How Going #CleanBeauty Changed Me - Health+Beauty Side

I started adapting the clean beauty lifestyle a year ago, and since then, it hasn't just changed my beauty product standards and the acne problem on my skin, but also other aspects beyond complexion.

Clean beauty is basically both a lifestyle and a movement against the conventional, or other words, 'dirty' beauty that most cosmetic industries have been indirectly promoting; the false philosophy of beauty itself that leaves out the important notion of beauty without damaging, how beauty is beyond the physical, how beauty means both looking good and feeling good. Under all those vibrantly pigmented lipsticks, sleek-giving hair products, alluring rosy fragrances, soft shimmery powders, sparkling facial mists, silky-hydrating serums lies tons of allergenic, cancer-giving, cell-damaging, toxic cheap synthetic chemicals forming what they are. Our skin, which is pretty much alive and behaves like a sponge, absorbs all of these in just approximately 28 seconds after application, which in total was calculated that we 'ingest' 168 chemicals every single day, all going straight to the bloodstream, circulating the entire body. So, pretty on the outside, but lethal on the inside. I don't see the beauty in this at all?

It started on mid-2014. It was somewhere between facing digestive problems, experimenting some skincare DIYs and beginning to follow a lot of 'mindful' pages on Instagram, being @futureworldhealing and @organicolivia the most influential. I follow them out of interest, curiosity, and their interesting health facts. I was known as a fairly heavy eater, especially towards cheap treats, cakes, McNuggets, chocolate bars and occasional junk food, then one day it was like my body could no longer tolerate this mindless habit of mine, so every time those foods enter my body, I was immediately halted through stomach pains, cramps and heavy nauseas. I had no choice but to start minding what I put inside my mouth: absolutely no synthetic foods or food made with artificial colorants, preservatives and sweeteners, less white sugar, less spicy and sour food, less oily food, a little less gluten. I also began to take medicines thinking it would help cure my stomach, or at least calm it down when it relapses.

Then, referring back to those two Instagram accounts, do they specifically taught me about health? Their approach to health is actually much broader and mindful. From what I've learned from them, every 'health' post they would post about gives out 2 important messages: 

1. That everything is interconnected; we are not just the physical, but also the mental, the emotional, and most importantly spiritual. The condition of one of our dimensions influence the other. Also, externally, we are constantly influencing and being influenced upon the environment we live in and what we consume: what we eat, what we read, what we listen to, what we watch. Subconsciously, these factors shape who we are. 

2. We create our own reality, for we have the power to control our lives. The key is to live 'actively', if not we become 'passive' and easily (negatively) influenced by the outside. Since we're given the ability to be sick, we are also given the ability to heal, and is us who heal ourselves. When we're sick, the number one reason is that our immune is weak. Anything that claims to 'heal' or 'cure' us should mean 'able to nourish and boost up the work of our immune system'. That is the true philosophy of healing most people overlook, and the 'tools' involved very often underestimated, like eating clean, doing positive and joyful activities, enough hours of sleep, meditation, etc. The strong attachment to man-made drugs is actually destructing the natural 'healing system' of our body. 

My lack of those knowledges sufficiently explains my condition. These then encouraged me to not just start 'healing' the right way, but to upgrade my way of living into a mindful one. 

My health-consciousness increases as I open myself up more and more through holistic insights towards health and spirituality; I learned some basics on quantum physics, TMC, Chinese & Indian physical healing arts, organic living, vegan diet, aromatherapy, natural healing. I experienced incredible changes emotionally and spirituality, with my inner and outer condition following along. 

As of my external health condition, I suffered from dozens of acne populating my entire forehead, blackheads settling inside the huge pores on my nose area, and dark, constantly chapped lips. I didn't know how to deal with them, I'd just apply baby powder on a damp face before bed, occasional acne cream, experiment DIY skincare with warm water + honey and lemon (also in attempt to make my skin lighter), and mostly just covering them up with drugstore compact powder every time I head out. As for my hair, let's just say it's completely damaged since I was 12, when I started dyeing it almost once a year, and straightening it constantly with both a flat iron and the nastiest of chemicals for permanent straight hair. I've tried countless of products and treatments to restore the life of my dead hair, with zero permanent results, and with some, ended up getting slight headaches in return which I once took blame on using too much water to rinse them off.

