Ah, spring. Time to pause, reflect and frantically try to undo the winter’s damage. Stress, holiday indulgences and the weather conspire, like a league of super villains, to wear you down. Your poor skin looks 5 years older than it did last October, except maybe for those blemishes that keep popping up, which makes you feel 16 again (but not in a good way). You can try to cover these ravages with makeup, but makeup will only look as good as the canvas it’s going on. And for some people, it can actually compound the problem.
Of course you should do all the things that everyone always says: drink more water, get more sleep, etc. But here are some additional suggestions, which should give you results: cleanse, exfoliate, tone, moisturize.
Take your makeup off. Your skin needs to be clean. And since your cleansing yourself by avoiding toxins, try natural products on your skin. The skin is an organ, and just like our internal organs, it’s not really a big fan of chemicals. They stress it out.
Cleansing and exfoliating. Want to skip a step? Try the exfoliating foaming cleanser from Suki. A beautiful product, gentle enough to use every day (and here I speak from personal experience, as I’ve been using it for about a year), it’s a sugar based exfoliate – sugars granulation works to slough off the bad stuff and polish the skin, and also help rid the pores of dirt and toxins without stripping the skin. Other ingredients include lemongrass extract, chamomile, lavender and olive oil.
A nice combination of products can also be found at LUSH. Their Ultra-Bland facial cleanser (ingredients include rosewater and honey, but also peanut oil, so be warned if you have nut allergies) gets rid of makeup and other dirt like nobody’s business. And the Ocean Salt exfoliator is made up of both fine and coarse sea salt, as well as coconut, lime, grapefruit and vodka. Yes, vodka. Mmmm.
Another great sugar based exfoliate comes from a company called Fresh. This product, called Sugar Face Polish, counts strawberries (which contain natural alpha-hydroxy acids) and oils from mango, grape and meadow foam seeds among its natural ingredients.
Toning. There is some debate about toners. Are they really necessary? Or just another way for the cosmetics industry to suck your money out of the bank? I am not going to get into the fine points here, but I think that this step, more than any others, is optional. It depends on your skin, and it depends on the toner. Stay away from anything alcohol, which is unnecessarily drying (anyone remember Sea Breeze? I cringe.). If you need to remove excess oils, witch hazel – available from any pharmacy -works nicely. But for the most part, I find the best toners to be water based. Tea Tree Water from LUSH has antiseptic and oil removing properties and won’t freak your skin out. Suki makes a couple of lovely toners, my personal favorite being the white willow based Concentrated Balancing Toner. This is another water-based toner whose ingredients include aloe, rose and chamomile. Along with white willow, these ingredients all have strong anti-inflammatory properties, which makes this a fantastic product for helping to get rid of redness and inflammation.
Moisturizing. Oh, there are so many options. It can overwhelm you, all the choices out there. What should you pick? Anti-aging? Firming? Lightening? Collagen-AHA-Retinol-Hyaluronic Acid-Copper Peptide-Ester C? The list goes on and on and on, and I could write a whole article about our society’s insane fear of aging, especially as it applies to females. In fact, maybe I will. But for now, let’s just focus on moisture.
Suki’s Brightening Cream, which is effective at minimizing redness and evening out the complexion, contains time release vitamin C, flax seed extract and pure rose wax. It’s lightweight, non greasy and comes in a glass jar with a pump lid, which makes it both very hygienic and environmentally friendly. it is a little pricey though, so if you are on a budget, consider Avalon Organics instead. They make a simple Lavender moisturizer, with ingredients that include arnica, turmeric and, obviously, lavender. Non greasy and quickly absorbed, this is fine for both nighttime and daytime use, and is nice under makeup.
For skin that has special needs, or problems with inflammation, you may find that switching to an all organic routine may be the answer. Keep in mind, though, that your skin reacts to change . If you switch skin care products, give them a couple weeks to work before making up your mind one way or the other.
But until you find the skin care regime that works best for you … drink more water! Have more naps! Relax! The face in the mirror will thank you for it.