Maintaining a beautiful skin

Heard of the following saying?

"Beauty is only skin deep"

True, true but we, human, likes and loves beautiful thing. After all, we are what we see. The visual sight of ourselves is the first impression that we present to others. So, even though beauty is only skin deep, a lot of people think otherwise.

The most basic step in maintaining one's beauty is taking care of one's skin condition. Skin, being the largest organ in us, do need care and maintenance. As we age, it loses its elasticity and it shows through the wrinkles that surface in our faces and bodies.

These are the natural ways to maintain a beautiful skin and face picked from Mark's Traynor Beauty Book.

Honey is a natural moisturizer which is very effective in preserving a beautiful and healthy skin. Take some liquid honey and rub it on the face and body. Leave it for 15 minutes and then rinse the skin area with water until they are free from honey.

For those with oily skin, add one or two teaspoon of orange juice to the liquid honey before applying to the body and face.

A radiant, fresh and soft skin is ours for the taking if we make this honey method a regular routine.

Milk, if added to the water we bath, will soften the skin of our bodies. Add a cup of liquid milk or milk powder to the bath tub, and then soak ourselves in it. After some time, rinse off the milk and water mixture with clean water.

Orange juice can be used to maintain the natural acidity balance in our bodies. It is very suitable for those who have an oily skin complexion. Rinse with orange juice after using the face wash that one used will preserve one's freshness and cleanliness as it is very effective in removing any facial dirt and oil residue.

Do you know that corn grain does has its place in maintaining one's skin beauty? Corn grain mixed with water acts as a very good face wash as it effectively removes any dead skin cells and thereafter makes the skin absorbs moisturizer easily.

Slices of cucumber found its place in the area around the eyes. Left for around 10 minutes in the eye area, it will freshen up our eyelids and reduce the swollen eyes we have when we don't have enough sleep.

Egg is particularly suitable to moisturize dry skin. Apply a mixture of egg yolk with a little bit of honey to the face, leave it for 20 minutes and then rinse off with clean tap water.

For those who oily skin, take the egg white and apply it to the oily skin in the face and leave it for 10 minutes. Then wash off the egg white from the face. This will maintain the balance of the skin acidity and reduce the size of the pores on the face.

Yes, even clay can be used to preserve our natural skin beauty and health. Kaolin, a form of clay, which can be bought in pharmacies and beauty centers, is used to soften one's skin. Add kaolin with water to form a skin pastry. Then apply it to the face and it will gradually harden and form a face mask. If one skin is oily, add a teaspoon of orange juice to the kaolin paste. For those with dry skin, add milk to the kaolin paste before applying to the face area.
  
            

 

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Why Is My Skin So Greasy?

Having a greasy skin is definitely not a beautiful sight to behold and it also creates an uncomfortable feeling that our skin is not clean. Come to think of it, possessing a greasy or oily skin definitely makes dirt easier to stick to it in comparison to a dry skin.

Why do some of us have greasy skin while others have a dry to normal skin? The answer lies in the way our sebaceous glands that lie beneath our skin surface respond to our hormone fluctuation.

Most of us, while in our teenage years, will produce immense amount of androgen hormones. For a greasy skin person, the sebaceous glands will become overactive and excrete large amounts of sebum (oil) which is being excreted from his pores. Hence, the skin will always be covered with a layer of sebum.

I know it is uncomfortable to get oil covering our skin and also the fact that one might have a higher chances of developing acne from such an occurrence make us want to get rid of greasy skin at any cost but looking at it in another angle, people with greasy skin will age slower. Most of us with greasy skin will try to remove the sebum on our skin especially in the face by washing or using blotting paper but the oil will return in around 30 minutes. There is a product known as seban pads which when use on our skin will keep those oily patches away for as long as 4 hours.

Another school of thought states that hydrogenated oils which when oxidized by our bodies will become rancid fats. These rancid fats are toxins to our bodies and that is the reason why we have greasy skin as our system will try to excrete these toxins through our skin.

This is also the reason why some acne sufferers reported that they are having great success in using large doses of Vitamin A in treating their acne.

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Making Your Skin Less Shiny!

It is mentioned that people with oily skin are lucky. People with oily skin will age slower and therefore look much younger than their actual age as the sebum on one's skin will keep it "moist" and therefore sagging and wrinkles won't show up so soon.

The drawbacks of having an oily skin are one will always feel greasy and always seems to have shiny patches around his skin particularly in the T zone area where there are a high concentration of sebaceous glands.

These shiny patches on our face are definitely not a pretty sight for anyone to look at. And it is no wonder blotching papers or anything that can remove this oil, albeit temporarily, are so highly in demand. I guess it is psychology at work that makes these products so saleable.

Even though most products such as cosmetic powders will absorb the oil, the oil from under the skin (sebaceous glands) will continue to flow to the surface.

That being said, for those who still want to keep their face especially the T-zone oil free can lay their hands on Clinac Oil Control gel. This gel is one such product that will absorb your surface skin oil but you won't be able to feel its dryness.

Yet there are other products that can absorb oil and also prevent oil from "breaking through" your skin. These products are known as mattifier.

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How To Wash Your Face Properly!

Guess you must think that I am a bit crazy in trying to teach you something so simple as to how to wash your face. I am very sane here and I just got to tell you that many people got it all wrong in the way they wash their skin. Hope you are not one of them.

Washing your face is the first step in the stages of applying a topical medication to your face. Therefore, it is better to get it right rather than wrong.

To begin with, there are endless types of soaps and cleansers in the market for you to choose. Some of these soaps come with Vitamin E, avocado, sandalwood, oatmeal, lemon, citrus, aloe vera, rose etc. For cleansers, some of them exfoliate while they clean and the medicated types normally contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide in various concentrations.

Bet your parents often tell you that you have acne because your face is dirty and they always ask you to wash your face more often. Well, you can tell them that they have it wrong here as over washing one's face will only irritate his/her face and might your face become red and inflamed.
In fact, washing your face more than two times a day will have no favorable effect on your acne.

Moreover, excessing washing and cleansing with a multitude of commercially available cleansers and soaps will dry out your skin and that's what gives you skin irritation.

Therefore the tip I am going to share with you here is to wash your face with a mild soap twice a day. Yup, that's all you need to do on the part to get a "clean" face. Nothing fancy here and I would like to further recommend that you use ivory soap if you have oily skin. For the few acne sufferers who have dry skin, you can go for Dove soap.

And to the unfortunate group of people who have very sensitive skin and might be allergic to soaps, try Cetaphil or Aquanil cleanser.

Now, let move on to the method on using those soap of your choice. Using lukewarm water, wet the soap. Apply the soap to your skin with your fingertips or with a soft cloth and then rub it gently in circular motion.

You might think that using brushes or loofah sponges will make the washing process cleaner but these stuffs are definitely a no-no! These washing utensils are too harsh for your delicate acne prone skin.

After you are finished with the rubbing process, splash your face with lukewarm water to remove the soap application. Rinse your skin a few seconds only.

Finally use a cotton towel to pat dry your skin and again never rub on your skin!

Presto! The process is complete and shall I ask is this what you are currently doing in washing your face?

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