Youthful and Beautiful Skin: Essential Oils, Bakuchiol, and Phytotherapy for Perfect Skin

Health is a one word definition of beauty. Beauty is the outward expression of an overall healthy body. That means healthy mind, healthy cells and body functions, and healthy attitudes. You can cream your skin with the latest in cosmetic active ingredients all you want, but you’ll never achieve resonant beauty without applying all the holistic steps required for true beauty health. Ooh, that sounds scary and more effort than some prefer. Not really, it’s not a big deal. Sorry, yes it is. It does take effort, focus, intention and some motivation to achieve true beauty. Here’s how to go about having and maintaining youthful beauty and perfect skin.

Diet and Nutrition

Before I get into techniques and what to use, I need to begin with the most obvious step, and maybe least acknowledged, in being beautiful. A beauty diet uses the logic of what you eat and put in your body becomes your body, this is where all the building blocks for healthy cells and function of every system and organ comes from. This may also be one of the most challenging aspects to acquiring beautiful youthful skin. The challenge is due to a cultural acceptance of processed and addictive food products, an ease and availability of all foods at any time, and diets high in sugars and other inflammatory ingredients. Healthy eating and diet is definitely a discipline. Beauty won’t be possible without a healthy whole food diet. That means zero crap food products. Yes, a little can hurt you.

The “rainbow diet,” lots of brightly colored veges and fruits, is the goal. These are high in anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and beneficial nutrients.

The main goal is to eliminate inflammatory processed foods, such as many packaged industrial food-products, fast food, and added sugars, and reduce carbohydrates such as breads, rice, pasta and white potatoes. Eat whole, non-processed, and preferably organic, food. Easy enough, just get over any emotional or mental resistance. The “rainbow diet,” lots of brightly colored veges and fruits, is the goal. These are high in anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and beneficial nutrients.

I recommend supplementing the diet with made-from-whole-food vitamins and nutrients. This is an area that may require your own extensive research or getting advice from a naturopathic physician or other professional well versed in holistic natural treatments and medicine.

Emotional Health

This is another “can’t get there from here” situation. What I mean is, if you are chronically stressed, have high anxiety, are often in a “fight or flight” mode, or in other ways emotionally tense or imbalanced, healthy beautiful skin will be difficult to achieve and maintain.

Stress and similar emotional imbalances cause damage and premature aging to the skin. The overall appearance of the body, like posture, eye clarity, and even body scent, is highly effected by stress. Emotional imbalance and fight or flight response challenge skin by compromising the structure of the protective lipid barrier, and cause inflammation and free radical damage, which reduces healthy cellular function and increases DNA damage.

So, don’t stress. Take control over your emotional state through awareness that you have control over your emotional state. I know, another discipline. Stress, anxiety and even most fight or flight conditions are produced by thought. There are many self-help practices that assist in reducing stress by changing the way, or what, you think. Though there are several good books on the subject, I highly recommend reading The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor as a way to understand thought, emotions, health and associated outcomes in your life.

The holistic superiority of essential oils over other ingredients or therapies is their ability to support positive and balanced emotional health.

Essential Oils

By far the most effective holistic tool that can be used for healthy skin and beauty is essential oils. I say this because it’s true, well, let me explain. Essential oils are powerfully anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, the most necessary properties needed for overall beauty and vibrant skin health. There are also cell regenerative properties from oils that maintain robust cell metabolism and function. All good, right? But there’s more.

The holistic superiority of essential oils over other ingredients or therapies is their ability to support positive and balanced emotional health. They do this in several ways. Essential oils have supported evidence of calming stress, relieving anxiety, and raising parasympathetic activity, thus reducing fight or flight.

Here’s an example of a holistic essential oil skin rejuvenating and beauty stimulating combination:

Helichrysum italicum (helichrysum)

Lavandula angustifolia (lavender)

Wait, there has to be more! No, there doesn’t. Everything your skin needs can be accomplished with two oils, sometimes just one. Helichrysum is the single most effective oil for skin rejuvenation with potent anti-inflammatory action. Lavender is a do-all oil that supports emotional stability and stress reduction. This is a complete and holistic remedy for skin health. Of course the potential for healing and maintaining healthy beautiful skin and overall beauty with essential oils is much greater than this.

Phytotherapy

Plant-based therapy, or phytotherapy, includes and is much broader than just the use of essential oils. The diet mentioned above is phytotherapy. My recommendation is to look at the best foods for beauty and skin health and spread them across your skin. Well, that could be a little funky. More appropriate for topical application of a healthy organic diet is utilizing well-crafted extracts from these foods. Extracts with the vital compounds, such as flavonoids, carotenoids and terpenoids, provide protection and revitalizing properties at the epidermal, surface, layers of the skin.

