Skin Care Secrets: How to Make Skin Glow Naturally
There is a lot of information going around about how to make your skin glow naturally. These are the top tried and tested tips and tricks to help make your skin look more plump, radiant, and youthful than ever before.
Disclaimer: Nothing on this site should be taken as medical advice. It solely is the authors opinion. Please see the disclaimer page for more information linked here.
Diet to make skin glow naturally
Stay hydrated
One of the best ways to get glowing skin, is to keep hydrated. At this point, you may be thinking, ‘I am staying hydrated, I drink a lot!’ This may be the case. However, what we don’t realise is that tea and coffee does not really count towards how hydrated we are. Anything caffeinated can, in fact, dehydrate our body. Consequently, making our skin look dull and tired. As well as making our face look puffy.
So, ask yourself this question, ‘How much water am I actually consuming?’
The average adult needs to consume between 6-8 glasses of water daily. As a matter of fact, the best way to stay hydrated is through drinking water. Not to mention, water is cheap and it contains no calories, which is a bonus if you are trying to lose weight!
If you dislike the taste of plain water, then you can always add in slices of fruit to spruce it up a little. My favourite combination is lemon slices in water. In addition to it being very refreshing, it has extra health benefits too!
Just to list a few, lemon water can improve digestion, protect against anaemia, support your heart health, and prevent kidney stones.
Or, you could add in some no-added-sugar squash to your water. Another great option is decaffeinated fruit or green tea. Once the tea bags have cooled down, they can also be used to lay on the eyes. Straightaway you’ll be able to see eye bags visibly reduce.
Fruit and vegetables
There are many benefits to adding fruit and vegetables into your diet to help make your skin glow naturally. In fact, they are full of nutrients and antioxidants. Some examples of these include: berries, pomegranate, plums, green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cucumber, and beetroot.
What are antioxidants and why are they so important?
Overall, antioxidants help protect your skin against free radicals. In other words, free radicals are molecules in our environment that damages our skin. They come from the air such as cigarette smoke, pollutants, and other chemicals. Subsequently, exposure to these are harmful and they damage the collagen in our skin by clinging to it, which weakens the elasticity.
Therefore, it is so important to have fruit and vegetables in your diet that are high in antioxidants. As I have noted, these helps with collagen production which makes the skin look more plump and youthful. As well as preventing fine lines and wrinkles, brightening the skin, and calming down irritation. Giving you a more youthful appearance overall. And making your skin glow naturally.
Vitamins are other antioxidants that help skin glow naturally
Vitamin A
Benefits of Vitamin A for naturally glowing skin
Vitamin A helps in the production of healthy skin cell production. What’s more, is it also stimulates the cell production of fibroblasts. These fibroblasts are important as they are responsible for developing skin tissue, deep in the layers in the skin, that keeps your skin firm and healthy. With this in mind, in turn, this helps reduce the appearance of wrinkles and sagging.
Simultaneously, vitamin A builds up the outer layer of the skin preventing skin infections, bacteria and free radicals like pollutions. Another benefit of vitamin A to make skin glow naturally, is it can help treat skin conditions such as eczema, acne, and rosacea just to name a few.
How to Use vitamin A for glowing skin
You can find vitamin A in the likes of retinol serums or creams. Vitamin A is basically a stronger form of retinol. When applied directly to the skin, over time, it reduces hyperpigmentation, the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and protects against sun damage.
Another great way to use vitamin A is through supplements. You can get these over the counter at your local supermarket or drugstore. All in all a great option if you have a vitamin a deficiency or not consuming enough foods with vitamin a in.
You can get vitamin A tablets here from Boots, or Amazon. Please check with your doctor before taking these supplements in case it interferes with any other medication you’re taking.
Above all, one of the best ways to get vitamin A is through eating foods rich in vitamin A. This can be found in cheese, eggs, oily fish, milk, yoghurt, as well as some vegetables and fruit. E.g. spinach, sweet potato, carrots, papaya, mango, and apricots.
Vitamin C
Benefits of Vitamin C for naturally glowing skin
The first benefit of using Vitamin C is that it is great for improving skin texture, and renewing skin cells. Furthermore, it protects skin cells by making collagen which makes the skin look more youthful and plump. Consequently, this is good for people suffering with acne as vitamin C helps in the healing process of wounds.
Having a lack of vitamin C in your diet can cause a deficiency commonly known as scurvy. For more guidance, visit the NHS website here.
With this in mind, vitamin C is very important to regularly include in your diet.
How to use Vitamin c for glowing skin
Without a doubt, one of the best ways to use vitamin C is through your diet. In fact, vitamin C can easily be found in a variety of fruit and vegetables. Such as citrus fruit, peppers, strawberries, potatoes, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, just to name a few.
Vitamin C is also found in serums. A serum is a great way of getting vitamin c directly into the skin. Apply a small amount on your fingers and rub it on your face.
A great vitamin C serum is the Garnier 3.5% vitamin C, niacinamide, salicylic acid, brightening and anti dark spot serum.
Vitamin E
Benefits of vitamin E for naturally glowing skin
Recently, it’s been proven that vitamin E helps reduce UV damage to the skin after sun exposure. As well as helping with hyperpigmentation and treating acne scarring. Too much sun exposure can cause increased wrinkles and skin cancer. So, it’s important to have vitamin E in your diet and in your skincare to help combat UV and skin damage.
How to use Vitamin E for glowing skin
Vitamin E can be found in a lot of different food such as cereal, juice, and other processed foods with added in minerals. As well as seafood, green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and vegetable oils.
Use face masks to make skin glow
Face masks are incredible for giving your skin a boost. Unlike a regular skincare routine, face masks give instantaneous results making them very popular. It is important to use face masks to help target areas of your skin you are concerned about. Facemasks work by letting the ingredients flow deep into the skin helping the overall appearance and condition.
