By Alex Jean Smykaluk
Important Natural Skincare Tips
You wake in the morning and go wash your face, quickly give it a pat dry. Then you throw on a basic moisturizer and go on with your morning routine. Right?! Okay, maybe you have a couple more products like a toner, exfoliating scrub, or serum.
This routine is often what is categorized as a skin care routine. However, skin care doesn't start and end with products. Natural skin care is an important part of taking care of your skin down to its core cells. Natural skincare routines go hand in hand with overall wellness as well, so it's likely to benefit you in many ways.
Let's dive into these important tips and how you can incorporate them into your daily routines!
Stress Management
Stress can have quite an impact on your skin. When you're stressed your body’s, natural response is to up your cortisol which also activates hormones in your body that create an increase in oil production, this leads to clogged pores and acne breakouts. As well, stress can lead to longer term effects on your skin such as wrinkles, dark spots, and sagging skin due to prolonged stress.
Stress management is an important part of your day for overall wellness, and for improving your skins condition. Stress management can include engaging in activities such as:
- Guided Imagery/ Meditation
- Walking
- Aromatherapy
- Hugs/Phone Calls from people you care about
- Getting creative (drawing, singing...etc).
- Yoga
- Practicing Gratitude
- Get moving/Exercise
By engaging consistently in stress management, you can help improve your natural skincare regime and improve the condition and appearance of your skin.
Water
Do you aspire to drink more water throughout the day? I know I do! Water is critical in our body's overall function and plays an important role in natural skincare. Without adequate water intake it can leave our skin looking dull, create the appearance of more wrinkles and visible pores. Water helps to improve the elasticity in our skin, and this helps keeps it firm and bright!
It is recommended to drink approximately six to eight 250ml glasses of water a day. For myself, I make sure to always keep a large tumbler cup by my side throughout the day so I can sip as I go. You can also download apps to your phone that provide notification reminders to drink water, water bottles that have time stamps reminding you to drink a certain amount in a certain time, or using a fitness tracker app such as a Fitbit to track your water intake.
Exercise
Get that body moving! Exercise is a wonderful way to improve your natural skincare routines. When you exercise and get your heart rate up your body increases blood flow which increases carrying oxygen and nutrients throughout your body. Additionally, when there is an increase of oxygen this helps to remove and reduce free radicals from your skin cells.
For some individuals working out is a structured routine where they pack up and drive to the gym for an hour or so, for others it's trying to squish in some time within a busy day. Some examples for exercise can be taking a hike or nature walk, going for a run around where you live, or participating in a YouTube workout videos. Get your body moving and your heart rate elevated!
Sleep
Sleep is so important to our overall health! Are you catching onto the theme here that all these tips are important to our health? It's important to a natural skincare routine as when you are sleeping your body is working hard to repair and produce new cells and collagen for your skin. Collagen is what helps our skin look plump and fresh and keeps it from sagging and can reduce wrinkling over time.
It's recommended that individuals sleep 7-9 hours a night. For some that's an easy task for other's that's quite a goal! Each person has a different relationship and routine with sleep but it's important to try to get as close to the recommended amount as you can to give your skin optimal time to repair itself.
Some sleep tips can include:
- Using Lavender Scented Products to promote sleep
- Taking a bath before bed
- Having 1 hour of screen free time before bed
- Reading a book
- Keeping your bedroom a cool temperature
- Finish eating 2-3 hours before bed
- Having a white noise machine
Eating Healthy and Whole Foods
How we fuel our body is important to our overall wellness and the appearance of our skin. When we engage in poor or nutritionally low diets our skin can be prone to increased wrinkling due to increased free radicals and environmental factors. Sugars and fats can place a stress on your body and increase hormone productions within your system, this can increase oil production and create a dull appearance to your skin.
When you engage in an antioxidant rich diet that include whole foods you can help your body with decreasing the risk of sun and environmental exposures and free radicals. Some examples of foods to include to help with natural skincare include:
- Fish
- Avocados
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Walnuts/Nuts
- Blueberries
- Sunflower Seeds
- Spinach
- Carrots
I could go on and on about all the different ways to help improve your natural skincare regimen. The above tips are a great starting place and can really help to improve the look and health of your skin! Who doesn't want that?
Stay well!