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Category: Skin

Benefits of Natural Vitamin C for Your Skin and Body

Are you an orange juice drinker or a grapefruit juice drinker? Do you prefer concentrate or fresh squeezed? Do you avoid the pulp or are you good to drink the pulp too? In this post I am going to touch on vitamin C both internally and topically and try and help you to understand how vitamin C can help your skin produce collagen both internally and on the surface and why natural vitamin C from nature is best.

Different types of Citrus

Okay so lets start with the basics. What do we have for citrus fruits? We have lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins, tangerines and grapefruit. Now note that limes have more vitamin C than oranges. (Just a side mention) What I want to emphasize here is grapefruits and oranges. Lets start with fruit juice basics and I’ll try and tie this into skin as best as I can. Were going to start with the healthiest orange juice is pure oranges that are freshly squeezed or juiced. The same with grapefruit. Why do you want it freshly squeezed? When the fruit is freshly squeezed it has the most nutrients. Also the white of the peel is full of nutrition and one thing I do is peel the whole orange and put it in my Vitamix blender. I will make sure to keep as much white pulp on as possible and I sometimes cheat and add a little bit of skin as I blend it up.

I noticed a trend in Miami when I was going to get fresh squeezed orange juice. Have you seen those orange squeezing machines that the base is yellow and you put the oranges in and then they turn the machine on as you order and the oranges start to get squeezed and there is your fresh juice? Well I’ve noticed lately I will go to order the fresh juice and they just hand me an orange juice in a plastic cup in the refrigerator made earlier in the day and say here you go it was made fresh this morning. Do you know how annoyed I get? I want to have Fresh Fresh orange juice and I ordered it and paid more because I see the machine and then they hand me orange juice that is 5 hours old? Probably absorbing all the plastic from the cup that I will now be consuming. Anyways the point is the freshest most nutrient rich juice is fresh squeezed. Otherwise it is better if you just eat the fruit directly.

Next we have grapefruit. Grapefruit is a little more on the bitter side. One way I like to sweeten grapefruit juice up is with honey. If you ever cut a grapefruit in half and cut out the little triangles and eat with a spoon its nice to add honey. Eat the little grapefruit wedges and then squeeze out the rest of the juice and get as many nutrients as possible. Note in all citrus fruits you want seeds. We do not want to buy seedless as that is basically GMO. That means the fruit has been altered and with that alteration your body does not read the nutrient codes the same. Its like your eating a whole orange and getting half the nutrients. So embrace those seeds let them be in your glass. Have fun with them. I let them get blended up in the Vitamix blender too. Seeds are our friends and seeds are life.

Citrus and Collagen

Citrus fruit has a lot of great health benefits but I am going to emphasize here grapefruit first. Why because grapefruit is in first place of the citrus family for the most nutrients for skin and oranges come in second. So grapefruit contains flavones and flavonoids. This helps with phytonutrients. Phyto attracts the sun hence why they say citrus can give you sun spots. In small doses though the sun is very healing for you. Grapefruit can also have drug interactions. Note if your taking any prescription or vitamins not on an empty stomach and not going from straight grapefruit consumption to vitamin/medicine consumption. Your stomach will more than likely have a reaction. The vitamin C content in grapefruit juice plays a role in collagen formation of the skin. This is important for the skin cells to keep there strength and structure. This is why I am trying to emphasize fresh juice not concentrate. With concentrate there is usually added sugars.

If you have to buy fresh orange or grapefruit juice you also would want to look for unpasteurized juice. Pasteurization heats up the juice to remove any bacteria but the heating process takes away the nutrients. Lets be honest how much bacteria is in citrus fruits? Little to none is my guess that is why I am always on the hunt for unpasteurized juices. So again lets imagine your drinking a full 12 ounce bottle of juice that you just spent about $5 on but your getting about 3o percent of the nutrients from the actual fruit. I can tell you that Trader Joes sells unpasteurized orange juice and I know in the state of Florida WaWa the gas station and minimart offers unpasteurized orange juice. I cannot speak for Wawa in other states as I haven’t seen if the unpasteurized juice is offered.

Vitamin C in Skincare

So moving on we’ve covered the bases of vitamin C internally and how important and good for you it is to have the purest form of citrus juice. Now lets talk about vitamin C in skincare products. I’m going to share a short facial room story here to give you an idea of how important is it to have real ingredients in your skincare products.

So I was working at a spa in Hollywood Ca and this particular spa carried two product lines. I was new to both product brands and I was in my training phase. (basically giving free facials) Can learn about that more from this post. https://elementlufu.com/confessions-of-a-licensed-esthetician/

I had done the one training with the first brand lets just say it was a French line and they offered a vitamin C facial. So previously my new coworker, we were both training and new, had given me the vitamin C facial from the French line. On this day we were meeting with the trainer from the second brand of skincare products that were more natural and made right there in Santa Monica. Now before we started training my coworker asked me, “Oh I want to know how did your skin feel after the facial I gave you?” I had received the facial and everything was fine but about 3 hours later my face felt so dry and was itching and tight. I explained to her what had happened and then the trainer from the other skincare brand made the comment that the product probably wasn’t natural and a lot of times brands use ascorbic acid as vitamin C which is lab made or the vitamin form almost imagine a powder.

We then proceeded to learn about this new skincare brand and had our training from an all natural version of vitamin C that is literally extracted from the citrus fruit. I learned a lot that day about lab made and actual nature derived ingredients in skincare products. My visual for this one is imagine an orange cut open and rubbed on one side of your face and then imagine a chewable vitamin C vitamin either rubbed on your other cheek or diluted in water and then rubbed on your face. Which side do you think is going to feel better? Its hands down that nature wins. Not lab created products.

Another experience I had was with another well know skincare brand that lets just say they promote themselves as medical grade. Aka lab made ingredients or medical ingredients. I had moved to Florida by now and was working in a higher end spa and they offered a lot of different product lines. I was training with the different lines and I gave two different facials to two different estheticians that worked in the spa. So one of the training expectations is to give the person feedback on their skin. Can I tell you both of these women’s skin felt DRY like sandpaper almost. This is two separate women and two separate facials within weeks of each other.

