Beat the Summer Skin Oily Blues

Do you dread summer because you feel like your skin becomes its own oil manufacturing plant? Is it much worse than other times of the year? You scrub your face and apply drying agents, but it doesn’t help or gets worse? If you have oily skin or acne prone skin, summer can be tough.

Summer Fun Affects Skin
The heat, the humidity, the sunscreen, the sun, and exercising with all those elements in play can wreck havoc on  your challenged skin issues. It’s true; the fun of summer can make skin more oily and breakouts worse. On top of that, summer is also a time when you may also relax your healthy diet regimen, eating and drinking foods that acerbate your skin condition.

Over-Cleansed Skin Effect 
When skin is oily, the oil worsens, or pimple breakouts increase, there is a tendency for many people to try to fix it by washing the face more or using drying products and soaps. However, the opposite happens. Over cleansing your face and using drying products, such as toners, pimple treatments (especially those heavy with chemicals), and harsh soaps/face washes makes the skin worse. Your body responds when your skin is over dried by making more oil to compensate. But, it overcompensates and makes too much oil. A vicious cycle begins of washing, applying skin treatments/ointments and skin cells registering dryness and vamps up oil production. You need to break the cycle to get your skin in balance.

Two Things To Firmly Hold in Mind
Before I get into the specifics of making oily and acne skin better during summer, you need to firmly put two things in your mind and hold to them. One is you need to keep to a regimen, not matter what. Secondly, you need to work on the problem from the inside out as well as topically. It’s the inside out that most people have trouble with and balk at. For one thing, it may require some diet changes (for the better). We’ve been mentally conditioned for years from the medical community that diet doesn’t affect the skin. This is bad information. Makes me crazy to even think that this was the propaganda from doctors for generations. Yes, let’s be clear, diet does affect the skin. Hello! Scurvy! This is just one disease doctors should have used to put two and two together: If you don’t get vitamin C, you get scurvy and one of the effects is hemorrhagic skin papules, not a pretty sight.

Enjoy Summer Fun and Keep Pimples and Oil under Control

Have A Regular Cleansing Regimen and Stick to It. Wash your face twice a day with mild cleanser, especially in the evening. DO NOT GO TO BED WITH MAKEUP ON! Never, ever. I prefer you use an organic cleanser. Use warm/lukewarm water. Do not use hot water on your face. Only time you would wash your face more than twice a day is after exercising. If you swim, rinse the chlorination off with lukewarm water, but don’t wash, and apply a proper moisturizer. If you use a sunscreen, remove it as soon as you come indoors by gently cleansing. Regularly use a very mild exfoliator. You can use a mild one daily. Don’t use a toner; they are of no benefit to the skin. And for oily skin and acne prone skin, they are too drying. They can cause the vicious cycle mentioned earlier.

Take Ice and Rub Over Your Face. You want to calm and cool your skin. I take an ice cube to my face twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening before going to bed. I do it for other reasons that oily skin, mature skin…. It’s great for sending to fresh oxygenated blood to the skin. Fresh blood contains nutrients. I hold the ice in a washcloth or hand towel, and travel it over my face and neck. You can also put ice water in a basin and dunk your face it. I think that’s more work. Just don’t hold the ice too long on one spot. If you have a pimple though, you can leave the ice on it for a few seconds to help calm it, and help reduce its size.

Use a Moisturizer. I know this can make some of you cringe at the idea. Moisturizer/oil on oily, acne skin?? But, a really good moisturizer balances the oils on oily and acne prone skin. We, of course, love argan oil for this. Our Argan Serum is our top seller, five years out (it also has effective essential oil). Whatever, moisturizer you use, make sure it doesn’t block pores or have unnecessary ingredients, such as preservatives or bactericidals. Lotions often have these. Again, that’s one of the reasons we created our acne line, so as not to have unnecessary ingredients that can make acne worse.

