If you’re considering a career in skin care, you probably enjoy working with people and making a difference in their lives. After all, esthetics is a truly hands-on, helping profession. But did you ever think that skin care could symbolize life itself?

Check out how these functional categories of skin care ingredients reflect key aspects of a healthy life:

Skin care category: Antioxidants, such as ascorbic acid and alpha lipoic acid, reduce the skin’s exposure to free radicals, which speed the aging process and contribute to inflammation.
Healthy life application: Protect yourself and the ones you love. In the same way that you would instruct clients to limit their skin’s exposure to the sun, consider what you expose your heart and mind to every day. Are you listening to media messages that make you feel bad about yourself? Redirect the time spent on negative pursuits to engage in activities that feed your soul.

Skin care category: Emulsifiers, such as beeswax and cetyl alcohol, stabilize emulsions, smooth blends of oil and water, and prevent products from separating.
Healthy life application: Seek unity with friends and family. After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If your support system is damaged, you won’t have the solid foundation to help you stand strong in life.

Skin care category: Emollients, such as seaweed and green tea extracts, smooth and soften the skin and reduce friction.
Healthy life application: Live in peace with others. When there is friction in your home or workplace, it’s difficult to accomplish individual and corporate goals. Make an effort to establish a peaceful environment, and you will cultivate a soft heart.

Skin care category: Preservatives, such as benzoic acid and octyl salicylate, kill detrimental bacteria, yeast, and mold, and thus inhibit the chemical degradation of products and prevent spoilage.
Healthy life application: Keep your heart pure. In skin care and in life, you need a good defense as well as a good offense. On the offense, you must put preventive measures in place to deal with distractions and detractors when they come. Otherwise, the positive qualities you’ve worked hard to attain may become degraded or spoiled.

See? The applications of skin care go much deeper than the surface of the skin. With training in skin care, you can acquire the tools to teach others (and yourself!) how to live a healthy life.

-Robyn Tellefsen

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Beauty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.