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So picking up from the previous article
i wanted to talk about the next thing that i just couldn’t quite figure out,
Should I throw out all my makeup and skin care????
Because on one side you have the “skin-care girlies” that have a 13 step skin care routine, apply sheet masks each week, sleep on their backs at all time to avoid wrinkles,don’t wash their face with tap water(yeah, this one shocked me the most), do chemical peels and microdermabrasions once a month, etc…
And on the other side you’ve got other “no skin-care girlies” that say your skin needs NOTHING, not even face cream or oil, no exfoliation, just the skin doing it’s thing because the skin is actually able to self regulate and maintain itself.
As humans we all want to belong somewhere, and whenever I check out the first group, via social media accounts, I found my routine (and consequently my product offering) lacking.
I had no eye creams, not essences, no condition-specific serums that you could layer…
Then when going to the other side, i found that i was overdoing it with my facial spritz and exfoliating cleanser and multi-tasking cream…
And so with age comes wisdom, and I realized, that now that im almost reaching 40 (alhamdulillah) my skin is at the best it’s ever been, and not because it’s “glass-skin” or “pore-less” two terms that are literally impossible to achieve because one, our skin is a living organism, and 2. Our pores aren’t going nowhere….
My skin is at it’s best because I’ve learned to support it inward and outwardly,
It always reminds me of a verse in the quran, in surat Al Baqarah (143), where Allah says we have created you as a nation of the middle path (Ummatan wasatan), meaning, a balanced nation.
So everything we do must not go into extremes, and I have taken that approach with skin care and makeup.
(Alhamdulillah)
So my favorite things to do from the inside out are:
🍋Lemon, ginger and turmeric in any way, shape or form you can get it in your system
I do a few things with this:
1.Squeeze a lemon into water and drink it in the morning
2.Make a morning shot with 1 lemon, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon ginger powder, a touch of black pepper, and a bit of honey. I add a bit of water (just visually what looks like the same amount of lemon juice) and have it in the fridge to drink in the morning.
3.So after doing my morning shots I saw all the lemons there, and i felt like it was so wasteful to just throw all that vitamin c in the garbage! So now I take my leftover lemons, and with a kitchen scissor, cut them in thin slices that i put in a jar with some honey. Over a few days they get soft and a bit sweeter and are awesome to eat as a sweet snack!
4.I like to put ginger and turmeric in any recipe im able to, and have ginger tea from time to time
Water in all it’s beautiful ways
You don’t only have to drink your water, you can find ways to keep your body hydrated:
My all time favorite is watermelon, I feel like i have to say no more. (well just one thing: it’s 90 percent water!)
Another one is tea, which I trained myself to drink without sugar and I can promise you, it’s not as bad as you think, and you actually can enjoy your tea 100% without feeling guilty about the sugar(or start with a bit honey and work your way down) I like to think of it as flavored hot water😅
And soups of course, soups are my go to in the winter, and watermelon and lemon water are my summer vibe.
Supplements and healthy fats
Now just like beauty, the food industry also has some very sneaky marketing messages it has drilled on us for a long time, and I don’t know about you, but I used to be scared of anything that had fat in it.
But our body needs them and yes, it doesn’t need a lot, but your body needs the building blocks that fat provides.
Not to mention that some vitamins are fat soluble, so, nutrient absorption is made possible via fats.
How I do it:
1.I like to eat avocados sandwich, or toast for dinner.
2.Nuts are an easy way to add in these essential fats to your diet, you just need a few of them and they can be eaten on their own, or mixed with many other things
3.And the easiest one: SALADS! Olive oil, or walnut oil on your salad, and boom, your skin is getting replenished with Omega 3 fatty acids
4. I've also added collagen and probiotics supplements to my diet, these were originally for a different issue but i saw the effect on my skin so I continued to take them!
So these are just some things I do, that i find easy to implement, and will have a long term impact on the skin.
Now let’s talk from the outside in:
1. Face oils: Im sure this is obvious, but I do love face oils, and of course not just mine, but any face oil that is natural and has no added silicone or chemicals is a win for the skin.
2. Next to the facial oils is face massage: I love face massage and you can really see a difference in the morning, not only it promotes blood flow, but it feels good, it’s like a hug for your face and help to also drain fluid that gets accumulated, and the extra blood flow makes for plump, glowing skin.
3. After face massage: clay masks! I love clay masks, i think they are so simple they are overlooked because there is nothing flashy or fancy about them. But add it a face mask once a week and your skin will thank you for the purification and cleansing they give.
4. Face sprays: I have to say that face sprays and wudhu go hand in hand! If you have dryness from taking wudhu, then this is my top recommendation and i think this is something very unique to us as muslim women, because we are NOT giving up our wudhu, right? So let’s work with it, because it can take moisture out of the skin, so I like to have my spray right there and use it after washing to help my skin retain it’s moisture.
So these are the things I do to help my skin from the inside out,
and the outside in,
and i hope they help you as well,
Because we don’t have to be all or nothing,
There is definitely a middle path were we enjoy skin care and pampering ourselves, but we don’t let it become all we do, or let it interfere with the important things in life.
Because I 100% believe our skin thrives when we do more on the inside and less on the outside.
In the next article I'll share with you a very interesting case about the skin-body relationship that shows, with clear proof, how effective a wholistic approach is to our health/beauty
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