If the never-ending eating (a lot of junk food) and celebration (alcohol!), some people may experience higher level of stress, over the holiday seasons took a toll on your skin, you’re likely not alone. Now that the New Year is here it’s time to get your skin back to its former glory and deal with the post-holiday beauty plunge. We know you are thinking, “How to detox my body and skin?” Here’s what to do if your holiday season brought you breakouts!
Body cleanse and detox
Fasting is one of the most effective, cheapest way to cleanse and detox your body. Here are some really simple ways to do this at the comfort of your own home and will not cost you a lot of money, and actually you may end up spending less money. I remember my grandfather used to do this every month for a few days. He said he was giving his body a rest from digesting food and redirecting to cleansing our toxins and junk instead. Now I understand how wise and progressive he was. I have been practicing regular fasting for well over a decade now and I am a lot healthier than I was in my twenties!
Fast for 16 hours each day
For example, from 8pm to 12 noon the next day. You can drink water and liquid to keep you going and well hydrated. What I do is adding a teaspoon of the skinB5 63 ingredient superfood powder blend to a big glass of water first thing in the morning. There are 3 top reasons why I do this:
- Our superfood blend is nutrient and antioxidant dense, so even when I am not eating my body is not missing out on nutrients required to repair and renew, particularly collagen peptides for skin rebuilding.
- Cleansing, detoxing, anti-inflammation and harmonizing herbs are added to our superfood blend, eg. horsetail, St Mary’s Thistle, ginseng, ashwagandha.
- There are probiotics, prebiotics and digestive enzymes to help my body assimilate the nutrients and improve gut health
Exercise to perspire
Your skin is the largest detoxing organ. Perspiration or sweating helps push toxin out of the body through skin pores. Blood circulation when exercising brings nutrients to cells, especially your skin.
If you are prone to breakouts, just remember to wash off sweat after exercising. No need to use soap or shower gel every time, because doing so you are stripping out too much of skin’s natural oil and flora which is a protective barrier, resulting in breakouts or overactive skin oil production as the body trying to compensate for the loss. Just water will do.
Give yourself some time to rest
If you want to recover your pre-holiday glow, then gift yourself some good rest through a consistent sleep schedule. The common saying ‘’beauty sleep’’, it is real! The more sleep-deprived you are the more likely stress shows up on your skin, not to mention lack of sleep upsets your hormonal balance.
Resting also means calming your mind. Try to do more unstructured activities like going for a walk in the outdoors (best hiking in the forest), gardening, drawing, listening to music, playing with your pet or kids etc.
Increase your antioxidant consumption
Did you know that the consumption of alcohol can cause an inflammatory effect on our bodies? When we drink it causes our insides to become inflamed and this will quickly show up on the skin in the form of redness, breakouts, puffiness, dull and aged skin. The sugar in alcohol can recruit an insulin response and high insulin can have a negative result in hormonal imbalance and skin problems.
And since it is a diuretic, you can lose plenty of skin cell-loving water from the body quite rapidly, leaving your skin dehydrated and dull.
So I recommend you increase your consumption of antioxidants through fresh whole foods or through superfood powders. Superfoods are known to be relatively rich in nutrients, these include high levels of vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients, fiber, antioxidants and healthy fats. These superior ‘’super’’ foods can help with boosting your immunity and anti-inflammation.
If you are looking for a has-it-all superfood product, try our antioxicant-rich Clear Skin Superfood Booster powder, to a smoothie, food or water. Our Clear Skin Superfood Booster contains 63 ingredients to provide all key nutrients (essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids and omegas) as well as cleansing herbs and gut health enhancers to:
- Nourish your body deeply
- Reduce inflammation in the body
- Improve gut health through probiotics, prebiotics & digestive enzymes
- Promote healing, repair and regeneration
- Help reduce the signs of aging
- Protect organs from toxins
- Improve energy levels
- Increase skin hydration from within
- Support immunity, stress management, internal harmony
- Provide antioxidants and alkalising greens
- Restore balance inside out
Antioxidants play an important role in removing free radicals and protecting skin from damage. SkinB5’s Clear Skin Superfood Booster can help calm the skin especially after the holiday season.
Nourish and protect skin surface
While you are diligently taking care of the inside of your body, you also need to properly look after the surface of your skin (the outermost layer of your protective barrier, imagine a shield). The best place to start on your road to skin recovery is a gentle and mild cleansing routine. Cleansing is not only essential for healthy looking skin but in fact, it helps to avoid breakouts, unclogs your pores, removes dead skin cells and removes all makeup. The catch is that most of facial cleansers on the market are too harsh, stripping too much of your skin barrier, resulting in sensitive and overactive sebum production. That is why we designed all our cleansers to the mild but effective in removing just enough of oil and dirt off the surface of your skin while still maintain balance.
Too boost your skin recovery efforts, I recommend using our Australian Botanicals skincare products where we added very active native extracts sourced from the Australian landscape that are rich in high performance phytonutrients and antioxidants, particularly beneficial for acne prone skin. Both Australian Botanicals Cleansing Mousse and Hydration Essence (a serum type product) contain a special blend of 8 anti-acne botanics:
- Kangaroo Flower: It has a superb cooling effect which is ideal for inflamed and red skin conditions. The kangaroo flower also increases hydration in the skin.
- Tasmanian Blue Gum: Reduces dark circles and is packed with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which help support the collagen and elastin production.
- Snowflower: A super antioxidant that helps reduce sun spots, de-pigmentation, heals damaged skin and reduces skin redness.
- Mountain Pepper Berry: Helps support collagen production, protects the skin from pigmentation, oxidative stress and reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
- Kakadu Plum: Richest source of naturally stable pure Vitamin C and is packed with antioxidants which helps repair the skin from UV damage and helps reduce signs of pigmentation.
- Davidson Plum: Powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant boost which feeds the skin vital elements to create optimum health and appearance.
- Quandong: This acts like alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) to help gently peel away the top surface of your skin, allowing new and more evenly pigmented skin cells to generate and take their place.
- Silky Oil Grass: Reduces oil and inflammation, naturally antibacterial, helps prevent skin flare ups and irritations such as psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema, etc. This is a powerful extract in the battle against acne breakouts!
Detox facial
A good face mask hydrates and nourishes the skin, shrink pores and help draw out impurities. It is also an excellent way to help remove excess oils (often mixed with thick sunscreens) you may get during the warmer days.
If you’re looking to being pampered like you’re at a spa from the comfort of your own home, I try our Skin Purifying Mask which contains sustainably sourced Great Barrier Reef sea minerals, Aloe Vera, avocado oil, French green clay, and lots of other naturally antibacterial and anti-inflammatory botanical extracts eg. chamomile and peppermint. Even after one use it will leave you with a smoother looking appearance.
I use this at least once a week and especially when I need to boost my skin back from the holiday season.
How long until your skin is back to normal?
If you are diligent, you can expect your skin to return to your former skin health within a few weeks. It takes a full skin lifecycle (28 days) to allow the skin cells to renew.
Getting enough sleep and taking the right measures to de-stress are also important. So, there is light at the end of the tunnel. You will be able to regain clear glowing skin in no time.
