TEMPERATE SKINCARE: Do your values show in your selfies?
Permaculture teaches us to think in systems: to observe the natural flows that occur and to ensure any interventions we make enhance the symbiosis. Recognising the constant regeneration and renewal of our own skin as an intricate, well-functioning natural system offers us a good perspective on how to work with and enhance that system.
A permaculture approach to skincare seeks to intervene only when necessary, and always with the intention to support the natural system. This requires a good understanding of how our skin works, so that we can make the most appropriate choices. We can work with our skin to restore balance and to counteract the stresses we introduce to the system.
Stresses may be due to the environments we move between: skin needs to adjust to hot, cold, wet and dry conditions; to the food we eat; activities we undertake; or emotional stresses – all of which are reflected in our skin. Skin is our largest organ but it comes bottom of the pecking order in terms of resource allocation in our bodies – the least vital of vital organs. It’s because of this that we can become aware of any problems with our internal organs through observing changes in our skin. Our bodies will naturally focus energies, nutrients and resources on keeping our liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and digestive system going, leaving the skin to be depleted first if resources are scarce.
Our outer edge
Skin is our edge, and edge is where the action is, when thinking permaculturally. Our skin is how we encounter the world: we absorb information through touch and we unwittingly emit information about our health and emotional state through our skin condition. Skin is also our barrier or filter, again working both ways – absorbing from the environment (whether good or bad) and emitting (by way of pheromones) our own messaging of receptivity levels and compatibility to the world.
In interacting with today’s world it’s difficult to avoid the selfie. Every mode of connection requires a picture and, not surprisingly, personal image has become critical. As our snapshots precede us, we are forced to think more about the way we present ourselves. My way of tackling this involves moulding the mind, not the body. It involves recognising the patterns and routines that shape us and seeking to replace the negative influences with the positive.
A daily approach to showing our best selves
What are the things you do every day, without fail, your normal routines? I’m guessing some amount of ablutions and self care are among your list. Keeping clean and, hopefully, presentable, is an everyday part of life for us all. For many, those moments of self-care may be the only time you get to spend on yourself all day. I’ve interviewed numerous people about their skincare routines and choices in the search for insight. It’s stunning what personal ground I’ve been tip-toeing over, people have shared things they don’t even share with their partners. It’s clear how introspective these moments of self-care are, and how important to us as individuals.
What you do in that personal time says a lot about how you value yourself. The fact that you do it every day, probably with minimal thought, means it’s ingrained into your psyche.
So if you, as a matter of routine, reach out each morning to a mass-produced bottle with highly-preserved contents, you are daily reinforcing your connection to the society that has produced it. That is a culture that continually bombards us with stimuli and statistics, explanations and endorsements, options and opinions. Just for a moment, stop and think of how many skincare brands you can mention – the list is phenomenal, and constantly growing. No wonder we end up mesmerised and feeling confused and perhaps out of control. That confusion is subconsciously hitting you everyday in your routine.
Very few of my interviewees were entirely happy with the skincare products they used. I’d hear the familiar tale of a sporadic search/try/abandon/search-again process. The few who did have an approach they were proud of were those who had spent time understanding their options and what they needed, and applying their own values to the choices they made. A beautiful confidence shone out of these people. A beauty that would be hard to miss in any selfie.
This is deep. Way more than skin deep. There’s more ….
What if in those personal moments you spend with yourself each day, you were connecting not with the commercial world but with the natural world? Actually using ingredients that have come from the natural environment around you, that create a symbiosis between you and that world (because of course, you’ll be washing it back down the watercourses eventually so you’re feeding back in too). The drip, drip, drip effect of that daily connection, however small, is a force that can shape you. It can bring you in touch with the plants that grow around you, their characteristics and they way they respond to the seasons.
Local and abundant
It’s another good permaculture principle to apply too – use the resources we have available locally. And, wow, we have an abundance of fantastic ingredients for skincare right on our doorstep. My list of beneficial temperate grown herbs stretches into the hundreds, and that’s before I add the tens of different plant seed oils, each with their own skin-loving properties. Plant seed oils have a wonderful affinity with the oils we produce naturally in our skin, which is why our skins adjust so well to using them. And if you’re worried about putting oil onto oily skin, think about your skin’s system. Why is it producing the oil? Because it believes you haven’t enough. So by feeding it natural oils, your skin will feel less stressed and not need to produce so much of its own – go on, try it.
There’s more affinity to be found too … If we use plants that grow in the kind of environment that we live in, they will be adjusted to the same conditions, the same seasons, the same soils. So, living in temperate conditions, I look to use plants that grow in a temperate climate for my skincare. Modern skincare products often rely on desert or tropically-grown ingredients (argan oil, jojoba oil and coconut oil being some of the current favourites). This perplexes me. Not only does it jar on the basis of sustainability and skincare-miles, I also wonder how much affinity our skins have with ingredients coming from a completely different climate to us. I suspect a seduction of the exotic. Entrancing with perfumed promise is far more sexy than extolling the benefits of understanding a system.
But, if you’d prefer it to be you that has the sexy air of confidence, the blasé charm that tells the world you know what you’re about, and the selfie that speaks of your values, I’d recommend getting to understand your skin, learning how it works, knowing when you’re putting it under stress, and then finding, or making, products that enhance your skin’s system and keep you in touch with the natural world around you.
O, and take your time about it: making your own skincare is a great way to de-stress too.
