“Every thought counts, every word counts,” Carolyn Murphy says, as we sit on a plush white sofa in a chic casita at Hacienda Altagracia adjacent to one of the world’s Blue Zones. We’ve both come to this impossibly lush destination, high up in the foothills of the Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica’s Santa Teresa region, seeking deeper meaning and beauty from the inside out.
Clad in a fluffy robe with freshly combed, just-out-of-the-shower damp blonde locks, the supermodel is the picture of soulful grace. She’s just returned from a dip in the pool at the Auberge Collection property’s Casa de Agua spa, home to the Estée Lauder Skin Longevity Institute. Murphy has been a spokesmodel for Estée Lauder for 25 years, but her love affair with Costa Rica started even earlier.
Carolyn Murphy’s Costa Rica Connection
In the ‘90s, she visited Costa Rica to just get away. “I came with a group of friends as a reprieve from work at the height of my career,” Murphy says. “And I just fell so in love with the country.” So in love, in fact, that she made the choice to take a beat from modeling and relocate to teach English and learn Spanish. “So that’s what I did in 1998. I was just so enamored with the biodiversity, by the people here, the friendliness, the calm. I just needed it.”
And perhaps that history is what makes our conversation so real. In an age when longevity has become a bit of a performative buzzword, it is clear that Murphy authentically lives a daily practice of mindfulness with deep integrity.
Estée Lauder Skin Longevity Institute Takeaways
“If you look at the bigger picture,” she says, “everything is connected.” Which is why being in nature can help enlighten and daily rituals can add simple meaning. But you don’t have to travel to Costa Rica to immerse. “What’s wonderful about the Longevity Institute, what they’re teaching you here, is something you should be able to carry into everyday life. Maybe that’s doing meditation, maybe that’s doing yoga, maybe it’s a warm bath or eating locally-sourced food.”
Adding a touch of mindfulness to your daily skincare routine can do wonders, too. The Skin Longevity Institute has done research for 15 years, tapping into the scientific relationship between high-tech formulas and conscious intention. “Rituals are something that we forget and we have to remind ourselves,” the 52-year-old expert says. “When I sit outside, I’m thanking my body in the sun. I’m staring at my feet and saying ‘thank you feet’. ‘Thank you legs, for carrying me.’ And I do the same thing when I’m doing my skincare. I’m like, ‘thank you, lips. Thank you for speaking. Thank you for kissing’. As I tap in my eye cream, I say ‘thank you for seeing’. It’s just taking that moment,” Murphy says. “It’s a reflection.”
Of course, when she’s doing her skincare, it’s with the Estée Lauder Re-Nutriv line, an ultra-luxury collection that’s high on science. Each product in the line is powered by survival plant extracts and the brand’s proprietary SIRTIVITY-LP technology, which helps spur skin-firming collagen and elastin.
Beauty From the Inside Out
But there’s little superficial about the routine. “I think it’s something that is so important,” she says. “If you look at it from a self-care point of view, it’s like you’re worshiping yourself, anointing yourself. It makes me feel good.”
Perhaps Murphy’s best tip centers around self-love and living every day with intention, rather than a rigorous approach to setting intentions. “I’ve become much more gentle with myself and less rigid. There’s a level of perfectionism that was just a little destructive and I think unhealthy. I’ve set intentions in the past, but I can set myself up for disappointment,” she says. “Right now, at this stage of my life in my early fifties, it’s more about just embracing the moment, really embracing the moment and just being where I’m at. That’s good enough.”