The first one I had commented oh your skin feels a little on the dry side. She claimed that her skin wasn’t dry and that she was using the vitamin C serum from said product line. I couldn’t argue with her because 1) I’m not there to make her feel bad and 2) she is an esthetician as well and she knows what she knows. I can personally say I had never felt such dry skin but I left it alone. The second facial and second esthetician same thing. Dry dry skin. I made the comment, oh your skin feels a little dry what products are you using? She replied with the same vitamin C serum that the previous esthetician was using. Both of them had the tightest driest skin I had ever felt. So I know that I would not recommend that product to anyone. But again medical grade doesn’t mean its good. If anything your skin wont absorb the product the same. (I can explain how that works in another post).

Conclusion

So in conclusion what have we learned? Nature works best, YES??? Both on the internal intake of fruit juices and the purity of the juice or the fruit and on the topical skin level. I can tell you as your reading a skincare label it can be very hard to determine if the vitamin C in the product is ascorbic acid or vitamin C extracted from citrus fruit. One way to know is if the ingredient label flat out says ascorbic acid I would give that a no. You can sometimes know if a brand has an emphasis on natural products from nature and or has ingredients organically grown or from the farm. If I had to guess I’d say its 50/50 these days of which skincare lines carry natural vitamin C. The said brands that I was working with in this post were Arcona, Dr. Dennis Gross, and Guinot. You can plug in on your own which one was which in the story.

If you are interested in fresh citrus fruit grown on a farm in central Florida and shipped directly to your door year round then I have a link for you. Hale Groves even has a citrus club where you can have citrus shipped to you on a monthly basis. Also great they offer gift boxes you can surprise your friends and family. (Incoming affiliate link.) By clicking on the link I gain a little commission but does not affect your cost. Click on the link below and check out the many citrus options available to you. Please leave any questions or comments in the contact form and remember natural is always better for the body internally and externally.

http://www.halegroves.com/?utm_source=AFF&utm_medium=AFF&utm_campaign=AFF

February 21, 2025
Dry Heat and Cold (Tips to Winter Proof Your Skin)
Can you see a sunny winter day without a cloud in the sky, temperature below 50 degrees? Not a drop of moisture? This would be considered a dry cold winter day. This type of climate will cause the skin to be really dry as the body may feel the cold from the temperatures and so does the skin. Normally if it is cold outside what happens indoors? The heater gets turned on. Again the sensation is super drying for the skin both indoors and outdoors. These factors, the heater indoors and the dry cold air outdoors, create dry winter skin. In this post I will discuss winter weather and tips for you to winterize your skin and suggest products you can use that aid in comfort in the cold temperatures.

Climate/Location

You may live in either a cold climate or a dry climate or both. Some places to consider that can make you really feel that dry cold climate is anywhere with desert or anywhere where it snows in the winter. No matter which one it is I will say it, the winter cold causes your skin to hurt. It pulls tight on the hands and face and you can experience pain.

Some of the dry climate criteria to look out for:
- When the temperatures go below 50 degrees F.
- Clear blue skies (no clouds)
- A desert climate
- A snowy cold climate
What tends to happen to the skin in winter is when the temperature drops the skin pulls tight. The main areas that feel it on the skin is in the face area that is exposed to the cold air and the hands. It can be a very uncomfortable feeling. You always want to make sure to moisturize your hands. I’ve been in climates where it doesn’t matter how much hand cream I use my hands still hurt. Just remember to use a moisturizing hand cream and I always suggest with some type of shea butter. My two go to hand creams would be my Unscented Body Balm that is 2.5 ounces, light weight packaging to carry in the purse and the first ingredient is shea butter. Another brand I love to use is from Bubble & Bee there organic body butter. This body butter comes in various natural scents but I love how it hydrates and is a little more creamy than my body balm. They also sell a travel size which can be good for the purse. Here is a link here you can check it out. https://bubbleandbee.idevaffiliate.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=368&feed=124

Speaking of your hands another thing you may want to consider is your dish soap if you are washing your dishes. I would suggest to use a more natural or gentle soap. One thing I learned the hard way is check if your dish soap says concentrated. What that means is that the dish soap is super strong and you can dilute it with water into a new container. Otherwise you will end up using to much of the product and loose your money down the drain. That super concentrated dish soap will wreck havoc on your hands unless you are wearing dish washing gloves. A dish soap brand I recommend is https://www.ecos.com/dishwashing/dish-soap-lavender/ If your hands feel really sensitive you can always consider using dish gloves while you wash the dishes too. Once thing I like to do is use vinyl gloves to clean the house and wash dishes and they last about 10 washes and then switch them out. These can usually be found in an 8 pack at Dollar Tree and I prefer the vinyl as they do not make your hands smell. Note this can also protect your manicure if you want the polish to last longer on your fingernails.

Boosting up your face cream to a more hydrating cream can help the skin on your face to not feel so tight. I always recommend my tallow cream as tallow is amazing for balancing the skin and giving the skin nutrients. Tallow is great for the skin year round as it comes from cows but if your not comfortable with that option then another product that I recommend for the winter skin is from Bloom Effects. This product is designed for those who have eczema. I personally do not have eczema but I do have very dry skin. The consistency of this product is almost comparable to honey. Originally when I tried the product out I didn’t care for it and was going to stop using it after about a month. Then one day I said what am I doing this product gives my skin a nice glow and fills in all the “cracks” or wrinkles so why would I not use it? You can check out the Royal Tulip Nectar with this link (not sponsored) https://bloomeffects.com/products/royal-tulip-nectar

A common issue that happens with winter weather is indoors you have a heater going. How drying does that feel to the skin and also your hair? Most heaters are either electric or gas powered. Although a heater is necessary to make you feel warm and toasty pay attention if you notice your skin may feel tight. One thing you can do is invest in a humidifier. This is always nice to bring a little moisture into the indoor climate. If you don’t have a humidifier or do not want to invest for the short winter months I can suggest boiling water on a stove with the lid off. If you want to add something to the water such as cinnamon sticks or essential oils that can work as a natural room scent. Again just be aware that you want to still hydrate the hands with a hand cream and use a stronger face cream in the winter months. Also pay attention to your cleanser in the mornings. With the cold crispy mornings you don’t want your skin to feel tight when you cleanse in the mornings. I can reference my article here https://elementlufu.com/what-your-acid-mantle-is-and-how-your-cleanser-affects-your-skin-pt-1/ on the acid mantle and balancing the skin.

