“Your make-up is just an accent.”
~ Shelly Ballestero
By Ginger Brashinger
cian, beauty consultant, and makeup artist, Shelly is also the au- thor of Beauty by God, a book for anyone with questions about be- coming beautiful inside and out. Although Shelly’s Christian atti-
“
tude prevails throughout her dis- cussions of her own challenging journey to physical, mental and spiritual health, her
frustration
emerges when she talks about what we unwittingly do to our- selves. “We go against a healthy system
in so many ways,” Shelly noted. “People may eat healthy foods, organic foods, and think they are doing the right thing. They are, but they need to take it a step further.” Ballestero has become very par-
ticular about what she puts on her body as well as in her body, fueled by the knowledge that our skin is the largest organ and absorbs what we put on it. The chemicals in skin, hair, hygiene, and make-up products, according to Ballestero, leach into our bodies, most likely without a second thought by the
Your skin is a sponge.” So says Shelly Ballestero, someone who knows all about it. An estheti-
user. Consumers might use up to 25 products a day—anything from the shampoo, conditioner, gels, and hairspray we use on our hair to the lotion and polish we use on our feet. Treating the skin right, Ballestero says, is as important to good health as eating your fruits and vegeta- bles. “The skin is our first line of de-
fense against the toxins of the world,” she said. “It’s our shield, our armor.” The Ballestero family, Shelly
and her husband, Angelo and their sons Angelo, 11 and Christopher, 8, use no toxic chemicals of any type and there are none in their home. In fact, Shelly began mixing her own skin care products from natural sources about five years ago in her own kitchen. But the seed of her discontent
began while Shelly was watching a makeup artist apply makeup on an actress. She couldn’t help but think about the amount of toxins entering the actress’s body every day, and that not only troubled her, it got her thinking. She be-
came a “label detective.” While researching safe skin care
alternatives for her book, Shelly dis- covered that, although the over- the-counter products contained too many toxins, “natural” prod- ucts were not necessarily any bet- ter. “Natural doesn’t always mean
it’s good,” Ballestero said. “The FDA (Food and Drug Administra- tion) doesn’t regulate skin care products and many of them have hidden toxins.”
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ADistinctive style 49
ADistinctive style 49
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