Our skin is our largest organ and one of great importance. Our liver and digestive tract removes toxin build up but when there is too much toxins in our bodies it will eventually come out through the skin. Bespoke skincare has been curated for your skin type and conditions and is important, but it is only half the story. In this blog post I hope to educate you on the 5 steps to healthy radiant skin and how taking a holistic approach sets you up for long term amazing results from the inside out and outside in!
1. Diet
It is important to consider that our skin is the last place to receive hydration and nutrients from food and water that we eat and drink on a daily basis so it is important that we are providing the necessary nutrients to support the cells. Our skin cells turnover approximately every 28 days (longer as we age). They need nutrients such as antioxidants, fibre, zinc, calcium, vitamins a, b, c, e, k, copper, amino acids, water, essential fatty acids and selenium. These nutrients are fundamental to building and maintaining a healthy, beautiful skin. We recommend incorporating 7-9 servings of a variety of fruit and vegetables per day, 2000mg of essential fatty acids (we recommend taking 1-2 tablespoons of Bestow Beauty Oil Plus and good servings of proteins such as sprouted mung beans, legumes, lentils, chickpeas and tofu into your diet. We also recommend good amounts of healthy fats such as avocado, butter, ghee, almonds, cashews, coconut, olive oil, sesame and chia seeds.
It is a good idea to add spices to your food as this helps to detoxify and balance the skin. Spices that are good for the skin include ginger, turmeric, cumin seed, cinnamon, cardamom and coriander. Foods that can heat and congest the skin include refined sugar, processed food and coffee. Some people may also find dairy and wheat to be culprits to aggravating their skin conditions. Unfortunately, our modern diet lacks important minerals such as these because food is often not locally grown and is stored for many months causing a breakdown of nutrients. To make matters worse they are often grown in non-compost soil causing a further nutrient breakdown. To combat this, we recommend taking 1 tablespoon of Bestow Beauty Powder. This is an organic superfood rich powder containing bio available nutrients that we are able to digest well and assimilate to nutrients which feed these hungry cells.
2. Your Everyday Skin Rituals
Choosing the right skincare for your skin type and skin conditions which will support, protect and nourish your skin from the outside in and making time to create small daily selfcare skin
rituals is the second step to healthy skin. We have carefully chosen our products to be corneotherapeutic which means it will not strip away our important skin barrier. It mimics what our skin is made of and helps build a strong, resilient and protected skin. Think of the skin like a roof of a house and all the furniture and floors as the cells and systems. If we have a good supporting roof, the inside of our house will be dry, temperature controlled and we won’t have bad animals and insects making their way in causing damage and throwing the body out of balance. If we have a holey roof, then our floors, carpet and furniture will get damp, mouldy and damaged. We may be too hot or too cold. We may have outside animals and insects getting in causing damage. The same goes for our skin. Our skin’s job is to be resilient and keep bad things out such as environmental pollutants that cause inflammation and speed up the ageing process. Alongside this, it keeps good things in that protect our skin such as oil and water.
If your skin is feeling dry or tight after cleansing or during the day and you can’t wait to get moisturiser on, chances are, your barrier is being disrupted. Your daily skincare ritual should feel relaxing and good. Your skincare shouldn’t contain nasty ingredients such as synthetic fragrance, mineral oils, preservatives, emulsifiers, amines, silicones and colour. These are all ingredients that our skin does not recognise and further disrupts our skin barrier.
Making time for a selfcare practice such as a monthly facial is also high on our list for long-term healthy skin. Simply taking the time to switch off and connect back with yourself while we treat you with our healing hands and products is high on our priority list. The power of any of our facials can do wonders for your skin, body and mind.
3. Find an excellent Skin Therapist
Find an excellent skin therapist who is educated on the skin inside out which means they understand the skin on a cellular level. They will be able to accurately diagnose your skin type, conditions and find possible causes to your concerns. This is vital so you can get to the bottom of what is hurting your skin. This will allow you to be able to accurately treat and achieve skin your goals. A skin therapist must also be able to explain and educate you on how to best take care of your skin in an easy and understandable way.
The key to happy skin that looks beautiful lies in our full holistic skin assessment. We will provide you with correct strategies to begin to treat your skin conditions as well as provide a repair process if needed. A full assessment also ensures that your skin is properly diagnosed. Just like going to your doctor; if you don’t know what you’re sick with, how can you know how to treat your symptoms?!
4. The Power of Breath
Never underestimate the power of deep belly breathing. This ancient practice has now been scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve digestion, balance hormones, calm the mind,
improve posture and clear the skin. It is one of the best ways to detoxify and balance the body and it is completely free!
It is estimated that most of us shallow breathe, so introducing a mindfull breathing practice is vital to maintaining a healthy radiant skin.
We recommend starting with a simple technique: inhale through your nose, expanding your chest and belly for 5 seconds, then slowly exhale out of your mouth for 5 seconds making a gentle “haa” sound. You can also exhale out of your nose if this feels more comfortable. You can slowly increase your count when you are ready to receive more. The main thing to remember is to make your exhales just a long as your inhales.
We also recommend to try our Pure Bliss | Meditation Facial. This is a beautiful 90 minute Ayurvedic inspired facial. Which incorporates the power of deep breathing and guided meditation to refresh and rejuvenate the skin, body and mind.
5. Movement and Exercise
Exercise and movement is our 5th step to healthy radiant skin but it certainly isn’t the least important!
We all know exercise makes us feel good due to the endorphins and serotonin (happy hormones) it stimulates. It is now proven that 90% of your happy hormones are made in your digestive tract! By stimulating these hormones, we are able to feel good from the inside out, which shows up as glowing radiant skin!
It is important to consider what exercises are best for your individual skin type and conditions. Certain types of exercise can actually exacerbate skin conditions that you are trying to treat and be compromising to your skin routine! We will discuss this with you individually in one of our Skin Assessments.