Tara Mackey Muse of Light
Each of us is an individual with our own insights, beliefs, talents and dreams. Life becomes a fervent adventure when we embrace and celebrate everyone’s unique self. Tara Mackey is a being that radiates lightness and a powerful serenity. She is multi-faceted in her talents she is a writer, a vocalist, a green beauty expert, a skincare creator, and a giver in every sense of the word. Tara has faced trials and tribulations like each of us on our journey, she is utilizing the struggles she has faced and turning them into rays of light for others facing their own challenges. She does not hide from truth but rather embraces it, nurtures it and turns it into something positive. Tara is a dreamer of magnificent dreams that then manifests them into equally magnificent realities. A mixture of air, fire, earth, and water she has a bit of each element within her. I am beyond thrilled to get an inside look into this beautiful mind. To share with you her new skincare line with Delizioso Skincare, talk about her incredible book, and just get to know this beauty on a deeper level! Enjoy my darlings!
Hell Tara! So lovely to have you with us! First off a huge congratulations on your gorgeous perfume with Delizioso, and your soon to be released skincare and make up line!! Such an exciting time.
Thank you so much! It’s been a dream come true to work with Ariel and Leeona – the Founders of Delizioso Skincare– on a line that’s not only great, but great for you! It’s been very exciting! The makeup launches today, so you can grab yours here.
Aside from being my name, TARA also stands for Transcend, Absolve, Resolve, Amend. It’s one of my favorite mantras because it centers on self improvement.
Each of our products is designed to help you on your journey of self improvement and to finding your natural, healthy glow! I know that glow is already within you, and each makeup product in the TARA Collection encourages it to shine with healthy, amazing bases of Barbary fig (prickly pear) seed oil, jojoba oil and watermelon seed oil while adding a golden glimmer with natural mica.
What sparked your love for organic eco and vegan skincare and make up?
Four years ago I got sober. I don’t mean that in the traditional sense. I had been prescribed a ton of medication since I was a kid – everything from ADHD to fibromyalgia to arthritis to anxiety to my moods- were on the list of things treated with pills every day. I got to a breaking point. I was a total zombie. Not only were the pills not curing anything I was taking them for – they seemed to be making many of my symptoms worse - and I got really depressed. I got hopeless. I even got suicidal.
March 2011 I started to come off of a dozen different prescription medications I had been on – some I had been on for over a decade already, at 24 years old! Well, what happened to me happens to anyone who goes cold turkey off drugs: I got really sick.
I was chronically nauseous for over a year. I constantly had the shakes, dizziness, cold sweats, clamminess, overheating – you name it. I was basically bed ridden. I couldn't even sit up to type for the first few months.
This inspired me to clean up my kitchen cabinet, my thought practices, my whole life in fact! Once I could function again and was in the working world, I realized that my makeup was just as toxic as all the crap I had been trying to avoid in other areas of my life! What the hell had I been putting on my skin my whole life, I thought?
That was the spark that really ignited the fire. I went on a quest, and Delizioso was actually one of the first companies I found back in 2011/2012 that created all natural (and incredible!) alternatives to the chemical-laden pharmacy makeup I had always purchased. I have always been so impressed with their genius formulations, high quality ingredients and incredible pigmentations. To get to create a line with them and have my life come so full circle swells me up with happiness!
What inspires you daily in the world? Are their certain ingredients and herbs that make your mind come alive with ideas?
Music, travel, plants, books, and food are huge inspirations to me. I’m an ideas girl: I love to get people on the phone or in front of me and talking. I could listen for hours. Almost every single plane ride I take, I make a friend that I end up talking to the whole flight. I feel like even though so many of us go through similar things, you’ll never hear the same story twice. Our lives are all so intricate and different. I find that really beautiful.
I have been adoring mugwort lately for lucid dreaming, ashwangandha tincture to counter fatigue and fight free radicals, and I take small bits of ayahauscha in my tea as well to stimulate ideas and find my center. I like to use just a stem or two and brew it with green tea and honey. I also put turmeric in everything: not only does it give me an amazing sense of well-being, it helps my inflammation and stimulates bone lubrication like no other to combat my arthritis! Some of my other favorite herbs are Valerian, Skullcap, Kava and Lemonbalm.
Scent to me brings back memories. Are there any scents that bring you back to your childhood? Or any other special memory? Are any of them used in your line?
Some of the fondest memories I have with my Dad are of us baking when I was a kid. Vanilla is a strong scent with me emotionally and it’s the base of my line with Delizioso. Every time I smell our perfume it reminds me of home.
I also grew up right across the street from a church that I practically lived at, so Frankincense was always kind of wafting in the background of my childhood, and we’ve added a bit to the perfume for a really lush, beautiful scent. In TARA, Delizioso has create a blend that’s both sexy, sultry and also reminds you of baking at home.
The same beautiful scent in the perfume is also in the makeup line, so when you put it on your face, your face will smell amazing! I’ve gotten so many compliments when girls wear the TARA Collection that it feels good to put something on your face that also smells and feels great! Ladies love that, and so do their partners!
