Photographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, September 2004
Read the full article: Why Yoga Studios Are the New Natural Beauty Meccas
VOGUE Senior Editor, Lauren Mechling, writes,
“Everybody has her madeleine. Mine is the magical balm that my first yoga teacher, a woman named Lili, used to massage into her students’ shoulders and temples as we lay still on our mats at the end of class. Fifteen years later, I no longer recall her face, but I can still summon the notes of pine and mandarin she smoothed into my skin, and the dreamy feeling that came over me each time she did.
For reasons I cannot pretend to understand, the tradition of instructors turning into masseurs during savasana has more or less died. As a conciliatory gesture, perhaps, yoga studios have taken to stocking wonderful balms and salves and oils for students to purchase and take home. These all-natural products are often hand-made and come in appealingly lo-fi packaging that makes it hard not to view them as the ’90s zines of the contemporary beauty world. My collection of vials and jars is there for me when I am having trouble falling asleep or, as has been the case more recently, calming down after looking at Twitter. Below, five small-batch skin-care companies worth bending over backwards to find.”
In her VOGUE Beauty must-have shortlist, Mechling includes SAHAJA ESSENTIAL OILS, featuring our latest mixture, SHIVA-SHAKTI: the Essence of Divine Love, a limited-edition collaboration with acclaimed yoga teacher Shiva Rea. The unisex oil contains jasmine, rose, and blue lotus—divine love essence.
