Tips for Maintaining Clear Skin - A Multifaceted System
This isn’t going to be an article about all of the topical treatments one can apply to maintain a clear complexion. The articles that I've written like that have only shared one side of the story. The skin is an organ just like the ones we don't see inside the body. The skin protects us yet also shares all of our internal body issues with the world. Let’s look a bit deeper.
It’s so important that we minimize stress as much as possible.
When we face severe life stresses, the results usually show in wrinkles, discoloration in the skin, and also acne. Stress comes in many forms, yet one form of stress that we don't usually consider is with what we put into and on our body. If we eat processed foods, drink alcohol, caffeine, smoke, and use toxic beauty products we’re putting a lot of stress on our body that show up through our skin.
Our bodies try to assimilate everything that we put into it, then purge everything that it can’t use for nutrition or healing.
If our digestive system isn't in tip top shape, our skin is used as an outlet for purging impurities and it's not pretty. Drinking lots of water helps tremendously, yet being mindful of how we are treating our bodies from the inside out makes the biggest difference. Some things in life we can't control, so getting rest when we can and eating healthy foods are crucial. As magnificent as our bodies are, it still depends on us to take care of it.
Life is constantly changing and to think that we may not have to change with it wouldn't make any sense. Sometimes we have to change our habits and skin care regimens.
I've been getting questions about what to do when a natural skin care regimen that was once working is no longer providing the same results. This happens to everyone. I used to think that I needed to keep the exact same skin care regimen to have consistent results. Although I’m very consistent with my beauty regimen, I've learned to use my intuition more with it and not be rigid.
When I was using raw honey as a face wash, my skin was relieved with the simplicity of this healing skin care regimen. At one point my skin started breaking out so I started oil cleansing. I’ve noticed that oils high in linoleic acid keep my skin in check. Essential oils also help balance sebum, nourish the skin at a very deep level, aid with fading scars, and add healing aromatherapy to our skin care regimen. I still use raw honey every once and awhile, but I’ve gotten the best results from using oils high in linoleic acid with essentials oils.
Creating our own simple beauty products with essential oils to use with your favorite carrier oil will aid our skin in finding balance and allowing it to heal itself. We can use our essential oil and carrier oil blend as a cleanser, serum, or moisturizer. We must do what is best for our skin and use our intuition.
One myth that I am constantly fighting myself on is that there is such a thing as "perfect" skin.
With the world of airbrushing and good makeup by amazing artists (I've been in their chairs), we have tweaked notions on of how we should look. Instead we can think of our skin as a compass as to what’s going on inside of our body. If we have a break out, we can see it as impurities not being able to eliminate in other ways such as the digestive or lymphatic system. I still have to stay on top of things by eating the right amounts of fresh fruits and veggies. Our bodies gives us signals to what it needs if we would only learn to understand the signs.
Our body is designed to heal itself. Taking the steps to align our body with healing is where we tend to fall off.
Along with essential and carrier oils, doing weekly facials masks and treatments have made a big difference for my skin. Exfoliation and using clays to draw impurities out of the skin help the skin to detox. I again suggest using intuition on what to use and when. Definitely consider detoxing the body from the inside as well. Consult a nutritionist or naturopathic doctor to see what would be the best method for your body. Also it’s important for us to continually do our own research.
Eating well, resting, keeping our life as simple as possible, using our intuition on which products or natural ingredients will serve us the best with our skin care, while finding time to relax and play are the best things we can do for our life and for maintaining clear skin. There’s no such thing as beauty in a bottle although we’ve been persuaded to believe it to be true. There’s no one thing that can do it all for us.
Beauty is a multifaceted system of nurturing ourselves on all levels.
Image by D Sharon Pruitt