5 Simple Steps to Flawless Skin

Wouldn’t you love to have beautiful, soft, supple and resilient skin?

The sad truth is that we often wake up in the morning and our skin looks exactly the opposite – pale, rather greyish and dry. Some of us might even be suffering from more serious skin conditions like eczema, rosacea, itchy, or flaky skin.

Healthy skin is skin that is functioning properly, which means that it should feel moist, soft, supple and resilient. Skin is however a window to our health and if we are feeling unwell, it is our skin that always tells the story. When we are feeling under the weather, being stressed and in particular are not eating properly – our skin will show!

What do I mean by saying that our skin is only healthy and beautiful if it is working properly? It basically means that we need to eliminate waste efficiently, digest food and transport nutrients around the body. This also means that our genes are not only responsible for lovely skin, but that we have to actively care for it and possible make changes to our lifestyle, diet, emotions etc in order to achieve this.

By ensuring that our skin is healthy and in the best possible condition, we do not only improve our overall health, but also our emotional state. Having beautiful skin will also boost our confidence and overall happiness.

The good news is that we can all achieve that by just following a few simple steps and making a few changes to our diet and lifestyle.

The even better news is that following these simple guidelines will not only improve our physical appearance, but will also improve our general health at the same time.

Step 1: Eat more greens and become more alkaline

We have written several times before about the acid/alkaline diet and how important it is to improve our health. Eating healthily and becoming more alkaline also has a great impact on our skin condition.
An important step for beautiful skin involves ‘green foods’ and drinks that have an alkalising effect on the body, and avoiding acid-forming foods.

The core problem is that there is a myriad of acid-forming foods and when our body tries to continuously counteract these acids in order to stay alkaline, the acids almost become like poison. The worst acidic foods are all types of meat, dairy products, alcoholic drinks, coffee, vinegar, pickles and generally all high-sugar and white-flour products.

This does not mean that you have to cut out these foods completely; however they should only be eaten in moderation and should literally be seen as a ‘special treat’. Dr Young, one of the most well known researchers in the field of alkalising, states as a general rule that your diet should consist to 70-80% of alkalising foods and only 20-30% of acidifying foods.

Foods which have an alkalising effect on the body are mostly all green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, peppers, courgettes, beans just to name a few and low-sugar fruits, sprouts, grains and healthy fats.

Step 2: Eat moisturising foods

If we want to have supple and glowing skin then it is very important to include fats in our diet, which moisturise our skin from inside out. There are good and bad fats and we obviously want to consume the good fats. These are the so-called essential-fatty acids (EFAs), which are a subcategory of polyunsaturated fats.

Omega 3 is particularly good for healthy skin and can be abundantly found in freshwater fish, oily fish, nuts, flaxseeds, and green vegetables.

If you have dry skin or skin disorders like rosacea then you should be taking an oil blend which contains Omega 3s like fish oils or flax/linseed oil if you are Vegetarian or Vegan.

Omegas 6 are very good acid neutralisers and are also well known to improve the condition of hair, nails and skin. They decrease inflammations and improve skin moisture. Omega 6s can be found in nuts like walnuts, flaxseeds, fish and leafy greens.

Both the Omega 3s and 6s do not only improve your skin’s condition, but are also highly alkalising and have a great number of other health benefits like building cell membranes, lubricate joints and the improvement of lymphatic and blood circulation.

You should generally avoid saturated fats in meat, dairy and fried foods, as they can cause inflammation, dry skin, eczema and acne.

Step 3: Keep your body hydrated

Water is the most important thing to become and stay healthy. Keeping your body properly hydrated is also one of the key things to have a healthy, supple and moist skin. Most people drink far too less and their body and skin get dehydrated.

You can see if your body is dehydrated, as your skin becomes dry, itchy and flaky. We generally recommend drinking anything between 2-4 litres a day. It is also very important to drink pure and alkaline water, which has a ph level of around 9.5.

The easiest way of achieving this, is by adding ‘pH alkalising drops’ to the water, as they restructure the water and make it more alkaline.

Liberal amounts alkaline water in conjunction with a good diet, will gently remove the acids from your body.

Step 4: Take alkalising supplements to support a healthy diet

As I have explained in Step 1, a healthy and balanced diet is really important for your overall health and therefore also essential for beautiful and healthy skin.

In addition to eating lots of fresh and alkalising foods we also recommend to take core alkalising supplements, which will also improve your skin’s condition.

These are the core ones we would recommend:

1. ‘Green drink’ – This is a mixture of green vegetables, grasses, sprouts and grains. Their regular intake is a great way to create an optimum acid/alkaline balance. They help to neutralise the acids in the body and can increase your energy levels. Our recommended green drink is Doc Broc from Dr Young.
2. pH water drops – They are a combination of highly alkalising minerals, that restructure the water and raise the alkalinity of the water. We have an extensive article on alkaline water here and definitely recommend the PuripHy pH Drops
3. A good oil blend packed with Omega 3s and 6s – We recommend a high quality oil blend like flax/linseed oil, fish oil or an oil blend like the ‘Udo’s Choice Ultimate Oil Blend’, which has the ideal ratio of Omega 3,6 and 9s.
4. Montmorillonite Clay – A high quality clay product is very good for the skin, as it helps to absorb acidic residues on the skin. It can be taken internally or externally. By using it as a face mask the clay helps to neutralise external (skin) toxicity. Again Dr Young’s Terra pHirma is by far the best clay on the market

Step 5: Dry skin brushing, shower baths and alkalising baths

Dry Skin Brushing:

This is a fantastic technique to stimulate your metabolism and organism, brush off all the external acids and get beautiful and soft skin at the same time.

Generally dry skin brushing stimulates the organism, helps against feeling of sluggishness and strengthens the immune system.

You will need two skin brushes with natural brittle to get the full effects.

Here are some basic techniques:

1. Stand up straight and brush in long rhythmic movements your calves from foot to knee.
2. Sit down on a stool and brush your feet Inc your foot soles, your knee joints and with circular movements the upper thighs, hip and spine area.
3. Firstly brush the right, then the left arm. You start at the back of your hand, go over the under- and the outer side of the upper arm and up in circular movements over your shoulder joints. After that you brush the inside of the hands and the inner side of the arms up to the armpits.

Click here to buy a skin brush.

Shower baths:

Taking a shower bath is a fantastic way of revitalising your organism and get firm and soft skin. It is best to start the day with a warm shower, so that your body is warmed up. At the end you should shower yourself with cold water.

It is really important to start with your feet and calves and then slowly make your way up to the upper body. Leave out your back.

Afterwards it is important to rest covered for about 10 minutes. This shower bath will make you really awake and also strengthens your immune system.

Alkalising baths:

If you have not got the time or money to spend for a whole ‘spa day’ then reward yourself and your skin with an alkalising bath. Alkaline concentrated bath salts help stimulate your skin’s natural oils and at the same time cleanse the skin, making it perfectly supple.

You should bathe at least 20 minutes. The alkaline minerals eliminate excess acids via the skin, which feels soft and silky afterwards. The alkaline bath is most effective in the evening and you should go to sleep straight afterwards.

Click here to see our range of alkaline bath salts

Sound Good?

All of these simple steps above have shown that having beautiful and healthy skin is something all of us can achieve.

I think the core message is that you will get the best results by combining all the different guidelines and by incorporating them into your lifestyle and daily schedule.

It might require a bit of change to your daily routine, but the end results will make it all worthwhile … don’t we all dream of beautiful, soft, glowing and supple skin?!