Clearing Acne with kindness?

Such a bore, skin complaints.  Usually when you need to look your best, you end up feeling self-conscious and unattractive. Not that we should be obsessed with appearances, as what is inside is of far more relevance, but sadly, we do tend to notice the externals first. Nowhere is this more self-evident than our teenage years, when we desperately want to look good, are often feeling very, very insecure and to top it all off, our complexion lets us down with a wodge of red angry spots and enough oil to power the central heating system for a week (now there’s an idea..!) Most people, faced with this situation retaliate in an ever-escalating war of attrition, using steadily stronger methods of subduing the skin, with precarious results. Doctors may offer anything from antibiotics, to ro-accutane and for the lucky girls, the contraceptive pill. These do work for some people some of the time, but are not ideal by any means, and there are often side effects, not least of which is that when the medication is stopped, the symptoms often reappear.

 In my experience, the answer lies in being kind to your skin; not scrubbing it and stripping it of oil, but gently cleansing and nurturing it and healing it with kindness. Now before you throw your zit cream at the screen, hear me out a little longer. I recommend a simple and gentle cleansing routine which starts with warming the face up in order to increase the circulation and also open the pores, which may be blocked. When the face is warm, an application of Cleansing cream, no scrubbing! - followed by a cool compress, toning with Clarifying toner, and then - and this is the one that throws some people - a gentle application of Normalising Day Oil.

Oil on oily skin may seem a non-sequitur but think about it; what happens when you strip the oil? It rebounds with more! So, by adding some healing oil, like Dr Hauschka’s Clarifying Day Oil, we are actually calming the skin down, so it can relax and doesn’t feel the need to produce more sebum, as it can sense that there is oil already on the surface. In effect, your skin becomes more self-regulatory, and starts to find an impulse for healing itself.

I always advise gentle cleansing, because the scrubbing and exfoliating that most people do can seriously damage the acid mantle, as well as spreading infection where there are already blemishes. Cleansing with a “press and roll” movement, on the other hand, encourages the pores to be cleansed right down to the bottom, and if done correctly, from the top of the face downwards and from the centre outwards, means that the lymphatic pathways are being followed which brings into helpful action the body’s own internal cleansing. Generally, working with the body is better than working against it, and your skin will really thank you for respecting your body’s inherent wisdom. 

For more information, please click on the following link:

http://www.theorganicbeautician.com/treatments/clarifying-treatment