What we put on our skin matters just as much as what we eat.
WORDS Sonia Carr-Steyns
Recently there has been an increased interest in consumers about what we put into our bodies, from the food and drink we eat, the air we breathe and to the medication and supplements we consume.
I am a strong advocate for not putting substances on my skin that I wouldn’t eat and I promote my skin flora by using only products that my skin understands.As a child, I suffered from eczema and, at the age of 18, after a few lifestyle changes, I decided to look for more natural beauty care products. Unable to find something that was not only organic, pure, without fragrance, and with ingredients I could understand, I decided to make my own from only food-grade ingredients, and so my journey began producing my own homemade cosmetics.
The skin is an organ that absorbs everything that goes on it, passing it along through the bloodstream, which is your body’s motorway system. Chemicals like parabens, phthalates, synthetic colours, and fragrances are added to mainstream beauty care products. They may look and smell nice, but they are highly toxic.
Living Cosmetics
In springtime, the mountains of Monchique, where I live, become a pharmaceutical wonder offering an abundance of wildflowers, plants, herbs and healing mushrooms. No two years are the same. Some wild plants go into remission, while others return again the following season.
There is a saying: ‘the plants that we need always grow close to us’. So it is nature which usually decides what new products I will make each season. I feel incredibly fortunate to have such a wide diversity of wild plants right on my doorstep. All my ingredients are harvested on my nine-acre property or on the mountain Picota, which is more than 700 metres above sea level and receives only natural mountain rainwater.
Living cosmetics are beauty care products made from 100% food-grade ingredients. For example, I use homemade herbal and floral vinegar, which is alkaline and restores the skin’s pH. It also exfoliates and removes dead skin cells. I also make a heather oat eczema body scrub, as heather flowers promote wound healing and have anti-inflammatory properties, while oats soften all skin types.
Making your own cosmetics can feel just like cooking. Join one of my cosmetics workshops.
www.mothersfinestmonchique.com
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