449: Ayurvedic Beauty Rituals, Skincare + Self-Care with Lisa Mattam

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self Podcast. A place to discuss what makes you your soul's highest development. If it's your first time listening, welcome. I am so grateful to be reconnected with you in this lifetime. If you're here every week, year after year. Yes, let's get this shit popping. So self care, it's obviously a term that we've all heard, but I feel like we talk about it more than we actually do it. And self care really is a radical act of reclaiming our power because in this capitalistic world that we are in, we are always pressured to achieve, to produce, to be of value to the machine that wants us to keep giving and giving and hustling and hustling and grinding and grinding. And you know, our rap songs we've listened to from We Were Kids promote that style of living. I'm a hustler, baby, I'm a hustler. So right now, here we are healing our nervous systems and we're like, oh shit, I've been hustling my whole life. And something as simple as taking a bath is like this radical act because it's reclaiming our power and bringing the focus back on ourselves and what's important. And so many of us. And it's beautiful to see. I see on TikTok people are talking about slow living again and not being in a rush and trying to be as productive as possible. But instead, how can I enjoy my meals, how can I enjoy my conversations and how can I enjoy my self care practices? For those of you who don't know me, my journey really began with Ayurveda. Ayurveda is the sister science of yoga. Based on the mind body connection. It's really a science. The word literally means the science of life. Ayurveda Veda is an ancient Indian system. It's really about attuning to the natural cycles of nature and earth and seeing those cycles, those seasons within you and bringing balance to the seasons of yourself with the seasons of the earth. So it's really based off of these three doshas, these three energy types. Vata, which represents the air, the wind energy. So think qualities of the wind and the air. It's, it's cold, it's dry, it's ever changing. So if you have specifically on skin care and hair care, which we're going to talk about in this episode, so if you have a cold body temperature, you have dry skin, eczema patches, dry hair, and you tend to get more bloated gassy, constipated. You have a vata imbalance, too much air in your system. And that's the dosha that I'm predominantly the highest in. What brought me to my Ayurvedic journey is I had such a bad vata imbalance that I couldn't digest food because I was in so much pain. And I stopped getting my period for over two years because my body went into perimenopause when I was 21 years old. Through Ayurveda, I was able to heal myself. So vata, cold, dry, low hormones, low period, low body temperature, body pressure, everything is kind of like blown out. Then we have pitta, which is that fire energy. So think fire. It's hot, it's inflamed, it's aggressive, it wants to go, go, go. So we have a lot of this in our society because think of the energy of New York City. That's like a pitta energy right there. It's just, okay, what'? What's on the agenda? Keep it moving. But that fire can erupt into a volcano, and that's the energy of burnout, which is such a huge, real epidemic that's happening right now. So if you, in your skin, you feel a lot of rashes, you're inflamed, rosacea, redness, just any form of inflammation and irritation, as well as acne. So if you were someone that struggles a lot of acne still, maybe you have adult acne, this is a sign of a pit and mouth, that heat is rising and trying to leave your system. So you're experiencing a pitta imbalance. Now, final dosha is kapha, which is the earth energy. If you are someone that's a little bit slower to change, you tend to hold on to emotions, you tend to hold on to energy, you might hold onto calories, have more bigger bone structure, thicker built, your friend just can eat whatever they want. And you just look at the food and you feel like you're gaining weight. That can be a kapha imbalance. If you have mucus, phlegm. If you're someone that you know, if you eat a little bit of dairy, you're going to get all this mucus and sinus stuff.

That's kapha.

If your skin tends to actually be more balanced, kaphas do tend to have the most regulated skin. It's a little bit thicker, it can be cool and clammy. Maybe you have combination skin. That's a sign of kapha. Kapha tends to get more, just like congestion in their skin. We can really look at these doshas with everything. I've written two books about them, Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda, which teaches you everything you need to know about the doshas with nutrition, self care, yoga, meditation, as well as my book, Eat, Feel Fresh, which is all about Ayurveda and using it in a more modernized, plant based, alkaline focused approach. Because the world has also radically shifted from the earth that we were in 2,000, 10,000 plus years ago, even 50 years ago, the earth has shifted. So it looks at Ayurveda from this lens of seeing our ecosystem today and how it's shifted. So those are great places to start. Now in this episode, I'm really excited because I actually get to ask a lot of skincare questions to someone who's an Ayurvedic skin care expert. So her family is from Kerala, India, which she shares with us, is really like the epicenter of Ayurveda around the world. And she shares with us why that is. And it has such a special place in my heart because I started going there on my own when I was 23 years old. And it was a big place of spiritual awakening for me because it was completely by myself. I did not know a soul there. And I just had. I would just be on this, like walking through the plantations in a house book and just like thinking about my life. So that was a huge turning point for me. And I actually went back to shoot the photography of my book Eat, Feel Fresh in Kerala. So she, her family and her lineage is from there. So she speaks about that experience growing up with just. They didn't even call it Ayurveda because it was just their way of life. And then I also ask her a lot of questions about skincare hair care that we think about today because she also has a pharmaceutical background. So she combines like modern Western medical background with this ancient, more intuitive Ayurvedic background. So I asked her questions around, what do you suggest on hyperpigmentation? What are your thoughts on spf? What are your thoughts on hair loss? And all these different questions that frankly I'm asking for myself. But I also ask things that were not so relevant to me and it was really great to hear her answers and just to really give ourselves that time and attention. I feel like so often we're just doing whatever skincare we've been doing since we were teenagers. We actually talk about how so often those things that we are marketed as teenagers, like the clean and clear commercial were so toxic and we're just like, how are we doing that? And it's surprising because you see a lot of people, what they have in their makeup bag or self care products are just what they're used to, that's just what they buy. And you just don't have time to think about anything else. So sometimes you need to look at, okay, what am I putting on my skin on a daily basis? Because I could be eating the cleanest diet, but putting chemicals on my face all the time and that's still going into my bloodstream and producing toxicity. So I have switched years ago to completely clean skin care, hair care, which has been so helpful for me. I really barely do anything to my face. I feel like the less I do to it, the better it is. So I've never used any kind of soap. Most of the time I just wash my face with water to be honest, unless I'm wearing makeup. Then I'll use an oil based cleanser. So we talk about oil based cleansers, we talk about hair care. Like I only wash my hair once a week max because I want the natural oils in my hair to remain in my scalp. And sometimes I'll go longer than 10 days, to be honest. And people ask me, well, doesn't your hair get really oily? And the answer is no, because my hair is used to it now. And the way that I started this was, I mean, probably when I was in high school, I would like wash my hair every day because that's just what you thought you were supposed to do. But then I started to go like every two days, every three days, every four days. And I just let that time span continue to increase that. Now my hair really doesn't get oily. I really never have greasy hair. I will also say I tend to be more on the dry side of things, but for me, washing my hair just dries my hair out, that I want to do it as as little as possible. So we talk about different hair masks you can do. I share other tips that I do for hair growth. And this is just such a beautiful conversation because the divine feminine path to spirituality really is the path of beauty and self care. And we speak about how that's so missing, especially in our postpartum world, and how to bring more of that beauty and ritual and intuition and self care back into our lives. So this is an amazing conversation for you to just feel nourished and you're going to walk away from it definitely wanting to change up your skincare for sure and just give yourself that self love that you deserve. So, without further ado, let's welcome Lisa to the Highest Self podcast. And before we get into this week's episode, I am so excited to share that I am offering a free sample class from the Dharma Coaching Institute curriculum, especially for those of you who are interested. You're curious, but you want to get a little microdose of the experience. And this is our masterclass, all about the energetics of sales. So if you're someone that really wants to create a business for yourself, coaching, maybe one day you see yourself writing books, launching a podcast, speaking on stages. But the whole, like, sales and marketing part feels really overwhelming. Well, this masterclass is for you. I dive into reframing what making an offer really is about, which is actually making an offering, and allow you to see that a lot of the limiting beliefs that we have around sales comes from the fact that most sales in the past have been around things that we don't actually need. Think a used car, which actually is a lemon. But when we are offering our gifts as a coach, we are helping someone step into the highest version of themselves, which truly is the greatest offering that we can do. So we don't need to have that same shame or weirdness around it, but we can actually see it for the gift that it is. So if you're curious you want to dive deeper into this topic and experience a sample class of Dharma Coaching Institute, you can head over to my show notes and try the masterclass right now. Also, I'm so excited to announce that doors are officially open for Dharma Coaching Institute for our October class. So once you download the sample class, you'll get all the details to join us for our Early Bird special this month. I'm so excited to see you inside. Welcome, Lisa, to the Highest Self podcast. It's so great to have you here.

Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.

The first question I'd love to ask you is, what makes you your highest self?

Oh, gosh, you're starting with the big guns. What makes me my highest self? This is going to sound a bit. And so I'll explain it because it might sound a little cheesy or trite, but it's when I'm in flow, I think that far too often I am however you want to say it. I'm a pitta. I'm a fire energy. I like to be on the go. But the hard part about that is that it's constantly, what's next? What can I achieve? What should I be doing? What isn't enough or just thinking, overthinking. And what I've really realized is if I spend my time in flow and even sometimes in the wellness world we get into, well, I should have a better morning routine or I should get up at 5 or I shouldn't watch Netflix. Being in flow to me is like letting go of all the shoulds, is giving up all the judgment, is giving up all the pressure that I put on myself and just giving myself the opportunity to live. And that's, that's not my highest self.

I completely agree with you. In fact, yesterday I went to this water therapy called Watsu. Have you heard of this before?

No. Tell me.

So basically you lie down in the water like you're floating. They put these little floaties on your legs and someone is just swaying you in the water. So you have to completely let go of control and really be in the embodiment of trust and surrender. Otherwise you're going to be kind of splashing. And it really is such a powerful practice of just trust and release that in our society we all kind of become pitt imbalanced because when I say pitts of people who don't know, it's like excess fire energy because our nervous systems are hyper aroused and we feel like if we're not constantly doing and responding and staying on top of things, we're going to fall behind. If we don't fall behind, we'll lose our jobs. If we lose our jobs, we won't be safe. So having those practices that we can literally be in flow and using the energy of the water, to me I was like, wow, I don't have any practice in my life that I'm completely trusting and surrendering. So even just one hour of having that embodied experience for the rest of the day, like I lost that desire to be like, okay, like what's next? Because my body was just in a different vibration that I was just like, I'm just going to be and flow and receive and maybe creativity comes through, maybe it doesn't. But not doing it for the sake of, oh, I'm going to chill so then I can come up with a better idea. But just, just doing it for the sake of you're a human being.

Absolutely. And I think we do that all the time with our routines. Like I need to get up and I need to journal for 10 minutes and then I need to meditate for 10 minutes and I need to do this. Then doing it for 20 days and saying, well, I'm not better or haven't accomplished. But you know, we Forget that the reason for all of these practices is to let us in our being. And I had a similar experience. I went to see an Ayurvedic practitioner who focused on aesthetics. And so she did a shirodhara, which is an Ayurvedic hair oil massage. She gave me a facial. And at the very beginning, I don't know what I must have been doing. My shoulders were up at my ears. I have no idea. But she said to me, it's okay, Lisa, trust the bed. The bed has you. And I actually felt my shoulders fall. And I had the same experience when it was over. Oftentimes I'm ready for the next move or ready for the next action, or if I'm in an environment like that, like, is there a pool? And all I just thought was I'm just going to sit and just enjoy feeling this surrender. So that's. Yeah, there's something peaceful to that.

Yeah, I feel the same with the shoulders going up. And it's almost like you're bracing yourself for something to happen. It's this, your body's protection mechanism that I notice when I just become aware. And anyone listening to this right now, just be aware of your shoulders and let them drop. And there's just so much more space there that we don't allow ourselves to have because we're bracing for the next thing. And you know, back in the day, we were bracing from a lion or, you know, an incoming hurricane. But right now, now it's from emails and social media posts and all these things that are, that are constant. So I think just being in that embodied experience, and that's why Ayurveda and self care are so important, because it really reclaims your power. All of the ways that we give up our power to the outside world, which is what makes us become shells of ourselves. It's like, no, I'm not only worthy of receiving, but who I am is nature. So of course I'm going to give back. So I'm super excited to, to talk to you about your family. Being from Kerala, India, which is just one of my favorite places on earth, I actually shot a lot of the photography for eat, feel fresh. In Kerala, I went to Soma Theorem, the first ever Panchakarma center in Kerala. So I'm very excited. So can you share with me a little bit about your background, your family, and for people who've never heard of Kerala India, how this really is the motherland of Ayurveda?

Yes, absolutely. So it is more of a history lesson than anybody wants to learn. But basically, when the British came to India and there was this real interest by the British to really minimalize or even rid the country of traditional medicine. And so what happened was Ayurveda went underground is the best way to describe it. And in doing so, it went to the farthest south of the country, which is in Kerala. And Kerala, if you've never been to India, but you can imagine it sort of being almost like a triangle with the bottom tip. Kerala is the southernmost state, and it's along the Malabar coast, and it is this most beautiful state. It's lush, it's green, and it remained relatively untouched by the British compared to the rest of India. And so Ayurveda transmitted there. And now, as we say, when we think about Ayurvedic study or when we think about going on an Ayurvedic retreat or I met a Vogue beauty editor who said to me, I'm going on an Ayurvedic retreat. And I didn't even have to look. I said, where are you going? And she showed it to me, and I said, you're going. And so that is where my parents are from. That is where my grandparents, generations of my family have lived their lives. And I continue to have so much family there. And we have a family home there. And my parents grew up on these beautiful plantations, for lack of a better word. It's a rich, beautiful place. And so for my parents, we didn't. They didn't say the word Ayurveda when I was a kid growing up in Toronto, Canada. They just made it life. And for them, I even think it was so much of life, because whatever the ailment, whatever the struggle or whatever the proactive measure around your health, you look to what was in the kitchen, from your spices and your food, and you look to what was in the garden. And those practices I can remember throughout my life. I remember being seven and going to India, getting very sick, because I always got really sick. And my cousins always thought I had this horrible constitution or something, that every time I traveled to India, I would get sick. And I remember that's my first memory of seeing an Ayurvedic practitioner. But also, I remember my cousin, I had another day where I was feeling really sick, and he took a nutmeg and he told me to bite it. And he said, that'll make the feelings of nausea subside. And he was right. But what was also amazing about it was I think I made a face when I was doing it. And he said something like, You've got to respect the process. This isn't Western medicine. It's not going to come to you in a pill and you're not going to taste it. You have to respect the process. And so this is generations of my family really enjoying these practices and celebrating these practices and using them from everything from an upset stomach to a rash, to acne to hair. It was something that was practiced widely. And so for me, being the daughter of immigrants, being first generation, my parents, I saw it through their lens. Growing up in Toronto, if my first acne was met with a little turmeric paste, when I would fall on the floor as a kid and cut myself, they'd make this little dough and it would have turmeric in it. We would make face masks with eggs and yogurt. There was always things that they were doing and. And again, we didn't use the word Ayurveda, it was just the way that we did things. But it was very intuitive to them. And then it became intuitive to me. And I think what's important about that is that it becomes not only, you know, I look at Ayurveda and I look particularly at the beauty practices because that's the world that I live in. But those ingredients are time tested and they're high performing and I know that to be true. But when you know in your heart and into, in your intuition that they are this incredible gateway to wellness and to beauty, it just, you know, many years later, after all of my life of being in the corporate world and studying and doing all these things, I just had to go back to it. I had to go back to where I started.

