Holistic Beauty Workshops – My Soul Project

The origin story and my driving forces

My skin and my whole facial expression haven’t always looked this luminous and fresh. I’d see myself as the ugly duckling throughout most of my teenage years and young adulthood. Truth is I looked pretty ugly, not because I was actually ugly (another blanket statement crafted by a society that favours shallowness and rigid labels, rather than individuality and possibilities), but because I was often feeling disempowered, angry at myself and lost (symptoms of constant criticism and lack of support in finding the proper environment to shine my light in) and that showed on my face. The more I took my soul and heart out, the more I listened to my body’s real needs, the more I leaned into nature and the nature within – the more magnetic and uplifting my energy, the more luminous my skin and the more radiant my full expression became. I invite you to explore your own journey with me during my workshops.

Not a big fan of BEFORE & AFTER, but this might be a good context for it, so here’s an “old me” vs a “new me”, about 25 years apart:

In the countless interactions with the women in my make-up chair (although not necessarily restricted to this context) I hear so many struggling with their skin, in various forms, but what I also hear, which is even more important, is a lack of confidence in regards to the healing power of their skin, a confusion on what else they should be trying (often focusing on just products or dermatology prescriptions), and a general helplessness and unawareness of what the underlying causes of their symptoms or struggles might be. I am also seeing and hearing women looking for the perfect product (be it mainstream or green) to magically erase the issues with their skin (or their feelings of disconnect and not belonging, for that matter), while their nutrition and overall relationship to food, their exposure to toxicity (be it the beauty and household products they use, the food they eat or the environments and people they expose themselves to) and their emotional health are questionable to say the least. There's a rush to fix oneself (whether it's about something visible or not) but little to no space for deeper breaths, for sustained meaningful relationships, for permission to rest or allowing oneself to be in an ongoing (healing) process. 

I also see women allowing others to define or distort their perception of beauty, hence they start questioning their worth, individuality and inner value, while adhering to TRENDS, INFLUENCERS, NARROW BEAUTY STANDARDS and fear-mongering MARKETING TACTICS.

“What does beauty truly mean to you?", "What makes you feel beautiful?", "How do you cultivate beauty in your own being and life?" – These are some REAL questions I invite you to reflect upon and that we will be addressing, with openness and gentleness, during my workshops.

It is so important that we use those tools that we were naturally wired with before we succumb to less sustainable sources that provide temporary relief. Let’s not forget that our native and biological connection to NATURE and PLANTS can provide so much healing to our overall well being. We need to start looking for better anchors and models in life. We need to resist the urge to fall into the trap of a consumerist and individualistic society, telling us how to be, how to dress, how to feel and what to look like. It’s not easy, I know it too well, but little yet consistent changes and habits will lead to a bigger and more impactful leap of faith. Go find those people who can support you in all your realness and messiness. THOSE ARE YOUR PEOPLE.

“Most of what beauty culture calls flaws – pores, wrinkles, under-eye bags, cellulite, adipose tissue (fat) – are just basic human features. They’re positioned as flaws for profitability’s sake. (Think of all the money you’ve spent on creams and concealers to “fix” a fixed, and therefore unfixable, trait.)” writes Jessica DeFino in yet another powerful and thoroughly documented article, for her column, “Ask Ugly”, in  The Guardian.

Going deeper…

There’s a polarity to how we perceive beauty nowadays. It’s either dismissed as trivial and shallow or, to the other extreme, there’s this almost addictive focus on external beauty, an urgency and a pressure to conform to standards and defeat age. I am a container of none. I have a sense and a growing awareness of the fact that I’m here to find and plant the seed of a middle ground. I want you to live and leave these workshops with a sense of awe, curiosity, playfulness and gentleness in regards to the beauty in and out of yourself. And to remember that HEALING (your body, skin or soul) is rarely, if ever, about FIXING or finding the PERFECT, IRREFUTABLE ANSWER. “When beauty is used as a way to celebrate yourself and the space around you, rather than approaching it as way of “fixing”, there’s the opportunity to connect with self on a much deeper level.” (Violette Serrat)

We live in times of debilitating angst and overwhelm, and contrary to what your rational mind might whisper, it’s actually a perfect and a much needed moment to turn to BEAUTY as SELF EXPRESSION and CONNECTION, so we can create a place of wisdom and lightness that we can further invest into helping others and finding creative solutions to whatever we chose to stand for. It’s a domino effect. We are not designed to linger in this constant loop of worry and chronic stress. Imagine how much worse this world would look and feel like if we were all immersed in feeding into and absorbing the energy of this collective misery. We need Beauty, and this is a perspective we will flow with during the workshops.

“Often we are uncomfortable with our own beauty. This is because so much of the narrative that exists around beauty, is that it’s egoic; that if we embrace our radiant, regal, beautiful, bountiful, blissful selves then we are vain, boastful, and egotistical. The list goes on, so we shrink, stay small, reject or hide from our own inherent nature, beauty and Gifts. We’ve often been programmed to negate our own beauty, but celebrate everyone else’s. Yet embracing your beauty is the key to true freedom in owning who and what you are.

