Beauty and
the Homemade Facial - The Truth
If you're
seriously interested in knowing
about homemade facials, you need
to think beyond the basics. This
informative article takes a
closer look at things you need to
know about makeup and beauty.
I started
making facial masks after reading
several books on natural
cosmetics. Common ingredients
used in home made facials are
eggs, lemon, milk, honey,
cucumber, tomato, essential oils
and lots more fruits, herbs and
other ingredients.
The
assumption I had was that home
made cosmetics, being all natural
and preservative free were much
safer than the commercial masks
you found in stores. A wrong
assumption. You know the saying
about assumptions, right? Did you
know some of the deadliest
poisons on earth are 100%
natural?
There are
complaints about preservatives
irritating the skin and all that.
That may be true especially for a
person with very sensitive skin.
But
preservatives actually make
cosmetics safe to use.
Preservatives kill or at very
least, inhibit the bacteria,
mold, viruses and nasty things
that would otherwise thrive in
the cosmetics we use. Commercial
preparations usually contain some
preservative or other to make
these products safe for use.
Some of the
very high end cosmetic
formulations are packed in
sterile capsules to do away with
or at least, minimize, the need
for preservatives.
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A
Facial
Warning!!
If
you make your own skin
care for use later in
the week, chances are,
unless you are anal
about sterilizing
everything and freezing
every batch once it has
cooled, thawing it only
when you are going to
use it, and keeping your
cosmetics away from the
raw meat in the freezer,
eventually, you could
find yourself using
contaminated home made
cosmetics, which could
lead to a skin
irritation.
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I used to
make my own skin care but found
all the precautions I had to take
such a hassle, now I buy mine off
the shelves.
Even if you
make your facial products for
immediate use, you have to be
careful about using only the
freshest ingredients. A moldy
fruit or anything that is spoilt
can lead to disastrous results on
your skin.
Safety in
Skin Care
Then there
is the safety of the ingredients
used in your skin care
products.
I once told
a pharmacist about the lemon
remedy I was using on my pimples.
She was horrified. Lemons are
highly acidic. Lemon juice is pH
2. Sulfuric acid is pH 1. Lemons
can cause a nasty acid burn if
you are not careful.
We had a
discussion about this. She told
me about a customer who showed up
with an acid burn. Turns out, she
had a sunburn. Back in Australia,
she would soothe that sunburn by
rubbing cut cucumber over her
skin. The juices would ease the
sunburn. This time around, she
was unlucky. The cucumber she
used was more acidic than the
ones she was used to and she
ended up with a really nasty acid
burn.
Now that
we've covered those aspects of
homemade facials, let's turn to
some of the other factors that
need to be considered.
Though
cucumber is soothing, cucumber
contains Alpha Hydroxy Acids as
do most fruit and some of the
other ingredients used in
homemade beauty
recipes.
You see, in
home made skin care, the exact
chemical makeup of the
ingredients you use may vary,
leading to unpleasant results if
you are unfortunate. That is why,
every time you make any facial
mask, test it on the inside of
your wrist first, before you let
that mask touch your
face.
I was
lucky. The lemon facial I did
helped clear my skin by killing
the bacteria, without burning my
skin. The pharmacist said I was
fool hardy. As did my cousin who
has been making her own beauty
products for years
already.
Lemon can
thin the skin. It is so acidic.
The pharmacist thought the other
things, like the almond meal I
mixed with the lemon juice helped
neutralize the extreme acidity.
Also, when I used freshly
squeezed lemon juice directly on
my face, I would dilute it with
water first.
Yet the
books I read with home made
beauty recipes often include
lemon in their recipes. After
all, lemon has lightening
properties. Lemon juice is often
used to lighten freckles. Lemon
was even recommended in a book by
a former model, for use as a
toner.
Not all
ingredients are that dangerous
though. Oats is an excellent
ingredient for use in soothing
facials. That was recommended to
me by a doctor. For my toddler's
rash. Cooked oats in a bag in the
bath water is a home remedy to
soothe itchy skin. Here is a
facial that uses oats and rose
water.
http://www.womanht.com/facials/RoseOatsFacial.htm
.
A home made
face mask can be as simple as
putting some mash fruit your
face.
http://www.womanht.com/facials/fruity_facials_tried_and_tested.htm
outlines such experiments with
fruit.
Different
skin types require different
ingredients. Dry skin can use
richer, nourishing ingredients.
Really dry skin would love the
moisturizing effect of sweet
almond oil or olive oil. Oily
skin, on the other hand would
break out in pimples if you try
massaging these oils on your
face. What works for your best
friend may be disastrous on
you.
The easiest
thing to do nowadays is to simply
buy a great mask for your skin
type off the shelf for your home
facial. I use commercial masks
these days after some disastrous
experiments trying to find new
ingredients for new home made
facial masks for my site. The
successful facials were published
at
http://www.womanht.com/facials/ .
Now that
wasn't hard at all, was it? And
you've earned a wealth of
knowledge about facial skin care,
just from taking some time to
study an expert's word on
homemade facials.
About the Author
The writer is the writer of
the articles in http://www.womanht.com/facials/.
Article
presented by Bob
Pardue
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