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The Mel Lawson Show
I'm Mel Lawson, mum of 3, Founder and CEO of Bare Biology (a UK supplement brand). Basically, we talk about life. From psychology and health to self-development and spirituality, and much more. We have experts, we have fascinating guests, and we talk in a very open and honest way. We share our vulnerabilities and hope to entertain and inspire you, maybe make you laugh, and possibly help you experience some ‘aha’ moments along the way.
The Mel Lawson Show
I Was Outed As A Psychic | Intuition & Building A Business With Danielle Close | The Mel Lawson Show
In this episode I chat to my very good friend and Founder of My Skin Feels, Danielle Close. Danielle has had a very interesting life. From being Charlotte Tilbury's right hand woman in her 20s to being outed as a psychic medium and deciding to launch her own business.
Danielle shares how her psychic mediumship and running a sustainable skincare business are intrinsically linked and why women shouldn’t be afraid to use their intuition.
I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.
Check out Danielle's brilliant business here.
This episode is sponsored by my family-owned UK supplement company Bare Biology.
Are you ready? I am, are you ready? I'm ready. Yeah, it's no nice in the rooms.
Speaker 2:Well, we just did the podcast while we were waiting for the cameras to be set up so we know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:We do.
Speaker 2:And we did it last night on the train. And we did it last night on the train because last night we were on the train home from an event held by the Buy Women Built group B-U-Y.
Speaker 1:Yep, not B-Y, not B-Y. I made the mistake. Dislexic, it's okay. Found them on Instagram. I have eventually You're not on Instagram. Nope, we are. It's felt differently, sorry, guys.
Speaker 2:So yes, buy Women Built, which is what would you call it Like a like a networking hub.
Speaker 1:I think of like very empowered women from really successful companies, like founders, yeah, and I guess they hold a space for us all to come together and do cool things. And what we did last week was mega cool. We took over the windows of Whole Foods, which is major on High Street, can, major, major, and tomorrow that's even more major Tomorrow. Yes, yeah, all the advertising, bus stops, tube, everything on High Street. Kensington has been taken over by all of us. Yeah For the International Women's Day, for the.
Speaker 2:Whole Foods. Yes, and we should give credit. Yes, it's been donated by JC Decoe. Yeah, but everyone should go check it out. Yeah, everyone goes. It's a whole of March.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whole March High.
Speaker 2:Street Can Whole Foods all our faces 40 women.
Speaker 1:And basically the reason they've done it is because of stats right. So 80% of kids 81% don't can't name a female founder and I think they said if women got the same investment as men in the UK economy it would be like 300 million.
Speaker 2:Well, you and I share the inability to retain numbers and look at numbers.
Speaker 1:It was in the billions. It was in the millions, millions.
Speaker 2:Millions. It was a lot, but basically female founded brands don't get as much airtime. Yes, and actually seeing the faces or investment.
Speaker 1:We're seeing the faces behind those brands One's I use every day. If I did know they were women, but most people don't that's actually very cool.
Speaker 2:What's interesting is that kids, but maybe because I was thinking Charlotte Tilbury spins to mind.
Speaker 1:We will go on to talk about it. She was part of her team.
Speaker 2:Her name is on the packet, that's the thing. But they didn't even think of her. But then I think my daughters would know because they use her makeup.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean it is, but I wonder if they would see makeup as an entrepreneurship. I don't think they would.
Speaker 2:I think people see tech.
Speaker 1:I think people see like I don't know, not everyday products. Maybe I don't think they would associate it. Maybe that's part of the problem. They don't understand that actually, because even when I grew up, this is kind of going on to it, but I didn't know that beauty was an industry, like really at school nobody really taught me and I didn't make a artist. That's not a job, what it is and so like. Maybe those positions and those jobs are not seen as highly as others.
Speaker 2:They're not manly, they're not manly. Yes. Although all men run all beauty companies, which is mad to me Right, because most beauty companies are owned by a couple of, I imagine, esselorda, l'oreal, right.
Speaker 1:The big ones yeah.
Speaker 2:It's different, yeah, but all women.
Speaker 1:Yeah Interesting. Yeah, revlon, he was a man. Charles Revson was Revlon. He created Nalvanish, yeah, from car paint, actually Very toxic. Wow, that's what they used to use, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's got a very interesting biography. I'd highly recommend reading it, okay.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I instinctively I like having Nalvanish on, but the smell is not good for you. I can't bear it. Your nails need to breathe. Yes, carp paint yeah, I don't like it when my girl's going to get acrylics.
Speaker 1:No Awful, Well I'm so bad with the honey? What are you doing? The plastic stays in the ocean, Of course, and gel Nalvanish is actually the number one thing you should get rid of if you're trying to be more sustainable is when you peel it off. All those bits are microplastics and they go in the ocean. I never thought of that. Just this plastic, yeah.
Speaker 2:So please have a look, are there any nice skin-friendly, eco-friendly Nalvanishes? There are right, there's something that's got minus.
Speaker 1:I think it's eight ingredient. It's the Dirty Eight, I think. Right, that might be vegetables. It's one or the other there is a few but there's a friend of a friend who's just launched a sustainable press on nail kit. So it's not plastic, it's biodegradable materials.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. It's like acrylics but they're biodegradable, that is cool.
Speaker 1:I can't remember the name Claws. Yeah, she's part of, like my group of brands but yeah, she's really cool, so there are options coming out there.
Speaker 2:Nice, they're not great. No, have natural nails, gals. Yeah Well yeah, that's my idea. But yeah nails is a big thing now. Big, thing, big. Thing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, the beauty industry is so that leads us nicely into your background.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's been a journey. I think it's very interesting having heard some of it last night on the train.
Speaker 1:Yes, so shall I just run through it.
Speaker 2:Yes, and actually to preface that. I think this is really interesting for people to hear, because you now have launched your own skincare brand, which we'll go on to talk about. So, yes, and you're a young woman Well, yes, early 30s yes. Yeah, very just young to be launching a brand. Yeah, I think it's very young and impressive. So, yes, tell me your story.
Speaker 1:So well, yes, my skin feels my brand came out of the learnings I've had. So I've been in the beauty industry for over 10 years now, and I actually started when I was 19. And this goes back to when not knowing that being a makeup artist was a job and it wasn't a thing you could do. So I was at school, went to university, failed my A-levels as you do and ended up on a random course at a random uni that I didn't want to do, and so I changed course and they said take you around and go and do something you've always wanted to do, always wanted to be a makeup artist. I don't know why. It was always just in my soul to do it.
Speaker 1:So I went to a school in London for eight weeks and trains make a artist. It was a very high fashion makeup place and I was so young and I had no money and they were like all these cool, like 30 year olds and me, and then after I left, there were all these posters on the wall and I had every single one on my wall at home, like all like different models, like Vogue magazines, and the owner of the school was like oh, they're all by Charlotte Tilbury and I didn't know who she was Like. She wasn't famous, if you didn't know who she was back then. And then Charlotte Tilbury wanted an intern to go and work for her. So two days after I left that had an interview, became her intern for two days and then the PA who hired me left and I became her PA at 19. And I literally moved. London had no money.
Speaker 1:I was actually working in Brighton in a wedding brush off on the weekends to pay for the week in London and then saw some crazy stuff as a very young PA and when I started it was like Charlotte, me, her assistant and one other person. So it was very, very small and always knew the brand was incoming. But we actually did the Tom Ford makeup collection and we worked with Mac and we did all the fashion weeks and then the initial Charlotte Tilbury team came in and, yeah, it was crazy. I saw that go from an idea literally all the way to launching America and then I left after that. And what Charlotte Tilbury the brand is now? I cannot tell you how big it is compared to where it was when it started. Our office is above a garage, above a taxi rank. Yeah, and we had no hot water. I remember being like there's no hot water. This is ridiculous and it's gone on to be like the biggest brand ever.
Speaker 2:It's phenomenal.
Speaker 1:And I saw some amazes. I went to do all the fashion weeks New York, Paris, Milan. It was amazing. And so I was the social media manager and that was when Instagram started. And so I've literally been doing social media since Instagram basically started for other brands and going backstage and taking backstage forward and there's lots of articles I've got from like 10 years ago about like first of a makeup artist backstage and it was me like backstage, it was amazing, so cool. And yeah, saw some crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:You got any crazy stories you can tell us without getting sued.
Speaker 1:Yes, I do have the best story of my life and everyone I know knows the story, but I did go to the Golden Globes after party and it was amazing and people thought I was a celebrity and I was not.
