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 The Truth About Home Made Facials
Author: Janice Wee
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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. Never assume anything.
It makes an ASS of U and ME. 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, minimimize,
the need for preservatives. |
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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.
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 mouldy fruit or anything that
is spoilt can lead to disastrous results on your skin.
Then there is the safety of the
ingredients used in your skincare 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. Sulphuric 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.
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, everytime 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. Fruity facials
tried and tested 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 with these Home Made Facials .
The writer is the writer of the articles in http://www.womanht.com/facials/ .
Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com
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