Embracing Mature Beauty: A Journey with Cherie Gyllenswan

At Erasa, we believe in celebrating beauty at every age. That's why we were thrilled to welcome Cherie Gyllenswan, a content creator whose mission aligns perfectly with ours: to empower women to look, feel, and do amazing things, no matter their age. Cherie's infectious energy and commitment to authenticity made her the ideal partner for our recent campaign centered around embracing mature beauty.

During her visit to Erasa Labs in New York, Cherie had the opportunity to delve into the heart of our skincare formulations, exploring the raw materials and processes that go into creating our products. It was a chance for her to witness firsthand the dedication and expertise behind the scenes, ensuring that each formula delivers unparalleled results.

On the second day of her visit, we embarked on our campaign shoot, capturing the essence of mature beauty and the importance of embracing it wholeheartedly. Collaborating with Cherie was a natural choice for us; her genuine spirit and commitment to self-love resonated deeply with our brand values.

One of the most meaningful moments during Cherie's time with us was when she shared her personal skincare journey, and her experience with menopause. Her words were not just informative but deeply inspiring, reminding us all of the power of embracing change and aging gracefully.

It's with great pleasure that we share Cherie's heartfelt words below. We hope you find her insights as inspiring as we did, and that they serve as a reminder of the beauty in embracing change and aging gracefully.

Question: So tell us your age, where you're from, what you do?

Answer: My name is Sherry Gillen-Swan. I'm 55 years old. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina, originally from Miami. I'm married and I have four children. 

Question: Can you tell us what your skincare journey's been like? 

Answer: Yes, being from Miami and growing up in the 80s and 90s, it was the anti-skincare. So, you know, sun in, baby oil, tinfoil, out in the sun, boats. And so I had done a lot of damage. I had done a lot of damage to my skin as a result of just sun exposure. And I didn't really have a skincare routine at all and I never really had acne or breakouts. I had fairly normal skin. And in my late 30s, early 40s and I started to notice some sun damage. Just, you know, melasma, unevenness, skin tone, dullness and my skin. Yeah. 

Question: Was there anyone around you that talked about skin care or tried to give you advice on skin care? What kind of information did you have about skin care? 

Answer: So as a child growing up, my mother and my sister weren't into skin care at all. But my grandmother was a cosmetologist. And she used to work at CVS and then Eckerd Drugs in Miami. And she would just give us all the skin care stuff  for Christmas she would give us like oil of Olay and just you know a sea breeze that was a toner. 10 out of 10 don't recommend and ponds and you know walnut scrubs and all of the things that we know better today but that was really kind of the beginning of my interest in skincare and makeup came from my grandmother. 

Question: I know you mentioned to me that at the point you were working with Mac, but why don't you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like? 

Answer: Yes, so in my 20s, I became a makeup artist. I was trained and then I worked at MAC Cosmetics and I opened their store in South Beach and it was a really exciting time and I had always thought that I would want to pursue that as a career, but I learned a lot there. It was a really great and fun time to work not only in that industry, but you know in that part of the country and then you know life happened. I got married and life took me in another direction and I got into a profession that has nothing to do with beauty. I became a paralegal and just started kind of living life and those two wouldn't intersect again until last year. 

Question: Do you think there's makeup with no skincare? 

Answer: There is no makeup without skincare, yeah. It would be like asking a painter, if he thinks he can paint with no canvas, you know, anything that you, and truth be told, I'm a makeup person before I'm a skincare person. And truth be told, that was kind of when I started to really get into it as I didn't like how makeup was sitting on my face. I didn't like, you know, the texture and the enlarged pores. And, you know, then I started learning about things like exfoliation and just things that I could do to improve my skincare. And since about 38 years  old I've been pretty very, very consistent. I've always had a consistent skincare routine since my late 30s.

Question: If you had to give advice to your 21-year-old self, what would you say? 

