Saturday 9 March 2013

To go natural or not to go natural - that is the question.


So sometime last year I read a book by Dr Perricone that talks all about the influence of diet on your skin. I don't follow all the guidelines in this book. Let's be honest I can't eat that much salmon! The book did however make me think a lot about how my diet might be affecting my skin. Well not only my skin, but my entire body. I've been blessed with some lovely hormonal issues that affect lots of things, but the easiest one to see when I look in the mirror every morning is my skin. I had some awful cystic acne crop up around 18 months ago, which along with other things in my life that were going on, really shocked my confidence. Moving on, because this isn't a big sop story. The point is that I looked at my diet and made the following changes because they might help with the hormonal and skin issues:



  1. No coffee - switched it out for green tea
  2. Avoid dairy
  3. Avoid wheat
  4. Eat for nutritional value
  5. Increase intake of coconut oil, seeds, nuts and fish
  6. Avoid sugar
I made these changes from doing lots of research into foods that cause acne and how to lower inflammation in the body. It was also important to focus on stabilising blood sugar levels which are tightly interwoven with hormone imbalances. All these changes have really cleaned up my diet and I'm really conscious of what I put in my body now and have started moving toward eating a lot of organic foods and shopping at farmer's markets. My skin has made a massive turn around and is much clearer with less redness.

A natural progression from this is the question about whether I should be cleaning up my skincare too? I've already swapped out all products containing sulphates because I've found they were the key to my flaky irritated skin on both my face and body. For my face I don't use anything that foams, even natural based cleansers and I haven't had any issues with sensitivity since. I have a couple of apprehensions with natural skincare. Firstly, I haven't found any natural moisturisers that are as cosmetically elegant as the ones I currently use. Secondly, I wonder that us humans didn't go through our evolutionary process rubbing all this junk on our skin, natural or not natural, so does it really make a difference? And lastly, just how effective will they be at keeping my skin clear?

Just some Sunday afternoon musings... I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts. Please share!

What do you think of natural skincare? Have you found any amazing products (particularly for combination, acne-prone skin like mine)? 



8 comments:

  1. I only use natural skincare and I must say that I love it! I cringe whenever I think about all those chemicals that I use to put on my skin. D:
    I have super oily acne prone skin, and I'm still searching for the perfect products, but I do think I've found some gems along the way. The Jojoba Company Blemish Control Serum and Spot On Pimple Control work wonders! I'm also thinking of getting the Redness Reducing Balm when my current MooGoo Moisturiser runs out.
    I also use the MooGoo Milky Wash as a face cleanser and love it! It's not harsh at all and doesn't irritate my skin one bit. :)))
    I'm interested in trying some jojoba oil, as I heard that it can help regulate sebum production. I've also heard that it can do wonders for acne. Neem oil is also suppose to be very good at clearing acne and balancing oily skin.
    I recently tried a Dead Sea Mud Mask from Yoh, and noticed that they have an acne line, might be worth trying it out. The mud mask is amazing!
    Hope this helped a little, would love to hear some of the products that you've tried out! (: x

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    1. I really like the moogoo milky wash as a hand wash. I find it too stripping for my face. I'm really interested in trying out some jojoba oil. I do like to add a bit of rosehip oil to my skin when it's dry too!

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  2. This is a great post! Diet definitely has a lot to do with your skin, and I also avoid dairy, gluten and sugar wherever possible. It makes such a difference.

    My skin is mostly dry so what works for me might not work for you. But, some of my favourite more natural skincare products are the Sukin Purifying Clay Mask, apple cider vinegar (as spot treatment or toner), bentonite clay masks, coconut oil (as body moisturiser) and rosehip oil. There are so many products marketed as 'natural' these days (when they're not) so it takes a lot of researching to find good ones!

    Sorry this is such an essay - this topic really interests me though! Keep us posted with any new discoveries :)

    xx

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    1. I know exactly what you mean! I find most things named "natural" are full of chemicals still and really don't read that different to a non-natural moisturiser. Yep I'm that crazy lady spending an hour in the shop reading labels....

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  3. Sorry, I forgot to write this in my previous comment! JOI Pure, Miessence and Mukti Botanicals are all Australian brands that make natural skin care products. I'd love to try them our but haven't gotten round to it. They all have products lines for combination/oily and acne prone skin. (: x

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  4. Wow, good on you if you can do these things!

    I have often thought that I should cut down or swap sugars/dairy/coffee but I do enjoy them so much, it'd be so difficult to cut them out completely!

    xx

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    1. It's really not as hard as you'd think! I used to be a can't get out of bed without my coffee kind of person, but found it really easy to switch to green tea. I've probably only had 2 coffees in 6 months. Dairy was also easy. I still treat myself to a bit of cheese or ice cream, but only once a week or so. I've just replaced them with new foods that I really enjoy.

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  5. i LOVE natural stuff! although I have dry skin, I always hear about how good it is for oilier skin types as well :)
    With your point about humans rubbing stuff on our skin, I thought we did! Like cleopatra or when you hear of other cultures swearing by coconut oil for generations or something.. I clearly don't know what I'm talking about :P
    There are some great high end/nice looking natural brands, maybe a take a look at naturisimo.com? free shipping too! (Sorry for sounding like an ad!)

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