Speaker 2:And I was very young and it was mental it was like a real Hollywood moment.
Speaker 1:And then I remember actually a real significant moment. I was in Milan Fashion Week. I was 21. And I was sitting in the bar in the Prince of Pei, which is a hotel that all the people stay in, Saw the assistant stay in Milan and somewhere shitty, and we stayed in this bougie hotel. And I remember this famous model coming up to me and being like you've made it and then being like what? And he was like you've really made it, You're in the Prince of Pei Hotel in Milan Fashion Week. You've made it. And I remember at that point thinking, if this is making it, I'm done.
Speaker 1:I was like is this what everyone is?
Speaker 2:so stressed, trying to reach, just to sit here, sit at the bar. This week I didn't even drink.
Speaker 1:I was drinking in water. I was like this is it, I am out, and that was a really significant moment to be like I've done everything I can do in this industry at this level. I need to leave and I was literally 21, which was mental, so it was a very cool experience and she is such an inspiration in so many ways, even from what I'm doing now. Just never say no. She always said never take no for an answer. You've got to keep going, keep pushing forward, you'll get there eventually and that was quite an important thing that I've taken from my journey and also just seeing and honestly, an idea going from that to where it is was really impressive and amazing. Sort of money can't buy experience that. So it was very cool.
Speaker 2:Especially so young.
Speaker 1:So young and naive and it was a devil's way of product. That industry is chaos. Honestly, I can't watch that film because the industry is utter chaos, actually like that it's actually that I've been in scenes from that film where it's actually happened and it is a bit of a trigger that film for me. Now I can't watch it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I'm really glad I saw it so young because I think I'd be chasing it.
Speaker 2:I think I always wanted to work in fashion.
Speaker 1:I always wanted to be like that person. And as soon as I got there, it was instantly like it doesn't align with me and my values. At all. And I'm really glad I saw it got in, got out and was okay with that.
Speaker 2:So you are like the Anhaf way. I can't actually.
Speaker 1:I kind of left in the same way. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't throw the phone, but it was yeah. Yeah, it was an interesting time, but Charlotte's made it. Honestly, it was like really amazing to be in that space and watch her and learn so much from not just her, the whole team, like all the guys that were in it with me. We're all still friendly and it's an amazing time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, and how brilliant of you at such a young age to go. Oh, charlotte Tilbury, I was. I want to work there and to learn from someone like that really early on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also a bit fate, like it's sort of all unfolded, like I feel like seeing the posters on the wall and then being like who's that?
Speaker 2:And then it all still happening.
Speaker 1:It was very strange how it all unfolded, and it's definitely a reason for us to work together. However you view it, fate or whatever it is. But, it did feel very much like I was meant to be there. I was meant to see that I was meant to learn.
Speaker 1:And then I was meant to set a precedent, yes, but it was really cool and like that is a big. I was talking to another team member who was there at the same time the other day and she was like some of my proudest moments from there and I would actually agree with her. Although it was highly stressful. I would say some of the big moments that happened happened in those four years.
Speaker 1:Like really like the stuff we did was really cool and quick and fast and like having read all those biographies from all those beauty founders. Estelor de Revlon, it was like another of those and when her book comes out, her biography, it's going to be like I've already read this.
Speaker 2:I've read Revlon and it was a similar thing.
Speaker 1:So it was very cool to be part of something so changing in the industry, but also good to leave and to go to the other side of the industry. Yeah and see. So I then went to Natural and Organic and Spa and tried to kind of understand if it could be more ethical. Like corporate beauty is corporate beauty it's, you know, you're there to make money and it's there to, like, sell a product. And obviously she had a real ethos to her brand, which is amazing and wanting women to feel more confident, love it. But I wanted to see if there was a way of it being more grounded and more in my values. Turns out it wasn't at all.
Speaker 2:It was actually worse.
Speaker 1:It was I went to working for a spa brand that claimed very ethical things and it really wasn't. And then after that I went freelance for about seven years and worked for a lot of sustainable, really great brands. But it was really seeing like the Charlotte kind of push and tenacity and drive and then seeing the industry and what it isn't, which helped me to launch this, because how I've launched my skin feels is very transparent, very ethical, very sustainable, because I'm trying to prove a point that the industry is not like that and if I can do it on my own, then we need to be doing better. And there's a lot of stats in other industries fashion, industry about how bad it is to the planet. We know how much clothing is going to landfill. We know all that kind of thing. We don't know how much plastic in the ocean is. From the beauty industry. There's no stats. We don't know how many clarisonic do you remember the clarisonic cleansers? Oh yeah, how many of them are in like a landfill somewhere and like polluting the earth.
Speaker 2:It's one of those forayo ones now. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Exactly Just past it. It's going to live forever. And all these brands that keep launching all these plastic, like Hailey Bieber, the road phone case that just launched she just launched a phone case that had a lip gloss holder in the back Right. It's like genius marketing but it's a plastic phone case that's going to be around forever.
Speaker 1:And the fact that people are allowed to launch things like that in this day and age gives me so much rage, so I'm trying to prove that it doesn't have to be like that. It's conscious capitalism, conscious consumerism, not just like buying for money's sake. So that's really what the brand is about.
Speaker 2:And it's made from rescued food Right. So explain everything and the rescued food.
Speaker 1:So, my skin feels a skincare made from rescued food. So it's made from the byproducts of tomato, ketchup, olive oil, orange juice and breakfast oats. So it's a weird salad that you'd never eat but very good to your skin, and I basically take the byproducts. So I take the skin of the tomato, I take the crushed olives and I take the stalk of the oat and then I ferment them a bit like kombucha in layman's terms, kind of, to get the antioxidants, vitamin C and antimicrobial properties and that's what goes in the skincare. So it's the best bits of the ingredients that we take, extract and put in the products instead of using new ones. And the orange juice actually means there's no new water, so the water's recycled from the orange juice industry as well, and then it's all in aluminium. It's all I actually had to invent the box, so it's in like a thinner box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's so many things to say about this. But so right, let's come back to the box. So I think that's genius. So, without giving away any secret information, did you come up with the idea of using the rescued food, and then did you have to go and find the food?
Speaker 1:and the people who would give you.
Speaker 1:I have a formulator that I work with. So I basically found this amazing guy, again a bit like fate. He's wonderful, he's Italian, mm-hmm, and basically, hence the Italian food waste. And I said to him this is what I want to do. I want to make a really sustainable brand natural. These are the kind of textures I want, and it was just when food waste was becoming a thing that can be used in cosmetics.
Speaker 1:It was very new, and so we basically picked out the things that we want for the products and what the replacements would be with food waste, and actually then we had to tweak everything to make it work. So it was a bit like a recipe actually more like a recipe than normal, and that's how we did it. So it was him and I coming together to kind of work out what could be the most sustainable thing ever and working together on it. Yeah, and the reason it's Italian food waste and not UK food waste is at the time the UK wasn't really set up as well as Italy and we worked with the University of Bologna and Italy is really organic and actually an Italian tomato is a better tomato, you know it's full of sunshine.
Speaker 1:It's a luxury product and I have been looking at UK food waste for the next ones, but the options are like KM and cabbage it's not quite as sexy as a tomato and an orange. So I'm working on what to do next, but at the moment it is Italian, which I'm not mad about.
Speaker 2:And I've used your face wash. I haven't used your moisturizer.
Speaker 1:Well, the moisturizer is the hero actually.
Speaker 2:So talk me through the moisturizer.
Speaker 1:So the moisturizer and accidental hero. Like I love both products, the moisturizer is the hero. It's because it's got the fermented oats and the fermented olive oil in it, so the oats are prebiotic and that into microbial. So you know a lot of oat brands are good for eczema, like right, but mine. When you actually break down the stalk of the oat, the prebiotics are in the stalk. So a lot of places, a lot of companies use oat powder or like extract from oat to the actual oats, but the stalk is more intense.
Speaker 1:So I'm having a lot of accidental effects on eczema which I'm not allowed to. Technically I can't say it's for eczema?
Speaker 2:No, of course not.
