Detox Life founder Johanna Ljunggren reveals her beauty secrets

As a mother, advocate, beauty entrepreneur and blogger, I can appreciate anyone who devotes time to a series of ventures and good causes, especially those related to environmental sustainability. Johanna Ljunggren is one woman in my orbit I admire for this reason.

First, she runs the platform Detox Life, which is devoted to delivering messages about healthy living to the public. She co-founded Carbon x Regeneration, a panel series covering carbon emissions, climate change, and sustainability that features some of the world’s foremost thinkers on the topics. And she’s also an ambassador for Carbon Calories, an organisation devoted to making carbon reporting for startups easier. For more proof of her widespread amazingness, look at her lengthy Linktree.

I recently talked to Ljunggren about her career, her healthy beauty routine, and some of her favourite products. She’s definitely someone we can all learn a lot from.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and professional journey? 

My profession today didn’t exist when I started out. It’s been challenging to carve out a mold where I feel worthy of growth and evolving. So much has been about surviving and showing people that you don’t necessarily need to just check one box on the paper that describes what you do and who you are.

When I look back at my body of work, I see the link. It has been about witnessing the simplicity of our bond to nature and answering why we as humans make it so complicated. We have the power to live life and love. I’ve learned this through my failures and daring to live again when I lost everything. That’s why it is authentic. It makes me happy and proud that you can see that. It is a gift to grow up and settle into your life and share it.

What’s your relationship to beauty and how has it evolved through the years?

I look at photographs of myself as a little girl, and I look so happy and content. I remember feeling beautiful and comfortable with who I was when we lived abroad, where everyone looked like me somehow. When I was adopted from Ecuador, my parents lived in Washington DC. We moved to Iran, the Dominican Republic, back to Sweden, and now my mother lives in a villa near Grasse. 

My relationship with beauty became very complicated when we moved back to Sweden, early in my teens. No one looked like me here, and representation in the media did not exist. It might seem superficial, but it broke me.

I have somehow always known my self-worth, but I didn’t develop any self-esteem due to many factors; the lack of representation is one. When I push for diversity today, it’s not to market or sell products. It is because I never want anyone to grow up and feel what I felt! If you ask me, we need representation to boost mental health, the soul to effortless beauty. 

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Also, living in many places has exposed me to some fantastic crafts — natural scent and perfume making in Iran [...] everything is vibrant and potent in the Dominican Republic, oils, fragrances and nature. I am lucky that my mother lives in Grasse, the perfume Mecca of modern times. Here we grow olive trees that make our olive oil, and the surroundings are filled with plant power. Most of my inspiration for beauty comes from here right now.

You’re also a big advocate for beauty from within. What is your approach to food and diet to support healthy and radiant skin?

If you are privileged enough to care about where your food comes from, do so. Keep your produce as close to the source and nature as possible. I have spent thousands on superfoods and supplements over the years, but nothing compares to real food, growing, cooking my own, breathing, meditation and moving my body.

I was anorexic for most of my teens until I became pregnant at 26. After my recovery, I had hormonal acne on my chin. I struggled with gluten intolerance and other food sensitivities for seven years. That’s how broken my immune and lymphatic system was. I thought I was allergic to so many things until my body healed, and today I can eat anything except antibiotics in processed food and eggs; they make me itch, and my skin gets rashes. 

So don’t do “diets.” Eat well and enjoy your food. There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure; I mean, what does that phrase say? “I ate some bread, and now I should feel guilty”? [Laughs]

What's your skincare routine?

I’m constantly rotating products because of my job. My favourite products are Vintner’s Daughter’s Active Treatment Essence and Active Botanical Serum. They are a bit pricey, but honestly, if you use these products, all you need to do is add a good cleanser and a DIY mask. 

I love complex formulas for face oils and oil serums, probiotic mists, active serums and cooling eye creams. Supportive skincare that helps the body’s own production of natural substances.

In the morning, especially in the winter, I go light on water-based cleansers and stick to oil-based ones. It has made all the difference. My skin stopped showing signs of aging when I added more oils to my routine. After I cleanse with a product of choice, a linen towel and lukewarm water, I add an active serum or oil serum, an oil and eye serum.

Related: How and when you should apply a face oil

The Swedish brand Om-Se has a great assortment of products that I use. The Face Cleansing Oil is a nurturing and gentle wipe-off cleanser, leaving my skin plump and supple, keeping the skin barrier intact.  The Hydrating Face Mist is soothing probiotic moisture that makes your skin resilient. Just like your gut needs probiotics, the skin thrives with good bacteria. The Balancing Face Oil is a fast-absorbing potent combination to help clear and correct, leaving my skin luminous. The Renewing Face Oil is a more decadent blend to enhance and restore that gives my skin a healthy glow. It’s perfect for dry, sensitive and selected areas or UV-damaged skin in need of some additional love.

