This month, the Harlo online store celebrates its one year anniversary.
In reflection of how far we have come, today’s short online excerpt is to credit our beginnings and affirm our ambitions for the unfolding.
‘You are about to enter one of the most competitive industries in the retail market – are you sure you want to do this?’- My dear friend, July 2020.
Our origination was not to add to the magnified volume of products already in this field and on the market. Harlo’s creation was to contribute and team alongside conscious companies that endeavour to instil difference. Difference to an industry of embedded ambiguity, cheap fillers, exaggerated profit margins, demeaning marketing, and negligent waste.
In terms of marketing, this meant an alternative approach to the current cosmetic conditioning, and the distorted belief that there is a fault with the undervalued gift of ageing.
Our ingredients stimulate cell and collagen growth, are abundant in vitamins, antioxidants and protect against free radicals. Claims which we could promote as anti-ageing. We could market these claims with an image of an aesthetically pleasing individual with flawless skin and encourage you to believe that this is beauty. This is what you should strive for. I see this as a superficial and perpetual marketing strategy which has been used and ingrained for far too many years.
To be clear, I don't see a fault with wanting to be and look better, this a natural need I think we as humans often feel, but to look better doesn’t necessarily mean to look younger.
It is a time for authenticity.
The benefits of the application of a premium skincare product can be completely obliterated if your skin spends daily snippets of time unprotected, in the sun.
The ‘anti-ageing’ benefits of a skincare routine are often seen after years and years of application and care. As an aesthetician, we would recommend starting this care as early as your late 20’s.
The complexion of your skin is only partially affected by what you put on it. Factors such as sleep, stress, diet, hydration levels, pollution, toxin and sun exposure, your blood line and even facial expressions all have an equally important role to play.
The solution for all of these factors doesn’t come in a bottle and to effectively care for your skin you need to consider these factors and your routine holistically.
It is time for the skincare industry to shift its focus.
A good skincare collection and routine can be abundant in its offerings. This goes beyond a focus of purely abolishing the laugh lines on your face and should endeavour to elevate the more primitive opportunity of self-love.
"Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing. From this hour, I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines." - Walt Whitman.
A change has to come from within. Shifting the thoughts and the focus from the dreaded signs of ageing to the positive aspects of who you are and what you look like will furnish the exact thing the cosmetic industry has built its foundation on - beauty.
Whilst we don’t expect to undo the centuries of stigma around ageing, we will continue to aspire towards a shift from the superficial and cosmetic perceptions to pure nourishment, and pride. Because a skincare ritual should be about just that. About encouraging us to consciously slow down the frenetic pace of life, to give back to and nourish our bodies, and to purposefully connect with ourselves and our being.
Beauty is pleasurable to perceive, it’s a characterised personal existent feeling, and it is not defined by the complexion of ones skin.
Till next time,
T