Get Flawless Skin Without Makeup — Part II

If you haven’t read Get Flaw­less Skin With­out Makeup – Part I, I def­i­nitely rec­om­mend you read that first.

So now that you’ve read STEP #1 and are ready to incor­po­rate some Flaw­less Skin Foods into your daily rou­tine, I have 5 more help­ful tips to get you on your way to soft, smooth, dewy skin.

{STEP #2} Move Your Body.

“Exer­cise” is a dirty word to many peo­ple, but mov­ing your body is going to keep you young, healthy, and ensure you have lovely skin. The key is mov­ing daily. Every­one has time to exer­cise 15 min­utes per day, and your body will begin to crave the move­ment. Your cir­cu­la­tion will improve, your skin will receive nutri­ents much faster, and you will have that healthy glow. Just get started!

Exer­cise Can Mean Many Things

• Walk for 30 min­utes outside
• Do a 15–20 minute car­dio work­out (I love doing Zuzana’s work­outs at BodyRock.tv)
• Take a yoga class
• Take pilates class, or check out Kristin McGee’s DVDs
• Swim
• Bike ride
• Horse­back ride

{STEP #3} Get Some R&R.

Rest­ing and relax­ing is some­thing we don’t do much of any­more, but it’s extremely impor­tant for the health of our skin. It seems every­one is stress­ing out about some­thing — and then their skin breaks out. I used to be pretty wound up about every­thing, eas­ily stressed, lit­tle things would worry me, blah blah blah. So below I wrote what really helped me to become some­one who is relaxed, rel­a­tively worry-free, and enjoy­ing the health and skin ben­e­fits that go along with it.

Stress Less Checklist

• Know that it’s okay to do noth­ing — the world is not going to fall apart while you’re relaxing
• Also know that’s okay to say “no” to peo­ple when you need time for yourself
• Lis­ten to calm­ing music
• Soak in a warm bath
• Read a good fic­tion book
• Stretch and do yoga regularly
• Avoid neg­a­tive or dif­fi­cult people
• Hang out with pos­i­tive, happy, funny people
• Play with the dogs, kids, or your partner
• Try valer­ian root or mag­ne­sium pow­der to calm your ner­vous sys­tem when stress and anx­i­ety seem a bit hard to overcome
• Take deep breaths — breathe in through your nose for 7 sec­onds, hold your breath 5 sec­onds, breathe out through your mouth for 7 sec­onds, repeat
• Light some nat­u­rally scented beeswax can­dles to fil­ter the air and calm your senses
• Let go of your neg­a­tive thoughts about the day
• Give your­self a scalp massage
• Read A Thou­sand Names for Joy by Byron Katie to give you a whole new look at stress — this book and yoga were the turn­ing points for me

Most impor­tantly, don’t let stress, stress you out. ;D Just breathe, smile to yourself…everything is and will be just fine because you’re mak­ing it that way.

{STEP #4} Swap Your Skincare.

I can­not empha­size enough just how impor­tant nat­ural, junk-free skin care prod­ucts are to your skin. Don’t expect flaw­less skin if you’re slop­ping parabens and sodium lau­ryl sul­fate and chem­i­cal sol­vents on your body. Remem­ber that what you put on your skin, ends up in your blood­stream, which ends up in your cells, effect­ing how they func­tion. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on. Nature pro­vides us with mois­tur­iz­ing plant oils that don’t clog pores, nour­ish­ing herbs that repair and pro­tect our skin, and so on, so there’s no rea­son to use harsh chem­i­cals and artif­i­cal ingre­di­ents. Set your­self up for a life­time of beau­ti­ful skin: make reg­u­lar D.I.Y. masks (I have some great recipes com­ing up for you that were handed down to me and that I use reg­u­larly!), buy a qual­ity nat­ural cleanser, mois­tur­izer, and any other treat­ments you may want, like a toner (try cham­pagne, too), exfo­li­a­tion cleanser, or pre-made masks or inten­sive treat­ments. Check out my Top 10 list of nat­ural skin and hair care prod­ucts — it will help you on your nat­ural beauty adven­ture.

{STEP #5} Ditch Your Makeup.

Again, same as above. It’s pretty coun­ter­pro­duc­tive to suf­fo­cate your skin with lay­ers of synethic ingre­di­ents and pore-clogging mate­ri­als when your goal is flaw­less skin. Check out some nat­ural makeup prod­ucts from Alima, All Nat­ural Face, 100% Pure, and Vapour, just to get started. And yes, they really work! Just remem­ber to read the ingre­di­ents on all prod­ucts — I have noticed many com­pa­nies dis­guis­ing their prod­ucts as nat­ural, when in fact, they con­tain some dodgy ingredients.

{STEP #6} Keep Clean.

Remem­ber to change your pil­low­case out reg­u­larly. Your face and hair are press­ing against this fab­ric for 8 hours every night, so it makes sense to clean it about once per week. Bet­ter yet, look into get­ting a pair of silk pil­low­cases so you can switch them out and treat your skin to a non-abrasive fab­ric. I started using silk pil­low­cases when I was 16, upon the rec­om­men­da­tion of the woman who had been cut­ting my hair for a few years. I’ve slept on them ever since — and I no longer wake up with dry cheeks and crazy bed head.

Oh, and try not to touch or pick your face, which can lead to blem­ishes if dirt and bac­te­ria from your hands make their way into your lovely lit­tle pores. On a sim­i­lar note, don’t rest your phone between your shoul­der and cheek — that will encour­age lit­tle pim­ples to show up in that area.

Enjoy Your Flaw­less Skin!

I know I made no men­tion of magic pills, but if you begin to incor­po­rate those Flaw­less Skin Foods into your diet and make a few more lit­tle changes each day or each week, you’ll be well on your way to hav­ing beau­ti­ful skin. In fact, you will start to see pos­i­tive results within 1–2 weeks. If you have severe acne, acne scars, dis­col­oration, rosacea, eczema, etc. these tips will def­i­nitely help you, but I will also post arti­cles in the future that are more spe­cific to cer­tain skin concerns.

To Your Beauty!
~Stephanie

Related Posts:

• Dark Cir­cles – Gone For Good! Part I
• Get Nat­u­rally Beau­ti­ful in One Night (Plus 10% Off Silk Pil­low­cases Until Decem­ber 31st)
• 8 Steps to Flaw­less Skin