Green beauty guru Tata Harper walks 50 miles a day at her standing desk in Vermont

For years I lived full time on my farm in Vermont, where I produce Tata Harper natural skincare, and now my time is split between there and New Canaan in Connecticut, where I live with my three children, Hunter (aged 12), Grace (10) and Tata Mia (8).

When Covid hit last March, we escaped to the farm. It’s my happy place and much easier to socially distance than Connecticut. There, we started the home-school debacle, which was pretty stressful. It turns out I’m a terrible teacher. And then trying to work on top of it. Eventually we fell into a quiet routine, as I tried to work out how to navigate the business through the pandemic.

At Tata Harper we produce everything at the farm and it’s 100% natural. When we went into lockdown, we pretty much had to stop production for two months. And then the focus was on how to make it safe for employees to come back to work and to feel comfortable about doing so.

We source all our ingredients ourselves, from producers all over the world, so we know they’re the right quality and of the right freshness. Our lab team formulates all the products and then another team makes them.

We don’t subcontract anything because it ties you into producing quantities based on each subcontractor’s minimums, so by the time inventory gets to clients it's not as fresh, therefore a lot less active. Or worse still, you make more than you need (like the fashion industry), it expires and all these resources go to the bin, which is unacceptably wasteful.

To be a truly sustainable company, sustainability must be included in every decision you make – in our case, from how we source our ingredients to the soy ink used on the paper labels - and that’s not a marketing thing, we rarely talk about it. A lot of sustainability efforts are tertiary, such as people donating money to a cause, which is obviously important and generous, but you have to live it as well.

I hear people ask why Tata Harper products are so expensive. They say they’d rather spend $29.99 on something at the pharmacy. But the price is not an arbitrary amount I decide to charge, it’s the result of doing responsible business and of all those decisions that happen behind the scenes that ensure each product has multiple active ingredients. Of course we all love the idea of that affordable product, but when you understand all the short cuts that are made to produce it and how synthetic the final product often is, it's not so exciting.

I’m a Latin woman so I love being self-indulgent. I grew up in a culture where you put yourself first, because you can’t be of help to anyone if you’re a mess. By prioritising my self-care and not running myself into the ground, I become a better mother, a better friend, a better team member and I stay sane, which is more important than ever right now.  

So this year I’ve been focusing on doing things that make me happy, like dancing, which I always loved because I can stop thinking and just get into the rhythm. I’ve been doing lots of Latin dance classes with my girls – salsa, reggaeton, merengue – and a two-hour hip hop class every Sunday. I’ve also stepped up wellbeing at home - the way I exercise, the supplements I take and and my facial rituals.

There are certain things I like to do every morning. I start by making a big jug of bright blue smoky-tasting caffeine-free Butterfly Pea Tea, an anti-inflammatory mood enhancer, which I then drink throughout the day. I mix it with buckwheat from the Himalayas, a good source of protein, fibre and energy. It’s really delicious and calming and helps with anxiety.

At night, our organs go into re-set and so does our skin, so a lot of new cells grow and old cells die. The first thing I do to my skin in the morning is exfoliate with my super mild regenerating cleanser. Then I use my Hydrating Floral Essence fluid which acts as a penetration enhancer, meaning everything you apply after that goes deeper into the skin.

After that, I do my two most important anti-ageing steps: my Elixir Vitae Eye Serum, which has 69 actives and helps with everything from wrinkles to eyebags to puffing – and my eye balm which is great to layer on top. I love to massage around my eyes: five times in one direction, five times in the opposite. There’s a lot of fluid and fat accumulation around the eyes so its really helps.

I also do a lot of facial massaging with the amazing French facialist called Sophie Carbonari. She puts simple facial routines on Instagram and I’m obsessed with the jaw line and neck one. 

When I’m working, I apply one of my Tata Harper aromatherapy treatments, each with twelve different oil blends, throughout the day. It goes on my pulse points, my neck and then most importantly of all, I rub it into my palms, cup my face and inhale deeply. It’s an immediate mood enhancer.  

I also take a cocktail of different supplements at meal times an make them into little shots to knock back. At breakfast I take Vital Reds by Gundry MD, which contains 34 superfruits and mix it into a latte-like blend of immune-boosting powdered mushrooms by Four Sigmatic. At lunch, it’s Microbiome Labs Mega Prebiotics to feed the good bacteria in my gut, mixed with a spoonful of Pure Synergy Superfood powder, which keeps me energised while supporting my immune system.

At dinner time, I take a great beauty supplement called Vital Proteins Marine Collagen, which strengthens your hair, skin, nails and joints and add a dash of He Shou Wu Rejuvenating Tonic from Sun Potion, which nourishes, blood, hair, skin and nervous system.

It was easy to get out into the fresh air in Vermont. Back in New Canaan, I’ve been making a concerted effort to walk more. So the kids and I stroll into town with the dogs, stopping off in two parks on the way.

I’ve converted a room in our house into a spa with a table for massages. I also kitted it out with an infrared sauna by JNH Lifestyles, which warms the body directly rather than heating the air around you, a UV-free Polarised Light by Polarisol, which helps with skin cell regeneration, relieves pain caused by inflammation and gives you the natural mood enhancing benefits of being in the sun.

I’ve also been doing a lot of weights, stretches and leg presses. For cardio, I bought a portable treadmill which sits under my desk. I walk on it a lot each day, even during meetings if I don’t have to write anything down. I do about fifty miles a day without even thinking about it.

My kids and I do evening wellness rituals together. One likes to meditate with me, another has got really into sound bowls and we like doing skincare together. As a child, I used to make products at home with my grandmother and the tradition has continued. We’re all obsessed with our hair at the moment and have been mixing things together, like neem Oil (disgusting smelling, amazing for hair) blended with black cumin seed oil and argon oil.

One of my favourite home treatments is honey mixed with a paste made of raw oatmeal and water, which you can apply to your face and hair and makes them feel unbelievably soft. Another, to make your hair shine, is a mix of avocado, mayo, yoghurt and a little vinegar. Then fashion a plastic cap out of a bag and wrap it turban-style in a towel for an hour, to create some heat. Then wash it off with shampoo.

In May we’re launching a new range called Superkind for people with reactive skin, which is more and more common because of all the environmental triggers and stressers. There’s a culture of buying the hero product of every line and then building routines with products that are not meant to go together, which means skin becomes hyperactive and reactive.

One issue was that people wanted, say, the brightening effect of Vitamin C, but the formula they chose was also packed with other things like nuts or wheat or something that didn’t agree with their skin. I decided we needed to solve this by taking out about 80 allergens to meticulously curate something for people with reactive skin. What we’ve created is super-powerful, yet super-gentle, hence the name.

We’ve also developed a series of sensorial reset treatments for the hotel spas we’re going into. We launched them at One&Only Mandarina in Mexico, which has just opened. It’s basically a multi-sensory approach to a facial, bringing all sorts of wellness elements into the one treatment, so you might have colour therapy, infrared therapy, micro-needling and oxygenation. You get a lot out of it.

I’m looking forward to going to Colombia again to see my family. It’s been ten months since my last visit, which is unprecedented for me. This year has certainly taught me to appreciate my relationship with family and friends. Its easy to be so busy you take people for granted.

Now I make much more of an effort to stay connected with the people I care about. I’ve also learnt its fun to dress up at home, not for other people, but for myself. So while the rest of the world is in leisurewear, I’m getting my favourite jeans and jewellery out and doing my hair. 

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