For anyone who is wanting to feel comfortable in their skin, paying attention to skin care is not unusual. Healthy skin is not heaven-sent and must be nurtured and cared for properly.

This goes beyond how fresh the skin looks. Using some of the best natural skincare routines can undoubtedly help you build healthier skin that you would be proud of. 

Your skin, being the apparent part of your body, tells a lot about you. It has a lot to say about your hygiene, attention to detail, self-esteem, socioeconomic status and many other factors that greatly influence how you are perceived and treated by the people around you.

To ensure that these factors are not working against you based on the message that your skin is sending out, it is advisable to adopt a natural skincare routine. 

Do you have a skincare routine? 

Regarding a skincare routine, we are not referring to the occasional application of moisturizers, soaps, antifungal creams and/or fruit extracts on your skin. Having a skincare routine refers to a regular activity that is consistent, with the goal of keeping the skin fresh and healthy all year round. 

But how to know what constitutes a good natural skin regimen?

To this question, most people may not be able to offer a confident answer. Of course, the modern world is moving fast and you have to get up and get going immediately every morning. 

You may have concluded that there is no time for lubricating your skin, moisturizing, or even scrubbing it when necessary. Most people assume that our skin is in good shape naturally and should remain like that for a little longer until much later in life. 

Unfortunately, a lack of proper skincare doesn’t make for healthy skin. The problem comes a few years down the line. Once you start to notice overly oily or dry skin and the appearance of wrinkles or outbreaks become more common, it will be very hard to turn back time. A good natural skin care routine gently keeps the largest organ in your body healthy and happy in the long term.

If you are not making any effort to protect your skin from the harsh nature of our ozone-depleted environment, your appearance will be aging at a much faster rate than it needs to be. This is because the ultraviolet emission of the sun on unprotected skin is known as the primary culprit in aging skin.[1] 

A good skincare routine can help put your skin under a protective screen that reflects the menacing rays of the sun and other environmental factors. This will help slow down aging and the chances of unpleasant skin conditions like sunburns, acne, dryness and often irritation. 

As it is always recommended, a good natural skincare routine can help you develop a radiant skin over time. Whether a male or female, irrespective of the difference in skin texture or tone, taking care of your skin with natural products is what makes the true difference between skin that is well cared for and skin that is often overlooked to busy schedules and poor self-care. 

Of course, a healthy skincare routine goes beyond merely the normal skin moisturizing and visits to the dermatologist. The best time to start a natural daily regimen is always today. Your face and body will thank you for it down the line, so read on to find out a few simple steps to keep yourself looking your best.

Why should you care for your skin?

You may take a close look at your skin and feel pretty comfortable. Wow! You look good already, why should you bother about your skin when it looks so much better than the neighbors in the next block? Why should you invest so much time taking care of your skin when you look better than the average person? 

Beauty, whether for men or women, truly is more than skin deep. People are attracted to other people who look like they take care of themselves. The same rings true for the appearance of aging as well. 

The appearance of aging, even in your twenties and thirties, comes down to two separate processes. Firstly there is the general aging of your body and organs as a whole and there is aging caused by external factors affecting the skin.

Natural skin care therefore looks after both the body that sustains your skin and your skin itself.

As always, prevention is better than cure. It will save you time, money and health to invest wisely now in a skin care regime rather than sorting it out in the future.

Have you stopped to notice that some people are aging faster than their colleagues and they don’t seem to understand why? Well, the reason is that they have failed to care for their skin by adopting a suitable natural skincare routine.

Most of them live as seniors accepting the awful spots, acne, unbearable dryness, or even very oily skins. As each year passes, they look older with new wrinkles showing up like clockwork. At this point, it is almost impossible to turn back time. 

Nobody wants to face this dreadful reality and the best way out is to adopt a daily natural skincare routine at home, on vacation, or at work. All humans subconsciously see the skin as a reflection of inner health, well being and aging.[2] This is important in all aspects of life, from professional to social settings.

Your skin commands a level of respect and regard from the people you come across. For example, the bank cashier compared to a manual mechanical engineer that works the construction bay and pays little attention to his skin. 

When these two people are away from their posts, probably at a social party, the cashier may command a higher degree of respect and regard from the people around because of the look of his skin, which is more attractive (relatively) to his mechanical engineer counterpart.

This level of respect is awarded without the slightest knowledge of their personal worth or attributes. It comes entirely from the look of their skin, which is a reflection of their inner health, behavior and personal/public hygiene. 