Product Suggestions

If your hair is feeling dry? I always suggest a shampoo with the first ingredient being aloe vera. Any shampoo that is stripping or has the sodium laurel or laureth sulfate would be a no. A few brand suggestions for shampoos that are non drying to the hair and are moisturizing are:
Next on the winter proofing we do not want to leave out the lips. We always want a good lip balm when going outdoors. A lip balm that is natural and can protect the lips. Its good to have a lip protector on the lips. Remember the first signs of aging are shown on the hands and the lips. One of my favorite lip balms I like to use both when going outdoors and every night when sleeping is linked here. https://bubbleandbee.com/raspberry-vanilla-lip-balm/

Another suggestion for the dry heat and cold climates is to stay hydrated. You definitely want to stay up on your 64 suggested ounces of water a day. One suggestion is also herbal tea. Drinking a warm herbal tea can warm you up on the inside and the herbs can aid in internal hydration for the skin cells. I would suggest using a filtered water to make the tea. Here is a suggested link (sponsored) https://clearlyfiltered.com/?cjdata=MXxOfDB8WXww&cjevent=45f8c2c7dc6311ef83c513490a1cb827

Most the time if you consume a warming beverage or soup you can warm up internally. Another warming practice could be to consume a heated bone broth. I like to have mine with sea salt and black pepper. You want to try and warm on the stove in a teflon free pan as that is the more natural way to heat bone broth and maybe not ad microwaves to it. Also a quick recipe for your pulmonary function is Thyme water. You want to take the natural herb thyme and put into a tea strainer. You need a lot as in a bunch that you can purchase at the grocer. Place the herb in the tea strainer and then you want to boil your filtered water. Use a glass pitcher with a small enough opening to place the tea strainer. You can poor the boiling water over the tea strainer with the herb thyme in it. Let the tea strainer sit and the water will turn a light green color. You can drink this beverage warm or place in the refrigerator and drink cold. This is a great winter drink to help open up the pulmonary or (lungs).

Another way to warm up and condition the skin in the cold winter months is with a warm shower or a bath soak. Most important thing to remember when you shower is that you have a shower filter. You want one that filters out chlorine. Chlorine is very drying to the skin and since the skin is already feeling dry in a cold climate it would be better to use a filter so the skin does not feel more dry after the shower. Or you can always add the body butter immediately after. If you like to take baths in the cold weather a bath can really warm the body right up. If you have bentonite clay and you can add 1 cup to a normal size bath that should cancel out the chlorine in the bath water. If you want to use a natural bath soak for your warming bath here is a link here to find the bath salts that are homeopathic and mood enhancing. If you click the link and type in the search bar bath you can find the salt soak that is all natural and healing both physically and mentally. https://www.directlyfromnature.com/?Click=95171

Conclusion

Winter weather or cold weather is no fun on the skin. If you are aware and prepare yourself then your skin and your body will endure less pain and that “tight” feeling. Definitely you want cream cream and more cream on the face and hands. You would need your lip protector for outdoors and you want to stay hydrated with enough water intake. Fill up on warm soups and beverages and remember a nice hot bath or shower can always warm the body if you feel really cold. Just try to hydrate right after the bath or shower so that your skin doesn’t get more dry from the chlorine. I always like to mention to my clients when I’m giving a facial that if you do need to switch your facial hydration or cream due to cold winter weather it is okay. Sometimes people don’t think about switching up the cream when the weather gets cold. It is definitely something to consider as the skin cells are feeling a cooler element and it can switch up your ph balance. Hopefully these tips can help you to “Winter Proof” your skin and not have so much winter weather discomfort.
January 27, 2025
Importance of Water for Your Skin and Lymphatic System
In this post I am going to explain the lymphatic system pertaining to your skin and the effects of water hydration on your internal skin. I will also explain certain key ingredients found in water such as fluoride and why it is not so good for the physical body. I have some suggestions for your water and how to store it and I will be recommending some products and brands for filtering your water systems and why it is so important to have clean water. Note I have partnered with a great water filtration brand that filters fluoride and there will be some affiliate links in this post.

Hydration

Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate!!! That is what we always hear but not everyone wants to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Why? Because we do not want to have to use the restroom how many times a day? For me personally I have gotten my water consumption down to a science for my body meaning I know how much to drink and around what times I will be close to a restroom. Even if I have to work I will get my water consumption in because my physical health and skin are way more important than a job that may not want me using the restroom. I always try to drink the most water for my day when I am at home or earlier in the day so I do not have to wake at night to go to the bathroom all night. I also noticed a water bottle or glass that is around 24 ounces makes it easier to do your 64 ounces a day. Its just 3 water bottles to consume a day. Suggested bottle with a filter built in https://clearlyfiltered.com/products/24oz-tritan-bottle?variant=2129349214297

The Visuals

As far as the lymphatic system and how water works as a filter for the body I will explain in a facial type of way. When I am giving a facial to someone a visual of lymph I always explain, you know if you pop a pimple and you get the pus out and then there is a little bleeding and you can see a clear fluid? That clear fluid is your lymph. It acts as a filter for the whole body and is constantly flowing through the body getting out all the toxins. Your lymph travels through your lymph nodes which you mainly can find anywhere in the body that bends or moves. Examples would be your neck, armpits, elbows, wrist, hip or groin area, knees and ankles. All the movement and motion of these parts of the body are helping stagnant lymph to move throughout the body. (Hence why I stress exercise and especially stretching such as yoga or pilates to keep lymph moving.) Drinking water also helps to get this lymph moving as well.

