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With all the beauty secrets and DIY tips on the internet to achieve glowing skin, it can be hard to narrow them down. Do you need to do every single one of them? Where do you even begin? As someone who does not have perfect skin, I’ve been there, wondering the exact same things you are. So I researched several “beauty secrets”, tried them all, and now finally narrowed it down to my top six.
Before I burst your bubble making you think perfect skin is just a secret away, it’s important to know that while there are so many cutting-edge skin care products and natural ingredients out there, not one thing works for every person. But with time and consistency with home remedies, you can achieve the skin you’ll be proud of. Read on for 6 ways to get glowing skin with very little effort.
1. Aim for Drinking at Least 91 Ounces of Water a Day
I get it: You’re probably tired of hearing about this one. But if you’re looking for a no-fail home remedy for glowing skin, then this is it. Water is the easiest and most essential, so of course, it’s first on my list.
Did you know your skin is an organ? And the largest one at that. Drinking enough water is vital to healthy, glowing, and clear skin.
According to the Mayo Clinic, women should be drinking around 11 1/2 cups a day. Drinking water helps your body flush out toxins which, in turn, improves your complexion for a healthy natural glow.
I personally have found keeping a pitcher of water in the fridge helps me drink more because I love cold water. Sometimes I’ll even add a little freshly squeezed lemon juice.
There are several tips you can do to “trick” yourself into drinking enough water. Whether that’s setting reminders on your phone, having a water bottle that tracks your intake, infusing water with herbs and fruit, carrying around a gallon water bottle, or adding Pique electrolyte packets to keep your water from tasting boring (while also providing you with extra benefits).
There are 16 cups in a gallon of water so if you want to go above and above, keep a gallon of cold water in your fridge, and every time you need to refill your water bottle, refill it from there. Experiment until you find a system that makes you want to drink a lot of water. That’s all that matters!
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2. Fill Your Body With Superfoods
After staying hydrated, having a healthy diet is the second most important thing. Your diet controls so much of your life, beauty, and health. We already know all the benefits of water but what about the benefits of what we fuel our bodies with?
The best way to ensure you will have glowing skin is to eat a wide variety of superfoods. Superfoods are foods that have very high nutritional density. They are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Some examples include berries, leafy greens, salmon, green tea, beets, dark chocolate (it also has anti-inflammatory properties), and spirulina, just to name a few.
Eating superfoods will help neutralize the free radicals in our bodies. Claudia Fajardo-Lira, Ph.D. and Professor of Food Science and Nutrition at California State University-Northridge, states that free radicals are substances that occur naturally in our bodies but attack the fats, protein, and the DNA in our cells, which can cause different types of diseases and accelerate the aging process.
That sentence alone has me wanting to stick with more natural ingredients! Superfoods will help neutralize free radicals that can be found in cigarette smoke, air pollution, fried food, and some processed meats.
So what can you eat? In addition to the superfoods I briefly mentioned above, you will want to eat foods with healthy fats and fatty acids. My absolute favorite healthy fat is avocado. You can do so much with it and it just tastes so good.
You can serve it with eggs, toast, tacos, BLT and of course, make infamous guacamole. I sometimes sprinkle flaky sea salt on my avocados and just eat them as a snack. Other examples of healthy fats include eggs, nuts, chia seeds, full-fat yogurt, and extra virgin olive oil.
We still want you to live life and will having a hot dog every once in a while harm you? No, it will not, but those foods shouldn’t be the majority of your diet. Superfoods, healthy fats and fatty acids should be.
I think everyone should watch “The Game Changers” on Netflix. “The Game Changers” is about how our bodies are made for plant-based diets as well as a look into the journey of how we ended up where we are today. When I watched it, it really opened my eyes and made me aware of what I was eating and how our bodies process certain foods.
And of course, we can’t talk about glowing skin without talking about Vitamin C. According to the Mayo Clinic, Vitamin C is a nutrient needed to form blood vessels, cartilage, muscle, and keep collagen production going.
Our bodies don’t produce Vitamin C so it has to come through our diet or in a supplement form. Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, berries, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and spinach.
The great thing about eating healthy, besides getting all the essential nutrients your body needs to survive, is that it won’t take a long time to see results and you could potentially start seeing your glowing skin in as little as a week!
WebMD says a healthy diet is one way to optimize great blood flow and blood circulation. Not only will your skin look better but you will feel better.
The Hype: 4.3/5 “I’ve been taking these for almost 10 days now and my skin is GLOWING!”
