Talking with Katie Kurpanek of Eco-Minded Mama
Recently, just in time for Mother's Day, I sat down for a conversation with Katie Kurpanek of The Eco-Minded Mama Podcast. Katie, the ultimate real-life, anti-greenwashing protagonist, runs the Eco-Minded Mama Collective. This is where Katie shares tips and knowledge mamas need to live sustainably. And, importantly, enjoy being less stressed! If you, too, want to reduce your carbon footprint while decreasing your anxiety levels, you'll definitely want to check out Katie's membership. This includes a step-by-step video course along with a judgment-free, online community. And way more good stuff than that (in fact, too much to mention here)!
I love this. I'm an eco-minded mama, too. (I arrived late at this role). I've long been passionate about our planet and living sustainably. I was very excited to go on Katie's podcast where we could talk, mother to mother, about how skin health, slow beauty and sustainability can exist together. What follows is everything I want to share with Katie's audience.
The Story behind Slow Botanicals
I’ve always loved plants, herbs and botanicals. Plants, of course, stay put in one place. I, on the other hand, have spent pretty much my entire adult life moving around and renting! And so, I had to be creative about how I could include plants in my life. Even without being rooted myself, I always found ways to work with plants and to learn about botanicals. Finally, 7 years ago, my husband and I bought a home with a yard, on a rural peninsula in the Pacific Northwest. It was totally a dream come true. The garden went in the first spring, but before that even happened, taking my kids along, I went out harvesting wild botanicals and transforming these into skin care products. Since I was a teenager, sustainability has been top priority for me. And I’ve worked in healthcare, too. This means my mission has been to create healing, pure products that do no harm. That’s how Slow Botanicals came to be!
You Really Only Need 3 Products to Sustain Beautiful, Healthy Skin
That’s right! If you want beautiful, healthy skin, you have to keep it simple. We’re told constantly that we need to use a lot of fancy masks, scrubs and serums filled with lab-created or lab-extracted ingredients. Most of those products are what I call tough love products. They don’t come without a cost. Others are like junk food. They come in fancy colors and fragrances that might appeal to your senses, but they’re anything but good for you. If you want beautiful skin, you need to nourish and nurture your skin. You need to feed your skin whole ingredients. And, like I said, it’s best to keep it simple.
The Only 3 Products You Need for Healthy and Beautiful Skin
A moisturizing soap, a day cream and a night cream.
Here's Why You Only Need 3 Pure Skincare Products
The key to great skin, whether that’s getting great skin for the first time, or maintaining the great skin you already have, is to keep what is called your skin barrier, healthy. Keeping your skin barrier healthy is a combination of what you do put on your skin and what you don’t put on your skin.
Moisturizing Soap
You need a soap to wash away the air pollution that lands on your skin each day. And to wash away dead skin cells and oils that clog up your skin pores. But soap isn’t all created equal! You want a highly moisturizing soap, a soap without fragrance, and ideally, a soap that contains botanicals known for skin healing.
Remember that if the soap is extra moisturizing, the oil in the soap will carry the botanicals down into your skin, where the botanicals can work their magic.
Let's talk more about the reason you want a highly moisturizing soap: A healthy skin barrier is a hydrated skin barrier. When your skin has issues such as flaking, redness, eczema, allergic reactions, sensitivity, rosacea, psoriasis or other issues, it becomes dry. At the same time, when your skin IS dry, it’s more likely to develop flaking, redness, sensitivity, eczema, allergic reactions and all the skin diseases.
And then all these problems grow exponentially worse because it's a positive feedback loop.
This means you want to make sure your skin can stay hydrated. That’s most important.
What are the other factors that damage your skin barrier? They’re sun exposure, air pollution, chemicals, sleep deprivation and changing hormones. Age plays a small part. A very small part!
What we usually call signs of aging are actually the signs of the other sources, especially sun damage. The right skin care products, containing the right botanicals, can deal with all of these.
Day Cream
During the day, you want to use a day cream, along with a physical, zinc-based sunscreen. A day cream that contains beeswax is a great choice. The beeswax protects your skin from air pollution and it holds in the oils contained in the cream, and also holds in your skin’s moisture. Being antimicrobial, beeswax also helps prevent skin infections. Calming botanicals are good for the day, as you and your skin travel about in the world. Lavender and Wild Rose are perfect examples of calm. Remember, your skin is both your bridge and your barrier to our world!
Night Cream
At night, your skin is controlled by your circadian rhythms and is doing important work for you. Skin renewal and rejuvenation are at their peak at midnight. This includes the repair of UV and pollution damage that took place during the day. And prevention of infections. This renewal, along with naturally occurring exfoliation, is essential for pretty skin. There are botanicals that can help skin cells renew at a faster rate, and also that allow the dead skin cells to slough off on their own (without a physical exfoliant). It’s great to wear these botanicals at night. At 4am, your skin is at its peak for its ability to absorb botanicals that are in oil-based or water-based products. A water-based product, such as a lotion, will probably have evaporated by the time 4am rolls around, and also contains a host of extra ingredients to keep the product from growing mold. On the other hand, an oil-based night cream, especially when blended with beeswax, will still be inside your skin. It’s extra great news if this oil-based product contains botanicals, because there are botanicals that are documented to: 🌿prevent and decrease dark circles 🌿make your skin more elastic 🌿reduce UV and air pollution damage 🌿slow down and reverse wrinkles 🌿increase exfoliation so your skin is soft and smooth-brighten your skin 🌿reduce acne (calendula, plantain, poplar bud) 🌿heal wounds 🌿 It's wonderful to take advantage of these benefits while you sleep. You'll find these botanicals in Slow Botanicals🌿
Why Do Guarantees of Fragrance-Free, Dye-Free and Cruelty-Free Matter?
Want Healthy Skin? You Have to Go Fragrance-Free and Dye-Free!!!
It's extremely important to use fragrance-free and dye-free products. Both dye and fragrance, including essential oils, make the skin more sensitive and eventually, create chronic allergic reactions. I’ve written a post about this on my blog. Both sensitive and allergic skin, caused by fragrance, lead to dry skin and dry skin skin leads to all the many skin issues, including wrinkles, redness, eczema and so on. Dyes contain minerals that not only are bad for your skin, but are also dangerous to the people creating your skincare products. Even so-called natural and safe dyes aren’t actually safe. Frequently, the “safe” minerals in these dyes are contaminated by unsafe minerals that don’t make it on the labels. The dyes are usually in a powdered form that is breathed into the lungs of the product maker. I’m not willing to risk my health, or that of my family, in the name of making a product that’s supposed to be meant for healing and beauty. I make my products pretty AND safe!
Cruelty-Free Because Humans Aren't the Only Beings on this Planet
I don’t believe that it’s only human health and comfort that matter. This is one of the reasons cruelty-free is important to me. It’s also important to me to set this example for my kids. To let them know we care about other beings, beyond humans.
The Best Skincare has to be Sustainable Skincare
Sustainable is essential.
I use eco-friendly packaging. I use certified organic oils. I harvest all the botanicals, myself. I harvest ethically, if they come from the wild. The rest of the botanicals I pick, come from my own regenerative , organic garden. This all allows me to ensure the highest quality of all the botanicals I include.
Obviously, the best skincare has to be sustainable skincare. If I can’t make the best available products out there, I don’t want to make any at all!
Listen to the podcast now and get your coupon for 15% off your entire Slow Botanicals order - just make sure to use your coupon before Mother's Day 2024!
