For many women, perimenopause begins as a series of small, unexplainable shifts—changes in the body that don’t quite align with what they’ve been told to expect. It’s often confusing, sometimes isolating, and more often than not, difficult to talk about.
For Claudine Viquiera, that experience became something more than personal, because what began as a search for answers—trying to make sense of hormonal changes, skin that no longer responded the same way, and a lack of open conversation around it—eventually evolved into advocacy. And from that advocacy came action.
At Rise, Reset, Renew, a Peri/Menopause Forum organized by The Beauty Edit for EO Philippines (Entrepreneurs’ Organization), Viquiera shared how navigating this stage reshaped not only how she understood her body, but also how she approached skincare. Her talk, “Aging Well: Supporting Midlife Skin Through Change,” traced that shift—from confusion to clarity, from silence to speaking up—and how it ultimately led to the creation of ProAge, a brand grounded in the belief that skin at this stage doesn’t need correction, but care that evolves with it.
When the Familiar Stops Feeling Familiar
“All the familiar things become so unfamiliar.”
Viquiera opened with that line to describe an experience that felt, at first, difficult to name.
She described questioning her own experience in real time, “gaslighting” herself through symptoms that didn’t quite align with what she thought menopause was supposed to look like. What she recalled most vividly were not just the symptoms, but the disorientation—the sense of watching herself from a distance. “It was an out-of-body experience,” she shared, recounting a visit to her OB. Sitting there, listening to explanations and options, something finally clicked. “What was happening was biology. It was all hormonal. Nothing was wrong with me. My body wasn’t breaking.”
She also mentioned that what made that shift harder to navigate wasn’t the physical changes alone. “It wasn’t the symptoms, but the silence that surrounds it,” she noted—an irony that underscored much of her talk.
The Silence That Shapes the Experience
If biology explains the change, silence defines how it’s usually lived. “You know what the hard part is?” she asked. “It wasn’t the symptoms—but the silence that surrounds it.”
That silence, as Viquiera would later unpack, is not incidental, but inherited.
Viquiera’s reflection taps into something larger than personal experience. It implies a cultural gap, one that spans generations. Raised in a household of twelve children, nine of them girls, she grew up surrounded by women. And still, menopause was never fully spoken about.
“I went to my mom and asked, ‘Why didn’t you tell me this is how it is?’” she recalled. But her response resists blame. “That’s how they were.”
This silence isn’t unique to one household. It’s systemic. Research published in the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central notes that menopause remains widely stigmatized, often referred to indirectly as the “M word,” with many women feeling embarrassed to discuss it despite its significant impact on daily life. The same study highlights that menopause affects three in four women, yet conversations around it remain limited—especially in professional and public spaces.
The implications extend beyond discomfort because the report found that nearly half of women do not feel comfortable discussing menopause at work, even as it becomes increasingly relevant to the workforce, where menopausal women are now the fastest-growing demographic. In some cases, the lack of support leads women to scale back—or step away entirely—from roles they’ve spent years building.
In that context, silence becomes more than cultural as it becomes structural. Viquiera sees her generation positioned differently. “We were taught to be quiet,” she said. “But we reacted.”
“And unlike the women before us, we wouldn’t want to bear with it silently. I wouldn’t want to bear with it silently, so I made noise.”
And in doing so, she participates in a broader shift that reframes menopause not as something to endure privately, but something to understand collectively
From Enduring to Engaging
“Being able to name it changed everything for me,” she said. In that act of recognition came a shift not just in understanding, but in agency.
Rather than resisting the experience, she chose to engage with it. “I embraced it and tried to look for solutions… how to address each and every pain point.”
And what emerged from that process was a shift in how she saw herself. Instead of just “dealing with it,” she found a new kind of strength. “Going through menopause pushed me to find my second wind,” she explained. “It didn’t mean starting over. It meant understanding myself more.”
“I was very consciously going through it. And very consciously finding solutions for it.” In time, that awareness, became a form of control not over the changes themselves, but over how they are interpreted and addressed. “It’s important not to navigate through it alone.”
Skin as a Site of Change
If there is one area where these internal shifts become visibly tangible, it’s the skin. “Hormones really have an intense effect on everything,” Viquiera noted. “More so with skin, because that’s the biggest organ of the body.”
