SARA ROSE x KLARSKIN
I was born and raised in Hood River, Oregon, an amazing small community focused on wind, water, and snow sports.
Growing up, being outside and active in nature was a big part of my childhood while additionally, from a very young age I always had a passion for beauty, fashion, art, ballet, and dance.
After university, I moved to New York City and worked for a beauty brand as a product developer and marketer. This is when I truly fell in love with beauty and realized how much importance you hold as a product developer. Makeup isn't just makeup, and skincare isn't just skincare - you have the power to create products that can completely change the way people feel, to give them confidence and to inspire them.
As I learned more about traditional beauty ingredients and worked with some of the top labs in the world to formulate products, my curiosity got the best of me. I loved what I was doing but I felt a disconnect. Led by this intuition I simultaneously began my own wellness journey.
For me, it all started with food. After a health diagnosis, I began to research and evaluate everything I was putting in my body so I could better understand what nourished me and what depleted me.
I then had the realization that if I became conscious of everything I was putting in my body, I also had to be equally conscious about the products I was putting on my skin. It is truly as simple as this: everything you apply on your skin is either healing it and nourishing it, or doing the opposite. Every day you get to choose.
"It is truly as simple as this: everything you apply on your skin is either healing it and nourishing it, or doing the opposite."
In true product developer form, I started to try, test, and research new clean products whenever I would run out of my traditional products. I didn’t try to completely do an overhaul of my routines. Nothing was forced or overnight, everything happened one step at a time. It’s easy to forget that baby steps still move us forward, and making the switch wasn’t always easy!
When I first began my career in the beauty industry in 2015, clean beauty was a small section I would walk by in health food stores. It didn't have a good reputation of having stable formulations or performance. I always liked the idea of clean beauty but who wants a makeup product that doesn't do its job? I continued using products that didn't live up to the standards I was used to.
Fast forward to many of today's products: their performance, formulation, innovation, and packaging are amazing and proven without a doubt.
As my excitement for clean and conscious beauty grows, I realize why I feel such a connection to it. The whole concept is in line with how I was raised and what I believe in (using plants as medicine) mixed with what I have grown to love (cosmetics, fashion, and art). Merging the worlds of my traditional beauty background with conscious beauty felt completely in alignment and is what got me to this place of launching my social platforms.
As wild as it may sound, as my makeup bag started to simplify, I craved the same in my life as a whole. I found myself curious again about the lifestyle that was familiar to me, living off the land and my hippie upbringing in Oregon.
After 5 years in NYC, I decided to move home to Oregon to begin a new phase in life. I started working for myself doing what I am passionate about so I had the flexibility to find inspiration while traveling and working, but much more ended up unfolding... :) I got back to my roots.
I started a medicinal garden where I now use botanicals to make some of my own products. I research more about plant’s botanical powers and how everything from your gut to the state of your mind affects your skin. I got back to my simplistic and free-spirited way of life.
I now wake up and crave my mornings because I love every step.
I am working on breaking the habit of instantly checking my phone after my alarm goes off, so I instead play a news podcast. I like this because it helps wake my mind up while not fully distracting me like checking my phone does. I always make my bed (non-negotiable), and change into workout clothes or another comfy outfit so I can shake the sleepy energy off. Then I brush my teeth, tongue scrape, and splash my face with cold water to help depuff and wake up my skin.
I always start by drinking lemon water or the Radiance Powder and then make coffee or head to my favorite friendly local coffee shop. I totally fell in love with the Radiance Powder! I first started taking it when I was living in Tulum this winter and the combination of probiotics, fiber, vitamins, and nutrients really has made a positive difference in not only my gut health but my skin health too.
Sunscreen, saltwater, hats, sunshine, etc., can be irritating to my sensitive skin, but my irritations and breakouts stayed at bay. I also loved the morning ritual of drinking it. I would wake up, make my Radiance Powder, and sit outside, either journaling or taking a few extra moments in silence thinking about my day.
Then it's meditation time (Insight Timer or Gabby Bernstein) and if my eyes are feeling tired and puffy, I'll meditate with a frozen eye mask on- multitasking!
Having time in stillness has really helped me build mental strength and overall calmness. If I feel inspired after, I write in my journal using the 'morning pages' format. Then I always do a gratitude practice.
If I don't write down a gratitude list in my journal, I make a mental note of 3 things I am grateful for or send a friend a text or voice note expressing gratitude. As much as I love a private gratitude practice, expressing it to someone you love really shifts your mood and theirs.
Some days I will then go for a walk, do a workout or dance, but I really try to listen to my body and do what feels good for that day. Daily movement, preferably in nature, is essential for my overall mental clarity and energy!
Even if I feel my day is too full for a long workout, I love to do a "coffee walk" first thing in the morning while listening to a podcast--probably the Him & Her podcast for entrepreneur inspiration, The Daily for quick news, or Fat Mascara when I want to geek out about beauty.
On days I don't dance or go to a workout class, I love quick yoga/pilates style flows around 20 minutes long with Melissa Wood. But more so than any other workout, dance to me is my ultimate way of self-expression.
I feel fully in my element and totally present when I'm dancing- "out of my mind and into my body." When I am sharing my love of dance and teaching, the combination of all of us dancing together, in sync, makes me feel like I could explode with happiness. A lot of that 'inner glow' we all want happens when we tap into what makes us truly happy. :)
After my movement, I make my garden beauty smoothie and it's skincare and beauty ritual time. Then I am ready to work for the day!
My summer skincare routine currently looks like this:
Skincare:
True Botanicals Nourishing Cleanser
Pleni Naturals Enzyme Cleansing Oil
Youth to the People Dream Eye Cream
Tata Harper Fortifying Moisturizer
Blume Stargirl Face Mist
Kinship Self Reflect SPF 32 Sunscreen
Makeup: (5 minute glowy look!)
ILIA Super Serum Skin Tint Foundation
Saie Beauty Glowy Supergel
Kosas Creamy Concealer
MOB Beauty Bronzer
Honest Beauty Brow Pencil + Gel
Tower28 Lip Gloss
Gratitude has become a huge part of my life. I first became hooked on gratitude during my time in NYC. I befriended the founder of a gratitude-based nonprofit that distributes thousands of gratitude journals to students and throughout the community, and something immediately clicked in my mind. As my life shifted from NYC to Oregon, something that remained the same was my commitment to my gratitude practice.
Expressing gratitude has been scientifically proven to make you happier. Practicing gratitude can actually rewire your brain, kickstarting the production of dopamine and serotonin, our “feel good” neurotransmitters, to create a feeling of happiness and contentment.
In 2019, I woke up with a mission to start Gratitude University, and implemented a gratitude program in my local elementary school. I worked with students on various journaling and exercises around gratitude.
My mission behind GU was to inspire and teach the students how to express gratitude in their daily lives. The program evolved into a community-based initiative when schools closed due to COVID. I collected over 100 gratitude pieces dedicated to essential workers and designed and published them into an online book, WITH GRATITUDE.
Having a daily gratitude practice for the past two years has had a huge impact on me--helping me to fully create a new mindset on what it means to be happy, how to live more positively, and has altered the way I see the world. Gratitude brings us back to the present moment.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEATURE, SARA!
Make sure to follow Sara on Instagram:
@SaraRosie, along with @GratitudeUniversity
Read the book WITH GRATITUDE
