How to nurture your skin (+ 3 DIY facemasks!)

This Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating Mother Nature’s nurturing, healing powers by sharing 3 of our favourite homemade, natural facemasks! Why? Because of your skin biome!

What is your skin biome?

You’ve heard of your gut microbiome (if you haven’t, click HERE), but have you heard of your skin microbiome (or skin biome for short)? Your skin, like your gut, is home to trillions of beneficial bacteria. It is your body’s first line of defence and acts as a protective barrier between your internal organs and the environment.¹ This makes your skin an active immune organ. It manages daily encounters with pathogens, stressors, and toxins.²

Keeping your skin healthy and hydrated will improve your skin’s barrier function. This is crucial for preventing the development of conditions like eczema and atopic dermatitis.³

Your skin is your largest organ. It is a porous membrane. What you put onto your skin seeps into your body. There is a lot of talk now about ‘forever chemicals’, the nasty ones that stay around forever. Curious to learn how to read your beauty labels like a pro? Click HERE.

Here are 3 face masks you can make at home to help nourish your skin biome –

The exfoliator

20g or 2 TBSP uncooked oats, ground into a powder

1/4 banana, mashed well into a smooth paste

1 tsp coconut oil, melted

1 tsp raw honey

1 tbsp water

Mix all the ingredients together into a paste. Apply to your face, massaging gently in circular motions if you wish. Leave for 5-10 minutes and wash off with a warm cloth (or in the shower!).

Note: ground oats act as a gentle, natural exfoliator. Add the natural anti-bacterial properties of honey and moisturising coconut oil for a balancing finish!

The hydrator

½ avocado, mashed well into a smooth paste

1 tbsp raw honey

1 tbsp water

Mix all the ingredients together into a paste and apply to your face. Leave for 5-10 minutes and wash off with a warm cloth (or in the shower!).

Note: honey is a natural humectant, which means it restores moisture. Add in the rich healthy fats of the avocado and you have a luscious, hydrating face mask.

Click here to find out why you should never ignore your dry skin!

The restorer

2 tbsp Chuckling Goat Kefir

20g or 2 tbsp uncooked oats, ground into a powder

1 tsp coconut oil, melted

Mix all the ingredients together into a paste. Apply to your face, massaging gently in circular motions if you wish. Leave for 5-10 minutes and wash off with a warm cloth (or in the shower!).

Note: as far as we know, Chuckling Goat Kefir is the most diverse probiotic on the market. Our Kefir contains 27 different strains of beneficial, live bacteria. With the natural, gentle yet exfoliating powers of the ground oats and moisturising coconut oil, this face mask is a great way to restore your skin biome.

These DIY facemasks are versatile – get creative and tailor them to suit you!

These recipes are recommended for normal skin. Do not apply to sore, broken or irritated skin. If you feel irritation, wash off immediately with warm water.

After your face mask

After you have washed off your face mask, apply probiotic skincare. This will provide your skin biome with longer-lasting nourishment. All Chuckling Goat skincare is free from chemicals, perfumes, dyes, phthalates or parabens. It is lovingly made by hand from all-natural ingredients, in small batches, on our family farm in Southwest Wales.

The gut-skin connection

Your skin is a map of your gut. A healthy gut = healthy skin! To boost your gut (and skin) health, we recommend a protocol that involves synbiotics. Synbiotics are probiotics + prebiotics! This protocol combines probiotic-rich Kefir (to restore your gut microbiome), Complete Prebiotic (to nourish your gut bacteria), as well as collagen (to provide structural support to your gut and skin alike).

Applying Chuckling Goat probiotic-rich lotions to your skin to heal the skin biome, whilst adopting this synbiotic protocol to restore the gut microbiome is what we call the Good Skin Solution – “combined oral and topical immunotherapy”.

For more reading, why not check out our 3-step morning routine to help you age beautifully?

Any questions? Contact one of our Nutritional Therapists via live chat, we’re available on weekdays from 8am to 8pm.