Renae's Skin Journey

The real story behind Glo Younger

As the founder of Glo Younger, my ethos is simple. Everyone deserves to feel confident and beautiful, regardless of their age or skin type.

But that belief did not come from nowhere. It came from a moment in a bathroom, five years ago, when I sat on the edge of a bed and fell completely apart.

This is that story. And I am sharing it because I think someone out there needs to hear it.

Before Glo Younger. Before skin therapy. Before any of this.

I was not always a skin therapist. For years, I worked in designer and commercial furniture. Sales. Business development. I was good at it. I was ticking every career and life goal off the list.

From the outside, everything looked exactly right.

But I was not happy. I was not fulfilled. I was successful by every conventional measure and quietly wondering if this was it. If this was all there was.

I did not know then that something was coming that would crack everything open and send me in a completely different direction.

The diagnosis.

In 2020, I was diagnosed with a basal cell carcinoma - a BCC - on my face. Right next to my nose. Front and centre.

I also had a cyst removed at the same time. Two surgeries on my face, two scars left in there wake.

I went into that surgery as a woman who looked put together. Who had built a career on presence and confidence. Who smiled easily and laughed loudly.

And somewhere in the recovery, something inside me broke.

The moment that changed everything.

I need to tell you something I have not always found easy to share.

Before the marriage I am in now - the safe, loving, extraordinary marriage I am in now - I experienced relationships that involved coercive control, financial abuse and assault. Domestic violence does not always look the way people expect it to. It does not always leave visible marks. But it leaves something.

It leaves you believing, somewhere very deep and very quiet, that you are not enough. That you are not loveable. That your worth is conditional.

I had done the work. I had healed - or so I thought. I had built a beautiful life with a man who loved me completely and showed me every single day.

And then I removed the plasters from my surgical wound.

The feeling of worthlessness washed over me from my feet up. A wave of anxiety, dread and absolute certainty that I was unlovable.

I was sobbing. And the thoughts came fast and completely irrational and completely real all at once.

I was unlovable before the surgery. How can he love me now I am scarred?

I have to leave him.

He flies back to work in four days. I can pretend I am okay until then. I will have eight days to get out. He will be so happy.

That is what trauma does. It does not care that you are safe now. It does not care that years have passed or that the person beside you has never been anything but kind. It ambushes you in a bathroom with a mirror and a plaster and it whispers the old lies like they are new truths.

He found me before I had a chance to get my act together.

My husband found me in bed. Inconsolable. I had not managed to compose myself before he walked in.

He held me.

He told me he loved me.

He told me I was beautiful.

And then - because he knows me - he told me I was an idiot for thinking he would not love me anymore.

He told me I was an idiot. And it was exactly the right thing to say.

I laughed. Through the tears, I laughed. And that laugh was the first crack of light in a very dark moment.

I want to be very clear about something. The fact that I spiralled is not a reflection of my husband or our marriage. He has only ever shown me love and safety. The spiral came from old wounds - wounds I thought were healed - being ripped open unexpectedly.

And if that resonates with you - if you know exactly what I mean when I say a moment can blindside you years after you thought you were past it - then this is for you.

The weeks after. What grew in the dark.

There was no lightning bolt moment. No single day I decided to change my life.

In the days and weeks after the surgery, as I processed the trauma response - and that is exactly what it was, a trauma response - something shifted. Quietly. Persistently.

I knew I wanted more. Not just for myself. For all women.

Two and a half weeks after the surgery, I was still in pain when I smiled or laughed. I booked a microcurrent facial. I genuinely do not know what made me do it - I think desperation and curiosity are a powerful combination.

I got on the table. The therapist began the treatment.

And when I got off the table, the pain was gone.

Not reduced. Not better. Gone.

I was gobsmacked. So was she.

I signed up for five more treatments over the following nine weeks. I watched my before and after photographs with complete disbelief. I kept going monthly. I started asking a million questions - about the technology, about the skin, about what was actually happening at a cellular level.

And one day, somewhere between the questions and the results and the growing certainty that this was what I was supposed to be doing, I said it out loud.

I am going to do this.

Not a plan. Not a business case. Just a knowing.

The rebirth of Glo Younger.

Glo Younger is not a launch. It is a rebirth. A growth. A next chapter.

Every product in this range has been formulated with one philosophy at its core - corneotherapy. The belief that the skin barrier is everything. That we nourish, we support, we work with the skin rather than punishing it into submission.

Clean ingredients. Plant derived. Australian made. Packaged in glass because what goes on your skin should be clean and safe - and the vessel it comes in should say the same thing.

But underneath all of that - underneath the beautiful formulations and the thoughtful packaging and the corneotherapy philosophy - is a woman who sat on the edge of a bed five years ago and decided that she never wanted another person to feel the way she felt in that moment.

The three house rules behind Glo Younger.

These are not marketing lines. They are the rules I live by. The ones that brought me back from that bathroom floor.  The ones I want every single person who walks through our door to feel.

1.  Leave your inner mean girl at the door.

2.  Practice mindfulness when the inner mean girl pipes up.

3.  Show yourself compassion and kindly tell the inner mean girl to f*** off.

No matter what is happening to your skin or in your life - you are ALWAYS worthy.

If this resonated with you.

If any part of this story felt familiar - the relationships, the worthlessness, the wave from your feet up - please know that you are not alone and you do not have to navigate it by yourself.

Below are some resources for anyone who may be experiencing or recovering from domestic violence. There is no shame in asking for help. There is only courage.

Australian Resources

1800RESPECT  1800 737 732  |  1800respect.org.au  |  24/7 support for people impacted by domestic, family and sexual violence.

Safe Steps (VIC)  1800 015 188  |  safesteps.org.au  |  24/7 family violence response centre.

DV Connect (QLD)  1800 811 811  |  dvconnect.org  |  24/7 support for women and men.

White Ribbon Australia  whiteribbon.org.au  |  Dedicated to ending men's violence against women.

Beyond Blue  1300 22 4636  |  beyondblue.org.au  |  Mental health support, 24/7.

Lifeline  13 11 14  |  lifeline.org.au  |  Crisis support and suicide prevention, 24/7.

With love,

Renae x

Founder, Glo Younger Skincare and Skin Clinic