The beginning

Own Your Skin

It is my belief that we (humans, though mostly women) like to be lied to when it comes to beauty, skin and health.  Do you know one thing that almost never stop selling like hotcakes, even during a recession?  Lipstick.  Lipstick sales almost always stay constant.  (See this New York Times article here).  I've witnessed it myself, too, standing behind the counter at a famous cosmetics line, and meeting women day in, day out, who will complain to me about all their problems in life; losing their job, their husband cheating on them, their children being diagnosed with awful diseases.  And what did they want from me?  I'd like to think I was an ear for someone who needed to get things off her chest, but also--she needed a lipstick.  A pick me up.  Something small, portable, pretty and new, that every time she pulls it out of her pocketbook she can be reminded: "Yes, I am worth it.  Yes, I am special.  Yes, I am beautiful."

For under $40 a pop (at most lines) this is a small price to pay for a mini-attitude-lift.  But at the same time, it says something about who we are as people that one of the first things we look for when we need an attitude or life change, thousands of us head to the cosmetics counter, or to the aisle of Target, or wander Sephora.  And why do we do that?  I think because we believe the lie that the answer is there.  The answer can be found. You can find happiness somewhere in those halls.

I am here to tell you a few things, so let's get real and to the point: you will get older.

Again: you will get older.  You are getting older right now.  You are already older now than you were when you started reading this post.

But here's the real deal: No one person, no serum, nothing else, can make you more beautiful than being comfortable in your own skin.

If you've ever been on a mission to change something in your life; maybe you decided to overhaul your health and start a new eating lifestyle (personally I am anti-"diet"!) and head to the gym.  We've all tried that at least once, to varying degrees of success.  Maybe it started out of shame "my clothing doesn't fit and I hate the way I look", or fear: "my doctor says I'm on the path to diabetes or worse", or maybe it was just "I want to feel better about myself".  But when did the change happen?  At what point did you really start feeling better about yourself?  Was it the first day, because you were proud of the steps you took to work towards your goal?  Was it when you first could buy a dress a size smaller than you used to?  Was it when you noticed you were craving a salad, not a cheeseburger?  (It's 7am and now I'm craving a cheeseburger, just fyi.  I find I'm almost constantly in Cheeseburger Crave Mode!).  Whatever the aha! moment, I would bet that all of these things were indicators of a bigger symptom--that you had taken control.  You realized you were in control of your life, your body, the food you ate, your choices and how you wanted to live and be in this world. And it probably was not the moment you read a Cosmo article titled "How To Rock Your Summer Beach Bod".

You can do this with your skin. Being the largest organ in our body, I believe our skin reflects to the world in very real physical and also emotional ways what is happening inside, and how we are dealing (processing) what is happening outside.  But the first step is to stop going to the counter, wandering the aisles of your nearest and dearest drug store or supershop and reading the back of cartons hoping for a miracle cure.  Nothing at the counter is "Better Than Botox".  You are beautiful, but nothing short of the team of makeup artists, esthetcians and photoshop can make you look like Kate Winslet at a photoshoot.  Kate Winslet doesn't even look like Kate Winslet at a photoshoot.  Stop looking for answers somewhere else.  Because they are not there!  Yes, there are amazing products on all levels, from drug store to dermatologists office, and I'm here to help you figure out what those are.  But the first step is to chose that you will not be lied to.  You will not sit yourself down at XYZ Counter and listen to the sales girl ("makeup artist") tell you what to do.  Having been one myself a sales girl, freelance artist, skin care consultant and manager for various lines, I know what the bottom line is: money.  Yes, we want you to feel beautiful, yes we want you to look your best.  But most of all we want you to come back.  We want you to replenish your supply.  We want to meet our sales goals, and we have a boss breathing down our back to make sure that happens.  We are trained in how to do that.  And most of us are good at our job.  I'm not saying stop shopping, stop getting beautified, but I am saying empower yourself to know what you need.  In the same way we know better than to take our car to the dealer and just say to the mechanic "Here's my credit card--you do what you think needs to be done!", stop saying that to the beauty industry!  Be comfortable in your own skin, by learning how to take ownership of it.  Own your skin.

So you're here.  Read away!  Become informed.  Ask questions of me.  Start trying to get information about what your skin is really doing and what is really happening underneath, as well as what your products can (and can't!) actually do for you.