Pure Savvy Beauty Secrets

If I’m not having family time, I can be found with my head firmly buried in a book, usually a thriller (you can blame many a wet school holiday and a second hand book shop selling cheap Agatha Christie novels for my passion!). I spent far too much time on Facebook, I love to talk and I love to eat ice-cream with strawberry and mint choc-chip being my favourites.

I’m a former corporate workaholic and used to travel incessantly for work. I disliked having to carry so many skincare products but couldn’t find a solution, when I became a working mum what was once an irritation became a massive bugbear. I wanted to spend every available moment with my baby as I already felt I was missing so much, I didn’t want to be following a complicated, ritualised skincare routine. I wanted quick, simple yet effective skincare, I wanted a mask that worked in a minute, I wanted a serum that worked on my skin overnight with no effort form me. I wanted skincare that didn’t intrude on ‘me-time’ but actually allowed me to have some. I created Pure Savvy (puresavvy.co.uk).

SELF CARE SECRETS

I spent so many years thinking that self-care was selfish and it is anything but. In the corporate world I was a typical high-achiever always putting others’ needs before my own and this ended up translating into my own personal life where I didn’t ever spend time on myself as it made me feel so guilty. It has taken me a long time to be in a good space where self-care is a priority and where I am now on my own priority list.

So firstly I would saying the importance of creating boundaries for yourself and for your family time is crucial together with the power of saying no. It is hard but an essential self-care strategy.

For me, going outside and taking a breath is my second self-care strategy. I work from home and it is easy to become closeted in the house without a reason for going outside the house. I make time for 5 minutes to go outside and take a deep breath. Breathing is a simple strategy for self-care. Focusing on it can calm you down and ensuring you breathe deeply from your stomach can reduce anxiety and tension. I combine this with grounding, walking barefoot on the grass if I can which has been linked with positive effects such as neutralising free radicals, reducing stress and chronic fatigue alongside better sleep.

Thirdly, I try to journal for a minute each morning. Sometimes it’s affirmations or a positive intention or the day, sometime it’s an idea to note down or think further about or even a grumpy feeling you want to get off your chest. It helps me to focus on the day ahead and it’s ‘my time’ before everyone else awakes.

BUSINESS PLANS

I’m a problem solver by nature and always trying to maximise the time I have available so I have just created a range of digital life planners to help keep track of appointments, expenses, habits, goals, ideas and so on.

I’m passionate about women being able to put themselves on their priority list as I’ve done so I’ve started a free Facebook group called The Pure Savvy Collective designed to share tips and advice on how we can practice self-care in 10 minutes or less. I’m also going back to my corporate roots a little as a trainer and business mentor with plans to start training and coaching women to put in plans to maximise their time, reduce overwhelm and stress and put themselves first. I will also be helping coach and mentor women who want to start their own business.

Finally, I’ve been asked my many men who already buy the Multi-Tasker Balm (apparently it’s a life saver on freshly shaved faces) to create a men’s range so I have lots of ideas for that.

THREE WAYS TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE

Firstly, eat and shop local. We try to eat fresh, local and seasonal produce and detest the idea of flying in asparagus from Peru for example. We are lucky to live in a market town with a fruit & vegetable stall. We also support small, independent shops who without our support would give way to the larger, more faceless stores. When I was starting Pure Savvy it was important to me to have everything made in the UK and I’m especially proud that my labels only come from a printers 5 minutes from my house. Not everything is as close but I tried to source as local as I could.

Secondly, minimise use of paper and plastics. As a family we have gone as digital as we can, no more paper statements or paper insurance documents. I love writing lists, in fact I would go so far as I saying I am obsessed, so I’ve created a digital notebook, a digital journal for my journaling and the planners for my appointments, my goal and habit tracking and it houses my compulsion for list making! We also try to minimise when we shop our purchases of single-use plastic and plastic in general.

Thirdly, we try to live a life where we minimise shopping for the sake of shopping, whether this is food that goes to waste, whether this is ‘cheap’ imported clothing that is by its very design throwaway after a few uses or whether this is just buying ‘stuff’ that you don’t need. It’s very easy to get caught up in consumerism but we are actively trying as a family to buy better and buy only what we need.