Eat as Many Fresh Fruits and Vegetables as Possible. Everyday single day eat your veggies and fruits, especially include dark green leafy vegetables. Some of them are kale, spinach, dandelion greens, and lettuces other than iceberg. But, anything fresh is good. Eat them raw, steamed, or roasted to change it up, and keep your palate interested. If you eat something bad, i.e, not good for skin, cleanse your body by eating fresh fruits and vegetables as soon as you can. For example, you go to baseball game and eat hot dogs, nachos, etc. and drink beer or soda. For next few days, stick with a fresh fruit and vegetable diet. Buy or make green health drinks.

Drink Water. Everyday day drink water. Researchers say you need to drink half your body weight in ounces everyday. So, if you weight 150 pounds you need 75 ounces of water every day. This is if you are not doing anything. So, if you exercise you will need more. And I think it’s good for acne prone skin to drink more, to make it healthy again. If you are dehydrated, your skin will suffer. The body will want to protect vital organs first when dehydrated, so will pull hydration from those parts of the body that it deems as not as important, such as the skin. Don’t include other beverages in this, especially alcohol.

Change Your Pillowcase Daily. If you don’t have that many pillowcases, cover your case with a soft towel. Oil that is produced overnight get transferred to your pillow either from your face or hair. Bacteria begins to grow. At night the bacteria can make it’s way to your face.

Exercise. Exercise helps in many ways. Nutrients get distributed throughout the body more efficiently. It helps to control stress; stress makes acne worse and overstimulates oil glands. Exercise removes toxins and stimulates the lymphatic system, which helps the body fight “invaders.” Exercise also keeps your weight in control; studies have shown link between being overweight and acne. Just remember to gently cleanse face afterwards and rinse face in cold water or use ice cube treatment.

Limit Sun Exposure. The thought used to be that the sun helped acne and oily skin. But, that’s not so. The sun is not good for these to conditions. The other thing is if you also use a sunscreen you compound the problem. Sunscreen can create oils or attract dirt. And then, there’s the detrimental effects of direct sun on problem skin. Sun blocking hats are the best; those with UVB ratings. However, you may want to enjoy some sun activities. So, be reasonable and create a balance. Take every effort to limit sun exposure on your face. But, also enjoy those sun activities you enjoy. Maybe you have an activity, such as playing kickball that you can switch to doing in the evening. Just remember to gently cleanse your face afterwards and follow with cold water splashes or ice cube treatment.

There you  have it, a cleansing regimen, a super healthy diet, water, exercise, and keeping a balance between enjoying the things of summer you love with the realistically maintaining healthy skin. Yes, sometimes it does come down to what is more important your skin or forgoing something that will make it worse. Oh, one other thing: Don’t squeeze those pimples.

Click to: Get Your Acne Under Control, Shop Our All-Organic Clear Skin Line

Food as Medicine: A Prescription for Clearing Acne

We have become so focused on satiating the tastes buds with fast, salty, sweet, and processed foods that we have forgotten the purpose of food: Food is medicine for the body. This concept seems to have become lost in both modern medicine and in our culture.

It is not just that we have forgotten the purpose of food. Our minds have become conditioned and in some ways addicted to eating foods low in nutrients, but high in satiating the taste buds and giving us emotional comfort. Eating like this when you have acne or any disease impedes the body’s ability to heal because you choose low nutrient-filled foods.

Low nutrient-filled foods do not have what it takes for the body to heal acne. As a result, maintaining clear skin is a constant battle as you yo-yo from one remedy to another with perhaps temporary results, but with no lasting results. Poor nutrition can also acerbate and contribute to the cause of acne.

By the way, nutrient rich foods also satiate the taste buds and emotions. It is a matter of becoming aware of your diet and adapting your mind to a different way of eating. Once you do, you will wonder how you ever ate any other way.