Speaker 1:But it is doing some like really great things for sensitive skin and inflammation and eczema Wow. And because of the makeup artist background, I wanted it to sit on the sin and like work really well with makeup and very soothing and hydrating, and that's what it does. And the products are not anti-aging they're not. I'm never going to market products about changing your face. It's never going to like it's going to diminish fine lines. It will do because it will hydrate your face. But that's not my marketing. Yeah, it's never. I'm not here to say this is going to make you look different. It's going to make you feel different, which will make you look different, but I'm not here to change how you look. So that's the real point of difference in my skin. It's all about feeling your skin and getting in touch with your body and getting in touch with your mind and how you feel, rather than actually looking in the mirror and being like I need to change this. That's the ethos.
Speaker 1:Anti-tip-tok you know, yeah, yeah, not about buying something because it looks good on tip-tok.
Speaker 2:It's about buying it because it makes you feel good Like drunk elephant.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean it's a good brand, like yeah, yeah, it says tip-tok's gone off, but it's yeah, yeah, it says to run away from that yeah. Yeah, which is sad yeah.
Speaker 2:Really plasticky drunk elephant. I said to my youngest, who's really obsessed, and I would, I don't let her use it because of all the reasons. So she has an old pot of mine and then she's put her Sarah V basic stuff inside the pot because it's just the pot she likes, yeah, because the colour's right, yeah. And then I said I thought you youngsters were meant to be, you know, really caring for the environment and what's with all this? You know Classic. And she said well, you can buy refills. Actually, mummy, there you go.
Speaker 2:I told you I've got an answer Right, thanks Good. But I'm really excited about that because my eldest has horrific smoke which has really flared up with exam stress, and she does use all sorts of things, but a vino is the one, but it doesn't really do anything. No, this is a vino. Yeah, give it a go, not that we'll kill our business, no, it's so huge.
Speaker 1:Jennifer Aniston, jennifer Aniston.
Speaker 2:Jennifer Aniston yeah.
Speaker 1:Not bashing it as well, like if it works, do it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the sound is underexcited. Yeah, and then what I also think is genius is your packaging. Yes, talking about packaging. Talking about packaging.
Speaker 1:So it was the biggest journey. It was the packaging actually, so I'm not launching a plastic. Basically, when I launched the brand the trigger for me launching it it took me three years to actually be like should I do this or not? So I didn't just want to launch a brand. Kylie Jenner launching plastic face wipes in like 2018 was a real trigger for me. I was like, if she is allowed to launch plastic face wipes, are they actually plastic, but they're not biodegradable, they're not bamboo, right?
Speaker 1:So they're sitting in a sort of like nappies yeah, basically, how that is allowed, this was 2018, I think how that's allowed in 2018 with all the money in the world, that was a real like. I was like I'm going to do this. And then the second thing is I went to a packaging show in Paris and I went to be like, okay, I'm going to find an innovative solution for my products. There'll be something here. It's huge. It was huge. I, incidentally, got COVID from it, which I think is part of the story. And I went on a sustainability tour of the show and I went to a mascara manufacturer who was super proud about making a wand that was 5% less plastic and I was like you're proud about 5% less plastic in 2020. I was like what are we doing? And I recorded myself on the way back on the Eurostars on my Instagram my first ever post and I was like I'm doing it. This is it.
Speaker 2:This is why I'm making a brand, because I'm going to prove that it can be done better, and it's never going to be 100% sustainable.
Speaker 1:It's just not possible.
Speaker 1:So I've had to choose every. I've had to like go back and think about what's the best option at every moment. So the packaging I invented so fit the box, fit the tube sorry, all the square ones have got so much air, they take out so much space shipping it's a nightmare. So we did that. And then the tubes are aluminium. They're very jazzy. They're very jazzy, but the aluminium comes from Germany, not China. So I did no cargo shipping, which is a huge problem. The caps are obviously plastic, but there was no solution.
Speaker 1:But they're white. They're white, they're thinner.
Speaker 2:So they're more recyclable.
Speaker 1:They're thinner because they're flip top, not screw top, so they're more recyclable like thinner. But I either shipped 50,000 from China, not knowing where the aluminium came from, not knowing how it gets to me and it's cargo shipped, or I get it trucked from Germany. I don't know where the aluminium comes from and my supply is great. So that was the bit. That is a bugbear and I'm mad about it, but I'm also glad because it proves my point in the industry. So I set up. I came up with a million solutions that we could have done to get rid of this, but the industry it couldn't happen Right Testing, or it has to be the same lid over every type of tube. It was a nightmare and I couldn't afford to do it. So that is the bugbear, but everything else is the best version of a bag Option yes.
Speaker 2:So you can never be 100% sustainable.
Speaker 1:But if you can prove, if you can do more than L'Oreal, well, like a lot of on your own, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I don't know why they're not using wastewater, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like it's insane, yeah. Why aren't they using wastewater?
Speaker 2:I don't know, it's really expensive.
Speaker 1:The most expensive ingredient was the water, which is really annoying because it was going to go down the drain. Wow, I know.
Speaker 2:And I was like can I just have it?
Speaker 1:And they were like no, it's really annoying. So it's expensive and that's why the products are priced as they are. But it's proving a point and people are loving it because it works with your skin, like natural products and food-based products, even though they're a cosmetic. Your skin knows how to work with it, so it's not something your skin's like. What is this thing I'm trying to understand. I don't know how to use it. Your skin can work with it because it recognizes it Right.
Speaker 2:Which is the same with synthetic foods and weird ingredients and supplements.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly that. Your body goes. I don't know what this is.
Speaker 2:So your liver then has to process it and try and work out how to use it.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly the same. And for your liver as well, but you should be able to use it, so I'll be to you for this Right. Your skin is the biggest organ, so if you're putting some of your products on there, yeah it's mental. Plastic products, nail varnish, yep, mental.
Speaker 2:I've read some start. You might know it. How many chemicals on average a woman?
Speaker 1:puts on their skin a day I can't remember. I've read it it's 81, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a lot, and then you think about all the different things.
Speaker 1:All the makeup products and all the makeup products. I'm not saying don't use them, just be conscious about what you're using. Deodorant really, and body cream for me.
Speaker 2:Deodorant is the one thing, and shampoo, because I have hair loss, but deodorant is the one thing that I really makeup. I struggle a little bit. Yeah, makeup too.
Speaker 1:That's what I have I've got the best deodorant, though, if anyone wants to lugging them here. I've been on the natural deodorant journey for about 10 years. Yeah, it takes six months for your body to get used to it. Three to six months, because you're meant to sweat and if you've been, wearing anti-persuance you're like what's happening, why am I?
Speaker 2:sweating.
Speaker 1:But with natural deodorant you're sweat but you won't smell.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's just getting used to it. The best ever, one massive plug is Fit Pit. I love it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know, it's owned by a woman.
Speaker 1:It's like very hippie it's called Fit Pit. Is that a British brand?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's like Cornwall or Devon, I can't remember.
Speaker 1:It's in a pot and you have to rub it in.
Speaker 2:It's amazing.
Speaker 1:And then Act is the cool one, yes, which I've tried, also great, but Fit Pit, honestly, is.
Speaker 2:I would highly recommend Because I use plugging a big American brand, the Marlin and Getz one, the Eucalyptus one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't work for me at all. It kind of works for me. It does it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the deodorant one is the one that stressed me the most, with the aluminium and yeah it should, it really should, and just in your, it's in your guns, isn't it so?
Speaker 1:stay away, girls Stay away.
Speaker 2:I know I really nagged the my kids about it, but they you know teenagers get a really self-conscious also. They sweat quite a lot, so they I always come back with these natural deodorants.
Speaker 1:They're like Mummy.
Speaker 2:And he's sure Impulse.
Speaker 1:Give me some dove.
Speaker 2:Where's the? What's that hideous one? The boys wear Links. Give me the links.
Speaker 1:Where's the links Africa, links, africa. Yeah, I mean, I was in my early twenties when I did it and I did take a while, but now I don't even need to wear it some days. That is so interesting.
Speaker 2:It's so interesting, but I was talking to. Our second episode is Tania Borowski who's? A nutritional therapist, women's health expert, functional medicine practitioner and we're doing another episode all about the menstrual cycle, and one of the things we talked about is that switching off of your hormones when you take the contraceptive pill yeah. And it's this idea of switching bodily functions off.
Speaker 1:That is seen as inconvenient. Well, and also like, seemingly and seemingly. And is that? Just the patriarchy telling you you can't sweat. Oh, maybe yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you've got to have waxed legs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're on it, but like that's, that is part of it, but it's switching off.
Speaker 2:So switching off your sweating, which is a really important bodily function.
Speaker 1:Switching off your hormones.
Speaker 2:Switching off your hormones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all crazy dying of hair. I hate that, like gray hair. Why can't we have gray hair?
