My Spring/Summer 2015 Skin Care
For the first time in a very long time I’ve included a store bought product (not just a single ingredient) into my skin care routine. One thing that I have learned over the years is to listen to my body. I’ve been doing a detox and my skin was becoming very particular and overly sensitive. For someone who already has sensitive skin, this was becoming extremely frustrating, not to mention dealing with the other healing symptoms of doing a detox. If you’ve ever done a detox before you know exactly what I'm talking about. Here are all the details of my current skin care regimen.
Cleansing
Simply washing my face with water wasn't soothing enough, and oil cleansing with high linoleic oils wasn't doing the trick either. So I resorted back to washing my face with raw honey, yet this time taking it up a notch by using Manuka honey. I actually do find Manuka honey to be even more healing to the skin than plain raw honey.
Read more on using raw honey as a healing face wash here. When applied with damp hands honey is not sticky. I use it as I would any other face wash.
No Five Steps Here!
If you’ve been with me for sometime you would know that I'm not a huge fan of the five step skin care regimen of cleanse, tone, moisturize, treat, and protect. That’s what I was taught when working in cosmetics to have five items to sell to clients. True beauty comes from within by having a clean and healthy gut. All the rest is just icing on the cake!
Moisturizing
After washing my face with Manuka honey, I jump right into moisturizing. At the beginning of my detox my skin was not accepting my favorite moisturizing oil, organic rosehip seed oil. For about a week I went without moisturizing at all until I could figure out what to do. Then I remembered a moisturizer that I had come across a few years ago that was raw, organic, and oil-free, Live Live & Organic Bee Yummy™ Skin Food.
Because I’m acne prone I refuse to use anything that is not high in linoleic acid. Going on almost two years of only using high linoleic oils on my face for skin care, I’ve no plan on changing that any time soon. Most natural and organic moisturizers that I was looking at have a mix of high linoleic and oleic oils. Well since my skin was having temper tantrums of sorts, I knew no oils at all would be ideal for the meantime.
Bee Yummy™ Skin Food is made from Wildflower Honey, Honey Cappings, Bee Pollen, Propolis, St. John’s Wort Oil, Royal Jelly, Purified Water, and Balsam Fir Needles as fragrance. The ingredients are beyond incredible and a little bit goes a long long way. This is a soothing light weight non-greasy moisturizer with a slightly sweet and refreshing scent. I've been using it for over a month now and I LOVE it! It truly is a luxurious healing treat for my skin. Although it is a bit pricey, it is the only product that I don't make myself aside from a few makeup items.
My High Linoleic Oil/Moisturizer Combo
Now that my skin has calmed down some, I have incorporated organic rosehip seed oil back into the equation. Not only that, I now add carrot seed essential oil to my organic rosehip seed oil. You can read the benefits of organic rosehip seed oil here. For moisturizing I mix a drop or two of my oil mix with my Bee Yummy™ Skin Food and I have the best combination of both worlds. This has been an incredible addition to my regimen.
Makeup Remover
In general I don't wear face makeup anymore. I’ve been playing around with simple eye makeup looks though, so I just use my oil mix to remove my eye makeup. On the rare occasion that I wear more makeup, I’ll oil cleanse with a microfiber cloth which I wrote about in detail here. I am currently just using rosehip seed oil for that as well since I'm out of organic pumpkin seed oil. Instead of restocking at the moment, I'm just using what I have.
Taking Out The Trash
In truth detoxing is a way of life. Some people detox seasonally, but it all depends upon where you are in your healing journey. I will say this though. If you are battling acne, eczema, or other skin issues, you honestly may want to look into what you are eating and how well you are releasing. I've learned that pretty much every illness or dis-ease begins with colon health. Your gut health is the most important key to health. There’s no magic in a jar alone. Healthy organic beauty products are literally just the icing!
Check out Organic Skin Care by Minimalist Beauty
Image by Dawn Michelle