Author of the Truth About Beauty
In the 1990s, Kat James was one of the most quoted mainstream beauty experts, representing mega-corporations like Maybelline and other major cosmetic companies. After spending years dictating to the public how to apply what make-up where, James came to realize that beauty radiates from within. In fact, your face directly reflects your health. After experiencing her own physical and emotional transformation thanks to detoxification, James decided to teach her clients more than just how to paint their faces to perfection; she helps them to unveil their natural beauty as it exudes from the inside out. Today, James is a holistic beauty and health author and public television host with a devout following of beautifully healthy people.
HL&S: How are detoxing and beauty related?
James: If we want to achieve true radiance on a cellular level, as opposed to the ‘virtual vitality’ that is achieved through our conventional beauty
pursuit, then the goal to clean up our internal body ecology for good can lead to beauty payoffs beyond imagining.
HL&S: How did you detoxify yourself?
James: After fixing my liver (via liver detoxifying supplements such as milk thistle, alpha lipoic acid, and fish oil), and then balancing my blood sugar both through supplements and by stopping the intake of anything that would spike my blood sugar, I addressed my low thyroid, low serotonin, and high estrogen levels (all through supplements). Who knew that by doing this I’d be put on the most dramatically physically transforming path of all, with the outcome being ten dress sizes lost and a new person looking at me in the mirror.
HL&S: What is the most important core beauty advice you can offer women?
James: Think health and beauty will follow. Cultivate yourself with the passion of an artist and connoisseur. Choose the finest tools and raw materials. Only you can create what you become tomorrow.
HL&S: What beauty products do you recommend to further illuminate a woman’s natural beauty?
James: I am a huge fan of Iredale cosmetics. Iredale was the first and truly the only mineral makeup line in the late nineties that had the color palette and textures that I could actually take onto a photo shoot and use on the fashion elite. It’s very scary bringing natural products onto a shoot for Vogue. They have to look and perform very, very well. Few other mineral cosmetics existed at all that could be used without disapproving looks from models and photo editors, and without my own admission that they just didn’t look as good. Iredale was the first exception. My feeling about mineral makeup is that if you can find colors and textures that are great, there’s no reason to challenge your skin with the many problematic ingredients in conventional cosmetics. Aside from sparing yourself those ingredients, there are actually significant benefits to using mineral makeup: 1) The purity and proven anti-inflammatory effects of the mineral oxides. 2) Mineral makeup is a smart way to protect your face from the sun, since applying the color actually gives you around 17 SPF. Chemical sunscreens feature chemicals that have been found to be estrogenic and collect in breast tissue in animal studies. Ugly but true. In general, I recommend beauty and skincare products that contain high percentages of proven actives, with the lowest possible amount of negatives that sensitize or cause decreased function to the skin, such as synthetic fragrance, mineral oil, or petrolatum. These are immediate turnoffs to anyone in-the-know.
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