal, not harm.

Today we are going to get into the science of what is actually lurking in our everyday beauty products, what it's doing to our hormones, especially in perimenopause and menopause, and what we can do right now to take back control. This is such an important conversation and I'm so glad that Nikki is here to have it. So welcome to the show, Nikki.

Nicky (02:21)
Thank you, I'm very excited to be here.

The Midlife Awakening (02:24)
Yes. And skincare is such an important topic. So I thought we have to do this on the show. So let's start right at the beginning because your story is not a conventional one. You were working in construction, you hit your 50s, and something shifted. And that to me sounds like a typical midlife awakening. So take us back to that period. What was going on with your health and your body? And what made you think I need to find a different way?

Nicky (02:49)
So it probably s was triggered during COVID itself. as you've mentioned, my son had cystic acne, which meant he had massive pustules all over his face. And wearing a mask, of course, exacerbated that. And you couldn't get a doctor's appointment during COVID for love nor money. And I eventually was able to get a telephone appointment, not with him.

The Midlife Awakening (02:54)
Mm-hmm.

Nicky (03:16)
And not a video call, it was a telephone call with a GP who then prescribed him six months' worth of antibiotics. Now, we all know that acne is essentially hormonal and bacterial. So six months' course of antibiotics wasn't going to help. And he took them for about a month, two months, I think it was, and eventually I said to him, just enough. This is not going to solve the problem. And

We we were at our wits end and by the end of lockdown he had now had this really chronic acne for a solid three years. And the acne had started to clear, but what was left was really, really chronic scarring. You know that horrible pitting where your whole face is literally just pucks. You know, deep puck marks. And I just felt so desperate for him. He was at the time

16, 17 years old, very conscious of it. So when the masks all came off, he was left with this red scarred face. He had braces and he was so self-conscious. And I just thought, there's got to be more than this. And that's when I started researching for products that would heal the skin. And obviously, with it being newly scarred, you have a a much better window of opportunity. And

I went down a number of rabbit holes and I ordered a host of different organic essential oils and carrier oils and based on research I did I mixed them up a scar serum and I can't tell you exactly at what point things changed dramatically but over the period of about four months he went from being severely pockmarked to having a beautiful skin.

And people were stopping us, people who knew us, and saying to him, What did you do? Like I I cannot believe the difference in in his skin. And he went from this person who was permanently cowering to walking with his head held high and a big smile on his face. And his whole demeanor changed. And then I thought, Hmm, I wonder if I can get rid of my wrinkles.

The Midlife Awakening (05:42)
Ha ha ha.

Nicky (05:43)
And that was kind of where it started. And so I started mixing up concoctions for myself and trying them on my clothes feet and on my for forehead lines. And and I started making little bits and pieces. And then I was giving them to friends as gifts. And people started saying to me, I really like that thing you made. Can I buy some? And that was kind of where it all started.

The Midlife Awakening (06:08)
wow.

Nicky (06:12)
and that's obviously on the on the skincare side. But along with that, I started to do research into different products. So I would look at a product and started researching. And the more I researched, the more I discovered how many toxins were in these products and how harmful and toxic this stuff was. And that kind of

was a catalyst to me going down a number of other rabbit holes. and I think that alongside the whole COVID and COVID vaccines and so on kind of ignited a little flame in me that thought I I I kind of got tired of seeing the comments on Facebook groups and thing that said, You're not a doctor, what do you know? And I thought, hmm.

Okay, well then I'll become a doctor. And that was kind of my turning points. And I thought, I I'm gonna become a doctor, but I'm gonna become a naturopathic doctor. And that's where we are, how we got to where we are today.

The Midlife Awakening (07:16)
Yeah.

I love that. I really love that. And that's such a typical midlife awakening because, you know, you're just going about doing your own business and then boom. You know, life life throws something at you and and and changes the course of your life. So have you are you a naturopathic doctor now or are you still studying towards that? Okay.

Nicky (07:45)
Not yet. No.

No, it's a full bachelor's course, thirty-six modules. It's pretty heavy going. especially at my age. Like, you know, I thought to myself, I did biology. I did biology and tumetric. This will be a breeze until I did anatomy and physiology one. And I thought, this will be fine. I remember all the bones in the hand, you know, the carpels, the metacarpals, except we didn't hear about the twenty seven other bones in the wrist.

The Midlife Awakening (07:51)
Okay. Yeah.

Nicky (08:14)
and the four hundred other bones are elsewhere. So yeah, that was it was it was a bit of a shock to the system. and I've got anatomy and physiology too just around the corner. So yes, it's it's thirty six modules. It's a six year course. I am I am almost finished second year now, going into third, and I've learnt a an enormous amount that has blown my brain.

And it it kind of ignites me to keep going.

The Midlife Awakening (08:49)
Yeah. And and you're still enjoying it. You feel do you feel like it's something like it's your purpose that you found? Have you do you feel like you've found a part of yourself that you've been and never knew that you were searching for it?