Whether young or old, male or female, people find you more attractive when your skin is in better shape. You can often tell that a person is neat even at a toothless age because of the nature of their skin. This admirable skin form is not always different from the one they were born with. They only had a way to keep it healthy, protected from coarse environmental conditions. 

Aging, nevertheless, does not entirely come as a result of reckless exposure of the skin to harsh conditions. Aging is an unstoppable and irreversible natural process that everyone must experience. The appearance of aging, even in your twenties and thirties, comes down to two separate processes.

Firstly there is the general aging of your body and organs as a whole and there is aging caused by external factors affecting the skin. These include but certainly are not limited to sun (UV) exposure, smoking, dehydration, poor sleep and a bad diet.[3]

What is natural skincare?

Since the health of the skin depends on both the physiological activities going on within the body and environmental factors like harsh weather, dehydration and UV exposure. Maintaining healthy skin naturally requires you to care for both the internal body that sustains the skin and the external skin that is enclosing the body. 

Although natural skincare regimens are relatively inexpensive, they save you from high treatment costs when the skin is damaged. Sometimes, the damage cannot be treated; an example is skin cancer. Employing the less life-threatening and cheaper prevention of a daily natural skincare routine is more advisable than allowing your skin health to deteriorate. 

When skincare routine is mentioned, you might be forced to think of synthetic face masks and creams that people often show off as a recipe for healthy skin. Ironically, it is far beyond those surface skincare products and goes deeper into the internal body system.

You might feel the urge to focus on the exterior part of your body since it is what people see. The truth remains that true beauty, which reflects on the skin comes from within and without. Therefore, natural skincare routines focus both on maintaining the true beauty from within while keeping the skin complaints to the barest minimum.

Taking care of yourself and the general body not only makes the muscle and bone structures look healthy, but it also keeps your skin radiant and more responsive to external skincare products. 

Discussing external skincare products, many synthetic skincare products available in the market has caused more harm to the skin than good. Most of these skincare products are the major source of toxins that turn out to be harmful to the skin under normal conditions. 

For healthy and youthful skin you will want to focus on the basics, which are an active lifestyle, a healthy diet, and a regular natural skincare regimen. 

How to care for skin naturally? 

A simple analogy for being human is that we are designed just like a computer. The only difference basically is that we are the ones controlling our CPU, inputting necessary data into the CPU through input organs.

With this, the first and most important part of staying healthy, both physiologically and dermatologically, is to feed your body properly. Eating a healthy meal can unequivocally affect the quality of your skin. There is a mountain of research out there to back this up, but as a quick idea, your nutrition and diet are proven to affect a whole host of skin conditions from aging skin to acne, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.[4]

The fact that the first part of an effective natural skincare routine is to care for yourself from within. This makes it vital for you to pay attention to the foods you consume. There’s no doubt that in today’s world finding healthy food is like a search for goose eggs in Antarctica. It’s almost impossible to find foods that are not processed. As such, we are prone to consume unhealthy food more frequently than we may know it. 

So, the question now is how do we identify good, healthy natural food? 

There’s a simple formula to identify a naturally healthy food. Whatever you are trying to it, if your great-grandparents would not consider it food, then you should not eat it. This is because their generation was the last acquainted with natural food that processed food still seems alien to them. 

Depending on the type of food that you are consuming, skin diseases and disorders are less likely to attack you when you are eating healthily. Exposing the skin to these infections and conditions can cause a plunge in your general health. 

Undoubtedly, the skin is the first line of the body’s defense that keeps toxins, bacteria, and other pathogens away from the inner body. As such when this defense is broken, there is a high chance that the body will be attacked by these pathogenic organisms. Creams (natural or synthetic) may not be able to keep the skin in a state that is strong enough to combat these external bodies. Our only resort is a healthy feeding habit. 

Natural foods for healthy skin

Although the skin is externally positioned, it draws its nutrients from within the body (except for the generation of Vitamin D) and as such the body must be properly fed with the right nutrients. The fact that the skin is constantly exposed to UV rays, pollutions, and various attacks wears it down and the epidermis must renew itself every month.[5] 

For these frequent renewals to occur with minimal abnormalities, the skin needs the right nutrition and diet to produce the materials required to build a physiologically functional skin. Some of the primary nutrients needed include proteins, which are the known bodybuilders to help build basic skin proteins like keratin, creatinine, and many others that make up the healthy skin.

