Sometimes the people we plan to interview become unavailable. When that happens, I usually take it as the universe’s way of saying, “There’s another story waiting to be told.” This month, that story found me in the cosmetics aisle at Ulta.
I had walked into the store with one mission: find a new foundation. Within moments, several delightful young beauty advisors, each blessed with the flawless skin only your twenties seem capable of producing, asked if they could help me. They were kind, professional, and genuinely eager to assist. I smiled and politely declined.
The truth was, I wasn’t looking for someone who knew how to maintain perfect 22-year-old skin. I was looking for someone who understood how to age well. That’s when Agnes appeared from the Murad aisle. Agnes was clearly north of forty, had beautiful, healthy-looking skin, and, more importantly, looked like someone who understood the questions I was asking. I laughed and confessed my frustration. “I don’t need to know how to look twenty-five,” I told her. “I need to know how to look like the best version of this age.” She smiled and simply said, “Let’s look at this.” That one sentence changed the direction of my afternoon.
Agnes didn’t promise miracles. She listened. She asked questions. She explained Dr. Howard Murad’s philosophy, that healthy skin begins long before you open a jar of moisturizer. I left with more than a new skincare regimen. I left curious.
As many of you know, curiosity has always been one of my defining characteristics. Once I arrived home, I started reading about Dr. Howard Murad. Then I discovered he’d written an entire collection of books on wellness, stress, hydration, nutrition, and healthy aging.
That caught my attention.
Most people know Dr. Murad as the founder of a successful skincare line. What many don’t realize is that he’s a board-certified dermatologist and pharmacist who has spent decades studying the connection between our overall health and the condition of our skin. His philosophy is refreshingly simple: skincare is healthcare.
In other words, what we put into our bodies is just as important as what we put on them. As someone who writes a column called Strength at Every Age, that message resonated with me.
For years, we talk about staying active, building strength, eating better, getting enough sleep, and maintaining our emotional well-being. Dr. Murad simply approaches those same ideas through the lens of our skin, reminding us that our largest organ often reflects what’s happening inside the rest of our body.
One of the concepts I found especially interesting is what he calls “cultural stress.” We live in a world that expects us to do more, sleep less, multitask constantly, and somehow never show the effects of it. That chronic stress doesn’t just affect our mood. It can affect our energy, our health, and yes, our skin.
His approach centers around a few practical ideas:
- Nourish your body with wholesome foods.
- Stay well hydrated.
- Keep moving.
- Care for your skin.
- Be kind to your mind.
None of those require perfection. They simply require consistency. I’ll admit something.
I did invest in a new Murad skincare routine. Was it inexpensive? As Agnes stated “Not as expensive as some other skincare.” However, I will admit my wallet needs some recovery time.
But what excited me even more than the products were the ideas behind them. The creams may help my skin, but the books challenge me to think differently about aging itself and perhaps that’s the greatest lesson I took away from this unexpected encounter.
Healthy aging isn’t about trying to become twenty-five again. It’s about becoming the healthiest, strongest, most vibrant version of the age we are today. That is a philosophy I can wholeheartedly embrace.
And before I close, I’d like to offer a little wink and a sincere thank you to Agnes at Ulta. You probably thought you were helping me find a better moisturizer. Instead, you introduced me to an entirely new way of thinking about aging well. Sometimes the best teachers appear when we’re simply looking for foundation. Turns out, I found one.
And that is true customer service.
Editor’s Note: The author purchased the Murad products mentioned in this column at full retail price and has received no compensation, free products, or consideration from Dr. Howard Murad or Murad Skincare. The opinions expressed are entirely her own.
