A handful of my core skincare concepts have stood the test of time
Many skincare regimens are nothing more than passing fads because they are loosely based on unfounded beauty practices that simply don’t work. My Inside Out Beauty Program, however, is deeply rooted in a number of key skincare concepts that can be traced all the way back to Biblical times.
Women the Bible identifies as having been phenomenally beautiful, such as Queen Esther, Rachel, Rebekah, and Sarah (who reportedly turned heads at the age of 100!), shared five common skincare practices that I highly recommend today. Incorporate these five beauty basics into your daily skincare routine to reap the same benefits as the beauties from the Bible.
- Live an active lifestyle
- Use purified water to wash
- Eliminate emulsifiers
- Opt for oils
- Eat a wholesome diet
Live an active lifestyle. Women in the ancient world worked hard every day. They carried water, made all of their food from scratch, gardened, bore and cared for children, and had to walk everywhere they wanted to go. They were strong and physically fit, and that fitness contributed to a lean muscle tone that helped prevent sagging skin and the formation of wrinkles. While life today is not as physically demanding, exercising on a daily basis for at least 30 minutes and being as active as you can throughout the rest of the day (taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking the dog often, riding your bike instead of driving to the store) will help produce the muscle tone necessary to blunt the effects of aging.
Use purified water to wash. The women of Biblical times understood cleanliness to be both an outward expression of their faith as well as a good beauty practice. The Bible talks a great deal about washing, ideally using naturally running water, such as that from springs or rivers. Consequently, these women had only pure water touch their skin. They did not wash with contaminated water, such as the kind that flows directly from our taps today. Installing a high-quality water filtration system that will provide purified water throughout your home is a good present-day solution.
Eliminate emulsifiers. Although certain forms of soaps existed centuries ago, people did not put them on their bodies or faces because they were simply too harsh. Today, we are rediscovering that even mild soaps can damage our skin. That’s because most soap products contain emulsifiers that linger on the skin, disrupting the skin’s natural pH and leading to a whole host of skin problems including acne, rosacea, and premature signs of aging. Seeing the words emulsifying wax, polysorbate, stearate, steareth, cetearyl, and ceteareth on a product’s ingredients list means it contains emulsifiers.
Opt for oils. Both men and women of Biblical times put oil on their faces and, possibly, in their hair. Most often the oil of choice was olive oil, but it may, at times, have been infused with plants, herbs, or flowers. Sometimes olive oil was replaced with what we today call essential oil. For instance, resin from trees in the Middle East was transformed into specialty oils known as frankincense and myrrh. Today, we know that both of these oils have many positive health benefits, with frankincense oil in particular promoting skin healing and skin health. Oil alone helps to lubricate and moisturize the skin. Applying oil after washing, as is described in the Bible, helps to lock in skin moisture. I always recommend that moisturizers be applied to damp skin for this reason.
Eat a wholesome diet. The women of the Bible ate whole foods, consuming the fruits, nuts, oils, vegetables, and meats that their households produced. With few ways to store foods, these women ate fresh produce in season. Sugar was unknown in Biblical times. If foods were sweetened at all, it was by using honey. There was no such thing as soft drinks, white flour, artificial sweeteners, or hydrogenated trans fats, all of which can cause damage to the skin. Eating a wholesome diet that was naturally high in antioxidants protected skin from the effects of aging and allowed the women of the Bible to eat freely without fussing about calorie counts.
Source:
