Divining your dosha
February 1, 2004 | 12:00am
Do as Christy Turlington does. Not because the well-lit supermodel has lent her star sheen to a new skincare line that seems to be riding the eastern wave of holistic well-being that has been transforming western habits like a pig in reincarnation. Do as Turlington does, because despite the fact that she belongs to the unrealistically glamorous image-world of fashion and modeling, she has become so much more than that.
After years of posing as a living mannequin, she has emerged as a talented photographer herself, with an eye for beauty of the real. After years of smoking and an encounter with emphysema, she has become one of smoking cessation’s strongest activists. And because she does not just do yoga like a trendy model thing, but actually lives and breathes it, she has turned into somewhat of a guru and is also a contributing editor of the Yoga Journal. And because her interest in eastern philosophies isn’t just vague dabbling, but is something she pursued in university after modeling, studying comparative religion at NYU.
Christy Turlington is thus quite a paragon of beauty and intelligence, inside and out, and so partnering up with two friends and putting up Sundari, their own luxury skincare line based on Ayurvedic principles, is actually not as hokey as it may seem. Ayla Hussain grew up in Pakistan where she and her family had always been using natural skincare products created around the 5,000-year-old science. She met Cavan Mahony at Harvard Business School, and Cavan was immediately attracted to Ayurveda’s holistic system, believing that natural ingredients are the only way to go.
There has always been this weird and arbitrary separation of mind and body, inner well-being and outer health, but not so in Ayurveda, where health and beauty is achieved through a perfect balance of everything within you. The universal elements of air, space, water, fire and earth combine to make the three governing forces known as doshas: vata (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (earth). Each person has elements of all three forces, but because of imbalances, one usually emerges as the dominant dosha, which forms a person’s skin, body and mind type. The Sundari line is concerned with treating these different skin types, using the essential oils of such plants like neem, neroli and eucalyptus.
On the Sundari website (www.sundari.com), after answering some questions on bone structure, temperament, and the quality of my dreams, I discovered that my dosha was pitta – in other words, I have normal/combination skin. If I were to purchase the Sundari regime for pitta skin, it would consist of the Sandalwood Cleanser, the Essential Oil for Pitta Skin, which contains jasmine and ylang ylang oil, and Elder Flower Moisturizer for Pitta Skin. The kapha and vata types have their own regimes with specific herbs and oils.
Sundari’s Neem Night Cream is a particular favorite among customers and the creators themselves. Suitable for all skin types, the creamy moisturizer contains neem extract combined with jojoba oil, geranium oil, and shea butter. "It’s incredible for healing dry, dehydrated skin," Mahony says, while Turlington claims that she uses Sundari exclusively (she’s got a vata imbalance). The Neem Night Cream has been clinically proven to moisturize skin by 108 percent, and even men use it after shaving.
While Sundari products are a far cry from the plain, utilitarian plastic bottles of inexpensive and unassuming pastes sold in India, those which Sundari is based on, these products are marketed to the modern consumer who is cosmopolitan and product savvy, yet also interested in the holistic approach to life. With so many choices out there, so many different sciences of skincare, the emerging trends have been moving toward a general holism, a knowledge of biological feedback and psychosomatics. One part of our system always affects another, and whether the problem is internal or external, the skin, our largest organ, is usually the first place it shows, and thus the most immediate – but not the only – part we should take care of. Sundari basically means "beautiful woman" in Sanskrit, but on a spiritual level, it refers to something greater – "the goddess within."
The Sundari skincare line is available exclusively at Essenses in Rustan’s.
After years of posing as a living mannequin, she has emerged as a talented photographer herself, with an eye for beauty of the real. After years of smoking and an encounter with emphysema, she has become one of smoking cessation’s strongest activists. And because she does not just do yoga like a trendy model thing, but actually lives and breathes it, she has turned into somewhat of a guru and is also a contributing editor of the Yoga Journal. And because her interest in eastern philosophies isn’t just vague dabbling, but is something she pursued in university after modeling, studying comparative religion at NYU.
Christy Turlington is thus quite a paragon of beauty and intelligence, inside and out, and so partnering up with two friends and putting up Sundari, their own luxury skincare line based on Ayurvedic principles, is actually not as hokey as it may seem. Ayla Hussain grew up in Pakistan where she and her family had always been using natural skincare products created around the 5,000-year-old science. She met Cavan Mahony at Harvard Business School, and Cavan was immediately attracted to Ayurveda’s holistic system, believing that natural ingredients are the only way to go.
There has always been this weird and arbitrary separation of mind and body, inner well-being and outer health, but not so in Ayurveda, where health and beauty is achieved through a perfect balance of everything within you. The universal elements of air, space, water, fire and earth combine to make the three governing forces known as doshas: vata (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (earth). Each person has elements of all three forces, but because of imbalances, one usually emerges as the dominant dosha, which forms a person’s skin, body and mind type. The Sundari line is concerned with treating these different skin types, using the essential oils of such plants like neem, neroli and eucalyptus.
On the Sundari website (www.sundari.com), after answering some questions on bone structure, temperament, and the quality of my dreams, I discovered that my dosha was pitta – in other words, I have normal/combination skin. If I were to purchase the Sundari regime for pitta skin, it would consist of the Sandalwood Cleanser, the Essential Oil for Pitta Skin, which contains jasmine and ylang ylang oil, and Elder Flower Moisturizer for Pitta Skin. The kapha and vata types have their own regimes with specific herbs and oils.
Sundari’s Neem Night Cream is a particular favorite among customers and the creators themselves. Suitable for all skin types, the creamy moisturizer contains neem extract combined with jojoba oil, geranium oil, and shea butter. "It’s incredible for healing dry, dehydrated skin," Mahony says, while Turlington claims that she uses Sundari exclusively (she’s got a vata imbalance). The Neem Night Cream has been clinically proven to moisturize skin by 108 percent, and even men use it after shaving.
While Sundari products are a far cry from the plain, utilitarian plastic bottles of inexpensive and unassuming pastes sold in India, those which Sundari is based on, these products are marketed to the modern consumer who is cosmopolitan and product savvy, yet also interested in the holistic approach to life. With so many choices out there, so many different sciences of skincare, the emerging trends have been moving toward a general holism, a knowledge of biological feedback and psychosomatics. One part of our system always affects another, and whether the problem is internal or external, the skin, our largest organ, is usually the first place it shows, and thus the most immediate – but not the only – part we should take care of. Sundari basically means "beautiful woman" in Sanskrit, but on a spiritual level, it refers to something greater – "the goddess within."
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