Spring is a weird time for my skin. It feels as if a layer is being shed, like a snake sloughs off its skin, each year in the spring and again in the fall. It's a time of transition, sort of the inbetween.
In the spring, our bodies naturally want to purify and clear out old sludge, which it does partially through the skin, so it's important to be supporting that purification process by doing things like drinking lots of water and incorporating more greens into your meals. Herb-infused vinegars are a fun way of moving liver qi and also getting liver and lymph-loving herbs like Nettle, Calendula, and Cleavers into your diet. You can use them to make homemade salad dressings, add them to soup/broth, or make it into a sweet + sour sparkly beverage by adding sparkling water and fruit juice.
But, I always come back to homemade herbal skincare and feel particularly inspired to create new routines and rituals in the spring. And I believe in skin care as a ritual. So here are 3 simple ways to help your skin make a smooth transition from winter to spring this year:
- WASH WITH HONEY - That's it. Honey has some really amazing enzymes and skin-soothing and repairing properties in it, plus it's incredibly gentle for those of us whose skin feels extra sensitized by the dry and cold winter air that we're emerging from. Spoon a nickel size of honey into your hands, warm it up a bit by rubbing your hands together, and spread it over your face in light circles. If you want to get really fancy and add another purifying element to your skin care ritual, you could add a bit of ground Calendula, Oats, or Lavender to your honey for a bit of exfoliation and extra plant loveliness.
- WAKAME + ALOE FACIAL MIST - Seaweed (like Wakame, Irish Moss, and Kelp) is wonderfully moistening and nourishing to the skin. That tissue that's trying to emerge from under the snake skin is going to love this combination of sea vegetables and aloe. To make your own facial mist, put a bit of wakame in a jar and cover it with rose water or any hydrosol. Let it sit for an hour, strain it through a coffee filter, and add a bit of Aloe Vera Gel. I use about 3:1 hydrosol to aloe ratio by weight in grams. Get the total weight of your mist, and then add 2% of a preservative like this one. {Side note: Seaweed smells a little...oceanic. So you may want to add a few drops of a skin-soothing essential oil such as lavender. Just make sure to shake your mist well before applying it to your face as essential oils will float on the top.} Mist over your honey-cleansed face, allowing the seaweed and aloe to soak in.
- MAKE YOUR OWN FACIAL OIL - I think people get a little overwhelmed when trying to decide which carrier oils to use, how much of each ingredient, what's right for your skin type, etc. This time of year, I like to use lighter carrier oils so my skin can breathe. I suggest equal parts of jojoba and hemp seed oils, with a half part of rosehip seed oil. You can leave it at that, or add a few drops of Geranium, Lavender, Helichrysum, or Vetiver essential oils. Shake it up in your dropper bottle, and you've got yourself a pretty dang good facial oil. Now, part of the ritual is actually making your facial oil because creating = magic! But if you can't be bothered with making your own, (hey no judgments here, we all have stuff to do), I've been using the Luna Balancing Serum and my skin's been loving it!