Towards a New Paradigm in Beauty

I am coming to reach a new paradigm in beauty, inspired by, basically, health. Not that health has never been the main focus, the most essential part of beauty. But simply making changes and tweaks to the way I think and operate every day about what is beautiful.

Have you ever had the experience where you put on your makeup at the beginning of the day but, as the day grew on, you just couldn’t wait to take it off? Maybe you were involved in some intense cardio at some point. Or just busy. Or whatever it was you were doing. But then when you arrived home and got to your bathroom sink and finally took off your makeup you were stunned at how beautiful you look completely naturally.

Looking beautiful, being beautiful is, primordially and above all else, being healthy. This morning after having a rejuvenating morning run, when I arrived home and saw my face in the mirror, I saw how beautiful I am. Zero makeup on. My cheeks a natural flush, reddish hue from the increased blood flowing through my capillaries. My skin glistening from sweat as though I had just stepped out of a sauna. No cosmetic product can match the beauty of a natural, healthy look.

There is also the dark area under my eyes which I typically use concealer on every morning. Why do I do it? What effect am I trying to achieve?

The other week also I was in the elevator and saw someone who I occasionally see and she commented to me that she had no makeup on and seemed kind of bashful. I kind of smiled because in actuality she really looked quite beautiful without makeup. One thing I noticed was that she was not wearing concealer and I saw for the first time the dark areas beneath her eyes and it was clear that this is not something anyone should hide but should be proud of.

So that makes me think, what is the point of going through a long ritual every morning to put on all these cosmetics? I am starting to rethink everything. I want people to appreciate my beauty for what it is, something I’ve earned through eating an extremely healthy, pure, vegan diet and through regular exercise. If someone does not appreciate that, if they would only appreciate the synthetic cosmetic look, then is that what I want to resonate with? No. Of course not.

Somehow it always seemed to me that wearing cosmetics was an essential part of glamour. But, actually, being very fit and healthy, having a natural glow, and even being a little bit unkempt as after a nice, long run or a swim, is very sexy and beautiful.

I want to redefine what beautiful, elegant, and sexy are according to my own terms which, actually, are not my own terms. They are terms of Earth, of nature, of life.

Now, if I want to give my skin a little instant lift, I can just take a washcloth and wet it with hot water and apply it to my face, sort of like a quick steam for my skin. After that I can use a few drops of a natural oil like the In Fiore one I wrote about the other day, or a host of many other truly excellent natural products (I didn’t mean to slight any of these other products when I wrote about In Fiore’s Nourrit Facial Oil the other day – I will definitely have to write about some of the others).

The only cosmetics that I think I want to use right now are lipliner and lipstick. Chanel and Dior both have a range of really excellent liptsticks that have just the right blend of pigment yet still somewhat sheer. For example I’m now wearing a Dior Addict Extreme lipstick in shade 476 which I love. Chanel has some really excellent stylo lipliners called Aqua Crayon which I love. My favorite go-to one is shade 02 Cognac.

Not only is being healthy linked inexorably with beauty. Someone asked me the other day how I feel about tantra. I replied that the term tantra actually has several rather disparate meanings, but that I knew what he was referring to.

My answer at the time was that to me being healthy is the most important thing. Obviously it is. But then after that I have been thinking, its not just being healthy is also the foundation of sensuality, without being healthy the pursuit of sensuality for its own sake is misguided. So its not only a matter of not being the most essential thing, it is a matter of actually leading in a wrong direction, of misguiding, of harming if one were to promote sensuality without health.

At a time when there is so much damage in the world, so much harm going on, so much neglect of Earth, of nature, of the body, of our environments, and of course of each other, I have no need to engage in promoting something which can be destructive and harmful and which misses core values of love and wisdom which are essential for everything.

Everyone loves icing on their cake. But if the cake is toxic, what is the point of the icing? Does it help then? Or only harm?

And by the time I’ve learned to make the best, most nutritious, totally healthy, eco-friendly vegan cake I will probably be so activated at the deepest levels that I won’t even be thinking about icing.