Nicky (08:56)
Absolutely.

I I think it's going to equip me to do what I really want to do and that is educate and help as many people as I possibly can to take back control of their health. That is that is my primary goal is equip people to take back control because I think we've all lost control. We've put all our control in the hands of big pharma and really there is a place for medicine.

Make no mistake, there is a place for doctors, there's a place for hospitals, but not at the rate they're currently being used. We can prevent so much of the illnesses and chronic conditions without going down the big pharma route. And when you really need a doctor, that's when you make use of it.

The Midlife Awakening (09:51)
Yeah. Because when you tell me like getting a being told to be six months on antibiotics, I'm like my skin is literally standing on end because antibiotics are not and not everyone's aware of this. And this is I don't know if this comes because we are from South Africa and South Africa is quite common for doctors to prescribe probiotics along with antibiotics. Coming to the UK, that's not a thing. And a lot of people are not actually aware of how.

how bad it is for the gut. Because it kills the good bacteria, it just kills everything, doesn't? It just it annihilates the stomach.

Nicky (10:23)
Absolutely.

Absolutely. It destroys the gut bacteria, and the gut bacteria manage so much of how your body functions. So just I know we're slightly digressing, but 90% of your serotonin and dopamine is manufactured in the gut. So if your gut bacteria is in poor condition, you're not going to be producing that dopamine and serotonin.

And that in itself is a huge problem. That's just one example of what not having good bacteria, good gut bacteria is going to affect.

The Midlife Awakening (11:08)
Yeah. And I think there's so much research coming out now about how important the gut microbiome is. And we need to like you say, we need to take our health back. We need to, you know, take our power back. And we need to arm ourselves with this knowledge so that we know when a doctor says to us six months on antibiotics, we can say, Well, no, I don't think so, because that just causes other problems, doesn't it? Because it can make you sick in so many other ways because all that good bacteria is getting killed.

Nicky (11:20)
Correct.

Hundred percent.

The Midlife Awakening (11:38)
I mean, can you imagine where your son would have been at the end of six months in terms of health if he had continued on that course?

Nicky (11:44)
Yeah, look, being young, they're a lot more resilient. But, you know, if we're talking gut bacteria, there's a bigger issue than that, and that is that every egg, every chicken, every piece of meat you eat is full of antibiotics. So you should be taking a probiotic every single day. And that's why people are becoming resistant to

antibiotics because they're actually taking antibiotics in their food on a daily basis.

The Midlife Awakening (12:17)
Wow. That's a that is powerful right there. That I don't know if if we think about, to be honest. Yeah.

Nicky (12:25)
No.

So I I try and eat only organic eggs and free range chicken. And interestingly, shops like Little stock more or more of those sort of things than a lot of the conventional shops and at a fraction of the price. So, you know, just shop around. You can get organic without having to take out a second mortgage.

The Midlife Awakening (12:51)
Yeah. It is accessible if you just look around, yeah.

Nicky (12:54)
Absolutely.

The Midlife Awakening (12:56)
So here you are, you've just turned something that began as a mother's desperation into a product that works. And you've started formulating some more for yourself and friends and family. And simultaneously you enroll to study in in to become a naturopathic doctor at fifty-two. alongside that you're launching the skincare range. So what does your day look like and where does that where does this drive come from?

Nicky (13:20)
So my days are very crazy. I spend a lot of my day doing research and development. And I spend another big percentage of my day working on marketing, which I put my hand up. That is not my forte. And it's something I really need to outsource. and

I try and allocate a certain amount of my week to studies. And then the rest of my time is spent doing research. I spend probably, I would say I spend three to four hours a day, seven days a week, doing research. And I am determined, I am determined to develop a skincare range that has the results.

That the clinical chemical products have without any of the harmful effects. That is my passion and my driver. And also I am determined to get rid of my own wrinkles. If I have to be completely honest.

The Midlife Awakening (14:38)
I like that. I think a lot of us can resonate with that, to be honest, especially this side of 40. Definitely. So talking about all the research that you do, let's get into the science a bit. So because I think where people's eyes gen that's where people's eyes will genuinely open. so what is actually in conventional skincare that we should be worried about and what's what are the worst offenders?

Nicky (15:00)
Okay. So there's a whole host of offenders and and I'm gonna give you a very simple way to think about it. So if I was to give you a glass of petrol, would you drink it? Okay. So why would you put it on your skin? Because what you put on your skin goes into your bloodstream.

The Midlife Awakening (15:15)
No.

Nicky (15:28)
So if you think about it like that, whatever you're putting on your skin is going into your blood. So if you wouldn't drink it or eat it, don't apply it.

The Midlife Awakening (15:42)
Okay, yeah, I like that.

Nicky (15:43)
So that's that's your starting point. the biggest offenders, and this is in my opinion, the biggest offenders are the the endocrine disruptors. And we have all these supposed bodies that manage skincare and regulate things, yet there are so many loopholes, it's frightening.

