Everything you need to know about K-beauty

Summary

Style-ish Podcast Summary
Episode: Everything You Need to Know About K-beauty
Release Date: July 15, 2025
Host/Author: Shameless Media

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1. Industry Rumors: Jeff Bezos and Vogue

The episode kicks off with a surprising industry rumor that Jeff Bezos may be in talks to acquire Vogue. This speculative acquisition has stirred considerable discussion among the hosts:

• Joanna Fleming expresses her astonishment, noting subtle changes in Vogue's recent covers that hinted at a possible shift in ownership.

  "[01:21] Joanna Fleming: I mean, I feel like there've been little hints with the Lauren Sanchez Vogue cover, which just felt very un Vogue."

• Kate Emma Burke weighs in, questioning the implications of such a takeover on the magazine's editorial integrity and future events like the Met Gala.

  "[02:38] Kate Emma Burke: I mean, the idea from being an editor that someone can buy an editor position essentially feels a little. A little dicey, a little weird to me."

• Annika Joshi Smith discusses the potential "Amazonification" of Vogue, contemplating how it might influence exclusive events and guest lists.

  "[02:02] Annika Joshi Smith: I feel like Vogue holds such prestige and this Amazonification of Vogue was definitely not on my 2025 bingo card."

The hosts collectively express skepticism about the rumor's authenticity and ponder the broader impact it could have on the fashion magazine landscape.

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2. Segment: Swaps – Personal Recommendations

The hosts introduce a new segment called "Swaps," where each shares personal recommendations related to fashion and beauty.

Kate's Recommendation: Eve on TikTok

Kate Emma Burke introduces Eve, a TikTok creator specializing in fashion design and textiles. Kate highlights Eve's insightful reviews on garment construction and fabric blends, which have educated her on making informed purchasing decisions:

"[04:31] Kate Emma Burke: ...she breaks it down and she... I try to shop pretty consciously and buy things that are gonna last for a long time."

Annika's Fashion Tip: Accessory-Heavy Outfits

Annika Joshi Smith predicts a trend where simple outfits are enhanced with statement accessories, such as lace necklaces, sarongs, and head scarves. She emphasizes the versatility and affordability of these additions:

"[07:11] Annika Joshi Smith: ...sarongs aren't strictly for beach wear. We're seeing them layered over pants, kind of cinching in waists and like, really kind of adding a really detailed layer to like what a simplistic kind of outfit could be."

Joanna's Body Care Routine

Joanna Fleming shares her extensive body care routine, aimed at combating body acne and keratosis pilaris. She details her regimen, which includes exfoliating scrubs, multivitamin serums, and moisturizers:

"[08:27] Joanna Fleming: ...I've got this body care routine in place. Ahead of the wedding. And I'm fully dedicated to this body care routine because normally I. I let it slide a little bit..."

The segment provides valuable insights and practical tips for listeners to incorporate into their own routines.

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3. Social Media Posting Fatigue

The conversation shifts to the theme of "posting ennui," inspired by a recent article in The New Yorker. The hosts explore the growing fatigue associated with social media engagement:

• Joanna reflects on her journey from casual Instagram posting to the demands of managing a business through social media. She admits feeling fatigued and occasionally desiring a break:

  "[15:07] Joanna Fleming: But I also disagree that that kind of offhanded posting isn't still happening, because I think that's happening on TikTok."

• Kate shares her struggle with self-critical thoughts when analyzing her own social media presence:

  "[16:20] Joanna Fleming: Sometimes, like, oh, my God, I hate myself."

• Annika discusses the shift towards more curated and polished content, noting how it often lacks authenticity compared to earlier, more spontaneous posts:

  "[17:10] Joanna Fleming: But I do think as well, like I'm so guilty of posting things that has been for a promo, like promo material."

The discussion highlights the pressure content creators face to maintain an engaging online presence, often leading to mental exhaustion and a sense of dissatisfaction.

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4. Cheat Sheet: Navigating K-Beauty

Introducing the "Cheat Sheet" segment, Joanna delves into K-Beauty, providing a comprehensive guide for listeners new to Korean beauty products.

Understanding K-Beauty Fundamentals

Joanna clarifies common misconceptions, emphasizing that K-Beauty is accessible, affordable, and focused on skin barrier health rather than aggressive treatments:

"[22:59] Joanna Fleming: So, like, a majority of products have an English translation on them, so it's quite easy to understand, like, what is it designed to do?"

Key Ingredients in K-Beauty

She outlines essential ingredients such as:

• Snail Mucin: Hydrating and soothing but may not suit everyone.
• Niacinamide: Balances oil, brightens, and supports the skin barrier.
• Centella Asiatica (Cica): Calms and hydrates the skin.

"[24:26] Joanna Fleming: Centella, Asiatica or Cica which you'll probably see in a lot of products... it's a really soothing, calming kind of ingredient."

K-Beauty Routine Essentials

Joanna breaks down the typical K-Beauty routine steps:

1. Double Cleansing: Using a cleansing oil or balm followed by a second cleanser based on skin type.
2. Toners and Essences: Hydrating and restoring the skin's pH balance.
3. Serums and Ampoules: Concentrated active ingredients.
4. Moisturizers: Tailored to individual skin needs.

"[28:29] Kate Emma Burke: Do you use an essence, personally?... "[30:08] Jo explains what an essence is."

Brand Recommendations

She recommends reputable K-Beauty brands available in Australia, such as Beauty of Joseon, Cosrx, Laneige, Dr. Jart, and Innisfree, and advises against indiscriminate purchasing based on social media trends.

"[31:07] Joanna Fleming: But I really love the ritual of a double cleanse... I always recommend a double cleanse for nearly every single one of my clients."

Joanna emphasizes personalization in skincare routines, encouraging listeners to understand their skin type and concerns before integrating K-Beauty products.

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5. Fashion Trend Spotlight: Fortessance – The Toe Phenomenon

The hosts turn their attention to a rising fashion trend focused on feet and toes, dubbed "fortessance."

Emerging Trends

They discuss various toe-centric accessories and footwear, including:

• Toe Rings: From simple designs to luxury versions adorned with diamonds.
• Toe Shoes: Innovative designs like Balenciaga's Zero Shoe, described as "barely there" sandals.

"[37:13] Annika Joshi Smith: ...Balenciaga's zero shoe... it's like the sole and like just a little bit on the toe."

Cultural and Aesthetic Implications

Joanna cites a New York Times feature by Liana Sadenstein, highlighting the trend's sensual appeal and the desire for mystique and minimalism in fashion:

"[37:16] Joanna Fleming: ...it's something so sensual about, about feet, from toe cleavage to the curve of an ankle."

Personal Experiences and Opinions

• Kate shares her mixed feelings, appreciating the aesthetic but hesitant about the practicality of some designs.

  "[38:00] Joanna Fleming: I feel like, yes, if they're good looking feet."

• Annika reflects on the trend's accessibility and the ability to incorporate it without overhauling entire outfits.

  "[41:05] Annika Joshi Smith: ...these are pieces I think really carefully about before I make the purchase."

The discussion underscores fortessance as a versatile trend that allows for personalization and highlights footwear as a pivotal element of fashion statements.

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6. Major Beauty News: Mecca's Expansive Flagship Store

In a significant development for beauty enthusiasts, Mecca announced the opening of one of the world's largest beauty stores in Melbourne. The hosts provide an in-depth analysis of this ambitious project:

Store Overview

• Size and Location: A 4,000 square meter, three-level flagship store on Bourke Street, Melbourne.
• Offerings: Over 200 beauty brands, 80+ services, including a perfumery, bespoke packaging, beauty ateliers for hair, makeup, and nails, an apothecary with naturopath services, an educational auditorium, and a café.

  "[44:14] Joanna Fleming: ...There's a Mecca perfumery, a bespoke packaging suite offering engraving and calligraphy services... an information space and an advanced clinical skin treatment center."

