Shadowing Practice: My 87-Year-Old "Less is More" Skincare Routine | The Beauty Of Being Real & 90’s Memories - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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There comes a time in life when you just stop trying to be who everyone else expects you to be.
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There comes a time in life when you just stop trying to be who everyone else expects you to be.
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You stop polishing the edges and you stop hiding the scars.
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You stop apologizing for the years.
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And you know what?
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Something beautiful happens.
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You begin to live as yourself,
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not perfect and not pretending, just real.
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In a world that often rewards appearances,
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there is a quiet freedom in simply being who you are.
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Perhaps that's one of the greatest gifts of growing older.
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the peace that comes when you can finally have nothing left to prove.
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Hello, and it's great to see each and every one of you again today.
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I hope you all had a great week.
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Today, you know, I really have no script.
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I don't know exactly what I'm going to be talking about completely,
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but I do know that
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if all of you who have been with me for quite a few years realize
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that I started out as part of the Mature Beauty community,
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well, I eventually morphed into what I'm doing now because it's what I really felt I wanted to say here on YouTube.
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You know, I am a very minimalist when it comes to makeup.
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But so many of you have asked me,
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oh, what is your skincare?
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What kind of makeup do you use?
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And I kind of have been avoiding that because it's a very, very simple routine.
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I am so anti-piling a bunch of makeup on my face
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and I'm getting to be a little lazy in my old age
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and the easiest skincare regimen that I can have is great for me.
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So I have just put together a couple of things to let you know just exactly how simple my skincare routine is.
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We're going to start with that
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and then we're going to be talking about other things
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that have to deal with aging and maybe what we're thinking about now that we are 40 or 50 or even older.
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Our life changes.
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We think differently about things.
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But anyway, I just at night,
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I cleanse my face with an oil cleanser,
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Abilene or some other type of cleanser.
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I usually don't use water on my face
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and I wipe it off with a tissue
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and I'm not going to do a lot of elaborate filming in the bathroom to do this because I've done it before.
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And I can put those links down below.
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But I use one product at night on my face.
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And it is a combined collagen,
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hyaluronic, and I have to look at my retinol product.
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It's all three things in one.
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And I put that on my face at night and then I,
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in the morning, you know,
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I get up and I don't wash my face,
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but I put, just wipe it with the toner and then I either just put the Avon Day Cream.
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It's just a very basic,
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inexpensive day cream that has been around for years,
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but it's so extremely popular and always sells out.
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It has a wonderful, nice aroma.
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It does well for my skin,
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and I think it's called Nutura,
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and I have a picture of it here,
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and I'll put a link down below to all of these things I'm talking about.
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and basically and I put sunscreen I use the Australian Dream 50 sunscreen on my face
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you can get it in all colors I use the light color
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but they have colors that are darker and I put
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that sunscreen on my face and I'm good to go
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and just put on a little dab of lipstick and the lipsticks that I have been using lately are two by L'Oreal,
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and it's called Ballerina Shoes and Saucy Mauve.
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Those are the two that I have Saucy Mauve on today,
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or Mauve, depending upon how you pronounce it in your area.
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But that's, and that's what I do.
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And then I just put on some Lash Princess,
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my very, very favorite mascara.
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And a dab of boom on my cheeks,
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you know, from the boomstick.
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And I'm ready to go out.
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So that's all I do.
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That is the extent of the makeup that I wear.
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I don't do a lot of heavy foundations.
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I don't use any foundations, actually.
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And I mean, unless I'm going out at night and there's something very special,
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then maybe I'll put a light Chanel foundation on.
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But I don't use foundations.
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So that's my crazy skincare makeup regimen.
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It's like easy peasy.
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One, two, three, and I'm done.
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And I'm ready to go.
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I just, at the older I get,
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I've found that less is more.
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And if I didn't have to wear sunscreen,
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I probably wouldn't even put that on.
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And I just put on my face cream and that would be it.
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But I know I have to protect my skin from the sun.
