10 Essential Steps for Achieving that Pre-Wedding Glow

Anyone who has ever planned a wedding will attest that it’s an exciting time, but an adventure not without a little stress, anxiety and exhaustion along the way. Elements that can leave you feeling less that your sparkliest self, come the big day. An incredible make-up artist helps, but we recommend a much more holistic approach as well, pampering yourself in the lead up, from the inside out.

As huge fans of both her magical products and her philosophy ‘beauty begins in the belly’, we caught up recently with Carla Oates, founder of The Beauty Chef, to mine her wealth of knowledge on such matters. Read on for Carla’s essential tips and advice on unearthing the most ‘glowing’ version of yourself possible…

Cleanse

If you want to do a thorough cleanse, you can start cleansing with lots of green juices and liver herbs and foods (such as milk thistle, burdock, broccoli sprouts) (or The Beauty Chef Cleanse Inner Beauty Powder) a month or two before. The cleansing reaction for most people should only last one month, however for some it lasts longer. So the rule would be to stop cleansing at least 1-2 weeks before the holiday or big event. That way you get the benefits without the blemishes!

Address Inflammation

Eat lots of anti-inflammatory foods like dark green leafy veggies, berries and foods rich in your omega 3’s (moisturise and smooth the skin from the inside) – flaxseeds, salmon, sardines, chia seeds. Inflammation causes all sorts of skin problems, dryness, pimples, loss of skin tone (inflammation breaks down collagen).

Introduce Ferments

Eat fermented food such as sauerkraut and The Beauty Chef GLOW Inner Beauty Powder. You can consume them right up to the wedding and beyond. Lacto-Fermented foods are excellent for improving digestion and bloating as they contain probiotics. Improving digestion is one of the best things you can do to maintain a healthy weight and healthy skin glow! Lacto-fermented foods – boost immunity, help your body make detoxifying enzymes, make nutrients, metabolise hormones, improve digestion, feed your body probiotics that help clean out your system.

Vitamins A & C

Vitamin A helps rid the skin of dead skin cells. It smoothes the skin and is especially helpful if you have rough dry skin. Foods rich in Vitamin A include sweet potatoes, carrots, dark green leafy veggies.
Vitamin C is important for collagen production and skin dryness – broccoli, green leafy veggies, berries, peppers, kiwi fruit, papaya.

Daily Dry Body Brushing

Helps to kickstart the lymphatic system and keep the skin lovely and smooth. Start as soon as possible.

Moisturise

Topically, start using coconut oil as a body cleanser to keep your skin hydrated and moisturised. In the shower, simply massage coconut oil into the skin and use a flannel to remove the oil. Oil makes a brilliant cleanser. Coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, which is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. It is rich in fatty acids, which keep the skin feeling lovely and hydrated and soft. Be careful as it makes the shower recess very slippery!

Drink more

Drinking lemon juice and/or apple cider vinegar in water in the morning, this plus eating your lacto fermented foods help to balance and stimulate digestion – helps clarify the skin and eyes. Green tea is also fantastic as well as dandelion tea. Green tea is rich in skin boosting antioxidants and is anti-inflammatory and dandelion is a great skin cleanser.

Eat more

Antioxidant rich foods such as berries; berries are rich in ellagic acid and anthocyanins; help protect collagen and micro-vessels from damage.
Mineral rich foods:  silica found in oats (make sure you soak your oats before eating them to help make them easier on digestive system), green beans, kelp, buckwheat, brown rice (soak) chickpeas etc is important for skin elasticity, zinc is super important for skin health; especially if the bride is prone to acne or super oily skin; zinc is anti-inflammatory, good for repairing and building the skin and found in foods such as shell fish (oysters) and pepitas (soak them though to make zinc more bio-available).

Reduce

Reduce or ideally eliminate unhealthy carbohydrates, sugar and alcohol.

Hydrate

Drink lots of clean water – super important to keep the skin hydrated, aids metabolism, cleans out the system, and cleans the skin.