Do we need a skin care routine?

The internet has been buzzing lately with hundreds of video of celebrities (and non celebrities) skin care routines. It can consume anywhere between 5 and 25 minutes of your time, and incurs the use of soaps, lotions, serum, exfoliants, moisturizers…etc.

So you need to invest both time and money to protect your skin from aging? Is there there another way to have a fresh complexion?

Eat well

Maintaining a healthy looking skin comes mostly from the inside. You have to ensure the intake of daily essential nutrients to stay healthy and have a healthy skin. Vitamin A,D, E, iron, iodine, magnesium, potassium …etc. are a few of the micronutrients that keep your hormones balanced and support your immune system. Diet imbalances and vitamin deficiencies can lead to hormonal disruptions and dry skin.

Use a few gentle skin care products

Using skin care products, usually full of chemicals, will only further disrupt the delicate balance of our skin’s ecosystem. Even expensive top of the line brands come with their load of unrecognizable ingredients. These products can aggravate existing acne problems.

Maybe we need to use only two products and not a dozen?

Our skin is designed to self moisturize, self clean , shed and regenerate. We can lend a helping hand by keeping the skin clean, using 1) a gentle all natural wash, and 2) a moisturizer, especially in winter when we’re missing out on some vitamin D.

We can have a nice glowing skin by eating healthy, moving, and using gentle all natural soap and moisturizer. Applying harsh soaps and scrubs sensitizes are skin further and layering creams, serums and moisturizers blocks our pores. The use of excessive products disrupts our skin microbiome and keeps it from doing it’s job.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio