Reinvention hurts. Your skin will feel it. I thought deeply about this as I was watching The Life List on Netflix. Now, the movie wasn't supposed to make me cry. But it did.
It’s framed as a lighthearted coming-of-age story: a woman, named Alex Rose, must complete a list of childhood goals to claim her inheritance. Quirky. Sweet. Formulaic.
But somewhere between the DVD videos of Alex's late mother speaking to her about how to live life fully again — something cracked open in me.
Because underneath the plot, romance and soft-focus montages is a story about a girl trying to go back to herself. And that’s not quirky at all.
That’s what we’re all trying to do.
I didn’t expect a Netflix movie to remind me how easy it is to lose myself.
In grief. In work. In trying to be good. In performance. Somewhere along the way, we lose ourselves, not all at once, but piece by piece, trying to keep up with who the world expects us to be.
Alex spends most of the film trying to “complete” herself — as if finishing a list might magically fix everything: her family, her heartbreak, her confusion about who she’s becoming. She thinks the list is the goal. But the list is just the beginning.
The real journey isn’t in finishing. It’s in remembering to live life fearlessly.
There’s one scene — simple, quiet — where Alex is lying in her mother's bed during the day of her mother's funeral reception at their home. In that momet, she is just taking it in. For the first time in days, she will be living life without the support system she needs in her life. But her mother has left something behind: a series of tasks for her to complete in order to get an envelope within a year. It was her mother's way to challenge her to return to her inner child.
There's a biology to the emotional experience of becoming. Now, becoming someone new sounds beautiful until you're in it. However, in practice, it's messy. Uncertain. Unflattering. Your nervous system doesn't know you're transforming. It just knows you're stressed.
And when your mind is overwhelmed, your skin tries to speak up for you. Redness. Sensitivity. Dullness. Breakouts that bloom under emotional heat. This isn't a flaw. It's biology. It's your body asking you, "are we okay?"
Now, it had me thinking a lot. We need to create a ritual for when you don't know who you are anymore. This routine isn't about results. It's about creating a safe space for yourself in a moment in time when everything feels imbalanced. It's about cresting a moment of certainty inside the chaos of change. So here it is:
1. CLEANSE LIKE YOU'RE NOT RUNNING ANYMORE
Use the Function Flow Cleanser to wash off the versions of you that don’t feel real anymore. Not aggressively. Not performatively. Just honestly. Let water remind you that you are not stuck.
2. MIST LIKE A PRAYER
Hydrate your skin mid-thought, mid-tear, mid-midlife crisis. Mist to pause. Mist to soften. Mist because you deserve to be held — even if it’s just by mist.
3. MOISTURIZE LIKE YOU'RE SEALING A PROMISE
Use the Infinite Dimensions Moisturizer like it’s the only thing keeping you from falling apart. And maybe it is. Press it in. Let it hold you. Let your face know:
“You’re safe with me now.”
4. AN THEN... MAKE YOUR OWN LIFE LIST
But not to prove anything. Not to be impressive. Just to feel close to yourself again. Here’s a prompt:
“What if the list wasn’t about fixing your life, but building rituals to live it more fully?”
Try this:
- A place I want to visit — not for Instagram, but for my spirit
- A ritual I want to return to every week
- A fear I’m ready to feel through, not just avoid
- One thing I’ll stop apologizing for
- A version of me I miss
- A small way I can love them back
In the end, Alex in The Life List doesn't finish her list. Instead, she lives. She learns to soften. She chooses herself. And maybe that the real glow-up. Not transofmration. Not completion. But reclamation.
But let this be our takeaway.
We don't need to finish this list. We don't need to figure it all out today. All we need is a ritual that makes us feel human again. To return to a mirror where we don't flinch at and see a face that we can recognize. Well, in truth, everything will unfold. Maybe that should be part of our list.
* Let yourself live in peace. Get yourself our Quantum Mud Mask and take in life.