As I learned how each of our external features are connected to specific organs of our body through acupuncture points, and how we can tell what's going on inside of us by looking at our external conditions like the color of our tongues and the spot where our acnes grow―the way traditional chinese physicians would examine their patients―and how essential oil healing works, it gave me an clear insight on how the skin actually works; how it is not a barrier, but a mirror of the inside. Also, how it is not a barrier, but a sponge that absorbs whatever is applied to it. Eventually it led me to scan over each and every skincare, body products and cosmetics I've been using.

Once going natural and clean, I can never go back. I did tons of research and gradually conducted a huge switch. It's like my body completely recognizes what I'm doing, and how would it not? I am helping it work by its natural state again. I've learned the truth, I've compiled the facts, I've set my mind to channel what I've known through my actions, and I finally started replacing all my skincare and body products into pure, synthetic-free ones, which was exactly a year ago. The results I got after a few weeks of consistent usage was less acne, less blackheads, and something I've never seen of myself: a supple and natural glowing face! Just about 5 months ago I finally eradicated all my acnes and a single milia that's been growing slowly for years, from just the work of organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar in less than 10 days, plus a help from papaya enzyme + charcoal exfoliate to get rid of the milia. As for my hair, to be honest it needs more work, but overall natural hair products did a much better and safer job than any of the conventional, silicon and detergent-filled products I had before.

As you can see, I've gained many beneficial changes towards going clean beauty, and perhaps what made me passionate towards it is how it too spiritually changed me, which I will talk about on the next post. Besides enjoying the transformation, it has its challenges too, main being access and cost of these products, but then these challenges created a new path in my life, an opportunity I've been dreaming to get, which I will tell its story on a later post.

What I stated on essential health fact number 2 is synonymous to the beauty philosophy I now understood: Skincare should only claim to enhance the workings of our skin that is already naturally beautiful, as cosmetics are (stated in this quote I found): "Make-up is not a tool meant to make an ugly thing beautiful, it is meant only to magnify the beauty that already exists." 

This is the true beauty philosophy I believe in.

With Love, 

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I started adapting the clean beauty lifestyle a year ago, and since then, it hasn't just changed my beauty product standards and the acne problem on my skin, but also other aspects beyond complexion.

Clean beauty is basically both a lifestyle and a movement against the conventional, or other words, 'dirty' beauty that most cosmetic industries have been indirectly promoting; the false philosophy of beauty itself that leaves out the important notion of beauty without damaging, how beauty is beyond the physical, how beauty means both looking good and feeling good. Under all those vibrantly pigmented lipsticks, sleek-giving hair products, alluring rosy fragrances, soft shimmery powders, sparkling facial mists, silky-hydrating serums lies tons of allergenic, cancer-giving, cell-damaging, toxic cheap synthetic chemicals forming what they are. Our skin, which is pretty much alive and behaves like a sponge, absorbs all of these in just approximately 28 seconds after application, which in total was calculated that we 'ingest' 168 chemicals every single day, all going straight to the bloodstream, circulating the entire body. So, pretty on the outside, but lethal on the inside. I don't see the beauty in this at all?

It started on mid-2014. It was somewhere between facing digestive problems, experimenting some skincare DIYs and beginning to follow a lot of 'mindful' pages on Instagram, being @futureworldhealing and @organicolivia the most influential. I follow them out of interest, curiosity, and their interesting health facts. I was known as a fairly heavy eater, especially towards cheap treats, cakes, McNuggets, chocolate bars and occasional junk food, then one day it was like my body could no longer tolerate this mindless habit of mine, so every time those foods enter my body, I was immediately halted through stomach pains, cramps and heavy nauseas. I had no choice but to start minding what I put inside my mouth: absolutely no synthetic foods or food made with artificial colorants, preservatives and sweeteners, less white sugar, less spicy and sour food, less oily food, a little less gluten. I also began to take medicines thinking it would help cure my stomach, or at least calm it down when it relapses.

