Real Beauty

A well-tended, well-loved face is the best canvas for the soul's expression.

By Laurel Kallenbach

When it comes to personal beauty, taking care of your skin—your largest organ and first point of contact with the world—is perhaps the most important daily ritual you perform. This means more than finding the right cream to apply to your face—although that's part of it too. It's a holistic process involving eating right, exercising, and living healthfully. When all these things converge, good health illuminates your face. In treating your skin with love and respect, you reacquaint yourself with your natural being and allow your inner beauty to shine through.

The Science of Skin

Supple, glowing, unblemished skin is something we all want because it's the face we present to others. Your face reveals your emotions. Stress and worry can be etched on it, or if you're in love, color will blush your cheeks. So it's no surprise that your health status can easily be read upon your visage. Illness, poor nutrition, even a sedentary lifestyle will sooner or later show up as dull, lifeless skin, acne, or dark circles under the eyes. If you think of your skin as an indicator of your overall health, you'll understand its purpose within the body as a whole.

Functioning as an organ of elimination that removes waste and toxins, the skin is integral to the body's overall well-being. It protects the body's fluids from the moisture-robbing elements, and acts as a thermostat to cool body temperature via perspiration. A discriminating gate-keeper, the skin allows oxygen and other tiny molecules in while barricading against others. The home of nerve endings, it also helps us experience the world through the sense of touch.

The skin consists of three layers: the bottom subcutaneous layer filled with connective tissues and fat; the middle dermis, containing fibers of collagen (for skin strength) and elastin (for elasticity), hair roots and oil glands; and the outer epidermis, which includes the germinating layer where new cells constantly form to replace the dead cells that congregate on the outermost layer. And our skin reflects our gender: Male skin is generally thicker, with larger pores, and it contains far more hair roots and follicles than women's.

A Clean Slate

To facilitate the function of these complex layers of tissue, you need a holistic approach to caring for the whole body. Many skin care experts recommend detoxification as the first step to glowing, unblemished skin. "Your skin is a reflection of your internal health," says Tara Skye Goldin, N.D., a naturopathic physician in Boulder, Colorado. "It's an eliminative organ, not just a covering for the body." If your diet is full of processed foods, your bowel flora are depleted, or your liver is overtaxed, then the primary organs of elimination—the liver, intestines, and kidneys—require help from the skin, she explains. The result can be eczema, pimples, rashes, a pale or waxy complexion, and dull-looking skin. She often places patients with chronic skin trouble on a liver-cleansing, organic foods diet. She also has them "sweat it out." "Body toxins are expelled through the sweat glands," she explains, "so I encourage patients to sweat often—preferably by exercising, but saunas and steam rooms are also great ways to achieve skin cleansing."

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