Making Halal Beauty Holistic

Salam aleikum dear sister,

Halal beauty can mean a lot of things to many people, but after many years creating skin care and makeup products, and the conversations, problems, and needs I see from muslim women. I see that the idea of halal beauty, at least for me and my brand, will take on a whole new meaning, as this year begins. And alhamdulillah it will be for the best.

So, you might be wondering what does it mean to make Halal beauty Holistic?

Well, just to clarify a few poinst, Halal makeup and skin care are products that are made following Islamic guidelines, (no impermissible ingredients, fair trade, free of animal cruelty, etc) but Halal beauty is different from that. Halal beauty is the lens with which we use these products, it is what holds our intention. And it is what I have been thinking about after every interaction I have with my customers, because we need to work on this part as well to reap the most benefits in our self care and beauty routine.

I see that currently, we are just thinking about dealing with things on a surface level, but this means we will always be trying to heal or correct things half-way. For example, dark circles won't go away just by applying concealer, the concealer is just something that can help you ease any discomfort you might get when you look at the area under your eyes, but that is just a temporary masking of the problem.
Once that concealer is on, then the next part of the healing must begin. And that is looking at what is happening inside your body. You can master all the techniques, and the color correcting and the blending to achieve a flawless application, but at some point the makeup will have to come off, and if we are not helping ourselves from the inside out. When that makeup does come off, then you will feel all the anxiety and stress you felt before.

Now, this is where we make Halal beauty, Holistic as well.

By taking the carefully selected outward product (a halal, all-natural and gentle concelaer, or foundation) and combining it with knowledge of what our body needs internally to also correct the problem, then we will be making the best of the resources we have available.
And just in case you are wondering...ALL of the skin issues have an internal root cause, so acne, redness, dryness, dark circles, puffiness, hyperpigmentation, etc can all be greatly improved when we work from both the inside and outside.

The great thing about this is that the more you think of beauty as a holistic journey, the easier it will become to feel comfortable in your skin, to give your body what it needs and to discover true Halal Beauty. One that works from the inside out, and that is fueled by love of your body, and not society trends.

So how can you go about this?
Here is something I have done, and continue to do to keep my skin healthy and vibrant:

1. List the issues you would like to change: dark circles, puffy eyes, dry skin, breakouts, cracked skin, bumpy skin, etc.
2. Read on the underlying internal issues that could be worsening the problem: for example, dark circles become more noticeable when you are not drinking enough water, or getting enough sleep or you are staring at screens for a long time, or when you are under a lot of stress.
3. Now, read up on the things that you can do externally to get rid of your issues, again, taking the example of dark circles, some options would be to use face oils or creams that contain contain vitamin C for brightening and healing the skin, paired with face massage in the morning to help with blood circulation and to apply a weekly face mask that will further detoxify and protect the skin under your eyes.
4. And then internally, you know that you will have to start paying attention to your sleep patterns, that you will have to increase your hydration, and even read upon if the issue can be caused by a vitamin deficiency so you can supplement it.

So you make sure that you are giving both the internal and the external solutions their proper time, so that you can reap the most benefits, and in sha Allah when you see your progress, it will help you tackle other problems, and on the way, you might even correct something you were not even planning to (like drinking water to help with your dark circles, but will also help if you suffer from dry skin and breakouts)

So when we make Halal Beauty Holistic we are putting into practice the teaching that our body is a trust from Allah and that we must to our best to care for it, for He has sent down all these blessings for us o use, and also has sent the knowledge to solve our issues.