When the body is diseased in some way (acne is a disease), it needs all the nutrients it can get to heal. The current western diet that most people eat is for the most part nutritiously poor. The other problem with our misdirected perception of food and its purpose comes from the medical establishment. Many dermatologists and other doctors say there is no connection between acne and diet. They are wrong…period.

Their heads are in the sand. Hello! Scurvy is from a lack of vitamin C; rickets is from a deficiency in vitamin D, and some cases of blindness are caused by vitamin A defieiciencyy. So, logic dictates that if these diseases are cured or prevented when the body is supplied with them then food is medicine for the body and will help with other diseases.

The food, however, has to be nutrient rich. Food is not created equal when it comes to nutrients. The long-held misconception is that if we are eating then we must be getting the nutrients we need. Wrong thinking.

If your diet consists of food from fast food chains, out of boxes, foods processed with chemicals, pizza, pasta, soda (including diet), sugary drinks and food, then you are not getting enough nutrients need to clear your skin of acne. You need whole foods in your diet; foods that are fresh.

For way too long, the role of nutrition in clearing skin has been sorely neglected or ignored. However, there is a growing number of enlightened doctors who are teaching their patients that food is medicine. Nutrient rich food helps to prevent disease and aids in the body in maintaining homeostasis. Food as medicine for acne is very important because the body not only needs nutrients to maintain its balance; it also needs them to heal the skin at the same time. The nutrients are doing double duty.

It really is impossible to have great looking skin without proper nutrition. Besides individual choices when choosing what to eat, there are contributing elements that are creating detrimental consequences to the nutritional health of the country. More on this in the next post. For now, if you have acne take a hard look at your diet.

Click to Buy Our Great All-Organic Skincare Line:

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15 Whole-Body Tips for Acne Prone Skin

I’m very familiar with the ups and downs of acne because one of my children has it.  She went through the entire gamut of traditional medical methods to heal it.  This included 2 treatments of Accutane, which had devastating consequences.  Improvements were temporary at best.  It was a whole-body approach & YSO clear skin products that got it under control for good.  Below are  some of our suggestions to get you started towards an acne free complexion.

Inflammation and out of balance hormones are major contributing factors to acne.  In order to gain control of acne, the body needs to be brought back into balance.  Contrary to conventional wisdom, diet and lifestyle do play a part in feeding acne and also in healing it.  Incorporating a whole-body approach helps to bring hormones into balance and reduces inflammation thereby helping to clear skin.  Diet and life style do make a difference.

Here are 15 tips to help you get started.  It does take diligence and commitment in order to see improvement.  And it may take several weeks or months to see those improvements as the body detoxifies and begins a return to homeostasis.

•  Eliminate or reduce foods with added hormones, such as dairy and factory raised meats. Even organic milk contains natural hormones; skim milk has less.

•  Reduce body inflammation and bring hormones into balance by increasing omega 3.  Fish, walnuts, ground flaxseeds, Brussels sprouts, spinach, kale, and salad greens.

•  Do not over cleanse your face.  It will dry it out, irritate, and cause over-stimulation of oil glands.

• Be gentle with your skin.  It’s a fallacy that acne prone skin is tougher than other skin types.  Perfumes, detergents, chemicals in cleansers, toners, etc can irritate acne, make it worse. Even things like dryer sheet fabric softeners can leave a residue on the skin.

• Whole body approach includes exercise.  Exercise helps bring fresh oxygenated blood to the skin, which brings nutrients. Exercise sans make-up, wash face afterwards.

• May seem counter intuitive, but the right plant oils can help balance oils in acne prone skin. Ingredients in lotions can irritate and clog pores, increase oil production.

• Try yoga.  It’s great for bringing body into balance.  Finding the right class is important.  Find one that is not over -weighted with poses, but also has breath, meditation & relaxation as a large part of class.

•  Meditation is great for improving skin. See our post: http://yumscrubblog.com/?s=Meditate+for+healthier+beautiful+skin&submit=Search

• Eat fresh fruits and vegetables daily.  Eat organic if possible.  Acne prone body has enough to fight/balance without additional chemical/hormones.

