The pace of the world is ever increasing - everything is instant and we always want more of it. A phrase that has been popping up a lot lately is ”Fast Fashion”. This is when inexpensive clothing is mass produced by suppliers to keep up with customer demand of the latest trends. The sheer volume of production has a huge impact on the environment and it's something people are people are now realising needs to change. However, practicing the art of “less is more” can be difficult at times especially when online shopping is so convenient!
The opposite of fast fashion would be to invest in timeless pieces of higher quality, which are not mass produced but created with sustainability in mind. By investing in them, over time, you are actually saving money and the environment. We like to extend this idea to our beauty routines as well, focusing them around the idea of slow beauty - but what does it actually entail?
What is Slow Beauty?
Slow beauty is a lifestyle that takes into consideration the sustainable and ethical aspects of your daily routines, such as skincare and beauty. It allows you to question the environmental impact of your products and also teaches you how to take time for yourself and allow yourself maximum enjoyment from these daily rituals.
Slow beauty can be considered a holistic concept - that is, it takes all areas of your life into account. It’s not only about skincare but more so about wellbeing as a whole.
Getting a good night's sleep and making sure your body is getting a nutritional, balanced diet are both part of what slow beauty is, because at its core, slow beauty is a lifestyle choice.
It also takes into account the environment and promotes sustainability through every aspect of production. It raises questions as to how the ingredients are sourced and the overall impact it has on the world around us. Even the packaging itself needs to reflect the same ideology and supports sustainability. All these factors come together to promote the movement of slow beauty.
Slow beauty is less of an individual element, and more of a broad, and hopefully long-lasting movement.
Why Is Slow Beauty Important?
Our modern lives are often fast paced and when it comes to finding our beauty fix, many people head towards buying what is convenient for them. Those purchases can be made without thinking about the deeper roots of the product itself, such as its impact on the environment and even on your skin.
Taking the time to choose what products to buy can be difficult as we are so used to being bombarded with adverts, encouraging us to buy, buy, buy and having to deal with busy schedules. It can be tempting to jump on the next beauty trend simply because everyone else is!
Instead of buying into a trend that may come and go in a flash, slow beauty encourages us to think about what we really need from a product and make informed decisions on what we spend our money on. We are then able to really appreciate what we buy and know that it’s a right fit for us and not just a pressured purchase. If you want help with knowing what products will be a great match to your own skin type and needs, then you can book a free online consultation with our skincare experts for free.
Who Is Slow Beauty For?
Slow beauty is for anyone who cares about the impact that their beauty routine has on both themselves and the environment. Slow beauty advocates an approach from an ecological and responsible perspective, looking for ingredients that are ethical and sustainable. Packaging that can be recycled is great for the environment and just knowing you are doing your bit for the world can really be a boost!
It is also for those of us who want to sit back and enjoy our products, rather than rush through our daily routines. Slow beauty teaches us how to find luxury in anything from removing your makeup before bed, to have a relaxing bath with a gorgeous face mask.
Where Did Slow Beauty Originate?
The slow beauty philosophy originally flourished in California, but has recently become a growing global lifestyle choice for many people. The lifestyle movement has become the norm for many, presumably because of the peace it can help to bring to otherwise hectic lifestyles, allowing us to think about our actions and make positive changes.
Why you shouldn’t believe the hype when it comes to beauty products
The easiest first step in your slow beauty journey is to look for products that are natural, or better yet organic, to provide your skin with the purest of ingredients. Plant extracts and natural oils are things to look out for in your skincare. Nature has had millions of years to evolve everything your skin needs, short lived beauty fads and trends have not.
There are a huge number of skincare and beauty trends that have proved to either not work at all, or actually make your skin worse. These trends became popular online and through social media, leading to people worldwide trying them.
An example of a popular fad is applying toothpaste onto your skin to get rid of blemishes. This has been around for years and has been used by millions of people worldwide.
But it doesn’t actually work.
The idea behind the fad is that the toothpaste can dry out the spot helping it to disappear. However, typical toothpastes can contain ingredients such as baking soda, alcohol and even hydrogen peroxide which can all be very damaging on your skin. Instead of using toothpaste, try natural remedies to help your breakouts instead. Salicylic acid is a BHA that is derived from willow bark, and is excellent at treating oily and spot prone skin. It is an anti-inflammatory and helps to calm down the red, angry skin that can often accompany a breakout. You can find it in our award winning Rainforest Rescue Blemish Serum.
