When Did Self Care Become Vanity?

Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine from the Beauty Industry

My time in Bali got me to thinking about how the essence of self care, over the years has become distorted into what I now feel is vanity. I thoyght long and hard about what this means, and how the very nature of vanity does not align with what The LAB is about.

I decide to write this blog to untangle the truth about how self care is packaged, and the hidden agenda of vanity.

There was a time when self-care was sacred. Long before it became a hashtag, a marketing tool, or an excuse to buy another serum, self-care was woven into the rhythms of life — especially for women. It was about reverence. It was about reconnecting to the body, the earth, and the cycles that sustained us. Bathing rituals, herbal preparations, moon circles, anointing oils, movement, song — all were ways of honouring the divine feminine within and around us.

Today, that sacred practice has been repackaged and sold back to us with a glossy finish and a price tag. What was once ritual has become routine — and what was once soul-nourishing has become self-objectifying.

The Sacred Roots of Care

In ancient cultures, caring for the body was never separate from caring for the spirit.Egyptian women anointed themselves with oils that carried not only fragrance but meaning — protection, purification, sensuality. Greek and Roman bathing rituals were as much about healing and connection as they were about cleanliness. Indigenous and Eastern traditions viewed self-care as a form of energy balance and spiritual alignment.

These were communal and cyclical acts. Women came together to share, to heal, to honour transitions — menarche, childbirth, menopause, grief. The body was not a project; it was a vessel of wisdom.

From Ritual to Routine

Fast forward to now, and self-care is an industry worth billions. “Treat yourself” has become the rallying cry of consumer capitalism. But what are we treating, exactly? Burnout, exhaustion, disconnection — often caused by the very systems selling us the fix. The never ending treadmill we are on in the pursuit to look younger.

The sacred pause of care has been replaced by a never-ending list of “shoulds”: exfoliate, hydrate, contour, meditate, achieve. It’s no longer about being — it’s about improving. The modern self-care narrative feeds on the belief that we are not enough until we buy the right products, attend the right classes, or look the right way.

We’ve confused vanity for vitality. We’ve been sold a surface version of what used to be soul work.

The Feminine We Forgot

In the rush to modernise, we lost the language of the sacred feminine — intuition, rest, cyclical living, softness. These qualities have been dismissed as weakness or indulgence in a world that worships productivity and perfection.

But true self-care isn’t about perfection; it’s about presence. It’s about returning to the body with curiosity and compassion. It’s the quiet act of listening — to the heartbeat, the breath, the pulse of the moon.

When we reconnect with the deeper roots of self-care, it stops being a vanity project and becomes a healing practice. We start to remember that we are nature — not separate from it.

The Role of Regenerative Medicine

Interestingly, modern regenerative medicine offers a bridge back to that deeper truth. At its heart, it’s not about masking or freezing time — it’s about supporting the body’s own intelligence to restore balance and vitality. Treatments like platelet-rich plasma (PRP), collagen induction, RF Microneedling, bioidentical hormone therapy, exosomes, polyneucleotides, and stem-cell-based approaches can be seen not as acts of vanity, but as acts of regeneration — a reminder that the body holds an innate capacity to heal, repair, and renew.

When used consciously and holistically, regenerative medicine becomes a modern expression of ancient wisdom — working with the body, not against it. It invites us to view science and spirituality not as opposites, but as allies in honouring the sacred vessel we inhabit. The intention, as always, makes the difference: are we seeking to restore or to erase?

Reclaiming the Ritual

So how do we reclaim what was lost?We start small, and we start sacred.

• Turn routine into ritual. Light a candle before your bath. Breathe gratitude into your skincare. Make touch intentional.

• Honour your cycles. Rest when your body asks. Celebrate your seasons — both literal and emotional.

• Gather in community. Self-care doesn’t have to mean solitude. Find spaces where women hold each other up, not compete for comparison.

• Simplify. You don’t need ten steps; you need one moment of awareness.

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And when it comes to modern tools:

• Use regenerative medicine consciously. Approach it as a way to nourish your body, not to fix what’s “wrong” with it.

• Support your body’s healing intelligence. Treatments like PRP, collagen therapy, or bioidentical hormones can be sacred acts when paired with rest, good nutrition, and self-respect.

• Align science with spirit. Choose practitioners who understand that beauty and vitality come from harmony, not haste.

• Ask your intention first. Are you doing it to reconnect, to heal, to restore? Then it’s ritual. If it’s to hide or deny — pause, and listen deeper.

  
  

When we remember that care is sacred, not superficial, we begin to heal the collective disconnection. Self-care stops being about looking better and starts being about coming home — to the body, the earth, and the wisdom of the feminine.

Maybe the question isn’t “when did self-care become vanity,” but rather, “when did we forget that we were already whole?”