Natural Skincare for the Win

April 11, 2017 by Sarah Luikart

I’ve had some interest and inquiry lately into my own skincare routine. I often help clients with skin issues like acne, dryness, or eczema, so I’m sharing some of my favorite products here today! I like to keep things simple & honestly don’t use many fancy products for my own skin. I have to give thanks to a local Austin apothecary, Sabia, for carrying such an amazing selection of natural skincare & introducing me to some of these gems:

Thayer’s Witch Hazel with Rose / Weleda Rose Day Cream:

Rose can treat redness and inflammation. It has been transformative for my own skin to use rose-infused products. These two grocery-store bought items are always in my cabinet and make my skin feel super soft, soothed, and calm.

Environmental Cleanser by Inventive Eco-Organics:

This cleanser was a big tool for me in achieving problem-free skin. It has grapefruit seed and oregano oil, MSM, aloe juice, rose hip oil and lavender water… these agents fight bacteria, reduce inflammation, hydrate, help collagen synthesis, and it smells divine. As I’m relatively minimal with my products- this is my splurge and I buy it at Sabia here in Austin www.sabia.com. I massage my cleanser into my skin for at least a full minute or even more to really circulate and the move the blood/qi through my whole face. I’m certain this is a crucial part of the “cleansing” step for your skin. Thanks to my friend Elizabeth, the gifted aesthetician at Neu Skin Austin, for teaching me this lesson!

Jojoba oil / Fig and Yarrow Face Serum:

Jojoba oil has done wonders for my skin. Jojoba oil stimulates collagen synthesis, acts similar to our own sebum and can balance dry skin OR oily skin. It can help with wound healing and acne and is a great natural makeup remover. So many uses for jojoba - even to help stimulate hair growth and use on dry scalps.

RMS Beauty products:

RMS Organics is the only makeup brand I currently use on my skin - with their Uncoverup Concealer and Lip2Cheek color pot. I even mix a tiny bit of concealer with 2 drops of jojoba oil to thin it out & make my face feel hydrated and dewy all day. This makes your product last forever too! RMS is coconut oil based and feels extremely nourishing on your skin. My favorite beauty line by far.

Gua Sha for Face:

And what is that jade stone tool up there at the top? That’s my gua sha face tool! Gua Sha is a scraping technique similar to massage that we use in Chinese medicine to stimulate blood and lymph circulation, move qi & blood, and dispel toxins and stagnation from the body. Gua Sha can be used on your face for anti-aging beauty purposes! I love the glow & revitalizing feeling it gives to my face. Hoping to make a Gua Sha for face video soon so all of you can start this simple practice at home. ♡

Have you heard of Thrive Market yet? Thrive Market is an online supermarket specializing in healthy, organic, hypoallergenic, gluten-free, non-GMO, natural foods and products for your family and home. It’s pretty cool. They offer all their products … — Have you heard of Thrive Market yet? Thrive Market is an online supermarket specializing in healthy, organic, hypoallergenic, gluten-free, non-GMO, natural foods and products for your family and home. It’s pretty cool. They offer all their products at discounted prices - so you can purchase much the same stuff you might buy from Whole Foods from home online, but with an extra discount on top of it. I find that some products seem to have better prices than others comparatively, but overall I do think it’s worth using - especially with free shipping! They even have a 30-day free trial for new customers that offers an additional 25% off your first order. That order alone is worth the free trial! Try using Thrive as a way to set up your ideal, health-oriented kitchen: buy staples like chia seeds, dried goji berries, fish oil supplements, coconut oil, raw honey, medicinal teas, cacao powder, or everyday natural beauty products. These items can really transform your home’s potential for keeping the family healthy and well, thriving. :)

August 05, 2015 by Sarah Luikart

Summer Bummers? Best natural tips to prepare for the season.

June 05, 2015 by Sarah Luikart

Summertime… and the livin’ is easy… and a little bit brutal, especially in Texas! Try to stock your home with some of my favorite herbal products and tips to have a stress-free season.

1. Best Sunscreen: Badger Sunscreen (Adult or Baby): Badger consistently gets the best ratings for sunscreens from the EWG and is completely natural & organic certified. Badger products are NEVER made with nanoparticles or parabens, ever. I love the lavender scented sunscreen, but they also have fragrance free adult and baby versions. Since Badger is made with Zinc oxide it will tend to be more white in color than mainstream chemical sunscreens - this is a good thing and just takes a little longer to rub in, but is well worth it for your skin.

