157 – How to get great skin with Chris Gibson

Helping us get great skin is Chris’s goal and he is this week’s podcast guest. He shares some of his top tips and the things he has learned on his journey.

About Chris

” Chris Gibson is a sought-after skincare expert and holistic health coach. He is also the Best-Selling Author of the acclaimed book Acne Free In 3 Days (1 Million+ Copies Sold) and has a very successful YouTube channel, Chris Gibson Live! The YouTube channel (130K+ subscribers) is dedicated to providing expert information and product reviews on skincare and wellness topics for both skin issues and anti-aging. He was recently featured in USA Today on the topic “7 Freaky Chemicals In Your Skin Care Products and How to Avoid Them”. Chris has been popularly featured on CBS, ABC Family, Fox News, The Daily Buzz, and numerous lifestyle television and radio show across the US and in Canada.

Why skincare?

After having acne as a teenager and taking several courses of antibiotics that did nothing to help, Chris found a herbalist and started taking probiotics and working on his diet. He researched skincare brands and trialed them to see which worked for him, and his lifelong passion was born.

Skincare products can contain additives which are not good for either us or the environment. The main ones being alcohol, sulphates, and sulphites. Alcohol is added to encourage a product to dry, and sulphates to make the product foam, which is a particular issue with haircare products.

If you have dry or older skin Chris talks to us about slugging putting on a hydrating product overnight or covering your existing products with something that locks in the moisture such as vaseline.

Suncream

Although we could have done a whole episode on this topic the key takeaways are.

Make sure you use a good factor, nothing less than 15 and ideally 30 – 50
Apply it properly and regularly (I got bonus points for putting mine on before dressing)
Mineral creams are best for the ocean and good for skin but can leave a white residue so add a bit of tint (such as face powder)
New generation creams have mineral and a tiny bit of avobenzone which is a fairly safe compromise but not to be used on the beach

What is the minimum we should be doing?

In the morning a gentle face wash, vitamin C and a moisturising cream with SPF.

In the evening make sure makeup is removed properly, then second cleanse with the same wash as the morning, with either retinol or bakuchiol and a good hydrating night cream.

Chris also recommends we use a product to lift off dead skin cells a couple of time a week, I use Fruit Peel by Tropic at least once a week.

Chris believes that using the right products regularly and properly is more important, and he says he often reduces the products people use rather than increase them.

Healthy inside and out

Chris cut out sugar from his diet completely for 7 years to help cure his acne, his diet isn’t quite so restricted now, although he does fast to keep his digestive health and his diet leans into health foods.

Eating oats most days, along with a lot of green leafy vegetables including spinach and kale (although he isn’t a fan of kale!) he avoids red meat but makes sure he gets plenty of protein. But more importantly he isn’t too restrictive and enjoys time out with friends.