Project Brief

The brief I have set involves creating an online blog that blends spirituality and environmentalism in regards to cosmetics and personal care products, which intends to offer alternative solutions to regular beauty products. The blog focuses is beauty and wellbeing, emphasising going green does not mean sacrificing individual style, but rather enhancing it. I read Starre Vartan’s book The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to be Fabulously Green and Christie Matheson’s book Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style. Both in which argue that going green is timeless and doesn’t mean throwing out all possessions and starting again, but gradually replacing items. Making more conscious decisions when purchasing new items.

What to expect:

•          Certified organic product reviews  
•          Simple skincare and haircare routines
•          A crystal of the week feature
•          Articles that aim to address social issues (I.e. the availability of make-up for deeper skin tones)
•          Ingredients to avoid
•          Focusing on mental wellbeing as well as physical
•          Indulgent, sustainable luxuries (I.e. bathing in sustainable oils)

The project will be presented in blog format, at the proposal stage I was unsure on whether to create a website, blog, or both. So far, the discussions I have had with i.t technicians, peers and tutors it would seem the best route to explore is a blog.

With a blog, it enables for on the go readership with the use of smart phones, speaking to my peers, this is the method the majority of them use. It makes sense for my target market, as the age range is that of my peers.

I want to keep my blog layout as simple as possible, with two main tabs beauty and lifestyle. I want to have a timeline of posts like a conventional blog, but also have the categories within each tab to be clickable. So not only will the content be read as it is posted, but it will be easy to search for a past post for reference.

Introduction to Major Project Production & Evaluation (MFS124)

This is it! The final major project brief has been introduced and the learning has commenced. I have been anticipating this particular project from the moment I became a student here at Solent, and in the past two years I have been certain that I would be creating a project solely based around spirituality in fashion, this preference is very much inspired by my personal experiences throughout the past few years and has become a major factor in my lifestyle.

   However, the second half of my project was established after attending a guest lecture with organic and natural make-up artist Nat Van Zee, her message was clear and simple. After introducing her successful career in the beauty and fashion industry the lecture took an unexpected turn. I was shocked to hear that make-up and personal care products are considered by many to be potentially harmful to human health, not only women and young girls –but even new-born babies.  This was information I had not been aware of and hearing it in a university lecture hall meant it was something I couldn’t forget. Below is one of the clips Nat showed during the lecture.

  Returning home that evening I looked through my product shelf, I wondered if the chemicals in the ingredients list could be causing my skin condition to worsen. I have suffered from eczema for as long as I can remember, a condition which prevented me from perusing a career in hairdressing. I had tried everything the doctors suggested from steroids to sun therapy with no luck, only managing the condition. So I decided to do some research of my own into cosmetic ingredients, I found there were a lot of people asking the same questions as me in relation to skin conditions. After briefly researching it was decided my New Year’s resolution would be to give up regular beauty and personal care products, replacing them with certified organic and natural ingredients. With the hope I would see and feel improvement in my skin.

This personal quest shaped the direction of my final major project, through researching into organic beauty I realised there was a link forming between ethical beauty and spiritual wellbeing, two very personal interests of mine that could be combined to produce a lifestyle that puts human health, the environment and wellbeing first. 

#displayinitiative #responsibilityforindependentlearning

Image sources: http://www.natvanzee.com/organic-beauty-1/

Film source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfq000AF1i8