Holistic Beauty from the Inside Out (26 page)

If body brushing is too vigorous a procedure, you can make your own body scrubs. They come in two forms: with exfoliating granules that slough off dead skin cells, or mild acids such as glycolic acid, fruit acids like AHA and BHA , or salicylic acid to dissolve dead cells. Exfoliating once a week will boost your skin’s natural regeneration process, smooth and soften your skin, and give you a more radiant complexion. Making your own body scrubs is incredibly easy. If you can make salad dressing, you can make a lovely body scrub too. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Coconut Sugar Scrub
: Combine ½ cup fine or raw sugar, ½ cup grated coconut, ½ cup olive oil.

Fruity Body Peel
: Mash 1 mango and add juice of ½ lemon; stir well. Use as a scrub if you cannot tolerate grainy exfoliating products.

Yogurt Body Exfoliant
: Combine 2 cups plain yogurt with ½ cup oatmeal or semolina flour and 2 tablespoons honey. Stir well and apply generously. This recipe is suitable for sensitive skin.

Smoothing Salt Scrub
: Combine ½ cup salt, ½ cup kaolin clay, and ½ aloe vera gel. You can leave this scrub as a body wrap for five to ten minutes if you suffer from cellulite—and who doesn’t?

NATURAL TIPS FOR CELLULITE

Stress, poor digestion, and lack of sleep can cause the ripening of “orange peel” and “wobbly bits,” as Bridget Jones famously called one of our top body worries. You can also blame it on hormones or synthetic hormone mimickers. Cellulite is affecting us at higher rates and at younger ages than before. Cellulite, a layer of subcutaneous fat, is the culprit behind that orange-peel texture we can get on our stomachs, butts, and thighs, striking skinny and curvy bodies alike. I was stunned to see
very
visible cellulite covering toned hips of a fifteen-year-old pro tennis player. Hormonal imbalances can play part a too, but the main reason why so many women today suffer from unsightly blobs and bumps at very awkward places may be the abundance of hormone mimicking chemicals in our environment. Estrogen-like food additives, fragrances, preservatives, and dyes trigger the formation of body fat in the waist and lower body areas. Also, excess estrogen is linked to water retention, which could explain why drinking more water results in expelling more water and, as a result, less visible cellulite.

That’s the key: less visible. The female body is programmed to store more fat than the male body, and it’s impossible to naturally erase all traces of fat from our curves. No one has yet found a way to banish cellulite for good, but there are a few tricks to minimize its appearance. Not a single cellulite cream, as expensive as they can be, can guarantee you dimple-free skin. Most often, their formulas contain ingredients that cause the skin to swell slightly, making those “dips” less visible. The most abundant active ingredient will be caffeine, since the diuretic action commands fat cells to eliminate water. But these water storages will be refilled easily after you drink some water or eat some soup. Water loss during certain “fad diets” brings fast results, but they are never long lasting.

Regular exercise and a healthy diet are still the best way to get
your blood pumping and minimize the look of cellulite. But you will need up to six weeks to see results. You can speed up the process of smoothing those unsightly bumps by detoxing your body from the inside out—and from outside in.

First off, increase your fluid intake. While it seems that the more we drink, the more water ends up in fatty cells, this is not true. By drinking more water, we expel more water along with all those toxins accumulating in our bodies. Green tea is still the best beverage in your quest for smooth, glowing skin. Theobromine in green tea helps the body shed extra fat, which means less “orange peel” look and less sun damage too.

Follow up that cup of green tea with a good, thorough body brushing. Good blood circulation is cellulite’s worst enemy, and by boosting blood flow through body brushing, you not only help detox your skin, you will feel a lot better overall.

Experiment with clay and seaweed wraps. You can buy seaweed jelly and kaolin clay in bulk in most health food stores or online (check
Appendix C
for shopping ideas). To make a clay body wrap mask, add 1 measure of green tea, water, or even fruit juice to 2 measures of clay. Your aim is to achieve a custard-like consistency that is not too runny and not too stiff. Brush your body, towel dry your skin if necessary, and then apply the clay “custard” or seaweed jelly on the troubled areas. Cover them with plastic film (look for the vinyl-free variety) and lie down under a comfortable throw to keep yourself warm. Drink a lot of water as you steam under the throw because clays and seaweed purge excess water from your skin tissue. After ten to fifteen minutes, rinse off the mask, pat dry, and enjoy glowing, even-toned skin.

To seal the deal, you can now apply anticellulite oil. From my experience, oils work better than gels or creams because they penetrate the skin easier. You can make your own anticellulite blend by adding 10 drops of any citrus essential oil to 100 mL (3.3 oz.) of base oil such as jojoba or olive. Here’s a recipe for birch anticellulite oil inspired by a similar product made by Weleda.

BIRCH CELLULITE OIL

Birch has a diuretic and toning effect. Birch leaves have traditionally been used as a tea to cleanse the body of excess water. When applied topically, birch causes fatty cells to purge water deposits making cellulite less visible.

Ingredients
120 mL (4 fl. oz.) olive, jojoba, or grapeseed oil
15 drops juniper essential oil
5 drops rosemary essential oil
5 drops orange or lemon essential oil
A handful of fresh birch leaves

Method

Bash the birch leaves in a pestle and mortar, place in the bottom of a wide-neck bottle and pour the olive/jojoba/grapeseed oil on top of them. Add the other oils. Leave the mixture in a bottle for a week in a cool dark place. After a week, strain out the birch leaves, if desired, or leave then inside to infuse the oil even more.

Use

Massage the oil using firm, circular movements aiming upward into the problem areas such as tummy, thighs, or upper arms.