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I saw a picture the other day of Lauren Hutton,
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the very, very famous model.
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And she spent years of traveling through the jungles and in the desert without sunscreen.
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And her face is truly, truly, extremely wrinkled.
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She's a little younger than I am.
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But not that wrinkles matter
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because all of her wrinkles tell a wonderful story of great adventures and the wonderful life that she has had.
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But naturally, all of us don't want a bunch of wrinkles if we can help it.
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So that's what I do.
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I wear a hat when I'm out in the sun for long periods of time to protect my face from the sun.
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So that's my, that's it.
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You know, it's not too exciting,
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but that's exactly what I do.
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And the other day, you know,
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I keep going through things because I think about my children and,
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oh, if they have to come in here and go through my things,
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I want to make life as easy for them as possible.
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Plus, it's just me getting rid of stuff that I know I don't need.
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But I found a zip folder that I've had for a while,
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and I actually forgot what was in it.
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And I unzipped it and lo and behold,
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I found a lot of old photographs of
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when I was in New York and I was in the theater and when I was 50 years old,
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a lot younger.
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And it was so much fun going through all of these photographs.
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I thought maybe in my haste to get rid of things and to downsize.
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When I came from New York and New Jersey,
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I thought maybe I'd gotten rid of some of those photos,
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but thank heavens they're still here.
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And I was really super excited to find them again.
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It was just really nice walking down memory lane.
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And I found some of my husband's discharge papers.
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I found a picture of him when he was in high school.
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And it's just very, very, very interesting.
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And his final discharge from World War II,
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he was a merchant Marine and he was on,
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you know, you go on different vessels.
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So each vessel that you do,
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you, you, you know, that's finished and then you go on another ship.
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But he, he went through a lot of harrowing times in World War II.
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But it was very interesting because the master of the vessel,
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when he was discharged in 1945,
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had a Scottish version name,
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the same as my last maiden name.
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And I thought that my maiden name was Atkinson,
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and this was Atchison, which is the Scottish version of my maiden name.
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So I thought that was kind of interesting,
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because he was a young man in his early 20s.
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And in 1945, I was six years old.
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You know, so a big difference, a big difference, totally.
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Sometimes they say that other people know us better than we know ourselves,
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but I honestly don't think that is true.
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I was thinking the other day about what we're going to be talking about
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and I knew that I'd had so many questions about my skincare
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and makeup that I wanted to do a short little thing about that.
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But I don't think too many people actually know who we exactly are.
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I know that my children don't know who exactly I am,
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even though we've been together for all of these years.
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My oldest daughter is 62.
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But we are the only ones who really know ourselves and our motivations,
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what we think, why we do things.
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And I don't know whether we're born this way,
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but I have always kind of marched to a different drummer.
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I've never really liked to follow the pack in whatever I've been doing.
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I don't know why.
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It's just who I am.
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I've always just felt I wanted to do my way.
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And even when I was in high school,
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I just, I just, for some reason,
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I wanted to be able to do what I wanted to do to dress like I wanted to dress.
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I wanted people to like me,
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of course, and you want to have friends, but I always gravitated.
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when I was a freshman in high school,
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I always gravitated toward the senior girls.
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And they were all my friends,
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the girls that were for all the grades above me.
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And I just don't know why that is.
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I've often thought about that.
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Why didn't I really feel comfortable with girls my age and why did I always kind of gravitate toward my older classmates.
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And of course, I married a husband that was 13 years older than I am.
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And my late husband, the one that had schizophrenic,
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he was 10 years older than I am.
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So I was.
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So it's just very interesting who we are.
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We are born probably with certain proclivities.
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And when we fight that,
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that's when we are unhappy.
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It's being able to really know yourself.
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And when we're younger, it's really hard to really be wise enough to know yourself.
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But I have always felt that for even these young people coming in here in our community,
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these young Gen Zers, that just listen to your own heart and your own instincts. And you be you.
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No matter what the trends are around you,
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no matter what everybody else is doing around you,
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you have to listen to your own heart and follow your own dreams,
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even if it seems like you're swimming upstream.
