Women's Health

Five steps to get skin you love

Acne has been a consistent struggle for me since my preteen years. In my ongoing quest for “good skin” I have tried many things: from Proactiv to painful facials to rubbing olive oil on my face every night. I like to think I’ve done it all, and at age 31 I wish I could tell you that I finally have it perfectly figured out. The truth is, acne will still flare up and surprise me at times, but I do have a greater understanding of what causes it, some helpful tools in my toolkit, and a healthier emotional response to it. Part of me feels like a fraud (how can I give you skin advice until I have a perfect complexion myself?!), but I’ve certainly learned a thing or two over the years, and I hope to share that experience and knowledge with you. 

Ayurveda has helped me understand that the approach to skincare needs to be holistic. I have always been looking for the “magic fix”, whether that be a skin serum or an herb that promises to clear my acne, but in my experience that doesn’t really exist, at least not in the long run. There may be some medications or topical treatments that will really improve your skin while you’re using them, but it’s more like a bandaid you’re putting on the problem rather than addressing the issue of what is causing your acne in the first place. I’ve found that when using those medications, my acne will come back just as bad or worse than before if I stop using it for a few days. 

The only thing that’s really worked for me has been a multi-pronged approach that comes at the problem from inside and out! So let’s break it down into these different areas and how you can care for each one. 

1. You are what you eat

When I first experienced acne as a teenager, I don’t remember anyone suggesting I change my diet (or maybe I just blocked out what I didn’t want to hear). But overall I think there is much more awareness these days of the ways in which our food affects our skin. Finding the culprit can be tricky, but these are some common irritants to try cutting out: wheat and processed grains, dairy, sugar, caffeine, chocolate, alcohol and unhealthy oils (sunflower, soybean, “vegetable” oils). 

Before you close this article in disgust at the idea of giving up coffee and chocolate, know that all of these things may not be problematic for you. Check out my blog about keeping a food journal and consider doing this practice to help bring some clarity to your diet/skin link. 

I know that the couple months before my wedding I was feeling super motivated to do everything I could to have clear skin; I cut out all of the above foods, and it worked awesome. I made up for it on my honeymoon by making sure to get three servings a day of all of the above (I wish I were kidding). So basically, it’s a process. When you take some responsibility for the way your diet may be affecting your skin, you can make different choices at times. And at other times, you may want to just go ahead and eat the pizza and drink the bottle of wine because you’re in Rome and you’re already married and who cares if you have a few pimples on your chin. At least the choice is yours… 

2. Love your liver

The liver does so much work to remove excess toxins and hormones from the body. When it is overworked, acne is one way our bodies will let us know. To support the liver, increase your intake of bitter, leafy greens (kale, chard, dandelion greens, lettuce). Make sure you are eating a serving of these powerful veggies every day! Our food habits (how we eat) also play an important part in liver health. Try to eat your largest meal at lunch, and eat a lighter dinner several hours before going to bed. Going to bed with an empty stomach gives the liver an easier time performing all the detoxification work it does while you are sleeping. 

Lastly, you can try incorporating some herbs that are great for cleansing and tonifying the liver. Dandelion, nettle, burdock and aloe vera are some of my favorites. For my go-to in the summer, try my dandelion hibiscus tea to show your liver some love. 

3. Respect your cycles

I started taking birth control pills when I was 17, and even though I always sensed that something felt off about taking them, I was on them pretty consistently for the next ten years. Doctors would always encourage me to stay on the pill and tell me about the many benefits, one of them being clearer skin. Although some of the brands I tried did clear up my acne, I have come to feel that this was very much the “band aid effect.” 

Birth control is a personal choice and there is often no perfect option for a woman, but I wish I was told about more of the risks associated with it when I was younger. I feel that I turned off my normal cycle of hormones at a young age, and that probably impacted my body in ways that I still experience today. When I went off the pill, it was almost as if my skin resorted back to the way it had been as a teenager before I was on it! It never had the chance to go through those normal cycles, cleanse and adapt as I became a woman. 

