The skin barrier is the body’s largest organ and shows us how our internal world is reflected on the surface of that which we project to the world. It is the boundary between our inner and external world and can show us a lot about how we navigate this experience.
If you’re only looking for that right face detox that will help you clear up your skin – not so fast. Although natural treatments do improve the overall health of the skin by eliminating surface impurities, creating habits that are healthy for the skin requires a holistic approach to long-term regeneration which consists of:
- lowering toxic exposure from food, conventional products, and the environment
- properly hydrating and introducing alkaline chemistry into the body through an organic, plant-based diet and detox teas and herbs
- movement that promotes the flow of the blood and the lymphatic system, so that toxins can be eliminated and the skin can be nourished and repaired by nutrients
- changing lifestyle habits to accommodate more rest, personal alignment, and harmony
Since this list consists of a long-term strategy that will ensure you heal your skin issues from the inside out, let’s look at how you can get started with skin detox today with a few simple lifestyle hacks that, if applied in sync, will improve the condition of your skin in a very short period of time!
And, if you find this article helpful for helping you treat your skin condition, let me know in the comment section below!
What Your Skin Is Trying to Tell You
What is your relationship with the external world? Do you have trouble creating boundaries with others? Or, perhaps you are not living a life authentic to who you really are. Our health symptoms are not only indicative of internal health imbalances, but also showcase the nature of our emotional and spiritual relationship with ourselves and the world around us.
For example, even if we have a great body constitution and eat the best diet in the world, the way we experience the world and how we see ourselves in it can impact the appearance of our skin profoundly. For example, if we have frustrations about our place in our environment, the skin will reflect this through a variety of skin conditions.
Those are just some important self-reflections when it comes to figuring out the root of your skin problems – be it acne, rashes, psoriasis, dermatitis, or even vitiligo.
Indeed, genetically weaker skin can be prone to toxin buildup and congested pores, but only if there is a further imbalance in the body will this weakness be triggered to evolve into a chronic skin problem.
But no matter what the cause, the remedy is always the same – increasing vital energy in the body through food (chemistry), movement flow (blood and lymphatic system circulation), oxygenation (deep breathing), and emotional and mental well-being.
Which Habits Are Healthy for Skin and What to Eliminate
1. What to Eliminate from Your Beauty Cabinet
It is wholeheartedly recommended that you journal what could be at the root of the problem for about a week and digest all the insights before understanding the steps you need to take to heal your skin.
After some reflection, the easiest thing to do is to eliminate all the cosmetics, personal products, cleaning products, and kitchen products in your household that consist of chemicals that you either 1) don’t know what they mean or 2) what they do to your body. This is a very important step in your wellness journey that will eliminate a tremendous toxic overload on your body and lift the burden off of your elimination organs, including the skin, to promote better health and greater well-being.
2. Foods to Eliminate From Your Diet
Generally speaking, dietary elimination can be even more important than supplementation when it comes to alleviating health problems and clearing up symptoms. Simply eliminating a toxic overload will do wonders in helping the body restore balance and function properly.
Here are the top 3 foods and dehydrating liquids to eliminate for good:
Fried foods are very inflammatory and can overwhelm the skin with their toxic overload – causing slower cell turnover, clogged pores, and breakouts.
This happens because trans fats and oils that are heated at high temperatures change their chemistry and become toxic to the body, overwhelming all the elimination organs with acidic chemistry and making it harder for the body to clean itself and heal properly.
Instead of fried foods, opt for healthy fats, and instead of cooking with healthy oils, choose to add them to foods after cooking or steaming.
Sugary juices are not only full of processed sugar, but also artificial coloring, additives, and chemicals. If it’s concentrated and doesn’t come 100% from fruit with no other additives, you should definitely skip it!
Although simple sugars in fruit are actually beneficial, since fructose is the optimal energy source for our cells, processed sugar is highly toxic to the kidneys, liver, and pancreas – and is very addictive.
Instead, opt for cold-pressed juices or smoothies. They will not only provide your body with the right nutrition and energy, but the alkaline chemistry of metabolized fruit will help detoxify and hydrate the skin from the inside out.
Alcohol is not only toxic to the liver, kidneys, brain, and nervous system – organs whose optimal function affects the skin tremendously – but it also suppresses the immune system and causes body inflammation that irritates mucous membranes in the head and other parts of the body. This causes puffiness, vein leakage, and the consequent dehydration, which zaps vitality from all organs and tissues.
Instead of alcohol, try non-alcoholic fruit shakes as a substitute. One amazingly delicious substitute is watermelon juice with lime and fresh mint; and beer can easily be replaced with hydrating coconut water on those hot, summer days!
3. The Importance of Pure Water Hydration
When it comes to skin and skin detoxification, the benefits of hydration and drinking water are manifold. Hydration not only cools down acidic conditions inside and outside of the body, but alongside proper breathing, hydrating with pure water and watery fruits is one of the easiest ways to help the body detoxify.
The only advice here is to ensure that the water is properly filtered and purified from any heavy metals and toxic substances commonly found in conventional tap water.
If you find yourself feeling thirsty often, chances are that your body is dehydrated. This is a sign of acidic accumulation and the body’s yearning to cool down internal inflammation through electrolytes, nutrients, and the circulation of internal fluids.
One of the major benefits of hydration is that it removes impurities, helps increase cell turnover, and eliminates dead skin cells by flushing acidic coagulation from the inside and circulating blood that nourishes and heals skin.
