CHANNEL 4'S KATIE: MY BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS

I was really moved like everyone by Katie Piper’s strength and guts at battling both her emotional and physical scars, after her horrific acid attack at the hands of her ex boyfriend.

Last week, I watched Channel 4’s Katie: My Beautiful Friends, a new 4 part series on Katie’s efforts at setting up a support network for others dealing with disfigurement, which was incredibly inspiring. In our society how we look determines so much about how we feel about ourselves and can dramatically affect our self-esteem. What’s even more interesting is even if you are at peace with what you see in the mirror- other people’s reactions can shape our personalities and self-esteem. This documentary is really important, as we can all judge people at face value and don’t really see the real people behind their condition and appearance.

I learnt a very important life lesson when I was 19. I was in university walking to a café when the most beautiful man I had ever seen was walking along the road (well second most beautiful after my husband). Men, women and dogs all literally stopped to stare at this heavenly creature. Immediately (I think it’s human nature) I started transferring all these positive emotions and thoughts onto him and thought, “oh he must be such a nice man, I bet he loves animals and babies and works for the Peace Corps”. Then suddenly he bent down to tie his shoelace and I saw poking out from under his coat, a dead blood splattered pigeon. Yes, you read that right- a dead bloody pigeon WTF, which he was secretly caressing. Everything I thought went out the window and I said to myself,” Oh my God what a psycho, what’s that about. Is he on crack on something?" I crossed the road and ran in the opposite direction. The point is I had assumed very wrongly all these things about him based on his appearance and as soon as I saw the bird, I looked at his face again and the volume on his choir boy looks were dramatically turned down. I said there and then let that be a lesson to you Ateh, beauty shines through us all from within and don’t ever again judge a book by it’s cover- get to know the real person inside to see real beauty that will never age or fade.

 "Watch the first episode here [link to http://www.channel4.com/programmes/katie-my-beautiful-friends ]on C4 on demand and tune into the next episodes every Monday at 9pm on C4”.

AVEDA LIGHT THE WAY CANDLE 2011 EARTH MONTH

I love beauty companies with a conscious. We live in very unsettling times (my heart and prayers especially go out to the people of Japan at this time) and it's good to know as a beauty consumer you can give a little something back. With this in mind, Aveda has launched their fabulous limited edition Light the Way Candle, £16 for Earth Month again this year. During Earth Month this April, to raise awareness and funds for clean water around the world, which shamefully millions of people still do not have safe access to- £12.80 per candle sold in the UK will go the the Global Greengrants Fund (GGF).

This clean burning soy wax candle has stress relieving benefits and 100% certified organic essential oils with French lavender, lavandin and clary sage sourced from the Diois region of Northern Provence, France. Go on, do something good for yourself, the Earth and the lives of some of the world's poorest communities by buying one this April.