Stop Suffocating Your Skin! (Let it Breathe)

Skin needs oxygen to thrive. While the under-layers of skin are fed by your blood supply, the top layer is made up of a “crust” of dead cells and not nourished by your blood.  This top layer of skin receives nearly all its oxygen from the atmosphere instead of its pores.  Whether you are on a mountaintop or a smoke-filled bar, free radicals, pollution, smoke and heavy products are depriving our skin of oxygen and causing asphyxiation, meaning it cannot breathe and is essentially being smothered.

Here are some steps to aid in allowing skin to breathe –

• Thoroughly cleanse the skin.  Properly remove all traces of makeup, sweat, oil and products.  Best times to cleanse are when you wake up, after the gym and before you go to bed at night as your skin regenerates while you sleep.
• Make sure you are exfoliating 1-2 times per week with a product appropriate for your skin type and conditions. This will slough off the dead cell build up to allow for better circulation.  (See https://theholisticskin.com/exfoliation/)
• Only wear full coverage foundation on special occasions.  Ditch the heavy, thick stage makeup and find a lighter mineral makeup for everyday wear.
• Go without makeup whenever possible.  I try to find two days a week where I can be fresh-faced. The best times to go natural are running errands and the gym.  Some weeks, I have more success than others, depending on what I have going on.  I do notice the more often I can accomplish this, the healthier my skin looks and feels.
• Limit exposure to smoky/smoggy areas.  Do you ever notice after you have spent time in an area where the air quality is poor, your skin has a sickly look to it?  That is because it is asphyxiated.  It has been deprived of oxygen.  If you cannot help being in these types of environments, make sure you are using corrective masques, serums as well as a diet high in antioxidants to neutralize free radical damage.
• Use better quality products.  Use more natural, “non-comedogenic” products that are not made up of heavy oils, preservatives, fragrances and harsh “filler” ingredients that smother the skin by blocking the pores.  (Not to mention, these chemicals are absorbed into your blood stream through the skin!)
• Diet and hydration.  A healthy diet along with proper hydration will improve the quality of your skin by your blood supply feeding and nourishing the skin with all those beneficial vitamins and minerals. https://theholisticskin.com/5-steps-to-great-skin/
• Get an oxygenating facial.  There are many types of facial treatments available to correct asphyxiated skin by infusing it with oxygen and antioxidants.  Some are more clinical treatments with an actual machine or device infusing the skin with pure oxygen.  Other methods include treatment masques and serums involving some type of “spicy” stimulant.  These stimulants, once applied to the skin, will cause the blood to come to the surface of skin, thus “flushing” and purging impurities while oxygenating the skin with the blood supply.

The skin is your body’s largest organ and first line of defense against infection.  Our skin works hard to protect us and its our job to keep it in its healthiest condition.  The better we take care of our skin, the better our skin takes care of us. Your skin is always changing and everything from hormones, diet, hydration, stress, disease, medications, product use…(the list is endless) can and will affect your skin.  While some of these factors and conditions may be out of our control, there are some steps you can take to improve skin health.  One of the most important steps is to simply let your skin breathe.

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