Find out all about the fabulous skincare brand Bodhi and Birch in the Wow Beauty Founders talk with their founder Elijah Choo.
What is your favourite item from the range, Elijah?
That’s a difficult one. It changes and I’m fickle. At the very beginning, from the core body range Rosemary Chi was always my favourite. For me the fragrance is quite spiritual, it uplifts me and grounds me whenever I use it. Presently if I had to select from the new products, the one product that I use time and again without fail is ‘Super 25’. When I first created it… I felt that I’d found and created something really quite special and for a moment I thought it was just me: but it wasn’t until I did the focus group and the positive results came back and again that I realised that I wasn’t imagining things. The process of testing took a while because I was pushing for perfection (even though I know there’s no such thing as perfection )– but the comments that came back blew me away! So, at the moment, for me, Super 25 is THE product!
Talk to me about your wellbeing challenges?
In one word: stress. It’s something that we all struggle with in the modern world. Stress is the cause of so many health issues, whether physical or mental in today’s world. We put ourselves in that position unfortunately and in many instances, it can be mind over matter.
This is something I am currently learning about and I am working on teaching myself how to de-stress and how to unwind. In fact, I’ve concluded that if you’re thinking about something that you need to get done, then just do it now and if you can’t … we’ll stop stressing about it as there’s always tomorrow. It will still be there! That is something I keep trying to teach myself. Stress manifests in different ways in terms of your general health. Your skin tells you what the problem is and often a lot of other skin care issues are caused by the effects of stress.
Personally, I do not like to call skin care ‘beauty’ because although we call it beauty in this industry, for me personally it is about more than Beauty … it is about wellness and happiness. A big part of ‘beauty’ also boils down to your diet, your state of mind, how you live. Your lifestyle is a major part of beauty. Beauty is a happy place for a lot of people but it’s important that you don’t let it create a negative space.
“I’ve concluded that if you’re thinking about something that you need to get done, then just do it now and if you can’t … we’ll stop stressing about it as there’s always tomorrow. It will still be there!”
What wellbeing practices have you incorporated into your life that has really made a difference to you?
Interesting question! The thing that helps me to de-stress is cooking. I do love to cook for myself and for other people. I also love gardening. I am restoring the house and that allows me to indulge in the activities that put me in a state of mind that is peaceful and restorative.
When I am blending products, I find it quite meditative because I have to concentrate but not in a stressful way: I find the fragrances of all the products very soothing.
One of the things that I love to do is that whenever I get back from work is to go into the garden, sit quietly and meditate for a while with the dog by my side. I take in everything from the sound of the wind to birdsong and this helps to ground and rebalance me and I do that practically every day when I get back from the office. Even if I only do it for one minute it makes a major difference. It is often the little things that we take for granted, you know like the breeze on your skin. These are things that can make a difference to our well-being.
Find out more about Elijah’s range on his website
(*PR gift/sample)
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