Your beauty is meant to be celebrated. When you own it, you become the most magnetic person in the room, despite what you’re wearing, how your hair looks, if you have make-up on, etc... Owning your beauty creates an aura around you that makes you irresistible.

Remember, what you don’t own, owns you.“ Lisa O’Connor, “The Beauty Book”

Workshops offerings

What you can expect my beauty workshops be like:

🌱 An opportunity to connect deeper with your individual needs and the needs of others in a cosy, creative and uplifting space.

🌱 An invitation to explore alternative ways of seeing and expressing beauty.

🌱 An experience for all senses with a focus on beauty-beyond-the-surface and authentic interactions.

🌱 A playful and colourful way to engage with food through my homemade healthy treats.

🌱 A chance to learn about the power of plant based beauty and how to incorporate it in your skin care rituals.

🌱 A mindful gift you can offer yourself or a loved one, and an immersive experience amidst the present noise.

🌱 A fun and engaging, but also grounding way to spend a Saturday/Sunday morning.

🌱 A call to togetherness, letting go and slowing down.

What my beauty workshop won’t be like:

🔴 A lecture with bullet points and powerpoint presentations where I am the teacher and you the students taking notes. There’s going to be frequent interaction and I encourage you to pay attention to your breathing, share your struggles and learn from others as well. 

🔴 A place for diagnosis or rigid recommendations.

🔴 An opportunity to hear about quick fixes.

What you will get out of it:

⭐ A mind-body-spirit approach to understanding and loving your skin.

⭐ The opportunity to be specific on your individual journey and the challenges you are currently facing in regards to your (skin) health. Having your needs heard.

⭐ Learning about the rituals, tools and practices I use to keep my health in balance.

⭐ The opportunity to go beyond the surface and address the cause of a skin issue.

⭐ Learn more about food as medicine and indulge your taste buds with my homemade healthy treats.

⭐I am doing a DEMO with most of my workshops, so you’ll have the opportunity to experience a makeover preceded by a mini skin cleansing and massage ritual.

⭐ The benefits of a private lesson, plus the interaction with a small group. All workshops will have a maximum of 6 participants, so there's space for individual nurturing.

⭐ A follow-up email with notes from the workshop, as well as custom product recommendations based on your individual questions and concerns.

Before the workshops there were my private lessons…

I started teaching my private lessons at the onset of the pandemic. At first, I thought this new pursuit was driven by loss and a need to do something to compensate for a sudden lack of jobs, which was in part true. Yet with every 1:1 encounter, it became clear to me it was more than that - a catalyst for growth and a pivotal moment showing me where my light shone the brightest, and unlocking this innate super power in a way that it benefited others as well.

I didn’t want to teach rules or techniques. I rarely do, and when that happens I also teach people how to break them and loosen the grip on external beauty as yet another mask to show oneself in the world. I’d notice so much rigidity, toxicity and shallowness around the definition of beauty, hence towards what women, in particular, experience through it. I craved to deconstruct fabricated needs for fixing oneself and go deeper into what creates that need in the first place.

I also see women being so invested in perfecting a technique, or getting frustrated that they “don’t know how to apply make-up professionally” and so they “stick to foundation, concealer and mascara”, as if it’s either or. I can feel their hardness. Truth is, I never saw make-up (or skin care, for that matter) as a way to conceal or go against ageing, as a fix or a technicality, and I absolutely love instilling this lighter mindset and sensations in whoever is seeking my guidance. I love seeing how their jaws relax when they release this inner pressure, how the corner of their mouth lifts and how their playfulness and desire to experiment comes to the surface. As is for myself, the more I let go of my sedimented need for control and perfectionism, the lighter, more playful and expressive I get in my practice, and it’s what I’m planting further.

The multipurpose and holistic approach of my Beauty Workshops

The workshops came as an intuitive addition to my private lessons, making room and holding space amidst the current noise for finding pleasure and self nourishment through meaningful interactions and deep conversations. They stand as an intersectional experience, glueing together some of my most valuable passions, skills and innate abilities, all becoming ONE in the context of these gatherings: 

A fascination with everything SKIN, holistic practices and a green kit. I grew up loving nature and spending a lot of time amidst it, so adopting the same principles in regards to my kit and practices only came naturally. I strive to educate others about the benefits of being a mindful consumer and use natural, plant based cosmetics as opposed to synthetic, but also to look beyond skincare and makeup when dealing with skin issues, which are often symptoms of a lifestyle as a whole. With building a green kit for both my personal and professional use, bettering my choices as a consumer and stepping into a more sustainable way of living that favours THRIVING to mere SURVIVING, I also became more and more fascinated with skin - our largest organ and the first contact to the outside world - always hungry to go deeper into its nuances and manifestations. I started leaning into its truth as a highly complex and intelligent living organism with an intrinsic ability to heal and regenerate. Our capacity to trust our skin’s innate intelligence has a deep connection to our capacity to trust ourselves. The health of our skin is one of the most powerful indicators of the health of our internal and external environments. Holding space for whatever shows up on our skin means looking for the WHYs instead of the WHATs and how interconnected everything in our body is. We set the intention to create health rather than focusing on suppressing symptoms. A symptom is an important message telling you to take action, it isn’t telling you to silence or suppress it!During the workshops, we will be delving deeper into both the external and internal beauty realms while I aim to give you hints on how to nourish your entire body, mind, and soul in the process of navigating your skin’s landscape. I have extensive knowledge on and I particularly love working with skin of colour, mature skin and sensitive skin, so the space I am creating is great for catering to all these needs.

