Incredible Natural Beauty Secrets

Obviously, I am not a doctor nor is the following information for diagnosing or treating any kind of ailment.  If you want medical advice, please consult a trained healthcare professional.  This is just a collection of information I have found around the web, which I believe is useful for everyone to know.

Lately I’ve been studying makeup, not just the ingredients (which can be a horror story I won’t go into now), but also the application.  Applying makeup suitable for print photography is a highly skilled art.  You need to work in layers, and the first malleable layer is always healthy skin.  These are wonderful things everyone can do to have beautiful skin.  I wanted to share what I’ve uncovered and maybe put a few beauty quacks out of business.

Smoking and Skin

Cigarette smoke is one of the worst toxins to the skin.  There’s actually medical slang for it called “smoker’s face”.  Not only is it terrible for your health, it literally makes you older in appearance.  You don’t even have to be the smoker; if you work or live with a smoker, just the secondhand smoke adversely affects you.  What are some things you can do to protect yourself?

First off, if you smoke, quit.  That is obviously much harder to do than it is for me to preach.  Don’t despair!  If you do smoke, there are steps you can take to minimize the damage.  Even smoking less often can be beneficial.  It won’t be as good as quitting outright, but every little bit counts.

• Don’t smoke inside.  This keeps you from re-breathing toxic secondhand smoke.  Don’t allow others to smoke inside your house.
• Use an antioxidant-rich moisturizer.  You want a denser moisturizer than a non-smoker, to provide a protective barrier to your skin.
• Wash your face at night, whether you smoke or just have been around smokers.  This keeps you from embedding smoke residue into your pillow and then sleeping on it.

Nutrition and Hydration

Moisturizer alone won’t hydrate the skin if you don’t drink enough water!   A general guideline is to intake 1/2 ounce of water per pound of weight for a non-active person, or 2/3 ounces per pound of weight for athletes.  So a 150lb. couch-potato should be drinking about 75 ounces of water per day.  It doesn’t have to be pure water, just about any non-alcoholic beverage will do.  New studies have shown that moderate caffeine intake does not dehydrate the way it was previously believed.

Eat your veggies!  Antioxidants help to protect your skin from aging factors such as smoking, sun, and the chemicals we encounter every day.  It is always better to get your vitamins from food rather than a pill, but we don’t live in an ideal world.  If you aren’t getting proper nutrition on a regular basis, a daily multivitamin is the next best thing.

Sunlight

There is only one substance we habitually encounter that can be worse for your skin than smoking, and it is sunlight.  Yet we need some sunlight; we use it to produce vitamin D, which is good for the skin.  It actually helps to prevent skin cancer!  Doctors are beginning to change the way they think about the sun and our skin.  Of course, the key is always moderation.

First off, it is important to understand the component of sunlight that most affects our skin, ultraviolet (UV) light.  UV light comes in three types, ultraviolet A (UVA), ultraviolet B (UVB), or ultraviolet C (UVC), depending on its wavelength.  Not much UVC reaches the earth (it is absorbed by the ozone layer) but if this layer is depleted, we may see its affects on our skin in the future.

Most of the UV light that reaches the earth is in the form of UVA.  UVA starts the initial suntanning process.  It also suppresses the immune system and is implicated in premature aging of the skin.  So far I have found nothing good to say about UVA when it comes to human health or skin.

UVB rays don’t penetrate as far into the skin.  They are the form of light mostly responsible for causing skin to burn and the formation of wrinkles in the skin.  On the other hand, most of our vitamin D comes from exposure to UVB.  Not enough exposure to this form of ultraviolet is actually bad for you.  Below are some tips to help you navigate the complicated realm of skin and sun exposure:

If you have very fair skin or burn very easily, you should probably wear sunscreen whenever you go out.  Look for sunscreen that blocks both UVA and UVB, or wear white, comfortable clothing that covers up most of your skin.  You will want to take a vitamin D supplement because you probably won’t be getting enough vitamin D in your diet.

For the rest of us, moderate sun exposure on a regular basis helps us build a natural protection.  Moderate exposure is less time than you think! For most Caucasians, this means ONLY 10-15 MINUTES of sunlight during peak UVB hours (around noon).  More than that and you may burn, which is definitely not good.  If you have naturally darker skin, you may need a little longer, around 20 minutes.  You should not apply sunblock for this crucial outdoor time.  However, you should apply a good moisturizer 30 minutes before outdoor exposure.  In some lattitudes, it is impossible to recieve adequate vitamin D through sunlight during certain times of the year.  During cold and dark months, stay warm inside and boost your dietary vitamin D instead.

If you plan on sunbathing for your vitamin D, it is best not to shower before or directly afterward.  The natural skin oils produced by your body are helpful in protecting your skin.  Likewise, vitamin D produced by your skin during sunbathing needs time to be absorbed.  Also, do not wear sunglasses while sunbathing.  Light exposure to the eyes is surmised to be the trigger of beneficial skin functions.  Forget “after-sun” products.  They are basically expensive moisturizers and you should have applied that before you went out.

A Great Evening Moisturizer

I’ve discovered this remarkable evening moisturizer which has given my skin a wonderful healthy glow.  It’s cheap, easy to find, doesn’t clog pores, and doubles as a makeup remover.

It’s OLIVE OIL!  No, I am not joking.  Since I have started wearing makeup in the day, I wash off the main layer when I get home with Cetaphil facial cleanser, then apply a thin coating of high-quality olive oil.  And we are not talking about those expensive olive-oil based cleansers either; why pay more for something you can probably find in your kitchen?  Olive oil works great for removing stubborn eye makeup (and doesn’t seem to sting the eyes).  Since it is a touch greasy, just before bedtime I take a cloth dampened with very cold water and use that to gently remove any leftover residue.  Cold water is a great toner for the skin and helps to tighten pores.

Note that I have combination skin, my cheeks are normal to dry, while my “T-Zone” often has tiny zits and is slightly oily.  I also have extremely sensitive skin; just about everything makes me break out.  Olive oil can be used for any skin type from dry to slightly oily, so it is perfect for those of us suffering from combination skin. If you have very oily skin, however, you will not want to use olive oil.  In those cases, I’ve heard good things about lighter oils such as jojoba or sunflower seed for oily skin.

If you are worried about putting oils on your face, remember that skin naturally produces its own oils.  Most likely your makeup remover already has oil in some form in it, probably mineral oil, which is a petroleum byproduct!  (By the way, mineral oil is not actually a mineral and may or may not have anything to do with various kinds of mineral makeup.)

My face feels better than it has on any other moisturizer.  My acne has lessened and I don’t have to worry about the toxic chemicals and potentially hazardous nano-materials found in many of today’s moisturizers.  It is all-natural, organic, and safe for the environment.  I couldn’t be happier or recommend anything more wholeheartedly.

REFERENCES:

Smoking and Skin Aging
drinking/smoking and skin damage
Cigarettes and your skin
disproving caffeine causes dehydration
Merck.com — sunlight and skin
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/sunlight.html
http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/
olive oil and beautiful skin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_oil