Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Nature's Beauty Aids

A Facial mask.Image via Wikipedia

The skin is not just a superficial covering to be adorned and beautified. It is the body’s first line of defense. Also, through the skin pores, toxins are vented out of the body. The skin expresses the condition of he liver, pancreas and lungs, according to the Traditional Chinese medicines.

Just like the body as a whole need the right kind of fuel to metabolize properly, each skin cell must likewise receive food and your circulation determines the kind of nourishment it gets.

The market is flooded with various facial cleansers. But great caution is required since many commercial lotions and creams which are deemed harmless contain lead, mercury, antimony and bismuth which, when absorbed by the body tissues damage to the health of the skin. This is where the good habit of label reading comes in.

Perhaps, with the very hectic schedule, naturally concocting facial cleansers and creams might be quite demanding and difficult to do. But we can start off with using pure baby oil which will not only remove our makeup but naturally lubricate our skin. Heating and applying olive oil does some wonders to the skin, especially the eyes. Apply this oil in a circular manner to smooth out wrinkles and made those eyelashes silky. Remember the facial sauna, this streaming water will open the pores ad cleanse away the embedded dirt and oil.

Many advertisers capitalize on the idea that their product makes your skin good enough to eat. Hold it! I am not proposing some form of cannibalism here so people can devour you. But there is close link between cosmetics and food. Cosmetics should be made from natural ingredients such as plants and herbs. Since the skin sells should be nourished, you should be putting on our skin something that is really food. The simple rule is do not put anything on your skin that you can’t eat. Much benefit is derived from utilizing facial creams made from lemons, cucumbers, honey, strawberries, oats, and milk.

In to the countries, grandmothers in their younger days used oatmeal and cucumber as facial to soften their skin and prevent wrinkles. Vegetables are now recommended for everything involving skin care, and so are fruit extracts and creams made from papaya and carrots. Actually, you can eat the papaya and do not dispose the pulp. This can be used to scrub the whole body with. Our female ancestors used wines, whiskeys, brandies, and even beer as astringents to maintain that natural beautiful glow in the skin. They usually mix equal parts of whiskey with milk and apply it on the skin. After washing the skin, pat this mixture and leave it for several hours or overnight. In the middle ages, ladies of the French court of Louis XIV and other kings used the white of an egg together with camphor and alum to clear up blemishes and tighten the skin. The same mixture can also works for you today. This mixture can be applied in the neck and arms as well. The egg mask used for thousand of years was also combines with three ounces od honey to make a thick paste.

Cucumber juice is another old time favorite recipe: three ounces of cucumber juice, three ounces of distilled water and 1 and ½ ounce of rose water which can be locally purchased from Indian Specialty Stores. Rub this mixture into the skin with the finger tips. A refreshing hot weather beauty trick is to wash the face with cold water in which some cut-up cucumbers have been mashed.

Pimples, blackheads, and large pores can be treated using the facial mask we’ve mentioned. For minor blemishes, you can mix equal parts of pure lanolin, glycerin and castor oil. Melt this concoction over low heat, let it cool and keep in a glass jar. Apply to pimples until it’s healed. A word of caution: Never mix these ingredients is a metal container unless it is glazed or a heavily enameled ironware cooking pot. It is best use enamel, china, glass or earthenware.

Brown or yellow laundry soap applied to pimples will dry it off. Onion juice is an excellent remedy for pimples as well as for boils or skin infection. An easy remedy and ideal for travelers is the used of camphor which is available at any drugstores. Simply pat camphor at the pimples until it disappears. Squeeze gently and apply camphor. It may sting a bit but infection is prevented and the blotch quickly heals. Blotches are healed with boric acid dissolved in boiling water. Calamine lotion is also good, as it heals and stops itching.

Large pores are caused by incorrect cleansing, acne, blackheads, and improper diet. The buttermilk treatment acts as an astringent to the pores. Allow it to dry for ten minutes and rinse it off with cool water. Equal parts of apple cider vinegar and hot water can be used as facial wash to refine the pores. Camphor wash can also be substituted for water to refine the pores. Cornmeal and oatmeal, as well as alum powder, has been lauded by women trough ages as being very effective in reducing the pores and as an astringent.

Raw tomatoes had been used for centuries to tighten the skin. The tomato pulp contains vitamins, minerals and acids to cleanse the skin. The juice of lettuce, cucumber and poultices of bread and milk reduce large pores.
To ward off blackheads is to keep the face clean. Streaming daily and scrubbing with some natural soap and water are good. Rubbing the blackheads with lemon juice is an old remedy. Baking soda dissolved in 8 ounces of distilled water clears off blackheads.

I hope you can benefit from these natural beauty tips which date back not just from our grandmothers but from the middle Ages. They are very inexpensive, yet very effective. Also, don’t forget to have lots of exercise and a good healthy diet. These are essentials in producing that healthy, rosy skin glow.


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]