Antipodes just made menopause skincare the focus with this soothing facial cream

For years, the beauty industry has had a fairly predictable answer for women entering midlife: buy another anti-ageing product.

Fine lines, wrinkles and loss of firmness have dominated the conversation, while the other ways skin can change during perimenopause and menopause have often been overlooked.

Antipodes founder and CEO Elizabeth Barbalich wanted to take a different approach.

Her inspiration for the brand’s Jasmine Flower Menopause Facial Cream came from her own experience of perimenopause , when she noticed her skin becoming drier, more sensitive and prone to redness and blemishes.

“I saw the same struggles in my friends, women feeling overlooked by the skincare industry and unsure where to turn,” Elizabeth says.

Rather than adapting a traditional anti-ageing moisturiser and adding menopause to the packaging, the brand says it approached the formula from a care perspective, with a focus on some of the skin changes women may experience during this stage of life.

The result is a natural facial moisturiser formulated with avenanthramides from organic oats, New Zealand mānuka honey, plant-based hyaluronic acid, cooling menthol extract and peptides derived from fermented jasmine and chamomile flowers.

The formula is designed to soothe and hydrate skin that may feel dry, sensitive or irritated, while the cooling texture adds a sensory element that Elizabeth says was an important part of the product.

“I wanted to create something tha t genuinely supports the skin during this stage, but also nurtures the spirit,” she says. “A sensorial experience that feels like self-kindness in a jar.”

Importantly, Jasmine Flower is not a hormone cream. It does not contain oestrogen and is not intended to replace hormone therapy.

Instead, it is a topical moisturiser designed to support the skin itself.

The cream is also dermatologically approved for sensitive skin, with an independent clinical study involving 50 women with sensitive skin conducted by Eurofins in 2024.

According to the brand’s consumer testing, 78 per cent of participants agreed that the cream visibly calmed irritated skin after three weeks of use. The in-vivo trial involved 66 participants, with results based on the percentage of participants who agreed with the statement.

That distinction matters because perimenopause can bring changes that extend beyond the traditional anti-ageing conversation.