Welcome Spring – Part 1

Every year, spring is the victory of light on the winter night, the moment all starts again, when the energy which has been replenished over months, is ready to spring forth to make life and projects germinate.

For your skin, every interseason is a challenge. As an ecosystem, it also has to get ready for change. As for plants, the arrival of nice weather activates your skin’s biological mechanisms, it also has a ‘rise of sap’, after being protected by creams and little or not much exposed to fresh air, your skin is craving to rediscover and feel the sun. Listen to it and support it.

Let’s clear up together with a little beauty, health and mental detox proposed in 2 chapters.

Start by wisely clearing the ground by concentrating on softly eliminating toxins. This cleaning will allow your skin to begin a new start.

Why go through a skin detox? Because it has been over protected, nourished with rich ingredients, and covered and isolated by creams.

Toxins are also linked to the protein degradation, to the “bioaccumulation” – the cosmetic products’ chemical components which your body doesn’t know how to eliminate -, to free radicals… Toxins tire and asphyxiate the epidermis, stop the vital mechanics of the cells and makes your complexion grey. It is essential to get rid of these first enemies of the youthfulness of the skin tissues. The skin detox diet involves the use of appropriate products, the elimination of greasy substances during the night, but also by a deep and respectful cleansing where water, steam and clay are king.

The epidermis is home to more than 300 different types of bacteria that protect it from external aggressions and preserve its health. This positive skin flora must not be destroyed by aggressive stripping or a relentless scrubbing that disrupts its integrity. So don’t exfoliate too often, at the risk of damaging its protective barrier and causing irritation. Adopt treatments that promote natural desquamation, such as a facial sauna, a steam diffuser or a hammam session. This process allows the skin to renew itself completely every four weeks. The idea is, as it is often the case, to encourage a natural physiological phenomenon. It is better to remove a small amount of dead cells on a daily basis than a large amount weekly.

In this way, you do not deplete its resources, preserve its potential in the long term and work on its lasting development. So keep an exfoliating scrub once a week, if your skin is not ultra-sensitive and exfoliate gently with a konjak sponge or a small soft brush.

You will not be surprised if I recommend you to use organic certified skincare products or at least, Cosmos certified products, and that for a lot of reason that you will find in another Beauty Therapy article named “Good, Beautiful, Organic, Efficient, the perfect combo”.

Furthermore, Absolution cosmetics will figure at the top of my recommendation list as, which is obvious as I know precisely their composition, their efficiency and how they have restored the health of many skins. But, of course, there are other very interesting certified brands as: Docteur Hauschka, Madara, Paï, NovExpert, Melvita, La Canopée, Wamisa,… Distribution is finally beginning to understand that consumers not only want clean products but also “real” natural products so it is now easy to find them.

If you have time, start by lightening your cream to choose something less nourishing. It’s also time to boost your skin with a booster: its concentrated formula, active and penetrating, revitalizes, without stifling exchanges with the outside. Its light texture does not clog the skin and does not interfere with its breathing.

To choose the best booster and create your perfect ‘mix & match’, just listen to your skin:

Once a week, in the evening, carefully remove make-up from your skin, apply a tonic or essence and do not add anything. Respecting skin ecology also means, from time to time, not doing anything, letting your skin rest, teaching it to manage the excess. By encouraging it to work by itself, you make it more resistant and strengthen its natural defenses.

Once or twice a week, apply a cleansing and detoxifying mask to help your skin in its elimination process. (Le Masque Pureté Détoxifiant is perfect for just that)

Drainage is sovereign, not only to evacuate toxins, but also to strengthen the immune system. You can perform these small sliding pressures – called “pumping” – along the lymph nodes, on each side of the neck, behind the ears and all around the eyes, especially in the inner corner of the eye, in the centre of the eyebrow arch and on the temples. Each pumping must be repeated three times – the body remembers this rhythm as a “backwash”, reason why the benefits of drainage are cumulative – with the pulp of the middle and index fingers being gently pressed. Press and release alternately.

To boost the microcirculation, tap with the flat of your hand all over your face and rediscover the power of Jacquet’s pinches. This technique, developed in the 1930s by Professor Jacquet, consists in pinching the skin between the thumb and forefinger with the pulp of the fingers. Catch the muscle deep down, but without stretching it. Practice these small, vigorous and quick pinches all over the face, insisting on the contours, as if you were “pecking” the skin. Do this on dry, cream-free skin so that your fingers don’t slip and pinch the skin firmly.

See you soon for the second part of our Welcome Spring routine!