Skin Anarchy: May Lindstrom on Clean Beauty, Healing, and Self-Connection

Date: November 10, 2025
Host: Dr. Ekta
Guest: May Lindstrom

Episode Overview

This episode of Skin Anarchy features a deeply insightful conversation with May Lindstrom, founder of her namesake cult skincare brand, renowned for its commitment to clean beauty and sensitive skin. May shares her lifelong struggles with chronic skin sensitivity and eczema, the experiences that led her to develop unique, plant-powered products, and her holistic philosophy of skin health. Together, Dr. Ekta and May explore themes of self-connection, the science (and limitations) behind “clean beauty,” and why skincare rituals matter as much as what’s in the bottle.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Understanding Sensitive Skin: Beyond the “White Cream”

• May recounts lifelong eczema and ingredient sensitivities, inadequately addressed by mainstream products.
• [00:34-01:50] May shares her current eczema flare (first in 15 years), highlighting how sensitivity is individual—often triggered by overlooked “basic” ingredients like preservatives and surfactants.
  • “Even the most basic cream, the main ingredients are things I’m sensitive to… It’s not the white unscented cream from the dermatologist. I mean, I really tried that method, but I was allergic to that very thing.” — May Lindstrom [01:23]

2. Early Roots: From Childhood Sensitivity to Cult Skincare Founder

• May’s early life in rural Minnesota, formative experiences with natural remedies, and multigenerational skin conditions.
• [02:36-06:35] May describes her first allergic reaction at age five and how “green, clean” living shaped her approach.
  • Recurring themes: generational skin issues, public spaces being sources of anxiety, and natural solutions like clay, herbs, and honey.
  • “All of the basic preservative and surfactant actions in everything we touch affected my body… It’s not that skincare is bad. Most people can use most products—it’s just not me.” — May Lindstrom [04:23]

3. The Timelessness of Skin Rituals

• Centrality of touch, natural materials, and daily practice over product trend-chasing.
• [06:13-06:35] May emphasizes that what’s now “green beauty” is simply ancestral knowledge: “We have all always gathered clays and salts and herbs and oils, honey for everything… There’s nothing new here.”

4. Skin as an Organ: Changing the Perspective

• [08:37-10:57] The hosts challenge industry lip service to “the skin is an organ,” examining what it really means for formulation and self-care.
  • May’s “lung analogy”: “Imagine holding out your hands like you’re going to hold something precious. If you were holding a lung… How would you feed it? Imagine opening your beauty cupboard—how would it feel to pour those products onto that lung?” — May Lindstrom [08:47]
  • Emphasizes skin as vulnerable, deserving of gentle, nourishing touch and products.

5. Ritual Over Results: The Power of Consistency

• Skincare as presence, attention, and self-massage—less about the product than the act
• “It doesn’t matter much what product gets you there, as long as you’re not allergic. For me, using clays, salts, herbs, spices, that works for my skin. But the point is to make it to the bathroom, to the shower. Close your eyes, put your fingertips to your face, chest, breathe, be in the water. Massaging your skin brings blood flow, moves the lymph, moves the blood, so stimulates endorphins… It’s less about product than it is about care.” — May Lindstrom [10:22]

6. Ingredient Philosophy: What’s Left Out Matters

• [13:48-17:41] Detailed discussion of “base” ingredients so common they’re invisible (fillers, stabilizers, preservatives, surfactants), and why May avoids them.
  • “Everything?… The base formulas for 99.999% of skincare on the market… There’s an expectation of what skincare products should look like… [But] it’s not, Oh, you should avoid parabens, you should avoid surfactants. It’s: I'm allergic to surfactants, so I don’t have a choice.” — May Lindstrom [13:48]
  • May’s products centre on raw clays, salts, oils, honey, and herbs; she sees “green beauty” as plant-based with rigorous sourcing, while “clean beauty” is often a marketing compromise.