Honey massage is extremely effective not just to minimize the look of cellulite, but also to firm and lift sagging skin on other body areas. Honey naturally absorbs toxins from the skin and infuses it with vitamins and biologically active nutrients. You can use pure honey or mix it with a few drops of cellulite-busting
essential oils such as juniper, grapefruit, or orange. Warm up 3 teaspoons of honey with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and massage your problem areas using firm upward strokes. You can also leave the honey on the skin for ten to fifteen minutes under a plastic film wrap. Your skin will be glowing and your cellulite a lot less visible.

Now that you’ve sent your fat cells a clear signal to get packing, it’s time to add specific cellulite-busting, fat-purging, collagen preserving foods to your grocery list. Non-sugary fruit and non starchy vegetables are best, but some vegetables should be your prime focus. Cellulite-busting foods include broccoli, rich in fiber and collagen-preserving alpha-lipoic acid; asparagus to fill up with fiber and banish bloating; and oranges (what a coincidence!) that beat “orange peel” with antioxidant bioflavonoids, which improve blood circulation. Whole grain pasta and breads also help remove cellulite-causing toxins from the body. Spice things up with cayenne pepper, which improves fat metabolism; turmeric to improve circulation; and garlic to lower blood cholesterol. To finish your cellulite-busting meal, dessert on lycopene-rich watermelon and apricot, potassium-loaded bananas, and antioxidant-rich various berries, which are indispensable in your quest for smooth, glowing skin, head to toe.

THE HOLISTIC WAY TO A SUNLESS TAN

Getting enough vitamin D from sunlight is important, but you don’t have to bake yourself under midday sun rays to get more than plenty of this all-important, cancer-fighting vitamin. Experts agree that just twenty minutes without sunscreen in the morning sun will generate enough vitamin D in your body to improve your immunity and strengthen your bones. So if you say you are tanning to fill up on vitamin D, you are just fooling yourself.

There are countless types of self-tanners available today, and they are way ahead of the original smelly, acrid concoctions that
produced awkward shades of orange with visible tan lines between your fingers. These days, self-tanners go on smooth, smell great, and produce believable shades of natural-looking bronze. But to make them work, you have to apply so much effort: epilate and exfoliate first, don’t perspire, don’t shave for a week, don’t get dressed for one hour after application (and who has the patience for that?), don’t swim, don’t bend, don’t curse (or you will perspire even more), don’t shower, and don’t forget to pat your elbows with a clean tissue, otherwise they will be dark. For two or three days of bronze tint that will wash away and leave your skin looking like giraffe’s neck, it’s just too many don’ts.

Another problem is that finding a decent self-tanner without parabens, artificial fragrances, petrochemicals, and other potentially unsafe ingredients is nearly impossible. Lavera’s allnatural, fast-absorbing self-tanning sprays and lotions are a rare exception, while the rest of the self-tanning crowd is loaded with nasties.

The main active ingredient in self-tanners, dihydroxyacetone (DHA ), poses yet another problem. Recent studies found that DHA acts as a free radical magnet, attracting unstable oxygen molecules to the skin where they wreak havoc, speed up premature aging, and even put you in a higher risk group for skin cancer. Synthetic or derived from corn, DHA is a menace. Newer formulas of self-tanners work around DHA and use either lower amounts of this tricky ingredient or use other tanning agents such as caramel (which only gives a nice tint that will rinse off during the next shower or onto your bed linen) or erythrulose, the latest generation bronzer obtained from corn, for natural-looking and lasting results. Scent-wise, peppermint and citrus scents are best as long as they are derived from natural essential oils, not labcreated imitations.

For greener souls like me, the best self-tanner comes in a pill, not a bottle. In France, pharmacies carry tons of various “auto bronzants”—supplements that claim to produce a sun-free tan. Packaged in cute cream jars, these pills are mostly blends of
antioxidant carotenoids such as lycopene to withstand sun damage and triple doses of beta-carotene to induce a lovely bronze glow without a hint of orange thanks to the clever blending of various carotenoids. These tanning pills also work to protect our skin from harmful effects of the sun. Lycopene, which is naturally found in tomatoes and carrots, has been linked to improved protection against sun damage.

For visible results, you must take “auto bronzant” carotene supplements for at least three weeks. I have tried nearly every variety available, as I am not a huge fan of self-tanners, and I found these supplements to be quite effective. I noticed that very soon my skin turned a pleasant shade of bronze even in the areas that do not normally tan, and I enjoyed knowing that for the first time in my life I am tanning my skin while actually improving my health. Only a few weeks ago, in the middle of winter, I needed to urgently finish a jar of “auto bronzant” before it expired. I turned a lovely shade of believable bronze and even had to change my makeup colors to summer palettes. Not many of my friends believed that I stayed away from a tanning salon! But the “feel good factor” of seeing yourself tanned and knowing that it’s harmless is even more precious.

Tanning Bath Recipe
: to maintain your tan, take a weekly bath with very strong black tea. Boil 2 cups of dry black tea leaves (any variety will do) in a pan for five minutes, strain, and pour the liquid into the bathwater. (Interestingly, black tea worked as a tights substitute during World War II when women painted their legs with strong solution of black tea.)

BATHE YOUR WAY TO GLOWING SKIN

Thalassotherapy and hydrotherapy are two of the earliest detoxing techniques. Thalassotherapy, from the Greek word
thalass
meaning “sea,” is a form of holistic body treatment using seawater and seaweed. During a thalassotherapy session, trace elements of magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium, and iodide suspended in seawater are absorbed through the skin. Adding seaweed to the seawater can firm the skin and reduce fatty accumulations.