And it really is so entwined with our spiritual practice because as we become more conscious, we become more conscientious around what am I putting in my body. You know, so many of us as kids, every time we had a slight sore throat, antibiotics, we ate junk food. I remember my mom would make this like Persian stew and I was so embarrassed from it that I wanted to eat lunchables because, you know, she couldn't mess that up, you know, so that led to me being overweight and having asthma and so many different things. So our food, but then also our skincare. I remember in middle school seeing those commercials for like those acne cleansers that had those little dots in it, like those little plastic dots, and I was like, I need that.

I love that. I remember I bought a cleanser and it would be so drying. I used to think that was what made it work. Like it would see it on tv and it would like, suck every element, moisture out of your skin. And I'd be like, this is it, this is it. Or you'd buy the ones with all the grains that felt like you had taken sand from, you know, sandpaper and put it all over your face.

There were ACUV commercials on teenage shows. And I'm like, I need acuv. You know, and it's like, that's a prescription medication.

I know it's very complicated to navigate as a kid and to navigate, as you say when you talk about your Persians too. I was the same. I remember begging my parents for Chef Boyardee. I don't even know if they still sell this at the store.

Commercial.

Yeah. And I wanted. And I remember having a sleepover, my first time having a sleepover. And I said to my dad, don't do any of your weird stuff in the morning. No meditation, no lighting candles, Just make pancakes like everybody else's dad does. Now I go there and I'm like, will you meditate with me? Will you teach me this? And so it is really full circle the way that we do these things. And it's amazing again, when you think about the things we were exposed to or we strive towards because we saw them on TV and we thought that they were right, that we could go back to this place where what we saw and experienced at home was actually more for us.

And I feel like our skincare products, beauty products, home care products are sometimes some of the last things that change. Because you might change, okay, I'm going to stop eating junk food and eat healthier. But then you might not realize your synthetic Febreze that you're putting all over the place, or the candles, Yankee candles that you're lighting, or, you know, your secret deodorant or your whatever, cetaphil cleanser. And not those brands specifically, I'm not trying to name you guys. I'm just thinking of the most common things that you just, you're just so used to. You've been doing it for 20 years and then you're like, wait, that needs to change too. So specifically on, on Skincare, I feel like a lot of people are still using really like, harsh soaps because they're afraid. Because we've been trained, if you're not scrubbing your skin clean every single night, you're going to have this like huge buildup and it's going to turn into acne and blackheads. So you need to like have a three step, really intense synthetic cleansing process. So how can we start to, like, look at cleansing our skin through a different lens, especially with Ayurveda using more oils?

Yes. So I'm happy to talk about this. And for starters, that was exactly what set me on this path. I came home one day, and so I have two children, but at the time, I was pregnant with my second, and my daughter, she was home with a babysitter while I was working, and she had gotten into my skincare. She had it all over her, her face, her arms, everywhere, super thick, the way that kids like to play with things. And I remember looking up at her at the top of the stairs and having so many emotions, like thinking, oh, my gosh, you're so cute, thinking, oh, my gosh, it's like a million dollars on your face that you've used. But also being immediately concerned about what the chemicals from my skincare would do to her face. Because everything I bought at the time would say anti wrinkle or anti fatigue or turn back the hands of time. And I just said to her, look, if these are the things, this is what you want to play with. And it makes sense that want to play, this is what you play with. And I took her by her hand and I took her to her room, and there were all these bottles of oils that my parents had brought back from Carola. And I said, if this is what you want to play with, this is what you should play with. And in that moment, I thought to myself, oh, my gosh, if my skincare isn't good enough for her, then it certainly isn't good enough for me. And like you, why had it taken me so long to get here on my journey? Because I think of myself along this sort of wellness journey. You know, I started practicing yoga young, but I do love my junk food. There's all these things. So I would never claim that I'm the perfection of anything. But I've been on this journey and I thought, why did it taken me so long to get here with my skincare and with my beauty products? And I think it's because when we buy beauty, much like you said, all we care about is the results. We want it to be anti fatigue or anti acne or anti redness. And that's all we care about first. And we spend no time thinking about what else is in it. And Ayurveda teaches us that one, those challenges are often the result of imbalances. And so what we need to do, one, start from within. So, yes, I have a skincare brand, and yes, you know, I believe in the beautiful products. And I come from pharmaceuticals, so it was really important to me that I proved these, that these Ayurvedic products work. And so we have clinicals against them. But one, Ayurveda teaches us that we have to start from within. So understanding if you're dealing with acne or redness, where does that come from? Because those are symptoms of other things, right? Redness is inflammatory. We talked earlier about Pitta. If you have so much fire in your body, you're going to feel hot, you may get reflux, you may get indigestion, and then you're going to get redness on the face. So you want to start with that. And then when we think of products that are going to keep you in balance and products are going to immediately do that, then you want to start looking as Ayurveda has a gorgeous armamentarium of ingredients that can really help your skin. And then when we think of cleansing, which I know is your original question, you know, Ayurveda has long since believed that there's no greater active self care than anointing oneself with oils from head to toe. Toe. But cleansing with oil, which you can now find at Sephora, at Ulta, you name it, wherever, has been happening in Ayurveda since forever. And so the beauty of cleansing with oil, and this is just now getting into the technicalities and especially for anybody who wears makeup, is like, dissolves like. So the moment that you start cleansing your skin with oil, if you have makeup, dirt, any of those things, it's going to instantly lift those things. And interestingly, oil is one of the only things that can break spf. But what's beautiful about oil, and depending on the cleansing oil, oil that you use, and with ours, you have a surfactant. So it's not going to leave your skin beady, but it's going to leave your skin cleansed, but hydrated and kind of with this sort of glow, which is essentially what the goal is. The goal is not, you look tired, you need to fix this. You look like this, you need to fix this. You have wrinkles, you need to fix this. The goal is like, you're gorgeous. We just want to nurture that inner and outer glow. And so starting with an oil cleanse, I can tell you the moment I started cleansing with oil, I can't go back because. Because from a very functional perspective, I do wear makeup. So it's going to remove my makeup, my spf, I can put it right into my eyelashes until they feel like hair again. And Then from a more taking care of my skin. It leaves your skin cleansed if you use moringa, which is what we use in our cleansing oil. Moringa is also. So moringa is a green leafy plant. They cook with it in Ayurveda. My parents cooked with it in our food. They often put moringa leaves into lentil dishes, into different dishes. But moringa is also a proven anti pollutant, so it's proven by clinical. So this is not, you know, me talking about Ayurveda, but in Ayurveda, historically it was always used on the skin because it was known for its cleansing ability and its sort of ability to spark in or glow. And so moringa, in developing countries, they put the seeds of moringa into dirty water so that it can pull the toxins out of the water and people can drink it. So now you've got a really powerful ingredient in a beautiful cleansing oil that you're putting on the skin. It's going to pull out toxins, it's going to help get your skin in balance, but it's not going to do with the old scrub or the old. And I was about to start thinking of brands too, but the old, like clean and clears, which is what I was obsessed with. And no shade on those brands at all. But more like we had this very traditional feel. None of that needs to happen. And you can get your best skin. And we have people who've said to us, I've changed nothing else, but now I cleanse with your cleansing oil and the difference on my skin. And even for people who have acne prone skin, they're like, really, I should use oil on oily skin? And it's like, yes, because we're all about balance. You strip all the oil from your skin, guess what your body and everything is going to do, it's going to make more oil. It wants to get you in balance. And so it's using products like this that are going to keep your skin in balance. What I would say is, as you're looking at your skin care is to really be careful because people love the words natural and they love green and they love putting pictures of trees. I remember when I first started my journey going into a big, big retailer and saying, can you show me a natural product? And they handed me this product and a picture of a tree on it. And I said, is it natural? And he was like, I don't know, but it has a tree on it, so it must be. And so it's really understanding that. And there are retailers who do that work for you, and there are brands that do that work for you. What I would say is finding those key places, whether it's again, a retailer brand that can really do their work and really make sure that you're getting super efficacious products, but without whether it's the stuff that you want to be weary of or the added ingredients that are going to strip your skin.

