When it comes to beauty, we tend to think our faces steal the show. True, beauty is noticed through facial features like eyes, lips, cheekbones, and hair. But today's beauty climate is shifting. Our youth is becoming more open minded and re-evaluating what real beauty is. And with this shift in perspective comes a little something called body care, something not necessarily new to the beauty scene, but becoming increasingly popular as of late.
What is Body Care?
Put simply, body care is the concept of how we take care of our body, or more specifically, how we blend wellness and skincare. Skincare can focus on specific pain points like acne, hyperpigmentation, and dry skin, but body care is more aware of the mechanisms that contribute to not just aging, but internal wellness and energy. Body care can be as simple as creating habits to apply toxin-free lotion, setting intention with bath bomb rituals, or using soothing oils that generate feelings of calm, relaxation, and an overall body high.
Body care is a holistic approach to beauty. It's a gateway to skincare, but somehow, skincare is already inherently part of its philosophy.
Why is Body Care Important?
There are those that want to be well-rounded when it comes to awareness and beauty. Having glowing skin doesn't necessarily translate to healthy skin. There is a huge space and market for body conscious people, and products that aim to assist those on such a journey. A few of these include:
- Sugar scrubs
- Essential oils
- Bath bombs
- Deodorants
- Body washes
- Body bars
- Body lotions
- Exfoliants
- Body sunscreens
- Self-tanner
- Body bronzers
- Hair removal products
- Hand creams
- Teeth whiteners
As you can probably gather from this list, body care products cover a wide range of self care, ranging from body bars and soaps, to exfoliants and teeth whiteners. Body care is important because it focuses on the holistic beauty and wellness of an individual. It values tradition, your own tradition, in regards to how you love and care for your thoughts, your habits, and your physical body.
Self-Love is Wellness
Although I advocate skincare, I am a firm believer in true wellness, both inside and out. Health and positive feelings about oneself are treasures that define our quality of living. While skincare is only one facet of a complex gem, body care understands that being conscious means going more than skin deep when it comes to beauty. Beauty corresponds with not just confidence, but a feeling of oneness, a comfort in navigating daily life, and an energy that extends outside of ourselves and reaches those we interact with. It can inspire us to be better at additional aspects of our lives, because as a whole, we feel beautiful.
Self love is a habit, it is learned, and it takes patience. Products don't necessarily define body care; having any or all of the products in the list above doesn't mean you're an advocate of body care. It involves intention, a desire to take care of your body and appreciation for your own uniqueness and physical makeup.
Wellness begins with healthy thoughts of ourselves and true self-consciousness. We should be studying our habits and ways we take care of ourselves (or even neglect ourselves). And with the New Year now in full tow, many of us are re-evaluating our habits, our ways of living, our reflections, our current course in life. We want to be better than we were the year before, be more beautiful, more inspiring, more confident. And sometimes the answer to these things are simply a shift in our beauty routines and perspectives.
We're Shifting Away from Toxic Products
As we continue on in 2022 and change the way we view skincare and body care, we increase awareness, which means looking at our products with a bit more speculation.
Toxins, fragrance, and other harmful chemicals or products that test on animals are finding their way out the door. Many of us, including a lot of youthful consumers, are looking elsewhere for beauty products that are gentler, organic, and cruelty-free. While body care does revolve around oneself and holistic wellness, it also involves feeling good about the products we're choosing.
Being aware of what is in your products is just as important as how you use them. The same way we feel better when we know that the food we're putting into our bodies is healthy and full of energy, so too does this apply to what we put onto our skin, under our eyes, or into our hair.
Imbuing our bodies with products that make us feel good provide us with healthy confidence, good energy, and even confidence in the products we're using. It solidifies those body care traditions, generates brand loyalty, and allows us freedom in knowing that we chose the course of our self-love and self-care, right down to the very ingredients we choose to allow contact with our physical being.
The Takeaway
Skincare isn't a thing of the past; it will always be around, always be practiced, and is an important aspect of the beauty industry. But as our society begins to become more self-aware and independent, we're beginning to understand that beauty runs more than skin-deep. We want to feel beautiful right down to our bones and thoughts.
Body care allows us the freedom to create self-care and self-love traditions and rituals that enrich our thoughts and confidence. It is an expansion of awareness and an overarching love for ourselves and our temples of energy and mind. We should be welcoming it with open arms, and I know that as we push on further into the future, you'll find just a few gems in performing some of your own body care as well.