12 beauty and wellness lessons to embrace for 2024

January 1 is the absolute worst. A day filled with so much pressure: to set goals, and—in the vein of marginal toxic positivity—be hopeful. I’ve decided to join the crew by going old school and setting myself targets, but with a twist. No blank slates; these are works in progress from last year that I want to upgrade.

There’s an odd delight in picking up something unfinished—less pressure, more pleasure. And instead of ticking them off as achievements, I’m considering what these might look like if I absorbed them into the daily fabric of my life. Here are lessons from the universe of beauty and wellness that I’m carrying into the new year.

Going against the grain of skintok to streamline my arsenal of products, I ask dermatologist Dr Chytra Anand if nanotechnology and biotechnology might be what I’m looking for. Nanotechnology effectively delivers active ingredients in concentrated doses, she says, while biotechnology relies on bio fermented ingredients.

“These support skin health at a foundational level, so you don’t need a multitude of products.” A quick check reveals I’m on the wagon already—my sensitive skin can use only mineral sunscreens whose key ingredients (titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) are reduced to nanoparticles for more efficient protection.

Some popular collagen boosting peptides and exfoliating have been created via biotechnology. Biossance’s best selling 100% Squalane Oil is made from Brazilian sugarcane fermented in a lab, not the traditional shark liver. Morning and night skincare routine? Check. At last count, I owned 11 bottles of foundation and nine tubes of .

None match and I dislike what they do to my skin texture. Ageing has turned my skin from oily to patchily dry and incredibly moody. But 44 years on the planet have left their marks, quite literally, and my pigmentation and scarring have made me miserable. Learning from the embrace of imperfections that Gen Z lives by, I’m pivoting.

“Pigmentation and scarring are natural responses to environmental insults and injuries,” Dr Anand says. “Pigmentation protects against UV radiation and is not inherently unhealthy, although abrupt changes should be assessed by a dermatologist. We want functional and healthy skin, but we should also embrace the natural ageing process.” Smarter skincare translates to being de influenced too.

Actives like glycolic acid, and vitamin C may promise ‘red carpet perfection’ thanks to their exfoliating and skin brightening properties, but they’re not for everyone. Those with sensitive skin and rosacea or those dealing with active breakouts usually cannot use most actives. I’m sticking to the basics of cleanse tone moisturise for my face, but I’m happy to experiment with bodycare.

Dr Anand explains further, “The thicker skin on your arms and legs may tolerate active ingredients better, which can help address rough texture, pigmentation and ageing.” Getting my eyebrows last year was a game changer. Suman Jalaf, the brow artist to everyone from Bollywood celebrities to Middle Eastern royalty, crafted a perfectly arched death stare that I’m convinced can actually solve problems.

She mapped my brow shape in proportion to my face and then incised tiny strokes of colour to mimic hairs. You look put together no matter how dishevelled the rest of you may be. “It boosts a woman’s self confidence,” Jalaf says, attributing microblading’s rise in popularity to the Kardashians and social media virality.“Women want thicker brows but also want them to look natural and fluffy.” Laminated brows are the new direction—more natural, less pencilled in, and thanks to microblading (whose effects last up to a year or more), no more filling in.

Building confidence one confusing patriarchal expectation at a time, I’ve decided to focus on my lips. I’m swapping matte liquid lipsticks for lips tints and the whipped mousse finish perfected by Korean brands that dry down but never dry out your lips. But what I really want are the glosses: sophisticated retakes from the 1980s, now nourishing without being sticky.

Enter the . “Lip oils work well as they soften the lips and prevent feathering where your lipstick bleeds beyond the lip line,” says celebrity makeup artist Clint Fernandes.” Natural colours are popular and Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk sets the benchmark here. Inspired by Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire in my teens, I tried going goth for a few days.

That’s when I first discovered that brown skin doesn’t lend itself to certain beauty trends. Today’s version is wanting to wear pastels but wasting money on palettes that refuse to have any impact. So I turned to Fernandes again for help. “On the eyes, use pastels minimally—just a hint of pinks, blues and greens on the inner corner or a kohl pencil to accentuate .

Try an iridescent pastel to sweep across a smoky eye. And you can go a little warmer with darker brown skin tones—peach, lavender, light lime green or mint green.” Being follically challenged, a deeply disappointing moment was waking up one morning when I was six to find my hair was still ‘boy cut’ and not a lush cascading wave as per my Liril inspired dream.

Today, I have the means to do something about it—hair botox has entered the ring (it’s helped with hairfall and I look less cobwebby). But I’m also swallowing prescribed supplements and baby hairs are already sprouting. Dermatologist Dr Rashmi Shetty points out that “we don’t get enough micronutrients in our food and stress levels are a lot higher”.

