I do sometimes painful things to my body in an effort to conform to culturally imposed beauty ideals.
There is no point in developing anything at the cost of exploiting and abusing animals. Not only is it important for me to create a 100% cruelty-free brand but also send out a very clear message to both consumers and companies out there: testing on animals in the name of beauty is cruel and unnecessary.
Beauty is a gift, just like good health or intelligence. The only thing is not to be proud of being beautiful. Because you didn't do anything - it was given to you.
Beauty is the result of having been through an experience all the way through to the end - therefore it has a poignancy. Beauty that is singular always comes from following an experience to the point where you can go no further.
To a synthetic chemist, the complex molecules of nature are as beautiful as any of her other creations. The perception of that beauty depends on the understanding of chemical structures and their transformations, and, as with a treasured work of art, deepens as the subject is studied, perhaps even to a level approaching romance.
The beauty of soaps is that it takes a village to make it work, and you get to work with really hardworking people.
If I go to someplace like Switzerland, I find a lot of uptight people because they're living amongst so much beauty; there's no urgency in trying to find the beauty within themselves. If you're stuck in New York, you have to somehow look within yourself - otherwise, you'd go crackers.