The Life Of Bryony - How Not to Age…? Die! Genevieve Turley on how to Dazzle and Age All at the Same Time!

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

This week, I’m joined by the utterly brilliant Genevieve Turley – former military burns nurse turned bridal makeup artist and accidental Instagram sensation. Genevieve talks about swapping the Air Force and life‑changing injuries for a career helping women feel genuinely comfortable in their own skin, and why seeing real trauma means she no longer sweats the small stuff about ageing. We get into toxic beauty culture, Botox pressure, and why she’d rather invest in SPF than fillers. She shares properly useful, affordable skincare basics: how to work out your skin type with a post‑shower test, why double cleansing matters, and the simple routines that actually fit around kids, chaos and real life. If you’ve ever felt invisible at a makeup counter or confused by beauty trends, this one will make you feel seen, represented and a bit less alone. LINK TO TICKETSGenevieve’s debut show, Laughter Lines, is at the Leicester Square Theatre on 10th May 2026. Grab your tickets here.WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOUGot something to share? Message us on @lifeofbryonypod on Instagram.If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might need it – it really helps! Bryony xxCREDITS:Host: Bryony GordonGuest: Genevieve TurleyProducer: Laura Elwood-CraigAssistant Producer: Tippi WillardStudio Manager: Mitchell LiasEditor: Luke ShelleyExec Producer: Jamie East  A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Right there, lovely ones, are you ready to feel good about yourself? Because today's guest is a nurse-turned-make-up artist who refuses to take the beauty industry too seriously. In fact, the wonderful Genevieve Turley is all about cutting through the toxic beauty BS so that you're able to love your reflection in the mirror. With almost a million followers on Instagram, she's a comedy genius and my social media girl crush. I saw this thing yesterday and it was a picture of this beautiful woman who was 37 and it said at the top how not to age and I wanted to write and go how not to age dot dot dot die. You know it is that simple. My chat with Genevieve coming up right after this. Now listen everyone or watch whatever way you're happening to consume this podcast.

Genevieve Turley, if you don't know the name, you will most certainly know the face. Poor you. No, no, none of that. And you'll probably follow her on Instagram. Now, Instagram doesn't make me feel great because I spend a lot of time comparing and despairing. But you, you make me howl with laughter. Oh, thank you. So, Genevieve, for those who don't know, what are you doing?

Get on social media more. Spend more time on Instagram. Genevieve with a jeep. At? Yeah. What's your handle? It's really easy. Genevieve Turley, M-U-A.

Muir. Genevieve's a makeup artist, but she's not just any makeup artist. Because you give tutorials, but you also sort of, what I love about, you is you don't take yourself too seriously and you don't take the beauty industry too seriously. Yeah, I try and I feel as though I know women really quite well and most women sort of are age going to work, dealing with kids, they're not interested in a 20-step makeup routine. They need something quick, effective. They want to know different products, what's going to work for their skin. So they just do.

just want very simple tips and tricks. And, you know, I don't use big lighting setup. I use natural light mostly. I'm not afraid to zoom in on my, you know, skin without makeup on. You know, so I think it's very relatable for a lot of women, which is entirely the point of it. I want women to come to my page. And like you just said then, a lot of things make you feel like crap. I want women to come to my page and they feel better. Yeah. And they feel represented. You absolutely do that. Oh, good. I'm glad I'm getting it right.

And you made me laugh. So I didn't realize, so you went from like 4,000 followers, which is a good, respectable number in 2024, to what have you got now? Over 800,000 now. Wow, almost a million followers. Yeah. That's mega. In two years.

Yeah, so February 24, I had 4,000. We all went viral. And then that was sort of the start of it. But I changed. where I was doing content. So before I was, because I'm a bridal makeup artist, that's my bread and butter. So I was doing, you know, very bridal makeup looks, talking a lot about being a bridal makeup artist. And the change came because I had always wanted to talk more about women and empowering women sort of past 30 in how they look more than anything. So it's not just about

makeup tips and tricks. It's about helping women have a better relationship with their reflection. That's what I really wanted to do. But I was scared to do it because I thought, well, if I start going in that direction, am I going to not get my brides? And if I don't have my brides, then that's my income sort of affected. So I was very nervous to change the way I was doing my content. And then one day I just thought, ah, sort of, I'm just going to do it. And that real, I said, sort of went a bit nuts. And then that just sort of started everything. going. And changed the direction of your life entirely? Well, certainly it's brought around amazing opportunities. You know, if you'd have said to me, you know, I like the whole vision board

