Organic Ways to Improve Your Skin

Getting healthy and radiant skin requires a little more than just changing your skin care products. There are some steps that you will need to take to help your skin from the inside out. This can be achieved in several different ways. The most important first step is to stop using the toxic products on your body. Once you do this, you will need to begin the restoration process. This may sound a little difficult, but the right changes to your daily routine and your diet can make all the difference in the world.

Diet is one of the most important things that you can do for your skin. Your skin is the largest organ in your body. Just like every other organ, you need to keep it functioning correctly through a balance of vitamins and nutrients. This balance can only be achieved through a proper diet and by assuring that you have the correct ingredients. If you see your total health as a recipe, you must include all of the ingredients. The best way to take care of your outside, is by caring for the inside. There are several keys to keeping the high performance machine that is your body in fine tune.

The first key to healthy skin is to hydrate. Keeping your body hydrated is a very large part of your skin's care. You can not just stop at using moisturizers and lotions though. You will need to increase your water intake. Do not rely on coffee or caffeinated teas to do this. Caffeine helps to rob your body of vital hydration. IF your insides are running dry, the first part you will naturally take the water from is your skin. There are several other parts of your body that rely more heavily on water and your body will ensure that those organs are receiving the proper amounts of water. Your skin is last on the list. Having enough water in your system is the only way to ensure that your skin receives the proper nutrients.

Another important step to take is the use of a daily vitamin. Many of us do not have the proper level of vitamins and minerals in our systems. This is nothing against our eating habits. It is just not very often that someone gets the exact daily dose of everything that they need to keep their body strong and healthy. A daily multivitamin can introduce these nutrients into your system. Many of these vitamins, like C, E, and B, are very important to your skin and can detoxify your system from the damage that has been caused. There are other vital nutrients that you will need. This is the reason that the vitamin market is so huge. You will want to increase your fruit and vegetable intake as well as a daily vitamin. A very useful idea is to get tested by your doctor to find the things that you lack in your diet. By knowing exactly what you are deficient in, you can make a more educated decision on the proper vitamin to use.

Vitamins usually do not work alone. There are several things that you can put into your system that directly target your skin's health. To get these added benefits, you will want to add supplements. Many of the more skin boosting nutrients can be found in supplements. You can add things like fish oil and Omega-3 to your diet to even further your skin's health. Fish oils have been proven to level out your skin's pH and give it that natural glow. These oils will also help to hydrate your skin and restore the perfect natural balance of oils in your skin. Whether you are naturally oily or dry, a little fish oil supplement can help to fix your skin. Coconut oil is another supplement that can boost skin health. Whether it is by supplement, fresh, raw coconut, or skin care products that include this vital oil, there are several ways that you can reap the benefits of it. There are other supplements that can greatly increase the health of your skin as well. The best thing that you can do is talk to a dermatologist and find the best supplements to add to your diet.

Not only can diet help your skin, it can also harm it if not monitored properly. When you plan your diet, try to stay away from fatty and oily foods. This is the hardest part for most of us. I am also guilty of this. I am a sucker for fried foods and a heaping plate of Alfredo. These can be damaging to your skin if you do not balance these binges with some more beneficial dishes. I am not saying that you can never have some of your favorite dishes, you will just need to add other dishes to counter the bad effects of the less healthy ones. Using low fat or reduced fat ingredients can help as well. Vegetable or soy oils can also help to cut down the "bad" effects of these. Foods that are high in oils will often leave your body through your pores. This introduces a lot of extra oils to your skin and can give you that greasy feeling.

One of the most important things that you can do is increase the oxygen in your blood. This is a lot easier than it sounds. There are a couple ways to do this. One is to start using garlic in your foods. You need to be careful with this one though. Many times, the foods that contain garlic are high in fats and oils. You can use supplements for this and it will also help to skip the body odor that is commonly associated with garlic. Another thing that you can do is drink one glass of red wine a day. The red wine needs to be one of the darker varieties. Burgundy or Merlot works well for this. It will not only increase your heart health, but the tannins in the wine help your blood to carry more oxygen. This can improve your skin's health. Be careful not to drink too much though. Too much alcohol can cause damage to your skin. It can destroy the collagen and elastinin and throw your skin out of balance.

Another very important step to getting your skin's health back is to keep it clean. Clean skin is healthy skin. By cleansing daily, you can help to remove the environmental toxins as well as the toxins from other skin care products from your body. The biggest problem is the way that we clean our skin. Many of us use the same harsh chemicals and alcohol based cleansers to remove the dirt from our skin. The problem is that we are also removing the vital nutrients from our skin as well. There are much better methods for cleaning our skin.

The best way to get a deep down clean that will remove the toxins, dead skin cells, and stimulate new skin growth is a method called "skin brushing". Just like your hair, your skin needs to be brushed as well. You can find all natural brushes at almost any natural stores, but any stiff bristled bath brush will work. You can also use a loofah sponge for this. Using a circular motion, start at your feet and slowly work your way up to the scalp. You will want to avoid the "sensitive" areas. For your scalp, you may want to use stiff bristle hairbrush. There are other scalp massaging tools out there that will help with this as well.

