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When Your Skin-Care Is Also an Antidepressant

Tammy Fender’s products are the definition of “feel-good.”

Skin
When Your Skin-Care Is Also an Antidepressant
Alec Kugler
Some people we meet are clearly destined to do what they do. Tammy Fender, who has her own line of skin-care products made entirely of botanical formulas, is just one of those people. While we were hanging up posters of Leo or Johnny Depp in our teens (no shame), Tammy was perusing books on horoscopes, the universe, and vitamins. Initially she wasn’t even interested in skin care or makeup, but instead “was drawn to people and their happiness.”

While working at a makeup counter, Tammy took home the products at night. She looked at the labels, realized there weren’t many recognizable ingredients, and decided that “there must be another way.” Fast-forward to a surf trip in France, where she became interested in essential oils, a fascination with natural remedies that started in the Bahamas (where she still spends half her time), and the opening of her Palm Beach spa in 2003. She quickly amassed a huge following and eventually was booked a full year in advance. This is for a treatment that involves not just a facial, but reflexology and sound therapy, as in having her therapist play a didgeridoo over your supine body mid-session.

It actually feels almost wrong to call Fender a facialist or aesthetician; what she aims to do with her products and treatments goes way, way deeper than that—down to the core of those who use her products or get a treatment. Here, she fills us in on why roses signify love, which is her absolute must-have product, and how her creams can help keep depression at bay.

 

Why her products are made of 100 percent plant matter:

“Im really drawn to the living-most part of the plant or the life force, the energy and the vibration. I recognize that all living things or all living cells have a consciousness. There is a direct correlation between man and plant. We recognize plant as our food source, we recognize it as our source of medicine. When we start to talk about the plants and the way that they work in skin care, the oils are highly volatile, and they are very easily absorbed into the tissue. Not only is it good for taking things internally, but when they are applied to the skin, these oils can be penetrated into a cellular level and traced into the blood and urine systems in like, 20 minutes. If we are talking about vibrations, they only carry a positive vibration, and they are a natural source of a nutrient supply. All cells need nutrients and oxygen to thrive, so plants are a natural form of caring for the skin.”


“We just live in a society when we have too much at our disposal. I think there is peace in that, to realize it can be simplistic. I think less is always more!”



On rose being a key ingredient and a good vibration:

“Rose carries the highest vibration of any plant. I believe that it vibrates at 432 hertz, which is the same vibration of love. It works with the heart chakra. We have to recognize that were so much more than these three-dimensional physical bodies. We have hundreds and hundreds of energy bodies that make up who we are. When you work with a vibration that is the same as love, you start to look back again and say, Hm. Why has rose been used throughout the centuries as a form of love? Why is it that [it is] symbolic in so many ceremonial ways? Rose is important. I think it is a beautiful oil.”

The ingredients that make her creams “happy creams”:

“I also use helichrysum a lot in my products. That is very, very healing on many levels! It reabsorbs blood into the tissue. It helps to tighten the connective tissue. It has natural sleeping aides in it. Neroli and orange are also beautiful. They are in the antioxidant cream. Even though we dont market it this way, it is considered by many as the happy cream! Because orange and neroli are antidepressants!”



“We are human beings and not human doings. So just be! Recognize that it is OK just to focus in and to be, and that is where we get our clarity!”



Less is always more:

“People are always looking to find a way to have something on the outside fix something that is on the inside. I think when you recognize that you have these healing tools, you have your breath, you have your touch, you have your love, and we have each other! So you dont have to start to be so much of a consumer that you think that youre going to find it in outside sources. Find a couple things that you connect with, and feel really good about that. Even in the industry and in the treatment room, sometimes people will come to me for the first time, and they are doing way too many diets or looking for the quick fix. That is not necessary! Keep it simplistic. Its enough sometimes to just have one thing for a short period of time. We just live in a society when we have too much at our disposal. I think there is peace in that, to realize it can be simplistic. I think less is always more!”

How to start living holistically:

“Sometimes we think of these things as so complex, but holistic living is our natural state of being! When we are in that natural state of being, it is just recognizing how it is that you feel. If it feels good or if it doesnt feel good. Does it make me tired? Does it give me energy? And then making your choices based on that. Be around people that are of a positive influence that make you feel good; start to eat fruits or foods in their most natural state. Then, what happens is, they all carry a high vibration, and its all about connecting at a heart level, connecting with love. Lets just say you pull an apple that is perfectly ripe and from the tree, and you go to eat it. That apple is going to have a high vibration and innately is going to raise your vibration. The more you do these simple little things, the more that you will crave that, because that is our natural state of being. And rest more! I think we have to remember, its kind of a funny cliché, but we are human beings and not human doings. So just be! Recognize that it is OK just to focus in and to be, and that is where we get our clarity!”



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