Skincare seems so complicated nowadays. It seems that people (women especially) are forever in search of the best fix for glowing, clear, wrinkle-free, healthy skin. With all the myriad skincare products out there— many of them super expensive— you may be wondering how to have healthy skin, especially without a million products cluttering your bathroom!
Some people make having beautiful glowing skin look absolutely effortless, while others (me included) have to put a lot of effort into making our skin look good.
Still, many of the skin care products and procedures available in today’s market leave me shaking my head. Most of the products are filled with preservatives and chemicals I wouldn’t want to put on my skin.
Many of the most effective products are also usually really expensive— like, more than a hundred dollars for a single product expensive!
I understand the desire to look more youthful and have glowing, clear, firm, healthy skin, especially if you’ve struggled with your skin in the past as I have. Before I started focusing on eating a clean plant-based diet, I struggled with acne.
The good news is you don’t have to spend a lot of money on treatments and procedures to look your best.
You can have a simple skincare routine with minimal cost to maintain, and achieve beautiful skin by nourishing your body from the inside and outside.
So without further ado, here are my top tips for healthy skin without expensive products. :)
Your skin is a reflection of your overall health. Skin is the body’s largest organ, and it is an elimination organ. That means it actively works to keep your body free of toxins.
Unfortunately, if your body is unable to remove enough toxins through healthy and consistent elimination, you can see the effects reflected on your skin. This means skin problems like dry skin, acne, wrinkles, and even skin disorders like eczema.
However, when you detoxify your body, the results also show on your skin— but in the form of healthy, glowing skin.
If you’re new to detoxifying your body, don’t worry! Your body does it naturally on its own, but there’s plenty you can do to help your body detox more efficiently.
Here are my top tips for detoxing for better skin.
Detoxification isn’t just “one and done,” it’s an ongoing process. When you eat lots of fiber and foods that support your body’s organs and natural detoxification pathways, you support healthy, consistent cleansing.
However, sometimes our bodies are bogged down by toxins and need a little extra help to cleanse themselves. When this is the case, periodic cleanses that are properly designed and conducted (like my 3 Day Waterfall Cleanse) can help launch you into a healthier long-term lifestyle.
On days when you’re feeling sluggish, my Feel Good Detoxy 2.0 can also help you eliminate toxins from your digestive system naturally while promoting wellness and optimal digestion.
One caveat of which you should be aware: Sometimes the detoxification process can cause temporary skin irritation, acne and breakouts, or other issues. Stick with it, however, and soon your healthy skin will show the results of your efforts.
Related: 5 Tips For Your Gut Detox
My morning routine isn’t complete without hot water with lemon or a Glowing Green Smoothie® (GGS)!
Lemon helps support natural detoxification, and the fiber-rich GGS keeps your gut and digestive system healthy so your body can easily eliminate waste and toxins.
These unhealthy foods contain chemical ingredients that introduce toxins into your body. Avoiding these toxins is as easy as avoiding the foods that contain them.
Instead, I recommend eating lots of healthy plant-based foods like fresh fruits and veggies, healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, and whole grains. Enzyme-rich fermented foods also help support healthy detoxification. Getting plenty of vitamin C in your diet can also help support healthy detoxification, support your skin health, and help boost your immune system.
Try to stick to organic foods whenever possible— you don’t want the chemicals and pesticides on non-organic food in your body!
Proper hydration is key to maintaining natural detoxification, which plays a huge role in how to have healthy skin. Your morning GGS and hot water with lemon will help, but it’s also important to make sure you drink plenty of water during the day. Make sure to take in extra fluids on hot days, when you are ill or stressed, and when you exercise.
Water-rich produce like watermelon, cucumbers and bell peppers also help keep you well-hydrated. Salads are also wonderfully hydrating as long as they contain plenty of those amazing water-rich vegetables!
It’s important to avoid alcohol and excessive caffeine too. Caffeine in excess can cause unpleasant side effects like an irregular heartbeat and chest pain. It can also cause stomach discomfort, sleep troubles, and loose stool. Both can also dehydrate your skin.
Related: What Your Pee Color Says About Your Health
Exercising is a vital part of any healthy lifestyle. Not only does it help you look and feel good, but it helps your body detoxify too!
It may feel gross to be all sweaty after a workout, but sweating is your body’s natural way of cooling down and ridding itself of toxins.
However, it’s possible to overdo even something as beneficial as exercise. Overdoing exercise and overexerting yourself can really hurt your body, as well as dehydrate you.
Instead, regular, moderately paced exercise is the key to good health and healthy detoxification. (I like yoga, walking and hiking!)
Probiotics are the friendly bacteria that support your gut health and keep bad bacteria in check. Keeping your gut microbiota in balance is key to healthy detoxification, but not all probiotics will deliver on the health benefits they promise.
Many traditional probiotics need to be refrigerated, which means that they won’t survive in the hostile environment that is your gut.