Challenges and Expectations

• Financial Risk: The project has exceeded its budget and involves significant human resources over three years, as revealed by Mecca's Co-CEO, Joe Horgan.

  "[45:14] Joanna Fleming: ...It's been an incredibly expensive undertaking and that they've failed to stay on budget."

• Customer Experience: The store aims to replicate the personalized and curated feel of Mecca’s smaller boutiques on a grander scale, with expectations of serving 50,000 customers daily.

  "[48:33] Kate Emma Burke: ...keeping that sort of element of this original South Yarrow boutique that sort of like very attentive and very like personalized."

Potential Impact

• Retail Dynamics: There's speculation on how this massive store might affect existing retail spaces, such as David Jones and Myer concessions nearby.

  "[53:30] Annika Joshi Smith: ...it is going to be like the Apple part of those stores."

• Service Integration: Joanna discusses the possibility of Mecca offering injectables and advanced skin treatments, pondering the regulatory and operational challenges:

  "[50:38] Joanna Fleming: ...they're going to be doing injectables? What are they going to be doing?"

Host Opinions

• Annika praises Mecca's commitment to a customer-centric approach despite the risks, expressing optimism about the store’s potential to revolutionize the beauty retail experience.

  "[49:31] Annika Joshi Smith: ...the diversity of offerings from the services... How cool. Cenabism, like insane."

• Joanna raises practical considerations regarding regulated cosmetic procedures and their integration into the store's services, highlighting the balance Mecca must maintain between innovation and compliance.

  "[51:06] Joanna Fleming: ...you would need a doctor to prescribe that medication."

The group remains cautiously optimistic, recognizing Mecca's potential to set new standards in beauty retail while acknowledging the substantial challenges ahead.

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Conclusion

This episode of Style-ish provided an engaging exploration of current trends and significant industry developments:

• Vogue's Future: Speculative discussions on Jeff Bezos potentially acquiring Vogue and its implications.
• Personal Recommendations: Insightful swaps from the hosts, covering TikTok creators, fashion accessories, and comprehensive body care routines.
• Social Media Fatigue: Honest conversations about the pressures of maintaining an online presence in the modern digital landscape.
• K-Beauty Guidance: A detailed cheat sheet demystifying Korean beauty products and routines.
• Fortessance Trend: Analyzing the growing focus on feet and toes in fashion accessories and footwear.
• Mecca's Flagship Store: An in-depth look at one of the largest beauty retail spaces, its ambitious offerings, and the potential impact on the beauty industry.

With rich discussions, expert insights, and relatable conversations, this episode serves as a valuable resource for fashion and beauty enthusiasts navigating the evolving landscape.

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements, introductory remarks, and concluding sections to focus solely on the core content of the episode.

Transcript

[Kate Emma Burke]

Foreign.

[Madison Sullivan Thorpe]

This episode of Stylish is brought to you by JD Sports. Their new flagship store has opened in the heart of Melbourne at Bourke street mall. Open from 10am until late every day.

[Joanna Fleming]

This is Stylish, the podcast for all things fashion, brand, business and beauty. My name is Joanna Fleming. You're not used to hearing my voice introing the podcast. It's normally Madison Sullivan Thorpe, but she is away in New York on holidays. So I have our usual Annika Joshi Smith joining us today. Hello.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Hi, guys.

[Joanna Fleming]

And we have our senior producer, Kate Emma Burke, filling in for Mads. Welcome.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Hey, thank you for having me.

[Joanna Fleming]

Kate's usually sitting in the corner of the room listening to everything that we say in our recordings. So now she's behind the mic in the hot seat.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It feels fun. I like being here. It's like a nice change of pace, you know? So seeing how the other side works, it's fun. I like it. Thank you for having me. I'm very happy to be here.

[Joanna Fleming]

Our pleasure. Well, there's a few things that have been happening in the sphere.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

In the last couple of weeks. A lot. Should we start with Jeff Bezos, allegedly rumored to be buying Vogue?

[Kate Emma Burke]

Crazy. I was shocked when I saw this news.

[Joanna Fleming]

Same.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I mean, I feel like there've been little hints with the Lauren Sanchez Vogue cover, which just felt very un Vogue. It was a digital cover, but it didn't feel like Vogue.

[Joanna Fleming]

Right.

[Kate Emma Burke]

And then knowing that. I don't know if you guys have read that article that said that she. If this is true, obviously, it's all rumours. It's all alleged. It's all secret sources right now. But if she does end up getting the magazine via her husband, she wants to be in, like, a directorial editorial position where she has power to make decisions over how the magazine looks and feels, allegedly. Which to me is a bit of a. I've got many questions.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I know.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I mean, what do you guys think about it?

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I feel like Vogue holds such prestige and this Amazonification of Vogue was definitely not on my 2025 bingo card. And I feel like it also will provide the base sources so much access. Like, they already have so much access, but they won't only now be sitting front row. They'll control the entire guest list. They'll own the guest list. Like, think of the Met gala and what they would do to that, but prestigious event.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

And if we think about the wedding, right, and the way that all played out and the way that looked, it's interesting thinking about how that could shape the Met Gala, like you said.

[Joanna Fleming]

Oh, yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Like, I'm not sure about it. I've got to be honest. I'm not feeling good about it.

[Joanna Fleming]

That feels like shots fire, but in.

[Kate Emma Burke]

The most subtle way.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I've been, like, kind, but, like. Yeah, I don't. I think as a longtime magazine lover who's worked in editorial and worked in the magazine industry, it doesn't feel like a natural fit. And, like, the idea as well, from being an editor that someone can buy an editor position essentially feels a little. A little dicey, a little weird to me.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

It's wild. And they'll own so many titles as well. Like Conde Nast. They have, like, what, the New Yorker, Architectural Digest. So many iconic, like, magazines.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I think Variety, Fair, Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair, Teenage Vogue.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Like, what will it do to Teenage Vogue?

[Kate Emma Burke]

I don't know.

[Joanna Fleming]

Can't say I read that regularly.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I loved it growing up.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

It was a great scene. Yeah, it was up there with Cosma.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yes. Oh, love.

[Joanna Fleming]

It was Cosmo sealed section. Oh, yeah, Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I loved that.

[Kate Emma Burke]

That was so good. They still do that, do they? Because I write for Cosmo sometimes and I remember, I'm pretty sure, like, undoing the sealed section recently, and I'm pretty sure Dolly also did the sealed section.

[Joanna Fleming]

Dolly doctor.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, Dolly doctor. We'll need to fact check this because I'm like, now I'm thinking, did I just imagine undoing the sealed section? Maybe I wanted that to happen. It was.

[Joanna Fleming]

It had like, a little.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, yeah. I think it had a tie. Unzip it, basically.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah. Ye.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

It was very, like, R16, wasn't it?

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes. Yeah, Very much so. Well, I just want to reiterate that is a rumor about Jeff Bezos. All of those things are alleged. It's just what we've heard along the grapevine. Who knows what will come out of it? But I'm sure you'll hear it first on this podcast as soon as that news breaks, if it does. But today we are talking about whether we all have posting fatigue, fashion's current fixation on toes and Mecca, opening the largest beauty store in the world. I'm also going to give you my cheat sheet guide to K Beauty. But first, we are each going to do our swap. Do you want to start us off, Kate?

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah. How fun. Thank you. What a treat. I am going to recommend this brilliant creator that I follow on TikTok. Have only been following her for maybe. Maybe like a month or two. Her name is Eve and the handle is hello, Eveh. She works in the fashion Industry. I think that she works in, like, the design, construction, textile side of it. She's so knowledgeable about the construction of garments, about fabric blends about.

[Joanna Fleming]

Is she Australian?

[Kate Emma Burke]

She's Australian, yes.