By comparison, face masks should be used once a week, whereas your skincare routine should be used every day to see results. Using facemasks no more than once a week can make sure your skin doesn’t become irritated or inflamed.
For more content like this, read on using setting powder before foundation. It’s a game changer!
Exfoliate the skin
Undoubtably, one step often overlooked when it comes to looking after your skin, is exfoliation. In fact, exfoliation is great for the skin as it takes away any dead skin cells. Thus allowing makeup and skin care products to sit more smoothly on the skin. Most important is it promotes skin cell rejuvenation keeping the skin looking smooth, youthful and fresh.
Remove your makeup before bed
One of the most important take aways from this, is to remove your makeup. The first thing to remember is makeup clogs up pores making your skin dirty and irritated. Removing your makeup at the end of each day will give your skin time to breathe and give your skin the chance to go through it’s natural healing process to produce collagen. As a matter of fact, there is no point doing all the steps above if you miss this CRUCIAL STEP in your skin care regime.
Ultimately, not allowing your skin to breathe will cause you to break out. Because it does not have time to repair the damage caused by free radicals that are being left on the skin.
Double cleansing is amazing for getting rid of pollutants, makeup and dead skin cells. Generally, I do this as the first step in my night time routine. Firstly, use a makeup remover to remove any makeup. I find micellar water or a cleansing balm are the best for this compared to standard makeup wipes. With makeup wipes, it is easy for makeup residue to be left behind. Whereas, with a cleansing balm or use of micellar water, it removed the makeup completely.
To use a cleansing balm, get a little amount, around a coin piece, and warm it up in your hands before applying to the face. Rub it all over the face before getting a cloth and wiping the makeup off. This is different from micellar water, add some onto a cotton pad and wipe over your face. You can then go in with a cleanser and wash your face like you normally would.
Recommendations for cleansing balms
As noted above, with micellar water and cleansing balm you will need a cloth or cotton pads. A great option for these are eco friendly reusable bamboo pads. You can find them here on amazon for as little as £5.49.
An amazing affordable cleansing balm is the soap and glory glow your mind nourishing cleansing balm. You can buy it here from boots for £9.99.
A more luxury cleansing balm that is great is the elemis pro-collagen cleansing balm. You can buy it here from elemis for £28 per 50ml. It’s worth shopping around to get the best price. You can also find it on Look fantastic, Boots, and amazon.
For information about the best light-weight drugstore foundations, check out this post!
Have a good morning and night time skin care routine
Having a good morning and night time skincare routine is so important when it comes to making your skin glow. Whether you want to keep things simple and use only a few products, or if you love using a mixture of products, it’s really important making sure you layer things correctly.
Most important, to get the most out of your skin care products you’ll want to layer them, lightest product to heaviest or thickest product. Consequently, they’ll seep into your skin a lot better.
Morning skin care routine
Firstly, you’ll want to start with a cleanser. This is to remove any products you applied at night. A simple facial cleanser will set your skin up for the rest of the day.
Following a cleanser, you can add in a facial serum. I personally like to use a hydrating facial serum, it keeps your skin hydrated throughout the day. Which is especially good if you apply makeup throughout the day.
After that you’ll want to apply an SPF cream. Consequently, this will protect your skin from harmful UV rays and any pollutants.
And lastly apply a moisturiser. I love using oil free moisturisers as it controls oil production and is not adding to the oils your face products throughout the day. This is certainly important if you have oily, combination or acne prone skin. As well as providing a good base layer to any makeup you want to wear. Having products that are oil free helps keep your makeup last longer so there will be less need for touch ups throughout the day.
One more affordable option of a great oil-free moisturiser is the Neutrogena refreshingly clear oil-free moisturiser. You can buy it here for £4 off amazon.
If you have more money to spend on skincare, my personal favourite is the Kiehl’s ultra facial oil-free gel cream. It’s a luxury item, however, if you can afford this, it is amazing for hydrating your skin. You can buy it here from Kiehl’s, look fantastic or boots.
Why is SPF important?
Its important to get a good brand of SPF. One SPF cream I recommend to everyone is the Ultra Sun SPF 50 +. It’s a little more on the expensive side, however, it has never once let me down. You apply it once in the morning, and it prevents your skin from burning. You now also have the option of buying it as a tinted moisturiser. It costs around £20. It’s definitely worth shopping around to find the best price. A little hack for saving money is it’s cheaper in the winter months, so it’s also worth stocking up over the winter so you don’t run out.
You can buy the Ultra sun SPF 50 + here from look fantastic, here from boots, or here from amazon.
Night time skin care routine
Firstly, it’s important to remove all makeup and double cleanse. You can find information about this above in the removing makeup section of this post.
After that you’ll want to use a toner. Toners are excellent when it comes to rehydrating the face immediately after washing it.
If you’d like to add in some extras, you can add in a facial serum. Either a retinol booster, or a hydrating serum. Another extra you can add in at this time is a eye cream. Eye creams are great if you have any bags or wrinkles you’re trying to reduce.
Following this, if you have acne, you will add in a spot treatment. It’s great if you can get these from your doctors or dermatologist as they will have a higher percentage of benzoyl peroxide. How these creams and gels work is they dry out the area and kill bacteria on the area you apply to. As a result you will want to avoid putting this all over your face as it will cause your face to dry out.
One of my favourite acne treatments to use is the Clearasil spot cream ultra rapid treatment cream. You can buy it here from amazon at around £9.
Finally, you’ll apply a moisturiser. The best ones are oil-free, especially if you have oily, combination or acne prone skin.
This post was all about how to make skin glow naturally.
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