The mind-skin connection is real.

It inspires beauty brands to reframe what ‘good skin’ actually means.

Thinner, smoother, better: In the era of retouching, that’s what some women feel they have to be. Filters, angles and photo manipulation have the eyes of millions of youngsters, and it is very easy to get lost in the image of impossible perfection.

But the penny might finally be dropping.

For the first time, numerous brands show real skin - pores and all - in marketing images. Under the hashtag #manifestingclearskin (which has over 7.1 million views), a whole array of videos explain how you can change your skin using just the power of your mind.

And it might sound a little far-fetched. Beauty products that make us feel better as opposed to looking better?

So often, good thoughts are the missing cog in the wheel of healthy skin. Where once the answer lay in a dizzying array of potions for minimising lines and spots, now manifesting is seen as a key step in a skincare routine.

In many stressful moments, you know that your skin can reflect what you're feeling inside, and what you're feeling inside can be reflected on your skin.

Although cause and effect can be challenging to nail down, there is no denying an intimate and intricate brain-skin connection. Aside from being derived from the same embryologic tissue, the ectoderm, the bond between the brain and skin is the focus of areas in both dermatology and medicine - known as psychodermatology and psychoneuroimmunology: the interplay between the mind, skin, and our immune system.

As a generation, we're more aware of how stress can infringe on everything from our minds to our moods. It is the border of the body, but also porous and easily breached; it is what others first see of us, the part of our physical selves that we present to the world and where we register that world, touching and being touched, in return.

As your largest organ, your skin protects you from the outside world, guards your internal organs, plays a prominent role in your immune system, and protects you from infection. It keeps your skin hydrated, regulates your body temperature, detoxifies waste and metabolites from your body, and, with its many nerve fibres, allows you to feel pain and pleasure. It not only produces hormones like vitamin D but also has a role in regulating hormones throughout your entire body.

In psychodermatology, the aim is to provide patients with a holistic approach to managing their skin that considers the physical symptoms and deals with the psychological effects on the individual and/or their loved ones. In practical terms, this means that alongside providing treatment for skin problems, a psychodermatologist will determine how much a person's skin affects their quality of life, mood, work and relationships.

The brain and the nervous system influence the skin's immune cells through various chemical messengers and receptors, which respond to stress. Our brain plays a significant role in the stress response, which affects the skin mainly through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. When this response is activated, stress hormones such as corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), glucocorticoids, and epinephrine are released. This results in a wide range of physiologic and immune reactions that can trigger or exacerbate skin conditions.

The concept of relaxing is not something that comes naturally to many. But we should still feed our skin, shield it, and give it all the care and attention it needs. Designate yourself a one-hour block to pamper yourself silly. Run a luxurious bath, scour your bathroom cabinets for the most relaxing beauty products you own – hopefully, there’s some of ours - and soak up all the stress-relieving goodness.

The purpose of Earth Kiss is to return you to equilibrium, shake off the day and feel more like yourself. We want to help you achieve solace and self-care in beauty rituals that calm the mind, cleanse the skin and offer a little ‘me-time’ whenever possible. Earth Kiss is the love child of mindfulness and sensorial beauty products. 

And that is precisely why Earth Kiss came to be. It’s that blissful ‘all about me’ moment when you feel your tired skin soaking up the rejuvenating nutrients of your favourite facial mask.

It’s that breakthrough moment when pampering your body, mind, and spirit ceases to be self-indulgent. It becomes synonymous with a new at-home self-care strategy that boosts your physical, emotional, and spiritual health and wellbeing.

Inspired by the emerging ‘self-care is health care’ revolution that prioritises regeneration, rejuvenation, and self-healing from within, our new Earth Kiss range of vegan facial masks ushers in a new dawn in certified organic skincare.

Our skin tells us a lot of information and communicates with us all the time, like when we’re tired or not drinking enough water or have food sensitivities. It’s so easy to see a bump or redness appear and want to attack it, remove it, get rid of it, or hide it. But the more you approach your skin with curiosity, patience, and tenderness; you can learn a lot. It’s important to think beyond just the surface-level expression of health to a whole-body experience.

Speaking of listening, you can now join the thousands worldwide who turn to our Earth Kiss Experience app to Mask ‘n’ Meditate. We believe that skincare is a perfect place to start improving your wellbeing, and you can now nourish your skin and nurture your soul with bespoke sounds to match your intentions. Why not designate a 10 or 20-minute block to pamper yourself and soak up all the stress-relieving goodness of our Super Naturals Kombucha & Spirulina Hydrating Sheet Mask – a fantastic ally in achieving one’s beauty goals?

Considering skincare from a more holistic standpoint and practising self-care is never wrong. Still, psychodermatology is about utilising practices like therapy and meditation, not just lighting a candle or drinking tea.

In an age of ten-step skincare routines, skincare fridges and a seemingly endless supply of new celebrity skincare lines, the science behind psychodermatology offers something rare in the beauty industry – skincare that doesn’t require you to break the bank and overcrowd your bathroom shelves. It is about being aware of the condition of your skin and how it feels - listening to it, respecting it, and cherishing it. It is about being completely honest about what works and what doesn’t. It is about finding the connection and balance between products, lifestyle, and diet that works for you.

While we are incorporating mind-skin connection into our products, meditation, and mindfulness to reduce stress in mind and body can be done – doing both your bank balance and the planet a favour.