Proper Exfoliation and Facial Masks: Healthy Skin Habits for Beauty at the Cellular Level
– by Nadine Artemis
The following is an excerpt from a conversation that I had with Nadine Artemis about natural, head-to-toe beauty. In this excerpt she talks to us about the kinds of treatments people use on their skin and how often they should be doing it.
Exfoliating scrubs and skin treatments are the kind of thing you can do once or twice a week. They’re a real treat for the body. It always feels good to use uplifting essences such as peppermint. Honey also has is excellent for exfoliating the face. Also, try using things like natural alpha hydroxy acids, which can be found in fruit, like papaya or strawberries. These are the types of ingredients that will be brilliant for making your own products at home.
Do-It-Yourself Clay Masks for Gorgeous Skin
Clay masks and salt scrubs are so easy to make. We don’t offer them at Living Libations as they’re just so easy to do. You just need finely ground salt, body oil or just an oil, and it could be melted virgin coconut oil. I’m sure most everybody has that in their kitchen.
A great way to apply the scrub is if you step into the shower but don’t turn the shower on, then work the scrub all over your whole body. If you do it dry with the melted oil and the salt, you’ll get a very good exfoliation. Then you can use the shower to rinse off. You wouldn’t even need to moisturize after doing that.
You can buy clay for making facial masks at any health food store. If your skin is dry, add a little bit of oil to the mixture. You can add essential oils, but also you can just add a bit of a lubricating oil. That will keep the mask on longer. You can even layer masks – first a layer of clay, then a layer of honey over the clay. That is really awesome!
So to your little bowl of clay, add a bit of filtered water. Next add one or two drops of your favorite essential oil. I like adding the essential oils because it gives an activating ingredient to the mix. It helps to generate new skin cells. It’s really not expensive to add a drop or two of an essential oil. Mix that, layer it onto the face and then let it almost dry. Next just put a layer of honey on, and leave the two layers to set for 10 – 15 minutes. Honey is a humectant – it adds more moisture to the clay, so it lets the clay do its work longer. When you rinse that off you’ll feel fresh and new.
A Splash Green Smoothie Goes a Long Way
Here’s another option: take the clay mask and apply it to your face. Make yourself a green smoothie. Then take some that green smoothie – just a little bit – and put that on top of the clay. Let those two layers dry out. That combination will take longer to dry. You could leave it on your face for about half an hour.
You could apply that mask certainly once or twice a week, or even daily if you desired. It’s the exfoliating ones that you have to be a little more gentle and less frequent with.
You can exfoliate the skin gently with the oil and a quality cloth every day. If you’re scrubbing with an exfoliant however, you’d just want to do that scrubbing less often.
Essential Oils Make Change Happen On a Cellular Level
I’m always adding essential oils in everywhere. They’re lipophilic. They can go through the dermal layer like nothing else on the planet. So including essential oils drives all of that goodness into the body. From there the oils start doing other things – like working on your immune system and other things that we may not even be aware are happening, but that are all totally positive for you on a physical level.
=Because of their lipophilic properties, essential oils have an ability to penetrate our skin fat. That’s why they work well orally too, because they have the ability to go through the gums. For example, so you get all the antibacterial stuff going through the gums. So you know they’re not just sitting inactive on the surface of your skin. They’re working on a cellular level.
Have you made your own clay mask concoction at home before? What is your favorite combination of oils or ingredients to include? Share it with us in the comments below!