INTERVIEW #132 CATHERINE DICHY

Name: Catherine Dichy

Based in:  Sweden 

Occupation: Organic beauty consultant,  organic skincare therapist, makeup artist and hairstylist. Author of the book Naturlig skönhet and head of jury Organic Beauty Awards.

Website or social media channels: www.cadichy.com

Hi Catherine, welcome to A Sustainable Closet. Can you please tell our readers who you are and what you do?

Thank you so much for the invitation! I started my career as a hairdresser in one of Stockholm’s most fashionable salons Klippoteket, trained at Vidal Sasoons in London. Got headhunted by Mika’s model agency as a hairstylist and learned makeup in 1990 to continue working as a hair and makeup artist in the fashion, commercial, music, film, opera and theatre industries around the world. My speciality was natural glowing makeup and beachy hair which gave me the opportunity to travel with H&M for their catalogues and also work with spa, yoga and beauty book photoshoots. Since my book came out in 2012 I’ve been focusing more to spread my passion for making people feel and look good. I have workshops creating skincare from nature, lecture around my book and teach 1:1 or group sessions on self-perspective and how to apply personal organic makeup that is also related to organic skincare. I call it functional makeup. 

When did your interest in organic make-up start and why?

It started when I got the question to write my book Naturlig Skönhet (natural beauty in Swedish), which is all about well-being from the inside out and vice versa, with mindset, nutrition, health and using nature and natural organic skincare, makeup and hair products to feel good and therefore get energy, sparkly eyes and beautiful glow to also look good.  

Can you explain to us what organic and natural make-up are and mean?

The main thing is the ingredients in the products, that they are as clean as possible from chemicals that damage skin and nature when rinsing in the drains. I use mainly pure pigments together with natural botanical skin oils and butter, that I mix as a foundation. The pigments that I use are created in a fairtrade and sustainable way, as are all the oils, many of them handmade. Thanks to my work with Organic Beauty Awards for the last 6 years, I get to see the evolution and interest of many brands who choose to create more organic and sustainable products. Which gives me the opportunity to try different products and learn more about ingredients.

Are there any standards to use those words or how can we as consumers know what is what?

Many brands mark their products with Organic or Eco even if they have ingredients that are chemical and can be blacklisted from certain certifications. This is to attract more clients and to follow the interest and trend of going towards a more aware, organic and sustainable lifestyle. The easy way is to look for certifications, such as Ecocert, Natrue, Soil association organic och Cosmebio. Off course there are some really natural products that have no certifications due to the high costs. You can look at Organic Beauty Awards website https://organicbeautyawards.se/en/home to see what ingredients are big NO NO:s.

Why should one buy organic make-up instead of conventional? 

First of all, to feed your skin with good ingredients and of course to save our waters from chemicals. There are some ingredients that can cause an imbalance of hormones and give allergic reactions. For example, Aluminium chloride is mainly used in deodorants that clog the pores. Ingredients that are from the petroleum industries damage the skin and the water. Silicones are chemicals and the worst for our waters since the small particles are passing through our water cleaning systems. Also, many of the organic producers are more aware of having good sustainable production, packaging and transport. 

What can we ask brands if we want them to become more sustainable?

We can ask them to be more aware of what they put in their products, by doing more research and to think more of the whole picture of production, ingredients, packaging, and transport. Be conscious of the impact on us, our skin, our breath and the planet. 

Do you have any favourite brands you would like to recommend or popular brands from Sweden/Scandinavia?

Botany for All is the brand I use on myself most since I know them well from my training, work and for me is the purest ingredient-wise. The best way to find popular and really good well tested organic products and brands that are Scandinavian and  Swedish is on https://organicbeautyawards.se/en/home.

There you can see all nominees and winners throughout the years that have been tested by 3 different juries. Testjury, specialist ingredients jury and specialist sustainability jury.

Any recommendations that people should think of when it comes to makeup?

1. That it’s better to put on less product on the skin and add layers if needed, to give depth and to let the skin breathe.

2. If you are using eyeshadow, do the eyes first before concealer and foundation. This is in case the shadow dust falls on your cheek. Then you don’t have to remake the foundation.

3. Try out colours that fit your skin tone, the best way is to look at the skin colour beneath your cheekbones to the chin. When it comes to colours of shadows, try out, play around and see what colours make your eyes pop and sparkle. It doesn’t have to be crazy colours, it can be very natural colours too that enhance your eye colour. 

4. When having natural eye makeup, then give some colours to the lips if you like and want to get a made-up impression.

I like to focus on the skin, to give a beautiful natural glow and eyes, that for me is the part that attracts and speaks without words. Even with natural well-framed eye makeup.