So is it safe to put oil around your eyes?

Yes. Oh my gosh. Why? Yeah, I don't know why. There's no reason why it wouldn't be. I guess my question back to you, Is it because people are worried about milia or they're worried about the skin? So everybody has to know their own skin. That's the one thing. Like I could. There are people who could take an aloe vera plant, open it and put it on their skin and have a reaction. And so. So there are ingredients like aloe vera that are generally regarded as safe and so most of us can use it. And oils around the eye. Absolutely, absolutely. And actually one of my favorite things around the eye, if you want to grab it from your kitchen cab or you're going to smell like cooking, but is ghee. Ghee around the eye is so beautiful. So ghee, if you haven't, for your listeners, if they haven't used it before, is almost like clarified butter. So it's where the butter has been heated in, the milk solids have been removed and it's considered to be a very. In Ayurveda, it's revered for its abilities to promote immunity and all of these different things. But around the eyes, it's full of butyric acid, it's full of fatty acids, and it's really great at helping to minimize dark circles around the eyes. So people would think that why would I put almost butter around my eyes? But you. Absolutely.

Hmm. And can you tell how good an oil is for your skin based off of the fact that your skin has completely absorbed it, or do certain oils just tend to kind of stay on your skin a little bit more?

So it depends how much you use. It depends on the oil and also depends on what you want. So some people want to look dewy, they almost want to look oily. When you're applying an oil, you don't need more than a dime sized amount for your whole face. And most of the time, if you. And depending on the oil that you use. Again, moringa is a beautiful oil. It's full of vitamins and nutrients, but it's also considered a universal Oil. So on dry skin, oily skin, combo skin, it's going to absorb so it's really to what you want. There's I have a girlfriend who, she often jokes, she's like, I want to look oily. I want you to run into me on the street and feel like, you know, the glare off my face is blinding you. So for a person like that, yeah, add extra oils. But that isn't necessarily the measure of how well it's working. The measure of how well it's working is how it adjusts to your skin and what oils in particular you're using. So you want to use high quality oils. And Ayurveda. Ayurveda favors blends. So Ayurveda rarely says, like, this is the oil you should use for this and this is the oil you should use for that. Instead, it favors blends and often infused blends. So if you look at a hair oil, of course, go and use your coconut oil, go and use your sesame oil. But Ayurveda in fact says, okay, make that we're going to use coconut because it does this and sesame because it does this. And let's infuse it with some herbs, like some bhringraj, which is like the false daisy plant. We're going to do that and it's going to really be a potent herb that's going to help with the structure of the hair and the fullness of the hair. And so it's as much about the blend than the fact that it's an oil and an oil itself.

And are there any oils that you suggest not to put on the face?

Now I would really caution anybody about putting essential oils directly on our face. They smell amazing. But you would be amazed at how many people do because neem, for example, is a really great oil for acne. But I've had a lot of people who said, like, I put neem directly on my acne, the same neem that they would use to spray a tree because it's an anti inflammatory and an antifungal and that could have severe damage. And the other thing with essential oils that you want to be careful of is that they're photosensitive, so you could be getting a light burn from them. And so you want to be careful of how much essential oils are in. Those are the ones that I would really probably for the most people want to be able to use them. And you know, we use them sometimes, but in very sparing forms because there's everything sort of has its usage. So frankincense for example, smells incredible. But on your skin the therapeutic uses is actually quite small. So that you can get all the benefits and smell and look like royalty, but not have the impact of putting it directly on the skin.

Totally. And what are your thoughts on spf? As a lot of people, most people say SPF every day, it's really needed. But I also hear people in the natural beauty space who have different perspectives. Some say that SPF has chemicals in it. So don't use a barrier based based spf. I'm curious, you having a both pharmaceutical background and Ayurvedic background, what is your take? Are you doing SPF every day? If so, which type?

Yeah, so I am a big advocate of SPF and from a few different vantage points. So as someone who's darker skin and I've gotten a lighter, you know, I get hyperpigmentation easily. If I get a pimple, for example, even if I don't do anything, I don't pick at it, I don't do anything, it's going to stay on my face. And then. And so one of the main reasons I favor SPF is to protect my skin is to really protect it from sun sensitivity, to protect it from hyperpigmentation, to protect it from sun damage, all of those things. And I do tend, so it's interesting, I do come from pharmaceuticals. And so my background is that I want people to not just indulge, but really get the benefit of all these beautiful natural things. But we really have to understand the scientific reason. Many, many, many years ago, our ancestors didn't have worry. We've done so many awful things to the earth. We've done so many things awful to the ozone. We've done so many awful things that the sun that was on my ancestors years ago is not the sun that's on our skin. And that's what I would really take as your first and foremost when people say to me, oh, but my grandparents didn't wear sunscreen. We're living in a completely different world where we've damaged the layer around the sun. We know we have uva, uvb, all of these different things now coming onto our skin. So I'm a huge advocate of it. I tend towards the cleaner sunscreen, so I tend towards the ones that are barrier reef friendly. So if you were to go swimming with them, you're not going to be damaging the oceans. And actually the state of California is now going in the process of banning those. That'll take some time. And I'm in favor of the more natural ones, but even the more natural ones in order to say SPF 35 or SPF 40, these are highly regulated things. And so I'm in favor of you buying SPFs from Very True and legitimate sources so that you know that the work has been done and the research has been done and all the study work has been done to actually say that it's in fact that spf. Because one of the challenges we actually have in the natural world is someone takes carrot seed oil and says, well, we know that that has some impact in terms of being an spf, but we don't know the measurement, we don't know what it's like. We don't know in the way that it's been mixed whether or not it still exists as an spf. So I'm a huge SPF advocate. I use it every single day. And because I do worry about hyperpigmentation, is particularly for me. But also it's. A dermatologist will tell you, but most people in the clean beauty world will also tell you, you need an spf. It's your first friend against whether it's like dry skin or damaged skin or aging skin or any of those things.

So if you were even out inside all day, would you still wear it?

Oh, I wouldn't, but I leave the house every day. But if I, if for some reason I was unwell or I for some, let's say hypothetically, I didn't leave the house until 7 o' clock at night and it was evening, I wouldn't wear it. But if I'm leaving the house and I'm out in the world, I'm wearing it reapply, which I should. But a lot of people say you should reapply during the day.