So one of the loopholes in the cosmetic industry is in perfumes or in any products that contain the word fragrance or parfum, that is allowed as and it's said to be what they where they can hide their intellectual capital. So they don't have to disclose what's in there, but that is where they hide all the hormone disruptors.

Under the word fragrance or perfume. So if you you look at any product that's got the word fragrance or perfume and doesn't specify like it might be frankincense, essential oil, or whatever, wherever it's got the word perfume or fragrance, inevitably it is hiding hormone disruptors. And the biggest culprits that contain hormone disruptors are.

your chemical sunscreens. So I I have been searching for the article. I looked up through the medical journals. There was an article on PubMed, which is one of the medical journals, and there was a controlled trial done with chemical sunscreen containing oxybenzone. And what it said was oxybenzone, when you apply sunscreen that contains oxybenzone,

Oxybenzone enters the bloodstream and actually remains in the bloodstream for 21 days. And in these tests they ran, they tested adolescent boys, they tested pregnant mothers, they tested breastfeeding mums. There was a whole host of people. And what they discovered is that the testosterone production in adolescent boys dropped significantly. And off the top of my head, I think it was 37% over the 28 days.

They found the oxybenzone, they found the chemical in the breast milk. so the results were quite startling, and what what people don't necessarily understand is what these endocrine disruptors do. So they can do a number of things. They can mimic hormones in your body, they can disable hormones in your body, they can

stimulate hormonal reactions. They can and and bear in mind that your your endocrine system, which manages all these hormones, controls things like metabolism, menstrual cycle, fertility, thyroid activity, testosterone production. So understanding those things and

Understanding that while sunscreen is one of the highest, the cocktail of a body wash with perfume, a body cream with perfume, shampoo with fragrance, conditioner with fragrance.

moisturizer with fragrance. When you add the cocktail of all of these hormone disruptors together, then you add your chicken that's got growth hormones in it. That cocktail of endocrine disruption, what it could be doing to your system.

The Midlife Awakening (19:32)
That's crazy. That is crazy. And this is why it's so important for people to understand what we mean by hormone disruptor and why it's important to check. Just as you would check ingredients on your food list, you should be checking what you're putting on your skin.

Nicky (19:35)
So

Correct.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Because whatever you're putting on your skin is going into your bloodstream.

your lip balms, your lipsticks that conta contain petroleum. They say the average person eats seven tubes of lipstick a year.

The Midlife Awakening (20:04)
That's a lot of lipstick. And that like that's with daily like you're wearing it daily. That's what's happening. Wow.

And these are things that we don't really think about. We just go, you know, we go up to the cosmetics counter and we're like, what colour's pretty? What what can I you don't think about what you're actually ingesting effectively. Yeah. That's crazy. That's really crazy. And that's why I wanted to do this episode, and do this show, because it's so important for us to know this, especially as women going through perimenopause and menopause, where hormones is the topic of conversation. Right. And

Do you think managing these can help sort of manage your menopause?

Nicky (20:48)
I definitely think looking after your yourself and reducing your exposure to hormone disrupting products. Another big factor is BPA. So that is your plastics. So just an example, if you've got let's say a a tube of body cream in a a plastic tube and you leave it on your windowsill.

What happens when that plastic heats up, depending on the type of plastic it is? It then leaches chemicals into your product. The same with your water bottles left in the sun.

They leach chemicals into your water. So you you your aim should be to reduce as many hormone disruptors or endocrine disruptors into your diets as possible because some of them mimic estrogen. Some of them inhibit estrogen. So you're messing up your whole hormone distribution within your system.

And one of the things you really want to try and do when you get to perimenopause and menopause is get your hormones as as stable as possible. Because your estrogen is already on the decline. So having something that may interfere with that is not going to be beneficial to you.

The Midlife Awakening (22:17)
Yeah. We want to clean that all up. Absolutely. Yeah. And would be would like just thinking about like plastics heating up, what about like warming your food up in the microwave? That could be a big one, right?

Nicky (22:20)
Absolutely.

In plastic is absolutely.

The Midlife Awakening (22:32)
Yeah, if you use plastic. Like I know a couple

of years ago my mom had read something about that and ever since then she would she would freak out if you put plasti if you heated up food on a plastic dish or whatever in the microwave. She would and it's so ingrained in me that now I just when I see other people doing it, I'm like uncomfortable in telling them you shouldn't be doing that.

Nicky (22:54)
Yeah, I

mean I I've got to the point where I don't use a microwave at all.

The Midlife Awakening (22:58)
Yeah, I don't have one. I don't have one anymore.

Nicky (23:00)
So I mean that's another conversation.

But yeah, and and understand that there are different plastics. There are BPA free plastics, but you know, and it's for that reason that I choose to do none of my products in plastic. other than if it's absolutely, completely and utterly unavoidable. But I would say of my 30 products, 28 are in glass.

