Be it summer, winter or somewhere in between, who doesn’t want smooth, clear skin? As we all head off to the beach, on holidays and jet off to exotic locations, we all want to look our best. Here are some tips for smooth, clear summer skin!
Find What Works
The skin on your face is like your hair, your body or your brain: different methods work for different people. I wouldn’t recommend using coconut oil on oily skin, because it only encourages break-outs. Personally, tea tree oil dries out my skin, while African black soap mixed with honey tends to do wonders for my dry, but highly sensitive facial skin. The process of finding what works best for my skin has been a process of trial and error for years. Rather than hopping from one trend to another, it is best to give your skin enough time to let you know what works and what doesn’t. Once you find that magic formula, your skin will always be at its healthiest and happiest.
Oils are Nature’s Moisturizers
I don’t buy expensive creams and miracle formulas, because oils are nature’s perfect moisturisers. Avocado oil, for example, is perfect for moisturizing the skin, because it penetrates the skin, while leaving a protective moisture layer that gives you a perfect, healthy flow. Oils like tea tree oil and olive oil also do wonders for the skin, leaving your pores free to breathe, yet moisturizing your skin in the harsh summer sunlight. An 18oz bottle of avocado oil for my face costs me just $6.00 and lasts six months, while expensive branded creams and lotions can go up to ten times that price and last half as long.
Scrub-a-dub
I like to give my face a good scrub every month or so by simply adding coarse brown sugar to my African soap. Simplicity, works best, and the scrub serves to rejuvenate my skin, peeling off any dead skin and preventing future scabs and scars that leave marks on your face. There are alternatives to a sugar scrub you can try, such as a turmeric scrub. If a scrub simply does not work well for you, homemade face masks are also perfect method for rejuvenating the skin. You can try avocado face masks, egg face masks, banana face masks, and honey face masks.
Food Flare-Ups
Did you know that certain foods can cause rashes, eczema, spots and other flare-ups that plague the skin? Foods like corn, beans and nuts can negatively affect the skin of your face, while dairy products sometimes cause spots and pimples to appear on the face in some cases. It can take a time-consuming process of trial and error to find out what causes your food flare-ups, but this process is nowhere as difficult as deciding to give up your favourite food should it be the one preventing you from perfect skin. (I still actively refuse to give up ice cream!)
Let Your Face Alone
As I said above, simplicity works best. Don’t keep poking and prodding, hoping the one cure will be the miracle cure to immediate perfect, photo-shopped skin. In the first place, no one of us is created to have perfect skin all the time. It is perfectly OK to have spots, blemishes, scars, flare-ups, and blackheads. Remember that most of the perfect faces you see are either achieved by make-up, photo editing, or by a careful, time-consuming, expensive and disciplined skin care routine that only those whose livelihoods depends on their face can afford. If you’ve done everything and are still nowhere to achieving that smooth, clear, perfect skin, perhaps it is OK to accept yourself for who you are, rather than what a false media tells you to be. Then, your skin care can be an expression of self-care, rather than an expression of self-hatred.
#health #wellness #skincare #MakeUp #Beauty