Bridging The Gap Between Beauty & Wellness

AAVRANI

Bridging The Gap Between Beauty & Wellness

What makes someone beautiful? Look at social media, beauty magazines, celebrities, etc., and you’ll notice that, in an attempt to learn about one another’s beauty secrets, we resort to asking – “what products are you using?” Obviously, this is a fair question. When applied thoughtfully, certain makeup and skin care products are scientifically proven to have transformative effects on how we look. Relying on products alone, however, has made us lose sight of the bigger picture. The answer to “what makes someone beautiful?” is a conversation that spans much wider and goes much deeper than beauty products. In fact, topical treatments on their own serve as a small contributing factor to overall appearances.

Topical treatments are a small contributing factor to overall appearances

So, what else drives Beauty?
Sleep. Exercise. Nutrition. Mental health. Essentially, beauty in its truest form is achieved as a result of overall wellness, which requires us to nurture our whole selves – mind, body, and soul. Seems obvious enough, right? Biologically, when we’re sleep deprived, the skin around our eyes gets dark, baggy, puffy. Sure, certain products can cover all that up temporarily, but it’s not a real solution as it doesn’t tackle the real problem, which is lack of sleep. By ignoring the root causes around many of our beauty-related concerns, we stay wrapped up in appearances, temporary solutions, and quick-fixes. At AAVRANI, we’re acknowledging the impact that our lifestyles at large have on our appearances because ultimately, beauty is a derivative of wellness.

Okay, then what drives Wellness?
Wellness is defined by the active pursuit of good health. And what’s “good health”? It’s sleep. Exercise. Nutrition. Mental health. As such, we understand that real Beauty doesn’t come in a jar; it emerges from the inside out. If you’re consistently sleep deprived, for example, even the cult-favorite Glow Activating Exfoliator on its own can’t make your skin appear fully rested. We know that. That’s why Indian-inspired Beauty – otherwise known as Ayurveda, and as we coined it, “I-Beauty” – is gaining so much global traction.

Bridging the gap between Beauty and Wellness
Don’t mind the gap; there isn’t one. The rest of the world is starting to understand the inextricable link between Beauty and Wellness, too. We’re bridging the gap between the two concepts at AAVRANI because, according to the generational knowledge passed down from our Indian ancestors, beauty and wellness were never really separated in the first place! Wellness is the input. Beauty is the outcome. Unfortunately, the Global Beauty Industry thrives when consumers believe otherwise, so the big Beauty companies continue to emphasize a narrative around “instant results.”

An Ayurvedic approach to beauty
Our definition of beauty is rooted in our Founder, Rooshy Roy’s experiences around handcrafting her own beauty treatments with her mother in Michigan, and grandmothers in Kolkata. That’s often the beauty culture in Indian households around the world: making beauty formulas by hand with organic ingredients, such as turmeric-based face masks, coconut oil-based hair masks, and sweet almond oil-based body treatments. Since I-Beauty is predicated on the fact that beauty is largely a result of holistic wellness, our definition of beauty addresses the small part of our overall appearance that remains at the mercy of the products we use. Our approach to beauty addresses the question: how can we maximize the benefits of our beauty routines?

Five ways to implement an Ayurvedic approach to beauty, for healthier, more radiant skin

1. Use Clean Beauty Products. The concept of Ayurvedic Beauty understands that what makes us appear beautiful involves so much more than externally applied treatments. At the same time, we believe that our beauty products must meet certain safety standards. Since there is no strict regulation on beauty products in the US, many widely-distributed beauty products remain popular among the masses despite being riddled with “at risk” ingredients. For more detail on our approach to product formulation and stance on clean skin care ingredients (otherwise known as Clean Intentions), check out Our Clean Beauty Philosophy. TLDR; Clean Intentions is a bottoms-up approach to skin care formulation, whereby individual, all-natural ingredients are added for a specific purpose, with intention (e.g., organic turmeric for inflammation and raw honey for hydration)

2. Adopt an Ayurvedic Beauty Ritual. Elevate your mindset by transforming your skin care routine into a skin care ritual. What’s the difference between a routine and a ritual? The intention behind the action. Ever catch yourself slapping on products as quickly as possible, just to get it done? That’s a routine that lacks intention. (We’ve all been there!) Routines are focused on outcomes, while rituals are focused on the process. Routines optimize for completion, while rituals optimize for performance. At the highest level, routines approach life as a duty; rituals approach life as a celebration! Reframing our mindset enables us to transform our skin care routines into self care rituals by honoring the mind-body-soul connection, which is what we all need to foster beauty from the inside out.

Try practicing skin care with intention by creating a ritual around the mask application process. Instead of scrolling through your phone, or occupying yourself with mindless tasks, you can bring yourself to the present moment by meditating while your face mask dries.

3. Be Consistent. Maintaining that healthy, lit-from-within glow requires consistency and patience. We’re done with those temporary, quick-fix solutions, remember? They never last. In order to achieve long-term results, we must be willing to give new regimens at least six weeks of regular use, without swapping among products in between.

4. Remain focused on the bigger picture. Let’s imagine you’re doing all three of the above (Go you!), but after weeks of consistently practicing your clean beauty ritual, you experience a sudden breakout. Yes, there’s a chance that it was caused by product, but it’s also very possible that the breakout is due something else. Have you been feeling especially stressed lately? Enjoying a balanced diet? Drinking enough water? Getting enough sleep? You have mastered the art of the holistic approach when you’re zooming out and checking in with yourself through the lens of overall health and wellness.

5. Protect your mental health. Eurocentric beauty standards, the rise of image-altering apps like FaceTune and Instagram filters, and increasingly accessible cosmetic enhancements and procedures make it all the more difficult to feel beautiful in our own, natural skin. It’s important to remember that ultimately, our self-esteem serves as a filter through which we view the world and ourselves. That’s why protecting our mental health is a core tenant of beauty and the basis for its approach