• Keep hydrated with clear liquids aka H2O – not vodka ;).  Alcohol messes up balance in body, esp. women. Stays in body longer.  Cucumbers and melons also help with hydration.

• Eliminate or greatly reduce granulated sugar and corn syrup in your diet.  Replace with raw honey or agave.

• There may be other skin conditions besides acne contributing skin problem & compounding acne, such as seborrhea, rosacea, or eczema

• Check for food triggers.  These are foods that you may be sensitive to and are not aware of.  They will cause inflammation and complicate healing of acne.  Eliminate trigger foods one at a time for a couple weeks to notice any difference.  Common ones: wheat, gluten, meat, corn, soy and dairy.

• Reduce stress.  Learn to live from your heart/soul more and the mind less.

• Don’t use thick make-up to cover the acne.  It doesn’t hide it and only makes the condition worse.  Know, feel, & believe you are BEAUTIFUL.  I say so!!

Click to Buy Our Great All-Organic Skincare Line:

YumScrubhttp://bit.ly/1jKksLG

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Whole-Body Approach to Skincare

So, just what is a whole-body approach to skincare?  A whole-body approach is just that.  In order for the skin to be healthy and beautiful, or to heal a skin condition, it takes more that just topicals applied to the skin.  It involves all the aspects of your life.

In our collective psyche, skin has been viewed as something outside ourselves, meaning we often don’t see that our skin’s condition is as much dependent on our internal workings as any of the other body’s organs.

While skin is the largest organ in the body, I would venture to guess it is one of the least understood.  Much of how we view skincare is a trickle down effect from doctors.  They often approach skin disease and diseases in general through a myopic lens, focusing just on the disease.  Since the advent of the predominant pharmaceutical culture, physicians have stopped trying to heal the body or be healers.  For example, most dermatologist still harp that food, lifestyle, mental attitude do not have a part in acne.  Why is it so hard for them to connect the dots when diseases, such as scurvy that have skin manifestations are a result of improper nutrients?

On the other hand, a whole-body approach to acne says that the body is out of balance and needs to be brought back into balance with proper nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, etc.  It also involves the use of skincare products, but doesn’t just rely on them or pills as a cure. Dermatologists who do not counsel patients who have skin conditions about the effect of proper nutrition, exercising, mental attitude, stress, etc. on the skin are doing the patient a disservice.

The skin is an organ and is affected by our lifestyle just as any other organ is in the body.  Don’t get lolled into thinking that because we can see a layer of it on the outside that its not being affected by what you eat, think, do, and feel.

While Yum Scrub Organics produces skincare products, we know that products alone can’t do the job.  No matter the marketing hype from any cosmetic or pharmaceutical company, wrinkles, blemishes, eczema, psoriasis, backne, acne, dryness will not go away/stay away or diminish with just a skin-applied product.  Big spending advertising is another way we are lolled into thinking the skin is something separate from the rest of our body.  However, the right product can certainly play a large role in skincare (or we wouldn’t be in the business).

To really enhance the beauty or healing of your skin, you do need to also go deep inside.  A whole-body approach to skincare then is about all that makes you–you.  It involves what you eat and drink and what you don’t eat and drink; exercise, mental attitude/mindset, and spiritual development.  With regard to spiritual development, we are referring to the inner path or who you are as a person that comes from deep within–not the religious connotation of spirit.

Applying a whole-body approach, you embrace a natural healthy lifestyle that benefits your whole body.  You see the body as interconnected, what affects one part of the body affects another part and affects the whole body.  With this in mind you approach the care of your whole body–physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual–with mindfulness.  If you apply this approach, your skin will radiate and of course your entire body will be much healthier.

Click to Buy Our Great All-Organic Skincare Line:

YumScrubhttp://bit.ly/1jKksLG

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Browse through some of our posts to get some suggestions on some whole-body techniques.

