INBLUEM Podcast
By Montana Lower
Episode 2: From Botox to Belonging: A Conversation on Reclaiming Beauty and Soul Ripening with Eclectica Hub
Welcome to Episode 2 of the INBLUEM podcast, hosted by founder Montana Lower, where we go beyond skincare and explore the people, rituals and culture that shape how we see beauty.
In this conversation, we sit down with Anna Maria and Demi Lee from Eclectica Hub, a collaboration we've been dreaming about for years. We've just finished holding Body as Altar, a four-day workshop exploring self-love, aging, ritual and the reclamation of the female body. This episode is raw, intimate and born fresh from that container.
From the normalisation of freezing faces to the forgotten art of rites of passage, we explore unfiltered wisdom on what happens when we reject our bodies, why eldership is the antidote to shame, and how pregnancy became the most profound initiation into aliveness. We cover the collective psychosis around aging, the mirror work that heals distortion, and why true magnetism has nothing to do with wrinkles (or lack thereof).
We dive deep into ritual versus routine, the age rainbow practice that changed how we see our bodies across a lifetime, what good skin really means, how to hold your daughter's rage without fixing her, and the womb as a stargate to infinite creative potential. We explore menarche, birth, menopause, and rewriting initiations as sacred passageways.
This episode is medicine for anyone grieving the collective feminine psyche, anyone afraid of aging, anyone who's felt shame in their body, anyone raising daughters, and anyone ready to stop chasing youth and start ripening into eldership and legacy.
LINKS
Follow Eclectica Hub: https://www.instagram.com/eclectica.hub
Follow INBLUEM: https://www.instagram.com/inbluem_au
Shop INBLUEM Rituals: https://www.inbluem.com
We deeply honour and respect the traditional custodians of this land in which we are so grateful to live, breathe and share, Bundjalung Land, Byron Bay.
Produced by Edge Within Productions: https://edgewithinproductions.com
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Welcome to Episode 2
0:49 What is Eclectica Hub
2:02 The Pillar of Self-Love in INBLUEM
4:35 Aging as Ripening and Eldership
8:01 True Self-Love Has Gravity
10:03 Ritual Versus Routine
13:17 The Products as a Vehicle for Intention
16:10 The Collective Psychosis of Freezing Your Face
18:19 Speaking to Distortion and Frustration
20:01 Elder Women and the Male Gaze
23:02 Cultural Beauty Ideals Across the World
25:30 The Mirror Practice at the Workshop
27:06 Shame Dies in Safe Spaces
28:41 Morning Dance Practice and Primal Nature
29:56 The Age Rainbow: Silent Practice
35:41 No Pinnacle Age, Constant Evolution
38:50 The Question of What is Good Skin
41:15 The Leaf Metaphor and Aging
42:48 Reclaiming the Body Through Motherhood
44:35 The Twig and Feminine Form
45:42 Beauty Standards and Breastfeeding
48:00 Body as Vessel and Impermanence
49:14 Pregnancy as Unavoidable Initiation
50:54 Dissociation and Coming Home to the Body
52:44 The Womb and Feminine Initiation
54:00 Menarche and Missing Rites of Passage
55:48 Motherhood as Unmarked Threshold
58:00 The Intelligence of the Body and Birth
59:28 The Womb as Portal to Infinite
1:00:38 Motherhood Dissolves Individualism
1:02:02 Business Created With the Collective in Mind
1:03:05 Taking a Breath Together
1:03:16 Anna Maria's Memoir Release
1:08:40 Meeting People on the Other Side
1:10:20 Parenting Anger and Presence
1:12:27 Rapid Questions
1:14:31 What is Sustainability
1:15:00 Finger Lime Serum Deep Dive
1:17:03 Closing Gratitude and Movement into Revolution.
Episode 1: Indigenous Wisdom and the Living Landscape with Ella Bancroft
Welcome to Episode 1 of the INBLUEM podcast hosted by founder, Montana Lower. Where we go beyond skincare and explore the people, rituals and culture that shape how we see beauty.
In this conversation, we sit down with INBLUEM's charity partner, Ella Bancroft, founder of The Returning – a female-founded, Indigenous-led organisation committed to restoring people into right relationship with Country.
From growing up on Country and being placed in special ed, to building a charity on her ancestral Bundjalung lands, Ella shares her unfiltered wisdom on disconnection, the living landscape, true leadership and why the matriarchy has nothing to do with women dominating men.
In this episode, we explore the reality behind the bush foods and native plants industry, animism, sovereignty, community care and what it really means to belong to the land.
We dive deep into what colonisation did to our relationship with land and each other, why the most disconnected people hold the most power, why some wild plants like the Kakadu Plum refuses to be cultivated, how to vet greenwashing and spend with integrity, and what collaboration looks like when women truly lead.
This episode is medicine for anyone craving a more honest, more connected and more responsible way of being in the world.
INBLUEM has been a proud partner with The Returning since 2019, donating over $80,000 to meaningful causes that contribute to collective remembering and healing.
INBLUEM is a profit-for-purpose business model created as a vessel to help heal the earth. Donations are built into every purchase.
We deeply honour and respect the traditional custodians of Bundjalung Land, Byron Bay.
FIND US:
The Returning: https://www.thereturning.com.au/
INBLUEM: https://www.instagram.com/inbluem_au
Shop: https://www.inbluem.com
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Welcome and Ella's World
1:36 Why The Returning Was Born
3:02 Life Before and After The Gathering
4:43 Programs, Nursery and the Full Vision
7:26 Native Plants, INBLUEM and the Uncomfortable Conversation
9:23 Indigenous Land Access and the Bush Food Industry
11:55 The Colonial Fracture and the Living Landscape
12:56 Animism, What It Means to Walk in a Living World
13:39 Disconnection Is a Status Symbol
14:33 Country Talks Back
15:30 We All Have an Animist Ancestor
17:20 Real Connection Doesn't Need an Audience
20:21 The Kakadu Plum Refuses to Be Controlled
23:16 Taking a Plant From Its Community
27:57 Kids, Country and What Education Is Missing
28:47 Dyslexia, Special Ed and Growing Up on Country
31:54 Ella's Definition of Success
32:41 How to Deepen Connection to Land and Each Other
36:48 What a Matriarchy Actually Means
40:26 Conscious Consuming and Boycotting Extraction
43:56 Why Every Business Owner Should Understand This
45:35 A True Leader Shares Power
46:22 Allyship Through Real Relationship
48:16 Our Algorithms Are Making Us Intolerant
49:27 Rapid Fire Questions
50:52 Closing and Climate Positive Month
52:12 What Collaboration Looks Like When Women Lead