Island Life No10 – Spring Cleaning

Finally winters grasp is fading and the sun is gently warming the earth once again. With Spring being the traditional time for a good cleanse to shake off our winter sloth, I thought I would share some easy home-made recipes for you to brighten your winter skin!

Of course your skin reflects your internal ecology, and if winter has left you feeling heavy and lethargic there are good odds that your skin will reflect this. So, now that the days are lighter and warmer how about a good brisk walk in the mornings to flood your cells with oxygen (my dogs demand this all year round and I do thank them for it!)

Also eat more fruit and raw vegetables – try carrot, celery and cucumber sticks with hummus or nut butter. Drink plenty of fresh spring water, and try to add vegetables juices to your diet. And you don’t have to throw away the vegetable pulp (although it makes wonderful compost)…I turn mine into veggie burgers, add it to the dogs dinners and even use it to treat my skin to a nutrient and enzyme rich face pack!

Spring Cleaning with Green Juice:

1/3 Cucumber

3 sticks Celery

50g Spinach

2 Carrots

1 Apple

1 slice lemon with peel

Small slice fresh ginger

To refresh your skin from the inside: Juice, add a few ice cubes and drink with joy!

To refresh your skin from the outside: Chill the pulp in the fridge for 15 minutes then relax, recline comfortably and enjoy a refreshing face mask while drinking your juice through a straw! You may need to add a little juice and water to the pulp to moisten it, and don’t be afraid to use lots and press it firmly on your face to help it stay. It’s messy – but fun, and it feels wonderfully enlivening for your skin. Just rinse off after 10 minutes and moisturise with Live Native Essential Beauty Serum or Essential Woman for the ultimate in vegan organic living facials.

The benefits:

Cucumber is known for its skin clearing properties, it is astringent and clarifying. It soothes and tightens the skin while sloughing off dead cells.

Celery is a mild anti-inflammatant and analgesic – long used for treating arthritic pains in tea form. It can help decrease skin puffiness.

Spinach is a very rich source of beta-carotene, the orange pigment with powerful antioxidant effects. Carotenes are stored in the skin and protect us from damage caused by UV radiation. Spinach is also a rich source of detoxifying chlorophyll which binds to heavy metals and pollutants and removes them from our skin.

Carrots – more carotene please!

Apples contain pectin which is the glue that enables the rigid structure of plant cell walls – a little like our collagen. It may be useful for soft tissue augmentation.

Lemon – refreshing and enlivening, it helps to balance the skins oil production, reducing black heads and even fading freckles.

Ginger is one of the best naturally occurring anti-inflammatants, and when combined with curcumin from turmeric can have an effect as powerful as hydrocortisone – without the side effects.And when you’ve finished with the mask you can still add it to your compost. Waste not want not after all!

Vicky Ewbank, homoeopath, living foods coach and co-founder of Live Native.

Handmade on the Isle of Skye, Live Native is a new and truly unique collection of living skin care products inspired by the life-loving ideals shared by all who enjoy vegan, organic and raw-food led lifestyles. www.livenative.co.uk

Related posts:

1. Guest Post: Island Life No12 – Embracing the Sun!
2. Guest Post: Island Life No 7
3. Guest Post: Island Life No1
4. Guest Post: Island Life no 5 – Less is More
5. Guest Post: Island Life No8

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