Get Glowing Skin with The Glow Getter
Ailish Lucas is a multi-award winning clean beauty, health and wellness blogger who is passionate about helping women get glowing skin naturally. Ailish suffered from the ‘worst hormonal acne of her life’ (her words) when she came off the pill two years ago and made it her mission to figure out how to get her skin glowing again naturally. She created The Glow Summit, which is the UK’s leading online, health wellness and lifestyle summit to help you get glowing skin from the inside out and interviews leading experts in nutrition, mindset, exercise, clean beauty and life so that you can get tips, tricks and advice on how to glow from the inside out.
Q1. What made you start the blog The Glow Getter?
I’ve been obsessed with beauty and makeup since I was young and when I was in my mid-twenties decided to learn makeup at the London College of Fashion part-time and then went to learn beauty therapy part-time as well whilst working as a full-time marketing manager. I decided to set up my blog because I was having huge trouble with my skin and had tried everything to get it clear. I stumbled across an organic skincare brand called Pai Skincare and within two weeks, my skin had completely changed, so wanted to start documenting my journey. I then started to look into health and wellness and what was important for clear, glowing skin and the rest they say, is history!
Q2. For anyone reading this who doesn’t know you, what would you love to tell them?
Firstly I’d say hi *waves*, and I’m Ailish! I’m 35 and my skin story is this. I went on the pill when I was 14 to help my skin because I had acne and then spent the rest of my life on and off it until I decided to completely come off when I was 32 and living in New Zealand. Since then, it’s been a journey of discovery on what makes your skin glowing and clear, which isn’t down to just clean beauty products. It’s about what you eat, think, how you move, what you use and what you do. Which is why I set up The Glow Summit - it took me SO long to sift through the wealth of online information out there about how to cure myself naturally, so I want to help others feel more confident through hearing from some of the leading experts in the above areas so they can glow inside and out too, and more quickly than I did.
Q3. Why green beauty and glowing skin?
It’s been my struggle the whole of my life and I feel like I’m finally through the other side so want to help others. Also in particular with green beauty; I never found any answers in conventional beauty and the industry is so unregulated which means companies can put in a great deal of ingredients that aren’t in the best interests for our health, but are cheap for them to use. For example, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) is an ingredient that makes your products foam; whether that’s in your foaming face wash, body wash, toothpaste etc and that takes off all your makeup when you wash your face with it but also strips your skin of its natural oils. This means your skin then starts to overproduce sebum (the oils underneath your skin) which can then lead to an overproduction of it and then cause spots. It’s just not a great ingredient to be using on your face but the beauty industry doesn’t really care about that so uses it. Which is why I’d rather use natural products because they are super effective and they tend to care more about the skin and ingredients they use. I really feel like in the next 5-10 years, people will see some of the major companies like Loreal and Unilever buy more and more natural beauty companies because when you look after your body and the food you put into it, why not look after what you put onto it as well?
Q4. What is green beauty?
Green beauty, natural beauty, clean beauty and organic beauty are all basically the same thing apart from the latter you have to have an organic certification for. They tend to focus around avoiding certain ingredients in their products like parabens, SLS, Methylisothiazolinone (MI), lead, phthalates etc (here’s a list to help: https://theglowgetter.co/ingredients-to-avoid/ ) and focus more around using plant-derived ingredients which makes sense because our skin is really similar to the molecular structure of a plant. It can be a little tricky figuring out which brands are truly natural though and some that are just jumping on the bandwagon to make a quick buck so there are a few things to keep an eye out for. For example, if a brand is truly organic, there will be a certification on there and if they just say they are organic, but you can’t find the logo on the product, they are essentially making it up.
Q5. What is not green beauty? How do you know what to look for?
There are a few resources that I would definitely recommend for getting up to speed on things and knowing your ingredients and products. If you’re in the UK, Skin Ninja is a great app that tells you the contact allergens in products and what’s natural and what isn’t. The EWG.com/skindeep database is a good place to start when researching ingredients as is Paula’s Choice. Do keep in mind that you need to make your own mind up on the research and whether you’re happy with a particular ingredient going into a product or not as some people really dislike certain ingredients, whereas others don’t really mind. For example, I personally don’t mind dimethicone in my makeup products but wouldn’t have it in skincare, whereas others prefer to avoid it completely.