Once again, slow beauty proves a better fix than a fast beauty fad.
The science behind slow beauty - How skincare should work
Whilst making more environmentally friendly choices and thinking about your decisions is a big part of slow beauty, another core idea is that you should invest in your skincare and not expect instant or overnight results.
In a world full of quick fixes, it can be hard to see the benefit of using the same gentle products night after night. In reality, not only is it better for your skin in a lot of cases, but the results from those speedy treatments are only temporary - whilst investing in a quality skincare ritual sees slower, but longer lasting, results.
Slow beauty products focus on improving your skin's own functions, like the rate of cell turnover, so that the effects of the product can be seen working long after you apply it. It’s also good to know that the skin renews itself every 28 days on average and this rate slows as you get older.
It’s important to give your chosen beauty product time to work its magic, which is not possible if you like to product hop! It’s recommended to try a new product for at least 28 days to really see the benefits, something you wouldn’t be able to dedicate to if you’re jumping on board with a short lived fad.
So be patient - good things come to those who wait!
Simple changes you can make
There are lots of small, simple changes that you can make to focus more on slow beauty in our daily routines.
You can visit our Evolve ingredient page now to learn more about what goes into our products here.
Every Day Slow Beauty Routine
Taking time out for yourself is not only part of slow beauty, but also essential for mental wellbeing. Everyone loves to be pampered and the act of doing so releases endorphins, boosting your mood - so why wouldn’t you want to make that a daily occurrence?
- Recreate a spa environment at home and indulge yourself. Choose products that you are excited to use - taking your makeup off at the end of the day doesn’t have to be a chore. It adds an element of luxury to life when you look forward to washing your face!
- Take an extra couple of minutes to massage a cleansing balm into your face, really taking in the gorgeous scent. A facial massage has a wealth of benefits too, including stimulating circulation. You can find out how to do an easy acupressure massage here. It doesn’t have to take a long time, but a regular skincare ritual is a great start to a healthy pattern.
- Once you’ve finished, you could read for a quarter of an hour or so, allowing your skincare to sink into your skin (instead of smearing onto your pillow!) and your brain to reset from screen time. Then, it’s just the first step in a nightly ritual which helps you to get a good night’s sleep and have a fantastic day!
How we have implemented slow beauty here at evolve
A big part of slow beauty is being conscious of what you are buying, that is why at Evolve we have designed a lot of our products to be multi use. This means that our customers can get a lot of uses out of one single product, rather than having to purchase numerous products to do various things, helping to reduce waste and save money.
We aim for maximum effectiveness from the minimum number of ingredients necessary, and all of our products use the best natural and organic ingredients we can find.
One of our most popular products is our Gentle Cleansing Melt. This is a cleansing balm that soothes and hydrates the skin whilst helping to remove any makeup or impurities that have gathered on your skin during the day. We use natural ingredients like Baobab oil which has high levels of both protein and vitamin A. It helps to improve our skin’s elasticity and rejuvenate new skin cells, whilst being rich in antioxidants to protect the skin from free radical damage, meaning it is a great anti-ageing ingredient.
But our Gentle Cleansing Melt is also great to use on your hair, the Evolve team love using it as a hair mask! The antioxidant element of Baobab helps to protect your hair from environmental damage meaning that it leaves it looking more shiny, hydrated and healthier.
Our products are designed to be enjoyed. We put a lot of work in creating products that not only work brilliantly but also look, smell and feel amazing.
A great example of this is our face masks. Our Radiant Glow mask smells like chocolate, making it a real treat for you and your skin! It is blended with raw cacao powder and clay to revitalise and purify your skin. It also doubles as an exfoliator as it uses upcycled fruit particles to buff your skin to silky perfection. This mask is the perfect go to for a relaxing slow beauty routine to wind down after a busy day.
Upcycling is also a great way to get the most out of your beauty products. When you finish your next cream, why not reuse the jar and turn it into a pot for a gorgeous succulent plant? Our products are housed in gorgeous jars and bottles made from recycled glass, making them perfect to upcycle into something new, like a pot for your favourite small plant or a mister to help them flourish!
Why organic and natural are good for slow beauty routines
Products made with natural and organic ingredients are much better for both your skin and the environment. The fewer unnatural chemicals, the better. This means that the strain your slow beauty routine will have on the environment will be much much lower than if you were consuming fast mass produced beauty products and feeding into trends and fads that meant you change products often.
So, what do you need to start doing today to enjoy slow beauty?
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