With a hundred things on your weekend to-do list (namely, brunch, yoga, meal prep, and binge watching This Is Us) your few hours of self-care time come at a premium—so you’ve got to make them count.
To help you maximize those hours, we teamed up with expert herbalist and aesthetician Barbara Close (the visionary founder of Naturopathica who’s been a longtime pioneer of holistic beauty) to clue you in on how to make your self-care practices most effective—and to celebrate the launch of her new book, The Naturopathica Effect, which is basically an owner’s manual for your skin through a holistic lens.
And what better way to celebrate than with an entire afternoon devoted to wellness? We did just that at our Self-Care Sunday event at The Assemblage’s high-vibe penthouse, which Close filled with her luminary wisdom on all things skin care.
“I had a wellness wakeup call with Barbara,” Well+Good co-founder Melisse Gelula said of her first interaction with Close more than a decade ago (so yeah, she’s got some legit knowledge to drop).
The main takeaway: that achieving beautiful skin involves more than just smearing some moisturizer on your face (though that certainly helps). “The essence of beauty lies within—when we feel our best, we look our best,” Close said in an interview with W+G. “Ultimately, beauty is an attitude, an approach to living.”
Scroll down to read Close’s 3 suggestions for amplifying your self-care repertoire—plus see photos from the totally Zen event space.
Close’s first piece of advice for making your wellness practices more impactful is to stop viewing self-care as superfluous—which is why she prefers to call it “well care.”
“Well care isn’t self care or pampering,” Close said, referencing the feelings of selfishness that are sometimes associated with the concept. “It’s a time to connect with our inspiration and push back against anxiety and stress.” Word.
Second, Close says to listen to your skin, because yes, it can actually talk to you. “At Naturopathica we believe the skin is reflective of everything that’s going on on the inside,” Close said. “Skin personalities help us get a little deeper.”
Skin personalities is how she groups skin “types,” and are based on factors like your hormones and stress levels rather than just how dry or oily your skin is. She elaborates on the concept behind skin personalities in her book, which every event attendee got to take home (and get signed by Close).
Finally, Close advises not to overlook the skin microbiome, which is just as important as the microbiome in your gut that your daily kombucha habit supports.
“So much in skin care is of the no pain, no gain mentality: Use the highest strength products on your face that you can to correct some problem,” Close said of the popular viewpoint in the skin-care business that’s contrary to the Naturopathica ethos. “But it’s often disruptive to your skin microbiome.”
A good place to start is with a probiotic-packed beauty product—like the Manuka Honey Cleansing Balm or Kombucha Bio-Cellulose Mask that guests took home in their swag bags.
To put her well-care advice into practice, we kicked off the afternoon with a 15-minute rock-and-roll meditation led by Biet Simkin—which was so rock-and-roll that it drove up a lot of emotions in the room.
As the meditation ended, the room dissolved into chatter, and most partners embraced (even if they had never met before the event!). In short, the good vibes were definitely flowing.
Then, Well+Good readers were able to meet with Naturopathica specialists to determine their skin personality—either Stress Reactive, Hormone Reactive, Mature, or Adaptive—and learn more about how to support it.
Once they discovered their skin personality, skin-care enthusiasts could meet with a Naturopathica aesthetician to get a personalized facial designed to replenish the skin microbiome with probiotics and botanicals.
One-on-one herbal consultations helped guests discover the teas, tinctures, and essential oils to best support their everyday health and vitality (because your skin personality is about more than just what you put on your skin).
Armed with knowledge from their herbal consultations, guests could swing over to the tincture bar to whip up a soothing elixir or tea customized to their needs.
Across the room, self-care enthusiasts were treated to deeply relaxing chair massages, while others soaked up calming vibes at the aromatherapy station with scents meant to inspire self confidence, induce calm, or promote mental clarity.
Well care includes filling your belly with nourishing foods, and there was no shortage of those. Guests snacked on deconstructed Kolanji lettuce wraps, Vitality Bites (from a recipe in The Naturopathica Effect), and CBD-almond butter cups for dessert.
The drink menu featured elixirs with Naturopathica tinctures (to help with things like purifying the skin, cleansing the liver, or soothing sore muscles) and herbal teas.
And because it’s not really a self-care Sunday unless you snap a pic, Simple Booth’s boomerang station was a hit for documenting the day. Sunday totally well spent.
Missed out on the good vibes? Catch Close at Naturopathica’s Chelsea spa on October 23 for facials, herbal massages, skin personality consultations, and more. Click here to RSVP!
In partnership with Naturopathica
Photos: Tim Gibson for Well+Good
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