Why Are You Here?
I’m Robin Levine Shobin, a former Wall Street exec turned chronic beauty, aging, and life oversharer. Charlotte’s Book is basically my Substack alter ego. This is where I write about facelifts, tweakments, products, dating, divorce, aging, and all the things women actually talk about with their girlfriends but rarely see written about honestly.
Think of it as the group chat, but with deep dive research. I reality-check the hype, obsessively investigate what’s actually worth it, and share the intel that usually lives in whispered referrals. Sometimes that means spending thousands on facelift consults and telling you exactly what I learned. Sometimes it’s skincare that actually works or the $20 Amazon flip-flops I can’t live without. And sometimes it’s what I learned from marriage, a horrific divorce that cost me nearly $20 million, or dating again in midlife.
I chronically overshare so hopefully you can learn something from it. No BS. All transparency.
My path here has been somewhat unconventional. In my 20s, I became the youngest Director at JPMorgan, where I headed the energy sector in research. I worked there for nearly 15 years. I am psycho about research. And I bring that into everything. I even have a personally signed letter from Jamie Dimon thanking me for my excellent financial research.
I later left Wall Street and raised $25 million to build Halo Hydration with investors including Pitbull and a few other fun celebs. It failed spectacularly and gave me a very expensive education in awful co-founders, startups, and what not to do.
After my divorce in 2019, I went through what I’ll politely call financial ruin and had to figure out how to rebuild. I started renovating homes in upstate New York, sometimes with friends, which eventually got me back on my feet financially.
I still co-own Woodstock Brewing with my ex-husband, a business we launched in 2018, where I also learned another important business lesson: perhaps don’t hire the 19-year-old bartender your 45-year-old husband will eventually cheat on you with. You really can’t learn everything at business school.
So yes, I’ve done a lot: finance, startups, real estate, beauty, marriage, divorce, dating, and a facelift. Collectively, it’s given me a front-row seat to money, image, aging, ambition, and the enormous gap between how life looks from the outside and what’s actually going on.
These days, I split my time between Australia, Bali, and the U.S. I’m 48 years old, divorced, finally in a great relationship after plenty of dating detours, and still as obsessed with aesthetics as I was at 27.
The difference now? I have far fewer illusions and a lot more information.
And I’ll tell you what’s worth it, what isn’t, what went horribly wrong, and everything I wish someone had told me sooner.
Why I Write Charlotte’s Book
I’m not a beauty editor, and I don’t want to be one. I don’t care about comps, brand trips, or playing nice with PR. I care about being obsessive. And I care about telling the truth, even when it’s messy.
When I first launched Charlotte’s Book as a side project in 2014, it quickly grew to nearly 200,000 monthly visitors. We had a partnership with Yahoo, were featured in Refinery29, Town & Country, justBOBBI, and more. Then my personal life blew up. My marriage collapsed in spectacular fashion. I went silent. I was too busy surviving. My writing also went dark for several years.
When I came back, I wrote one of my most-read essays ever: “Divorce, Affairs, and Friedrich Nietzsche.” It resonated because women in their 40s and 50s aren’t just talking about facelifts and fillers - we’re talking about betrayal, reinvention, money, and survival. That’s when I knew Charlotte’s Book had to be bigger than beauty and I am rebuilding my old website here on Substack years later.
Why Subscribe?
If you want glossy, polite, and PR-approved — don’t subscribe. If you want the truth, with all the messy details, welcome. I hope reading this feels like sitting on the sofa with the brutally honest friend who’s actually had the surgery (or spent the money) and will tell you where it sucked and where it was worth every penny. And sometimes? You’ll get dating advice, divorce drama, travel recs, and the excellent things actually worth your money.