I don't, because I've heard if it's like SPF 35, it only lasts for 35 minutes. Is this true?

So I would. That's where the tested component works. Because normally an SPF that's gone through the rigor will have that detail. Typically it's about three hours, unless it's shortened if you go into a pool or you go into the ocean. But you get about three hours. But I find, like I put SPF on this morning. What did I honestly do? I drove to the office and so. And I've been here most of the time on the weekends. Well, like, I love being in nature and just going out and not thinking about the office. And on the days I won't wear any makeup, but I'll put it on before I Leave. And if I'm going to be out and about, I might put it on the second time during the day, because I'm out all day.

Makes sense. Yeah. I definitely don't wear enough spf, but this conversation's inspiring me because I'm like, you know, I'll just wear a hat. And I try to just be as natural as possible. I don't put any makeup on my face.

Yeah, I used to be like you until recently. And they'll tell you a very true story. There's a very popular brand, and it has a gorgeous oil. And I would never describe my skin as sensitive. Never, ever, ever, ever I've put anything on my skin. I put all of our lab samples on my skin. I put everything. And I purchased it because I had heard such amazing things about it, and I wanted to understand why people liked it. Well, it turned out I had a sensitivity to it around my eyes, and it was high in essential oils, and it felt like my eyes were going to fall out of my head. Like, eventually the skin on my eyelids started to peel, and it was a disaster. And I never had an experience like that. And then again, candidly, started putting gear on my eyes, and everything healed, and I didn't think anything of it, and I didn't wear spf. This is a few years ago. And then what I noticed is that the color of my eyelids never changed back to their original color. And I have cousins who are. Who are physicians. And then I ended up talking to a friend who's a dermatologist, and she was like, you need to wear spf. And I was like, yeah, no, I do. If I go out for the day and. Or I'm on vacation. And she said, no, that's what's keeping the color dark on your eyes is because, yes, your eyes have healed, but there's damage to your eyelids that you don't even see. And so every time the sun goes. That's why when you have an acne scar, if you have any sort of cut or anything, any sort of trauma on your skin when it's trying to heal, if the sun comes and tans, that, it's going to be really hard to get rid of. And so that was actually what got me on the SPF train because I wanted my eyelids back. And it's been years, and they're still not that to where they were, but they're much better. But I'm meticulous now because I can really see the difference in terms of scarring, hyperpigmentation, all of those things.

So do you suggest that we put sunscreen on our eyelids and around our eyes as well? I have seen eye creams that have spf.

Yes, I do. Yeah, I'm a big advocate. And again, you want to be careful which ones you're using and how you're using it. But yes, you should because I put it and I actually go to my way when I put it on. I make sure I put two dots on my eyes eyelids and I and I smooth them in because you that skin around your eyes.

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Great question. So I'm a big advocate of gua sha facial massage, Consul wand things that do drain the lymph. They do have the benefit of lymphatic drainage. It's also really helpful when you're creating circulation around the face. You're bringing blood flow around the face, but it's how you do it and where you do it. So most people who are aficionados at gua sha don't gua sha under their eyes. They limit themselves to the upper part of the cheekbone because that's where they're able to do it. And then the other thing is the product that goes underneath. So if you're using a tool, this is where an oil is your best friend. Because you want enough slip that you're not pulling at your face because that's what you want to be wary of. If you're using your hands and you want to be able to get into the fascia of your skin. I would use something a little bit lighter because you are going to get a bit too much slip and you won't be able to manipulate the skin. I would use something, I use our serum, for example, our radiant serum. It's got a little bit of slip. I'll put a little bit more than I might, you know, on a regular day and then I'll do the massage and I will often. And I. I don't know if you probably. I feel like you're such good balance of your stress. But sometimes even when I start with my serum and I start by massaging the area where my jaw is, you can feel the tension start to lift. And then I start moving through the face. And there's been good data to demonstrate that there is benefit and that it does drain the lymph and that the blood circulation is helpful to the skin. But for your eyes, again, you want to be very delicate. And so TikTok has given rise to people doing the craziest things. My daughter showed me somebody on TikTok who he makes a face mask with whatever he can. So he'll make it with peanut butter or he'll make it with tar. Like it? You know, just because we see it on TikTok doesn't make it good. But what I would say with the eyes is you want to be very gentle. One of the things that Ayurveda says again, if you have that slick is you can do an easy figure 8 around your eyes and it's a gentle way. Again, if you get Dark circles, which I do is there's often stagnated blood underneath the eye, so it starts to move it around very gently, the skin under the eye. And my number might be off. It's either 14 or 17, but it's like 14 times thinner than the rest of your skin. So that's why you're so delicate with that area.

Totally. Yeah. I went to a gua shot class and I learned I was doing it totally wrong. I was doing it like way too hard. And the thing is supposed to be flat on your skin. I was just doing it like as if it was a massager thing. Exactly. Like, the harder the better. Or I would just be on a plane and do it for like three hours, which is so not what you're supposed to do. So I've learned really how gentle and subtle it's supposed to be.

That's incredible. Incredible.

Yes. And what's your thoughts on ice rolling for the face?

That's an interesting one. Have you ever done it?

I've done it. I'm not consistent with it. I have a friend that she had a jaw surgery, so she gets really swollen. So for her it's such a game changer. And I've heard people saying it's like made their faces more sculpted, which is such a word right now. But then I wonder, is it just a temporary swelling thing that's happening or is it actually, again, moving your lymphatic drainage system?

So I don't have a lot of data on this, so I don't want to speak without knowing the data, but what I can tell you, so even if we go back to ayurvedic principles, like, like increases like, and opposites balance. And so why we would use ice would be to balance heat. So to your point, your friend has swelling, there's warm, you know, it's warm, it's hot, it's swelling. Putting the ice on is going to cool that down. Just like if I sprained my ankle, I'm going to put ice on my ankle. What we do know with the area of under the eyes is it tends to also get very puffy, and so it gets puff because of not sleeping, stress, salt retention, genetics, any of those things. And so being able to apply ice again is going to offset that. I haven't seen anything, although I haven't done a tremendous amount of research that's demonstrated that it has a long term effect. But I think if you're looking for an instant you wake up in the morning one day, you've had a wild night. Or you had a lot of salt or you had something where your eyes just. You needed to balance that out. I believe you would see a quick difference with the ice, but it wouldn't be long term.

Totally. Yeah. I figured it was like you have a photo shoot or something. It could be a nice.

Exactly. You have a photo shoot, you know, you had a late night, you were at an event or a wedding and you looked a little too poofy. It can help you.

So another thing I noticed in myself the past few years are these like little dry like almost like eczema like patches. So it started on my knuckles and then kind of has turned into different joints which I know is related to a vata imbalance. So what tips do you have for dry patches and eczema?