Answer: Stay out of the sun. And don't call him back. No. It would be to stay out of the sun and use SPF. Even now the SPF part, it's hard because a lot of it doesn't sit well under makeup and you need to make sure that those things play together and a lot of times they don't. But sunscreen is so important. I'll never forget what an impression it made on me. I went to see a dermatologist and she had in her waiting room a picture, it was a picture of a truck driver, and it showed the left side and the right side of his face. And the difference in his face from from the left to the right was out; it looked like a completely different person. And it's because he had been driving a truck his whole life, and the driving side of his face was exposed to the sun. And it was that day that I was like, okay, there's really something and then you know, and I tell women this all the time, you know don't don't go out and spend hundreds of dollars on skincare and not wear SPF. You know, because the one thing that will undo everything quickly is the sun. 

Question: With that being said, what kind of changes have you noticed in your body throughout time and how have you dealt with them and how have you embraced them? 

Answer: And so, so menopause, yeah, menopause is one of those things like nobody tells you about. And I love that today it's talked about, you know, even I think 10 or 15 years ago, it was something, you know, nobody ever told you about. It was like having a baby. Like it's not until you have a baby that you realize nobody ever told you like all this stuff that happens to you. Menopause is the same way. You know, everything changes in your body. It was 50 years ago that women going through menopause were committed to sanitariums. Your hormones change, your body changes, your energy level changes, your mind, your memory. It affects every single part of your body, not to mention your skin, outward appearance, your weight gain. It's really all-encompassing. 

(Question continued): How did you embrace some of the changes and what did you do to kind of... you know, kind of roll with the punches?

Answer: You know, it's changed. And so with every, with every kind of, it took me seven years to get through. I went through it in my late forties and I'm just kind of on the tail end of it now. But, you know, every year brings its own kind of special challenges. And so drinking a lot of water, taking the right supplements,, taking care of your skin and not 

trying not to eat processed sugars, things like that, you know, that, that really help. But, you know, mainly it's the, it's, it's a mindset because I think that when women, Kelly touched on this a little bit, but when, when, when women look at themselves and everything in the mirror looks different, it really can cause you to feel very down on yourself, you know? And, and so I, I always want to tell women that, you know, it doesn't, you know, not to give up. Like it's just, taking that one step you know you have to take one step before you can take a hundred. 

Question:  What do you think your family and support system could do for someone who's going through menopause? What would you want your support system to be aware of?

Answer: Just being aware that it's happening, you know, that, you know, we're not crazy, we're not, you know, angry, we're not, you know, I really feel like just talking about it, you know, and making it not so, you know, taboo, I think leads to greater understanding, you know, I mean, I remember, you know, when I was very young, my mother would talk about things and I was like, that's so crazy, you know, and really,  It is so all encompassing. One day you wake up and you look in the mirror and you have no idea who's looking back at you, you know? 

Question: So now, what is your skincare routine now with all the knowledge and the wisdom that you have? 

Answer: And so now my skincare routine is very, you know, I've never had, I don't have anything against it, just not a path I've gone down myself. I don't have fillers or Botox or cosmetic procedures. I'm also not trying to look 35 again. I'd be great with, you know, looking really great for 55. I have a very solid skincare routine that consists of actives, cleansing actives, exfoliation spf you know and i'm consistent with it you know. 

Question: What would you say to women regarding, you know, your newfound career, how a content career has opened doors for you and how did you expect this to even happen? 