The Midlife Awakening (23:22)
Mm. Yeah.

Nicky (23:29)
or mit so

The Midlife Awakening (23:29)
Okay.

Yeah. Love that. Love that. And you managed your own men menopausal hormone issues and weight gain through natural medicine and through s clean skincare. So what specifically did you do and what changed? Tell us about that.

Nicky (23:43)
Well,

to start with, I blew up like a balloon. So so my journey wasn't as beautiful as it may sound. It started out, I think, like 90% of people. just all of a sudden, I never changed what I was eating, but all of a sudden I just got larger and larger and larger and larger. So in desperation, I rushed off to the GP and was prescribed HRT.

And I used to get home from work and sit on the sofa at seven o'clock and my eyes would be drooping. And I was like, what is wrong with me? I have no energy. I am lethargic. I just I had I just had no desire or drive to do anything. And that's when I really started to do a lot of research. And that was kind of when

I did an about turn in both my diet and my skincare. So it's been a good two years now that I have used nothing but my own products on my on my skin, my hair, whatever it is. So I know I don't I don't sell all of the products that I use, but I do make my own shampoos and conditioners and so on for myself.

but one of the biggest things was I I had put on probably thirteen kilos, which is just short of two stone for the English listeners. And I was needing to buy bigger sizes of clothes and I was not really chuffed about that. I mean I'd think I'd reached the maximum stretch on everything I owned. And it was like, Okay, I'm gonna have to go bigger.

The Midlife Awakening (25:36)
Ha ha ha

Nicky (25:42)
and I just thought I I can't do this. I'm not doing this. And I totally changed my eating. I changed it where first of all one of the subjects I was do had done was obviously nutrition. So I went through that module with a fine tooth comb and I made sure that I increased my protein intake.

And I increased it. It wasn't realistic for me to eat chicken for breakfast, steak for lunch, and tuna for supper. But it just wasn't practical. So understanding the different food groups and understanding protein is so critical after menopause. Absolutely fundamental. Nuts are a great source of protein. So I changed my diet and I started eating only food that was not processed.

So in the mornings I'd have yogurt with fruits and nuts and seeds and berries and whatever. So that was full of protein, full of great minerals. For lunch, I would generally have chicken and salad, lots of spinach, etc., or tuna and salad. And then supper, I would just have a very light snack. And just by removing all processed food from my diet completely, it took me

It took me nine months and I lost 10 kilos, so one and a half stone. But the interesting thing was I also made sure that I increased my magnesium intake through my diet and through our magnesium lotion. The interesting thing was my energy levels changed. I was able to sit and work till 10 o'clock at night again because you know that's what we all strive to do.

The Midlife Awakening (27:32)
Yes.

Nicky (27:32)
But it

it was important to me that I was able to sit and work on on my business late at night and do research. That's what I enjoy doing in the evening. I was able

The Midlife Awakening (27:40)
Yeah. And I think a lot of

midlife women are gonna feel that too, because a lot of us are working full time jobs that we've been in for twenty, whatever years, and but we've found this thing that we wanna do or we wanna transition into. And so you need that extra energy. So a lot of us are trying to navigate families, full time careers and a side hustle that we eventually wanted to, or studying something that we eventually want to go into and transition into because

Nicky (27:55)
We need that extra energy.

The Midlife Awakening (28:09)
We found a new purpose. So that's really important, yeah.

Nicky (28:13)
Y I got rid of the HRT.

The Midlife Awakening (28:18)
Okay.

Nicky (28:19)
So the the thing that most menopausal women battle with is sleep. The reason for that is lack of magnesium. So once I had cleaned up my diets and I had cleaned up my skincare, all of a sudden my energy levels were back to where they were pre-menopause.

And that was super important to me. And obviously the weight loss was super important to me. I mean, nobody likes to feel I mean, menopause barely is a thing. I'd never heard of it. And all of a sudden I had one. And I I actually thought I looked pregnant. And so getting rid of that was great, and having my energy back was great. And I just felt better. I felt

I just felt better, my skin looked clearer, I didn't look so tired. It just generally, you know, when you feel that when you feel good and you feel that you look good, everything changes, everything looks brighter.

The Midlife Awakening (29:28)
It's sort of a ripple fact through the rest of your life, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

Nicky (29:31)
Absolutely.

The Midlife Awakening (29:33)
Definitely. So those were the changes that you made and you saw some real, some real positive results from that, which is amazing. So let's let's make this really practical for someone who's listening and thinking, right, I want to start making some changes. W where do they begin? So if you could only change one thing about skincare routine today, what would or if they could only change one thing about their skincare routine today, what would that be?

Nicky (29:58)
I would say number one, throw away your chemical sunscreen. Only allow to take one thing. Because I would basically say remove everything that's got the word perfume or fragrance in it.

The Midlife Awakening (30:02)
Yeah.

