After writing it, I think it’s pretty balanced. I’m skeptical of anything I buy more of, and I feel less sensitive to marketing gimmicks and trends. I want everything I buy to honor who I am and my ancestors. So it doesn’t bother me too much now. The wellness industry is as wicked as we try to empower it to succeed, and hopefully this book calls that power into question. I sometimes joke that this will be a non-fiction book in a few years. Some of the treatments I thought I had invented turned out to be already working, so I had to go back and invent something even scarier.
When did you realize that your relationship with beauty and health has become over-consumed or unhealthy?
I have a history of eating disorders and am going to great lengths not to return to such behavior again. Well, I realized that I was going backwards. It’s so natural that wellness is associated with beauty and a certain look, and it started to affect me. I was also spending too much money that I didn’t have. I think I went to a concert and felt like this. I forgot that I love music, that was my long career. I was trying to remember other aspects of my personality, but it felt like I didn’t even know who I was. When you spend all day thinking about what to eat, what to drink, and what to put on your skin, you quickly run out of room to think about anything else.
What is your current health routine like?
A lot of what I loved about skincare, beauty and wellness was always trying new things and always having so many promises. Now I try to solve that problem in other ways, such as podcasts, reading, TV, or just finding new ideas. I try to make it as sexy as the new product in my life. I’ve been spending more time outdoors and it’s been really great. Few hikes are uniform. There are no trees like it. Rather than looking for new products, I pair my skincare in the sense that he only uses the three things I use and only when I feel like it. I try to listen to my body and eat whatever it wants. It’s a new kind of relationship that’s completely different. I’m trying to be intuitive.
For people who work in places like Holistik, medical spas or beauty stores, or even another industry that is very intense or look-centric and feels inadequate or losing their sense of self. What do you say? ?
Your career or job is not the sum of yourself. you are more complicated. We are all good enough as we are. I really believe so.
What’s your favorite horror book or movie?
I love directors Julia Ducournau and David Cronenberg and Ari Aster. Midsummer It was truly transcendent for me. I didn’t know what I wrote was body horror. When I just started meeting TV producers and they were throwing those words at me, I thought, yes at all. Because if you write about the female body in America, of course it will be body horror. So it’s not the genre I intended to work in, but it’s the one that resonates most with my experience here.
What is your favorite book of all time?
probably wave By Virginia Woolf. The second, I think, is Elena Ferrante’s Complete Neapolitan Novels. They have had a huge impact on how I relate to women in my life. The 3rd one Piranez By Susannah Clarke. After reading it, I missed the main character so much.
Do you listen to music while writing?
I often listen to Beethoven, late quartets and slow movements. I listen to symphonies. Besides that, I love Frank Ocean, James Blake, Dan Deacon, and Mitsuki.
What’s the best wellness treatment you’ve ever had?
I had a very nice bodywork massage. There are packages available at the Pearl Spa in San Francisco. This is his three hours long and there are no untouched parts. They scrape everything off until you are a whole new person. It’s Wild, you’re just a plaything on their table. Loved it. I had a wonderful facial at Biologic Recherche in Paris. I wanted to do something like a mothership.
Have you ever experienced your own wellness horror story?
What happens to me a lot is the so-called “avocado face”. This happened a lot when I worked in stores. Within seconds of trying something new, my skin turned red and leathery. It looks just like an avocado. Then I had to use steroids. It doesn’t go away on its own.
https://www.self.com/story/natural-beauty-book-club-pick
