Jonathan Van Ness wants you to reshape your thinking around ageing

“I don’t want to waste [life] thinking I need to fight an inevitability that is beautiful”

BEAUTYcrew Beauty Editor / April 24 2020

Jonathan Van Ness has captured all of our hearts in recent years making up one-fifth of the revamped Queer Eye cast as their resident beauty expert. Lending a refreshingly honest voice to the beauty industry, Van Ness has partnered with ethical clean beauty brand Biossance as a brand ambassador.

Van Ness and Biossance recently visited Aussie shores to celebrate the launch of the brand in Sephora Australia. During his visit, the hairstylist shared his opinion on anti-ageing and how most people tend to perceive it, relaying his personal experience with loss and the impact it made on him in the way he views the ageing process.

"We are ageing and I don’t think that needs to be an ‘unfortunately’" 

“Through experiencing loss of friends throughout the years, [I’ve realised] that ageing is such a gift, and to allow the gift of growing and experiencing life is so amazing.”

Van Ness’ insightful take on ageing is certainly food for thought for all of us, and is definitely a more positive way to look at those lines and wrinkles that we’ve all earned along the way.

"Life is so precious and I don’t want to waste it thinking I need to fight an inevitability that is beautiful," Van Ness explained.

A sentiment that Biossance echoes: with Biossance President, Catherine Gore, saying that the brand makes a point to create products that move away from anti-ageing and support ageing gracefully, focussing on keeping skin happy and healthy instead (as well as looking after the planet and not harming the environment or animals)

That being said, Van Ness is all for using products that will keep his skin look as fresh as possible. When it comes to creating a solid ‘anti’ anti-ageing skin care routine, Van Ness recommends keeping it simple: cleanser, moisturiser and SPF. 

He can’t help but sing the praises of the brand’s Squalane + Omega Repair Cream, a seemingly innocuous everyday moisturiser that, according to Van Ness, can be used in a myriad of ways. “[It’s] such a good place to start [to] clean [skin]… I also use it with BB cream. If I forget my BB cream, I mix it with concealer.”

“I call it Windex, like from My Big Fat Greek Wedding; you can really use it for a lot. The clean Windex of beauty."

As someone who suffers with psoriasis and reactive skin, Van Ness opts for gentle cleansers like Kate Somerville’s Gentle Exfolikate or Biossance’s Squalane + Antioxidant Cleansing Oil.

When it comes to SPF, he’s strictly drugstore, preferring Neutrogena’s budget-friendly options over pricier picks. 

Curious to know what JVN’s obsession with squalane is? Hit play on the below episode of Get Lippy.

 

And more than wanting to change your views on ageing, Jonathan Van Ness is all about helping to pioneer a nail art trend for boys. Read about the trend that counts A$AP Rocky and Marc Jacobs as fans.

Main image credit: @jvn

Briar Clark got her start in the media industry in 2017, as an intern for Marie Claire and InStyle. Since then, her keen interest in fashion and beauty has landed her gigs as a Digital Content Producer and Beauty Editor with titles like Girlfriend, Refinery29, BEAUTYcrew and beautyheaven. She loves the way seemingly innocuous topics like skin care and style have the ability to put a smile on people’s faces or make them think about themselves a little differently. A big believer in self love and experimentation, Briar has made a point of becoming the Australian beauty industry’s unofficial guinea pig for unusual treatments and daring hair trends. When she’s not testing out the latest beauty launches, Briar is big on broadening her horizons, mostly in the form of food but she’s also partial to travelling to new destinations both near and far (and of course, allocating an extra bag to bring their best beauty offerings home with her).