It is the internal skincare regimen that will rejuvenate a tired complexion and improve the appearance of any skin type. It will also help eliminate puffiness and eye bags, since they are a sign of facial edema that is caused by improper kidney filtration or dehydration (usually too much sodium).
Water should always be consumed at room temperature, since drinking cold water with ice can restrict digestion (especially if consumed after a meal), shrink blood vessels, and affect the hydration of the organs that naturally constrict with the influx of cold chemistry.
On the other hand, consuming warm water or hot water as tea is highly beneficial, especially first thing in the morning, as it is a healing elixir for digestion and elimination and the improvement of the lymphatic system and blood circulation.
Another great tip that comes from the Ayurvedic tradition is to abstain from drinking water about 30 minutes before and after eating, since it dilutes gastric acids and interferes with proper digestion.
Instead, you can make a calming lavender or chamomile tea an hour afterward, which will help with digestion and assimilation and will calm organ function after a big or heavy meal.
4. The Best Face Masks for Skin Regeneration
Problem complexion is a side-effect of many lifestyle and environmental stressors. To achieve clear skin, it is essential to eliminate impurities both internally through cleansing and externally through gentle exfoliation.
By doing so, both dry skin and oily skin will re-balance as the body removes unnecessary toxin obstructions and impurities deep inside the skin tissue membrane.
Before you try out these two wonderful and effective vegan face masks, make sure you exfoliate your face with warm water and high-quality baking soda to remove dead skin cells and promote blood and lymph circulation that will automatically ignite the skin detox process.
And after you wash your face, the best protocol to follow is to massage it gently for 10 minutes with your fingertips, and then apply coconut oil as a moisturizer to finalize the detox treatment.
Coconut oil is very healthy for the skin and does wonders for skin issues, and I have seen how its antiviral and regenerative properties have healed cuts, abrasions, and skin redness almost overnight!
A detox facial mask that will open up pores and absorb toxins and impurities:
Prepare a mixture of bentonite clay, activated charcoal, a squeeze of lemon, and pure water. Apply twice a week and leave on for an hour or longer for a reduction in redness, irritation, itchiness, and roughness.
If you happen to have tea tree oil, it is the ideal essential oil to add to the facial mask and to use in small quantities as a proper facial cleanser. It is ideal for acne-prone skin and excess oil treatment.
A facial mask that will help hydrate and nourish your skin with essential nutrients and vitamins:
Mix a piece of banana, a pinch of cinnamon, bentonite clay, and chlorella or spirulina to make a paste. Apply and wash off ideally after an hour!
The reason I mix chlorella or spirulina is that they are rich in essential nutrients and are excellent for skin health! They are also known to absorb heavy metal toxins, which is ideal if you wear make-up or are exposed to environmental pollution.
5. Skin Regimen for a Clear Complexion
Sauna sessions and sweating during exercise are incredibly healthy for the skin, because the sweat helps to eliminate body toxins from the deep tissues of the skin and does so by opening pores and letting the skin oxygenate and breathe.
Just think of being in the mountains and taking a deep breath! That’s how happy the skin is when it’s sweating and pushing out the unwanted toxic waste out of the body.
Both the sauna and exercise should be followed by a shower to rinse the toxic byproducts found in sweat. My recommended regimen is to have an alternating hot and cold shower that includes a gentle loofah exfoliator and a mixture of bentonite clay, high-quality baking soda, and a few drops of lavender or tea tree essential oil.
This double cleansing will not only help the skin open up more, but it will promote body circulation (which helps detoxification through blood and lymphatic flow) and help promote better cell turnover and revitalize the skin membrane to function properly.
After the shower, you can continue to nourish the skin with natural oil moisturizers. The best natural skin care products that nourish and protect are organic coconut oil, olive oil, sesame oil, cocoa butter, and shea butter.
These oils and natural skin butters are also anti-fungal and protect the skin from free radicals and pollution. Apply your favorite oil or butter every day when washing the face in the morning and night and all over the body after showering; make sure to massage the skin when you apply the oil, since this promotes circulation, nutrient absorption, and better skin function.
When spending time in the sun, my recommended natural sunscreen is extra virgin coconut oil, as it protects from long-term sun exposure. Don’t forget to wear a hat and not overdo it with prolonged sun exposure!
If sun damage does occur, cocoa butter and shea butter are very healing, soothing, and revitalizing and include several antioxidant properties, like the known skin nourishes vitamin E and vitamin C, that will heal sunburn in no time.
Final Thoughts
Habits that are healthy for the skin take time to solidify into daily practice. Over time, following these tips will help stimulate the purge of toxins deep within tissues where toxins have been stored.
A daily routine that includes dietary elimination and supplementation, hydration, as well as topical detox and sauna, gentle exfoliation, and proper moisturizing (only with natural products!) will ensure that your skin clears up quickly and that your skin problems are healed with time.
If you apply all of these methods and still experience problems, keep going and intensify your commitment to natural skin care. One way you can achieve even better results is to do a juice or a fruit fast that will properly hydrate, alkalize, and energize all tissues and organs, including the skin.
And if you’d like to learn even more about skin health and detox for skin problems from the bioenergetic and naturopathic perspective, my free 20-page guide to healing the skin from the inside out (which you can find at the bottom of my homepage) will provide you with plenty of insight into the “whys” of detoxification and many beneficial tips that are healthy for skin function and regeneration.