Living Your Values in the New Year

It’s a new year. It’s time to look forward, and consider how you are going to live more in tune with your values and beliefs. What are you going to do so you can lead a more meaningful life and bring out all the fun, creativity and new experiences which are at the heart of who you are and what you do?

In a world of so much noise and so much choice, sometimes having so many options can be overwhelming. How can you choose?

However, one of the amazing things about the way we live today, and the way society and commerce are shifting, is that it is possible to live more in tune with your values and beliefs.

Here at School of Natural Skincare, we’re blessed to live in the UK. It isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and there are still ways we hope to see society progress forward, but we love the fact that here, people are free to think, act, and speak their personal truth.

Of course this isn’t 100% true in all cases, but overall, things are becoming more open and accepting—and we think that’s a good thing.

Natural Is Mainstream

For example, the natural and organic movement is now no longer considered “alternative.” It’s mainstream, no longer looked down upon as odd or unusual.

People are free to seek out the organic food they prefer, adjust their tastes to suit a vegan or vegetarian diet, or be thoughtful about where they source their produce, meat, and dairy.

Natural health food shops, therapy rooms and homeopathic pharmacies are popping up in every village, town and city.

And the natural skincare market is now the fastest growing segment of the cosmetics industry globally.

More and more people are seeking holistic therapists from herbalists, aromatherapists, shiatsu practitioners, reiki practitioners, acupuncturists, massage therapists and beauty therapists. Yet, when my parents were in their younger days, they said all you had to rely on was the GP really.

Yoga is being practiced by people all over the country, but my yoga teacher tells me stories of how campaigners and protestors rallied outside his yoga studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s. All they were doing was stretching and meditating.

Now, instead of seeking out herbs, oils, and incense in a small speciality shop the next town over, you can find them in a grocery store or in a mainstream shop. The founder of Star Child told me how people campaigned to have his shop closed down in Tewkesbury and then again when he moved it to Glastonbury. All he was selling was herbs, oils, and incense!

Our Part to Play

One factor that we believe underlies all of this change is that collectively, we are gaining in awareness of the effects of our very existence on planet Earth.

The rise of all things eco-friendly and sustainable is in response to the air and water pollution, the vast rubbish dumps, the waste and destruction across once pristine environments, as well as the consequent results of climate change.

At the same time, we’re seeing the rise of the vegan movement as we begin to question our treatment of animals, our place amongst all living organisms and our responsibilities as the most evolved being on our planet.

Even those who do not choose veganism are becoming more aware and thoughtful about how animals are treated, conditions for manufacturing and production or various animal products.

Now that we know we have a choice—and that our choice really does make a difference—we’re making a choice.

In short, we are all becoming a little more conscious, more ethical, more green, eco-friendly, more organic and perhaps a little more ourselves—and we’re beginning to wonder how we can become connected to the natural world again.

Empower Your Choices

Whatever values guide you—whether you choose organic, natural, halal, vegan, fair trade, ethical, sustainable, cruelty-free products in your daily life—one of the great things about natural skincare is that when you make it yourself, you can make it your own.

You have the power to create something meaningful, unique, and personal. Something as good as—if not better—than store bought products, for a fraction of the price. And you can do it in a way that embraces your deepest values and beliefs.

So, instead of expressing our natural and organic values by only buying them from elsewhere, like the health food shop, organic food market, when we make our own natural and organic skincare products, we’re not just buying our values, we’re living them, expressing them, and making them—and by the same token, we’re making our own individual values-based movement that much more vibrant and bigger.

It can be hard to find products that conform to our own set of values, needs, preferences, and desires. But when you make them for yourself, the world is your oyster.

When you buy a product, it takes a moment to make the decision and feel good about conforming to our values, but when we make them, we get the excitement of thinking about the ingredients, wondering what we’re going to create, the joy of making them and then the huge satisfaction of using them and seeing the benefits they bring.

You can then take your masterpieces and share them with other people.

We’re not saying stop putting your money where your values are, of course! Please continue to support the businesses that reflect what is precious to you.

But if you make your own, who knows? Maybe one day, you’ll be the one selling the products that other people buy, and resonate with, and cherish.

Live Your Deepest Values

At the core of all of this is the idea that we do have choices, we do have the power to express our deepest values. We do make a difference with our purchasing choices, and we can effect change when we take ownership of creating our own natural products. Little by little, change has come, and it will continue to come if we keep pushing on.

There has never been a better time to enjoy living and expressing your deepest values, and there has never been a better time to join the natural and organic skincare revolution.

In years gone by it was silenced, kept at bay, but as more and more consumers become wise to what’s in the products they use, the growth and demand for natural and organic alternatives has come on strong.

It is here to stay—and those in the industry know this.

Many of those large global cosmetics companies are having to change their plans and offer natural and organic alternatives to their synthetic products.

Go to any cosmetics conference today and the big topics are vegan products, natural products, organic products, and sustainable cosmetics.

But you don’t have to wait for commercially-made products to get with the program. You can start today. You can start choosing to live your values, expressing them through the products you make.

When you learn a skill, you aren’t buying your values, you’re living them. It becomes a lifelong process and builds joy.

Getting Started

Your next steps depend on your goals and where you are right now in your current skincare journey. One thing is true for everyone, from a complete newbie to an advanced formulator: Whatever you think you’d like to do, learn and become, it is entirely possible!

The great thing about making your own natural skincare products is you don’t need to be a scientist.

All you need is the interest, a passion for all things natural and organic, a willingness to give it a go, and the desire to devote some time to learning and practice. Your confidence will build as you study and apply what you are learning, and begin to make products.

If you haven’t ever tried making your own products, that’s okay! We created our Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products online course to meet the needs of absolute beginners.

Instead of digging through stacks of poor-quality advice (and there’s so much of it out there) or learning by trial and error (and error, and more error) you can get everything you need to know in the Certificate course to start making skincare products straight away.

Working from our hand-crafted selection of foundational recipes, and incorporating up-to-date information and professional-quality advice on mixing, safety, and storage, you’ll be well ahead of the DIY method.

Learn about suppliers, ingredients, and equipment. Watch videos and refer back to audio and text again and again, switch up ingredients to make it customized, and study at your own pace.

You got this!

If you’ve been making products for a while, followed some recipes, or had a go at making them yourself without recipes, the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation might be a fit for you! Especially if you have some questions, or have experienced some problems with your past batches, and need some troubleshooting.

With the Diploma course, you’ll learn how to make your own products from scratch just like a professional, rather than needing to follow a recipe.

This course will teach you the start-to-finish design and development process of skincare products, and will take your skill and knowledge to a whole other level.

We’ll also help you and show you how to weave your values and beliefs into the products you want to make, and we’ll go one step further to get you ready to make products that are good enough (and safe enough!) to sell.

We’ll explain what you need to do to comply with cosmetic regulations.

So, if you are looking for a way to express yourself, live your values in a way that is fun and creative, and learn skills that can translate to a meaningful business, then we’d love to welcome you to one of our courses. Start the New Year with focus and purpose, and learn how to formulate natural and organic skincare products like a professional.

If you’re not sure you are ready for that yet, then perhaps start with our Free Natural Beauty Recipe Book.