This month we chat to Belinda Hughes from Natural Beauty Expert. Sharing the same passion in natural beauty, toxic free health and wellbeing, Belinda reveals some of her natural beauty tips and advice for healthy skin care!
Tell us a bit about your background as a Beauty Therapist and how Natural Beauty Expert came about?
I started beauty therapy over 10 years ago when I was living in Canberra and happened to get a job at the time in a great salon in Kingston (a great suburb) that was a natural beauty salon. That started my education on what natural beauty was and why it was better. From there it’s been a continuation of education around natural beauty ingredients and how they interact with their skin. While I was still at college I was looking at the ‘anti ageing’ products that had petro chemical ingredients in them, then I was learning about antioxidants and free radical damage in the skin and quickly realized why would you put a chemical anti ageing product that was causing free radical damage? It made no sense, from then on I stuck to natural products, which performed better, felt better and went further.
I started writing a few years ago and I saw a gap in the market for education. There were a lot of false claims in blogs from unqualified people flying around social media and I wanted to produce content to combat that. My friend is a designer with magazine and fashion experience so from there the magazine was born.
Describe yourself in 3 sentences?
I’m very passionate about my work, about natural beauty, education and spreading the word far and wide about how they can get better skin care. I’m a strong believer in community and connection; I believe we are stronger together. I am also a total beauty junkie I want all the products!!!
What would your advice be to someone looking to switch to clean beauty?
Start small. If you’re worried about how your skincare will perform start by purchasing your body personal care products from the health food store. Start with your body wash and body lotion. Educate yourself about your skincare by going to a professional natural beauty salon and seek expert advice. Or read my magazine for tips and product ideas :)
Do you have any natural beauty tips you can share?
Yes! Make sure you use a full routine for best skin results, don’t forget to use serums, exfoliants and masks. These will make a huge difference to your routine and bump up your anti oxidant levels for healthy young skin. Just cleaning and moisturizing are basics and won’t make your skin awesome alone.
What are your favourite healthy foods for great skin?
Healthy fats!!!! I eat avocado everyday, salmon a few times a week and lots of fresh vegetables, plus filtered water. A healthy lifestyle and food intake is essential to skin health and it’s a lifestyle not a diet, I don’t believe in ‘cheat days’. If you eat well with the odd treat when you feel like it you won’t be deprived and you won’t pig out one day that will take your body almost a week to recover from!
Finish this sentence: "I can't live without natural and organic skin care!”
See more about Belinda and her Beauty Therapy Services and read some of the articles I've written for Natural Beauty Expert eMag here!