Yes. So being the person I am, I would tell you to see a doctor or a dermatologist just to be. Because the other thing is we can self diagnose things that we sometimes are just not right, that we think that they're one thing and they aren't. So I would definitely say if you're having specific issues, you should always see a professional who can help you because it might be an early indicator of other things. What I can tell you to your point about imbalance and about dryness is a few things things is one one of my favorite things to do in the morning as part of my morning routine. So we talked about oiling. We have this gorgeous ritual body oil. But you can do it with any body oil you have at home is before you exercise, you wake up in the morning. If you use oils in the morning. People Ayurveda would tell you to use a little bit on your head, maybe use a little bit behind your ears and then they emphasize the joints. Ayurveda actually emphasizes putting oil on the joints. And the belief system is that's going to provide lubrication to the joint before you exercise. That's why it's a before exercise, a before shower thing, a before yoga thing. But also we tend to neglect these areas and that dryness. We live in a very dry society. Everything is fast, we don't hydrate enough. There's climate change, everything about even the nature of like general foods. There's all crackers and things that are dry. And so we want to bring moisture back. And so my immediate way is by self massage, is by I'm like touching my knees as we talk to each other but is by adding the oils in and then again looking to do that internally. So if you have dryness associated to eczema, any of those things. Oiling is good. Our nourish primarish is a gorgeous. Again, when you have eczema, you need something that has a barrier, so you need something that's going to provide a barrier. So ours hasn't been tested in eczema. We have a lot of clients who have told us about it. But definitely dryness associated to eczema, particularly on the face, if you get it. Around the eyes, if you get it. My girlfriend used uses it for her dryness on her fingers from eczema. And in an instant it's gone. And it's because again of these beautiful ingredients, it's got a whisper of coconut oil, which coconut oil is a gorgeous ingredient if blended at the right amount. And then you add in triphala, which is a tri doshic ingredient. So triphala means three fruits in Sanskrit. It's three different fruits. It's amla, which is the Indian gooseberry. It's harithiki and vividiki. So it's like the combination of all three have this incredible impact and they're really good at dryness associated to egg eczema. And the same thing with brahmi, which is go to kola. So there's a lot of really, really good ingredients out there that can help you with that.

I love triphala. Just taking it for your digestion is so balancing.

It's balancing for the digestion. It's considered again to be pitta balancing. So it's good and it's cooling, which also is going to be helpful if you get redness. But it's those ingredients have really like again with dryness and it formulated well. I'm totally biased, but our Creme Riche is. That's. It's our bestseller and that's one of the things it's known for. It's just like getting your skin back to its healthiest center.

And I want to talk about hair. You mentioned putting some oil in the hair and I know a lot of people, a lot of friends dealing with stress which can lead to hair loss. So what are your tips to help rejuvenate our scalps?

Oh, yes. So hair oiling is my number, number one tip and the active hair oiling. So again, you can use an oil that you have at home. If you have coconut and sesame, Ayurveda would say you need something that's infused with some herbs. And so bring Raj is a great one. It's the false daisy plant. It's also called Eclipta alba. We have that on ours. But you can use Amla oil, which again is the Indian gooseberry. And what you want to do when you're oiling your hair is you put it all the way through your scalp. So you're going to actually apply it right into the scalp. Your hair is going to feel oily and you're going to comb it through. And the act of combing it through is going to help to stimulate the scalp and is also going to help to clean the scalp. And a lot of us, again, because we suffer from dryness, have dry scalp, have dandruff, have all the sort of dryness in our scalp. And if you've ever seen a baby with cradle cap, which is basically a baby that has dry scalp, a lot of people will just try and like remove. I've seen parents will just try and remove the dryness because it almost looks like it's sitting there. But what you really need is the oils. And so you put in the oils, you do that with the scalp. Highly recommend you giving yourself a bit of a head massage. And if you only do one spot, if you take three fingers from the crown of your head, like from the middle of your head and three fingers and massage here. And so you're basically at the top of your head. And that's believed to be grounding in Ayurveda, but it's also believed to be stimulating for the hair because what happens is, is that this is the topmost part of the head because of gravity, where every, all the blood goes down. So we're bringing circulation back here. But it's believe that this is going to help again to stimulate the hair. And then if you're using great ingredients, you know you're going to leave it in for a couple of hours, you can shampoo. You might need to shampoo more than once just to get the oils out. You don't need a conditioner because you've done this beautiful act of oiling. And what you'll find is that your hair is stronger, it's more resilient, it doesn't break. And for me, my experience was I tend to lose hair when I'm stressed. I lost hair when I had my kids. I lost hair, particularly again around the crown of my head. And the fellow who does my hair a couple of years after I had kids said, what are you doing? Your hair is coming back. And the only change I had made was hair oiling. There are a lot of good other things that you can do, but it's tending to your hair, getting again, the circulation back, going through the hair. So I'm not going to tell you that using our hair oil is going to make your hair grow back. But what I am going to tell you is it will give you stronger, more resilient, more full hair. And we do know that that act of oiling the hair, massaging the head is incredible.

Bringing the hair back to life, totally. It brings back so much stimulation, blood flow, life force. Even doing headstands and being upside down, bringing that blood back. I actually bought this little micro needle roller and it's. You're supposed to put oil on your hair and then kind of micro needle your scalp, which also can really stimulate hair growth. The thing that I struggle with is I only shampoo my hair like once a week. So I'm like, I don't want to put oil on my hair because then I have to shampoo it. But, you know, I'm thinking on that last day when I know I'm going to shampoo it the next day anyways, that's the perfect time.

That's exactly when I do it. I do it on Sundays and so. And I'll even keep it. And I might go to the grocery store and I'm getting to this new place where I will. Because I put sometimes oil on, like behind my ears in the morning or a little bit on my head. I'm like, I'm just kind of oily now and I'm okay with that.

Yeah, I used to do it so much, like, especially when I was living in India. And it's so funny because all the kids in school have their. Their braids with oil. It's mandatory in the school there.

Like, if you go to school in Kerala, for context, for your listeners, like, you will see all the girls, even the boys have oil in their hair. But the girls, their hair has been oiled and it's been put in braids and they can't imagine anything else. They have the best hair. They have the best hair.

Totally. And the reason why I've heard that it's mandatory is so the hair doesn't like, get on the floor and get everywhere. It like, keeps it in place. But I think they want to make sure you have good hair.

But it is. It's in. Traditionally they say that, you know, the hair, we always think of our skin or our weight as a reflection of our health. But they also believe that your hair is a reflection of your health. So your men, you know, there's a very strong. It's also, you know, there's a very strong sense of looking Proper. Which is also why your hair is braided in India if you're a kid. But it's, it's really. Again, it's, it's that whole taking care of your whole self.

Totally. We need to normalize it because there's almost like pressure in our society now that you have to have your hair blow dried. Right. But it's like, why not just have your oily bun and rock that? And why can't that be the thing?

Exactly. I'm with you. But it's, it's like, why can't we. I think again, like we live in this society where I feel like everything is just dry. Like we all look dry, we struggle with dryness. We're. And so why not make looking not dry the thing?

And what kind of masks do you do? Like, let's say it's Sunday, you have time. What kind of mask are you putting on your skin? Hair.

Yeah. So I do my hair and then I do our. So again, we talked about hyperpigmentation, which is something that is on my mind because I've had it since I was young and I didn't used to take care of it and I didn't used to wear spf. So I do our mask, which is our brightening mask. But the reason that I do it is because it's based. So the Ayurvedic recipe for hyperpigmentation is turmeric holy basil, which is tulsi. And then traditionally they would use papaya or, or a lemon or another fruit based acid. And so our mask is actually based on that same recipe. We have turmeric, we have holy basil, we have the ahas from lemon, orange and bilberry. So again from fruits. And then we've added hemp seed oil as well. And that's all in a clay base. So it's. What's nice about it is the turmeric's not going to stain. This isn't like whipping it up in your kitchen. And now your counters have, are yellow and your fingers are yellow and you've got some turmeric on the back of your neck. You can't get off. You know, it's, it's not meant to be that way. But the reason that I tend towards that one is because I want to freshen and brighten my face. And I don't break out very often, but when I do, as I said, it stays for a while. So that's, that's my go to treatment. And it smells lovely. So I will oil my hair, I'll do my mask and then I, then that's when I take a shower and that's like my like beautiful self care Sunday.