Nicky (30:12)
From skincare, and if I was able to change one thing in diet, I would say just cut out all the processed foods. Yeah, I mean, I did say this to you. Pre-menopause, your body is very forgiving. Post-menopause, the forgiveness is gone. So every time you eat processed foods, that forgiveness that you had pre-menopause has left. And

The Midlife Awakening (30:20)
Yeah, they're so bad for you, aren't they?

Nicky (30:42)
Everything affects you. And it's partly to do with now your reduced estrogen levels, your reduced estrogen signaling. Your body is just not working as the efficient machine it was premenopause. So it's just more sensitive to everything you give it.

The Midlife Awakening (31:00)
Yeah, and we need to be more mindful. And it I feel like perimenopause is probably a really good opportunity to start putting in place those new habits, right? And that's sort of like the body's warning signal almost to say, Right, you need to start taking better care of me. Because yeah, a change is coming, a transition is happening, and you need to change what you're doing, right? Yeah.

Nicky (31:20)
Yeah, absolutely.

Correct.

Yeah, before you put on the fifteen kilos.

The Midlife Awakening (31:32)
Yeah, exactly.

So let's talk a little bit more about intrinsic skincare, this skincare range that you've built up. So what makes it genuinely different from what is already out there and what are your products? Tell your tell us about your products.

Nicky (31:49)
So there's been this massive divide in the skincare industry where people have either gone natural or it's chemical. And just to clear something up before I continue, everything is a chemical. Water is a chemical.

The Midlife Awakening (32:08)
Mm-hmm.

Nicky (32:09)
So we need to just be careful and this is where the greenwashing comes in.

The Midlife Awakening (32:15)
okay.

Nicky (32:15)
So

you've got things that are 100% natural. You've got your essential oils, you've got your carrier oils, and most of those are natural. And amazing, amazing properties a lot of them have, like your coconut oils are antibacterial. you've got jojoba oil, which is as close as you can get to the skin's own sebum. And there's really fantastic, fantastic.

products within the natural range. Then you've got chemical, what is known as chemical or the the conventional skincare products. And those are generally they generally contain ingredients that are phthalates, silicones, parabens, hormone disruptors, etc.

Some of them for moldehyde creating products ingredients. So what I've said is I have a long list on my website of ingredients I will not use. Okay. The other thing that I have as a strict rule for anything I use is even my essential oils and carrier oils, I will always opt for organic.

As opposed to just a carrier oil. But what I have gone one step further with I'm added to my latest range, actives. So while carrier oils and essential oils have amazing properties, you're not going to get the results, the vitamin C signaling or the collagen building without adding actives.

And what actives do is they penetrate the dermis and they stimulate the fibroblast to produce collagen, etc. etc. But the key is with my actives, I am 1000% rigid. My actives cannot be GMO, they have to be nature-identical, they cannot contain any toxins.

And I have the same list that I apply to my clean, to my natural ingredients, I apply to my actives. And I only add actives where they are essential and where they are nature-identical. So to give you an example, L-asorbic acid or asorbic acid as it's commonly known, is not a natural ingredient. It's actually a man-made, nature-identical ingredient.

Asorbic acid does not is not available to use in in any product as a natural ingredient because it doesn't exist. But we all know that asorbic acid is not a harmful thing.

The Midlife Awakening (35:15)
Okay.

Nicky (35:23)
So understanding that asorbic acid is an example of an active.

The Midlife Awakening (35:27)
Okay.

Nicky (35:29)
So what I've done is I've bridged the natural and the clinical and built a clean clinical range.

So it is clean but active.

The Midlife Awakening (35:43)
Okay. That's good. That's a really that's a really really great way to explain it to some like 'cause we don't know half of the stuff. I mean, you read on these labels, it's like you can't even pronounce half of them anyway. Yeah.

Nicky (35:56)
And tha that's the way they get away with it. And actually they're

supposed to include the common name with it.

The Midlife Awakening (36:05)
Okay. Okay. So it's really good to understand how you' how you are formulating your products. And let's talk quickly a little bit about collagen, 'cause you talked about collagen and that's a really hot topic. Everyone's talking about marine collagen and do you take any collagen or do you is it just your skincare that you use? What would you say to anyone who's thinking about who's heard all the hype about collagen? What would you what would be your recommendation?

Nicky (36:24)
I do

Okay, so I'm I'm gonna

give you a little bit of a a lesson on it first. Okay. So if you think about thirty, forty years ago, might be a bit before your time, but back in the old days, people used to eat chicken with a skin on. They used to make a broth with the carcass of a chicken. And that was where all the goodness was.

The Midlife Awakening (36:55)
Mm-hmm.

Nicky (36:59)
So then came along these new fad diets where we take all the skin off, we debone it, and you're left with just the white meat. I'm using chicken as an example. So the collagen in the chicken is in the skin and the bones. So what we've done is we've removed all the collagen from our diets.