[Joanna Fleming]

I think I know this.

[Kate Emma Burke]

You've probably seen.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes, I think I've seen her.

[Kate Emma Burke]

She does really good reviews, like she recently did Deji Studios. And she said, yes, I saw this. Yeah. Like this cardigan for 400. Is the fabric composition actually worth $400? And she breaks it down and she. Yeah, I've just learned a lot about, like, polyester should be a filler in a garment. If you're like spending 400, $300. Right. It shouldn't be like 80% polyester with a little bit of wool or a little bit of merino. And just a lot more about, like, what to look out for when investing in in more expensive pieces. I try to shop pretty consciously and buy things that are gonna last for a long time. And I think that her page has really helped me learn more about all that stuff.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I love that.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

So good to make more informed decisions because sometimes I think across the board, like, the cost of everything has gone up and you never really know when those price hikes are justified. So that's really cool.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, I really appreciate that kind of valuable information. And not everyone knows, but that's so valuable to know, especially for our purchasing decisions. We're trying to be a little bit more conscious about what we're buying and what we're spend your money on. So helpful.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, exactly. That's what's, like, so good about Tik Tok. These, like, experts in their field coming on, sharing that advice that you'd only know if you work in the fashion industry.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

How great. Okay, well, mine's a little fashion hot tip too. Last week, I spoke more about accessories and things that I had seen on the streets of New York City. And as Euro Summer is now calling, I feel like it's all over my feed. I've got such FOMO and I'm just following meds and living her best life in New York City. And I'm like, get it, girl. But I'm predicting another trend. So I think simple outfits will be taking center stage. But accessory heavy outfitting. So obviously I spoke about lace statement necklaces, the flip flops. Love a flip flop. But now I want to add in sarongs. And so sarongs aren't strictly for beach wear. We're seeing them layered over pants, kind of cinching in waists and like, really kind of Adding a really detailed layer to like what a simplistic kind of outfit could be. And we've also seen them kind of like a lot of head scarves. Very Euro, just very Parisian, which I love. And scarves knotted on hand bags and neckties. And just so many kind of like really easy, effortless looks jazzed up by a scarf.

[Joanna Fleming]

I have seen a lot of the neckties which are really cute, like little scarves.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

So sweet.

[Joanna Fleming]

Right?

[Annika Joshi Smith]

And even in like the Celine show last week, they had like big beautiful silk scarves just over a really simple look. And I was like, we can all recreate that. Love a high low.

[Kate Emma Burke]

And you can go to the op shop and you can get a little silk scarf for like $3. It's not a very expensive trend, which I love.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes. I have a couple of Soleil. Soleil sarongs.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Stunning.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I love the idea of wearing wrong over jeans or pants though. Cuz I'm a big dress over pants girl.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, you are.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I love layering, so I'm really excited for all the like summer layering possibilities with sarongs.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

And I think it makes it quite an investment too because you're not just wearing them in the beach. Like you can wear them outside of the beach, you can wear them in more urban ways. But I'm with you on that one. I love wearing my little lace dresses over jeans. It's a little thing I'm very into right now.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yes, your New York look.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

That.

[Kate Emma Burke]

My New York look. And pickable.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Thank you, Carrie.

[Joanna Fleming]

Thanks. Yeah, well, mine today is a bit of a long winded one because I have technically three swaps to give you. Oh, I love it. It's something that I'm doing in my body care routine. So I struggle with body acne. I get pimples on my chest. I get them on my back really significantly. Like I get quite a bit of. If I showed you some photos of my back and you probably wouldn't believe that it was my back because I'm normally so, you know, like I'm not blemish prone.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I literally feel like so flawless to show me because I do not believe.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, I can show you now. But I also get. I also of keratosis Polaris on the backs of my arms as well.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Is that the dotty stuff?

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes, it's like the chicken skin that you get on the backs of your arms. So it can look a little bit like pimply, it can look red, it can be textured. And so I've got this body care routine in place. Ahead of the wedding. And I'm fully dedicated to this body care routine because normally I. I let it slide a little bit and I'm more. I do my face skincare and then I'm off. And I just won't put my tummies on, especially in winter. But at the moment I'm focused on trying to keep that up and be as consistent as possible. So there's a few different things that I'm. First one is the Supernova Body Smooth Operator, which is a body scrub. So that's got physical, chemical and enzymatic exfoliants in it. So I use that over my chest, back and the backs of my arms as well. You could use that on your whole body if you wear a fake tan. Or you just like to exfoliate your whole body. I then have been using the Alpha H multivitamin body serum, which has hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, vitamin C, and then I'll layer on the Kiehl's Mega Moisture Squalene cream over the top. So it's quite extensive. Yeah, but you only get married once, right?

[Kate Emma Burke]

Absolutely. Hopefully.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

What is enzymatic exfoliant?

[Joanna Fleming]

It could be a variety of things. So often you'll find it's like extracts of pineapple, for example. Okay, cool.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Okay.

[Joanna Fleming]

So they're a gentler type of exfoliant than a physical especially, and a little bit more gentle than a chemical exfoliant. So it's really hard to over exfoliate using an enzymatic exfoliant.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Oh, I love that.

[Joanna Fleming]

Okay. And good for a sensitive skin.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

How many times a week would you do the exfoliating?

[Joanna Fleming]

The exfoliating is probably like every second night, maybe every third night. It's not something I do every single night. But I do have to really stay on top of it to keep the acne under control.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Fascinating.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Would never have expected it. Makes you more human to me because you have the most gorgeous. Like any listener you know that has seen only photos of you. Your skin is that good in real life. Like it's like glows from. Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Within, literally.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Off mic.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

So many people are like, bullshit. Like, Joe's definitely had work done. I'm like, I SW to God.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Like apart from the salmon girl.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Oh yeah, just the salmon sp.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

I would admit to it, honestly. Yeah. I'd be preaching about it. But anyway, they're my swaps for today. I thought I'd give you three bonus ones cuz that's my body care routine. I'm really trying to stick to that. Until the wedding, which is end of November. So hoping to have very flawless back and chest and arms for that.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Dang, I can't wait so that my.

[Joanna Fleming]

Spray tan goes on really evenly.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah, of course.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Oh, I can't wait to see the wedding photos. I'm already like, excited for that.

[Joanna Fleming]

I can't even think about it yet. I know it's gonna come up so quickly I can't even talk about it.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I won't make you talk about it then. Let's go into the headlines. So a recent feature in the New Yorker written by Kyle Chaecha titled are you experiencing posting ennui? Caught my attention while researching for this episode. So before we dive into what the piece explores, a quick explainer on what ennui is. Because truthfully, I had to remind myself A how to pronounce it and B, what the exact definition is.

[Joanna Fleming]

Because I was going to ask what the hell is ennui?

[Kate Emma Burke]

I'm so sorry. To any French people listening, I know that I am butchering the pronunciation. I'm trying my best. It's better than ennui, which is what I was doing. So small miracles. According to Oxford languages, ennui is a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction that arises from a lack of occupation or excitement. So now we know what it means. How does it actually relate to posting on social media? Well, Kyle explains that 15 years after the advent of social media, the sort of casual, nonchalant posting that we all sort of grew up with, well, when we were in our early 20s or teens, doesn't really happen anymore. I'm sort of talking about snapping a photo of your breakfast or like a sunset with like a Valencia filter or a road sign. You know, the stuff that we used to do that was just like random and like we thought it was great.

[Joanna Fleming]

The Valencia Filter was life.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Oh my God, it was honestly life. So this isn't. Yeah, it's just not happening as much anymore on the Internet. So he sort of talks about how it feels like regular non famous people just are posting less than they used to. He thinks there might be this sort of generational element to it. We're all millennials here. We grew up on social media not as much as younger people, but from our late teens and our 20s. And now we're getting married, we're settling down, we're having kids. There's less incentive for us to document our day to day life and project our personality online. Meanwhile, Gen Z, the article suggests, prefer being voyeurs and scrolling instead of Posting. I feel like you guys have probably touched on this and discussions about social media, but it's actually cooler not to post now. It's cooler to be mysterious. The offline boyfriend. Does anyone remember that trend where it's talking about how the hottest guys actually have no social media?