I love Lesse products and their “Ritual, not Routine” motto. Just like OM-SE, they have a small but potent assortment. I use the Regeneration mist and Ritual serum. The mist is formulated with mushrooms known for their healing, anti-inflammatory, and age reducing powers. I use an oil-based eye serum from Odacite. The roller used to apply the product on the skin cools down tired eyes. You can find Lesse, Odacite and many other natural skincare brands on the Caeleste webshop. It’s perfect if you want to explore the world of natural beauty products.

The evening routine is pretty similar. If I have applied makeup, I add the Nourishing Cleanser from Björk and Berries after the oil cleanser as well. Woods Copenhagen’s Skin Perfector, a newfound love, is a resurfacing exfoliant that visibly removes clogged pores, smooths wrinkles and leaves your skin with a clear complexion and instant glow. I might also add the Vitamin Moisturizer from Björk and Berries if I need extra moisture after double-cleansing

Are there any skincare products you’re particularly excited about during this time of the year for the cold and dry winter months?

I love Verso skincare and their Super Facial Serum and Hydration Serum. Verso is excellent at skincare, with products that boost while keeping the skin safe. I am also excited for the soon-to-drop Hyrda Serum from Björk and Berries!

Do you practice any facials or other treatments?

I do a face steam ritual every week using herbs, lymphatic massages and/or Gua Sha. I am a DIY kind of lady, and part of the treatment is to source my own ingredients. I also try to refresh my anatomic knowledge as a yoga teacher by applying to courses every year to deepen my practices. Last year was dedicated to in depth courses on fascia and the lymphatic system.

Related: Lymphatic health is the next frontier in wellness, here's why it matters

When I am in Stockholm, I visit my friend Sophia Lies HEAT. I love her infrared sauna, Bikram yoga for when I’m feeling lazy, and all her treatments. The LPG massage and compression therapy give you extra support and circulation lost during two years of sitting still during Covid.

What’s your approach to makeup?

I love it. I am all about luminous skin and luxurious colours and textures — deep dark eyes rimmed with kohl or high pigment shades. Luscious red lips and cheekbones you can cut glass on. My beauty icons are Sadé, Lisa Bonét, Bianca Jagger, and I love Gucci Westman’s approach to glowing skin. I was so happy when she dropped her Westman Atelier collection. She was one of my favourite makeup artists back in the day, and she knows her craft.

My makeup routine is to have fun and enhance my inner glow in colours. I think the makeup industry is booming with great brands. Westman Atelier, as mentioned, I also love Byredo. La Bouche Rouge I is gorgeous from product to packaging, and Hermes  has delicious nail varnishes and lipsticks. RMS Beauty has just released a fantastic collection of Eyelights Cream Eye Shadow and formulated with soothing green tea and natural peptide quinoa extracts. 

I start with RMS primer followed by either Westman Atelier’s Vital Skin Foundation Stick,  or RMS un-cover up  foundation and concealer. I use lighter shades for daytime, like  Le Nudes from Westman Atelier or Les Ombres Aral from La Bouche Rouge. The mascara and brushes from La Bouche Rouge are exceptional, and refillable packaging is something I prefer. I love red lips. Mad Red from Byredo  is used even in the daytime to spice things up. For evenings I dive deep into colour with Sciomancer from Byredo or dark kohl around the eye.

What’s your hair routine?

After my father passed away in 2020, I lost so much hair. My hair was always excellent before that. I have never used a hairdryer, and my best friend, stylist Robert Rydberg cuts it lock by lock to find the split ends. But the stress after my father’s death made my hair brittle and frail; how we feel inside will eventually show up on the outside. So I cut off four inches, and now I use only Ceremonia products, the hero being Aceite de Moska.

Since I’m always trying to cut down on the use of plastic and products, ironically working with what I do, I make my own shampoo bars using organic olive oil and castor oil from Grasse, adding essential oils and tinctures bought on my travels to the volcanic island of Pantelleria: Bay leaf, Myrtle, Sea Fennel and Neroli. I apply the Aceite de Moska at night and wash my hair in the morning, maybe once a week. I use a shampoo soap bar, then the Cermonia conditioner and end with the Pequi Curl Activator. 

My hair routine is quite simple as it should be with the shorter hair; my head and hair need to rest.

What is Scandinavia's best-kept beauty secret in your opinion?

Well, it is not a product or a brand, it is what I can create at home. I have been growing and foraging herbs and blending them into herbal blends that I use once a week in my face steam ritual. It soothes an overactive mind and skin with soft steam and fragrant herbs.

I might apply a face mask with matcha, birch sugar powder and Manuka honey as I steam my face. After the steam, I do a lymphatic face massage; I learned on Lisa Levitt Gainsley’s masterclass in lymph health. Or I apply face oil of choice and do a Gua Sha ritual I studied with Katja Kokko, founder of Yin Your Skin.

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This type of supportive skincare speaks to my Latinx heritage, where rituals and ceremonies are as much part of what we today call beauty and wellness. It shows respect to nature, the source of beauty and when doing these rituals or growing my herbs; it adds a connection, reminding me to be sustainable.