Sorry guys I have seriously been slacking in my blogging duties. Summer madness, getting sick, and having a total lack of writing inspiration can seriously hinder the whole blogging process. But I am back today. And I want to share some beauty tips. If you are anything like me, your skin is shall I say…not perfect. But as of late my skin has been improving after doing a little research, and trying new products through trial and error. So I thought I might share what little wisdom I have with all of you.
Tip 1. What you put into your body matters more than what you’re putting on your skin. I have a pretty healthy diet, lean meat, a few carbs (your body needs carbs to function don’t let anyone tell you different), lots of fruit and veggies, and plenty of water. Most people after drinking more water will notice a serious improvement in their skin within a matter of only a few days. And right along with this healthy lifestyle change, working out helps reduce stress, which in turn improves your overall health, especially your skin.
Tip 2. Showers are great but can wreak havoc on your skin. Showering with too hot of water, unfiltered water, or even showering too often can severely dry your skin, dry skin actually leads to more breakouts! The reason is because your body goes into oil making overload to combat the dryness, and this causes breakout. Not only does the water affect your skin, but I have found that Shampoo can mess your face up! Whilst using a really mosturizing (non-green) shampoo I found my breakouts to be extreme. The runoff of shampoo onto your face can cause further breakout even if you wash your face afterwards. Switch to a cleaner shampoo and take warm showers. I use Honest Products Shampoo and it works wonderfully. http://www.honest.com/
Number one cause of my breakout.
Tip 3. Hidden acne dangers are closer than you think. Do you rest your face on your hands while working at your desk? I know I did. How often do you wash your pillowcase? As often as you wash your face? Do you clean that cell phone off? These are all things I never really paid much attention to, but after being diligent about cleaning where I lay my face, and not resting my face on my hands, I noticed some serious improvement.
Wash those pillow cases.
Tip 4. Honey is not just for your tea. After washing my face with my face soap (Hugo brand in Calendula) I spread honey all over my face, and leave it on for 15 minutes, then I rinse it off with cool water. Honey is good for your skin for a multitude of reasons, but some of the main reasons is that is full of good bacteria, is anti-inflammatory, and promotes skin cell production. All of this leads to a clearer complexion and an improvement in skin texture. I also noticed it seems to be lightening some dark spots caused by bad acne on me. so hooray!
Tip 5. You need to exfoliate, but not all the time. I exfoliate more or less once a week. I use a simple wash cloth and soap, baking soda and water, or sugar and olive oil. All of these work quite well. It’s whatever your preference is.
Tip 6. You need to moisturize. I use 100% grape seed oil, and just love it, it only takes three drops for my whole face how great is that? Keeping your face moisturized will prevent dry skin that can trap oil underneath it and cause more breakout. So slather up buttercup 😉
You can also use olive oil if you like. I prefer grape seed cause it absorbs faster and has less of a scent.
Tip 7. You need some sunshine. In the day of spf one million and constant preaching of stay out of the sun cause you will get cancer and die, its sometimes debatable if you should go into the sun or not. Well every Doctor worth their salt will tell you that you need at least 20 minutes of unprotected sunlight during low uv index hours a day. Not only does the sun seem to improve acne, it helps you absorb vitamin D, and just honestly lifts your spirits. Of course you need to be careful with your sun exposure, but do not turn into a vampire please.
This guy is clearly not getting enough vitamin D.
I hope you all found this post to be helpful and amusing. If you have any skin care tips you would like to share feel free. If any of these tips work for you too please let me know, I love other success stories! And as always I love you guys and happy Wednesday!
Sarah Forshaw's Blog 
Great post! I love using honey, white sugar, and brown sugar for my face. Lemon juice also works fairly well to help lighten dark spots because of its intense citrus-ness, but too much direct contact on spots will dry the skin out like crazy. Sometimes I’ll mix a few drops of lemon juice with honey and use that as a spot treatment on new breakouts. I have also noticed a big improvement in my complexion since I have added lemon water to my diet as well. The lemon helps neutralize things on the inside so you’re extra beautiful on the outside! Cool cucumbers are a dream to take away inflammation and heat too.
Ooh wonderful beauty tips thanks! I will have to give them a try!
Great tips! I do some of these already, but I have awful breakouts, especially the last week or so and I’m not sure why! Eating well, changing my pillowcases and getting sun is definitely not helping. I’ll just have to keep trying.
Unfortunately we can be doing all the “right” things and still not have the clear skin we so desperately want. Sometimes it is best to see a dermatologist, and something else I forgot to mention was a lot of the time breakouts are cause because of unbalanced hormones. I took evening primrose oil supplements and those seemed to help, and you can also take tumeric supplments. Of course its best to discuss this with a trusted doctor.
Thanks for this post, I only realised I have skin problems after a decade on the pill when I finally switched to non hormonal contraception – the first year was miserable hell and I tried everything, clearasil and garnier i am convinced Are designed to help at first and the make everything much, much worse. Theres nothing in it for the big companies in curing our skin after all! Finally I switched to Weledas baby face cream with Calendula, plus their two in one cleanser and toner, and cut out sugar, wheat and grains (still some dairy in there I’m not sure if it affects my skin or ot). I wouldn’t say my skin is perfect as a result, but my break outs are confined to ovulation/menstruation now whereas before I woke up with a new boo-boo every morning. My conclusion is that unsteady insulin skews our hormone levels leading to over production of oil, which makes us try harsh products that dry our skin and make it worse. Very interested in your opinion on shampoo, I can’t find anything natural in the shops and I’m using Kereastase at the moment but I will check out the Honest ones. Really appreciate the post!
I could not agree with you more about acne products working great at first then totally messing up your skin shortly after, I tried using acne free…It destroyed my face after 2 weeks. I’m glad you found my post to be helpful, another shampoo that I have used that didn’t irritate my skin was Aubrey, I used the Rose Mosqueta version, and if you cant find that you can actually use baking soda and apple cider vinegar. You put about 2 Tablespoons of baking soda in a large plastic cup (no glass in the shower!) of water and stir til dissolved (this mixture works like the shampoo) be sure to work your hair in sections because the baking soda and water solution does not suds and go far like regular shampoo, then after that rinse your hair with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in the large cup of water, leave the apple cider vinegar and water solution in your hair for a few minutes then rinse out with water. Most people are concerned about smelling like vinegar but the smell is only faint when your hair is wet, and pretty much dissapears once your hair is dry. It may not be very conveinent but it works well. And as far as dairy goes I’m not sure if all of it is good for your skin but I know Yogurt is great wether eaten or put on your face as a mask but you should bare in mind that the lactic acid in yogurt can irritate sensitive skin and can bleach your skin. Hope you found this to be helpful as well.