Turmeric is a plant with anti-inflammatory properties known for its bright yellow color and prominent use in health, wellness, and skincare. Turmeric is a key spice and ingredient in Jamu, the ancient Indonesian herbal medicine and healing tradition, and has been studied prominently since the last 20th century by scientists, skin care, and face mask brands in search of its proven benefits. Curcumin, a chemical compound found in turmeric, contains a number of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that can boost your beauty or face mask routine, ridding of scarring and inflammation from acne. But when ingested, the health benefits of turmeric cannot be fully realized due to poor bioavailability. This means that turmeric is quickly broken down and metabolized by the liver and intestinal walls before it can work its magic where needed.
But the good news is that there are simple tricks and beauty brands dedicated to improving the bioavailability of this unique ingredient called turmeric. So use these free turmeric tricks that can be done daily to incorporate turmeric into your regular diet and skin care routine, helping to reduce inflammation and amplify your beauty inside and out.
Quick Tips for Turmeric
Read on to get the most out of the benefits of turmeric when adding it fresh or as a powder to your food. Or, save money by making your own turmeric face and beauty mask using these helpful tips below!
1. Mix turmeric with fat
Turmeric is a fat-soluble ingredient, meaning that it is better absorbed into the bloodstream when combined or dissolved with fat or oil (1). For cooking, simply combine fresh Turmeric or turmeric powder with a heart-healthy oil in your food. Or add turmeric powder to make for a turmeric smoothie along with coconut milk or full-fat kefir - something with enough oil - to soak up those anti-inflammatory benefits and properties. For skin care, mix turmeric powder with your face cream, oil, moisturizer, or serum, then apply that turmeric oil to your face or soak a beauty or face mask in that turmeric oil to make for your very own turmeric face mask.
2. Fresh Turmeric vs. dried Turmeric
Dried Turmeric powder and turmeric spice are more widely available than fresh turmeric. But with its fresh vitamin-C organics, turmeric has better “built-in” bioavailability (2) when it is used as a natural ingredient because of its 10% fat content. Not to mention, when used in skincare or in a skin care mask, turmeric and its anti-inflammatory benefits are far more available for any face acne treatment you might be in search of.
3. Heat turmeric up
The bioavailability of turmeric is even further improved when it is lightly heated in oil (3). This is why Turmeric is ideal to incorporate as a booster into your daily cooking and food intake, whether it is in a turmeric oil stir fry or a turmeric oil Indian curry sauce. Turmeric can even be heated up and added to the mix of a facial cream, turmeric face mask, or skincare moisturizer as a way of boosting the serum formula while fighting inflammation.
4. Add a dash of Black Pepper
Black pepper is an ingredient that contains piperine, which blocks the body from rapidly metabolizing turmeric. In fact, consuming fresh black pepper together with Turmeric can improve the bioavailability of Curcumin by 2000% (4). Not only will this preserve the anti-inflammatory effects of the plant. It will also ensure that all vitamin C in the spice remains active and to its fullest effect for your health and wellness.
5. Combine turmeric with Quercetin-rich fruits & vegetables
Quercetin is an antioxidant that gives certain fruits and vegetables their dark, blue-ish color. Research shows that Quercetin blocks an enzyme that would metabolize Curcumin, thus making it more bioavailable (5). Quercetin-rich foods include blueberries, red grapes, red onions, green tea but also red apples. So start exploring turmeric in your food. And even in your skincare routine!
Turmeric Skincare
Turmeric has a long tradition in Indonesian beauty rituals, most famously for reducing inflammation in the skin and boosting one's natural skin glow in the Lulur bridal mask spa treatment. Turmeric skin care is an age-old recipe to boost skin radiance and skin luminosity while providing a healing formula for your face and body through a mask. And there's mounting scientific evidence there are even more benefits for your skin turmeric can provide than previously thought.
Benefits of Turmeric Skin care
Establishing a turmeric skin care or turmeric mask routine can provide you the following benefits:
- Turmeric prevents and reduces oxidative stress which can otherwise show up as acne on the skin's surface
- Turmeric provides anti-inflammatory relief to your skin through a beauty mask while preventing future irritation in your skin as well
- Turmeric reduces skin redness from acne and in your skin's overall complexion
- Turmeric soothes facial irritation in the pores of your skin for a more natural glow
- Turmeric provides a natural mask treatment on your skin for breakouts and acne scarring
- Turmeric evens out your skin complexion by brightening redness and irregular skin tone
- Turmeric prevents signs of premature aging on your skin, including scarring and wrinkles
- Turmeric can decrease UV damage while boosting the skin's complexion and protective layer
- Turmeric protects your skin from free radicals while healing any skin damage that has already been done
- Turmeric gets rid of dark spots on the skin and face which could also be signs of aging
- Turmeric supplies a healthy dose of vitamin C to your skin, face mask, or body
As you can see, turmeric for skin is a no-brainer when it comes to upping your skin care routine. In fact, when we at JUARA craft skin formulations for our brand, we draw inspiration from Indonesian skin tradition, and particularly Jamu's use of the ingredient of turmeric and ginger on the skin as well. We believe that the mix of turmeric and ginger in your skincare routine can provide anti-inflammatory properties that may amplify your skincare, face mask, beauty routine, acne treatment, and more. Besides, that natural yellow color from turmeric is already guaranteed to even out redness in its formula while boosting your skin and its natural glow. Though you might not want to wear a white shirt while applying turmeric to your skin in case of a stain. In our skin care products, we also ensure that we select high-grade botanicals like turmeric that have been tested for efficacy and safety according to today’s standards. So you can search through our site for turmeric skin care products, free of stress.
Several skin-care JUARA products are formulated with Turmeric, including:
To explore JUARA skin-care treatments that feature Turmeric and other active Jamu botanicals, click here. And enjoy all the benefits turmeric has to offer!