Among these basic proteins, glutathione has been reported to show a significantly positive effect on skin health focusing on the color. Nevertheless, glutathione’s impact when ingested orally is not as evident as can be purported because of its low absorption rate by the body.[6]

Among proteins used as a part of a daily natural skincare routine, collagen supplements are crucial. From recent studies, the intake of protein collagen is reported to improve skin hydration as it serves as connective tissue to the body connecting the transmission of water and other nutrients.

Also, collagen is a strong adhesive protein that is usually found as a part of the cytoskeletal structure, improves the elasticity and density of the skin.[7] This nutrient allows the body to get through tough conditions without breaking, providing a confident cover for the embedded blood vessels within the dermis. 

Although there are several other proteins that the skin would require to remain healthy and good looking, it equally needs an accurate dose of fatty acids to stay lubricated and avoid skin dryness. Dry skin can lead to major irritation and unwanted breaks between skin cells, causing passages for pathogenic organisms, poor protection from UV rays, and wear and tear. 

No doubt, we are strongly advised to take in more on omega-3 and omega-6 trans-fatty acids if we want excellent skin health. Research reported on the Marine Drugs journal has shown that the use of fish oil’s fatty acids, which is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, has cosmetic and therapeutic effects on the skin which, to many persons seeking to maintain healthy and glossy skin, is good news.[8]

Other fatty acid sources including sunflower oil, avocado oil, soybean oil, to name a few, are rich in omega-6 fats. In addition to their usefulness in maintaining healthy heart health, they give off impressively positive impact on the glossiness and defensive properties of the skin according to an August 2019 publication on Harvard Health Publishing.

Sun blocking vitamins for the skin

The importance of vitamins in boosting the immune system cannot be overemphasized. Similarly, their significance in protecting the skin from the harsh UV rays of the sun is nowhere near negligible. Both vitamins C and E have been known to help block the damage caused by the direct radiation from the sun.[9]

Vitamin C, an essential vitamin, is not stored in the body. For this reason, all the vitamin C that is needed by the body must be ingested or administered from an external source. The amount of vitamin C found in the blood and on the skin has been concluded to be proportional to the amount consumed for oral consumption[5], indicating that the rate of absorption of ascorbic acid by the skin is relatively high. To the best of our knowledge, this is good news because vitamin C plays a vital role in shielding the skin from the sun’s lashing UV radiation. 

The significance of vitamin C to the skin can be made evident in its deficiency. When the vitamin is deficient, an individual is most likely going to experience scurvy, a condition where the skin is irritatingly dry and susceptible to bruises and slow healing of wounds.

Obviously, this means that vitamin C, somehow, helps retain the moisture in the skin, blocking the sun UV ray from piercing through the covering layers. Without this, moistures keeping the skin damp and alive would be evaporated and consequently, the skin dries up and breaks. 

Although UV rays from the sun are dreaded by skin-conscious individuals, they are needed to help produce vitamin D, which also is an essential vitamin triggering a spontaneous homoeostatic reaction focused on maintaining the blood’s level of calcium and some other metals.

A lack of this vitamin D, or better say, lack of sun rays over an extended period, can cause pathological conditions. Therefore to help regulate the intensity of UV rays that penetrate the skin, vitamin E is a go-to agent. 

Because of vitamin E’s affinity to UV light it attracts rays from the sun. This release free radicals that serve as activation agents for the production of vitamin D. Nevertheless, oral Vitamin E has been known to have antitumorigenic, photoprotective, and skin barrier stabilizing properties.[10] 

Although this vitamin is receptive to UV lights, it helps to reduce the amount of sunlight that passes through the skin by absorbing more of it. Because this vitamin is known to reduce with age, its deficiency may be suspected to cause quick aging since its reduction causes cross-link in collagen fibers (wrinkles). Nevertheless, there are vitamin E supplements and they can also be found in food including broccoli, veggies, seafood, to name a few. 

When applied topically to the skin, Vitamin E is reported to reduce skin redness, treat sunburned skin cells and also reverse long term skin damage, which can lead to skin cancer. Deficiency or lack of Vitamin E, on the other hand, has been shown to cause a lack of pigmentation and skin dryness.[11][12]

Other internal skincare methods

As a part of your natural skincare routine, it is necessary to adopt healthy means to keep your skin in good shape and this can include taking in the right nutrients. These nutrients are not limited to proteins and vitamins only. There are other food nutrients that have shown, from studies, their relevance in maintaining sound skin health.

