Aubrey Organics Article: Total Beauty Transformation, from Healthy Living by Rachael Baseley

Early in February, I had the good fortune to accompany Kat James-author of The Truth About Beauty: Transform Your Looks and Your Life from the Inside Out (Beyond Words Publishing, 2004) and host of the new PBS special of the same name, currently airing nationally (check your local listings)—on her Total Transformation® Cruise. Our journey into natural beauty, which consisted of seven days in the Caribbean, couldn't have been more picturesque or relaxing. There's a lot to tell about diet, stress, and all sorts of ways we can work on our beauty from the inside as well as from without.

The Truth About Natural Beauty

On both her Total Transformation® journey and other occasions, I've had the opportunity to interview Kat in depth about her philosophy for cultivating and "feeding" beauty with powerful natural food and cosmetic choices. Her program encompasses a broad range of issues-from the emotions and chemistry behind negative food issues, to how we can reverse "regimen overkill" and save our own skin with smarter products and science-backed strategies. I thought you might like to hear portions of our conversations. Listening to Kat, reading her book and embracing her philosophy of beauty (including "shedding") could truly change not only the way you look at food, but the way you shop for cosmetics. I know it has for me.

HL: Tell us about "shedding." Why do you consider this to be the start for anyone trying to improve her health?

KJ: Before we can take our potential to new levels, we must first let go of the things that are preventing us from moving forward. In my case, my transformation went way beyond weight; it began long before that "shrinking phase" started. In fact, it started with a change in mindset and a realization of all of the ways I was challenging and bombarding myself. We have to create a sanctuary from immediate harm, and do things to shield our bodies from toxic assault-modern practices that just challenge us, and keep us in a merely reacting and surviving mode, not a healing and thriving mode. The phrase "shedding" was the only thing that I arrived at that adequately describes that process.

HL: Kat, you featured a lot of food and self-care products throughout the cruise. Can you tell us why you chose to feature the products you did?

KJ: From the best tasting low-glycemic foods and gourmet sugar-free chocolates and bottled unsweetened jasmine and white teas (Teas' Tea by Ito-En), to homemade moisturizer from Aubrey Organics, to the only hand-held water-ionizing device, which has proven skin-healing effects (Charme), to the only herbal coffee that really tastes and brews like coffee (Teeccino), my program featured many truly unique products. I like to feature different experts and products on each cruise. Frank Ervolino, a naturopathic physician from Jupiter Medical Center, joined me this time to add a complementary educational perspective, along with Meghan Brunelli, who concocted Aubrey Organics' Rosa Mosqueta® Moisturizing Cream from scratch, which everyone had a great response to. Aubrey Hampton, Ph.D., founder of Aubrey Organics and the father of organic cosmetics, joined me on my first Total Transformation Cruise in 2000, which was very special.

HL: What is the aesthetic difference between natural and synthetic cosmetics and personal care products? How can the different characteristics of natural products create a formula that works more safely and effectively than synthetic products?

KJ: It's important to talk about the change in sensibility that happens when you start looking at natural products, whether it's food or personal care. We've been taught -and are encouraged-to want things that are brightly colored, strong smelling, super foaming, and that have a very even consistency, and it means nothing to your body. It is a form of entertainment for us. That tight feeling that we get after we wash our face is really just a sign that our skin's natural defenses have been stripped. We like things that penetrate deeply; that are new and improved and extra, extra strong, or that are the latest European formulas (incidentally, in Europe, they use the same marketing ploy, but reverse it: the latest American formula is touted as being the best for your skin). We just want an effect, so it really is a form of entertainment and a part of that "do something" mentality. We think that every flaw indicates that our skin needs to be sterilized or zapped and even with skin that's perfectly fine to begin with, we are convinced by clever marketing that we need to do something more. We need to show our bodies who is boss. So, we peel, sand and use acids 24/7… we strip the skin, leaving us dependent on high-maintenance and highly priced regimens. Because of the vulnerability of our skin, the moment this regimen is stopped, our skin is a mess, because these products have left us completely defenseless.

HL: What is your philosophy on safe and healthy cosmetics and what does it mean to women?

