How to have clear skin naturally

Everybody wants to have a clear skin, but not everyone has it.  You may have spots on your skin, or there is a chance that you may get it in the future.  We want to talk about the why there are spots on the skin and what are the natural ways to clear it.

Why are spots on the skin?

Sebum is a oily substance that is created by the sebaceous glands that help keep the skin and hair moisturized.  Sebum is a good thing in the sense that it acts as your skin’s natural moisturiser and lubricant.  You need sebum to make your skin to stay moisturized; otherwise it becomes dry and scaly.   

However, excess sebum is not good.  Excess sebum can cause spots on the skin when it is excessively accumulated that blocks your pores. The blockage of sebum in your pores traps bacteria.  The bacteria begin to multiply beneath your skin’s surface, and produce toxic chemicals.   Eventually it builds up too much and then turn into spots.

There are many factors that can affect how much sebum builds on our skin, such as hormones, skin care and the environment we are in.  These factors all play a part in controlling the producing of sebum and it leads to how clear your skin looks.

Many people likes to use strong and synthetic skin care products to treat their skin.  Those products contain irritating ingredients like sodium lauryl sulphate and drying alcohol (e.g., ethyl alcohol, ethanol).

Sodium lauryl sulphate is easy to cause irritation on your skin as it strips your skin of it's natural oils which can cause skin to become flaky and inflamed.  The use of harsh drying chemicals on your skin produces excess oil production and it blocks pores. When you dry out your skin it falls out of its natural balance, this causes your body to produce more oil in order to compensate the dryness, which leads to more spots and the cycle continues.

Having seen the reason of spots on the skins, we will want to know how to deal with it in natural ways.  Let’s see what are the important factors to naturally clean skin.

First of All, Balance Your Hormones.

Hormones are inside our bodies, but those substances transported in tissue fluids such as blood to stimulate cells or tissues into action.  It works behind the scenes yet are so important.  

In simple terms, imbalanced hormones cause your body to signal the need for more oil production, and that leads to excess oil. The balance of hormones takes multiple contributing factors.  There are a number of things that can make our hormones become imbalanced.

Managing stress

Stress affects our mental health as well as physical health.  In the busy life we have these days people can get stressful more easier than before.  The worst kind of stress is chronic stress that we may not feel it because we get used to it over time, but the stress is there and it causes hormones imbalance.

We need to manage our stress.  There are some natural ways that can help us manage our stress. Regular exercising can help relieve stress. Another effective one is meditation.  It offers tremendous help for many people.

Regular exercise helps both relieve of stress and hormones level

Regular exercising not only help reduce your stress levels, but also it helps keep your hormones balanced.

Harvard Health Publishing provides that “Exercise reduces levels of the body's stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators. Endorphins are responsible for the "runner's high" and for the feelings of relaxation and optimism that accompany many hard workouts.” (https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax)

Exercising offers great help in keeping your hormones balanced, which indirectly  help keep your skin clear.  But there is something to watch. If you work out and sweat and not shower soon after, that could contribute to more clogged pores. So try to shower and put on clean clothes as soon as you can after you work out.

Quality Sleep is Essential to Have Clear Skin

Not getting enough sleep can substantially affect your body rhythm and can then contribute to hormonal imbalance.  Your hormones work on a schedule and they like it when you stay on a schedule, too.

Sleep deprivation can have a significant impact on your hormones. This is mainly because sleep affects your endocrine system and your pituitary gland.

Your endocrine system consists of several glands that secrete hormones.  When you sleep, your hypothalamus signals the release of several different hormones.  Those hormones are related to such as kindney functions, growth and tissue repair, metabolism and human behavior, etc., well over 300 functions in your body.

As important as it is, do your best to go to bed around the same time every night and get up around the same time in the morning.  A consistent pattern of sleep schedule helps to stabilize your hormones, which benefits your skin among other things.

What You Eat is Essential

Food goes into your body and causes chemical reactions.  A poor diet leads to many bad things which includes hormonal imbalances. In particular, refined carbohydrates and overconsumption of fats can contribute to hormone imbalances.  Eating healthy helps keep your hormones balanced and get you clear skin.

What kinds of food will make your skin clear? 

The food listed below have the ingredients to help you have clear skin.  While it does not happen overnight, eating these foods more often can certainly improve not only your skin, but your general health. Everyone wants to know how to get clear skin. While avoiding certain foods can help you get clear skin, eating certain foods can also help you get that radiant glow. Here are the foods you want to have for better skin:

• Omega 3 fatty acid foods like salmon, chia seeds, walnuts, and sardines

• Leafy green vegetables

• Tomatoes

• Broccoli

• Vitamin A-rich foods like sweet potatoes, carrots, and pumpkin

• Antioxidant-rich berries like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries

• Collagen-rich foods such as collagen powder.  Collagen can promotes skin elasticity and provide structure to joints and tendons.

