In my business making and selling natural skin care products I talk to a lot of people about skin care, I do continuous research, read posts in various groups that center around natural skin care, and think a lot about it all. I am fascinated by all the incredible gifts we have in nature for health and skin care but I find I am often conflicted. Not about the benefits of truly natural skin care, or even the need to care for our skin both by how we eat to take care of our bodies and how we treat the largest organ of our bodies, our skin. I am conflicted because I talk to so many women with lovely skin who believe their skin is still lacking ideal beauty somehow. They obviously don’t see what I see when I look at them. They are beautiful.
Recently a very beautiful mature woman with a radiant smile asked me what I made and recommended for wrinkles. Now, mind you she didn’t look 20 or even 30, she looked like she took very good care of herself, she looked beautiful! What raced through my mind was all the things I know about aging gracefully; avoiding excess sun, drinking enough water to stay properly hydrated, avoiding excess sugar in your diet, eating plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit, avoiding processed food, getting enough sleep, using gentle natural methods for cleansing and keeping your skin protected, etc. But what came out of my mouth before I even thought about it was this:
“Yes, look in the mirror at your beautiful face and reflect on the long and wonderful life you’ve been blessed with.” My response surprised her, delighted her (very sweet) husband, and surprised me too!
My head was busy thinking but my heart spoke without hesitation.
As women, we are bombarded constantly with advertisements for this or that product promising that it will make us look 20 years younger overnight, create instant ideal ‘beauty’, fade any evidence our skin is giving us of our health or lifestyle issues we may be having, plus this or that new ‘breakthrough miracle’ skin product that’s yours for the low introductory price of “$X”. Gosh, if I paid much attention to all of this I might start getting an inferiority complex. Certainly at times it makes me wonder if I am in the wrong business because I simply do not agree with, or support, the constant barrage of messages telling us that we must strive to a some ideal of beauty and as women must desire to look forever young. That seems to be the message from skin care companies that is repeated over and over.
As a mature woman I’ve lived long enough to see many changes in attitudes over the decades, good changes, and changes still in progress. I remember all too well when the ideas about a woman’s proper role were quite different than today. But even with all the changes in the past 30 or 40 years this idea that as we grow older we, as women, should always desire and strive to look ‘young’ stubbornly persists. Only time will tell whether the generations of young women alive today will have the same experience as my generation but they are certainly getting just as bombarded, and I’ve heard many beautiful young women in their 20’s and 30’s expressing concerns about wrinkles and, heaven forbid, looking older!
I just don’t believe we need to spend fortunes on the latest miracle product in the pursuit of beauty, nor do I believe there is any one standard of beauty and when I read the ingredients in some products I feel like telling people to run, not walk, away from some of them! I like to keep it simple, eat healthy foods, and care for our skin gently with the best nature offers – and not worry about it! Beauty in my mind is more about being healthy and living a good and loving life than looking 20 or 30 forever.
So, maybe I am actually not conflicted. There’s nothing wrong in my opinion with wanting to look good, and healthy skin, no matter its age, is beautiful. How we take care of our health is reflected in it. But I would rather grow old with grace, be who I am without worry, take care of my health by eating well, and celebrate the wonderful life I’ve been blessed with rather than wishing I was something I am not, and constantly searching for ways to make myself look 20 or 30 years younger!
Here’s To Our Health!
Shirley Makela, AADP INHC
Owner/Artisan
Alki Organix
Truly Natural Skin Care in Partnership with Nature
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Alki Organix: Truly Natural Skin Care in Partnership with Nature – Skin care based on organic and wildcrafted cold or expeller pressed oils and whole natural ingredients and featuring incredibly effective skincare with Certified Bio-Active Manuka Honey. Cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize with best selling Alki Organix Manuka Honey Facials in orginal, Honey & Rose and Honey & Avocado. Have beautiful skin with Manuka Honey and its unique properties making it an amazing superfood for skin. Artisan crafted in the beautiful Skagit Valley in Washington state by Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Shirley Makela, Alki Organix is dedicated to providing the most effective, natural skin care possible 100% free of chemicals and preservatives.