manifesting, visualising, all of that. I do also think with those things comes a hell of a lot of hard work. You can't just write down a piece of paper what you want to do and sort of sit there close your eye and go, I want a yacht. You're telling me that you didn't just in January, right on a bit of paper, I would like to be a massive Instagram influencer and get loads of brand deals. And then in February 2024, it happened. No, not quite. I remember, funny enough, I remember, 23, I journaled every night or nearly every night. And I'm so glad I did because that year was all about me trying different things and putting myself out there in different directions and financially investing in different projects.

And none of them worked in the way that I had wanted them to. And I was writing in this journal just being like frustrated that I was like, oh, no, that didn't quite work. And I don't know why that didn't quite work. But at the end, I'd just write, keep going, it's coming. Like, keep going, it's coming. And I kept so, and I hadn't realized that I had to have this constant, keep going, you know, because it was quite negative what I was writing.

And then at the end, I would always be like, okay, draw a line under. we go again tomorrow. So I was always of the belief that I had the ability to do it, but I didn't quite know when or how it was going to happen. So like Trinney London is a great example. I did a Vision Board in 2021, and on that was, you know, I'd love to work with Trinney London. I did, you know, and she's ace.

So I've had things that were on the board have happened, but I have worked very hard to get there. And I think it's very easy for people to sort of see where I am now and go, well, you've been so lucky. You know, my dad finds that really frustrating. He's like, no, you know, you work bloody hard. People always do that. They go, they see where someone's reached and they go,

oh, they've been so lucky. And they don't realize that actually you've taken a lot of closed doors, a lot of knocks and a lot of, no, not going to happen before people start saying, yes, an opportunity to start sort of coming forward. you know. So, and this was already, so I want to go way back to pre-Make-up because what I didn't know until I started like obsessively researching you the last week was that you weren't always a makeup artist.

You were a nurse in the military. Yeah, Air Force. You were a Burns specialist. Yeah. That's a big change. It's rather large. Yeah. Yeah.

And that job is quite traumatic. I imagine. You're having to deal with quite traumatic situations. You're dealing with very life-changing injuries. Yeah. And life-changing injury doesn't mean it has to be a huge burn. You know, if you've got a full thickness, burn on your breast, and you have to have a skin graft for that, I could look at you now and go, I have no idea that you're a burns victim. But that's a life-changing injury for you, you know, as a woman.

So I've seen all sorts. And I think not just in burns, I was burns and plastics. So I've dealt with a lot of people who have had head and neck surgeries, which is, I don't know if you've ever known anyone who have had a head of neck surgery. It's like awful. Women who have had to have their breasts remove cancer. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you. Plastics is pretty wild as well.

So it's not just burns. it's the, you know, again, the life-altering changes of plastics, you know, dog bites and things like that, you've seen it all. So I guess, although it was a very different job, it does tie in quite well with what I'm doing now because, again, I understand women probably really well from that job as well. And I would say nurses, one of our key skills is communication. Yeah. And that transfers very well to what I do now as well. And the biggest one is, as I was saying earlier about women and their reflection, you know, people sort of say, how are you so sort of comfortable with ageing and having that messaging and things? And it's like when you've seen the

things that I've seen, you don't sweat the small stuff, you know, because what some of these people have endured and will continue to endure because a burn, a significant burden, a significant burn, that's been full thickness, once it's healed, that's not the end of someone's story. They then will go on and they'll have to have scar release surgeries and, you know, it's a lifetime. Was this sometimes soldiers who had been... No, this is the misconception a lot with the military. There are no military hospitals that haven't been for a long time.