2. Best Sunburn Remedy: Ching Wan Hung & Egg White Mask: Ching Wan Hung is an all-time favorite medicine cabinet product at my house. It is a Chinese herbal balm for burns of all sorts - rug burns, sun burns, steam burns, even severe burns in hospitals! - it is amazing. Keep this at home all summer and see how handy it can be. If you are really in a pickle - whisk some egg whites and brush on a mask to your burned skin and let sit until it dries. You can repeat this remedy for several days until your skin looks healed and the redness has gone down. It’s truly remarkable!

3. Best Bug Bite Remedy: White Flower Oil & Cedarwood Oil: The mosquitoes. Thorns in our sides. I like to have these oils on hand for when the bites get too itchy or painful to handle. Dap 1-2 drops of oil into a cotton ball and apply it to irritated skin. With little ones, you might want to keep a vial of diluted cedarwood oil on hand for applications, as using the pure essential oil can be too strong for them, although the white flower oil is ready to go!

4. Best Ear Ache Remedy: Onion steam & Grapefruit Seed Extract: Long ago, I posted my favorite home remedy for ear aches - the onion steam. You can read all the details of that right here. If feels so good, and releases so much pressure on the inner ear. In addition to the steam, for swimmer’s ear or bacterial ear infections you can easily use hydrogen peroxide drops in each ear, or Grapefruit Seed Extract ear drops. These have always worked so well for me - tea tree oil & grapefruit seed oil are both anti-bacterial, anti-biotic, and anti-microbial, and the combination of the two really cuts out any pain-causing junk. Put a couple drops in each ear and wait for the liquid to penetrate deeply inside the ear canal before shaking it out.

5. Best Acne/Skin Products: Wake up and smell the Rose! Rose is sort of a cure-all for redness problems. In homeopathy, like treats like, so rose (being red) can treat a multitude of red skin issues while promoting a healthier, softer, smoother looking complexion. My favorite rose-infused products are Weleda Wild Rose Facial lotion, Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs, and Rosewater, and Thayer’s Rose Petal Witch Hazel (alcohol-free). I use these simple products daily on my face - especially during the hot and harsh months - and have never had less skin issues in my life.

Do you have any favorite remedies to combat summer bummers? I’d love to hear them. Now, let’s go swimming!

August 06, 2013 by Sarah Luikart

Skin health is just as important as the health of our gut. In fact, skin health should be considered internal health, as Chinese medicine says the skin is the “outer lung”. Your skin is actually the largest organ of your body, coming in contact with thousands of chemicals, environmental agents, germs… not the mention all the food you eat. Your skin “breathes” and sweats out toxins, and is a very important tool in cleansing the body. So, why are we so harsh with our skin – slathering it with sunscreens, makeup, harsh chemical peels, Botox, fragrances, hairspray residue, tanning lotions, acne treatments and more? There is the definite pressure of living up to the high standards of appearance and beauty we have in our culture… but the best approach is one that takes the root cause in mind and treats more than just the outer symptoms. Once I transitioned all my skincare products over to organic and natural sources, my skin cleared up greatly and has never felt better to this day. Learning how to eat well was the first step, and discovering organic products that nourished my skin instead of beating it into submission was the next step! Here are a few of my favorite products that I use daily for optimal skin nourishment. Nothing fancy, but several active ingredients really infuse my skin with the healing nutrients it needs:

Rose // Homeopathy states that “like treats like”, and rose is a great example of this. Red treats red. Rosewater and oil are perfect for soothing redness and inflammation of the skin, it smells lovely, and will hydrate your skin during dry or cold months. Rosewater is also used in some cultures as eye drops for red eyes.

Aloe // Aloe has commonly been used for wound healing for centuries in herbal medicine. It has a wonderful healing effect on the skin, and also in the gut when taken internally.

Calendula // Did you know that calendula flowers are edible? Calendula also is used medicinally for wound healing, anti-inflammation, and anti-tumor remedies. It has been studied as an acne remedy, with astounding powers in healing irritated tissue, and when taken internally can treat constipation and abdominal cramping.

MSM // MSM is a sulfur compound and has been studied for its effects on stress, mucus membranes, GI conditions, and allergies. In addition to being present in some skincare products, it is also sold as a dietary supplement for these reasons.

Jojoba oil // Often, acne and blemishes can occur when TOO LITTLE oils are present in the skin. Jojoba oil helps my skin stay hydrated and nourished so my sebaceous glands don’t over-produce and cause acne breakouts.

Weleda Skincare and Inventive Organics (locally made in Austin!) are two of my absolute favorite skincare lines. Most of my skincare products come from these brands and they always leave me wanting to try more. Check out all of the products they have to offer - skincare, haircare, men’s products, medicinals and more.