And do you do dry brushing or abhyanga as well?

Yes, I don't dry brush as much and it's funny because I know many to that whole point that I made earlier about dryness is that a lot of us don't need the dry brushing because again we're dry. What we need is the counter which is the abhyanga. So abhyanga is oil massage and the word for oil in Sanskrit is sneha which also means love. So I do a lot of abhyanga and sometimes if I'm in a rush I might just do my hands. We're constantly on our phones and we're typing with our phones and we're constantly on our computers. And the amount of stress that that causes just for the hands, like it's amazing. I don't know if you ever do this Sahara, but if you touch the area between your fingers, you can actually feel the tension between them. And that's all from doing the foam work. So I massage my hands, I massage my feet. When I have more time, I do my whole body. But in the morning, if I only have a little bit of time, I give a little massage around the back of my ears, I do a little bit on my head, my hands and then my joints.

I love that. And you know, beauty and self care really is just such an act of remembering the truth of who you are. You know, I remember I was in this really busy period in my business and it was just constant go, go, go putting out fires. And I took a shower and I have this body scrub that has been in there for like 10 months that I've just never used, you know, because it takes an extra five minutes. And I'm like, you know what, I'm going to use this like I don't know, coffee bean. It was a natural body scrub. And I didn't, I was like, wow. I remember why self care is such a big deal. Because me just taking these five minutes for myself to do something that nourishes me, that allows me to just experience beauty, aroma, joy is just reminding me of the truth of who I am. And we just get so caught in the social media, you know, very vata. Everything's up in the air and it's not grounded in reality. That just connecting to our physical body and having these, these rituals really is such a reclamation. And it's. You're also reminder of this used to Just be normal life. You know, people would work in the fields or wherever they were and then come home and like, take care of themselves. Whereas for us now, it's almost like this emotional thing because we just don't do it so much, which shows how far we've come.

I know, it's fun. I always laugh because I remember. So this is when I was working in pharma. I went to Kerala with my mom and it was. We were there for vacation. But I remember I had just been. I was a bit burnt out. There was a lot going on. There was so much happening in our business. I was making decisions about whether or not I was going to say. And the first day I was there, I think I just like slept. And I remember hearing my cousins talk to my mom from the other room and they were like, what's wrong with her? And they thought I was so crazy. And to your point, like, many of my relatives still have, like, they still go and work in the fields and they have coconuts and they have rice paddy fields and they have all these things. And then they come home and they nourish themselves with great food. Like, I would see, like my cousin, I remember seeing his wife, she would give him an oil massage at night. And it's like. And it's not selfish. It's like, we've created this world where we reward ourselves for being like, I work 16 hours today and I work 60 hours a week and I'm constantly on the go and look at how many followers I have and look at how many things I posted and, you know, look at how many jobs I have and look at what my bank account says. Whereas going back to like, no, actually one you can't pour from an empty cup. You can't achieve all of those things if you're not taking. Taking care of yourself is number one. And second of all is, we're not robots. We're not meant to be doing that stuff all the time. So that self care, as you say, it's, it's necessary and it's warranted and it's not selfish. But when we do it, like, I'll have moments where I'll light intense and I'll be like, this is the best feeling in the world. And then you think to yourself, well, why don't I just do that every day? If that one moment can elicit such an incredible experience. If you know, for me, whether it's again, lighting incense or using our body oil or oiling my hair, like, yes, I don't want to get My hair oily. But look at what the difference is. Like, sometimes I actually, after I oil my hair, it feels like somebody's lifted heat out of my head because. And it makes sense because they believe that the pitta is all stuck in your head and when you massage the oil, you're actually releasing it. So we need to like, get ourselves into balance and we need to ground ourselves. We need it. We just need it. And when we start to feel, a lot of friends who are entrepreneurs, who are founders, and they often say to me, like, I feel numb. Like, I just feel like I'm out of emotions. And I say because for them, it's not because you're depressed, it's because you're just, you're no longer functional. Like, you need to go around, you need to nourish. Your body is telling you, your mind is telling you that it needs something. Now I can't give anymore. And so we need to put into place all of those practices that will do those things.

Absolutely. And it really is such of the path of, of the feminine. You know, like, I think often spirituality, we so focus on the traditional monk path, the path of the esthetic who, you know, wants to have nothing, be nothing, be in the caves and like, remove from society and like, that's a path. But the path of the feminine was all about ritual and beauty and community and nature and gathering and coming together to weave baskets or create herbalized oils. And we're so missing that in our society. I actually had this gathering with friends that we had different types of oil and we brought a bunch of different herbs like calendula and all these things, and we made our own herbalized oils. And it was like such a nourishing act. I'm like, wow, this is how we used to just live. And I feel like so many of us especially who embody more of that feminine energy, we're missing those, those qualities. And the insights and revelations that we get through self care are they carry a different vibration than the ones that we might get get if we're just meditating, you know, you'll. You'll receive from a different. It's a different chakra, it's a different energy center. But when you're in your body, you're receiving more from the sacral, more from the root, and it's going to give you that more grounded, nurturing mama bear building energy that I feel is really what we need, especially moving into this new paradigm where everything is virtual. We need more of the shakti.

We do. We need more of the shakti, like, we need more of that power. And when you talk about the feminine power, it's interesting. I have two children, and they're amazing, and I love them. And my. My son, who's nine, he's like, playing baseball, and he's really into sports and all that kind of stuff. But he actually said to me. And I feel like sometimes he's like, oh, mom, like, mommy, you're too much, or. And he said to me the other day, will you just give me a massage? Will you just give me a massage? And he was like, with. With an oil. And it's such a beautiful moment between him and I because that's the experience I would have had. My dad was actually such a focal point for me. My. Both my parents were. But my dad was the one who really brought these rituals into my life. But, you know, that ability to be able to also share because there's one is like, you know, again, doing the Abby on it, on yourself, doing the self care. But the coming together is very feminine.

It's very.

In the feminine energy. And it's part of the collective, and that's part of the community. And it's something we somehow detached ourselves from. We have to go find our places to feel sacred, and we have to go find our people to feel sacred, where we have to make it part of the norm that these sacred acts are part of how we do life. And then I think that that's our responsibility is to bring sacredness to life.

I've seen more and more Ayurvedic doulas pop up because it's such a different way of looking at the postpartum period. Whereas instead of being like, yeah, go off to the next thing, it's all about having your kitchari, your warm foods, nourishing the womb space. I heard that in Ayurveda, they believe that there's now space in your body. You know, your baby's literally gone, so there's excess vata in your system because there's now this, like, a large amount of space that you need to nourish yourself from. So did you have any experiences with an ayurvedic postpartum process?

