If you’re into clean beauty, slow beauty is something you’ll definitely want to learn about. Slow beauty is all about sustainability and approaching beauty from an ecological and responsible perspective. So investing in products that have been made using sustainable methods with ethically sourced ingredients (similar to slow fashion!). It’s about using fewer and higher quality ingredients and products to minimize unnecessary consumption and waste. It’s definitely made me more mindful of the way I shop for and consume beauty products, especially as we’ve been forced to slow down and consider what’s actually “essential” in quarantine.
Slow beauty takes a step back from the beauty industry’s quick fixes that promise overnight results. It’s a more holistic approach to taking care of your skin AND your overall wellbeing. Here are a few easy ways you can incorporate slow beauty into your daily routine.
Daily self-care
Practicing slow beauty rituals doesn’t only focus on skincare tips and products. It also puts an emphasis on mindfulness and self-care. Daily self-care is about taking small moments out of your day to recharge and recenter yourself, whether it’s creating a healthier morning routine, taking a mid-day reset or unwinding before bed. Slow beauty rituals like at-home facials, self-massages, going for walks, dry brushing, taking a relaxing bath and getting enough sleep can help manage stress and anxiety by connecting you to whatever feels soothing and supportive to you. Self-care looks different for everyone – but I think we can all agree that when you feel healthier and happier on the inside, it’ll start to show on the outside!
Simplify your skincare routine
We’ve all become used to the 10 or 12-step skincare routines – but slow beauty actually focuses on quality over quantity. It puts an emphasis on the essentials – and slowing down your beauty routine can help you rediscover the value in the products you buy and use. It’s always tempting to jump on the next beauty trend – but just like slow fashion, slow beauty is about only buying the staple beauty products. I always like to do my research before I buy any new products. It helps me make informed decisions and encourages me to think about what I actually need. The idea is: shopping less means wasting less!
Read the ingredients list
This tip focuses more on the clean beauty you’re probably already familiar with. Clean beauty just means products that are safe for both human and environmental health. It’s been made with non-toxic, plant-based and sustainable ingredients, which helps deliver all the vitamins and antioxidants needed for healthy skin. I’ve personally decided to become more intentional with the ingredients in my beauty routine because of the strong link between harmful ingredients in mainstream beauty products and hormone disruption.
Non-toxicity and sustainability go beyond the ingredients that are on the inside. Slow beauty is also mindful of packaging. Eco-friendly packaging is usually made from recycled and materials that are biodegradable and decrease carbon footprint – and upcycling beauty products is a great way to minimize your impact on the environment (more on that below!).
Skip products that promise overnight results
Investing in beauty products is another core idea of slow beauty. Meaning you should invest in using the same gentle products night after night versus products that promise instant or overnight results. Results from those speedy treatments are usually only temporary, while investing in quality skincare products and rituals sees slower but longer and lasting results. High quality beauty products focus on improving and repairing your skin’s own functions like cell turnover rate, which starts to slow down as you get older.
Unlike mainstream beauty, I love how slow beauty discards the idea of “perfection” and promotes aging as a natural and beautiful process. It’s an unavoidable process – but it’s how we do it that counts. By nourishing and caring for our skin!
Upcycle beauty products
Being a mindful consumer can go beyond which brands you choose to support. Upcycling beauty products is a great environmentally-conscious practice you can adopt to make your beauty routine more sustainable. You can use empty candle jars to hold cotton pads or makeup brushes (or even to pot small plants!), turn palettes into jewelry cases or mini sewing kits when you hit the pan, clean a liquid eyeliner brush to use as a nail art pen or clean out an empty lipstick tube to use as a bobby pin holder. There are so many options!
How would you implement slow beauty into your beauty routine? I’d love to hear your tips and rituals.
