Categories
Beauty Nutrition

Foods To Avoid For Acne Prone Skin

Taking care of your skin on the outside is super important, but taking care of it on the inside is just as important if not more. If you’re breaking out it’s super important to take a look inside and know what foods to stay away from. 

  1. Sugar

Sugars are in the category of refined carbohydrates along with refined grains. Refined carbs are high in glycemic index, which means that when consumed they cause a spike in glucose. This then leads to our insulin growth factor to increase, which causes our skin to produce more oil therefore creating a perfect environment for bacteria such as acne to grow. 

  1. Dairy

Most dairies such as ice cream, cheese, butter and straight up milk contain cow’s milk. Cows milk increases your insulin growth factor, which increases our tissue growth and increases cell production. When our body starts producing more cells our skin starts producing more oil which can clog pores which later leads to acne. 

Aside from that the cows that produce milk also are feed hormones, so that they produce milk faster. When these hormones are in our body it triggers our skin to produce more oil. 

  1. Fast food

Fast foods are another one of those inflammatory foods filled with oils, sugar, and other inflammatory ingredients that can lead to breakouts.  

  1. Refined grains

As I stated before sugar and refined grains are both in the category of refined carbohydrates. Therefore they function similarly when it comes to how they affect the skin.

Categories
Beauty

Sheet Masks, Pros, And Cons?

Doing masks a few times a week are a great addition to anyone’s skincare routine. Sheet masks have been a super popular form of masking for years. They show up in basically every skincare store not to mention there all over instagram. But why are they so popular and are they really that great. Here are some of the pros and cons of sheet masks. 

Pros

-When the mask is taken off your skin it leaves behind extra product on your face so you’re getting the full benefit, rather than washing it off.

-Super easy and quick to use, all you have to do is open up a package and plop it on your face.

-Sheet masks offer tons of hydration for the skin, which everyone’s skin can benefit from.

– When you’re done with your sheet mask it leaves the skin looking dewy and plump

Cons

– You can only use a sheet mask once and most are not biodegradable, which means these masks are unfortunately not very environmentally friendly. 

-Whenever I use a sheet mask it is way too big for my face and many have the opposite issue. So unless you have the perfect sheet mask face chances are they don’t fit your face shape.

-It is nearly impossible to move your face or talk with these on because they don’t cling to the skin like other masks.

Categories
Beauty Nutrition

Benefits Of Cocoa In Skincare

Cocoa is well known for being the primary ingredient in chocolate. Cocoa has been shown to not only be delicious but have many health benefits, for your body, brain and skin. Typically people access cacao’s benefits by eating it whether it be in the form of dark chocolate, cocoa powder, or any of the other many forms of cocoa. But maybe you’ve seen cocoa as an ingredient in a few skincare products. So can cocoa actually help our skin not only from the inside but also on the outside? Yes! Cocoa actually has many external benefits for the skin. 

For one cocoa is a very powerful antioxidant. This is because cocoa is high in a powerful antioxidant called flavonoids. Antioxidants can help the skin repair itself and reduce visible damage on skin such as acne scars. Cocoa is actually a more powerful antioxidant than green tea. 

Along with its powerful antioxidant properties, cocoa is also great for anti-aging and providing the skin with a youthful, glowy look. For one cocoa has been shown to reduce wrinkles, as well as this cocoa, can reduce the harm done by UV rays. This happens because cocoa contains theobromine. Theobromine helps increase blood flow to the skin’s surface. This is the same thing that happens to the skin when it is sunburnt in efforts to repair the damaged skin. As well as minimizing effects from UV damage the increased blood flow can also result in more glowing and young skin. 

But that’s not all, cocoa is also soothing and calming externally. A cocoa mask can help soothe irritated and damaged skin. Cocoa butter (a fat extracted from the cocoa bean) is also a great natural moisturizer. Cocoa butter is especially great for oily skin because it repairs the skin’s moisture barrier so that the skin will only produce as much oil as needed and not extra. Lastly, cocoa butter is easily absorbed and doesn’t leave the skin with a greasy film which is another bonus for people with oily skin.

The most popular and my favorite way to use cocoa on the skin is in a mask form, but as mentioned earlier cocoa butter is also a great way to use cocoa to benefit your skin. Also even though this article was mainly talking about the external benefits of cocoa you can still get all these benefits for eating dark chocolate. Yes, really dark chocolate is not only delicious but eating it can actually help you achieve radiant and healthy skin.