Another visual for your lymph nourishing your skin from the inside out. I have given different types of facials and my favorite machine facial is the Hydrafacial. If you ever get a chance to experience a Hydrafacial I would strongly recommend it. The Hydrafacial machine includes a lymphatic stimulation and also finishes with LED lights. I am always explaining how lymph is flowing behind your skin and if you can imagine that clear fluid right behind the skin on your face and if you stimulate it your face will look more plump. It is the same if you do a European facial with a manual massage. Sometimes I would be asked, “what does the facial massage do?” Essentially wake up the lymph fluid right behind the facial skin and give you a nice plump look while also draining any stagnant lymph down into your neck nodes and filtering throughout the body to release any toxins. When you use an LED light designed for the face or skin it does the same thing as the light is penetrating a few layers deep and that lymph fluid is getting stimulated again.

Now I’m going to give you another visual. This time lets visualize the pores on your skin. The easiest way to explain it is to compare your skin to the tight cellulose sponge you would find in your kitchen. What happens if you do not wash dishes and you do not use your sponge for a day? The sponge will be dry and tight. What happens immediately when you ad water to the sponge to wash the dishes? The sponge will plump up and look like a real sponge again. The same idea is with your skin when it is dehydrated and when you have water. Also use this visual of the tight little pores or holes on the sponge to think of absorption. If you rub a lotion on your body and it is full of chemicals? All those chemicals are going into your skin and into your body within minutes. Now if the product is not natural or full of filler than a lot of times the body cannot fully absorb unnatural ingredients and that cream can sit on your skin. Imagine a sponge with soap goop on it that will not rinse off. The texture and quality of the sponge ages fast. I’m just trying to explain this visual so that you can see how important it is to realize that your skin literally absorbs everything that touches it. (Even your clothing materials, which I’ll touch in another post)

The Chemicals

There are two things I wanted to touch on in this post. First water with your skin externally and internally and how it affects your skin and second what chemicals are in water and the effect those chemicals have on the skin and hair. I think I covered the first part with my visuals so lets move on to the second part, the chemicals in the water. I had already wrote about how water affects your skin and so many municipalities put chlorine and fluoride in water not to mention other chemicals.

Lets first talk about absorption of these chemicals and how it can affect your skin. There are two main chemicals put into the water system that are not good for the body. The two main culprits are fluoride and chlorine. Fluoride as we have been taught is supposed to strengthen your teeth. Maybe in your toothpaste as that is “supposed” to be medical grade but in the public water supply their using an untreated industrial waste product. In a nutshell the history of how fluoride came into our water systems was back in the Industrial Revolution. The cows around the factories were developing cancer. A Belgium scientist discovered the cause was fluoride gases and phosphates which were a by product of fertilizer. Once this was discovered said companies would be hit with a hefty bill to properly dispose of fluorosilicic acid. They figured out how to reuse said by product into the water supply by claiming the fluoride strengthened teeth. To be allowed they had to do independent studies to prove how good fluoride was for your teeth. They did the studies on children’s teeth. Meaning baby teeth that will eventually come out so explain how effective that study was? That is my nutshell definition on the history of fluoridating the water supply. If you want more info here is an article link https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-transformation-industrial-waste-public-health-miracle

Another chemical in the water supply that I’m not a fan of is chlorine. Yes it is put into the water to remove diseases and bacteria but there is a more natural alternative that can be used called chloramine. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia and creates a more natural molecule used in the water distribution systems and is less likely to cause physical harm to the human body. Chlorine on the skin to me is so drying. I have stopped going into chlorinated swimming pools as I can imagine all the pores of my skin absorbing these heavy amounts of chlorine and my skin is always so dry when I get out of the pool. Its not worth it I would rather be in nature or a saltwater pool.

Bathing

Lets talk about bathing. Can be a shower or a bath. I have learned through the years because I have lived in some heavily chlorinated areas that a shower filter is necessary. What happens if there are heavy amounts of chlorine in your water? The main symptom you will see is that your skin is more ashen or dry and your hair will usually be more dry. No amount of product or hydrating shampoo can help that hair. Take note when you shower and your using hot water that, vapor in the water contains the chemicals of chlorine and fluoride. Both of the chemicals are strong enough for the body to cause asthma or chest and lung issues. The best is a shower filter or if you have a filter system in your kitchen sink, I would recommend at least washing your hair and face in the kitchen sink to have filtered water for your hair and face. Also I’m not sure on the ratio but I’ve read that 1 cup of bentonite clay in the bath tub can cut the harmful effects of chlorine that you would be soaking in. Here is a link from a company that sells good showerhead filters https://aquaspace.com/collections/shower

So I hope that you are seeing the visual of water on the skin and hydration internally for your skin. This is why it is so important the water you consume both internally and externally. Remember your skin is your largest organ and it absorbs everything around you. Just to give you some tips for clean water consumption:
- Invest in a good water filtration system
- Use a shower filter as much as possible
- You want your water to be in glass (plastics cause chemicals in the water)
- Try to consume up to 64 ounces of water a day
Recommendations

I am very happy to recommend this water filtration system as I have been using it personally and the taste of the water is great. If you start with the water pitcher and the filter system you will need about 3 filters a year. https://clearlyfiltered.com/products/clean-water-pitcher-filter-3-pack?variant=8904616145 Three filters a year is $139.50 divided by 365 equals .38 cents a day. In one month it is about $11.00 you will spend on your water consumption.

If your interested in an under the sink filter system I will say with Clearly Filtered it is a very easy installation. https://clearlyfiltered.com/products/3-stage-under-the-sink-filter-unit?variant=7927127112 I have been a renter for many years and since you are able to install this yourself you can take it with you if you move to a new location. It is highly worth it as the math breaks down to about $40 a month the first year and with a refill goes to $32.00 a month from then on. This system last for about 12 months in most households. The initial purchase is $495 for the first year and a refill from the second year is $396.00. Again $495.00 divided by 365 is $1.35 a day or $40.00 a month and this is used for your cooking water and you can wash your hair. I will say this is designed solely for cold water but at least do a cold hair rinse with your conditioner at the end of washing.

As I mentioned earlier Clearly Filtered also make a portable water bottle with a filter system in the bottle that filters out fluoride. A great value if you just want to start there it averages about $.30 cents a day if you change the filter every 3 months. Note that filter replacement will depend on your area and how many chemicals are in the water. Also have not included the initial price of the bottle or container in the breakdown.

