Salad Face

Recently I seem to have been complimented quite a bit on my flawless, youthful complexion. It always seems to be by someone who uses a million and one expensive chemical laden products who want to know my secret.

 

1. I am blessed with good genes. I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do about that, but you can do something about the next three items.

 

2. I eat a healthy plant based diet with little to no processed food. Eating lots of colourful vegetables like carrot and red pepper actually can add a rosy glow to your skin. FACT.

 

3. Exercise is great for a glowing complexion. Sweat really does make you glow.

 

4. I have a minimal skin care routine which mostly involves kitchen ingredients.

 

Yup I wash my face with olive oil and finish it with apple cider vinegar. Most people are horrified by the olive oil part, but Mediterranean women have been doing it for centuries. I have always had very oily skin and so spent way too many years in the cycle of using a harsh foaming cleanser and the following up with Sea Breeze to strip every drop of oil from my skin. 

 

Do you remember Sea Breeze? It smelled like paint thinner and the fumes made me dizzy. The  advertising slogan said something about “the tingle you feel means it is working”--um, no. The tingle you feel is actually layers of your epidermis being stripped from your face. This is actually the *worst* thing you can do for oily skin because your parched skin creates more oil to compensate for all the oil that has been stripped away and you back to a greasy, shiny mess.

 

Like attracts like. Oil attracts oil. Some people with really oily skin mix in a bit of caster oil, but my skin is more normal now that I’m in my 40s so just the olive oil will do. I buy oil in a spray pump from the supermarket (I used to try to pour my own into a spray container but the nozzle kept getting clogged so I opted for the supermarket ready-made one and then recycle the container when it is empty.)  I spent a few minutes just massaging the oil onto my face and neck, in upward strokes and then rinse off with warm water and a washcloth.

 

I used to use rosewater as a toner but at £6 for a 250ml bottle it just got to be really expensive. About 6 months ago I read in a magazine that apple cider vinegar was a natural exfoliator which contains alpha hydroxy acids. How many people waste pots of money on expensive alpha hydroxy creams when all the really need to do is go to the supermarket?

 

It is important to dilute it--one part water to one part vinegar. Then put it in a bottle and use it after you’ve washed your face. My skin had never looked better and when I run out I just go to the pantry and make up another batch.

 

Now that I am in my 40s I do buy a special eye cream (but for years just used vitamin e oil) from a company called  B. that are the first ethical cosmetic/ skin care company on the high street which means I can find them in Superdrug at an affordable price. All of their products are suitable for vegans (when you see things like collagen and elastic in products where do you think that comes from? Dead animals. Yuck.) Plus they have the Leaping Bunny logo which means they never do any animal testing. You only get the leaping bunny on your product if you are approved by the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection).  We won’t buy products without it.  You can get the logo and still have what I would deem harsh and unnecessary ingredients like paraben preservatives and sodium lauryl sulphate, but the good thing about the company B. is they are cruelty free as well as chemical free. They use more natural plant based ingredients.

 

The other thing is I only really wash my face with olive oil in the late afternoon if I’ve exercised or in the evening if I haven‘t. In the morning I just wash with warm water and follow up with the apple cider vinegar. Once a week I exfoliate with a mixture of  almond meal, sugar and coconut mixed with vegetable glycerine. My skin is so much better for it.

 

If you are not happy with your skin, look at the ingredient list of what you are washing it with. Is it laden with unpronounceable words? Look at what you are eating. Is it full of white flour and highly processed?  Look at your activity level. Are you doing things that make your body sweat, which pulls toxins from your system?


from kblog.lunchbox.com

 

Food for thought.