So we work alongside NHS. So I was working in an NHS hospital. at Birmingham they have a wing, a military wing where soldiers would be flown into Birmingham. But I didn't actually ever work in Birmingham on the Burns Unit there. I was always at Queen Victoria in East Grinstead, which is very famous for its burns

because of Mr. McKindo. Your revelation is Burns. So it was an amazing hospital that I worked at and it was a hospital where you got to nurse in a way that you want to be able to nurse, nurse because it was just surgical rather than, you know, medical and surgical combined. So it was a very special job. I loved it. I loved my NHS colleague. I didn't love being in the military, but I loved my NHS colleagues. I loved the challenge that the job gave me. And I

love the fact that it gave me just that as, you know, as changes happen, it makes you have a word with yourself whenever you get that negative talk. Yeah. Because you just go, God's sake, you know, you're winging about this. But remember that woman who went through that, God, you know, and she didn't even complain and she was in pain and had gone through all that. So you see people who, you can imagine how significant if you're sorry set fire. Yes.

How devastating that would be. But people are so glad to have survived it. And, you know, when you're sort of saying, how is your attitude so incredible? And they're like, well, I'm alive. Yeah. I thought it was going to die. Yeah. So I think for them, I don't, I don't really sweat the small stuff, really.

Also, what you do with beauty is that you help use makeup to bring out that beauty. It's not about changing the person. It's about, as you say, transforming someone's relationship with their own reflection by showing them who they are. Does that make any sense? Yeah, it's all about enhancing. So everyone has beauty. that's all I always say everyone has beauty and beauty is subjective

so what one person thinks is beautiful another person won't and what we've seen is that people are sort of morphing themselves to look the same there's become a very generic look of beauty Instagram's out yeah and

you look pained when I when I said those words there's no there just seems to be a lack of personality and creativity look at the 80s. Look at the makeup. Look at the hair. Look at the fashion. You know, that looked fun. Well, it was like wild. I was like wild. But yeah. But I mean, and the 90s, you know,

the makeup looks that you saw in the 90s were even really cool. You know, people were expressing themselves with makeup, whereas now no one's expressing themselves with makeup. No, definitely not. I mean, for me, they're like, again, I don't wear makeup very off. Like, I don't feel my mom. My mom, was very much like, don't leave the house without makeup. So I was like, fuck you, I'm going to leave the house without makeup all the time now. Do you know what I mean? So I'm very, I wear makeup to do this. And if I've got to go somewhere for work, you know, like, but I don't bother otherwise.

And what I like is, is doing, like I like, I like looking down and seeing the color. Yeah, like I like a kind of vibrant. It's like an accessory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then I see makeup is that. Yeah.

Well, I, I've got cracking lips. Do you never wear like a lip? No, the only thing I wear is... Don't get me started. You won't believe what she's got sitting on it. She pulled up, before we started the podcast, Brian, he went, oh, I need some lip balm. She pulled out Carmex.

You're anti-Carmex. Oh, it's Carmex. Are you addicted to Carmex? I am, but I've been addicted to some quite dark things, Genevieve, in my time. So we're okay with Carmich. I'll take Carmex over cocaine. Yeah. Is there like the cocaine of lip balm, which you say?

It's got menthol in it, which is an irritant. So is that why I have to use it all the time? Yeah. So I have to go cold turkey on the Carmelmace. I'm going to take it out of your hands at the end of this podcast. What do we, I'm just going to put it in it. There's loads of really good. You don't have to spend much money on lip products. Well, like Carmex.

Yeah, basic bit £2.50. So, but there are, I really like Dr. Sams. I like that one. And then they've got tinted ones as well. Okay. So that's really nice. nice. On's with SPF in.

Yeah. Like, Hello Sunday. I've got ones like that. But you've got cracking lips. So go from one with a tint in it. Oh, okay. Have you never been told you got cracking lips? I'd love to see you in a red lip.

People usually tell me that I've got cracking tits. Well, those two. So they're not looking at my lips. She's all lips and tits. But also, I think because I've done so much work in being like, I don't care what I like I just, I'm a fabulous human and personality. People don't comment on the way I look because I think they think I'm going to like ball them out.

So they won't, they won't say anything. Like I, the other day went to a party. I don't go to parties very often. And this woman who, um, she's got like a lot of followers. Yeah. And I met her.

And she went and I went, oh, hi, I'm Brianie. And she went, oh my God. And I was like, oh, sorry. And she was like, you look so much better in real life than you do on Instagram. And I realized that I've done this kind of, I'm probably the only person that like goes, looks at my photos and says, I'm going to put the worst one up, you know. So you and I are liking that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We are very comfortable and almost, like you said, purposefully choose the bad angles and purposefully, if I'm looking particularly rough, I will make sure I record myself. And I love that. That's why I love following you because I just think... It's real. Yeah. And I do think this word authentic gets banded around. Oh God, that and organic.