Speaker 2:Yeah, men can. Yeah, I don't understand In COVID.
Speaker 1:I went super gray.
Speaker 2:Are you?
Speaker 1:gray, so gray underneath this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is cool if it all went gray, but like it has end, but I can't, I can't have it. So hence the red. And why can't you have it? I don't feel I can, I just feel, as a 32 year old, I feel like I just can't, like it's not acceptable in society to have so I just don't.
Speaker 2:Well, I feel it's not acceptable to have thinning hair. Yeah, so it's the same thing. It's nice your cleanse and moisturiser. Are they for particular person, age, skin type, for everyone Skin type? I've designed it so so everyone.
Speaker 1:Natural products are great for all skin types and tones really, but the oats in there are the balancing. So if you've got oily skin, it'll help to balance your skin out, but also super soothing, so it's good for dry skin. What I'm finding and I'm loving is that a mum will buy it and then their partner will use it and then their kids will use it and it's becoming one product per house instead of one each, so it's even more sustainable. It's like a household face wash and a household moisturiser. Teens are really loving it and I actually get a lot of male customers. I've done lots of pop ups and markets and ton of them in the last year and men will just buy it without even knowing what it is. So interesting to me, I didn't even because I designed it very gender neutral and funky and cool Brightly and and men are just like, yeah, take one of each. And I'm like, do you want to know what's in it? And they're like no, and I'm like, okay, cool, so it's having a crazy effect on.
Speaker 2:Do you think that's because they think you're lovely?
Speaker 1:No, I think it's the packaging. I think it's the packaging is all jazzy and they're like that's cool.
Speaker 2:I think it's also you would like to say that, but I don't think it is.
Speaker 1:I think it's the packaging. They throw something.
Speaker 2:No, they're older, they're not good shoppers in though, because my husband, if you find something he likes, he buys it forever, and in bulk yeah, that's what people are doing and then he just buys it again. He's like, right, I've got my years worth of body lotion he likes and he buys like a big fat of it. It's a risk, isn't it? We never did that. That's boring. That's boring and change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what if it doesn't work, one day and you've got a?
Speaker 2:fat off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, well, hopefully it's not always work, but no, it's definitely teen skin friendly too. I actually did an Avon style party the other day. So I met these two amazing moms who wouldn't mind me saying and whole foods, and we got chatting and they're from Brighton and I instantly know when people are from Brighton, so like maybe at bottom 10, you're like, oh my God me too, and they had two daughters and this whole Sephora kids thing was coming out about kids wearing retinol and like going into Sephora and buying crazy products not knowing what they are, and so I said it's really good for teens.
Speaker 1:And they said their teen daughters would love to hear it from you. They won't listen to us because we're the moms.
Speaker 1:So I went to the house the other weekend and I've had tea and cake like croissants with her and her kid and her kid's best friend and we talked about beauty industry and we talked about products that are safe for their skin and why they shouldn't be using XYZ and why Tiktok is so dangerous and all this kind of stuff and they loved it and I loved it and it was so great. It was like an Avon style party with kids like going to teach you about the beauty industry and it was really cool.
Speaker 2:I wonder if you could come and do that at my school.
Speaker 1:That's what I said, because another school I did, brighton Met, so I went and did a talk about being a female in business at Brighton Met and Brighton Met you know, the kids have had tough times. Yeah, I did a bit of mentoring there and they were so great and they didn't know that beauty industry was a job. No, what I was like where?
Speaker 2:do you think like all the when you go?
Speaker 1:to Super Dark. Can you look at Rimmel and all these like where does that come from? And they're like it just didn't. They didn't see it as it. Yeah, they didn't see it as a career and so I was like, if you ever want to come in in turn and to them a message, my sense is really cute, yeah, so that's quite a big passion for mine. I'm really glad it's resonating with kids too.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited about it because I've got three teenagers, as you know, and my youngest, who's very into Sephora-esque products that she really doesn't need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the thing. You don't have to be changing your face with retinol.
Speaker 2:And it's damaging. It's so damaging for your skin and even for adults.
Speaker 1:like all the germs will be like, but it's strong chemical. So, like, if you need to use it, use it. If you don't, don't. And it's not a one shoe fits all side. One size fits all. Everyone's skin is different, every skin tone is different, so you've got to work what works for you, but kids should be using natural products.
Speaker 2:Very strongly about that. Well, I'm yeah, I'm going to get my kids. Well, my son's actually already using your face wash.
Speaker 1:Yes, good for teenage boys, yeah, or at least again, yeah. Get all the sweat off, yes, and get them to wash their face. I did a survey before I launched with 300 people and the amount of people that said they don't wash their face men and women in London I was like guys, the pollution never washed their face, and so it's all about reeducating and that kind of thing which leads on to why it's cool.
Speaker 2:My skin feels actually it's called my skin feels go there.
Speaker 1:So actually the food waste is almost separate. It was always, I was always going to be sustainable, so anything I launched was going to be sustainable. It's not really the main story of the brand, but it is because it's different and innovative. The main story of the brand is it's called my skin feels, because I'm trying to get people back in touch with their feelings and, as you know, I do another job, which we're going on to in a minute, which I see people quite often on a feelings level where they're not connected to their body or to their feelings, and especially men no offense, men and especially teens. They haven't been taught self care like we have as women and for me, when I have really bad anxiety or a bad day, going home and washing off the day and starting again is my like reset and gets me back into my body. And if I can encourage people to wash off the day, tune in with how the skin feels first, we might get to how they feel. So it's a real tool for getting into mental health and getting into yourself care routine without being woo woo and without being like here's a face wash to wash it off. It's like it's a really fun face wash, but it will also wash off your day and it'll make you feel better.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of what the brand ethos is really about, and it's really about how we live down here. Like Brighton is so that way of life. It's a super conscious place to live. It's very wellness orientated and it's all about looking after yourself, and that's something that people do not do enough. So that is the purpose of the brand it's all about, and if you can be more conscious yourself, you're going to be more conscious of the planet. So it's it's an all encompassing, holistic view, and as the brand grows, that will get stronger too. It's all about connecting back in.
Speaker 2:Important. I love that because people are so disconnected. So and your body's telling you stuff all the time and it might be you experience it as a craving yeah, sugar craving something, and your body's trying to tell you something I need this.
Speaker 1:I need something. I need to yeah.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I know a lot of people and I know a nutritional therapist who refers to some clients as their head is totally disconnected from their body, and she'll be talking to them about their symptoms and things and then they'll say, well, no, you know, you know how. How's your, how are your guts, How's your tummy? Yeah fine, fine, and then she'll start probing Actually it's really not fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they don't see it, it's not fine at all.
Speaker 2:I'm almost to the other end of the extreme where, if I feel, everything to every sensitive people. I do as well, yeah, and my body's always telling me things and I feel everything. And everything not upsets me, but you know things. I need to delicate and actually I think it was my husband that said that to me was. I said, oh, I'm always ill, and it is like, no, you're not actually very strong constitutionally very rarely touch wood, get ill, did you're?
Speaker 2:just you notice things that no one else notices, yeah, and then you see it as I'm feeling ill, but actually you're just tired. But you're feeling it, yes. All my hormones are changing and it's my cycle, or I have eaten garlic, too much garlic and yeah, for example, sugar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true we're just. We're seen as a bad thing to be delicate and sensitive, but actually it's the opposite and it can go the other way. When it's too much, you need to get more grounded. But it's a fine line. But a lot of people are not Really tuned into how they fit in the UK. America's different and other places are different, agree, but the UK with was so not in touch with our feelings.
Speaker 2:No, Italians really are. Yeah, so I think you know you saying early about that there is a talent, food waste and Italians are very Intouch, yeah.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it's true though. Yeah, and they have. They create such beautiful things, like literally everything they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing music, architecture, cars, history. Clothes.
Speaker 2:Everything, and here we're a Dale.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very, but also there's a surprise and I know that's, it's our grandparents generation of the upper lip vibe post-war, then I think it's their pre-war.
Speaker 2:I think it was pre-war yeah it's, it's a long.
Speaker 1:I think it's a British, it's a very British thing going back.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:I wonder whether it's starting. I don't know, you should know I know, I should know about you know that the reason, you can explain why that makes sense.
Speaker 2:So what's the other? The other holistic, the other holistic, and we use it.