See, it's interesting because my mom's actually a maternity nurse and so. And now retired. And so she was amazing for me because my family really subscribed to. You know, your family is supposed to take care of you when you had a baby. So that. That in and of itself was an experience that wasn't unique to me. But we see with People who either have those familial connections or for more traditional cultures. But that made things better. But they did have, like, there were certain drinks or certain things that they said, you know, you need to, you know, fenugreek, as an example, is been believed to help with lactation. And so my parents would put fenugreek into. Into yogurt, or they would. They would do different things with fenugreek because we do this sort of like a boiled yogurt dish in Caroline. So they would. They would make me that. But they would add fenugreek to it, so it would help with that. But it was really, you know, they revered the experience of having a baby as a significant one. Whereas I think here we're like, oh, can you get back to work in six weeks? Do your pants zip up? They took it from, like, you do need to nourish yourself. Here are the foods. So they, you know, my parents, for the most part, subscribe to very traditional foods. And so it was a lot of rice and a lot of lentils and a lot of nourishing foods. And coming from the south, but, you know, where my parents do eat meat also in Ayurveda, it's believed that when you have these difficult times, or they say, for warriors, the one thing that I want people to also understand is like, I really doesn't say that you have to be a vegan, doesn't even say that you have to be veg. That there's times and places for all of those things. And so it's really about, again, nurturing who you are, where you are in that stage of life.

So beautiful. Yes. And understanding the subtleties of even when someone might need meat. Because I do think that that was a common misconception of people think Ayurveda says everyone should be vegetarian. But they do say that for you to sustain life, if you need to eat meat, that's honoring the circle of life. Absolutely amazing. Well, thank you so much for all of this wisdom. You know, it really just. I inspires me. And I hope everyone is just going to go put some oil on their hair and give themselves that. That Sneha, that love that we are so deeply needing. I think we're all very dehydrated as a. As a society and as a collective and coming together with your friends and, you know, let's put on masks. And I feel like we, in a way, our culture looks at, like a spa day, but again, it's this thing you have to do that's like out and it's like, how can we bring that energy into our daily lives? So it's not this like once a month thing that you do, but. But having 10 minutes of your day every single day that you can do.

Yes. It shouldn't be a reward. Like, I mean, don't get me wrong, I love going to the spot, but it shouldn't be something that you have to delay like bringing in even if you're putting on. For example, like when I put on our serum, I go out of my way to add massage to it. Sometimes I say affirmations when I do it. And it's a great way again to mix those two things together. And it's a great way to say like, I am, you know, I have gorgeous skin and I'm so blessed and I am grateful and I am. And that I am, you know, worthy of this. I am worthy of this ritual and I am beautiful. Like all of those things, bringing that into your day to day life and not waiting for the one time you get to go to the spa or the one time you get to go to a sound bath. It's about bringing it into your life. And you know, when I started the brand, of course I wanted to bring people incredible skin care. Of course I wanted them to see that their skin was being impacted by ayurvedic ingredients. But I wanted them to walk away and say, this has become a part of my ritual that, you know, yes, my skin looks better or has less acne or less marks or all of those things. But also I love doing it and it's, it nurtures their soul as much as it gives them the outer glow as well.

It's so beautiful. It's just again, such a reminder for us to not only focus on outer beauty, but really that inner beauty that sustains and nurtures us on a soul level. So thank you so much for sharing and can you share with us a little bit about. About where people can try the different Sahajan products and any that you may suggest for different people of different needs?

Yes, absolutely. So where you can always find us is on our website for sure. So sahajan.com and I know you're going to share some fun details.

We have a code Sahara for a discount.

Absolutely. So you can always use the code sahara on sahajan.com. sahaja comes from the word sahaja, which means intuitive. So this is, this is about all of us going back to what we intuitively know. My favorites. Okay, so my favorite favorites are our Radiant Serum and our nourish creme riche. So nourish creme rich, as you can imagine is a rich cream. It's got triphala, it's got brahmi, which is go to cola or centella, which stimulates the production of collagen. It's a rich cream. But when we think of dryness it has this incredible ability. So it's been clinically proven to minimize fine lines, to increase hydration, to do all of those things. Because again, I came from pharma and I wanted people to know they could get their best results from Ayurveda. But how I describe that creme rich is like nourishing your skin back to its healthier center. So if you have dryness due to eczema, if you have redness, if you feel like your skin is maturing and you just want something to really keep it in balance. We have people who use this at 17 years old and we have people who use this at 70 years old. And so that's an incredible one. Our radiant serum, it's a water based serum, it's a little bit thinner. It's going to draw down into the actives I layers. So every morning I go, our radiant serum plus our nourish creme riche, those would be my favorites. And then our cleansing oil. I know we talked about this before Sahra, but our cleansing oils is incredible. It has been used on like in some of the coolest backstage, like Hollywood, like on Schitt's Creek and on Ginny and Georgia and the Handmaid's Tale, all these really great places, but also Star Trek because what they found is that it does remove makeup. It removes even the heaviest of makeup. But because of the moringa, it has that incredible ability. It's going to pull pollution out of the face, but it's going to leave your skin hydrated. So those would be my top three. And then for those of you who are doing self massage, we have our gorgeous ritual body oil. We have our nurture hair oil. There's so much there I could talk about them all day, but, but I hope you check them out.

And everything smells amazing. Like once you just open this up, you feel like you're at a spa, which I love because it adds adds that other sensory experience that I think that sometimes we're so missing. We're so stale and cut and dry. So I love the sense of them, I love how soft and how supple they are. And sometimes like in India, the very ayurvedic oils can be very pungent. But these are These are really subtle.

They make you feel like your face is like in the plant.

Exactly. So this is really subtle and beautiful and you can wear it every day. So I will share that link below. You guys can use the code Sahara for your discount. You guys are going to going to be obsessed. So thank you so much, Lisa, for sharing all your wisdom with us today.

My pleasure. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure.

Yay. And we're looking forward to trying all the products and diving into our skincare. What a beautiful conversation. I mean, it definitely inspired me to start wearing some spf. You know, you hear different things and I'm someone who just tries to be as natural as possible. But I do live in Miami and I do definitely notice, like after, after I was doing the water healing all day in the sun, I'm like, oh, here's some new brown spots.

Hello.

How are you doing? So definitely just spending that extra ounce of time to give yourself that self care, whether it's in your morning, you know, putting really clean products on your face. On the weekends, maybe instead of just Netflix and chilling your Netflix hair mask and hair oil and chilling, giving yourself a beautiful abhyanga self oil massage. Just these little acts of taking back our own time and reclaiming our self worth, they really go a long way. This is how we build confidence. You know, it's by choosing ourselves first. And that doesn't mean we have to stop caring about our children and other people, but we actually set the example and become a role model for them of what does it look like to take care of yourself? And I remember, you know, my grandma was always putting different things on her face. Like anything that she ate, she would put some on her face. Like, oh, she always had strawberries on her face, honey yogurt. And I loved it as a kid to like watch her do it. And that made me want to do it. And she would tell me, if you want red lips, rub strawberries on your skin. If you went into the sun, put yogurt on your skin. And it was really fun for me. And I think that sometimes we think we don't have time for those things, but we can actually involve our children, our grandchildren in them. And that's again, that more matriarchal way of living that we're so deeply missing and disconnected from. So if you're interested in trying the Sahajan products, I highly recommend them. I love the oil cleanser, the lip moisturizer. I'm excited to try all of the other products, the body oil smells amazing and we have a special promotion for high self podcast listeners to receive 20% off any Sahajan product. So you can head over to their website sahajohn.com s a h a j a n dot com and use coupon code SAHARA for 20% off. You can also find the that link in the show Notes. Thank you so much for listening. Please share this with any beauty fanatics you have in your life or anyone that just might need to freshen up their self care. They're still using some really gnarly scrubs on their skin and it can help them just take care of themselves in a more longevity approved way that can allow our skin to remain healthy for the long run and not just dry it out right now just because of our culture and the advertisements that were shown. So send this to anyone that you know that might still be using toxic products and you know, maybe invite some friends over and make some oils together. It's such a fun way to connect. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll see you in the next one. Namaste Sam.