Natural and Fabulous
A holistic, slow-beauty approach to skincare and wellness is the key to inner beauty and an enviable glow.
Take a slow approach to beauty and let your inner goddess shine for that lovely glow. Taking the time to indulge in your Ayurvedic skincare rituals, steeped in the wisdom of indigenous knowledge as you step back from the maddening pace of life. Here are five time-honoured rituals you can embrace to keep shining.
Ritual One Teatoxing Take time for you. Inculcate the art of tea drinking, a meditative, soothing, settling ritual. Nettle is wonderful for detoxing while tisane tea is revered for its adaptogenic properties and ability to alleviate environmental, physical and emotional stressors, acting as a superb stress-buster. Tulsi pacifies all doshas and is essential for maintaining a fuss-free routine.
Ritual Two Moments in between You’re probably swamped with micro-managing every tiny detail and balacing the various roles you play. Breathe and let your skin breathe. Use your travel time, traffic jams and waiting during appointments for Brahmari Pranayama to soothe your nerves and calm your senses. Use rare moments of quiet to love and caress your skin, and remember your skin needs feeding too. A spritz of wild rose mist quenches thirsty skin, tightens pores and uplifts tired skin and anxious moods. A daily pre-shower abhyanga or self-massage using pure bitter apricot body oil will soothe tense muscles, nourish dry skin, leaving you feeling toned and your skin velvet soft.
Ritual Three Masque-ing Celebrate the skin you are in. Masque three times weekly with botanical actives and clays to achieve a lustrous glow. A synergisitic composition of manjishtha, licorice, gotu kola, moringa and clays, butters and oils make for the ideal masque. Make your own masque with papaya (chock full of enzymatic action to exfoliate and cleanse skin), oats to soothe and heal, and tomatoes full of lycopene to brighten. Masques help cleanse and purify, address blemishes, spots, UV damage and alleviate environmental pollution effects on skin. Masqueing is meditative. Take 30 minutes, breathe, listen to your favourite music, dance, whilst these natural remedies work their magic.
Ritual Four Get the G-low! Haldi has become such a darling of the health and beauty world today! We all know turmeric is a proven antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent which helps reduce redness, acne and clogged pores, boosting collagen. I recommend adding in multani mitti, milk, dahi, raw honey (if you can get from ethical sources) and neem to the masque. It’s wonderful for the whole body too. Follow with a slather of a decadently rich body butter.
Ritual Five Avoid quick fixes! Avoid the cocktail of toxic chemicals in conventional skincare and say goodbye to irritated skin. You most definitely should not be experimenting with peels, lasers and medical spa treatments before any big event. Short-term results may end in long-term damage. Peels make your skin thin and sensitive to sunlight. Lasers can discolour skin over time with normal exposure to UV light. Swap quick fixes for quality oils with phytonutrients like seabuckthorn, “the miracle berry,” loaded with some 190 powerful antioxidants. Try a micro-circulatory oil face massage for deep cellular regeneration and collagen production with a good oil and a Kwansha massage to release pitta heat, acidity, stress and to firm and tone skin.