If you have seen on my instagram account (linked up in the top right corner) I have been posting some highlights of mine. These highlights include people, brands and concepts that are doing good things for people, planet, business and innovation.
Continuing on from my Instagram series, these are two brands I wanted to highlight in more detail.
Axiology Beauty
I discovered this brand via Instagram and love their ethos. Created in true start up fashion, the founder, Ericka Rodriguez formulated her lipsticks in her kitchen. She found fault in the vegan lipsticks available and created a formula that is ‘100% evil free’. Their ingredients list is minuscule, as products contain 10 or less ingredients. What I love the most about them is their ‘balmies’ that come in various shades. They may seem small but they have the same quantity of product as standard lipsticks just minus the packaging. The paper wrappings and boxes are made by women in Indonesia who collect paper rubbish and recycle it themselves, by hand. This helps to provide jobs for women and tackle local litter!
Treatment by Lanshin
Treatment by Lanshin is a ’holistic healing studio’ for skin health and focus treatments on Traditional Chinese Medicine. The founder Sandra Lanshin Chiu, has a Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine and continued studies in this area. Most recently her treatment tools, have become something the brand is known most for.
The wellness industry has morphed into a similar monster to fast fashion, churning out products at increased speeds. The face roller and the Gua Sha are just two examples of the fast awareness and accessibility of new trends. To add further to this topic, the rise of these wellness tools as a hot new trend has also been subject to cultural appropriation, through brands and influencers selling and incorrectly using these products. To be clear these treatments aren’t new and have been used within Chinese families for years as a healing treatments.
It is important for consumers to understand the culture of these practices, performed by people in China to help with overall body wellness and immunity. Facial Gua Sha, which is a popular wellness technique, is derived from traditional body Gua Sha. Gua sha‘s and face rollers can offer different experiences and effects depending its material, mainly, jade or rose quartz. After learning which material is best for you, the technique is also important. Using a method shown by a trained practitioner is essential to get the best results. As these tools become accessible for home use, this is where influencers can become problematic if they do not use correct techniques.
Gua Sha is about keeping your Qi moving around your body, and flush out toxins that can build up in our facial muscles as we do not use them as much.
Lanshin has spoken about cultural appropriation in the TCM sector in terms of both products and technique. It is important that these culturally specific techniques do not get lost within the wellness community. Moreover, I hope brands do not hop along just to receive the profit, and consumers educate themselves before purchasing.
[photos from axiology and Lanshin‘s Instagram pages, edited by me]
[information from respected Instagram pages, websites and previous research from articles on Hayou, Harpers Bazaar and Cult Beauty about Gua Sha]
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