Then, referring back to those two Instagram accounts, do they specifically taught me about health? Their approach to health is actually much broader and mindful. From what I've learned from them, every 'health' post they would post about gives out 2 important messages: 

1. That everything is interconnected; we are not just the physical, but also the mental, the emotional, and most importantly spiritual. The condition of one of our dimensions influence the other. Also, externally, we are constantly influencing and being influenced upon the environment we live in and what we consume: what we eat, what we read, what we listen to, what we watch. Subconsciously, these factors shape who we are. 

2. We create our own reality, for we have the power to control our lives. The key is to live 'actively', if not we become 'passive' and easily (negatively) influenced by the outside. Since we're given the ability to be sick, we are also given the ability to heal, and is us who heal ourselves. When we're sick, the number one reason is that our immune is weak. Anything that claims to 'heal' or 'cure' us should mean 'able to nourish and boost up the work of our immune system'. That is the true philosophy of healing most people overlook, and the 'tools' involved very often underestimated, like eating clean, doing positive and joyful activities, enough hours of sleep, meditation, etc. The strong attachment to man-made drugs is actually destructing the natural 'healing system' of our body. 

My lack of those knowledges sufficiently explains my condition. These then encouraged me to not just start 'healing' the right way, but to upgrade my way of living into a mindful one. 

My health-consciousness increases as I open myself up more and more through holistic insights towards health and spirituality; I learned some basics on quantum physics, TMC, Chinese & Indian physical healing arts, organic living, vegan diet, aromatherapy, natural healing. I experienced incredible changes emotionally and spirituality, with my inner and outer condition following along. 

As of my external health condition, I suffered from dozens of acne populating my entire forehead, blackheads settling inside the huge pores on my nose area, and dark, constantly chapped lips. I didn't know how to deal with them, I'd just apply baby powder on a damp face before bed, occasional acne cream, experiment DIY skincare with warm water + honey and lemon (also in attempt to make my skin lighter), and mostly just covering them up with drugstore compact powder every time I head out. As for my hair, let's just say it's completely damaged since I was 12, when I started dyeing it almost once a year, and straightening it constantly with both a flat iron and the nastiest of chemicals for permanent straight hair. I've tried countless of products and treatments to restore the life of my dead hair, with zero permanent results, and with some, ended up getting slight headaches in return which I once took blame on using too much water to rinse them off.

As I learned how each of our external features are connected to specific organs of our body through acupuncture points, and how we can tell what's going on inside of us by looking at our external conditions like the color of our tongues and the spot where our acnes grow―the way traditional chinese physicians would examine their patients―and how essential oil healing works, it gave me an clear insight on how the skin actually works; how it is not a barrier, but a mirror of the inside. Also, how it is not a barrier, but a sponge that absorbs whatever is applied to it. Eventually it led me to scan over each and every skincare, body products and cosmetics I've been using.

Once going natural and clean, I can never go back. I did tons of research and gradually conducted a huge switch. It's like my body completely recognizes what I'm doing, and how would it not? I am helping it work by its natural state again. I've learned the truth, I've compiled the facts, I've set my mind to channel what I've known through my actions, and I finally started replacing all my skincare and body products into pure, synthetic-free ones, which was exactly a year ago. The results I got after a few weeks of consistent usage was less acne, less blackheads, and something I've never seen of myself: a supple and natural glowing face! Just about 5 months ago I finally eradicated all my acnes and a single milia that's been growing slowly for years, from just the work of organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar in less than 10 days, plus a help from papaya enzyme + charcoal exfoliate to get rid of the milia. As for my hair, to be honest it needs more work, but overall natural hair products did a much better and safer job than any of the conventional, silicon and detergent-filled products I had before.

As you can see, I've gained many beneficial changes towards going clean beauty, and perhaps what made me passionate towards it is how it too spiritually changed me, which I will talk about on the next post. Besides enjoying the transformation, it has its challenges too, main being access and cost of these products, but then these challenges created a new path in my life, an opportunity I've been dreaming to get, which I will tell its story on a later post.

What I stated on essential health fact number 2 is synonymous to the beauty philosophy I now understood: Skincare should only claim to enhance the workings of our skin that is already naturally beautiful, as cosmetics are (stated in this quote I found): "Make-up is not a tool meant to make an ugly thing beautiful, it is meant only to magnify the beauty that already exists." 

This is the true beauty philosophy I believe in.

With Love,