WATERLESS SKINCARE

Today, two thirds of the Earth is desert. Two. Thirds. Maybe the serious issue of conserving and preserving water is easier to comprehend for people, who, like us, depend on rainwater. Not just to fill up our tanks, but to replenish the natural aquifers in the mountains surrounding us.

After last year's severe draught, which inconceivably reached the green hills of Kangaroo Valley, even my daughter got it into her teenage head space that it takes 3 outrageous litres (almost 1 gallon) of water to flush the toilet – except Christo put a water-displacing rock inside our cistern, so now our toilet flushes with 0.5l, and, 'please, only when you really have to'.

I am glad, that apart from the water bath for melting our beeswax, we don't use water in our skincare. And said water get's recycled for washing up, or is given to the plants.

When it comes to skin, I firmly believe the benefits of water work from the inside out, just like it does for Earth – water is needed deep in the ground, not on the surface. So, while drinking 6-8 glasses of water water a day is vital for our body, applied topically, water actually dries out our skin.

Rather than replacing water with chemicals, however natural they may be, I keep to oils, oil based extracts and homeopathic (micro) doses of essential oils. Besides, the absence of water means no preservatives or stabilising chemicals are required to stop bacteria growth, and our compositions have a longer shelf life. All completely natural.

Drink your water, oil your skin.

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Thomas Tjapaltjarri (b Tamayinya Tjapangati c 1964), Australian 'Western Desert' painter, first encountered Europeans in 1984