And it makes me like, get in the bin. Get in the bin. Like when someone's using the word authentic, they're not authentic. Just about my authentic self. Yeah, I'm like, oh. With 10 filters on. Yeah. You're all right, mate.

We are. We are authentic. Me and you, we're the real deal. And that's exactly the kind of thing an authentic person would say about themselves. We'll say it. We are authentic. But I am going to get you in a red lip. Okay. Well. I have one in my handbag, so we will actually do it.

Okay, so can we talk about how you go from being a Burns unit specialist to a bridal makeup artist? Yes. Okay. So. You pivot. I did a big pivot. So we'd have to go back a bit further. So when I was younger, I was always obsessed with makeup. So unlike your mum, my mum was the opposite. She wasn't that into beauty and makeup. So she's always

been like, I don't know where your love of lotions and potions come from that. So my dad always called it. And so I, back then, though, to be a makeup artist was more about working in magazines and fashion. So you'd sort of go to London and learn about makeup. So that was sort of my idea that I would do that. And then my sisters, I've got a big brother and a big sister. They both went travelling and my parents always really encouraged us. to go travelling. So it was always my plan to go travelling, but then I would pop down to London and do that. My sister went on to be a doctor and then when I went travelling, I went backpacking, did one year of backpacking, loved it, carried on did another year. And then after three years of backpacking, I thought, my parents said, we really love that you love travelling. It's really good. But at some point,

you have got to think about the next step, you know. So at some point, at some point you've got to at a job? Well, it's not that I know I worked. So I'd come home. I'd earn. Oh, yeah, mommy and daddy were not funding this. Mommy and Daddy were not funding this. They encouraged it greatly, but they were not funding it. So when I ran out of money, I would come home and then I would work sort of 18 hours a day. You know, I would work on a till in Sainsbury's. I would do tele sales and I'd clean all around that. So all my friends were at uni, so I just got my head down and just worked and worked and then I'd go back out travelling and I'd live off, you know, five pounds a day. So my parents were sort of thinking you've got to start thinking about what it is

you want to do. And my sister said, well, why don't you be a nurse? Because you love care work. You know, I'd worked with people with autism. I loved the elderly, working people with dementia. And so my sister said, why don't you be a nurse? Then you can travel the world forever and get paid something. You know, it's not good anywhere you go, but you get paid something. And then my dad said, well, why don't you join the Air Force? Because you want to do humanitarian aid and you love sport. So you get paid better in the military than you do in the NHS. So maybe look at that.

So I was like, all right. And before you knew it, I was in the Air Force as a nurse. So I don't really, you know, they're all kind of just, I mean, I make it sound like it was easy. It wasn't. I had to go to university, get a degree in nursing. And then I had a year to jump through hoops to get into the military. Then you've got to get through basic training and then, you know, blah, blah, blah. So it was a lot of steps.

But sort of before I know it, I'm. in the military nursing. And that makeup dream has dissipated. And then when I was nursing, like I said, you get paid more in the Air Force. I had my daughter while I was still serving. But I knew once I'd become a mum, I wanted to leave because I wouldn't have wanted to get deployed. Right. Yeah.

So I was thinking, well, what do I do outside of the military? If I go into nursing, I've got this very much. very niche specialism. And where I was working, it was very nurse-led, whereas that's very unusual. But we couldn't afford to stay where we were. We were in Surrey. Kind of wanted to move back home because I'd had a baby. And so I was like, well, what else could I do? And I thought, well, you loved makeup. Why don't you have a look at doing that? And I'm lucky that my husband, you know, was supportive of that, but also was able to financially keep. us afloat for a time being. But I mean, it was savage. It was absolutely...

And he's a plumber... Plumbing and heating engineer. But we'd bought a house before I left the forces that was a complete renovation. So Richie was backwards and forwards constantly doing that. Whilst I was then, I had to go back to nursing full time before I could leave the forces to sort of pay back my matli. So it was pretty savage. And then I'd had IVF to have my daughter. And then we moved and then found out we were pregnant naturally, which was obviously wonderful, but I had just given up a very safe career. We had half a house. I had a baby and no income and a husband who was sort of, I've got to finish this house.