Top 6 “Must Do” for Healthy Skin and Beautiful Face

Beautiful skin comes naturally to very few of us.  Even those who appear to have beautiful skin from a distance, have their flaws revealed when up close or after the make-up is removed.  Healthy and beautiful skin naturally needs help to get and maintain it.  Here to help you with it are our top 6 must do’s.

1. Drink water daily.  Water hydrates and removes toxins from the body. 

2. Eat fresh vegetables daily, especially dark green leafy ones.  They are filled with skin loving nutrients that help to combat wrinkles, dryness, and pimples.

3. Eat fresh fruit daily, especially fruits high in Vitamin C.  The body doesn’t make or store vitamin C, so it needs to be replenished regularly.  Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which helps to fight against dryness and wrinkles.  Vitamin C is key to building collagen.  Collagen helps keep skin firm and helps the skin to repair itself.

4. Cleanse your skin daily.  But don’t over cleanse or use harsh soap detergents.  Doing so will strip the skin of vital oils, causing wrinkles to form easier and/or breakouts.  Rinse face with cool to very cool water to tone the face.

5.  Get omega 3 into your diet on a regular basis.  Omega 3 is not made by the body and needs to be supplied.  Omega 3 fights inflammation, aids in preventing dryness, and gives skin a glow.

6. Moisturize your skin regularly.  Even oily and acne prone skin need hydrating.  Be sure to use high quality products that do not contain petroleum based ingredients, chemicals, or dirt attracting ingredients.

See our blog on the “Top Ten No-No’s for Beautiful, Healthy Skin.”

Shop Yum Scrub Organics for healthy, organic, and natural skincare products.

New Year, New Look, New Products, and More

Read all about it. Read all about it.  Yum Scrub Organics has a new logo, new website, new product line, new book, and our body scrubs have been reformulated.  We’re exited and proud of of all the new happenings.

New Website and Logo
Check out Yum Scrub Organics new website with our new logo and colors.  The shopping cart is now integrated into the website, making it friendly and easy to use.  Of course, all transactions are secured.  We also added some articles about skin and skincare to our website.

While we loved our  old logo, our new logo reflects more of the apothecary brand of skincare we are about.  Apothecary skincare applies natural techniques and in our company organic ingredients to help skin conditions.  Before bringing a product to market, extensive research is done on the best organic botanical ingredients that work synergistically and that are effective.  YSO does not just use ingredients because they are popular or the latest “new thing.”   In the apothecary style, YSO’s organic face, body, and bath products are made in small batches, so products are delivered to the customer fresher.

New Product Line and Book
YSO’s Clear Skin line as with all our products is formulated using all-organic ingredients.  The Clear Skin line is for oily and blemish prone skin. It includes a face wash, pimple treatment, and also one of our best sellers, Argan Acne Serum.  The line is sold as a set or individually.  When you buy the set, our booklet Clear Skin: A Whole Body Approach is included for free.  We are offering the Clear Skin Set at an introductory price.

While topical treatments are important for clearing adult onset acne, there are other modalities that need to be applied in order to control adult acne.  Our Clear Skin: A Whole Body Approach booklet on adult acne offers valuable information on how to have healthier skin using a holistic approach.  The booklet covers the causes of adult acne, new research on acne, nutrition that helps and hinders clearing the skin, and other suggestions to help a person control adult acne.

Oatmeal Facial Wash for Oily and Acne Prone Skin
Our Oatmeal Facial Wash is made in the apothecary style. We combine colloidal oatmeal with herbs known to help blemish-prone skin.  Oatmeal Facial Wash is a very gentle exfoliant containing colloidal oatmeal, fine organic sucrose, and fine herbal powders. Colloidal oatmeal is a natural cleanser, a natural moisturizer, protects the skin’s PH, and helps maintain the skin’s acid mantle.  The acid mantle is the skin’s protection from bacteria and virus, keeping it healthy is important to acne prone skin.   Sucrose is the natural form of glycolic acid.  Glycolic acid is often used in acne treatments to remove the top skin to allow a new layer of skin to be exposed thereby reducing blemishes and oiliness.  Often, commercial strengths of glycolic acid are too harsh for acne skin.

