Natural Skin Cycling: Your Best Skin For the New Year

Natural skin cycling is the best way for all skin types to refresh the skin and give it a healthy glow from the inside out without using harsh ingredients! Get ready for youthful skin with the most simple, natural alternatives to what we’ve been sold by culture!

What Is Natural Skin Cycling?

If you’re not familiar with the phenomenon that has swept across social media, welcome to your new skincare routine! Skin cycling is where you focus on exfoliation for a few days out of the week, then follow up with deep hydration for a few days. It helps people stay consistent because every night, you’re only adding one extra step, rather than trying to do a whole protocol every night. The only problem I found? Everyone sharing their routine uses harsh chemicals that I don’t put anywhere near my skin. The good news? I have a lifetime of experimenting with homemade, natural products, and have refined my repertoire to the small handful of natural anti-aging products that actually work.

Regardless of where you are in the aging process, this protocol will have a beneficial effect on your skin. If you are young and barely starting to the appearance of fine lines, this is great preventative care. (I cannot believe that dermatologists are recommending Botox for preventative care!) If you have mature skin, even after just one week, you will notice dramatic results!

Disclaimer:

If you have sensitive skin, do a test patch on all of these methods before going for it on your entire face. I am in no way guaranteeing that what works for me and my family will work for you!

Protection from the sun is imperative while doing intense exfoliation to prevent further sun damage. If you are uncovered in the sun while doing these things, it can definitely make things worse! That’s why winter is perfect for skin cycling. However, despite the short, gloomy days, take care to wear a hat or natural broad-spectrum sunscreen while out and about. I’m one of the rare ones that does not recommend regular use of sunscreen. I’m convinced that most sunscreens cause far more damage for our health in the long run. However, under circumstances where we are creating a slight injury to our skin so that our immune system rushes in with all its cell rebuilding power, this is a time when it is warranted. I love adding a little non-nano particle zinc powder to my face cream for my sunscreen.

Use organic products whenever possible to keep the toxins out of our natural skincare products!

Each night, start by cleansing your face as normal.

Night One: Microdermabrasion

Microdermabrasion was big back in my prime esthetician days (early 2000’s)! Back then, I found a recipe for making a paste with lemon juice and baking soda… the two least expensive items one can find! I was shocked when I tried it and found that the result was just like that of the micro…which, back then, people were dropping $85 for. I’ve always been a terrible sales-person, and immediately told all my clients to go home and try it!

People love microdermabrasions because it sloughs off the dead skin cells that build up and causes the appearance of wrinkles that are nowhere as deep as they appear with all that on top of them!

How To:

Wash your face, removing all makeup. In a small dish, put about 1 teaspoon of baking soda in. Squeeze a lemon over the baking soda, a little at a time. You want to make a thick paste, so don’t over-juice it! Stir until combined. I don’t love the smell this combination creates, so I always add a drop of essential oil. Lavender, frankincense, geranium, blue tansy… any of the oils that are great for skin.

Very gently, using the lightest of pressure, start working the paste on your face in small circular motions. Go over your entire face and neck, but focus on the areas you’re wanting to address: dark spots and wrinkles. The lemon juice has alpha-hydroxy acids and hyaluronic acid, so in addition to the abrasion from the baking soda, the lemon is exfoliating as well. That being said, you can leave this on your face for 10-15 minutes once you are finished scrubbing for extra exfoliation. Rinse with cold water, and follow up with nourishing tallow cream. Believe it or not, this protocol actually restores our skin’s moisture barrier.

Night Two: Clarifying Mask

I have an entire post dedicated to the wonders of this mask! Check it out to learn more about the benefits and how-to of apple cider vinegar / bentonite clay facial masks! You make a paste with bentonite clay, apple cider vinegar and some essential oils (mostly for the smell factor!).

I use this bentonite clay.

Night Three: Bakuchiol Oil (Retinol Replacement)

Baku… what!? Yes. We don’t need to know how to say it correctly, all we need to know is that Bakuchiol Oil is nature’s Retinol and a powerful antioxidant! That was the one hang up I had with my natural skin cycling repertoire. I had no retinoid replacement, so I took to google which led me to this Korean wonder! (How are the Koreans so advanced beyond America in skincare!? Anyone else using snail mucous on their face, thanks to the Koreans? I have to say… my first rainy run after using the mucous, I was looking at all the snails on the sidewalk with a different eye!! “Can I make my own natural serums!?” Ahem… back to Bakuchiol…)

Bakuchiol is a compound that is found in the Babchi plant and has been used in Ayurveda for centuries. “Bakuchiol functions similar to a retinol, increasing cell turnover thereby stimulating collagen production and diminishing signs of aging such as fine lines, wrinkles, skin laxity, and overall photodamage,” says Dr. Sejal Shah. (source)

The oil that I have linked is a concentrate, for two reasons. First, I wanted to be able to control what carrier oil I paired it with. I have used jojoba, argon and castor oil. Surprise, surprise, castor oil is my favorite. Second of all, I wanted to be able to try different levels of concentration. It is very drying, so I like doing a 50/50 ratio with castor oil.

