7 Secrets of Beauty & Wellbeing – Laura Rudoe
It’s taken 20 years and more passion and determination than you could imagine for skin care expert Laura Rudoe to launch Adaptology, her new natural and organic skincare range. The name? Ah yes, that comes from the highly active ingredients called ‘adaptogens’ that drive the range.
You may know about herbal adaptogens like Siberian ginseng, ashwagandha and rhodiola rosea being used in nutritional supplements. But, Laura explains, ‘when we use adaptogens in skin care, they help adapt your skin biology to the challenges of modern living. The most effective natural actives I could find came from the extreme ends of the earth. They thrive in stressful conditions – deserts, oceans, rainforests, the Arctic and high altitudes.’
As she explains below, Laura’s involvement with skincare came as a result of her own problems. She’s a legend in the natural beauty world, as the anonymous creator of ranges for other companies, then as the named founder of Evolve Organic Beauty, one of our longterm favourites and winner of several Beauty Bible Awards.
Read on for more about how Laura found her path and what keeps her healthy and happy.
1. Switching to a natural lifestyle. From my teens onwards, I really struggled with my skin due to chronic cystic acne. I started seeing a naturopathic dermatologist in my early 20’s who helped to resolve my skin problems and balance my hormones gradually, over the course of a decade. I still see her to this day for my overall health and wellness. She is like a second mum!
A key switch was adopting a natural lifestyle and removing my exposure to as many synthetic chemicals as possible. I mostly eat raw food or home-cooked dishes made with ‘real’ ingredients rather than processed or refined foods. I choose organic food wherever possible to reduce exposure to glyphosate, the herbicide (weedkiller) that’s widely used on conventionally grown crops, in order to lessen the burden on my liver.
Also, I only apply natural products on my body because they are more biocompatible. We’ve evolved alongside many of these natural ingredients and our bodies recognise them and use them. For example, the friendly bacteria on our skin break down natural oils into useful compounds that benefit skin.
2. Designing my own anti-ageing products. Like many of us, I am trying to age gracefully. And, as I’m lucky enough to create cosmetic products I can design something that works for me as well as for others. In our Adaptology Time Warp range we’ve focused on all the different ageing pathways that have been identified by longevity researchers. So we include powerful anti-inflammatory ingredients to prevent what’s called ‘inflamm-aging’, which is where inflammation causes premature ageing. Inflammation actually breaks down collagen and elastin as part of the healing mechanism. But it’s only meant to be a temporary state. When inflammation becomes chronic, which happens a lot nowadays, it can lead to a degradation of the skin matrix.
We also use peptides, niacinamide and bio-retinol to reduce the visible effects of ageing, antioxidants to prevent free radical damage plus autophagy-stimulating ingredients to enhance cellular detoxification. Autophagy is the body’s natural clean-up process, which helps to remove unhealthy and dead cells and recycle them. This detox helps the mitochondria – they’re the energy power hubs in our cells – work better so skin has more radiance.
3. My hero product is Adaptology Time Warp moisturiser /£48 for 50ml. I use it every day. It literally melts on the skin and smells divine. It contains our Adaptogen Protection Complex, which is a blend of three adaptogens to protect the skin from stress, pollution and blue light, as well as bio-retinol and hyaluronic acid.
4. Compassion and care. These are the most important qualities I try to show in my everyday life and I look for in others. At Good Ventures (the name of my company), compassion is integrated into our CARE philosophy. Caring deeply about our planet and the people in it and trying to make a difference in what we do, caring for each other in the way we interact, and helping people learn to care for their own bodies and skin.
5. Following the strong loving women in my family. My mother always had her own business and worked incredibly hard. Growing up with her showed me that women can be entrepreneurial and businesslike without needing to be masculine. My Romanian grandmother instilled in me her fascination with natural medicine and the more spiritual side of life. She truly embodied love in everything she did.
6. I draw a line under the workday. I make a rule always to do some exercise between my workday and the evening. It acts as a sort of buffer between the two where my mind can unwind. Often it’s yoga in my home studio but sometimes I swim, do Pilates or HIIT [high intensity interval training] spinning. I find that this helps me transition my mind from busy mode into relaxation mode. It also helps keep my activity level high, as I have a fairly sedentary existence.
7. My make-up musts. I rarely wear make-up, but when I do, I use Ilia True Skin Serum Foundation, from Content. It is lightweight, natural and a perfect colour match. I also use their Limitless Lash Mascara, which I do think is a beauty essential for adding definition and making eyes look more wide awake. We ingest most of what we put on our lips so I use non-tinted Inika Certified Organic Lip Serum.