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes.

[Kate Emma Burke]

So there's this element of sort of mystery that people are maybe craving now. And a lot of younger people say that when they do post, they feel this like vulnerability hangover. So Gen Z, Gen Alpha never really experienced the era of casual posting and all they know is these like highly curated carousels and over overthinking their captions and that's pretty exhausting. I mean, I don't know if you guys feel exhausted with the way we post these days. I know I definitely do. I'm going to read a section from the article about why people are feeling this way and what the absence of this casual posting might mean for social media. So Kyle writes, the design of social media has discouraged casual posting with metrics that make users feel inadequate for not getting enough attention and with algorithmic feeds that prioritize popular accounts that post constantly. Not mundane moments, but punditry, provocation and self promotion. But the presence of normies. I love that word, by the way. The presence of normies was what made social media worth tuning into in their wake. Like the treatise on a once busy beach, there will be only dry corporate marketing, AI generated slop and Drake from thirsty hustlers attempting to monetize a dwindling audience of voyeurs. I mean, firstly, amazing writing. I love this writer. So you guys should check out more of his work if you haven't seen it. He's great. But I want to know, like, you're each sort of content creators. You're putting out content about, you know, your work and yourselves. Do you feel posting fatigue? How do you feel, you know, posting online these days?

[Joanna Fleming]

Well, it's interesting because I obviously grew up in the time where Instagram was just starting when I was like 18, and I thought it was the best thing ever. That was such a good time.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

But also I disagree that that kind of offhanded posting isn't still happening, because I think that's happening on TikTok. It's not happening on Instagram anymore. But I think kind of posting in the moment is happening on TikTok to a degree. Not always. A lot of that is curated content, but I think there is, you know, offhand stuff that's happening on there and it's in the moment. But obviously I work as a content creator, and I get paid to do sponsored posts and things like that, and I still want to be able to bring my audience valuable content. So that's just one element of running social media or having that as part of your business. And I rely on my socials to be able to run my business because otherwise people wouldn't know about my service that I offer in terms of skincare consultations. So I really rely on that. I would say that I am fatigued at times by social media, and sometimes I just really want a break. I definitely don't post as much on my stories as I used to because I don't feel like I have the time to. Or I don't feel like I have valuable things to post on my stories. But, yeah, I do at times feel fatigued, but at the same time, I run that like a business, so I don't. I don't see it as just a platform for my leisure.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Do you overthink your posts or are you, like, pretty 100%?

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that makes sense.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Feel alone?

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes, absolutely.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

Sometimes, like, oh, my God, I hate myself.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Oh, that is so refreshing. Because I often look at my social media and I'm like, who is this woman?

[Joanna Fleming]

But then you have to remind yourself, like, you're the only person thinking that, because who else is going on to your Instagram and spending that much time analyzing the stuff that you post? Only you do that.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It's so true.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

And I think your content as well, like, it's actually quite informational. It's educational. Like, you've got a lot in your content. It's not just, oh, here's a cute pic of my outfit. Like, it's very much informative, meaning, so I can understand how you might be, like, this is a lot, but it's not. People love it. Trust me.

[Joanna Fleming]

Thank you.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I'm one of those people.

[Joanna Fleming]

Thanks.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Oh, me too. I've learned so much from your content. Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

Thank you.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

It's actually funny, though, because, like, thinking back to 2011, 2012, I would post the same selfie, like, five times with, like, different filters. Did not give a fuck. Like, I was like, okay, I look so good.

[Joanna Fleming]

Where was that shame? Then I had lovers.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

And then all of a sudden, we started curating our feeds and it was like, oh, my God. I had to delete all the old shit. I actually went through my archives. I love that girl. She was so funny.

[Kate Emma Burke]

She was bold.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

She was so bold. I just think now it's so funny how kind of like, what you're saying Jo Instagram, for me in particular, sometimes a lot of the followers I followed from like 10 years ago, even like, can I say 15 years ago. God, I feel old. But a lot of the content we've seen from these creators used to feel really authentic and genuine and things I actually connected with. And now I do see a lot of sponsored posts, a of lot of paid posts. And sometimes I do feel like it does lack a bit of that authenticity, like what you actually want to see from creators. But I do think as well, like I'm so guilty of posting things that has been for a promo, like promo material. And I definitely think my Instagram is got a certain polish about it, but it's like I actually don't think of myself as a creator and I find it funny when people reach out to me because they're like, what are your rates? Tell me your insights. I was telling Joe.

[Joanna Fleming]

So funny.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Someone asked me for my insights. I sent them a screenshot of my page. I was like, here you go. Like, I don't know anyway.

[Kate Emma Burke]

And it's so good.

[Joanna Fleming]

Last time it laughed.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I know. I was like, I don't know. Here you are, here's my.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It was just like what I know.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Guys, I need a manager anyway.

[Kate Emma Burke]

That's amazing.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

But like I find TikTok now. It's so much more carefree. It's just so candid and I love following people because there's that educational side. There is the trend side. There's a funny side. There's also. My algorithm right now is quite dark. I've gone down like the police side. It's really strange. Unsolved crimes I think you've like jumped into.

[Joanna Fleming]

I probably have, yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Sorry, yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I feel like we need to get back to like a form of media that feels like more intentional and less never ending. And for me, that media is substack. I don't know. Do either of you use substack?

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I don't, but I actually want to get on it.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It's amazing. There's not as much like advertising. You like choose what creators you're going to follow and subscribe to their newsletters. There's a lot of deep dive think pieces that maybe the writer didn't get it commissioned with a big magazine or newspaper, but they have this space where have paying subscribers that gives them the freedom to write about whatever they want. So I'm very into it. It feels like a sort of earlier version of the Internet in some ways because the Internet used to be all about connecting with people. That like similar stuff and like people that had similar hobbies and being more sort of community driven. Whereas now it can sometimes feel like, oh, my God, I go on and I'm like, my clothes are wrong, my skincare needs an overhaul, my hair needs a different routine. So for me, yeah, TikTok. As long as I don't get too addicted to it, TikTok and Substack are really nice ways to consume content that feels less polished and more like real and authentic.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Bring back Tumblr. Like, that's bring back Tumblr. Back to Tumblr.

[Joanna Fleming]

I was like, oh, my God.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Do you remember your day? Day, My heyday.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I also love Tumblr so much. It was so bad, so good. Well, next, Jo's gonna give us her Cheat Sheet guide to K Beauty. But that will be right after a word from today's sponsor. There.

[Madison Sullivan Thorpe]

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[Joanna Fleming]

So today we're actually introducing a new segment to you, which is called the Cheat Sheet. I'm very excited to be introing this and I'm going to be contributing to it for the first time. So this is where we're going to give you, like, quick but informative rundowns of different topics. So obviously my topics of specialty being skincare and beauty is probably what I'll be talking about. Arnica will be fashion. Mads will be brand and marketing, basically we'll just be cutting through the fluff, giving you the facts about a topic, trend, or product as succinctly as possible.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I'm excited for this.

[Joanna Fleming]

So today I thought I would share a little bit more about K Beauty because this is something that comes into my DM inbox constantly. My clients ask me about it constantly. So I thought it'd be worthwhile just summarizing a little bit for people that are finding it to be a bit of a minefield, because there's a lot of TikToks coming off that topic, a lot of TikToks about K Beauty, and I think a lot of confusion around the products that people should be using and the formulas to look for and brands and all those kinds of things. So I thought I would run through that. Are you guys seeing a lot of K Beauty stuff on your feeds? Oh, yes.