In many ways, skin becomes both a reflection and a record of hormonal change because sometimes it can feel sudden, unfamiliar, and at times, difficult to manage with routines that once worked effortlessly.
But rather than approaching this with the industry’s typical instinct, like layering stronger actives or increasing intensity, Viquiera challenges the premise itself. “Effective doesn’t really mean stronger,” she said, challening the “more is more” mindset. “That’s very hard to imagine.”
Instead, she’s suggesting we rethink what “effective” actually looks like. “It’s not stronger—it’s smarter.”
“Because at this stage, what’s more important are not the products, but for me to tell each and every woman that I see you, I understand you, and I care enough that I try to look for products that are made especially for you.”— Claudine Viquiera, Founder of ProAge
This distinction is particularly relevant in the context of midlife skin, where tolerance shifts and resilience can fluctuate. Instead of pushing the skin to respond, the goal became to work with it—anticipating its needs and adjusting to its sensitivities.
“You have to be very careful with each and every ingredient that goes into the product,” she explained. “Because at this stage, what’s more important are not the products, but for me to tell each and every woman that I see you, I understand you, and I care enough that I try to look for products that are made especially for you.”
Potent, But Mild
That thinking comes to life in ProAge, where Viquiera translates her experience into formulation. “I kept telling my Korean manufacturer—it has to be potent but mild,” she said.
The phrase reads almost like a contradiction, but it captured the balance she’s aiming for: formulations that deliver results without overwhelming the skin. Instead of stripping back, it involves calibration by understanding how ingredients interact, and how they support rather than disrupt.
“We put a lot of very good ingredients in just the right amount of concentration,” she explained. “When they’re put together, they become synergistic.”
And that synergy is key, because instead of relying on a single hero ingredient, multiple components, in turn, work in tandem, with each supporting a different layer or function of the skin.
Her example of hyaluronic acid illustrates this approach. Rather than using a single molecular weight, ProAge incorporates seven—each with a specific role depending on its size and depth of penetration. “The smaller the molecules, the better it’s absorbed,” she said. “We think about which part of the skin needs it most, and we deliver it.”
It reflects a wider shift in skincare—away from one-size-fits-all solutions and toward something more thoughtful, more responsive, and better able to meet the skin where it is at each stage.
Moving Away From Youth As the Standard
She also brough up a simple, yet overlooked question: What are we actually trying to achieve with our skincare?
“We always anchor beauty to being young,” Viquiera says. “That’s what the industry has done to us.” It’s a statement that carries a lot of weight in an era of ‘anti-aging’ talk, but for Viquiera, that old narrative doesn’t match the reality of midlife. “Being beautiful isn’t about looking younger,” she says firmly. “That’s not the point.”
Instead, the focus shifts to restoration by supporting the skin’s barrier and helping it stay healthy exactly as it is. It’s a change in perspective that removes the pressure to reverse the clock and replaces it with a more sustainable goal: balance. “It’s not a promise of looking twenty again,” she emphasizes. “It’s about bringing back the health of the skin.”
Even confidence, so often tied to how we look, was given a new definition here. “Confidence comes with age—with wisdom and experience,” she says.
The Power of Awareness
If there is one thread that ties Viquiera’s philosophy together, it’s awareness—considered, deliberate, and woven into everyday practice. “Being aware makes you more conscious of the changes,” she explains, “and helps you find solutions for them.”
It’s a philosophy that replaces uncertainty with clarity. Once that change was named, it became easier to understand. Once it’s understood, it becomes easier to manage—and to talk about.
Her message returns again to one idea—the importance of community. “It’s so vital not to navigate this phase alone,” she says. For all the science and the complex formulas, there is still something essential in simply being seen.
What Viquiera makes clear is that midlife is not a problem to solve, but a phase to support. And with the right awareness, women can better understand what’s happening to their bodies and respond with care rather than confusion.
You can shop the whole Pro Age line through their website.
No Dirty Secrets Hydrating Facial Cleanser
P1,030, Pro Age Beauty
The Holy Grail Cica Toner
P1,130, Pro Age Beauty
Be Gentle With Me Bakuchiol Serum
P1,330, Pro Age Beauty
Plump Me Up Moisturizing Cica Face Cream
P1,230, Pro Age Beauty
Meno Gummies
P1,250, Pro Age Beauty
Photography by Belle Dinglasa.
