How to Maintain Your Natural Beauty

Maintaining your natural beauty is not as complicated as you think. Chemical treatments and surgery are not necessary to be naturally beautiful at any age. Here are a few steps you can take to get, and stay, beautiful.

Step 1: Eat a healthy diet

According to Faith Tatro, licensed aesthetician and owner of Touch of Faith Aesthetics in Los Angeles, eating a healthy diet is essential to bringing out and maintaining your skin's natural beauty. Tatro recommends a balanced diet high infruits and vegetables, low in sugar and low in saturated fats for optimum skin health and beauty.

Step 2: Drink lots of water

According to Tatro, drinking plenty of water every day while avoiding caffeine and excessive alcohol intake — which contribute to dehydration — is an important part of nourishing your body and hydrating your skin.

Step 3: Exercise regularly

Not only is regular exercise recommended by medical professionals for various health reasons, it is a natural beauty treatment, helping to sculpt your physique and give you energy, according to the National Institutes of Health. According to Tatro, regular exercise further aids in ridding the body of toxins through sweat and assists in keeping skin firm and taut.

Step 4: Avoid stress

The Mayo Clinic reports that stress can lead to a number of ailments including sleep problems, obesity and the exacerbated skin conditions. Tatro adds that stress is generally hard on the skin. To reduce your stress levels, the Mayo Clinic recommends regular exercise, getting enough sleep and participating in stress-relieving activities such as meditation or yoga. In some cases, it may be best to see a professional counselor.

Step 5: Get plenty of rest

Ever heard the old adage, "get your beauty sleep"? The effects of not enough sleep stare us in the mirror in the form of bags or dark circles under the eyes, slumped shoulders and an overall feeling of exhaustion. As a natural beauty treatment to promote optimum cellular regeneration, Tatro stresses the importance of getting seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

Step 6: Take care of your skin

Our skin is the first thing people see when they look at us. It follows that having clear, firm, glowing skin is fundamental to any natural beauty regimen. In addition to the steps listed above, Tatro recommends the following to bring out your skin's natural beauty:

• Don't smoke. Smoking causes the blood vessels in the skin to shrink, making it difficult or impossible for nutrients to reach your skin cells. This leads to premature wrinkles and dehydrated and lackluster skin.
• Use sunscreen every day. Specifically, use SPF sunscreen made from zinc oxide which allows your skin to breathe and won't clog your pores.
• Exfoliate twice per week. Using an exfoliant that is made from ingredients that have been tumbled to make them completely round versus one with non-tumbled ingredients will help you avoid microscopic tears in your skin. The twice weekly exfoliation will leave your skin glowing and free of ingrown hairs.
• Moisturize daily. Look for moisturizers that are fragrance-free. In addition, a moisturizer containing primarily ingredients that you recognize and can pronounce will have fewer chemicals and be healthier for your skin.