[Kate Emma Burke]

So much.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I am so deep in the K Beauty algorithm. Like, I'm way down.

[Joanna Fleming]

Actually, you did tell me you went down the TikTok rabbit hole and you made some purchases.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I made far too many purchases. So I'm here for the cheat sheet.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Okay. I'm also here. I feel I love skincare.

[Joanna Fleming]

I love beauty.

[Kate Emma Burke]

And with K Beauty, I've always been a little bit intimidated by just. Yeah, there's so much out there. There's so many different brands. There's so much sort of, I guess, ingredients that I'm not as familiar with as well. So I'm really excited to hear your. Your cheat sheet.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah. I think the most important thing to start with is that it's actually not as complex as people think it is. They assume that it's going to be really complicated. But, like, a majority of products have an English translation on them, so it's quite easy to understand, like, what is it designed to do? But what sets K Beauty apart from a lot clinical brands that we might see on shelves in skin clinics in Australia, for example, is that they're very barrier focused. They're soothing, they're hydrating, they're supportive of the skin. They want to make sure the skin is functioning in the best possible way as opposed to really harsh, exfoliating, resurfacing kind of treatments, which we've seen a lot of these clinical brands. So I actually got really interested in K Beauty quite a few years ago because of that. I. I was like, they're doing this very differently to the way that we're taught to do things in more Western countries. Like, we're being told to completely resurface our skin, strip it off more acid the better. Like it's just not the case for a lot of people. And supporting that barrier function is really crucial to the function of our skin and the health of our skin. So that's what I really like about K beauty. And I do recommend a lot of K beauty brands and products to my own clients because it's accessible and it's affordable and the formulas are actually great. Good. So you don't need to be spending a whole heap of cash on these other products. And often I'll just weave K Beauty in with other brands and products. It's not always just a completely. Actually, I don't think I've ever done a full complete K beauty routine for anyone. It's always a mix of brands.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

Nice mix of price points because that allows me to pull from different areas and give someone an exfoliating toner from a K beauty brand that I know is going to be a little bit gentler if they tend to be more on the sensitive side. For example. Example. Right. So the kinds of ingredients that you'll find in a lot of K beauty products. You've probably heard of snail mucin.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yes. Yeah. And that like clear bottle. Yeah. What is the brand? Cosrx. Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Elaborate on the snail mucin.

[Joanna Fleming]

So our snail mucin is hydrating, soothing, anti inflammatory. It's obviously the secretions of a snail, so you've got to be willing to be putting snail stuff on your face. But that can be a beneficial ingredient for some skins. It's not something I recommend for absolutely everybody. I don't personally use a snail mucin in my routine, but it is an ingredient that you'll see in a lot of K beauty products and in a lot of brands. Not in all of them, but it is a very common ingredient to come by and one that people tend to be more intimidated by as well, because what is that?

[Annika Joshi Smith]

They're a western alternative to like snail mucin. Like what would it kind of be in your regular beauty routine?

[Joanna Fleming]

I would say you'd be looking at ingredients like hyaluronic acid and glycerin.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Okay, do that.

[Joanna Fleming]

Cool.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah, cool.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yep. So it's just something that I don't feel you necessarily need to add to your routine if it's not indicated for your skin type or concerns. Niacinamide is another one, which is oil balancing. It's brightening, it's hydrating, it's barrier supportive. So that's another one that you'll see in a lot of K beauty products. Centella, Asiatica or Cica which you'll probably see in a lot of products. Dr. Jart has their Cicapair range, but you will see it in non Korean beauty as well. You might know la Roche posay cicaplast B5. So these kinds of brands, if you see Cica, it's going to be Centella Asiatica which is a really soothing, calming kind of ingredient. Has hydrating properties as well. So it's a really nice one that you might find in essences and toners and things like that.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

But I love Succaplast.

[Joanna Fleming]

Really great for barrier function too. Green tea has antioxidant properties and anti inflammatory properties. You'll find that in a lot of K beauty products as well. Laneige have a really nice green tea moisturiser that I really like and rice extract or rice bran water is another one that you might see thrown around quite a bit. Beauty of Joseon have a rice mask that's very popular. Yeah, I'm from have a rice mask as well I think. And maybe a moisturizer in their range too. So that has brightening and hydrating properties as well. But there's some quite common ingredients that you'll find in K beauty products. The product formats I want to touch on because they look a little bit different sometimes or they have different wording to what we would normally use in like, you know, a clinical range that you might get from your local skin clinic.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Okay.

[Joanna Fleming]

You'll see a lot of cleansing balms and oils which you would use as part of your first cleanse. So you would use use a cleansing oil or balm on a dry face with dry hands. Massage that in, jump in the shower, use your next cleanser which would be a gel, a foaming cleanser, a cream cleanser, whatever's suited to your skin type. If you have a dry skin, you're more likely to go down the cream or milky cleanser route. If you have an oily skin, you're more likely to go down the gel or foaming route. So that would be your second cleanse. Then you'd be looking to apply things like toners or essences. You might do both. So they're very like viscous kind of products products and you would potentially pat them into the skin or apply with a cotton round. Depends how you like to apply or the thickness of the product. It will vary. Some of those might be exfoliating, which is a really important thing to remember. And I think this is where a lot of people can go wrong is not understanding the ingredients that are in these products that they're purchasing. And so they end up doubling up on products or ingredients when they shouldn't be using that too frequently in their routine. For example, like our AHAs and BHAs, you might have that in another product that you use and you don't realize that you're layering it with something else. So that might have exfoliating properties, but a lot of the time that's about hydrating the skin, restoring the ph of the skin as well. So that your other products being put on top, nice and complimentary to the skin maybe absorb a little bit better as well. So then you do your serums and ampoules after that. Our ampoules are like a serum. They're just concentrated with active ingredients. Still quite a lightweight texture.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Okay.

[Joanna Fleming]

So you'd blend that in over the top of a toner or an essence and then finish with your moisturizer.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Moisturizer.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Do you use an essence, personally? Because I've always wondered about essences and, like, whether I should be using one. Do you use one and. Yeah. Why? Why not?

[Joanna Fleming]

I use a toner which has more of an essence texture. I would say it's a little bit thicker. Okay. I use the TBH rebound toner, which has thicker in it.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Oh, I've seen you talk about this online.

[Joanna Fleming]

Oh, the rebound serum. You've probably heard me talk about.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Maybe. Okay.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the rebound tone. Well, I think it's. I think they say it's a toner. It's just a really thin kind of texture. And I just put that down before my serums. And I'll often use some kind of face spray as well. So I like Tower 28. Or at the moment, I've got Zoe Skin Health, so I'll often do like a mist underneath too. But I find that's an unnecessary step for someone that wants a simpler skincare routine. It does not have to be 10 steps. Don't get convinced by this trend that you have to have a complex routine, because you don't.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Right.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Lisa's bitter sometimes.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, it is. It honestly is. And so many people. People are confused when I cut so much stuff out of their routines. And it's often the ones that have just gone ham on the K beauty. And I'm like, we've got so many double ups here, it's not even funny. Like, you are wasting a hundred bucks here. Like, we've got to get rid of some of this stuff and we need to replace it with this because we just had too many things. We need to refine this down there. Oh, but I thought I need.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

You don't need it.

[Joanna Fleming]

Let's keep it as simple as possible. Target your concerns and, you know, try and get you somewhere with your skincare routine instead of you wondering whether you're doing the right thing or not.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Now, forgive me, Jo, but what is an essence? I've been sitting here going, what the hell is an essence?

[Joanna Fleming]

An essence is like a toner. So it would be like a thin kind of texture. It might have hydrating ingredients or exfoliating ingredients.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Okay.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I wonder if I use one. I definitely use a toner, but I don't know if I use an essence.

