Carla Oates’s multi-million-dollar beauty empire is built around the idea of nourishing your body ‘from the inside out’, and now the founder of The Beauty Chef has shared exactly how she gets her skin to glow every single day of the year.
Carla, 46, from Sydney, said she has long been aware of the connection between the ‘gut and the skin’, after realising at age 13 that her own eczema cleared when she ate certain foods and became worse when she enjoyed others.
However, it wasn’t until her daughter developed eczema in 2009 that Carla began to look at research examining the connection between certain types of bacteria and eczema allergies.
Carla Oates’s multi-million-dollar beauty empire is built around the idea of nourishing your body ‘from the inside out’, and now the founder of The Beauty Chef has shared exactly how she gets her skin to glow every single day of the year (Carla Oates pictured)
Carla recently said that while supplements are all well and good, the most important thing is the food and drink you put into your body on a daily basis – diet is king (Carla pictured)
After putting her daughter on a ‘gut-healing’ diet that cut irritants like dairy, gluten, corn, and soy from her diet and replaced them with ‘probiotic-rich, lacto-fermented foods’, Carla founded her range of probiotic powders and elixirs in 2009.
More than 10 years later, The Beauty Chef is one of the most successful ‘inner beauty’ ranges in the business – and it has become a multi-million-dollar success.
REMEMBER DIET IS KING
When it comes to her own skin, Carla recently told The Cut that while supplements are all well and good, the most important thing is the food and drink you put into your body on a daily basis.
‘Don’t buy supplements if you can’t afford to get them. Just go back to trying to really embrace a healthy diet. Your microbiome loves fibre, leafy greens, nuts, legumes – a Mediterranean diet, basically,’ she told the publication.
Carla has cut processed foods as much as possible from her diet, and instead enjoys a Mediterranean-style diet that is rich in bone broths, veg, herbs, spices and stews.
While diet is king for the beauty mogul, supplements such as The Beauty Chef’s bestselling Glow powder ($65) go a long way to encouraging your natural glow (Glow powder pictured)
SUPPLEMENT WHERE YOU CAN
While diet is king for the beauty mogul, supplements such as The Beauty Chef’s bestselling Glow powder ($65) go a long way to encouraging your natural glow.
‘Glow is great for more lustrous hair, stronger nails, more energy, and a better and happier tummy. We’ve had people who notice a difference within a week,’ Carla said.
Formulated with 18 Certified Organic wholefoods including bio-fermented maqui berries, queen garnet plum, pomegranate fruit peel extract and vitamin C, it promises to help boost collagen production and zinc to support healthy hair and nails.
Carla likes to enjoy Glow either with water or in a daily smoothie filled with berries and coconut yoghurt for a natural boost.
She has been taking it every day for years and credits it with her radiant complexion.
Simplicity is good with skincare, and The Beauty Chef founder (pictured) likes to make her own DIY oil cleanser in order to let her skin breathe and look its best
DIY YOUR OWN OIL CLEANSER
Simplicity is good with skincare, and The Beauty Chef founder likes to make her own DIY oil cleanser in order to let her skin breathe and look its best.
Carla said she uses ‘lots of different oils’ in her cleanser depending on what she has in her cupboard, but typically she likes combinations that include things like jojoba, apricot and almond oil.
But what you include should depend on your skin type:
‘So, for example, if I had really oily skin, I would not sue olive oil to cleanse. But my skin is kind of combination and gets dry in areas, so olive oil will be completely fine for me,’ Carla said.
One of the best oils that every skin type should include is jojoba oil.
A brilliant moisturiser that works perfectly for your complexion is the cornerstone of any good skin routine, while a decent oil with anti-inflammatory ingredients is good to alternate (both pictured)
USE A GREAT MOISTURISER
A brilliant moisturiser that works perfectly for your complexion is the cornerstone of any good skin routine.
And Carla said particularly now as she gets older, she moisturises religiously morning and night.
The 46-year-old likes Emma Lewisham’s Supernatural 72-Hour Collagen-Boosting Riche Crème ($135), which is a New Zealand-based cruelty-free brand.
Since using this cream that is ‘rich in natural botanicals’, Carla said she has noticed that her skin is ‘visibly plumper’.
Even if it is expensive, Carla said that finish is worth its weight in gold.
INCORPORATE AN OIL
As well as a good moisturiser, anyone that knows a thing or two about skincare will know you also need a decent face oil.
For this, Carla likes Sunday Riley’s C.E.O. Glow Vitamin C + Turmeric Face Oil ($61), which includes anti-inflammatory ingredients like turmeric and vitamin C to improve skin tone and texture.
ALWAYS FINISH WITH SUNSCREEN
Finally, particularly because she lives in Sydney, Carla said a good broad-spectrum sunscreen every single day – even in winter – is key to glowing all year round.
She likes COOLA Organic Classic Face Sunscreen SPF50 ($25.60), and typically favours ingredients like zinc oxide that ‘physically protect you from the sun’, even if sometimes they can leave a white sheen.
‘What I love about this Coola sunscreen is that it’s really smooth and it dissipates. You don’t notice it, and it’s such a great experience. It’s also fragrance free,’ Carla told The Cut.
The product also works perfectly underneath makeup.
Carla Oates (pictured) famously came up for the idea for The Beauty Chef when her daughter started to struggle with chronic eczema a decade ago
Carla Oates famously came up for the idea for The Beauty Chef when her daughter started to struggle with chronic eczema a decade ago.
She started making ‘lacto-fermented foods’ for her daughter at home and quickly noticed ‘a big difference’ in her general well-being.
The Beauty Chef business spawned from here – a business which comprises not only serums, balms and lotions, but also powders that you mix with water or put into smoothies.
The powders are packed with superfood ingredients like macqui berries, zinc and antioxidant-rich grape skins, which all help with inner and outer health:
‘Our gut is where 70 per cent of our immune system lies, where we metabolise hormones, neutralise pathogens, make detoxifying enzymes and where we make nutrients,’ Carla previously told FEMAIL.
‘So much of what goes into our digestive system can impact our skin.’
The Beauty Chef is now stocked at Net-a-Porter, Free People, Selfridges, Goop and Anthropologie – among others.
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