Jenni Gilbert Do you have a client doing everything right and still not getting results with their skin? Dermo-nutrition could be the solution. But what is dermo-nutrition and how can you use it to supplement your current skincare offerings to improve the skin health of your clients? Janine Tait*, founder of Bestow Beauty, tells us.
In our industry, where clients are demanding fast or even instant results, the status quo until now has been to treat chronic skin conditions with layer upon layer of topical solutions, professional salon treatments and DIY saviours that may work to save skin on the surface, but are often neglecting to look at the other factors that influence skin health.
Ten years into my career as a beauty therapist, I went through a real crisis of confidence. Despite having all the tools of modern skincare at my disposal, I found that too often, I just could not get the results for my clients that I hoped for.
This sent me on a quest for answers that lead me to the importance of working the skin from within through skin nutrition. I became so fascinated with the power of using nutrition to treat the skin that I went on to study nutritional medicine.
Of course, I began integrating a lot of what I was learning into my treatment of clients, and found very quickly that it completely transformed both their skin and my career!
I became a confident skincare therapist once again, and began to get amazing results for the skin conditions I used to be afraid of treating.
WORKING FROM WITHIN
The reality is that your skin, as your largest organ, is a reflection of your life and your overall health.
Many people forget that your skin is a living, breathing organ – just like your heart or lungs.
It is the barrier between your body and the outside world and is affected by what you eat, what you drink, where you go, and your overall health, as well as what you apply topically.
In addition, the trend towards “fast beauty” – think Botox, fillers, laser treatments and other fast-acting technologies, can also have drawbacks for the skin.
In contrast, the Slow Beauty movement describes a fast-growing subculture of beauty therapists who have lost faith in the “quick-fix”, often invasive procedures that abound in the beauty industry and are drawn to a more holistic approach to skincare.
A trend that can’t be ignored, dermo-nutrition looks at beauty from the inside out and champions solutions through nutrition. It is the exact opposite of the fast beauty world, where the demand for quick topical fixes causes us to race against time, and to fight ageing only from the surface.
When dealing with longterm skin problems, it is always important to consider the internal situation.
The skin will seldom malfunction of its own accord. It is often a response to a change from within the body.
As therapists, it is crucial for us to look beyond topical skincare solutions, delve even deeper than food choices, and ask the right questions of our clients to get to the bottom of their skincare problems.
I’ll never forget something my mentor, Janice Sarre Smith, said to me early in my transition to becoming a holistic skincare therapist.
“You can’t heal constipated skin,” she said. This was a rather striking way of saying that gut health and skin health are directly related, and she was absolutely right.
Her wisdom has played out time and time again in my practice over the last 20 years. Clients who have sluggish digestive symptoms present with dull, congested, toxin-bound skin and my first step towards clearing their skin is to help them to clear their bowels regularly.
A nutritious diet provides our bodies with much-needed fuel, but we also need a healthy digestive tract so that nutrients can be properly broken down and absorbed.
When talking about gut health, people often mistakenly assume we are referring to the stomach, when in fact we are discussing the function of the small and large intestines.
Symptoms like bloating, constipation, flatulence and diarrhea – so common that they are often ignored – are signs that the digestive system is not working as it should.
The gut has many responsibilities and its wellbeing is mirrored in our energy levels, our digestive comfort and, yes, our skin. Waste, the toxic by-product of digestion, must be removed from the body in a timely manner.
When you have a sluggish digestive system, the body reabsorbs toxic waste. This waste backs up like a traffic jam right back to the skin cells so that they are no longer bathed in nutrient-rich fluid, but rather they become little sewer-cells, surrounded by toxic-water.
The skin is then called on to help dispense of more than its fair share of toxicity; they don’t call skin the third kidney for nothing!
Aware of the link between gut and skin health, today I have no hesitation in asking my clients not only what they eat, but also how they digest it.
I no longer flush with embarrassment when I ask, “do you suffer from constipation or flatulence?”.
I ask with confidence so that my clients feel comfortable answering openly. This openness is vital so that we can introduce our clients to healthy gut solutions. Because what you put on your skin is only half the story.
Our skin requires certain specific nutrients to be healthy, heal efficiently and prevent premature ageing.
Dull, lifeless, inflamed or spotty skin means your body simply isn’t getting enough of these essential vitamins and minerals.
After several years working as a holistic skincare therapist, I noticed that some of my clients were struggling to work the right foods consistently into their diet, and they weren’t achieving the results that they should have been. My clients were inspired by the idea of nourishing their skin from within, but I became aware that our modern diet wasn’t always adequate to supply these.
I realised I needed to create a range of skin-specific super foods that made it easy and practical for them to do so and Bestow Beauty was born.
Bestow Beauty encourages an “inside out” approach to skincare by providing dermo-nutrition to empower therapists and clients to cultivate wellness from within.
The edible cosmetic range includes organic superfood blends to nourish, hydrate and beautify your skin from the inside out. When I started to test the products with clients, what I found were results that exceeded all my expectations.
By simply promoting internal gut wellness, clean eating and dermo-nutrition, through Bestow, we were addressing the root of the problem, literally at the source, and my clients’ skin began to change.
*Janine Tait is a qualified beauty therapist and dermo-nutritionist based in New Zealand. In 2009, she founded Bestow Beauty, a range of organic superfood blends, recipes and rituals to nourish the skin from within.
She conducts dermo nutrition courses in both New Zealand and Australia. Janine will be visiting Beauty Expo this August to present The Science of Slow Beauty: How Working from Within Can Transform Your Results. To enquire about this education session or about stocking Bestow Beauty, call 1800 625 387 or visit PROBEAUTYSOLUTIONS.COM.AU
