Get Your Skin Ready for Spring and Summer

Written by:

Suzanne Weaver-Goss

04/04/2016

Updated: 09/29/2023

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This has been a long winter for us on the East Coast and finally it feels like spring (or even summer) the last few days. I love this time of year with the return of plants, flowers, sunshine, and warmer temperatures. But the whole truth is that I also get a little intimidated by the opportunity to shed winter layers and bare more skin! Thanks to winter conditions, my skin is pale, dry, and generally not ready for show time.

Although I am mostly interested in boosting health and beauty from the inside out, I have two favorite external ways to wash away the yuck of winter and get ready for the yum of spring and summer. Both of them involve gentle exfoliation.

In our race to save time, we tend to leave behind self-care practices that are great for our bodies, minds, and spirits. Fortunately, you don’t need a time-consuming and expensive spa retreat to rejuvenate yourself.

As you check out my tips below, consider how many benefits you can get from simple bathing practices; from that perspective, these activities are actually very efficient and worth every minute.

Hot Towel Scrub

For your whole body, body scrubs are honored traditions in many cultures. And you don’t need any products, just a washcloth and water.

Body scrubs have stood the test of time because they offer many benefits, including: helping skin release toxins; easing muscle tension; increasing circulation; energizing the body and mind (in the morning) or calming them (at night); removing dead skin; and stimulating the lymphatic system. Plus, it feels really good.

Giving yourself a scrub is easy and requires nothing more than a sink of hot water and a washcloth. (You can also do it in the shower, but the ritual will be more relaxing if you do it at the sink rather than just squeezing it into your normal routine.)

If you can, do it once or twice a day, for two to 20 minutes. Keep in mind that scrubs are not just for adults–teaching your kids to do this from a young age can be a gift of life-long self care.

Body Scrub Directions:

1. Fill your sink with hot water.

2. Saturate and then wring out your washcloth.

3. Scrub your skin gently, working one area of your body at a time. Work your way around your whole body, reheating the washcloth with hot water as necessary.

Tips: Use candles and your favorite soothing music to deepen the relaxation. For a real treat, do a mutual scrub with a loved one. You can add a couple of drops of essential oil to the water to energize (citrus oils like orange, lemon and grapefruit) or soothe (lavender and chamomile), depending on the time of day.

 Face & Body Exfoliation

For your face, adding a good exfoliating scrub is an easy way to get your face skin glowing. Farmaesthetics Sweet Milk Orange Exfoliate is one of my favorite ways to give my skin a glow. My ancestors were Swiss and cream and milk were part of their diet and their beauty routine. I often wonder if that’s why my grandmother had young-looking skin at 90!!

Milk has been used throughout the ages to enhance beauty. Apparently, even Cleopatra used sweet milk for beautifying and brightening her complexion. In traditional cultures, sweet milk products were as familiar on the dressing table as they were in the kitchen cupboard.

When mixed with Farmaesthetics Fine Herbal Cleanser, the herbal exfoliate makes a creamy, freshly fragrant lather that is easily applied and thorough in its exfoliation. The healthy carbs and fats inherent in milk have known properties for feeding and plumping tissue, adding elasticity to skin, while removing dull, tired surface cells. This is also a great body exfoliant.

We like Farmaesthetics because the founder and formulator, Brenda, is from a long line of farmers; she knows how to combine natural ingredients to make lovely, effective products. Brenda began selling her skincare products back in 1999 at an organic farmstand in rural Rhode Island, where our family spends time every summer. These products were among the very first ones we carried when we opened our online store, and they quickly became customer favorites.

Be well,

Suzanne, Certified Holistic Health Coach

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  1. christine Avatar
    christine

    Our whole family uses Yu-Be Skin Care’s Moisturizing Skin Cream all year–it keeps winter dryness away which means our skin is ready for warmer months!

    1. Suzanne Weaver-Goss Avatar
      Suzanne Weaver-Goss

      Thanks for the tip! We will have to look into that!