Conclusion

I hope this post has given you some insight into the water systems and how their are some not so, human body friendly chemicals, lurking in our water supply systems. Hopefully you have a good visual of your skin and lymphatic system and have a better understanding of how these systems work for your body. Bringing it all together I would say it is very important the water that we consume both on our skin and what we are drinking. Not all filters are created the same. Also if you are traveling you can pass an empty water bottle through security and then fill it up. If you don’t have a water bottle I always suggest buying spring water or local water brands as much as possible as the filtered water from Big Brands are not always the cleanest for the body to consume. If you have any questions or if you know of any water showerhead brands you love feel free to send me a message through the contact form or comment below.
January 12, 2025
Five Key Elements to Stay Young Looking (No Botox or Fillers) Naturally
This post will touch on what are the key factors to keeping your skin young looking for many years and what keeps your skin in its best shape naturally. So many times when I am working or talking about being an esthetician a guy will ask me, “can men get facials too?” I always respond of course they do its skin and we all have it male or female its best to take care of it. This post applies to both male and female skin and tips to taking care.

Best Practices to Keep Skin Healthy

A lot of times when I am giving a facial I’ll be asked what is the best product for your skin? That question for me personally the BEST product like a one all cure all doesn’t exist without the key components. I always emphasize lifestyle choices first and skincare or the brand of skincare products is the last on the list. (Not to brag but my tallow cream is a best product for the skin for a lot of reasons) however, i will save that breakdown for another post. The 6 pillars for great looking skin are, hydration, diet, exercise, SLEEP and then products. Allow me to touch on each one of these pillars a little more.

Starting with HYDRATION cannot emphasize enough water water and more water. Our bodies are made up of water. We need it for our health and healthy movement of bowels. If you don’t keep things moving internally it will eventually show on your skin externally. You want to try and get 64 ounces of water consumption daily. Water is so important for the skin to look its best. The main two things that water can do for your skin is 1) it works with your lymphatic system and acts as a filter and cleans your body or system out. If you are getting tiny little break outs but maybe don’t have a huge acne problem, just drinking 8 glasses of water a day will help that. 2) Water helps give the skin a plumpness that is natural. When you are dehydrated it will show in your skin. To the naked eye no, but to a trained eye yes. I can see when I am working on someone if the skin has a bounce back elasticity it means that there is enough water or hydration internally in your skin. If for example you are dehydrated, internally your skin will be more tight and will be lacking an internal plumpness. Just drinking enough water in a day can help keep you looking younger for years. One company I would like to recommend for their water filtration systems and water bottles to get your hydration in yes affiliated:

https://clearlyfiltered.com/?cjdata=MXxOfDB8WXww&cjevent=e3d05118d0f711ef8320dca10a82b832

The second pillar to good skin is DIET or what you consume daily. I would highly recommend if your serious about your skincare to read your food labels. There are a lot of foods out there that have added chemicals in them. I have had a rule for years. If I cannot understand what the word on the label is I probably do not want it in my body. So snack foods and packaged foods just try and find the cleanest ingredient labels you can understand and it would probably be safe for your body and skin. Also you can get a lot of nutrients for your skin based from your food. I noticed when I do a collagen powder in my smoothies my skin looked more plump. That is because your skin is filling out internally from the inside out. Also protein is good for your skin. You can get protein from red meat, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy and nuts. All of those foods when their in clean wholesome form can enrich your skin and give you the vitamins your body needs to thrive. I would recommend all the meat is grass fed, the dairy for me I would do raw as there is way more nutrients in raw dairy and the eggs straight from a farm and try and make sure the nuts are clean or raw with no canola oil.

One thing to note on dairy just to elaborate I am/was lactose intolerant. I was researching something for my teeth and learned that raw dairy has all the vitamins your teeth need. Vitamin K and D3 are the two vitamins that if you drink pasteurized milk your missing those vitamins. If I was to drink pasteurized milk I would have a reaction within hours of pain in my stomach followed by horrible gas two days later. I tried un pasteurized milk as I learned that sometimes people think they are lactose intolerant but the body is actually reacting to the enzymes in the pasteurization process. It was a game changer, I had no reaction to unpasteurized milk. In fact it was more positive for my body as un pasteurized milk has pro-biotics to help your stomach so it was almost healing in a way when I first started drinking it. I don’t go crazy and drink a full glass but I will add to my morning coffee and it is like a natural heavy cream. Very good. The milk will go bad quickly so you can freeze it. I usually buy 1 gallon for a month it costs around $14 and break up into glass mason jars and freeze it and then just switch the jars into the refrigerator when its time for a new week. Also you can include the milk in your hydration glass count for the day because raw milk naturally hydrates you and pasteurized milk no hydration included. Your body knows when something is natural. Sometimes people will ask me if raw milk is dangerous to consume? Honestly our grandparents drank milk straight from the cow and they were very healthy so I think that we have been taught different as time has evolved and I’m down for the more natural way. Also if you don’t love milk raw yoghurt is the best. Its like a heavy natural cream. Look for it at a farm in your area or some grocery stores sell it depending on your location and if not yoghurt the next step is raw unpasteurized cheese. This is much easier to find. You do have to read your labels though. ( There is a swiss cheese that is unpasteurized and is sold in Walmart, Trader Joes and a lot of supermarkets.)

Next pillar for your ultimate best skin is EXERCISE!! I will give you 3 reasons the effects of exercise have on the skin. The first being cardio or sweating. When you sweat you remove toxins. As your sweating your skin is doing what it is made to do and releases those toxins. You will feel better and look better. Sweating is working again with your filtration system but this time removing the unnecessary things that your body does not need. If you are drinking water as you sweat, even better as that is enabling your purifying system to help clean things out. If you are into any kind of stretching exercise whether it is yoga, pilates or even just a stretch program you are helping the elasticity both with your skin and also with your connective tissue. The more flexible your connective tissue the younger you will look and feel. Imagine the difference if you are living on this planet 70 years and you cannot touch your toes as compared to someone who can do a full backbend at the age of 70? My advice on that one is to always remain active and give movement to your life so that you don’t have the aches and pains when you are older. Exercise is also a form of release. Sometimes we don’t realize it if we are going through something emotionally or we are angry that expression wears on your face. Another factor with aging. If you keep emotions bottled in it can age you. Exercise can be a form of release and bring calm to your physical body. Again when you feel good you look good so movement and stretching are a great natural anti aging secret that is actually free.

