Face Mapping – signs your skin is sending you about your internal health

Written by Daniela Sivevski
Flannerys Naturopath – Benowa
Founder of Allira Skincare

Your skin is a great reflection of your internal organs and dietary choices. For healthier, hydrated and glowing skin cells, it’s important that we make conscious choices around nutrition that fuels our body & mind. And noting if there are any dietary choices that are triggering an intolerance.

Pure clean water is a must every day, as well as including foods high in chlorophyll such as leafy greens, blue green mico algae and seaweeds. This will help support the process of detoxifying and purifying the blood, assisting organ function and skin cell health.

Ancient eastern medicine practitioners have opened the gateway to understanding the link between facial breakouts, issues, pigmentation and your organs. And our internal organs decided a long time ago, the best way to capture our attention was to make their way to our skin & facial areas.

Face-mapping is one of the helpful ways we can identify with what is happening internally.
It’s a quick guide and starting point to listen in and see if there are certain triggers, foods or mental thoughts we need to address within our lives.

(1) Forehead

Typically a reflection of our nervous system, bladder and intestines
Deep horizontal lines, redness or acne in this area could be signs of excess stress. Which in turn can link to poor gut health & digestion. Ensure you up your water intake, lessen the caffeine & watch how much sugar you are consuming on a daily basis. Make good sleep a priority and utilise supplements to help your digestive system.
Premedy Probiotics can help rebalance a healthy gut bacterium, which in turn provides immune system support. Fusion stress and anxiety herbal tonic could help rebalance the mind, nervous indigestion & sleep.
Also remember to have some fun – and eat the rainbow!

(2) Temples, eyebrows & under eyes

Reflection of: Your kidneys, adrenals and bladder
Over exertion, stress, fear and over thinking equal dark circles, puffiness under the eyes and possibly acne.
Look to combat these issues by doing activities which light you up and bring you energy. Nature also provides us with a bunch of herbs which can support you as well – such as shisandra berry, raspberry, goji berry parsley fresh or as a tea, rosehip gotu kola, dandelion and celery. Supplements that offer Kidney & adrenal support are recommended such as Fusion Kidney Tonic or Superfeast Jing Mushroom tonic.

(3) Area between the eyebrows

Reflection of: An imbalance in the liver
Deep lines, acne, heat or skin discolouration can mean that your liver is struggling to cope.
Overindulgence will push it out of harmony, so try practices such as meditation & yoga. Plus increase your leafy greens & alkalising foods intake, and limit caffeine, alcohol & sugar. Nutralife Greens & Reds powder is an easy way to power up nutritional goodness.

(4) Nose

Reflection of: Your heart
Blackheads, redness, broken capillaries and inflammation can all be linked back to poor circulation, blood pressure and blood sugar issues.
To help balance the heart, increase your consumption of calcium rich foods to strengthen and calm nerves. Oily fish such as sardines, anchovies, as well as leafy greens & tahini work to cool the body. Herbal teas such as chamomile, valerian, passionflower and skullcap are also recommended.

(5) Mouth, chin and jawline

Reflection of: Colon, stomach and endocrine system
Digestive and hormonal issues often arise as problematic skin conditions in this area. Breakouts can be explained by food intolerances, oral health, spicy foods and even external reactions from certain toothpaste and lipsticks.
While raw foods can be a good diet inclusion, too much can lead to poor digestion. Make sure you are balancing with lightly steamed vegetables and other cooked whole foods to assist with digestive fire. Pineapple, ginger and pawpaw, are also great aids for healthy digestion.

We also recommend evening primrose oil for hormonal acne.  Look to herbs and nutrients such as marshmallow, slippery elm, aloe vera, B Vitamins and Glutamine. Ethical nutrients Super B Daily stress+ can help minimise stress responses in this area.

(6) Cheeks

Reflection of: Stomach, spleen and lungs
Redness, acne, inflammation in this area could mean your stomach is a little out of sorts.

Dairy, caffeine, salt, citrus and sugar are all main contenders for upsetting your stomach, spleen and lungs. Your cheeks can also be high traffic area for bacteria build up from make-up, mobile phones and dirty pillowcases.

We suggest a good topical cream, combined with assessing your current diet to eliminate possible causes, such as eating low histamine producing foods. I would recommend Nutralife Gut Relief to help smooth the intestinal / gut lining and rebalance the gut with prebiotics, nutrients & plant extracts.

Inflammation is a great tell-tale sign that there is a disturbance with internally or due to an external reaction to what we put on our skin. So, it’s important we take note of what our body is communicating to us daily & tune in to the needs it could be asking of us.

Treating inflammation can start with the addition of foods or supplements high in Betacarotene or Vitamin A. Up your Essential Fatty Acid intake with Nordic Naturals Complete Omega. And introduce detoxifying herbs, such as echinacea, burdock, dandelion, celery, parsley and sarsaparilla.

Topically – make sure to use clean products with not too many ingredients. And avoid drying ingredients like alcohol and ethanol in skincare. My personal little skincare secret ….  a “gua sha” massage tool does wonders for our skin.

Please see a naturopath at your local Flannerys before taking any of the herbs, particulary if pregnant or breastfeeding.