And now we're adding it back in the form of a protein powder. Collagen is a protein. So you can get some of your collagen from your food if you were to make bone broth or anything like that. Yes, I do take collagen. I take an organic bovine collagen that has no flavor or nothing else added to it.

The Midlife Awakening (37:52)
Okay.

Nicky (37:52)
And

with that, I add a tiny scoop of vitamin C, asorbic acid, because collagen doesn't get absorbed well without vitamin C. But to buy a little pack of organic vitamin C powder off Amazon will cost you about three pounds. So I buy the organic bovine collagen.

I add it to my yogurt in the morning with a little scoop of the vitamin C and that's how I take it.

The Midlife Awakening (38:23)
Okay. I didn't know you could get vitamin C in powder form because I have I'm on iron supplements, which my GPS said most women should be on iron supplements until they stop their menstrual cycles because we lose you know, our monthly cycles and everything. So but it it vitamin C is really good to help the absorption of iron, isn't it? So I'm always trying to find ways to incorporate that into my routine with the iron supplements that I take.

Nicky (38:52)
Yeah, and it's super cheap and literally thr I think it was three pounds I paid for my little bag. And that'll last you three, four months.

The Midlife Awakening (38:59)
Okay.

Okay. Okay. So that's really good. That's really good to understand that the collagen combined with the vitamin C, that that's an important piece, 'cause I don't think I don't I don't think I've ever heard that piece before. Okay.

Nicky (39:15)
So some

of them some of these collagen salad with vitamin C in it, but a lot of them are overhyped. There's so many other ingredients that are completely unnecessary. You just need hydrolyzed collagen.

So you need it in the s the smallest possible particle size, because that's the most absorbable within within the digestive system, and you need vitamin C to help it help it be absorbed.

The Midlife Awakening (39:41)
That's some great that's some great advice. I'm gonna take that away definitely. Thank you for that. So you also help people with health issues, not just skincare. So thyroid problems, muscle aches, sleep, acne, scarring, which you helped your son with, of course. How much of what your clients are dealing with do you think is connected to what they're absorbing through their skin and through their food?

Nicky (40:05)
I think it's a combination. diet's gonna be the biggest contributor to their overall health.

But products that you put on your skin are going to contribute to things such as hormone management, hormone maintenance. So they do go hand in hand, but you you want to avoid the disruption.

And you want to avoid the toxins. You don't want to add formaldehyde releasing products onto your skin, which create cancer causing cells in the body.

So your your diet is gonna be your first trigger to your overall health. But definitely what you put on your skin is gonna be a contributing factor.

The Midlife Awakening (41:05)
And and you talk about cancer causing and I'm just thinking now, it also affects like if you have autoimmune disease, isn't it? Because autoimmune disease is inflammation in the body. And when you're exposing yourself to toxins, that makes it worse, doesn't it? Yeah. So if you have an autoimmune disease, it's quite important for you to be very careful.

Nicky (41:17)
Absolutely.

Yeah, and I I think they throw around the word autoimmune disease a lot nowadays. you know there's a massive percentage of people that seem to have autoimmune diseases. And, you know, there should be a big question mark as to number one, why? And number two, you know, why this big drive, why this big thing for autoimmune diseases? So

The Midlife Awakening (41:29)
Mm-hmm.

Nicky (41:52)
I mean, I if you want, I can tell you a story about an autoimmune disease in a client I had. Have. so Hashimoto's is considered an autoimmune disease, and that's an underactive thyroid. So a client slash friend contacted me and she was telling me that she's been diagnosed with Hashimoto's and that the GP had said to her she needs to go on thyroxin or she'll lose her thyroid.

And I said to her, please, please don't do it. And please note I would like to say, number one, I have full permission to tell the story. And number two, if you are under the care of a doctor, please do not take this as gospel and that that I'm giving you instruction to do this. I'm just telling a story of of what happened to afraid. So anyway, she the doctor said to her, she needs to go on thyrox and gave her the script and off she went. And I said to her, please don't do it.

You need to eat two to three Brazil nuts a day. And she didn't listen. And she went back to the doctor three months later. And the doctor said to her, Literally, if you don't go on these meds, you will lose your thyroid. You need to go on them. And I was going to visit her at the time, and I packed two bags of Brazil nuts, and I got to her house and I popped them on her kitchen island. And I said to her, Now you have no excuse. Two to three a day.

So she did. She listened to me. She took two to three a day. She went back to the GP three months later and she had all her bloods done. And at the end of the appointment, the GP said to her, Okay, thank you very much. You know, you we're done. And she said, She left the appointment and she thought, What what about my thyroid results? So she phoned the GP and the G she said to her, You know, what about the thyroid results? She said, No, your results are fine. She said, but

You you said my thyroid was off the chart and she said, did you not go on the meds? And she said, No. She said, and she told her about the Brazil nuts. the bottom line is Brazil nuts have the exact two to three a day have the exact amount of selenium that the thyroid needs to keep it in perfect shape. And it's been two years and to date.

The Midlife Awakening (44:06)
wow.

