Surrey Homes | SH46 | August 2018 | Wedding supplement inside

Wellbeing
A Year of Wellness
There is a lot more to our complexions than meets the eye.
Our wellbeing editor, Eminé Rushton, tackles holistic skin
health, from the inside-out
Month: August
Skin has always fascinated me. I
think that’s why I circuitously
made my way from beauty editor
to holistic facialist, then back again to
wellbeing writer… there are so many
secrets and signposts revealed by our
faces and bodies and the more I learn,
the more I want to know.
Our skin is the body’s largest organ
and it’s incredibly receptive and
intuitive. We blush when embarrassed,
blanch when shocked – and we can very
easily develop skin conditions overnight,
when things within are just not right.
So, to become allied with
our skin, to learn to read its
language and understand its
signals, offers us not only
the ability to keep it healthy,
glowing and vital, but also
to comprehend better what
is going on for us beneath
the surface. From our guts
and nervous system, to our endocrine
and psychological state.
Following on from our discovery
of the complexity of the gut and its
multifarious and multi-functioning
microbiome, we are also now learning
of our other organs’ own microbiomes
i.e. the complex community of viruses,
bacteria and mites that make up the
‘environment’ of the surface of our skin.
There is a very delicate, synergistic
equilibrium at play here – and meddling
with it too much can upset the balance.
As a holistic facialist, I learned very
quickly that less is more.
If you over-cleanse,
strip, exfoliate, peel, or
even over-moisturise,
you are preventing
your skin from
carrying out its own
“We can develop
skin conditions
overnight, when
things within are
just not right”
vital and natural functions.
If you have naturally oily skin and
use oil-stripping cleansers and oil-free
moisturisers, your skin will receive
signals from its surface that tell it that it
is low in sebum. So the sebaceous glands
begin producing more. And more...
If, however, you apply a lightweight
oil to the skin (I like jojoba for its
natural skin affinity, its chemical
structure being most similar to sebum),
the skin receives the message that it is
amply ‘oiled’ and so, slows down its
own production. Eventually, skin finds
its own balance, and
the cycle of stripping/
overproducing, is broken.
Using purest plant oil to
treat oily skin has been a
failsafe part of my holistic
approach for over a
decade now – it works.
Our skin has its own
unique pH too; it is acidic and various
medical studies have shown that skin
with a pH of less than 5 is healthiest
and less likely to develop eczema,
psoriasis and acne (one of the cited
reasons for this is that several of the
acne-causing bacteria are inhibited by
acidic conditions).
This natural pH is called the acid
mantle, and it can be difficult to
maintain it. The average pH of tap
water in the UK is between 6.5 and 9.5.
The harder the water, the more alkaline
it is likely to be, which can upset the
skin’s balance quite significantly.
If I have time, I use a cream or oil
cleanser and then spritz with a floral
water to remove, or if using a hot cloth
to remove my cleanser, I wring the
flannel out as much as I can, so that I
am at least, not dousing my skin with
our hard tap water. It
might sound precious,
but my skin is far less
prone to redness and
dryness as a result.
I also like products that rebalance
and correct the pH of the skin, in
particular Marie Reynolds Dermabiome
Mask, £68 (mariereynoldslondon.com).
It contains live bacteria, probiotics and
is naturally rejuvenating. And I steer
clear of acids. I know there are many
who use an ‘acid toner’ daily and vouch
for the benefits. For me, though, I have
found that prolonged daily use of acids
can cause sensitisation (particularly to
UV) further down the line, and I feel it
unwise to continually ‘add’ something to
the skin, which then disempowers skin’s
own natural balancing acts.
Support, rather than interference,
is best. Using a layer of natural live
yoghurt as an exfoliating face
mask, once a week, will do the job
brilliantly, without the abrasive
friction of a scrub, or aggressive
action of a chemical peel. Raw
honey is also a fantastic face mask;
deeply moisturising, anti-bacterial
and brightening.
I also support from within
with lots of liver- and kidneycleansing
teas: nettle, dandelion, fennel,
chamomile; a wonderful gut-balancing
probiotic, because yes, gut health
directly reflects in one’s skin. (I swear
by Symprove symprove.com). I also take
highest quality food-grown supplements
and find Wild Nutrition Skin, Hair
& Nails, £30 (wildnutrition.com) is
wonderfully complete.
Ultimately, when it comes to our
precious skin, what goes within appears
without… so, gently does it.
Credit: freeimages.com/Ettina82
eminé Rushton is Wellbeing Director-at-Large at Psychologies magazine, and co-founder of the
conscious living blog, The Balance Plan, balanceplan.co.uk