Is the key to longevity a glass of Scotch and a cigarette?

I have spoken about this for years and have probably already done a post on it before, but can we please stop using social media as our sole source of skincare and wellness advice?

I get asked over and over again (which I genuinely don’t mind) whether something is “good” or whether a certain product actually “works”, and my answer tends to be the same every time.

It depends.

I am an avid social media user. I weirdly enjoy it and hate it at the same time. One of my biggest frustrations is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to trust anyone or anything on there because, at the end of the day, it is a selling platform. Especially when it comes to skincare and wellness.

Influencers make their living by selling products or working with brands to promote them, and the problem with that is that the products they’re promoting are always amazing.

Because let’s face it, they’re not going to tell you that something is rubbish, are they?

LED masks, salmon sperm facials, skin tightening treatments, collagen supplements, red light therapy, glucose monitors, cold plunges, cortisol balancing, gut healing… the list goes on and on.

It's not that these things are bad, the problem is that they’re often so overhyped that they start sounding like the answer to all of life’s problems.

Plus, there’s nothing quite like a twenty-two-year-old telling you that you absolutely must buy a product because they woke up looking smooth, plump and line free.

Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

The other thing is that everything on social media seems to be extreme now. I wrote about this a few weeks ago here, but it’s like we all need a 57,367-step wellness routine from the moment we wake up… which apparently is 4:30am these days of course.

Cue eye roll.

Then you have to film some kind of “get ready with me” tutorial where you dunk your face into an ice bath, then your entire body, then ice roll your face afterwards (sorry, but I actually love this one), before doing God knows what else and getting your 20,000 steps in because apparently 10,000 is now for amateurs.

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I heard a podcast recently that really made me smile because it rang so true.

Picture the scene...

It’s the early 2000s and you’re watching your local news (Granada Tonight if you’re from Manchester). They’re interviewing little Doris who has just turned one hundred and one years old.

The news presenter asks:

“So Doris, happy birthday! You look fantastic. Go on then, what’s your secret? What has kept you living to over a hundred?”

Now Doris isn’t saying she wakes up at 4:30am and gets her 20,000 steps in after an ice bath, is she?

She’s survived two world wars for Christ’s sake.

No, this is what Doris says:

“Well Matthew, I swear by my little glass of Scotch every night and one cigarette in the morning.”

Now listen, I am absolutely not advocating a whisky and a ciggy every day. That is not the point.

The point is that when it comes to longevity and wellbeing, maybe we don’t need the five hundred wellness steps every single day.

Maybe we can simply wake up, cleanse our face, put on our serums, creams and SPF and stop stressing about everything so much.

Because it’s the stress that causes the problems.

The lack of sleep, the poor digestion, the fine lines and wrinkles, the huge amounts of caffeine to keep us going…It’s the stress.

This got me thinking, are we actually becoming healthier or are we simply becoming more obsessed?

The obsession with longevity feels like the latest beauty trend. Everybody wants to live forever, optimise everything and reduce their biological age by twenty years.

But I think we’re getting it a bit twisted.

The story about Doris isn’t that cigarettes and alcohol are healthy. The point I’m trying to make is that Doris wasn’t stressed in the way so many of us are nowadays.

She wasn’t tracking calories, worrying about her sleep score from the night before or measuring ketones. She wasn’t wondering whether she’d had enough electrolytes that day or whether her glucose monitor approved of her breakfast.

She was getting out there, socialising, laughing and living her life.

The more I learn about longevity and Blue Zones, the more I realise that spending time with friends, laughing until your stomach hurts and feeling part of a community matters far more than we think.

I believe the following basics still ring true...

Get your sleep.

Move your body.

Eat well.

Nurture your relationships.

Manage your stress.

Laugh as much as you can.

Have a purpose in life.

Sorry, this isn’t particularly sexy or Instagram worthy, but I do think it’s true.

It’s like we’re living in some kind of stress paradox now. I genuinely think the healthier we try to become, the more stressed and unhealthy it can sometimes make us.

The guilt from missing a workout or the anxiety from not eating the “right” way and the pressure to optimise every aspect of our lives. It’s exhausting.

It’s like we’re forgetting how to actually live because we’re spending so much time trying to live longer.

Like WTF?

So, bringing it back to skin.

What most studies show us, and what I’ve learnt over twenty-three years as a facialist (bit of a flex there sorry), is that skin responds to stress, inflammation, poor diet, lack of sleep and good old hormones.

I have seen time and time again that a stressed person with a perfect supplement routine often has worse skin than a relaxed person with a simpler routine.

For me, I try to create a happy balance where I can.

I love good quality skincare and I absolutely believe it is the icing on the cake, the cherry on top if you will. I take supplements and I enjoy wellness, but it isn’t a full-time job.

I do the things that make me happy and I’ve stopped doing the things that don’t.

Don’t ask me about HIIT.

I drink matcha every day because I love the taste and coffee gives me the jitters. I love yoga because I enjoy stretching my body. I adore weights because they make me feel strong.

When it comes to longevity, I try to focus on the things that work for me and make me happy rather than seeing them as another chore on a never-ending wellness checklist.

I don’t believe the secret to longevity is a cigarette and a whisky, but I do think little Doris understood something that many of us have forgotten.

Life is supposed to be lived. I know, it's a proper cheesy line, but it's so bloody true!

Maybe we should all worry a little less about it.

If you want to create a skincare routine without the noise and nonsense, you can book in with me here.

Oh, and if I make it to one hundred and one and Granada TV comes knocking on my door, I’d be tempted to tell them I got there thanks to my daily matcha and a few bloody good orgasms.

Thank you so much for reading,

Emmaline