I wish I had taken a photo of my skin when it was really bad so I could compare it to now!...

I cannot express enough the relief at having my smooth, regulated skin back!

Is it perfect? Absolutely NOT!!
But my goodness; having red, dry, irritated skin on my face is so confidence throwing ESPECIALLY when I sell amazing skincare. I'm supposed to be a walking billboard for my products (except if you see me day to day where I verge on looking like a hobo at school pick up 😅, then no you didn't!). I hated having my skin looking less than what I expect from myself. 

For the last few months (around the onset of colder weather) I have suffered with Perioral Dermatitis (with just a touch of periocular dermatitis) - the definition of this condition is "characterised by small red scaly papules and pustules located around the nose and mouth (or eye for periocular)." Sounds gross right? 
Fortunately I was lucky and mine was red, dry and raised but not itchy.  This condition can be age linked, environmental or from the disturbance of your internal microflora. I was advised by a very good skin therapist that I should take a specific type of anti-biotic and it would clear right up, but me being me and stubborn about finding a natural way, unless there was no other option I wanted to keep that as a last resort. I initially started by swapping out my usual skincare and seeing if that made a difference and it didn't do too much. I even added in a probiotic serum but that didn't do a lot either.

I had little success, until in the last month...

I wanted to reverse the inflammation in my body so I started to increase my fruit intake - smoothies, juices, some kind of fruit to start my day. Fruit is naturally hydrating (even more so than water) and anti-inflammatory.

I stopped using makeup whenever possible (which wasn't a stretch for me, I'm usually make up free day to day.) This is to stop the irritation through touch and letting the skin breathe.

Made sure I cleansed every day regardless AND, this is key - I used 'Luma' Cleansing oil, my skin thrives off this cleanser, so gentle and calming.

I used a combination of my 'Soothe' kawakawa oil with organic Castor oil on my face in the morning (and in case of a flare up, at night too). Castor oil is such a beautiful "fix all" for a variety of issues, I'll go into more detail on this another time.

And this last one was pure coincidence - I started trialing a sample of Tremella mushroom extract for a Summer product and this made a HUGE difference after I had been regularly taking it for two weeks. (I'll also talk more about this soon as I'm so excited to bring you a beautiful summer herbal elixir with this super skin loving ingredient.)

I had also been regularly drinking a litre of herbal tea everyday to make sure I was getting nutrients in my water - my 'Lymph Tea' has been on regular repeat and I absolutely think I needed to flush out my lymphatics and get it draining better in order for any of the above to work effectively.

..........

All of this is just to give you an example of what I did to help treat my skin - this is not going to be the right path for everyone, but it may give you inspiration if you need to switch things up for your skin health. 

Our skin, as one of our largest organs and a key detoxification pathway, often reflects internal inflammation. Sometimes, bad skin is a sign that the body is dealing with internal issues and maybe we need to give our lymphatics some extra love to start draining and getting rid of waste more efficiently.

If you ever want to ask any questions or need a bit of help selecting products - I am always happy to help either via email or DMs.

Your Botanical Queen,
Amanda x