Speaker 1:So the reason it's called my skin feels is that I actually do professional psychic mediumship as well, which we have connected on, yeah, and which a lot of people don't know what that is like. I said it to someone yesterday and they were like what? And I always think it's normal and it's so not normal, and so shall I explain what it is.
Speaker 2:Yes, so the reason what I find really interesting is and again, that disconnectedness. I get feelings from people, or people you know vibes, and I've always had that and I'm always drawn to people or repelled, or or I don't like that person or really like this person. And you came to a meeting with us. Their biology Seven years ago, maybe seven, six, seven years ago is before our rebrand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just before the year before, maybe right couple of years, yeah, maybe 2018 and this group of people arrived from the company, worked her and I had an instant, this light for one of them, yes, and Instantly drawn to you and thought she's fantastic. I wish I would give her a job in an instant and then never saw you again. Yeah, weird, right until I don't remember, was it just just after the first lockdown? I was back in my office in Brighton yeah, on my own, and you were sitting outside in the co-working space and I walked past and you went oh, hi Mel.
Speaker 2:Hello and I was like why do I know that face? Why don't I?
Speaker 1:know that face.
Speaker 2:And then you, you know, recounted that you've been to a meeting and I said I'm just going out to get coffee, would you like one? You said I'd love a coffee and I remember walking out thinking I really like her. Thanks, that's really drawn to you. And then we were in the same co-working at the space. This is my actually handy moment to give a little plug to this podcasting studio, because we're now in a co-working space called projects yeah, in Brighton, in Nile Street, and this podcast studio is, and so I promise to give them a little plug.
Speaker 2:It's very cool, it's very cool and projects very lovely and and I was just, yeah, I really liked you, and then we'd keep bumping into each other. And then you worked, did some work for brand Called ask with, yeah, made lovely sustainable bamboo yoga gear. And then it was last summer yeah, I think so and I Can't even remember, but I was. I'd started on a journey of Some sort of spiritual awakening spiritual life.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I was sitting in a meeting room You're on your own, my own and you tapped on the window and came in and we started chatting and you told me something that was gonna happen. I don't know about that brand that you're working with?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes and I support, oh right, and you said I just know. And I said, oh, like a feeling. And you said, well, I'm psychic medium, yeah, sorry that out there and I got goose bumps and I was like, oh, what she does what? And then that was it that, and then I'll hand back over to you. But I, and then I'll give my yes why? My experience of your and medium ship.
Speaker 1:Yes, so yes, I know things sometimes. Basically, I was born like this and I Basically would know a lot of things as a child that maybe a child shouldn't be picking up on. See a lot of things here, a lot of things I would just know when things were gonna happen, like a volcano erupting, and then it erupts and I was like that's weird, well, and and it's really terrifying as a kid because I didn't know how to control it. So I controlled it with OCD, tried it wasn't OCD, it was just me trying to control my mind. I took myself to have a cat scan because I was like I'm obviously mental and they were like you're fine. And then I really kept it under wraps. And it's interesting why that has now come out as I've got older, why I felt like I had to.
Speaker 1:And then when I went to up Charlotte Tilbury, she was the one who took me to my first healer. And Again, fate comes into it. And in that healing session I just burst out crying and I said I don't know why, I just know things and I feel it all here. And she was like don't worry about it, you're just psychic, like just took, took everything out of it. I was like, oh, it's, there's a word. And then I did some research and I found the College of Psychic Studies in London.
Speaker 2:So proper college where they use no idea that even you need to come check it out.
Speaker 1:They used to do all the scientific studies on people like me in the Victorian era and Now it's a place where you can learn and study and train and it's one of what is the best and I think is the best in the world, like it's really good. There's two really big ones and it's one of the big ones and I've been training there for six years and Now I'm professional. I've been professional for three years and I see here and feel so. The number one question always I get asked is Read me. Now, like what can you read? And I'm like it's off. It's like totally off and that's what you learn. You go to train so it's turned off, because I was a kid it was on all the time and then you needed to be that, I must buy and mad mad because you want to have a fun life and you want to, like, enjoy things and not pick up on everyone's energy.
Speaker 1:And when you're young and you're trying to understand boundaries and when you're already sensitive, it's tenfold worse. And and being in that industry of fashion was horrific because I was feeling everything and everyone's stuff and everyone's creative and crazy, and you're just soaking it in and so, yeah, I learned how to turn off, I learned how to train and how it works and this is a whole other world. And then now, on a Friday, do readings for people, which is crazy and never thought I'd be doing that, but it does feel like my soul is that's what I'm meant to be doing. And the thing I said about not being able to tell everyone anyone when I was a child. I really feel that's because, as woman, I would have been burnt at the stake 50 years ago, 100 years ago. The last person went to jail was in 1952, so it wasn't that long ago, 52. Yeah, for being psycho, predicting Helen Duncan Pretty sure I'm, what was her crime.
Speaker 1:She predicted one of the chips were go down in the war and it did, and they thought she was a spy. She went to jail. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's Helen Duncan. I'm like, yeah, I was 1952 and so wasn't that long ago, so it's not been that new that we could talk about it. And do you want to know the craziest story ever? You do know this, but I think it's important. Yes, tell it.
Speaker 1:And I Obviously dabbling lots of other Holistic practices. When you're a practitioner, you've got to, like, look after yourself. So I did a shamanic healing session and I'd never been before and I wanted to find someone I could recommend to my clients when they need that work. She's an amazing woman in rotting Dean. I can recommend her. And we had a session. She said what do you want to do? Do you want to have a healing session? Do you want to talk to your ancestors? What should we do? And I said, just go for it, let's see what comes up. And we were in the session. We immediately went into a past life of mine where I was burnt at the stake.
Speaker 2:Oh and when?
Speaker 1:I came out of the session, she said I saw you being burnt at the stake and I said me too. And she said the word I got was run. And I was like I felt that too, and then she said it's now time for you to stand up. This is like this is before I was out as a professional. She's like it's time for you to stand up. You've got to start doing this work and being out there and talking about it.
Speaker 1:The next day, my Instagram got hacked Like madness. It got hacked by a bot and it messaged everyone on my Instagram being like hey, I'm a psychic like book here for a reading. Like it's $50, like a total bot hack. And and I was like well, I guess I'm out. Then and everyone knew my ex-boyfriend didn't even know, but everyone then found out, and so it then was like it's time to talk about it. And now I just talk about it, and the amount of people that have been weird is like 2%. Most people are like oh yeah, I feel things too Well, that's cool. My granny used to be like that, so it's becoming more normal, but the brand is trying to make it even more normal, so this is like really dumbing down psychic mediumship that making people understand, like the feelings gateway.
Speaker 1:It's a gateway into and, and the more connected you are, just the more conscious you are and better your as a person.
Speaker 2:So it's just trying to lift everyone you know, I I love that story about you. You're being hacked because I don't. If you remember at the time, you told me about two weeks before I'd listen to a random podcast. I never listened to that a friend sent to me and I need to try and run the name, I'll put it in the links and it was a guy in America who's a healer and he didn't know how to tell people, yeah, and then he started getting these Clients just turn up or just ringing. He's like well, how did you get my number? How'd you know? And this was pre social media, this was perhaps in the 80s. So the wall that that little old lady told me about you Now, which little old lady? You know the little old lady with the white hair? I don't know any. And then this kept happening and kept happening and and I thought it was the same thing as your bot, yeah, but different gender. It's something was Get, it was getting you out. Yeah, it's time and.
Speaker 2:I'd literally just heard that I was like this is so weird.
Speaker 1:It is weird, it's weird, it's, it's mad yeah but, the thing that I've learned from all of it and business to all of it it's just have to trust it and go with it. The more you're resisting, the harder everything is in life. You just have to go through, jump in and just Let it take. You obviously always have control, but like, let it guide you the way your meant to be guided, don't resist it. And that's just like a mediumship, because I Get completely out of the way in a reading and it's not me, I'm just like going with whatever's coming in and that makes everything easier. So it's a real metaphor for life. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, and I've been to you some readings.
Speaker 2:You have and they are honestly life-changing. Thanks, and I've said this to lots of people and I've recommended you to lots of people and I've had a lot of Trauma and crap and also in there, especially my childhood and I had a lot of therapy and have OCD is that was my way of coping and Lots of different types of therapy and CBT and some of it's done something, but my sessions with you Did way more for me in those three hours I think we've had in total. Then all of that put together, it is really I can't Recommend enough and I can't I can't even explain it's very hard to explain to people why it's so Healing and I felt so. I mean the first session I found quite hard, remember, and I thought I was gonna pass. Mmm, it's fun, it's got a lot first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought it was gonna pass out and then I thought it's gonna be sick and I have a spirit coming out and it was all yeah, yeah, it's really hard to, so you have to experience it yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like being seen.
