The Truth About Home Made Facials



Posted: Monday, September 05, 2005

by
http://www.womanht.com/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. 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.

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/ .

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Elaine Marvelous Johnson from California 1 year 336 days ago.
Of course using lemon alone is not a good idea to put on your face. Its like doing a chemical peel, and it will cause burns and sores and pain just like a chemical peel does when u go to a specialist. But also like a chemical peel, it heels and peels away to reveal the new younger looking skin underneath. BUT if ur looking for a daily does of alpha hydroxy acid to keep ur skin looking young, you need to delute the lemon juice with distilled water and a good natural moisturizer such as shea butter, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, emu oil is super great stuff! Its best to use alpha hydroxy acid as a moisturizer cuz it needs time to absorb into the pores since its water soluable and not oil soluable like beta hydroxy is. Also alpha hydroxy makes ur skin extra sensitive to sun so a sunscreen MUST always be used aswell. A natural sunscreen that can be bought and added to ur homemade alpha hydroxy moisturizer is titanium oxide or zinc oxide. Most market lotions with a sunscreen use harmful chemicals that are not good for u at all! And many of the products bought in stores aren't as fresh and preserved as u may expect. These companies prepare their products months if not years before they hit a store shelf where its not properly stored in a dark cool place but out in the bright openess. So by time u use the product its already lost the majority of it working powers. AND since they don't normally use natural ingrediences, the effects are slight and temporary. But u can customize ur very own products at home and not only get a more effective and longer lasting result, but its totally safe from harsh chemicals that u don't understand, bcuz ur body absorbs all that too, just like the pregnancy patch sits on ur skin but is absorbed into ur body and prevents pregnancy...oh yeah and its cheaper...oh and u can make it as potant or as gentle as u want. Its fresh, its clean, its safe and it works! Its just takes some effort to do the proper research. And it doesn't take long till u find yourself shocked by the information you will find. GOOD LUCK, GOD BLESS AND BE HOTTER THAN THE REST! HOLLA! :D
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