To keep it simple though, look at the companies ethics and values. Do they care about the ingredients that go into the products? Do they list them completely and make a point of saying that they are natural and don’t use anything that will harm the environment or you? Do they talk about being cruelty-free? You can normally tell a brand pretty well by their transparency which is the easiest and quickest place to start. Just on a separate note here - don’t confuse vegan beauty and natural beauty together. They are very different things as some brands can be completely vegan but use totally awful ingredients that aren’t helpful for you or your skin.
Q6. What is The Glow Summit and what can we learn?
The Glow Summit is a completely free, online, five-day event where I interview leading experts in the areas of what we eat, what we think, how we move, what we use and what we do to get their top tips and tricks so you can get glowing skin from the inside out. This is the third year of me running it and I absolutely love it. I’ve got some incredible speakers such as Dr Christiane Northrup who was voted as Oprah’s super soul 100 and one of the most trusted voices in America all about hormone balancing and glowing skin; Dr Libby Weaver talking about liver detoxification and how to glow inside and out plus advice from self-love experts, yoga teachers, clean beauty experts and more so you truly can glow from the inside out. It’s a passion project of mine that’s kind of taken over my life and I’m so excited to be able to work on it full time and keep growing it and making it amazing for everyone that signs up.
If you’d like to know more then you can sign up here: theglowgetter.co/summit
Have a watch of the below video if you want to know more about it.
Q7. What were the reasons you switched to green beauty?
Because conventional beauty failed me. My skin would be sore to touch when I washed it, my eyes would sting and my acne never got better. It was almost by accident I stumbled upon green beauty and now it’s my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Q8. Advice for anyone who wants to try it, where should they start?
Well, welcome to the green side! Jokes. Firstly, don’t think you have to throw everything out and start from scratch, you really don’t. Just as one product ends, replace it with a more natural version. From a budget perspective, start with a shower gel or even a natural soap like the one I use for my face and body that never ends called Skin Owl Matcha Cleaning Bar. It’s awesome. Then look into your skincare - Weleda is a great place to start and their SkinFood body moisturiser is amazing for summer as leaves such a nice glow on your skin. I’ve also got a green beauty starter guide here to help you lose the overwhelm and just start playing with some new products: https://theglowgetter.co/green-beauty-starter-kit
Q9. What is bad advice you hear commonly in the green beauty world?
That if you use non-natural products then something bad will happen to you. LOL. If you love your Charlotte Tilbury lipstick then use it! I am a zero judgement zone with this type of thing because beauty is so personal so if you feel called to use green beauty then awesome. If you don’t, then no problem at all. What I will say is that as long as your educating yourself on what is going into your products then at least your making an informed choice with your pound. A lot of us go round never actually realising the ingredients in our skincare or products and are then quite shocked when we do! Make an informed choice and if you still want to use that product, then go for it.
Q10. What is the best or most worthwhile investment you have made in the last year?
The most worthwhile investments I make are books. I LOVE learning, sometimes to my detriment because I read so much that I can see both sides of an opinion and then confuse myself a little as to not being sure what I think! But overall, books. There is so much we have to learn, so why do we stop when we finish school or university?
Q11. What is one of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt on your journey so far? (Can be business, life anything at all!)
That life is no way a straight line from A to B, there is basically a whole other alphabet in-between it. That applies to figuring out how to clear hormonal acne, learn business, learn anything new for that matter, it requires consistency, discipline and a whole load of unsexy words we’d rather not bother with. But for true greatness in anything, we need to commit wholeheartedly and that’s when the magic will happen.
Q12. Where would you love to take the brand you’ve built?
I want to be able to have positively impacted over 1,000,000 women through The Glow Summit, helping them get glowing skin from the inside out. We sometimes look at skin as this really vain, superficial thing and it’s not. There is so much shame and insecurity and embarrassment when our skin isn’t the way we want it and I know, because I’ve been there. I want all women to have the power in their hands to be able to help themselves, quickly, easily and affordably so we can all glow from the inside and out.
Huge thank you to Ailish AKA The Glow Getter for this amazing interview! If you want to know more about Green Beauty and The Glow Summit have a little look at the links below:
The Glow Summit - Launches on the 15th April so make sure you get signed up for free!!!
The Glow Getter - Have a read of the blog and pick up some great tips on glowing skin!
More of a video watcher? Check out her You Tube Chanel
Annnddd she's also got a great insta too! So go and give her a follow! @theglowgetterofficial
And if you loved reading this interview and want more, why not check out Founder of Super Nova Living - Laura Beckford, its a fab read for anyone looking to get inspired!
Click Here to Read >>>>
Thanks and would love any comments below!
