Your skin is your largest organ. It eats, drinks, breathes, and absorbs anything it comes into contact with. What we put on our skin is just as important as what we put in our bodies, since our skin will absorb everything directly into our bloodstream anyway, circulating whatever it is through our entire body and indirectly affecting our organs- and our health. 

Have you ever looked at the ingredient labels on your beauty products, lotions, shampoos, and such? Do you know what all of those ingredients are, or what they do inside of your body? Do you really know if your body is eliminating them? Sometimes our body doesn't recognize lab made chemicals and it doesn't know what to do with them. They get stored as toxins, mostly in our fat, but sometimes in our organs, causing imbalances and making us sick.

My idea is that anything you put onto your skin should be something you are willing to eat or drink. Look at your favorite products and ask yourself if you would eat them- and if you wouldn't, then I want you to reconsider. 

I say:
"Wellness should be simple, and so should your ingredients."

Your insides show on your oustides. It's that simple. If you internal environment is clean, balanced, healthy and well, your skin will glow! Proper nutrition is KEY for skin health, but how you nourish your skin on the outside counts too. The inside affects the outside, and the outside affects the inside. 

Oil is the closest chemically to our skin and is very easily absorbed. All cells have a lipid bi-layer [fat] that protects them and keeps the integrity of their cell structure. This layer is plump, fatty, and bendy as it keeps the good stuff in and the bad stuff out. Oil is made of this same stuff since oil is a fat, and that is why it is so chemically similar. It has the capacity to soak into all of our layers, deeply hydrating and nourishing us. The extra benefit in this is that because cells replicate and copy each other, hydrating from the outside allowing for our new up and coming layers to show up with renewed hydration and elasticity. Using oil restores our skin's integrity, strength, dewiness, and gives us subtle, plump, rejuvenated and glowing results.

Oil is a fabulous skin detoxifier as well and it will pull out unwanted pollutants from your skin in a way no other product can. Your cells understand oil and use it as a carrier to release anything they have been holding and unable to release. When cells don't understand something external, they toughen up to protect themselves, so nothing will really get in or out, yet using a friendly oil allows the gates to open up. [Note: If you are getting amazing results using chemicals, consider what is happening underneath what you can see. If something gets inside of your cells that is unnatural, that means the product is really, really harsh!] 

To use oil, simply take a few spoonfuls and massage it over your skin in place of a moisturizer. Using oil before a shower allows this detoxification to happen so much so that if you let it sit in for 20-30 min and then rinsed off, you wouldn't even need soap to cleanse your skin! [you can still use soap of course] You also wouldn't even really need a lotion afterwards because your skin would already be hydrated. Using oil after a shower or bath in place of lotions is less expensive, more nourishing and has a ton of added benefits.

• Daily oil massage, called Abhyanga, is a meditative practice that grounds you and brings you back into the present moment. It gives you a space to pay attention to yourself with full consciousness, which does wonders for self esteem, self reflexion, self love, calming the mind, and bringing you back to yourself.
• Daily oil massage heightens your senses and improves your vision.
• Prevents aging 
• Strengthens the body, increases stamina, and tones the muscles
• Creates energetic grounding and helps to melt away feelings of anxiety, stress, and ADD 
• Calms the mind and promotes deep, sound sleep
• Helps the body heal faster
• Promotes subtle, healthy, glowing, younger, rejuvenated skin
• Introduces healing ingredients directly onto our body's largest organ- the skin
• Ensures your body stays cleaner, healthier, and prevents the disruption of hormones by avoiding the application parabens and chemicals through lotions and creams
• Protects against the sun
• Helps keep your underlying energies aligned and is guaranteed to make help you feel more balanced. 
• Using oil instead of expensive lotions saves money and nourishes the skin much more organically.

Choosing an oil for yourself is easy. 

Organic Unrefined Sesame Oil is excellent for dry skin types or those that tend to be cold easily, tend to anxiety, fears or stress, or those with a Vata body type.

Organic Virgin Coconut Oil or 100x Ghee for the face is great for those with sensitive skin or skin problems such as eczema, rosacea, psoriasis, acne, hives or general skin irritations, or those who experience a lot of heat in their system, tend to be competitive, angry, irritable or those with a general Pitta body type.

Organic Sunflower oil is a light oil ideal for naturally hydrated or dewy skin types who don't need a lot of extra moisture,  those who may experience congestion, natural oiliness, tend to stagnation or those with a Kapha body type.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a neutral oil that can be used for all body types. It is amazing for healing the skin, clearing scars, improving skin tone, hydrating sun burns and overall skin balance. It is my oil of choice for using as a face cleanser.

Using medicinal oils is a great idea if you are looking for the added benefits that herbs offer, and is a simple way to get more support for whatever you may be experiencing. 

There you have it! Using oil is inexpensive and super nourishing.

Head into your kitchen for you own DIY skincare, visit The Wellness By Helen Shop for specialty oils, or stop by our friends at Mapi.com here for Ayurvedic skincare products like toothpaste, bar soaps, supplements and massage oils.

Use Code CW6 for your 10% discount in the WBH shop and on mapi.com. 

Everything you put onto your skin goes directly into your body, so make sure it is clean, simple and edible.

xo