Bakuchiol and Other Herbal Extracts

I’m highlighting bakuchiol due to its relatively new introduction to the market and its phenomenal ability to stimulate collagen type I, III and IV production. This is the herbal replacement for the irritating and inflammatory retinols. The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity is an added benefit of bakuchiol, an extract from the seeds and leaves of Psoralea corylifolia. The list of what bakuchiol does for skin includes; improving texture and skin tone, promote beneficial hydration levels, reduce hyperpigmentation, protect from sun damage, and reduce acne flare-ups and breakouts. Pretty cool.

Herbal extracts supply healing and skin therapy, especially for wound healing and other cell regenerative functions.

There are many, many other plant extracts that are incredibly beneficial and therapeutic in skin care. Rose hip seed oil, blackberry and other berry seed oils, sunflower, coconut, shea butter, avocado and several other pressed oils are extremely good antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and nourishing topical ingredients for glowing dewy skin. Calendula (marigold), green tea, aloe vera, and many other herbal extracts supply healing and skin therapy, especially for wound healing and other cell regenerative functions.

Intention and Meditation

Yeah, I know, weird jump from herbals and oils to, what? Meditation? If you want to fully achieve vibrant beauty and skin, it must be an intended goal and an emotional focus. Meditation is a good way to deliver this, along with meditating relieving the stress and mental chatter that disrupts a goal of beauty health.

Intention is the thought and desire of achieving holistic beauty. The more focus and clarity given to this intention, the greater the chance of achieving the results. As is often emphasized in manifestation and law of attraction practices, the emotion or feeling of having what you desire is of key importance. This means you feel as if what you want is happening now. The emotion should be strong and real. Intention, with the associated emotion, and meditation are important and effective practices in a beauty health goal.

Exercise

It should be mentioned that beauty and youthful health require some form of exercise. Yoga, pilates, hiking, walking and many other forms of daily activity help maintain optimum health and beauty. Be careful that your workouts aren’t causing inflammation that improper running, aggressive high impact, or weight lifting have the potential to do.

System for Healthy Holistic Beauty

I’ll be posting a short course with steps on how to achieve and maintain healthy beauty soon. For now, here are the few steps it takes that put you on a path to true holistic beauty health. Each step below requires much more depth and understanding, as each is a practice on its own. Don’t let that discourage you. If you are a beginner at any one of these categories of beauty health you will be able to find enough valid and well researched information to get you started. Look for reliable research, not product focused or corporate info.

1. Healthy Diet and Nutrition

If you don’t have a good dietary practice, beauty is not possible. Here are some “face food” guidelines:

• Eat the rainbow diet that includes dark greens and berries

• A vegetarian or vegan diet is thought to be most healthy. The challenge with this would be avoiding overdoing carbohydrates and not getting enough protein. There are several good books on how to do this properly.

• Fish, especially salmon, sardines and halibut, are good sources of easily digestible protein and omega-3 fatty acids

• Fermented foods, such as kimchi, sauerkraut, and yoghurt (vegans can find yoghurts made from cashews and other nut milks)

• Supplement the diet with whole-food vitamins

• Supplement the diet with herbal antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties

• Seek professional support in selecting the best nutrients for your personal needs

2. Organic Plant Extracts for Topical Skin Care

The best skin care has an ingredient list with a majority of the beneficial extracts from the best face foods. This is a very short list, the possibilities are vast.

Fixed seed oils

avocado

blackberry (cranberry, raspberry)

calophyllum 

coconut

jojoba

olive

rosehip

sunflower

Butters

cocoa

kokum

mango 

shea

Herbals extracts

astaxanthin

aloe vera

calendula

dandelion

green tea

sea buckthorn

turmeric

Essential oils

Crazy to make a short list of essential oils with so many choices, but, here goes:

Buddha wood

Cape chamomile

cedarwood (both Atlas and Virginia)

copaiba

eucalyptus dives

frankincense

geranium

helichrysum

katrafay

kunzea

myrrh

palmarosa

rose

rosemary verbenone type

Nutrients

Coenzyme Q10

bakuchiol

vitamin E

niacinamide

resveratrol

3. Intention and Meditation

• What’s your beauty goal? Name it. Describe it in detail. See it. Feel it (how will you feel, the emotion, of achieving this goal?). Remember to include a vision of overall health in your intention.

• Meditate with the goal in mind, with clear vision and emotional feeling

• When meditating, smell the skin care oils or product you use. This will create an olfactory emotional-memory bond, triggering the intention when applying the skin care.

• Repeat the intention when applying or doing your skin care routine.