Truly, What is Beauty, anyway?
After 20 years of being a massage therapist and feeling ready for more subtle work, I have transitioned to the realm of skincare. Not too unlike massage, holistic facials offer the benefits of relaxing and down regulating the nervous system, increasing lymphatic flow, opening the pranic and physical channels of the head, neck and shoulders and also feel so darn good!
But isn’t beauty just a marketing gimmick?
Beauty, in Ayurveda, is looked at through a different lens than beauty from a western standpoint. In Ayurveda, we look at the whole person, and we can see when the light of the soul is illuminated, the ojas/resilience is bolstered, the energetic and physical channels are open, there is beauty.
There is a softness that comes when we pay attention to these deeper layers of the being and not just wrinkles, dry skin, sagging skin, ect. This softness is beautiful!
Beauty standards in the western industrialized world are skewed toward looking young. If we stop to examine what it is that we admire about young skin and features, it is softness! It is skin, a heart and a mind that has not been inundated and filled with the stresses and environmental factors that accumulate over a lifetime.
Ayurveda offers us the wisdom of daily rituals, rich nourishing oils, botanicals, mantras and nutrition to help us release these stresses, toxins and accumulations that create hardness, stiffness and give us resilience, flexibilty and softness that translates to inner and outer beauty!!
Where do regular facials come into play?
Holistic facials are not just surface level treatments. Sure, we have the benefit of leaving looking so glowing and gorgeous, but we are doing more than that.
As we age the cellular turnover of our skin slows down. When we are young it is about every 20 or so days that we get a fresh set of cells that are glowing and new on our face (and body). When we are in our 40s+ it is about every 40-60 days , and over 50 years old it is 60-90 days!
This slower turnover rate means it takes longer for new, healthy skin cells to reach the surface, leading to a buildup of dull, dead skin cells, and contributing to dryness, a rougher texture, and increased visible signs of aging like dullness and wrinkles.
Regular facials offers your skin a chance to slough off the old, dead skin cells revealing new, healthy skin underneath. We use natural ingredients such as pumpkin, which is exfoliating because it contains natural fruit enzymes and alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) that break down dead skin cells. These enzymes are proteolytic, meaning they break down proteins, offering a gentle but effective way to exfoliate the skin without causing irritation or compromising your natural microbiome.
We use botanical oils, herbs and clays to nourish and protect these new healthy cells, which leaves and keeps you glowing and a clean mineral based sunscreen to protect this healthy glow.
What other Ayurvedic rituals help with inner and outer beauty?
There are many ways Ayurveda can support you with your softness.
A daily routine that is based on your current health goals and the season you’re in. Schedule an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultation to determine your bespoke rituals
Nasya oil, a botanical rich nose oil that softens your sinus cavity and protects you from breathing in environmental pollutants,
Warm oil self massage called Abhyanga with our Tulsi Rose Body Oil
Ayurvedic meals that support optimal digestion, nervous system health and ojas/resilience support such as our Healing Dal Soup
Daily gentle detoxification with foods such as cilantro chutney
Use rose in your daily life to connect with your heart. The Heart is the Seat of Consciousness
Reach out to Radha if you have any questions about how to incorporate these rituals into your life!
"Our ability to stay soft in the hardness is what makes us genuinely strong. It's scary to allow the pain to wash through us because when we allow the pain to be felt, that's when we break — that's when the shell around our hearts begin to crack. Let it crack. Let it break open and fall onto the ground into a million little pieces because when you do, that's when you become soft. And, my love, when have you ever seen something so soft so easy to break? We're all born soft — it's our natural way of being. But staying soft in a hard world has now become a superpower" — Medium.
