The Five Elements
In Traditional Chinese Medicine everything is categorised into Five Elements:
Wood – Fire – Earth – Metal – Water
For thousands of years, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has taught us that our skin reflects our inner health, central to this belief is the Five Elements theory. Each element embodies unique characteristics and influences our personality, emotions, and skin type. By harmonising our inner and outer self, we can achieve radiant skin and overall well-being.
Your Dominant Element
While we all encompass aspects of each element, typically one is more dominant, shaping our personality traits and well-being. An imbalance in this more dominant element can manifest as skin issues or emotional challenges.
Personalised Skincare Tailored to Your Element
Our holistic, natural treatments and products are designed to harmonise with your dominant element, promoting balance and enhancing your skin’s vitality. You can identify your element by reflecting on your personality and current emotions, or by your birth date, as TCM suggests that the day we were born also influences our elemental make up.
Discover Your Element and Choose Your Skincare
Below, we’ve outlined the characteristics and emotions associated with each element. Explore these to determine which resonates with you, and from there choose the skincare products that align with your unique needs.
For your personalised biorhythm, feel free to contact us with your birth date, and we’ll help identify your dominant element for you.
WOOD
A born leader who seeks justice and rebels against the rules. Dynamic and efficient, you like to get things done. You enjoy responsibility and love to organise and plan. You are an assertive, creative decision-maker. You also have a real artistic flair. You can be prone to muscular aches and pains and poor eyesight, sometimes suffering with migraines and headaches. When unbalanced you can have a short fuse. You are full of energy when balanced, hate early mornings, and love late nights.
Skin Type: Very oily or very dry skin (oil imbalance). Pustular acne, t-zone, spotty skin. Teenage skin.
How you are feeling: Angry. Frustrated. Irritable.
Fire
You are warm and friendly with a radiant, bright personality and eyes which sparkle with joy. You wear your heart on your sleeve, and everyone knows what you’re thinking and feeling. Love is very important to you, and you need to give, receive and feel love, as you feel that without love, life has no meaning. When unbalanced you can feel muddled, unable to sort things out, and your emotions can fluctuate up and down. When out of balance you find that words stick in your throat and you are unable to communicate or express your feelings, but when in balance you are talkative, excitable, and enthusiastic.
Skin Type: Dry skin. Broken capillaries. Flushed, hot skin. Reddish complexion. Hot flushes.
How you are feeling: Unhappy. Unable to express your feelings. Unusually quiet. Hurt and emotional.
EARTH
You are an earth mother, caring and nurturing those around you and bringing people together. You are grounded and supportive, raising others and showing great empathy. You are a natural homemaker and a feeder, and you put others before yourself. You think about food often and have a sweet tooth. When your element is unbalanced, you can worry excessively, making mountains out of molehills, building walls around yourself, and hiding your feelings from others. If you can keep your element in balance, you have the ability to accomplish your goals, whatever stands in your path.
Skin Type: Normal skin. Dull, devitalised skin. Acne or spots under the surface of the skin.
How you are feeling: Worried. Over-thinking things. Anxious.
metal
You live an independent, authentic life, and are wholeheartedly true to yourself. You are hardworking, competent, and logical. You work best when you have structure in your life, liking to be precise, organised, and methodical. You can appear reserved and introverted at first, but when you trust someone, you relax and form deep relationships with a small circle of best friends, rather than expending your energy on a large crowd of casual acquaintances. You can be sensitive and have difficulties in letting go of things that have hurt you in the past. You are prone to catching colds and may breathe shallowly or experience shortness of breath. If you can keep your element in balance, you have the motivation to continually improve and work purposefully to reach your goals.
Skin Type: Pale complexion. Lines and wrinkles. Aging skin.
How you are feeling: Sad. Struggling to move on, staying in the past. Grief.
water
You are wise, reflective and a creative thinker. You go with the flow and are determined even during difficult times. You are an excellent listener and look for emotional depth in all your relationships. You can suffer with anxiety and paranoia, feeling full of fear, or avoiding all conscious feelings of fear and behaving riskily. You can also be a ‘workaholic’, suffering burnout. You can be prone to lower back pain, swollen legs and water retention. If you can keep your element in balance, you have a clear vision of what you want in life and will achieve your goals by thinking outside the box.
Skin Type: Dehydrated skin. Flaky skin. Dark circles or puffiness under the eyes.
How you are feeling: Fearful. Feeling overwhelmed. Lacking willpower. Work burnout.
