It’s time to prepare for winter and holiday skin care. Cold and dry air, colds and flus, closed environments and stress. These are just some of the situations that will test your health, your skin and your psyche. Start now to protect your skin, hair, your health and emotional stability.
Keeping skin healthy, youthful and vibrant is always the goal, on vacation or not. The fall season begins to bring skin changes that may seem unexpected. The skin may sag, appear irritated, lose moisture, or appear blotchy. This can be due to allergens from plants and trees, environmental changes, being in more closed environments or the stress of new schedules.
To counteract any imbalances, and begin your protection against the coming winter changes, you’ll want to provide your skin with fats (moisturizers), antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and cell-regenerating nutrients. A diet rich in these properties is your starting point. Salmon, olive oil, dark berries, and a host of colorful foods called the Rainbow Diet will provide much of the nutrition your body and skin need. The same nutrients in these foods are the ones you want for your skin, too.
A topical cream with dark berries, Rainbow Diet foods, and… what? – Salmon? Yes.
I recently reformulated and perfected a serum that I came up with years ago. Contains a blend of blueberry seed, raspberry seed, blackberry seed, and rosehip seed oils. These oils contain a rich amount of essential fatty acids that provide antioxidant protection and deep moisture to the skin. In this blend I include sea buckthorn berry extract with a unique omega-7 fatty acid that provides strength and stability to skin cells. These berry oils are rich in antioxidants, vitamin E, and beta-carotene.
Like Rainbow Diet, the formula contains nutrients that provide protection and healing to the skin; this includes the powerful anti-inflammatory antioxidant alpha lipoic acid, a non-GMO derived vitamin E, and a special skin-absorbing vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate). These are dietary and skin conditioning needs. Niacinamide, a B vitamin, is added for its ability to reduce dark spots on the skin.
Salmon is the perfect face food. So how do you get the benefits of salmon in your skin care? Of course, with astaxanthin extract. Astaxanthin, the compound that gives salmon its red color, is derived from red algae and is a powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and protects the skin from sun damage (I’m talking about this for use in sun care and as part of a sunscreen). botanical solar). You’ll get the beneficial omega-3s found in fish oil from berry seed oils.
The fats, from coconut and sunflower seed oils, camellia oil, shea butter, cocoa butter and lecithin (a phospholipid), combine with all the other ingredients to create a harmonizing effect that mimics the natural protective layer of the skin. Many people, due to stress and environmental conditions, have a compromised lipid barrier and the accompanying damaged skin conditions. A formula rich in vegetable oil fats recreates the moist, luscious, smooth appearance with the immune and environmental protection provided by the natural lipid layer.
Then there are the essential oils. Repairs, restores, regenerates and relieves stress. Yes, relieve the stress that causes so much damage to your skin with essential oils. Read my companion article: Essential Oils for Winter and Holiday Skin Care and Health.