How To:

I put 3 drops of castor oil in my fingertips, then on top of that, I put 3 drops of Bakuchiol oil. Keeping it in my fingertips, I rub them together to mix them well, then pat it into my face, focusing on the areas that need attention. I use this castor oil, but pour it into a small dropper bottle to keep in my bathroom cupboard. Follow up with your favorite moisturizer.

Night Four: Deep Hydration via “Slugging”

Typically, skin slugging is done with petroleum jelly (getting its name from the glossy shine left on your face, resembling my aforementioned rabbit hole). You know we’re not going anywhere near petroleum jelly…the byproduct of gasoline! You also know that we ARE heading straight for my favorites: castor oil and tallow cream. This step is imperative to preventing dry skin from all of the exfoliation we have been doing earlier.

How To:

A few hours before bed, (as to not lose all the goodness to our pillowcase) wash your face as usual. Drop 1/2 a dropper full of castor oil into your fingertips and gently pat into your skin. Go start some tea, finish the dinner dishes, get 50 squats in… do something productive while giving time for the castor oil to sink into your skin. Once mostly absorbed, go back over your face with tallow cream. Again, find something productive to do while your skin drinks it in before coming back and applying one last round of tallow cream to your face. I use tallow because it provides deep, long-lasting hydration. It helps seal in moisture, but because it has a similar composition to human sebum, it’s unlikely to clog pores. If this is what you’re using, there’s no need for a separate eye cream. Now you’re free to go to bed! Do your best to sleep on your back and keep all those nutrients on your face.

Night Five: Lymphatic Massage

I was gifted the Wildling empress stone from a sweet friend a few years ago, so I follow their gua sha lymphatic tutorial. There are tons of videos all over youtube, and I’m sure they’re all similar. Moisturizing AND detoxifying the skin and face is such a great way to round out our week of skincare. However, you could do this every night of our natural skin cycling routine.

Gua sha hails from Ancient China and literally translates to “to scrape sand.” Gua means “to scrape” and sha refers to the visible petechiae (small red spots) produced by the treatment. (Per the AI overview on Google… I may not be doing it hard enough because I have never had visible “petechiae!”)

Gua sha massage reduces puffiness, improves circulation and helps your skincare penetrate deeper. The biggest difference I notice is in my nose. After performing a gua sha massage, my nose is noticeably smaller! I really work on my neck/chin, too, because I have a shallow jaw and need all the help with definition that I can get! Gua sha is also my go-to when I’m coming down with something. Helping the lymphatic system move things along reduces the sinus pressure in my head.

Nights Six and Seven: Rest

And by rest, I mean, just do your regular cleansing and moisturizing routine. Alternatively, you can start over with day one again and keep it on a 5 day cycle. For me, I am a pretty regimented person, and like having things assigned to each day, which gives me 2 days “off.”

Bonus Treatment: Dermaplaning

If you’re really wanting your face to have a dewy glow, pick up some of these dermaplaners and rid your face of all the peach fuzz! I time this early on into the moisturizing phase so that I have a few days for it to grow in before I hit it with all the extra exfoliation.

Side note if you’re concerned about it growing back thicker: it won’t. Shaving on the surface can have no impact on the type of hair that grows back. What it does do, is make it grow back with a blunt edge. Waxing creates, or what was naturally there to begin with has, more of a fine point. No fear if you try it and don’t want to keep up on it— exfoliating and living in general will wear away at the blunt edge, and you’ll have your normal peach fuzz again in no time.

For Truly Healthy Skin, Nutrition And Regular Exercise are Key

Parting thoughts: You can do all the fancy treatments you want on the outside, but nothing is more powerful and beneficial to your skin than ample hydration and the highest quality nutrition! Also, exercise plays a major role in how our skin looks and feels. When we exercise, our body is increasing blood circulation which delivers oxygen to our skin cells. It also removes all the junk through a good sweat, and promotes collagen production. Healthy skin is younger-looking skin, no matter your age. There’s no better way to achieve it than from the inside out.

A lot of times, what we eat can cause a reaction inside our body that we would never be able to pull off from the outside-in. Look for foods rich in vitamin A, pantothenic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential fatty acids and amino acids.

Try Natural Skin Cycling Today!

Start your new year off with a resolve to take the best care of your skin, which entails keeping harmful chemicals away from it! This skin cycling routine is easy to maintain and actually works. Just because these natural skincare products are simple ingredients does not mean that they won’t rival luxury skincare in outcome. Be the natural beauty that you are in every way!

Comment and let us know if you try this natural method of skin cycling, and if you do anything else that we should try!

Also, let me know if you’d be interested in a post about food specifically for our skin’s health!

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