Aloe Vera is a natural pore tightener and toner; it is formulated into our face wash.  Many dermatologist recommend against using typical toners because they are too harsh.  They strip skin of all oils often causing a rebound effect, creating more blemish-causing oils.  Typical toners also attract dirt.  YSO Oatmeal Face Wash tones without stripping or attracting dirt.  It also does not contain unnecessary ingredients, such as water and fillers.

Oatmeal Face Wash for Oily and Acne Prone Skin with 8 herbs is very nourishing.   Aloe Vera along with rose, lavender, colloidal oatmeal, and other ingredients help to soothe the skin.

Unique and Better Way to Wash the Face
What is most unique about Oatmeal Facial Wash is that it is in a powdered form.  Formulating our organic face wash in this way, eliminates harsh ingredients that are used to create lather and lotions.  Lathering and lotion ingredients can clog pores and leave a dirt attracting film.  Our Oatmeal Face Wash rinses clean.

So, how do you use Oatmeal Facial Wash?  About a quarter size or so of the face wash is poured into damp palms.  Palms are rubbed together until an emulsion forms.  The emulsion is gently rubbed over the face followed by rinsing it thoroughly off with very cool water.  Cool or cold water is a great natural skin toner, especially when used with the aloe vera.  BTW  The oatmeal face wash does remove make-up.  We suggest applying Argan Acne Serum afterwards to balance and moisturize the skin.  Also, the acne serum can be used to emulsify the face wash with or without the water for those times when the skin is drier because of weather, etc.

Yum Scrub Spot Treatment
Our all-organic Spot Treatment comes in a small bottle, but it is very powerful.  In a base of jojoba wax ester, essential oils that are known to help improve pimples and blemishes have been added. Test results with real people with real blemishes show that it does dry and reduce the size of pimples.  It is highly concentrated, so a little goes a long way.  One drop is applied to an individual pimple and gently rubbed in.  Of course, it is important to apply to clean skin with very clean hands.  The pimple Spot Treatment is not to be used all over the face; it is just for individual pimples.  It is also not for severe acne.  Direct sunlight needs to be avoided after application.

New and Improved Body Scrubs
Coco-Mint Sugar Scrub, Orange You Glad Salt Scrub, and Manly-Mint Sugar Scrub have all had a makeover.  They have been reformulated for easy pouring and a more gentle exfoliation.  The mint in coco-mint has boosted for an even more minty aroma.  It’s YUM all the way around.  We are very proud to have formulated a pourable body scrub without chemicals, thickeners, or other unnecessary ingredients.

The older model of our scrubs were pourable, but required repeated shaking during use to blend the sugar or salt with the plant oils.  Now, our scrubs only need an initial shake and are ready to pour from the spout.  Most body scrubs on the market come in a jar where you have to scoop out the scrub and where water can get in.  They are messy and cumbersome to use.  Yum Scrub Organics pourable scrubs leave the mess behind and offer a wonderful way to cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize the body all in one product.  Each body scrub has their own unique blend of plant oils and essential oils.

Dermatologist recommend applying moisturizer within three minutes of the body getting wet to lock in moisture.  When you use our organic body scrubs the moisture get locked-in while in the shower.  We also suggest that you allow your body to air dry when you get out of the shower for additional moisturizing benefits.

As always, we are so confidant in our products we offer a 100% guarantee.

We also want to thank our loyal and new customers for our continuing success.  Thank you!  We truly appreciate your business and are always open to comments and suggestions.  Shop Yum Scrub Organics.

Light and Love to all,
Yum Scrub Organics