French Beauty Secrets Explained: Skin Care Expert Shares Advice, Tips in New Book
Mathilde Thomas shares French-inspired beauty tips and advice in her new book.
— -- In "The French Beauty Solution: Time-Tested Secrets to Look and Feel Beautiful Inside and Out," Mathilde Thomas, the co-founder of the skin care line Caudalie, shares practical beauty tips and her overall take on how lifestyle affects beauty -- all rooted in her French upbringing.
The books covers skin care science – including which ingredients work, which don't and which could be harmful, makeup, hair care and advice on relaxation and living a happy life.
Thomas appeared on "Good Morning America" today to talk about the book. Below you'll find an excerpt of "The French Beauty Solution" plus four of Thomas' recipes for DIY mixes to help rejuvenate your skin and hair.
Go to the end of this excerpt to see Thomas' recipes for an egg yolk and rum hair mask, healthy nails potion, a crushed Cabernet body scrub and an avocado and honey face mask (which may also be used on your hair).
Book Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
I grew up in Grenoble, a French village nestled at the foot of the French Alps where the air was pure and clean and the mountain water icy crisp. My parents, Daniel and Florence Cathiard, my younger sister, Alice, and I lived on a farm with my maternal grandparents, Yvonne and Maurice, where we tended a vegetable garden and raised chickens and bees. My grandfather took me hiking all over the mountains, pointing out which plants were edible and which mushrooms were toxic, which herbs could cure a tummy ache and which would staunch a wound, which smelled intoxicatingly minty and which were so pungent they made my nose run.
I was lucky to have grown up in that magical place. Even though my grandparents were teachers and spent much of their time correcting papers and reading, they understood how to be one with nature, and they infused my childhood with their knowledge of plants and all growing things.
This was also the place where I learned my first beauty secrets.
Even though we lived far from the high-end commercial fashion world of Paris, we had access to dozens of the best beauty regimens right in our own backyard. My grandmother would make a luscious facial mask from the honey in the beehive at the corner of our garden and would always be certain to gently pat some on my cheeks whenever she applied it to her own, because she knew how soothing and clarifying it was. She'd whip up a super-moisturizing and nourishing hair mask from fresh, green, pungent olive oil and rum and we'd sit together, giggling at the scent, till our hair was saturated. She recognized early on how much I loved different fragrances-we would do blind tastings of different herbs, like tarragon, thyme, basil, sage, and mint, and I could always differentiate them, even as a very small child-and wasn't surprised at all when I told her I wanted to work in the beauty business.
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