I've also got to work and make enough money to support. Do you know what I mean? It was just, it was very hard. It was just very, very hard. And then our son was born and my business was doing reasonably well. And then COVID hit. And then obviously I couldn't work at all. And I was off in lockdown with a one year old and a two year old.

And my husband worked the whole of it. And I could see at that point that was the start where TikTok really went off, wasn't it? And reels on Instagram started. And I knew I was looking at all this stuff going, I know that now is the time to move. Like this is when it happens. But I can't. I have a one year old and a two year old.

I can't even have 20 seconds to myself, you know, let alone film and record content and edit it all. You know, I haven't got time to do any of that. And I had to just make peace with it and just go, now's not your time to sort of have your, to make that move. You can't, you just physically can't do it. I'm the first person who will say, find a way. But sometimes you have got to go. Except that this is not the moment. to do it.

Bide your time. Exactly. You're just going to tread water for a bit. You're not, you are going to do it, but you have got to put a pin in it and come back to it when you can give it the time and energy that you want to give it. And, you know, I was covered in psoriasis from the stress of. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It was, you know, it's sad when I look back. I always sort of think, oh, God, I feel really bad because I think I don't really remember that first year of my son's life. I was sort of so. in survival mode of trying to make everything work. I couldn't afford nursery. Couldn't afford to put two babies into nursery. I'm very lucky my mum and my mother and all help where they can.

But I don't, they're in their 70s. They couldn't be like, yeah, I'll have them three days a week. You know, it was as and when they could. Everything was hard. Everything was really hard. And I remember once mum coming over and I'd got this awful, I went to a soft player and got this flipping awful eye infection. It felt like my eyeball was going to come out.

And I had these bridal trials that I had booked in. And to book a bridal trial in took so much effort because I was relying so heavily on the two mums to help me. And so when I got this eye infection, obviously I couldn't do the trials. So I was having to reschedule and reschedule, but this eye infection would not clear up for weeks and weeks. So I kept rescheduling. And then so mum came over this one day and both the babies were just on me sort of screaming. My mum was sat there with a diary. She was like, right.

And I just went, no, I can't. I can't do it. I can't do it. I said, mum, this is ridiculous. Look at, look at me, like two kids screaming, eyeball hanging out, psorias is covered. And then she just closed the door and put the time and went, okay, so you don't do it. And then I just went, open your diary and let's do it. You know, I needed just a moment of going, this is too hard. And then I'm just going, fine, don't do it then. And then I was like enraged. I was like, no.

I am going to do it. I'm going to find a way. So I did, but it was really, really hard. And then, you know, after COVID, things still weren't easy, but you find a way. And I would say now things feel easy. They're seven and eight. Yeah. Well, yeah.

And then it'll get, I guess. Don't. Piss off. Don't tell me as well to get. No, no, no, I think it gets better and better. I love it. I'm a much better mum of an almost adolescent than I was of a toddler. We don't have to love every stage of parenting.

We do not. If someone is listening right now and they feel like they're in that place that you were in where they have a dream, but they just aren't able to realize it because the circumstances just are not right. What would your advice be to someone in that situation? Surround yourself with cheerleaders. So when I left the military, I was nervous to tell. My parents are divorced, but I was nervous to tell them that I was leaving this very safe, secure,

well-paid career just as I'd become a mum. Because my mum was a stay-at-home mum and then they got divorced. my mum always said, I'm so glad you girls have got careers. You're safe. You know, Maddie's a doctor, you're a nurse. You're safe. If anything happened to your marriage, you're both okay. Whereas my mum had to find a job for the first time at 58, you know.

And she did. She's, you know, if mum had been born in this generation, she would have been top lawyer, you know. And so I thought, oh, God, mom's going to find that quite hard to hear. But she was like, right, okay. no, that's a great idea. I'll buy you your first set of makeup brushes. And then when I told Dad, you know, his response, I think my dad has always, because he was a bit, you know,

he was a lawyer, but he had his own firm. So he was like, yeah, you should, you know, be your own boss. It's the best. Well, I think sometimes it's not. But, you know, I think Dad likes the idea of, you know, you being in control of your life in that sense. And so Dad said, yeah, he did say, you've always loved deletions of patients, but he was like, yes.

