Kintsugi: Finding Beauty in Our Imperfections

Your skin goes through a lot throughout the day and over the years. A scar here, sunburn there, it all adds up. But it’s a part of your story and adds to what makes you unique. No one has your freckles or your little forehead wrinkles. No one has that scar on your knee from running after a butterfly as a child, or that birthmark your partner always says looks like a heart. 

But those little imperfections need some extra love and care. Your skin needs to repair and refresh. That extra chapter of your life may not ever fully blend into the background, but it can become a new part of you that receives as much love as every other part. This idea of embracing those imperfections is something that is shared with the Japanese art of kintsugi. 

Kintsugi and Embracing Imperfections

Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery. But the repair is done using powdered gold, silver, or platinum. So, rather than hiding the damage or imperfections, they are treated with care and ultimately highlighted. 

The art of kintsugi is believed to have started in the 16th century. Ceramics and pottery were highly valued; if a piece was broken, it required skilled artisans to repair it. This job fell to the artisans already involved in the existing art of maki-e (lacquer sprinkled with gold). They used lacquer and gold to fill in the cracks and gaps of the broken pottery.

Kintsugi is a good example of the Japanese philosophy of mono no aware, which is an awareness of impermanence coupled with a strong aesthetic sense. In other words, the idea that things change and eventually disappear is embraced, as opposed to rejected or denied. It also ties in with the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which is the acceptance of transience or imperfection, and is most commonly associated with the arts and aesthetics. While the original ceramic will have had its own beauty, it’s hard to deny that the newly added gold or other metal only adds to that beauty, creating a different feeling and atmosphere. 

Embrace and Repair with a Skin Kintsugi Routine

The philosophy of kintsugi can be applied to our bodies and skin, too. Change is inevitable, and change is constant. You can never go back to how your skin was yesterday, or last week, or last year, because, just like you, your skin is ever-changing. Instead, you can embrace what it is today and shape what it will become by accepting those imperfections and giving it the care it needs. 

Ultimately, embracing these changes and accepting that your scars, wrinkles, and “imperfections” are a part of your story will help you on the path to self-acceptance and self-love. To fully embrace this, however, it is essential to care for your skin appropriately at all ages because if left ignored, these imperfections can not only chip away at your confidence, but also become harder to embrace or “repair” further down the line. 

At MOSAIK, we embrace change and nature’s “imperfections” as part of our life story. Like kintsugi, simple skincare is part of our long journey of not erasing but beautifying imperfections caused by life changes. For us, skincare is not a day-to-day routine but a way of life, and we build our products to rejuvenate and replenish the skin while also enhancing the skin’s natural beauty. We believe in a careful approach to skincare based on a clear understanding of your skin needs and life changes. Like kintsugi, MOSAIK aims to add sparkle to your story. So let’s start one step at a time.