“Your make-up is just an accent.
”
By Ginger Brashinger
“
Your skin is a sponge.” So says
Shelly Ballestero, someone who
knows all about it. An estheti-
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
~ Shelly Ballestero
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
came a “label detective.”
chemicals of any type and there
While researching safe skin care
are none in their home. In fact,
alternatives for her book, Shelly dis-
Shelly began mixing her own skin
covered that, although the over-
care products from natural sources
the-counter products contained
about five years ago in her own
too many toxins, “natural” prod-
kitchen.
ucts were not necessarily any bet-
But the seed of her discontent
ter.
began while Shelly was watching
“Natural doesn’t always mean
a makeup artist apply makeup on
it’s good,” Ballestero said. “The
an actress. She couldn’t help but
FDA (Food and Drug Administra-
think about the amount of toxins
tion) doesn’t regulate skin care
entering the actress’s body every
products and many of them have
day, and that not only troubled
hidden toxins.”
her, it got her thinking. She be-
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