Answer: No, I had no idea. No. A year ago this month I posted my first video. My daughters, who are my biggest cheerleaders, have always been telling me, Mom, you need to get on TikTok. Every time we go out, people are asking what did you do to get your hair like this? Or how did you do your eyeliner, where did you get those boots? And they're like, just do a TikTok. Do like a makeup TikTok. And I was like okay whatever I'll do. I didn't even know how to post it. I had to wait for my youngest daughter to get home from school. She taught me how to save it in drafts and then I had to wait for her to get home to post it and I posted it and it's just really really grown and I have loved it. It has opened so many doors,I never wouldn't, it wouldn’t even a year ago today wouldn't the things that have come from that wouldn't have even been on my wish list I wouldn't have known to wish for them. So we've created a really positive, engaging community,  focused on beauty, health, lifestyle, and just how to be our best selves, you know, because I think that if you look good, you feel good and you can go out into the world and do good things, you know? And so we can't be the best versions of ourselves if we're not doing those things. You know, when, when I remember my mother, somebody had, I was I was young and somebody said to my mother, she was either going for a massage or doing something, and so I said oh that's so selfish and and I really, like, that has just really stuck with me because I think it's the opposite of selfish. Like, I think that we have as women, who have raised kids and been wives and, you know, worked full-time jobs and, you know, done all the things that women do, it is so important for us to be able to fill our own cup because otherwise the people that I love the most don't get the best version of me and so if I'm not refilling my cup recharging my batteries taking that time to take care of myself then I can't pour out into the people that I love so they get less than the best of me and that's that's just not something I do it so we've created this community and we kind of you know talk about that and just talk about being positive and live other women up and over celebrating women and just kind of you know being being what we wish the world would be you know and it's been really cool. 

Question: What are some routines that you set up for yourself to fill your own cup? 

Answer: So I take time for myself, you know, whether that's, you know, 30 minutes to do, you know, skin care, take a special bath with salt, whatever it is, whether I'm going to go get a massage, whether I'm just going to unplug from all social media and disconnect. Like I do those things. I have those things in place, that are just for me. You know, they're not for my kids. They're not for my husband. They're not for me, it's just me. And so I've been really, this year for me has really been about saying yes to me, you know, and it's how I ended up here. I was like, you know, I'm just going to spend the rest of this year saying yes to everything. And like, even if it's scary, even if it's unknown, even if it's, I'm just going to say yes.

Question: How are you paying forward your wisdom?  I know you know through your channel you're speaking to women, but when it comes to like your daughters, how are you letting them know about taking care of themselves and what's to come?

 Answer: Yes, yeah my daughters are my biggest cheerleaders. They are, I have, I have raised some really cool people, but,  they understand that like they understand that, you know, you can't be pretty if you're negative. I don't care what you, I don't care what your bone structure says. I don't care what anybody says about what you look like aesthetically. If you aren't kind and you aren't contributing to positive things in the world and helping other people then there's no way that you can be pretty because it comes from such a deep part of yourself that unless you're tapping into that and like it's kind of like that you know it's what's the word that s like doesn't make sense but does but It's, oh my God, I don't know the word. It's just one of those things like in order to keep it, you have to give it away. And so in order for you to keep what you have, you have to be giving it back. It has to be overflowing from what you're doing for yourself. Because it could work the opposite. If you spent the rest of your life taking care of just yourself, that wouldn't work. That would work in the reverse. 

 Question: And what are some final words that you would like to say? 

Answer: I don't know. I didn't know I was going to be 55. I had to turn 55 to start a modeling career. That's the goal. But most people have aged out by now. No, but you know, I just think it's, I just think it's amazing. I love that we are at an age And maybe I'll, maybe I don't get to see the benefits of it, but maybe my daughters do. We're in this age where people are celebrating aging and mature women can be beautiful and crow's feet can be sexy and We don't have to have our lips overfilled. And if we do, that's great, too. But like everything, like do what makes you the best version of yourself. And I love that we're having conversations about this. You know, even with you guys, you're so young. And it seems like such a part of how you, you know, understand the world. And that's amazing. It wasn't like that, you know, when I was younger. And so I'm so happy to live in a time where, you know, we're using real models, you know. to promote products and we're having conversations about you know gray hair being beautiful and it's amazing.

Cherie's authenticity shines through in everything she does, from her makeup tutorials to her skincare advice. Her journey serves as a beacon of hope for women everywhere, proving that beauty knows no bounds and that confidence only grows with time.

As we continue on our mission to redefine skincare for mature beauty, we are grateful to have Cherie by our side, championing our cause with passion and grace. Together, we are paving the way for a new era of beauty—one that celebrates diversity, authenticity, and the timeless power of self-love.