The Best ‘You’ Your Body Can Be

Your body is beautiful –  awesome, in fact – after all it’s yours. With many people campaigning for more natural beauty (and that includes healthy too), it’s important to feel good about the way we look and feel.

With summer here, it’s easy to look at main steam features about ‘beach bodies’ and ‘slim for Summer’ and feel like you’re not quite up to standard.

STOP!  Grab that mind-shift and iberate yourself with a new body focus. Determine to be the healthiest ‘you’ your body can be!

You softy

We’ve all been there. That moment when you realise that the sun’s been out for more than a few hours and you have a choice. Boil or bare. Get hot and sweaty, or get cool and get your skin out,  skin that might not have seen the light of day in a while, or if it has, is dry and in need of some conditioning.

But take a look. Don’t just reach for your everyday moisturisers. The sun is out, and that means that your skin is exposed to the effects of UV radiation, so make the most to condition and protect by choosing a soothing sun cream to do the job.  Some formulations are enhanced with essential oils and possible antioxidant components such as vitamins and plant phytonutrients too. You might also prefer to use more natural ingredients, rather than using synthetic fragrances, alcohol, petrochemicals or parabens, so look out for herbal extracts such as edelweiss or lavender, and sometimes nutrients such as vitamin E, vitamin E and vitamin A. They are also likely to use more natural oils to give the moisturising element – oils such as wheatgerm (naturally rich in vitamin E), jojoba or avocado oil.

Don’t forget your lips! Choose a lip balm with an SPF factor of at least 10.

Spot on

If your skin is prone to pimples, or reacts to sweaty summertime conditions, then there are a wide range of tea tree products on the market which you can easily incorporate into a daily skincare regime; soaps, gel washes, face masks or you could simply use the essential oil neat (seek advice from an aromatherapist if you’re not sure what essential oils are suitable for your skin type).

As well as using a good, nutrient and oil-rich moisturiser on a daily basis, you could find out whether a scrub is suitable for you. There are apricot scrubs, walnut shell scrubs, dead sea salt scubs and scrub soaps, which all aim to do the same thing: to take off dead skin cells leaving your face with a healthy, fresh glow.

Tired heavy eyes can be relieved using aloe vera eye gels, soothing eye balms or revitalising eye creams. These are designed to reduce the appearance of puffiness, dark lines and wrinkles to give a youthful look.

Heading in the right direction

This year was the year of learning to live with ‘at home’ hair. But with lockdown eased and visits to the hairdresser now possible, many people have had that great hair boost they need to pay more attention at home.  After all, there’s nothing like a head of shiny hair to make you feel great, and there are some great deep conditioning products, super-shine shampoos and scalp-friendly dyes to help you get a head that will turn others.

Curly hair is best tamed by rich and creamy shampoos including deep conditioning ingredients  such as dead sea muds, coconut oils and shea butters. Fine hair often needs vitamin B5 to make the hair look and feel thinker, whilst chemically treated hair can benefit not only from deep conditioners, but essential oils to treat dry and sensitive scalps such as lavender and geranium.

The sun can easily dry out the hair, so conditioners which revive moisture (such as those containing meadowfoam, dead sea minerals or rosemary) can help. And don’t think that just because your scalps been sweating in the sun that you don’t need to condition oily hair. Instead treat it with conditioners including lemon grass or eucalyptus to freshen it up.

Conditioners are available which contain neem. This plant is not only good for dry scalp conditions, it also has insect repellant properties, making it great to take anywhere where insects can bother you.

Natural hair dyes and tints contain ingredients which are “scalp-friendly” (no Paraphenylenediamine (PDD), resorcinol, ammonia, chlorides or hydrogen perioxides) and use natural ingredients such as oat, soy, corn, coconut and wheat so are gentler on the skin, yet still come up with fantastic colours.

Footsy

Don’t neglect your feet. Water retention, swelling, throbbing feet and legs can all occur from hot weather, or more physical activity. Soothe them using aloe vera leg gel products, foot and leg lotions (and gels) containing peppermint or use horse chestnut or pycnogenol creams or tablets to reduce swelling and leg pain. Read more in out mini-feature about luscious legs

Step Six: Beat the bloat

Many people choose to use a detox as a focus for health, re-setting goals and providing a way to get things back in check. This might be something that you feel you’d like to do.

Especially if you feel you’d like to try simple eating, often with a low allergenic twist, to ‘give the digestive system a break’. This might be based around eating rice, salads and fresh fruits and vegetables, and sometimes milks alternatives, possibly supported with a detox programme including herbs such as milk thistle that support the body’s natural detoxification systems such as the liver.