If you’ve ever subscribed to the “clean” and “detoxifying” movements in beauty, food and wellness, you may be in for a dirty awakening. “Foryears, we’ve been told we’ve got to ‘eat clean’,follow the ‘clean beauty’ movement and ridour bodies of toxins,” says Beth McGroarty, vicepresident of research and forecasting at theGlobal Wellness Institute. “Yet new thinking about thesymbiotic relationship between the health of the planet’s soil and our own physical and mental wellbeing is about to change all that. We’re entering an agewhen soil-friendly practices and regenerative agriculture are going to feedthrough to what we put on our skin, the food we eat and how we behave.”
10 per cent of the Earth’s organisms live in the soil
Ten per cent of the Earth’s organisms live in the soil, just one handful of which contains as many as 50 billion lifeforms. It’s a diversity that is essential to the health of the soil, which works to circulate water and nutrients to plants, regulates rainfall and absorbs atmospheric carbon. Yet, with the World Economic Forum estimating that we have less than 60 years of this topsoil left, rehabilitating the ground beneath us could hold the key to fighting climate change – and the global mental and physical health crisis.
“Thanks to modern farming methods such as mono-cropping, heavytillage and the use of beneficial bacteria-killing pesticides, the health ofour soil has declined dramatically,” says McGroarty. “While our ancestors lived in harmony with the soil – foraging and farming – we’re currently living inasoil-deprived state.”
This crisis is exactly why forward-thinking beauty and wellness brands arereplacing “sustainability” with “regenerative” as their guiding philosophy. “Regenerative” is defined asa more nature-positive action that goes beyond merely maintaining the soilto actively providing a solution that improves it, such as the use of organic rather than chemical fertilisers and leaving fields fallow on rotation to conserve the earth’s fertility. The goal isto build biodiversity back into soil.
Five products dishing the dirt
Tata Harper Superkind Refining Cleanser, £79
Contains lactic acid, wild-harvested Nordicpine and GotuKola to gently cleanse, smooth and rebalance skin
Bog Skincare AM Face Serum,£36
Rich in Irish organic peat, glycolic acid and bilberry extract tosmooth and refineskin tone
Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic Forte Eau de Parfum, from £95
Golden mandarin ispaired with basil, warm sandalwood and vanilla notes
Matière Première Radical Rose, €195 for 100ml
Blended as one of the highest concentrations of rose centifolia absolute, grown regeneratively on Guichard’s Grasse farm
What Your Food Ate, £22
A deep dive into the scientific and historical evidence to support the belief that what’s good for the soil isgood for us too (WW Norton & Co)
“Soil regeneration is incredibly important to everything we do,” says Tata Harper, founder of her eponymous skincare line. “The regenerative agriculture practices we follow on ourVermont farm utilise the power ofphotosynthesis to close the carbon cycle while improving soil health, crop resilience and the nutrient density of our skincare ingredients.” The regeneratively grown calendula, borage, alfalfa, chamomile and lavender extract in the brand’s Superkind range of cleansers, moisturisers, masks and serums (from £61) are from plants grown regeneratively in organic soil. Ingredients are hand-picked, dried and rubbed on a screen in a process called “garbling”, which breaks them down before they’re combined with a carrier oil. Each ingredient delivers minerals, restorative nutrients and powerful antioxidants that minimise skin stress, soothe reactivity and support a healthy skin barrier.
Bog skincare, a brand inspired bythe2,000-year-old body that was found perfectly preserved in bogland byan Irish farmer in 2003, bases its formulations on organic peat. Clinical trials by Glasgow University have shownthat these formulations hold ananti-ageing antioxidant level 300times the strength of Trolox (thestrong antioxidant used as theindustry standard to measure antioxidant capacity). A further studyfound that the humic and fulvicacids found in peat helped reduce the appearance of wrinkles. Combined with natural bilberry extract and Lady’s Mantle in BOG’s AMand PM Serums, the organic peat extract helps to hydrate, smooth and refine the skin overall.