I grew up with parents who always said, be happy. That's the goal. It's not about having a really high-powered career. It's not about looking impressive to other people. The only thing they always drilled into us was be happy, find a job that makes you happy. And when I decided to be a nurse, I remember my dad and my brother sitting me down and saying, it's great that you want to be a nurse, but know that you will never be on much money. Like you're like, unless you marry someone who's got money, you will struggle financially through life.

And you just need to be aware of that. But it's a, you know, it's a really amazing career to have. So, dad was always very aware of that. So I think when I left it, he was like, go for it. And then all my friends thought it was brilliant. So you only need one person to go, oh, do you think you can do that? Oh, I don't think that's a very good idea. Or oh, that's a risk. And that's not my friends and my family being irresponsible and giving me the wrong. advice. I think that they would say if they were here now, because we know that she was, if she says she's going to do something, she's going to, she's going to do it. She'll find a way, you know, I won't just go, oh yeah, I kind of want to do that. I will go for it. So to those people are a bit nervous, I would say surround yourself with people who will sort of help you, help you get back

on track and make really measurable goals. Don't give yourself this really crazy goal where you've got to put loads of pressure on yourself. Just do, right, small steps. Small steps, six month goal, 12 month goal, you know, and go that way. That's what I do all the time. You know, even where I am now, I've always got a six month goal, 12 month goal, five year goal, always. So I'm always working towards something because I think having goals in life are what keep us, checking. It doesn't matter. keep you motivated. It doesn't matter if your goal is fitness or whether it's career-wise, whatever it is, you know, having something to keep going. Because when you hit a goal, and like you said, if you make it small, you feel really good. I've hit that goal onto the next one.

So set yourself some goals and be realistic, but don't be afraid to dream the big dream up there, you know, is the ultimate goal, but just set a good path for yourself. So your Instagram, you said earlier, is all about, you know, making women feel good about themselves. There's a lot of stuff out there, as we know, that makes them feel shit about themselves. Yeah. So what I want to talk to you about now, I think it's very important for the life of Briny Listener, like me, they may find beauty, skincare, all of that stuff quite overwhelming. They might not know what they should be using, what they shouldn't. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day. They might feel like,

oh my God, everyone is getting treatments, Botops, and I'm the only one that is visibly aging. That's just me. Don't worry. We're aging over here, aren't me, Brian? I think ageing is a wonderful thing. It's brilliant. So what I want to get from you, Genevieve Turley,

is a steer on just a few little tips where women can cheaply, navigate it, navigate it, and feel good about themselves, and begin to love the reflection. in the mirror, like, because I am with you, like, that is so important. It's acts of kindness to yourself as well, isn't it? So some people think skincare is this, oh, God, that sounds like a chore. Yeah.

And it's, and I want to change people's idea of that. You don't have to do a 10-step routine. If you're going from washing your face with shampoo in the shower, just give yourself a few different steps. If you're somebody who's already quite into your skincare, then I'd be like, right, add X, X, Y, Z. The key thing is you need to understand what your skin type is. That's a big one. Okay.

And how do we find out what our skin type is? So a really simple way to do is have a shower. Yeah. Come out of the shower. Don't put anything on your face. Leave it for half an hour. Okay. If your skin after half an hour is screaming for moisture,

is what mine does. Right. You're dry. If your face does not need any moisture whatsoever and you already have a nice glow to your skin. You're oily. And if you find that you are shiny in some places, but not in others, your combination.

Okay. It's the simplest way to do it. Right. Okay. So once you found out your skin type, then you have to look at what do you want for your skin. So if you've got pigmentation, you're probably looking to even your skin tone.

If it's dull, you're looking for brightness. If you are worried about fine lines, you're going to want products that help with that. If you've got hormonal breakouts, you'll want something different for that. So my skin is going to be different to, you know, people mention me go, what skin care should I do?

And I'm like, I don't even know, what colour your skin is. I don't know your skin texture. I don't know anything about you. I haven't got a clue. You know, it's not just use this. Because people will say skin has a load of old Tosh. It's really not.

It can really change people's lives, really. If you've got acne, did you have acne growing up? No. That is really debilitates. Yeah. To people's confidence. My brother had it very much. And it never leaves them.