Some food nutrients that have been reported to show a positive impact on skin health, such as ceramide, β-carotene, astaxanthin, coenzyme Q10, colostrum, zinc, and selenium, work in improving dermal health by various quantified endpoints.[13]

As each day goes with constant exposure of the skin to sunlight, the skin is bound to deteriorate faster than the physiological aging process is taking it. Astaxanthin, from studies, has singularly shown its prowess in reducing UV-induced skin deterioration in healthy skins.[14]

For this reason, ingestion of astaxanthin supplements can help keep your skin from undue aging. 

Introduction to external skincare

If you have read this far, you must have understood how important it is to focus on internal skincare as a vital part of your natural skincare routine. Notwithstanding, keeping your skin intact from the outside as well is what makes your daily skincare regimen complete. 

External skin care is basically a part of the daily natural skincare that requires you to use moisturizing agents like lotions, creams, facial masks, and other necessary materials to fix the complaints on your skin. As we earlier mentioned, focusing on external skincare with little attention on the internal counterpart may turn to be a complete waste of time in the long run. 

Most skincare products are made for external use. Most importantly, we advise everyone to be careful of their choices of skincare products since most of them are sources of toxins that could cause serious harm to the skin in no time.

Using natural skin care products to meet your external skincare needs can bring you closer to accomplishing your goal of carrying glowing, healthy-looking skin. Keep in mind that a skin cared for externally without proper internal attention, may look healthy but deceptively. 

How to build a skincare routine for your skin type

There are several skin care products in the market and it may get confusing to find one that suits your goals or properly merges into your natural skincare routine.

The first step to building an effective skincare routine is determining your skin type, which will be a deciding factor in every part of the regimen. Depending on skin types, goals skincare goals vary. 

People with dry skin would be focused on keeping moisturized and more oily skin, while those with very oily skin may want to tone down the oil on their skin. Also, some people have acne-prone skin that makes them sensitive to certain agents and environments. Whichever the case, you need to determine your skin type before setting a skincare goal and then going ahead to build an all natural skincare routine. 

The second step is checking the sensitivity of your skin to harsh ingredients. Your aim is to make your skin look better and not the other way around. Therefore, before you commence with a routine, look out to confirm how your skin reacts to the ingredients being used. 

Sometimes, when administering external skin care in your daily natural skincare routine, you may be very concerned about specific spots or areas of your skin, the areas that require fixing. The third step to take is to make sure that these areas are treatable. Treatability may vary depending on the skin region and maternity status. 

Once these three primary focuses are drawn, the next step is a lot easier. Determining how much time you wish to spend on your skincare routine each day can help you maintain consistency and eventual skin health. Once you know this, all you need to do more is to ensure that you are taking care of your skin inside-out.

We know by now this means eating healthily, getting enough rest, controlling your exposure to UV radiation, reducing or avoiding smoking, and taking the right supplements. Thereafter, you can create a three-step procedure for your daily natural skincare routine from your home.

This procedure includes:

Cleansing: washing the face with face wash and water to make it clean for the seamless application of natural skincare products. After washing, rinse thoroughly with clean water and wipe.

Toning: Apply products that will help balance the skin tone making it look uniform across all areas. Sometimes, you might want to focus on areas that need fixing in case of uneven tan.

Moisturizing: Whether you are trying to treat dry skin or you are just maintaining your skin health, using moisturizers help keep the skin damp and alive. Ensure to apply one regularly as a part of your natural skincare routine.

Because various skin types may have varying natural skincare routines, we have recommended the best practice for the common types of skin.

Skincare routine for regular skin

For skins that are free from acne, that are neither oily nor dry, building a natural skincare routine only requires you to set a goal of maintaining your skin condition since this is the type of skin that everybody wishes to have. A simple routine to help you keep the skin in good shape is outlined below.

Cleansing: Using a sulfate-free cleanser twice a day will help keep your skin blemish-free.

Toning: Make sure to avoid toners with ingredients like alcohol because of their ultra drying nature. Do this twice daily.

Moisturizing: After toning in the morning and evening, you may consider using a light moisturizer with SPF to protect your skin from the sun and to keep it hydrated. 

Antioxidant Serum: You should consider taking some supplements like hyaluronic acid and vitamin C to brighten and revitalize coarse skin.

