Clear Skin From the Inside Out

Water: Are you all tired of hearing you need to drink more water? I swear, it’s in every blog post and magazine I read, but it’s for a great reason. There are so many benefits to increasing your water intake, including clearing your skin. Water helps to flush out toxins that cause bacteria which cause breakouts. **Tip: how much water you drinks depends on each person. Stick to 50% of your body weight in ounces of water each day.**

Milk: I love milk. I love it in my cereal and it’s the only thing that satisfies me after eating peanut butter. However, after learning about the hormones, medications, and inflammatory substances that comes from cow’s milk, I decided to try alternatives. Plus, if you ever breastfed, you can sympathize for those poor cows, hooked up to machines, constantly milked to the point of bleeding and infection. OUCH! Save the cows and your face by switching to a nut milk. My favorites are cashew and coconut milks, just make sure they are carrageenan free and unsweetened.

Your diet: No matter what products you put on your face, it will only temporarily mask your problems. You need to control your skin’s health starting by what you put in your body. Eat nutrient-rich foods and avoid saturated fats and refined sugar. Surprisingly though, even fruits and veggies aren’t the most effective for healthy skin (even though they are still great for you!). Herbs and spices, such as cinnamon, red clover, tumeric, ginger, and fennel all have strong healing properties for your skin.

Use charcoal: The best way to draw out all those yucky impurities is with nature’s beauty gift – charcoal. Bioré’s Charcoal line, available at Walmart, gives comprehensive skin purifying options, including cleansers, toner, and an exfoliater. There is something about the black product that always appealed to me because visually, they stand out among the other products. Now I’m seeing why.

Charcoal draws out dirt, chemicals, and toxins to effectively purify your skin. Seriously, charcoal is so cool – is can absorb thousands of times its own mass in harmful substances, which is why you can actually FEEL the difference after using charcoal-based products.

Don’t mind me, just shopping for my Bioré products at Walmart!

Cleanse: As you may already know, I have slightly oily, acne-prone skin. I use the Bioré Deep Pore Charcoal Cleanser, which comes in a handy pump; while it pumps out black, it lathers white, and rinses clear. I love love love how this products feels and smells, and it leaves my skin with a pleasant tingle. I use this product every day, and I can vouch that it works effectively on my oily skin.

Detoxify your pores: One of my favorite new products is the Bioré Self Heating One Minute Mask. Not only do I look super cool wearing it, but it’s the only facial mask I’ve found that only takes a minute to work its magic before rinsing off. Genius!

I use this once a week to really tackle those deep impurities, and the gentle heating sensation is so pleasant and calming.

Hydrate and protect: I can’t stress this enough: moisturize and use SPF every day. I cringe when I think back to the days of my youth when my number one summer goal was to beat last summer’s tan. Why, oh why, did I do that?

Choose an oil-free moisturizer with SPF and wear it every day. People with oily or acne-prone skin often shy away from lotion because they think it will make them feel greasy or break out more. Totally not true! In fact, by not hydrating your skin, your cells are triggered to moisten your skin by creating oil, which will make you break out.

5 minute highlight/contour tutorial

Now that your skin is feeling healthy and looking fresh, you want to show it off, right? I am no makeup guru – if you’re looking for that, check out these blogs: Making Mrs. M, Classy Sassy & A Bit Smartassy, or Hey There, Chelsie. But what I am good at is ridiculously easy makeup that you can do in 5 minutes. My husband laughed hysterically when he saw me doing this makeup routine and insists I look like I was putting on war paint.

1. Choose your highlight/contour makeup; I went with a simple duo-sided cream stick, but you can also use powder. In fact, I have also highlighted and contoured with basic makeup I already had, by using dark foundation or bronzer and light concealer. Work with what you have or choose an easy to use product.
2. Highlight the center of your forehead spanning above your brows, draw a line down your nose, above your lip, center of your chin, and draw a triangle shape under your eyes, encompassing your cheek and up to the end of your eye brow area.
3. Use your dark contouring product and draw two lines around your forehead, down the sides of your nose, a bit around your jawline, and below the highlight to accentuate your cheekbones (my favorite part!).
4. Blend it using a beauty blender, sponge, or your favorite brush so you start looking like a person. I think about pressing/blending instead of wiping.
5. Depending on the look I’m going for, I may add a bit more contour or bronzer to my cheek bones to finish it off.

So there you have it- my tips to clear skin from the inside out and an easy peasy tutorial to show off that clear skin. What are your healthy skin tricks? What are your favorite Bioré products from Walmart, or which would you like to try?