It never leaves them. You know, I'll have people sit in my chair with clear a skin and in their head they've still got acne. So, you know, everyone's different and what ingredients will help certain people. So be realistic about what you've actually got time for. You know, if you've got a newborn baby, you're not going to be doing a 10-step routine. You're going to need to do something quite simple. And you, what's the other one I was going to say? You need to be consistent. So go in, and you need to look at your affordability. Don't go outside of what you can afford. That's really important. And you can have a good skincare routine at any budget. At any budget. You really can. Consistency is key. So I would say

the basics are make sure at night you're taking everything off your skin. So a first cleanse will remove all the SPF and the makeup from the day. And then your second cleanse is what is actually going to clean your skin. Okay. So that really makes sure your skin is clean at night. Then, you know, if you're really basic and that's already sounding like a lot, slap on a moisturizer, you're done. Yep. I in the evening will use a retinal and a moisturiser and I'm done. Yeah. On nights where I don't use a retinal, I'll use something with niacinamide or something with

hyaluronic acid. It's just giving my skin a bit of a break. In the morning, I use a vitamin C because I want brightening for my skin and I get pigmentation. But if you're dry, you might just want something with hyluronic acid, you know, niacinamide, things like that. So you might want to introduce a serum. So cleanse your skin, serum,

serum, moisturiser, and then the most important thing in the morning routine is, let's see if you're going to fill in the gap. SPF. Hey! And SPF every single day. And a lot of it. Even in the deep dark winter.

Deep dark winter. Get that SPF on your face. It is so important. And, you know, you can use SPF because you are trying not to age, which is absolutely fine. That's the UVA element. And then the UVB bit is trying to stop your skin getting cancer. So there's two ways that you look at SPF, but you need to use a decent amount of it to protect your skin. Can I ask you how we avoid and look after ourselves in a world of toxic kind of beauty trends and where it's become completely normal to be.

be spending hundreds of pounds every few months on things like Botox. I think it's really important to say to people that they don't have to do that. And I wondered how you navigate social media. I take the piss out of it all because it's so stupid. You know, it is stupid to... I saw this thing yesterday and it was a picture of this beautiful... woman who was 37 and she was like, how I stay looking 37, how not to age. That was the thing, how not to age. And then you swiped and then it was a list of her insane skincare routine.

And then another list of all the stuff that she does, like all the treatments, all the treatments, you know, getting sperm injected, having all of this done. Spirm. Oh, is that the fish. Firm injected under the eyes. Yeah. And it said at the top, how not to age. And I wanted to write and go, like, how not to age. Dot, dot, dot. Die. You know, it is that simple. If you are aging, it means you're alive. Woohoo. It's such, it's irresponsible wording. It's damaging wording because why is it so fucking awful to age? I do not understand. And it's not, and it is always pushed upon. women. It is always pushed upon women. And I had a woman message me the other day. And she said,

I just went into boots. And I really wanted, she said, I've never, I'm all makeup for years, but I've been following you for ages. And I thought, I'm going to go in, I'm going to get some bits. And I had a day off to myself and I was really looking forward to it. So I went into boots. She said, I'm in my mid-40s. I'm feeling really crap about myself at the moment, lost all my confidence. And I went in and I was stood there for ages, waiting for somebody to come and help me. I was, she said, I was in the nicer, you know, with all the luxe of the nice bit. Where, you know, you do expect someone to come and see, no tissue. It's a luxury experience.

Exactly. And then she said, no one came over, but she said there was about six of them just chatting. And she said, I've never felt more invisible in my life. She said, I went there with the aim to do something to make myself feel good. But I left feeling even worse. And I just sat in my car and cried because not only do I feel bad about myself, I now feel completely invisible. And that's something I hear time and time again from women of,

that age. And, you know, if we choose not to go down that Botox route and we choose to accept ageing, that's almost like, oh, you're invisible now. So is that something that you have chosen? I don't have Botox. I think you do whatever the hell you want to do. You do you. If you want to have Botox, have Botox. I don't think there's anything wrong with having it if that's what you want to do. If you've got frown lines, really deep frown lines that make you feel really shit and you feel loads better having something done about it, then you go for it. If you feel better having a bit of filler in your lips, go for it. Who the hell am I or anybody else to tell you what you shouldn't, shouldn't do with your face? I personally, I look in the mirror and I'm happy

with what I see. You are a, you are wonderful human. You know, when we go, people say, oh you look amazing. And I kind of want to change the wording around that and just say to someone, you are amazing. Because the onus we put on that on how we look. Do you see what I mean? And you do look amazing, but you also are amazing. And that actually is the more important thing in my mind. I think that us telling other women that they look great is very powerful as well, though, because if you're walking down the street, you know, if, if, Say if we were stood in the queue to get coffee and you were stood behind me, I would see your nails and go, God, those look low.