Skincare routine for dry skin

The best natural skincare routine for dry skin contains moisturizers to help keep the skin moist and lubricated all time. Dry skin has invisible cracks that allow moisture to escape and toxins to get in. The necessary components of the routine are as follows:

Cleansing: A gentle cleanser is best for those with dry skin. Endeavor to use twice daily

Toning: Tone the skin with suitable toner to rebalance your skin’s pH level. For dry skins, toners with ingredients like cucumber and hyaluronic acid are most advisable. 

Antioxidant Supplement: Highly potent antioxidant supplements like vitamins E, A, and C can be used during the daytime to avoid the breakdown of collagen.

Moisturizing: A moisturizer with SPF is the final step of the natural skincare routine to help your skin retain moisture and protect it against UV rays.

Retinol supplement: a retinol serum into your routine every evening during weekdays can go a long way. 

Eye Cream: the eye can feel pretty dry too, so applying an eye cream every evening will help prevent difficulties with vision. Vitamin K works just fine enough.

Hydrating Moisturizer: Ensure to get a suitable moisturizer for the evenings. The best hydrating moisturizers include primrose oil, borage oil, phospholipids, cranberry oil, sweet almond oil, and/or jojoba oil. 

Skincare routine for oily skin

When dealing with oily skins, the goal is to reduce the oil excretion by keeping the skin cells lightly hydrated. Adding to your routine, below are the best natural product recommendations. 

Cleansing: In the case of oily skin, bacteria, always present on the skin, leads to breakouts. To prevent this, always wash your skin two to three times a day, if possible.

Toning: alcohol-free toners are always the best in this case, especially one that has chamomile and witch hazel. Apply after cleansing.

Moisturizing: Oil-Free Moisturizers are the best for oily skins. Oily skins get oilier when they are hydrated. So, ensure your moisturizer is not adding to your troubles.

AHA/BHA Supplement: Any supplement with alpha-hydroxy acids or beta-hydroxy acids will help reduce the appearance of large pores and brighten dull spots.

Conclusion: Consistent, daily care for excellent results

Regarding internal skincare, there are many articles out there about what constitutes a ‘good diet’ but this really depends on what your specific goals are. We are focussing on what provides the best support for a solid natural skincare routine.

Similarly, external skincare may require varied ingredients for making the perfect organic product depending on your skin type, skincare goal, and your daily schedule.

Whatever your goals turn out to be, you must make sure that you are taking care of your skin inside-out every day. This not only promotes healthier skin, but stronger immunity as the skin is the body’s first line of defense.

Finally, you will have healthier and more attractive skin that is less prone to environmental and chronological aging.

References

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3. Makrantonaki E, Zouboulis CC, German National Genome Research Network 2 The skin as a mirror of the aging process in the human organism–state of the art and results of the aging research in the German National Genome Research Network 2 (NGFN-2) Exp Gerontol. 2007;42:879–86. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2007.07.002.
4. Katta R, Kramer MJ. Skin and Diet: An Update on the Role of Dietary Change as a Treatment Strategy for Skin Disease. Skin Therapy Lett. 2018;23(1):1-5.
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8. Huang TH, Wang PW, Yang SC, Chou WL, Fang JY. Cosmetic and Therapeutic Applications of Fish Oil’s Fatty Acids on the Skin. Mar Drugs. 2018 Jul 30;16(8). pii: E256. 
9. Fryer MJ. Evidence for the photoprotective effects of vitamin E. Photochem Photobiol. 1993 Aug; 58(2):304-12.
10. Thiele JJ, Ekanayake-Mudiyanselage S. Vitamin E in human skin: organ-specific physiology and considerations for its use in dermatology. Mol Aspects Med. 2007 Oct-Dec;28(5-6):646-67 
11. Makrantonaki E, Zouboulis C. Skin alterations and diseases in advanced age. Drug Discov Today Dis Mech. 2008;5:e153–62. doi: 10.1016/j.ddmec.2008.05.008.
12. Passi S, Morrone A, De Luca C, Picardo M, Ippolito F. Blood levels of vitamin E, polyunsaturated fatty acids of phospholipids, lipoperoxides and glutathione peroxidase in patients affected with seborrheic dermatitis. J Dermatol Sci. 1991 May; 2(3):171-8.
13. Vollmer DL, West VA, Lephart ED. Enhancing Skin Health: By Oral Administration of Natural Compounds and Minerals with Implications to the Dermal Microbiome. Int J Mol Sci. 2018 Oct 7;19(10).
14. Ito N, Seki S, Ueda F. The Protective Role of Astaxanthin for UV-Induced Skin Deterioration in Healthy People-A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2018 Jun 25;10(7).