[Joanna Fleming]

The word is kind of used interchangeably a lot.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I don't know that.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, they're technically separate things, but they're often used interchangeably. Or one would be used instead of the other.

[Kate Emma Burke]

For example, if you had to recommend, like, out of the these six products, one that is you feel like has the most impact on people's skin. Obviously it would vary a lot, I guess, depending on skin type. But, like, is there one that gives you the most bang for your buck or, like, one that you really would suggest most people incorporate in terms of those steps? In terms of. Yeah, these different, like the cleansing, cleansing oils, the ampoules, the essences. If I'm going to get one thing, like, what would that be?

[Joanna Fleming]

I would go the cleansing oil of balm. I love a double cleanser cleanse. Yeah, I'm all about the double cleanse. Obviously it's going to depend because if you bought a serum or ampoule that has a lot of active ingredients in it, that could potentially be very transformative.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

But I really love the ritual of a double cleanse. And I think that can be really helpful for a lot of different skin concerns and skin types as well. So I always recommend a double cleanse for nearly every single one of my clients.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yes, I'm a double cleanser, actually. And it changed my skin. Yeah, Like, I used to get a lot of acne and double cleansing really changed the game.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do really love double cleansing. But some of my favorite favorite brands in the K beauty space. I was telling Emma, our social media manager earlier that some of my favorite products are saved to an LTK because I had so many DMs about it, I had to put them in one place. But some of my favorite K beauty brands are Beauty of Joseon, Cosrx, Laneige, Dr. Jart is another great one as well. Innisfree have some great products too. There's Just so many brands out there. It's is quite a saturated market now, but it's very readily available, especially for Australians. Adore beauty. Have a massive offering of K beauty, which a lot of people might not realize, but a lot of the brands and products I'm recommending there are available.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I didn't know that.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So they've got a really good range. But my tips, if you want to start a K beauty routine, don't buy everything that you've seen on TikTok. Annika, that one's directed at you.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Well noted.

[Joanna Fleming]

So that's my first one is not to buy everything you see on TikTok. It may not be right. Right for you. And this is something that I apply in a lot of areas of the content that I do. You won't see me post my own skincare routines. Reason for that is because I know people will go out and buy every single thing that I say I use on my own skin. And that always changes because I'm always trialing different products to be able to recommend them. So I don't share that because I know that there'll be people that do that. And I. I don't. I just try and limit that as much as possible because I see so many clients that are like, oh, I watched this influencer and I bought everything that she uses. So I try to limit that as much as possible because it's a bad habit to get in. Everything should be curated for your individual skin type and concerns. So I really encourage people to understand your skin type and understand your skin concerns. Write them down if you have to. So if you're choosing your skin type, it's going to be dry, oily combo. You could add sensitive in there and normal so you could find out what your skin type is. I'm sure if you do a bit of Googling, you'll find out exactly how to identify that. That'd be a longer episode if I was to go down that path.

[Kate Emma Burke]

That's a good idea for an episode.

[Joanna Fleming]

And yeah, taking notes. Yeah, that'd be a consultation cake.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah. Okay. Me trying to get a free consultation. Oh, my God, not the first time.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

The whole Internet, getting a free consult.

[Joanna Fleming]

I love it. And then it's identifying your concerns. That might be things like acne, it might be hyperpigmentation, it might be oiliness, it might be excess dryness, dehydration. All of those things would be considered as concerns that you're trying to address with your skincare. So have a really good understanding of what you're trying to address, address and make sure you read the product descriptions.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Okay.

[Joanna Fleming]

So if you're going to look at the product descriptions, you've got dry skin and you're worried about hyperpigmentation, but the product you're looking at is targeted towards an oily, acne prone skin. That's not you. We don't need to be buying that product for you. That's not going to be well suited and that's an unnecessary step in your routine. And also make sure when you're looking for moisturizers and things, you're not buying a water cream, which is what we see in a lot of K beauty products is these really lightweight textures. If you've got a really dry skin, you're going to need something that is thicker and richer. So little tips like that is just understanding your skin a little bit more to make those purchases a little bit more tailored to, you know, obviously your knowledge is only going to extend to a certain degree. But as best you can, try and be as informed as possible so that you're not wasting money and you don't need to have 10 steps.

[Kate Emma Burke]

That was very helpful, Jo. I feel like that was exactly what I've been looking for. And there's too many articles and too many explainers online and you never really know who to trust. But obviously we trust use.

[Joanna Fleming]

I could go into a lot more detail, but I just wanted to keep that as like short as well. It's meant to be like a short explainer, a cheat sheet.

[Kate Emma Burke]

We don't want it to be overwhelming.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

You know, and now I'm kind of considering an essence, which is something I haven't really considered before. But I'm.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah, I'm with you on that one.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

We'll report back how we go. If you love beauty like we do, you already know Mac has been a staple in every makeup makeup bag from your very first lipstick to all those special moments since July 29th is National Lipstick Day. But at Mac, one day just isn't enough. Thus celebrating all month long inviting you to find and share the lip combo that's uniquely yours. Whether you're into soft neutrals, glossy finishes or bold matte lips, Mac has you covered with their endless range of lip products. They've also just launched Lip Glaze, a glossy lip liner that effortlessly lines, fills and volumizes for fuller looking lips, all in one easy glide for the whole of July. You'll get 30% off when you buy three or more lip products at any Mac freestanding store or maccosmetics.com plus, if you want some tips or just want to try something new, you can pop into a Mac store for a free Perfect yout Lip Combo session. Thank you so much to Mac for making this episode of Stylish Possible.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Possible.

[Kate Emma Burke]

So our next story is asking whether we're in a fortissance. If you've been consuming fashion content lately, you might have noticed a very interesting trend. Feet, and more specifically toes seem to be everywhere right now. Anika actually mentioned this in her trend report earlier in the year. As usual, Annika is ahead of the curve. No surprises there. There's a whole host of accessories and footwear that's been released by both high and low fashion brands that accentuates the toes and the feet. Think toe loops, toe rings, toe shoes and sort of more ambitious designs like Kate's peep toe. Have you guys seen that where there's one toe? Yeah, it's so funny. It's like just the one toe, but it looks very chic, very cool. And then Balenciaga's zero shoe. Have you seen that one where the. Yeah, it almost looks like the memory of a shoe. It's like the sole and like just a little bit on the toe.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I think it's so barely there. Like, how does this even hold?

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, I was gonna say how does it hold onto your foot?

[Kate Emma Burke]

I am not sure. To be honest. I don't know how ergonomic it is. The New York Times describes it as a barely there sandal that, as the name suggests, is not much of a shoe at all, which is pretty accurate. Fashion writer Liana Sadenstein, who was interviewed for the New York Times feature about the fortessance. She thinks that there's a simple reason that the trend is getting this popular. She writes, nothing is titillating anymore. But there's something so sensual about, about feet, from toe cleavage to the curve of an ankle. Do you guys agree? Like, is our feet and toes, are they becoming sexy? Is that like the final frontier now? We've gone so far down the, like, see through dresses and, you know, everything sort of out there.

[Joanna Fleming]

I feel like, yes, if they're good looking feet.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, that's hideous feet. Me too.

[Joanna Fleming]

I can't get around this.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I know I was looking at this trend and I was like, I, I've always loved like Margiela and you know, toe related, like shoes. But looking at some of these trends, I also feel the same way. I'm like, oh, my feet are not my best asset. Yeah, I want to get around a toe Ring because it feels very blue. Crush Y2K.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Beachy girly. Even though I'm like pale redhead. So I'll never be a beach girl. You're our through baron. Oh, come on. Thank you. That's the best thing ever. I love a toe ring though. And I'm really into this like luxe take on toe rings with the like diamonds and the cool sort of elevated toe ring. But yeah, Annika, I feel like you to me are paratoe shoe person.

