Ma - Beauty pure and simple : the ayurvedic approach to beautiful skin

Those who are curious and in need of natural solutions to beauty problems should read Kristen Mas book.

Tathaastu

If youre ready to integrate your skin care routine into a holistic approach to optimal health and radiant beauty, this book is a must-read.

Yoga Journal

An exceedingly articulate health primer filled with natural remedies and care routines that support wellness inside and out.

Spirit of Change

A practical guide to modern skin care using the timeless wisdom of Ayurveda. Beauty is eternal and crystal clear, and Kristen Ma shows how to be beautiful at all ages according to Ayurvedic principles.

Vasant Lad, author of Ayurveda: Science of Life

Five stars. Kristen Ma offers helpful knowledge on how to enhance your appearance as you tend to your health.

San Francisco Book Review

ABOUT THE BOOK

A radiant complexion can be yours through the ancient science of Ayurveda. Kristen Ma invites you to expand your skin-care consciousness to incorporate elements from this millennia-old system of wellness from India, along with principles supported by the latest scientific research on skin biology. Her practical guidelines are safe and easy to followand marvelously effective for nurturing healthy and beautiful skin.

Ma explains both skin biology and the basics of Ayurveda as it applies to skin health, and shows you how to determine your true skin type according to your specific dosha (physical constitution according to Ayurvedic principles), then recommends individualized regimens with easy-to-obtain products. Ma explains the influence of diet on skin health, how to deal with skin changes that come with aging, how to protect skin from the sun and pollutants, and how to cope with the effect of stress on skin. She identifies harmful ingredients that are ubiquitous in most products and treatments on the market, and recommends healthy alternatives.

She also offers advice on how to treat common problems such as:

• breakouts
• acne
• eczema
• rosacea
• hyperpigmentation
• dark circles under the eyes and puffy eyes
• and many others

KRISTEN MA is the co-owner of Pure + Simple Inc., a group of holistic spas in Toronto with its own line of natural skincare and mineral make-up. She is an Ayurvedic practitioner and esthetician who writes and lectures on the subject of holistic beauty. Ma has an active blog readership (www.holistic-vanity.blogspot.com) and a comprehensive website (http://www.pureandsimple.ca/). Ma has been voted Best Facialist in the City by Toronto Life Magazine.

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Beauty Pure and Simple

The Ayurvedic Approach to Beautiful Skin

Kristen Ma

TRUMPETER

Boston & London 2011

Trumpeter Books

An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

trumpeterbooks.com

2011 by Kristen Ma

Cover design by Jim Zaccaria

Cover photograph Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc.

/Blend Images/Corbis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ma, Kristen.

Beauty pure and simple: the ayurvedic approach to beautiful skin / Kristen Ma.1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2752-3

ISBN 978-1-59030-920-9 (pbk.: acid-free paper)

1. SkinCare and hygiene. 2. Medicine, Ayurvedic. I. Title.

RL87.M214 2011

646.72dc23

2011014502

Contents

As with all the successes in my life, I have to thank many people for their contributions and support:

My mother, Jean, who has provided me with so much opportunity. Your vata energy has kept the momentum and movement of this project going.

Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. Subhash Ranade, Dr. Avinash Lele, and Dr. Jeson Yan, who taught and inspired me to transform my view of health, skin, and love.

Dr. T. G. Lewis, who has encouraged me so much and always emphasized the importance of discipline. I especially thank you for educating me about the importance of breathing.

Lindsey Simms, Yvonne Kurant, Peter Howie, and Alison Sherk, who are not only coworkers but good friends who generously gave me their time and feedback.

My partner, Benjamin, who has cooled my most heated, frustrated moments with his kindness and patience.

The Pure + simple staff, all of them talented and educated practitioners and coordinators, who have helped me learn so much about beauty and team building.

In this competitive modern age, we have high expectations. Not only do we demand top performance from products, services, and technologies, but we also demand it of ourselves. Most of us strive to be the best in our jobs, in our relationships, and as members of our communities. Naturally, our attitude toward how we look is just as uncompromising. We demand ourselves to have flawless skin and hard bodies, believing physical perfection is always within our complete control. This gives way to frustration with ourselves when we dont achieve this often unrealistic goal.

But by placing such expectations on ourselves, we sometimes forget what beauty really is and how best to embody it. As an esthetician, I see two different sides to the promotion of beauty. One emphasizes traits like glowing skin, shiny hair, bright eyes, and a strong body, which can only come from balanced health that makes us innately magnetic and disarming.

Unfortunately, the other side of beauty promotion has nothing to do with health; it focuses on a straight or small nose, big breasts, pouty lips, and taut skin. It rigidly supports the idea that beauty can be attained synthetically through fake nails, fake hair, a fake tan, and fake eyelashes. This emphasis on external perfection over well-being leads to the use of dangerous procedures that damage rather than enhance health, especially that of the skin.

It was this dichotomy that led my mother, Jean Eng, and I to start Pure + simple, Inc., which comprises a chain of holistic spas and a line of natural skin care products and mineral makeup. Our mandate was to offer alternatives to conventional products and treatments to promote beauty through health. These alternatives included both chemical-free skin care and skin consultations with estheticians that emphasized inside-outside beauty. After a few years of operation, I decided to strengthen my understanding of the connection between health and beauty by becoming an ayurvedic practitioner.

Ayurveda, the five-thousand-year-old Indian science of health and medicine, teaches that healing (and therefore beauty) stems from a balanced lifestyle supported by knowledge. It is based on the concept that our bodies are composed of three different energies: pitta, heat energy; kapha, water and earth energy; and vata, air and space energy. It is not the breakdown of our physical systems that causes sickness, but an excess or a deficiency of a specific energy that unbalances and compromises our total selves.

One principle that runs consistently through all Eastern medicine is the idea that we must participate in our own well-being instead of hoping for someone or something else to save us. Whether it is a drug, a surgical procedure, or a practitioner, many of us expect an external intervention to heal us, giving little thought to how we ourselves contribute to our health status and recovery. This principle also applies to beauty. Ayurveda promotes a more proactive approach, emphasizing prevention instead of short-term solutions that merely suppress symptoms. Many people suffer from acne, rosacea, eczema, hyperpigmentation, and premature aging, which may seem like ugly nuisances but can, in fact, be early warning signs of more serious problems. Using these imperfections as a spur to change can result not only in beautiful skin but in better health and greater vitality.