• Green tea, especially matcha. Matcha tea contains a unique, potent class of antioxidant known as catechins, which aren't found in other foods.

• Green juice. If you have trouble getting enough leafy greens into your diet, you ought to try green juice.  One major benefit of drinking green juice daily is that green juice is rich in antioxidants, including vitamins C and E, green juices aid in healthy skin. These antioxidants help to protect your skin from harmful toxins.  In addition, vitamin A is crucial for cell growth and regeneration.

• A whole range of colourful vegetable and fruits can help to get clear skin, such as red and yellow and pink and dark leafy greens, purple and orange and even blue.

• Adding probiotics to your daily diet also help clear your skin. A study of a number of acne patients found that drinking a lactobacillus-fermented dairy beverage reduced acne lesion count and decreased oil production.  It is a good idea to incorporate probiotics into your breakfast.

• Fruits and vegetables in general.  Fruits like banana, papaya, apple, oranges, berries and vegetables like tomato, cucumber, lemon contain good source of skin cleansing agents. Antioxidants in these foods help to slow down the ageing process that keep skin clear from wrinkles while moisture makes skin soft and smooth.

Take food supplement wisely

While natural foods are good choices, given our busy schedule, quite often we are not able to consume all the foods we need. Supplements can provide nutrients extracted from food sources that we missed. With hormonal acne, using natural supplements every day can get you to where you want to be much more quickly than food alone.  There are supplements that can help you balance your hormones naturally, which can help you get clear skin. For example, these supplements are known to have benefits on your skin: Alpha Lipoic Acid, DMAE, Chromium and Zinc, Omega-3, B-Complex and Vitamin C, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Vitamin E, Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin D.

Good Habits Help a Lot

It is important to watch your hormone balance, exercise and eat right.  It is just as important to have those good habits to protect your skin.  Let’s take a look what good habits we should have.

Keep your hands (and the likes) away from your face.

Research shows that an average person touches his face three times an hour.  That’s a problem, because viruses and bacteria enter the body through mucus membranes in your nostrils, mouth, and eyes.  In addition to these health related issues, touching your face with hands is not good either.

Although touching your face with your hands does not necessarily trigger acne, it can however actually make your acne worse if it has already happened. There are similar things like, phones, sweat bands, hats, helmets and the like. It's more about the friction from touching than spreading bacteria.

Change and Wash your pillowcase and bed sheets often.

You may not pay attention to it, but your skin touches your bedding for long hours every night.  It feels really nice to rest your head on soft pillows, isn’t it?  At the same time your face skin accepts germs from the pillowcase if it is not clean.  So you want it to have a clean surface to touch. Dirt and germs transfers from your pillowcases and bed sheets to your skin and can clog your pores and cause breakouts.

If your acne condition is bad, ideally you should change your pillowcase every night. Or, change it as often as you can to help keep your skin clear.  The same applies to body acne, change your bed sheets as often as reasonably possible. It makes a difference in keeping your bedding clean!

Facial Massage

The same as body massage, facial massage on your face helps the circulations of your facial skin.  The right stimulations make the energy flow nicely and it help restore the balance of your skin.  The right touches make the cells on your skin to better absorb nutritions.  In the long run, your skin becomes healthier and clearer.

Dr Hextall said that “massage an anti-oxidant oil in your skin at night to de-stress your skin, whilst ensuring excellent hydration and that all-important wind-down before sleep."  I use Mad Hippie Antioxidant Facial Oil.  It works nicely for the facial massage.

Wear the right SPF sun cream

A recent study in the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery shows that sun cream not only protects your skin from sun damage, it has other benefits as well.  There are at least five reasons that you should apply sun cream under the sun.

 1. The sun's UV rays triggers free radical damage on your skin. The free radicals cause inflammation, and leads to acne.  The more inflammation to the skin leads to more severe problem. Studies have even shown that free radical activity directly correlates to severe acne.  Wearing sunscreen at least 30 SPF every day in combination with a free radical fighter containing vitamin C, can greatly protect your skin.

2. The Sun Destroys Collagen and Elastin, which are are the foundation of healthy skin.  You will want to preserve as much of those two proteins as possible. Beautiful and smooth skin has a lot to do with the abundance of collagen.

