DOES INNER BEAUTY EQUAL OUTER BEAUTY?
Enlightening or empty promises? The latest treatments and elixirs are as much about what you can’t see as what you can, but do they deliver?
Beauty is more than skin deep. While it’s a phrase we’ve all heard before, it couldn’t be more fitting for now. These days, beauty companies are as concerned about what goes inside the bottle as what’s going on inside your body, from gut health to our state of mind.
Naturally, as zesty chemical peels, Botox and fillers become commonplace, the beauty pendulum has swung to cater to a more holistic approach in line with the current wellness Zeitgeist. Put simply, if your skincare isn’t served with a side of wisdom, then is it really delivering all it could be?
It’s no secret that skincare has long been rooted in ritualism. From the resourcefulness of ancient Egyptians (think Cleopatra’s milk baths and kohl) to the meticulous regimens of geisha and, most recently, the laborious 10-step routines popularised by Korean skincare aficionados, beauty has always been about more than outward results. Now more than ever we’re longing for a sense of balance beyond the surface level, and if the side effect happens to be smooth,
glowing skin, then all the better.
“Inner beauty, as cliched as it sounds, is a feeling and it changes the skin,” says Fumi Yamamoto, founder of Zen Facial and Sydney’s fairy godmother of inner and outer alchemy.
Her facials, which start with an abdominal diagnosis (involving gentle prodding of the stomach) and move on to deep-tissue facial massage with little recourse to products, have gained popularity among models, beauty editors and overworked executives. Yamamoto says her facials are more like a “structural renovation”, and combine alternative therapy practices such as aromatherapy, lymphatic draining and reflexology. No tingly peels or fancy light machines here.
Despite the often floaty connotations associated with intangible elements of skincare, beauty brands are increasingly focused on delving beyond the surface, too. A poster girl for the ‘inner health equals outer beauty’ movement, Miranda Kerr infuses rose quartz into every product within her skincare line, Kora, for its “gentle, soothing energy”.
The brand’s Noni Radiant Eye Oileven has a nifty in-built rose-quartz ball applicator, which, if nothing else, feels soothing and distributes the exact amount of product.
According to researchers at Japanese heritage brand Shiseido, the skin, mind and body are intrinsically linked.
“We’ve studied how beauty emerges from within our skin and, to do so, we studied beyond cellular biology,” says Nancy Woo, national training manager at Shiseido.
The brand’s latest elixir, Essential Energy Moisturizing Cream, incorporates patented ReNeura technology, which is a fancy term for the way cells communicate and transmit signals to help repair and regenerate.
Likewise, a handful of beauty brands, from niche to blockbuster, are focusing their energy on, well, energy. At the forefront of skincare technology, Lancôme launched Énergie de Vie a few years back and it quickly became a best-seller for the brand. Meanwhile, Yuni, an emerging beauty brand that is stocked at Sephora, is steeped in mindful beauty.