Next pillar SLEEP! I cannot emphasize enough how much younger you look when you sleep and are well rested. I highly recommend 8 hours a night if possible. If you have a busy lifestyle or work a lot or have children at least shoot for a minimum of 5 hours. Your body needs 5 hours a night minimum to help repair your vital organs such as your heart and brain. If you sleep less than 5 it is very hard on the body. If you cannot get 8 hours a night a lot of times what I do is have 1 morning a week I sleep in. I schedule it. Sometimes with all my jobs I can get very busy and work 10 days straight. I always prioritize sleep and will calculate a day to just sleep in. I give myself permission to stay in bed as long as I want or at least until 12 pm. I look forward to those days as I value my sleep and I love sleeping. On the days that you sleep and look well rested it can take years off your face.

Society has a negative stigma on sleeping and likes to associate it with lazy. I don’t agree with that at all. If I don’t get my sleep I do not function well. Have you ever noticed if your tired and then your emotions get out of whack and everything goes wrong? Honestly after nannying kids for years you can see what happens when kids are tired or need a nap? They start crying and get cranky. Well the same happens to adults and our bodies need sleep just as much as a childs body. A little sleep hack I learned for people who cannot fall asleep. For example I am not a napper. I sleep night to morning like to feel refreshed and then move about all day. But one thing I discovered if you put on headphones and use the Mega Hz music say for example 963 you can put yourself in a relaxed state and you sometimes can fall asleep like that but if not your body still gets into a restful space. I’ve found the videos on Youtube link here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXCKVQiqXyE

Finally we’ve come to the fifth and final pillar for amazing skin, the PRODUCTS you use. I always say the products are the least important if you don’t do the other 4 pillars to give yourself great looking skin and a more youthful natural appearance. Again when I am working in spas or for skincare lines people always would ask me what is the best product for your skin? A lot of times I would feel obligated to sell the product or brand where I was working. Honestly I stopped doing that over the years because what is more important to me is that ones skin is balanced and in the best condition that it can be in. If you drink enough water, exercise, eat a healthy clean diet and sleep you should already be 50% more ahead on your skin game than buying all the expensive products but say not drinking water or sleeping. You could spend the money but not sleeping isn’t going to make that eye cream work any better for you. I have brands and particular products that I love for the face besides my own products and I will save that for another post. The main products you want:
- A balancing non stripping cleanser
- Non alcohol non drying toner
- A good exfoliant 2 nights a week
- A balancing face cream and ad a serum if you prefer
- Also do not forget the neck cream or to add cream to your neck and decollete or chest. (First signs of aging besides hands)
In conclusion as I said at the beginning these recommendations can apply to both men and women because we all have skin. Everything here both men and women can do eat, exercise, sleep, drink water, use a cleanser and cream. Hopefully this has brought an awareness into your lifestyle and choices and if you incorporate these tips you can see a change in both your skin texture and your life. I you have any questions or tips to ad here please use the contact form to join the conversation.
January 5, 2025
How I Cleared Up My Psoriasis & Product Recommendations (to help heal skin) Part 3
In this post I am going to talk about the signs of psoriasis and what you can look for to know if you have psoriasis. Also I will share my personal story of how I developed psoriasis to help you understand how one could develop psoriasis and not even know they have it. Finally I will give you some pointers on products you can use to help sooth the redness and eventually balance or heal the red patches.

Definition: Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition characterized by thick, scaly, and often itchy patches on the skin.

Common symptoms include:
- Dry, thick, and raised patches
- Red, scaly patches
- Itching or soreness
- Flaky patches
- Patches of dry skin
My Personal Story

So here we are again years later in my life and now I have relocated 2 different times since I had my massive acne breakout. My skin had gone back into balance and I was doing good. I had lived in Buenos Aires for two years and the climate there was a little more dry than on the island of Maui. So I had adjusted my products accordingly. I point this out to help you realize that the climate you live in affects your skin. You want to be aware that sometimes you will need to change the type of skincare products you are using based on where you are. Especially your cleanser and your face cream. Again some factors in your daily climate that affect your skin:
- If your in a dry desert like climate very drying for the skin
- If your in a cold climate and staying indoors with a heater on. ( Especially a gas heater is very drying for the skin)
- If your in a hot climate and staying indoors with an air conditioning system, again very drying
- If your in a tropical climate, a lot of humidity can add bacteria on your skin
I relocated to Miami Beach and I was now back living in a very hot and tropical climate. Everything was good as I prefer that type of climate but all of a sudden I was noticing red patches on my skin? It was not making sense. How could I have moved to a very heavy humid environment, more humidity than on Maui and my skin was getting dry patches? This was not making sense? So I started to use a gentle cleanser and was using the heaviest cream possible on my face. If I could I would of slathered my face with shea butter. Nothing was working though and nothing made sense? So this went on for about 4 to 5 months. The mystery of the red patches right below my eyes and on my cheek bones. Another pattern of me changing products and brands constantly to see if anything would work better than the first heavy cream I had tried.

What was more perplexing and annoying is that I am an esthetician and this is my field and I cannot even get my own skin balanced or figure out what is going on with my skin. So as the months went by and I was working part time at a restaurant one day it all came together. I had probably been complaining to my manager that my skin was so dry in Miami and I couldn’t figure out why. He made the comment that changed everything. He said something like, “If your using the water on Miami Beach than anybody’s skin would be super dry as the water is so full of chlorine.” I was like BINGO maybe that is it? So I had to come up with a plan to test this new discovery.

First I needed to stop washing my face with the tap water. Now how was I to do that when I was wearing makeup? I decided that my face needed a strong washing at night but in the morning how dirty was my face? I had done a good cleaning the night before and now it was pretty much clean I just needed a light cleaning. So I bought rosewater in a spray bottle and in the mornings I would use a cotton round and spray the cotton round with my rosewater and wipe across my face. If the cotton was dirty I would use a new cotton round and wipe a second time. Then I would continue with my morning routine of adding moisturizer and then makeup. This became my new skincare routine. After a few weeks, (remember it takes 28 days for anything to change on the skin) I started to see the red patches disappear. So the conclusion to all my problems was the chlorine in the water was stripping my face. Honestly this could happen to anyone, anywhere and so it is a story I wanted to share to point out that changing climates and environments can really affect your skin.