Nicky (44:10)
She has never needed to go on the thyroxin and she is still doing the two to three Brazil nights a day.

But I'd like I'd like to add that one of the biggest culprits that are that has perfume and and hormone disruptors is perfume. And where do we spray perfume?

The Midlife Awakening (44:17)
That is insane.

our Nick Yeah.

Nicky (44:34)
right on your thyroid. Okay,

and it's very thin skin and you're spraying a hormone disruptor straight onto your thyroid.

The Midlife Awakening (44:46)
Wow.

Nicky (44:48)
So be aware of that.

The Midlife Awakening (44:50)
Mm, that is great advice because I have issues with well, my thyroid is under monitoring. basically the GP's just waiting for it to burn out. so that's really some interesting. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that.

Nicky (45:04)
Try the two to three Brazil nuts a day. So it's two

large or three medium?

The Midlife Awakening (45:11)
Okay. I'm gonna try that. I'm gonna put that on my in my routine. I'm gonna I'm gonna give that a go.

Nicky (45:16)
So a box of Brazil chocolate coated Brazil nuts, not gonna do it. Two to three a day. Anything more than then you're actually giving it too much selenium.

The Midlife Awakening (45:22)
Mm. Yeah. No.

Okay. Okay. Okay. That's good. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna write that down. That's some great advice. And it's interest it just like food is medicine, isn't it? Food is medicine. Yeah.

Nicky (45:36)
Well it can be. It's

either medicine or it's poison.

The Midlife Awakening (45:40)
yes, yes. Very true. Very true. So you've made this huge life change at 52, right? This midlife awakening. from construction to naturopathy and skincare founder. And that takes a lot of courage and a lot of hard work and dedication. So what did the what did your friends and family around you say when you you said that I'm making this pivot?

And what would you say to anyone in our community that wants to do the you know, make a big change themselves and they're too terrified to start?

Nicky (46:17)
Well, my friends and family rolled their eyes and said, We we would expect nothing less. I've always been a little bit on the crazy side. but to anybody who is thinking about making a major change.

The Midlife Awakening (46:23)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

Nicky (46:39)
If you don't try, you're not gonna know. I you you have no way of knowing. But what if it ignites something in you where you can literally change people's lives? Because while this may change people's lives medically, there's other things that change people's lives in different ways. You know, you could be the lifeline someone needs at a moment in time just because you

You're doing a podcast that that they really needed to hear as an example. So unless you try, you're not gonna get that sense of fulfillment. You've got nothing to lose. And I think by the by this age, you actually don't really care what people think. It's terrible to say, but once you reach 50, you're like, I'm past caring. This is what I'm doing. Like it or I'm fit.

The Midlife Awakening (47:26)
Yes, that's true.

Like as a chronic people pleaser, I'm loving this part of it. I'm loving it.

Nicky (47:39)
Ha

ha ha

The Midlife Awakening (47:42)
Feel empowered.

Nicky (47:44)
Wait to get better.

The Midlife Awakening (47:46)
I can't wait.

I tell you I can't. So we're gonna do something a little differently now. So we're gonna do some quickfire questions. So just one to two sentence each on a couple of questions that we have. So the one ingredient you would ban from skincare forever if you could.

Nicky (48:06)
Oxybenzone.

The Midlife Awakening (48:07)
Okay. And that's the one in the sunscreen, right? Yeah. Okay. The most surprising thing you've learned studying naturopathy that changed the way you live.

Nicky (48:09)
Correct.

Magnesium is responsible for over four hundred body functions and is the bottom line to most chronic illnesses, diabetes, high blood pressure, migraines, the list goes on.

The Midlife Awakening (48:34)
No, at four hundred.

Nicky (48:36)
Four hundred body processes. Yes, but that is the root of most chronic illnesses if you don't have enough magnesium.

The Midlife Awakening (48:45)
And 'cause there's a lot of different ma there's like magnesium. We're gonna we're gonna go there. Whi which one is the best one to take?

Nicky (48:52)
Okay. That's

marketing that's marketing rubbish. There's magnesium, malate, citrate, threonate, glyconate, there there's a large number of them. Every single one of them is reduced to the exact same magnesium ion in the system, but they all

The Midlife Awakening (48:56)
Okay.

Okay.

Nicky (49:15)
absorb at different levels. So magnesium glyconate is the most absorbable through the gut. Magnesium correct. Magnesium chloride is the most absorbable through the skin.

The Midlife Awakening (49:22)
Okay. So that would be taking that as a pull, right? Okay.

Okay. And that would be like on your feet, like the lotion on your feet, potentially. Okay.

Nicky (49:36)
Correct. Yeah. So if you use a

magnesium lotion, most absorbable is magnesium chloride. So th those jars that tell you we have seven types of magnesium, marketing because you don't need seven types of magnesium. They all break down to the exact same magnesium ion in the system.

The Midlife Awakening (49:48)
Okay.