And if they can’t survive your stomach acid, they can’t help keep you healthy!
That’s why I recommend taking a soil-based probiotic supplement. Unlike dairy-based traditional probiotics, SBO probiotics are comprised of soil-based organisms (SBOs). SBOs are naturally vegan and are more hardy than dairy-based probiotics. That means they can survive the journey to your gut and share their amazing benefits with you!
A soil-based probiotic that also contains prebiotics and postbiotics (like my Feel Good SBO probiotics+) are best for balancing your gut microbiome and maintaining its good health on an ongoing basis.
We’ve all heard the adage, you are what you eat. While it’s on the right track, it’s not 100 percent true; it’s more like you are what you digest. While this is true throughout your body, what you eat and what you digest is especially visible on your skin.
Eating toxic, chemical-laden foods can leave your skin dull, dry and flaky. Poor nutrition can also speed up wrinkles and cause breakouts.
Nourishing your healthy skin begins from the inside with the foods you eat. Because your skin is a vital organ, it requires nutrients to maintain vibrant health.
I get into this topic a lot in my book Beauty Detox Foods, with more specific information on combating dry skin, dull skin, wrinkles, fine lines, and acne, and how to create radiant skin from a base of these problematic skin issues. But for the sake of the article, I’ll go into that a little here too. :)
Keeping your skin clean is also important. Many people use harsh cleansers that can actually strip the skin of its natural hydration and leave it dull, dry, and irritated. Because of this, I don’t recommend using very drying cleansers or regular soaps on your face.
I recommend using only a mild cleanser that contains only natural ingredients instead.
Because I have oily skin and used to battle acne, I used to think I needed a stronger cleanser. But my Feel Good Cleanser gently cleans my face without stripping the natural oils from my skin. Plus, it works for every skin type!
One of the simplest steps in how to have healthy skin is regular exfoliation. It helps remove dead skin cells from the surface that can cause dullness, making room for your glow to shine through. Like with your cleanser, you don’t need to buy expensive products or use harsh chemical exfoliators either.
In fact, you probably have a natural skin exfoliation agent right now in your kitchen: oatmeal!
Oatmeal both soothes and exfoliates, leading to happy and healthy skin. Of course, it’s great for breakfast too. :)
Here’s how to make an oatmeal exfoliation mask:
Another great natural exfoliator is raw organic apple cider vinegar. It contains alpha-hydroxy acids and can balance your skin’s pH as well as exfoliate. To use, mix equal parts of apple cider vinegar and water and apply it to your skin with a cotton ball. Sit for five minutes before rinsing with warm water.
Sunlight is important because it supplies your skin with valuable vitamin D. To that end, you do need to get about 10 minutes of sunlight each day on unprotected skin in order to allow your body to synthesize vitamin D.
Too much of anything however, even sunlight, can be harmful.
Sun exposure also exposes you to UV rays that can cause skin damage like sunburns and even skin cancer. You wear sun damage on your skin, since it can also prematurely age you.
Practicing healthy sun habits such as covering your skin, wearing a hat, or applying sunscreen (I recommend Suntegrity) can go a long way in protecting your skin from the ravages of sun exposure.
Keeping your blood flowing and promoting lymph drainage can help keep your skin glowing!
Your lymph nodes are a vital part of keeping you healthy— they protect your body from illness, remove cell waste, and absorb fat from your digestive system.
However, your lymphatic system can get bogged down by toxins and waste like the rest of your body can.
But don’t worry, there’s an easy, holistic technique to improve circulation, support lymphatic drainage, and promote overall skin vitality. It’s one of my favorite practices when it comes to learning how to have healthy skin naturally: dry brushing.
Dry brushing is an ancient Ayurvedic technique that improves your skin’s ability to detoxify by removing dead skin cells, increasing your circulation, and stimulating your lymphatic system. Like the name says, this is done by rubbing your skin with a brush with natural bristles.
Dry brushing your skin is so easy. Here’s how to do it:
If you want to see the process more in-depth, check out my dry brushing video guide!
I’ve talked for years about how to have healthy skin by glowing from the inside out, but I also recognize the need to nourish our skin from the outside.
I struggled to find products that were both good for my skin and actually worked as well as some of the more expensive products that use chemicals I was uncomfortable putting on my skin. (Remember, those chemicals do the opposite of helping your body detoxify!)
That’s why I create my own Feel Good Skincare collection. If you’re looking for clean beauty that works without the expensive price tag, Solluna skincare is it!
When it comes to having beautiful, glowing skin, it’s vital to nourish your body both inside and out.
Protecting your skin and keeping it clean, exfoliated and moisturized is important, but what you put into your body is just as instrumental for healthy skin as what you put on it.
I hope these tips help you! Great, healthy skin is on the way, Beauty. :)
All my love,
Katta, Rajani, and Samir P Desai. “Diet and Dermatology: The Role of Dietary Intervention in Skin Disease.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, July 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106357/