If you could take a photograph of the inside of your imagination what would it look like?
I was actually insanely happy when I finally got to Swami’s Beach (named by my guruji Yogananda for the Self Realization Temple and order of Swami’s who live right on the beach - and one I now live right by) because it looks like the inside of my imagination:
Delizioso and I have a nail polish releasing in the TARA Collection called Swami’s Blue for this very reason. :)
Can you tell us a bit about your first book? The writing process, the basics about what it is about, where we can get it, or when it will be available?!
Writing and creating Cured By Nature: How To Mentally and Naturally Heal from the Inside Out, Find Happiness & Discover Your True Self (Skyhorse Publishing) has been an amazing experience! I was approached by my publishing company back in August to write a book based on my blog.
It’s mostly about coming off the pharmaceuticals I mentioned before. But it’s also about my time as a kid, watching my mom struggle with addiction, getting adopted by my grandparents, growing up in New York, my journey when I moved to California. It’s about what lead up to not only being on medications that -weren’t- treating my illness, it’s about how I got to the mentality that allowed me to start over. It’s about how I found myself again, learned more about myself than I had ever dreamed to know (all good things!) and got not only well, but better than ever.
It contains a lot of meditations, affirmations and honest advice for better living that everyone can use, regardless of where you’re at in your journey. It also lists every single herb that I now take in place of all the drugs I was once on, such as switching from valium to Valerian.
I’ve been writing Cured By Nature at Swami’s Beach for the past few months. I’m so excited for it’s release, which is January 2016. We’ll probably have a pre-launch a few months before.
When did you start singing? What does music do for your soul?
I started singing when I was 7 and I loved it immediately! Although I wasn't very good the first year. I joined the local community theater program, and our first show was The Sound of Music. I immediately started voice lessons, did a show every single year after, then two shows a year – one during the winter and one in the summer. I did every chorus class, glee club, and I sang at multiple masses every Sunday. Luckily I went to Bennington College. Bennington doesn’t have any pre-requisite’s, so I could take as many music classes as I wanted. There’s where I learned about song writing, editing, recording, and brushed up on my piano and guitar.
Music helps everything. It centers me, inspires me, promotes me, encourages me. Singing is such an incredible gift and craft to have and it's such great therapy. I encourage everyone to sing, even if you think you can't! It's great for the soul!
You are a green beauty guru, do you have any favorite products at the moment?
I absolutely adore the TARA Radiance Body Oil from our upcoming collection, as well as the TARA Adorned Blushing Mousse, Crème Luminizer and California Bronzer. They create such a myriad of beautiful looks!
I’m also really loving Lina Hanson’s Global Face Serum. I’ve been using Waxelene on a dry patch of my skin and it’s gotten better overnight! For any hair issues I go to my Josh Rosebrook collection, and my skin has been adoring face mask’s by Delizioso, La Bella Figura and Acure Organics. I also love my Cannabis Rose Oil from House of Aquarius to combat lines from long days.
What makes you feel your most beautiful? And what is beauty to you?
I feel most beautiful with my hair down, no makeup, feet in the sand, with a cup of tea and a book. Beauty is simplicity. The more simple and natural something is, the more beautiful it is to me.
If you could visit any five places in the world where would you go and why?
I’d go back to Paris in a heartbeat. It’s one of the only places I’ve found various outfits that fit me (I’ve always been super tiny; even in Paris I am an xxs) and the aura of France is amazing. I love wandering the streets of Paris, taking the train to Versailles, learning the language. It’s beautiful.
Brazil for it’s incredible weather and sexy vibe.
Hawaii for it’s rolling landscapes and fresh coconuts.
India for it’s mystical lands, amazing culture and THE HIMALAYAS!
Costa Rica for it’s volcanoes and epic beaches.
Touch, smell, sight, hearing, taste, out of the five senses which would you say you adore most?
I watched my Dad slowly lose his sense of taste, touch, smell, hearing and sight going through chemo, so I’m equally grateful for all of them. But I think my favorite is my sight. The ability to see what this beautiful world and the universe has to offer me day in and day out is such a blessing.
Do you have a healing ritual that is important to your everyday life?
Meditation – hands down! This is an uncompromisable daily ritual, along with taking my herbs. I do kriya yoga and daily meditations – many of which I've pulled from Autobiography of a Yogi, and some I have modified for my own needs. This has helped my chronic health issues, it’s positively affected my stress levels, it’s conquered my anxiety. Meditation is amazing. I share many of my meditations in Cured By Nature, so I am equally excited to get it into people’s hands to see if these practices work as well for other people as they have for me!
Giving is something that is very important to you. Can you tell us a little about some non-profits that you support? Feel free to include links.
5% of all profits from the TARA Collection go towards The Cancer Research Institute: in honor of my Dad who passed from cancer in February of 2014. It’s super important for me to give back. If we can prevent even one family from going through what my family did after my Dad was diagnosed, I have done my job.
I also frequently donate to Little Shelter – a no-kill animal shelter on Long Island where I adopted my dog-daughter Raelie.