[Joanna Fleming]

I reckon you'd have really nice feet.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Bunions, guys, what are we talking about? How can you.

[Kate Emma Burke]

We've never seen them. I've never seen them because I always.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Show my sexy foot. One foot's cute, the other's so not cute.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Okay, now you've got a good foot.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I've got a good foot. That foot will be on only fans. The other one, actually. I feel like those like bunion heavy foot would probably make more money.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

But I've got to say, I think fashion's fetishes with feet are like not new. It's something we've been seeing for so long now. And like you said before, Margiela have just always been ahead of the curve. I think tabbies are forever. And Glenn Martin's debuted his inaugural couture collection last week. And honestly, we saw the latest iteration of tabbies which were completely clear.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Amazing.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

They were so insane. And I think something great about accessories as well is you can dip your toe in.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I see what you did there.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Quite literally any trend and it can.

[Joanna Fleming]

Be like a bit more of an.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Accessible way to do it. Like we've even saw skims. She's just bought out as well. Like a barely there slipper. And it's literally like a ballet flat that's completely see through. I think it was like 66 USD around 115aud. They sold out straight away. So we are seeing this trend go from like the runways right down to the masses. Even brands like Christopher Esper have been doing like that jelly style flip flop for so long, we're now seeing them at like bets. So you can get them like the ultimate high low. I don't think the feet trend is going anywhere.

[Joanna Fleming]

Well, we've been seeing the mesh flats for the last couple of seasons. Yeah, like, yeah, that's been a couple of years or maybe 18 months now. That, that was really, I guess more mainstream. Not just high fashion. But I was also seeing a lot of sandals coming out as we came towards the end of our summer. A lot of sandals with like the gold hardware or silver hardware over the toe.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

So I don't know where that started. It probably started with some like high end fashion house, but then, you know, like, obviously our more mainstream brands are bringing it to the masses. Yeah, but I thought that was really cool. I would wear those, but I probably wouldn't go down the path of like a toe R or a foot chain or something. I don't want people looking there.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Would you wear an anklet, Jo?

[Joanna Fleming]

Probably.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I can see you wearing a cool dainty little.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah, it'd probably be a really thin chain. Like my permanent bracelets, like really fine.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Like the Sarah and Sebastian sort of. Yeah, I'm into an anklet personally. I think for summer I will be getting into anklets.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I will be getting around an anklet. And I think as well you can customize them, you can make them so personalized. And I think you can also just utilize a bracelet you already have so you can really double down on that trend to. But I definitely think as well, like when we look at fashion now, people are really focusing on head to toe looks. And it's something that we talk about all the time in the showroom with our buyers. So many buyers are looking at investment wear. So it could be like really beautiful tailoring, really simplistic kind of denim and like cute date night tops. And then footwear is just becoming such a focus. And I think now, like you're saying, Joe, we're seeing so many super cute, simple shoes that have really gorgeous little like jewelry, like details on them. And I saw them all over New York when I was there, as well as flip flops. But I think it's a really cute way to kind of add personality to an outfit without feeling like you've gotta get completely dressed up. Like you could do something really neutral, really simple and add a cute little shoe.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It also reminds me of that wrong shoe theory. Do you guys remember that?

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Oh my gosh. We traced that.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I feel like we talked about it. Well, we talked about it at some point on the show or you guys talked about it. I did some research on it, but it totally reminds me of that. Cause it's this idea that you can have a very basic, very simplistic outfit and then you have an interesting shoe and that does heaps of the heavy lifting in terms of elevating it, adding interest. And I mean, what's more interesting than wearing like a clear ballet flat with a plain outfit, you know, like that your whole foot on display.

[Joanna Fleming]

So, so true. Because I feel so weird in A flat shoe going somewhere and I notice that other people are wearing heels. I'm like, oh my God, I'm so underdressed. Yeah, throws me off. But I could be wearing anything else and not really care. But it's the shoes that throw me off.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, Hugely important. And I think in a cost of living crisis as well, investing in a shoe, you're going to get much more bang for your buck. You can pair it with all these different outfits. So I kind of see it from that perspective as well. Like, I'd rather invest in a shoe at the moment than like a couple of fun tops. Because I compare that fun, interesting shoe with all these different outfits.

[Joanna Fleming]

So true.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

You know, I'm the same. I literally go so heavy on my accessories when it comes to investing in pieces and it's like those are pieces I think really carefully about before I make the purchase. And I get so much longevity out of them. Like, if I wear a really beautiful shoe, sometimes it finishes my look because I'm always in like baggy things or like all black everything. But fun fact, when I was single, I actually used to judge people, sorry, men on their feet before looking up.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Me too.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Like, I would look at their shoes if they had cool shoes. I'd be like, yeah, I'll talk to you if they didn't. No, thanks. Like, James has an elite shoe collection. So that's why we went.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, I also did that.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Is it a Kiwi thing?

[Kate Emma Burke]

It's a Kiwi thing. I think a lot of men in New Zealand wear terrible shoes. Oh, awful.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Sorry to the New Zealand men out there. I'm so sorry. Sorry.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

But there's a good handful of them that have really good taste and ship.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah, yeah, I see you.

[Joanna Fleming]

I can't say I ever really focus too much on the shoe, but maybe I should have.

[Kate Emma Burke]

You have been cooked for every meal.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Yeah, I mean, we have met the man of like.

[Kate Emma Burke]

He's so perfect.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

He's like three man.

[Kate Emma Burke]

You, like, don't care about.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I don't care. He'd be barefoot, like, whatever.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah. I did replace his whole wardrobe though.

[Kate Emma Burke]

So there you go.

[Joanna Fleming]

Anyway, in big beauty news, Mecca is opening one one of the world's biggest beauty stores, especially for us Melbournians, which is such a treat. So Mecca announced last week that they're opening their biggest retail space yet in August this year. It's a 4,000 square metre, three level store that's going to be on Bourke Street. It's going to be Mecca's Melbourne flagship And it will be one of the largest standalone beauty stores in the entire world. Which is wild.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It's wild to think that's going to be in Melbourne.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

It's actually next level.

[Joanna Fleming]

I know I cannot wait. Three levels in fact. If you haven't seen the building on socials, go to the their socials and have a look at the building. Just looks phenomenal. So the store will stock over 200 of the world's best beauty brands, offer 80 plus services and have more than 300 team members. Obviously not all working at once. It's not 100 people per floor, but it is still a lot of staff members. And what is inside will blow your mind. This list is endless. So there's a Mecca perfumery, a bespoke packaging suite offering engraving and calligraphy services. A beauty atelier where you can get your hair made, makeup and nails done. An apothecary with an on site naturopath and dispensary. An auditorium that will serve. It's almost like comical at this point. An auditorium that will serve as an educational space and an advanced clinical skin treatment center with dermal therapists and cosmetic consultations from qualified registered nurses. There'll also be a Mecca cafe and randomly a Mecca newsroom.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

This is like a beauty bender. Like you don't even need to leave. You can stay there.

[Joanna Fleming]

I'm surprised they didn't put hotel room.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I was just thinking that.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes, like the auditorium off. Let's make that a hotel.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah, I mean the cafe, I'm like, that's kind of, it's, you know when you're shopping and you're like really in it, sometimes you do need a little, you need to eat or a little drink.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Oh my gosh, how cool. If they did like ERA One styles and did like the Haley Bieber smoothie and like all the different, like beauty smoothies.

[Kate Emma Burke]

That's such a good point.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I am now Mads today I'm Mads, I'm.

[Kate Emma Burke]

You're ideating. She's brand marketing. Someone had to.

