YOUR BEAUTY: Nourishing treatments inside your kitchen ingredients

As you self-isolate and are unable to visit you beauty saloon, did you know that ingredients in many natural beauty products, can actually be found in your kitchen cupboard? Here are some tips.

Everyday products, such as avocado, yoghurt, milk, lemon, eggs and many other types of fruits, have pleasantly surprising, beautifying ingredients, according to Rosamond Richardson in her book Natural Superwoman.

According to Richardson, over the centuries, it has been found that many of the everyday foods we use in our kitchens have beauty-nourishing effects. As she aptly puts it, the obvious advantage of beauty products found in the kitchen is that they are to hand, cheaper, and have none of the side effects which many commercial expensive products may have, particularly on sensitive skin.

If you analyse the basic ingredients of commercial cosmetics, says Richardson, they amount to water, oil, wax, lanolin, alcohols and glycerine. “So, with little trouble, you can make your own. You can care for your skin and, indeed, hair, hands and feet, without depending on expensive products that can contain allergenic substances and can create more problems than they solve.

She also cautions, “Remember your skin types may vary, in that it may be drier in winter or summer, oilier around period time, and can change several times between puberty and menopause.”

But, she further recommends, it is also important to remember that beauty cannot be perfectly accomplished without good nutrition. It a well balanced diet.

Be R.E.A.L

R for Regular meals;

E for Eat a balanced diet;

A for Avoid processed foods;

L for Light and Low (low in fat, light in calories).

Richardson believes the best formula is not to be regulated by complicated rules and she has devised a rule she calls REAL – a simple, easy-to-remember formula that can effortlessly be incorporated into any busy woman’s hectic lifestyle:

“REAL is satisfying, sociable, stimulates the brain and, above all, meets your nutritional needs,” she says. So, ladies, remember to get REAL!

So what exactly does Richardson recommend? Try these tips:

Olive oil is nature’s best moisturiser. Nature’s very best skin and hair conditioners, for example, reside in the olive-oil bottle. It was used by the ancient Greeks, and possibly even before, as the foundation of beauty care.

Dab small amounts of olive oil on the skin with cotton wool pads to keep it soft and supple. You can also let it soak into your face while in a hot bath.

The lactic acid in yoghurt cleanses and nourishes the skin. Likewise, using milk or buttermilk as a toner gives it a natural first-aid treatment.

Rub a little lemon juice into oily skin to tone and refresh. This is great for scaly elbows too.

Eggs

Egg whites dry and tighten the skin, and are excellent for oily skins. If you have dry skin, home-made mayonnaise is the best natural moisturiser from kitchen. It softens and enriches your skin.

Fruit

For a great skin toner, rub the inside of watermelon, banana or papaya (pawpaw) or strawberries onto skin onto your face. Strawberries are particularly good on oily patches on your face.

Use sesame oil for stretch marks. Removing make-up with white vegetable fats also acts as a deep moisturiser.

Cucumber

Cucumber whizzed in the blender gives a juice that is a brilliant skin freshener.

Fine oatmeal is an excellent exfoliant. Mix it into your normal moisturiser and massage the skin gently.

Also… You can use egg yolks, honey, glycerine and avocado on dry and sensitive skin.

The New African Woman recommends Natural Superwoman: The Survival Guide for Women Who Have Too Much To Do, by Rosamond Richardson (Ted Smart), a healthy read, more so in these days of COVID19 enforced quarantine and self isolation.