100% Natural Skincare: 5 Tips for Clear & Smooth Skin

Those classic skincare products wreak havoc, drying out your skin and stealing its healthy glow. Here are five all-natural ways to care for your skin. If you visit your local store of any kind, you’ll find a handful of skin treatments that could sound appealing. However, if you turn those bottles around and start reading the labels, these products can begin to lose their luster. When beauty products designed to be good for your skin contain as many chemicals as your cleaning products, it’s time to ditch them.

100% Natural Skincare: 5 Tips for Clear & Smooth Skin

Truthfully, you don’t need expensive, complicated formulas to keep your skin radiant. You can develop some natural methods to keep your skin in its best health. While we aren’t saying that you shouldn’t use any skin products, we do suggest that you are very picky with which you choose. Then ensure that you are caring for your skin with healthy habits. 

Here are the best ways to care for your skin naturally:

1. Eat Right

We don’t often stop and think about the foods we eat and how they affect our skin, but some powerful foods can nourish our skin. Antioxidants in berries, leafy greens, and other colorful fruits and veggies can help our skin repair itself and fight aging. Healthy fats found in fatty fish, nuts, seeds, and avocado can help keep our skin moisturized and retain its bounce. 

Some foods, on the other hand, can cause our skin to look damaged. Avoid added sugars, preservatives, and processed foods. These contain chemicals that dry out our skin and cause blemishes. The best way to make your outside look healthy is to care for your insides. Eat right, and how much it transforms your skin will surprise you. 

2. Hydrate

Dry, irritated, and tired-looking skin is often caused by dehydration. Sometimes a simple thing like not drinking enough water every day can show up on our faces, and even fine lines can become more visible.

Water can help deliver essential nutrients to the skin's surface, giving it what it needs to look and feel its best. You can also boost the positive effects of your water with electrolytes. The big three electrolytes are the minerals sodium, potassium, and chloride.

These nutrients not only help your skin to absorb more moisture but also retain that moisture for longer. Electrolytes also help to balance the pH levels of your skin, helping you have a flawless complexion.

3. Use the Right Cleansing Methods

You'd think that clean skin is clean skin, but the method you use to clean your skin is fundamental to its health. Some cleaning methods are irritating, while others are calming.

The recommended temperature of the water you use to clean your skin is lukewarm. Water that is too hot strips the skin of its natural oils, and cold water doesn’t clean the skin of dirt well enough.

It is also good to develop a habit of exfoliating once a week to eliminate dead skin cells to reveal glowing skin underneath. Exfoliate before or during cleansing so that you can get the dirt under the dead skin as well.

Be sure not to use an exfoliant that is too harsh as this could irritate the skin. Generally, there are two different types of exfoliants: Physical and chemical.

The physical exfoliants will contain pumice or beads to slough the dead skin away. Chemical exfoliants will use a formula that contains exfoliating acids.

This article on the different types of acids used in exfoliants is a good guide for deciding which chemical exfoliant is best for your skin type.

To lock in moisture, it's best to apply moisturizer immediately after your finish cleansing. The warm water will open the pores, and you have a short window of opportunity to get the moisture in deep before your pores close up again.

4. Indulge in Facials

Although facials are normally a luxury of the rich and famous, you can take advantage of these skin-pampering rituals at home. Simply use your fingers or a jade roller to massage your face. This helps to increase circulation to your skin, helping it repair. Feel free to use face oil during this process to feel super luxurious.

You can also make your own healthy masks to deliver nutrients directly to the skin. You can make these masks from many of the ingredients that are already in your kitchen. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of making your own face masks is that you can add ingredients that tackle your particular skin problems.

Elle Magazine has a great article that gives you recipes for face masks for various skin goals. For example, they have one that targets hyperpigmentation, one that will soothe and calm your skin, and one that treats acne and blemishes.

5. Protect Your Skin

You can keep your skin as young as you can for as long as you can by diligently protecting it from the damaging effects of sun and pollution. You can protect your skin from the sun through the use of daily sunscreen. The best sunscreen is mineral-based, and it contains SPF 30 or higher.

You'll want to make sure to apply your sunscreen as the last step of your face routine. Or you risk rubbing the sunscreen off while applying moisturizer or makeup. You can protect your skin from dirt and pollution by wearing protective makeup or moisturizer that forms a protective barrier from the pollution in the air. It’s also important to keep your tools clean.

This includes your makeup, brushes, sponges, and washcloths. Anything that touches your bare skin should be as clean as possible.

Be sure to cleanse your face before bed. Never sleep with your makeup on, and when at all possible, resist touching your face without washing your hands first.

As with many other areas, it's the little things that can make the biggest difference in your skin's health. You wouldn't think that simply changing the water temperature that you use to clean your skin would be so effective, but it is. 

Keep making small natural changes in your skincare routine, and you'll find that you no longer care to peruse the skincare section of the store because your skin already looks fantastic!

Author bio: Adam Marshall is a freelance writer who specializes in all things apartment organization, real estate, and college advice. He currently works with TheVerge Greeley to help them with their online marketing.