America Celebrates Another Birthday: How to Reclaim Your Own Youthful Glow

Q: What ONE physical feature is considered beautiful across ALL cultures? Hint: It’s not being skinny… A: It’s flawless SKIN!

Actors in Hollywood know your face reveals a lot about your lifestyle, personality, success … and your age. Clean, flawless, glowing skin sends the message that you take care of and respect yourself. Successful people everywhere always seem to have that clean, vibrant, and youthful look … one that exudes confidence and self-assuredness.

Eating plenty of fresh raw organic fruits and vegetables, and getting enough omega-3 fats are ways to improve your skin. And exercise! Through perspiration, your skin detoxifies impurities from your system. Bikram yoga anyone? We have been attending the classes at Bikram Yoga Danvers to get our sweat on!

There are plenty of other things you can do to prevent damaging your skin. Many of the visible signs of aging are caused by external factors that you can at least partially control. The following actions may be the easiest and least expensive things you can do to prevent damage to your skin, according to Dr. Mercola.

Avoid or minimize damage from hot water and chlorine. Chlorine in your bath or shower water causes oxidative damage to your skin. The hotter the water, the more potential for damage – because the rate of chemical reactions increases with temperature. Hot water may cause your skin to age faster. So what can you do? Adjust your water temperature to be a bit cooler, limit your showers to one per day, decrease your soak time in the bath, and de-chlorinate your water.

Use gentle and safe skin care products – organic whenever possible. Your skin absorbs it all, 80 percent making it directly into your bloodstream. Don’t compromise your health and the health of your skin by using potential poisons. We personally use NYR organic products (as seen in the Oscars gift bag this year!), and things as simple as coconut oil.

Be very sure to remove your makeup each evening. It's a really bad idea to go to bed, leaving makeup and environmental grime on your face while you sleep. Take a couple minutes to remove it, and you’ll find your face looking and feeling
younger. Coconut oil is a safe and effective make-up remover!

Sleep on your back. Gravity creates a downward drag on your skin all day. Give your skin a break at night. By sleeping on your back, you reduce gravitational pull on your face. If you press your face to your pillow, you will likely experience increased puffiness in the morning.

Don’t smoke… for your general health’s sake AND for younger looking skin. Smoking causes free radical production, which is one cause of the signs of aging. Definitely not going to help hold onto full, plump, youthful looking lips!

If you will be in the sun for extended periods of time, use sunscreen with safe and effective ingredients, such as Mercola Natural Sunscreen.

Limit exfoliation to twice per week and use a gentle exfoliator. Exfoliation refreshes your skin’s surfaces and brightens your appearance as it removes dead cells from the surface of your skin. But if you exfoliate too often or too aggressively, you risk damaging living cells.

Apply your skin care products to warm skin in order to help your skin appear healthier. This maximizes absorption. If your skin is cold, use a warm towel to warm your skin.

Never pull or rub your skin. Apply your skin care products gently, and lightly tap for a few moments to help your skin absorb them. Rubbing stretches your skin and can promote sagging and wrinkles. (Note: This principle includes leaning your face on your hand while sitting at a desk, which also stretches your skin.)

Remember: it took years to get where you are today, so show patience when expecting changes and improvements.

Augusta and Lori

PS. We will be sharing much more about attaining healthy, youthful skin at the next FREE seminar “An Evening of Free Facials” Thursday, July 28. All are welcome! Please RSVP.