Juicing For Beautiful Skin
Get Juicy!
The concept of juicing fruits and vegetables for health and beauty has been around for many years.
Many famous naturopaths have advocated the benefits of juicing as a recipe for longevity and there’s no doubt about it, when you consume 100% natural juices you feel the health benefits and your skin is rewarded.
People Generally Juice For 2 Reasons
1. To drink the fruit or vegetable juices for overall good health, intestinal health and skin health.
2. To use the juices or the remaining pulp in homemade skincare remedies.
Consuming Juices For Health
Freshly prepared fruit and vegetable juices are a real health bonus for your body and for your skin. What’s more they taste delicious too. They are a great way to pack in essential vitamins and minerals and drinking these juices will give you lots of natural energy too.
Even the stronger tasting vegetables like broccoli and kale can be juiced and combined with sweeter juices such as apple or carrot juice or a pinch of fresh ginger to make them more palatable.
You will need a juicing machine to prepare fresh juices but there are now many affordable options on the market.
The Benefits Of Juicing
Raw juices added to your diet can:
1. Strengthen the body’s functions.
2. Boost the immune system.
3. Encourage the repair and revitalize the skins tissues giving your complexion a boost.
4. Improve intestinal health by encouraging adequate elimination, which in turn improves the appearance of your skin.
5. Provide nourishment or act as a complete meal on detox days or during illness or convalescence when solid food may not be suitable.
6. Provide a healthy, low calorie snack for slimmer’s – juices fill you up.
7. Help you to enjoy a wider range of fruits and vegetables than you may normally, you may also find that you enjoy certain fruits and vegetables in their juice form more than you do when eaten as food at meals.
8. Help you to consume more essential vitamins and minerals as you use more fruits and vegetables in juices than you would be able to consume if eating them whole.
How To Juice – A Step-By-Step Guide
1. All you need to try delicious home prepared juices is a juicing machine (available in most good hardware or electrical stores) and a supply of fruit and veg.
2. Fruit juice is best taken in the mornings and works particularly well as a ‘wake-up’ drink giving you lots of energy at the beginning of the day. Vegetable juice is best taken in the evening or before your main meal of the day.
3. Juices are best consumed on an empty stomach as this ensures the correct absorption of vital nutrients.
4. Wash and peel your fruit and vegetables before juicing. Some people suggest not peeling fruits and veg to ensure ALL the nutrients are maintained in the juice but this is only recommended if your fruits and veg are 100% organically produced.
5. Throw your ingredients into the juice and there you have – a delicious nutritious drink that will benefit your skin and your general health. You can be as creative as you like with your recipes producing vibrantly colored, tasty combinations.
A Quick Look At Two Of The Best-Know Juices
Apple Juice – Apples are rich in Vitamins A, B and C and also contain high levels of potassium.
Apples are know to stabilize cholesterol levels, help to calm upset stomachs and act as a powerful detox for the kidneys and liver – to name just some of this humble fruit’s benefits.
They also help to maintain optimum intestinal health making them a good choice of juice if you want to achieve clear, glowing skin.
Carrot Juice – The benefits of carrot juice for skin are numerous. Carrots are rich in skin enhancing Vitamin A which is essential for tissue growth and maintenance.
Vitamin A is also a natural antioxidant and antioxidants are essential for our skin if we want to avoid premature aging andwrinkles.
Juice Recipes For Your Skin
Berry Booster – Combine 1 cup each of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in your juicer for a mega-hit of skin boosting vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.
Skin Cleanser – Combine 3 carrots, 1 apple, 1 celery stalk and 1 cup of spinach for a powerful skin cleansing juice. This is a great recipe for anyone who suffers from oily skin or acne. Add a small cube of fresh ginger root for an added ‘zing’ if you like!
Clearer Complexion Boost – Combine 5 carrots, 2 cucumbers and 2 beets for a vitamin packed skin boost. Cucumbers are filled with water, which is good for your skin, and act as a gentle detoxifier, they are also a rich source of potassium, manganese, Vitamins A and C and chlorophyll.
Beets are a wonderful cleanser for the liver and kidneys and if these vital organs are functioning optimally you will see an improvement to your skin. Avoid pre-cooked beets that may have preservatives added to them.
*** Remember you can be as inventive as you want in creating your own juice recipes – experiment and have fun you’ll soon be concocting a range of delicious juice recipes! ***
Using Juices As Skincare Preparations
You can also use your juicer to help create homemade skin care remedies and beauty products. You can do this by either using the juice in your products or by using the leftover pulp.
With some juice machines you are left with ‘pulp’ from the roughage of the fruit or vegetables and this can be utilized in several ways.
Some people use the waste pulp as plant and garden fertilizer, some people eat the pulp adding it to bulk out soups and stews, other people use the pulp for their homemade skincare products.
Two of the most popular juices used as a topical preparation for the skin are carrot juice and lemon juice.
Carrot Juice For Skin
Carrot juice can be applied to the skin to:
- Help soothe spots. Apply carrot juice to the spot regularly to minimize the appearance of redness and swelling.
- Help to reduce areas of uneven pigmentation.
- Help to prevent acne.
- Improve the appearance of scars
- Act as an anti-inflammatory
- Tone and revitalize the skin
Lemon Juice For Skin
Lemon juice is an excellent skincare product as it has powerful cleansing and antiseptic properties.
Try the following lemon juice home remedies:
- Combat wrinkles. Apply lemon juice to the skin; leave for 2 or 3 hours then massage with olive oil. This is also a good ‘hand cream’ treatment.
- Use lemon juice as a final hair rinse to help prevent dandruff.
- Use lemon juice as a breath freshening mouthwash.
- Rub lemon juice onto areas of dry skin like the elbows, knees and on cracked heels.
- Clean cuts and grazes – lemon is a powerful disinfectant.
- Combine with sugar and olive oil to make an effective facial exfoliator.
- Apply to the hands to remove stains.
- Apply to age spots to lighten and reduce their appearance.
Does Lemon Juice Lighten Skin?
This is a commonly asked question and the answer is yes but care does need to be taken. If you apply lemon juice to the skin and then go out into strong sunlight you could end up with sunburn.
And if your skin tone is already dark this could lead to the area you have applied lemon juice to darkening further still – so it’s best to avoid combining lemon juice skin remedies with the sun.
Some people mix lemon juice with milk, natural yoghurt or olive oil to use as a skin lightening preparation. Simply apply to the skin, leave for around 1 hour and then wash off. If you do this for 3 or more times per week you will see your skin softening and lightening over time.