A Wellness Coach Offers Her Go-To Skin-Care Tips

A quick peek at Nikki Sharp’s Instagram will show you that she’s got flawless, glowing skin. Surprisingly, the wellness expert and social influencer doesn’t swear by creams or serums for her skin-care ritual.

“I absolutely think skin care starts from the inside out,” says Sharp, who just released her second book, “Meal Prep Your Way to Weight Loss” (Ballantine Books, 2018).

Start from the inside out

For Sharp, proper skin care starts with taking care of your body from the inside out.

“It’s simple. You don’t need to spend crazy amounts of money on skin care, facials, products or makeup if you take care of the inside. … My skin care is pretty minimal,” Sharp says. “I don’t go out and get facials. I try to take care of my skin from within, which is cheaper and I feel better.”

First on her list is getting enough quality sleep. Sharp is a proponent of keeping your phone—or any other screen—out of your room at night.

“We all know we need to sleep. The problem is people are addicted to their phones, so they’re not getting proper sleep,” Sharp says. “If you wake up in the middle of the night and check your phone, the light from the phone messes with your melatonin, telling your body that it is time to wake up. So your REM sleep, the really, really deep, nourishing, restorative sleep, does not kick in.”

Second to sleep, and even more important than eating organic foods, is drinking enough water because skin care starts from the inside out, Sharp says. “You can buy all the $400 serums that you want, but if you’re not taking care of your body from the inside out, the $400 serum isn’t going to do anything.”

Products she uses frequently

Coconut oil

Of course, Sharp has a few products she uses regularly in her daily beauty routine, and it’s no surprise she gravitates toward natural products like coconut oil.

“I think coconut oil is an incredible thing and it’s cheap,” she says. “Get virgin unrefined coconut oil.”

Sharp uses it in her hair and her skin. And when she travels, she brings a small container of coconut oil to use as a hair mask, lotion or body oil, and she also uses it as a makeup remover. She also recommends eating it every day, too.

Organic moisturizer and sunscreen

Sharp says sunscreen is a must—and she knows what happens when she doesn’t use it. “I ended up getting some hyperpigmentation on my upper lip, so I’ve been battling trying to get rid of that,” she says.

While she highly recommends using organic natural products as much as possible, she admits that she’s not stringent with it herself.

“I really like to teach, ‘Do what you can with what you have.’ So I will never tell someone, ‘Go throw everything away in your pantry. Go buy all new makeup.’ Just start with one thing,” she says, recommending that the first thing people should start with is an organic moisturizer or serum because it’s the first layer you’re putting directly on your skin.

“The second thing that should be absolutely organic is sunscreen,” she says. “And then from there, if you’re like, ‘OK. Great. Done that. I don’t want to use organic.’ Fine. At least the first two layers that your skin is absorbing are nontoxic.”

Organic mineral powder

Makeup is minimal on a day-to-day basis for Sharp. After serum and sunscreen, she’ll apply organic mineral powder and a little blush and mascara.

“I find that when I’m hydrated, when I’ve slept enough and when I’m eating nourishing food, I don’t need makeup. I feel like I have that glow,” she says.

Photo credit: Francesca Hotchin; Courtesy of Nikki Sharp