2021

2021

It is going to be THE year for us all, no matter what it entails, contains, and brings about and all of that. It will be amazing in some way, no matter how small that way is. I have chosen three key words for this year Grounded, Ethical & Present:

Grounded

That is what it is going to be. 2020 was definitely a year of abundance but only abundant exclamations of “what the actual…is happening??” So 2021 is going to be more still, calm and collected (I say that now, we are only in January – eeek!). After a lot of self-reflection, introspection (etc. etc.), I realised that I can get carried away with ideas, thoughts and everything really. For example, I have two cats and if it wasn’t for my husband reigning me in I would be a veritable cat lady, a whole clowder of cats would be an unrealistic and irrational dream come true (a clowder of cats is the fancy way of saying a group; a rather interesting website here that tells you all the collective nouns for groups of animals, should you wish to know).

And this applies to White Cloud;  I admit to looking at other similar businesses and thinking wtf, how have they got that many followers, I must do something about that… and hang on: they have all these fancy pants ingredients in their products: where, how have they done that?!? And so it goes.. So this year, White Cloud is going to be more grounded, more realistic and therefore I am not going to release a new product just yet (but I assure you when I do, you will be the first to find out). This year will be about the core values of my little business and this is what you will see more of.

Ethical

Ah, yes, that old chestnut. The word ‘ethical’ bobs around like the person who wants the party to stop at 11pm and call noise control just when the party has just started. I hear it whispering in my ears all the time, especially when I see a fab top in a shop that I MUST have NOW. Then that word creeps in, wearing a woolly sensible jumper with leatherette elbow patches to remind me that everything we buy has come from somewhere and made by someone. And dare I say it, but it is right. There is a real need now in the world to really look at how much and what is being consumed. So, White Cloud will endeavour to remain as ethical as possible. An example is Frankincense, while amazing for your skin,it is a very poor choice for ethical reasons (please see the blog). At the end of the day we are all aging, we all have various skin ailments, but we can choose what we put on our skin that doesn’t just help us, but helps our planet too. As an aside, I am not perfect, I think it is exceptionally hard to be rigorously ethically sound, but it is something that I think everyone should try and be at least a little in their lives.

Present

The last of the 2021 words and has soooooo many meanings. I asked my daughter the other day what the word “present” meant to her. A HUGE smile erupted across her face and she looked at me expectantly. I realised my mistake and had to then explain how present can also mean being present in the moment, her eyes glazed over at that point. Ultimately kids tend to be present and live in the moment most of the time anyway, but I thought it was an important point to make. So this one is more for me than White Cloud, to be present in all the things I do, and not look back.

So, I don’t want to ramble too much further, and I hope what I have said makes sense. 2021 will be a good year, but it will be a year for taking things as the come, living in the present and looking at ways that I and White Cloud can make better choices of what we choose to consume and how we can help the planet.

P.s just a bit of skin care admin: the true secret of anti-aging: wear a hat in the sun, drink lots of water and try not to worry about little things that you can do nothing about.

Aroha nui x

Juliette