When my skin looks and feels good, I feel amazing. But this is not as easily achieved as I get older. The decrease of hormones available in my body in my current state of perimenopause plays a huge factor in how well my skin stays hydrated and how it looks.
Progesterone and oestrogen play many roles in the skin’s health, in particular the stimulation of skin sebum (the skin’s natural oils), the production of collagen and hyaluronic acid (which keeps skin thick and plump), and the stability of the skin’s barrier (which affects skin sensitivity, amongst other things).
To keep my skin as happy and healthy as possible, these are the things that I do each and every day:
1. Take hormones. Let’s not beat around the bush here. I am on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to help tackle the myriad of other symptoms that perimenopause has brought me including anxiety, depression, lowered immune function and fatigue. It also helps to minimise the effects that perimenopause has on the skin to a certain degree, but not completely.
2. Eat well + exercise. The older I get, the more I realise that a healthy diet and exercise are an essential part of my self-care. A diet rich in healthy fats and fibre, that is anti-inflammatory and nutrient dense, provides immense benefits to the skin, and so I ensure that I eat like this 95% of the time. And don’t forget water, herbal teas and a limited amount of caffeinated drinks (my choice is 1 x chai and 1-2 green tea each day). Exercise is also hugely beneficial to skin by increasing blood flow and stimulating collagen production. I choose running, strength work at the gym and pilates.
3. Only cleanse once. By only cleansing my skin of an evening, I reduce the amount of oils that I strip from my skin and reduce the amount of interference with my skin’s barrier. I also choose a cream cleanser (our Refining Cleanser) as I only want to clean the top level of sweat, food and make-up from my skin, and reduce the drying effect that cleansing has on skin.
4. Choose skincare products which properly hydrate my skin. This includes a combination of organic oils which mimic the skin’s natural skin sebum, as well as moisturisers rich in hyaluronic acid and ingredients which stimulate collagen production. Our Ultimate Face Crème is packed full of all the things which help to keep my skin properly hydrated all day long.
5. Feed and maintain my skin’s barrier. Our skin’s natural barrier is comprised of a diverse colony of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms, which work to keep our skin healthy and issue free. You can disrupt this barrier with things like excessive cleansing and/or exfoliation, actives/chemicals, and hot water, and you open yourself up to breakouts, rashes and sensitivities you never experienced before. To keep my skin’s barrier healthy, in addition to avoiding the above, I feed it with probiotics, inside and out. Inside, I eat things like kefir, yoghurt, kombucha and sauerkraut. Outside, I spritz my skin daily with our Ultimate Biome Spritz. This spritz contains natural probiotics to help boost my skin’s natural barrier.
If you’d like a beautiful place to start, I’ve put together a simple routine for skin going through this season of change.
This is how I keep my skin looking and feeling good as I age. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and the things that make you feel good too.
We are so excited to announce that we have won seven awards in the international Beauty Shortlist Awards, making us Australia's most awarded natural and organic skincare range. These awards are held annually and showcase the very best of beauty products from around the world.
And the winners are...
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Australian Native Kakadu Plum (Terminalia ferdiandiana) is a fruit native only to Australia. This gorgeous green gem, found from the Kimberley to Cape York, has been valued by indigenous Australians for over 40,000 years, both for its food and medicinal properties. We utilise it in our Ultimate Biome Spritz, primarily as a natural source of vitamin C, the highest known natural source in the world – containing about 100 times more vitamin C than oranges.
