This month we partnered with the incredible team at Good Life to create our BEAUTY FOOD Clean Beauty Box, a wellness inspired clean beauty collection. We couldn’t think of anyone better for the job of guest curating than Good Life’s founder, Leah Kirpalani, certified health coach and #badassbossbabe.
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Leah to learn more about her story, how she stays balanced throughout the chaos of entrepreneurship and makes living a healthy lifestyle look oh-so-effortless. Spoiler alert: you’re about to get inspired.
Describe your journey, how did you find yourself starting Good Life? What is the philosophy?
I went straight into fashion after college–landed my dream job working for a large national retailer in my dream city of San Francisco. But unfortunately right as I began this new chapter of life, my health plummeted with no warning signs or obvious reasons why. I began losing my hair, battling cystic acne and reacting to almost all foods I ate. Worst of all, my mood and mental clarity suffered greatly, and I struggled with work, relationships and my overall happiness. It was not the ideal situation for a mid-twenties fashion merchandiser living in the big city! Because doctors were unable to give me any solutions, I took my health into my own hands and researched and learned how to shift my diet and lifestyle to heal my body, all while continuing to live my busy, fast-paced life. While I figured it out the hard way (it took almost 8 years!), I finally found relief from my symptoms, and was immediately inspired to share what I learned. I began sharing the simple strategies that worked for me with friends, co-workers and family, and they saw immediate improvements in their health too! That’s when I decided to quit my job and start Good Life. Good Life is based around the belief that healthy living doesn’t have to be hard, and that you actually can have both: you can live the life of your dreams and place your health as a priority. We think living healthy shouldn’t be another “to-do” on your list, (because, who has time for a longer to-do list!) but it can actually be integrated as a way of life; weaving in tiny wellness habits and fresh mindsets into how you exist on a daily basis. Our mission is to show you just how to do that!
Tell us a bit about your program and how wellness correlates to skin care.
One of the ways we support women in weaving wellness into their busy lives is through our signature health coaching program, The Body Glow.
In this program, I work one-on-one with the busy woman as her partner and coach in reaching her individual health goals. During each session, we work together on diet, lifestyle, self-care and strengthening the mind/body connection. We focus on making this easy for her in a way that fits her schedule and life. We introduce her to the tools to get there, including meal plans, grocery shopping lists, clean beauty products, personalized mindfulness practices and constant support in between sessions.
One of the biggest surprises for my clients is how their skin improves as we work together through the program, without even directly focusing on the skin! The skin is our largest organ, and unhappy skin is one of the first signs that something ‘unhappy’ is going on in the body. When we begin to heal the body from the inside out via diet and lifestyle, the toxins that were once clogging the body can be released, allowing the skin to breathe and inflammation to go down.
That being said, we must also focus on healing from the outside-in, which is why we at Good Life are so passionate about using healing and natural ingredients in our personal care and beauty products! (huge Art of Organics fans over here!) When we approach wellness from both the inside and outside, our skin thanks us immensely.
Overhauling your lifestyle can be overwhelming, what’s the most challenging aspect and how do help your clients stay on track?
Yes, making changes to your lifestyle can absolutely be overwhelming! But, this is how we set ourselves apart from other health coaching programs out there. We are fully committed to making it as simplified and effortless as possible, fitting it all into your lifestyle needs and desires.
There are definitely times when my clients fear the limitations that “living healthy” will place on their existing routine. And we get it. No one wants to give up what lights them up inside! But what’s amazing about our program is that we believe you can have both. You can go out to a delicious dinner with your boyfriend or husband and enjoy the food and wine, while still feeling empowered to make the best decisions for your health and body! We work together on those ‘best choices’ so that my clients are super clear on how they can live their dream lives while still placing their health as a priority. And the results are amazing!
What’s the #1 wellness tip you give to every client?
Ooh, thats a great question, and it’s actually quite simple! The number one thing I believe you can do to improve your wellness is to simply “eat real food”! Unfortunately with all of the chemically-laden and processed foods on the market today, our bodies do not understand how to digest and metabolize these “foods” correctly. When we eat unprocessed, real food, our bodies can thrive and the stress of breaking down foreign chemicals is relieved.
What’s your go-to afternoon snack to stay energized throughout the day?
I am addicted to Organic Sun-Butter! It is the perfect punch of protein and healthy fats, and is a super quick solution to an energy slump when I’m rushing between client meetings. I’ll either swipe it on some rice crackers, some raw veggies, or I have been known to eat it straight out of the jar 😉
What makes you most excited about the wellness industry and the direction it’s going in?
Even this question excites me! So much good stuff going on out there. What I love most about what’s happening is the modernization of wellness. Long gone are the days when being healthy was seen as ‘granola’ or ‘hippy-dippy’. Wellness is now being seen as fashionable and beautiful, and Good Life hopes to help propel this message to even more people.
What does your personal beauty routine look like? Do you have any products you can’t live without?
Never did I think I would be so excited to get out of bed or into bed simply because of my beauty and skincare routine. I feel like I live in an at-home spa, and who wouldn’t enjoy that! 😉 The reason for this is because of the incredible energy and healing ingredients inside the products I use. It’s just like comparing a store bought non-organic tomato to a just-plucked-from-the-vine bright organic tomato! The energies are wildly different between a mass produced and diluted moisturizer filled with chemicals versus a small-batch natural moisturizer made 100% from plants.
Products that my skin is completely addicted to are: Skin Remedy’s Cleanser and Hyaluronic Acid Serum, H is for Love’s BARA BALM, and Wildcare’s Hydrosols (I’ll switch up the scents based on my mood and skin’s needs in the moment!). For makeup, I love the natural but pigmented look that Lily Lolo’s Mineral Bronzer gives me… especially on our hot Southern California days when I can’t bring myself to wear foundation!
Essential oils and my dry brush are also staples in my beauty routine that I could never give up.
What makes you feel beautiful?
I feel most beautiful when I feel grounded. As a small business owner (and in life in general), it’s super hard to consistently remain in a space of full connection to who you are and your chief mission in life. There are definitely tools I use and teach my clients to use to live in that space, but let’s be honest, it’s tough to be there 100% of the time! When I am in the flow of thinking and actioning from a place of groundedness and clarity, I feel glowing… like I can take on the world!
Being an entrepreneur is no easy path and can create a lot of stress, how do you stay balanced?
It’s interesting when I look out into the world of entrepreneurship and see a lot of these #girlbosses doing things and building things, and many of them look at balance as something they’ll deal with later. I totally dig the hustle and how much work it takes to build a brand! But, I believe that you can have balance along with the hustle. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? But it’s actually what Good Life is built upon — this idea of how you can have both. A great example is my day of back-to-back meetings with no time to even stop and think, but utilizing my shower time for my deep belly breathing. Or slathering on body lotion in the morning with stress reducing essential oils like Eucalyptus or Lavender. This is wellness #girlboss multi-tasking at its best!
In celebration of Good Life’s collaboration with Art of Organics, Leah is offering FREE one-on-one wellness consultations to Art of Organics subscribers! YES REALLY.
Ready to get your daily wellness game-plan in place + discover effortless ways to incorporate healthy living into your life? Book your call with Leah here.
BONUS OFFER! Schedule your free consult before November 1st and you’re eligible to receive 15% off Good Life’s one-on-one health coaching programs! Learn more about their program here.