[Joanna Fleming]

Well, it's obviously a huge move from Mecca with the Australian Financial Review in a feature on the store earlier this year describing it as the beauty company's biggest bet yet. I would have to agree with all of those services. The size of the store, the amount of staff. I'm going to read a section from that article written by Lauren Sams because it's pretty interesting. The success of such an audacious project when it does eventually open, rests on 50,000 people coming through the doors every day, every week. Joe Horgan, Mecca's founder and co CEO, recognises this is a risk. In dreaming up the concept, she sent a team of five on a global mission looking at retail from Nike flagships to small perfumeries. The thinking was to link the world's best products and experiences into the DNA of Mecca's first boutique in South Yarra. Joe Horgan, who was interviewed for the article, revealed that it's been an incredibly expensive undertaking and that they've failed to stay on budget. She told the afr, it's not just the store build, it's the human cost of the effort of three years that we've taken to make do this. It's not ideal, but it increases the need to make it the most extraordinary beauty experience for customers. It's unlikely to be replicated by anyone in the world, ever. Very lofty goal. And clearly Mecca has a lot riding on this, you know, massive mega stores success. Do we think that this is going to end up working out for them? Are we going to see this, you know, go down a slippery slope or do we think this is going to be like, oh my God, this is transformative for the beauty industry and we're going to have people coming from all over the world to see this Mecca store.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Yeah. It's interesting because to me part of what has always made Mecca stand out is that sort of boutique, small feel. I'm a regular at the Carlton Mecca and being in there, it's very like, it's not a huge space and you can always get help from someone and it feels very like, I don't know, like small and curated and I like that about it. So I'm imagining Mika, you know, scaling up to such a huge scale. Will they be able to keep that sort of element of this original South Yarrow boutique that they talk about in the article that sort of like very attentive and very like personalized and part of their whole thing is that they give you such attention, like you feel so special when you're in there.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

And I think that it's really hard to do that on a bigger level. But honestly my gut feel as a beauty fanatic is that if anyone can, can do it in Australia, it's obviously Mecca.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

What do you think?

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I think what I find so remarkable about this is the fact that in a time where retail is really struggling as a whole, they are scaling up, like so many businesses are downsizing. And I think what I admire about Joe is she's not letting that stop them. She's literally putting that customer Centric ideology first. And I think they're going to be able to do it because she's so committed. Like, no cost has been spared. I am just so obsessed with, like, the diversity of offerings from the services and even, like the Melbourne collabs, like, flowers, bars, it. How cool. Cenabism, like, insane. And just seeing, like, how well thought out this is. Like, I did not expect to have the educational piece to this. Like, what is the auditorium for? But I'll be sitting there and I'll go there and I'll literally hang out.

[Joanna Fleming]

There for the whole weekend. I feel like it's going to be like the Apple part of those stores.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Love it.

[Joanna Fleming]

The education section in the Apple store.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It'll be panels. It will be, you know, like Charlotte Tilbury's masterclass. I imagine it will be a space where they can have masterclasses, which is so smart because that masterclass was such a success for them. So it makes total sense to them build their own customer space to hold stuff like that.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I would love to know from you, Jo, as a dermal therapist, reading through that press release, like, can you tell us a bit more about what you think that will look like in the store? The dermal therapy, the registered nurse. Nurse. Like, are they going to be doing injectables? What are they going to be doing?

[Joanna Fleming]

Yes, I would love to know. I suspect that's what they are intending to offer. I do think that they have been trialing this in some way in the High Point store because they have, I think, what they call a Mecha aesthetica, which is like, they do skin treatments there and they sell biologic research. So they actually are able to stock that in that particular store, but I believe only that store.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Okay.

[Joanna Fleming]

So the tricky thing with bringing skin treatments in and potentially, potentially, maybe injectables based on that wording. So they said cosmetic consultations with qualified registered nurses, which would indicate that you would be having injectables. There's a few complexities around that. One being that you still need a doctor to prescribe that medication. So they would still need to be either having a doctor on site or having a doctor available to do a zoom call with every patient or client that is coming in to have injectables there. There are also very stringent guidelines from the TGA around advertising. And I think that's why that information hasn't been included in press release.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It did seem a little vague.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah. Because you can't now say things like, you, it's no longer permissible to advertise injectables in certain ways, like even using terms like anti wrinkle, you can't use before and afters, things like that. It's really, really tightly regulated now. So I think that's something they might not be able to overtly advertise or suggest that they offer. I think that's why they've said the consultations, and then that consultation may lead to treatment with a red. The other complexity around that is that AHPRA are tightening their guidelines on advertising around more invasive cosmetic procedures, and that might include things like lasers and skin treatments. So that also might add some complexities to this. But I think if people were interested to go and have those treatments or they want access to these brands, then, like, they may know about it anyway because they're gonna hear through someone that they offer it or they might go in for a consultation. That's where they can get all of their information and that's fine. But they might be limited in how they can talk about this on their socials and in their email marketing and all of that kind of stuff.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Interesting.

[Joanna Fleming]

Fascinating. Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Would you two go to a place like Mecca for something more involved, you know, like injectables or lasers or like, things like that? Do you feel like that is somewhere that you'd go? I'm just curious whether that part of it will be.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Kate Emma Burke]

A draw card for people.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

I'm still a virgin over here with my face, and the only place I'm knowing is Joe.

[Joanna Fleming]

Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

Like, whatever she's doing, I'm doing it. So without doing the salmon sperm, Maybe. Okay.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I've thought about the salmon sperm since you did it. Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

I really am an influencer.

[Kate Emma Burke]

You really are. Yeah.

[Joanna Fleming]

I mean, I've already got my trusted people that I go to for different things, so I personally wouldn't. But I can understand why people would see the ease in going into somewhere. And look, I don't think it's something that skin clinics are going to agree with. I think they're going to be like, as if you would walk into a macaroni and get the same experience that you're going to get walking into a bespoke boutique skin clinic, which might be true, but I do have a bit of faith in Mecca's employment process. And who would they be hiring to represent them? I think they're very careful about that and they hire people and they train them quite effectively. So I think that that would be huge focus for them is to be reputable in that area. They wouldn't want to represent themselves as being inexperienced or like underqualified in that area. I think they'd want the best of the best. Like, you've seen it with other services they're offering. They're getting trophy wife in to do the nails. They're like, I love. Yeah, they're the best of the best in Melbourne in terms of nails. So, yeah, I think it's something that if they want to focus on it, they will do the best job, but they can at it. So that makes. Yeah.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

And I think as well, like, this is going to be such a world class offering. Like, it's going to be one of a kind. It really is leading. So I do expect them to go all out and I think maybe we would trust them in that space because of. Of just like how insane this is actually gonna be as a whole. I think the one thing I'm actually interested to see because where the store is is literally directly opposite David Jones and Maya. So I'm like, are they gonna pull out of their concessions there? What is it gonna do to their foot traffic and their performance as department stores overall when it's gonna be quite hard to replicate that same in store experience at the new Mecca compared to in those concessions? Which space?

[Joanna Fleming]

We'll see, won't we? We will.

[Kate Emma Burke]

I didn't even think of that, but that's a really good point.

[Joanna Fleming]

Point. Okay, well, that wraps up a very juicy, beefy episode for you.

[Kate Emma Burke]

That was great.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

We had fun with that.

[Joanna Fleming]

Thanks for having me this week of Stylish. Thank you so much for joining us. And thank you very much to you, Anika Joshi Smith and you, Kate Emma Burke. Thank you for being here filling in for Mads.

[Kate Emma Burke]

It's been a pleasure.

[Joanna Fleming]

And remember, you can drop us an email [e-mail] or you can slide into our DMs over at Stylish Pod. And we can't forget to thank our audio engineer, Jonathan Last, and the shameless head of podcast, Lucy Hunt and senior podcast producer who joined us on the photo today, Kate Emmett Burke. We'll be back with you next Wednesday and Mads will be with us. See you then.

[Kate Emma Burke]

Bye.

[Annika Joshi Smith]

This podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri land.

[Joanna Fleming]

Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.