The use of a natural cleansing scrub is another important ingredient to your skin care regime. These usually have walnut shells or sand in them to help exfoliate your skin. Exfoliation is important because it will stimulate new and healthier skin growth. It will help to rejuvenate your cells and make your skin new again. This can be a very relaxing part of your day as well. The scrub part of these soaps is comforting and feels like a massage. Pumice also works well for this. Whether it is ground into your soap or you use a stone to wash your body, the effect is the same. If you are not comfortable with the ones that you can find on the market, you can easily make these scrubs at home. All you need is walnut shells, pumice powder, sand, or ground up peach pits. You can add this to any of your favorite liquid soaps for a great alternative.

The other ingredient or this trio is a good cleanser. Once you get all of the dead skin and deep grime from your body, you can now cleanse the skin. You want to use a mild cleanser to get all of the dirt and dead skin that you just scrubbed loose, off of your body. You will want to use this cleanser one to two times per day, depending on the oil content of your skin. Three times for oily skin, twice for "normal skin, and once for dry skin should be sufficient to keep your skin in prime condition. These are harder to find in the organic form since many of these rely on an alcohol base. Alcohol based cleansers can be used, but try to use them sparingly. When you do have to resort to this, make sure you moisturize afterward.

Hormones are a woman's biggest nightmare. Not only do they cause menopause, those mood swings when "Aunt Flow" is in town, and are linked to osteoporosis, but now we know that they effect our skin as well. There are several different hormones in our bodies and some of them can cause skin problems if there are too much or too little of them. Keeping your body hormonally balanced is one more key to healthy and beautiful skin.

Many menopausal women have found their skin to be drier and more wrinkled. It also becomes more brittle and looses its elasticity. This is often caused by the reduction of collagen that the body produces. Estrogen is a natural trigger for the production of collagen and helps give your skin a more youthful appearance. This lack of estrogen also reduces the blood vessels near the skin's surface. This causes a pale appearance. Thyroxin is another hormone that is produced by the thyroid gland. This hormone can cause some more skin problems when it is not in perfect balance. Too much will make your skin appear flushed and sweaty, and can even increase the oil production of your skin. Too little will give you dry, thick, and coarse skin and reduce your ability to produce sweat. While the lack of sweat may sound good, it will cause drier skin and let the dirt and grime build up in your pores. Increased testosterone can cause acne. The increase of testosterone caused by some birth control medications or other chemical imbalances in the body can increase acne. This can usually be combated with advance skin care measures. Using acne fighters and ensuring you scrub your skin at least daily.

Hormone replacement therapy can be an effective way to combat all of these problems. If you are lacking in certain hormones, especially during menopause, you can talk to your doctor about getting treatments to increase the deficient hormone. This will often bring back your skin's natural luster and glow. Discussing the problems with your doctor or dermatologist can get a solution to any skin problems that you may develop. Before starting any hormone treatment schedule, you want to be very careful. There are certain risks as well as benefits and there can also be other methods to treat the problem. You will want to discuss all of these side effects and alternate methods with your doctor and dermatologist.

There are several different ways you can start a natural or organic skin care regime. You do not have to buy the

expensive products in the store to get the best organic solutions. Some of these things can be made right at home from some every day items. Here are a couple of them.

Gentle Oatmeal Facial Cleanser

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oatmeal or cornmeal

2 tbs of plain yogurt

Instructions:

Mix ingredients, smooth over entire face avoiding eye area. Allow to sit for 10 min and rinse

Sweet Oil Scrub

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar

Instructions:

Mix ingredients in a bowl. Apply to skin in a circular motion for a minute or 2. Rinse with a warm cloth and water. The cleanser will feel greasy but after you rinse and pat dry, skin with be super silky soft. This is also a great eye makeup remover.

Coconut Cleanser

Ingredients:

3 Tsp coconut oil

1 Tsp olive oil

1 Tsp glycerin

2 tsp water

Directions:

Melt ingredients together in a double boiler. When melted, remove from heat and beat with a whisk for 5 minutes. Transfer to jar when cooled.

Creamy Oatmeal Facial Cleanser

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oatmeal

2 tbs heavy Cream (or milk)

Instructions:

It's best if you can grind the oatmeal to a finer dust using a blender or coffee grinder. Mix ingredients, smooth over entire face in a circular motion. Rinse well.

If you add in some finely ground nut shells or beach sand, these make a great exfoliation treatment as well.

There are several other ideas that you can get from the internet or even some old home recipes that have been handed down through your family. A lot of these get dismissed as bogus rumors, but do not be so harsh to judge them. Many of them may be true. A conditioner made from mayonnaise, vegetable oil, egg whites, and peanut butter is actually one of the best things for your hair. This has been thought of as an old wives tale anymore, but it is true and easy to make. Many of these recipes do work and they are simple and inexpensive to make.