Henrietta Norton’s six steps to sensational post-holiday skin

Nourishing our skin is always important, never more so than when we return from a sunny holiday, to prevent dry skin and premature ageing and to prolong your sun-kissed glow. Here are my six top tips to care for your post-holiday skin…

Herbs for your skin

Gotu kola and ashwagandha are wonderful anti-ageing herbs. Gotu kola improves blood circulation and supports the production of collagen while ashwagandha helps to reduce inflammation, protects the skin from oxidative stress and promotes skin healing. The product I use is our Wild Nutrition’s Food-Grown® KSM-66 Ashwagandha Plus which provides 500mg of organic ashwagandha root with Food-Grown® Magnesium to support the body’s resilience.

Allow yourself time

We often need time to recover from our travels, especially after long haul flights. Sleep is the best medicine for your skin and you will notice the difference in your appearance after a deep restful night. Try not to go headlong back into your normal routine, instead allow yourself time to ease back into your busy life.

“Beauty is the illumination of your soul”

John O’Donohue

Check the ingredients in your beauty products

Always choose products with clean ingredients for your beauty regime and sun protection. Some of the more toxic products containing synthetic colours and fragrances, phthalates and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), to name a few, are best avoided. If you are unsure, a great book is The Nature of Beauty by Imelda Burke which provides excellent information about ingredients and how to make your own simple products.

Support your levels of hyaluronic acid

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a gel-like substance found abundantly in the skin. HA has a unique ability to retain water preventing loss of moisture. HA also increases when the skin is healing and helps to reduce inflammation on the skin’s surface. It is therefore useful after you have been in the sun and if you have sunburn. Choose a naturally extra low weight form of HA as this is much more effective at reaching the skin surface.

A healthy diet will nourish your skin from the inside out

A healthy diet will show on the outside with glowing radiant skin. Eating seasonal food rich in vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, selenium and essential fatty acids nurtures our skin cells, provides antioxidant protection and promotes skin healing after it has been exposed to the elements.

Balance your bacteria

Travelling can be tiring and expose us to foods we’re not used to or foods we don’t usually take in excess, such as sugar or alcohol. This has an impact on the balance of our bacteria in the gut, which in turn has been clinically proven to affect the quality of our skin. Eat plenty of meals that include fermented foods, such as sauerkraut (easily found in health stores) and kimchi (Asian fermented cabbage and spices) and try drinking coconut water kefir or taking a Multiple Strain probiotic (without FOS) to feed the growth of good bugs in your digestive system.

You may also want to try supplementing your diet with herbs, such as oregano, garlic, grapefruit seed extract and olive leaf, as these ingredients contain natural antibacterial and antimicrobial compounds to combat bad bacteria.

Visit wildnutrition.com for Food-Grown® supplements and information on Nutritional Therapists at clinics in Lewes and London.

annabeljames.co.uk/products/travel-set-seaweed-print

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