7. Rejecting Trends: Authenticity and Product Integrity

• Small, considered range over relentless launches; focus on function, not fashion
• [18:30-20:56] May critiques trends like “glass skin,” noting her brand’s refusal to chase fads and instead honouring individual, sensory health.
  • “What if I wasn’t aiming for glass skin?... What if I just wanted to feel good in this skin? I spent decades trying to leave my body because it didn’t feel good in here...when I get in the shower and bring the attention back…it goes from this outside conversation…to, wow, that smells really good and feels really nice...” — May Lindstrom [18:30]

8. The Blue Cocoon: A Case Study in Sensory Healing

• Origins, efficacy, and universal appeal of May’s cult balm
• [21:53-23:55] May describes Blue Cocoon’s waxless, blue-tansy-powered formula as efficacious for inflamed, sensitive skin—and as a universally nourishing moisturizer.
  • “Imagine holding your own little blue lake… The Blue Cocoon has no wax. It’s all just beautiful, fresh, pure plant butters and oils. The color comes from Blue Tansy…really helpful for red sensitive, inflamed skin… It’s just a beautiful formula.” — May Lindstrom [21:53]
  • Dr. Ekta adds: “First of all, the sensorial experience is phenomenal. It’s out of this world. You literally feel like you’re in the most luxe spa and you have it right at home…You can layer it…you’re just always going to get the benefits.” — Dr. Ekta [23:55]

9. Nutrition & Science: Feeding Skin Cells

• Parallels to biological research and the importance of “feeding” skin
• [25:21-26:36] Dr. Ekta likens skincare to nourishing cells in culture, emphasizing a need for products that support cellular health and regeneration.

10. Clinical vs. Everyday Skin Health

• Knowing when to seek dermatologist help vs. everyday nourishment
• [26:36-26:50] May: “If there’s something clinically to address, then that’s a really good time to develop a relationship with a dermatologist.”

Notable Quotes & Moments

• [01:23] May Lindstrom:
  “Even the most basic cream, the main ingredients are things I’m sensitive to… It’s not the white unscented cream from the dermatologist. I mean, I really tried that method, but I was allergic to that very thing.”

• [08:47] May Lindstrom (on skin as an organ):
  “Imagine holding out your hands… If you were holding a lung, how would you cradle that? How soft would you be?... Now imagine opening your beauty cupboard—how would it feel to pour those products onto that lung?”

• [10:22] May Lindstrom:
  “The most profound part of skincare happens when you show up over and over to your touch, in the water with your fingertips, to your skin… It’s less about product than it is about care.”

• [13:48] May Lindstrom:
  “Everything?… There’s an expectation of what skincare products should look like. If I say cleanser… a particular puddle you can picture in your hand. If I say moisturizer, there’s this ubiquitous white cream that you can picture in your mind, right?”

• [18:30] May Lindstrom:
  “What if I wasn’t aiming for glass skin?... What if I just wanted to feel good in this skin?… And that was just not true for so long.”

• [21:53] May Lindstrom (describing The Blue Cocoon):
  “Imagine holding your own little blue lake… It’s all just beautiful, fresh, pure plant butters and oils. The color comes from Blue Tansy…really helpful for red sensitive, inflamed skin… It’s just a beautiful formula.”

• [23:55] Dr. Ekta:
  “The sensorial experience is phenomenal. It’s out of this world. You literally feel like you’re in the most luxe spa and you have it right at home…you’re just always going to get the benefits.”

Important Timestamps

• 00:34: May discusses dyshidrotic eczema flare and what “sensitive skin” means
• 02:36: May’s childhood, first major allergy, generational sensitivity
• 08:47: The “cradling a lung” analogy for treating skin as an organ
• 10:22: Ritual & touch as the essence of skin health
• 13:48: Dodging base fillers, surfactants, and “typical” ingredients; May’s list of essentials
• 18:30: On resisting trends, the importance of feeling good in your own skin
• 21:53: The story and sensory experience of The Blue Cocoon
• 25:21: Feeding the skin—biological and scientific perspective
• 26:36: When to choose clinical skincare

Summary & Takeaways

• May Lindstrom’s approach is built on deep personal experience with skin sensitivity, and a refusal to compromise on ingredients that don’t nurture or heal.
• Skincare, for May, is ritualistic, sensory, ancestral—more about showing up for yourself with presence than following the latest trend or miracle ingredient.
• Formulation is less about avoiding this or that "bad" ingredient and more about listening, gently, to what skin genuinely needs.
• Her Blue Cocoon balm exemplifies her ethos: plant-based, pure, effective, sensorially exquisite, and truly multipurpose.
• The broader message: True skin health starts with authenticity, care, and connection—and knowing your real needs, not the skincare industry’s trends.

For anyone struggling with sensitivity, seeking authentic, nourishing routines, or questioning the claims of “clean beauty,” this conversation offers both practical insights and a refreshing reminder of the deeper meaning in caring for our skin.