Adding honey, goat's milk and olive oil to your daily beauty regimen may seem a little sticky, messy and time consuming.

But the biblical ingredients from ancient women's routines can provide the same results - or better - as today's treatments and are much less expensive.

"We spend so much money on appearances, yet statistics tell us that only 2 percent of American women would consider themselves beautiful," said Ginger Garrett, author of ‘Beauty Secrets of the Bible.' "You begin to realize that we are spending a ton of money, and none of us are getting what we pay for."

Garrett has been specializing in the history of ancient women for years as an author and decided to write "Beauty Secrets of the Bible" after researching archeological finds.

"One thing that kept coming up over and over again in sites was they kept bringing up perfume containers and cosmetic containers," she said. "We realized women were using a lot of the same things that we can still buy today, like mineral makeup and olive oil as a moisturizer.

"It just explores sort of an ancient beauty regimen and the connection that ancient women had between inner spiritual lives and beauty."

So, when Lori Floyd heard Garrett speak about biblical beauty on 104.7-FM The Fish, she knew Garrett would be a great guest at Gainesville First United Methodist Church.
"One part of my job here is to provide information from the perspective of mind, body and spirit to be proactive when it comes to health," said Floyd, the parish nurse at the church. "Having heard Ginger on the radio, I thought it would be a fun topic.

"Sometimes I do think we are overdone, and beauty coming from a biblical perspective I thought would be valuable at the church and talk about things that we can do today in terms of staying in good health."

The "Beauty Secrets of the Bible" workshop that Floyd put together is Thursday and will meet with the Refresh and Recharge women's Bible study.

"One of the things that we will be talking about at the workshop is sort of how to make peace with the idea of beauty in a world that has some very warped ideas about what beauty is," Garrett said. "How to live at peace with yourself and take care of yourself without buying into all those destructive messages."

During research for the book, Garrett spoke with dermatologists, plastic surgeons, nutritionists and chemists. "Hands down, everyone said what the ancient women were using can still be used today, and a lot of times it gives better results than what you can buy at the store," Garrett said about the biblical ingredients.
For the past three years, Garrett has been using these biblical ingredients to create her own beauty regimen at home and has really seen some changes in her skin.

"I don't have as many pop-up blemishes now, and when I do they are easier to treat," she said. "Also, I have saved so much money. We spend about $150 billion a year on appearance, which is more than the government spends on AIDS, diabetes and breast cancer combined."

Garrett said women can save more than $1,500 a year by making these changes in their routine.

At the workshop, Garrett plans to introduce women to the ancient products used in the Bible and how they are connected to their life.

"I'll be walking the women through some of the things that we discovered," Garrett said. "Some of the products and maybe more importantly the connection that they made between their inner life and their outward appearance and how they made peace.

"Even in the ancient world, beauty was still celebrated the same way as it is celebrated today."

Garrett added that biblical beauty products had special symbolism in the Bible, like honey.

"In the ancient world it was seen as a symbol of abundance," she said. "Remember that promise that God said: ‘I'm going to lead my people into the land of milk and honey.' So a lot of the products they used had a symbolism and just made beauty a meaningful experience for the ancient women."