Its All About The Water

Also I point this out because it is good to be aware of what is in your water and what type of water you are using to wash your face. I have never gone back to using water to wash my face in the mornings. That was well over 10 years ago. I have moved since then to different cities but using basically the (Toner Method) to wash my face in the morning is what has worked for me. You really want to be aware of the water you use on your skin.

Another thing to consider is travel. I noticed after I had figured out what was going on with my skin if I traveled to a dry climate my little red patches would start to appear. I would use my healing cream on them and they would instantly heal up. Just flying on an airplane can cause your skin to be really dry. Not to mention you want those 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water in a travel day that is hard to get consumed. By the time you land and if your using tap water to wash your face? You could start to develop little dry red patches.

Signs and Symptoms

Some people do not even realize they may have psoriasis. What you are looking for is fine little red patches on your face. It almost always starts out under the eye right around the cheek bone and usually on the Left side of the face I have noticed. If you walk around and think oh my skin is always red it may be that you are using to strong of a cleanser and then creating the patches and they are light but they exist. Or again the water in your area can be full of chlorine and hard chemicals that are hard on your delicate facial skin. Like I said balancing the skin is a vicious cycle and you really have to be on top of things and aware of what can affect your skin. There are different levels of psoriasis. From just light small patches on the face that come seasonally to red almost raw skin. Some people do not even realize that there are cures and creams for these red patches. Some products I swear by that help through all this red and dry patches are listed below. (none of these are sponsored)

Treatments
- My go to ointment (every home should have this great for cuts too) https://www.healingedge.net/store/product238.html#tab-1-div
- Arcona the best toner to cleanse your skin with in the morning https://www.arcona.com/product/cranberry-toner.html
- Bloom Effects BEST BEST moisturizer for dry skin https://bloomeffects.com/collections/all/products/royal-tulip-nectar
Now having worked in the field and given many facials I can say that this brand that I worked with absolutely blew my mind when we did these specialty facials on either a sunburned skin or someone with severe redness. If you ever want a special spa treatment I can recommend this brand, it is only found online or in spas. The brand is called Repechage and here is a link for the spa locater. You will see the facial on the menu basically described as a Red Out facial or something along those lines. Click this link here for a spa locator https://www.repechage.com/pages/locate-a-spa

They also retail the skin care line for redness here:

https://www.repechage.com/collections/skin-sensitivity-redness

A great product line to use for redness and also if you want to treat yourself and have an expert in the field work with your red skin use the spa locater to find a location close to you or where you may be traveling to enjoy a relaxing service.

This has been my experience with psoriasis and I wanted to share with you just in case you may have a similar situation going on with your skin. Just to emphasize that yes your climate does affect the dryness of your skin. Yes red little patches can be the beginning of psoriasis. Yes your cleanser that you start the day with can affect your skin (it can be to stripping). Yes there are ointments and creams that you can be using to help heal your patches and dryness. The most important factor here is that it is important to consider the water that you are using to wash your face with. I will touch on water filters and what is best for our hair and skin on another post.
December 29, 2024
How I Cleared Up My Acne (Naturally No Medication) Part 2
This post is a sequel to Part 1 about which cleanser is right for your skin type and why. This post is my personal story on how I developed acne and how I was able to clear up my skin.

How it Started

I would like to say that genetically I have dry skin. I did not realize this until I was around 18 years old. I went to the department store to purchase a cleanser and the lady at the counter did me a favor and explained to me that my skin was a dry skin type. I was convinced that I had oily skin because I had breakout. Of course I was a teenager and my hormones were balancing and I had some black heads and small pimples but in reality I do have dry skin. So luckily I purchased a milk cleanser and went about drinking 64 ounces of water a day as per recommendation and my skin became more clear. Again it goes back to the correct cleanser for your skin type to get your skin balanced. Lesson learned.

Fast forward a few years later and I relocated to the island of Maui. Now I was living in a humid tropical environment. My skin was still dry but I knew to switch up my moisturizer to something lighter due to the heat and humidity. I was living on the island for about a year and I decided to sign up and study at a trade school to become an esthetician. I entered the program with beautiful clear skin. Some of the students even complimented me on my skin saying how pretty it was. This program was 1000 hours long and over the course of the months I slowly started developing break outs all over my face. Imagine your in a skincare course and all of a sudden your developing acne everywhere. It was extreme. My friend in the course would stay after class and do extractions on me. She, gained the practice of how to properly pop the blackheads and pimples and I, gained the idea of trying to clean up my face. The reality is I learned the pain of having pimples (pustules) and black heads and watching them grow on my face. I gained the understanding of how it feel so see ones facial skin change in a negative way.

Having acne is a very emotional thing. It can affect your psychological state of mind because it is easy to become obsessed with the pimples and it feels like something beyond your control. No one gets pimples and looks in the mirror and feels good at what they see. Every morning you wake up and look in the mirror hoping nothing new develops on your face. Meanwhile your purchasing and mixing skincare brands like crazy trying to find anything that will work. On top of the fact that you want to extract and pop your pimples like crazy to get rid of them which is a lot of pain. Pain for the swelling pustules growing under your skin, that alone hurts and then add the extractions. Its a vicious negative cycle that has you mentally wondering if your skin will ever clear up.

The Extreme

One day after about 6 weeks of all these new pimples on my face I had had enough and I asked my friend if she could do a facial and do massive extractions on me to get as many pimples and blackheads popped as possible. She agreed. Now two things here, first of all when doing a facial we had to pick out the products being used. She asked me what type of cleanser I wanted to use. Of course my mind is thinking I have acne now so give me the oily skincare line. Second thing here, we were taught in school doing extractions can cause trauma. Technically your never supposed to perform extractions on someone for more than ten minutes. Well we went for it and I told her to keep going and thirty minutes later I was a red puffy faced extracted mess. I left that day feeling terrible. I was so down because you look in the mirror and your horrified to see all the pimples and redness and swelling. You feel like your never going to heal. To be honest the extractions for 30 minutes was a little to much emotionally and I did cry a little. But I was at a loss and feeling desperate.

