Just as small things you do every day—choosing a salad over a hamburger for lunch, fitting in a half-hour walk—can improve your well-being, small, daily actions can also help you maintain a healthy, attractive appearance.
Here are seven natural ways to enhance the way you look.
Baby Your Eyes
The tender skin around your eyes needs special pampering, especially if it’s swollen from too little sleep or too much pollen (or a cathartic cry).
A clay- or mud-based mask can help reduce under-eye swelling; you can also try eye gels or creams that feature such nourishing nutrients as calendula, beta-glucan, elastin, sea algae and sage. And don’t forget the moisturizer!
Brighten Bloodshot Eyes Herbally
Have too many late nights left your peepers looking bleary and bloodshot?
Try taking tea in compress form: Brew up some eyebright or raspberry leaf tea, letting it steep at least 10 minutes. After it cools, dip in a cotton ball, place between two pieces of cloth and place on your eyes for 10 to 15 minutes. Here’s looking at you clearly!
Feed Your Skin Olive Oil
Not only is olive oil beneficial for the skin when taken internally, applying it externally after sun exposure may help provide protection.
Extra virgin olive oil contains strong antioxidants that combat the oxidizing effects of the sun on skin, reducing the signs of damage and aging.
Give Your Skin Ginkgo
Ginkgo biloba is a Chinese plant best known in the West for its ability to sharpen cognition. But now it turns out that this ancient herb may help your skin look its best as well.
Ginkgo’s antioxidant compounds can help protect against inflammation provoked by free radicals, the toxic molecules generated by the sun’s damaging UV rays among other sources. And early studies have indicated that it may help even out skin tone.
Invite Your Skin to a Tea Party
Enjoy green tea in the mornings? Don't throw out those tea bags! Instead, refrigerate them in a closed glass container and use them as cleansing pads for your face the next morning.
The brewed tea bags help exfoliate the skin, while the tea within them has healthful properties.
Style Your Hair Simply
A flattering haircut can go a long way to completing your look. But strenuous styling—such as dyeing, perming and excessive teasing—can harm your hair and make it more susceptible to weather damage.
So stick to simple cuts; if you must color, try one of the plant-based solutions available at your health food store.
Protect Your Skin from the Inside Out
Defending your skin from the sun’s harsh rays means more than just using sunscreen regularly—you also need to fortify yourself with skin-pampering nutrients.
Among the most notable are beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A; vitamin C, essential for the creation of the skin protein collagen; the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which serve as an internal sunscreen; and astaxanthin, another powerfully effective carotenoid.*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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**These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
