In 2020, with a little more time on my hands than usual, I started my own backyard vegetable garden. Armed with the best heirloom seeds, the best organic bug repellents, the best organic compost, I gallantly started planting. Lo and behold, the bugs attacked my plants. Some plants struggled. Some thrived, most didn’t. But I put the best things on top of the plants to fix it?! I sourced the best seeds? What is happening?

Environment my dearest people. Environment. Nutrients. Sunlight. I started the deep dive into soil health, minerals, and what plants need FROM THE INSIDE to build a strong, resilient plant. See, aphids and bugs can’t eat a healthy plant that mineralizes well. And when a plant is not healthy, no amount of fancy bug spray can fix the problem. Does this mean the same principle work on… HUMANS?

Decades as a makeup artist, working with thousands of people, I always asked my clients with the healthiest skin “WHICH PRODUCTS DO YOU USE?” And mostly, the answer was “nothing much”

Luck of the draw? Winning the genetic lottery? Not so my dearests. Gene expression is controlled by epigenetics. So the ENVIRONMENT dictates which genes expresses and how.

Back to my plants. I ditched the bug spray, and started focusing on what my plants eat. Rich compost, the correct soil type for every plant, the minerals needed for each plant to grow well. And I ditched my skincare products, and started focusing on my nourishment and environment.

And my skin improved. Vastly. I mostly left it alone. I had some tallow in my fridge from a local regenerative farmer where we buy our meat. I bought some jojoba oil (as a liquid wax, has the closest lipid profile to human sebum) and mixed my first tallow balm. And I have never looked back.

My wish for you is to completely break free from the one-sided relationship that is our hope on outside products.

My hope is that you get curious and listen to your skin when it speaks to you in symptoms and address the root cause.

My wish is that you start trusting and respecting your skin and nourish it in the way it needs.

You see, no amount of serum or moisturiser is going to heal skin that doesn’t receive the bioavailable protein it needs to repair itself.

No amount of scrub, peeling, or aggressive procedure is going to give your skin the glow it naturally has from eating nourishing saturated fats.

No amount of topical vitamin or peptide is going to replace a skin deprived of luscious vitamin rich seasonal local fruits.

No amount of Botox and fillers will mimic the vital glow and plumpness of skin with balanced hormones and enough progesterone.

Below some further resources to help you take charge of your own skin journey.

With the right support, your skin truly needs minimal product to thrive.

Biologically speaking, the accepted idea of “normal” skin — constantly clear, even, balanced, flawless — is a myth.

Normal skin constantly reacts to the world around and inside it.

The skin acts as the go-between for your internal and external environment; it communicates with you and alerts you to any potential issues.

All skin “issues” are merely communication from your skin. Acne, dehydration, rapid aging, excess oil, all of these communicate deeper issues, and cannot be permanently solved by skincare products.

NORMAL SKIN — HEALTHY SKIN, SKIN THAT DOES THE JOB IT WAS DESIGNED TO DO, SKIN THAT COMMUNICATES — IS REACTIVE SKIN.

You can deeply support your skin via nutrition. This is the most important. Skin cells are created in the deepest layers, and absolutely no skincare product can reach that deep, or facilitate change from the surface. Support your skin on the nutritional level, and your skin produces everything it might need.

Everything you currently rely on a skin-care product to do for you, the microbiome and your skin do all on their own.

When the skin is functioning on its own, it self-produces all the “skincare ingredients” anyone could ever want: ceramides, peptides, antioxidants, antimicrobials, exfoliating enzymes, epidermal growth factor, stem cells, squalene oil, pre-, pro-, and post-biotics, collagen, glycerin, hyaluronic acid, lactic acid, and even a biocompatible face oil (sebum). The human body makes all the above!

More information in this article, as well as the books linked here.

• BOOKS TO READ

• REGENERATIVE FARMERS IN SA

• HORMONE HEALTH AND SKIN