Easy Natural Beauty

Image by Drift Words via Flickr

In my last post, I told you about the benefits of dry skin brushing as an organic beauty aid. How it can help your digestion, stimulate circulation, strengthen your immune system, cleanse your lymphatic system, and improve the functioning of your nervous system?  How it removes dead skin, improves your skin’s texture, tightens your skin, tones your muscles, helps prevent varicose veins, and removes cellulite.  It’s really kind of amazing.



In this post, I’m going to describe the technique so that you can get started.



The first thing you need to do is assemble your supplies.  That’s pretty much just a bath brush.  (I told you this was easy.)  Do use a natural (vegetable) bristle brush, not a synthetic one, which will have sharper bristles. It’s best if it has a long handle so that you can reach all the areas of your body, and if it has a removable head, even better.



With an organic beauty treatment, as with most treatments, a routine is important. So, plan to do your dry skin brushing once a day.  The best time is in the morning before you shower or bathe (your skin needs to be dry as well as naked).



Here’s the technique:



Using long, gentle, overlapping strokes:

• Start at the bottom of your feet and brush in circular motions.
• Brush up your legs.
• Brush from your hands in and up your arms.
• Move on to your back (brush upwards), abdomen (use counter-clockwise stokes here), shoulders, and neck (brush downwards).
• Brush the breasts very lightly.
• Always brush towards the heart.
• Go over each area several times.
• Use softer strokes where you’re more sensitive and harder ones in the other areas.
• Avoid brushing any sensitive areas or places where your skin may be broken or you have rashes, cuts, or infections.

When you’re finished with the brushing – and it only takes a few minutes – hop in the shower and rinse off.  This helps invigorate your skin and stimulate circulation. Finally, dry off and massage your skin with a natural, plant-based oil such as almond, avocado, or coconut oil, whatever appeals to you.



Keep your brush clean by rinsing it in soap and water at least once a week and drying it in an open, sunny spot so it won’t get mildewed.



I mentioned earlier that having a routine with your beauty treatments is important.  So is patience:  It will take about 30 days for you to fully experience the benefits of dry skin brushing.  But, I think you’ll find yourself feeling so much better when you do this, that it will be pretty easy for you to keep at it.