Speaker 1:I think that's how I feel because what I'm anyone who's that's I can be them who's done the training and it's credible is able to do is see bits that people can't see. So I always see people a bit like a book and there's like many layers and I have to, like move layers out the way and go under and around and I get shown colors and symbols and stuff I have to interpret. But it's just me, my way of getting into the soul of the person, and all those layers for me are like traumas or ages or different Things that's happened that person. I have to read each one very quickly to understand what's going on and when I've had readings, have readings all the time from being in circles, it's like they're able to see straight away. So for people that have never felt like they've been seen all this, this work that they've hidden the way, it's hard to hide it from a psychic medium, because the bit you're hiding is a bit that I need to get to and that's what comes out.
Speaker 1:I feel that's. And then the mediumship I should just say psychic is Reading energy here, what's going on, what's happened, what's going on around you, your book, and then mediumship is connected with those on the other side. So, however you view it like you can view them as ghosts, you can view them as spirits, whatever your thing is of that, that's me connecting with them. For me, I just think I work with time, so time isn't real and I feel like I can go into different time zones and go back and ancestrally and come back forward. All that kind of stuff. It's not like a ghost in the room, but it. You do feel them in the room, so the spirit and the energy and the soul of that person comes in, but it's. It's not like Casper, which a lot of people know and there is no, I Don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't feel their presence, but I know that they're there, yeah, and, and yeah, it's very interesting to watch you as well, because you're managing, yeah, managing chaos sometimes, yeah, and especially my dad. Oh, sometimes there's a room full of people, hideous.
Speaker 1:Yes, and they stand in the room in particular places. So I know what's going on. So I have people in a corner, which means something to me, and then sometimes they'll get like eight people and I have to be like Guys, can you shut up? Yeah, like I'm trying to. Yes, it's like managing chaos, yeah, and sometimes they're really funny and they come through and they crack a joke and you have your guides that you work with. So I have like my team I work with and my team are quite funny and so they say things. Sometimes I'm like I don't think I can say that and then I have to like, say it in a different way.
Speaker 1:But the guy, my teacher, his name is Gary, right, he is amazing and he's like big life person for me and he's really funny and he's always made it not scary. And then I did have another teacher once say to me Daniela's mediumship not comedianship, and I remember thinking we're dealing with the dead.
Speaker 1:You've got to be a bit fun. Yeah, I remember being like you've got to have a bit of fun in this, and so my readings, hopefully, are not doom and gloom. They're quite, not at all Not really uplifting, yeah that's how it should be really uplifting.
Speaker 2:And one thing you said to me which came up in a work meeting last week with an agency we're working with on our how we present our brand, they're very good. They're called Sondren tell. I'm gonna plug that very good, all female team Phenomenals, so bright, so brilliant. And the word cycle breaker, or two words, came up and you Said I was a cycle breaker and the first one in my whole family, yeah, and I should be really proud of myself.
Speaker 2:And that was, that was the Changing moment for me, because it was the first time I've ever felt good about myself, interesting. That's just last year yeah like properly good.
Speaker 1:You know I'm proud of some achievements and I know I'm a good person or those things, but on a real. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah. And then when they said cycle breaker, I was like because those words are weird together, right, yeah, but that's the thing.
Speaker 1:I forget what I say.
Speaker 2:It goes in and out the other course.
Speaker 1:Otherwise you hold on to it. Yes, and sometimes I see people in the street and they're like oh my god, how are you? I'm like why do I know you? Is it? My skin feels like what is it? I saw someone the other day and she's lovely and I completely was like why do I know her from? And then how to be really careful, because you can't say what you do if their partners don't know or whatever.
Speaker 1:And whoever they're with and then I was like, okay, I remember, but yeah, it's a whole different world, it's brilliant yeah. I love it. It's really cool. And what's really cool is that everyone in my group See we like did this course and we all came up together basically as professionals. There's like a lawyer, there's someone that works for like a big investment bank. There's a doctor, it's like someone that works on London Underground. We've got like one of everyone in our group and everyone's very normal and they're so lovely and there's no egos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to get as far as we have as a group, you have to be that way and I would trust all of them to read anyone. And I really think, if you're gonna book a reading, get someone that's trained. I was gonna ask you that?
Speaker 2:so because there are people who ruin it for everyone. Yeah, yeah, go. How do you find?
Speaker 1:someone good, go via the college or recommendation and look for insurance. It's hard to get insurance. You wouldn't get insurance unless you've had the training. So everyone I know has got insurance. And where do you see like the proof of?
Speaker 2:the website On the website.
Speaker 1:The thing is you can't certify it. It's like because it's now seen as entertainment, because after the last moment to jail yes, it became, it was illegal and then to make it not illegal. It's not entertainment which is very offensive. Give it 10 years and it won't be, but that's why we're at right now. So yeah, can't certify it, there's no board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the way of certifying it is by going through the training like at the college or at an institution. We've actually got like I've got evidence of me being there that many years. There will be a certification that comes in for sure. It's just. It's a hard thing to regulate. People don't want to believe it. It's a really common thing, like these big institutions do work with people like me. It's just hidden on the underground. I nobody wants to talk about it because it's weird. It's not.
Speaker 1:It's very useful and like there's a whole, there's a whole part of the American army that we're doing remote viewing yeah so it's like a real thing.
Speaker 2:Is that the MK ultra stuff? Oh, is that like the sinister piece of it?
Speaker 1:No, it wasn't sinister. It was basically they had a project where they told people how to remote view, which is basically like somebody could give me coordinates now and I could go to those coordinates in my mind and tell you what's there. I've done a course in it. It's fascinating. It's like really cool Like somebody can close, give you a closed box and you can know what's inside the box. Yeah, it's mental, it's really cool. But you have to know how to do it and be that way inclined. And they had a whole part of the US Army I'm doing that in the war to work out like what was there, who was missing, yeah, and then they close it down.
Speaker 2:So don't, I don't know it's America, don't. I get all the way. We didn't close it down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's it's time to talk about it. It's time to stand up all the women that couldn't talk about it.
Speaker 2:That's why I feel passionate about.
Speaker 1:I love that, my whole body and so knows that. That's what I meant to be doing here.
Speaker 2:Yeah is that and since you told me that, then I, then it made sense why I was always her drawn to you. I think About and you're lovely and funny and but I feel, yeah, I, I'm. I just tell everyone I can about it because it's phenomenal, it is important to do, I think. I have asked you this before, obviously, but it must be a nightmare dating. Yes, it wasn't fun. Because most people have to wait a while to find out. They're a twat, yeah, no, whereas you literally the first second go.
Speaker 1:Oh, what a twat. Yeah well, even on the apps.
Speaker 2:You just need to see an a you don't even need to be in there, and you just know straight away.
Speaker 1:So, yes, it is interesting dating and it helps because I, like, I know the ones that are wrong and the one that is right. Yeah, um, but it does. Yeah, it has been a real. It's just been a different experience because everyone else goes through it, and in a different way, like I went through it already, knowing it was going to be shit.
Speaker 1:But you can't be on your own. So, like, you stick out with it for a bit, even though you know it's not right sometimes better to do that, but at least I knew that it was going to end, or like this is a short thing or whatever, whereas my friends would then not know that. So they've been a constant cycle of like what is this? Whereas I would always be quite clear. But I do have one, my best friend Susanna, who's also an amazing psychic and came in my course too. We do a ten minute check-in with each other quite a lot, so she'll do me a ten minute check-in on something and I'll do one for her. So when I was in those situations, when you get in the way of like maybe this person is right and she's like, let me just check For you, it's not. And I'm like I knew it.
Speaker 1:I knew it, so she does like a check-in.
Speaker 1:So I have like someone like Like my best friend. That helps. But yeah, it has been very interesting and it's. There was a point when I was 18 when it got too much. Just after I left Charlotte I think I was just before, before, after, I can't remember I was. I remember being in my room and I my it's weird when my great grandma came in the room and I remember being like you have to leave me alone, like stop, I need this to stop. Over two years it stopped and I found all out of sorts. I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 1:It was like everything closed down and for the first time in my life I didn't have intuition. And it was like horrible your skin stopped feeling everything, my whole body, yeah, my whole skin, everything. And that's when I went to the college and I was like I need help and my.