KJ: As with any other issue, you have to take it upon yourself; no one is going to protect you from bad choices but you, and the most encouraging thing is that there are products being formulated every day that are more and more effective, and more and more appealing that we can use. For example, Aubrey Organics creates 100 percent natural, vegan Natural Lips lip color by using organic sunflower and jojoba oils, and ingredients like walnut oil, beet extract and organic carrot oil instead of coal tar colors and petrolatum or mineral oil, which interfere with the skin's ability to regulate its own moisture; incidentally, it was Aubrey who first told me that many years ago when I interviewed him for my book. But even though the ingredients are natural, the resulting lip color is high-end gorgeous. I like to mix the Mocha Brown with the Natural Red, and it makes the richest raisin color, and it's something that I use on photo shoots. The color cosmetics I featured on the cruise were by Jane Iredale, who has some of the most sophisticated natural, mineral-based colors and foundations available. Natural foundations can sometimes be heavier and chalky compared to the synthetic version, and hers are not.

The Aubrey Experience

Of course, going from theory to practice is what the Total Transformation Cruise was all about. Kat left no detail to chance in constructing the perfect dawn-to-dusk experience of her principles, from the morning detox elixirs to the herbal nightcaps, to the sugar-free Belgian chocolates on our pillow. In terms of skin strategies, we were fortunate, indeed, to have Meghan Brunelli from Aubrey Organics to tell us how Aubrey products support shedding, using many organic ingredients and natural preservatives-and avoiding misleading practices like using "floral waters" to make products look like they are more organic when they are not. In fact, she noted that Aubrey is quickly ensuring that more and more of its herbs are completely organic and certified as such. When I think about our own recent reports in Healthy Living detailing the potential breast cancer risks associated with commonly used preservatives like the parabens, and how we now know that this preservative accumulates in breast tumors and that some researchers think parabens could be stimulating tumor growth, I am so thankful that I have come to know the Aubrey line and have made it my own.

I think it's terrible that the cosmetic industry can get away with using suspect chemicals like these preservatives and that most consumers don't even know about the potential risks. Fortunately, Aubrey Organics has never used parabens or other synthetic preservatives. As Meghan informed us, the preservatives in Aubrey's products are none other than antioxidant vitamins and citrus seed extract. These are very safe and even nurture the skin's antioxidant defenses. One of my favorite Aubrey lines has long been Rosa Mosqueta rose hip seed oil, which is wonderful for reducing wrinkling, scarring, and sun damage, and helping to moisturize, so I was thrilled to watch Meghan make the Rosa Mosqueta Moisturizing Cream fresh from scratch, and to understand that what she made before our eyes from powerful, full-strength herbal extracts and gave us to use is exactly what you get in the jar when you buy it at the store-something made in small batches, delivered fresh from Aubrey—not something that has sat in a warehouse for months or years like synthetic cosmetics do.

All Aubrey products are made to such high purity standards that they are good enough to eat…and she told us that Aubrey himself has demonstrated that principle on numerous occasions! Having Meghan there with us was incredibly helpful, as people would approach her with specific skin and hair concerns, and she would be able to recommend the best Aubrey product for the job. Of course, Aubrey has systemized its skin-care line with numeric- and color-coding. It's easy to find the right combination of products for dry, combination dry, normal, combination oily, oily and sensitive skin types.

I heard nothing but praise for Meghan's contribution to the cruise, and everybody loved the products that Aubrey Organics offered. They certainly took care of everyone's needs for beauty and safety, particularly for helping them along with the process of "shedding" and removing some of the harmful cosmetic auto-pilot habits we've all developed. I have nothing but praise for Kat's Total Transformation Program and for Aubrey's contribution. They made a purely great team!

Aubrey Organics' Natural Lips Ingredients

Essential Fatty Acid Base, Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Jojoba Butter, Jojoba Wax, PABA, Organic Shea Butter, Vitamin E and Organic Peppermint. To this moisturizing base, one or more of the following natural colors are added: Century Herb, Cinnamon, Walnut Oil (browns); Beet Extract (reds); Organic Carrot Oil, Annatto, Bixane Herb (yellows).

Back to Aubrey Organics

(Resources: the above information was taken from the www.aubrey-organics.com website)

Aubrey's References:

Kat James's new book, The Truth About Beauty: Transform Your Looks and Your Life from the Inside Out (Beyond Words Publishing, 2004) is available at book sellers and health food stores and at www.informedbeauty.com.