Incoming Workshop

So now I am still in esthetician school studying and I had an opportunity to go to Oahu and attend a workshop with a certain very well know brand. This seemed like a great educational learning opportunity. So I went to the one day workshop to learn more about skincare. There was a section of the workshop that focused on acne and there was to be a live demo on extractions. I begged the presenter to let me be the model. With all the breakouts on my face I would love a trained professional with experience to do extractions on me. She agreed and I was now the demo face for this workshop on how to properly extract pimples and blackheads. Personally I was just happy to be getting extractions again. Remember when you feel like everyday your waking up with more breakout you just want the skin cleaned. Unfortunately because I was the model receiving the extractions I never was able to see watch how she demonstrated doing the extractions. However, after this workshop I was convinced to purchase this skincare line of oily skincare products to clear up my face. I bought the whole thing. Cleanser, toner, spot treatment and moisturizer.

I had hope again. But what happened? Nothing. I literally obsessed woke up every morning going straight to look into the mirror to see if my face had cleared up. Checking to see if my spot treatment for those new pimples had worked. Honestly I was seeing my skin look worse and I was getting hard bumps and my pimples were not coming to a head. I was using spot treatment with salicylic acid and nothing was making sense. (I found out later why this was) Anyways here I had invested in this whole product line probably spending at least $70 dollars and my skin was not looking any better and if anything looked worse. I felt defeated again. On one hand I wanted to just give up and on the other hand I kept doing my research. This had been going on for months at this point. This vicious cycle of trying a skin care product with the hope of getting clear skin to seeing no changes.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

After feeling hopeless and not wanting to invest anymore money on products I was at a loss. I didn’t know what to do. I literally felt horrible and just wanted clear skin. I feel like the saying it is easier to gain weight than to loose it, well in this case it was easier to gain pimples and taking forever to get rid of them. I was frustrated. Then all of a sudden during my research I came upon a more holistic brand of skincare. Their approach and concept for healing acne was homeopathic. Now at this point I was familiar with homeopathic as I had my own homeopathic doctor and I understood homeopathic remedies. The homeopathic method pertaining to skincare was way less invasive than what I had been using prior. This line is very natural and uses flowers and plants from nature to heal the skin and I decided that was the way I wanted to go as far as skincare. As I was reading up on this it all made sense to me. So I was down to give it a try. Ready to buy the whole skincare line but this brand offered a mini sampler kit. I think it was around $20 and I decided to try something new. This way I could test what I needed without buying the whole line.

The brand that I found was Dr. Hauschka. In simple terms their approach was way different to healing oily skin or break out. Essentially they have the homeopathic concept that like cures like. So if you have oily skin you put more oil on it and you will stop producing to much oil? It made sense to me as you read in my Part 1 post its all about the acid mantle. If your acid mantle is stripped then you are going to be producing more oil. I was probably guilty of this when I kept buying oily skin cleansers but the base of my skin type was dry. With this line the concept was using a cleanser that was almond meal based so you felt like you were cleaning your skin nice and deep but it was gentle enough to use everyday and then you would spray the toner on your face and in the morning you would use an oil based moisturizer and at night you would give your skin a break and cleanse, tone and let the skin breath with no other products on it.

So here I am on the quest for clear skin with a new approach which is homeopathic with a brand that has more natural ingredients. I’m all in and ready to try it. Let me tell you within the first week I started seeing the difference. I had hope again. This homeopathic approach seemed like it was working. Needless to say after 1 month my face cleared up and my skin went back to the beautiful clear skin that I naturally had. Another thing I want to point out here with skin is that everything has a 28 day cycle. Your skin will renew itself in 28 days. So whatever products you are using on day one if it is correct for you and your skin type and is balancing or healing you should see a change within 28 days. I was so grateful to find Dr. Hauschka and the clarifying day oil. Ill post link here (not sponsored) https://www.drhauschka.com/clarifying-day-oil/ It was such a good feeling to able to use the products properly and have everything clear up within 28 days. I continued using this remedy for probably a month more and then I started to phase into the correct moisturizer for my skin type and a milk cleanser for the morning and the scrub at night time only.

The way that I had discovered Dr. Hauschka is because I had been searching for natural skincare brands to work with. That is how I originally found them and then saw their concept to treating acne and problem skin. At the time they were offering a special 5 day training in Esalen California by Monterey for licensed estheticians. I was about 2 months out of facial school and I was down for more training. I had to apply and be approved to go to this training. It worked out and I was able to go and learn about all the flowers and herbs in the products and what each ingredient was designed to do for the skin. Let me just say that this brand changed my whole trajectory on how I approach skincare. I have always, since finishing my esthetician course, chose the natural approach to skincare with organic and natural skincare brands.

Conclusion

If you take anything away from this post it would be that it is possible to balance your skin. I definitely went through it with my break out crisis and I completely understand how it feels to have acne and oily skin. Skin by itself is a science and I will say it always starts with your cleanser and what is right for your skin type. You need to check in with the acid mantle and make sure your not stripping your skin and that your using the right products for your environment. In hindsight I figured out what I had done to cause the break outs and excessive oil.
- 1) I took my esthetician program in the summer months on Maui. So the weather was much hotter at the time and I was studying in a large warehouse that had no air conditioning.
- 2) I was receiving daily facials to practice skincare and it was to much for my dry delicate skin.
- 3) Add to it that we were using a steamer in no ac in a humid climate I was getting bacteria on my face like crazy.
- 4) Then use the wrong cleanser that was stripping my skin. Forget it my skin would not have healed.
I share this personal story hoping that for anyone out there looking to clear acne or balance your skin you may be able to relate to some of the scenarios here to help you in your own skin. A few years later when my life and environment changed I ended up developing borderline psoriasis and I had to figure out what was going on again and how to balance that. Stay tuned for Part 3 on developing psoriasis and how I was able to get my skin back into balance. Please feel free to comment or contact for any questions on balancing skin.
December 19, 2024