So, This Is If You Must Know
The conversations, opinions, and recommendations I usually save for the coolest women in my clinic chair.
I’m an eye specialist by day and founder of Subtil, my medical aesthetics clinic. My approach is subtle, you but better, which is probably why I attract the kind of women who have excellent lives and even better taste. They sit in my chair and tell me about the SPF with an incredible finish, the overpriced hotel that wasn’t worth it, the restaurant they’d happily fly back to. We swap recommendations, debate trends, and occasionally solve the world’s problems in an hour or less.
This Substack is basically that, without the needle in your face. It’s part personal column, part group chat — a mix of essays, opinions, and recommendations, all drawn from the conversations I have with the women in my clinic chair.
I’ve been doing some version of this since the 2014/15 blogging days, back when I had a blog called Maison Ellis. I’d already graduated from Myspace and Tumblr by then, and I loved having a space to write, curate, and share things. Then life sped up and the internet got small — captions, reels, 30-second bursts. Somewhere in that endless scroll, the good stuff disappeared. In its wake, my beige flag has been my Google Maps review rating and over a million views on the images I upload.
Substack feels like what the internet lost — and what I need — brought back and better than ever. A place where I can write for people who like to read, and in turn, find better things to read myself.
Here, you’ll get:
Essays on beauty, style, interiors, and travel, with an opinion and without the PR gloss
Marriage Material: a standing series on taste, style and skipping the nonsense
The same recommendations I’d give a client in my chair — products, places, and ideas worth your time and money
The occasional unhinged tangent, because I can’t help myself
Some of it will be free. Some will be subscriber-only, because the more personal things belong in a smaller, trusted community — another feature I love about this platform.
Your appointment starts here.
Bridie x