Speaker 1:I met my teacher actually a trade show when I was working for a supplement band and he came over and he was like reading me and I could tell like what's this? What's going on? And then I went to the college and I saw him there again. He's like we've met before and he said when are you gonna come and do my course? I was like in time so I did a few pre courses first, like learning about the basics, and then I worked with them and he's known forever like we had to be in the same.
Speaker 1:He was like I could see it and he said to me the other day he went past on the bus of High Street Camp and he said in my class he saw my face in the window and he had a moment where he was like I remember when we first met I looked at you and you cried, and now you're in the window of half of all foods and he was like from like a Personal growth journey and a psychic and a business, like it's so funny how all ties him together. Yeah, and he had a moment of being like that's cool, because I wouldn't have been here without doing all that work, right?
Speaker 2:so, yeah, it all ties in and earlier you talked about fate Before everybody listening knew about this bit. So when you say fate, I mean what do you mean?
Speaker 1:For me and you don't have to believe this, but for me it's already written, like the story is already written, whether which path you choose to go down, that's a different story, but you'll get to where you're meant to get to, and I just see that so much in in readings and I see it so much in people that haven't gone down their path or have been stuck at a certain point and I can see the end goal and like it's right here, you just have to get there.
Speaker 1:But they don't want to get there and they get stuck. Or people that go down the wrong path and don't see the path and know they're gonna end up there eventually. You're always gonna end up where you meant to end up and I feel like you come into life, for my understanding is you come into life with a lesson to learn and you either learn it or you don't. If you don't learn it, it's almost like you've got a restart and do it again. If you do learn it, you learn and you move and you grow. So for me, each life is a growth and each life is doing something for the next one. That's how my few on life and death and it doesn't just end.
Speaker 1:There's another one, and another one, and you keep growing as a soul. Yes my understanding. Yeah don't ask me where you're going sense to me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it feels like that and that when you look at past lives and when I do ancestral work, a lot of the patterns in people's behaviors that Built in them because of ancestors and they're almost past lives for them too, their ancestors. So it's all a big map and you have to put it all together, but I do think everything is written. This is whether you choose to do it or not.
Speaker 2:And One of the things that I find really useful about our readings is you also do business. Yeah, it's quite useful.
Speaker 1:It's really you pair up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and someone said to me the other day you know, do you have a mentor? And I said no, lots of reasons, but I do have a psychic medium.
Speaker 1:It's funny. Someone said to me do you have a mentor? And I actually said I think you Me. Yeah, I feel like you're like a bit mentally to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she said that, oh, like who your mentor said one mouth and be able to really respect and what she's done.
Speaker 1:And you do give me a lot of advice. Oh, I did actually say that. To look at us.
Speaker 2:I'd hug you if I mess up the mic, but it is um which which we wanted to cover, which is how women run business and, yes, the whole intuition and Going with, because what you were saying before about Everything's kind of written but there are different ways, ways and paths and perhaps because people listening might think well, so where bad things happen, yeah, no, that's written? Or have you gone off your path, or was that written? Just many?
Speaker 1:things, many factors, I think with that. Yeah, I also take it with a pinch of salt. Yeah, but it feels when I say everything's written that when someone gets ill, obviously that's not what I mean, but there's also many reasons why someone gets ill. So, yes, unfortunately Sometimes it's genetic and like that's unfortunate completely and awful. But life situations and trauma and stuff that hasn't been dealt with is also part of that. So if you haven't done the work you need to do to help yourself, or if you're unable to get that help, that can also change the level of your path. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:I don't sound like an asshole when I say that, no, that about not doing the work it makes sense, but I've just seen it myself in my peak of anxiety, when I was on the wrong path, I was really ill. And if I didn't shift myself into the right path and thankfully I had teachers and people that could help and if you don't have a support system, as a nightmare, so it's this is very relative to people that do have a system of support and have the money to do these things. Like if you haven't Got the money and the support system, it's a whole other ballgame, which actually is why I think there should be some more support for that. I don't know how you tackle that, but the end goal is always there. So if you're, when you look back on your life, I feel like you'll always be at a point where you're like I understand how I got here, and this is why you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I do, yeah, and I don't necessarily think although there are things that weren't pleasant that I would change my life Because I've got, and now it's brought me to this point here which is very different with medical things like, obviously that awful.
Speaker 1:And like we'd never say that, but I know exactly what you mean when you've been through a bad spot and it seems awful when you're in it afterwards you might be able to be like that. Help me get to here that I understand why I'm here because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Because you either learn something we learn something about yourself or it forces you on to a different way. Exactly, Exactly.
Speaker 1:And I can always tell the situation that's coming up right now, which we're about to talk about, like being a female in business, the situation going on now that if I took this I would be on the wrong path. My whole body is telling me not to take it. Literally, it's all. I feel sick even thinking about it and if I took it I know I'd be going down the wrong path. And it's getting people to recognize those feelings. When your intuition is saying so strongly not to do it.
Speaker 1:Don't do it Because it will force you to get off that path somehow, and it'll be very uncomfortable. So it's tuning into that intuition too, or getting advice from people that have intuition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I find that very helpful with you when I'm thinking about business decisions. But I really people say oh you know how do you run a business? I just literally follow my gut instincts 100%. It's you know what's so. That's all I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're so interested in you've got three kids. And learning a business is like having a child it is, and so I don't know why we put all these structures in, and this is something I need to write it it's a big like inspo for me. Charlotte and Anita and the Patagonia I can never say his name.
Speaker 1:Eve's Charlotte him, yes, everyone has run their business on intuition and it's like having a child. You know, you just go with your gut. Yeah, and it's the same thing with the business. You can't put all these restrictions in. This is how you run a business. You go to business school to learn this, to do this. That's absolute crap. Running a business is how you want to run a business, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's your child.
Speaker 1:And you have to treat it like that. It's gonna grow, you have to mess up, it's gonna do all these things and you have to be able to go with it and not restrict it and have all these crazy boundaries and goals that it's good to have a goal, but just come on, we've been getting all bent and shaped about it.
Speaker 2:You didn't hit the goal. Yeah, it's just a made-up goal. Yes, a made-up goal and you've made up goal.
Speaker 1:You've just got to run business more like women, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah with your gut. Yeah with your gut Because we probably can't talk about this decision.
Speaker 1:We can a little bit Shall we.
Speaker 2:Well, you, basically you've got to decide whether to turn down a quarter of a million pounds on that as long as time comes out, I would have done it Right and a lot of people go don't be mad, just take the money, yeah. So an opportunity came up.
Speaker 1:I applied for it, Got through the final of one and it's a quarter of a million to 200,000 to 250,000 pound investment in my business. The whole time we were going through the process that caused I'd been on, I had to be a man in a woman's body and they told me what I couldn't do and they didn't tell me what I could do or what I have done. It was very negative the whole time. So I'm very surprised. I won to be honest and now they're pushing me to make a decision in 12 hours. But this is what I mean about my whole body knowing if I bring these people into my business, these energies are not right to fit these guys, then that is going to be something's going to happen to make them leave. It's going to be very disruptive and it's going to set me back. So, even though it's tempting to take a quarter of a million pounds, it's also it would be a terrible idea.
Speaker 1:And having your intuition and using your intuition and not to be scared of that, I think is really important, and all women have intuition. We totally, totally, and so it's about trusting yourself and not relying on others to make those decisions for you. Big business thing, I would say Someone, when I was a kid they told me I'd only ever been there hostess at school. And I was like, right, I'm going to clock that away. And throughout my life I've clocked things away where people have said things why do?
Speaker 1:people say things like that my boyfriend said why have you got a silly job when you're going to get a real one? No, that was freelancing.
Speaker 2:What was your silly job? That was freelancing.
Speaker 1:And then I was working in Neil's Yard in Victoria Station, because I was learning how to run a beauty business from a retail perspective, because I knew I was going to launch one. And he said when are you going to get a real job? And then we were being like clock that away.
Speaker 2:Well, hopefully, whoever he's with now will listen to this. Yeah, and use your intuition. I can't see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, use your intuition on this one. Yeah, I don't know, but you do. As a woman, unfortunately, in this generation we have to fight, but I think we have to fight so that others it's the same thing, just different generation like the supper jats before.