Likewise, fragrance brands are beginning to move beyond broad commitments toward “sustainability” to specifically soil-friendly practices. In an industry that typically relies upon natural ingredients, (those such as sandalwood are already facing extinction), this represents a significant shift. Leading the way in fragrance is Guerlain, which recently auctioned digital artwork NFTs in aid of a new “laboratory garden”. Located in Les Mesnuls just outside Paris, the garden isdedicated to exploring regenerative agriculture techniques. Guerlain has alsocollaborated with the GoodPlanet Foundation. Its AquaAllegoria fragranceline,first launched in 1999, hasbeen reformulated to include alcoholtaken from organic beetroot using soil-friendly practices.
Aurélien Guichard, co-founder of thefragrance house Matière Première, plants and harvests ingredients such astuberose and rose centifolia on a farmin Grasse, which has been in his family since 1790. Here,ladybirds are released on the plants instead of soil-damaging pesticides, and sections of land are left fallow on rotation. For Guichard, protecting the soil in thisway is a way of preserving and enhancing his family legacy while producing higher-quality plant ingredients that create scents of exceptional purity.
Spas are offering immersive experiences such as “soilbathing”
Over in the world of spas, some are starting to offer immersive soil experiences – also known as “soil bathing”.At 42 Acres, a retreat in Somerset, workshops areoffered on everything from low-impact mushroom-growing to seabuckthorn planting and foraginglessons. The entire farm isdedicated to regenerative, biodynamic and “agriwilding” techniques that replenish the soil’s natural diversityand help guests toreconnect with the land beneaththem, a process often called“grounding”. And from CostaRica toTurkey, Vietnam toThailand, mud bathing, which hasbeen practised among different cultures since the AncientGreeks, is growing in popularity, as more and morepeople seek to gain the benefits of soil exposure atit*source. At Costa Rica’s Rio Perdido, guests hike to ahotriver pool containing mineral-rich volcanic mud, whichthey slather over themselves.
From what we slather to what we eat: for many experts, our health is as much about what we eat as how we grow it. “Regenerative farming practices that enhance soil health may increase micronutrient and phytochemical levels in crops,” says David Montgomery, a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, who co-authored the book What Your Food Ate. He also claims that “regeneratively grazed livestock have more favourable amounts and ratios of omega-3 to omega-6 fats [that] could help our bodies better manage or prevent chronic illness”.
Big players such as Unilever, Nestlé and Kellogg’s are investing in regenerative agriculture: there is also a wave of products from independent companies focused on regenerative foods. There are even calls for a “regen-certified” food label to help guide UK consumers’ food choices (in the US, there is already a Regenerative Organic Certified accreditation). In the meantime, Montgomery recommends seeking out local farmers’ markets and asking sellers about their soil practices to find the most nutrient-dense ingredients.
Dig a little deeper, and the ancient and integral link between the soil microbiome and our own gut microbiome has even wider implications for our health, including our mental wellbeing. Christopher Lowry, an associate professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has also found that the soil-dwelling bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae may quell stress-related disorders, acting as a natural antidepressant and even a possible treatment for PTSD. It’s one reason – aside from the physical exercise – why soil exposure when gardening has been shown to improve our mood.
The rather vague notion of “reconnecting with nature”to better our mental and physical wellbeing is alsobeing crystallised within the soil-up movement. OliviaHoughton, deputy creative foresight editor at TheFuture Laboratory, points to a psychological and energetic connection between the soil and human health. “Humans are said to have an electrical energy imbalance asa result of spending so much time indoors and using more technology,” says Houghton. “And a greater positive charge is said to be damaging to human health. As soil isnegatively charged, our energy imbalance is corrected when we come into contact with the natural world.”
So maybe we should all slip off our shoes, forget our modern obsession with cleanliness, and look to the soil for solutions. In other words, it’s time to get dirty again.
