Looking for inspiration to become the best possible versions of ourselves this spring, we turned to Jane Iredale, president and founder of Iredale Mineral Cosmetics, Ltd. (the makers of jane iredale – The Skin Care Makeup), who shared with us five of the beauty mantras she lives by.
The best cosmetic you can wear is healthy skin.
“This has been my beauty mantra since starting my company more than 20 years ago. I’ve always said, ‘makeup should be a part of the skin-care solution rather than a part of the problem.’ Choosing clean, healthy makeup that actually improves the condition of your skin will boost confidence and is one of the first steps to seeing how beautiful your skin can be.”
Wear sunscreen!
“The sun is responsible for 80 percent of the signs of aging. There are excellent skin-care products on the market today that can substantially aid the skin in reversing sun damage, but they do no good without sun protection. Months of hard work can be undone in one morning working in the garden with no sunscreen, hat or gloves on.”
Find beauty in nature.
“There’s beauty everywhere you look, if you want to see it. For me, the key to finding beauty every day is to appreciate my life and life in general. I can look at a flower and be overwhelmed with a sense of appreciation for its beauty. I know it does my heart good, and that must impact my health.”
Eat organic, local foods.
“I’ve always been interested in organic food and I buy it whenever possible. My body won’t tolerate fried food, so I think avoiding that, combined with eating organic, works well for the health of my skin and my appearance in general. I like to start my day with a smoothie with hemp milk and add in what’s seasonal and local. When our vegetable garden is flourishing, I love to cook things I’ve picked from it just minutes before.”
Advice my mother told me, that I still abide by: Use cider vinegar.
“At the time, I thought she was a little nutty about vinegar, because she used it for everything. She would drink it–a teaspoon in water every day–and use it to clean the kitchen. But, it’s a wonderful antimicrobial, and it also normalizes the pH of skin. I do get a slight dermatitis once in a while, and I find that if I put cider vinegar on it, it goes away. It’s a wonderful trick.”