Speaker 1:There's always a fight, it's always a fight, and one day maybe there won't be a fight, but for now I still feel like we're already in it, and it wasn't until that call the other day where I was like, right, well, we are still in it. Yeah, having worked with Charlotte Tilbury, who would not take anyone, I never really saw it. They're all men are scared of her, which is great. And then actually seeing that person man-strain something on the phone to me, I was lost it. So, yeah, so you have to use your intuition and know that what you're feeling is correct. I think that's the most important thing. If your body is reacting, it's correct.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's another thing people don't. Again, I think they don't. If you're getting the butterflies, the shakes or the shakes, or you feel a bit sick or your heart rate goes up, or sometimes I feel slightly dizzy. Yeah, off.
Speaker 1:Kilter is a word I quite like to use. It's when I read it on someone. I see they're two part, like the meridians, and I can always see when they're off kilter. They're slightly off their meridian.
Speaker 2:So I see it.
Speaker 1:And I'm like you feel a bit off kilter and they're like, yeah, I don't feel right, that's the feeling, but it doesn't quite feel right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the feeling.
Speaker 2:And I think a lot of people just poo poo that they think, oh, it's just a bit of anxiety about making a decision, it's not what's making you anxious. And when I've ignored my gut instinct, normally around people end of work. And I've thought no, I'm just, you know, it's just.
Speaker 1:Just me time yeah.
Speaker 2:I was right and I shouldn't have hired them, or?
Speaker 1:But it takes time to learn that it does. I think this is like it's easy for me because it's been there forever, but it does take time to learn what they are. Some people don't feel that. Some people they don't have that ability in the same way. They might feel slightly uncomfortable, but they're not sure, or they're like you say, they just ignore it. But then you have to learn from those things. So the next person that comes in that does that OK, that feels the same. Why do I feel like that?
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember this feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And having the confidence and self-belief to go. No, I am right, I'm not going to gas like myself. No no, no, exactly, it's the worst bit yeah.
Speaker 1:Isn't it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's that bit of your brain going. Nah being silly.
Speaker 1:Which is what I'm doing with this money. It's funny Because I know. But then my brain is like, hang on a sec, that's a quarter million pounds. That could go a long way in your business.
Speaker 2:And then my body's like what are you doing? Exactly.
Speaker 1:And I've reached out to different people to help clarify this on a human level here too, just to make sure I am making the decision that I need to make. But you do get in the way, and this is why, when people say, can you read your own situations, I'm like you can, but not really.
Speaker 2:Right, because you get in the way and egos get in the way, which is what you also talked about Yesterday around egos can ruin businesses Massively everything.
Speaker 1:Well and everything. Relationships.
Speaker 2:And in business you have to put your ego away, and then that's when you can have a flat structure. And not sort of these ridiculous hierarchies and just have like an open conversation. Just well, I already said yesterday, just talk like a normal human being.
Speaker 1:That's what I don't understand. And this was like with the call. It was so confronting and aggressive and I don't understand why you're not just like hi, this is me, this is what I do, this is what I like about your business. Is what I don't like about your business. How can we connect Rather than like ee-ee-ee, jab, jab, jab. But that's the same in any business scenario. Why don't we just have a normal human conversation and make it like drop it down a level, rather than coming in and trying to push and fight and show you're like worthy of something?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the posturing and silly. I think sometimes it's a which is maybe what this person's doing with you a test. It was a test Like let's see what she's like under pressure. Well, I will, I showed him what she was like.
Speaker 1:I'll show you what I'm like. Press the there poke the there. So, yeah, that's what he was doing, but why do that Exactly Need to do that Exactly? Yeah, silly, silly.
Speaker 2:And then I was sort of trying to pressure you into making a quick decision.
Speaker 1:Well, we've ignored his email. Now I think that's good. I've ignored his email. Good advice, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I was given this advice by my very calm yeah collected, yeah, he said, don't always need to reply.
Speaker 1:No, so I'm not, and I wouldn't know what. I would always reply, but I think that's a female thing.
Speaker 2:We always like to be on top prove that we can do it Well, I'll send a holding email. Yes, because I'm very efficient.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I'm not going to. I'm just going to leave it to breathe it faster. Let it faster Forment. Yes.
Speaker 2:I gave this advice to a mother friend of mine who had something very unpleasant happened to her son at school and he didn't want to be a snitch Mm, but she was very upset because he was physically hurt quite badly and she said I don't know what to do. No, what do you do anymore? And I was like I don't know, Because if he doesn't want you?
Speaker 1:to say anything you can't.
Speaker 2:But I also understand as a mother you want to go in there or like, kick some doors down and this person that's done this to him needs to pay. But he's also 16-year-old boy and I was, and then I said pretty much always the best, when you don't know what to do, the best thing to do is do nothing. You have to sit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hold the space, hold the space. I know what Louis Thru. I learned a lot from him in my readings, actually.
Speaker 2:I mean if you watch an interview with him it's mega orcs always. Yes, and which is why I actually struggled to watch him.
Speaker 1:I actually love him, but because he lets it get awkward and he holds the space, because the other person then always breaks, and when I'm in my readings I have to hold the space all the time, and sometimes I have to just not say anything and wait for them to react, because that's a pure emotion coming out. This is exactly what Louis Thru does.
Speaker 2:That's really interesting, because I find him hard to watch.
Speaker 1:Don't dislike him.
Speaker 2:I find him hard to watch. So maybe I orcsies find that cringe, because I'm like you, I use humour a lot and I use it as a kid to make friends, to feel better about things at home, to try and lighten the atmosphere. So I've always been the comedian and so when things get awkward I'm like right, my brain's going right, crack a joke. Crack a joke, find a joke quick, make a joke. Sometimes it's not the right joke.
Speaker 1:And it's appropriate. So we've got to hold just that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's sit.
Speaker 1:I did actually learn something from Louis Thru. I did actually learn something from him from my reading. So I say sometimes I've got to be like Louis Thru, I have to sit. Let it the next thing come up.
Speaker 2:I love talking to you always and I hate train journeys to London, but yesterday it was so fun there and back and I think the rest of the people on the carriage were probably listening to our chat.
Speaker 1:Because it's all really weird. Real mental the hell are those weird women.
Speaker 2:I think it'd be great to get you back on, because we've barely touched, I know we've scratched the surface. Scratched the surface In the meantime. Where can people find you? For both my Skin Feels and for the psychic mediumship?
Speaker 1:So my Skin Feels online MySkinFillscom, but also any Brighton people. It's in a few shops.
Speaker 2:Wonderful In the lanes and in hoes which shops.
Speaker 1:So it's in Tidy Street, in the lanes, and then it's at Saunadelic. In the Saunadelic in Hove my pals open to Sauna. Love them.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love Saunadelic. So when you go and have a sauna, saunadelic. Yeah, it's in Hove right now.
Speaker 1:And then it's in Lewis, in Maddichael, giving.
Speaker 2:Yes, where I bought it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then it's in Whole Foods and then all online, but I'm popping up at markets all over the place, so follow the Instagram and then for me it's just downyourclosecouk. And apparently, if you type in Brighton psychic, I'm now the person that comes up. Someone called me earlier and told me that. So I do them on Zoom, so international as well, and then I work out of the Tree of Life on Portland Road. So if you're a Brighton local in Hove, you can see me in real life too, and, as I've already said, I literally can't recommend you enough.
Speaker 2:So I feel like you're going to have a waiting list at some point and then I'm going to be going. Can you bump me up the way? I'll always bump you up in the way, so you get the answer.
Speaker 1:I don't worry, It'll be amazing, but yeah, you can find me there and any questions about it as well. I think it's such a big subject. If anybody ever has any questions you can always call what's that email?
Speaker 2:And it's not something to be afraid of.
Speaker 1:Not something to be afraid of. That's the thing People always think I'm going to say bad things.
Speaker 2:It's not like a Ouija board.
Speaker 1:Never do a Ouija board. It's not a Ouija board and there are legal things I cannot say and I don't get the information. I can never talk about medical stuff, but I never get that information anyway. I can never talk about anything to do with doom and gloom and I don't really get that information anyway, unless you give it to me. And that's not why I come for a reading. If you're a bit stuck or lost in direction or going through a breakup or don't know where you're going in life and maybe some trauma you haven't quite dealt with and someone's just passed over, those are the reasons to come, and always come when you know. People always say should I read book or how do I know when I'm meant to come and you will know when you're meant to come. I hate people that come every week. That's not the purpose. The purpose is to come, learn, put it down, come back when you need me. So I'm there when you need me, not as a regular thing. Love it, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thanks for coming.