A healthy and healing relationship with FOOD. I've had a keen interest in functional nutrition since I was a teen. (I am currently a FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION student with Mindbodygreen Institute.) This particular journey was a prerequisite for my green beauty practices, which brought me to a point where I can't talk about one without mentioning the other (particularly skin health without nutrition). During the workshops I am addressing food as medicine and its ability to enhance creativity, aid the skin's healing process and nurture your overall wellbeing.

A keen aesthetic eye. I have a penchant for bringing a splash of colour and creativity to any thought or activity. Food is definitely a good example of that, and you’ll get the chance to indulge your taste buds through a selection of homemade healthy treats and colourful lattes that will set the tone for the whole experience during the workshops, uplift your mood and stir some delicious conversations around it. Another reflection of my personal creative touch is in the energy and aesthetics I surround myself with in my home environment, and so it feels like a great idea to hold my workshops in this space that I decorated from scratch. It’s in alignment with my offerings. Most people who step inside, either for a short moment or for a longer stay, describe their experience as a mini retreat.

Two decades of conscious healing and searching for my BLUEPRINT. Beyond the more obvious mending process and the descent into the deepest crevices of my upbringing and conditioning, in an attempt to tend to my inner child and make sense of my demons (manifesting in various forms throughout my life, like anxiety, panic attacks, chronic insomnia, digestive issues, hypervigilance, anger, a debilitating need for control), there was something else that rose to surface: a curiosity about how much healthier, more fulfilled and more connected we can live our lives, outside this conditioning and imprints that our upbringing and society have instilled upon us since before we were even born.

During this personal healing process (which is never ending) I’ve learned a thing or two on how to bring my whole being back into a state of homeostasis and how to prioritise my heart and soul over my mind, whenever life throws tantrums or I fall back into old patterns of behaviour. I’ve learned how everything impacts everything in my body, and that I shouldn’t linger too much on symptoms or names (of ailments or diseases) but go deeper into various layers of my being. By sharing my favourite tools and practice to ground myself and create balance in my body, I am sending an invitation for you to slow down and approach your skin’s health and overall wellbeing compassionately and holistically.

A commitment to live a life in tune with and guided by the richness and seasonality of Mother Nature. My appreciation of nature also brought out a curiosity to learn more about the healing power of plants. Attuning my body’s needs to nature’s rhythm has been another powerful source of healing for me and I continue to grow with it. “We are nature, and nature is us. We are made of the exact same essence. When looking at the physical body to heal, renew or strengthen our innate vitality, nature can be our biggest teacher and most beautiful mirror. In our physical manifestations we aren’t static, we don’t stay the same and that’s the beauty of being in a physical form, and this is what nature mirrors back to us. She is constantly shifting, dying, regenerating, and shifting seasons. Nothing stays the same, as everything is constantly evolving to a higher expression of growth, beauty and life.” (Lisa O’Connor, “The Beauty Book”)

A people gatherer. The more I was diving into organising these workshops, the more I realised that their real value stems from a deeper, subconscious turned conscious desire to create small communities, particularly in times like these when individuality and individual success are praised, yet we find ourselves feeling so lonely and unsupported. I shine when I allow my intuition to connect people and contain their energies in a safe and uplifting space.

Stepping into my Zone of Genius

It came to me in recent years (at an upfront conscious level) that I always thrived and found fulfilment in those endeavours where I held space for putting my innate abilities to good use (hence tapping into my Zone of Genius) and in the hands of a purpose beyond my own ego, while lessening the focus on the outcome and the “what” at the same time. My most valuable ideas and offerings just spring and germinate from my whole being, they throw me in a state of flow and glimmer, they feel big, meaningful, scary and dim at the same time. There’s a magical energy to them, which I am often unable to grasp in its entirety at the beginning. They grow in time and I grow with them, which can sometimes create a sense of frustration, but I’ve learned I need to slowly step into my power, consistently show up and let go of a single definition of what they are and who I am in relation to them, and allow myself to be imperfect in the process of sharing them with the outside world.

In one way or another, I’ve always rebelled against norms, standards and any kind of conditioning (something that is even harder to navigate when one didn’t grow up with a bucket of self worth and trust in her power, yet very rewarding when everything I stand for, the way I move through life and how I show up are in alignment). As a child of nature, I’ve always been a natural at perceiving the BEAUTY BEYOND THE SURFACE. In retrospect, I can see many different moments, small or big, embodied in this ability, and it was only later in life, when I threw myself into the creative industry, that it started to take a more palpable shape – through my artistry, but even more so through my propensity for attuning to people’s needs and different energies, uplifting a mood or connecting souls in an environment where they felt safe and cared for. I invite you to step into this zone with me! 🧚🏻‍♀️🌱