Slow Beauty Explained

[video transcript]

In today’s video we’re going to chat about sustainable, slow beauty aka how to look beautiful without selling your soul to the makeup industry.

My name is Kat, welcome to episode five of The Slow Living Guide, where I give you the A to Z on Slow Living and hopefully provide a pocket of calm in your day. In last week’s episode we chatted all about slow health, so if you haven’t seen that yet, I definitely recommend that you check it out at the end of the video. Also, if you are on a journey to slow down and want to learn how to use your time and resources more effectively to make the most out of your life, do be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so that you don’t miss future episodes.

Just to say, I’m not against makeup, obviously I’m wearing makeup right now, I’m just against the idea that people need to buy expensive products and wear makeup in order to be considered beautiful. In a nutshell, slow beauty is all about long term beauty that doesn’t rely on quick fixes but is rather about taking the time to research the most sustainable and healthy beauty options for you as an individual. Similar to Slow Health, there are two main components to this – external, and internal.

External Beauty

I thought we’d start with external beauty as it’s what we most associate with this topic and probably the easier side of slow beauty. I think that in these days of social media influencers, filters, and the modern-day beauty industry, it can be a mission to feel beautiful.  We’re constantly given the impression that if only we buy this shampoo or that concealer, we too can be as beautiful as the celebrity in the picture. But unless you have a personal trainer, makeup artist, studio lighting, and photoshop editor, you are never going to look like the celebrity in the picture. But you know what – even that celebrity can’t attain those kind of unrealistic beauty standards about 90% of the time. The modern-day beauty industry wants you to feel not enough – to feel ugly – because then you’ll buy their products. But you probably knew all this already - let’s get into how slow beauty can help.

Generally speaking, the simpler and slower your beauty routine, the better. The first step is to build healthy habits - making sure that you’re getting the vitamins your body needs, exercising regularly, not overdoing addictive substances, drinking plenty of water, and consistently getting a full night’s sleep. The thing about these slow beauty habits is that they aren’t quick fixes by any means, and you won’t see instant results. What you will see however, are healthier, more sustainable results that will not only make you look better but also help you feel better. As for beauty products, try to go for simple, cruelty free options and use them for at least 28 days before switching, to give your skin and hair time to adjust. Admittedly, a lot of sustainable products can be more expensive than what you might buy at an average drug store, so another option is to make your own. If you’d like some skincare recipe ideas, I definitely recommend that you go check out the channel Little Woodland Woman, which I’ll leave a link to in the description box below.

Where modern beauty norms would have you go for the quick fix of slathering on the foundation when you get eye bags or pimples – slow beauty would suggest that you cultivate a consistent sleep schedule and go easy on the makeup until your skin heals. In the short term you may feel a little self-conscious having a barer face, but in the long term, your skin will become naturally clear and glowing. Many of us aren’t actually going out much these days anyway, so this might be a good season to make a change.

Internal Beauty

Now onto internal beauty, by which I mean the spiritual and emotional stuff that we’re made of. The interesting thing about internal beauty is that it has the power to improve your physical appearance, but external beauty can never improve your heart. How many times have you met a physically beautiful person who you ceased to feel attraction towards the second they opened their mouth? And vice versa, my guess is that the people you personally perceive to be the most beautiful on the basis of their character and your love for them, probably don’t look like supermodels. I think there’s something about internal joy and compassion and care that can’t help radiating out of us to transform our external selves. But how do we cultivate this? At the end of the day, anyone can learn to do eyeshadow, but it takes something special to cultivate daily habits that strengthen our character to help us feel and look the best we can. Here’s a couple of ideas:

1. Spend time with kind people.

We all have battle scars, right? There’s something about life on this earth, with all its hurts and rejections, that can mar our hearts, making us suspicious and bitter. It’s a form of protection and it’s okay in the short term – but it can be really harmful to stay in that place for a lifetime. They say that you’re the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so spending time with kind, compassionate people can be incredibly healing and redemptive for the heart. For example, my boyfriend is one of the kindest, least judgemental people that I know and the more time I’ve spent with him, the softer and more peaceful my own heart has become.

2. Don’t neglect your soul.

Another great way to cultivate internal beauty is to get used to spending time alone, getting to know and like yourself.

What this looks like for me personally is taking time for prayer and worship. By being still and dwelling in the presence of God on a regular basis, I’ve learned to love better, but I’ve also learned to be loved. I’ve still got a long way to go, but this daily spiritual practice has been the most instrumental in cultivating internal beauty in my own life. I’d love to know if you have spiritual practices of your own that help you in the day to day – let me know in the comments below.

I also just want to take a moment to thank you for sharing your time with me today; if you have enjoyed this video, you’ll probably enjoy next week’s episode, which is on the topic of Slow Fashion, so do subscribe and hit the notification bell, and you’ll get a wee update when that comes out.

Also remember to like the video and share it with a friend who you think might benefit from the message. Until next time, it was lovely to have you here.