Dear Wrinkles: An Honest Conversation About Aging

I need to tell you something.

I'm Lisa. I'm 53. I run a skincare company. And I have a confession: I've spent years telling women how to take care of their skin while simultaneously standing in my bathroom having a full existential crisis about my own neck.

The irony is not lost on me.

Here's the thing - I started Lilou Organics because I genuinely love skincare. I love the science. I love finding products that actually work. I love helping you figure out what your skin needs.

But something has been bugging me for a while.

As a skincare company, we've played a part in a message I'm not comfortable with anymore: that you need to look younger. That aging is a problem to solve. That wrinkles are the enemy.

And I call BS. On myself. On the industry. On all of it.

So we made something.

It's called Aging Authentically - a 24-week, 4-part campaign about saying the quiet parts out loud. About wrinkles, pressure, judgment, fake perfection, and what beauty actually means when everything around us is literally filtered and fake.

And we made someone to lead the conversation.

Meet Frankie.

She's 50ish. She's got wrinkles, a neck she has complicated feelings about, and absolutely zero interest in pretending she's 30. She's not me — but she could be me. She could be you. She could be your sister, your best friend, your coworker. She's every woman who's ever looked in the mirror and thought: "…when did THAT happen?"

Over the next several months, Frankie is going to say the things we all think but don't say out loud.

Why we're doing this

Because nobody talks about this stuff honestly. Not really.

We talk about "anti-aging." We talk about "graceful aging" (whatever that means). We talk about products and procedures and routines.

But we don't talk about the weird grief that comes with aging - the kind where nobody died and nothing bad happened, but sometimes you catch your reflection and think… when did that happen?

It's not vanity. It's more like surprise. Like your outside changed the channel and forgot to tell your inside.

If you've ever felt that - you're not dramatic. You're human. And you're not alone.

That's what this whole campaign is about. Not selling you anything. Not telling you what to do about your skin. Just having the conversation that most of us are only having inside our own heads.

What's coming next

This is a four-part series:

• 💌 Part 1: Dear Wrinkles (Apr 1 – May 12) - Honest letters to the parts of us that are aging.
• ✊ Part 2: Don't Need. Just Want. (May 13 – Jun 23) - The difference between doing skincare out of fear vs. doing it out of choice.
• 💪 Part 3: Choose Yours. Cheer Hers. (Jun 24 – Aug 4) - Releasing judgment; for the woman who's had work done AND the woman who's chosen nothing.
• 🔥 Part 4: Flawed and Fearless (Aug 5 – Sep 15) - AI, filters, and reclaiming real beauty when the standard becomes literally inhuman.

We're sharing this journey on social media three times a week, through emails (sign up at bottom of page), through surveys (yes, we want to hear from YOU), and on our main campaign page here. 

Come along for the ride. It might get a little emotional. Definitely a little funny. And hopefully a lot real.

Want to see what this actually sounds like?

Here's a taste. These are two of Frankie's letters from Part 1: Dear Wrinkles.

The concept is simple. What if you actually sat down and wrote a letter to the parts of you that are aging? Not a gratitude journal entry. Not an affirmation. A real, honest, messy letter - the kind you'd write at 2am after catching your reflection in bathroom lighting that should be illegal.

Frankie's writing them. To her wrinkles. To her neck. To her forehead lines, her sagging skin, her gray hair, her hands, her age spots. Some letters are angry. Some are funny. Some will make you cry in a way that sneaks up on you.

And here's the thread running through all of them: two truths can coexist. You can love yourself AND want to change things. You can look in the mirror and think "I'm beautiful" and also think "I'd really like to do something about these under-eye bags." Those aren't contradictions. They're just… being human.

Here's what Frankie wrote to her wrinkles:

Dear Wrinkles,

We need to talk.

I've been avoiding you. Mostly by tilting my chin up in every photo and blaming the lighting.

But you're here. And honestly? You've been here for a while.

I don't love you yet. I might never fully love you. But I'm starting to think that hating you is exhausting and maybe not the flex I thought it was.

So here's what I'm trying: I'm going to stop pretending you don't exist and start figuring out how to live with you without losing my mind.

It's not a love letter. It's a… ceasefire. 🤍

And to her neck:

Dear Neck,

I've been awful to you. Like, genuinely terrible. I look at you every morning and think things I wouldn't say to my worst enemy.

You're getting saggy and I hate you. There, I said it.

But you know what? You hold my head up every single day. That's literally your whole job and you've never once complained.

So maybe I can stop hating you long enough to appreciate that. Maybe I can want to put some really great cream on you AND not despise you at the same time. Crazy concept, right?

Working on it. 🤍

Hope you can join us in the campaign; we'd love to hear from you. 

The campaign lives in:

Instagram - 3x a week
Email (scroll to the bottom of this page to get to the sign up link) - 2x a month