We are so excited to feature Carla Oates as one of our role models, showing that there is so much more to all of us than meets the eye.
We wanted to know MORE about Carla and share with you MORE about what makes this inspirational woman who she is and why she is such a wonderful role model.
Meet Carla Oates – Role Model
Who are you?
I am Carla Oates, Founder and CEO of The Beauty Chef, Creative Director, and mum, a wife, a friend, colleague, product developer, architect of ideas, philanthropist, an aesthete, a gut health advocate and a natural beauty expert.
What do people define you as?
The Beauty Chef, a pioneer in the beauty and wellbeing space, a creative, a good cook, girl boss, a loving mum and I hope a generous and kind person.
What is your why?
My why is to strive to find balance and harmony in life and also help guide and support my children as they approach adulthood.
From a work perspective, my why is to help revolutionise the beauty and wellbeing industry with my philosophy that beauty begins in the belly – with beautiful products, innovative, research and empowering education around the importance of gut health for skin health, overall health and wellbeing. To help people be the healthiest, happiest versions of themselves.
What is your more than?
I am more than what I was yesterday. Every day and every year that goes by, the more content and comfortable I am in my skin. I really embrace getting older – learning more, understanding more, being more grateful and becoming more than I was the year before.
As I mature, I am developing wisdom and that is empowering.
How do you Move, Nourish, Believe daily?
I love to cook – cooking with fresh, seasonal organic and fermented foods is how I nourish my body.
Walking is my daily exercise of choice, it’s my meditation, my time with nature and also a filing system for my brain. I start my walk with a very busy mind and by the end of it I have sorted out all problems, and created lots of ideas and solutions.
Both cooking and walking are my daily meditations.
I believe in being positive and that every day is a fresh new opportunity to change things, create opportunities and be the person you aspire to be.
How does Lorna Jane make you feel?
Lorna Jane makes me feel energised and inspires me to move my body more. She makes me feel embraced. She is very supportive of other women in business and women generally. I love that about her.
What else you want the world to know about you?
That I believe that beauty begins in the belly. That Your gut health and the microbes that reside there have a profound impact on your skin, weight, mood, health and wellbeing.
I spend a lot of time researching and studying the fascinating and invisible world of gut microbes. I work alongside a team of microbiologists on The Beauty Chef products, looking at different species and strains of bacteria, their benefits and how we can incorporate them into our products.
I love that although they are invisible, they are probably the most powerful ingredients in our products.
Where do you find your daily inspiration?
In art, design and nature, in research journals, in natural medicine and in the kitchen.
I get daily inspiration from experimenting with foods and recipes and am fascinated at how what we eat has a medicinal effect on our bodies because what we eat interacts with our gut microbes – and they influence everything from our immune system, our weight, our mood and our skin health.
My children also inspire me daily to be a better person and also to be a better listener and role model for them.
What message do you want to send to other women?
Look after your gut, be gutsy and follow your gut instinct.
What was your turning point? When did you decide to seek change?
When I was a child, I had eczema and allergies and I went and saw a naturopath and she drastically changed my diet. When I took certain foods out of my diet and introduced others, I saw a dramatic change in my skin.
So, from quite early on, I had a very good understanding between the correlation of what you consume and your skin.
Then my daughter had eczema and allergies too, around 11 years ago and I found some interesting research on the link between gut bacteria and skin issues. I put her on a gut healing protocol and part of this was eating lacto-fermented probiotic rich foods like sauerkraut and kefir. I saw a huge difference in her skin and also my skin after eating these foods and healing her gut.
People were telling me that my skin was glowing. From there GLOW Inner Beauty Powder, my first inner beauty product, was born.
How did you begin?
I began The Beauty Chef with my first product GLOW Inner Beauty Powder working out of a cupboard in my bedroom.
There was no inner beauty category at the time – and GLOW was a new concept. Many people told me it was too left of field and wouldn’t work.
It was challenging but I really believed in what I was doing.
I built the brand on home shopping – this gave me a platform to educate the consumer about my product. At the time the ideas of inner beauty, fermented foods and gut health were quite unique, so it took some time for people to understand and embrace it.
I love that some ten years later, all of these ideas have gone mainstream. I love that beauty has become wellness and wellness, beauty.
When you feel like you’re falling behind what do you tell yourself?
I write a ‘to do’ list and then I prioritise my tasks and feel much better. To do lists are a great form of therapy – they work every time to help me feel in control and back on track.
What is your favourite quote?
“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea”.
What do you want to be remembered for?
For revolutionising the beauty industry with my philosophy that beauty begins in the belly.
For helping challenge the beauty industry and its one-dimensional view of what beauty is.
And for being a kind and progressive leader in business. Business doesn’t have to be brutal.
What does being a woman mean to you?
I love being a woman. The female energy is strong, nurturing, creative and intuitive and I really feel that and love tapping into it.
What does success mean to you?
Success for me is about feeling connected to what I do in my work as well as feeling connected to my family and to nature. I feel a strong sense of success when all of these things are in a state of balance, growth and flow.
What do you love about yourself?
My kindness, my creativity, my strength and patience and my ability to make delicious food out of a few odds and ends from the fridge.
I also love my hands because they are very productive and quite artistic and they remind me of my mum’s hands. I also like my feet. They are possibly my best feature.
Can you describe yourself in one word?
Bountiful – I am always creating something – ideas, food, recipes, projects, product ideas, writing material, and giving food and love to my friends and family. I feel very bountiful in my creativity, productivity and capacity to give.
Who is your role model?
Every woman who has dared to be different, broken down barriers, lived authentically and not taken no as an answer when seeking out what they truly desire.
Carla Oates launched The Beauty Chef in 2012 after healing her own family’s skin issues and discovering that beautiful skin begins with a healthy gut, hence the philosophy; ‘Beauty begins in the belly”. Using a unique bio-fermentation process that supercharges its wholefood formulas and creates a natural broad-spectrum probiotic, The Beauty Chef offers a complete range of powerful and delicious inner beauty products. Pioneering the gut/skin space, Oates works with a team of microbiologists, naturopaths and nutritionists.