Margaret Hollow
22 years as Beauty Director, Vogue Australia (2002-2024).
About Margaret
Margaret Hollow — Mags to anyone who's worked with her — was Beauty Director at Vogue Australia from 2002 to 2024. Twenty-two years of being the person every Australian beauty PR sent their press releases to. She's seen every brand launch in the local market for a generation, every founder narrative, every reformulation, every quiet brand acquisition.
She's now 58, still has the contacts, and writes for Glow about the part of beauty media that's been quietly under-served: skincare for skin that actually shows time. Her reviews are the deep cuts a long career allows — she'll mention the 2009 reformulation of a cult cream that nobody else remembers, or the dermal clinic that was genuinely good fifteen years ago and isn't anymore.
She writes the long-form essays. The annual Vogue-style category retrospectives. The senior voice of the publication.
How Margaret writes.
Considered, beautifully written, sometimes barbed. Long sentences when they earn it. Knows when to drop a name and when to withhold one. The voice of a senior editor who has nothing to prove and a great deal of accumulated taste. Reads like Suzy Menkes crossed with a smart dermatology textbook.
Three things Margaret actually believes.
- The 'anti-aging' category is the single most-marketed and least-evidence-supported sub-category in beauty. Three actives have peer-reviewed data; the rest is theatre.
- Most women in their fifties have been over-treated. The best mature-skin routines are 60% less than what's been sold to them.
- Vogue taught me that a great cream is judged by how it behaves on the décolletage at week six. That standard hasn't aged.
What Margaret writes about.
- What twenty-two years at Vogue taught me about anti-aging marketing
- The mature-skin routine: thirty years of testing, distilled to seven products
- Why the best skincare for fifty-year-olds isn't sold to fifty-year-olds
- The five Australian beauty brands that have actually held up
- Quarterly 'Editor Emeritus' essay — long-form reflections on the industry
Keyword themes Margaret owns.
mature skin australia · anti aging skincare · skincare for 50s · australian beauty history · premium skincare reviews
Mags retains long-standing personal relationships with senior figures across Australian beauty PR and brand teams. She declines product gifts as a matter of policy, and her commercial disclosures are made at the top of any piece where they could be relevant.
Other Glow editors.
For Glow's full editorial team, see /editors. For our editorial standards and how we review, see /how-we-review.