We’ve all heard that using natural beauty products is the best way to take care of your skin, but is that actually the best way? In this article we’re going to explore the 5 best things you can incorporate into your daily routine to keep your skin healthy and glowing.
1. Eat a rainbow
Part of having a flawless complexion is eating right. Just like the rest of the body, the skin needs nutrients to maintain or improve its health. The skin is a reflection of our lifestyle, nutrition, and sleep, so it’s important to eat the right foods. While some foods are better for our skin than others, like avocado which is high in Vitamins A and E, and citrus fruits, which are high in Vitamin C, it’s far more important to eat a variety of foods and colours (1).
The colour of a food comes from the different concentrations of nutrients found inside of it. Orange carrots, for example, are high in beta carotene, which your body turns into Vitamin A. While purple carrots are high in anthocyanins, a polyphenol that acts as an antioxidant in the body, like all other purple fruits and vegetables. Eating a rainbow of foods means that you’ll be getting all of the various nutrients that your body needs without necessarily needing supplementation (1).
2. Wear sun cream
While vitamin d from the sun is a fantastic way to preserve our health, ultraviolet rays from the sun are incredibly damaging to the skin. Research has found that excessive sun exposure can lead to sunburn, eye damage, ageing skin, freckles, moles, heat stroke, and skin cancer (2). The best way to protect your skin from the harmful effects of the sun is to put sun cream factor 30 on every single day. It will block the ultraviolet rays that cause damage to your skin, preventing premature ageing and protecting you from skin cancer.
3. Drink lots of water
Drinking lots of water is one of the best things we can do for our bodies. Not only can adequate water intakes help us to regulate our body temperature, protect our tissues, spinal cord, and joints, maximise physical performance, aid in digestion, and help us lose weight, it also is one of the key aspects of making our skin glow. Dehydrated skin tends to lead to dullness, sunken eyes, darker under eye circles, and increased fine lines and wrinkles. Adequate water intake can also help promote the production of collagen, which helps prevent signs of ageing (3). By making sure we are drinking enough water, we prevent a lot of the effects of dehydration from happening in the first place.
4. Sleep well
Sleep is the most important thing we can do for our overall health. Like water, it impacts every aspect of our health, from the immune system, to the regulation of our metabolism and appetite, so it’s no surprise that it has an impact on our skin health. Research has found that even one night of poor sleep can lead to drooping eyelids, swollen eyes, paler skin, more wrinkles and fine lines, drooping corners of the mouth and dark under eye circles (4). Sleep allows our body to repair itself, so when you don’t sleep well, the body isn’t able to rebuild collagen or repair the damage that occurred during the day. In order to make sure your skin continues to glow, sleeping well is one of the very best things you can do.
5. Develop a skincare routine
We know that you’ve been told to have a skincare routine before, but it really is true. A daily routine, for both men and women, can help you maintain healthy skin and can improve issues like acne, scarring, and age spots. A good routine has 4 steps that you do twice a day, once in the morning and once before bedtime:
- Cleanse - use a cleanser that leaves your skin feeling soft and supple, not tight and squeaky clean, since that means the natural oils of your skin are gone.
- Use a serum or face oil - do your research to figure out what type of oil or serum works best for your skin type, but a general rule of thumb is to use something with vitamin C in the morning and peptides at night.
- Moisturise - like we said earlier, hydration of the skin is incredibly important. Moisturiser is a fantastic way of infusing that hydration directly into the skin. We’re fond of using moisturiser with hyaluronic acid, since that helps the moisture bind directly with the skin.
- Sun cream - sun cream is the best! It protects your skin from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays and protects against skin cancer. This one only needs to be done in the morning, but make sure you do it 15 minutes before you go outside since it takes a while to activate.
No matter what type of skin you have, start with a simple and easy routine before adding in new products, like exfoliants, to see how your skin reacts.
Taking care of your skin is so important. It is our biggest organ, after all. By following these simple tips, you’ll be sure that you and your skin are healthy and glowing.
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