3. The Sun takes away Your Skin of Moisture.  Too much sunshine damages the skin's natural barrier, which causes moisture loss. Your body produces oil to compensate for the moisture loss, and cause your skin to be over oily.

4. Zinc Oxide is Good For Your Skin. According to the Official Publication of The International Association of Asethetics, zinc oxide is a key active ingredient in many diaper rash creams, calamine lotions, mineral sunscreens, vitamin supplements and acne treatments sold in drug stores.  Make sure to read the ingredients on your sunscreen instructions before purchasing that it contains zinc oxide as opposed to chemical sunscreen ingredients. 

5. The Sun Makes Acne Scar Worse.  Too much sunlight can create hyperpigmentation.  Over time it will make your scars look much worse.

Stay Hydrated is Essential for Clear Skin

If your skin is not getting the sufficient amount of water, it will likely to turn dry, tight and flaky. Dry skin has less resilience and is more prone to wrinkling.

As water is lost in large quantities every day, you need to replace it somehow.  Drinking sufficient water is important because water will reaches other organs before it reaches the skin.  The last position in line makes it easy to be short of water.  It is therefore important to apply water to our skin and let it stay.  It will not only show a visible difference in hydration, but it can prevent wrinkles, as well.

Clear oils and dirt from skin

There are a variety of reasons why pores can become blocked, causing blackheads to form under the skin. These blackheads are made up mostly of dead skin, and some dirt.  Therefore it is important to clear oils and dirt from your skin.

How do you keep your skin clean?  Start with washing your face twice a day to remove the dust and oils from your skin. You can apply lemon to your skin, which is one of the best natural remedy with bleaching properties that help in clearing the dirt from skin and making it non sticky and beautiful. Citric acid in lemon can cleanse skin naturally.  Vitamin C in lemon helps reduce the darkness and dark spots by facilitating cell renewal processes.

Then place cucumber slices on skin. Cucumber helps the skin to be soft and stay moisturized.   You can consider apply steaming to unlock the skin pores and wash out the oils from it.  Add hot water to a bowl and allow steam to pass to your skin.  Be careful not to be burned from the stream.

Clear dry skin

Moisturizing is the best way to get rid of dry skin.

1. Apply honey to your skin and let it dry. Water content in honey deeply moisturizes skin making it soft. It also helps in removing dry skin flakes and helping you to get rid of dry rough skin.

2. Almond, nuts, spinach, avocado are some vitamin E rich foods that help to hydrate skin from inside.

3. Olive oil, almond oil, coconut oil contains anti-oxidants and vitamin E that helps to clear dry skin from face and hands making skin soft and moisturised. Apply olive oil to your dry skin for 15 minutes daily and then rinse it off with water.

4. Use moisturizing soaps to stay away from dry skin problem. Low quality soaps tend to remove moisture from skin making it dry.

5. Make a paste of avocado and use it as a skin moisturizing mask. Avocado has vitamin E and moisturizing extracts that helps to clear dry skin. Avocado extracts are widely used in skin moisturizing products.

Remove wrinkles from skin

Anti-oxidant rich foods can greatly help in keeping skin young.  You can prepare facial masks out of anti-oxidant rich foods to clear the lines from face.  Some sample foods are like:

1. Tomatoes.  Make a paste of two tomatoes with aloe gel and apply it to your skin. Anti-oxidants in tomato can eliminate wrinkles making your skin young and glowing.

2. Coconut oil.  Apply coconut oil to your skin, it fills in the gaps in your epidermis and makes your skin feel smooth. Coconut oil not only makes your skin smoother, but also it helps skin retain moisture.  Moisturization makes your face appear fuller. In addition, coconut oil has been studied and found to be an effective treatment for dry skin.

3. Lemon balm leaf tea. A study  by comparing a small sample of people drinking lemon balm leaf tea to another group drinking a placebo of barley leaf tea leads a conclusion that lemon balm leaf extract makes skin more elastic and corrects tissue damage.

Do the right skin care routine to Clear Skin Naturally

There are things you can do to improve the condition of your skin naturally. Our skin is the biggest organ of our body, and regardless of what you may have heard, what we eat and our lifestyle have great impact on it. We absolutely can control its appearance, at least to an extent.

Everyone has different type of skins and have different conditions. So you need to find out what are the right routines for your skin.  Some people may need to do almost every single thing on this article in order to get clear skin, while others may only need to look into one or two things.

Your skin is personal to you as everyone is different.  But getting clear skin is a progressive process. There is no magic to get clear skin instantly. If you have the patience you can get the best skin of your life, naturally. Develop your personal skin care routine and do it everyday, you will see progress and get better skin in the long run.