Whether you are on birth control or not, you can respect the different parts of your monthly cycle with food habits, different forms of exercise, and even cultivating different mental/emotional focuses at different times of the month. You can read more about this here. Especially if you notice that your acne seems to flare up at a certain time in your cycle, you can learn to become proactive about this and take steps to balance your hormones before the acne shows up each month. 

4. Ritual and routine

Throughout my life I kept switching skincare lines, always hopeful and excited at the new boxes and bottles that arrived, telling myself that this one for sure would hold the key. I do think that it’s important to have a skincare routine that you feel good about, brings you pleasure, and that you keep feeling fresh and fun. However I’ve come to learn that many of the ingredients in popular skincare products, even “natural” or “organic” ones, are not things I want in my body. I say in my body because everything we put on our skin is absorbed directly into the body and ends up in our bloodstream. Specifically, a lot of the ingredients found in common beauty products have a special affinity to our hormones, blocking hormone receptor sites and further messing with our natural flow! I definitely felt the irony when I learned that some of the things I was putting on my skin to get rid of acne could actually also be contributing to the acne by affecting my hormones. 

So what does an Ayurvedic skincare routine look like? We start with the idea that we don’t put anything on our face that we wouldn’t put in our food! A typical Ayurvedic face wash is a combination of “cleansing grains”, which might include a base of almond flour, ground oats, or chickpea flour with other herbs, flowers or essential oils. I like to make my own, but you can also find some premade products. Paavani is a great brand to check out – I can pronounce all their ingredients and know exactly what they are, so I feel good about putting it on my face! 

Oil cleansing is another natural method that I’ve tried in the past, with mixed results. Some swear by it, and it does feel really luxurious and hydrating. Depending on the type of oil and what’s going on in my body, I think it can also be too heavy and clog pores at times, so use with caution and make sure to use a noncomedogenic oil. The Ayurvedic approach would be not cleanse with oil, but to use a light oil as a moisturizer during the daytime to hydrate skin and protect from the elements. 

Whatever products you use or skincare routine you have, find joy in it! Make it a ritual you enjoy, choose scents that make you feel luxurious and light, and feel free to switch it up and experiment. Work in a weekly facemask to pamper yourself. I have enjoyed making my own products because I can switch it up based on the season or what’s going on with my skin.

5. Love what you see 

Here’s the big secret: the way to get skin you love is to… love your skin! It may sound silly, but the way you think about your skin, the stories you tell yourself, and the thoughts you have when you look in the mirror are important. I allowed acne to be a stressor in my life for years. When I was a teenager it was all about searching for the right chemical-infused product that would totally dry my skin out, a heavy moisturizer to counteract the dryness, and a makeup routine to attempt to cover it all up. It was something that felt out of my control and affected my confidence. 

Later, when I became more health conscious and learned that I did have some control over my skin, I used that as a way to make myself feel guilty and stressed! Every time a had a breakout I would berate myself for eating the wrong thing, or go into spirals of worry about all the deeper imbalances I must have if I’m getting breakouts and obsessing over what it all means. 

Guess what also causes breakouts? Stress. So chillax a little. I now understand that while I have control over what I eat and what I put on my skin, there are also factors that are out of my control. There are lots of toxins in our daily environment, things affecting our hormones that we may be exposed to, and other mysteries that may lead to breakouts. I don’t say this to freak you out more, rather, use this knowledge to let yourself off the hook if you do have an unexplained breakout. Rather than always seeing it as a sign that something is wrong, I see it as my body finding an effective way to release toxins. Would I rather this stuff was kept inside my body? No! So who am I to say that the occasional breakout isn’t a healthy way for my body to release a little excess heat, oil or toxicity? 

When I look in the mirror, I no longer focus on the “problem” areas. I look at the soft skin of my cheeks, my smooth forehead, my moist lips – whatever it may be. I tell myself “you’re doing so well!” I enjoy the sensation of my hands on my face as I give myself a gentle massage while washing or moisturizing. I spray my face with rosewater several times a day, because it makes me feel wonderful. I thank my skin for the clues it gives me when I need to take better care of myself, but I don’t blame myself for my breakouts.