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And how often, you know,
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I felt like I was swimming upstream,
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even with this channel, because when I kind of veered away from talking about makeup and skincare and fashion,
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I was breaking the mold.
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I was sort of changing the beauty community and how people looked at things.
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And when I started to grow,
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then all of a sudden,
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so many beauty in the beauty community,
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they started rethinking what they were talking about here on YouTube.
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And they started embracing aging and more natural ways of aging.
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And I think that's really a good thing.
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But I felt, started to feel uncomfortable just talking about a bunch of makeup and things like that.
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So I had to follow who I felt I really was.
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And I know those of you who are over 60 in our community,
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sometimes you've been forced to be put into a mold that was uncomfortable,
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maybe at your work.
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maybe in your marriage, maybe in your community with your friends and family.
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People try to put you in a mold and if it feels uncomfortable,
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the best thing you can do is just say,
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hey, I want to be me.
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I want to follow what dreams I have.
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I want to dress the way I want to dress.
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I want to have thoughts of my own that may be a little bit different from everybody else's.
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But being able to be you and understanding yourself is a great milestone in life,
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no matter how young or old you are.
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Don't be afraid to discover who you are and to live genuinely
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and true to what you really want in life and true to you.
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I know sometimes that's really hard,
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but quite honestly,
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the happiest times in my life is when I discovered
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that I just had to be true to me and my beliefs and what I wanted to do in my life.
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And I had to step out of that mold that everyone was putting me in.
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So if I can do it,
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you can do it too.
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Take care and I hope to see you again in my next video.
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Of course, you know I'm going to Nashville for the summer to be with my son and his family for a while.
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And wherever you are in the world,
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please know that you are not alone.
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You have this community behind you and that you are truly,
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truly love thank you again for sticking with me all of these years and i hope to see you again
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for another conversation in another video take care and have a blessed week
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Context & Background
The video titled "My 87-Year-Old 'Less is More' Skincare Routine" serves as a candid sharing of life lessons learned over the years, particularly focusing on the beauty of aging and the simplicity that often comes with it. The speaker reflects on how life perspectives change as we age, moving away from societal pressures and embracing a more authentic self. This content not only highlights skincare routines but also encourages viewers to contemplate their own life experiences, making it relatable for audiences of various ages. The speaker's minimalist approach to skincare mirrors a broader theme of minimalism—focusing on what truly matters both in beauty routines and in life.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “You begin to live as yourself.” - A reminder of the importance of authenticity and self-acceptance.
- “There is a quiet freedom in simply being who you are.” - Emphasizes the liberation that comes with embracing oneself.
- “I am a very minimalist when it comes to makeup.” - Highlights a lifestyle choice that many can relate to in their own routines.
- “I have nothing left to prove.” - A powerful statement about confidence and self-affirmation as one ages.
- “I use one product at night.” - Showcases simplicity and purpose in daily habits.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively utilize the shadowing technique with this video, follow the steps below. This method will improve your speaking skills and pronunciation while helping you become more familiar with conversational English.
- Focus on Listening: First, watch the video without attempting to repeat what you hear. Pay close attention to the speaker's tone and pace.
- Listening and Repeating: Play the video again, this time pausing after each sentence or phrase. Use shadowspeak by mimicking the speaker's intonation and rhythm. Don't worry about perfection; focus on capturing the essence of how they say it.
- Note Down Key Phrases: Write down the top phrases mentioned earlier. Revisit them regularly in your practice to internalize their usage.
- Shadow Speech Practice: Choose a segment of 1-2 minutes for concentrated practice. Listen and repeat simultaneously. This will help you improve fluency.
- Record Yourself: After practicing, record your voice saying the same phrases. Listening to your recordings can provide insight into areas for improvement.
By incorporating these techniques into your routine, you can cultivate a rich learning experience that enhances your spoken English, ultimately bringing you closer to achieving fluency through shadowspeaks and consistent practice.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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