Related: 13 Tips to a Healthy Lifestyle
3. Moisturize With Coconut Oil
There was a time when coconut oil was extremely popular and people were using it for literally everything. The hype has since worn down but it’s still a great moisturizer for some skin types.
If you have oily or acne-prone skin, I would steer clear but if your skin type is drier, then game on! Coconut oil is great to apply all over your body when it’s still damp from the shower because it sits on top of your skin trapping all the moisture in.
There are a lot of questions if coconut oil and olive oil are interchangeable for helping with dry skin and the answer is no. A study done by the National Library of Medicine showed that over a four-week period, patients who moisturized with coconut oil had less dry skin than those who moisturized with olive oil.
Olive oil has some great uses but being subbed for a lotion is not one of them. However, vitamin e and avocado oils are both great natural facial moisturizers with fatty acids that can fade scars and make your skin glow too.
They Hype: 4.6/5 “I am extremely PLEASED with my product! It has IMPROVED my face unbelievably!”
Related: I Live in Africa and These Are the Beauty Secrets We Swear By
4. Exfoliate Two to Three Times a Week
Exfoliation is essential for healthy-looking and glowing skin. Our skin is constantly forming new cells as the skin cells on our body are dying and exfoliating is a way we can speed that process along and help our body remove dead skin cells.
You can exfoliate in two ways: physical or chemical. For home remedy purposes, we are going to focus on physical exfoliation. Physical exfoliation is done through scrubs while chemical exfoliation use products that contain enzymes.
Thankfully, home exfoliation is easy. All you need are a few gentle ingredients- and some are already in your pantry! Add oatmeal and baking soda with a little honey to create a paste. You can apply it as a face mask and if you have visible dry flakes, then watch those dead cells and dull skin disappear.
Or if you have a coarse salt at home, like Himalayan or sea salt, mix it with some coconut oil, honey, or olive oil to gently whisk away your dead skin cells.
As with all home remedies, it’s always a good idea to test out a small patch first to make sure you will not have an allergic reaction. And remember, although home remedies work, they do take time.
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5. Apply Aloe Vera
Aloe vera to the rescue! Growing up I had an aloe vera plant in my backyard and it was one of the best things. I love to bake and cook, but sometimes I would burn myself. All I had to do was run outside and use the aloe vera to soothe my burn.
Along with kitchen burns, aloe vera can help soothe sunburns too. (While aloe vera can help soothe sunburns, it can’t prevent them so sunscreen is still a must to protect against the UV rays that cause skin cancer.)
Aloe vera has vitamins and antioxidants that are good for your skin. Not only can applying aloe vera on your skin help burns heal faster, hydrate your skin, and prevent the start of wrinkles and fine lines, but it naturally makes your skin glowy and supple.
The Hype: 4.6/5 “It absorbs easily and has a perfect consistency! The quality of the product truly reflects that it is organic, and sulfate, and paraben-free. I also like how it is Manuka honey infused with tea tree oil, both of which are natural and great for hydration. This aloe vera gel is definitely the best bang for your buck.”
6. Stick to Your Skincare Routine (While Also Adding Natural Ingredients)
“Consistency breeds success.” I heard that one time and it really changed my life. You will never see results if you are constantly starting and stopping something. Finding skincare products that work for you and your skin conditions are game changers and sticking to your skincare routine is what’s really going to get your results and your desired glowing skin.
Science has developed some cutting-edge ingredients and there are numerous products out there for every skin concern: dark spots, under-eye dark circles, redness, sun damage, you name it. But consider implementing natural ingredients into your skincare routine as well.
Rose water, rich in vitamin c, will help soothe and calm the skin. Rose water is made by steaming rose petals in water so this is something easily done at home. When making your rosewater elixir, you can also add essential oils like lavender to calm the skin and make it glow. However, if you just wanted to buy something, you can.
Sephora is great about giving out samples so you can try them before you spend the big bucks. Test all new products on small areas before slathering them all over your face.
The Hype: 4.6/5 “I love this rose water, my skin looks radiant it is a bottle with magic water for the face…my face the spots faded and it is not needed buy expensive creams when we can obtain better benefits also smells very good. I recommend 100%”
Taking care of your skin and body will pay off for many years to come. You don’t always need every influencer’s beauty secrets to have glowing skin; there are many cost-effective ways to care for your skin at home that require very little time.
For even more tips on how to improve your skin with little time and effort, check out 5 Benefits of Facial Steaming and How It Can Give You Glowing Skin!
