7 Secrets of Beauty and Wellbeing – OSKIA's Georgie Cleeve
Georgie is one of the wonderful colleagues in the beauty industry who has become a dear friend over the years. As veritable Tiggers ourselves, we love her enthusiasm and general bounce. And we love OSKIA, the bio-nutritional skincare brand she founded in 2010 with her husband George, an ex-corporate lawyer, which they both devote enormous care and attention to.
Georgie, mother of three, tends to downplay her achievements, but she has 20 years experience in the world of science and nutrition – ‘a direction I didn’t expect considering I studied archaeology at university…!’
Her formidable career includes being a food editor for six years, a skincare therapist, nutritional/cosmetic researcher and formulator, director of a nutritional supplement company, and starting OSKIA. Phew!
1. Learning to love my nose! I would say my biggest beauty concern is my big, bent nose – caused by a genetic development as I got older (thanks Dad!), but I would never, ever change it. It is me, and I am who I am, and I think I would look rather peculiar and certainly not me with something perfect and little. Beauty for me is health, vitality and a smile, not individual features and certainly not perfect features.
2. Trying to copy the quality I most rate in others… One of the most wonderful qualities I’ve seen in a small number of people is their ability to make whoever they are talking to feel like the centre of the world. The happiness that people are made to feel from this approach is just wonderful, and it starts with being genuinely interested in what that person has to say. Everyone should be made to feel that way. I am lucky to be married to one of the rare people that has this quality!
3. Following on from that… There’s been so much recent emphasis on making oneself the centre of everything, but I’m not actually sure that is the answer to wellbeing. Self-care is absolutely vital, and we all need that ‘me-time’, but I do believe that not always putting oneself first actually gives you a much more healthy feeling of self-worth and wellbeing, one born of tolerance and empathy.
4. My role models are my mother and my father. My father due to his unstoppable work ethic and his willingness to roll-up his sleeves and to support people, and my mother who displayed all the same qualities with regard to home and the family.
5. Taking good supplements. I am a huge fan of supplements when we need extra support. In fact, such a huge fan that OSKIA was actually founded on nutrition as the basis of skin health – it all came from a horse supplement that my dad developed with MSM and lactoferrin 25 years ago. I have been taking MSM and Lactoferrin all this time and I put my good skin health and immunity down to these phenomenal ingredients. MSM is the most bio-available form of sulphur, which is required for so many biological functions that I couldn’t possibly list them all, including collagen and glutathione production. Lactoferrin is what us mammals evolved with as the kick-starter of our immune system and the reason I believe I have such a strong immune system.
6. Baths and more baths! They’re my way of switching off. I know hot baths aren’t great for our skin or circulation, but I adore them. I would have three a day if I could. The bathroom is also the ONLY place that I can be by myself and think in peace and quiet - if the children don’t know I’m in there, at which point they will all try and get in… During the first Covid lockdown, I found myself in the bath rather a lot (with the door locked…).
7. My hero product from OSKIA is…This is like being asked to choose your favourite child! Currently it’s our new Isotonic Hydra Serum /£78 for 30ml, which is clinically proven to boost hydration by up to 30%. Rather than just applying moisture it actually stimulates the skin’s own hyaluronic acid production, which I think is rather clever and a much more long term approach to dry and dehydrated skin.