Okay. And I think someone told me that magnesium oxide is no good. That like that's just like the residue or something.

Nicky (50:04)
I i they all th the bottom line is they all do they all break down differently, but they all result in magnesium iron.

The Midlife Awakening (50:11)
Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Nicky (50:15)
So best through the gut, magnesium glyconate, best through the skin, magnesium chloride. And that's all you need to know.

The Midlife Awakening (50:22)
And that's all you really need to know.

Okay, amazing, amazing. Morning skincare routine. What does yours actually look like? Yes.

Nicky (50:29)
Hey.

Super simple. hyaluronic acid on a wet face, vitamin C serum, moisturizer. Done.

The Midlife Awakening (50:40)
Okay, nice, nice. And the biggest lie the beauty industry has told women.

Nicky (50:48)
use this product and your wrinkles will disappear in three months and and the likes. It is not physically, biologically possible.

The Midlife Awakening (51:01)
And what does thriving in midlife look and feel like to you right now?

Nicky (51:07)
I think being able to make a difference to people, that's it's really gratifying, you know, to have somebody come to you and say, My friend said she thought I'd had work done. Like and just being so excited because they've been using products for years and years and years, and suddenly people are saying to them, Ooh, have you had work done? So that's really gratifying. And also

Clients who've turned come to me and said to me, The magnesium lotions changed my life. I have slept through the night for the first time in four years.

The Midlife Awakening (51:44)
last question I ask everyone on the show. What would you tell your younger self if you had the opportunity?

Nicky (51:54)
Probably say take more risks, believe in yourself.

Because I think you get to this stage in life and you've got less to lose because you're kind of running out of runway. But you know, I think we are w we don't believe in ourselves enough.

The Midlife Awakening (52:20)
Yes, as women, we don't. And we're raised not to. Right? We're raised not to. That's powerful. I love that. I love that. Nikki, thank you so much. I cannot tell you how much I've enjoyed this conversation. And there's so many things that I'm taking away from this, honestly, that I'm gonna go and implement into my everyday life. the connection

between what we put on our skin and how we feel hormonally, energetically and in our bodies. It's something I think so many of us have just never been taught and that needs to change. And that's why I'm so glad that we got to have this conversation and share this information with everyone. If this episode has opened your eyes and I genuinely believe that it will, please share it. Send it to a friend, post it in a group, tell your sister. This is the kind of information that changes lives. And the more women who hear it, the better.

Nikki, where can people find you if they wanna have get hold of your products or reach out to you? do you have any offers that you wanna share with with with the listeners?

Nicky (53:24)
So I obviously am on Instagram and Facebook. and my email address is on our website. So I have an completely open door policy. If you want to know anything, if you want to get hold of me, if you want to ask questions, drop me an email. I'm very responsive and I love it.

You know, I love somebody coming to me and saying to me, you know, I don't know what to do. I the biggest thing for me is I think everybody, including me, before I got involved in this, I'd go to the shop, I'd stand in front of all these products and think, I've absolutely no idea what I should use. that one looks good. And you just buy products for the sake of it. And actually, it's it's a waste of money half the time. so if people want to know what they should be using, what they shouldn't be using, what's a waste, what's what's good.

The Midlife Awakening (54:01)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Nicky (54:16)
drop me an email and write a comment on Facebook write a comment on Instagram and and I'll respond. I have just launched our new website. if you go onto my Facebook page there is a post there. So any purchases off the website

you can use the new the code for the website. I think it's new site 10. We'll give you 10% of anything on our shop except for the items that are currently on promotion. But yeah, the the offer is available until the end of June. And yeah, new site 10, I think the link is the the code is. But yeah, it's if you go into either our Instagram page or our Facebook page.

you'll see the post there and you can you're welcome to browse and use the discount code.

The Midlife Awakening (55:10)
Amazing. And I'll put all the links in the show notes if you guys want to head to Nikki's website, which is www.intrinsicshop.co.uk. On Instagram, she is at intrinsic skincare UK and Facebook in Intrinsic Skincare UK. And she also has a YouTube channel, Intrinsic Skin Care. So all those links are in the show notes. You guys know where to go. I think Nikki's also offering a free skincare consultation. Is that correct? Okay.

Nicky (55:38)
Absolutely. So

if anybody wants a consult, drop me an email and we'll set up a time and yeah, normally about half an hour. But you know if it needs longer, it needs longer. But my aim is to to help and get people to stop poisoning themselves. That is my my main aim.

The Midlife Awakening (56:02)
Amazing, amazing. And that's such a generous offer. So everyone, I would absolutely take her up on it. it's well worth it and there there will be a ripple effect throughout your life, I think. As always, thank you for being here. if you are a midlife and you are starting to realise that you deserve to feel better in your body, in your skin, in your whole life, you are in the right place. I'm Odelia, this is a midlife awakening. Until next week, be kind to yourself, take care of your heart, and remember it's never too late to begin again.

Bye for now.