In 2017, Star Khechara founded the Skin Nutrition Institute, and now she splits her time across a number of places in the UK, as well as in Spain and Bali
A woman who once lived without modern amenities in a tipi has astonishingly transformed into the founder of a £1 million tech enterprise.
Star Khechara, 48, used to live off-the-grid where she shunned plumbing and electricity, embracing life as a free spirit, yet often found herself strapped for cash. Now a Brighton resident, Star mastered technology and catapulted to success, boasting earnings of up to £13,000 every month.
“I had spent so long off-grid that I was totally out of the loop when computers and the internet became a thing,” Star shared with What’s The Jam. “I literally thought it was like Skynet from the Terminator movies. My life was fun but I was starting to get bored of always being broke.”
Star’s enterprising spirit saw her taking a leap into the literary world by persuading a publisher to take on ‘The Holistic Beauty Book’, marking the start of her business career. Following her publishing success, the next natural step involved embracing the digital world she once dreaded.
“I pitched a book synopsis to a publisher who then published my first book ‘The Holistic Beauty Book’, which set me on my path to being an actual businesswoman. I needed the internet to build my first online business. I had to give myself a crash course in how to use computers. I had to learn how to build a basic website, how to film and edit video tutorials and build PDFs.”
Her efforts quickly bore fruit, with her very first venture, a skincare formulation school, skyrocketing immediately upon its launch.
From living hand-to-mouth to generating a staggering income, Star’s new reality felt utterly unreal at times. “It was so weird to have been below the poverty line for so long to then suddenly make thousands. It was surreal at first,” she shared.
Star discovered her passion for living as a free spirit when she was 19 and had dreams of living abroad. She ventured to Spain after friends told her about a place in the mountains where people lived “wild and free”. She spent three months just outside of a town called Orgiva, surviving on just £250 during that time. She said: “At first I lived in my tent but after a while people got to know me and I was offered a tipi to stay in.
“It was an amazing three months and my first taste of living wild. We had no plumbing, no electricity – just the stars and fresh mountain water. I ran out of money doing the tipi life as this was prior to the internet and there wasn’t remote work or anything like that.”
Star returned to the UK and enrolled in art college to do a degree in applied arts. She said: “In my second year of college I realised that so much of my student money went on rent and I’d either have to get a job or find a different way to live. I found a couple who lived in a caravan in the countryside and they had a spare one to rent for £20 a week. I moved there and ended up staying there after I graduated.”
By her late 20s, Star made the transition to city life and met the man that she ended up marrying. But while studying nutritional medicine, she was able to persuade her now ex-husband to move into a caravan so they could save money to travel once again. They spent several months transforming their caravan into a tiny eco-friendly home where they resided for a year. Following that, they embarked on their next project, converting a mini-bus, which allowed them to relocate to Spain.
However, Star and her ex-husband returned to the UK after a brief period as he wished to train as a woodsman. Star began conducting workshops at festivals teaching natural skincare making, which fuelled her passion for the subject. She shared: “It was a great life, very simple and basic. I still miss it at times. It’s so peaceful amongst nature, with firelight chats and reading by candlelight.”
Star then moved to a cabin in the woods — where she launched her first business. Six years after launching her initial business, the Skin Nutrition Institute was established in 2017. The company is the only school globally offering practitioner-level accredited training in various aspects of skin, hair and nail nutrition. Sky currently resides in a high-end apartment in a gated building.
Her monthly income varies, but she sometimes earns up to £13,000 per month. Star revealed: “My monthly rent costs more than my entire caravan and van put together. I love my home but I am a free spirit so I am constantly at war with myself over whether to stay put to keep growing my business or to take off around central America.
“Technically these days I can do both but I’d be living out of a suitcase and I’d have to leave 99 per cent of my possessions behind. I definitely want a life filled with adventure and I rent for that reason. It means I’m not tied down and with just two months notice I can be on the other side of the world.”
Star feels that van life has become more costly as it’s turned into a trend. She explained: “Building online income these days has never been easier. Van life has unfortunately gotten expensive since I did it as it’s trendy so even old vans are pricey now.
“It’s sad because it was super affordable back in the 90s and early 2000s but there are plenty of people online showcasing how to do it. Just because the majority of people are stuck in the nine to five rent or mortgage trap doesn’t mean you have to be if it repels you.
“I’ve run my business from a van in the mountains of Spain, from a private beach in Thailand and from the hot springs in the Californian desert. Be wild and be free while you still can. You’ll never regret doing the crazy things in life.”