Regular blow dries and also damage hair. “A blood test might show a deficiency in iron, calcium, magnesium or zinc—the minerals that support red blood cells that carry oxygen and strengthen hair. Or in nutrients like vitamins B1, B5, A, B3 or certain amino acids. If so, you need an internal nutrition boost.” It started off with 100 brush strokes (leading to more ).

Today, it’s five minutes of peptide application to make hair appear thicker and swiping right on mulberry silk pillowcases. A night time haircare routine is not really about taking a moment for yourself. It’s about a ‘familiar certainty’—I apply this, brush that out, tie it up like this—that can calm the voices in my head.

“A routine can start off simple, like tying your hair back with a silk scrunchy or tucking it into a silk cap. Whatever doesn’t increase friction on your hair as you change positions at night,” says Dr Shetty. She’s a great believer in hair oil massages to increase blood supply and replenish nutrients that might get stripped during shampooing “Apply a light oil to the scalp and strands, all the way to the ends.” I’ve never been able to tune into my gut instinct because of the chatter of overthinking.

Anxiety has destroyed my and I have acid reflux that’s led to an itchy throat (what a joy that was during covid lockdowns). Natural remedies have proven to be more efficacious than allopathy, and this year, I’m leaning into the Ayurvedic wonder of basti or enema therapy. Gut health doesn’t only affect the digestive system.

“In your forties, it can be a window to your vitality and well being,” explains naturopath Dr Nigma Talib, due to the gut brain connection—signals transmitted between the nervous system and digestive system, where the microbiome plays a role. “Ayurveda’s personalised approach to health is based on tailored diets and treatments that harmonise with your microbiome.”This could be my definition of luxury—a customised enema to make sure my gut and brain stay balanced.

I froze my eggs when I was 43. My biggest learning, besides regret, is that hormonal health, especially for women, is largely smoke and mirrors. We know little and are taught even less. Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers, orchestrating a symphony of functions from mood regulation to metabolism.

These get even more sensitive as women approach perimenopause (another mysterious stigmatised universe). manifest physically, impacting energy levels, weight management and reproductive health. “Stress and the sleep cycle deeply influence hormonal health,” says Dr Tanaya Narendra aka Dr Cuterus.

Stress leads to an increase in cortisol, “which can cause weight gain, high blood pressure and anxiety”. But Dr Narendra advises against regularly blanket testing your hormones. “If a symptom is bothering you, speak to your doctor. Especially if you’re feeling lethargic, not sleeping well, feeling stressed or having irregular menstrual cycles.

As you get perimenopausal, these tend to happen even more.” Thanks to Instagram reels, I spent a good portion of 2023 convinced that the moon was out to get me. They revealed what lunar cycles, new moons and eclipses were doing to my mood and body, and I spent every full moon night suffering from insomnia, convinced the lunar blob made me do it.

Through the process, I dove deeper into the intuitive relationship between the moon and the body. Sita Sunar, breathwork facilitator and yoga teacher, believes circalunar rhythms (tied to the lunar cycle) have a more subtle effect. The moon’s gravitational effect on ocean tides has been extrapolated to human bodies, which are largely made up of water.

There aren’t enough scientific studies to support these claims, but some have drawn a link between mood patterns and lunar tidal cycles, while others connect sleep to circalunar rhythms. “Ashtanga yoga proposes that on full moon days, we may be more energetic and not well grounded,” Sunar says.

“So indulging in physical practice may lead to more injuries as we tend to push ourselves.” She switches to chandra bhedana, or moon breaths, a cycle of inhaling through the left nostril and exhaling through the right which helps calm our parasympathetic brains. “Syncing ourselves to can bring us in alignment with nature and the needs of our physical, emotional and spiritual selves.” The fusion of technology and mindfulness has created an ally in the battle against anxiety.

At NeuroLeap, created by neuroscientist Kumaar Bagrodia, advanced imaging techniques help identify neural pathways in the brain and decode its functioning. A 30 minute test and analysis by Bagrodia showed me elevated levels of overthinking and anxiety, and therefore, reduced executive function. I’m in therapy trying to tackle exactly these issues, but therapy is hard.

This kind of tech targets the subconscious mind directly, using a simple rewarding system to change the neural pathway. The same thing was happening with my cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), but that was using my conscious mind to forcibly change my subconscious thoughts. But “anxiety is a problem of the subconscious”, says Bagrodia.

“You didn’t wake up in the morning and say, I’ve got to be anxious. Your subconscious patterns, personality, ideals and values have been created over the years through repeated interaction and feedback from people around you.” Targeted rewarding of my subconscious has already helped me stay in the moment marginally better than I used to a few months ago.

Next? Anxiety and overthinking..