Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen
Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen are folk-remedy experts and home tipsters based in New York City. They have spent decades collecting “cures from the cupboard” and are authors of several books, including Secret Food Cures.
Caring about your appearance isn’t just vanity. Fair or not people make snap decisions based on first impressions, and research indicates that your face is major part of how they form those all-so-important first opinions. Facial skin care can help you to make sure that your first impressions are good ones. A good facial skin care routine doesn’t have to depend on expensive beauty store products either. Natural skin care solutions can be found in your cupboard at home.
This excerpt from the book Household Magic by authors Joan and Lydia Wilen provides a range of natural facial skin care solutions using things you already have at home that can help keep your face looking great.
According to writer Cynthia Ozick “After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies.” How true it is. Here are some hints to help make your face a best-seller…
Chocolate is rich in copper, an essential nutrient for the skin-firming connective tissue.
Mix one heaping tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder with enough heavy cream to form a paste. Apply it to your clean, dry skin and leave it there for 15 minutes. Then lick it off…just kidding! Rinse it off with lukewarm water and a washcloth, then pat dry.
Peel a ripe peach, remove the pit and pulse the fruit in a blender with one tablespoon of brandy. When it’s a purée consistency, smooth it on your damp face. Relax and leave it on for 20 minutes. Then rinse it off with lukewarm water and pat dry. (Throw away any leftover purée.) This mask should unmask a radiant complexion.
DID YOU KNOW?
Peaches are rich in vitamin A and, when applied topically, the fruit helps protect skin against bacteria that causes pimples and blemishes. Vitamin A also builds collagen (the elastic fibers in skin), which helps to improve your skin’s elasticity, tone and texture.
Want to look pretty in pink? Apply a thin layer of Pepto-Bismol to your face. Leave on until it dries completely, then rinse it off with warm water and pat dry. The claylike mineral in Pepto-Bismol (and similar products) is bismuth subsalicylate, which acts as a cleansing agent and helps draw out the skin’s impurities.
Boil two cups of water in a pot, then add two chamomile teabags. Cover the pot and let the teabags steep for seven to 10 minutes. Put a towel over your head and hold your face about 12 inches above the uncovered, steaming tea. Stay that way for about seven minutes. Then rinse your face with cool water and pat dry.
Chamomile has properties that help unclog pores, making them look smaller and your complexion look better.
Each time you yawn, use the opportunity to tone your face and neck muscles. Inhale deeply as you yawn and open your mouth as wide as it will go. As you exhale, stick out your tongue and roll your eyes upward.
Use witch hazel as a balancing agent. Dab it on your face with a cotton ball first thing in the morning, last thing at night and anytime you feel your face is feeling oily.
Mix one teaspoon of sugar with a few drops of champagne—enough to form a paste. In cir[1]cular motions, apply the mixture all over your face and neck, then rinse it off with lukewarm water and a washcloth, then pat dry.
The enzymes that are in champagne’s tartaric acid, along with the abrasive quality of the sugar, should do a super job of exfoliating your skin.
◆ Dab the blemish with regular (non-gel) toothpaste…or lemon juice…or milk of magnesia. Leave it on overnight to dry out the eruption.
◆ Zap the pimple with eyedrop solution—dab it on throughout the day to make the pimple less noticeable as it heals. Eyedrops contain the capillary constrictor tetrahydrozoline, which makes redness disappear.
◆ Apple cider vinegar dabbed on with a cotton ball several times during the day will also dry out an oily pimple and should make it disappear within a day or so.
◆ Make a paste using equal amounts of cornstarch and rubbing alcohol—1 ⁄2 teaspoon of each should be enough—and put it on the pimple to dry it out.
Grate half of a medium-sized onion onto a piece of cheesecloth, then squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Mix in two teaspoons of distilled white vinegar and one tablespoon of 3% hydro[1]gen peroxide. Using a cotton swab or cotton pad, lightly dab the solution on your spotty skin and let it dry. Do this in the morning and evening.
If you don’t see results in one or two weeks, then you may have to learn to love your age spots and freckles.
CAUTION: Keep hydrogen peroxide away from your eyes. Also, be aware that hydrogen peroxide tends to lighten any body hair with which it comes in contact.
To discover more natural health and beauty solutions buy your own copy of Household Magic from Bottomlineinc.com.
