Ayurvedic Skin Care for Pitta Skin

Do you have inflamed skin? No matter what you do, you can never calm it down? If the answer is yes, then you might have pitta skin. Pitta skin is typically sensitive, warm, and often experiences redness or inflammation. This leads to numerous skin problems, often, in large part, due to an unbalanced pitta. Spicy foods, a “hot-headed personality”, or harsh skin care products can make it much worse, since pitta skin requires calming and cooling food, a balanced microbiome, and gentle products. Luckily, we have a solution for you! Ayurvedic skin care focuses on natural elements and ingredients, avoiding the harsh chemicals in typical skin care products, (which could ironically be the cause of your skin problem). It’s typically quite cost effective as well, a lot less expensive, meaning there is no reason not to try it!

Signs of unbalanced pitta skin:

Oily skin
Acne
Sweaty Skin
Inflammation
Sunburns
Eczema
Rosacea
Dermatitis
Redness
Rashes
New moles & freckles

If you have experienced any of these things, the first thing you probably turned to was popular skin care products. The ones with fancy names and many ingredients don’t always lead to the best results. Additionally, these types of products can be very expensive.

Here are a few Functional Ayurvedic pearls to heal pitta skin.

Natural skincare:
- Aloe: Great for soothing and cooling. It works like a moisturizer and hydrates your skin, healing sunburns, inflammation, and irritation.
- Turmeric: Contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components, which also brings out a natural glow. (Just make sure not to use too much, as it may leave a yellow-ish tint for a couple of days\!)
- Sandalwood: Helps with wrinkles, scarring, eczema, wound healing, and even psoriasis, which is a chronic skin disease.
- Rosewater: It can act as a natural toner and reduce wrinkles and sun damage. It also acts as an antimicrobial, anticancer, anti inflammatory, and an antioxidant.
- Cucumber: Contains Vitamins A, B, and C, while also being 95% water. This makes it incredibly hydrating and has numerous other benefits.
- Mint: Can remove dirt from your pores, reduce dark circles, and soothe irritation
- Manjistha: Manjistha (Rubia cordifolia), also known as Indian Madder, is a revered herb in Ayurveda, traditionally used for its blood-purifying and skin-enhancing properties.
- Neem: Neem is a tree native to India, and it’s amazing at reducing dark spots. It also has many other benefit non-specific to your skin
Eating Cooling foods:
A balanced microbiome is key to gut healing. Often, a balanced gut is reflected in healthy, glowing, balanced skin. Eating cooling foods can help prevent and balance pitta skin, as the pitta dosha is very hot, sharp, and oily. Here are some example of foods that are great to help with pitta skin:
- Watermelon (on its own)
- Mung beans (pressure cooked \- here’s a great recipe we love
- Celery
- Apple (stewed)
- Cilantro
- Mint – Learn how to make Chaas here!
- Coconut
- Fig
- Kale (cooked)
- Cabbage (cooked)

General Tips:

Protect your skin from the sun. Avoid tanning and make sure to use sunscreen everyday; yes even on cloudy days! UV rays can go through clouds up to 80% of the time, and can cause wrinkles, ageing, irritation, and of course pitta skin. Sun damage can happen quickly, and you do not want to increase your risk for skin cancer! Look for natural mineral based physical sunscreens, look for ingredients such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. These ingredients are proven to protect your skin without irritating it.
Avoid over-exfoliating. Over exfoliation can damage your skin barrier, male more susceptible to things like acne, inflation scaring, etc. Try to limit exfoliation to one or twice a week. Even better, try gentle natural exfoliants like oatmeal, chickpea flour, or rice powder. In fact, here is a traditional ayurvedic “multani mitti” that is very effective! (Hyperlink to pure mitti product)
Try using cold water. Hot water and steam will only make you pitta skin worse. Pitta skin needs a lot of soothing and cooling, so using cold water, (or even warm or room temperature water) can make a huge difference.
Ayurvedic Face Mask: Here are a few we recommend!

Get Personalized Functional Ayurvedic Help in New Jersey

If you are in New Jersey and would like a more personalized consultation for your pitta imbalance, whether it’s rosacea, acne or something else, consider a Functional Ayurvedic approach and schedule, a complimentary discovery call with one of Dr. V’s Team Members here!