I love the colour that you've put on your nails. I'm a big, if you think a nice thing, tell the person. My husband's always like, I think you embarrass people. I was like, I don't care. Because if they're a bit embarrassed, it's because we're British and it's not comfortable for us. But I think if you think nice things, tell people. Just to touch on the shadow and go, that jacket is such a great colour on you. You look beautiful.

The impact it has, what can have on people is, huge. So I'm just going back to Botox quick because I've diverted, but I personally don't want to do Botox because I can't be asked. It's expensive. That's all you need to say. It's a commitment that I don't want a couple of hundred quid every couple of months. I've got other things I'd rather spend my money on personally. And I also think at some point you have got to accept that you are going to age because if your face is Botox, your neck is going to go. Then you're, you're going to your chest is going. And your hand. You, it's going to happen. So I just think the sooner that I just lean into it and go, it's happening, don't get me wrong. I still want to look great. That's why I do my

skincare. That's why I do my LED masks. It's why I have, you know, I work hard to look after my skin because I want to look and feel good. But as I age, but I'm okay with aging. Aging. And then where was I before where I had to bounce back? Oh, compliments. That's the one. So, for example, my sister was in a shop a few years ago, and she walked past a lady who was in her 80s, she thinks, roughly. And as the lady walked past her, my sister thought, God, she's got beautiful eyes. You know, when someone's got really piercing eyes, and the lady walked past her, my sister sort of walked into the shop and a few minutes were passed. And she was like, damn it, I'm going to tell her. So she sort of, you know, ran down the high street and tapped the stage on the shoulder.

I think she thought she was being mugged or something. My sister said, I just had to come and tell you that you completely. blinded me with your eyes. They're so beautiful. And the lady said, do you know, I'm 86 years old. And that's the first time anyone in my life has ever said, I've got nice eyes. And my sister was like, how the hell does someone get to 86 and never be told something like that, you know? So she was so glad that she stopped and told her. But that's why it's important, because some people have never been told, really complimented. And people genuinely think they look awful. The amount of women I have, you know, like Mother of the Brides or Mother of the Grumes, who sit in my chair.

And what they do is they go, could you cover this? I hate this. I don't like that. Or can you turn back the hands of time 10 years? It's very rare that I have a woman sit in my chair and go, I really like my eyes. Could you enhance them? Or I like my cheekbones. Could you put some blush on those? And that's what I want to see change. Women know what to enhance because that's their. And that's what I mean when everyone has beauty. Yeah. So you might not be the most beautiful, you're not going to be a model, but everyone has beauty. And makeup can unlock that and enhance that and really sort of make it punch someone in the face.

So with eye colour, you know, if you put an eye, an eyeshadow on the right colour, on a set of eyes, it will make them really pop even more. And that's when my job's great fun. You get a woman to look in the mirror. And she's not caked in makeup that she was so scared that was going to happen. and she sees herself looking beautiful to her for the first time. You know, it's like you've always been that beautiful. We've just bought your beauty forward a bit.

That's all we've done. And that's the power of makeup. It's how you can feel with it. So you don't have to have it. You don't need it. But it can really make you feel great. I just want to bottle you up and take you home with me. And I think that everyone could do with a Genevieve Turley in their life.

And that's why you've got nearly a million followers. Genevieve, thank you so much for coming on The Life of Briney. You are just the best vibes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Here's to aging. Woo-hoo! Thank you, Genevieve, for a much-needed conversation about aging beauty

and holding it all together as a mum in 26. I'd love to know your thoughts. Come and tell me over on Instagram at at Life of Brineepod. Genevieve will be back on Friday for our special bonus episode, The Life of You, where she will be sharing her top three products that keep her glowing without a massive price tag. In the meantime, don't forget to subscribe, follow, rate and rave about us to your friends. It really does help. But most of all, keep being your brilliant self.

see you next time.